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The Angel Collection (Vinegar Syndrome) Blu-ray Review
Ian Jane
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: November 29th, 2019.
Director: Robert Vincent O'Neil/Tom DeSimone
Cast: Donna Wilkes, Susan Tyrrell, Cliff Gorman, Rory Calhoun, Dick Shawn, John Diehl, Betsy Russell, Ossie Davis, Mitzi Kapture, Mark Blankfield, Maud Adams, Richard Roundtree
Year: 1984/1985/1988
Purchase From Vinegar Syndrome
The Angel Collection – Movie Review:
While very much a product of the decade in which they were made, the three Angel films made between 1984 and 1988 have rightfully gained a sizable cult following over the years, thanks in no small part to some great casting choices and a fair amount of good old-fashioned sleaze! Vinegar Syndrome brings the three films (a fourth film was made in 1994 which is not included in this set) to Blu-ray for the first time anywhere in the universe and we're all the better for it.
Angel:
The first film introduces us to fifteen-year-old Molly Stewart (Donna Wilkes), a book-smart high school student who gets great grades and seems to have every advantage in life. This makes it all the more perplexing that, by night, she chooses to walk the streets of Los Angeles as Angel, making some extra money in the world's oldest profession. See, Molly has been left abandoned by her parents and she needs that money to survive. On the streets she ...
Blood Stalkers (Garagehouse Pictures) Blu-ray Review
Released by: Garagehouse Pictures
Released on: December 23rd, 2019.
Director: Robert W. Morgan
Cast: Jerry Albert, Toni Crabtree, Ken Miller, Cisse Cameron, Robert W. Morgan, Herb Goldstein, John H. Meyer, David Faris Legge, Stan Webb
Purchase From Amazon
Blood Stalkers – Movie Review:
Written and directed by Bigfoot authority Robert W. Morgan and originally titled The Night Daniel Died, 1975's Blood Stalkers follows two couples – ex-Marine Mike (Jerry Ablert) and his blonde bombshell Kim (Toni Crabtree) and their pals, a singer named Daniel (Ken Miller) and his former stripper ...
Blood Paradise (Artsploitation Films) Blu-ray Review
Released by: Artsploitation Films
Released on: July 16th, 2019.
Director: Patrick von Barkenberg
Cast: Andréa Winter, Brenna Otts, Christer Cavallius, Rolf Brunnström
Blood Paradise – Movie Review:
Patrick von Barkenberg's opens with a scene wherein a naked woman is bound to a bed and then proceeds to beg a ...
Dracula (Shout! Factory) Blu-ray Review
Released by: Shout! Factory
Director: John Badham
Cast: Frank Langella, Laurence Olivier, Kate Nelligan, Donald Pleasence, Trevor Eve, Jan Francis, Tony Haygarth
Dracula – Movie Review:
Directed by John Badham (right after the success of his 1977 film Saturday Night Fever) for Universal Pictures and released in 1979, Dracula, based on the stage play by Hamilton Deane which was in turn based on Bram Stoker's classic novel, stars Frank Langella in the iconic role.
When the film begins, a large ship has crashed up on the shore of Whitby, the only survivor a man named Count Dracula. It just so happens that the wreck happened near an ...
The Boys Next Door (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
Released by: Severin Films
Director: Penelope Spheeris
Cast: Charlie Sheen, Maxwell Caulfield, Patti D'Arbanville
The Boys Next Door – Movie Review:
Bo Richards (Charlie Sheen) and Roy Alston (Maxwell Caulfield) have just graduated high school. They aren't rich like those they grew up around, but they manage to make a celebratory trip to Los Angeles where they intend to ...
Famine (Unearthed Films) Blu-ray Review
Released by: Unearthed Films
Released on: December 17th, 2019.
Director: Ryan Nicholson
Cast: Karyn Halpin, Nathan Durec, Glenn Hoffmann, Christopher Patrick Donoghue, Beth Cantor, Michelle Sabiene, Christine Wallace
Famine – Movie Review:
Directed and co-written by Vancouverite Ryan Nicholson, who sadly passed away earlier this very year, 2011's Famine is a low budget slasher comedy, with an emphasis on comedy, Famine opens with the arrival of the new ...
Big Trouble In Little China (Shout! Factory) Blu-ray Review
Released on: December 3rd, 2019.
Cast: Kurt Russell, James Hong, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, Kate Burton, Victor Wong, Suzee Pai
Big Trouble In Little China – Movie Review:
In John Carpenter's 1986 classic Big Trouble In Little China, frequent Carpenter collaborator Kurt Russell plays Jack Burton, a tough guy truck driver and the owner of a big rig dubbed 'The Pork-Chop Express.' After he makes a stop in Chinatown, he winds up connecting with his friend Wang Chi (Dennis ...
A Moving Read (Short Film Review)
Released by: Astrid's Saint's LLC
Released on: 2019.
Director: Mariano Baino
Cast: Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Bruno Tramice, Ettore Nigro, Lauren Baino, Guilia Hermann
A Moving Read – Movie Review:
The latest short film from Mariano Baino, best known as the director ...
Emanuelle In America (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
Released by: Mondo Macabro
Director: Joe D'Amato
Cast: Laura Gemser, Gabriele Tinti, Roger Browne, Riccardo Salvino, Lars Bloch, Paola Senatore, Lorraine de Selle
Emanuelle In America – Movie Review:
One of the most notorious films in director Joe D'Amato's notoriously sleazy filmography is 1977's Emanuelle In America, which once again stars the lovely Laura Gemser in the lead role of Emanuelle. This time our hyper-sexual photographer is, when the film opens in New ...
The Blob (Shout! Factory) Blu-ray Review
Released on: October 29th, 2019.
Director: Chuck Russell
Cast: Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, Donovan Leitch, Candy Clark
The Blob – Movie Review
Chuck Russell's 1988 remake of The Blob (co-written by Russell and Frank Darabont) takes place in the small Colorado town of Arbeville where everyone at the local high school is consumed with preparing for various sports events. So consumed are they and all around them, that no one seems to notice when a meteor comes hurtling out of the sky and lands nearby. ...
The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith (Kino Lorber) Blu-ray Review
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: September 17th, 2019.
Cast: Tommy Lewis, Freddy Reynolds, Ray Barrett, Jack Thompson, Angela Punch McGregor, Steve Dodds, Peter Carroll
The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith – Movie Review:
Writer/director Fred Schepisi's adaptation of Thomas Keneally's novel (which was based on the true story of a bushranger named Jimmy Governor) introduces us to the titular Jimmie Blacksmith (Tommy Lewis) a young Aboriginal man of mixed heritage ...
The Fly Collection (Shout! Factory) Blu-ray Review
Director: Kurt Neumann, Edward Burnds, Don Sharp, David Cronenberg, Chris Walas
Cast: David Hedison, Vincent Price, Patricia Owens, David Frankham, Brett Halsey, Brian Donlevy, George Baker, Carole Ray, Yvette Rees, Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz, Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga, Lee Richardson
Year: 1958/1959/1965/1986/1989
The Fly Collection – Movie Review:
The Fly was a hit when it debuted in 1958, spawning two sequels in the years to come and then, in the eighties, a remake and a follow up to that remake. Shout! Factory has wisely decided to collect all five of those pictures and release them in an extras-laden boxed set aptly titled The Fly Collection.
The Fly:
Andre (David Hedison, billed as Al Hedison) is a brilliant inventor whose latest endeavor is to perfect a pair of teleportation pods that he's been working on for some time. His lovely wife Helene (Patricia Owens) and his brother François (Vincent Price) stand by him. Andre makes progress when he's able to send inanimate objects from one pod to the next, but things get complicated from there on out when he starts experimenting with living things.
When Andre is sufficiently confident that the teleportation pods are safe, he decides to use himself as a human guinea pig. What he doesn't realize, when he gets into the first pod, is that a fly has gone in with him. When he comes out on the other side, he's not longer human and has a fly's head on a man's body. Likewise, the fly changes, having a human head on a fly's body. Things get considerably darker from here on in, with Inspector Charas (Herbert Marshall) eventually becoming involved and trying to sort out what exactly has happened.
"Once it was human… even as you and I! The monster created by atoms ...
An American Werewolf In London (Arrow Video) Blu-ray Review
Released by: Arrow Video
Director: John Landis
Cast: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John Woodvine, Don McKillop, Paul Kember
An American Werewolf In London – Movie Review:
One of those rare horror-comedy hybrid films that actually works really, really well, John Landis' An American Werewolf In London remains a textbook example of just how well 'funny' can mix with 'scary' effectively when given a smart script, a talented director and a strong cast.
