title: Burmese python

text: Although the species has a reputation for docility, they are very powerful animals – capable of inflicting severe bites and even killing by constriction. They also consume large amounts of food, and due to their size, require large, often custom-built, secure enclosures. As a result, some are released into the wild, and become invasive species that devastate the environment. For this reason, some jurisdictions (including Florida, due to the python invasion in the Everglades) have placed restrictions on the keeping of Burmese pythons as pets. Violators could be imprisoned for more than seven years or fined $500,000 if convicted.


title: Burmese python

text: Burmese pythons are opportunistic feeders; they eat almost any time food is offered, and often act hungry even when they have recently eaten. As a result, they are often overfed, causing obesity-related problems to be common in captive Burmese pythons.


title: Burmese python

text: Like the much smaller ball python, Burmese pythons are known to be easygoing or timid creatures, which means that if cared for properly, they can easily adjust to living near humans.


title: Burmese python

text: Although pythons are typically afraid of people due to their great stature, and generally avoid them, special care is still required when handling them. Given their adult strength, multiple handlers (up to one person per meter of snake) are usually recommended. Some jurisdictions require owners to hold special licenses, and as with any wild animal being kept in captivity, treating them with the respect an animal of this size commands is important.


title: Burmese python

text: The Burmese python is frequently captive-bred for color, pattern, and more recently, size. Its amelanistic form is especially popular and is the most widely available morph. This morph is white with patterns in butterscotch yellow and burnt orange. Also, "labyrinth" specimens with maze-like patterns, khaki-colored "green", and "granite" with many small angular spots are available. Breeders have recently begun working with an island lineage of Burmese pythons. Early reports indicate that these dwarf Burmese pythons have slightly different coloring and pattern from their mainland relatives and do not grow much over in length. One of the most sought-after of these variations is the leucistic Burmese. This particular variety is very rare, being entirely bright white with no pattern and blue eyes, and has only in 2008/2009 been reproduced in captivity as the homozygous form (referred to as "super" by reptile keepers) of the co-dominant hypomelanistic trait. The caramel Burmese python has a caramel-colored pattern with "milk-chocolate" eyes.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: Sin is an important concept in Islamic ethics that Muslims view as being anything that goes against the commands of God in Islam Allah (God) or breaching the laws and norms laid down by religion. Islam teaches that sin is an act and not a state of being. It is believed that God weighs an individual's good deeds against their sins on the Day of Judgement and punishes those individuals whose evil deeds outweigh their good deeds.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: The Quran describes these sins throughout the texts and demonstrates that some sins are more punishable than others in the hereafter. A clear distinction is made between major sins ("al-Kabirah") and minor sins ("al-Sagha'ir") (–32), indicating that if an individual stays away from the major sins then they will be forgiven of the minor sins. Sources differ on the exact meanings of the different terms for sin used in the Islamic tradition.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: According to A.J. Wensinck's entry in the Encyclopedia of Islam, Islamic terms for sin include "dhanb" and "khaṭīʾa", which are synonymous and refer to intentional sins; "khiṭʾ", which means simply a sin; and "ithm", which is used for grave sins.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: According to Cyril Glasse, Islam recognizes two kinds of sin ("khati'ah"): "dhanb", a fault or shortcoming which is to be sanctioned; and "ithm", a willful transgression which is to be punished.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: Several different words are used in the Quran to describe sin—1) "Dhanb" 2) "Ithm" 3) "Khati’ah" 4) "Jurm" 5) "Junah/Haraj". By examining the choice of words in Quranic verses used in connection with these terms, scholars have attempted to determine which sins are associated with which terms.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: "Dhanb" (plural "dhunub") is frequently applied to heinous sins committed against Allah. One of the main examples of "Dhanb" in the Quran is of “crying lies of Allah’s signs”, or having excessive pride that prevents an individual from believing the signs of God.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: This use of "dhanb" in the Quran exemplifies that this type of sin is punishable in the afterlife. In fact, "dhanb" is considered a ‘great’ sin and is often used in the Quran to contrast with "sayyi’a", which denotes a ‘smaller’ sin. The Quran states that if you avoid these great sins, your lesser evil deeds or sayyi’at will be forgiven.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: Some scholars believe the basic meaning of "ithm" to be an unlawful deed that is committed intentionally. This contrasts to "dhanb" in that "dhanb" can be both intentional and unintentional. However, this definition is somewhat nebulous and the best description of the word is based on the contextual situations. In the Quran, "ithm" is found quite frequently in legislative descriptions. For example, falsely accusing your own wife in order to gain money is constituted as an "ithm" (). However, "ithm" is also used in connection with "haram", or committing an unlawful deed, a taboo, such as consuming food or drink that is forbidden by God:


title: Islamic views on sin

text: "Ithm" is also associated with what is considered the worst sin of all, "shirk". "Shirk" signifies the accepting of a presence of other divinities at the side of God. The Quran states that:


title: Islamic views on sin

text: This association with "shirk" is noteworthy for "shirk" is considered unforgivable if not repented of.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: "Khati’ah" is considered by many scholars to be a “moral lapse” or a “mistake” This interpretation has led some scholars to believe that "Khati’ah" is a lesser sin than ithm; however, the word "Khati’ah" is frequently used in conjunction with "ithm" in the Quran.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: "Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." Surah Az Zumar, 39:53


title: Islamic views on sin

text: "O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me, and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth, and were you then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great as it."


title: Islamic views on sin

text: This Quranic verse indicates that "khati’ah" is considered an "ithm", a grave sin. In fact, the word "khati’ah" is associated with some of the most heinous religious sins in the Quran. In one Quranic verse this word is used to describe the sin of slaying one's own children for fear of poverty. (). Scholars believe that "dhanb" or "ithm" could be used in place of "khati’ah" in this instance; however, the word choice indicates that "khati’ah" is more than just a moral lapse or mistake and is punishable. And all sins are eligible for forgiveness through God's mercy and repentance.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: The word "Jurum" is often considered to be a synonym of "dhanb" for it is used to describe some of the same sins: crying lies of God and not believing the signs of God. In the Quran, the word mostly appears in the form of "mujrim", one who commits a "jurm". These individuals are described in the Quran as having arrogance towards the believers.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: "Junah" and "Haraj" have a similar meaning to that of "ithm", a sin that warrants a punishment. In fact, these words are used almost interchangeably with "ithm" in the same chapters in the Quran. Like "ithm", these words are found frequently in legislative portions of the Quran, particularly relating to regulations regarding


title: Islamic views on sin

text: Sin is discussed extensively in the hadith, (the collection of Muhammad's sayings). It is reported by An-Nawwas bin Sam'an:


title: Islamic views on sin

text: The Islamic concept of repentance for any sins and misdeeds is called "tawba". It is a direct matter between a person and God, so there is no intercession or formal, ecclesiastical confession to a religious leader. There is also no concept of original sin in Islam. It is the act of leaving what God has prohibited and returning to what he has commanded. The word denotes the act of being repentant for one's misdeeds, atoning for those misdeeds, and having a strong determination to forsake those misdeeds (remorse, resolution, and repentance). If someone sins against another person, restitution is required.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: The most heinous sins in Islam are known as Al-kabair () which translates to the great or major one. Some authors use the term enormity. While every sin is seen as an offense to Allah, the al-Kaba'ir are the gravest of the offenses. Allah's power is thought to be only eclipsed by his mercy and thus minor or small sins ("al-sagha'ir"), are tacitly understood to be forgiven after repentance. Not every sin is equal however and some are thought to be more spiritually hurting than others. The greatest of the sins described as al-Kaba'ir is the association of others with Allah or Shirk.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: Humans differ as to how many major sins there are. Different hadith list three, four, or seven major sins


