text:
Trav Trivia
http://travtrivia.typepad.com/
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June 9, 2019 --
This week's doggerel and tweets (@Trav_McKinney) –
Kellyanne Conway is Donald Trump's toy, yes my boy, in Trump's employ
To lie, mislead and cover up misdeeds for Trump's puerile joy
But if she's the one
Who provides him fun
Then yes my boy, she is Trump's tinker toy.
Dana Milbank, WaPo: Americans must accept that none of these things ever happened
Oh no, he didn't.
I believe President Trump when he says "I never called Meghan Markle 'nasty.' " I believe him even though Britain's Sun newspaper published an interview with Trump the day before in which he referred to the Duchess of Sussex with that very word — and even though the Sun has a recording.
Likewise, I believed Trump when he visited Britain last year and said "I didn't criticize the prime minister" – even though the Sun also had a recorded interview of him that time, criticizing Prime Minister Theresa May.
And I am fully prepared to believe Trump tomorrow if he says "I never called Sadiq Khan a 'stone cold loser' " — even though Trump, landing in Britain on Monday, called the London mayor just that in a tweet that misspelled Khan's name and also mocked him for being short.
I believe all this and more because the alternative is unthinkable: that our great nation inflicted on the world a president who is, well, a stone cold loser, boorish and ignorant.
Therefore I plan to do as Trump does: live today as if yesterday never happened. But it's not enough to imagine away this week's name-calling. To preserve national dignity, Americans must accept that none of the following ever happened:
Trump did not shove the prime minister of Montenegro and he didn't declare that he "fell in love" with the dictator of North Korea. He didn't hang up on the Australian prime minister, nor attack the pope on Twitter. He didn't use a phony accent to imitate the Indian prime minister, nor make fun of Chinese leaders' eyewear. He didn't refer to African nations and Haiti as "shithole countries."
At no time did Trump confuse the Baltics with the Balkans. Never did he tastelessly comment on the French first lady's body. He certainly did not invent the country of "Nambia," nor did he boast about selling Norway a fighter jet that only exists in a computer game. He didn't mispronounce Nepal as "nipple."
Under no circumstance did Trump assert that "there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea," nor did he believe North Korea's dictator over Japan's prime minister. He most definitely did not land in Israel and announce: "We just got back from the Middle East." He didn't skip a visit to a U.S. military cemetery in France because of a little rain. He didn't accept Vladimir Putin's word over that of U.S. intelligence, and when told "do not congratulate" Putin on his rigged election victory, he did it anyway.
He didn't refer to Brussels as a "hellhole" nor assert that "Belgium is a beautiful city." And spelling the British prime minister's name as that of a British porn actress? Never happened.
His administration didn't confuse Singapore with Indonesia and China with Taiwan, nor misidentify the Australian prime minister, nor misspell "Denmark." Not once did Trump vow to "promote the possibility of lasting peach" in the Middle East.
Trump simply did not advise the French to dump water on Notre Dame Cathedral from the sky, nor did he claim that Finland avoids fires by "raking" forests. He didn't fabricate trade figures in talks with the Canadian prime minister. Neither did he falsely accuse South Africa of "large scale killing" of farmers, not volunteer any thoughts, ever, on "what happened last night in Sweden."
Trump, furthermore, did not sign the guest book at Israel's Holocaust memorial with the words "so amazing." He didn't pull his name from a Group of Seven communique. He didn't take a limousine and a golf cart instead of walking with other world leaders at summits. He didn't struggle with a group handholding exercise in Manila, his knuckles didn't whiten in the grip of Emmanuel Macron, and Melania Trump did not swat his hand away on the tarmac in Tel Aviv.
Furthermore, Trump did not reveal secret Israeli intelligence to Russia. He didn't accuse Germany of being "totally controlled by Russia." He didn't taunt the French over street protests, attack the idea of NATO, use an all-cap tweet to threaten Iran with annihilation, hail "fantastic" strongmen nor pine for the reign of Moammar Gaddafi.
Fortunately, it has all been a misunderstanding. For if an American president had actually done even a fraction of the above, it would be an indelible national disgrace.
NYT Editorial Board: Mr. Trump Storms the U.K.
"He is a very controversial president, and we've all got used to that over the past two years," said the British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who greeted President Trump on his arrival for a state visit on Monday, possibly saying all that needed to be said.
How times have changed. Two years ago, Mr. Trump's outrageous comments and tweets while a guest on foreign soil — calling the London mayor a "stone cold loser," the leader of the opposition party "somewhat of a negative force" and the protests against his visit "fake news" — might have caused major shock. The inclusion of the president's adult children in official events like a state dinner might have raised eyebrows. And the mockery of the president in the streets, including a giant statue of the president atop a golden toilet named the Dump Trump, would surely have created a stir.
But back then state visits were minutely choreographed affairs in which every utterance and gesture was laden with diplomatic nuance, and the hosts and guests were expected to show respect and deference for each other. Not this president. Mr. Trump has seemed perfectly happy to take his Twitter attacks, political feuds, outlandish statements and brazen lies with him on the road, and to wade shamelessly into his hosts' affairs.
He sang the praises of Nigel Farage, the far-right anti-European Union politician, and Boris Johnson, a leading candidate to succeed Theresa May as prime minister (though Mr. Johnson declined an invitation for a one-on-one meeting); he declared Britain the United States' biggest trading partner, a fact, he said, "a lot of people don't know." They don't because, so far this year, Mexico is; Britain is seventh (as it was last year, too).
The quips and tweets made news, of course, but the shock value was gone, and much of the coverage focused happily on the Downton Abbey theater that the British royal family does so well. Queen Elizabeth II, diminutive alongside Mr. Trump, seemed to enjoy showing him and his family around her palace, and the president grinned happily in his sorely ill-fitting white tie and tails at the royal feast. There was really nothing else to this extremely costly state visit, since Mrs. May is a lame duck, her successor is unknown and British politics are in utter disarray over Brexit.
As is his wont, Mr. Trump simply denied all the evidence of his extraordinary unpopularity in Britain. He claimed that he had been greeted by "tremendous crowds of well-wishers" and that there was "great love all around." In fact, an online petition opposing the visit garnered 1,863,708 signatures and a recent YouGov poll found that two-thirds of British respondents had a negative opinion of him. The speaker of the House of Commons would not allow him to address Parliament, and among notable figures missing from the 170 guests at the state dinner in his honor were Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, and the heads of the Labour and Liberal Democrat Parties.
And if Mr. Trump's visit did not draw as many protesters to Trafalgar Square as his visit last July, the mockery was still crude, including the same giant orange balloon of Mr. Trump as a scowling baby wearing a diaper and clutching a cellphone that debuted in July, and a forest of placards with messages such as "Make America Great Again. Impeach Me," "Climate change is real, your tan is not" and "Free Melania." Some protesters carried portraits of the late John McCain, following the efforts of the White House to conceal from Mr. Trump's view in Japan a Navy destroyer partly named for the senator, whom the president disliked.
It may come as something of a relief that Mr. Trump's behavior is increasingly familiar to America's allies, and so not cause for scandal. But there is nothing to celebrate when mockery of the American president in a friendly capital has become the new normal.
Kathleen Parker, WaPo: Trump's royal visit to the U.K. proves money can't buy you class
If there was "great love all around" during President Trump's state visit to Britain, as he tweeted Monday, the participants royal and decidedly otherwise were deceptively discreet.
From the coverage, one might have thought that Madame Tussauds had teamed up with George Lucas to create a charade parade of mechanized wax figures. What a crew of dour sourpusses they were.
But then, what would one expect when New York's most famous hillbilly drags his entire entourage to sup at the sumptuous table of the queen of England as though word had leaked of an all-you-can-eat buffet and free booze over at Lizzie's Eatery? Donald Trump may have plenty of dough and houses dripping with gold, but his money has that new smell, and his crass behavior is testament to the adage — and more recently Countess Luann de Lesseps's song — "Money can't buy you class." To which I would only add, "honey."
The countess should know. Marrying royalty won't get you there, either, apparently. But then, Luann, as in "The Real Housewives of New York City," perhaps was being ironic.
Queen Elizabeth II, as in "The Crown," was born to class, of course, and has spent her royal career marinating in irony. As a descendant of generations of royals, she epitomizes the definition of proper behavior, rarely displaying emotion or affection, always stoic in the face of adversity. A far cry is she from the effluvious Donald and his bloviating histrionics. But there she was playing sober hostess to a reality-show president and his carnivalesque courtiers.
The queen has seen it all: Her son, Charles, gallivanting with his then-lover-now-wife Camilla whilst married to the fair Princess Diana; the "people's princess" shedding crocodile tears for television cameras while sharing her miseries and family secrets; her grandson wedding an American actress who, in an apparent act of defiance, declined to attend the state banquet.
Not even Monday evening's strawberry sable with lemon verbena cream dessert could be richer than that.
'Tis a shame, because Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, surely would have brought a smile to the Buckingham Palace proceedings. Instead, we saw mostly waxen, strained faces in the dinner procession of mismatched royals and American hirelings. Most expressions suggested that a hair shirt was concealed beneath their finery. There was the queen with The Don. Prince Edward, the queen's first cousin, marched dutifully alongside Kellyanne Conway, bedecked in silver sequins and affecting a royal air her weary-eyed escort would be loath to approximate.
Princess Anne, the queen's daughter, walked with presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, who, in one frame, seemed to be trying to convince her that she was lucky. I'm a prince, you know, did you know that? , I thought he was saying. Then again, reading lips is second only to my snake-handling skills. Poor Countess Peel, granddaughter of Winston Churchill, got stuck with Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, whom she seemed to be trying to ignore. As do we all, Countess, as do we all.
Bringing up the rear were first lady Melania Trump's chief of staff Lindsay Reynolds and press secretary Stephanie Grisham, escorted, respectively, by Philip May (husband of outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May) and a kilted Michael Gove, secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs. Oh, and Dan Scavino was there! You know, Dan, the White House director of social media? How could the president attend a royal banquet without his social media guy? He was fortunately paired with a smiling Kathryn Parsons, co-CEO of a high-tech start-up. They may have been the happiest dinner guests that night.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders also stood out from the crowd, smiling in her crimson gown, clearly enjoying herself more than her staid partner, another titled first cousin of the queen. My favorite visual, however, was U.S. national security adviser John Bolton and his muscular mustache paired with Viscountess Brookeborough, who looked as though something most unpleasant had reached her nostrils.
Yes, of course, I'm envious. And, yet, the whole affair felt tawdry and cheap, joyless and stilted beyond the usual norms of pomp and circumstance. The queen must have wondered, did Trump raffle off tickets? Who are these people? Fair question.
Money can't buy you class, but it can sure buy loyalty. Trump's court at the palace was essentially his family and the few remaining White House staffers still willing to tell the president that, indeed, his exposed derriere is absolutely rocking raiment of finest silk and gold. The fake news media, of course, are unable to see.
Gail Collins, NYT: Let's Ditch Mitch
O.K., throwing this one at you without warning: What's your opinion of Mitch McConnell?
A) Spawn of Satan.
B) Sort of pitiful, what with having Donald Trump on his back.
C) Can we talk about how he looks like a turtle?
Definitely not the last one. It's true that many Americans think of McConnell as turtle-like, due to his lack of anything resembling a chin.
But this is wrong on two counts. First, you shouldn't tackle people you disagree with by making fun of their looks.
Second, it gives turtles a bad name. Turtles are great for the environment and everybody likes them. They sing to their children. You are never going to see a turtle killing gun control legislation.
Mitch, on the other hand, has a longstanding alliance with the National Rifle Association, which has shown its affection to the tune of about $1.3 million in support. Anything the N.R.A. dislikes never gets the chance to come up for a Senate vote. Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is moldering away in a corner because the N.R.A. doesn't want authorities taking guns away from domestic abusers.
It's been another terrible year of mass shooting violence. One simple, very popular response would be to improve the background checks for gun purchases. It would at least show our elected officials care about the crisis.
Such a bill passed the House of Representatives and went to the Senate where it's, um, laying around somewhere. "There's a whole bunch of Republican support, but he won't let it move to the floor," said minority leader Chuck Schumer.
This goes on a lot. McConnell, who has near total control over what comes up for a vote, sits on things he doesn't like until they smother. Farewell, immigration reform, Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation protecting Americans with pre-existing conditions, lowering prescription drug prices, protecting election security, restoring net neutrality.
You can, of course, just presume that McConnell is following Trump's orders. But it's hard to believe the president even knows what's going on. This week, when he was in Europe, Trump twittered congratulations to the House on the passage of a huge disaster aid package, adding, "Great, now we will get it done in the Senate!" Helpful readers noted that the Senate had approved said bill two weeks before.
There are well over 100 House-passed bills sitting around gathering mildew in Mitch's limbo. What do you think that place looks like? A very depressing bus station waiting room? A hospital ward packed with comatose patients? Or maybe just a dimly lit storage bin where little bills sit around drinking juice and playing video games until the end of time?
All of them in the thrall of Mitch McConnell. Before we move on, can we mention that McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, is the nation's secretary of transportation, and possibly on her way to serious contention for Worst Cabinet Member?
Check out the Times story by Michael Forsythe and Eric Lipton that detailed how Chao, during the performance of her duties promoting the American maritime industry, has also been lending a helping hand to her own family's very extensive shipping business, which builds most of its fleet in China. Her family has made more than $1 million in campaign contributions to the senator. Which is generous, but not quite as impressive as the somewhere between $5 million and $25 million that Chao's father has given his daughter and son-in-law as a flat-out gift.
So McConnell has been doing very well indeed — family money, Senate majority and no irritating votes on stuff he doesn't like. To be fair, he's not the first leader who's pulled that disappearing bill trick. (Possibly the first who enjoys referring to himself as "The Grim Reaper," but that's just part of his colorful personality.) His predecessor, Democrat Harry Reid, did the same thing, although Schumer claims not nearly so much. "There was not a total blanket on anything coming to the floor," Schumer said in a phone interview. "I've never seen anything quite like this."
Well, there's one thing coming to the floor. McConnell is obsessed with cramming the federal judiciary with men and women of a conservative bent. When President Barack Obama was in his second term, McConnell slowed the confirmation process to a mini-crawl, so he was able to gift Trump with more than 100 vacancies to fill.
Most spectacularly of all, when Antonin Scalia died in February of 2016, McConnell completely ignored Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland as his successor.
"Not even holding a hearing on the Garland nomination has to be an absolute landmark in Senate process," said Joshua Huder of the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University.
A man who has never gotten a single vote from anyone living outside the state of Kentucky decreed that a man twice elected president of the United States had no right to have his nominee for Supreme Court considered in the Senate. McConnell told Charles Homans of The Times it was "the most consequential thing" he'd ever done. He was extremely proud.
McConnell's argument was that Obama was too close to the end of his term to make a lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court. But now he's saying that if there's a vacancy before the 2020 election, he'll of course get Trump's choice for a successor a confirmation vote. "Oh, we'd fill it," the senator chortled at a Chamber of Commerce lunch back home in Kentucky.
I know you're not surprised, but isn't it sort of awful that McConnell's so proud of himself? You'd hope that, at least in public, he'd murmur something vague and look a tad sheepish.
No self-respecting turtle would ever behave like that.
David Ignatius, WaPo: Trump's words on D-Day are at odds with his actions
President Trump spoke the right words in commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day, but did he mean them? So far, his presidency has been about defying the postwar order that was based on shared values and global partnership, rather than cementing its legacy.
Trump spoke here Thursday at what he rightly described as "freedom's altar," the burial site for nearly 10,000 Americans who died during the 1944 invasion of Normandy and in subsequent battles that ultimately led to Nazi Germany's destruction. His speech rang the traditional chimes of D-Day remembrance of heroism, shared sacrifice and Allied victory.