The film begins with two American ...
The Blood On Satan's Claw (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
Director: Piers Haggard
Cast: Linda Hayden, Patrick Wymark, Barry Andrews, Michelle Dotrice, Wendy Padbury, Anthony Ainley, Charlotte Mitchell, Tamara Ustinov, Simon Williams
Purchase From Severin Films
The Blood On Satan's Claw – Movie Review:
Probably the best-known film of the minimal output from the short-lived Tigon Studios, Piers Haggard's Blood On Satan's Claw has maintained a solid cult following since its release in 1970. With folk horror having had a bit of a resurgence in the last few years with titles like The Witch and Midsommar doing well at the box office, it would seem a more than appropriate title to revisit – particularly ...
The Candy Snatchers (Vinegar Syndrome) Blu-ray Review
Director: Guerdon Trueblood
Cast: Tiffany Bolling, Ben Piazza, Susan Sennett, Brad David, Vince Martorano, Delores Dorn, Christopher Trueblood
The Candy Snatchers – Movie Review:
Flat out balls-to-the-wall grindhouse/exploitation filmmaking collides head on with a crime noir aesthetic in Gordon Trueblood's 1973 drive in hit, The Candy Snatchers. The film was never before given a legitimate home video release anywhere since its theatrical run in the early seventies until Subversive Cinema brought it to DVD ...
The Beast In The Cellar (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
Director: James Kelley
Cast: Beryl Reid, Flora Robson, John Hamill, Tessa Wyatt, T.P. McKenna, John Kelland
The Beast In The Cellar – Movie Review:
Produced by Tigon Films and released theatrically in 1971, The Beast In The Cellar introduces us to Ellie (Beryl Reid) and Joyce (Flora Robson) Ballantyne, two spinster sisters who share a home in the British countryside. They live alone together, neither having ever married or had children, ...
Art Of The Dead (Umbrella Entertainment) DVD Review
Released by: Umbrella Entertainment
Released on: October 2nd, 2019.
Director: Rolfe Kanefsky
Cast: Tara Reid, Richard Grieco, Jessica Morris, Tania Fox, Sarah French, Cynthia Aileen Strahan, Zachary Chyz, Robert Donavan
Art Of The Dead – Movie Review:
From writer/director Rolfe Kanefsky and writers Michael and Sonny Mahal, the team that was behind 2017's Party Bus To Hell, comes Art Of The Dead, a new feature based on the Biblical concept of 'The ...
Bloodmania (Darkside Releasing) Blu-ray Review
Released by: Darkside Releasing
Released on: October 22nd, 2019.
Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis, Melanie Reinboldt, Kevin Littlelight
Cast: Faith Amantea, Stuart Bentley, Carl Bishop, Caroline Buzanko, Peter Cameron, Donovan Cerminara, Jaslyn Collis
Purchase From Darkside Releasing
Bloodmania – Movie Review:
Bloodmania (not to be confused with Blood Mania) would, sadly, be the last film project that the late, great Herschell Gordon Lewis, the originally 'Godfather Of Gore,' would ever be involved with, given that he passed away in 2016. While the film doesn't ...
Bandolero! (Twilight Time) Blu-Ray Review
Mark Tolch
Released By: Twilight Time
Released On: May 21, 2019.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Cast: James Stewart, Dean Martin, Raquel Welch, George Kennedy, Andrew Prine, Will Geer, Clint Ritchie, Denver Pyle
Purchase From Screen Archives
Bandolero! - Movie Review:
When the Bishop Gang come riding into Val Verde, Texas, you can safely bet that they're not there to clean up crime and help the elderly. As a matter of fact, the only helping that the gang, ...
The Fan (Shout! Factory) Blu-ray Review
Director: Ed Bianchi
Cast: Lauren Bacall, Michael Biehn, James Garner, Maureen Stapleton, Hector Elizondo
The Fan – Movie Review:
Sally Ross (Laruen Bacall) was once a member of the Hollywood A-list. As glamorous as they come and well aware of her popularity, she's about to start a new career on Broadway, age threatening to catch up with her at this point ...
Violence In A Women's Prison
A lot of that is Ursula Flores...
Consuela is whiny and annoying. Albina is a bitch from Hell...
bflocket 01-15-2020 08:55 AM
The Peanut Butter Solution (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
"It definitely takes place in Canada."
That sums up this review. :cuckoo:
Alison Jane 01-14-2020 08:19 PM
House By The Cemetery (Blue Underground) Blu-ray Review
Nice bowtie, Fulci.
Matt H. 01-13-2020 10:18 AM
Naked Alibi (Kino Lorber) Blu-ray Review
She steels the show in this one, you'll definitely dig it.
Ian Jane 01-10-2020 03:03 PM
I haven't seen this one, and coincidentally, I'm expecting it to arrive today. Really looking...
Andrew Monroe 01-10-2020 10:39 AM
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Man what a week so far. I struggled with DDE once again, countless times over the past decades. Things changed - or they didn't, I am not sure.
HCL decided to take the burden of curating a product called Notes and Domino. Good luck, guys!
It's very disturbing to see what happened today at the "Golden Ticket" event in… Boston? I don't know exactly where, somewhere at the U.S. east coast I guess at the HCL labs during the "Factory Tour".
Don't get me wrong, I am so far away from being jealous about not being a receiver of the ticket and joining this event as the U.S. is a "no-go-area" for me. Meeting the peeps however… well this is something different. I like to meet those people in every occasion - in Europe.
"Disturbing?" you may say? Yes it was. The "joke" of trying to act like "the Doc" and "Marty" to emphasize the "Back to the future" motto at various conferences was somewhat funny and did it's purpose. The HCL Factory Tour (AFAIR) was even better (worse).
The situation isn't funny at all! It is a serious game to get the product back to life, HCL!
I don't think it's the right time to act this foolish on such a serious event even if this is not an official one. But HCL and some of the main protagonists made it so damn public that it hurts. I'd be interested in what IBM thinks about it though I guess they aren't in the position to interfere.
To all of you who attend(ed): I wish you all the best of fun and input though - honestly!
The beta 1 phase is running constantly and people are testing and reporting on a daily basis. My "hero" of these days is our very own fellow Ulrich Krause (eknori) who tested the most important stuff despite of his serious health issues. All the best to you, Ulrich!


text:
Q: How to push to multiple git remotes easily? I have the same code deployed to multiple remotes (bitbucket and github) so I have to do this every time (which is fine):
git add .; git commit -m "msg"; git push origin master; git push github master;
But the real issue starts here.. First, bitbucket asks me for my token, I supply it, then github asks for both my username and token.. Is there an easier way to save these so I don't supply every time?
I prefer not to set a global git config email, I would rather use a fake email, but I'm OK with any solution, or additional software like a credential manager, or generating a common public key for all repos and somehow storing it and supplying automatically.
I also prefer a solution that doesn't require ssh, but it's OK if it is the only way :)
Thanks!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Remarks by the President and Steven Case of America On Line at National Campaign Against Youth Violence Lunch (9/14/00)
Immediate Release               September 14, 2000
AND STEVEN CASE OF AMERICA ON LINE
AT NATIONAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST YOUTH VIOLENCE LUNCH
Concorde Room
Hay Adams Hotel
MR. CASE:  That was a very kind introduction.  I'd like to get a tape
of it so I can send it to my mom.  She'd be so proud.  (Laughter.)  I also
see the presidential statement here.  Do you mind if I use your remarks?
I'm sure yours are better.  (Laughter.)  And it was also kind for Jeff to
say that I was the first person he called when he was putting the campaign
together, but I'm also humble enough to know that's because A comes first
in the Rolodex.  (Laughter.)
We were certainly happy to sign on early, we do think it's an
important cause, and I also want to congratulate Jeff and everybody working
on the campaign; what's been accomplished in the past year, really bringing
together leaders from all around the country to take steps to protect and
educate young people.  Obviously, it's an honor to be here with the
President whose administration has done so much to draw attention, to
really shine a spotlight on the problem of youth violence.
When it comes to protecting our kids, we're all in it together.  It's
a responsibility we all share, and it blurs the distinction between
economic status and race and geography and political party.  To tackle this
issue, we can't use business-as-usual approaches, but instead must marshal
our resources and use our expertise at every level of government across all
of our industries and in all of our communities.
That was the message that the White House Summit on Youth Violence
last year, and that's certainly what the National Campaign Against Youth
Violence is all about.