title: Islamic views on sin

text: In contrasting major sins with minor sins, the eighth-century Shafi'i scholar Al-Dhahabi found the hadith collections of Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj listed seven major sins. Ibn Ḥajar al-Haythamī (d. 974/1567) found 467 major sins, and "often-quoted definition attributed" to "companion of the prophet" and mufassir Abd Allah ibn Abbas (d. 68/686–8), states that a major sin is “everything for which God has prescribed a fixed punishment (ḥadd) in this world and the Fire in the hereafter”, bringing the number closer to seventy major sins.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: These references do not constitute all major sins in Islam or the extensive list of good deeds. there are other fifty-four other notable major sins and countless good deeds. Even the smallest act of kindness such as a friendly word or a smile is considered a good deed and rewardable kind act. Some within this list also represent the opinions of particular scholars and so they do not perfectly represent Islam. Islam encourages all of mankind to work to do good deeds every day and to avoid bad deeds/sins, to be the best they can be.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: Although many of the ideas for what is unacceptable overlap, the seven major sins of Islam differs from the seven deadly sins of Christianity. The Islamic sins refer more to specific undesirable behavior rather than to the general negative characteristics or actions of the cardinal Christian sins. Despite the similar names, the seven main sins in Islam are more comparable to the Ten Commandments rather than the seven deadly sins. They both provide the bottom line for believers in terms of what is acceptable behavior in the faith. The actions themselves differ most of the major crimes in Islam relate to subservience to Allah. Any form of polytheism is seen to be the most severe offense in the religion and all of the other transgressions are in some form of association with Allah. Witchcraft, for example, is the taking on of supernatural powers in order to make the practitioner a being above the normal human. This challenges the power of Allah as the person in question has superseded their mortal position to become something greater and akin to a god. The same can be said of murder, as ultimately the power to decide who shall live and die is believed to belong solely to Allah. Life is thought to be a gift from Allah and the unjust taking of life is a severe spiritual offense, as it is not only seen as morally wrong but also as an affront to God.


title: Islamic views on sin

text: In addition to what Muslim scholars agree are the principal seven sins, the idea exists that the major sins extend far past the seven. These additional transgressions, potentially up to seventy, are not universally settled upon nor are they explicitly stated in the Qur'an, however they are thought to be implied by the text. The supplementary sins as a whole lack the spiritual gravity of the original seven and include things such as drinking alcohol and eavesdropping.


title: Nancy Marchand

text: Nancy Lou Marchand (June 19, 1928 – June 18, 2000) was an American actress. She began her career in theatre in 1951. She was most famous for her television portrayals of Margaret Pynchon on "Lou Grant" and Livia Soprano on "The Sopranos".


title: Nancy Marchand

text: Marchand was born in Buffalo, New York, to Raymond L. Marchand, a dentist, and his wife, Marjorie Freeman Marchand, a pianist. She was raised Methodist. She graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1949. She studied theatre at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York City.


title: Nancy Marchand

text: An accomplished member of the Actors Studio, Marchand made her Broadway debut in "The Taming of the Shrew" in 1951. Additional theatre credits include "The Merchant of Venice", "Love's Labour's Lost", "Much Ado About Nothing", "Forty Carats", "And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little", "The Plough and the Stars", "The Glass Menagerie", "Morning's at Seven", "Awake and Sing!", "The Octette Bridge Club", "Love Letters", "Man and Superman", "The Importance of Being Earnest", "The School for Scandal", "The Balcony", for which she won a Distinguished Performance Obie Award, and "Black Comedy/White Liars", for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play. She was nominated four times for the Drama Desk Award, winning handily for "Mornings at Seven". She won a second Obie for her performance in A. R. Gurney's "The Cocktail Hour".


title: Nancy Marchand

text: On daytime television, Marchand originated the roles of Vinnie Phillips on the CBS soap opera, "Love of Life" and Theresa Lamonte on the NBC soap, "Another World". She also memorably starred as matriarch Edith Cushing on "Lovers and Friends", a short-lived soap opera.


title: Nancy Marchand

text: On primetime television, Marchand was renowned for her roles as patrician newspaper publisher Margaret Pynchon on "Lou Grant"—winning four Emmy Awards as Best Supporting Actress in a Dramatic Series for her performance—and matriarch Livia Soprano, mother of Tony Soprano, on the HBO series "The Sopranos", which earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, as well as an Emmy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Dramatic Series.


title: Nancy Marchand

text: She appeared in many anthology series in the early days of television, including "The Philco Television Playhouse" (on which she starred in "Marty" opposite Rod Steiger), "Kraft Television Theatre", "Studio One", and "Playhouse 90". Additional television credits include "The Law and Mr. Jones", "", "Law & Order", "", "Coach", and "Night Court". She played Hester Crane, mother of Frasier Crane, on an episode of "Cheers".


