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Tag: horror
On THE TURNING
Director Floria Sigismondi delivers a serious-minded, stylish and surreal fever dream
Somebody somewhere screwed up the story and spread the belief that all horror movies had to tear you to pieces, saturating the screen with sadism and nihilism and other sorts of negative isms. They forgot that once upon a time, people turned to darker filmed fantasies to immerse themselves in beauty, to experience a sort of sinister, out-of-body, sensorial trip; to lose oneself in a work of macabre imagination, of somber moods and grandiose imagery. I can't be sure exactly when jolts and jumps and spoon-fed, mundane logic superseded aesthetics in horror, but I know how lousy I feel when the world shrugs its shoulders in the wake of the release of a film – and a filmmaker – who has NOT forgotten what the essence of the genre is.
Such a picture is THE TURNING, and such a director is Floria Sigismondi, the artist whose landmark work making videos for David Bowie and Marilyn Manson (and many, many others) defined the look and feel of darker rock 'n' roll in the 1990s. Her 2010 feature film debut THE RUNAWAYS was a logical extension of her love of sound and image, telling the story of Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) and the titular band in a visually flashy fashion. But that movie's greatest power was when it dialed things down, when it focused on faces, inner voices and emotion. The brief sequence where a tired, homesick Currie hears Don McLean's "Vincent" on the radio during a drive between gigs is in itself a small, moving piece of cinema as poetry and secretly encapsulates everything the movie is about. Her second film, the recently released THE TURNING is indeed a horror picture, yet another dive into the well-worn weird-world painted in Henry James' novel "The Turn of the Screw". And while the trailer for this one speaks to appeal to the Friday night Blumhouse crowd, its PG-13 rating inviting almost all audiences in to see it, the actual film itself is something else, or rather it slowly, surely, becomes something else. In fact, THE TURNING has the ultimate effect of actually turning, of rotating, sensually, seriously. It's a movie that begins as a whole and then sort of melts into a swirling death-pool of subconscious imagery and primordial terror. In other words, it's the work of a great artist trying to remind the world of the real deal power of horror cinema and what it can do to its audience.
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alexanderonfilm Uncategorized Leave a comment January 28, 2020 February 2, 2020 4 Minutes
Interview: Norman J. Warren
A career discussion with the legendary British exploitation film director
The eccentric exploitation films of British filmmaker Norman J. Warren are certainly flawed and nowhere near as angry or socially-minded as his contemporary, Pete Walker, but they have a charm all their own.
Films like INSEMINOID (aka HORROR PLANET), PREY (aka ALIEN PREY), TERROR, SATAN'S SLAVE and of course, his final film to date, BLOODY NEW YEAR, offer nothing save 90 minutes (or less) of pure, down and dirty phantasmagorical escapism; well-crafted genre romps made to distract, shock and titillate.
And there's nothing wrong with that at all.
Warren's roots were in short films and eventually included, as many European genre director's early credits did, soft core porn comedies; but it is with horror and dark fantasy that we concern ourselves and that put the charming director on the small stretch of the cult film map he now occupies.
So then, in honor Vinegar Syndrome's delicious recent Blu-ray re-release of his first horror movie, 1976's SATAN'S SLAVE, we're happy to present this interview with the one and only Norman J. Warren.
ALEXANDER: After your initial short film experiments in the mid '60s, your first feature-length picture was 1968's HER PRIVATE HELL, a naughty film, no?
WARREN: Yes, it was! There were of course many films like it around from Germany and Sweden, sexploitation films we called them then and still do, but none really that were made in England. So when Her Private Hell came along, it suddenly became this enormous hit and I think that it was because it was homegrown. It was also one of the first sex films to really tell a coherent story. So while it was still pretty far from being a great film, it was unique and box office wise it was an amazing hit, which did me a world of good, I assure you!
ALEXANDER: The BBFC have always been notorious for their hatred of horror…but what were their views on the sexploitation film? How much could you show without getting your figurative knuckles rapped?
WARREN: If you were to see HER PRIVATE HELL now, it would seem innocent, naïve and really, it was never that bad. But still, the censor was very particular about what you could put on screen. If you had a bare breast you couldn't show the nipple. And of course the guy still had to keep his pants on in bed or else you had to cover him with a sheet. So it was a very innocent time. My film did run into trouble, however, even though most of my nudity was only shown from the rear. I made only one more sexploitation film called Loving Feeling the following year – in color and in cinemascope – and by that time the censor had relaxed. We could at this point show the nipple and show SOME female frontal nudity. Things were beginning to change.
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alexanderonfilm Uncategorized Leave a comment September 5, 2019 March 11, 2021 6 Minutes
On MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
Words on a rock 'n' roll trash horror classic
It's taken Stephen King's MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE thirty years to get any sort of authentic respect and I don't even think it's quite there yet. Thing is, I've loved it since the first time I saw it and, as it features a full soundtrack by iconic Aussie rockers AC/DC, heard it. Leonard Maltin gave it a BOMB rating and virtually every other critic of the period saddled it with the same sort of sneering disdain.
To be an 11 year old boy in 1986 and stand up and say "FUCK YOU! I LOVE MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE!" took courage. I ran the risk of spinning into the roll of cinematic social outcast, shunned by my peers and ridiculed by my pals.
But I've never really been one to give a gear what anyone else thinks about me so what the hell.
MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE is a hubcap headed, gas spitting 1986 sci-fi action trash classic; the first and – if you believe his publicly uttered promise since then – only film to be directed by one of the most influential and Important fantasy/horror fiction writers in history. The film was indeed one of the worst reviewed studio pictures of its time and it has since been either ignored, reviled or smarmily dismissed. And while the diesel powered shocker is indeed nowhere near a decent creeper and is a pretty odd choice for one of the major forces of literary fear to choose as his maiden film voyage, I think it's a fascinating example of the working class hero King aesthetic in full, perversely amplified effect and truly believe that there's more going on in the picture than perhaps even its director understood.
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alexanderonfilm Uncategorized Leave a comment August 12, 2019 August 12, 2019 4 Minutes
On NIGHTWING
A look at the underrated 1979 evil bat thriller
Director Arthur Hiller's NIGHTWING is one of a handful of films that trade in the terror of killer, disease-ridden bats, a loose, unofficial subgenre that seemingly doesn't command much fan enthusiasm. And while 1974's future-shock chiller CHOSEN SURVIVORS remains my winged-rodent romp of choice, NIGHTWING flies not too far behind.
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alexanderonfilm Uncategorized 1 Comment November 20, 2018 November 20, 2018 2 Minutes
On MANDY
Acclaimed hallucinatory horror drama is now on Blu-ray
There's a primal, animal power that propels director Panos Cosmatos's acclaimed experimental horror head-trip MANDY. A kind of danger pulsing beneath its arcane imagery, bubbling-forth from its moaning electronic music and arch, hissing dialogue. The film just feels alien. It feels evil. It courses with a sort of seething darkness and descends into such brain-swelling madness that you can almost smell it.
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alexanderonfilm Uncategorized 1 Comment October 31, 2018 November 20, 2018 3 Minutes
Interview: Nicky Henson on PSYCHOMANIA
A conversation with the star of the classic British exploitation movie
From its first dreamy frames, as a gang of leather clad, skull faced bikers poured into black leather come charging over a mist drenched hill in slow motion, to its final surreal wind down, with men, women and motorcycles morphing into massive tombstones, to all its cheeky, wonderfully lunatic mayhem in the middle, cinema history has never, ever seen the likes of a picture quite like Don Sharp's unapologetically mental PSYCHOMANIA.
Released in 1971 (in some markets on a double bill with the equally nuts WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS) and made to crassly ride the coattails of EASY RIDER, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with perhaps a dash of ROSEMARY'S BABY added for supernatural spice, PSYCHOMANIA (filmed as THE LIVING DEAD and also known as THE DEATH WHEELERS) is an artifact of post-mod, British kitsch, admired with irony and worshiped by millions, perhaps thousands, even dozens of cult movie fans around the globe.
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alexanderonfilm Uncategorized Leave a comment October 11, 2018 December 16, 2019 7 Minutes
On MARY, MARY, BLOODY MARY
Words on the undervalued erotic vampire drama
Mexican horror filmmaker Juan Lopez Moctezuma's 1975 American co-production MARY, MARY, BLOODY MARY is a true anomaly. On one hand, it's an obvious – if somewhat late-from-the-gate – entry into the "lesbian vampire" cycle of exploitation film that reigned throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. It certainly is kin to movies like Jess Franco's VAMPYROS LESBOS, the Hammer Horror riff on Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla" THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and especially the Stephanie Rothman directed, Roger Corman produced Southern California sex-vamp oddity THE VELVET VAMPIRE. And yet there's so much more going on within its meandering running time. And while it lacks the stylistic flourishes of earlier Moctezuma fever dreams like THE MANSION OF MADNESS and ALUCARDA, it is no less hypnotic and surreal, albeit in a much different, much more manic way. It often feels like a perversion of a 1970's American prime time drama, complete with wonderfully tacky lounge music, eye-level framing and brightly-lit action. Hell, even the fonts used for the opening titles feel like they're ripped right out of FANTASY ISLAND. But every time MARY, MARY, BLOODY MARY settles into some class of clean, safe, even borderline banal groove, Moctezuma steers it into absolute insanity. There are plenty movies like it and yet…there's nothing quite like it.
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alexanderonfilm Uncategorized October 8, 2018 November 20, 2018 3 Minutes
On THE ULTIMATE THRILL
Long lost "ski-sploitation" thriller is ripe for rediscovery
In the pantheon of stories distressingly over adapted and ripped-off for cinema, Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game sits high on the list. The story tells the tale of a wealthy hunt-happy lunatic who shifts his interests into stalking humans to be his next trophies, setting his "guests" loose on his remote property to give them a sporting head start. It's a great premise that has both an allegorical sting, a haunting anti-hunting soul and both hardcore action and blood-chilling horror.
And while there have been a handful of "legitimate" versions of the tome made (most impressively, the 1932 same-named Fay Wray riff), it's the ripoffs that are the most fun, everything from 1982's Turkey Shoot to 1993's Hard Target to 1994's Surviving the Game, movies that freely steal the premise and pervert it to their own ends. Lost amidst this slew of awesomely low-grade films is the totally bonkers 1974 sleaze-fest The Ultimate Thrill (aka The Ultimate Chase). The movie is directed by the late Robert Butler, a veteran TV hack (and we're not saying that to be derogatory) who steered episodes of everything from the '60s Batman show to Kung Fu to The Waltons to the small screen. But The Ultimate Thrill is one of his few feature film undertakings and I'll be damned if it doesn't feel like a TV movie, albeit one armed with a bigger budget that presumably paid for the hospital bills for the myriad hot dogging skiing stuntman who fly off mountaintops like clockwork.
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alexanderonfilm Uncategorized Leave a comment September 21, 2018 November 20, 2018 3 Minutes
On the Original PLANET OF THE APES Films
A brief look back at the original 1968 classic and its essential sequels
Recently, I took my three little boys to see a revival screening of what is still one of my all-time favorite motion pictures and a work of daring, groundbreaking popular science fiction that has long ago attained the status of myth. I'm speaking of Planet of the Apes, a picture I was obsessed with as a child and – thanks to the nurturing influence of my Uncle and his own passion for the movie – became part of the fabric of my life. The toys, the sequels, the short-lived television show, the mass-merchandising and most importantly, the dark, cerebral moralist spine of the series, one that was put in place by a draft of the script penned by my hero, The Twilight Zone architect Rod Serling. Sure, Pierre Boulle's novel "Monkey Planet" was the source of the story, but that book trades in social satire while the resulting hybrid motion picture and the legacy of entertainment that followed, was most assuredly a byproduct of the late-60's and early 70's cultural fixation of future-shock tales of terror. Indeed Planet of the Apes was my first real taste of heady, grimly prophetic and sophisticated fantasy filmmaking, one that was charmingly washed down with those iconic make-up designs, lively dialogue, primal action and appealing – to a child – genre tropes. It was and remains a work of startling art and the films that followed both built on, fumbled and re-directed its messages in fascinating ways.
Continue reading "On the Original PLANET OF THE APES Films" →
alexanderonfilm Uncategorized 1 Comment September 13, 2018 November 20, 2018 5 Minutes