As the FTC's report reminded us this week, we have a lot more work to
do, especially those of us in the media and communications-entertainment
industries. I'm certainly looking forward to working with other leaders in
what will soon be my new industry:  to take a fresh look at what's being
done and to make a commitment to do better.
That includes reevaluating marketing practices to restrict children's
access to violent and age-inappropriate content, and redoubling our efforts
to give parents the tools they need, like AOL's parental controls, to
determine what movies and music and web sites their kids should or
shouldn't be exposed to.
But that's not all we can and should do.  We also must use our unique
resources and these unique communications capabilities to reach young
people with an important message, and that is that violence is never the
answer.  The fact is it's up to each of us in our own way, using our own
unique abilities, to do our part.
I really do believe that if we all join together, we can build a
national crusade that can help protect our kids and can strengthen our
It now gives me great pleasure to introduce the person who brought us
all together, who shined that spotlight on this issue and who is the
Commander-In-Chief of not just the country, but also of this great crusade,
the President of the United States, Bill Clinton.  (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Let me, first of, all say I'm
glad you're here, and I'm glad that all of you who have made contributions
to this endeavor to make sure it succeeds.  I came by overwhelmingly just
to say thanks.  And a special word of thanks to you, Jeff, for taking this
on when it would have been easy to take a pass; and to you, Steve, for
taking this on when it would have been easy to take some more established
way of being philanthropic and civic, with a more guaranteed, but a much
more limited return.  I guess AOL didn't get where it is by looking for
guaranteed, but limited returns.  (Laughter)  So I thank you very much.
(Laughter.)
I'm almost done being President, and so I'm thinking a little bit not
so much about the past, but about why I and my administration did certain
things when we did them and why I thought this was worth trying to do.
And one thing is, I really believe that ideas and dreams have
consequences.  If you have a bad one and you implement it in the most
aggressive way, it still won't have a good outcome.  And if you have a good
one, but you don't implement it very well, you won't have a very good
outcome.  But if you have a good one and you do it, you do everything you
can to realize it in a smart way, it has results.
And I think that one of the things presidents are supposed to do is to
imagine things that everybody wants but is afraid to say out loud they
might do.  I always thought we could balance the budget.  And then once we
did, I realized we ought to say we could make America debt free.  If I had
said any of that in 1992, people would have said, you know, he seems like a
very nice person, but we really should -- (laughter) -- have somebody who's
a little more well-grounded.
And that brings me to this issue.  This is a good news-bad news story.
The good news is, crime is down seven years in a row; violent crime at a
27-year low; juvenile crime has been dropping after going up; and juvenile
violence has been dropping, after going up for many years.  The bad news
is, we still have the highest rate of violence committed by and committed
against young people of any industrialized nation.
So anybody who's satisfied with the trend, I think, is wrong.  But we
should be encouraged and empowered by the trends, because it shows we can
do better.  But just like we had to start out when we had a deficit of $290
billion a year, and we'd quadrupled the debt in 12 years, we had to first
of all say, well, we're going to cut in a half in a certain number of
years, and then we'll get rid of it, and then we realized we could get rid
of it, so we said, well, why don't we go after the debt, too, and keep
interest rates down and keep the economy going.
Well, now, it's not like we don't know what to do here.  And it's not
like we don't know what works.  And we've got all this evidence.  So I
think our goal should be to make America the safest big country in the
world and the safest big place in the world for a child to grow up and
live.  (Applause.)  That should be our goal.
Now, if that's our goal, the first thing we've got to do is do what
Steve says, and get everybody involved from all sectors of society.  And
the second thing we have to do is do what Jeff said, we have to have a
strategy.  And the strategy he outlined, you know, to educate, replicate --
or whatever word he used -- and generate leadership -- (laughter) -- that's
about as good as it gets.  (Laughter.)  How did I do?  Did I do pretty
good?
So what I'd like to do, just briefly review what's been done that I
have some notes on to say thanks and then talk about where we go from here.
Because I want you to know, I wouldn't have asked you to do this; I didn't
think you could make a big difference.
We had a meeting like this a few years ago on teen pregnancy and got a
lot of people together and the committee just took off with it.  And teen
pregnancy's dropped dramatically.  Now, did that committee do it all?  No.
Were there economic and other factors that helped?  Of course.  Did they
make a big difference?  You bet.
We started a few years ago with five people in a room to have a
Welfare To Work partnership to try to prove that the Welfare Reform Bill
could work.  And now, we've got 12,000 companies in that partnership, and
they've hired hundreds of thousands of people off the welfare rolls, they
have very good retention rates, they're making wages way above the minimum
wage, they're doing very well.
The welfare rolls are half of what they were when I took office.  Did
those 12,000 companies do that by themselves?  No.  Did the welfare reform
law alone do it?  No, the economy had a lot to do with it.  Every one of
you, if you never hired anybody off welfare, if you increased your own
employment, made a contribution to creating an economy which reduced the
welfare rolls.  But did those 12,000 companies make a difference?  You bet
they did.  And that enabled us to have the lowest welfare rolls in 30
So that's how you need to look at this.  If the economy went into a
basket, would it be harder for you to succeed at this?  Of course.  And if
government had stupid policies, would it be harder for you to see?  Yes.
And if we pass our after-school initiative and more than double the number
of kids that can be in after-school programs, will it be easier for you to
see?  You bet.
But can you make a decisive difference in making America the safest
big country in the world?  Absolutely, because this is the only group
that's focusing on everything in trying to come up with a strategy
specifically directed at this issue.  And that's the way I think you need
to look at this.
But you ought to always have in your mind that you are laboring to
make your country the safest big country in the world and the safest, big,
complicated society in the world for a little child to grow up in.  Nothing
else is worth dreaming of.  And when you think about that, it helps to
organize everything that you do.  And when you don't impose on yourself the
burden of being fully responsible for the success or failure of the
endeavor, but asking yourself where you can add at the margins to make it a
real success to reach the ultimate goal, and how in a big society like
ours, nothing ever gets done as well as it can be done unless there is a
group of people like this that represent everybody in a society, doing this
in partnership, then it ought to be highly energizing for you, and I hope
you will continue to do it.
First, I want to thank you for the public service announcements.  I
want to thank ABC, NBC, AOL, Univision, Learning Gate, the NFL, anybody
else that would care to do it.  Anybody who tells you they don't work is
crazy.  Why do you think politicians are spending all this much money
advertising in an election year?  (Laughter.)
If you don't think they work, why doesn't everybody just abolish their
advertising budget?
It does work.  It makes a huge difference.  As Barry McCaffrey the
role it has played in our efforts to reduce drug abuse among young people.
So it does.
I want to say a special word of thanks to Bob Silerman (pho.) for his
leadership in this concert that's being introduced this fall.  Those guys
have produced one or two concerts and I think it ought to be pretty great
and I hope I can see it unfold.
I want to thank Ronnie Coleman, the U.S. Attorney from Memphis; and
Ira Lipman from Guardsmark for their leadership and the remarkable things
that have occurred in Memphis in such a few short months in implementing
their city-by-city initiative.
I want to thank Francine Katz and Anheuser-Busch for helping to make
similar things happen in St. Louis.  Those are two cities that I know quite
well from long before I ever thought I'd be sitting here doing this,
standing here doing this.
I want to thank AOL for the work that it's doing in our schools.  And
I want to thank Tommy Hilfiger, Teen People and Time-Warner for helping
with all the things that are going to be done to connect young people to
one another, the parades, the concerts, the assemblies, the television
summits.
And, finally, I would like to thank the Director of my White House
Council on Youth Violence, Sonia Chessen, for leading our federal efforts;
and Assistant Surgeon General Susan Blumenthal over here for her
dedication.  We're doing everything that we can.
And I want to say one thing about what Steve said about the
entertainment industry.  There are two realities here, and both of them
ought to get out there.  First of all, the entertainment industry, in the
last eight years -- I went to Hollywood the first time and asked them to
help us deal with violence and inappropriate exposure to material to young
children in December of 1993 in a big deal that we had at CAA.  We had
hundreds of people there.  I said, look, you've got to help us on this.
This is a problem.  Don't be an ostrich; don't deny this.  Let's just
figure out how to do this.
And I would just like to say since then, we have seen remarkable
efforts at content rating systems for television, for video games, Internet
parental controls; this year, all new televisions will be sold with a
V-chip.