title: Nancy Marchand

text: Marchand's feature film credits include "The Bachelor Party" (1957), "Ladybug Ladybug", "Me, Natalie", "Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon", "The Hospital", "The Bostonians", "Jefferson in Paris", "Brain Donors", "Reckless", "", "Sabrina", "Dear God", and "From the Hip" (1987).


title: Nancy Marchand

text: Marchand suffered from lung cancer, emphysema, and COPD and died on June 18, 2000, a day before her 72nd birthday, in Stratford, Connecticut. Her husband, actor Paul Sparer, had died the previous year at 75, also from cancer. The couple had three children: Katie, David, and Rachel. Marchand was posthumously inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.


title: Political party strength in U.S. states

text: Political party strength in U.S. states is the level of representation of the various political parties in the United States in each statewide elective office providing legislators to the state and to the U.S. Congress and electing the executives at the state (U.S. state governor) and national (U.S. President) level.


title: Political party strength in U.S. states

text: Throughout most of the 20th century, although the Republican and Democratic parties alternated in power at a national level, some states were so overwhelmingly dominated by one party that nomination was usually tantamount to election. This was especially true in the Solid South, where the Democratic Party was dominant for the better part of a century, from the end of Reconstruction in the late 1870s, through the period of Jim Crow Laws into the 1960s. Conversely, the New England states of Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire were dominated by the Republican Party, as were some Midwestern states like Iowa and North Dakota.


title: Political party strength in U.S. states

text: However, in the 1970s and 1980s the increasingly conservative Republican Party gradually overtook the Democrats in the southeast. The Democrats' support in the formerly Solid South had been eroded during the vast cultural, political and economic upheaval that surrounded the 1960s. By the 1990s, the Republican Party had completed the transition into the southeast's dominant political party, despite typically having fewer members due to the prevalence of Republican voting generational Democrats. In New England, the opposite trend occurred; the former Republican strongholds of Maine and Vermont became solidly Democratic, as did formerly Republican areas of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.


title: Political party strength in U.S. states

text: , the majority of the overall number of seats held in the state legislatures has been switching between the two parties every few years. In the U.S. state legislative elections of 2010, the Republican Party held an outright majority of 3,890 seats (53% of total) compared to the Democratic party's 3,450 (47% of total) seats elected on a partisan ballot. Of the 7,382 seats in all of the state legislatures combined, independents and third parties account for only 16 members, not counting the 49 members of the Nebraska Legislature, which is the only legislature in the nation to hold non-partisan elections to determine its members. As a result of the 2010 elections, Republicans took control of an additional 19 state legislative chambers, giving them majority control of both chambers in 25 states versus the Democrats' majority control of both chambers in only 16 states, with 8 states having split or inconclusive control of both chambers (not including Nebraska); previous to the 2010 elections, it was Democrats who controlled both chambers in 27 states versus the Republican party having total control in only 14 states, with eight states divided and Nebraska being nonpartisan.


title: Political party strength in U.S. states

text: On December 17, 2020, Gallup polling found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, 25% identified as Republican, and 41% as Independent. Additionally, polling showed that 50% are either "Democrats or Democratic leaners" and 39% are either "Republicans or Republican leaners" when Independents are asked "do you lean more to the Democratic Party or the Republican Party?"


title: Political party strength in U.S. states

text: In 2018, the number of competitive states according to opinion polling dropped down to 10, the lowest number since 2008. From 2017 to 2018, New Hampshire, Nevada, and Pennsylvania moved from competitive to lean Democratic, while West Virginia, Louisiana, and Indiana moved from competitive to lean Republican, and Nebraska moved from lean Republican to competitive.


title: Political party strength in U.S. states

text: As of 2018, Massachusetts was the most Democratic state, with 56% of residents identifying as Democrat, while only 27% of residents identified as Republican. It is important to note, however, that Washington D.C. (while not a state) has 3 electoral votes and 76% of residents identify as Democrats, while 6% identify as Republicans. Wyoming was the most Republican state, with 59% of residents identifying as Republican, and only 25% of residents identifying as Democratic.


