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NAACP suing because Voter IDs are Racist "They affect Everyone Except for White People"
Nappy Newz 6 years ago 3 min read
The NAACP and the U.S. Department of Justice now have a lawsuit to overturn the state's new voting laws passed by GOP lawmakers in Raleigh two years ago.
The lawsuit claims that voter ID requirement affects everyone from every race, unless they are white.
In what they called "Moral Monday," Rev. William Barber was the first to take the stand. He testified that the new voting rules are not only discriminatory, but, were devised to suppress black and Latino voting.
"This is our Selma," Barber said in a press release. "North Carolina was the first state to pass a restrictive voting law after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in 2013, and it is the worst voter suppression law the country has seen since 1965.
The people of North Carolina are standing up — in the courts and the streets — because we refuse to accept the revival of Jim Crow tactics used to block access to the ballot for African-American and Latino voters."
The voter ID laws affect everyone equally because they are not limited to a certain class or race, yet for some reason democrats and the NAACP seem to think only white people have the ability to get an ID.
According to ABC news over 1,000 protesters marched on downtown Winston-Salem. They rallied blocks away from the courthouse after day one of the trial.
"Thank God for people that still believe in freedom," Barber exclaimed in an interview Monday afternoon.
"David goes up against a giant. We are going up against a giant," said Rev. Todd Fulton with the North Carolina Minister's Council. He likened the NAACP's lawsuit against the state to the Biblical battle of David and Goliath.
Jamie Cole, public policy and legal coordinator of the N.C. NAACP, outlined her organization's arguments against the law as local activists and politicians flanked her.
"The law is a calculated effort to manipulate voting rights by targeting the measures that African- American and Latino voters use at significantly higher rates than white voters," she said. "The measure has a disparate impact on voters of color and abridges the right to vote for people across the state. This is exactly what the Voting Rights Act was intended to prevent."
The Chronicle reported that the case challenges several aspects of the omnibus voting law, including the reduction of early voting from 17 to 10 days, banning out-of-precinct voting, ending same-day registration and stopping 16- to 17-year-olds from pre-registering so they would automatically be registered to vote when they turn 18.
The case also challenges the voter ID requirement that will go into effect in 2016, but those arguments will be heard at a later time because the state made changes to the law last month.
Under the changes, voters who don't have a valid form of government-issued photo ID and have a "reasonable impediment" to acquiring one, can use their voter registration card or the last four digits of their social security number and date of birth date instead.
The NAACP case's main plaintiff is Rosanell Eaton, a 92 year-old black woman who has lived in Louisburg, N.C., her whole life.
The lawsuit says that her ability to vote and to help others to vote would be hindered by longer lines and shorter early voting periods.
Also the name on her birth certificate and voter registration card doesn't match her driver's license, a problem it says would be a burden on her to fix and would've prevented her from voting before the law was changed last month.
The case has been given to U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder.
Source: NAACP suing because Voter IDs are Racist "They affect Everyone Except for White People"
Tags: NAACP Racist Voter ID
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2 thoughts on "NAACP suing because Voter IDs are Racist "They affect Everyone Except for White People""
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Archives for posts with tag: luke
Theophilus the Migrant
Sermon for 1030 Eucharist at St Mary, Oatlands on 21st October 2020
Acts 16:6-12; 2 Timothy 4:5-17; Luke 10:1-9 (http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=470148758)
On Sunday we were remembering Saint Luke, the 'beloved physician', as Saint Paul describes him in his second letter to Timothy, the one who wrote not only the Gospel according to Saint Luke but also the Acts of the Apostles, I want to carry on remembering St Luke this morning, looking at the same Bible passages as we used on Sunday.
Folli [Revd Folo Olokose] treated us to a theological masterclass in his sermon on Sunday. I don't want to go over exactly the same ground again, but he did make some points which I will just briefly mention, particularly for anyone who was not there on Sunday.
Folli took, as the heart of his sermon, the name of the person to whom Saint Luke dedicates his two books, Theophilus. Who was Theophilus? Folli argued that it is a name for a type of person, not someone in particular – not who, but what. It literally means, 'a friend of God'. It could mean any of us.
All the other things which might seem to make us different from each other, such as our education, our physical characteristics, or the ability to run a four-minute mile, are all things which can come and go, and might depend on where you have been born, who your parents were. However, being God's friend is something which lasts forever, and which any of us can be.
So Folli argued that, in dedicating his books to Theophilus, Luke was in fact dedicating them to all of us, to all who love God. And we see from today's lessons that Luke was a companion of Saint Paul on his travels. 'We did this..', rather than 'they did it', in the passage from Acts 16 which was one of the lessons prescribed for Sunday.
During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days.'
Luke says, 'We'. He was there, travelling with St Paul. In a wider sense, who are 'we' in this context? From Paul's letter to the Romans, '… there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord is Lord of all…' (Romans 10:12).
So in our lesson today, Luke reports on Jesus sending his disciples out ahead of him, to prepare people for him coming and preaching among them. Roughly the same report comes in St Matthew's Gospel too.
You might note that Jesus instructs the apostles, 'Do not move around from house to house'. I had a bit of an unholy thought – do you think our Lord might have had tier 2 or tier 3 in mind?
Of course they didn't have a plague then. Sending them out they were a bit like Billy Graham's people, arranging one of his crusades, securing the venues and booking the hotels – although Jesus stipulated that it should all be done on a shoestring – but what was the message that Jesus was going to preach?
The message wasn't going to be about life after death. Jesus hadn't died at this stage. Let's look at the Gospels where Jesus sends out his disciples to do the Billy Graham thing, that is, our Gospel passage today from St Luke, chapter 10, where Jesus sends out 70 or 72 apostles, and St Matthew chapter 10, where he only sends out 12 apostles.
By the way, the word 'apostle' comes from the Greek verb αποστέλλω, which means 'I send out', so an αποστολος, the noun from it, means someone sent out, in the same sense that an ambassador is sent out.
The other difference is that in St Matthew's account, Jesus wanted the apostles just to go to the 'lost sheep of the house of Israel', and not to go to the non-Jews, the Gentiles and Samaritans, whereas in St Luke's gospel the only thing that mattered was whether they were welcomed or not.
Given that Luke and Paul were together for some time, and that actually Paul wrote his letters, like the letter to the Romans, before any of the Gospels were written, I'm inclined to say that Luke's account is more likely. Paul's idea that there was no difference between Jew and Greek, between Jews and non-Jews, Gentiles, seems to me to be more in line with what Jesus was teaching.
In St Luke's Gospel, immediately after the 70 are sent out, we read the story of the Good Samaritan. The point is, it doesn't matter what nationality he was. He cared for his neighbour, for the person he found hurt on the road. Surely Jesus wouldn't have warned the apostles off having to do with Samaritans, if he was going to praise the Good Samaritan in his next breath, as He did.
Bear in mind that St Matthew's Gospel is generally reckoned to have been aimed at a Jewish readership, whereas St Luke probably wasn't a Jew and was writing for everyone – for 'Theophilus'. And St Paul definitely had the same idea. No such thing as Jew and Greek.
One thing that these two accounts, in Matthew and Luke, do have in common is that the apostles were sent out just after Jesus preached his great Sermon on the Mount. You know, all those great challenges: love your enemies, turn the other cheek. Think of the lilies of the field: they neither spin nor weave: yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Don't worry about material comforts. The Lord will provide.
Surely, you might say, the sermon on the Mount is great in theory, but not really doable. Impractical instructions. How literally can we take what Jesus said? Why would we have armies, if we really always turned the other cheek?
And according to St Luke, it was all for Theophilus. For anyone who loves God. No one has any special qualification to receive God's blessing.
So if we are thinking about Jesus' teaching as he sent out the apostles, and the idea that in God's sight we are al equal, neither Jew not Greek, can I pose a question for you to think about?
My question is about refugees, about 'migrants'. If we believe that it is true that all people, from any nationality, are equal in the sight of God, why should we be entitled to live in bounteous Surrey in England whereas a person from another country – Syria or Afghanistan or South Sudan, say – has to pass rigorous checks before they are let in? Why are they not equally entitled?
Is it because will overwhelm our public facilities, schools, hospitals and so on? Is that true? They will be a drain on our economy, some people say. The statistics say that immigrants contribute 15% more in tax than people who were born here. Or, should we sift out the applications so that we only let in people with a certain minimum level of qualifications?
But just a minute. I wasn't born in the UK only because I'd won an Oxford scholarship. What does 'Theophilus' mean? Are British people more entitled to salvation than, say, Ethiopians? In St Luke's terms, both could be 'Theophilus'.
What do you think? It might be a good idea to imagine that we could be like the people on the road to Emmaus, that we might suddenly meet Jesus. What would we say to Him? Would we justify to Jesus what we do, keeping poor immigrants out of 'our' country? Even if our country is supposed to be 'full', how would we, who have so much, justify drawing up the drawbridge against people who have so little?
I'm not telling you what to think. We have quite a few refugees who've come to this area, and we have a local charity to help refugees, Elmbridge CAN. Through them I've had refugees and, yes, 'economic migrants' staying for a few months in my own spare room. I felt that I was being called to help them. They are all now settled – productively. Should we be doing more of that sort of thing for refugees?
Well, I hope that is food for thought. Please do keep on thinking about St Luke and Theophilus. Theophilus. Everyone.
Tags Acts of the Apostles, apostles, Bible, Billy Graham, economic migrants, Elmbridge CAN, Emmaus, Folo Olokose, gentiles, gospels, Greeks, Israel, Jesus, Jews, luke, Macedonia, Oxford University, Philippi, physician, refugees, Roman colony, Romans, Samaritans, sermon on the mount, Solomon, St Paul, Surrey, Theophilus, Timothy
The Beloved Physician
Sermon for Mattins on the Festival of St Luke the Evangelist, 18th October 2015
2 Timothy 4:5-15, Luke 10:1-9
What is it to be a doctor? St Luke the Evangelist, whom we are commemorating today, was a doctor: 'the beloved physician', ιατρός αγαπητός, according to St Paul in his Letter to the Colossians, [4:14].
He was the author of the Gospel that bears his name, and it looks as though he was the author of the Acts of the Apostles too. Both books are addressed to somebody called Theophilus. It's quite clear from the beginning of the first chapter of Acts that it is a continuation of the story which was told in Luke's Gospel. If you look at Acts chapter 16, you'll see that, all of a sudden, the narrative changes from third-person, 'they' did this, that and the other, to 'we' did this, that and the other; so it's pretty clear that Luke was one of the people who actually went around with St Paul.
My daughters, Emma and Alice, are both doctors. They're probably not evangelists as well, like Luke was, but I think they would both say they had their hands pretty full, just being doctors.
This weekend doctors are in the news. My daughter Alice travelled up from Exeter in order to join yesterday's demonstration in Parliament Square by thousands of so-called 'junior' doctors – because that is what she is. It's a misleading description. 'Junior' doctor, in this context, means any doctor who is not a consultant or GP.
But even a really junior 'junior doctor' – and I think that Alice, as an F1 hospital doctor (what used to be called a Junior Houseman) would accept that she is one of those – is somebody who has had at least five years of academic study and whose career then goes forward through more or less constant further training until they either become a general practitioner, or a Senior House Officer, Registrar or Consultant in hospital.
Alice's elder sister, my elder daughter Emma, is a junior surgeon, a Senior House Officer in the Royal Glamorgan Hospital working for her MRCS qualification (she's half-way there) which will enable her to apply for a Registrar's post. She has two degrees, has published academic papers, and she is just entering her tenth year of study and training since she started at Bristol University.
Emma will be very happy to take your, or your children's, tonsils and adenoids out, or to fit grommets in their ears – all of which she does very well, every day of the week, including weekends. She's at work now, right now, on Sunday morning. She often is.
Dr Emma Hallett, surgeon
I'm not sure whether St Luke was a physician or a surgeon: whether he worked with drugs or other non-invasive therapies, or whether he wielded a scalpel. It's interesting that, in the Gospel reading, (from St Luke), Jesus sends out his 70 or 72 missionaries in pairs, travelling very light; and after they have wished peace upon those whom they visit, they are told to heal the sick – which is something that St Luke, the doctor, reports without comment.
I would be really interested to know what he thought about this healing. We have, even today, almost a parallel set of disciplines here: on the one hand you have the medical profession, that my daughters belong to, who practise medicine as a scientific discipline with drugs, with other non-invasive therapies, and with surgery. On the other hand you have healing ministries. In many churches – including St Andrew's, our sister church – there is a healing ministry, where during the service, people are available to lay on hands and pray for people who feel they need God's healing touch.
Of course Jesus himself healed many people, even including raising people from the dead – Jairus' daughter and Lazarus, who'd both definitely died. That must be the ultimate form of healing. There were also many other healing miracles: the blind man, that Jesus had to have two goes at healing; the man who had been lame from birth: 'Take up thy bed, and walk'; the woman who had had a haemorrhage for 12 years – she touched his clothing, and it was enough for her to be healed; people who had 'devils' – what we perhaps would now characterise as a kind of psychiatric illness: in all these cases, Jesus didn't use any drugs or psychiatric techniques or behavioural therapies – or surgery.
Jesus did seem to approve of surgery. He said, If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. (Matt. 5:30).
There are people who sincerely believe that one or other branch of healing, scientific, medical on the one hand, and faith-based on the other, should oust the other one entirely. A very important ministry in the church is our ministry as chaplains in hospital. On the whole our chaplains are not medically qualified – although some are. I know a very experienced hospital chaplain who started as a nurse.
On the whole, everybody in the NHS believes that having hospital chaplains is a very good thing, simply from the point of view that it helps people to get better; it helps people to cope with the stresses and strains of being in hospital. You could almost say that hospital chaplaincy offers a kind of complementary therapy.
What about today's 'beloved physician?' What do we, as Christians, have to say about a situation where our beloved physicians feel that things are so wrong for them that they have to actually have a demonstration, in public outside Parliament?
Jesus was pretty clear that someone who needs medical assistance should receive it. The Good Samaritan found the man who had been hurt and helped him. He didn't ask to see his credit cards or the details of his insurance. He helped him because he was hurt. That is the principle of our National Health Service. The Health Service should be available to all, free at the point of need.
I believe that Margaret Thatcher said that we should note that the Good Samaritan had the means to look after the poor man that he found injured on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He took him to an hotel, had them swipe his credit card, and undertook that he would be responsible for the cost of the injured man's accommodation until he was better. That wouldn't have been possible if the Good Samaritan had not had the wherewithal to do it.
Actually I'm rather uneasy about the conclusion that Margaret Thatcher drew from that. When I go collecting for charities, particularly Christian Aid, it's always easier to get money from the poorer roads. People who have less, tend to give disproportionately more of what they have, in charity.
The National Health Service is, effectively, a collective charitable operation by all of us, paying through our taxes, so that everyone can receive medical treatment if they need it, irrespective of the cost of that treatment and the ability of the patient to pay for it.
But it is very wrong, I think, for us who enjoy the benefits, at the same time to ask the professionals who actually deliver that medical care, the doctors and the nurses and the ancillary workers, to give their time and energy, and not have decent living conditions or proper salaries, because we, through our politicians, are not prepared to pay enough for what they do. I think that we should be brought up short – and I hope that our leaders are brought up short – by the sight of thousands of the cleverest, most dedicated and most highly qualified people in our society gathered outside Parliament and demonstrating against the conditions which the government is threatening to impose upon them: demonstrating not only that they are not being paid enough or given enough rest time, but that they are being forced by those conditions to deliver substandard or possibly dangerous care.
If a doctor in this country wants to practise abroad, in Australia, Canada, South Africa, mainland Europe or the USA, or anywhere in the world, they usually require a certificate of competency which the Health Service has to provide on request. Applications for these certificates are now running at the highest level they have ever done since the Health Service began.
We are losing doctors in significant numbers because they believe they can no longer practise in a way which is consistent with their Hippocratic oath and with the ability to have a decent life. Remember, the Good Samaritan had enough money, and so he was able, to help the injured man.