Listening to Trump's well-written and emotionally resonant speech, this listener applauded the sentiments but couldn't help wondering: Does Trump fully embrace this message and the transatlantic alliance that made victory against Germany possible? His actions (and usual rhetoric) have instead embodied an "America First" agenda that disdains much of the postwar architecture.
"To all of our friends and partners: Our cherished alliance was forged in the heat of battle, tested in the trials of war, and proven in the blessings of peace," Trump proclaimed. "Our bond is unbreakable." Was that reassuring to European allies who have been rattled so often by the president's disruptive statements? I doubt it.
Trump's endorsement of transatlantic cooperation came after a week in which he attacked the mayor of London as a "stone cold loser," called for a no-deal Brexit that could weaken both Britain and the European Union, and said he favors a wall — or at least a hard border — between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, which could undermine peace there.
The strength of Trump's speech here was that, in the style of Ronald Reagan, he evoked the personal lives of the D-Day veterans assembled behind him on the podium. For once, he wasn't telling his own story, but that of the United States and its allies. "More powerful than the strength of American arms was the strength of American hearts," he said. It was a great line, but one that many would find dissonant with Trump's saber-rattling nationalism.
Trump seemed to understand that this site, with its forest of white crosses assembled like a silent army at perpetual rest, may be the most important stage on which a U.S. president can play. Arrayed atop the escarpment above Omaha Beach, the cemetery makes viscerally real the hellfire through which American soldiers had to pass to win the day of battle. The first waves of soldiers moved forward because they had no other choice: They went up the hill or they died.
This D-Day anniversary was especially poignant because the surviving veterans are now all in their 90s or older, and few are likely to be alive for an 80th anniversary celebration. That made their presence here an emotional touchstone for Trump and his host, French President Emmanuel Macron, who delivered a superb speech on the theme: "France has not forgotten."
The convocation above Omaha Beach also allowed reflection on the qualities of leadership that made possible D-Day and the eventual triumph over Nazi Germany. These traits have been best captured by historian Rick Atkinson in his trilogy about World War II in Europe, culminating in the D-Day narrative that opens the last volume, "The Guns at Last Light."
What defines these heroic leaders is their fortitude under stress, but also their recognition of the ambiguity and chaos of war. On the eve of the invasion, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, drinking heavily as usual, told his colleagues : "Let us not expect all to go according to plan. Flexibility of mind will be one of the decisive factors. Risks must be taken."
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the seemingly calm architect of victory, was so frazzled in the days before D-Day that he was smoking 80 cigarettes a day, Atkinson writes. Ike liked to quote Napoleon's description of a brilliant general as "the man who can do the average thing when all those around him are going crazy."
The supreme commander of the global war machine was President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He let his generals and admirals direct the combat operations, but he set the fundamental strategy that was decisive. Perhaps most important, Roosevelt insisted on the goal of "unconditional surrender" at the Casablanca Conference with Churchill in Morocco in January 1943, which mandated the destruction of German and Japanese militarism and opened the way for a new world order.
Trump stood in the shadow of these leaders, voicing the convictions that helped them gain final victory. Rarely did a speech and the speaker seem so much in conflict.
Roger Cohen, NYT: To have Trump commemorate the Normandy landings is to understand the word impostor.
PARIS — How small he is! Small in spirit, in valor, in dignity, in statecraft, this American president who knows nothing of history and cares still less and now bestrides Europe with his family in tow like some tin-pot dictator with a terrified entourage.
To have Donald Trump — the bone-spur evader of the Vietnam draft, the coddler of autocrats, the would-be destroyer of the European Union, the pay-up-now denigrator of NATO, the apologist for the white supremacists of Charlottesville — commemorate the boys from Kansas City and St. Paul who gave their lives for freedom is to understand the word impostor. You can't make a sculpture from rotten wood.
It's worth saying again. If Europe is whole and free and at peace, it's because of NATO and the European Union; it's because the United States became a European power after World War II; it's because America's word was a solemn pledge; it's because that word cemented alliances that were not zero-sum games but the foundation for stability and prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic.
Of this, Trump understands nothing. Therefore he cannot comprehend the sacrifice at Omaha Beach 75 years ago. He cannot see that the postwar trans-Atlantic achievement — undergirded by the institutions and alliances he tramples upon with such crass truculence — was in fact the vindication of those young men who gave everything.
As Eisenhower, speaking at the Normandy American Cemetery, last resting place of 9,387 Americans, told Walter Cronkite for the 20th anniversary of the D-Day landings: "These people gave us a chance, and they bought time for us, so that we can do better than we have before."
That was a solemn responsibility. For decades it was met, culminating with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Doing better, however, is not rising nativism, xenophobia, nationalism and authoritarianism given a nod and a wink by the president of the United States. It's not Brexit, Britain turning its back on the Europe it helped free.
The American moral collapse personified by Trump is not "beautiful" or "phenomenal" or "incredible" or any of the president's other clunky two-a-penny superlatives. It's sickening and dangerous.
My impression here is that Europe has gotten used to Trump to the point that it is no longer strange that the American president is a stranger. In less than two and a half years Trump has stripped his office of dignity, authority and values.
His foreign policy increasingly consists of a single word, "tariffs." His contempt for allies undermines American diplomacy, or whatever is left of it, from Iran to North Korea, from Venezuela to China. His trampling of truth is so consistent that when he says in London that Britain is the largest trading partner of the United States — it's nowhere near that — the impulse is to shrug.
Before arriving in London, Trump set the tone. He mocked the city's mayor, Sadiq Khan, as short. It was a tweet in keeping with the president's signature stunt as schoolyard bully. Khan, who had criticized "rolling out the red carpet" for Trump, responded by comparing the president to an 11-year-old.
This was generous. Most 8-year-olds know better.
Of course Khan — the brown Muslim son of a bus driver, self-made guy — would get under the skin of a man like Trump, who was born on third base and imbibed his reflexive racism in the family real estate business.
Khan called Trump's policies — on the reproductive rights of women, on immigrant children at the Mexican border, on "amplifying messages from racists" — the antithesis of Londoners' values and "abhorrent." In response, Trump tweeted that Khan was as bad as the "very dumb" New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, "only half his height."
There is something so disturbing about a very small man like Trump impugning the height of the mayor of the great international city he is visiting that even 28 months of progressive inurement to his outrages feels inadequate.
America is much better than this, much better than an American president who, as the cartoonist Dave Granlund suggested, probably thinks the D in D-Day stands for Donald and spends the night of the commemoration trashing Bette Midler on Twitter.
As for the Republican Party, don't get me started. To recover its bearings the G.O.P. would do well to recall one of its own, Eisenhower, who in that same 20th-anniversary interview said that America and its allies stormed the Normandy beaches "for one purpose only."
It was not to "fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest." No, it was "just to preserve freedom, systems of self-government in the world." It was an act, in other words, consistent with the highest ideals of the American idea that Trump and his Republican enablers seem so intent on eviscerating.
Maureen Dowd, NYT: Yankee Doodle Donnie
WASHINGTON — Halloween is sugary. Thanksgiving is fattening and fraught. Christmas is expensive. New Year's Eve is annoying. Memorial Day is laced with melancholy. George Washington's Birthday isn't even on his birthday anymore. Columbus Day has some issues.
But we could always count on the Fourth of July.
Such a nice carefree American celebration, smack in the middle of summer, redolent of cookouts and the Beach Boys crooning "Fun, fun, fun," and still on the same day that those wicked-smart guys in Philadelphia pulled off that miracle.
It's a great big national picnic, especially in Washington, where we have a sparkling, sprawling party every year on the Mall. Last year, I went to hear Jimmy Buffett sing with the remnants of the Beach Boys, surrounded by surf boards and beach balls, with pyrotechnics lighting up the monuments.
I must have taken 50 blurry pictures of the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial framed by red and green starbursts. It was one of those nights when you're just happy to be an American.
But now Donald Trump, certified Roman candle, is spoiling America's fireworks show. On a whim, he has decided to bollix up one of the better days in the nation's capital.
Trump is going to turn a holiday that had somehow managed to remain nonpartisan and playful into a MAGA rally, dragging his perpetual resting bitch face and American carnage onto the Mall.
So much for Good Vibrations.
Trump tweeted in February that he was going to hijack the Lincoln Memorial on Independence Day for "Major fireworks display, entertainment and an address by your favorite President, me!" Like no one had ever thought of fireworks on the Mall before.
We got confirmation of his plan while he was in France, sitting by a cemetery full of white crosses for D-Day heroes who fought the Nazis, the scene of his interview with Fox's Laura Ingraham.
Defiling the sacred with the profane, Trump offered his usual bag of arsenic cookies. He talked about what a "fool" Robert Mueller is — even though Mueller is a real war hero, not a bone spurs bloviator. Trump told Piers Morgan on "Good Morning Britain" that he didn't want to fight in Vietnam because "it was very far away, and at that time nobody ever heard of the country." The president is such a scaredy-fraidy that those around him think he can't even summon the strength to look at a Navy destroyer with the name of a dead war hero who defied him.
Trump ranted to Ingraham that "Nervous Nancy" Pelosi is "a nasty, vindictive, horrible person" whose San Francisco district has "drug needles all over the place."
Narcissistic, infantile and heedless of tradition, Trump is now yanking away the one day devoted to celebrating all Americans and rebranding it in his own image. It's one thing to have the TRUMP sign on a hotel or winery. It's another to slap it on the face of the nation.
As Kamala Harris chided: "I think the president needs to realize it's America's birthday, not his birthday."
But patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, as Samuel Johnson said. And Trump has to be first. As Michael D'Antonio writes in his Trump biography "Never Enough," Trump displayed that compulsion early on. When he went with classmates at the New York Military Academy to march down Fifth Avenue in a Columbus Day parade, he found out that some Catholic schoolgirls were lined up ahead of the boys. Trump went to complain and pull strings and got the girls bumped so they marched behind the boys.
When European leaders joined together to endorse a D-Day commemoration, they all put their John Hancocks at the bottom, as expected, while Trump scrawled his signature alone at the top.
The president could have made a nice little speech from the White House and not messed up everything. But now the fireworks will be moved to a park on the Potomac River and the mood will be Yankee, stay home, not Yankee Doodle dandy.
Top House Democrats sent a letter to the White House Thursday asking Trump to reconsider. "For decades, the Fourth of July on the National Mall has been nonpartisan and apolitical," they wrote. "We respectfully call on you to look for ways to complement, not conflict with, the Fourth of July celebration, such as considering an earlier time or alternative location for your remarks."
The one time we'd be happy to pay for one of Trump's incessant golf trips — one estimate put the bill for taxpayers at over $100 million so far — he won't leave.
Petula Dvorak wrote in The Washington Post that it's unseemly to see Trump "stain" the Lincoln Memorial, "the place of reckoning for our great nation's original sin — the practice of slavery and the segregation and racism that still rock this country today." His speech there, she asserted, will be "an affront to President Abraham Lincoln's spare brilliance, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s thundering oratory and Marian Anderson's unforgettable contralto."
The Post noted that past presidents have been far less intrusive: In 1825, John Quincy Adams went to Capitol Hill to listen to a reading of the Declaration of Independence; in 1841, John Tyler served guests soup made from a 300-pound turtle from Key West; and in 1902, Teddy Roosevelt went to Pittsburgh to make a speech.
When George H.W. Bush was a diplomat in China, the Chinese marveled at his energy and christened him "Ants on a hot pan." Trump will have to settle for another moniker: "Ants at the national picnic."
Max Boot, WaPo: Here are seven reasons Trump should be impeached
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's presentation last week, although it contained no new information, has renewed pressure to impeach President Trump. You can debate whether impeachment makes sense politically, but there is no doubt that it is justified legally and morally. There is already more than enough evidence for at least seven articles of impeachment – four more than President Richard M. Nixon would have faced had he not resigned in 1974.
Article 1. Donald J. Trump, in violation of his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has obstructed the administration of justice:
He attempted to fire Mueller. The Mueller report found "substantial evidence . . . that the President's attempts to remove the Special Counsel were linked to the Special Counsel's oversight of investigations that involved the President's conduct."
Trump attempted to curtail Mueller's investigation. Mueller found "that the President's effort to have [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions limit the scope of the Special Counsel's investigation to future election interference was intended to prevent further investigative scrutiny of the President's and his campaign's conduct."
He ordered White House counsel Donald McGahn to falsify the record to conceal his attempts to fire Mueller. Mueller found that Trump "acted . . . in order to deflect or prevent further scrutiny of the President's conduct."
He fired FBI Director James B. Comey, Mueller found, because of "Comey's unwillingness to publicly state that the President was not personally under investigation." Moreover, Mueller wrote, by firing Comey "the President wanted to protect himself from an investigation into his campaign," because he knew "that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal and political concerns." Trump showed awareness of guilt by advancing "a pretextual reason to the press and the public for Comey's termination."
He tried to dissuade Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, and other witnesses from cooperating with the government. The non-cooperation of Manafort and Stone, in particular, made it impossible to establish the exact nature of the relationship between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
Article II. Donald J. Trump, in violation of his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, failed to defend America from foreign election interference. As a candidate, he welcomed Russian intervention in the 2016 election and refused to notify the proper authorities of contacts between his campaign and representatives of Russia and WikiLeaks. As president, he denied that the Russian attack had even occurred, accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin's false denials of responsibility, and showed no interest in determining the full scale of the attack. He repeatedly called the Russia investigation a "hoax" and a "witch hunt" even though Mueller determined "that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election" and that "the matters we investigated were of paramount importance."
Article III. Donald J. Trump, in violation of his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, attempted to investigate and prosecute his political opponents. On three occasions, Mueller found, Trump asked the Justice Department to initiate investigations of Hillary Clinton. More recently, Trump and his attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, attempted to initiate an investigation of Joe Biden.
Article IV. Donald J. Trump, in violation of his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, failed to produce papers and testimony as duly directed by Congress. Trump obstructed at least 20 inquiries relating to his taxes, business records, the Mueller investigation and other matters.
Article V. Donald J. Trump, in violation of federal campaign finance laws, conspired with his attorney Michael Cohen in order to conceal alleged relationships with adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy playmate Karen McDougal before the 2016 election.
Article VI. Donald J. Trump, in violation of his oath to uphold Article 1, section 9 of the Constitution ("No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law"), attempted to misuse his emergency powers to spend funds on a border wall that Congress did not appropriate.
Article VII. Donald J. Trump, in violation of his oath to uphold the emoluments clauses (which forbid the president from accepting benefits from foreign and state governments without the permission of Congress) retains ownership of a global business empire which allows him to benefit from dealings with foreign and state governments.
That Trump is guilty of these offenses – and more – is not necessarily an argument for moving forward with impeachment. That could backfire politically if it results, as it surely would, in a failure to convict by the Republican-controlled Senate. But don't pretend, as do 249 out of 250 Republican members of Congress, that there is insufficient evidence to even open an impeachment inquiry. Trump has committed more criminal and unconstitutional conduct than any previous president in U.S. history. If they refuse to impeach him, members of Congress will violate their own oaths to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Charles M. Blow
Dana Milbank
E.J. Dionne Jr.
Eugene Robinson
Joe Conason


