text:
Vanni ban leaves little to take
A note at the bottom of a circular by Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence listing the things that are not allowed to the Vanni sent to government officials in Vavuniya, reveals the extensive and arbitrary manner in which Colombo's economic embargo is imposed on the northern region.
Tamilnet Library Photo
"A person can/should be stopped from taking things with him on the advice of an authorised officer. Even permitted items can be stopped at the last moment on the basis of information received by the army about the future needs and plans of the terrorists. Soldiers at the checkpoint can decide whether a person should be stopped from passing through or whether to postpone the checking of his bags," the note says. "The list of banned and permitted items displayed here to the public and government departments is totally deceptive. In effect, an officer or soldier has the right and authority to stop anything from being taken to Vanni purely at their discretion," explained an official at the Vavuniya District secretariat Monday.
Goods in lories bound for Vanni being checked near the entry point.TamilNet Library Photo.
The special gazette notification (No. 867/12) listing the items banned was issued on 20 April 1995. There is neither a Tamil nor English translation available in Vavuniya, the border town from which people begin their hazardous journey to the Vanni.
Soldiers at the Piramanalankulam check point, which is the main entry point between the Vanni and the Sri Lanka army controlled part of the Vavuniya district, seized goods ranging from Nylon ropes to sanitary napkins from travellers and burnt these in the evenings on days when the public was allowed to pass through. The Vavuniya district judge M.Ilancheliyan gave a directive earlier this month that the practice was not legal even in the context of the sweeping and arbitrary powers granted to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) under the Emergency Regulations and the special gazette notification of April 95.
The following are the items banned under the gazette notification No. 867/12 of April 1995:
Weapons, explosives
Incendiaries, fireworks
Remote control devices
Helmets (except those used for riding motorbikes), caps
Cloth which may resemble those used for making military uniforms
Iron, steel rods
Oxygen gas
Welding instruments
Instruments for cutting wire
All inflammable fuels except kerosene
Urea or urea based fertilisers
Pen torch batteries (AA size)
Lead or things made of lead
Petrol and Diesel
Electricity and instruments for generating electricity
Spare parts for motor vehicles
The list encompasses a very wide range of things that are not specifically mentioned in it. For example, item number 9 on the gazetted list automatically includes sluice gates for irrigations channels, iron nails, bolts, rivets, iron beams etc., Similarly, cooking utensils made of lead are banned under No. 18 and a wide range of cloth (of green colour and shades of it or of a certain thickness for instance) are banned under No.8 of the 95 April gazette list.
In short, the list promotes unmitigated arbitrariness on the part of soldiers at the entry point and officers at the SLA Vavuniya headquarters and at the Ministry of Defence in Colombo in deciding what can go to the Vanni and what cannot.
There is a second list of things that can be taken to the Vanni only with the permission of the Operational headquarters of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Officials at the Vavuniya District Secretariat with whom TamilNet discussed the matter, said that the legal standing of this is not clear because it is not gazetted.
The following are the things on the second MoD list:
All vehicles including motorbikes
Water pumps with motors
Batteries for vehicles
Outboard motors and diving equipment
Fibre mats
Type writers
Cyclo-style machines
Photocopiers (Xerox machines)
Surgical instruments and equipment
Medicines, drugs (in bulk)
Agro-chemicals
Aluminium and things made of aluminium
Kerosene (in large quantities)
This list is mainly to cater to the needs of government departments and international aid agencies operating in the Vanni such as the UNHCR and the ICRC, according to a senior Vavuniya Kachcheri official. "Otherwise, all the items in this list are in effect banned for the civilians" he said.
Even government departments providing such essential services as health find it extremely difficult to obtain permission for items on this list. It is not enough that the MoD grants clearance for these but the SLA Co-ordinating office in Vavuniya too has to give its permission to take things on this list to the Vanni. Although included in this list, several items, such as outboard motors and printing machines are actually banned, officials say.
"Only a total nut would apply to the MoD for permission to take diving equipment or a press to the Vanni" quipped the director of a local NGO in Vavuniya town.
The process for getting clearance is prolonged and tedious even if the applicant is a government department dealing with the essential services, say officials.
There is a third list put out by the SLA comprising items that may be taken to the Vanni in very limited quantities by civilians if permission is obtained from the military co-ordinating officer for Vavuniya. This too is an un-gazetted list.
The following are the items on this list:
(a) Foodstuff that can be used by terrorists
Fruit juice packets and cordials
Soup cubes
Gelatine powder
Biscuits (packs weighing less than 250 grams)
Cheese tins
Canned fish (weighing less than 250 grams)
Few civilians bother apply for permission to take the goods on this list given all the hassle involved in getting clearance from the army.
The following categories are also restricted according to the conditions stipulated in the same list:
(b) All base material that could be used for making grease and all fuel that can be used as (friction reducing) oil.
(c) All commodities that can used by the terrorists for propaganda purposes:
maps and paper used for cartography
paper for cyclostyle machines
ink for printing and cyclostyle work
full-scape paper (unlined)
This list basically bans many things that are necessary to run schools, according to an official at the Department of Education in Vavuniya. He said that although not on the list, paint for making blackboards is also not permitted to the Vanni.
(d) Other commodities which may aid terrorism:
Empty sacs, polyethene, polythene bags
All types of resins
Jerry cans and all other types of cans
Metal buckets
All agricultural implements, including mammoties, spades, crowbars etc.,
Parts for motors and related instruments
Tires, tubes and other spare parts for bicycles.
TamilNet Library Photo.
The list stipulates furthermore that a person or a small business person travelling from the army-controlled area to the Vanni might be permitted to take limited amounts of the following items:
Drugs and medicine given to a person going to the Vanni who has been warded in a government hospital and received treatment there provided he/she has a letter from the hospital authorities confirming the matter.
Drugs prescribed by a government doctor to a person travelling to the Vanni.
A person may be allowed to take the following without having to show a (government doctor's) prescription:
Forty-eight pills of aspirin or Disprin or paracetamol (Panadol).
Two medium sized bottles of balm.
Syrups (medicinal) two medium bottles.
One bottle of eau de cologne.
Thirty Vitamin tablets capsules or tablets required for a month.
Sixty malaria pills.
A person may take:
foodstuffs other than those listed in (a) which can be carried by hand in two bags.
Three slabs of any type of chocolate (after each one is opened and examined).
Two litres of vegetable or coconut oil.
Cigarettes and liquor (local and foreign) -unlimited.
Cloth and garments-any type of cloth except those resembling military uniforms, cloth of dark blue, dark green and black colours and ready made garments are permitted.
Colour will not be considered for the following items:
Men's underwear.
Women's underwear and brassieres.
Other goods:
The following items may be allowed per person by the army according to the numbers indicated in the list:
A dozen boxes of matches
Two torch batteries.
One battery operated radio (not AA size).
One children's tricycle.
One litre of white or cream colour emulsion paint.
The last item clealry shows that one cannot take any colour paint except cream and white.
There are scores of items, including medicine for cattle diseases etc., which are not listed officially but are banned or severely restricted.
A person cannot take more than ten thousand rupees (approx. 110 US dollars) to the Vanni.
However, even these things that are allowed in very limited quantities may be stopped quite arbitrarily if a soldier or officer at the entry point or clearing offices decided to do so.
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=7412


I first became aware of the benefit of cerebellum exercises after reading the book Under Siege by Belinda Neil, originally published in 2014. Belinda entered the New South Wales police force at age 19. Belinda's police career included undercover work, homicide investigation and hostage negotiation, including counter terrorism. Understandably, the job took it's toll on Belinda who eventually developed all the signs of PTSD and the breakdown of her marriage. Belinda now speaks about her experiences and is a strong advocate of raising awareness about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
In this fascinating talk Rupert Sheldrake in The Science of Delusion questions current scientific dogmas and challenges us to reconsider them. According to TED, talks like Sheldrakes 'strays well beyond the realms of reasonable science. Yet, ironically, this philosophical talk is exactly about such opinions of what science is and is not. Watch the controversial talk here.
This talk is by Graham Hancock and called The War on Consciousness. Graham talks about the end of his 24 year Cannabis addiction and how another ecodelic drug named Ayahuasca helped to change his consciousness for the better. He argues that we live in a culture that wages war on certain states of mind and promotes others.
In this entertaining film on YouTube, marriage expert Mark Gungor explores the differences between men and women. There is a whole series of humorous presentations by Mark but this 13 minute excerpt is particularly funny in reference to dealing with stress and the difference between men and women.
I have just added this video which does not originate from the TED Talks. It is Darryl Anka channeling the entity Bashar on the subject of "The Physics of Intention" which describes how we manifest our lives. Many other Bashar recordings can be viewed at Bashar.org I particularly like their straightforward and at times humurous style of dealing with topics we tend to think are complicated.
Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions of motion, speech, self-awareness; all shut down one by one. An astonishing story. It's one of my favourites and is also featured on our Energy Healing page.
Stacey Kramer offers a moving, personal, 3-minute parable that shows how an unwanted experience, frightening, traumatic, costly; can turn out to be a priceless gift.
Tony Robbins discusses the "invisible forces" that motivate everyone's actions. As a side note, the member in the audience Tony interacts with is Al Gore. Also a special note, there is some coarse language used.
Sebastian Seung is mapping a massively ambitious new model of the brain that focuses on the connections between each neuron. He calls it our "connectome," and it's as individual as our genome. Understanding it could open a new way to understand our brains and our minds.


