Our epistle reading begins with the phrase, "We are always confident!" Think about it, we are always confident? How can that be? How can we be always confident? Life is simply too uncertain to be always confident. Totally unexpected things happen daily. Every day people go in for routine check-ups and hear bad news they did not anticipate. As we get older it is more and more difficult to have confidence in our bodies. It is also difficult to have confidence in our economy. In 1996 through 2007 there were indeed bank failures, but there were maybe one a year. From just 2008 to 2012 there were 465 banks failed. We have somewhat stabilized but still there is always the underlying anxiety about the reliability of our banks. So how can we be really confident in our economic system?
We try to eat right, we try to invest right or save right, we try to do the right thing and hope things will work out right, but you know what? Sometimes they just do not. Sometimes our health problems are not simply the result of bad food choices or activities, sometimes the problems are results of our genetics and how can one prepare for that?
Keeping all of this in mind, how can Paul say, "We are always confident?" What does Paul mean or perhaps what doesn't he mean? First he doesn't mean that we always have a confident personality. And he is not talking about having confidence in me like Maria in the Sound of Music sang in her song. So what is Paul talking about then? Again, as always, context is important. This is a continuation of last week's Scripture reading and last week we heard how our bodies are indeed mortal and will not last, but because we know Jesus was raised from the dead we trust and know that God will also raise us from the dead as well. And not only that but our inner life as Christians is being renewed by God through our prayers, through our worship, and through our meditation on God's word so that even though our physical bodies may be failing our inner life is growing and being strengthened.
St. Augustine once said a very interesting phrase; he said, "God does not expect us to submit our faith to him without reason, but the very limits of our reason make faith a necessity." Every one of us has gone through, or is going through, or will go through struggles in life and in this struggle there will seem to be no good reason why. As Augustine says, our reason is limited. We are limited by our inability to see and understand our lives as they are intertwined into countless other lives and to understand our weaknesses and the desire God has to strengthen and help us to grow out of those weaknesses into strength. Therefore, because of our limitations of reason, we have few choices when bad things happen to us and around us. We can despair and get angry or we can choose to look at the fact that God loves us. He loves us so much he sent his Son into the world. If in fact God does love us this much, we can trust him. That is the foundation of Paul's confidence. That is the foundation of his faith.
And God's love for us is not only the foundation of his confidence and faith in the midst of life's struggles, it is also the foundation for why he lives the way he does. Paul says, "So whether we are at home, that is still alive in our bodies, or away, that is dead but with the Lord, we make it our aim to please him." And why do we do we want to please him? Well certainly we want to please him because we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and we will all have to answer to God for our actions, but also he says, "For the love of Christ urges us on." Why do we do what we do? Why do we serve God? Why do we serve others? As Christians we serve God and others because the love of Christ urges us on. Several weeks ago, the presiding bishop Michael Curry preached a wonderful sermon at Prince Harry and Meghan's wedding. The theme of his sermon was on how love changes our perspective on life. It was on how love affects how we look at the world around us and it affects how we treat those around us.
Taking this thought and applying it to our scripture today we see that as we understand how we are loved by God, as we see his great love for world, we change. Like Bishop Curry said, our perspective changes and how we treat others changes. This is what happened to Paul. He understood how much God loved him and how much God loved the people in his world. And because he understood this and had been transformed by this love he tried as hard as he could to love those around him. He was patient and kind and thoughtful to others. Was it because people were always kind to Paul? No, as we saw last week there were many people who really hated Paul and tried to kill him over and over—yet, Paul loved. He says here the "love of Christ urges us on." That is why we are to do what we do for others. That is why we do what we do for our God. We do these things because the love of Christ inspires us; it guides us and even shapes us do those things we ought to do.
And Paul points out at the end of this reading that because of this transformation by love we should not look at ourselves and other Christians as regular human beings anymore. He says that if we are in Christ we are a new creation. Everything old has passed away! We now have a new paradigm, a new world view from which we operate and from which we see ourselves and the world around us. Now we can look at others, even those with whom we may disagree, with the eyes of compassion and patience understanding that these are people for whom Christ died. That is not the way our world operates is it? The world's perspective is all about looking out for number one, looking out for me and mine. According to our world's standards and our society's standards everything is about me or for me or concerning me. This 'me centered' viewpoint is diametrically opposed to the Christian world view. But for us as Christians—we are able to break away from this worldly perspective. We can break away from the anger and bitterness of the world's rhetoric and actions. How can we do this? We do it because we walk by faith not by sight. This world, our existence in this world is passing away. Through our faith we see that our home is a heavenly one. We are new creatures; new creations and we are motivated by the love of Christ.


text:
Many Millennials 'Can't Even' Find Their Footing In Adulthood
By Cody LaGrow
In her new book, Anne Helen Petersen explores why Millennials are barraged with work, still broke and 'Can't Even' with Boomers.
Millennials — perhaps you've felt that you "can't even."
You could be trying to remember a time when you could, but you just can't.
Tasks like run errands, pay bills, find hobbies — why should millennials do those things when they can reflect on the system that's preventing a generation from achieving adult milestones and the ability to feel authentic joy about the future?
You see — if you're a millennial and relating to this, you could be familiar with burnout. And, Anne Helen Petersen knows all about it.
Petersen wrote that Buzzfeed article about burnout that likely got shared across your entire office because, like, it us.
Her new book, "Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation" gives a language to the precarity millennials are living through.
Petersen spoke with Newsy's Cody LaGrow to discuss how some millennials became broke, more anxious and depressed in the pandemic and why the book calls for sweeping change.
"We are one of the richest nations in the world, and everyone I know is overworked, exhausted and scared. So, there's something broken," shared Petersen.
The Atlantic said "Millennials Don't Stand a Chance." Student loan debt is an enormous burden. The number of young adults living with their parents rose to levels not seen since the Great Depression era. And, the coronavirus pandemic is the second financial crisis millennials have endured.
"I think of the pandemic as this great clarifier. It's like someone has a black light that they're shining on all of the things about our society that we had managed to hide or to pretend weren't a problem," explained Petersen.
She went on, "Something as simple as getting unemployment insurance. That has always been a huge problem for millions of Americans. But, we haven't thought of it as a societal problem because somehow it's not affecting enough Americans."
"Now, the question is, are we going to actually address those huge cracks in the foundation or are we going to continue to try to do this patchwork of incremental nothingness?" wondered Petersen.
"Can't Even" unpacks burnout birthed by college cost, being a person of color and society's toxic relationship with smart phones. Ultimately, it leads Petersen to deduce that the American dream is a myth for millennials, but they have a chance to escape their nightmare if they work together.
"You can't fix your personal burnout until we fix societal burnout, and that means fixing it for everyone," explained Petersen. "I think that right now, we have capitalism that is largely unregulated. So, when you regulate capitalism, you can make it a more humane capitalism."
Petersen describes her book as a language for millennials — putting words to their worries. The goal?
Petersen said, "Hopefully, I think that it will lead to places of change and small revolution."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


React Bootstrap pagination is a component used to indicate existance of a series of related content across multiple pages and enables navigation across them.
We use a large block of connected links for our pagination, making links hard to miss and easily scalable—all while providing large hit areas. Pagination is built with list HTML elements so screen readers can announce the number of available links. We use a wrapping <nav> element to identify it as a navigation section to screen readers and other assistive technologies.
Looking to use an icon or symbol in place of text for some pagination links?
Pagination links are customizable for different circumstances. Use disabled prop for links that appear un-clickable and active to indicate the current page.
Fancy larger or smaller pagination? Add lg prop or sm for additional sizes.
The way pagination "feels" can be easily altered by changing its style from rectangular to circular. Simply add circle prop to the <MDBPagination> component.
In this section you will find advanced information about the Pagination component. You will find out which modules are required, what are the possibilities of configuring the component, and what events and methods you can use to work with it.
In order to use Pagination component make sure you have imported proper modules first.
The table below shows the configuration options of the MDBPagination component.
The table below shows the configuration options of the MDBPageItem component.
The table below shows the configuration options of the MDBPageLink component.


text:
<?php

namespace Application;

use Zend\Mvc\ModuleRouteListener;
use Zend\Mvc\MvcEvent;
use \Zend\EventManager\StaticEventManager;
use \Zend\ModuleManager\Feature\InitProviderInterface;
use \Zend\ModuleManager\ModuleManagerInterface;

class Module implements InitProviderInterface
{

    public function init(ModuleManagerInterface $manager) {
        $sm = $manager->getEvent()->getParam('ServiceManager');

        $serviceListener = $sm->get('ServiceListener');

        $serviceListener->addServiceManager(
            'TableColumnsPluginManager',
            'table_columns',
            'Application\View\Helper\Table\TableColumnsProviderInterface',
            'getTableColumnsConfig'
        );
    }

    /**
     *
     * @param \Zend\Mvc\MvcEvent $e
     */
    public function onBootstrap(MvcEvent $e)
    {
        $eventManager        = $e->getApplication()->getEventManager();
        $moduleRouteListener = new ModuleRouteListener();
        $moduleRouteListener->attach($eventManager);

        $mailToUserListerner = new Service\MailManager\MailToUserListener();
        $mailToUserListerner->attach($e->getApplication()
                ->getServiceManager()
                ->get('application.service.user-manager')
                ->getEventManager());