FORCE is the leader in hereditary cancer advocacy. FORCE ensures that the unique needs of the hereditary cancer community?women, men, survivors, previvors, family members and more?are represented in the national and state legislative and regulatory arenas.?This section highlights some of the many issues we address on behalf of our constituents.
FORCE is the only organization that advocates specifically for the needs of the hereditary cancer community. These efforts include legislative, regulatory and research advocacy.
FORCE has a strong record of leadership on key policy issues that affect the hereditary cancer community. We celebrate accomplishments but know there is much more work to be done.
Check out current and past advocacy issues FORCE has addressed in areas including cancer screening & prevention, insurance coverage & barriers, genetic privacy and more.
FORCE partners with other organizations and recommends these useful websites with a focus on cancer, research or genetic rights advocacy.


Living roofs, also known as green roofs, are roofs that have plants growing on them. This includes potted and unpotted plants. Living roofs are layered constructions that take the place of bare roofs, and the plants can either completely or partially cover the roof structure.
Are There Different Kinds of Living Roofs?
The three types of living roofs are intensive, extensive, and semi-intensive, also referred to as semi-extensive. Intensive living roofs are essentially elevated parks, and they encourage human interaction with nature. Intensive living roofs tend to be built on top of industrial buildings because their heavy weight requires a strong, sturdy structure to hold them. On the other hand, extensive living roofs are lightweight and perfect for smaller structures like homes. Unlike intensive living roofs, extensive roofs usually exist solely for their environmental benefits and offer no human interaction except the light maintenance they require. Semi-intensive living roofs combined elements of both intensive and extensive roofs.
The PCEI Nature Center has two living roofs. The first was constructed along with and on top of our straw bale bike pavilion in 2005 with the help of architect student volunteers from the University of Idaho under the direction of Kurt Rathman. PCEI used a variety of geotextiles – absorbent fabrics which help separate, filter, reinforce, protect, and drain when used with soil to build the eight-layered extensive living roof and brought it to life in 2006. The plants chosen are hardy, drought-tolerant spreading stonecrops like Autumn Fire, Dragon's Blood, Red Carpet, Rupestre Angelina, and Vera Jameson.
The second living roof was built on top of the Artist Studio in 2009. The project was one of three community workshops in correspondence with the completion of the Artist Studio. Like the bike pavilion's living roof, the artist studio's roof is extensive and holds drought-tolerant stonecrops that thrive with little maintenance.
Although both are extensive living roofs, each is layered slightly differently and built to fit its unique water-supping structure.
Why Build a Living Roof?
Before beginning a living roof project, it is important to determine the strength of the structure that will hold it. If the structure is not strong enough, you will need to reinforce the roof with a sturdier framework. It is a good idea to consult a structural engineer to determine the safety of your living roof.
Once the safety of the roof is ensured, the living roof construction can begin. Depending on the type of living roof you choose to construct, you will need a variation of layers, however, all three types require a protective barrier, a water drainage layer, a growing medium, and plants. the root barrier stops roots from penetrating he structure below and is a crucial layer because it also stops the roof from leaking. the water drainage layer retains water for plants and directs excess water into gutters. The growing medium should be a mixture of clean soil (potting soils are better than top soil because they are lighter and cleaner), compost, and inorganic material, such as slate, shale. extruded clay, rock wool, lava or pumice. The plant selection will depend on the type of living roof, but for extensive living roofs, hardy, drought tolerant plants are best.