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Netflix shares surge as it reverses subscriber slump | Business and Economy News
From July through September, Netflix added 2.4 million new subscribers worldwide, more than double the forecast.
Reversing subscriber losses, Netflix Inc offered a slightly more optimistic outlook than Wall Street had anticipated, with a forecast that a new ad-supported streaming option would help it add 4.5 million subscribers by the end of the year.
Netflix shares are up nearly 14 percent in after-hours trading. The company's stock, an investor favorite during its years of rapid growth, was down almost 60 percent this year ahead of the earnings report.
From July through September, Netflix added 2.4 million new subscribers worldwide, more than double the consensus forecast of 1.07 million by analysts polled by Refinitiv.
During the quarter, Netflix released the final episodes of the sci-fi hit Stranger Things, as well as serial killer series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which became one of the most-watched Netflix series of all time.
The streaming giant is working to spur membership growth after a sudden drop in the first half of the year, when the company's subscriber base shrank by 1.2 million amid a troubled global economy and growing competition for online video viewers. Netflix now has a total of 223.1 million subscribers around the world.
Most established services are no longer growing in the United States, where the market has matured. Newer entrants, like Paramount Global's Paramount+, are gaining market share thanks to live sports programming.
In its quarterly letter to shareholders, Netflix noted that streaming media companies are losing money trying to attract viewers.
"Our competitors invest heavily to grow subscribers and engagement, but building a large, successful streaming business is difficult," the letter reads.
READ : Biden says Republicans will purposely hurt economy to cut Social Security
Netflix estimated that its competitors would end 2022 with combined operating losses of "well over $10 billion," compared to Netflix's annual operating income of $5 billion to $6 billion.
Competitors like Walt Disney Co run multiple businesses, including television networks and theme parks, to help offset streaming losses.
For the third quarter, Netflix beat Wall Street forecasts with revenue of $7.9 billion, up 6 percent year-on-year. Earnings were $3.10 per share.
The company's forecast of 4.5 million customer pickups by the end of 2022 was slightly ahead of Wall Street estimates, which had averaged 4.2 million. For the fourth quarter, Netflix is forecasting $7.8 billion in revenue — a sequential decline attributed to the strong US dollar.
Netflix is launching a $7-a-month streaming plan with ads in early November to lure cost-conscious customers, a move executives have long resisted.
PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said he expects some of Netflix's current subscribers to switch to the cheaper plan.
"Some will downgrade or choose to return to Netflix," Pescatore said. "The move is both about retaining users and signing up new ones."
Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, and other companies also offer or plan to offer ad-supported viewership options.
While Netflix is making various changes to spur growth, the company said it remains committed to producing original programming and releasing all episodes at once to allow for binge-watching.
"We believe that allowing our members to be immersed in a story from start to finish increases their enjoyment, but also their likelihood to tell their friends, which then means more people watch, join and stay with Netflix ' the company said.
READ : Biden touts recent IBM, Micron investments amid broader economic concerns
A new season of British royal drama The Crown and a sequel to the 2019 film Knives Out will also be released in the fourth quarter.
Tags: business, business and economy, ECONOMY, entertainment, financial markets, Internet, Netflix, News, Reverses, Shares, slump, Subscriber, surge, TV, United States, USA & Canada
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Bypassing McConnell: Democrats push Biden to aggressively use executive power
The president-elect may be the first to enter office in decades without his party controlling Congress.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Ed Markey.AP/Reuters
Nov. 21, 2020, 3:28 PM UTC / Updated Nov. 21, 2020, 3:32 PM UTC
By Sahil Kapur
WASHINGTON — Democratic senators are calling on President-elect Joe Biden to use executive power to advance goals such as tackling climate change, relieving student debt and creating a more progressive immigration system.
The calls from senators reflect a recognition that Democratic lawmakers may not be able to pass a transformative legislative agenda after underperforming in congressional races. And unless Democrats win two Georgia Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, Biden will be the first president since 1989 to enter office without his party controlling both chambers of Congress.
"The president-elect, beginning on January 20, should act as aggressively as possible to reverse the effects of the four years of Donald Trump and to advance a more positive and effective agenda to make the United States the leader in fighting the climate crisis," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.
He said Biden can re-enter the U.S. into the Paris climate accord and slap new fuel economy standards on vehicles and energy-efficiency requirements on appliances. Markey said Biden should "test the outer limits of his powers" through administrative action.
The push for executive action is also an attempt to nudge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., not to stonewall Biden's agenda, by dangling the prospect of going around Congress, as President Donald Trump often did with Republican support.
"I think President Biden has significant executive power. And anybody who doubts it? Look at his predecessor," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
President-elect Biden meets with top Democrats to discuss policies
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who led a 263-page Democratic report on climate action, said the president has "enormous power" over the issue through international accords and within agencies.
"From Treasury to State to Interior and the financial regulators, climate action and climate risk management has to be infused into literally everything," he said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have pushed for Biden to use his powers under the Higher Education Act to cancel up to $50,000 in debt for federal student loan borrowers.
McConnell maintains control of the Senate, at least for now, and such action would be a point of contention for moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who have called on Biden to govern through bipartisanship and consensus.
Even if Democrats capture both Georgia seats and take control of the Senate, McConnell would retain the power to filibuster legislation and force a 60-vote threshold. And Democrats' shrunken House majority shortens Speaker Nancy Pelosi's runway to pass major legislation.
Some Democrats fear a repeat of what occurred under the previous administration.
"My concern is — we all know what happened with Barack Obama. Mitch McConnell came right out of the gate and just said my big goal is to keep Barack Obama from getting a second term," Wyden said. "So the question already is: Is he teeing this up for the same sort of strategy?"
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii., said Biden "should be looking at executive actions."
"He's not going to let the Senate and Mitch McConnell — if he still is holding forth — to stop what we need to be doing for our country," she said.
Hirono said that if Biden's nominees are blocked by the Senate, he should take a page from Trump's playbook and unilaterally appoint them in temporary or acting capacities.
"We've watched Mitch. He's ruthless," she said. "And he apparently doesn't care about the impact of his blocking everything on the country. He's done it before."
A McConnell spokesperson didn't return an email seeking comment Friday.
Jeff Hauser, a progressive strategist who runs the Revolving Door Project, which vets Cabinet appointees, said Biden shouldn't wait for Congress to pass new laws but should look for existing laws to advance his agenda. He said that climate regulations can be beefed up through the 1963 Clean Air Act and that corporate excesses can be curtailed using the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act.
"You don't necessarily need to pass new laws to solve problems. You can implement old laws," Hauser said. "Our basic message is that each agency and department should utilize the statutory tools at their disposal to make positive change, rather than waiting for some complicated sequential game developed by the White House and Congress."
The courts could be a hurdle for Biden. The Supreme Court's new 6-3 conservative majority may have a more limited view of the extent of Biden's executive authority after Republicans replaced the late liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg with conservative Amy Coney Barrett one week before the election.
Hauser urged Biden not to be "intimidated" by potential court defeats, arguing that a judicial blockade of popular policies could be useful as a campaign issue in the 2022 midterm elections.
"Biden's going to need to be willing to lose on occasion to clarify the stakes, rather than avoiding potential defeat at all costs, which at times was a guiding mentality in the Obama years," he said.
Jamal Brown, a spokesman for Biden's transition team, said his agenda will include executive power.
"President-elect Biden is taking action now to address the devastating COVID-19 pandemic and implement his agenda on Day One, using both executive action and legislation, to build a more resilient and sustainable economy, fix our broken and unjust immigration system, ensure every American has a fair shot into the middle-class, and create millions of good-paying union jobs," Brown said.
Sahil Kapur
Sahil Kapur is a national political reporter for NBC News.