        /**
         * Event Manager
         */
        /*
        $e->getApplication()
                ->getServiceManager()
                ->get('application.service.user-manager')
                ->getEventManager()
                ->attach(Service\UserManager\UserManager::ADD_USER, [$this, 'onAddUser']);
        */
        /**
         * Example of StaticEventManager
         */
        StaticEventManager::getInstance()
                ->attach('Application\Entity\User', Entity\User::NEW_PROFILE, [$this, 'onNewProfile']);
    }

    /**
     *
     * @param \Zend\EventManager\Event $e
     */
    public function onAddUser(\Zend\EventManager\Event $e){
        echo "User added ";
        var_dump($e->getParams());
        echo "
";
    }

    /**
     *
     * @param \Zend\EventManager\Event $e
     */
    public function onNewProfile(\Zend\EventManager\Event $e){
        echo "new Profile ";
        var_dump($e->getParam('profile'));
        echo "
";
    }

    /**
     *
     * @return type
     */
    public function getConfig()
    {
        return include __DIR__ . '/config/module.config.php';
    }

    /**
     *
     * @return type
     */
    public function getAutoloaderConfig()
    {
        return array(
            'Zend\Loader\StandardAutoloader' => array(
                'namespaces' => array(
                    __NAMESPACE__ => __DIR__ . '/src/' . __NAMESPACE__,
                ),
            ),
        );
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


We now have 6 weeks until the reunion in Blackpool remaining, and as you may have seen over the past few weeks through the posts the committee members have been placing on the Facebook and website pages there are many plans being made to make the 20th Noah's ARC reunion one of the best ones to date.
This years reunion is dedicated to DRAC, our former Noah's ARC president. We wanted to honour his memory with a souvenir t-shirt. Sporting a Hawk on the front and the words to 'Sussex by the Sea' on the reverse.
The t-shirt is a great way to learn the words to our regimental song.
The Imperial Hotel increased the rooms allocated to Noah's ARC for the weekend and they are now completely sold out.
Any guest wishing to add on the Sunday night can do so for £25 per person for dinner bed and breakfast.
And for guests adding on the Thursday night, the cost would be £39 per person for dinner bed and breakfast in the main hotel and £34 per person in the lodge.
Golf: Paul Wigmore has book the Staining Golf Course at 10.00 - 11.00 am Tee times for a cost of £23 including Barm & Tea/Coffee. Anyone wishing to participate please contact Paul on 07528927266 or e-mail paulwigmore@fsmail.net. Anyone requiring buggies needs to contact Paul and let him know a.s.a.p.
This should be one of those nights everyone will remember for a long time. The evening is German themed and 'if you would like to participate' you are invited to dress German for the night. Best dressed will be given a prize.
The Oompah band will be entertaining us during the evening so you can dance the night away.
Remember to take lots of Photographs!!
The main evening of the reunion will run as it always has (with a few surprise changes) why change what has worked for so long, right? The band will do the Fanfare inviting everyone to take his or her seats about 18.30 and the meal will be served from about 19.00hrs.
The annual Draw will be done at some point during the evening, if you would like to increase your chance in winning more tickets can be purchased now or during the reunion itself.
Tables for the evening are now SOLD OUT so if anyone finds they are NOT able to attend for whatever reason could you please let me know this will enable us to let other sit down on the night should they wish to do so.
The menu for the evening is again available to be viewed on the Noah's ARC website.
During the evening band will entertain us in their normal high standard way, followed by a disco that will go on until approximately 1am.
During all this time the bars will be open, a 15% discount has been granted to Noah's ARC for the reunion weekend, we succeeded in getting the discount raised, so lets make the most of the weekend and see if we can drink them dry once again.
Your Noah's ARC ties are available via the Noah's ARC shop, please do not wait until the last minute to order them.
The committee is holding a meeting on the 9th April to ensure everything is finalized and ready for the weekend. The minutes from that meeting will once again be made available to you via the Noah's ARC website. Once ready I will of course let you know.
I hope this is of help to you all and we look forward to seeing you all in May.
Catterick, Benghazi, Tidworth, Paderborn, Ireland, Perham Down,Ireland, Herford, Bovington. (Can't remember the order though, Brain Dead !! ) Oh and a lot of time spent at Bisley !!
Just FOUR WEEKS to go now to our 20th Annual Reunion, There is still plenty of time to sort your German outfit for the German Theme Night on the Friday night, where we will be entertained by the Blue Barons Oompah Band, and dine on a True German Style Buffet...Prizes are on offer for best dressed costume for Best Male, Best Female, and Best Couple..The night will be as good as the effort we all put into it........Please join in the Spirit, ( Don't just drink it ) Let us show them how Hussars Party !!!
If you can stay calm when all around you is in Chaos, Then you have not properly understood the Situation!!