On Wednesday 22 August, the new Food and Digital Technology Hub was officially opened.
Girls in Prep–Year 2 were the driving force behind their own drama project, Tree Tales.
On Thursday 9 August, The Honourable Elise Archer MP delivered the 2018 Travers Morphett Lecture to girls in Years 9–12 and invited guests.
An annual visit Tokyo Jogakkan School in Japan was hosted by Fahan School Year 6 students for six days from Wednesday 25 July.
This week Fahan School students in Years 3-6 have brought some very special magic to the stage in a musical theatre production of Peter Pan.
On Saturday 30 June, Fahan School alumni came together to enjoy a delicious three-course lunch at The Deck Sydney.
Girls from Years 7–12 enjoyed the beautiful sunshine during the annual Winter Sports Day on Tuesday 26 June.
"What do you think about teaching in an all-girls school?" In 10 years as principal of Fahan School, that's the question I have been asked most frequently.
On Friday 1 June, Year 12 girls at Fahan School raised over $10,000 to support their chosen charities, the Pancare Foundation and the Freya Fund, at their fundraising event.
Fahan School entered 43 students in the All Schools Mountain Bike Championship at Glenorchy on Friday 25 May; the biggest team from any school in Tasmania.
On Monday 30 April, Fahan School welcomed staff and students back for the second term of 2018.
Senior girls who are participating in The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award met His Royal Highness Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, at a special event at St Aloysius School.
This year the Kindergarten students are taking part in an Australian Government initiative called Early Learning Languages Program (ELLA).
On Tuesday 6 February, Fahan School opened its doors to welcome all students back to school.
On Monday 27 November, our Year 10 girls embarked on three exciting camps and experienced a wide range of activities.
Thursday 9 November marked the opening of the TCE Art Exhibition showcasing works by Studio Practice and Art Production students.
On Friday 15 September, Fahan School welcomed back over 100 alumni for the annual Alumni Reunion Weekend.
On Thursday 7 September and Friday 8 September, Fahan Year 2 girls staged three delightful performances of Disney's The Aristocats.
Fahan School Year 6 students hosted 22 girls from Tokyo Jogakkan School in Japan for six days from Wednesday 26 July.


Home Unlabelled Welcome to my new blog...!
Hi bloggers...! Maybe you know my from the blog "Tinta Nocturna", but for the new followers, I'm Alan D.D. I'm a writter, poet, and recently, lyricist.
I've placed more than 100 texts in TN, but for some time I have been making them in English, so I decided to create this blog to put them all.
I support free speech, but since the blog I ask you to comment only in English.