The whole business of healing was obviously central to Jesus's ministry. The son of God – God in man – didn't want people to be ill. He healed people, and when he sent out the 70 or 72 as missionaries, they were medical missionaries. They were there to bring healing to sick people.
I'm very proud of my two daughters – Dr Emma and Dr Alice. But I am deeply troubled that Dr Alice had to be in a demo yesterday and Dr Emma would have been there but for the fact, as she tweeted earlier in the week, that #IAmInWorkJeremy.
I do pray that the politicians will start to realise that however expensive the mission of healing is, it is a cost that society, in the sixth richest country in the world, should meet gladly and in full. As we remember Saint Luke, the beloved physician, let us also remember, and give proper support for, our beloved physicians as well.
Dr Alice Bryant, right
Tags #ImInWorkJeremy, Acts of the Apostles, author, Bristol University, Colossians, consultant, Doctor, evangelist, gospel, gp, healing, Jairus' daughter, junior doctor, junior houseman, Lazarus, luke, missionaries, parliament Square, physician, registrar, royal Glamorgan hospital, senior house officer, St Paul, surgeon
Was Jesus really the Messiah?
September 1, 2014 //
Sermon for Evensong on the 11th Sunday after Trinity, 31st August 2014, at St Mary the Virgin, Stoke D'Abernon
Acts 18:5 – When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with proclaiming the word, testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus.
Who was right? Was Jesus the 'Messiah', the chosen one of God, the King, enthroned in the kingdom of God, or not? Jews and Moslems both recognise Jesus as a prophet, but neither accepts that Jesus was himself divine. Therefore they have both regarded Christianity as a challenge to the orthodoxy of their true religion. In places, Islam is doing this right now. Before Mohamed came along, the Bible is full of conflicts between the Jews and Jesus, and later between the Jews and the disciples.
On Jesus' cross, Pilate had a sign fixed up in three languages, 'This is the king of the Jews'. For the Romans this was ironic. They could not understand why it was so contentious among the Jews for someone like Jesus to be their king. Since it was clear that the Jews did reject Him – demanding His crucifixion and freedom for the acknowledged criminal Barabbas instead – the distinction of kingship was ironic at best.
Jesus himself was clear that He was the Messiah. He did not contradict Peter when Peter worked out for himself that Jesus was the long-awaited King [Matt. 16]. But what was coming was not an insurrection against the Romans, but something much more important.
Jesus said to his disciples, 'There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom' (Matt.16:21-28).
The 'Son of Man' is Jesus' way of referring to himself, as Messiah, chosen one of God. Jesus repeated what the prophet Daniel had written in the Old Testament [Daniel 7:13], 'I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.'
Was Jesus saying that the end of the world was just about to happen? Because if so, He seems to have been wrong. After all, 2,000 years later, we still pray,
'Lord of all life,
help us to work together for that day
when your kingdom comes
and justice and mercy will be seen in all the earth.'
[Common Worship, Services and Prayers for the Church of England (2000), London, Church House Publishing, p197 – Holy Communion Order One: Eucharistic Prayer E]
I always pray that prayer very fervently. I feel that we need justice and mercy to be seen in all the earth: because, in so many places, there is no justice and mercy.
We have only to think back over the last week's news. Are Islamic State, ISIS, full of 'justice and mercy'? Is there justice and mercy for the poor people in Africa with Ebola? Would the children in Rotherham, who suffered abuse for so long and who were not taken seriously by the forces of law and order, did they receive any 'justice and mercy'?
It doesn't look as though Jesus got this right, on the face of things. Surely if the Son of Man had come in power with his angels and set up His kingdom, the Kingdom of God, then surely in the words of the Book of Revelation, '… there [would] be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither [will] there be any more pain.' (Rev.21:4)
But, because it was Jesus who said it – and it seems unlikely that he was mistakenly reported, because three of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, have Him saying almost identical words – just because Jesus Himself did say this, it must be reasonable to assume that he wasn't just mistaken, just because the end of the world didn't in fact happen during the lifetime of any of His disciples – but rather we ought to look at the possibility that it doesn't mean what it seems to at first sight. It doesn't literally mean that Jesus was saying that the Kingdom of God was synonymous with the the end of the world, and that that End Time was about to happen, in the early years of the first century AD.
We have to acknowledge that the early church did think that was what Jesus was saying. St Paul's teaching about marriage, in 1 Corinthians 7, where he seems to suggest that it's best to remain celibate, although 'it is better to marry than to burn', reflects the idea that the earliest Christians had, that the Apocalypse was really imminent: think of Jesus' teaching about signs of the end of the world in S. Matthew 24, and parables like the Ten Bridesmaids – 'Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour'. Of course as well as the early Christians, other prophets of doom have been forecasting the end of the world ever since – and no-one has got it right so far. It must mean something else. One alternative, of course, is that the Jews and the Moslems are right, and Jesus was just a prophet, nothing more.
Even in today's world, with all its tragedies and strife, is it still possible that the Kingdom of God is with us? I believe that for us too, even 2,000 years after Jesus, heavenly things do still happen.
In among the unheavenly things which I mentioned from the news this week, in the Middle East, in Africa with Ebola, and nearer to home in Yorkshire, I truly had a heavenly experience – yes, 'heavenly' really is the right word – when I went to the Proms on Friday. I heard Mahler's Symphony, No 2, the 'Resurrection' he entitled it. In the 5th movement, the mezzo, the soprano and the great chorus of two choirs, over 200 singers, sing:
Oh believe, my heart, oh believe:
O glaube, mein Herz, o glaube
nothing is lost for thee!
Oh believe, thou wert not born in vain,
neither hast thou vainly lived, nor suffered!
Whatsoever is created must also pass away!
Whatsoever has passed away, must rise again! [Must rise again!]
Cease thy trembling!
Prepare thyself to live!
[From 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn': Friedrich Klopstock (1724-1803) and Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), translated by Ron Isted]
Imagine what an uplifting, amazing moment it was. Huge forces – the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, with 65 string players, 26 brass players, 17 woodwinds, 7 percussionists, the mighty Willis organ of the Royal Albert Hall, and two choirs with over 200 choral singers as well as the two soloists: and in the audience a full house, a complete sell-out, all 6,000 seats and promenade spaces taken.
And they raised the roof. Resurrection. It felt as though it was really happening there. Wonderful. Suddenly it gave me a clue about Jesus' really being the Messiah, the King.
Resurrection, Jesus' resurrection, was the coronation, as it were, of Jesus coming into His kingdom. The disciples did live to see it. Indeed they didn't 'taste death' beforehand. In a real sense, the King had arrived. His resurrection was his coronation.
If it had been the end, the end of everything, then there would be nothing more to say. But it wasn't the end – and clearly Jesus' coming into His kingdom wasn't a cataclysmic revolution. The perfect world pictured in the Book of Revelation didn't miraculously come about.
We must remember what St Paul said, in Romans chapter 7. 'The good which I want to do, I fail to do; but what I do is the wrong which is against my will.' [Rom 7:18, NEB]. Even that saint, Saint Paul, fell prey to temptation.
That was because God has not abolished good and evil. God's kingdom on earth is like any kingdom, in that there are crimes as well as good deeds. God is not a sort of puppet-master who controls all the people, stopping them from doing harm. We believe that God is omnipotent, all-powerful, so He could control everyone, could, theoretically, make us into robots. But He plainly hasn't done.
Instead He has shown us, by giving us His only Son, that He cares for us. His kingdom is real. Even so, even in God's kingdom, we still have to choose the right and the good over the bad. We still need to pray; and our prayers are answered.
But we do also have a sense, a belief, as Christians, in a Kingdom of God in the other sense, of a life after death, a spiritual realm at the end of time: strictly beyond our powers to imagine or describe it, but maybe along the lines of the vision in Revelation chapter 21. We can't say what it is precisely, but we may be able to say what it does – that it takes away pain, sorrow, crying, even death.
God's kingdom involves an End Time, as well as a Kingdom on earth. In one sense the End Time is ours personally, in our death. In another, there will be, Jesus has taught us, a Day of Reckoning, when, in the words of Matt 16, 'He will give each man the due reward for what he has done'.
Then at that End Time – and at any time, in fact – we will need to be ready, for Jesus may be there, and He may say to us, 'I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.' [Matt. 25:35f] We know what we have to do. It is the King who has commanded us.
Tags Acts of the Apostles, Barabbas, BBC Proms, Church of England, Common Worship, crucifixion, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Ebola, end time, eschatology, gospels, ISIS, Islamic State, Jews, kingdom of God, Klopstock, last judgment, law and order, life after death, luke, Mahler, Mark, Matthew, Messiah, Mohamed, Peter, Pontius Pilate, Resurrection, Resurrection Symphony, Romans, Ron Isted, Rotherham, Royal Albert Hall, Silas, St Paul, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Timothy, Willis organ
Farewells: who did the Washing-Up?
Sermon for Evensong on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, 1st June 2014
2 Sam 23:1-5, Eph.1:15-23
First we heard the last words of King David, and then St Paul's prayer for the Christians at Ephesus. The context is the Ascension, which the church celebrated on Thursday. Leave-taking. The end of the party. I wonder who did the washing-up. When the disciples – and certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus as well as his brothers, when they were all together after Jesus had left them and a cloud had taken Him out of their sight, when it was over, when the 'farewell tour', Jesus Christ Superstar, had come to the end of its run: what do you think they all did?
They went back to the upstairs room and said prayers. And maybe they got busy doing the washing up. Because they must have been feeling very flat. We know that when Jesus had been crucified, if we think of the story of the disciples on the way to Emmaus, they were very sad then, when they thought that Jesus had been taken away from them.
So I think we can reasonably expect that they were also feeling very flat and very sad when Jesus had been taken away from them the second time, when He had ascended into heaven. Whitsuntide, Pentecost, had not yet come, although Jesus had assured them, 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth' (Acts 1:8). But that hadn't happened yet.
It must have been very difficult, after all the momentous things that had happened. After the roller-coaster ride of following Jesus, suddenly He wasn't there any more. In the church, we have commemorated that roller-coaster ride, through the Easter season, though the time of Jesus' passion, and suffering, Good Friday; and then the glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday; and then His risen appearances, the road to Emmaus, doubting Thomas: all the wonderful stories of the risen Christ.
It is a revelation to us, a sure and certain hope that we have, because of God's presence with us, His gift of His only Son and His Resurrection from the dead. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Paul prays that God will give them 'a spirit of wisdom and revelation as they come to know Him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the saints.'(Eph.1:17)
If you are a Christian, if you go to church, this is a wonderful time of year: the Easter season. It is a time of hope and joy. But in the world outside, there is a sense of challenge. Not everyone is a Christian. Not everyone is aware of, let alone believes in, the wonderful story of Jesus. The Boko Haram people who have kidnapped 200 children, 200 girls, in Nigeria, are actively opposed to the Christian message. They want forcibly to convert people to Islam – forgetting perhaps that the god of Islam is very like the God of Israel and the God of the Christians – and certainly forgetting that God is a god of love.
Also in the world outside, we had an election. Some of you may have heard of my huge success in the Cobham Fairmile Ward election. It was a massive success, honestly: despite representing the Labour Party, I managed to poll in double figures! St Mary's has much more successful politicians – congratulations to James Vickers!
After the elections, the press and the BBC are talking about the phenomenon of UKIP and what they stand for. It seems that a major part of UKIP's message is that they are opposed to large-scale immigration and they are opposed to our membership of the EU, perhaps because they see the EU as being a major cause of the immigration which they don't like.
And then there's the controversy which has grown up concerning the new book by the French economist Thomas Piketty, called 'Capital in the 21st Century', which is all about the widening gap between the rich and the poor worldwide. Prof Piketty offers, at the end of his 573-page tome, some suggested alternatives to the economic policies which are being pursued in all the leading economies. But a Financial Times journalist, Chris Giles, has argued that Prof Piketty's figures are wrong. If you put more than one economist in a room, they will inevitably disagree! I see that Ed Miliband confessed that he'd only just started reading Thomas Piketty. I have got to page 51.
It does all seem quite a long way away from the world of Easter, from the Resurrection and the Ascension: from the hopeful question from the disciples to Jesus just before He was taken from them, 'Lord, is this the time when you are to establish again the sovereignty of Israel?' (Acts 1:6 – NEB), a long way from all that, to the rather gloomy fact that only a minority of people cared enough about the way they are governed, even to cast a vote.
There does seem to be a big gap at the moment, between our church lives and the world outside. It's all very well St Paul saying in his Letter to the Galatians that 'the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness and self-control'. (Gal. 5:22f), but how is that relevant to UKIP and to the world of macroeconomic theory?
What we are not hearing, in all this ferment of debate, is a Christian voice. What about immigrants? A politician says he couldn't hear any English spoken in his carriage on the Tube. An election flyer says that there is some impossible number of East Europeans just waiting to come to the UK, take our jobs and claim all our benefits. Someone else points out, against this, that the NHS would collapse without doctors and nurses from abroad. Another expert points out that immigrants contribute more in taxes than they receive in benefits, and that fees from foreign students are vital to the survival of our universities.
But – and perhaps I haven't been reading the right paper or listening to the right station on the wireless – I don't recall anyone bringing the Bible into it, which they could have done. In the Old Testament, it's a fundamental point of the Jewish Law that you must look after strangers, aliens, foreigners – in Deut. 10:19, Moses says that God 'loves the alien who lives among you, giving him food and clothing. You too must love the alien, for you once lived as aliens in Egypt.' In Jesus' staggering picture of the Last Judgment in Matt. 25, He says that the righteous shall 'enter and possess the kingdom' because '… when I was hungry, you gave me food; when thirsty, you gave me drink; when I was a stranger you took me into your home …' When the righteous didn't get it, and queried when they had done this, Jesus said, 'I tell you this: anything you did for one of my brothers here, however humble, you did for me.'
Jesus didn't blame people for being poor. He didn't think there was anything wrong with being a refugee. His ancestors, the Jewish people, had all been refugees. He didn't talk about benefit cheats and scroungers. He didn't talk about corporate tax avoidance – although he did say, 'Render … unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's'. Maybe that is a good message for Starbucks, Vodafone and Google.
What about the widening gap between rich and poor, which Thomas Piketty has written about? Are the only things, which can be said, 'It's the market', and 'There is no alternative?' If the government gives a tax cut to the highest earners, (which one commentator said was enough for them to go out and buy a Porsche with), at the same time as over 1 million people have had to go to a food bank to avoid starvation – and by the way, that includes 307 people in Cobham and Stoke D'Abernon who have used the Foodbank since we opened five months ago – if there is that seeming bias towards the rich, what is the Christian way to look at it?
Perhaps the answer is in the Magnificat, the song of Mary, the mother of God:
He hath put down the mighty from their seat:
And hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things:
And the rich he hath sent empty away. [Luke 1:46-55]
You might also remember what Jesus said about camels and the eye of a needle. [Matt.19:24]
But Jesus has been taken away from us. He has disappeared behind a cloud. Disappeared behind a cloud, a cloud of modern stuff. But, you might say, things were much more simple in Jesus' day. There weren't any benefit cheats. There weren't any Romanians using the EU as a way to come and steal our jobs. You just can't compare how it was then with the situation these days.
I think we should think carefully about it. I know that, in this week in the church's year, you might argue that Jesus has ascended, and the Holy Spirit is coming – Jesus told his disciples to expect it, in Acts chapter 1 – but it doesn't arrive till next Sunday. If it looks as though our world is rather godless, that fits with Jesus having left us, with the Ascension time.
But in this world, in our day to day lives, of course the Holy Spirit is here. The Lord is here. His Spirit is with us. So why does it look as though we are we ignoring Him? Is it OK not to want strangers? Is it OK that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer?
As Christians, what do we think? Have I chosen my Bible references too selectively? Or is it more a question that the world today is more complicated than it was in Jesus' time, and that some of Jesus' sayings are out of date these days?
Or have we Christians really got something very distinctive to say, which doesn't necessarily fit in with conventional wisdom? I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts are.
Tags acts, ascension, BBC, boko haram, caesar, Christians, cobham fairmile, Deuteronomy, doscles, Doubting Thomas, Easter, Emmaus, ephesus, Evensong, farewells, galatians, good friday, google, Holy Spirit, immigrants, islam, Israel, james vickers, jesus christ, Jewish Law, king david, labour party, luke, Magnificat, mary, Moses, nhs, Nigeria, pentecost, piketty, porsche, Resurrection, revelation, saints, St Paul, starbucks, Stoke D'Abernon, sunday, superstar, tax avoidance, UKIP, universities, vodafone, whitsuntide, women