text:
Posts Tagged 'europe'
The latest refugee rights demand: free WiFi and maid service
Posted by Richard on December 25, 2015
You know those African and Middle Eastern refugees flooding into Europe to escape poverty, war, oppression, or death (take your pick)? Some of them are outraged at the lack of amenities in the Italian villa (!) where they're housed:
According to The Local, which cites the Italian-language La Repubblica, a group of two dozen Sub-Saharan African migrants in the town of Ceranova are outraged that a lack of free Wi-Fi at the villa they live in is preventing them from using Skype to communicate with family members back in Africa.
The protesters are also angry that the villa doesn't have a professional cleaner to keep things tidy.
Sounds like they're assimilating already. They've certainly embraced the European entitlement mentality.
SMDH.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: entitlement, europe, immigrants | Leave a Comment »
Yes, minimum wage laws destroy jobs
The left's cause du jour is income inequality, and the Obama administration wants to address it by increasing the national minimum wage by 40% to $10.10 per hour. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that would eliminate 500,000 jobs. Rick Manning noted that to the left that's not a bug, it's a feature (emphasis added):
Politically, the left benefits from another half million people off the employment roles as these new government dependents become welfare voters supporting the very politicians whose policies were directly responsible for their job losses.
At the same time, an estimated 16.5 million people are expected to see some increase in their wages. It can be anticipated that a majority of these people will also credit the Democrats for their largesse.
And the kicker is that by including automatic increases tied to the cost of living, these remaining workers will get a raise each year, regardless of whether their employer can afford to provide it. This process ensures additional job losses, accelerating the destruction of gateway jobs in America.
However, none of this matters. For those who benefit politically from government economic dependency, all that matters is that another half million dependency voters will be created with no political downside.
The inherent unfairness to the high school kid going from fast food restaurant to retailer vainly seeking employment doesn't matter. For many job seekers, the soul-crushing realization that the above-the-table economy has no place for them destroys their connection to the legitimate free-market system. They will place the blame for this failure on our capitalist system rather than the bastardization of that system coming from craven political calculations of leftists in D.C.
Throwing away the hopes and dreams of half a million people is acceptable collateral damage to those who believe the end of achieving a permanent majority of government dependents is worth any means of attaining it.
The idea that mandating a higher starting wage eliminates entry-level jobs, which seems obvious to anyone who understands supply and demand, is disputed by various studies — that is, studies by left-wing academics (often union-funded) who manipulate their methodology to obtain the result they want. Of course, there are other studies with opposite findings — and in fairness, it may be that some of those, too, were manipulated.
The trouble with all such studies is that they invariably compare data either across states with different minimums or across time, before and after a minimum wage increase. Thus they're comparing minimum wage level A to minimum wage level B. Such comparisons are confounded by factors such as cost of living differences across states or across time, changes in the economy (economic expansion or recession) across time, etc. And a minimum wage mandate has no significant effect if it's below the market-clearing wage for unskilled, entry-level workers at the time.
Mark J. Perry thought a better comparison would be between places that do mandate a minimum wage and those that don't. So where do you have to look to find a $0.00 minimum wage — some third-world country? Nope. Western Europe will do.
It turns out that nine Western European nations, including Germany and the Scandinavian countries, have no minimum wage. Their average (mean) and median unemployment rate is about half that of the nine that do mandate a minimum wage (emphasis in original):
Bottom Line: The nine countries in Western Europe with a minimum wage of $0.00 per hour, which most economists and even the New York Times argued in 1987 is the "right" wage, are apparently doing much better economically than the nine countries that have minimum wage laws legislation that makes it unlawful to employ workers whose hourly productivity is below some minimum level arbitrarily dictated by government officials. (Thanks to Don Boudreaux for making that clarification.)
Those concerned about income inequality would do well to focus their attention on the failures of our educational system, as suggested by Nathan Smith in the December 2012 issue of The Freeman (emphasis added):
The State education system is centrally planned and run by committees, so choice and competition are lost from the system. Stagnation is therefore inevitable. Where market forces prevail, productivity improvement is normal. … But productive innovation is difficult and competition is the best school in which to learn it. State education plays hooky from that school, so it fails to learn.
Poor public schools are a major bottleneck holding back the entire U.S. economy. The recent increase in inequality has been driven not by capital but by labor income, as Saez and Piketty stress. This reflects sharply rising demand for certain kinds of skilled, educated workers, combined with little supply response. The public schools and universities are unable and/or unwilling to train the kinds of people the market wants. Eric Brynjolffson argues in his book Race Against the Machine that workers are unable to keep up with new technology. Brynjolffson illustrates his point with the chart shown below:
The fact that wages of high school graduates have fallen is a painful remark about how much the market values what the public schools produce. …
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: education, employment, europe, minimum wage | Leave a Comment »
The war against savers escalates
A while back, people who worry about the growing mountains of sovereign debt pointed to Greece as the canary in the coal mine. We have a new canary, and he's got a bad cough: Cyprus. The Eurocrats are funding a bailout of Cyprus by doing what debt-laden governments with no respect for the rule of law or the sanctity of contracts usually end up doing eventually: seizing the assets of savers.
I'm not shedding any tears for the Russian klepto-billionaires who parked their ill-gotten riches in Cyprus. And maybe only a few for the Cypriots who until now believed they could get something for nothing through the miracle of endless government borrowing. But prudent and frugal folks throughout the heavily-indebted nations of Europe must be wondering when the EU will come after their savings. Under the mattress or in a hole in the back yard must be starting to look like better options than a bank account.
Think it can't happen in the good old USA? It already has. In April 1933, a month after taking office, FDR issued an executive order (under the "Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917") outlawing the private ownership of gold coins, bullion, and gold certificates. Owners had a month to turn it all in or face 10 years in prison. They were reimbursed at face value — the owner of a $20 gold double eagle (which contained gold worth $19.99 at the time) was given $20 in currency. But once all the gold had been turned in, FDR quickly devalued the dollar by 59%. That double eagle, had the owner been allowed to keep it, would have been worth $35. Essentially, this was a confiscation of wealth that makes the Cyprus "haircut" look picayune.
More recently and on a smaller scale, when the Obama administration turned GM into Government Motors, they abrogated contracts and confiscated the assets of bondholders in order to turn them over to their friends in the UAW.
And for some time now, left-wing activists and Obama administration officials (but I repeat myself) have been talking about how "unfair to poor people" 401k and IRA accounts are and suggesting that the government should do for retirement accounts what it's doing for health care: take over.
Fiat money allows governments to confiscate wealth slowly and stealthily by inflating the currency, thus shrinking both your savings and their debt. But if (when) things start to go out of control and panic sets in, they'll come after your savings more directly and immediately. You might want to be prepared.
HT: Instapundit (via email from David Aitken)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: big government, economics, europe, property rights, saving | Leave a Comment »
Interest on German bonds falls below zero
Posted by Richard on January 13, 2012
This just boggles my mind. Investors are paying the German government to take their money and hold onto it for 3 to 12 months:
Continuing the schizoid overnight theme, we look at Germany which just sold €3.9 billion in 6 month zero-coupon Bubills at a record low yield of -0.0122% (negative) compared to 0.001% previously. The bid to cover was 1.8 compared to 3.8 before. As per the FT: "German short-term debt has traded at negative yields in the secondary market for some weeks with three-month, six-month and one-year debt all below zero. Bills for six-month debt hit a low of minus 0.3 per cent shortly after Christmas…
Why would any rational person buy a bond that pays negative interest when they have a perfectly good mattress to put the cash under?
One of the commenters at Zero Hedge described it succinctly:
It's like Ho's paying tricks for sex.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: economics, europe, germany, investing | 3 Comments »
Circumventing the ban on incandescent bulbs
Human ingenuity is a wondrous thing. With an opportunity for profit as a motivator, human ingenuity can find a way to overcome the best efforts of bureaucrats to stifle, regulate, control, and harass us. Case in point: The European Union's phase-out of incandescent light bulbs is well under way, with clear bulbs over 100W and all frosted bulbs already banned. (Similar regulations hit the US in January 2012, so start stockpiling traditional light bulbs now.)
The enviro-fascist busybodies behind these bans argue that incandescent bulbs are very inefficient, wasting a lot of energy as heat and thus contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, and the destruction of the planet. So they mandate CFLs that are much more efficient — produce less heat per lumen of light output.
These EU regulations define lamp as a device to produce visible light. So it occurred to a clever German that the regulations don't apply to heating appliances. When a heater produces heat, it isn't waste — it's the intended output. Thus the Heatball was born. The page is in German. Here's my translation (with a little help from Babylon) of some key bits:
HEATBALL® What is that?
A HEATBALL® is not a lamp, but it fits into the same socket!
The best invention since the light bulb! Heatballs are technologically very similar to classic light bulbs, but they are intended to heat instead of to illuminate.
In passive houses [?], incandescent lamps contribute significantly to heating the rooms. When incandescent lamps are replaced by energy-saving lamps, that heat must be replaced. …
A Heatball is an electrical resistance device intended to produce heat. Heatball is [also] performance art! Heatball is resistance against regulations that exceed democratic and parliamentary powers and that disempower citizens. Heatball is also resistance against extremist measures to protect our environment. …
That is so cool … I mean, hot! The Heatball is simply (ahem) brilliant, and it should stymie the nanny-staters in Brussels for now.
At least until they impose regulations limiting how much energy a heater can "waste" as visible light. 🙂
(HT: Slashdot)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: bureaucracy, energy, environmentalism, europe, innovation, lights, regulation | Leave a Comment »
U.S., Europe on different paths
US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told the BBC that the United States can "no longer drive global growth," and that the world "cannot depend as much on the US as it did in the past." There's a good reason for that.
The administration of which Geithner is a part apparently has as its goal cutting the US down to size — hobbling our economy, reducing our standard of living, slashing the "disproportionate share of the world's resources" we consume, and driving us toward a stagnant society that's more egalitarian because the successful have been forcibly impoverished.
Geithner also said that Europe and the US are taking "different paths, at a different pace," and he's not kidding. As most other developed nations are moving away from socialism in an attempt to restore economic growth and fiscal responsibility, the Obama administration is moving the US as fast as it can in the opposite direction.
So now we have the ironic situation of European socialist countries defending their government spending cuts against attacks from Obama and arguing against Obama's calls for more government "stimulus" programs. For instance:
Germany and the United States appear set for a heated showdown at this weekend's G20 summit in Canada after Chancellor Angela Merkel flatly rejected warnings from President Barack Obama that Europe's attempts to save its way out of the debt crisis could put fragile global economic growth in danger.
She added in a recent rebuttal of economic stimulus packages: "If we don't go for sustainable growth, but just create puffed-up growth, we will pay for that with another crisis."
Merkel isn't alone. While the Obama administration embraces protectionism and fiscal profligacy, Britain's David Cameron calls for progress in the Doha free trade talks and embraces the fiscal conservatism that's becoming increasingly popular around the world:
"Delivering progress on Doha will not be easy. However, I'm also impatient for change and people in Britain, Canada, Asia, Africa and elsewhere can't wait for negotiators to come to agreement.
"World leaders have made previous commitments on Doha in good faith – but despite almost a decade of talks, there's been no breakthrough."
The comments come as America noticeably distances itself from the economic agenda of most other world powers.
Once internationally isolated, Mr Cameron's fiscal conservatism now constitutes something akin to a consensus among world powers, and president Barack Obama is isolated in his desire for further spending – a plan he has been struggling to get through domestically.
Heck, even China has repeatedly chided the Obama administration about its fiscal irresponsibility. You know we're in trouble when the Chicoms are saying our government is getting too big.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: big government, europe, fiscal policy, obama, socialism, spending | Leave a Comment »
Celebrating the triumph of liberty
Twenty years ago today, residents of the slave state known as the Democratic Republic of Germany danced atop the Berlin Wall with their West German brethren and rushed through the suddenly open gates to freedom — a freedom that thousands had been killed for attempting to reach. It was the beginning of the end for the Iron Curtain, the Soviet Empire, and the subjugation of hundreds of millions under brutal collectivist regimes. It was arguably the most momentous event since the end of World War II.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who herself walked from East Germany to freedom that day, is leading the appropriately massive celebrations taking place all day today in Berlin. Joining her are Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, and the leaders of all 27 European Union countries.
Absent is the leader of the country most responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall, the country that made possible the survival of West Berlin to see that glorious day. President Obama declined Chancellor Merkel's invitation to attend, saying he was too busy. So let's see what his schedule for today looks like:
DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
In the morning, the President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing, the Economic Daily Briefing, and meet with senior advisors in the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press.
In the evening, the President will sign an Executive Order on the employment of veterans in the federal government in the Oval Office. Through this Executive Order, the President will make the Federal Government the model employer of Veterans. The Executive Order establishes a Council on Veterans Employment and a Veterans Employment Program office within most Federal agencies. The signing is closed press.
The President will then meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel in the Oval Office. This meeting is closed press.
In-Town Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: CNN
Print: CQ
Radio: VOA
Travel Photo: TIME
9:00AM Pool Call Time
10:00AM THE PRESIDENT receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
Closed Press
10:30AM THE PRESIDENT receives the Economic Daily Briefing
11:00AM THE PRESIDENT meets with senior advisors
6:45PM THE PRESIDENT signs the Veterans Employment Initiative Executive Order
7:00PM THE PRESIDENT meets with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel
Briefing Schedule
12:30PM Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
The Office of the Press Secretary doesn't disclose with whom the President is playing golf in the afternoon.
When I learned that Mikhail Gorbachev was attending the ceremonies today in Berlin, I felt a bit of a lump in my throat. The man who should really be there, but who's no longer with us — the man who, more than any other, brought about that day of liberation in 1989 — is the man who issued this challenge to Gorbachev in 1987:
"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
To watch, listen to, or read President Reagan's address at the Brandenburg Gate, go here.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: europe, freedom, germany, history, liberty, obama, reagan | Leave a Comment »
Erin go bragh!
Before I forget, congratulations to the plucky citizens of Ireland for rejecting the Lisbon Treaty. This was the European Union's new attempt to concentrate power in the hands of the Eurocrats in Brussels.
Dutch and French voters rejected the similar EU constitution in 2005. This time, all the other EU member states agreed to bypass their citizens and let the legislators decide. But in Ireland, a referendum was required to approve the treaty.
Even though the Irish government and all the opposition parties backed the treaty, 53.4% of Irish voters rejected the idea of relinquishing their independence to a bunch of elitist technocrats — who would undoubtedly undermine Ireland's "economic miracle" (the consequence of adopting low-tax, low-regulation, pro-growth policies that are anathema to the Eurocrats).
Since the treaty had to be approved unanimously by all EU states, the Irish thumbs-down kills it. Of course, that was the situation in 2005, too. But the Eurocrats don't give up easily and don't let democratic elections stand in their way. The Lisbon Treaty was a repackaging of the rejected EU constitution; I suspect they'll be back in a couple of years with the same wine (or rather, vinegar) in a new bottle. Meanwhile, they'll try to figure out how to get rid of that pesky "will of the people" obstacle completely.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: europe, ireland, voting | Leave a Comment »
Embracing dhimmitude
LGF had back-to-back stories yesterday about the one-way street called "multiculturalism" and "tolerance," which is really liberals displaying their willingness to embrace the role of dhimmi that all non-Muslim Europeans must assume when the caliphate is established:
Scottish Shari'a Watch
Tue, Aug 14, 2007 at 10:58:04 am PDT
Doctors and health workers in Scotland have been banned from eating lunch at their desks during the Ramadan fast.
Willful blindness has now become standard practice in cases like this; the officials who instituted the ban openly admit they did it out of fear, even while parroting the usual tolerance-speak.
Can it get any crazier? Well, yes.
Dutch Catholic Bishop: Christians Should Pray to Allah
Tue, Aug 14, 2007 at 9:57:47 am PDT
The Roman Catholic bishop of Breda in the Netherlands wants Christians to start praying to Allah.
To promote healing and tolerance.
Go read both posts. Then, for your amusement, check out Charles' half-dozen or so updates since in the Wikipedia Editgate series.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: appeasement, dhimmitude, europe, islam | Leave a Comment »
Sarkozy elected
Nicolas Sarkozy easily won France's presidential election today, despite his Socialist opponent's warning to voters that electing Sarkozy would lead to violence in the streets (which reminded me of the ominous American leftist slogan, "No Justice, No Peace"). Voter turnout was the highest in decades.
The AP reporter has trouble hiding her disappointment that a pro-American, anti-Socialist won, describing Sarkozy as "a charismatic but divisive figure known for uncompromising, even brutal language." I suppose that's a reference to his calling the rioters who burned 10,000 cars in 2005 "scum," when the preferred term was "poor youths lacking jobs and hope."
No news reports ever, ever characterized these "youths" any more precisely than that, so no one knows if they shared anything else in common — say, a religion. Of peace. But curiously, the same youths with their purely economic grievances also vandalized numerous synagogues and Jewish cemetaries, and quite a few Jews were attacked in the streets.
Charles Johnson is conducting a poll at LGF, asking readers to predict how many cars will be torched because of Sarkozy's victory. Due to the time difference, if you wait just a few more hours, you may be able to eliminate one or two of the answers.
UPDATE: Car torchings, rioting, and general mayhem by "disaffected youths" broke out in Paris, Marseilles, and other French cities, but there aren't a lot of news stories about it. LGF has some news and links, and some burning car pictures. Maybe you should just go to the main page and keep reading.
In addition to some good news updates, Pajamas Media can lay claim to the best damn headline possible for this event:
C'est le Matin en France
I laughed out loud and got a tear in my eye simultaneously. It just doesn't get any better. (HT: Instapundit)
UPDATE: They've "updated" the story at Pajamas Media (by ripping out what was there before), and in the process discarded their marvelous headline. I hate it when they do that. Especially moronic in this instance — that was a classic.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: elections, europe, france | Leave a Comment »
Sarkozy — hope for France?
(UPDATE, 5/6: He won easily . Vive la France!)
France's run-off election is Sunday, May 6, and polling data from last weekend showed center-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy with a 53%-47% lead over Socialist Ségolène Royal. If Sarkozy wins, and if he lives up to his promise and holds true to his own rhetoric, he just may pull France out of its death spiral. I sincerely hope so — I've done my share of good-humored France-bashing, but it saddens me to see what's been happening to that once-great country.
Sarkozy may not be a Thatcher or Reagan, but he's as close as the French have come in quite a long time — a Gallic Thatcher who just may be able to snatch France back from the socialist decay and decline and the social disintegration that have all been accelerating in recent years. He recently pointed the finger of blame for France's woes directly at aging 60s radicals and their intellectual heirs:
A week before the climax of France's presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy, the neo-Gaullist favourite, yesterday delivered a striking show of force as he attacked the leftwing "heirs of May 1968" in the biggest rally of the campaign so far.
Mr Sarkozy blamed the "moral crisis" in France today – including violent crime, rebellious youth, lazy benefit claimants, uncontrolled immigration and corrupt company bosses – on the social revolution sparked by student protests in the French capital almost 40 years ago.
He presented himself as the "candidate of the people" and listed his values as "justice, effort, work, merit and reward".
Mr Sarkozy blamed "May '68" for eroding the moral values of capitalism and said this had contributed to the current controversy over failed company bosses receiving big "golden parachutes". "The heirs of May '68 have undermined the values of citizenship," he said. The biggest cheer came as he quoted Ms Royal's reaction to the riots by hundreds of youths in Paris's Gare du Nord train station last month, which she blamed on "a gulf between the youth and the police".
At times, Sarkozy is downright inspiring and, well, Reaganesque. Take, for example, a speech he made in London earlier this year to French expatriates:
Standing in the heart of the financial district, Sarkozy heaped compliments upon his country's historic enemy. The British capital was, he said, a "town that seems more and more prosperous and dynamic every time I come here." More important, it had become "one of the greatest French cities." He understood, furthermore, that hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen had moved to Britain because "they are risk-takers, and risk is a bad word" in France. With distinctly un-English passion (some things never change), he pleaded with them to come back:
Come home, because together we will make France a great country where everything will be possible, where fathers won't fear for the future of their children, and where everyone will be able to make their plans come true, and be responsible for their own destiny.
Sarkozy sounds like a supply-sider. Here are some snippets from an interview published in the Financial Times, conducted by its sister publication, Les Echos:
Les Echos: Since Ségolène Royal unveiled her 'Presidential Pact', do you believe the battle (for the presidency) is becoming a battle between two social projects?
Sarkozy: Yes. We now know where Madame Royal's project is headed… It's a return to the era of (former socialist Prime Minister Lionel) Jospin. The values Madame Royal puts to the fore are those of state handouts and mollycoddling, egalitarianism and levelling. She retains the 35 hour week, she doesn't encourage work, she still doesn't say if she favours overhauling taxes, but we know she wants to overhaul spending. …
Les Echos: Madame Royal develops the idea of 'donnant-donnant' (two-way co-operation). It's not exactly mollycoddling, is it?
Sarkozy: She may put it thus, but what conclusion does she draw? None. It's the same for the reform of the state. It's the same for public debt. She judges the level "unsustainable" but what does she announce? More spending. When I talk about rights and duties, I am precise: no minimum benefits without working in exchange; no papers to stay in France long-term if one can't write, if one can't read, if one can't speak French; no increase in minimum pensions without consolidation of the pension system. …
Les Echos: When it comes to costing your (Presidential) programmes, you both face the same criticism: plenty of spending and little detail on the cost savings!
Sarkozy: I will of course respond to that charge, but there is no point in getting into the detail of the proposals if you don't understand the logic that binds them. The cornerstone value of my programme is work. The strategy that gives credibility to everything I do is to say to the French people: 'You are going to earn more because we are going to work more'. And that is how, collectively, we are going to encourage wealth creation. I want to make France the country of innovation and audacity.
Les Echos: In your programme, is it coherent to want simultaneously to reduce national insurance contributions by €68bn over 10 years and reduce the state debt to 60 per cent of gross domestic product by 2012?
Sarkozy: I didn't pick the €68bn figure by chance. That reduction will allow us, over 10 years, to reduce the pressure of our tax and national insurance charges to the average of the EU15. … Is it compatible with the debt reduction objective? There are the figures, but above all, there is the logic. My strategy is to think we will reduce our deficits and our debt the day we reinstate (the value of) work.
Les Echos: How much does your programme cost, and how would it be paid for?
Sarkozy: My programme will cost €30bn over five years, of which €15bn comes from reductions in taxes and charges. But I want to add two key points that must be understood. First, it is not the same thing to spend to assist, and to spend to invest. €9bn for research and innovation are not the same as €9bn spent to create new rights without matching responsibilities. On the one hand, there is investment, on the other mollycoddling. Then, you have to realise that lightening national insurance charges and taxes on overtime will bring in Value Added Tax receipts. …
Les Echos: What would be the first sign of commitment to debt reduction?
Sarkozy: The implementation of the principle that we would not replace more than half of the civil servants who retire. During the past 20 years, France has created a million public sector jobs. I would make reform of the state a key presidential project.
Not bad. Not bad at all. I can think of an allegedly free-market, limited government political party in the United States that could use some leaders who speak like that. Bonne chance, Monsieur Sarkozy!
Whither Europe?
I was stunned a few days ago when I read about the judges in the German state of Hesse who imposed a bizarre Islamic restriction on Muslim girls in the public schools. Little Green Footballs stunned me yet again yesterday with the story of the German judge whose ruling in a divorce case was based on what the Koran says:
The nihilistic dead end of multiculturalism has been attained in Germany, where a female judge seemingly forgot which culture's laws she was supposed to uphold: German judge rules Koran allows wife abuse. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)
BERLIN (AFP) – A German woman judge has refused a Moroccan-born woman permission to file for divorce by interpreting the Koran as allowing husbands to beat their wives.
It seems there's been a significant uproar over this decision, and the judge has been removed:
BERLIN – Politicians and Muslim leaders denounced a German judge for citing the Koran in her rejection of a Muslim woman's request for a quick divorce on grounds she was abused by her husband.
The judge was removed from the case on Wednesday and the Frankfurt administrative court said it was considering disciplinary action.
… The latest uproar comes amid an ongoing debate in Germany about integrating its more than 3 million Muslims, most of them from Turkey. A decision last year to cancel an opera featuring the severed heads of the Prophet Muhammad and other religious figures out of security concerns caused a furor and was later retracted.
Lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats said traditional Islamic law, or Sharia, had no place in Germany.
"The legal and moral concepts of Sharia have nothing to do with German jurisprudence," Wolfgang Bosbach, a lawmaker with the Christian Democrats, told N24 television.
"One thing must be clear: In Germany, only German law applies. Period."
Ronald Pofalla, the party's general secretary, told Bild: "When the Koran is put above the German constitution, I can only say: Good night, Germany."
The mass-circulation Bild daily asked in a front-page article: "Where are we living?" The left-leaning Tageszeitung headlined its Thursday edition: "In the name of the people: Beating allowed."
Not everyone's outraged, however. Notice how the AP reporter helps a Muslim group try to put a good spin on a very ugly aspect of their beliefs (emphasis added):
While the Koranic verse cited does say that husbands are allowed to beat their wives if they are disobedient, Germany's Institute for Islamic Questions noted that such an interpretation was no longer standard.
"Of course not all Muslims use violence against their wives," the group said in a statement.
Let me attempt to restate that for you: "Yes, the Koran says 'husbands may beat their wives if they disobey,' and we usually insist on unquestioning 100% obedience to every word in the Koran. But, umm, there's this other interpretation. Really. And besides, some Muslim women don't need to be bea… I mean, some Muslim men don't beat their wives at all. Hardly."
These incidents are just two more data points in the growing mountain of evidence that all is not well in Europe. Daniel Pipes recently considered "Europe's Stark Options" regarding its growing Muslim population and saw three possibilities:
The high religiosity, high fertility, and high cultural confidence of the Muslims will win out over the Europeans' low religiosity, low fertility, and alienation from their own heritage. Europe will become Islamicized.
Many Europeans (outside of the intelligentsia) are becoming resentful of radical Islam's increasing insistence that non-Muslims conform to and accommodate fundamentalist Muslim standards, and this will lead to a backlash that becomes increasingly ugly. In the words of Ralph Peters, Muslims in Europe "will be lucky just to be deported."
Europeans and Muslim immigrants could follow Rodney King's advice and "just get along." Muslim immigrants would assimilate more, or at least stop pushing for the Islamization of Europe, and would become more tolerant of and integrated into the free, democratic, pluralistic societies in which they've chosen to live.
Pipes seems to think option 3 is not very likely, and it's too soon to tell whether option 1 or 2 will prevail. I hope he's wrong. But there are certainly plenty of people in the European intelligentsia who are furthering option 1, as these German judges illustrate. And there are even more ordinary Europeans who are becoming angry and radicalized, as is clear from the reaction to such instances of dhimmitude and the growing nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment in many parts of Europe.
I have to believe that there are lots of Muslim immigrants in Europe who don't want Sharia — who emigrated at least partly to escape from the oppressive feudal strictures of their homeland. But the Saudi-funded radical Wahhabists at the mosques are turning some of their kids into jihadists. Are these people just too scared to stand up and speak out?
We're constantly reminded that most Muslims are peaceful, tolerant people. I'd like to think it's true, but in Europe as in the U.S., those peaceful, moderate Muslims are virtually invisible. So Europe's many appeasers and cowards keep submitting to the threats of the violent and intolerant Muslims, and everyone else gets angrier and angrier. It's a path to disaster, and it's those peaceful, moderate Muslims — if they exist in large numbers — who must act to stop it. For their own sakes, if not for everyone else's.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: dhimmitude, europe, germany, islam, moderate islam | Leave a Comment »
The camel caravan limit
Go to Little Green Footballs right this minute. Read about how German judges decided what rules should govern the participation of Muslim schoolgirls in school field trips.
Words fail me.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: dhimmitude, education, europe, germany, islam, womens rights | Leave a Comment »
Hiding unemployment
In Budapest, Hungarians rioted overnight because the government lied about the economy and unemployment. In Sweden, voters just elected a center-right government in part because the socialists have been massively fudging the numbers, claiming 6% unemployment when independent estimates are in the 15-20% range. Sweden's Social Democrats had their worst showing since 1914. The Bullwinkle Blog and Rossputin.com connected the two events. The latter observed:
Maybe even true Socialists are seeing the light…just not American socialists. As George Will says, there are more Marxists on the faculty at Harvard than in all of Eastern Europe.
Publius Pundit, true to form, provided pictures of pro-freedom Swedish babes along with the election news and commentary:
As you may imagine, Sweden's stock market went hog-wild, creating tons of wealth for lots of people across the board. Markets are forward looking and they see something they like in this victory that could unleash the energies of Sweden's intelligent and itching to work young people.
It's a great victory for markets and progress in a peaceful country that's been socialist for way too long.
Meanwhile, over at TCS Daily, Nima Sanandaji of the Swedish free-market think tank Captus provided a fascinating look at one of the techniques used by the Swedish socialist government to "fight" unemployment. Jessica Petterson, an out-of-work 25-year-old Swede was pressured by the unemployment agency to meet with a work psychologist, who gave her some tests:
… To her surprise the psychologist said that Petterson should be classified as disabled since she wasn't good enough at mathematics. Jessica was shocked to hear this: "I might not be a math genius, but I know how to count," she told the paper.
The unemployment agency explained that it was simply a matter of changing a code in her status as unemployed. If she agreed to be classified as mentally disabled she would be entitled to a range of government subsidies and programs. In fact, she could begin working at "Samhall" – a government project aimed at providing employment for the disabled. There she could get a job cleaning and building wheelchairs.
Alarmingly, what happened to Petterson is not an isolated incident in Sweden. The state unemployment agency is constantly attempting to force people to "admit" to being disabled. Today 19.3 percent of those seeking jobs at the unemployment office are being classified as disabled.
Stockholm University professor Mikael Holmqvist, who has done research on the subject of Samhall's workers, believes that most of these people are in fact not disabled at all. They have been lured or threatened into agreeing to become classified as such. The reason for this is simply that if you are disabled you are removed from the statistics of open unemployment, something that the current Social Democratic government greatly appreciates.
Classifying job-seekers as mentally disabled? Well, I do know a few places where you'd have to be crazy to want to work there. 😉
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: elections, europe, hungary, jobs, politics, riots, socialism, sweden, unemployment | Leave a Comment »
Ayaan Hirsi Ali coming to America
It hasn't been easy for Ayaan Hirsi Ali lately. At the end of April, a Dutch appeals court agreed with her neighbors that — since Islamofascists want to kill her — her presence put them at risk, thus violating their human rights. She was ordered to vacate her apartment.
Ponder the logic of that for a moment. The court held that Ayaan Hirsi Ali — not the murderous thugs who threaten her — had caused her neighbors to feel less safe, and thus had violated their rights under Article 8 of the European Treaty on Human Rights.
More recently, political opponents expressed shock at the "news" that she'd lied on her 1992 asylum application (even though she'd revealed this in 2002 when she ran for parliament), and demanded that she be deported. Judith Apter Klinghoffer noted that Hirsi Ali, like Anne Frank, seems to be "too much trouble" for the Dutch.
Apparently, Hirsi Ali has had enough of Dutch cowardice and dhimmitude. Today, it's being reported that she's accepted a position with the American Enterprise Institute and will be moving to the United States in September.
The Netherlands' loss is our gain. Welcome, Ms. Ali!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: courage, dhimmitude, europe, human rights, islamofascism, terrorism | Leave a Comment »