text:
Why soft power counts
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Donald Trump
AMIT DASGUPTA
President Donald Trump recently made headlines, yet again. This time he criticised 'friend and ally' India on something that sounded insignificant and yet struck at the core of how foreign policy is being reinvented. Other than by the Americans.
In Trump's view, Indian assistance for building a "library" in Afghanistan was a colossal waste of resources, both time and money. What he had hoped for was direct Indian military involvement in the actual fight against terrorism.
It is worth recalling that over decades, in several countries, the instruments of foreign policy have undergone a radical transformation, including in some instances, the replacement of traditional diplomacy, as we have known it.
In general terms, foreign policy is defined as the pursuance of one's strategic national interests through negotiation, winning friends, and avoiding, as far as possible, conflict or war. Following the Westphalian model, diplomacy emerged as the principal instrument through which this was achieved.
It was and continues to be a strong and successful model where professional diplomats are used to championing or pushing the national agenda.
However, there are historical examples where this instrument has been tweaked to achieve a similar objective more effectively. Governments have, for instance, hand-picked emissaries and able negotiators, outside the formal diplomatic corps, to defuse crises. Or even used a different instrument to reach the same audience and achieve its stated objectives. Often, this had huge security and other ramifications.
Robert Kennedy's secret negotiations with Anatoly Dobrynin, for instance, to end the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 peacefully, is well documented. The negotiations successfully defused a crisis that had all the makings of triggering World War III. On 17 different occasions, Mahatma Gandhi effectively opted for fasting as an instrument of civil disobedience and satyagraha rather than open confrontation — another powerful example where he either quelled rioting mobs or brought combative negotiators to the discussion table.
Such instances, nevertheless, remained within the overall rubric of traditional diplomacy with successful alternative and tweaked approaches.
A shift occurred when the focus on the interlocutor underwent a dramatic change. Traditional diplomacy was essentially an engagement between governments and their stated interlocutors. The public was largely kept out. But when the public or the 'common man' became the target of diplomacy, the game underwent a massive and transformative overhaul. India's "library" in Afghanistan is one such example and a powerful one at that.
As indeed is the relatively little-known 800-year-old Indian hospice in Jerusalem, which was started by an Indian sufi, Baba Farid, who went there from Punjab, a decade or so after Saladin forced the Crusaders out of the holy city. For the thousands of Indian and other Muslims, who have sought and continue to seek shelter for the night during their pilgrimage to Mecca, this is a strong symbol of India in Jerusalem. No traditional diplomacy could ever match the impact this hospice has had on the common people. New Delhi recognises this and has, consequently, supported its upkeep financially. For Trump, this would be a waste of useful resources.
The synagogues of Kolkata, for instance, have been tended to by Muslim families over decades. For over half a century, a Muslim family has been carving headstones for one of India's oldest cemeteries for the dwindling Bene Israel Jewish community in Mumbai. Such instances break the myth and perception that Muslims and Jews, as both a religion and a community, are incompatible. Telling such stories has now become a foreign policy instrument.
Over three decades ago, Joseph S. Nye spoke of 'soft power' as an alternative to 'hard' or military power. The latter, in his view, tended to achieve objectives through military operations and coercion, which would never truly have long-term acceptance. Soft power, on the other hand, "would get others to do what they would otherwise have not." In other words, hard power was meant to threaten and coerce governments, whereas soft power aimed at winning friends and influencing people outside of government. Over time, this became an additional and effective addition to the instruments of foreign policy, as governments across the globe reached out to people in addition to governments.
Several other developments took place during this time. Communications dramatically improved and this impacted the media and its reportage. Its multiplier effect was felt across geographies that went beyond democracies. The Arab Spring, for instance, was people-driven and against what were perceived as oppressive regimes. It started in Tunisia and rapidly spread to Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Government forces understandably cracked down on protesters but, as history demonstrated, governments fell and regimes changed, ushering in greater consultations with people and a more democratic form of governance.
Governments, across the globe, have increasingly come to recognise civil society as an integral instrument of foreign policy. In some instances, the voice of civil society is used to push the government's agenda. This is widely evident in multilateral and plurilateral negotiations, such as on WTO or climate change, where civil society participation is used to buttress the government's position and, indeed, opposition to certain measures advocated by developed countries.
On the external front, India has understood the importance of civil society and embraced soft power as an integral component of its overall foreign policy. The "library" in Afghanistan needs to be seen in this context, as, indeed, should the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in Kabul, which has tended to hundreds of children maimed by the ongoing conflict or the Jaipur Foot, which has provided hope and a future to thousands who lost a lower limb, or both, through terror attacks in Afghanistan.
Trump and US presidents before him fail to realise that the military alone cannot secure the future of Afghanistan. Consequently, Americans are not trusted in Afghanistan nor, indeed, are they likely to be. They are not seen as peacemakers but as an arrogant and occupying force. Indians, however, are seen as trusted friends and allies. Long after the Americans have left and been forgotten as, indeed, the Russians were before them, India will continue to be an integral part of the Afghan worldview and future because New Delhi has been mindful of impacting common Afghans.
We often forget that foreign policy is in a state of continuous evolution and needs necessarily to be so, if it is to be in sync, contemporary and relevant. New instruments need to be constantly added and old instruments recalibrated to enhance efficacy and outreach. The co-opting of civil society was an inevitable part of this process. The day we stop building schools or libraries or hospitals, we will have vastly limited what foreign policy can deliver in terms of people-to-people relations. That would be a sad day, indeed. Fortunately, Indian diplomacy recognises this.
Amit Dasgupta is a former Indian diplomat and the India head of the University of New South Wales, Sydney. The views expressed are his own.
President Donald Trump recently made headlines, yet again. This time he criticised 'friend and ally' ...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
How IIT Delhi surged ahead in management education
MBA Education: IIT Delhi broke into the top five NIRF ranks for management, ahead of several IIMs. Its head of the department explained how.
Seema Sharma, Head, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Pritha Roy Choudhury | Nov 25, 2021 - 3:11 p.m. IST
New Delhi: The Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, broke into the top five ranks of management institutions in the National Institutional Ranking Framework or NIRF 2021. Last year, it was at eight. Seema Sharma, head of the department, spoke to Careers 360 about the rise in the rankings and upcoming initiatives.
Recommended: [Check your admission chances in IITs/ISM based on your JEE Advanced Rank] Start here- JEE Advanced College Predictor]
Q. What initiatives helped IIT Delhi, a technical institution, climb the ranks in management education?
A. We knew that we have to work hard to improve our ranking. We improved on gender diversity. We had more girl students. We worked on the curriculum part also. Apart from the academic delivery – which is classroom teaching – we worked out intensive exercises with the corporations so that our students are useful to the business world from day-one. The business world would often complain about this, generally for all B-Schools, that unless the students are given good training, they are not of much use. So, we worked on that. We improved the teacher-student ratio as we hired more faculty members. And, of course, research. You might observe that we are the highest as far as the research output is concerned. All these measures helped us to raise our position. And I think there is a parameter that is based on the perception of the institute. There has been improvement in that as well.
Also Read: IIT Vs IIM: How the IITs are outpacing IIMs in NIRF rankings
Q. What did you do to improve gender diversity?
A. Whenever we get an opportunity to talk to women candidates, we talk about all the benefits that a candidate will get from the IIT, whether it is entrepreneurial or from the ecosystem, or the curriculum, which is both research-based and intensely connected to the industry. It is just that we put in some extra effort.
Q. What was your experience with placements during Covid?
A. We have always had 100 percent placement. A lot of extra effort was required in this. The entire department worked together, talked to the companies to come for the placement. Initially, students were asked to join online. They were given a VPN number so that they can have access to the intranet of the companies and can start their work and as soon as they were able to, they joined offline.
Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi
Q. Do students get any exposure to actual global practices?
A. We have a Global Field Study (GFS) programme through which we send our students to foreign countries. Connecting with industries abroad gives them a good idea of the international work culture and good exposure to the technologies that are in use in other countries. GFS has been suspended now because of the corona situation. As soon as the normal
life resumes, we will again start sending students.
Also Read: How B-schools became centres of public policy training
Q. What are your plans for the future?
A. We do have plans to start one separate online programme or a blended one-year programme for working executives. Whenever we offer this program, it would be for students of the entire world. It may be blended or it may be online only, the discussions are still on.
What we are planning is that from next semester we will go offline. The number of cases in Delhi has been low for a while, so we will go offline. For us, the usual mode is offline and we want to return to it. We do not have a blended mode of teaching yet.
MBA in sports management fosters lifelong connection with sports for enthusiasts
IIT Delhi to have a Dean for new Office of Diversity and Inclusion: V Ramgopal Rao
Vagisha Kaushik|Jan 13, 2022
IIT Delhi alumnus Mohit Mittal to contribute Rs 11 crores to institute's endowment fund
IIT Bombay professor Rangan Banerjee appointed new director of IIT Delhi
IIT Delhi alumnus Vivek Vaidya to gift Rs 10 crores to institute's endowment fund
IMA, IIT Delhi, JMI among 6,000 entities whose FCRA licence deemed to have ceased
Your IIT Delhi brochure has been successfully mailed to your registered email id "".


Tablists help to split up a page's content into smaller and thus more digestible parts. Each part is minimally represented in a list of names, by which their visibility can be enabled one at a time. Tablists can be thought of as small page fragments inside a page.
Tablists are well known as native controls in many operating systems: a list of controls (usually on top of the element) allows to toggle the visibility of corresponding panels. Only a single control can be active at a time, so exactly one panel is visible and all others are hidden.
We do not call tablists simply "tabs" so the difference to the Tab key is obvious.
The following requirements are based on well established best practices and WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices: Tab Panel Widget.
The meaning and usage of the tablist must be clear.
The state of each tab control must be perceivable ("active/inactive" or similar).
Proper feedback must be given upon activating a tab control ("active" or similar).
The tablist must be operable using both keyboard only and screen reader (with a reasonable interplay of default keys like Tab, Enter/Space, Esc, Arrow keys).
The panel contents must be easily accessible using both keyboard only and screen reader.
Maybe you never noticed that tablists, carousels, and accordions - although looking pretty distinct from each other - all solve a very similar use case: toggling the visibility of contents.
Tablists are the most basic pattern of them all. Carousels then extend it by providing additional controls like previous/next and autoplay/pause button(s). And accordions extend it by stacking all controls and panels on top of each other; in addition, some of them allow to display multiple panels at the same time.
Because of this, the following texts apply not only to tablists, but also to carousels (see Carousels (or: slideshow, slider)) and accordions (see Accordions).
Sensible naming of elements (and a few specifically added visually hidden texts) guarantees that screen reader users know how to handle the element - even if they have not seen any other tablist before.
Tablist help: use the tablist controls to toggle the visibility of their respective panels (below the controls).
Elements are announced properly by screen readers, and it is clearly perceivable which control is active: the one with the active radio button.
Proper feedback is given upon interaction: whenever a control is activated, the screen reader announces the respective radio button's state.
Collapsed panels are hidden effectively from everybody, see Hiding elements from all devices.
The tablist/carousel/accordion's main heading has "tablist/carousel/accordion" appended.
A small help text explains how the tablist/carousel/accordion works.
The controls are named "tablist/carousel/accordion controls" and are placed within a fieldset/legend structure (see Grouping form controls with fieldset and legend).
Each control is named "Show panel X".
Each panel's heading has "panel" appended.
As the whole element is properly marked up with headings, screen reader users can jump very quickly between controls and panels (see How to handle headings).
Using .tablist:focus-within .control label, a style can be applied to all radio button labels upon interacting with the tablist.
This gives users a clue that they are interacting with a single control now (indicating to use the Arrow keys instead of Tab to navigate through tab items).


text:
PTLG Table of Contents > Additional Government Code Provisions > Boundaries > Chapter 8 > Section 54900.1
Provisions Relating to the Filing of Statements on the Creation of a New District or a Change in a District's Boundary
Chapter 8. Boundaries*
54900.1. Tax or assessment levying authority. The tax or assessment levying authority as used in this chapter shall be the governmental body required to levy taxes or assessments by the principal act of the city or district as defined in Section 56065.
History.—Added by Stats. 1971, p. 3515, in effect March 4, 1972. Stats. 1986, Ch. 1019, effective January 1, 1987, substituted "Section 56065" for "Section 56063 of this code" after "defined in".
* The provisions of this chapter, except as otherwise noted, were added by Stats. 1949, p. 318, in effect October 1, 1949.