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Street Beatz Studio is a new type of dance studio in Knoxville. We are a community dance center that allows you to rent our fully equipped dance studio by the hour at affordable rates. Rent our studio to hold weekly dance or fitness classes, host a birthday party, have rehearsal, offer private lessons and much more – all without the overhead cost or responsibility!
Street Beatz is always expanding our class selection. We offer a variety of classes for ages 4 yrs to adults. See our class selection for more info.
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Street Beatz Studio is community operated. Instructors rent the space and are able to teach a variety of classes or hold rehearsals. Click here for instructor rental information.


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Movies have been made about it; jokes have been told about it; trials have raged about it; attorneys have been well-compensated for it. What is it?
It's divorce. But divorce does not have to be a war.
Collaborative Divorce is a new type of divorce that doesn't involve long, arduous trials complete with mudslinging and expensive legal battles. Combining a "normal" divorce with mediation, collaborative divorce works when the parties are mature and act like adults. In a collaborative divorce, everyone works to reach agreement on the terms of the divorce. The husband and wife work together in resolving all issues – including property, debt, spousal support, child support, custody, and visitation.
While attorneys are involved, they are retained only for settlement negotiations. If there is no settlement and the divorce proceeds to trial, both attorneys are no longer allowed to work for their clients, forcing husband and wife to retain new counsel.
Collaborative divorce is an alternative to the more prolific litigation process. It allows the individuals involved in the marriage to have control; they make the decisions and determine what is best for them and their family. Not a court.
Once agreements are made, the attorneys submit an agreed entry to the court, requesting that it be made a final entry and a divorce be granted. When collaborative divorce is successful, everyone wins. Unlike in the movies, there is no War of the Roses. Rather than destruction, the parties can progress to a new beginning, leaving behind the animosity that a trial would have added, and be content in knowing that they controlled their own destiny.