text:
Infrastructure/Telecommunications
Defense / Intelligence
Work at FTC
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Information & Technology (OI&T), Enterprise Program Management Division (EPMD) Awards FTC Follow-On to Section 508 Accessibility Tools and Training Support Task Order
Contract Awards | 07/01/2019
July 1, 2019 -- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Information & Technology (OI&T), Enterprise Program Management Division (EPMD) awarded FTC the Section 508 Accessibility Tools and Training Support Task Order (TO), a three-year follow-on to FTC's current Section 508 TO, scheduled to end in July, 2019.
Following the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board)'s decision in 2000 to refresh Information and Communication Technology (ICT) standards covered by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the VA Chief Information Officer (CIO) mandated that all Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) systems comply with Section 508. This TO, which was competed on the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology-Next Generation (T4NG) vehicle, ensures that all projects and web-based ICT produced, used, maintained, or developed by VA meets those requirements. FTC will continue to provide overall project coordination, management, reporting, and Section 508 Assistive Technology (AT) tools training and script support, which includes technical assessment, scripting, and administration services to customize tools and products to meet the needs of the VA enterprise. FTC will also provide customer support and scripting support to disabled individuals to assist them in learning how to utilize their AT software with VA software applications.
"FTC began its work on the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology-Next Generation (T4NG) vehicle with our Section 508 Accessibility Tools and Training Support Task Order in 2016. Three years and 30 task orders later, FTC's win of this follow-on task order reminds us just how far we've come while at the same reaffirms our commitment to exceptional performance for our VA customers," commented FTC Founder and CEO, Vaseal Montgomery. "We look forward to continuing our support for VA's compliance with Federal standards while acting as stewards in support of the mission to improve the quality of Veteran care."
This win is FTC's 31st Task Order award on the T4NG vehicle, which has brought FTC more than $560M in total contract awards since 2016.
About FTC
Specializing in Agile Transformation, Supply Chain and Logistics Management, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure/Telecommunications, Cloud Services and Big Data Solutions, FTC is a Health IT and Management consulting company based in Vienna, Virginia, that delivers innovative, transformative solutions to our Federal Government customers. Our focus on integration, innovation and continuous process improvement enhances our customers' ability to make informed decisions by delivering adaptive, transparent and resilient solutions that leverage emerging tools, technologies and best practices to transform how our customers carry out their mission.
A Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) and an 8(a) Small Business founded by a retired Army Colonel and former CIO with 30 years of Military Health IT experience, FTC began with the mission of making a difference in the lives of Americans who have served their country by improving veteran healthcare outcomes. Just over ten years later, the company has achieved incredible success in accomplishing this goal and more.
© 2018 Favor TechConsulting LLC.
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Ep71: Gray Henry on Interfaith and the Ghazali Childrens School
by Clay Boykin | Dec 29, 2020 | Studio Three
Gray Henry-Blakemore is the founder and director of the interfaith publishing houses, Fons Vitae and Quinta Essentia, in Louisville, Kentucky, devoted to world spirituality. She is a writer and film producer under contract with the Book Foundation, and co-founder and trustee of the Islamic Texts Society of Cambridge, England. She has served as a contributing editor for Parabola magazine for over a decade. Besides having taught filmmaking at Dalton and Fordham University and world religions and art history at the Cairo American College, Cambridge University, Centre College and the Abbey of Gethsemane, she regularly lectures at such noteworthy venues as the 1995 Conference of World Spiritual Art in Tehran and most recently the September 2006 Congress on Islamic Spirituality in Singapore. In 1994 she arranged for His Holiness the Dalai Lama to speak in Louisville, and has in April 2006 organized the Dalai Lama interfaith congress in San Francisco in which the his main focus was to meet with Muslim dignitaries from the world over. Fons Vitae is now helping to arrange His Holiness's visit December 2006 to Senegal and Ghana, which will continue the Buddhist-Muslim dialogue begun in San Francisco.
Gray is a founding member of the Thomas Merton Center Foundation and has organized a number of conferences focused on the work of Thomas Merton at Bellarmine University. She worked in Bosnian refugee camps in 1993, and subsequently published texts for their school system. Fons Vitae plays a key role in the annual interfaith festivals and programs sponsored by the Center for Interfaith Relations and Interfaith Paths to Peace Institute.
As a filmmaker, she produced Beads of Faith: The Universal Use of the Rosary, which is available both as a book and a video, Islam: A Pictorial Essay; Cairo: 1,001 Years of Art and Architecture; Ornaments of Lhasa: Islam in Tibet; and The Sacred Unconscious (Huston Smith). As an author she has written the classic, Understanding Islam and the Muslims, The Life of the Prophet Muhammad, articles for the "Fons Vitae Thomas Merton Series" (Merton & Sufism, Merton & Hesychasm, and Merton & Buddhism), as well as for Parabola and other journals.
Mrs. Henry received her B.A. at Sarah Lawrence College (Joseph Campbell was her don 1965, studied at the American and al-Azhar University in Cairo (1969-79), earned her M.A. in Education at the University of Michigan, was a research fellow at Cambridge University from 1983-1990, and is scheduled to receive her Ph.D. from the Faculty of Divinity at Canterbury, Kent in 2008.


Ahead of elections this year, the Ethiopian government is cracking down hard on any kind of free press – shutting down publications, jailing journalists and harassing their families. This is not just Ethiopia's problem, however. As the home of the African Union, and as an oft-punted role model for African development, Ethiopia's censorship problem is Africa's too. By SIMON ALLISON.
It's not easy being a journalist in Ethiopia. In fact, it is nearly impossible, according to a new Human Rights Watch report that documents the scale of the state's censorship apparatus. As journalists ourselves, it makes for highly disturbing reading (and once again highlights why the South African media fraternity's fight against the proposed secrecy bill is so important – the distance between that and the Ethiopian situation is not so far as one might think).
The authors of the report spoke to 70 Ethiopian journalists, many in exile, who painted a dismal picture of the state of Ethiopian media. The government exerts control in many different ways – some subtle, some quite the opposite.
This is bad news for Ethiopia, of course. It is rarely a good sign when a government attacks the press – as South Africans in particular we can appreciate the dangers of a single, state-sponsored narrative.
But it is also bad news for the continent as a whole.
The Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is home to the African Union, the continental body tasked with driving African development and righting the continent's many wrongs. This makes it the de facto African capital, a hub of diplomatic intrigue; a place where important people meet to exchange secrets and conclude deals; and the centre around which so much of Africa's politics revolves.
If we want to know what's happening in Africa, we need to know what's happening in Addis Ababa. Without a free press, we can't. How else are we going to figure out what exactly our leaders are up to? They are certainly not going to tell us themselves.
It's not just media, either. Ethiopia keeps a close eye on NGOs and think tanks working in the country too, even those with continental mandates, and has the power to grant or deny access to the African Union by manipulating visas – if you don't get a visa for Ethiopia, you don't get to visit the AU. This makes researchers and advocacy organisations very wary of being too critical of the current Ethiopian administration, even when they shout loudly about the failings of other African governments.
This means, ultimately, that we are getting a distorted picture of the Ethiopian story – and the Ethiopian story is a vital one in the context of African development. Ethiopia, along with Rwanda, is advocating a very specific developmental model, one that prioritises economic growth and socio-economic rights ahead of liberal luxuries such as democracy, participation and human rights. The theory is that it's ok to silence opposition and crack down on media as long as the government is improving employment, education, health, etc.
The figures suggest that this model might just be working. Ethiopia's GDP is growing at about 10.4% while over the past decade, the country has registered statistically significant growth in the welfare, education and health categories of the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. But can we trust these figures?
A recent example from Rwanda, where free press is also non-existent, is instructive. On 15 January, David Himbara, a former economic adviser to President Paul Kagame, explained in an op-ed on Quartz why he quit his job. "I resigned not only because he was tyrannizing the nation, but also because he asked me to tamper with the truth about the economy," he said.
Himbara argues that the apparent successes of Rwanda's model for economic growth are illusory, and based on poor or deliberately misleading data. But in the absence of a free press, or a free civil society, this data goes unchallenged, and the Rwandan model is hailed as a success and eyed by other African leaders (especially those with an authoritarian streak) as a role model for their own countries.
So too with Ethiopia: without anyone to tell us otherwise, Ethiopia's development approach looks like it is working, even if it's not (this is not to judge this approach one way or the other, just to observe that in the absence of any kind of independent information we cannot gauge its effectiveness).
Photo: Prime Minister of Ethiopia Hailemariam Desalegn attends the Meeting of the Peace and Security Council at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 29 January 2014. EPA/DANIEL GETACHEW.