Links to IES (Illuminating Engineering Society) plain text files for LED lighting products sold by Ecopoint.
IES photometric files are plain text files that contain information enabling light simulating programs to create an architectural simulation of specific lights in situ. All Ecopoint products have an associated IES file to enable lighting designers to work out how an individual luminaire will look once installed.
To access IES files, visit our PRODUCT section and navigate to the product you are interested in. IES files can be downloaded on each individual product page.
Not sure how an IES file works? Ecopoint has a team of friendly technicians who can take the guess work out of lighting a space but creating a lighting design for you.


text:
Q: search post's field in JS I have a blog with posts. I created a search field, where whent you start to write a title of post, on my blog you will have this post. rest of them have display block. My post consists of picture, title and short description.
HTML
.main_content
   .titlePictures
       .blog_img
          img
       .textContent
          .title
             h2
               a Title
          .allTxt

So I prepared a function in pure JS, which handle with this search field. And it works, buuuuut.. I have only a title of this post, no picture and no description. And my function has lot of loops, what I think is not proper :( How can I change this
https://codepen.io/aniaska4/pen/gOOBjwy
   document.querySelector(".search input").addEventListener("keyup", function() {
    let input = document.querySelector(".search input");
    console.log(input);
    const filter = input.value.toUpperCase();
    const title = document.querySelectorAll(".blog .articles .title h2");
      for (let i = 0; i < title.length; i++) {
      let a = title[i].getElementsByTagName("a")[0];
      let txtValue = a.textContent || a.innerText;
      const pic = document.querySelectorAll(".titlePictures img");
       for (let y = 0; y < pic.length; y++) {
        const txt = document.querySelectorAll(".allTxt");
         for (let x = 0; x < txt.length; x++) {
           if (txtValue.toUpperCase().indexOf(filter) > -1) {
           title[i].style.display = "block";
           txt[x].style.display = "block";
           pic[y].style.display = "block";
           } else {
            title[i].style.display = "none";
            txt[x].style.display = "none";
            pic[y].style.display = "none";
          }
        }
     }
  }
});

A: You can use str.search method
Here's a codepen that solves your problem.
I have added all the comments you need to understand the code, please let me know if you need any clarification.
document.querySelector(".search input").addEventListener("keyup", function() {
  let input = document.querySelector(".search input");
  const filter = input.value.toLowerCase();

  // Select all posts
  const posts = document.querySelectorAll(".main_content");

  // Loop on all the posts
  for(post of posts) {
    // Select the title of the post
    let title = post.querySelector('.title h2 a');

    // Search title text by filter
    let found = title.innerText.toLowerCase().search(filter);

    // If found === -1 hide the post, otherwise show it
    post.style.display = found === -1 ? "none" : "block";
  }
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The MeiGray Group Game-Worn Jersey Authentication Program is proud to offer fans and collectors across the globe the opportunity to own a piece of history ... a puck used to score a goal by Zack Kassian of the Edmonton Oilers during the 2018-19 National Hockey League season.
This is the puck that was used by Zack Kassian to score the 62nd goal of his NHL career. The goal, Kassian's 10th of the season, was scored at 6:27 of the first period and was assisted by Leon Draisaitl and Kris Russell. The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-0, on March 2, 2019 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH.
This puck is registered into the MGG Game-Worn Jersey Authentication Program as number MGA13656.


I remember the exact moment when my husband and I decided we were ready to start our family. It was February 2008. We were in our second year of marriage, both had great jobs and were vacationing in the Dominican Republic. I was 28 years old and was sure we had plenty of time to try.
A year went by, and we figured maybe our timing was off. I wasn't worried though hey, I was only 29 years old. We had several friends in our age group, and even older, who were conceiving children with no problems.
"It just wasn't our time yet."
Another year went by and a bit of concern started to creep in -- but so did denial, and I refused to believe that there might be something wrong. Something wrong with me. Something wrong with him. Something wrong with the both of us.
After three years, it was time to get things checked out. I made an appointment with my OB/GYN and she agreed it was time for both of us to get some fertility testing done. I thought that maybe we had some minor issues that would have an easy fix. Maybe we just needed a little help.
It turns out we needed a lot more than just a little help. My husband was diagnosed with a condition that does not completely wipe out the possibility of fathering a biological child, but the odds were certainly not in our favor. I'll never forget the look on his face when we found out this news. It is something that I cannot put into words and it is something that only those couples who have actually received those words can completely understand.
The doctor then informed me that my test results were concerning. My FSH level was elevated, meaning there was a possibility I had issues with my egg quality and quantity. Again, I refused to believe there could be any truth to that. I was only 31 years old.
We attempted our first IVF cycle in July 2011 using my eggs and sperm retrieved from my husband via testicular biopsy. We retrieved four eggs during that cycle. Those with experience in the IVF world know that this was not a great number. The doctors and staff were shocked when all four eggs fertilized and we ended up with four decent embryos.
We soon received word that our pregnancy test results were in and they were negative. I was devastated. We were both devastated. All that work, all those injections, and most importantly, all that hope, was just gone. We were back to square one.
We picked ourselves up and tried again, switching clinics after our second unsuccessful attempt. We were thrilled with our new doctor, who had a very established reputation working with people facing severe fertility issues. He was very honest and direct, which is something we needed on this journey. He referred to us as the "Perfect Storm." I liked that.
Our chances for success were challenging, but I was confident he would do everything he could to help us. And he did. We completed two more cycles, and although my response to the new medication protocol was much better, we still did not have our little baby. We made the difficult decision to try and conceive using a sperm donor and my eggs. But once again, when we did not get our little baby after two attempts using donor sperm, our newfound hope quickly came to an end. At this point (six unsuccessful IVF cycles) I knew in my heart that it was time to consider other options. It was 2013, I was 33 years old, and I was tired.
"We wanted a child. A child to love, to nurture and to raise together with our values. Genetics did not matter."
I accepted the fact that we would not have a biological child. There is a grieving process for this that I cannot explain. It was always fun to dream about our baby having my blue eyes or my husband's beautiful smile. This was not going to happen. It took time, but eventually this became okay. We discussed adoption several times, which is a beautiful thing for so many children and parents. However, as a woman, I had a very strong desire to experience pregnancy. I wanted to experience the morning sickness and the weight gain. I wanted to go to ultrasounds with my husband, and I wanted to experience delivery and birth with him.
Then our doctor introduced us to DEB USA.
Using both frozen donor eggs and donor sperm, it was still possible for me to carry a child. We began the process of applying for the Assured Refund Program in September 2013.
"Frozen donor eggs brought us new hope and another new beginning."
We completed three more cycles between November 2013 and September 2014, but we still did not have our little baby. I came to understand that my body was not responding the way it should.
I understood that we could not conceive a child. I came to terms with that a long time ago. Now I was worried that I would not even be able to carry one.
Our fourth attempt happened in March 2015. We had not given up, but hope was hard to hold onto at that point. We were numb. The process became so routine that it did not really faze either of us. But on May 7, 2015, we received the news that we waited for over 7 years to hear.
Our little baby was finally on her way.
Evelina Jean was born on January 19, 2016. She is the most beautiful gift we ever could've wished for and we are so thankful for those who selflessly donate to help struggling couples fulfill their dreams of having children. All of the frustration, disappointment and pain that we experienced just trying to have her became a distant memory the moment she was born. And we would do it all over again, just knowing that it would eventually lead us to her. The fact that she is not our biological child never even crosses my mind. She is our baby. We are her parents -- her Mommy and Daddy.


I still remember my first stepping foot in Austria. I had just finished up my semester working and studying abroad in London and my mom was meeting me in Europe for a few days of European travel.
After two days in Munich, we decided to take a day trip to Salzburg. My mom is a major Sound of Music fan and I'm a sucker for any of Mozart's symphonies. It was too short a trip to really give us a good idea of what this musical city was all about it if nothing else, I was determined to re-visit for a longer period of time.
So here I am, back in New York after a nearly two week trip to Austria courtesy of their tourism board.
This doesn't happen often, but there are certain places that take hold of me in a way that I forget the day, the time and my general surroundings.
While I spent my trip seeing and doing as much as humanly possible, I did so in a way that wasn't stressful. Something about traveling solo through Austria really sparked a balance within me.
I found myself having profound thoughts about my future and these wanderings allowed me to disconnect from my work mode enough for me to genuinely enjoy the unique experiences I was having in my new happy place.