title: Political party strength in U.S. states

text: Another metric measuring party preference is the Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI). Cook PVIs are calculated by comparing a state's average Democratic Party or Republican Party share of the two-party presidential vote in the past two presidential elections to the nation's average share of the same. PVIs for the states over time can be used to show the trends of U.S. states towards, or away from, one party or the other.


title: Political party strength in U.S. states

text: The state Democratic or Republican Party controls the governorship, the state legislative houses, and U.S. Senate representation. Nebraska's legislature is unicameral (i.e., it has only one legislative house) and is officially non-partisan, though party affiliation still has an unofficial influence on the legislative process.


title: Political party strength in U.S. states

text: The simplest measure of party strength in a state voting population is the affiliation totals from voter registration (from the websites of the Secretaries of State or state Boards of Elections) for the 30 states and the District of Columbia that allow registered voters to indicate a party preference when registering to vote. 20 states do not include party preference with voter registration. The party affiliations in the party control table are obtained from state party registration figures where indicated. Only Wyoming has a majority of registered voters identifying themselves as Republicans; only one state has a majority of registered voters identifying themselves as Democrats: Maryland (since 2010, Louisiana and Pennsylvania have seen their Democratic majority slip to pluralities, while Kentucky and West Virginia now have Republican pluralities).


title: Political party strength in U.S. states

text: For those states that do not allow for registration by party, Gallup's annual polling of voter party identification by state is the next best metric of party strength in the U.S. states. The partisan figures in the table for the 20 states that don't register voters by party come from Gallup's poll.


title: Scalping

text: Scalping is the act of cutting or tearing a part of the human scalp, with hair attached, from the head, and generally occurred in warfare with the scalp being a trophy. Scalp-taking is considered part of the broader cultural practice of the taking and display of human body parts as trophies, and may have developed as an alternative to the taking of human heads, for scalps were easier to take, transport, and preserve for subsequent display. Scalping independently developed in various cultures in both the Old and New Worlds.


title: Scalping

text: Several human remains from the stone-age Ertebølle culture in Denmark show evidence of scalping. A man found in a grave in the Alvastra pile-dwelling in Sweden had been scalped approximately 5,000 years ago.


title: Scalping

text: Georg Frederici noted that “Herodotus provided the only clear and satisfactory portrayal of a scalping people in the old world” in his description of the Scythians, a nomadic people then located to the north and west of the Black Sea. Herodotus related that Scythian warriors would behead the enemies they defeated in battle and present the heads to their king to claim their share of the plunder. Then, the warrior would skin the head “by making a circular cut round the ears and shaking out the skull; he then scrapes the flesh off the skin with the rib of an ox, and when it is clean works it with his fingers until it is supple, and fit to be used as a sort of handkerchief. He hangs these handkerchiefs on the bridle of his horse, and is very proud of them. The best man is the man who has the greatest number.”


title: Scalping

text: Ammianus Marcellinus noted the taking of scalps by the Alani in terms quite similar to those used by Herodotus. The Abbé Emmanuel H. D. Domenech referred to the "decalvare" of the ancient Germans and the "capillos et cutem detrahere" of the code of the Visigoths as examples of scalping in early medieval Europe, though some more recent interpretations of these terms relate them to shaving off the hair of the head as a legal punishment rather than scalping.


title: Scalping

text: In England in 1036, Earl Godwin, father of Harold Godwinson, was reportedly responsible for scalping his enemies, among whom was Alfred Aetheling. According to the ancient Abingdon manuscript, 'some of them were blinded, some maimed, some scalped. No more horrible deed was done in this country since the Danes came and made peace here'.


title: Scalping

text: In 1845, mercenary John Duncan observed what he estimated to be 700 scalps taken in warfare and displayed as trophies by a contingent of female soldiers—Dahomey Amazons—employed by the King of Dahomey (present-day Republic of Benin). Duncan noted that these would have been taken and kept over a long period of time and would not have come from a single battle. Although Duncan travelled widely in Dahomey, and described customs such as the taking of heads and the retention of skulls as trophies, nowhere else does he mention scalping.