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La urticària colinèrgica és una forma d'urticària on es manifesten alteracions de les vies colinèrgiques. Els símptomes i signes clínics son l'aparició d'urticària i picor a les zones afectades que són en general coll, pit i esquena. Les causes es remunten a un esforç físic excessiu, ansietat, sudoració excessiva, i qualsevol altre tipus similar que involucra l'estimulació de les terminacions nervioses que normalment responen a la sudoració de la persona. A més de la història es pot fer la prova de la metacolina, en la qual s'injecta en la persona i s'observa la reacció (formació de més erupcions). Darrerament, a aquest examen es prefereix el d'esforç, que és més precís. El tractament és farmacològic, amb administració d'antihistamínics.

Referències

Vegeu també
 Angioedema

Bibliografia

Malalties i trastorns del sistema integumentari

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Arkansas Baptist News
IMB, SBC News
Moldovan Baptists take sheets off their beds for Ukrainian refugees
IMB, SBC, Ukraine
Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, Moldova, a small and impoverished nation bordering Ukraine, has received an estimated one refugee for every 25 Moldovans. Most refugees are being housed and cared for by churches in the Moldovan Baptist Union.
Ion Burlacu, left, and Ion Miron, right, pray for a Ukrainian-Korean woman staying in Bozieni Children's Home. Burlacu is a pastor and director of the children's home, and Miron is the Baptist General Secretary of the Moldovan Baptist Union. The woman and her family fled the violence in Ukraine and found refuge in the children's home. IMB Photo
The Moldovan Baptist Union has more than 400 churches. When the invasion started, Moldovan Baptists worked quickly to create a safe space for refugees – constructing a chapel hall in a day, building an attic to accommodate more refugees, using a children's summer camp as a refuge and summoning volunteers to cook three meals a day.
Already known for their hospitality, Moldovans' generosity only increased after refugees began making hazardous journeys across the border. Elderly men and women stripped the sheets off their beds to give to refugees. Gas prices emptied wallets, but that didn't stop Moldovan churches from sending vans to the border to pick up refugees.
Moldova was once an agricultural mecca, viewed as the breadbasket of the Soviet Union, with farmland with rich soil and grapevines that stretch for miles. When the Soviet occupation ended, Russia took all the farm equipment and infrastructure that once made Moldova so prosperous. The economic consequences were devastating – Moldova has Europe's lowest GDP per capita.
For Moldovan Baptists, it was never a question of whether they would give whatever it took to help Ukrainians. Jesus told them to love their neighbor, and so they are.
Ion Burlacu, left, pastor and director of Bozieni Children's Home left, listens to Ion Miron, Baptist General Secretary of the Moldovan Baptist Union, share about the overall refugee outreach in Moldova. Burlacu and church members at their church were in the process of converting the attic into a room to house refugees. IMB Photo
Slavic Duman is the pastor of Dancu Baptist Church in Dancu, Moldova. The congregation converted the church into a sanctuary for refugees. The building was recently remodeled, and just in time. They are now equipped to house refugees staying a short time or even long term.
In addition to housing refugees, the church also provides counseling. Duman said Moldovans' generosity moved many Ukrainians to tears.
"We came to these people. They are poor. How will they take care of us?" Duman said he heard from some refugees. "They know that Moldova is a poor country, and they don't want to be a burden for us."
"We have so many brothers and sisters in Christ from America and other countries that pray for you. They are helping us so that we can help you," Duman tells them.
After realizing the immense need for housing, Ion Burlacu, a pastor and the director of Bozieni Children's Home in Bozieni, Moldova, converted the second floor of the building to house refugees. Realizing the opportunity they had to minister spiritually to refugees, he and others built a chapel in one day. With the new-paint smell lingering, the space was immediately put to use. The children's home can house 117 people. By the end of March, the church had housed 214 refugees.
A Moldovan believer paints a newly built bed that will be used by Ukrainian refugees in Bozieni Children's Home in Bozieni, Moldova. IMB Photo
Outside the church, men were quick to work. The metallic whir of metal grinders reverberated as workers built metal bed frames to hold donated mattresses. Workers were also in the eaves moving plywood to build an attic to place more mattresses.
Over a feast of freshly prepared traditional Moldovan food, and with the presentation of a fine-dining restaurant, Burlacu said the refugees asked why they were going to such great lengths.
"This question is how we start our discussion with them and present Christ to them," Burlacu said.
Every refugee who passes through the children's home hears the Gospel and many want to know more.
"If they come today, and we know that tomorrow they will go, we will do our best, everything we can, to share the Gospel, because we don't know if they will have another chance to hear the Gospel," Burlacu said.
He said refugees ask difficult questions like, "Why is this happening," and "Why would God let this happen?"
He said they don't have the answers, but they tell them they know God is in control.
A Ukrainian-Korean woman staying in the home said she and her daughters and grandchildren walked nine miles to the border in the cold and found a van from Bozieni Children's Home.
The matriarch broke down and covered her face to hide her pain and tears.
"We walked so far, so, so far," her voice broke, the journey weighing heavily on her.
During Stalin's reign, Koreans living on the Russian side of the border of Russia and North and South Korea were scattered and dispersed across the Soviet empire to prevent any uprisings and dissent. Many Koreans were relocated to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and some, like this family, moved to Ukraine.
Faced with another generational forced migration, the Korean-Ukrainian family found solace in a Moldovan children's home.
Burlacu said they take to heart Matthew 7:1, treating neighbors as they want to be treated.
"The whole church understood this is our calling," Burlacu said.
Their calling to serve does not have a time limit. Refugees in both Bozieni Children's Home and Dancu Baptist Church can stay as long as they want.
"We want to acknowledge that we are a bit tired, but at the same time, we also feel encouraged," Burlacu said. "We have gratitude, their thanks and their hugs. It shows us how grateful they are and how encouraged they are. The church also understands how God works through us during this time.
"We are more encouraged than tired. Tiredness is for a short time, but the joy we experience is for eternity."
This article was written by Caroline Anderson*, writer for IMB. It was republished on baptistpress.com.
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Please be aware there may be video recording and/or photography of audience members taking place throughout the day. By entering the theatre, you consent to your voice, name, image, and/or likeness being used, without compensation, by the Auditorium Theatre, in any medium of publicity or advertising, and you release the Auditorium Theatre, its members, agents, employees, and board from any liability.
By entering the theatre, you may be subject to an airport-style security screening.
The Patron Services Office is located just inside Aisle One (1) of the main floor and is open during all performances to assist guests with any needs. Should you need to reach Patron Service via telephone, please call 312.341.2389.
Concession stands are located in the main and third floor lobbies for all performances and additional stands may be added for certain performances. Outside food and beverages are not allowed in the building. Generally, with the exception of bottled water, all purchased snacks and beverages must be consumed in the lobby. Occasionally, drinks may be allowed in the seating area – Ask any member of our concessions or usher staff about the performance you are attending.
A courtesy phone for local calls is available in the Patron Services Office.
Coat Check is seasonal and located in the main floor lobby between Aisles 2 and 3. The cost is $4 per item. Furs are not accepted.
Found articles should be left with the Patrons Services Office located in Aisle 1 of the main lobby. To determine whether a personal article has been turned in to the Lost and Found, please call 312.341.2389. Any items lost or presumed stolen are not the responsibility of the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University.
Please call our Patron Services Office at 312.341.2389 with additional inquiries.