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O Byale
It's only been five games and the 4 record the Bills currently possess has certainly raised expectations for the final two-thirds of Buffalo's 2019 campaign.
That's exactly what he felt after a collision with Josh Howard in Dallas in November and exactly what he worried about after Atlanta's Al Horford knocked him to the court earlier this month.
• The Fourth Of July, 2020 will be a day of festivity, food and fireworks, but it will be noticeably more subdued than in previous years.
Phoenix Suns Visa Athletic Center, Orlando 9 PM Highest-Paid https://www.footballapparelsproshop.com/Tampa-Bay-77-Jersey 1.
Those are all special moments.
Kawhi Leonard 6.
Johnnie Walker joins a roster of F1 marketing partners that include Rolex, DHL, UBS and Tata.
It's a knockout win for all!
These typically account for about 15% of total ad time and 25% of all spots in the game, per Kantar.
The veteran gave his new team exactly what it envisioned when it signed him: phenomenal defense and a power bat at the bottom of the lineup.
According to Kia, the ad, from lead agency David&Goliath, shows how people across space and time – from a police officer and an international villain to aliens and Poseidon, the king of the sea – will go to great lengths to snatch the all-new Optima from the clutches of others and put themselves behind the wheel.
OHSO Favorite place to visit in Arizona?
Childs has https://www.baseballapparelsshop.com/Los-Angeles-83-74-Jersey on the injured list since Dec.
Saving youth sports is a core mission of our company, and we are excited to partner with to keep more kids playing sports.
David Griffin has received interest from the Knicks and if he's hired, Mills would likely be elevated to president.
Carson Wentz $59 million $55 million $4 million NFL Upcoming Super Bowl Games • Super Bowl https://www.footballapparelsproshop.com/Cleveland-75-Jersey Raymond James Stadium Tampa Feb.
©2012 Argirovi.com
created by Stepan Kucherov


One of the major problems attributed to consumption of nightshades (group of vegetables) are arthritis like symptoms. In fact some researches believe taht arthritis is often misdiagnosed in people who may in fact only be experiencing the effects of nightshades consumptions. Nightshades are specific group of plants belonging to the solanaceae family, includes over 2.000 species. They are also some of the most popular foods consumed today. They include: Tomatos, all types of peppers, potatoes, eggplants etc. There is also blueberries, huckleberries, going berries and ashwaganda (Indian ginseng) They all contain the same inflammation inducing alkaloids. Nightshades induce inflammation through specific chemical known as solanine. This chemical irritates gastrointestinal track. When absorbed in to the blood stream it can cause the destruction of the oxygen carrying red blood cells. Solanine also stimulate parasympathetic nervous system. It leads to excessive build up of acetylcholine (Ach) Alkaloids in nightshades appear to affect metabolism of calcium. Thought not yet understood how, nightshades may remove calcium from bones and deposit it in soft tissue, setting the stage for arthritis. For this reason researchers advice that all individuals wits osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis or other joint problems eliminate nightshades food from their diet. Norman F. Childers, Ph.D., is the founder of the Arthritis Nightshades Research Foundation. He has the following to say on this subject: "Diet appears to be a factor in the etiology of arthritis based on surveys of over 1400 volunteers during a 20-year period. Plants in the drug family, Solanaceae (nightshades) are an important causative factor in arthritis in sensitive people." Nightshades are specific group of plants belonging to the solanaceae family includes over 2.000 species. They are a loss one of the most popular foods consumed today . They include: -Tomatoes (all varieties, including tomatillos) -Potatoes (all varieties, NOT sweet potatoes or yams) -Eggplant (aubergine) -Okra -Artichokes -Peppers (all varieties such as bell pepper, wax pepper, green & red peppers, chili peppers, cayenne, paprika, etc) -Goji berries -Tomarillos (a plum-like fruit from Peru) -Sorrel -Garden Huckleberry & Blueberries (contain the alkaloids that induce inflammation) Soya sous made in the U.S. is generally made with genetically modified (GMO) soy beans, which are cut with the nightshade plant Petunia. A healthier option is to purchase Braggs Amino Acids at your health food store. It is naturally fermented soy sauce and the only other ingredient is spring water….it tastes exactly the same as other soy sauces only this one is pure. There is also blueberries, huckleberries, Goji berries and ashwaganda which contains the same inflammation inducing alkaloids. Nightshades induce through specific chemical known as solanine. This chemical irritates gastrointestinal track and when absorbed in to blood stream it can cause the destruction of the oxygen carrying red blood cells. It's recommended to stay away from this group of vegetables/fruit for three months if you experiencing any symptoms of arthritis, low energy or asthma. After three months begin to reintroduce one nightshade at a time. Take note of any aches, pains, stiffness, and loss of energy, headaches, respiratory problems or any other symptoms. You may find as I did, that the quality of your daily health will dramatically improve after eliminating nightshades from your diet.


Rock Bridge is my favorite short day hike. The trail decsends into a hollow down to Rock Bridge where it spands Swift Creek. One of only a few in the world to do so. This partially paved trail is steep in places but is realitivly eash. The 1.4 mile loop takes about 1.5 hours. Toilets and picnic area are available, water is accessable in the summer months.
0.0 Rock Bridge Trail Head 207, paved trail leads to three sets of steeps cut into the sand stone.
0.1 Wooden bridges, after crossing last bridge small spur trail to right leads to small rock house.
0.2 Rock Bridge Branch to your left.
0.6 Rock Bridge Trail 207 and Swift Camp Creek Trail 219, junction, continue left.
0.7 Trail climbs steedily with some small steeps cut into the sandstone.
Chimney Top overlook has a beautiful view of Half Moon Rock and the lower gorge area. The short .3 mile round trip trail is paved with a wood handrail overlook. The walk is an easy 15 minute walk to the overlook from the Chimney Top parking area. Chimney Top is about 200' high and 600' above Red River.
Princess Arch is an interesting and easily accessible arch located about .2 miles from the Chimney Top parking area. Princes Arch is 32' long by 8' tall this easy hike takes about 30 minutes round trip. Trail begins to the right of the parking area. The trail takes you to the top of the arch.
This short 5 minute unmarked trail begins on the left side of Chimney Top Rock Road about 3.4 miles form KY 715. A sign that reads "Primitive Camp site #4" marks the beginning of the trail, which is directly across the road at the top of a sandy red colored bank. Follow the trail along the ridge top. It drops down and then levels off. Further on it drops again then narrows as you accend the ridge. After a small dip in the trail, the trail leaves the ridge top and works its way down the left side of the ridge. Half Moon Arch is 8' long by 6' tall.
One of the most freqented sites in Red River Gorge. Expect to Sunday Church goers and weekend tourists. As busy as the area is, Sky Bridge is impressive in its size and span. Sky Bridge has two connected openings, the first is 9' long by 6' high, the second larger opeing is 73' by 23' high. The hike to Sky Bridge is short and easy. If you choose the loop trail which takes you below the arch, you have to climb a 77 step stair case.


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It's NOT Divorce Day
Happy Christmas, or is it?
The Judiciary of England and Wales has criticised government plans to raise court fees for divorce to £750.
In an official response to the Ministry of Justice consultation Court fees: proposals for reform, the organisation said:
"Almost certainly, the suggestion would act as a significant impediment to access to justice for many individuals. The great majority of petitioners are women. Many of them will be of limited means, but not entitled to fee remission and the new fee will be unattainable."
Such women may abandon plans to divorce following the increase in divorce costs, and instead set up homes with new partners while still remaining married to official husbands, the response claims.
"Thus, they would lose the many financial and other protections afforded to married women under the existing law. The proposal, therefore, might give rise to an objection that it is indirectly discriminatory because most of the petitioners are women, and because the impact of price increases would affect them disproportionately."
The Judiciary of England and Wales includes judges and magistrates.
The government consultation notes that a fee of £750 would be around three times the actual cost of an average divorce. Even the current fee of £410 already exceeds the administrative costs of an undefended divorce (£270).
The Judiciary said:
" We recognise that it would be not be feasible in the present climate for the Government to reduce the fee to its actual value and to forfeit this revenue of just under £17 million (which equates to more than 10 per cent of the direct judicial costs of the civil justice system as a whole (£161 million))."
The fee increase would raise an additional £40.8 million, and not £30 million as stated by the consultation paper, the Judiciary response noted.
The government consultation on divorce costs also contains a "misconception", it said.
"The justification for the proposal is set out in paragraph 187 of the Consultation Paper: 'We believe that divorcing couples would be prepared to pay a higher fee to complete the dissolution of the marriage. We believe that it is right that those who can afford to pay more should do so to ensure that the courts are properly funded.'There appears to be a misconception that the fee is paid by the divorcing couple. It is paid by the petitioner…"
The response continued:
"In any event, the Consultation Paper advances no evidence either (a) to justify the belief that divorcing couples would be prepared to pay a higher fee to complete the dissolution of the marriage, or (b) to justify the assertion that the captive divorcing market "can afford to pay more". Nor does it explain why it is right that those who can afford to pay more should do so to ensure that the courts are properly funded. We question whether it is appropriate that this particular sector of the litigating community should assume so large a responsibility to fund the courts properly, rather than the general taxpayer."
Divorce | Family Law


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Margo Price delays album release, covers John Lennon's 'Nobody Told Me'
Matthew Leimkuehler
The bad news? Margo Price delayed the release of her new album, "That's How Rumors Get Started."
The good news? She's posted an excellent cover of John Lennon's "Nobody Told Me" with her husband-songwriter Jeremy Ivey.
Price announced Friday that her new LP wouldn't be unveiled May 8, as previously planned. The follow-up to 2017's lauded "All-American Made" and her Loma Vista Recordings debut could more realistically be delivered this summer, she said.
"Sometimes circumstances are beyond our control," Price said. "I would say that's the case for folks everywhere in the world right now. Life is postponed until further notice."
Noting the novel coronavirus impact on the music industry, including vinyl production, Price added: "I want to be able to play this album live and tour with my band all over the world, and I know that time will come. In the meantime, I'm still going to release some singles and be making lots of music for y'all any way that I possibly can."
Price accompanied the news with a Lennon cover, singing from her living room that "Nobody told me there'd be days like these/ Strange days, indeed." She posted the video a day after appearing on an at-home edition of NPR's beloved Tiny Desk concert series.
And those wanting a fix of new Price tunes can still dial into the "That's How Rumors Got Started" hotline (yes, it's a thing). Earlier this month, Price launched a call-in hotline, where callers can hear new music, hear a true or false rumor, leave a message or donate to area tornado victims.
Reach the hotline at 1-(833)-786-6771 and watch the Lennon cover below.
Margo Price and Jeremy Ivey cover John Lennon
Margo Price and Jeremy Ivey on Tiny Desk