Now, as Hillary reminds me all the time, that since we have separate
rating systems, it's hard to make sense of them all, and it would be nice
if we had some way of kind of integrating them all.  But it's not like
nothing's happened here.  Some good things have happened.  And some real
efforts have been made.
Now, what's the problem?  As I said the other day, this FTC study is
very disturbing, because it says some of the people who are making movies
and other material rate them and say kids shouldn't look at them, and then
market it to the very people they say shouldn't be looking at it.
And the movie business is something I understand the economics of a
little bit more, and one real problem of the movie business is, less than
10 percent of the movies make money in the theaters when they're first
shown.  So you wind up with a situation where people are making these
movies imagining, how am I going to package them when they're in the video
stores?  How can I sell it to one of these cable networks that will show it
at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, three weekends in a row?  Will there be a
foreign market for this sort of thing?
How does all this affect what they do?  It doesn't justify it; I'm not
saying that.  I'm just trying to explain the fact that what I think we have
to do is to take Steve up on his offer and implore -- I can understand why
the media executives didn't want to go to that congressional hearing
yesterday and just get beat up on.  But on the other hand, I don't think
anybody should run away from this.  I think they ought to say, look, here's
where we were eight or 10 years ago; here's where we are now; here's the
progress we've made.
Okay, so, this is being done, and it's wrong, and we're going to stop
it, and here's how we're going to deal with our situation.  But I think
what we need to see is the positive and the negative, but it is unrealistic
to expect that we can get where we need to go if the major entertainment
media are not involved.  They have to be involved.  They have to buy onto
this.  And they have to understand that in the end, the most successful
companies have a big interest in living in a safe society, and a good
And that's the last thing that I want to say.  I think we need a
curious blend of commitment to a unifying and integrating vision and one
that is individually empowering.  The great thing I like about the whole
business about the Internet and all these new companies springing out of
the minds of these young people who think about things I can't even
imagine, is that, in the most immediate sense, it's both individually
empowering, and it's bringing us closer together.
The best book I read in the last few months is a book called
"Nonzero," by Robert Wright.  He wrote another book a few years ago called
"The Moral Animal" that was a bestseller.  I will oversimplify, at the risk
of being criticized by the author, the argument of the book.
He basically offers an historical and semi-scientific analysis to
support one of the most eloquent assertions of Martin Luther King, which is
that the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.  And his
argument is that, not withstanding the fact that we had modern society
horribly disfigured by the Nazis, that we had modern organizational
techniques and military power horribly abused by communist and other
totalitarian regimes, that on the whole, if you study human history, as
societies grow more complex in their inter-relation, and more
interdependent both within and beyond their borders, people in positions of
authority and citizens at the grass-roots level are forced to look
constantly for more nonzero sum solutions, hence the title of the book;
solutions in which everybody wins.
Now, this is -- the guy -- it's a very interesting book, and not
naive.  I mean, he know -- he acknowledges, even in the most sort of
cooperative societies, you've got an election, one person wins the
presidency, the other one doesn't.  One person gets to be head of AOL,
somebody doesn't -- choices get made all the time.
But the argument of the book is far more sophisticated.  It is that to
succeed, even in positions of leadership, where there is a competition for
the position, the measure of success is not so much whether you got you
want at somebody else's expense, but whether you got what you wanted
because you enabled other people to achieve their dreams and to do what
they want.
And I guess one of the things that bothers me about so much of the
rhetoric I hear about young people today, especially when they do things
they shouldn't do, and they grow up in disconnected ways -- and you don't
have to be poor to grow up in an isolated, disconnected way, as we've seen
in Columbine and other places, is that it is -- yes, it's important to tell
these kids what they shouldn't do, but it's also much more important, on a
consistent, loving, disciplined way over a long period of time, to give
them lots of things to say yes to.
And I think the idea that we are moving toward a world where more and
more, we will find our own victories in other people's victories, because
our interdependence forces us to seek nonzero sum solutions -- is a very
helpful way to think about dealing with most social problems; and frankly,
some economic challenges, like global debt relief and things like that.
So I just ask you to think about that.  This is a big deal.  And I
know you can get frustrated in the beginning, because it's amorphous --
everything big in the beginning, it makes a difference at the margins,
where it makes all the difference is amorphous.  But I urge you to stay
with this.  And if you want me to help after I'm out of office, I'll do
that.  Because I believe in this.
But when you get discouraged, remember:  When this Welfare To Work
Project started, if anybody had told me that within four years, they would
have 12,000 companies and hundreds of thousands of people hired, it would
have been a hooter; nobody would have believed it.  No one seriously
believes when that Teen Pregnancy Partnership met, a lot of them didn't
believe in their heart of hearts that if they did this for four or five
years, they could play the role that they've played in the dropping rates
that we've seen.
And I can tell you, nobody in Congress who voted in 1993 to cut the
deficit in half really thought that it would spark the avalanche of changed
budgetary conditions.  I cannot guarantee your success, but I can guarantee
you'll be rewarded if you try.  And if we think about it in this way, that
we're trying to find ways for all of us to live our dreams by empowering
more people to live theirs, then I think that the chances of your
prevailing are quite high, indeed.
Thank you very much.  (Applause.)
END           2:05 P.M. EDT

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The 4 Biggest Trends in CSR Right Now
What's top of mind for brands when it comes to CSR in the next year.
by Jemima Jordan, August 15, 2018
Between 2014 and 2016, global socially responsible investments grew by a whopping 25% to 23 trillion dollars, as society continues to respond to the demand for companies to acknowledge their responsibility as influencers of the masses and contributors to environmental and social welfare.
As the sector continues to grow and evolve, there are a number of new tendencies emerging, often echoing the collective economic, political and social interests of the time. Below are a number of trends to watch out for over the coming period:
Corporate political activism
Ethical product lines and packaging
1. Corporate political activism
If Trump and Brexit have taught us anything, it's that stability is no longer something we can take for granted. Polarisation is something that is set to remain on our agenda for some time to come and for better or worse, big corporations have realised that they can have an influence on both the public and political sphere. It's certainly a risk, but actually it often pays off: A recent study from PR agency Weber Shandwick found that:
44% of Millennials would feel more loyalty towards their CEO if he or she took a stand on a contentious issue versus 19% who said they would not.
47% of Millennials think CEOs should speak up and take active stances on social issues.
51% of Millennials surveyed said they are more likely to buy products from companies that have activist CEOs.
And more than the business opportunity, there is something to be said for standing up for what you believe in. One of the strongest but simplest examples is Patagonia's "The President Stole Your Land" ad from 2017, which was swiftly followed by a lawsuit being launched to contest his reduction of the size of two of Utah's 2 national monuments. Patagonia refused to release sales figures (presumably and hopefully because this wasn't the motive behind it) but based upon the fact that external sites reported sales six times higher than average on the day after the ad, suggests that the figures are true – people respect and appreciate brands that take a stand.
On the same topicWhy CSR Matters: A Guide to Getting It Right
2. Diversity and equality
Whether it's the #metoo media frenzy, the increased emphasis on diversity reporting (such as the recent introduction of equal pay reporting in the UK) or the watching and observing other brand's pain in the face of getting it wrong (Pepsi/Kendall-gate), there's something heartening about the increased recognition of diversity and equality amongst corporates.
Diversity both in the workforce, but also in advertising has been proved to boost business performance: McKinsey & Co reported back in 2015 that companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 per cent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. HP are a nice example of a large company who asked their agency to increase diversity in their advertising and saw a 33% increase in revenue per impression.
This momentum is going to continue to build, not least as the authenticity-craving Millennials push brands to really prove they mean it when it comes to diversity. From Converse to Primark, you'd have to be blind to not have noticed the boost in pride-related ads and products coming from mainstream brands this year, but unless it's authentic it's not enough, as articles like this show. It's in this area that brands are going to have to do some work on diversity and equality in a very real sense, making sure that they can back up their marketing with a diversity report and a CSR strategy that matches.
On the same topicOvercoming the Millennial Loyalty Challenge
As Cone Communications' Alison DaSilva says, "Consumers are willing to dig deeper and learn more about a company's business practices. Companies need to be extraordinarily transparent and dig deep into their own organization to ensure they're truly 'walking the talk' with issues on which they're taking a stance."
3. Supply chain audits
The job of building a supply chain that is ethical is more challenging than it sounds. From packaging to farming to transportation, the supply chain is made up of a myriad of links, and globalisation has led to those links feeling even more remote to a company's procurement team.