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Home > Planting a Beachhead in Maine
Planting a Beachhead in Maine
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by John W. Kennedy on November 18, 2019
HAVERHILL, Massachusetts — Northpoint Bible College & Graduate School in Haverhill has a new ministry task: overseeing a church revitalization effort of Mount Zion Chapel in Wells, Maine.
Every Sunday, half a dozen students make the nearly one-hour drive from the campus north of Boston, across a sliver of New Hampshire, and up the southern Maine coast for services. Northpoint Bible College took ownership of the independent Pentecostal church and 35 surrounding wooded acres in September.
Many New Englanders consider Wells the ultimate vacation destination, but the Northpoint crew have a more spiritual objective. They are holding Sunday services at the church (students are required to make a yearlong commitment to assist in ministry at a church within a one-hour radius of the school). Recent Northpoint graduate Thierry Mugabe recently moved to the resort town of 9,700 and is team leader scheduling the order of services. The local population swells to 75,000 during summer.
Mugabe is the church's point person in Wells, which is located just south of Kennebunkport. Mugabe, who graduated from Northpoint in May with a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies, is connecting with people in the community while he works a full-time job in the shipping department of a local candle manufacturer.
The African native is noticeable in the whitest state in the U.S. (Wells is over 97 percent Anglo according to the last U.S. census). Mugabe says he has felt accepted since moving. Wells, founded in 1643, is the third oldest community in the state.
Christine Gibson, who started Mount Zion Bible School — now Northpoint Bible College — also planted the Mount Zion Chapel 75 years ago. Attendance at the only Pentecostal church in town had dwindled to 15 regular worshippers. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives, 69 percent of the county's 197,131 residents have no religious affiliation.
Mugabe is crafting the church's website and social media presence. He leads worship and preaches at some services. Mugabe lives in an apartment next to the church.
While a toddler, Mugabe and his family fled their home in war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. He spent the next 18 years in a Rwandan refugee camp, where his father, Patrice, died in 2000.
The camp housed 19,000 refugees. Food shortages occurred regularly and diseases spread rapidly. Fear, depression, and hopelessness pervaded the camp.
Mugabe's life began to turn around when he accepted Jesus as Savior while a teenager in 2011 and immediately sensed a missionary calling.
"Since the day I got saved, I have wanted to preach the gospel so other people could be saved," says Mugabe, 26. Two years later, at the age of 20, Mugabe's mother and four siblings — who now all live in Texas — gained asylum to the U.S. as refugees. Mugabe learned English while working at a factory for two years, taking English as a second language classes, and by attending Northpoint, which he found through the Assemblies of God website.
"I'm praying about being a missionary to where people haven't heard the gospel," Mugabe says. "Maybe that is in Maine."
Mugabe is assisted by the student leaders, whose roles include leading worship and teaching Sunday School. Various Northpoint administrators and teachers, including President J. David Arnett and campus pastor Jerry A. Jacob, have taken turns preaching.
"It's a real mission field," says Jacob, who also is missionary in residence at Northpoint with his wife, Karen. "We have to get out in the community and make ourselves known. These students are leading from the grassroots."
Tags: Northpoint Bible College Mount Zion Chapel Maine Association of Religion Data Archives Refugees Democratic Republic of the Congo Rwanda U.S. Missions David Arnett


Old Comers Road is a residential street in North Chatham. It runs in an east-west manner between Orleans Road (MA Rt 28) and Old Queen Anne Road. Old Comers Road traverses between the popular Lovers Lake and Stillwater Pond and offers convenient access to Jackknife Beach on Pleasant Bay and Ryders Cove.


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5.—(1) An assessment under section 4 shall be carried out with the assistance of persons possessing such expertise and qualifications as the health board or the Council considers appropriate; those persons may, in the discretion of the board or the Council, include one or more of the following:
(a) a psychologist;
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(c) the principal of the school which the child is attending or a teacher of that school nominated by the principal;
(d) an appropriately qualified social worker; and
(e) a therapist who is suitably qualified to provide support services in respect of the special educational needs of the child.
(2) A health board, the Council or a principal, as appropriate, shall facilitate, in a manner that is consistent with the assessment being carried out effectively, the participation by the parents of the child concerned in the carrying out of an assessment under section 3 or 4 .
(3) Before causing an assessment under section 4 (other than pursuant to a request under subsection (3) of that section) to be carried out, the health board or the Council shall give notice in writing to the parents of the child of the intention to do so and the reasons therefor and, subject to subsection (4), shall not cause the assessment to be carried out without the consent in writing of the parents.
(4) Where the parent of a child fails or refuses to give his or her consent, within such period as may be specified by the health board or the Council, to the carrying out of an assessment under section 4 to which subsection (3) applies, the health board or the Council, as the case may be, may apply to the Circuit Court for an order dispensing with the requirement under subsection (3) for the parent's consent and the Circuit Court may, on the hearing of the application, make such an order if it considers it in the best interests of the child to do so.
(5) An assessment under section 3 or 4 shall be carried out in a manner which conforms to such standards as may from time to time be determined, after consultation with the Minister, by a prescribed body, that is to say, a body standing prescribed by regulations made by the Minister for Health and Children for the purposes of its determining the standards that assessments under those sections must conform to.
(6) In carrying out an assessment under section 4 , the health board or the Council, as appropriate, shall have regard to any relevant assessment of the child concerned that is available to it at that time.
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(8) The health board or the Council, as the case may be, shall make available all or part of that statement to such persons engaged in the education of the child as it considers appropriate, having regard to the need to ensure that such persons are informed of the child's educational needs; the parents of the child shall be informed by the board or the Council of the fact of its having so made available all or part of that statement, and of the identity of the person or persons to whom it has been made available, as soon as may be after it has done so.
(9) An application under subsection (4) to the Circuit Court shall be made to the judge of the Circuit Court for the circuit in which the child concerned resides.
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Last September, I sang my dentist's praise. Now I thought: why not dedicate a friendly cartoon and text to other of my everyday heroes, too? So here is one of them.
Every two or three weeks, I drop by at Mrs W.'s booth on the weekly market. She has been roasting coffee and creating her own blends since long before the hipsters and snobs "discovered" coffee. Moreover, Mrs W. and her team do without any fuss and without fanfare but with all the more cordiality and cheerfulness.
And in my humble opinion they simply have the best coffee in town.