Smiles Abound... and Kisses, Too!
was lucky enough to experience some of the overflow. Ahhh… ain't love grand?!
One January Saturday's Journeys: First Stop, the private residence of Mark and Michael; their intimate wedding was witnessed by Michael's daughter and her husband. Second Stop, the shores of the Pacific which served as the perfect elopement site for a couple who preferred to be hidden in plain sight. Third and final stop, Eretrea, West Africa... well, ok, not quite. But, during Makda's and Elias' celebration --with the abundance of national dress, traditional music, ethnic foods and drink (prepared by 16 aunts!), and other cultural expressions -- for a few hours Mobile Reverend A.Mauricio was all but physically transported to a foreign land that was as exciting as it was beautiful!
This was a www.GreatOfficiants.com ceremony! Thank you for the referral!
Two nights before Christmas Mobile Reverend, A. Mauricio Lubong, was found officiating a wedding aboard a yacht on Newport Beach Harbor . The above photo features some the seasonal decorations encountered as the cruise began. What follows was a piece Mobile Reverend wrote about how the couple's love story began. It was incorporated into the wedding ceremony, making it that much more personal and unique.
Armie and Edward actually met in December of 2005.
medical center in the Philippines where both he and Armie worked. That part-icular combination found Edward crashing a pool party Armie's Department was having. And, "the moment [Edward] saw [Armie he says] the world just stop[ped]…" And, when the world did start to orbit again, Edward was a crest-fallen to find that Armie was just out of his reach as she was then already in an established relationship.
Now, after their initial meeting Armie recalls that Edward was in the habit of coming into her department about once a week. He would just stop by to say "hello to everybody". It was during this time that they became just two friends among a bigger circle of friends.
But a change began to take place when one of their mutual friends encouraged Edward to send a text to a mysterious lady who turned out to be – you guessed it --Armie! You see, some of their friends knew about Edward's unrequited crush and were also aware that Armie's afore-mentioned relationship had seen better days.
chance with him because [Edward says he] honestly wasn't doing anything…" to encourage her at the time. Armie, on the other hand, was more succinct in saying that with the text the dating and courting began.
And, so here they are today, eight years and approximately 7400 miles later ready to be married. Edward promised Armie a pool wedding, but he's gone a good bit bigger with today's ocean wedding.
Shawn and John exchanged personal vows surrounded by an intimate and literal dozen of their family and closest friends at their home.
The above were all www.GreatOfficiants.com ceremonies. Thank you for the referrals!
In June Mobile Reverend had the pleasure of officiating Jessica's and Nick's Intercultural Hawaiian-Mexican wedding. It took place on a beautiful, breezy day that evoked the tropics. A few photographs from the most memorable even follow.
Blowing the conch shell or "Pu" traditionally announces that something special is about to begin... which, of course, is what the marriage of Jessica and Nick was.
"O'pea" is the Hawaiian form of hand-fasting... the cords for binding were made with the leaves of the ti plant. The recitation of a Hand Blessing was included as part of this very meaningful ritual.
-porated into the ceremony to represent Nick's Mexican heritage.