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Ghana is a Beautiful Place to Visit – Says American Rapper Cardi B
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAoi3i8yhcQ Spek Won is a progressive artist/producer who aims to push African sound culture, and art forward. Based...
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I'm not advocating that you paint your house black, or pink, but I did talk about situations involving houses painted those colors, as well as "gold zinger." It's my attempt to enlighten my loyal readers about the application of rules that govern what you can and cannot do with your own property.
My March Real Estate Law Update is in the mail and will soon be posted. If you're interested, take a peek in the publications section at deconcinimcdonald.com.
As soon as I read what the proposed trademark was and that it was denied on the ground that it is "scandalous," I knew that the discussion would immediately turn to The Slants.
How any times do I have to say it? The First Amendment means that the government can't prohibit speech based on the content of the speech.
I haven't posted about autonomous vehicles in a while, so I thought I'd come back to the subject as soon as I saw something interesting. Via Coyote, I came across this article on difficulties with Tesla's autopilot. It essentially confirms what I, and others who probably know a lot more than I do about it, would have suspected: Tesla is not doing the same kind of intensive research and development for its autonomous driving technology as Waymo and others. That doesn't cause me to lose confidence in my prediction that self-driving vehicles will become prevalent in my lifetime, nor does it diminish my desire to use one myself, although I have to admit that those photos of a wrecked Tesla are kind of disconcerting.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE COLOR OF HOUSES NOWADAYS?
This time it's an old house built of yellow brick. Inexplicably, and perhaps mistakenly according to the news account, it got painted black. The historical board cried foul, the owner is trying to remove the black paint without damaging the brick, and locals are up in arms.
The house is in a business district and has apparently been used for retail for a long time. Does that matter?
WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT CHOOSING TO BUY A HOUSE WHERE THERE ARE NO RULES ABOUT WHAT COLOR IT CAN BE?
I agree with the neighbors: the color of that house is sickening.
I also agree with the homeowner: if there is no homeowners' association, and hence there are no rules for the neighbors to enforce, he should be able to paint his house whatever color he likes.
Like I said, if you want to paint your house the color of your choice, be careful where you buy your house. Conversely, if you want to make sure all the houses in your neighborhood look essentially the same, again, make sure you know what the rules are before you buy. It's really not that complicated.
Adverse possession isn't really about "squatting" on, or stealing, someone else's land, even though it sounds like that's essentially what happened in a case in Australia that was recently discussed at Lowering the Bar. Adverse possession is really about, in my opinion, putting to rest uncertainty about ownership of land. I have written about adverse possession from both angles: it's not really about stealing someone else's land; it really is about resolving uncertainty as to ownership of land.
It's a subject that maybe only real estate lawyers care about. Other people don't care about it until they discover that their neighbor is encroaching on their land. Then, they care about it.
There's an interesting comment at the end of the discussion that I linked in a post last week. As I suspected, there was apparently some bureaucratic skullduggery in applying historic property rules to the house that was the subject of the discussion, with the outcome that the owner's neighbors (or more accurately, a small subset of his neighbors) got to tell him what color he could not paint his house.
All the more reason to vote with your feet and stay away from properties that are subject to rules enforced by people who like to tell others what to do.
My point was made here.
I also discussed dealing with rules governing the aesthetics of houses, here.
The Rosemont Mine to be located south of Tucson is a matter of some controversy. I recognize the environmental harms that could result from it. I think that the benefits will outweigh the potential harms, however.
The Tucson area is not prosperous. I think the Rosemont Mine will undoubtedly improve the economic well-being of Tucson residents. That's a good reason for the project to proceed, even if some of the public officials who oppose the project don't seem to recognize it.
And from the perspective of a real estate lawyer with a background in land use law, the proposed project is of tremendous interest, whether or not I'm personally in favor of it.