But in a similar vein to diversity, consumers are digging deeper to make sure the products they buy are not causing any unnecessary harm and are increasingly boycotting companies that aren't employing due diligence in this area. From Apple, to Zara to Volkswagen, no company is immune to the media scandal and reputational damage that can lead from one journalist picking up on a supply chain oversight.
As a consequence, companies will increase investment in auditing their supply chains, educating their staff in the need for only contacting suppliers that can confidently and with evidence, prove that they in turn are implementing social responsible practices. Ikea is just one example of a company who is fully committed to this outcome, making a statement that they intend to use only recycled or FSC certified wood by 2020.
There has also been a rise in law suits that challenge lapses in supply chain conduct, examples being Yum! Brands and Costco, which is leading to a better alignment between CSR and procurement, to make sure the dots are joined and they can back up their CSR strategy all the way along the supply chain.
4. Ethical product lines and packaging
There are also more and more brands investing in creating and promoting ethically sourced, sustainable product lines, such as Topshop's 'Reclaim to Wear' collection, L'oreal's vegan hair-care line and Coca-Cola's Honest Tea line. We can assume this is to ensure they can maintain the loyalty of the ever-conscious Millennial consumer, and can compete with new brands, such as Matt & Nat who are trading on the specific USP of creating 'good' products. And it's working: Unilever reported that their sustainable brands (one of which is Pukka organic teas) grew 40 per cent faster than the rest of the business in 2016.
There is of course the issue with regards to plastic pollution that has risen in public awareness over the last year. The blitz of reports such as The Guardian's – 'only a third of the plastic in packaging pots and trays for food can be recycled' have led the way for food and drinks companies to reconsider their approach to packaging and recycling and in turn, incorporate it into their CSR strategies: Procter & Gamble have committed to introducing 25% recycled plastic across 500 million bottles sold yearly across its haircare brands. Coca-Cola have also responded to pressure and raised their 2020 recycling target to 50%.
There's something a little disheartening about the fact that the trigger for improvements in CSR strategies seems to mostly come from media pressure and threats. However, in the world of supply and demand, it can't be a bad thing that the demand is there and companies are striving to meet it.
It looks like the sustainable and ethical approach is only going to keep on growing as the demanding and morally-minded Millennials and their younger counterparts continue to question and pressure the system that keeps it.
After working for 6 years in charity marketing in London, Jemima Jordan moved to Berlin to try out working agency-side. She has now allotted over 10 years of experience in Marketing, Communications and Digital, and specialises in CSR and youth marketing. She also likes to paint!
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text:
FL: Family tradition drives Ashley Moody in attorney general�s race
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com
Moody says she would have opposed the state�s new ban on anyone ages 18-21 buying a firearm, which was included in the school safety legislation passed after the Parkland school massacre.
�We ask 18-year-olds to pick up a gun and fight for our country, and sometimes die for it,� Moody said. �By law, those who have no parents are completely on their own at 18.� She said the new law �would leave them defenseless.� The NRA is suing to overturn it in federal court.
Moody also favors the state�s �stand your ground� self-defense law, allowing open carrying of firearms in public and allowing concealed weapons permits to carry guns on state university campuses.
FL: In the Magazine: The Gunshine State
But even after the new constitution in 1968 supposedly broke North Florida�s chokehold on power, this state has been the Deep South when it comes to the Second Amendment.
It began dramatically in 1987. The Legislature prohibited counties and cities from enacting firearms regulation and made Florida the first state that allowed residents to carry concealed weapons. For the next three decades, having laid down that marker, National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer rarely lost.
DE: Court rejects some new gun restrictions in Delaware state forests, parks
A judge this week handed a win to gun rights advocates in the ongoing legal fight to end a ban on visitors possessing firearms in state parks. Kent County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clark on Wednesday riddled new rules developed by state agriculture and parks agencies developed to modify their long-standing gun free zones.
LA: Seventeen states, led by Louisiana, file Second Amendment briefs with Supreme Court
Seventeen states signed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments for New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York, which many argue could bolster Second Amendment protections.
At issue is Title 38, Chapter Five, Section 23 of the Rules of the City of New York, which prohibits licensed firearm residents from removing their firearm from their home. Two exceptions exist, including removing the gun from their home to practice at a firing range or to hunt in the state. Both require an expensive permit and authorization by the local police department. To remove a firearm from the home for any other purpose requires a separate and expensive �carry� permit that is difficult to obtain.
Second Amendment Rights Under Assault in Upcoming Midterm Elections
As the November elections approach, USCCA President and Founder Tim Schmidt is urging supporters of the Second Amendment to stay engaged politically and show up to the polls in November, particularly as anti-gun, liberal billionaires like former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg are spending millions of dollars to mislead voters and attack candidates who support the Constitution. The Bloomberg-funded, �Everytown for Gun Safety,� announced it is spending over $15 million to defeat 15 pro-Second Amendment members of Congress.
Bloomberg Finds Home in Today�s Democratic Party
In what observers have pegged as a preparatory step for a presidential run in 2020, on October 10 billionaire gun control financier and former-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg registered as a Democrat. Bloomberg ran as a Republican in his 2001 and 2005 mayoral campaigns. In 2009 Bloomberg ran for reelection as an independent. Despite having spent the better portion of the last two decades working to dismantle various freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, the would-be oligarch claimed he rejoined the Democrats to stand �as a bulwark against those who threaten our Constitution.�
KS: Small Kansas town won�t block Kobach�s replica gun on Jeep in parade
An attorney says organizers of a small-town Kansas parade won�t try to stop Republican gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach from riding in a Jeep with a replica machine gun on the back.
But attorney Daniel Schowengerdt said Friday night that the organizing committee for Iola�s Farm City Days expects Kobach to put a sign on the jeep during Saturday�s parade saying the committee doesn�t condone the display of �large scale military weapons� during the event. He said the sign will say the committee does support gun rights.
WI: New Little Chute shooting range aims to attract women, families
Gun deer season is just a month away, but Trigger Action Sports, a new public indoor shooting range now open in Little Chute, is hoping that hunters and experienced male shooters are not the only ones who walk through its doors.
It also wants to appeal to women, families and even those who�ve never touched a gun.
�We�re trying to make it inviting. A softer experience. We welcome the curious non-shooter,� said George Butz, Jr., the operator of the new $3 million facility. �Our customers are 75 to 85 percent men and 15 to 25 percent women. We�d like it to be more like 30 to 40 percent female.�
DE: Round Two: Gun Rights Groups Prevail (Again) in Second Challenge to Firearm Restrictions in Delaware�s State Parks, Forests
Gun rights groups, including the NRA�s Delaware affiliate, the Delaware State Sportsmen�s Association, scored an encore legal victory this week when the Superior Court of the State of Delaware invalidated parts of newly promulgated regulations imposed by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and the Delaware Department of Agriculture (DDA) on firearms in state parks and forests.
TN: Police report: Homeowner fired shotgun at alleged intruder
The man shot and killed allegedly trying to break into a home in northwest Knoxville doesn't have a criminal record in Tennessee.
24-year-old Christopher Austin Desmarais was killed yesterday when police say he tried to force his way into a house on Lamp Drive.
Police say Desmarais beat on the door and tried to get into the home around 1:30 a.m. Thursday. When that didn't work police say he tried to get into a window while armed with a handgun.
MT: Jon Tester earns �D� rating from NRA despite �shooting hundreds of cows and hogs�
Sen. Jon Tester, Montana Democrat, saw his National Rifle Association rating downgraded Tuesday to a �D,� even though his campaign said he has shot �hundreds of cows and hogs.�
The NRA Institute for Legislative Action said Mr. Tester, who has long billed himself as a Second Amendment supporter, was dinged for his vote against the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, who was ultimately confirmed.
�D.C. Jon Tester once again joined forces with Chuck Schumer and anti-gun liberals to vote against our fundamental right to self-defense,� said Chris W. Cox, chairman of the NRA Political Victory Fund.
Who�s BS�ing Now? Gonzalez Argues for Gun Confiscation but Insists She�s �Pro Second Amendment�
Emma is doing exactly what she claims to deplore about the supposedly callous and cynical politicians she has criticized so forcefully in public. She is lying and trying to mislead people.
Start with the fact that Gonzalez has from the outset of her gun control advocacy argued for the sorts of prohibitions imposed by countries that have no constitutional right to arms and that do not recognize self-defense as a valid reason to own a firearm. In a February speech that catapulted her to national prominence, Gonzalez specifically mentioned Australia and the U.K. as models for the U.S. to follow, claiming (incorrectly) that Australia eliminated mass shootings after the country �introduced gun safety.�
Turning the US-Canada cannabis border policy on its head
Now, imagine if some country which Americans love visiting was to pull a classic US move, and ban people crossing their border if they ever get in touch with the gun industry.