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home Biography Sam Phillips
Bhobi Published On Fri Mar 20 2020 Modified On Fri Mar 20 2020
Facts of Sam Phillips
Full Name Sam Phillips
First Name Sam
Last Name Phillips
Profession actor, writer
Birth City London
Birth Country United Kingdom
Father Name Nic Phillips
Father Profession director
Horoscope Gemini
Filmography The Crown,Far from the Madding Crowd
Education Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Date of Birth May 31,1984
Amount 2 million
Body and Relation Status of Sam Phillips
What is Sam Phillips marital status ? Single
What is the height of Sam Phillips? 183 cm
What is the weight of Sam Phillips? kg
If you've come across children's comedy Hotel Trubble, Sam Phillips might be a familiar name as he is featured as Jamie in the 2008 drama. Most recently, he has appeared in the BBC's Netflix series The Crown.
The Syndicate's actor was born on May 31, 1984, in London. His father Nic Phillips, a Sussex native is a film director and producer. James graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has also worked in theatre plays. Let's know more about his relationship status.
Is Sam Married?
Sam has been in the front-line when it comes to acting. However, his personal life is unknown to many. The reason is either Sam is a media-shy person or he isn't into any affairs and love relationships.
Till now there is no rumor about his marriages. Micro Men actor might soon reveal the love of his life to the public but for now, he is a bit reserved.
Image: Sam Phillips at Far From the Madding Crowd World Premiere on Apr 15, 2015 in London, England.
Source: Alamy
After portraying significant roles in the series based on the classic stories, James could already feel the overwhelming attention from the media. In response, he did what every celebrity does for privacy. And now, Sam's personal life and family are undercover and shielded.
How much Net Worth does he own?
Being a part of award-winning films and TV series, Sam has considerable income. He owns a net worth which is more than $2 million. His notable roles include the one in Far From The Madding Crowd, The Flesh, Pete versus Life, My Family and Eastenders: E20.
Image: (left to right) The Crown cast Helena Bonham Carter, Josh O'Connor, Erin Doherty, and Sam Phillips accept the award for "The Crown" during the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Award
Sam has also acted alongside American actor and producer Kevin Spacey in the acclaimed production- Inherit The Wind. On average, play writers like Sam earn an annual salary of $52,000. Similarly, Sam gets paid somewhere between $10,000 to $20,000 per episode.
The Crown is one of Sam's Popular Work
After being a part of Netflix's most expensive series The Crown, Sam's popularity has dramatically heightened. The crown itself is an award-winning web series.
It has won American Film Institute Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Costume Designers Guild Award, Broadcasting Press Guild Award, BAFTA Television Awards, and Primetime Emmy Awards. Its main casts includes Jared Harris and Matt Smith.
Image: Sam in the Far From The Madding Crowd as Sergeant Doggett.
Source: Alex Bailey
The Crown is based on the reign of British Queen Elizabeth II and her younger lives. It was originally released on November 4, 2016, and has remained to entertain its viewers till present. The series comprises three seasons and a total of thirty episodes.
Far from the madding Crowd Tonight features Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts in the lead role:
It nearly took $7 million to produce each episode of the first two seasons. The Crown's filming location includes; Waddesdon Manor, Eltham Palace, the Royal Naval College, Goldsmith's Hall, Shoreham Airport, New Slains Castle, and many more. Besides that, he might be living a decent lifestyle.
Visit Married celeb and read about more about The Crown casts!!!


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Q: GPS coordinates to neighboorhood? I have tried both Google and Yahoo's Geocoding services to get the Montreal neighborhood/district from GPS coordinates but while they are both able retrieve the correct (address, city, state, country) they won't retrieve the neighborhood.
Which Geocoding service would offer this service? Otherwise, where can I find the neighborhood data to do it myself?

A: You can use the reverse geocoder available though the Flickr API:
http://www.flickr.com/services/api/flickr.places.findByLatLon.html
That will resolve to the neighbourhood level. There's also a reverse geocoding flag in the YQL/PlaceFinder API:
http://developer.yahoo.net/forum/?showtopic=7238
This may resolve to the neighbourhood, but be aware it often returns a zip code.

A: Geonames, Bing, and Google also provide geocoding services. With Bing and Google, if you type in the name of the neighborhood into their maps.google/maps.bing service and the result is successful, chances are their geocoding API will work.
You can also look for higher quality spatial data from Statistics Canada (http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/geo/index-eng.cfm).

A: While this won't necessarily help you since you are in Canada, for those looking for neighborhood boundaries in the US, Zillow "announced the release of shapefile data of boundaries for over 7,000 neighborhoods covering 150 cities in the United States" (1/18/08) under a Creative Commons license.
You can download the shapefiles state-by-state at their website.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY / RESEARCH PAPER
Small prenatal diameter of the ascending aorta is associated with increased mortality risk in neonates with congenital diaphragmatic hernia.
Michał Krekora 1
Łukasz Sokołowski 1,2
Julia Murlewska 2
Katarzyna Zych-Krekora 3
Maciej Słodki 2,4
Mariusz Grzesiak 3
Ewa Gulczyńska 5
Iwona Maroszyńska 6
Maria Respondek-Liberska 7,8
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Polish Mother's Memorial Hospital Research Institute, Poland
Department for Prenatal Cardiology, Polish Mother's Memorial Hospital Research Institute, Poland
Department of Obstetrics, Perinatology and Gynecology, Polish Mother's Memorial Hospital Research Institute, Poland
Faculty of Health Sciences, State University of Applied Sciences in Plock, Poland
Department of Neonatology, Polish Mother's Memorial Hospital Research Institute, Poland
Department of Intensive Care and Congenital Malformations of Newborns and Infants, Polish Mother's Memorial Hospital Research Institute, Poland
Department for Prenatal Cardiology, Polish Mother's Memorial Hospital Research Institute, Lodz, Poland, Poland
Department of Diagnosis and Prevention of Fetal Malformations, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland, Poland
Łukasz Sokołowski
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Polish Mother's Memorial Hospital Research Institute, Rzgowska 281/289, 93-338, Łódź, Poland
prenatal diagnosis
congenital diaphragmatic hernia
fetal heart
The aim of this study was to evaluate if selected prenatal markers obtainded from fetal echocardiography can predict postnatal outcome in congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) patients. We also aimed to verify the prognostic value of lung-to-head ratio (LHR).
The study group included 29 fetuses with CDH. We analyzed potentially prognostic parameters measured using fetal echocardiography and fetal ultrasound. The assessed parameters were compared between the group of patients with CDH who survived to discharge (n=21) and the subset of patients who died before discharge from hospital (n=8).
In survivors, mean z-score for ascending aorta (AAo) diameter was 0.23 ± 0.98 vs – 1.82 ± 1.04 in patients who died (t-test, p=0.0015). In survivors, the main pulmonary artery/ascending aorta ratio was 1.22 ± 0.17 vs 1.46 ± 0.21 in patients who died (t-test, p=0.017). In survivors, the LHR was 1.81 ± 0.96 vs 0.95 ± 0.6 in patients who died (t-test, p=0.019). In survivors, the observed to expected LHR was 57% ± 30% vs 30% ± 18% in patients who died (t-test, p=0.018).
Narrowing of the ascending aorta in CDH fetuses is a poor prognostic factor associated with increased mortality in neonates. Our study also confirmed the prognostic value of LHR.
Outcome-dependent twin growth curves for the bigger and smaller neonate within a Polish population – The best clinical support.
Early identification of high-risk patients with acute recurrent pancreatitis progression to chronic pancreatitis
Rehabilitative ultrasound imaging for the assessment of selected morphometric parameters of the flexor hallucis longus muscle in healthy individuals: An inter- and intra- rater reliability study
Leeches alleviates diabetic macroangiopathy by increasing nitric oxide production in rat aorta and restoring endothelium-dependent vasodilatation
Arterial stiffness as a risk factor for hypotension during induction of general anesthesia


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Stock Rebound Is Thwarted by Rising Oil, Gasoline Prices
By E.S. BrowningStaff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Sept. 15, 2005 12:01 am ET
Stocks tried to rebound from Tuesday's slump, but a steady rise in oil and gasoline futures knocked them back down.
Following its 85.50-point decline on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell an additional 52.54 points, or 0.50%, to 10544.90, off 2.2% this year.
Reflecting the worry about oil's impact on inflation and economic growth, gold finished at its highest level since Dec. 7, $449.80 an ounce, up $3.70 on the day.
"The market had a tremendous move up" after Hurricane Katrina hit, said Todd Leone, head of listed trading at brokerage firm SG Cowen. "I just think we were a little toppy. As oil started moving up, the market started coming off. People are still worried about interest rates a bit, and whether the Federal Reserve is going to keep going" with its campaign of interest-rate increases.
The Fed meets Tuesday to decide whether to push its target short-term lending rate up by another quarter-point to 3.75%. Such a move was a near certainty until Katrina hit.