What follows is a letter that I wrote to a number of different people. Some of it might get a little mushy in spots, and I will warn you, but I only ask that you read the complete letter. I am also writing this as a post so that it might be shared with the world at large and the Tenkara community in particular. To Daniel Galhardo, Chris Hunt, Anthony Naples, my wife Elizabeth Flores, my parents, Karel Lansky, and you, my loyal readers, We all have dreams and aspirations as we grow up, as well as those of our parents for our lives. Some of us wanted to be doctors, lawyers, firefighters, police officers, soldiers, and even massage therapists. Then there were the things that we were interested in but didn't have the confidence to pursue or self-limited ourselves to do. Some people were very outgoing and took chances whenever they presented themselves and then some didn't even remotely consider taking those chances. I am here to tell you that for me personally a lot has happened recently that made me think about these things on more than a superficial basis. (Here comes mushy part one, just a warning!) Growing up I had dreams of helping people out in different ways whether physically or mentally. Ironically, I was not one of those individuals who was terribly outgoing, nor did I take to many chances or risks. I was always a voracious reader who literally read about any and all subjects, fiction or non-fiction. The more I read the more I wanted to be a writer, yet I always discounted my abilities as a viable writer, thus I did not ever actively pursue writing. Yet there was always that little voice in the back of my head that told me to try it and see what happened if I did start writing actively. So I did start writing, in a personal diary, about my feelings and about the events that occurred around me. Being a diary, I never shared my writings with anyone else and self-edited my own feelings. Time passed like it does for everyone, days melted into weeks that were then molded into months, which morphed into years, yet my writing didn't nor did my fear of taking chances. And then one day everything changed because of something astounding that I found in a magazine I was flipping through. Since many of you may have already read about this I will keep it short, and for those of you who want to know more about it, there is a link at the bottom of this post that will help you to understand what I mean. Flipping through the magazine, I came across an ad for a company called Tenkara USA. The ad stated that a person could fly fish using a collapsible fishing rod, a fixed line, a piece of tippet, and a fly, and there were no requirements for a reel. My eyes brightened at a style of fly fishing that required so little. Excitedly, and maybe even a little impulsively, I went to the Tenkara USA website and ordered a rod after a bit of research on what to purchase. I placed my order and then waited impatiently for my equipment to arrive. Not longer after that first order arrived, (mushiness part two) I spent a day fishing with someone who I now consider a very close friend, Mr. Karel Lansky. Karel and I went fishing on a local stream that he had been fishing using the Tenkara rod he had purchased sometime before I purchased my own. While fishing with Karel there was a subtle shift that occurred within me which has brought me to today…. Having picked up Tenkara and getting tips from Karel as we moved along the stream I decided that maybe starting a blog on my experiences would be an interesting endeavor. Yet my confidence in my writing was still very limited so I made the decision to write for myself and make my blog my own online diary about my Tenkara experiences. With the decision made, I wracked my brains for a name for my blog. Once I had hashed out the possibilities, the TenkaraGrasshopper was born. I started writing about my experiences as a Tenkara angler, exploring many different aspects of the practice of this ancient yet modern style of fly fishing. I wrote every post for myself and started sharing those posts with my friends in the Tenkara community. I was pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback that I got from those first few posts. Everyone that responded said that they enjoyed reading what I had to say and some even stated that the thing that most attracted them to my writings was the fact that I did not write in what many would consider a canned style of writing. I continued writing and my readership grew each and every day, which it still does with the help of all of you. My postings have sometimes been a little emotional and even political, yet I have always come back to the true meaning of TenkaraGrasshopper. That was always my goal and will be till the end of my days. At the beginning of last year, another person who I consider to be a great friend, as well as a fellow blogger, Mr. Chris Hunt, sent me a message letting me know that the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) was accepting bloggers as members. To become a member of this storied and powerful group, a person applying as an active member needed a sponsor and Chris offered to be my sponsor since he had been reading my blog and was apparently impressed with what I was doing. I dragged my feet and started thinking about the possibility of joining an organization of professional writers wondering if I could fill the shoes of a professional outdoor writer. After much consideration, and a few conversations with the most beautiful Commanding Officer (CO) and wife, Elizabeth Flores, I decided to become an active member of the OWAA. And I can now say that it was probably one of the best decisions that I could have ever made. I met some great people as soon as I became a member of this group and I still do on a consistent basis. I continued to write for my blog and always thought about writing an article for a magazine sometime in the future as my confidence in my writing improved. In a strange twist of fate, the thought of writing that article came one day with two e-mails from two individuals who I give the utmost credit to for helping me develop my writing, Mr. Daniel Galhardo, the owner of Tenkara USA, and Anthony Naples, of www.castingaround.com. The e-mails stated that Tenkara USA was considering putting out a one-of-a-kind Tenkara magazine. The e-mails also stated that submissions would be accepted yet the magazine was in the idea stage and that nothing was to be said about this potential project. My brain started spinning as I read the e-mails and then I decided that I would at least submit a possible idea for an article. Once I sent my message, with a bit of trepidation, I waited patiently for a response from Daniel or Anthony. I have to admit I was very excited about the possibility of writing an article for a Tenkara only magazine. I checked my e-mails from my phone quite frequently until the day I got a response from Anthony letting me know that he wanted me to write the article and submit it to him. He did make it clear that there were going to be submissions that wouldn't necessarily make it into the magazine because of space limitations, and not to be offended if it didn't happen with my article. I wrote the article and submitted it to Anthony and waited until the day he contacted me asking if I would mind if he did a little editing on my article. I gave him permission to do what he needed to with the article if it was up for consideration for inclusion in the magazine. Anthony did the editing and sent his revisions to me to make sure that it was what I had in mind. The magic that he performed on my article was awe inspiring to me and made me very happy. Then time seemed to stand still to find out what was going to happen next on my odyssey with my writing. The wait has come to an end, and I can tell you that I am pleased that the editors of the first Tenkara only magazine published in English by Tenkara USA which is now available for purchase. You can find out more by following the link included below to order the magazine. I am still reeling from looking at the writers and photographers that are included in this first edition of what I hope will be a long running project by the minds at Tenkara USA. I am greatly honored yet don't feel worthy to be included in a publication that is not so much a magazine as a coffee table edition to be read over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine in front of a fire. Seldom does an individual, who is aspiring to be an outdoor writer, find themselves in the company of such Tenkara greats as Jason Klass, Steven Schweitzer, Daniel Galhardo, TJ Ferreira, Vito "Tsurikichi" Rubino, Morgan Lyle, Paul Vertrees, and many more. With the release of the Tenkara Magazine and my first published article, (Mushy part three, and I promise the last, at least in this post) I want to thank all the people who have a very special place in my heart when it comes to my immersion into Tenkara. Daniel Galhardo for bringing Tenkara to the United States and opening the doors to an amazing style of fly fishing that we can all enjoy. If it had not been for you Daniel I would never have become the angler that I am today nor would I have shared my writings with others in the world.
Karel Lansky for going out Tenkara fishing with a total newbie, sharing his day and hard won knowledge with me. Thanks buddy, you are a truly amazing person and you will always remain on my list of people who have made my life so cool.
Chris Hunt, I still don't know how to thank you for being my sponsor when I decided to join the OWAA. If it weren't for you I would never have considered the reality of me being a writer. And, by the way, you are not to bad writer yourself. Anthony Naples, being the consummate editor that you are, my confidence in my writing has gone through a huge metamorphosis that will remain with me the rest of my life. Knowing that there are people like yourself who share similar passions makes me glad that I discovered Tenkara in the first place. Last but not least, and by far the most important people in my life, my family! Elizabeth Flores, my gorgeous wife and Commanding Officer, if it were not for your endless love and patience I would never have been able to become the TenkaraGrasshopper that I am! There are few women who would be willing to deal with my goofiness and sometime one track mind. Thank you for giving me the TenkaraGrasshopper Man Cave, even though I know it is really your attempt at protecting our communal living space. I also want you to know that you are going to be an amazing mother of our child and do not ever question my love for you. Like we said in our wedding vows, "Till death do us part!" Hopefully I won't make you angry enough to kill me, although I have been home late for dinner a few times because I have been fishing.
To Thomas Richard Graham (TRG) and Ruth Alma Patterson Graham (Honey), may you rest in peace and enjoy your five o'clock cocktails for eternity in the sun, I owe you more than I was ever able to pay back. TRG, if you had not been the grandfather that dealt with my silliness when I was a kid and took me fishing, which in twenty-twenty hind sight might have been a coping technique on your part, I would never have gained the passion for fishing that I now have. You were always the go to guy for me when it came to fishing, and each and every day I wish that you were here so that I could ask you a bunch of questions that remain unanswered. Honey, thank you for dealing with both Grandpa and I when it came to fishing up at the cottage on Fence Lake, I know it wasn't easy but you made it look simple. You will always remain in my mind and heart till the end of my days as well.To my family, mom, dad, step-dad Phil Boyle, my sister Eileen and her family, my Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike, Mark and Amy Clem, Beth Michaels, and Michael Kloewer, the best stepson a guy could have, I owe you all a debt of gratitude and lots of hugs for being there for me through thick and thin. Your encouragement as I have followed my passion for Tenkara is unparalleled and I could not ask for anything more.
Thank you very much Mark. I appreciate it. I am spending each day working on a few things each day and finding out that my writing is getting better with time. I will continue writing even when I am long in the tooth and white in the beard.
Not that that is a bad thing, LOL.
A very heart warming post. It's interesting what drops us into this writing thing. You being a "youngster" have a lot of time to develop your style. I got dropped into writing at 62 because there was nobody telling people in Northern California where and how to catch fish. The rest is history. Keep up the good work.


Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz has urged Arab nations to promote a genuine partnership with the United States of America and fight "the forces of evil and extremism" together. He made the remarks at the historic Arab Islamic American Summit over the weekend in Riyadh, where he and U.S. President Donald Trump urged more than 50 leaders from the Arab and Muslim world to cooperate in the fight against terrorism.
"We are meeting today at this summit to express the seriousness in taking rapid steps to promote a genuine partnership with the friendly United States of America in a way that serves our common interests and contributes to achieving security, peace and development for all mankind, which is confirmed by our Islamic religion," said King Salman.
"Due to our responsibility before God and then before our peoples and the world, we have to stand united to fight the forces of evil and extremism whatever their source," said King Salman.
King Salman criticized Iran for "rejecting good neighborliness" and instead pursuing regional expansion, engaging in criminal behavior, interfering with other countries' internal affairs and violating international law.
"The Iranian regime has been the spearhead of terrorism since the Khomeini revolution until today," said King Salman.
Following the Summit, King Salman and President Trump inaugurated the Center for Combating Extremist Ideology. The Center will work to counter and prevent the spread of extremism by promoting moderation, compassion and productive dialogue.


text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

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{
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    {
        private string _text;

        public override void Process(string line, ref int e, ScriptFile script, Models.ScriptLine belong)
        {
            base.Process(line, ref e, script, belong);
            this._text = line;
        }

        public override void Run(FConsole console)
        {
            base.Run(console);
            console.WriteLine(this._text);
        }
    }
}


text:
The first 100 questions about Rev. Pfleger's Dan Ryan protest
Rev. Michael Pfleger's anti-gun violence march shutting down the Dan Ryan was the big Chicago story over the weekend. It raised a lot of questions. Here are the first 100:
1. Who were the protests for?
2. Does anybody not know about the problem at this point?
3. If so, will they learn about it from this?
4. Or were the protests supposed to jar those already aware into action?
5. What should those people do?
6. Aren't those inconvenienced by closing the Dan Ryan the ones whose attention the protest is trying to snag?
7. Are they now more sympathetic?
8. Or less?
9. Did the mayor really suggest the march might deter shooters?
10. What dream world is he living in?
11. Is this crisis even a matter of caring?
12. Can we care the problem away?
13. Don't officials care more about the Dan Ryan being shut down than Chicagoans being killed?
14. How screwed up is that?
15. Did you answer "totally?"
16. How does awareness help, anyway?
17. Aren't residents of violence-plagued neighborhoods plenty aware?
18. What should they do?
19. Start jobs programs?
20. Is the march mainly for their benefit?
21. Ever notice how personal responsibility is rarely mentioned?
22. Is that blaming the victims?
23. Why do protests insist affected communities don't control their own lives?
24. Do they?
25. Aren't protests appealing to some higher power to fix everything?
26. Isn't that what priests do every Sunday?
27. Is question No. 21 a sign of white privilege?
28. Should this column have been written by a black pundit?
29. Would it offer different questions?
30. What are those?
31. Would those questions have more validity?
32. Why?
33. Or why not?
Clark St. July 9, 2018 at 1:59 AM
1. Pflrger is blaming everyone but the gangs who are the ones doing the shooting. Chicago now has at least 256 gangs, mostly due to tearing down all the CHA high rises, which scattered the gang members all over the city & broke up the once rigid hierarchy where there were two dominant "super" gangs & all the underlings took orders & the gang bosses didn't want too much trouble with the cops. Add to that the basic incompetence of the Chicago Police, the people they hire now are less educated than 10 years ago, due to the insistence of the idiot minority aldermen, who demanded a reduction from a four year degree from a college or university, down to a two year degree, because they claimed that too many of their people couldn't make it through four years of college.
We have 50 aldermen, at least 45 of whom are total morons!
2. I see you must have been on Devon & Lakewood where there are two storefronts with all those question marks covering the windows, for at least three years now.
Tom July 9, 2018 at 10:06 AM
A beautiful theory, but apt to be murdered by a gang of brutal facts. Homicide rates were actually much higher in the 1960's, peaking in 1974 -- before the projects came down, the gangs supposedly broken up and dispersed, and the cops even more incompetent.
probably didn't get the same play in the press. And no Father Pfleger.
FME July 9, 2018 at 7:08 AM
the purpose of this protest was to give powerless people in Chicagos violence plagued neighborhoods hope that their circumstances can be changed through political action.thousands of people shutting down the expressway in a peaceful protest against gun violence is a victory for the people affected by that violence.
unwrapping this issue is difficult with the best of intentions which I believe father Pleger has. the snide sniping of some of your " questions" likely will not.
this was not an anti police action.
one of its goals is to get the shooters to find other solutions to resolve their conflicts
another is to get people in the community to come forward with information about crimes so the authorities can increase the chances of apprehending the perpetrators . this can only be done by building trust with the community and police department hence Eddie Johnson's presence .
your entire column smacks of white privilige but nothing new there, except maybe in so far as this issue you've ramped it up in the face of the tremendous suffering of others. is that really necessary or am I mistaken and would you really like to help?
because if you would now that your an empty nester there are a number of mentorship programs that could use your support.
SandyK July 9, 2018 at 4:51 PM
Another idea is to try and view today's post in the proper perspective. I always thought a journalist's main responsibility was to put forth these types of questions. For thoughtful and continuing discussion.
Bill July 9, 2018 at 8:56 AM
Here are the answers! http://www.ourmaninchicago.net/2018/07/dan-ryan-protests-chicago/
A personal anecdote as to what the protests do: they have energized me and my family to do more politically and cause-wise, both with our time and dollars on issues that matter to us. We happily have examples where our actions have helped accomplished stuff, and when we _do_ feel like what we are doing doesn't matter, the protests/marches/rallies pick us up again, as we see so many folks coming together for something that might matter a bit more than, say, sports or street fests.
Dennis Fisher July 9, 2018 at 9:35 AM
Over the 4th I drove to Montgomery Alabama to see the new Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice. They are commonly known as the Lynching museum and memorial. These institutions in Montgomery are an astonishing accomplishment. The memorial is a work of monumental creativity and impact. After a visit to the museum you will never look at America the same way again.
I thought I was well schooled in the madness of slavery. I learned I was not. After my visit it is painfully easy to connect the gangs and gun violence of Chicago and the rest of America to the institution of slavery.
Your questions stimulate thought but the true source of heartache on Chicago streets is the aftermath of slavery. The horrors and violence and destructions of families and the pure demented evil of slavery and it's inherent violence and indignities will poison this country for many generations to come. Not acknowledging that crime in the streets of Chicago has powerful connective tissue to slavery is like not acknowledging the connective tissue between the nuclear bombing in Hiroshima and it's creation of developmental anomalies in ensuing generations.
If you can't get to Montgomery for the visceral horror and enlightenment of the exhibits try the website:
https://museumandmemorial.eji.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Memorial_for_Peace_and_Justice
https://www.amazon.com/Just-Mercy-Story-Justice-Redemption/dp/081298496X
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Stevenson
Wonderful, thoughtful article as always.
Clark St. July 9, 2018 at 11:06 AM
Maybe I'm wrong, but in looking at the Lynching Museum's website, they don't even mention the lynching of Leo Frank.
More black anti-Semitism?
Dennis Fisher July 9, 2018 at 7:43 PM
Thousands of people in America were murdered because of the color of their skin, and that is the reason for the memorial in Montgomery. It's sister museum tells the horrifying story of slavery in the United States.
Mr. Frank's terrible murder is outside of the scope of the museum and memorial.
It might be worth your while to go to Montgomery, look at the 800 hanging steel boxes, and see for yourself the specific nature of the story being told.
Clark St. July 10, 2018 at 1:04 AM
That museum is about lynching & Leo Frank was lynched!
So it's not outside the scope of the museum!
JP July 9, 2018 at 12:03 PM
Did not read all the questions but I know two answers, Jobs in the neighborhoods and police presence on the beat. I have a question of my own. Why don't the athletes making big endorsement from Nike etc. demand manufacturing in the neighborhoods?
PadraigElliot July 9, 2018 at 12:17 PM
As far as I am concerned, Pfleger's protest was nothing more than a tantrum not unlike the kind of mass-tantrum that put Donald Trump in the White House. It was stupid and designed to produce chaos with little thought to what, if anything, would be accomplished. While I agree with much of what Pfleger preaches, I find him to be a megalomaniac who loves attention a little to much (or a lot too much). If these protestors want change, why aren't they marching against the gangs? Why aren't they outing gang members and leading police to where the weapons are hidden and where the criminals hide out? It ain't the police causing the bulk of the violence in Englewood and West Englewood; it is the gangs. Yes, the gangs intimidate, but if the community came out in the numbers they did on the Dan Ryan, they could easily overwhelm the gangs... and the police would have their backs. Time for people to grow up and fight the real enemy as Sinead O'Connor once famously said. And stop throwing tantrums.
Bitter Scribe July 9, 2018 at 4:12 PM
Here's my question:
Will the people who try to derail every discussion of police shooting unarmed black men in the back with "you should be protesting the black-on-black violence in Chicago!" finally shut up now?
(Probably not.)
JP July 10, 2018 at 12:52 PM
Answered your own question. I would add, what does one have to do with the other?
I looked at the march with interest and some skepticism. Was it a sincere attempt at unity against gun violence in Chicago, or just a great publicity stunt? When Pfleger, Jesse Jackson and Rahm are involved, one never knows.
Grizz 65 July 9, 2018 at 6:06 PM
A whole lot of excellent queries, but probably far fewer answers than questions.
I've participated in marches for a long, long time...decades...and most of the time, marches accomplish little more than to make the participants feel better, not as powerless, and less alone and isolated. If you happen to live in a neighborhood with a lot of Trumpians, for example, marching lets you know there are others out there who feel the way you do, and that can be a powerful antidote to apathy or despair.
Have to say, though, I've never been involved in the blocking of a roadway. The results of that kind of action seem negligible at best, and accomplish little more than pissing motorists off. It's a temporary high. Eventually, by one means or another, the road is reopened. Life goes on. And so does death.
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text:
Q: Different fan size in same duct Im trying to build pc cabinet such that there is 3 fan input to cabinet, and just one output which is the smps inbuilt fan. Then seal off all other air gaps.
Q. Will the smps fan break due to receiving 3x its capability?
Or reprase as,
Will using different fan size in same duct system break the smaller fan?