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Beyond buzzwords: How Hawaiian leaders tie ESG to cultural values
Consider these four lessons from the Aloha state for communicating important values to audiences.
By Lori Teranishi
As organizations in all industries embark on ESG (environmental, social and governance) communications journeys, I believe Hawaii is well-positioned to lead the way.
Engaging in corporate communications through the prism of ESG is quickly becoming best practice for communications teams and spokespeople, regardless of industry or geography. ESG encompasses a wide range of issues from sustainability to social justice. From a corporate communications standpoint, it boils down to consistent communications that embrace corporate values, reflect stakeholder concerns on issues like climate change and diversity, and focus on the substantive ways organizations are working to address the great issues of our times.
[FREE REPORT: The State of Internal Communications 2022 from Simpplr]
Given the massive impacts of our worsening environment and the global movement resulting from the death of George Floyd, ESG is now a front-burner concern for the private sector. Shareholders and consumers are holding corporations and their leadership accountable at every turn.
Lessons from Hawaii
While ESG is a relatively new buzzword for many businesses, its underlying concepts have always influenced business in Hawaii. ESG practices are deeply entrenched in the Native Hawaiian and Asian/Pacific Islander values that guide Hawaii's business community, such as mālama (stewardship), ho'ohanohano (respectfulness) and kuleana (responsibility).
These values have placed Hawaii at the forefront of ESG action and communications. Hawaii was the first state in the nation to set a 100% renewable energy goal and is well on its way to reaching that goal by 2045.
It's no surprise that ESG best practices can be found in Hawaii. The underlying values and concepts are the basis of our society. We are the most diverse region in the U.S., with a large population of mixed race and indigenous people. With our strong emphasis on community, finding ways to respect and celebrate differences is something we continually work at. We are an island people, close to our land and water.
Concern for the environment is grounded in Native Hawaiian values and our residents' understanding that island ecosystems are fragile and require both personal and community action.
Here is what I believe others can learn from Hawaii companies and their leaders' communications styles:
1. Leadership. In Hawaii, leaders do not stand aloof and apart. They roll up their sleeves and pitch in, joining others to do what is best for the community.
Being an island state means not only that we are aware of rising sea levels, but also that we will inevitably cross paths with the same people time and again. Accountability and reputation are everything. Leaders understand this and they model it every day. They take into account how their decisions will impact the community and their relationships.
CEOs are spokespeople, but first and foremost they are parents, neighbors and community leaders.
2. Execution. Nowhere is the ESG mindset more apparent than in our work with clients in the sustainable agriculture space. Here, companies must walk a fine line of cherishing the land, respecting local farmers, and being culturally sensitive while also enacting change in a way that maintains natural resources and biodiversity for generations to come.
Companies here are fine tuning a blueprint for sustainable agriculture that the rest of the world will follow.
3. Community. Corporate communications here focuses on employees, the community and, sometimes literally, the people who live next door to a business.
Building relationships with stakeholders is crucial. It requires patience and must reflect our culture. We see time and time again when companies come to Hawaii from the continent and fail because they may think they understand what it means to maintain authentic values, but they often do not take this seriously enough. For example, speaking and acting with humility is essential, so posturing leadership styles often backfire, whereas simply showing up and "talking story," contributing meaningfully to nonprofits and working on community issues offers success.
4. Diversity. The influence of Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) values in Hawaii reflect the state's status as the most culturally and ethnically diverse state in the union, and this shows in the way we work and communicate.
Native Hawaiian culture also influences the behavior of people at all strata of society. Family and community are revered. The land and water are cherished. Everyone is worthy of respect. Taking care of each other is deeply ingrained. Being humble is important. So is kindness. This sets the tone for an inclusive workplace.
We have reached a tipping point in corporate communications where actions speak louder than words. The focus on ESG has presented an opportunity for corporations to fully embrace their values and be rewarded for effectively communicating their authenticity.
Now is the time to seek out successful examples of this mindset. Hawaii is proud and humbled to contribute to the cause.
Lori Teranishi is CEO and founder of iQ 360, a communications and business consultancy firm headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii
Topics: Diversity and inclusion, ESG
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Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is the debut studio album by American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, released on November 9, 1993, by Loud Records. Recording sessions took place during late 1992 to early 1993 at Firehouse Studio in New York City, and the album was produced by the group's de facto leader RZA. Its title originates from the martial arts films Enter the Dragon (1973) and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978).The gritty, distinctive sound of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) created a blueprint for hardcore hip hop during the 1990s, and helped return New York City hip hop to national prominence. Its sound also became greatly influential in modern hip hop production, while the group members' explicit, humorous, and free-associative lyrics have served as a template for many subsequent hip hop records. Serving as a landmark release in the era of hip hop known as the East Coast Renaissance, its influence helped lead the way for several other East Coast rappers, including Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Mobb Deep, and Jay-Z. Despite its raw, underground sound, the album had surprising chart success, peaking at number 41 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 30,000 copies in its first week on sale. By 1995 it was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and in October 2018 it was certified triple platinum. Initially receiving positive reviews from most music critics, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is widely regarded as one of the most significant albums of the 1990s, as well as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. In 2020, the album was ranked 27th on Rolling Stone's updated list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2022, the album was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Bring the motherfucking ruckus 🙌🏻
In 300 years, when future civilizations sift through the wreckage of our society, this album will be treated as one of the foundational building blocks of a global culture. People will analyze the lyrics of the GZA like Shakespeare and the production of the RZA like Mozart, they'll probably even think ODB was a genius! The fact that a group of teenagers from the worst areas of New York were able to combine a few snippets from soul records from the 70s, culture and dialog from martial arts movies from Hong Kong and Japan, and a kick and snare to make something that will still be banging in car stereos and block parties 300 years from now is what music is all about. Wu Tang forever!!!
WU WU WU WU WU! These guys are fantastic! 9 skilled rapper taking turns, each with your own personality, a unique style and rhyme you can't resist getting attached to. Theme continues hardcore gangsta hip hop but marks the East Coast Renaissance. Sound is much more minimalistic than we're used to, placing more of an emphasis on what the rappers can show us. The raps are really smart, like insanely smart. These are model raps I look to for inspiration how to rhyme. I love how the samples evolve as the members swap, making each track feel longer and more rewarding. Samples are minimalistic, feels inspired by the jazz rap but low key and fun. Nice kung fu clips. I'm usually not a fan of skits, especially when so often they glue in with the track themselves and last two minutes. But these were fun with all the different characters. Nothing like Biggie and his friend taking on all their roles. GZA the poet and philosopher. Ol Dirty Bastard with the ol loco wubudub voice that sounds like he came from the dentist. Ghostface Killah with his high, loud, and crazy voice, reminds me of Flavor Flav. U-God with that rough almost Jamaican voice that rolls off the tongue. Masta Killa the guy who only showed up for a minute and called it a day. Inspectah Deck the energetic one with the accessible voice. Raekwon the young, slick voice with the heartbreaking stories. Method Man the mature, collective one who really sings in some of his verses. RZA the strong and aggressive leader who incites the audience. There's a strong momentum with "Da Mystery of Chessboxing" that carries to the rest of the album. The songs before them are amazing too, but the long skits more than often serve as a distraction. "Bring Da Ruckus" and "Shame on a Nigga" set up the mood for the album. "Clan in Da Front" is a display of GZA's poetry and highlights his character, also reinforcing RZA's status. "7th Chamber Part I" gives us an overview over the majority of the clan members and their unique styles. "Can It Be All So Simple" is where I start paying attention to the samples, love the stories built. "Da Mystery of Chessboxing" really kicks the album into gear, with "Wu Tang Ain't Nuthin ta F' Wit" carrying that momentum and energy. "C.R.E.A.M." is a natural hit with an often misinterpreted message. "Method Man" highlights the titular character's talent with some awesome samples. I love the way he sings... he changes his tone so much, sometimes you want to sing along. "Protect Ya Neck" has some of my favorite lines, especially GZA's. "Tearz" has my favorite samples, a highlight of RZA and his intense emotional storytelling. Wear protection kids. "7th Chamber Part II" is a fitting closer. Nice mixing and samples.
Nah. Some tunes were ok, but not my bag baby!
I get why this was a huge album. But I just don't care for it.
Best hip hop album of all time? Easily top 10. 5 Stars.
Not only is 36 Chambers the best Wu-Tang album, but it's one of the best hip-hop albums ever. Can't think of a better ensemble album. Original sound, good flow, dope rhymes and a variety of themes. Started multiple legendary careers. A couple sounds tell a great story/have a good msg. This album has been in my regular rotation for years fir a reason. Easy 5.
This might be the Platonic ideal of hip hop.
Very few hip hop groups, very few musicians, in fact, very few artists of any persuasion manage to create their own universe and invite their fans to live in it as Wu Tang did here. Kung-fu fighting, Five Percenter quoting, chess playing, street thuggin', hardcore hip-hop straight outta Shaolin (a.k.a. Staten Island). The 36 Chambers is a fantasy universe cut through with the grim reality of the violent street lives most of the Clan were living in the early '90s. RZA's red raw beats and nine unique voices, each with a story to tell, came together "like Voltron" to create something that still sounds utterly vital nearly 30 years later.
My familiarity with the Wu-Tang Clan is limited exclusively to their appearances and association with prestige HBO programming. First they appeared on "The Larry Sanders Show", where a befuddled Hank Kingsley (played to perfection by Jeffrey Tambor) tells the band his favorite song is "Shame On A Nigga". The second moment came on an episode of "The Leftovers" where Nora Durst (in a star-making performance by Carrie Coon) covered up the names of her departed children she had tattooed on her arm with the Wu-Tang Clan logo. Only she referred to them as "the Wu-Tang Band". That episode also made me familiar with the Wu-Tang name generator, which reminds me that I should really start Romanticist Visual as my pen name. If that doesn't scream "Middle Aged White Male", I don't know what does. And this middle aged white male known forever as Romanticist Visual quite enjoyed this album by the Wu-Tang Band. Lower your expectations. It's a fine mess. The Wu got somethin'.
So good. Surprisingly so. Was never into them when this album came out, and they've sort of passed me by a bit, whilst also enjoying most of what I did know of them. But I was always into bands like J5, Pharcyde and The Roots over Wu Tang. Really enjoyed hopping along to this album. Also way less aggy than I assumed it would be.
Absolute classic that defines a great group of artists. Explains to you as you're listening the power of hip-hop and the connections to Eastern cinema make it a great blending of cultures and ideas into something new
This is a classical album that deserves 5 stars for the influence. Any modern hip-hop could not be the same without this album and, also, it sounds so new even today. Classical is classical for one reason!
This is an undisputed classic of hip-hop. I'm amazed when I read about how this album was recorded that it even came together the way that it did. Usually too many cooks spoil the meal but with this it just worked and MAN did it work. I would say that this is one of the most influential albums of the 90s.
An iconic album for hip hop. It's fresh, grimy, hard hitting, and fun. The production is amazing, I love the jazz and so samples. All the members come through with great verses and the variety of voices this provides keeps every song exciting. A bonafide classic.
From the slums of Shaolin, Wu-Tang Clan's back again. The RZA, the GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon the Chef, U-God, Ghostface Killah and the Method Man.... a seismic shift occurred in hip-hop when the Killa Bees were on the swarm. We've seen solo rappers, duos, trios and quartets but never a ennead. Nine hungry dudes, some of whom were burned by the industry beforehand, storming through with innovative soul samples, endless nods to kung-fu movies of the 70s and a keen eye out for the the bigger picture. One of the most consequential, influential and greatest albums ever.