This morning I heard this song on the radio - and the question comes naturally - what does she really mean with Touch Myself? Is it a metaphor or the real deal?
Well I actually love this - why not express yourself openly and fully no? So from my end they get full points!!


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Project Aims
E-BASS25
E-Book Acquisition as a Shared Service in M25
« E-BASS25 End of Project Briefing Event
E-BASS25 PDA Models Video »
Reflections on the E-BASS25 Project
February 21, 2013 //
The E-BASS25 Project will be drawing to a close at the end of February, so after of Monday's wrap-up event in London, I thought I'd drop a few lines reflecting on the work completed so far.
On the nature of PDA…
The project has been successful at defining the following four models for PDA, which could be used by individual libraries, or within the context of a consortium of libraries looking to purchase e-books together.
The four models apply different principles to the concept of PDA. The first three (PDA Purchase, PDA Rental and PDA Usage) are variations on a theme of payment. Effectively, the spread of titles your customers are able to access varies according to the library's attitude towards payment and ownership.
Imagine a library has £1000. If the library wishes to use this money only to buy new material then PDA will allow them to do this easily, but they will buy few books. If the library is happy to use some of the money to rent, then it will end the term with fewer books, but its patrons will have accessed a wider spread of content. A library wishing to spend all the money on micropayments will own very few books for the money, but its patrons are likely to have accessed the largest number of books to some extent.
This brings us to the fourth model, PDA Evidence. Seemingly the most popular amongst librarians and publishers alike, this model allows patrons to access a whole range of content during the course of the agreement, with the guarantee that all the money will be spent on whole books at the end. Sounds ideal? Well, almost. Here's the rub. The library can choose which books they buy at the end of the agreement. This is great for library choice, but surely this is not actually PDA? There is an intervention between the patron and the purchase. Surely this adds an administrative burden that PDA was designed to eliminate? Perhaps this model could still achieve cost savings when scaled up to a large consortium?
On the Nature of Consortia…
Library Consortia are organisations I have known of and dealt with for years, but it is only really through E-BASS25 that I have spent time pondering and analysing the nature, structure and purpose of various library consortia.
As detailed in the project, there are certain consortia with a strong sense of identity (normally national, regional or subject-allegiance) which have a successful history of consortial purchasing. This type of consortium is often to be found within a single US state (OhioLINK) or a small group of adjacent states. This side of the pond, these consortia are often found in smaller but well-developed Western European countries with populations of around 4 million (e.g. Finland, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland).
Larger consortia can be unwieldy and can contain very diverse organisations. In these types of consortia, opt-in deals are the way forward, and considerable leadership and administration from the consortium is needed to manage the deals.
I believe that consortial e-book purchasing through M25 can work, but it needs strong leadership to bring the deal together. The consortium would need to assert the way the deal would have to look, its model, parameters and content, giving its members the chance to opt-in to achieve maximum savings.
A consortium has strength to strike a deal with a publisher because its size maximises sales for the publisher and reduces their overheads of dealing with individual customers. Libraries similarly benefit through reduced overheads and similar costs so consortial purchasing in an obvious win-win.
Through the size and diversity of its membership, M25 has the capability of putting together a sizeable consortium for the acquisition of e-books and it seems obvious that the only way this could be achieved is by using the evidence-based model. Those wishing to participate would club their guaranteed spends together to achieve the highest possible discount. At the end of the term, those books every partner wants would be bought. The remaining fund could be divided up in line with the initial deposit, with each partner choosing their books.
A number of publishers may also be interested in trilling this approach to see if success could be achieved in practice. Such an approach would be a departure from conventional purchasing practices and would require significant guidance from the consortium and there is always a chance it might not work, but, hey, perhaps M25 should give it a try? If we don't give it a try, we'll never know. Over to M25…
-Dominic Tate, M25 Project Manager
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McKinnan Gulch is a valley in Marin County, California, United States.

It contains a small stream which descends the western slope of the Bolinas Ridge and drains into Bolinas Lagoon.

Near the head of the gulch is an ore vein (reported in 1955) containing chalcopyrite, galena, pyrite, and calcite.

References

External links

See also
 List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area

Valleys of Marin County, California
West Marin

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The A to Z Guide to Life - Letter 'B'. Moodscope blog.
'B' is for 'Biography'. One of the most influential poems I have ever read, is by Portia Nelson. Slightly adapted here for the UK!
Without doubt, one of the most important lessons we must learn is that we have a larger role to play in writing our life story, our life script, our own drama that we have ever been credited for. This is why Portia Nelson's poem is called, "Autobiography in Five Short Chapters" and not "Biography..."
I realise that, technically, I'm cheating here. Today's blog should be under the letter "A" but my belief is that we all start at the letter "B" as if other people are responsible for writing our biography.
This is understandable given that we have to grow up largely dependent upon others. But maturity is a coming of age rite of passage where we take responsibility for our role in what happens next.
It's a great moment in everyone's life when we each realise that we can go from B to A and take responsibility for the roles we play, the cast we surround ourselves with, the plot we follow, and the happy ending we can work towards. Perhaps this is Life's greatest work.
Is it time to switch roles?
Is it time to change the cast?
Is it time to write in a change of plot?
And what do you really want in the end? What's really most important to you?


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The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970)
Posted on 3 June 2018 3 June 2018 By AntBit
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage first published by Little White Lies, as the 51st instalment in my Cinema Psychotronicum column
There is a sequence in the middle of Dario Argento's assured feature debut The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo) which sets out the film's stall. The hero Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) is being chased through a nocturnal maze of Rome's streets by a pistol-toting assassin (Reggie Nalder) who is wearing a distinctive, luridly lemon-coloured jacket. Once they get to a more crowded area, Sam is able to give his pursuer the slip and turn the tables on him, becoming the hunter rather than the hunted. Yet as Sam tracks the gunman to a function room in a hotel, he finds himself at a boxers' convention filled with men all wearing that same yellow jacket.
The striking colour of this clothing is important here. For giallo (literally 'yellow'), the Italian crime genre characterised by stylisation and sensationalism, derived its name from the yellow jackets in which Italian pulp detective novels were typically bound. There are other aspects of this sequence – the easy fluidity between predator and prey, the killer disappearing into a crowd of others indistinguishable from himself – that will resonate with the rest of the film. Yet it is that surreal sea of yellow jackets which serves as a sly declaration of genre – and which marks Argento's arrival as the latest pretender to the giallo crown. For he fills his film with all the black gloves, flashing blades, POV shots, canted angles (courtesy of Vittorio Storaro, DP of The Conformist and Apocalypse Now) and jaunty yet unsettling musical cues (from maestro Ennio Morricone) that were already the well-established constituents of the cloak-and-dagger genre.
Sam is a blocked novelist living in Italy with his girlfriend Julia (Suzy Kendall) and, to make ends meet, has been penning "manuals on the preservation of rare birds". Yet one evening, shortly before he is due to fly back home to America, he becomes accidental eyewitness to an attempted murder, as Monica Ranieri (Eva Renzi) is stabbed by a black-coated figure in the modern art gallery owned by her husband Alberto (Umberto Raho). Convinced that he saw something that he cannot quite remember, Sam joins forces with Inspector Morosini (Enrico Maria Salerno) to find a killer who has already murdered three other women – but as Sam moves through a demimonde of perverts, pimps and painters, the killer is also on his tail.
Central to this narrative is a second-hand painting purchased by, and stolen from, the first victim – a painting, "naïve, but macabre at the same time", that depicts a black-clad figure trying to murder a young woman in a snowy field. This painting is all at once voyeuristic object, a stylised record of reality, and a mise-en-abyme of a film that also confronts its own viewers with aestheticised spectacles of violent assault. Indeed, in this most artful take on the serial killer, art itself plays a prominent rôle, used variously to disturb, to trigger trauma, to entrap, and to inspire. The painting's artist produced it to work through his own feelings about a horrific local incident years earlier – and the events of the film, fatal as they are to some, likewise serve to inspire Sam to regain his own artistic (and sexual) mojo and start writing again for the first time in two years (and fucking for the first time in two months). It is as though The Bird With The Crystal Plumage is interrogating the different functions performed by graphic portrayals of murder (much like this film itself), and facing viewers with their own cathartic, and possibly dangerous, fears and desires. After all, for one character here, the consumption of art leads directly to murder – so who knows what baneful influence such wide-eyed, open-mouthed consumption might be having on us.
Raining In The Mountain (Kong shan ling yu) (1979)
Deadly Manor (aka Savage Lust) (1990)
First Love (Hatsukoi) (2019)
Misfit initiations: Preview of BFI LFF 2017's Cult Strand
Devil's Gate (2017)


Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday defended the Syrian regime against sanctions for its crackdown on protesters and warned British Prime Minister David Cameron of the dangers of such a move.
Cameron met Medvedev for talks focusing on Syria and bilateral disputes as global frustration mounted with Russia's continued support of its ally despite President Bashar al-Assad's months-long repression of nationwide protests.
A visiting aide to Assad said 1,400 people -- half of them Syrian security and army forces -- had died in violence since the demonstrations erupted in mid-March and rejected an estimate of 2,600 deaths from UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.
Nations such as France have accused Assad's regime of committing crimes against humanity and the foreign ministry in Paris said Monday the UN Security Council's inability to approve a resolution on Syria was "a scandal".
But the Kremlin chief refused to give any ground on what is fast becoming a heated sequel to the two sides' war of words over the NATO-led campaign in Libya.
Medvedev insisted that Russia was ready to put more pressure on Assad and argued that his differences with the West were "not dramatic".
Yet he also stressed that any punitive actions must be applied equally to both sides because the opposition was continuing to reject calls to engage Assad in direct talks.
"This resolution must be strict, but it must not lead to the automatic application of sanctions," Medvedev said in reference to action proposed by Western powers.
Russia has blocked previous attempts by the world governing body to sanction Assad's regime and is promoting a separate draft resolution that simply calls on both sides to open negotiations.
But Medvedev's push for Syrian dialogue was undermined by a visiting Assad adviser who appeared to reject the idea of establishing contacts with the opposition.
"Is there any party in Syria with which (Russia) could mediate," asked Assad media adviser Bouthaina Shaaban. "There is no such party."
Her comments were followed hours later by Syrian dissident spokeswoman Basma Qadmani's announcement that the opposition would on Thursday present a list of candidates for a "national council" similar to one formed in Libya.
Medvedev's tough talk and lack of progress on the ground left Cameron to acknowledged that the two sides had essentially failed to bridge their gap on the dispute.
"There is a difference of perspective between Russia and Britain on this issue," Cameron said. "Clearly, Britain would like to go further. We do not see a future for Assad."
Cameron also conceded that a UN resolution may have to be abandoned in favour of a "clear statement about what is happening in Syria".
Britain and France have been leading the diplomatic offensive against Assad and Paris issued another barb at what it called some nations' indifference to the bloodshed in Syria.
"How long will the international community remain blind and dumb in the face of this endless sequence of crimes? That's the question we're asking today," said French foreign ministry spokeswoman Bernard Valero.
The UN resolution Russia is blocking would most likely affect arms sales -- the one area left untouched by the powerful economic sanctions imposed already by the European Union and the United States.
Switzerland followed suit on Monday by widening its travel and financial embargo against Assad's regime to 19 individuals and eight institutions.
But Russia has been keen to preserve some $4 billion in current and future Syrian arms contracts and has taken more assertive steps in trying to persuade Assad to adopt political improvements that could keep his hold on power.
His aide Shaaban said after talks with the upper house of parliament's foreign affairs chief Mikhail Margelov that Syria favoured the cautious reform process seen in Russia since the Soviet Union's collapse.
"In the past 20 years, Russia has undergone various processes that led to structural changes," she said.
"We want things in Syria to develop the way they did in Russia, in a bloodless manner."
Margelov for his part announced that he had received Assad's approval to send a group of Russian senators to Damascus and other Syrian cities to independently report on the situation on the ground.
Russia's actions prompted a group of pro-democracy activists in Syria to call for a "day of anger" against Russia's actions to be held on Tuesday.
Thousands of protesters had on Friday issued their first call for international protection against repression.
But SANA quoted Assad as saying that there was a need "to not get caught in campaigns of disinformation against Syria".
Meanwhile reports of new murders and other attacks by Assad's forces continued filtering in from human rights organisations.
The United States on Sunday condemned the killing of 26-year-old Syrian rights activist Ghiyath Matar who was said by the New York-based Human Rights Watch to have been a key player in organising anti-Assad protests.
The group said he was arrested on September 6 and died in detention after being tortured.
"The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the killing of Syrian human rights activist Ghiyath Matar while in the custody of Syrian security forces," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP in Nicosia that the prominent 66-year-old rights campaigner Najati Tayara was in a "very bad" condition after having been severely beaten at a Homs prison in central Syria.
The Syrian group said security forces had arrested "more than 70,000 people" and "15,000 of them are still in detention".
The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council meanwhile issued a statement urging Syria to immediately stop its "killing machine" against anti-regime protesters.


Greff's elaborate structure caused Oskar to look upon suicide as a noble form of death. During the time after Greff's death, Oskar was given a geography lesson by the advancing armies over the radio. But Oskar grew tired of home. He chanced upon Master Bebra and Roswitha Raguna on the way back from Gretchen Scheffler's, where he had read up on the ancient general Narses, a midget like Oskar who had conquered countries. Bebra and Roswitha convinced Oskar to go abroad with them to Paris and the west. Bebra had become an officer in the Propaganda Company of the Army; his job consisted of entertaining the troops. Driving in the car, Roswitha caressed Oskar; she told him that she had never forgotten him and still had the glass he had sung an inscription in for her. In the park, Oskar thought over the offer for the sake of form, then accepted.
Oskar left his apartment building grudgingly, and was almost made late at the train station when he paused too long at the church of the Sacred Heart. At the station, Oskar was introduced to Bebra's other troupe members, Felix & Kitty. Roswitha and Kitty sewed a field-gray uniform for Oskar, cutting it to his size. Felix had forged papers for Oskar; he became Roswitha's brother to the authorities. During an air raid in Berlin, the commanding officer had Bebra put on a show. Felix and Kitty tied themselves in knots, Bebra performed songs on beer bottles, Roswitha played the fortune teller, and Oskar played his drum, then shattered a beer bottle over a soldier with his voice. After the show, Oskar and Roswitha lay together. Roswitha was scared, but Oskar infused her with his courage. He was eighteen, but could not tell Roswitha's age - her face showed no trace of time. She could have been nineteen or ninety-nine - there was no way to tell.


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STRANDED by Cody Nathwani
"We'll have it off in the morning." John said as he was busily unloading luggage from the previous flight.
The next morning the aircraft was due to leave at exactly two post meridian, and so it did. Meanwhile Leon and Sophia were on their way to the airport to jet off to Hawaii for their honeymoon, on that plane! It was a cold, miserable, rainy day in the city of Dublin.
In the cockpit the pilots were preparing for a stormy flight and soon enough the plane was in the air with two-hundred and seven people in rows of six, two pilots and ten crew members. Kevin was the pilot in command and David was the co-pilot.
They were one hour into the journey cruising at thirty thousand feet and at a speed of seven-hundred and eighty kilometres per hour. Suddenly thunder struck as they were flying over the Atlantic Ocean. This Boeing 777-300 had two engines and one of them had failed. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Alarms were sounding all throughout the cockpit. The pilots had lost control. The plane tipped to one side then the other. Up and down, up and down. These pilots were well trained and could land on water.
"I think it's time", David shouted out over all the alarms. Before they knew it, the plane was resting on the water with the slides erected and everyone was unharmed. "Look there's an island over there!", David said gladly as he was getting ready to evacuate. He was the last one off. This was a standard rule. The island that David was talking about was about the size of a stadium. What were they going to do? They had tried everything to try and signal for help, but it never arrived.
It was day three without food or water. Many people died from starvation and thirst, but not all. Three very special people had survived, Kevin, David and Leon. At this time they realised that they wouldn't make it so they took action! They searched up and down the island looking for materials to build a raft to escape. They searched for 13 hours, 13 hours of hardship that was. The raft was built out of wood, which they got from the trees, lifejackets which they got from people after they landed in the ocean and clothes that they were wearing for the sail. It was quite warm as they were near the equator.
As they were getting into the raft for probably a day or two of sailing, David looked back to Kevin for reassurance.
After 22 hours of hard sailing, Leon, was the eyes of them all, spotted something. "LAND", he bellowed. All of a sudden everyone became alive again. Thirty minutes later they arrived at this rainy, dark, dull beach. Leon immediately recognised the land. He was back in Ireland!
CODY NATHWANI
6th class Mr.Hanrick