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Henry Kissinger: AI Will Prompt Consideration of What it Means to Be Human
Event with the former Secretary of State discusses our current lack of knowledge on how to responsibly harness AI's power.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
WASHINGTON, December 24, 2021 – Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger says that further use of artificial intelligence will call into question what it means to be human, and that the technology cannot solve all those problems humans fail to address on their own.
Kissinger spoke at a Council on Foreign Relations event highlighting his new book "The Age of AI: And Our Human Future" on Monday along with co-author and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in a conversation moderated by PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff.
Schmidt remarked throughout the event on unanswered questions about AI despite common use of the technology.
He emphasized that the computer systems may be able to solve complex problems, such as in physics dealing with dark matter or dark energy, but that the humans who built the technology may not be able to determine how exactly the computer solved the problems.
Along the lines of this potential for dangerous use of the technology, he stated how AI development, though sometimes a force for good, "plays" with human lives.
He pointed out that to deal with this great technological power, almost every country now has created a governmental to oversee the ethics of AI development.
Schmidt stated that western values must be the dominant values in AI platforms that influence everyday life such as ones that have key implications for democracy.
With all the consideration on how to make AI work so it is effective but also utilitarian, Kissinger noted how much human thinking must go into managing the "thinking" these machines do, and that "a mere technological edge is not in itself decisive" in terms of AI that can compete with adversaries such as China's diplomatic technological might.
Related Topics:CFRChinaEric SchmidtfeaturedGoogleHenry KissingerJudy WoodruffPBS NewsHourThe Age of AI: And Our Human Future
CES 2022: Artificial Intelligence Needs to Resonate with People for Widespread Acceptance
Vaccine Makers Promote Use of Artificial Intelligence for Development
Reporter T.J. York received his degree in political science from the University of Southern California. He has experience working for elected officials and in campaign research. He is interested in the effects of politics in the tech sector.
AI Should Compliment and Not Replace Humans, Says Stanford Expert
AI that strictly imitates human behavior can make workers superfluous and concentrate power in the hands of employers.
David B. McGarry
Photo of Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, in January 2017 by Sandra Blaser used with permission
WASHINGTON, November 4, 2022 – Artificial intelligence should be developed primarily to augment the performance of, not replace, humans, said Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, at a Wednesday web event hosted by the Brookings Institution.
AI that complements human efforts can increase wages by driving up worker productivity, Brynjolfsson argued. AI that strictly imitates human behavior, he said, can make workers superfluous – thereby lowering the demand for workers and concentrating economic and political power in the hands of employers – in this case the owners of the AI.
"Complementarity (AI) implies that people remain indispensable for value creation and retain bargaining power in labor markets and in political decision-making," he wrote in an essay earlier this year.
What's more, designing AI to mimic existing human behaviors limits innovation, Brynjolfsson argued Wednesday.
"If you are simply taking what's already being done and using a machine to replace what the human's doing, that puts an upper bound on how good you can get," he said. "The bigger value comes from creating an entirely new thing that never existed before."
Brynjolfsson argued that AI should be crafted to reflect desired societal outcomes. "The tools we have now are more powerful than any we had before, which almost by definition means we have more power to change the world, to shape the world in different ways," he said.
The AI Bill of Rights
In October, the White House released a blueprint for an "AI Bill of Rights." The document condemned algorithmic discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, or age and emphasized the importance of user privacy. It also endorsed system transparency with users and suggested the use of human alternatives to AI when feasible.
To fully align with the blueprint's standards, Russell Wald, policy director for Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, argued at a recent Brookings event that the nation must develop a larger AI workforce.
Workforce Training Needed to Address Artificial Intelligence Bias, Researchers Suggest
Building on the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Zoey Howell-Brown
Russell Wald. Credit: Rod Searcey, Stanford Law School
WASHINGTON, October 24, 2022–To align with the newly released White House guide on artificial intelligence, Stanford University's director of policy said at an October Brookings Institution event last week that there needs to be more social and technical workforce training to address artificial intelligence biases.
Released on October 4, the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights framework by the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy is a guide for companies to follow five principles to ensure the protection of consumer rights from automated harm.
AI algorithms rely on learning the users behavior and disclosed information to customize services and advertising. Due to the nature of this process, algorithms carry the potential to send targeted information or enforce discriminatory eligibility practices based on race or class status, according to critics.
Risk mitigation, which prevents algorithm-based discrimination in AI technology is listed as an 'expectation of an automated system' under the "safe and effective systems" section of the White House framework.
Experts at the Brookings virtual event believe that workforce development is the starting point for professionals to learn how to identify risk and obtain the capacity to fulfill this need.
"We don't have the talent available to do this type of investigative work," Russell Wald, policy director for Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, said at the event.
"We just don't have a trained workforce ready and so what we really need to do is. I think we should invest in the next generation now and start giving people tools and access and the ability to learn how to do this type of work."
Nicol Turner-Lee, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, agreed with Wald, recommending sociologists, philosophers and technologists get involved in the process of AI programming to align with algorithmic discrimination protections – another core principle of the framework.
Core principles and protections suggested in this framework would require lawmakers to create new policies or include them in current safety requirements or civil rights laws. Each principle includes three sections on principles, automated systems and practice by government entities.
In July, Adam Thierer, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center of George Mason University stated that he is "a little skeptical that we should create a regulatory AI structure," and instead proposed educating workers on how to set best practices for risk management, calling it an "educational institution approach."
Deepfakes Pose National Security Threat, Private Sector Tackles Issue
Content manipulation can include misinformation from authoritarian governments.
Teralyn Whipple
Photo of Dana Roa of Adobe, Paul Lekas of Global Policy (left to right)
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2022 – Content manipulation techniques known as deepfakes are concerning policy makers and forcing the public and private sectors to work together to tackle the problem, a Center for Democracy and Technology event heard on Wednesday.
A deepfake is a technical method of generating synthetic media in which a person's likeness is inserted into a photograph or video in such a way that creates the illusion that they were actually there. Policymakers are concerned that deepfakes could pose a threat to the country's national security as the technology is being increasingly offered to the general population.
Deepfake concerns that policymakers have identified, said participants at Wednesday's event, include misinformation from authoritarian governments, faked compromising and abusive images, and illegal profiting from faked celebrity content.
"We should not and cannot have our guard down in the cyberspace," said Representative John Katko, R-NY, ranking member of House Committee on homeland security.
Adobe pitches technology to identify deepfakes
Software company Adobe released an open-source toolkit to counter deepfake concerns earlier this month, said Dana Rao, executive vice president of Adobe. The companies' Content Credentials feature is a technology developed over three years that tracks changes made to images, videos, and audio recordings.
Content Credentials is now an opt-in feature in the company's photo editing software Photoshop that it says will help establish credibility for creators by adding "robust, tamper-evident provenance data about how a piece of content was produced, edited, and published," read the announcement.
Adobe's Connect Authenticity Initiative project is dedicated to addressing problems establishing trust after the damage caused by deepfakes. "Once we stop believing in true things, I don't know how we are going to be able to function in society," said Rao. "We have to believe in something."
As part of its initiative, Adobe is working with the public sector in supporting the Deepfake Task Force Act, which was introduced in August of 2021. If adopted, the bill would establish a National Deepfake and Digital task force comprised of members from the private sector, public sector, and academia to address disinformation.
For now, said Cailin Crockett, senior advisor to the White House Gender Policy Council, it is important to educate the public on the threat of disinformation.


Last year I started these posts and shared some eye candy . . . . Aquamarines. My birthday is this month, and since Aquamarine is the birthstone for March, I thought it would be a fun thing to do. So every week I am going to try to do this post and show some pretties!
I'm so glad I have a pretty birthstone! Not that any of them are ugly, but I particularly like mine! There are many shades of an Aquamarine, some more pale and some more vibrant blue, but all are beautiful! I like traditional jewelry, but am usually a fan of pieces that are different and not something everyone as - so the pieces I will be showing will be just that . . . unique!
My birthday stone! I love aquamarine!!