Does that make you angry, Americans?
Imagine the following scenario if you would:
You and your partner are going to Mexico for summer vacation and you just landed in Cancun. Or, you�re visiting Paris with your future partner and you can�t wait to see the city of love.
At the border, you hand over your passports to the border police officer. The officer glances over it, types in your name in the computer and tells you that you are not allowed to enter.
AL: Dallas County Grand Jury dismisses Dixon case
A Dallas County Grand Jury dismissed the murder case of Jackquelin Dixon this week.
The Grand Jury ruled Dixon acted in self-defense in the fatal shooting of her husband, Carl Omar Dixon, 44 on July 31, according to Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson. She shot her husband after an argument began when he found a condom outside her home that wasn�t his. The jury ruled in Jackquelin�s Dixon�s favor after Carl attacked her.
Campus Carry Laws Lead to Slaughter � Right?
In today�s Martin Center piece, Joe Warta looks at the record and finds that the Texas law has not led to any gun violence at all.
He writes, �Since the campus carry law�s implementation in 2016, it has been clear that the law has not put students at risk for firearm-related violence. Professors and students opposed to the law produced a great uproar over a non-issue. But the court decided that dubious claims of academic freedom do not allow public school professors to violate students� Second Amendment rights. This time, emotional outbursts on campus could not dictate policy and the Texas legislature produced a model reform for other higher education systems.�
OR: From chickens to guns, local voters in Oregon face measures
Voters in Umatilla, Baker, Douglas, Klamath, Lincoln, Linn, Lake and Columbia counties will consider measures that would prevent each county from using local resources to enforce state or federal laws that would infringe on gun rights granted by the Second Amendment.
The Wheeler, Coos, Curry and Wallowa county commissions already have directly implemented such laws.
Meanwhile, measures in Union and Jackson counties would expand the definition of a firearm to include accessories and ammunition, and would ban enforcement of laws restricting possession of firearms, accessories and ammunition that are deemed �unconstitutional� by a county sheriff.
Kesha Pens Essay Supporting March for Our Lives, Common Sense Gun Laws
Kesha, a Tennessee native, noted that she does �not oppose the second amendment. �I do not hunt, personally, but I know people who do, and I respect that there are many very reasonable circumstances for gun ownership,� the singer wrote.
�But the military grade guns and firearm accessories used in so many shootings are not made for hunting or non-wartime protection. I hope that I am not misquoted and that I am understood very clearly because I do not oppose people having the right to bear arms if they meet the correct background checks, of which there is little continuity from state to state.�
Book Shows How Gun Advocates Can Influence the Public on Mass Killings
�Mass killings are still the one area where the other side can damage us,� attorney and author David T. Hardy asserts via email. �I wrote this short book to demonstrate that we can actually go on the offensive in that area, that is, use mass killings as a demonstration of why gun control doesn't and cannot work.
�I also get in some hard hits on the mass media, and point out that gun owners have had success in stopping mass killings,� Hardy adds.
Today the taxing power, rather than chattel slavery, is the instrument by which the parasitical element of the population subsists. And that element, which includes politicians, panics at the slightest reduction in the state's power to plunder. Once you start liberating taxpayers, even a little tiny bit, nobody knows where it may end. �Joseph Sobran


A constant concern with preppers is food. When disaster strikes, it can be pretty hard to get—even at those times it may not be fresh or clean. This is where hydroponics comes in to save the day. We at Survivehive have writers who have their own hydroponic gardens growing at home. They've said that is certainly one of the best things that they've ever done for themselves and their families. Let's find out why.
While not a particularly new way of growing food, hydroponics has recently been given quite a boost in popularity! This is the concept of growing food on an aquatic based setting. It's pretty much like gardening except you cut out the soil and replace it with water.
A common misconception regarding hydroponics is that it is an overly complicated process which requires extensive attention or equipment. However, this is hardly the case. This is primarily why more and more preppers are turning toward hydroponics to building their own food source.
Why choose hydroponics over traditional farming?
Farming takes up space that not a lot of us have access to. Even if you do have access to land, you'll be at the mercy of the quality of your soil. This is why those who are heavily invested in agriculture have their soil for testing. This is done in order to determine what sorts of crops would be able to grow there successfully without any difficulty.
Farming traditionally takes up a lot of stretched out space. Plants need enough room to grow—if they're too crowded, they end up dying. Hydroponics generally tends to use less space. Plants can even be grown in vertical columns without stifling the growing capability of the plants.
As hydroponics tends to be indoors, crops aren't subject to weather or seasonal restrictions. You can continue to grow crops year round without any issue.
As soil-based farming has a lot of factors like soil quality, weeds, pests, and many others, plants consume a lot of energy trying to stay alive rather than just growing. Hydroponics provides a space where they get all the light, water, and nutrients that they'll need. This means that all their energy is dedicated to growing and producing more crops.
Since you're the one growing your food, you will know exactly what goes into them. No more fear about GMOs or pesticides that are harmful to your health.
One of the draining things about traditional gardening would be to clean out the soil for any undesirables. In hydroponic gardening, there's a very slim chance of growing weeds. Even if you somehow do manage to find a weed, it's very easy to pluck the whole thing out. No more struggling with deeply rooted weeds!
These are only some of the benefits of hydroponics. Smart preppers and homesteaders will realize that there is more to gain with hydroponics over the course of time. It also opens up the avenue for aquaponics!


City Councilman I. Daneek Miller announced the winners of participatory budget funding at Campus Magnet High School.
City Councilman I. Daneek Miller (D-St. Albans) announced the results of the participatory budget vote for projects in his district last week at the Campus Magnet Complex to more than 200 students in Cambria Heights.
Schools within the district received over $1.675 million in investments, according to Miller.
Members of the community as young as 11 years old spend a year at public meetings proposing projects that they would like their council member to fund, then budget delegates volunteer to make a list of the proposals and work with the city to see which items can realistically be turned into a project before it is put on a ballot. Once the ballot items are selected, the public has a week to vote on up to five measures that they want to see funded.
The Campus Magnet Complex received funding for two initiatives: gymnasium upgrades worth $400,000 and a football field house upgrade worth $500,000.
The complex houses four schools: Math, Science Research and Technology Magnet High School, Humanities and the Arts Magnet High School, the Institute for Health Professions at Cambria Heights and the Benjamin Franklin High School for Finance & Information Technology at 207-01 116th Ave.
Students from the four schools were excited about the announcement and happy to be a part of the process.
Benjamin Franklin Principal Carla Theodorou was happy to see her students being civically engaged.
"Voting and getting active in the community is something that all the schools are focusing on right now," said Theodorou.
For student leaders George Daniels and Jabare Carroll, the chance to vote for something important for their school meant having their voices heard.
George, who co-captains the volleyball team with Jabare, hopes the funding will showcase the schools sports teams.
"The turf on the school was patchy," said Jabare, who is a student council president. "I'm glad that he is doing this…the freshman will see that there is always something that could be done if you put your mind to it," added the senior.
The seniors intend to study neurobiology, criminal justice and theater after they finish their high school studies in June.
The Campus Magnet Bulldogs football coach, Rufus Dunton, who was a student at the school in the '70s, was elated that the upgrades included new locker rooms.
York Early College Academy, PS 176, PS 360, and PS 37 received $300,000 for mobile laptops carts and laptop computers.
Auditorium upgrades worth $375,000 were allocated to PS 176, PS 37 and IS 8.
Water fountains with bottle refilling stations at PS 15, PS 37, PS/MS 147 and PS 360 worth $120,000.


We work to cultivate a culture of compliance within our firm that adheres to the highest standards of ethics and client service.
1st Global believes that a culture of compliance must be part of every wealth management firm's core business model. This means establishing, from the top of the organization down, an overall environment that fosters ethical behavior and decision-making. Simply put, it means instilling in every employee an obligation to do what's right.
This culture will underpin all that the firm does, and must be part of the essential ethos of the firm, so that when employees make decisions, large and small, and regardless of who's in the room when they make them, and whether or not lawyers or regulators or clients or anyone else is looking, they are guided by a culture that reinforces doing what's right.
Importantly, a firm's culture of compliance exists outside the compliance department — it exists throughout the firm.