A: There are 2 criteria. CPU core temp, other hotspot temp and fan noise level that determines your design targets.
There is also a CPU fan that just circulates heat usually and often Graphics card fans that exhaust directly.
Pros:

*

*reduce CPU temp, remove PSU heat

Cons:

*

*accumulate dust on CPU fins, MOBO, inside Tower case and PSU case,

*add noise with eddy noise interference on a mesh.

*spread circulate heat rather than exhaust directly

*transfer CPU heat to PSU heat.

The best cooling rate is > 3m/s velocity directly over the hotspot not 50~100 CFM into the box.
Room dust tends to fall after a while of still air. so floor-mounted towers will collect more dust.

*

*3 input fans that you have will collect more dust but have low velocity over the hotspots.

The velocity of eddy currents on fan intake creates lots of noise and reduces air velocity significantly. With a plenum with a small cross-sectional area, airspeed increases with eddy currents near the surface collecting more radiated heat.

It would feel the same as you being sheltered by houses in a wind storm. So you want to design the heat flow, somewhat like a laptop with a thin plenum of air to exhaust with air intake not forced. If the fan has no finger protection grid, it will run much quieter. When mounted inline with a plenum, it gets muffled even more.

So rather than recycle the CPU heat into the PCU, why not create a plenum over the CPU and remove the heat directly from top to rear, so the PSU does not accumulate more dust and operate with warmer air. Dell used this method about 25 yrs ago to make towers extremely quiet and cool using inline CPU fans with axial exhaust and radial intake.
These are just some experiences, I've had with fan designs using smoke, lasers, and thermocouples.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Mezzofanti Guild Language Learning Made Simple
Rocket Languages
Michel Thomas
Talk In Arabic
Glossika
How To Learn Chinese Characters
John Renfroe • 9 min read • 1
This is a guest post by John Renfroe from Outlier Linguistic Solutions.
John and his team have worked hard providing new solutions to help people learn Chinese characters.
NOTE: I've compiled a list of the best resources for learning Chinese right here. I also recommend Chineasy which is one of the best books I've seen for learning Chinese characters.
Over to you, John.
My name is John Renfroe.
I'm a polyglot (English, Chinese, some French, learning Japanese and Cantonese) and I do research on the Chinese writing system.
My academic training focuses on excavated texts — especially Warring States (475-221 BCE) bamboo texts — and scholarship on the Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字, an ancient dictionary of Chinese characters.
I'm working on a team with Ash Henson and Christian Schmidt to develop a new dictionary of Chinese characters for learners that focuses on increasing learning efficiency.
Getting started learning Chinese characters
I started studying Chinese after watching Hero (英雄) with Jet Li.
I thought the language sounded cool — as a music major, maybe the tones appealed to me. But there was this scene where a calligrapher wrote the character for sword (劍) and explained that there were over twenty different ways to write it.
I've always found writing systems fascinating, so I was hooked.
The next day I got my hands on a Pimsleur course, and then later the FSI Standard Chinese course, and onward from there.
I spent a LOT of time learning characters, and learning about characters.
I eventually moved to Taipei to step up my learning and dive into the writing system on an academic level.
While I was taking language classes and studying Chinese as hard as I could, I also kept learning about the characters.
The first full book I read in Chinese was one on ancient Chinese writing by Li Xueqin (李學勤《古文字學初階》).
I audited an intro to Chinese palaeography course in the Chinese department at NTNU as soon as my Chinese was good enough, and the following year I took a full load of graduate-level coursework in palaeography and Chinese linguistics.
Believe me, along the way I learned a lot about characters and how to learn them.
How to learn Chinese characters more efficiently
The first principle of effective memorization is meaningfulness: you must at least be able to make sense of or attach meaning to what you're memorizing in some way.
This is why mnemonic techniques are so effective.
You attach a keyword or mental image to a character component that you don't know, and suddenly it has some meaning to you.
The problem with these mnemonic techniques is that they often obscure how the character is actually structured.
Many of them ignore the function that a particular component plays in the character, and they often break down the character in ways that hide the logic of the underlying system.
But knowing this system gives your mind a mental framework into which you can put new characters, reinforces characters you already know, and makes it easier to learn characters in the future.
In fact, understanding something is tantamount to making it more meaningful to you, which means that increasing your understanding of how the Chinese writing system works is tantamount to increasing the effectiveness of your learning.
So it seems that the most effective way to learn characters would be one which combines powerful mnemonic techniques with a correct understanding of how characters work.
With China's rising influence in the world, there's a greater need than ever for people to be able to learn Chinese to a high level in order to understand China on its own terms and foster cultural exchange.
And to do this, we need better tools and more efficient learning methods.
Academics like Victor Mair and David Moser have written fairly extensively about the need for a better, more etymologically accurate way to teach characters.
But there's the problem: there is nothing out on the market for learners which accurately explains how Chinese characters work.
They might get it 70% right, but that leaves you with a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings.
**NOTE: Donovan here. Since this article was written, I've actually found the book Chineasy to be a fantastic tool for learning Chinese characters.
To truly understand how the modern Chinese writing system works, you have to trace it all the way back to its earliest forms. And to understand how sound components in Chinese work, you have to trace the spoken language all the way back to the creation of the characters.
Obviously, this takes a great deal of academic training, and most of us don't want to have to get a PhD in Chinese just to learn Chinese.
That's why we've started developing a new dictionary of Chinese characters for learners.
We've taken our extensive academic training and are using it to build a new dictionary of Chinese characters which focuses on increasing learning efficiency by fostering a correct understanding of the system underlying the characters. David Moser has called it "easy to use, user-friendly, very clear — but at the same time correct and comprehensive."
I'll explain below how Chinese actually work: comprising of different components.
What are Chinese functional components?
Functional components are the parts of a character form which express sound or meaning.
They can also serve as a replacement for an earlier form, which I'll get to in a moment.
You might have heard of them but chances are, you've only heard of sound (or phonetic) components and semantic (or signific/meaning) components.
What you may not realize is that there are two types of semantic components: form components and meaning components. Here's an example of the distinction. The form of 大 is a person, but its meaning is "big." So when it's a form component, it's depicting a person, but when it's a meaning component, it adds its meaning "big" to the meaning of the character.
Check out the examples for 美 and 尖 below and you'll see the difference.
So there are four types of functional components: form components, meaning components, sound components, and empty components.
Click here for an enlarged view.
A form component depicts something.
In the example above, we have a picture of a hand 又 taking an ear 耳.
Meaning components
A meaning component adds its meaning to the character's meaning.
In the example above, we have "small" over "big," which expresses the meaning "sharp" or "pointed." Note that the character is using the meaning of 大 here (big), not the form (a person).
Sound components
A sound component gives a hint about the pronunciation of the character.
In the example above, 相 xiāng serves as the sound component for 想 xiǎng.
Sometimes the connection between the character's pronunciation and its sound component isn't very obvious. One example is 各 gè, which is the sound component in 路 lù.
The dictionary we're working on will have explanations and simple formulas which explain these relationships.
Empty components
An empty component gives neither sound nor meaning.
Some empty components serve as substitutions for a sound, meaning, or form component in an older form of the character, while some serve merely to distinguish two characters from each other.
In the example below, 羊 yáng, which usually means "sheep," is a substitution for an earlier form — a headdress.
The headdress looked sort of similar to the character 羊, so over time the two converged. So in 美 we have a person (大) wearing a headdress (羊, a substitution for an earlier form — a headdress).
It's important to note that 羊 is not adding meaning (sheep) or sound (yáng) to the character, nor is it depicting a sheep. This is why we call it an empty component.
It's simply substituting for the headdress in the older form.
And there you have it: a simple overview of how Chinese characters really work.
Understanding how Chinese characters work makes learning them easier
A lot of resources out there talk about sound and meaning components, but form and empty components might be new to you.
But as I mentioned earlier, a correct understanding of how the characters work as a system is one of the best ways to increase the efficiency of your learning.
This understanding can be combined with mnemonics to make an incredibly powerful system for learning and remembering characters. For instance, a mnemonic for 美 might be to visualize a beautiful woman wearing a sheep-like headdress.
To emphasize that the sheep 羊 is an empty component, perhaps it could be made of glass, not a real sheep.
This is the first time a resource like this will available for learners. Much of the information can't be found in English. Even in Chinese, you'd have to read some pretty heavy academic books to find it all, so this will be the first time all this information has been brought together anywhere.
One thing readers of The Mezzofanti Guild might be interested to hear is that we're making this a bilingual, multilingual resource.
Bilingual because we're writing it in Chinese and every copy will be Chinese/target language, so learners will have something to grow into as their Chinese improves and native speaking teachers will have something in their own language.
Multilingual because we'll be translating it into as many target languages as possible, starting with English and German (our team's native languages).
Too many people have to learn Chinese through their second language — English — and we're trying to do what we can to fix that problem.
Once the first version is finished, we'll also do versions for people learning Cantonese and Japanese.
IMPORTANT: I've not heard back from John or his team yet about the release of this dictionary unfortunately so I'm not sure if the Kickstarter was successful.
For now, take a look at my compilation of Mandarin Chinese resources here.
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Chris Chen
Nice post! I reckon this author may have known more about Chinese characters than most mainland Chinese as we only use simplified characters. I myself as a native Chinese user can recognize most traditional characters but I believe I probably need to spend hundreds of hours of practices to actually be able to write them. Luckily most Chinese input methods today offers a function to switch between these traditional and simplified so people from both sides of the strait can communicate in written online. Really resourceful article, thanks for the post!
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text:
"Another Way Of Saying Palestinians Are Nazis": The Dangerous Motivation Behind Netanyahu's Holocaust Revisionism
In a speech to the 37th Zionist conference on October 20, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shocked the world by exculpating Adolf Hilter for responsibility for the Holocaust. The destruction of the European Jews, Netanyahu suggested, came from a suggestion by the Arab nationalist Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was the Mufti of Jerusalem.
In Netanyahu's own words:
And this attack and other attacks on the Jewish community in 1920, 1921, 1929, were instigated by a call of the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, who was later sought for war crimes in the Nuremberg trials because he had a central role in fomenting the final solution. He flew to Berlin. Hitler didn't want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews. And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said, "If you expel them, they'll all come here." "So what should I do with them?" he asked. He said, "Burn them."
The first thing to say about Netanyahu's historical narrative is that it is absurd. Husseini was a real person. It's accurate to say he was an evil man: He led anti-Jewish riots that were motivated not just by opposition to Zionism but also anti-Semitism. He was an eager, although largely ineffectual, collaborator with the Nazis. Husseini hoped to work with the Nazis to thwart the creation of a Jewish state in Israel. To that end, he raised an army of 6,000 Arabs. This stands in contrast to the tens of thousands of Arabs who fought against the Nazis, including the 9,000 Palestinians who fought with the British. As Hussein Ibish, senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, noted in an article for The National, "The record is a complex, mixed and nuanced one, but the overarching fact is that Arab and Muslim involvement in the war was overwhelmingly on the Allied side, and was a significant factor in fighting on the ground. The overwhelming majority joined the cause voluntarily, despite British and French colonialism."
Among the millions who fought in World War II, Husseini's brigade was a sideshow. To elevate him to the level of having "a central role in fomenting the final solution" is a lie.
Responding to Netanyahu's comments, Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, re-iterated the historical fact that Germany bears responsibility for the Holocaust. "All Germans know the history of the murderous race mania of the Nazis that led to the break with civilization that was the Holocaust," Seibert said. "This is taught in German schools for good reason, it must never be forgotten. And I see no reason to change our view of history in any way. We know that responsibility for this crime against humanity is German and very much our own."
Reviewing a biography of Husseini in The New York Times, historian Tom Segev acutely described the problem of over-emphasizing Husseini's importance in the history of the Holocaust.
[O]ne can question whether Husseini "played an important role" in the Holocaust. For as Bernard Lewis wrote in "Semites and Anti-Semites": "It seems unlikely that the Nazis needed any such additional encouragement from outside."…
The mufti's support for Nazi Germany definitely demonstrated the evils of extremist nationalism. However, the Arabs were not the only chauvinists in Palestine looking to make a deal with the Nazis. At the end of 1940 and again at the end of 1941, a small Zionist terrorist organization known as the Stern Gang made contact with Nazi representatives in Beirut, seeking support for its struggle against the British. One of the Sternists, in a British jail at the time, was Yitzhak Shamir, a future Israeli prime minister.
The second thing to say about Netanyahu's statement is that he's trying to smear Palestinian nationalism as being intrinsically anti-Semitic, indeed genocidal. Netanyahu's fanciful excursion into Holocaust historiography comes in the context of the larger argument of his speech: that the current outbreak of violence in Israel has nothing to do with Israeli management of the Temple Mount or the on-going occupation. In effect, Netanyahu is arguing that Palestinians have no grievances and are simply motiveless, violent, Jew-hating psychopaths. Which is another way of saying: Palestinians are Nazis.
By: Jeet Heer, Senior Editor at The New Republic, October 21, 2015
October 22, 2015 Posted by raemd95 | Benjamin Netanyahu, Holocaust, Israel, Nazis, Palestine	| Adolph Hitler, Arab Nationalists, Haj Amin al-Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem, Stephen Seibert, Stern Gang, Yitzhak Shamir | 1 Comment
"Naked Bibi": In The Animal Kingdom, There Is No Creature More Dangerous Than A Panicking Politician
In the lead up to Israel's March 17th election, Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, fearful that he might lose his reelection bid, threw caution to the wind making blatant appeals to scare voters into returning him to office. He did so not caring who he alienated or what might be the consequences of his behavior. I have always argued that in the animal kingdom there is no creature more dangerous than a panicking politician and, in the last few days, Bibi was one such creature.
The day before votes were cast, Netanyahu gave a series of interviews to friendly media outlets developing themes that preyed on Israeli fears: of Palestinians, of "foreign conspiracies", and of Israel's own Arab citizens. He charged, for example, that if his opponents won they would submit to the pressures of the international community leading to the creation of "Hamastan B" in Jerusalem. In another interview he said, "…anyone who moves to establish a Palestinian State and evacuate territory, gives territory away to radical Islamists". And when asked if that meant he was backing away from his 2009 pledge to support a two-state solution, Netanyahu responded "Indeed".
He further charged that "the governments of Western Europe…are funding the campaign that is designed to oust me from power". And he claimed that "there is a massive effort, with tens of millions of dollars…to mobilize the Arab vote…to support Herzog…it's a massive effort…some governments are involved".
He tied many of these themes together by race-baiting Israel's Arab citizens warning that "[if Labor wins] Herzog and Livni will become the prime ministers…with the backing of the Arabs…causing a monumental shift in policy that will endanger the security of Israel". And on the day of the election, in a final panicked appeal to supporters, he warned "Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls. Left-wing organizations are busing them in".
This was the honest Netanyahu, stripped of any veneer–not the one who once feigned support for peace or who begrudgingly pledged support for the idea of a Palestinian State. And this was the Bibi who won.
This was the same Netanyahu who once greeted the Oslo Accords with a campaign to discredit Yitzak Rabin in Israel and by teaming up with Newt Gingrich (then Republican Speaker of the Congress) to stymie the Clinton Administration's efforts in Washington. This was the Netanyahu who was elected in 1996 on a platform committed to ending Oslo, and then acted on his commitment by, in effect, burying the peace process. And this was the same Netanyahu who, when pressured by the West, presented himself as a leader who wanted nothing more than peace, while he pursued policies that only further humiliated and provoked Palestinians, at the same time weakening and discrediting their leadership.
But Netanyahu is also a wily maneuverer. When pressed by President Clinton to sign an agreement with the Palestinians, he did. Upon returning to Israel, however, he did nothing to implement that agreement and, in fact, acted to sabotage it. Similarly, when he was pressed by President Obama, he stated his support for a "two-state solution", but then added caveats that made mockery of this support.
In his last two governments, Netanyahu sought to hide his naked contempt for peace by adding to his coalition individuals who could provide political cover. Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni were known figures in the West, and Netanyahu cleverly used them to shield his government from criticism, while he aggressively pursued his anti-peace, settlement expansion agenda.
Now the cover is gone and Bibi stands naked before the world. He made clear his rejection of the two state solution and his contempt for the Arab citizens of Israel. And he won.
Now Netanyahu must govern. He has just enough votes on the far right to form a coalition government that can pursue his anti-peace, anti-Arab agenda. His coalition will include Avigdor Lieberman who recently said that Israel "needs to pick up an axe and cut off the head" of any Israeli Arab "who is against us", and Naftali Bennett who said that Palestinians were like "shrapnel in your rear end" and pledged that "I will do everything in my power to make sure they never get a state".
Netanyahu knows that this collection of like-minded bigots will only damage Israel's relations with the West. And so just a few days ago, when faced with international outrage over his pre-election comments, Netanyahu once again attempted to cover his nakedness by denying that he had actually backed away from support for a two-state solution. What he may also do in an effort to hide his government's racism is to lure one of the opposition parties into his coalition in order to give his government the veneer of respectability. He will make emotional appeals to national unity and call on his would-be "partners" to do their patriotic duty by joining with him to face the grave threats confronting their country. The question is will any of them fall for such a transparent ploy and agree to serve as Bibi's newest stooge.
Looking at the polls in Israel, it was clear that the center-left never had much hope of forming a stable government. In the best case scenario, they could have only secured the 61+ seats they needed by relying on the strength of the Arab's Joint List. This would have left them open to the same racist charge that Netanyahu and Sharon used against Rabin in 1993–that his decisions never had the support of a "Jewish majority". This paralyzed Rabin and would likely have had the same impact on Herzog and Livni, neither of whom would have had the strength to take on the militant far-right and the massive armed settler movement.
The bottom line is that Israelis succumbed to Bibi's race-baiting and fear-mongering and elected the government they wanted. It is as if George Wallace had won the US Presidency in 1972. The mask is off. The "peace process" is dead. What will the West do in response? Will they buy Bibi's act one more time, or will they call his bluff and use the pressure they have long been hesitant to use? Captive Palestinians losing all hope while living under a brutal and humiliating occupation will not wait long for an answer.
By: James Zogby, President, Arab American Institute; The Blog, The Huffington Post, March 2015
March 22, 2015 Posted by raemd95 | Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Palestine	| 2 State Solution, Arab Israelis, Bigotry, Bill Clinton, Labor Party, Newt Gingrich, Oslo Accords, Racism | Leave a comment
"Netanyahu's 'Mr. Security' Mirage": If Anything, He Has Done Far More To Damage Israel's Security Than Strengthen It
Ahead of Israel's March 17 election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in Washington on a mission to undermine President Obama's Iran policy. This, his latest and greatest diplomatic affront, has starkly revealed the degree to which many here have tired of his shtick.
But what may come as a surprise is that Israelis are sick of Bibi too.
Of course, not all feel indigestion at the thought of Netanyahu being reelected next month. But polls show his favorability rating at an all-time low. Meanwhile, the cost of living for the average Israeli has become extraordinarily high — 40 percent of Israelis are unable to make ends meet — and a majority claim socio-economic and social justice issues as their top priority in this election. A majority also say that Netanyahu's main rival, Labor's Yitzhak Herzog, is most fit to handle this issue.
Yet, Netanyahu continues to run neck-and-neck with Herzog and his center-left "Zionist Union" alliance. The reason for this is revealed in the same polls that show voters' distaste for Netanyahu's handling of the economy: they still trust him most when it comes to security. With his "It's either me or ISIS" campaign line, Netanyahu has shown that he will stop at nothing to define the election in alarmist terms. Indeed, Israelis have always voted according to this most existential of issues. Assuming they do again, it seems likely that Netanyahu will be Prime Minister for the fourth time.
But the case to be made for Netanyahu as "Mr. Security" is flimsy at best — an assessment consistently put forth by former heads of Israel's Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence services. If anything, he has done far more to damage Israel's security than strengthen it.
Netanyahu's ongoing Congressional speech fiasco is only the most recent example, whereby he has weakened Israeli security on multiple fronts. In choosing to publicly challenge President Obama on his home turf, the Prime Minister has further eroded their personal relationship — a feat that seemed nearly impossible. Polls show that over two-thirds of Americans oppose the speech.
Because of Obama's unpopularity in Israel, Netanyahu's perceived "toughness" in standing up to the President may provide short-term political gains at home. But Netanyahu is harming bipartisan support for Israel and alienating young Americans in particular — an ever-more dangerous prospect for Israel's future.