title: Scalping

text: Occasional instances of scalping of dead Axis troops by Allied military personnel are known from World War II. While many of these instances took place in the Pacific Theater, along with more extreme forms of trophy-hunting (see American mutilation of Japanese war dead), occasional instances are reported in the European Theater as well. One particularly widely reported, although disputed, case involves that of German general Friedrich Kussin, the commandant of the town of Arnhem who was ambushed and killed by British paratroopers in early stages of Operation Market Garden.


title: Scalping

text: There is physical evidence that scalping was practiced during the Longshan and Erlitou periods in China's central plain.


title: Scalping

text: A skull from an Iron Age cemetery in South Siberia shows evidence of scalping. It lends physical evidence to the practice of scalp taking by the Scythians living there.


title: Scalping

text: – 1 July 1745) was a prominent Sikh martyr known for sacrificing his life, in the name of protecting Sikh values, by having had his head scalped rather than cutting his hair and converting to Islam.


title: Scalping

text: Specific scalping techniques varied somewhat from place to place, depending on the cultural patterns of the scalper regarding the desired shape, size, and intended use of the severed scalp, and on how the victims wore their hair, but the general process of scalping was quite uniform. The scalper firmly grasped the hair of a subdued adversary, made several quick semicircular cuts with a sharp instrument on either side of the area to be taken, and then vigorously yanked at the nearly-severed scalp. The scalp separated from the skull along the plane of the areolar connective tissue, the fourth (and least substantial) of the five layers of the human scalp. Scalping was not in itself fatal, though it was most commonly inflicted on the gravely wounded or the dead. The earliest instruments used in scalping were stone knives crafted of flint, chert, or obsidian, or other materials like reeds or oyster shells that could be worked to carry an edge equal to the task. Collectively, such tools were also used for a variety of everyday tasks like skinning and processing game, but were replaced by metal knives acquired in trade through European contact. The implement, often referred to as a “scalping knife” in popular American and European literature, was not known as such by Native Americans, a knife being for them just a simple and effective multi-purpose utility tool for which scalping was but one of many uses.


title: Scalping

text: There is substantial archaeological evidence of scalping in North America in the pre-Columbian era. Carbon dating of skulls show evidence of scalping as early as 600 AD; some skulls show evidence of healing from scalping injuries, suggesting at least some victims occasionally survived at least several months. Among Plains Indians, it seems to have been practiced primarily as part of intertribal warfare, with scalps only taken of enemies killed in battle. However, author and historian Mark van de Logt wrote, "Although military historians tend to reserve the concept of 'total war, in which civilians are targeted, "for conflicts between modern industrial nations," the term "closely approaches the state of affairs between the Pawnees, the Sioux, and the Cheyennes. Noncombatants were legitimate targets. Indeed, the taking of a scalp of a woman or child was considered honorable because it signified that the scalp taker had dared to enter the very heart of the enemy's territory."


title: Scalping

text: Many tribes of Native Americans practiced scalping, in some instances up until the end of the 19th century. Of the approximately 500 bodies at the Crow Creek massacre site, 90 percent of the skulls show evidence of scalping. The event took place "circa" 1325 AD. European colonisation of the Americas increased the incidence of intertribal conflict, and consequently an increase in the prevalence of scalping.


title: Scalping

text: The Connecticut and Massachusetts colonies offered bounties for the heads of killed hostile Indians, and later for just their scalps, during the Pequot War in the 1630s; Connecticut specifically reimbursed Mohegans for slaying the Pequot in 1637. Four years later, the Dutch in New Amsterdam offered bounties for the heads of Raritans. In 1643, the Iroquois attacked a group of Huron pelters and French carpenters near Montreal, killing and scalping three of the French.


title: Scalping

text: Bounties for Indian captives or their scalps appeared in the legislation of the American colonies during the Susquehannock War (1675–77). New England offered bounties to white settlers and Narragansett people in 1675 during King Philip's War. By 1692, New France also paid their native allies for scalps of their enemies. In 1697, on the northern frontier of Massachusetts colony, settler Hannah Duston killed ten of her Abenaki captors during her nighttime escape, presented their ten scalps to the Massachusetts General Assembly, and was rewarded with bounties for two men, two women, and six children, even though Massachusetts had rescinded the law authorizing scalp bounties six months earlier. There were six colonial wars with New England and the Iroquois Confederacy fighting New France and the Wabanaki Confederacy over a 75-year period, starting with King William's War in 1688. All sides scalped victims, including noncombatants, during this frontier warfare. Bounty policies originally intended only for Native American scalps were extended to enemy colonists.