1st Global partners with RegEd to provide all affiliate partners with an enhanced compliance and licensing platform that transforms how they fulfill their compliance and licensing responsibilities. The platform provides new, modern capabilities to help affiliated financial advisors and firms gain substantial internal efficiencies and provide them with a centralized, streamlined and user-friendly experience.
Our goal is to provide training to our advisors that is comprehensive, relevant, proactive, current, timely and easily accessible. We increase our advisors' awareness and understanding of regulatory issues and requirements, as well as the firm's policies and procedures, create educational resources, and provide group and one-on-one training. Our enhanced understanding of current regulatory requirements and 1st Global policies and procedures enables advisors to adopt and maintain compliant and ethical sales practices.
Reducing regulatory, legal, operational, security, privacy, conflict-of-interest, disclosure and customer complaint risks, and the preservation or enhancement of the advisors' ethical image is key to building a thriving wealth management enterprise. We consult with affiliate CPA firms and financial advisors on relevant laws, regulations, and procedures on an ongoing basis and provide oversight, surveillance and monitoring.
Our purpose is to enable advisors to achieve full compliance with the letter of the law in the most "business-friendly" way possible. We seek to make it as effortless as possible for our affiliate CPA firms and financial advisors to effectively fulfill regulatory requirements in the areas of recordkeeping, regulator-specific disclosures, and client-related responsibilities. Together, we reduce risk to the CPA firms' wealth management business and help free up the firms' resources to focus on core business-generating activities.
1st Global's experienced licensing specialists are equipped to answer any of your questions throughout the application and testing processes and will assist your firm with all of the paperwork and applications necessary to affiliate. 1st Global has automated, paperless systems for completing licensing paperwork and for managing and renewing your licenses once you have joined our firm.
The 1st Global Compliance and Licensing teams work together to make regulatory requirement fulfillment as business-friendly as possible for advisors and their clients. The Compliance team educates advisors on industry regulations, conducts office inspections, reviews advertising and other materials, and collaborates with advisors to find solutions. The Licensing team processes, reviews and manages advisor licenses and securities applications and provides continual support to advisors through testing process.


Welcome to BalletNova's online portal. In order to access this page, you must be a registered student in our system. Below is additional information and links to help you navigate through our organization.
Serious ballet training with the finest professional instructors in a nurturing and respectful environment. For more information on our pre-professional division, please click here.
Classes for Ages 3-16 in Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop, Modern and more! Click here if you would like more detailed information about these programs.
BalletNova offers a variety of classes and levels for ages 15 and up. For more detailed information about our Adult Program, please click here.


text:
We all love to be on the receiving end of a good deal—at least until someone else finds a better one. The perception of inequality and unfairness fosters bitterness, envy, and resentment—attitudes that the flesh thrives on, even among believers. And one of Christ's parables plays to the heart of that inclination.
The parable of the vineyard (Matthew 20:1–15) defies most popular concepts of justice and fairness. Christ's story introduces us to a "landowner" who refused to pay his workers proportionately for the labor they had performed on his farm. When this master asks, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?" he indicates that the money paid to all the laborers belongs to him (Matthew 20:15). Verse 8 calls him "the owner of the vineyard"—and it was a sizable estate to require so many workers to help with the harvest. So this was a man of great influence and wealth.
The multitudes listening to Jesus were very familiar with vineyards. Vast parts of Israel were covered with neatly arranged grapevines growing in terraced vineyards. Grapes were planted in the spring and pruned during summer. Harvest was a very short season near the end of September. The rainy season began immediately after that. So harvest time was hectic, because the crop had to be brought in before the rains came. The owner needed extra help during the harvest. Therefore he went to the marketplace to hire day laborers. That was the most public location in the village, and it served as a gathering place for workers whose only hope for employment was temporary unskilled labor.
Verse 1 says the landowner went out early in the morning—no doubt prior to 6:00 a.m., when the twelve-hour workday began.
Wages for day laborers were notoriously lower than the standard pay for a full-time employee or household servant, which was about a denarius a day. The denarius was a typical day's pay for a soldier serving in the Roman army, and it was a respectable living wage. (The name denarius derives from a Latin word signifying "ten," because the original value of the coin was equivalent to the worth of ten donkeys.) A common, unskilled day laborer could of course be hired for a small fraction of that, because he was in no position to negotiate. If he didn't work, he might not eat that day. Plus, competition for temporary jobs was fierce.
The landowner in Jesus' parable was unusually generous to offer day laborers a full denarius for a day's work. It was an honorable wage, much more than temporary workers would normally receive for menial labor. Naturally, the early-morning crew heartily agreed to those terms and went to work.
At the third hour (9:00 a.m.), the landowner went back to the marketplace. The parable portrays him as a kind and generous man, not abusive or a profit-monger. So perhaps he didn't need these extra workers so much as he felt compassion for them because of their extreme need. There were still many in the marketplace who were out of work. They were standing idle—not because they didn't want to work, but because no one had hired them yet.
This time he negotiated no specific wage before hiring workers and sending them into his vineyard. All he said was, "Whatever is right I will give you" (Matthew 20:4).
"So they went." They must have known him to be an honorable man, and they took him at his word even though the terms were vague. Three hours into the workday with no job prospects yet, they weren't in a negotiating position. They needed to take whatever they could get.
"Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing" (Matthew 20:5). He continued to go back to the marketplace at regular intervals—noon and three o'clock—gathering all he could to work in his vineyard.
The workday was virtually spent when verse 6 says he went yet again "about the eleventh hour" (5:00 p.m.). Only an hour was left in the workday, but still he found more workers waiting. These were persistent men who had been waiting all day but were so desperate for work that they had not yet given up. No doubt after a day of fruitless waiting these men were utterly discouraged, thinking they would be unable to provide any sustenance for their families that day.
Again, we must not mistake their idleness for indolence. When the owner said, "Why have you been standing here idle all day long?" they replied, "Because no one hired us." Perhaps they were older, weaker, or otherwise less qualified for hard work in the field. The owner hired them on the spot with the same vague terms he had used with the 9:00 a.m. group: "You go into the vineyard too" (Matthew 20:7).
Elsewhere Jesus says, "The laborer is worthy of his wages" (Luke 10:7; 1 Timothy 5:18). This was a strict principle in Moses's law: "The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning" (Leviticus 19:13). That rule applied particularly to the poor and day laborers:
You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns. You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; so that he will not cry against you to the Lord and it becomes sin in you. (Deuteronomy 24:14–15).
This landowner was an honorable man, faithful to the precepts of God's law, so "when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first'" (Matthew 20:8, emphasis added). It is significant that he instructed his steward to pay the workers in reverse order. Notice that the men at the front of the line had worked only one hour. Those at the end of the line had worked twelve. Yet as the steward began to distribute pay, those who had worked the shortest amount of time "each one received a denarius." They received a full day's wage at a soldier's pay scale in return for just one hour of unskilled labor! They must have been overflowing with gratitude for the generosity of the landowner.
No doubt the men at the end of the line began salivating. By their reckoning, he had now committed himself to paying a denarius an hour. They must have assumed that by the time he got to them, they would receive twelve days' wages.
There's an ellipsis in Jesus' telling of the story at this point. He doesn't actually describe how the three o'clock, noon, and nine o'clock groups were paid, but the clear implication is that they also each received one denarius.
Verses 10–12 continue:
When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, "These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day." (Matthew 20:10–12)
Is that fair?
What had the landowner promised to give them? "A denarius for the day" (Matthew 20:2). Not only was that a fair wage; it was unusually generous for minimum-wage workers. Moreover, it is what they had happily agreed to.
Yet they resented the landowner. The word translated "grumbled" in the Greek text is egogguzon. It's onomatopoeic: The word itself forms a sound that evokes its meaning. It sounds like a grumble or muttered complaint. They were murmuring under their breath, bellyaching about the pay they received.
When the landowner heard the complaint, he answered one of them:
Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous? (Matthew 20:13–15)
Jealousy (the envious eye) is an intrinsic aspect of fallen human nature. Almost anyone at the end of that pay line would probably have felt some welling up of resentment. After all, those men had worked the full twelve-hour day—most of it under the hot sun—while the workers hired at 5:00 p.m. began work under a cooling breeze at twilight and worked for only an hour.
But we must not lose sight of the fact that when the 6:00 a.m. crew were hired, they had been quite happy with the offer of a denarius a day. They began the workday in high spirits, thrilled that the landowner was being supremely generous with them. He was offering more in wages than they could reasonably expect.