Even worse for Israel's security is what Netanyahu seeks to accomplish: undermining any nuclear deal with Iran that could possibly be achieved. The likely result of his success would be a war devastating for Israel, the U.S., and the region — and one that would not prevent Tehran from ultimately getting the bomb. Iran has the technical know-how to build a nuclear weapon, yet it has so far chosen not to. An attack by the U.S. or Israel would likely convince Iranians that possession of nuclear weapons is in their best interest.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu's record on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a similar disaster for Israel's security. The ongoing occupation of the West Bank (alongside continued expansion of settlements) and Gaza is far from the only reason for the Palestinian terrorism Israel faces, but it is nonetheless a fundamental factor. Netanyahu has not offered a single initiative to end the conflict. To those proposed by others, such as the Arab Peace Initiative offering Israel full diplomatic relations with most of the Arab and Muslim world, he has never even offered a response.
Instead, Netanyahu now states that Israeli control of the West Bank must continue forever, and his government has made clear that it has no strategic vision beyond management of the status quo.
But Netanyahu has failed to even manage the status quo effectively. He has no strategy for dealing with Hamas — negotiating with them to release hundreds of prisoners one day and fighting a new war against them the next. Before last summer's conflict, he failed to deal with the vast system of Hamas tunnels, which led to the avoidable deaths of Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers. Further loss of Israeli life was largely prevented by the Iron Dome missile defense system – funded by the same administration Netanyahu continually thumbs his nose at. And his decision to massively bombard civilian areas in Gaza and its horrific consequences hurt Israel's image abroad and provoked strong criticism from the White House and State Department.
Ultimately, nothing was gained from the war besides a temporary weakening of Hamas, who Israeli military intelligence says is "ready to go [to war] today". In the meantime, Gaza has sunk further into misery and extremism.
That's not all. In the immediate wake of the war in Gaza, Netanyahu's security failures were again on full display in Jerusalem. He declined to prevent right-wing MKs from making provocative visits to the Temple Mount, leading Jordan — one of only two Arab countries with which Israel has a peace treaty — to withdraw its ambassador. Meanwhile, he allowed Israeli settlers to carry out midnight takeovers of houses in Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem, another action that helped fuel months of Palestinian rioting and "lone-wolf" terrorism. Netanyahu has blamed the latter actions on alleged incitement by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but most Israelis think Netanyahu has done nothing to curb incitement from his own side.
In reality, the only thing Netanyahu has managed to secure is his own political survival. Though his resume is a desert littered with failure, he has managed to create a "Mr. Security" mirage. In a matter of weeks, we will find out if the Israeli public has finally seen through it.
By: Aaron Mann, Outreach and Research Consultant at Americans for Peace Now; The Blog, The Huffington Post, March 2, 2015
March 4, 2015 Posted by raemd95 | Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran, Israel, Palestine	| Gaza, Israeli Economy, Mossad, Nuclear Weapons, Shin Bet, U.S.- Israel Relations, West Bank, Yitzhak Shamir | Leave a comment
"The Enemy Of Reason And Moral Judgment": The Problem With Both "Pro-Israel" And "Anti-Israel"
In a typically thoughtful piece today, Jonathan Chait explains why he has "grown less pro-Israel over the last decade." I want to push back on this a bit, not because I disagree with any of the particular points Chait makes, but because of the broad framing. The idea of "pro-Israel," like its mirror "anti-Israel," is the enemy of rational thought and debate on this topic. Unless you're talking about whom you're rooting for in the Olympics, talking about who's pro-Israel and who isn't, and to what degree, almost never helps illuminate anything. This is something I brought up a few months ago, but it has a new urgency now, because this conflict is going to cause a lot of people to reevaluate how they feel about Israel.
One of the interesting things about Chait's post is that he mentions an emotional connection to the country, but the specifics he brings up are all practical questions, on things like the Netanyahu government's sincerity when it says it's committed to a two-state solution. Since we're talking about a democracy where the government and its policies are open to change, in theory that shouldn't bear much on one's basic commitment to the country. But of course it does.
So let's step back for a moment. What do we mean when we say someone is pro-Israel? At the most basic level, we mean that she believes Israel ought to exist (there was a time when this was a matter of some debate in the West, but it isn't any longer, at least not in mainstream circles). Beyond that though, you can take varying positions on almost any particular area of disagreement and still be pro-Israel. You can think Israel ought to exist within its pre-1967 borders, or that it should hold every inch of land it took since then (and retake what it gave away), and both positions can be "pro-Israel." You can think that West Bank settlers are heroes for holding the land God granted the Jewish people, or that they're a bunch of bigots and thugs who make peace infinitely more difficult, and both positions can be "pro-Israel." You can think that Netanyahu's decision to launch this war was the only appropriate reaction to the murder of those three teenagers, or you can think that decision was a disaster, and both positions can be "pro-Israel."
In other words, the idea means almost nothing, unless you're using it to indicate that someone is laboring to put aside their own capacity for reason and morality in order to justify whatever their side happens to have done, either lately or decades ago. And frankly, that's how I've come to think about it. When I think of someone who's "anti-Israel," I think of someone who apologizes for terrorism committed by Palestinians and thinks that there's only one country in the world where human rights abuses occur; in other words, a moral idiot. And when I think of someone who's "pro-Israel," I'm increasingly likely to think of some Palinesque dolt who believes that the Israeli government is perfect in all things, and that that very terrorism gives Israel a pass to treat every Palestinian man, woman, and child with as much cruelty as it likes; in other words, another moral idiot.
Once you stop worrying about whether you're pro-Israel or anti-Israel, you can judge the Israeli government's decisions, developments within Israeli society, and other questions related to the country each on their own terms. You can also make judgments about the conflict that are freed from the necessity so many feel to continually compare the Israeli government's actions to Hamas' actions, or the opinions of the Israeli public to the opinions of the Palestinian public, with the only important question being which side comes out ahead. Those comparisons end up dulling your moral senses, because they encourage you to only think in relative terms.
If you're still stuck being pro-Israel or anti-Israel, you end up asking questions like, "Which is worse: for Hamas to put rockets in a school in the hopes that Israel will bomb it and kill a bunch of kids, therefore granting Hamas a momentary PR victory; or for Israel to bomb the school anyway, knowing they're going to kill a bunch of kids?" If you're pro-Israel, you'll answer that Hamas' action is worse, while if you're anti-Israel, you'll answer that Israel's action is worse. But if you're neither, then you'll give the only moral answer, which is: who the hell cares which is worse? They're both wrong. Questions like that end up only being used to excuse one side's indefensible decisions.
Believe me, I realize that it isn't easy to get rid of the pro-Israel/anti-Israel dichotomy. I grew up in a home where Zionism was our true religion. Israel is different than other countries; no matter how much you love going to Paris, eating French food, and reading French literature, it would be weird to describe yourself as "pro-France." That's because it makes sense only in the context where there are other people taking the opposite position; while there are people who don't like France, there isn't a significant "anti-France" movement.
But you don't have to buy into the dichotomy. And once you step outside it and stop worrying about which team you're on, it can become easier to see things clearly.
By: Paul Waldman, Contributing Editor, The American Prospect, July 29, 2014
July 30, 2014 Posted by raemd95 | Israel, Middle East, Palestine	| Anti-Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza, Hamas, Pro-Israel, West Bank, Zionism | Leave a comment
"When Will You Stop Beating Your Ally?": Ted Cruz On Protecting And Promoting Israel's Tourism Industry
I really thought the peculiar use of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a political weapon against Barack Obama had reached its point of diminishing returns back in the 2012 presidential cycle, when the entire field (with the exception, obviously, of Ron Paul) competed to express how abjectly each as president would defer to Israel's wishes in using American resources and commitments, in sharp contrast to the faithless Muslim-lover in the White House. I mean, seriously, wouldn't the tribunes of American Exceptionalism eventually see something wrong with their political representatives demanding that the U.S. outsource its foreign policy to another country?
Leave it to Ted Cruz to take it all to another level, accusing the administration of telling the FAA to ban flights into Tel Aviv as part of a pro-Hamas conspiracy:
"Given that some 2,000 rockets have been fired into Israel over the last six weeks, many of them at Tel Aviv, it seems curious to choose yesterday at noon to announce a flight ban, especially as the Obama Administration had to be aware of the punitive nature of this action.
"Tourism is an $11 billion industry for Israel, which is in the middle of a summer high season already seriously diminished by the conflict initiated by Hamas. Group tours have been cancelling at a 30% rate. This FAA flight ban may well represent a crippling blow to a key economic sector through both security concerns and worries that additional bans will down more flights and strand more passengers. It hardly matters if or when the ban is lifted. At this point, the damage may already be done….
Secretary of State John Kerry issued a veiled threat last February when he encouraged boycotts of Israel [sic] and said that absent serious Israeli concessions at the negotiating table, Israel's economic prosperity was 'not sustainable' and 'illusory.' Secretary Kerry unfortunately reprised this theme just this April, when he threatened that Israel risked becoming an 'apartheid state' if Israel did not submit to his chosen solution to the Israel-Palestinian crisis.
"Taken in the context of Secretary Kerry's comments, yesterday's action by the FAA raises some serious questions.
So apparently the United States has an obligation, at the potential expense of the safety of its own citizens, to promote the security claims of another country in order to protect said country's tourism industry. Anything less than that is to side with Israel's enemies, whose bloody hands Obama is already shaking by continuing humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
How much further can Republicans move the goal posts here? Should we become more militantly pro-Israel than the Israelis themselves?
I know this is a sweet spot for conservatives because it pleases a certain type of evangelical Christian activist and projects bloody-minded "strength" without risking a commitment of U.S. troops, since the Israelis really can take care of themselves from a military point of view. And the Palestinians, of course, are the overseas equivalent of those people here, somehow still held to be responsible for 9/11. But if there is a Republican president any time soon, the GOP isn't doing him or her any favors by mortgaging half its foreign policy to the interests of a single foreign state, however admirable.
By: Ed Kilgore, Contributing Writer, Washington Monthly Political Animal, July 24, 2014
July 25, 2014 Posted by raemd95 | Israel, Palestine, Ted Cruz	| Conservatives, FAA, Foreign Policy, Gaza, GOP, Hamas, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, John Kerry, Republicans | 2 Comments