title: Scalping

text: Massachusetts created a scalp bounty during King William's War in July 1689. During Queen Anne's War, by 1703, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was offering $60 for each native scalp. During Father Rale's War (1722–1725), on August 8, 1722, Massachusetts put a bounty on native families. Ranger John Lovewell is known to have conducted scalp-hunting expeditions, the most famous being the Battle of Pequawket in New Hampshire.


title: Scalping

text: In the 1710s and '20s, New France engaged in frontier warfare with the Natchez people and the Meskwaki people, during which both sides would employ the practice. In response to repeated massacres of British families by the French and their native allies during King George's War, Massachusetts governor William Shirley issued a bounty in 1746 to be paid to British-allied Indians for the scalps of French-allied Indian men, women, and children. New York passed a Scalp Act in 1747.


title: Scalping

text: During Father Le Loutre's War and the Seven Years' War in Nova Scotia and Acadia, French colonists offered payments to Indians for British scalps. In 1749, British Governor Edward Cornwallis created an extirpation proclamation, which included a bounty for male scalps or prisoners. Also during the Seven Years' War, Governor of Nova Scotia Charles Lawrence offered a reward for male Mi'kmaq scalps in 1756. (In 2000, some Mi'kmaq argued that this proclamation was still legal in Nova Scotia. Government officials argued that it was no longer legal because the bounty was superseded by later treaties - see the Halifax Treaties).


title: Scalping

text: During the French and Indian War, as of June 12, 1755, Massachusetts governor William Shirley was offering a bounty of £40 for a male Indian scalp, and £20 for scalps of females or of children under 12 years old. In 1756, Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Robert Morris, in his Declaration of War against the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) people, offered "130 Pieces of Eight, for the Scalp of Every Male Indian Enemy, above the Age of Twelve Years," and "50 Pieces of Eight for the Scalp of Every Indian Woman, produced as evidence of their being killed."


title: Scalping

text: Although much has been made of the existence of scalp bounties, generally because they have been easily accessible as statutes, little research exists on the numbers of bounties actually paid. Early frontier warfare in forested areas in the era of flintlock muzzle-loading rifles favored tomahawks and knives over firearms because of the long loading time after a shot was fired. Advantage was clearly held by bow, knife, and hatchet. Some states had a history of escalating the payout of bounties offered per scalp, presumably because lower bounties were ineffective and were not worth risking one's life in exchange for the payoff. Rising bounties were a measure of bounty system failure.


title: Scalping

text: In the American Revolutionary War, Henry Hamilton, the British Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs at Fort Detroit, was known by American Patriots as the "hair-buyer general" because they believed he encouraged and paid his Native American allies to scalp American settlers. As a result, when Hamilton was captured, he was treated as a war criminal instead of a prisoner of war. However, American historians have noted that there was no proof that he had ever offered rewards for scalps, and it is now believed that no British officer paid for scalps during the American Revolution.


title: Scalping

text: Moses Younglove, a surgeon for General Herkimer's Brigade during the Battle of Oriskany (1777), was taken prisoner by the Tories during the battle and suffered torture at the hands of both the Tories and Iroquois. Younglove recorded at least two incidents of American prisoners being cannibalized during the Sullivan Expedition.


title: Scalping

text: The September 13, 1779 journal entry of Lieutenant William Barton tells of patriots participating in scalping.


title: Scalping

text: In 1835, the government of the Mexican state of Sonora put a bounty on the Apache which, over time, evolved into a payment by the government of 100 pesos for each scalp of a male 14 or more years old. In 1837, the Mexican state of Chihuahua also offered a bounty on Apache scalps, 100 pesos per warrior, 50 pesos per woman, and 25 pesos per child. Harris Worcester wrote: "The new policy attracted a diverse group of men, including Anglos, runaway slaves led by Seminole John Horse, and Indians — Kirker used Delawares and Shawnees; others, such as Terrazas, used Tarahumaras; and Seminole Chief Coacoochee led a band of his own people who had fled from Indian Territory."