Aiming at once for total unity and individual identity, everyone and everything is vying for space. Two skits introduce 'Method Man', for heaven's sake. But even when they're bickering ("Is he dead? What the fuck do you mean 'Is he dead?'") they hold each other up. Meth's introduction of each member is lovingly done, and it speaks to the respect they have for each other's skills that they leave the compèring to him. When someone interrupts his flow, they ask permission, before letting him back in for the punchline: "We form like Voltron and the GZA just happen to be the head." Maybe on another album the skits would be de trop, but because RZA chops and slices the beat, samples and sequencing in equal measure, it just about fits together. Just about. The slightly jagged, off-kilter part of "just about" is where the magic happens. It's often unclear if a skit is part of a song or a song part of a skit, whether they're talking or rapping, if a song's ended or started. It's seductively menacing, especially as RZA's fascination with the esoteric means his production is littered with whatsits—piano tinkles, talk of chess, sweet soul samples. They boing off the Clan's collective rap style of eschewing smoothness and attacking the beat. In between the mysticism, torture fantasies, samurai flicks, street tales, and bravado, you get sight of the horrifying poverty they came from (listen to Ghostface's 'All That I Got Is You' a few years later if you want a good cry) and understand why the Clan was essential for their survival.
Nothing like getting into the hard swearing right off the bat. It's getting better as it gets further into the record. There was definitely a point where there was just so much swearing that I wasn't sure I wanted to listen to the rest of it. I like the sound, and some of the content is appealing to me. Other parts of it, I don't like as much, but…it might be a cultural thing?
I know that Wu-Tang is like, rap royalty. They're boom-bap kings. But ... I kinda hate 'em. The lyrics are trash. Content and delivery. All pointless. The beats are repetitive and unimaginative. The whole kung-fu flavor just comes off goofy as hell. Every single member of Wu-Tang went on to make music that was SO MUCH BETTER THAN WU-TANG. Two stars for cultural importance only.
Do like me some hip-hop, but many of the tracks here have either aged like milk or were puerile to start with, and it's another culprit for pre and post-fixing tracks with skits which add little or just detract completely. Probably went down better in a cow-hide Chrysler Fifth Avenue, discussing your gang issues, at the time of release.
It's always fun to listen to something that you've already heard many things influenced by.
I was starting to get worried they weren't gonna have any black ppl on this list.
Rousing debut, shock the world, revolutionary
No idea how such sweary, angry, mysoginistic, self aggrandising can feel so mellow and welcoming. Well done.
Okay, a fantastic album by one of the most talented acts of the 90s. I have previously said that the dominance of gangsta rap help back hip-hop, yet here we have the greatest gangsta rap of them all. Now, it's interesting to compare this to Tupac's All Eyez on me. With that, there was the constant sense of a punch being pulled, of someone playing at being a thug, and playing at being a poet, and fallaciously assuming that the logic would make him a thug poet. With Enter the Wu-Tang, we have proper thug poets. We have such uncompromising music and such uncompromising lyricism, and both beguile. One will love the dark laughter. If people tolerated gangsta rap as it gave the promise of an eventual wonderful act, this is that promise being fulfilled. The mysticism is piffle, but that's in no way a dealbreaker: it's nice to have an east-coast hardcore rap outfit culturally appropriating kung-fu movie lore.
Wu-Tang is for the kids! This album is lightning in a bottle, never captured before or since. While other hip-hop groups have brought their A-game (Sugarhill Gang, N.W.A., Brockhampton, etc.), only the Wu-Tang Clan have delivered an album so hardcore, so tight, and so impressive. Not a second is wasted with every member giving their all, from RZA's beats to every MC featured. Also worth noting that this album would launch successful solo careers for several members, including GZA, Ghostface Killah, and of course Ol' Dirty Bastard who passed too soon. There's not a bad song on here. People who bought this cassette back in the 90's got 100% of their money's worth this one. I can't say enough thing about Wu-Tang's untouchable debut. Enter the 36 chambers....
Oh my days, best news ever! This is going to get five stars. I'm digging out the LP now, and I'm excited to listen to it again, even though I listened to Protect Ya Neck last Friday. Listened to it. It's still like the difference between Batman and Robin (the Joel Schumacher film) and Avengers Endgame. It was a leap forward, and features a group where every part improves the whole (even U-God). So many bars on this are just pure poetry. And that's before you even consider RZA's inspired 'dark soul' production and the Kung Fu symbolism. If you don't love it, I can't even help you, soz.
Man what a treat. This is one of those classic, Mount Rushmore kind of hip hop albums, right up there in contention with Illmatic and others as the greatest of all time. It's one I've listened to before, but at a time that I definitely didn't appreciate it. Hearing it now, it's incredible. The beats are so sinister, the raps are dark and heavy, and the little interludes of dialogue say a lot about the burgeoning future for Wu-Tang, storied as it would eventually become. It's crazy that this came out not only in the same year but on the same day as Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest, my favorite hip hop album ever. And honestly, this one is really high up there too. Obviously I need to spend more time with it to call it a favorite at any level, but listening through it this time is enough for me to know it deserves five stars. Perfectly dusty, spooky beats, gritty kung-fu samples, and hungry lyrical performances from everyone involved. The East Coast really did have something to say. Favorite tracks: 7th Chambers pt. 1 and 2, CREAM, Protect Ya Neck, Bring Da Ruckus, Da Mystery of Chessboxin. Album art: Honestly, this may have been what held me back from relistening to this or truly appreciating it. I can't say that it's a bad album cover, and it's obviously very recognizable, but it also just seems blurry and indistinct. Looking at it closely now, it's definitely cool, all the masked faces. But it still doesn't really catch my attention the way a lot of others do, including from solo Wu Tang member projects. Perfectly spooky though, so it fits. 5/5
Rap so dope, even Congress said this is a must listen.
I'm not gonna sit here and act like I haven't listened to this album since I was 13. This album is easily in my top 25 of all time. Every track is a hit for me. Couldn't have gotten a better album on this day. Wutang is for the children
One of the greatest albums of all time. A top 10 in Hip hop a blueprint for current rap. 10/10
Speaking as someone who once breastfed a flamingo to good health, I feel that I have the authority to make the ultimate judgement on this magnificent record. Wu-Tang Clan deliver a sumptuous, sexy, deadly fucknugget, that really makes me want to bend over and devour a watermelon with the lips of my anus. It's not often I say that. Such high praise indeed. What a brilliant man I am. Wu-Tang are very good, but not a patch on me. I'm so successful and awesome, that I make lesser men want to die. I am solely responsible for the rise in suicide rates amongst young males and it's entirely down to their jealousy of my incredible life. Catch me on the flipside, bitches, I'm off into town to capture myself a bride and some chicken wings. Ooooooh.
Can't beat that review that said this "might be the Platonic ideal of hip hop". That reviewer is right on so many counts. If only because this album sounds as if it was recorded in a cave dug in the middle of projects, and yet is never ashamed of what it is, even developing a whole mystique around its lo-fi beats and minimalistic piano loops, or around its soul samples and rough rapping about destitute parts of New York. Shadows and light create a mesmerizing spectacle on the walls of this dark, dark cave. Each rapper in the collective effectively displays a specific personality or an idiosyncratic style (nicely expanded in each one's first solo forays) and RZA has a flair for catchy hooks drawing on a very *idealized* vision of eastern culture--mostly through kung-fu movie samples, but also through its ascetic ethos and borderline-zen aesthetics. The end result is as pure as it gets. Distinctively from its day and age and yet timeless--which is where you recognize a true masterpiece, whether it is in rap, rock or any other style of music. Even the overlong skits are bringing something that's actually relevant to the table--being part of what makes this record a quintessential one in the whole hip hop genre. A Platonic ideal indeed. Word. Number of albums left to review: 751 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 124 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 62 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 64
Love this album, when Ghostface starts on 'Bring Da Ruckus' you're in for a wild ride. The group helped make New York Hip Hop and this album is some of the best. It shows with tracks like 'Method Man', C.R.E.A.M. and 'Da Mystery of Chessboxing', these should be in any Hip-Hop Playlist. Method Man and Raekwon are especially good in this album along with Ghostface and GZA which are always consistent. The only issue I have found with this album over time is that I normally skip some tracks for example 'Can It Be All So Simple' seems out and place, it by far the weakest track/skit. It leads to the album feeling especially long with the skits before or after some tracks. Overall, this album will always be one of the best Hip Hop albums along with Wu-Tang as they have a unique style.
It's pretty good as far as hip hop goes, but at the end of the day I just don't enjoy this genre much. Although Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta F'Wit is stuck in my head I have to admit. 2 stars.
Not much of a lyrics person, but a certain usually-unflappable wife just called what she heard 'grotesque'. These guys have gnawn a cult following over the years, but haven't gotten into them.
Not available for streaming
I was pretty determined to give this a high rating given its a seminal album in hip hop and music in general, but I feel that would be overly performative. I do like some wu-tang.. particularly protect ya neck but this really doesnt do it for me overall.
I tried - but it's not really my thing
-Just not the biggest fan of most of the flows/styles -there were bits of good flow in "Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber," "Mystery of Cheeseboxin'," and "Protect Ya Neck" -I did like Method Man's style, all of his stuff was nice
Not work appropriate!
This album seemed repetitive and boring. I admit that most hip-hop is just not my thing with only a few exceptions, and this one didn't cut it. I found the skits annoying and for me, where is the actual "music"? Just a boring beat. 2
I appreciate the influence this album had on music but do I need to listen to it again? No, I do not. If I want to hear that much swearing I'll go to a Trump rally about vaccine mandates.
There are some good beats on this album which helped me make it through the album. The lyrics and content --> this album is not for me.
I always find this a strange listen. It's ok but never fully grabs me but everyone else loves it. 28 years old? I guess I was still going through my grunge phase? Tell you what I did love at this time - The Disposable Heroes of Hypocrisy. 1992's 'Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury' still sounds more vital than this. Shame Franti decided he wanted to be reborn as the new Bob Marley.
Does it count as a listen when you skip every track within the first 30 seconds?
J-Roc is my favorite Wu Tang Clan member.
Old school rap, DA BEST
Phenomenal. Wu-Tang comes swinging right out the gate with gritty lyrics and a dirty, almost lofi, sound. A classic.
Connor: Few other hip-hop albums come close to this.
Wu-Tang forever.
Loved it. First time listening all the way through. Lot of hits on that record
Brilliant! I don't even consider myself a hip-hop fan, but this album slaps. 'Method Man', 'C.R.E.A.M.', 'Wu-Tang Clain Ain't Nuthin Ta F' Wit' are my favourite tracks, but there isn't a bad one on this album.
I'll admit it- I'd never listened to this before. My god. It's rap perfection.
Stone cold classic. WU TANG CLAN AIN'T NUTTIN TO FUCK WIT
Brooklyn zoo !
Ich hab vorher noch nie WuTang Clan gehört, aber es sofort erkannt - weil der Sound so viel beinflusst hat und so oft zitiert wird. Auch die Texte sind direkt politisch, ganz selbstverständlich, weil die Themen direkt aus dem Alltag kommen - sehr beeindruckend.
ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS EVER
Love it, Wu-Tang is always nice
Genre defining and still fresh today 30 years later. Awesome.
I mean it's fuckin' Wu-Tang. Rap don't get better just listen to it. I've was actually Listening to this album like a week ago so yeah I fuck with it. Five stars bitch.
A hip-hop MASTERPIECE.
Love love love love.
WuTang forever
I was big into Wu during college. Haven't listened much in the last 10 years, but this record is still a banger.
top 5 greatest hip hop albums of all time. a classic
Great beats!
Probably my favourite rap album of all time
About bloody time! A great album that paved the way for so many hip hop acts that followed.
Absolutely legendary album. RZA legendary production. 10/10
Electric energy. Didn't love the whole album, but damn, some of those tracks got me amped.
Uno de los mejores discos de rap de la historia. Recomiendo que cuando lo escuchen, lo hagan de la mano de las letras. Increíble, oscuro, sucio, denso, jocoso, divertido.
Hell yeah! This album has so many good songs. Perfect for listening to in your car a little too loud, and drowning out the rest of the world. The only draw back is that the songs themselves are interspersed with interviews, and then it sometimes goes back to the song. I got confused a couple of times about which song I was actually listening to 🙃
Wu-Tang Clan, what can I say? 5 stars across the boards for this one
The masterpiece, not a bad song, and a great introduction to a great band #wutang4ever
Yeeeeeeeep
Superb, a real classic. Absolutely love it.
Schon immer eins meiner lieblings Hip Hop Alben, alleine schon wegen Produktion, Flow und dieser Energie,aber erst jetzt, wo ich mich ein bisschen mehr mit den Texten beschäftigt habe, merke ich richtig, wie talentiert und intelligent diese Typen sind.
Samo želim reći da je ovaj album nešta najjače ikad u hip hopu. Top 5 definitivno. 4.7/5
A one of a kind hip-hop group & a one of a kind album. This album features some of the groups best know songs & we're all better of for this album's existence.
It's 36 chambers. It's a masterpiece front to back. Great way to start the day.
Increíble álbum, de los mejores en la historia del rap.
Tiene algunos temas que me gustaron. Lo quiero escuchar un poco más aunque no es un estilo musical que me guste. Le pongo cinco estrellas por que juancito puso 3, pero yo le pondría un 3.
Timeless gem. Cash Rules Everything Around Me...
Never gets old
It's for the children
Great beats and cold lyrics. You have to be in a certain mood to listen to this and there is a significant amount of filler between tracks but it's still great. 9
Goes hard
6th September 2021 Listened on my phone before going out to meet Neil for dim sum in soho. Some of the finest 90s rap and hip hop.
Timeless; sounds as fresh as the first time I heard it back in grade school.
Мощные они ребята!