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5 Biggest Restaurant Shake-Ups In 2017
Nicholas Rossolillo, The Motley Fool
Motley Fool December 31, 2017
In the highly competitive and always changing restaurant industry, 2017 was a big year. The industry had to cope with year two of the so-called "restaurant recession," but investments in dining out were undeterred. Here are this year's five biggest shake-ups by deal value, in the order they happened.
The Whopper gets some fried chicken
There were big moves in fast food in 2017, including the announcement in December that Jack In the Box is offloading its Qdoba brand for $305 million to Apollo Global Management. The biggest fast-food deal, though, was Restaurant Brands International's (NYSE: QSR) acquisition of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in February.
A stack of 10 chicken nuggets from Burger King.
Tired of Burger King's $1.49 chicken nuggets? The chain wouldn't mind if you tried Popeyes chicken instead.
Restaurant Brands -- the parent company of Burger King and Tim Hortons -- added the fried chicken chain to its stable for a whopping $1.8 billion. The buy is so far, so good for the fast-food giant. Its stock has risen nearly 30% this year as the fast-food industry has gained renewed interest from value-oriented diners in the U.S.
The Olive Garden's new ally
Casual dining has been one of the worst-performing segments of the restaurant industry, but Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) has been bucking the trend. The Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse parent has been enjoying positive comparable-store sales, and added another strong name in Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen early in the year.
The chain specializes in classic American fare made from "scratch." It was added to Darden's arsenal for $780 million, and the 153 locations helped the company notch a 14.6% increase in total sales and 3.1% increase in comparable-store sales in its last-reported quarter.
Panera Bread goes undercover
A turkey, apple, and cheddar sandwich from Panera, displayed on a wood cutting board.
Panera Bread's deal with JAB was the restaurant industries largest of 2017. Image source: Panera Bread.
The biggest shake-up this year was the one announced by Panera Bread and JAB Holding Company. The latter agreed to buy out Panera for $7.5 billion and add it to its stake in other dining names like Peet's Coffee and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Upon acquisition last spring, shareholders of Panera got $315 per share in cash, and the fast-casual chain became a wholly owned subsidiary of JAB.
Relief for Ruby Tuesday
Casual-dining chain Ruby Tuesday (NYSE: RT) has struggled in recent years. Shares of the beleaguered restaurant have been in a multiyear slide, and total sales fell 15.3% during the last-reported quarter as traffic in its dining rooms kept thinning out.
Investors were relieved of their troubles when private equity firm NRD Capital said it would buy the business for $335 million in cash, a 21% premium from the previous trading day but still 70% lower than where the stock was five years ago. With investors out, the troubled chain is now NRD's problem.
B-Dubs gets an unlikely suitor
Sports bar Buffalo Wild Wings' (NASDAQ: BWLD) year played out like a bad soap opera. Beset by slowing growth, activist investor Marcato Capital took a stake in the business and started a war with B-Dubs management. Marcato won, setting in motion a new strategy that involved selling locations to franchisees rather than keeping them company-owned and -operated.
A basket of traditional bone-in chicken wings spun in BBQ sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings.
Image source: Buffalo Wild Wings.
All that was for naught, though, when fast-food joint Arby's and its parent, Roark Capital, announced they would be buying Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.9 billion. That adds up to $157 a share payable in cash to owners of the stock. The deal is expected to close during the first quarter.
What 2018 will hold
Comparable sales at the average restaurant location have begun to show signs of a rebound as of late. While 2018 could be a year of recovery for struggling chains, spurring on more acquisition activity, investing by trying to predict who will buy whom is no way to go. Instead, focus on which chains are doing things right. Restaurants that are innovating new menus to cater to constantly changing consumer taste and putting technology to good use are always a good investment.
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Nicholas Rossolillo owns shares of Buffalo Wild Wings. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Buffalo Wild Wings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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The Canadian dollar was little changed against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, holding near its lowest in nearly seven weeks as the Bank of Canada left interest rates unchanged and investors focused on talks to revamp the NAFTA trade pact.
The Bank of Canada said it was closely monitoring the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations and other trade policy developments as it held its policy interest rate at 1.50 per cent.
The central bank, which has raised interest rates four times since July 2017, said more hikes would be needed to keep inflation on target.
"I think the market went into the meeting expecting pretty much what it got, that the Bank of Canada would leave rates on hold and that they would do nothing to discourage the market from its pricing for an October hike," said Daniel Katzive, head of FX strategy North America at BNP Paribas in New York.
"There is a big question mark related to NAFTA and I think that's what the focus is on now," Katzive said.
The United States and Canada reopened talks in a bid to salvage NAFTA amid a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to proceed alone with a new pact with Mexico.
At 3 p.m. (1900 GMT), the Canadian dollar was trading nearly unchanged at $1.3187 to the greenback, or 75.83 U.S. cents.
The currency, which touched its weakest since July 20 on Tuesday at $1.3208, traded in a range of $1.3156 to $1.3207.
Canada posted its smallest trade deficit in more than 1-1/2 years in July as exports were boosted by higher prices for crude oil, Statistics Canada said.
Global stocks fell as investors weighed the possibility of Trump following through on plans to impose a fresh round of tariffs on Chinese goods right after a public comment period ends on Thursday.
Canada runs a current account deficit, so its economy could be hurt if the global flow of trade or capital slows.
Still, the country's currency is likely to rally over the coming months, according to foreign exchange strategists in a Reuters poll, who forecast that trade uncertainty will fade.
The price of oil , one of Canada's major exports, settled 1.7 per cent lower.
Canadian government bond prices were mixed across a steeper yield curve, with the 10-year falling 1 Canadian cent to yield 2.237 per cent.


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