What changed their mood so drastically? Just that someone less deserving (or so they thought) was treated with even more generosity. Instantly they felt mistreated—envious of the other's good fortune. Their whole attitude changed. They couldn't stand the thought that other workers would get the same pay without working as hard as they did. Suddenly their gratitude and admiration for the landowner's extreme generosity gave way to bitter resentment.
Their grievance may even find sympathy among some of us. How easily is our joy and contentment derailed by the revelation that someone else is getting an even better deal? As we'll see next time, that kind of thinking reflects a failure to comprehend the essence of the gospel and the nature of God.
(Adapted from Parables)


text:
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text:
by Mark Twain
When I say that I never knew my austere father to be enamoured of but one poem in all the long half century that he lived, persons who knew him will easily believe me; when I say that I have never composed but one poem in all the long third of a century that I have lived, persons who know me will be sincerely grateful; and finally, when I say that the poem which I composed was not the one which my father was enamoured of, persons who may have known us both will not need to have this truth shot into them with a mountain howitzer before they can receive it. My father and I were always on the most distant terms when I was a boy--a sort of armed neutrality so to speak. At irregular intervals this neutrality was broken, and suffering ensued; but I will be candid enough to say that the breaking and the suffering were always divided up with strict impartiality between us--which is to say, my father did the breaking, and I did the suffering. As a general thing I was a backward, cautious, unadventurous boy; but I once jumped off a two-story table; another time I gave an elephant a "plug" of tobacco and retired without waiting for an answer; and still another time I pretended to be talking in my sleep, and got off a portion of a very wretched original conundrum in the hearing of my father. Let us not pry into the result; it was of no consequence to any one but me.
But the poem I have referred to as attracting my father's attention and achieving his favour was "Hiawatha." Some man who courted a sudden and awful death presented him an early copy, and I never lost faith in my own senses until I saw him sit down and go to reading it in cold blood--saw him open the book, and heard him read these following lines, with the same inflectionless judicial frigidity with which he always read his charge to the jury, or administered an oath to a witness:
"Take your bow,
O Hiawatha,
Take your arrows, jasper-headed,
Take your war-club, Puggawaugun,
And your mittens, Minjekahwan,
And your birch canoe for sailing,
And the oil of Mishe-Nama."
Presently my father took out of his breast pocket an imposing "Warranty Deed," and fixed his eyes upon it and dropped into meditation. I knew what it was. A Texan lady and gentleman had given my half-brother, Orrin Johnson, a handsome property in a town in the North, in gratitude to him for having saved their lives by an act of brilliant heroism.
By and by my father looked towards me and sighed. Then he said:
"If I had such a son as this poet, here were a subject worthier than the traditions of these Indians."
"If you please, sir, where?"
"In this deed."
"Yes--in this very deed," said my father, throwing it on the table. "There is more poetry, more romance, more sublimity, more splendid imagery hidden away in that homely document than could be found in all the traditions of all the savages that live."
"Indeed, sir? Could I--could I get it out, sir? Could I compose the poem, sir, do you think?"
"You?"
I wilted.
Presently my father's face softened somewhat, and he said:
"Go and try. But mind, curb folly. No poetry at the expense of truth. Keep strictly to the facts."
I said I would, and bowed myself out, and went upstairs.
"Hiawatha" kept droning in my head--and so did my father's remarks about the sublimity and romance hidden in my subject, and also his injunction to beware of wasteful and exuberant fancy. I noticed, just here, that I had heedlessly brought the deed away with me; now at this moment came to me one of those rare moods of daring recklessness, such as I referred to a while ago. Without another thought, and in plain defiance of the fact that I knew my father meant me to write the romantic story of my half-brother's adventure and subsequent good fortune, I ventured to heed merely the letter of his remarks and ignore their spirit. I took the stupid "Warranty Deed" itself and chopped it up into Hiawathian blank verse without altering or leaving out three words, and without transposing six. It required loads of courage to go downstairs and face my father with my performance. I started three or four times before I finally got my pluck to where it would stick. But at last I said I would go down and read it to him if he threw me over the church for it. I stood up to begin, and he told me to come closer. I edged up a little, but still left as much neutral ground between us as I thought he would stand. Then I began. It would be useless for me to try to tell what conflicting emotions expressed themselves upon his face, nor how they grew more and more intense, as I proceeded; nor how a fell darkness descended upon his countenance, and he began to gag and swallow, and his hands began to work and twitch, as I reeled off line after line, with the strength ebbing out of me, and my legs trembling under me:
THE STORY OF A GALLANT DEED
THIS INDENTURE, made the tenth
Day of November, in the year
Of our Lord one thousand eight
Hundred six-and-fifty,
Between Joanna S. E. Gray
And Philip Gray, her husband,
Of Salem City in the
State Of Texas, of the first part,
And O. B. Johnson, of the town
Of Austin, ditto, WITNESSETH:
That said party of first part,
For and in consideration
Of the sum of Twenty Thousand
Dollars, lawful money of
The U. S. of Americay, To them in hand now paid by said
Party of the second part,
The due receipt whereof is here--
By confessed and acknowledg-ed
Having Granted, Bargained, Sold, Remised,
Released and Aliened and Conveyed,
Confirmed, and by these presents do
Grant and Bargain, Sell, Remise,
Alien, Release, Convey, and Con--
Firm unto the said aforesaid
And to his heirs and assigns
Forever and ever ALL
That certain lot or parcel of
LAND situate in city of
Dunkirk, County of Chautauqua,
And likewise furthermore in York State
Bounded and described, to-wit,
As follows, herein, namely
BEGINNING at the distance of
A hundred two-and-forty feet,
North-half-east, north-east-by north,
East-north-east and northerly
Of the northerly line of Mulligan street
On the westerly line of Brannigan street,
And running thence due northerly
On Brannigan street 200 feet,
Thence at right angles westerly,
North-west-by-west-and-west-half-west,
West-and-by-north, north-west-by-west,
About--
I kind of dodged, and the boot-jack broke the looking-glass. I could have waited to see what became of the other missiles if I had wanted to, but I took no interest in such things.
Add A Memory to your own personal library.
Return to the Mark Twain Home Page, or . . . Read the next short story; Amended Obituaries


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text:
12 killed in Taliban truck bomb, other attacks across Afghanistan
Initial reports suggested at least six commandos and 35 civilians were wounded in the truck bomb explosion.
By RFE/RL'S Radio Free Afghanistan | Published Aug 25, 2020 2:02 PM
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
At least 12 people have been killed and scores wounded in attacks across Afghanistan, including in a Taliban truck bombing that targeted a military base used by Afghan commandos, officials said.
The suicide truck bomber in the northern province of Balkh killed three people, including two Afghan commandos and a civilian, according to the provincial governor's spokesman, Munir Ahmad Farhad.
Hanif Rezaie, a spokesman for Afghan forces in the north of the country, said on August 25 that initial military reports suggested at least six commandos and about 35 civilians were wounded in that explosion. He said the blast also destroyed or damaged dozens of nearby civilians houses.
"Most of the wounded civilians are women and children," Rezaie said.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the Balkh attack in a tweet, claiming that "tens" of military personnel were killed. The Taliban often exaggerate their battlefield claims.
Meanwhile, an August 25 attack on a checkpoint of pro-government forces in Ghor Province killed eight soldiers and wounded five, the provincial governor's spokesman, Arif Aber, said.
Aber said the attack in Ghor's Shahrak district triggered a five-hour gunbattle.
Related: Afghan government will release 400 'hard-core' Taliban prisoners in bid to open peace talks
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that attack. But authorities blamed the Taliban, who have claimed numerous previous attacks on security checkpoints in Ghor Province.
Meanwhile in Kabul, a roadside bomb killed a police officer and a policewoman and her driver were wounded when unknown attackers opened fire on them, Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in Kabul.
Both the Taliban and extremists from the so-called Islamic State (IS) militant group are active in Kabul. IS militants have claimed most of the attacks in the Afghan capital in recent months.
Despite efforts to launch peace talks between the government and the Taliban, Afghan civilians continue to bear the brunt of the war.
Related: ISIS stages deadly 20-hour siege of Afghanistan prison in attempt at mass jailbreak
The start of the talks envisaged under a U.S.-Taliban peace agreement signed in February has been hampered by multiple delays that have frustrated Washington.
There had been expectations that the negotiations would begin earlier in August.
A United Nations report released in July said 1,282 people were killed by violence in Afghanistan during the first six months of 2020.
Copyright (c) 2020. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
afghan commandos
suicide bombing


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