This unit of competency describes the skills and knowledge required to carry out stud stable management duties, including gathering information, nominating horses for sale or exhibitions, and maintaining stud records.
maintaining accurate financial and business management records.
financial and other workplace records.


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New Warriors coach knows what he wants
BY: Loop Pacific
09:06, June 25, 2020
Warriors interim head coach Todd Payten knows where the Auckland rugby league club is falling down and he wants to be the man to fix it.
Payten said he was "pretty calm" as the biggest test in his fledgling NRL head coaching career approached with the Warriors game against the Storm on Friday night in Sydney.
He has been a professional coach for nine years with stints with the Wests Tigers and North Queensland Cowboys before he arrived in Auckland in 2019.
Friday's game against the 6th-place Storm is his first as an NRL head coach.
Although the Warriors were struggling and occupying 13th spot on the ladder, Payten did not need to be asked twice to fill the void left by coach Stephen Kearney's exit from the club.
"I don't think I had any other alternative, I could have left it for someone else to come in and have a crack at it but I feel a responsibility to this club and to this group so that's what I'm doing, I am diving in head-first and seeing where it takes us.
"The thing about becoming a head coach is you don't know until you are given a shot, so I've done a long apprenticeship, I've been at some successful programmes, I've been at places where I haven't been so successful. I know the difference between the two and I'm just trying to put my stamp on it one step at a time at the moment.
"I got another 15 weeks to be able to make it mine completely but hopefully over the next four to six weeks it'll roll into it."
Payten's first move was to change some game-day staffing roles and he hinted more changes would be coming.
On the field he said he knew exactly where the Warriors deficiencies over the past couple seasons were.
"The basic gist of it is is we haven't been tough enough for long enough or consistent, those two things are the things we need to change. It's not going to happen immediately it is the thing that it going to take a little bit of time.
"In a lot of ways we are close and in other areas we are a million miles away."
Payten said he was ready to move on from the Kearney saga of the weekend and into his own era.
"I think I've commented plenty about what has happened over those two days and I would like to comment more around our team and the game."
In team news, Payten has named Ken Maumalo on the wing after a hamstring injury ruled him out of the last three outings against Penrith, North Queensland and South Sydney.
He has been forced to make other changes with rookie second rower Eliesa Katoa (ankle) and hooker Wayde Egan (suspended) both out resulting in new signing Jack Murchie replacing Katoa for his first start after seven interchange appearances and Karl Lawton is in for Egan at hooker.
Coming onto the bench for his first game since the season resumed is Chanel Harris-Tavita while Isaiah Papali'i is named in #17 after missing the fixtures against the Cowboys and the Rabbitohs.
New interim coach
Todd Payten


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Durham Investigation Breaks Wide Open – Special Counsel Just Demanded 30 Subpoenas for Igor Danchenko
By Adam Casalino|July 14, 2022
What's Happening:
Democrats ran a victory lap after Durham's previous case ended with a "not guilty" verdict. It didn't seem to occur to them that, despite the decision, the case exposed Hillary Clinton and a host of others.
Clinton quickly faded from view, right as she was planning some kind of comeback. Now, Durham is gearing up his second trial—and is not backing down one bit.
From Washington Examiner:
Special counsel John Durham requested a federal court to issue 30 subpoenas for testimony in the trial against Igor Danchenko, British ex-spy Christopher Steele's alleged main source for his discredited dossier…
Danchenko was charged with five counts of making false statements to the FBI, which Durham says he made about the information he provided to Steele for the dossier.
Why It's Important:
Durham has issued 30 subpoenas for testimony in the case against Igor Danchenko, the man who allegedly provided false information for Clinton's infamous dossier against Trump.
What could this mean?
We can't predict if Danchenko will or won't be found guilty. But we do remember the kind of testimony that came out in the last trial.
One person who testified was Clinton's 2016 campaign manager. And what he revealed was a doozy.
He said it was Clinton who pushed for unverified dirt against Trump to be leaked to the media, when the rest of the campaign was unsure.
The former manager further linked Clinton to the infamous activity going on against Trump, the Russian accusations that were later debunked by Mueller.
The bad press that came out against Hillary during that time seemed to put a stop to a growing number of appearances she was making.
Some even suspected she was gearing up to take a run at Biden, in 2024. Now… nothing.
And that was only from one testimony.
What might come out of these 30 testimonies? We don't know the names of those being subpoenaed, but the text of the orders is "YOU ARE COMMANDED to appear."
These could be high-ranking people close to Hillary or other Democrats. They could be people who helped put together this "dossier."
Who knows what we might learn over the course of this trial? We don't know right now, but we do know one thing.
Durham is far from finished.
John Durham issued 30 subpoenas for testimony in his upcoming trial.
The trial is against Igor Danchenko, who helped create the infamous dossier.
Testimony from the previous trial exposed Clinton's actions in 2016.
Adam Casalino
Adam Casalino is a freelance writer, cartoonist, and graphic designer. He is a regular contributor for the Patriot Journal. Find his other work: www.talesofmaora.com