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Admissions 2021 - 22
C.S.I. JAC
C.S.I. JAYARAJ ANNAPACKIAM COLLEGE
(Self Financed and Co-Educational Institution)
[Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli]
At the time of Admission, the candidate should produce the following
HSC Mark Sheet with two Photocopies
Conduct Certificate
Community Certificate with a Photocopy
Passport size Photo & Aadhar Card Photocopy
The Candidates are advised to have sufficient number of photocopies of their original certificates before submission at the College Office.
The details of fees structure will be provided at the time of admission
No Donation will be collected
Scholarchips
Various Scholarships are available to the students
Application forms for Scholarships can be had from the College office
Student's Uniform
Students should wear the College uniform only.
The cost of 2 sets of uniform material should be borne by the students
Our College provides hostel only for women students Full time sub-wardens govern the hostel Mess is given based on dividing system.
Registration fee for hostel accommodation is Rs. 1000/- (Rupees One thousand only) Rs.2500/- (Rupees Two thousand Five hundred only) will be collected as establishment charges.
The CSI Jayaraj Annapackiam College, Nallur (Self-Financed and co-educational) is a reputed Institution established in 1997-1998.
How the College Came to be
The College came into being thanks to the vision of our former Bishop in Tirunelveli Rt. Rev.Jason S.Dharmaraj M.A.,B.D., Dip.inTh., The efforts materialized thanks to the munificence of Thiru.Jayaraj Chelladurai, an eminent Industrialist and Philanthropist who came forward to donate a liberal sum of Rs.20,00,000/-(Rupees Twenty Lakhs) which served as the "seed money". The Former Law Minister of Tamilnadu Hon'ble Aladi Aruna rendered us a great help by getting necessary permission from the Government to establish the College. In addition, his family provided us a generous gift in the form of the Administrative block. This was further augmented by another donor , Mr.V.G.R.Simeon (Mumbai, but hailing from Nallur) a retired Chief Executive Engineer, who offered a large amount of Rs.10,00,000/- (Rupees Ten Lakhs) as a generous gift. And with the abundant contribution of other local donors and well wishers, the College came into being. Rev. ARGST. BARNABAS is the Secretary & Correspondent Dr. S. WILSON is the Principal Incharge
Procedure For Admission
After scrutiny of the eligible applications, a list of eligible candidates will be prepared as per community-wise and merit-wise distribution. If selected, fees must be paid immediately. Failing which the seat will be offered to the next candidate in the waiting list.
Application form will be available in the College website www.csijac.edu.in
Cost of Application:
For UG Course Rs.100/- For PG Course Rs.200/-
Application form cost will be collected at the time of admissoin.
One Candidate can apply more than one course at a time. But admission will be restricted to only one course
Language under Part - 1 Tamil
Language under Part II English
B.A. Tamil
B.A. History
B.B.A.(Business Administration)
B.Com.(Corporate Secretaryship)
B.C.A (Computer Application)
M.A.Tamil
M.A. English
Ph.D COURSE
Nallur - 627853 Tenkasi District
www.csijac.edu.in
csijacnallur@gmail.com
© 2021 Online Admission System | Design by G2G Technologies


Hanging up decorations to celebrate Yule, carving pumpkins at Halloween, dancing the Maypole and more – all of these are both modern Pagan activities, folk customs and stuff that kids can get involved with. Those of us who have the honour and delight to be parents get to engage in some very interesting questions when it comes to the relationship between our own spiritual practises and our kids. So what is the context for what's going on? In a significantly secular culture such Britain (around 25% of English citizens describe their religion as 'none') there is a tendency to think that spirituality (or the apparent lack of it) is down to personal choice and conscience. Britain is also a spiritually diverse landscape, the arguable origin of a number of new religious paths (as mentioned HERE). It's also true that the social function of religion in Britain is perhaps different from that of the USA (discussed HERE). So with these considerations in mind how do we, as families, integrate our own spirituality with raising children?
Hanging up the Yule/Christmas/Mithrasmas/Winterval decorations is a good example. This is an embodied practise, one that we can give multiple meanings to. A ritual like this can be something children can enjoy and participate in. In my household I describe what we're doing in, what I hope, is a very open-ended way: 'We're making the house look fun because it's dark and we're going to have a few days holiday where we can watch movies, eat nice food, and snuggle by the open fire. We are celebrating the fact of the longest night, the beginning of the New Year, and the slow return of the light'. Unless they go all Jehovah's Witness when they get older, my approach is also I hope, broad enough that they can appreciate what we did in Pagan, Humanist, Atheist, Christian or other terms and not find it problematic. Of course they also don't have to join in. I'm totally happy to put the tree up and install the ivy myself, but naturally they want to help.
Of course there are lots of parts of my own spiritual life from which my children are excluded. All of the esoteric groups I work with maintain policies that preclude the admission of anyone under the age of at least 18 (even in the informal world of Wicca 30 years ago it was really difficult for me to get involved in a group when I was 16). However in other cultures these things differ. Children are most certainly present at ceremonies such as the Healing Dance of the San people from South Africa. In this rite dancing and singing continues long into the night as people are possessed by spirits (an event, which in that culture is often attended by bleeding through the nose). Mothers sit on the sand with their babies and, at least before they get tired and bored, the younger San kids run around the outside of the ritual space, pretending to get possessed and generally taking the piss out of the shamans in the circle. Just as one might expect.
One of the benefits of my own Pagan spirituality is that it allows me to include my children in the public and gentle ceremonies of celebration (such as the ones that take place at St Nectan's Glen and at many other sacred sites in the British Isles), as well as a selection of domestic traditions. Because these traditions are rooted in the flow of the seasons they are open to interpretation and elaboration in many different ways. Intelligent children (and of course my kids are really bright) readily understand this. My eldest son, many years ago, pointed out that the sun coming back from the solstice of Yule was the same as Aslan in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. And that this was basically the same as the story of Osiris and also Jesus. Personally I tend to avoid names of deities (though we all have a soft spot for Ganesh and through the medium of Marvel comics both my kids are getting more interested in Norse mythology) and instead talk about what we're doing as people connected to the landscape we're in. It's all about relationships and perspectives. So at the Equinox I explain that this time is about noticing that light and dark are equal, and realising that this is one of only two days in the year where the day and night length is pretty much equal all across the whole world. No deities, no rules, do dogma, just a scientific fact that we're choosing to notice and celebrate.
As well as including our children in accessible and culturally appropriate aspects of our spirituality we can also learn from them. For Lammas this year, at the suggestion of my eldest son, we made special biscuits to celebrate the fact that the harvest had come. This has become something of a theme (I mean home-made biscuits! What's not to like?) and so for this Equinox my children made two batches of biscuits which we shared with participants at a public Pagan ritual we attended. Chocolate ones for the dark of the year, and banana and vanilla ones for the light. And so my kids have built for themselves a family and community tradition. I only hope that they don't follow through on some of the more grotesque suggestions they seem to be considering for their Halloween recipe!


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Condado de Allegany (Maryland)
Allegany (Nova Iorque)

Desambiguações de topônimos

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Excellence elevated: The E sets new standard in basketball
By Brooke Robichaux
Published 12:00 am Saturday, January 9, 2021
RESERVE — The East St. John basketball team is hungry for success and working hard to set a new standard.
The Wildcats played the first District game of the year Monday against H.L. Bourgeois and persevered with a 69-63 win in double overtime, pushing the team to an 11-3 record.
First-year coach Antonio Broadway Sr. said the boys have improved offensively since the start of the season. Their communication is strong, and Broadway is always challenging them to break free of their comfort zones on and off of the court.
"I see a lot of progress with what we're doing with The E right now," Broadway said.
"The young men are buying in. They are getting better, and I will tell them every game that my moral for the season is to believe. Believe in the system, believe in what we're doing, and believe in your coach and the process."
Some Friday mornings, the boys will come in as early as 5:30 a.m. to practice. There are days when the team will get there even earlier than their coach.
"We want to change their mindset and do something they've never done before," Broadway said. "With that being said, these guys show up in the morning, and they put in the work. They are working on the little things, and I challenge them on a daily basis. Even before practice and after practice. That's the moral of it – building each other up as young men and as players on a team."
Several returning players have contributed to the depth of the team. Senior Robert Ferrygood is one of the Wildcats' main defensive specialists. The big defender is a multi-year starter who really pitches in, according to Broadway.
"He works hard, and he's the first one at practice every day," Broadway said.
Jahyrie Victor, another senior on the team, is playing his first full season and embracing his new leadership role. He is also known for handling the ball well, according to Broadway.
Junior Collin Harris is another standout guard averaging approximately 17 points per game. Harris recently returned from football season and is strengthening his basketball team.
Junior Warren Snyder III is one of the most consistent shooters on the team, averaging about 10 points per game.
Sophomores Amir Rios and John Bowser are two of the younger guys on the team, but you wouldn't be able to tell by size alone. Bowser stands 6'5" and is averaging 19 points per game. Rios is about 6'3" and averaging roughly 14 points per game. Broadway said he relies on Rios a lot during games.
The basketball season kicked off in the second half of November as East St. John collected early wins against Amite, Tara, Lafayette Christian and Family Christian. The Wildcats stumbled in the next game against Tara and took another defeat against Cecelia, though both games were lost only by narrow margins.
East St. John performed well in the Westminster Christian tournament in December, earning four consecutive wins against Loreauville, St. Charles, Family Christian and Delcambre. The Wildcats also defeated Ascension Catholic and opened the new year with wins against East Iberville and H.L. Bourgeois.
As of press time Friday, East St. John was preparing for a District match against Hahnville. The next scheduled game is against Walker on Jan. 13, followed by a District game against Destrehan on Jan. 15.
Throughout January and February, East St. John will be pitted against Terrebonne, Thibodaux, Central Lafourche and other talented 5A teams.
"It's a tough district. We have to come in and be ready to fight," Broadway said. "We have to have a game plan and game change to be victorious. We're looking to push a new standard, and I love the direction that we are headed with The E."
The Riverside Academy girl's basketball team may be young, but these Lady Rebels aren't lacking when it comes to talent.... read more