The title may be a wee bit deceiving. Yes, these biscotti have booze in them, but not enough to really call them boozy. But it got your attention, didn't? Yup, thought so!
You have probably figured out by now that I like biscotti, considering this is my third biscotti post (check out the others here and here). I find it hard not to like biscotti. It's sweet, but not too sweet, crunchy, and goes so perfectly with that morning cup of coffee. I'm a sucker for anything that goes well with coffee (as well as anything that goes well with wine, but that's another story for another day).
This recipe just took front and center as my favorite. And I found that they held up better than other biscotti when slicing. Of course, that could be attributed to my finally being patient enough to let the biscotti cool sufficiently before slicing. In the past I tried to rush (I know, I know) and sliced too soon, resulting in crumbly slices. (Sheepishly hangs head).
Another reason I like these so much is because orange and chocolate go splendidly together. I've always thought it a strange combination but darn is it tasty! I used Grand Marnier, but feel free to use OJ or another orange liqueur. The recipe is as easy as any other cookie recipe. Would be perfect to take to work, or obviously, a coffee with the girls.
1. Line two sheet pans with parchment or silpat.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, zest, and Grand Marnier until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, blending completely after each addition.
4. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture. Mix until almost combined and then add the pecans and chocolate. Mix until just combined.
5. Gather dough into two balls, wrap in plastic and freeze for 20 minutes.
6. While dough is chilling, preheat your oven to 350F.
7. After dough is chilled, place each piece on prepared sheet pan. Roll (or pat) into a long log, about 14 inches long and 2 inches wide. Bake until barely golden, about 30 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and place on racks to cool for 20 minutes. Carefully move the logs to a cutting board. Cut on a diagonal into 1/2 inch slices. Move pieces back to sheet pan, standing up right. Bake another 30 minutes, or until dry to the touch and golden. Cool completely before dunking in coffee.
9. Store in airtight container. They will keep for several days. Enjoy!
Today I went to a Change of Command ceremony. For you non-military peeps, that's when a new boss takes over for an old boss. It's very traditional and symbolic. I love attending these ceremonies because they just make me proud to be part of the military. Before I left I had written a draft post about how good crackers are hard to find in stores and how easy they are to make at home.
Now I feel compelled to share with you the words of wisdom I heard from the outgoing commander, a man who has been a pleasure to know these past couple of years. My husband worked for him the first year we were here before moving on to another job.
He said a lot of great things but what really stood out was this piece of advice: Do your job. That sounds pretty simple, right? But think about it for a second. How often are you worrying about what someone else is doing instead of just focusing on what you should be doing? It happens a lot, especially for Perfectionists like Me. We've all worked with someone who was a slacker and we had to pick up their slack. Think about how easier your job would be if the slacker just did their job! And think for a second about the job you have to do. If you are spending all your time worrying about what the person next to you is doing, what's happening to the job you are doing? It suffers. This doesn't just happen at the office. It happens everywhere and in every aspect of life.
So do your job and do it the best that you can. Everything else will work itself out. Can't ask for much more, right?
Thanks, Peaches. We'll miss you!
Why, yes, I did drink that wine in this photo. I couldn't let it go to waste. One of the downsides of using wine as a photo prop!
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare two baking sheets with silpat or parchment.
2. You can use either a food processor, a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, a pastry cutter, or your hands! I think the food processor works best but mine broke while making these the first time. It is not a good year for small appliances in my kitchen.
3. Using your tool of choice, mix together the dry ingredients. Add the parmesan and herbs. Cut your butter into small cubes and mix with the dry ingredients until it resembles fine cornmeal.
4. Add in the 1/4 cup of milk. If the mixture is still dry, add one tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together nicely. It should not be wet, but should form a ball easily.
5. If it is warm in your kitchen, and it probably is considering how hot the whole country is right now, wrap the dough in plastic and chill for about 30 minutes. This will make it easier to roll. When you are ready to rock and roll, divide the dough in half. You should not need any additional flour for dusting, but if you do, use as little as possible. Roll to 1/8″ or smaller. The most I have the patience for is 1/8″ but you will have crispier crackers if you can get them thinner. Using your rolling pin to help, roll some of the dough onto the pin and transfer to a baking sheet. Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 1 inch squares (no need to separate, they will not rise or spread). It is much easier to cut on the baking sheet than try and move all those little crackers to the sheet! If you want bigger crackers, by all means knock yourself out. Do the same with the second half of the dough.
6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on your oven and how crispy you want your crackers. I wanted mine crispy so I baked mine a little longer.
7. Let cool completely. They will crisp up as they cool. Enjoy with cheese, olives, and wine for a delightful snack!
Notes: You can use any cheese you want, just make sure it is finely shredded so it mixes in with the dough. If you don't like herbs, feel free to leave them out. I liked the white whole wheat flour here because it gives that nice nutty wheat flavor, but still easy to work with like white flour. You can find it in most grocery stores now.
Biscotti, how I love thee!
Ok, I know, I've been out of commission for what, six weeks now? I have lots of good reasons, and probably a few that aren't so great. First, I'm taking a couple of online writing classes, which is the biggest reason I'm not blogging since I'm busy writing for a grade. Second, everything that can break seems to have broken, including my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer (insert tears here). That will be a separate post.
In the meantime…I'm making bread by hand and making other doughs with my hand mixer (also a Kitchen Aid…). Biscotti was perfect for the hand mixer, other than me being annoyed at having to stand there holding it. Yeah, I know, I've gotten lazy with my big, (sort of) powerful stand mixer. I have to actually pay close attention now! Can you imagine? Hmph.
This is an easy recipe and is actually the same as the Cinnamon Hazelnut Biscotti, but I took out the cinnamon and added espresso and hazelnuts. I originally had espresso in the title but that was bordering on obnoxiously long. And you could really use this recipe as a base for whatever you wanted. And for me, biscotti really hits the spot first thing in the morning when you are sitting down for coffee after a good workout or yard work. It's a great way to start your day.
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, somewhere in between room temperature and cold.
*To husk the hazelnuts: spread in a single layer on a sheet pan and bake in oven at 350F for about 10 minutes until very fragrant. Cover with a towel. Cool slightly and then rub together. The skins will come off fairly easily. Don't fret if you don't get all the skins. A little won't hurt.
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare two baking sheets with either silpat or parchment. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
2. Chop hazelnuts in food processor until slightly chunky. How chunky depends on your preference.
3. Place butter, sugar, vanilla, and zest in stand mixer and mix until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time and mix until combined. Scrape the bowl after each addition. Add flour mixture. When flour is almost completely mixed, fold in the chopped hazelnuts and chocolate chips.
4. Divide the dough in half and place on prepared sheet pans. Flatten dough into an even rectangle. If you want to cut them diagnol, keep it narrow and long. If you want to cut just straight, make it wider. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden on the edges. Remove from oven (but keep oven on), let cool slightly and carefully move to a cutting board. Slice slightly on the diagonal. Return pieces to the sheet pan. Bake about 10 minutes. Flip pieces, bake 10 minutes more, or until desired crispiness. Careful that they don't burn, but also make sure they are golden enough to be crunchy. Make coffee, and enjoy!
Red velvet whoopie pies with a raspberry marshmallow center. Does that say Valentine's Day or what? I finally decided to jump on the Valentine's Day band wagon and make something with red velvet. It is one of my favorite cakes, after all, and I've had red velvet on my To Bake list for, oh, a year maybe?
And at this point I am retyping my entire post, minus the paragraph above, since WordPress was so kind to crash and not register my last save! Don't you just hate it when technology doesn't do exactly what you want it to do?
There, just saved. Still good.
I think I said something along the lines of every day is special, no need to just use Valentine's Day as an excuse, and yada yada yada. Maybe I was being too mushy and WordPress decided to intervene? Well, hmph.
And just saved again. Still good.
These are really tasty "cookies" with an identity crisis (I mean, they are essentially small cakes, with pie in the name, and we consider them cookies?). Chocolatey, cakey, and yummy. What more could you ask for in a cookie? Oh, that they are easy? Done. (Save).
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat. Sift your cocoa powder, then whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
2. Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer until combined well and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in egg, scrape the bowl, and then the vinegar.
3. Reduce speed to low and alternately mix in flour and buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with the flour until combined.
4. Add the red food coloring and mix on low speed until thoroughly combined.
5. Spoon 1 tablespoon mounds of batter 2-inches apart on lined baking sheets.
6. Bake, switching positions of baking sheets halfway through baking, until rounds are puffed and set (check with a toothpick), 8 to 10 minutes.
7. Spread about 1 tablespoon of icing (two choices below) on flat-side of half the rounds; top with remaining rounds, flat side down, to form whoopie pies.
This is the one I used. No refrigeration needed. Made a lot, so you could cut the recipe in half.
Combine icing ingredients in a metal or glass bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and beat with a handheld electric mixer at high speed until frosting is thick and fluffy, 6 to 7 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat until slightly cooled. Add food coloring if desired. Use frosting the day it is made. It will still be good the next day, just won't be as fluffy.
Beat together cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, vanilla, salt, and sugar until creamy, 1 to 2 minutes.
We've made it to the home stretch! Can you believe Christmas is less than a week away? This time of year always flies by. I'm almost done with my holiday shopping, just have a few last minute items to pick up and the last of my mailings went out today. Now it is time to just kick back and relax a bit!
Gingersnaps are probably one of the most recognized holiday cookies. I'd always preferred sugar cookies over ginger cookies but I may have been persuaded with this recipe. The perfect amount of fresh ginger, chewy (not a fan of crunchy), and well, I think they look pretty. I think Santa agrees!
This recipe came from Alton Brown, Good Eats 3. It's a really amazing book and would make a great gift for a foodie. And Amazon is selling it at half the price I paid for it. We were lucky enough to meet Alton at one of his book signings this past fall, but you had to buy the book from the store to get a ticket. Which of course meant buying it at full price. It's a steal at $18! I also got the Sugarplums recipe out of this book. And the marshmallows. Can't say I don't use my cookbooks, right?
These cookies are easy, which is how Cookies for Santa should be. You don't want the added stress of complicated cookies this time of year. Chopping the ginger was the most time consuming part. I omitted the candied ginger because I knew that would be too much ginger for my taste buds, but added extra fresh ginger, 4 tsp instead of 2 tsp. And the fresh ginger makes a huge difference. Don't omit that. It takes the cookie to a whole new level.
I used a tablespoon scoop and baked the cookies for 12 minutes to get them perfectly chewy. If you prefer a crisper cookie, just bake longer, about 15 minutes. Enjoy!
Note: I've provided conversions in case you don't have a scale, but I can't vouch for the accuracy.
2. In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cardamom, clove and salt.
3. Place the brown sugar and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on low speed until light and fluffy,3 minutes. Scrape the bowl. Add the molasses, egg and fresh ginger and beat on medium for 2 minutes. Add the crystallized ginger, if using, and using a rubber spatula, stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix with paddle until well combined.
4. Using a 1 TB cookie scoop, drop the dough onto a parchment lined half sheet pan approximately 2-inches apart. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 12 minutes for slightly chewy cookies or 15 minutes for more crisp cookies. Rotate the pan halfway through cooking.
5. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to stay on the sheet pan for 30 seconds before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with all of the dough. Store in an airtight container for up 10 days (trust me, they won't last that long!). If desired, you may scoop and freeze the cookie dough on a sheet pan and once frozen, place in a resealable bag to store. Bake directly from the freezer as above.
If you've seen the cover of Bon Appetit this month, you've seen the beautiful peppermint meringues with the red background. It drew me in immediately! So festive! I had to mimic the red on red for the pictures.
Meringues have never been a favorite cookie of mine, mostly because in the past I'd only had store bought ones that were sickeningly sweet. These are sweet, but not quite the diabetic coma sweet of store bought versions. And much tastier with a beautiful airy yet crunchy texture.
These cookies aren't quite as easy as the past few posts, but they certainly aren't hard either. Meringue can be intimidating. Mine even turned out a little runnier than they should have been, but they still turned out great. I'm not sure what happened, honestly. I had perfect peaks and then when I added the powdered sugar as directed, it got runny. But they still piped fine and baked up without any issues.
1. Get all your gear ready before you start. Place a 1/2 inch tip in a pastry bag (or use a plastic bag), and have your food coloring and peppermint extract ready, as well as your sugars. Make sure your egg whites are room temperature – very important! Since it is cold most places right now, this may take a couple of hours. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silipat.
2. Preheat oven to 200°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and salt on medium-high speed until white and foamy, about 1 minute. With mixer running, gradually add sugar in 3 additions beating for 2 minutes between each addition. Beat until firm peaks form, about 2 minutes longer. Add powdered sugar and peppermint extract; beat to blend, about 1 minute.
3. Dot coloring over surface of meringue; do not stir (the coloring will form swirls when piped). Spoon meringue into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2″ tip. If using a plastic bag, cut corner after adding meringue to bag. Twist top; pipe 1″ rounds onto prepared sheet, spacing 1″ apart. They will not spread so they can be close together.
4. Bake meringues until dry, about 2 1/2 hours. Let cool completely, about 1 hour (meringues will crisp as they cool). These will only keep a couple of days. Store in an airtight container with parchment between layers to keep from sticking.
If you aren't sick of pumpkin yet, it is your lucky day! If you are sick of pumpkin, never fear, you will soon be sick of peppermint. I'm planning a "12 Days of Christmas" and can't seem to get away from the peppermint. 'Tis the season!
But one last pumpkin post. Yes, it is technically after Thanksgiving and we are supposed to have moved on from said pumpkin. In my defense, I had these made long before Turkey Day, but in true holiday fashion, was just too darned busy to sit down and actually write. Somehow the week before Thanksgiving I had more commitments lined up than I cared for. Too often the holiday season blurs by us without being able to sit back and enjoy the finer things.
The previous post was all about pumpkin bread. That recipe made two loaves, which I would have gladly eaten every last bite, but really don't have the budget to go out and buy all new clothes in the next size up. And, as previously mentioned, I was hosting a bunch of ladies for our November social. I was in charge of the bread and dessert, everyone else brought the soup. Since the week was already beyond busy, I needed something quick, easy, and tasty. Cute didn't hurt either. Enter the Mini Pumpkin Trifle.
I've found that when you get a bunch of women together, they don't eat much. Well, dessert anyhow. Even though you know that we all want to devour dessert. Or is that just me? If so, I'm ok with that. I like my dessert. But for this occasion I kept it small and easy to eat.
It started as just some pumpkin bread with a little whip cream on top. But no, I had to add more to my week. I thought it needed some color. What goes great with pumpkin? Cranberry sauce of course. But then I worried there was no texture. It needed a crunch. And what goes with cranberry and pumpkin? Ginger shortbread. And that is my life, adding more to my schedule than I probably need to. But hey, that's what women do best, right? Right.
And look at how cute they turned out! I'm not sure if I was more excited to eat the dessert or use the dishes. Complete with mini spoons!
While this dessert has four components, it doesn't need all four, and each part is very easy and can be made ahead of time. The first is the pumpkin bread from the previous post. I kept one loaf out, froze the other and then thawed it out on the counter. Tasted just as fresh as day one.
The next part is cranberry sauce. This is the same cranberry sauce I use at Thanksgiving every year. I left out the cornstarch and instead smashed the cranberries which thickened the sauce. It can be made two days in advance. Maybe more but I've never tried!
I took a shortbread cookie from Martha Stewart. The recipe calls for cutting out the shortbread into shapes, and since I just wanted small slices of shortbread, I knew this would work great. I added ginger until the taste was right.
Must smell good….my pup was very curious!
And the whip cream – insanely easy. I wanted to use Mascarpone, but had some cream cheese leftover from something (who knows what, that seems like an eternity ago!). Either would work great.
So there you have it. Four recipes all combined into one great little dessert. Assemble however you see fit. Since my dishes were so tiny, I just did one layer of each, but if you have bigger bowls more layers would be great. I assembled several hours before my event and chilled. The less you need to do before guests arrive, the better.
Yield: Depends on your serving size. Will make around 20 small dishes.
Add all ingredients to pan and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and smash cranberries. Sauce will thicken. Let cool and chill for later use.
*Note: the original recipe calls for cranberries in the cookie. You could probably skip the sauce and just make these cookies as is and it would still be great I'm sure. The ginger was very subtle, so if you like a stronger ginger taste, add more. Best if made at least one day in advance.
1. Preheat oven to 325F. Butter an 8×8 (or 9×9) baking pan and then line with parchment overhanging.
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla in mixer about three minutes. You want light and fluffy, but not too light and fluffy.
3.In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and ginger. Add to butter mixture and mix until dough ball forms. Press into prepared pan.
4. Bake until slightly golden on edges, about 20 minutes. Let cool and cut.
Using electric mixer, beat cream, mascarpone, sugar, and vanilla in large bowl until peaks form. Can be made a few hours ahead, but should be day of.