Public support for the war in Iraq is plummeting at home and overseas, military recruiters aren't making their quotas, and U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians are being killed every day by insurgents.
But enough of the bad news, say a group of six conservative talk-show hosts led by San Francisco's Melanie Morgan.
They're headed to Iraq on Friday for a "Truth Tour" -- a seven-day trip designed to show that what's happening on the ground in Iraq isn't as dire as what's being beamed across the globe on network news programs and described in mainstream publications.
The talkers will stop Friday at Central Command in Tampa, Fla., to throw a thank-you barbecue for the military. Then they'll fly commercially to Kuwait and be transported by military planes to Camp Victory in Baghdad, where each will broadcast two days of shows next week. Next, they're headed to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait for three more days of shows. Throughout, many of the radio hosts are planning to call other conservative shows, like the nationally syndicated "Sean Hannity Radio Show," to spread the gospel about what they see.
Even though reporters have been embedded with military units since months before the March 2003 invasion, the talkers say that in the past year, foreign correspondents have been more comfortable reporting from their Baghdad hotel rooms about the roadside bomb blast of the day than about describing the positive developments going on in the country.
"We're going to talk to the troops who are there and get the story straight from them without the filter of the liberal media," said Morgan, who co-hosts a morning show on KSFO-AM in San Francisco.
She said she planned to "get away from my military minders and talk to people."
Slipping away will be tough, as military officials say the talkers will be accompanied at all times.
"They will be treated like any other media," said Sgt. Anne M. Proctor, media embed coordinator for Multi National Forces Iraq.
"And if they think that the military is going to let something happen to them while they're over there, c'mon," said comedian Al Franken, who hosts a talk show on the liberal Air America radio network that is broadcast in the Bay Area. "That's how stupid these people are. They think they can walk around and talk to shopkeepers. They don't realize how dangerous it is over there."
Critics like Franken say the Truth Tour is nothing more than propaganda from the well-oiled conservative media echo chamber. They call it a velvet- rope tour that aims to re-inflate sagging support for the Bush administration's Iraq policy.
"It's extremely Orwellian," said Don Hazen, executive editor of San Francisco-based Alternet. "You can't spin the fact that there are people dying over there, and there's no light at the end of the tunnel and no coherent policy on how to get out. How is that a good story?"
"Oh, that's just the same old 'Bush lied/people died' protest chant," Morgan said.
Fought bare-knuckled over talk radio and throughout the blogosphere, Truth Tour cross-talk is the latest fight to influence public opinion over the war in Iraq.
According to the Brookings Institute's Iraq Index, a compilation of life and economic indicators, life in Iraq defies any simplistic description, on the left or the right. While the amount of electricity flowing in Baghdad is below the prewar levels, and unemployment is somewhere between 28 and 40 percent, more than 60 percent of Iraqi respondents to a poll said their life was better than before the war, and a strong majority were hopeful about the future.
What isn't in doubt: The Truth Tour talkers are going to see Iraq largely through the eyes of the U.S. military.
Funded in part by the hosts, and in some cases by their stations, the tour is part morale-booster -- Morgan is bringing coffee and cookies for the troops -- and part infotainment. The hosts will broadcast live from the Middle East and will invite callers to connect with service personnel.
But if they're only in country for a week, they're unlikely to uncover any "truth" that the military doesn't want them to see, said John McManus, who runs the Bay Area media watchdog organization, GradeTheNews.org. Embedded reporters who spend weeks with a unit develop sources that can help them paint a more nuanced picture of what's going on, he said.
"If they're calling this a 'Truth Tour,' then that implies that they're going as journalists," McManus said. "But their methodology of finding the truth sounds suspect. People tend to see what they're looking for. And if they're all conservatives, then their viewpoint is going to skew toward that."
The trip is being organized by Move America Forward, an organization co- founded by Morgan. Last month, the group launched an "I Love Gitmo" public support campaign -- complete with bumper stickers -- to support the people operating the embattled detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
On its board of directors is longtime Republican strategist Sal Russo, leading some progressives to wonder about the political motivations of the trip.
"I think it's great if they want to go there and thank the troops, that's great," said Franken, who has traveled to Iraq in each of the last two years as part of a USO tour. "But if they want to go there and say, 'Liberals are against you,' then I've got a problem with that."
Morgan said liberal talk-show host Alan Colmes had been asked to join them, but a Fox News spokeswoman said he had declined. Morgan said unspecified Air America hosts had been asked as well -- "I don't know which ones, but they were" -- but a network spokeswoman said nobody at the network said they had been contacted.
The tour idea was hatched in April, when 20 conservative talk-show hosts from around the country were talking in a Washington restaurant after an event to press for immigration reform. The subject turned to coverage of the war.
"It's like if you went to watch one quarter of an NBA game at the Arco Arena through a keyhole and then thought you had seen an entire NBA season. There are a lot of stories over there that aren't being told," he said. "Hey, if I want to see the enemy's perspective, I'll check out CBS or Newsweek."
The other talk-show hosts scheduled to go on the trip are Martha Zoller of WDUN in Atlanta, Michael Graham of WMAL in Washington, Brad Maaske of KMJ in Fresno and Buzz Patterson of the syndicated RightTalk show.
Liberals concede they probably couldn't pull together a left-wing version of the Truth Tour.
"Conservatives have been working on their media machine for 35 years," said Hazen of Alternet, the progressive San Francisco-based Internet news source. "I don't even know if we have 20 talk-show hosts."
Williams and Morgan say they won't edit any negative comments they hear from the troops. They point out that they'll be sleeping on the same "smelly cots" as their military hosts and eating the same food.
"If somebody says something's wrong over there," Williams said, "then that's something I want to hear."


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Dinosaur footprints discovered near Winton in central-west Queensland3:18
Supplied video obtained Thursday, February 14, 2019 of Australian vertebrate palaeontologist Dr Stephen Poropat of Swinburne University of Technology speaking about the discovery of a series of well-preserved dinosaur tracks on a property near Winton in central-west Queensland. Mr Poropat says the site was first discovered by the property owner in 2000. "He didn't tell anyone about it for years," he says. "A caretaker on the property told us about it and we thought lets check it out. Sure enough, what he thought were dinosaur footprints turned out to be the real deal. "We went there and we just couldn't believe what we were seeing because no-one had ever found sauropod footprints in Queensland before." (AAP VIDEO/Supplied/Queensland Government)
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24 yr old HARD CORE CONSERVATIVE beats RHINO pick in NC GOP primary
WLOS – Asheville NC:
A 24-year-old real estate investment CEO won Tuesday's Republican primary runoff for a western North Carolina congressional seat over President Donald Trump's endorsed candidate for the nomination.
Madison Cawthorn defeated Lynda Bennett to complete an upset for the GOP nomination in the 11th Congressional District. Bennett had received the president's backing on Twitter and the earlier endorsement of Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who until recently had held the seat.
Cawthorn called for the runoff after he finished second to Bennett in a 12-candidate primary in early March. Bennett had failed to get more than 30% of the vote need to win outright. The scheduled May runoff was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cawthorn, who would reach the constitutionally-mandated age of 25 to serve in the House in August, was paralyzed from the abdomen down after a 2014 car accident. He'll face Democrat Moe Davis, a former military prosecutor, and other party nominees in November. The district is still considered Republican-leaning despite recent boundary changes following litigation.
Cawthorn won despite Bennett's big endorsements — Sen. Ted Cruz also among them — and outside support from the political arms of the House Freedom Caucus that Meadows once led.
Cawthorn, who also described himself as a strong Trump supporter, attempted to reframe Bennett's endorsements, saying he wouldn't be beholden to anyone in Washington if he reached Congress. But his campaign also got help from a super PAC that backs candidates allied with Sen. Rand Paul.
Meadows announced late during December's candidate filing period he wouldn't seek reelection, and endorsed Bennett, a Haywood County real estate company owner and friend of Meadows' wife.
Read more at WLOS – Asheville NC
Trump says niece Mary is violating nondisclosure agreement with tell-all book
My terrifying five-day stay inside Seattle's cop-free CHAZ