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Research paper in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Dr William Mullen: researcher profile
Dr Emilie Combet: researcher profile
Regular consumption of olive oil can improve heart health
Issued: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:46:00 GMT
Regular consumption of olive oil can drastically improve heart health – especially in people who do not normally eat a Mediterranean diet.
Researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Lisbon and Mosaiques Diagnostics in Germany teamed-up to study the effect of olive oil, an ingredient central to the Mediterranean diet, on heart health in a group of non-consumers.
The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was set up to examine the effect of phenolics, natural compounds found in plants including olives, on heart health.
Phenolics, along with monounsaturated fatty acids, are thought by the Federal Drug Administration in the US and European Food Safety Authority to be responsible for the protective effect of olive oil.
The researchers recruited 69 healthy volunteers who were split into two groups and asked to consume 20ml of olive oil either low or high in phenolics every day over a six-week period. A particular feature of the study was the target group studied: healthy individuals who did not regularly consume olive oil.
The research team applied a new diagnostic technology to study the impact of the oil supplements on health: urine samples were examined for a range of peptides (produced by the breakdown of proteins) already identified as indicators or biomarkers of diseases such as coronary artery disease (CAD), chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetes.
A particular strength of this approach – a field of study known as proteomics – is the identification of altered levels of certain proteins, with changes used to flag-up the early manifestations of disease, before symptoms have appeared.
The results showed that both groups saw a big improvement in scores for CAD – the most common form of heart disease. The proteomic biomarkers developed for clinical diagnosis by private firm Mosaiques Diagnostics produces a CAD scoring system from 1: the ultimate case of CAD to -1: the ultimate healthy artery.
The group taking the low phenol olive oil saw a drop in CAD score from -0.5 to -0.8 while the high phenol group saw a reduction from -0.6 to -0.8.
Dr Emilie Combet of the School of Medicine at the University of Glasgow, said: "What we found was that regardless of the phenolic content of the oil, there was a positive effect on CAD scores. In the population studied, any olive oil, low or high in phenolics, seems to be beneficial. The fatty acids are probably the main contributors to the observed effect.
"Our study was a supplementation study. If people in the UK replaced part of their fat intake with olive oil, it could have an ever greater effect on reducing the risk of heart disease.
"The proteomic strategy is very powerful in detecting changes in health before symptoms appear. We are continuing the collaboration with Sandra Silva, the doctoral student working on the project, and supervisor Dr Maria Bronze at the University of Lisbon and The Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica (iBET) to study this further. The interaction with Portugal has been invaluable."
Dr Bill Mullen, of the Institute of Cardiovascular & Medical Sciences, said: "If we are able to identify the early signatures of diseases before they have had a chance to take hold we can start to treat them before they become a problem requiring costly medical intervention.
"It is the first time this technique has been applied from a nutritional perspective to try to get to the bottom of which food or what ingredient is truly responsible for health benefits."
Producing hard evidence that a change in diet can produce a measurable health benefit has been extremely difficult. None of the conventional markers of CAD changed in this study.
Dr Mullen added: "This is one reason why is it difficult to convince people to change their diet, they can never see an effect. We have shown, for the first time, how proteomics can successfully be used to measure the health effect of food in a small study group after only six weeks.
"We believe that use of proteomic biomarkers to assess the health improvements brought about by changes in diet, and potentially exercise, could provide an incentive for people to change their lifestyle. It also provides a means of testing so called health foods, which can be more accurately labelled to allow informed consumer choice.
"Currently measures of markers like cholesterol can only tell you if you are at risk of developing a disease, not if you have it or if you don't. What proteomic analysis of urine can do is measure if you are at the very early stages of disease development, before any symptoms are present, further measurements after lifestyle changes or drug treatment can then show the effects of treatment."
The researchers hope that tests such as this will eventually be used by the NHS to screen people for the early signs of a whole range of diseases from a single urine sample but at present the upfront cost is prohibitive even though it could provide long term savings.
The project 'Azeite+Global' coordinated by Sovena Portugal – Consumer Goods, S.A., the company that produced the olive oil used in this study, was funded by QREN (nº 12228) and was executed in collaboration with iBET (Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnológica), Portugal and the Pharmacy Faculty of University of Lisbon, Portugal. Mosaique Diagnostics developed the technology used in this project.
Media enquiries: stuart.forsyth@glasgow.ac.uk /+44 141 330 4831
<< November


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Marvel's Top Executives Are Obsessed With This Daily Self-Care Practice
by Matt Donnelly
Variety Translate This Article
On 25 April 2018 Variety reported: The superheroes of Marvel* have spectacular powers at their disposal to achieve goals and blow off steam — but the busy executives at the monolithic content engine which creates them are mere mortals, who need practical solutions to manage time and handle pressure from the industry and fans. One popular method that has captivated their Burbank, Calif., offices is the practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM). It is a joy for Global Good News service to feature this news, which indicates the success of the life-supporting programs Maharishi has designed to bring fulfillment to the field of culture.
''We even have a meditating room up here. Everyone got TM certified,'' [Marvel co-president] Louis D'Esposito said of the executive suite.... The practice was developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the late 1960s and has proliferated Hollywood's A-list over the years. Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Seinfeld, George Lucas, David Lynch and many more are fans. Tech CEOs praise its effectiveness for entrepreneurs. Last year, Ellen DeGeneres devoted an entire segment of her talk show to TM.
''It helps relieve the pressure because it can get to you,'' D'Esposito said of TM.
Click here to read the full article online at Variety.com
Copyright © 2019 Variety Media LLC
*Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies.
See related articles:
∙ Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio: Meditation is 'the single most important reason' for my success - CNBC reports
∙ Transcendental Meditation for everyone - Wall Street Journal reports


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McKEW
Hon. Enterprise Professor (UoM)
Discussion facilitator
Read bio Enquire now
Image credit: David Caird, for Stellar Magazine.
Explore CANVAS
ABOUT MAXINE
Maxine McKew is an author and Hon Enterprise Professor of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne.
Her most recent book, published by Melbourne University Press in 2014, is Class Act – a study of the key challenges in Australian schooling. This publication followed the success of her memoir, Tales From the Political Trenches, an account of her brief but tumultuous time in the Federal Parliament.
From Journalism to Politics
Maxine McKew's background traverses both journalism and politics. For many years she was a familiar face to ABC TV viewers and was anchor of prestigious programmes such as the 7.30 Report and Lateline. Her work has been recognized by her peers with both Walkely and Logie awards. When she left journalism and made the switch to politics, she wrote herself into the Australian history books by defeating Prime Minister John Howard in the Sydney seat of Bennelong. In government she was both parliamentary secretary for early childhood and later, for regional development and local government.
Boards and Foundations
Maxine lives in Melbourne and is a director of Per Capita and the John Cain Foundation. In 2015 she was appointed to serve on the board of the State Library of Victoria and re-appointed for a further term in 2018. She also serves as a non-executive director of New Energy Solar.
Maxine is in demand as a public speaker and panel facilitator. Universities, corporates, schools and not for profits utilise her skills as an interviewer at conferences and specialist seminars. She is also available as a keynote speaker in her areas of interest - education, national and international politics, and the challenges of the changing workforce.
Think about it. A government high school in a poor suburb is a place where students say to visitors, "you know the teachers are not just here for the pay, they're here for us."
Through a series of conversations with some of the most prominent thinkers in education and an examination of culture and academic change in six Australian schools, Class Act invites reflection on one of our most pressing national dilemmas – how we replicate success across a fragmented system and reverse the decline in student performance.
Class Act is Maxine McKew's second book, following the success of her political memoir Tales From the Political Trenches. At a time of intense and often acrimonious debate around the funding of Australian schools, Class Act will appeal to parents, teachers and policy-makers alike with the freshness of its stories and frank accounts of the joys and pit-falls of learning in the new millennia.
Not many leaders are gifted a second chance. In the short time he had before he faced the verdict of the people, Kevin Rudd had to revive respect and credibility in his governing party.
But the 2013 campaign turned out to be one more bitter, lost opportunity for the Australian Labor Party. In this updated edition of her popular memoir Tales From the Political Trenches, Maxine McKew considers the high price that the Australian Labor Party has paid for the fratricidal conflicts that have dominated since Kevin Rudd first came to power in 2007. She argues that for years to come, competing views about two talented individuals, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, will continue to arouse intense emotion and divide Labor loyalists.
After winning a spectacular victory against Prime Minister John Howard in 2007, McKew was one of the many casualties of the disastrous 2010 election campaign, when Labor was left clinging to the wreckage and forced into minority government. Now after the 2013 poll, which exacted an even higher price, Tales From the Political Trenches provides a compelling analysis for those looking back over the vandalism of the past six years and are still asking 'what the hell happened?'.
If you're interested in finding out more or engaging Maxine for a public speaking or faciliator event, please contact her at the details below or by filling in the contact form.
E • maxine.mckew@unimelb.edu.au
P • 0437 993 008
Copyright 2018 Maxine McKew. Proudly designed in Melbourne by Struck and Spink.