text:
L'Oisans is een streek in de Franse Alpen, gelegen in de departementen Isère en Hautes-Alpes en komt overeen met het stroomgebied van de rivier de Romanche en haar zijrivieren de Eau d'Olle, Lignarre, Sarenne, Vénéon en Ferrand. De zes valleien van deze rivieren komen tezamen in Le Bourg-d'Oisans, de belangrijkste stad in de streek.

De geografische afbakening komt bijna exact overeen met de administratieve grenzen van de kantons van Bourg-d'Oisans en La Grave. De Oisans omvat delen van de massieven van Belledonne, Taillefer, Grandes Rousses, Arves en Écrins en bergen als La Meije en Barre des Écrins in het Nationaal park Les Écrins.

De bergen trekken veel toeristen, zowel in de zomer als in de winter. Het gebied heeft een aantal bekende skioorden als Alpe d'Huez, Les Deux Alpes, Oz-en-Oisans en Vaujany. In de zomer trekt de streek veel wandelaars, bergbeklimmers en wielrenners aan. De Tour de France doet het gebied zeer frequent aan.

De departementale weg 1091, die Grenoble met Briançon verbindt, is de belangrijkste toegangsweg naar dit gebied.

Plaatsen in de Oisans
 Le Bourg-d'Oisans
 Livet-et-Gavet
 Allemond
 Le Freney-d'Oisans
 Mizoën
 Clavans-en-Haut-Oisans
 Oulles
 Ornon
 Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans
 Besse
 Villard-Notre-Dame
 Villard-Reymond
 Villar-d'Arêne
 Huez
 Vénosc
 La Grave
 Vaujany
 La Garde

Externe link
  website van de streek

Natuurlijke regio in Frankrijk
Geografie van Hautes-Alpes
Geografie van Isère

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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