title: Scalping

text: Some scalping incidents occurred during the American Civil War of 1861-1865. For example, Confederate guerrillas led by "Bloody Bill" Anderson were well known for decorating their saddles with the scalps of Union soldiers they had killed. Archie Clement had the reputation of being Anderson's “chief scalper”.


title: Scalping

text: In 1851, the Tehama Massacre occurred in Tehama County, California, wherein U.S. military and citizens razed villages and scalped hundreds of men, women, and children. This attack targeted Native communities specifically, in the villages of Yana, Konkow, Nisenan, Wintu, Nomlaki, Patwin, Yuki, and Maidu.


title: Scalping

text: Scalping also occurred during the Sand Creek Massacre on November 29, 1864, during the American Indian Wars, when a 700-man force of U.S. Army volunteers destroyed the village of Cheyenne and Arapaho in southeastern Colorado Territory, killing and mutilating an estimated 70–163 Native American civilians. An 1867 "New York Times" article reported that "settlers in a small town in Colorado Territory had recently subscribed $5,000 to a fund ‘for the purpose of buying Indian scalps (with $25 each to be paid for scalps with the ears on)’ and that the market for Indian scalps ‘is not affected by age or sex’." The article noted this behavior was "sanctioned" by the U.S. federal government, and was modeled on patterns the U.S. had begun a century earlier in the "American East".


title: Scalping

text: From one writer's point of view, it was a "uniquely American" innovation that the use of scalp bounties in the wars against indigenous societies "became an indiscriminate killing process that deliberately targeted Indian non-combatants (including women, children, and infants), as well as warriors." Some American states such as Arizona paid bounty for enemy Native American scalps.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Theistic Satanism, otherwise referred to as religious Satanism, spiritual Satanism, or traditional Satanism, is an umbrella term for religious groups that consider Satan, the Devil, or Lucifer to objectively exist as a deity, supernatural entity, or spiritual being worthy of worship and supplication, whom individuals may contact, convene with, and even praise. (In contrast to the atheistic archetype, metaphor, or symbol found in LaVeyan Satanism or The Satanic Temple.) The individuals and organizations who uphold theistic Satanic beliefs are most often very small, loosely affiliated, or independent groups and cabals, which have largely self-marginalized. Another prominent characteristic of theistic Satanism is the use of various types of magic. Most theistic Satanic groups exist in relatively new models and ideologies, many of which are independent of the Abrahamic religions.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Since the first half of the 1990s, the internet has increased the visibility, communication, and spread of different currents and beliefs among Satanists and has led to more conflicting and diverse groups, but Satanism has always been a heterogeneous, pluralistic, decentralized religious movement and "cultic "milieu"". Religion academics, scholars of New religious movements, and sociologists of religion focused on Satanism have sought to study it by categorizing its currents according to whether they are esoteric/theistic or rationalist/atheistic, and they referred to the practice of working with a literal Satan as theistic or "traditional" Satanism. It is generally a prerequisite to being considered a theistic Satanist that the believer accepts a theological and metaphysical canon which involves one or more gods that are either considered to be Satan in the strictest, Abrahamic sense (the Judeo-Christian-Islamic conception of the Devil), or a conception of Satan that incorporates "adversarial" gods from other religions (usually pre-Christian polytheistic religions), such as Ahriman or Enki. Despite the number of self-professed theistic Satanists constantly increasing since the 1990s, they are considered by most scholars of religion to be a minority group within Satanism.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Many theistic Satanists believe that their own individualized concepts are based on pieces of all of these diverse conceptions of Satan, according to their inclinations and sources of spiritual guidance, rather than only believing in one suggested interpretation. Some may choose to live out the myths and stereotypes, but Christianity is not always the primary frame of reference for theistic Satanists. Their religion may be based on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Neo-Paganism, left-hand path, black magic, ceremonial magic, Crowleyan magick, Western esotericism, and occult traditions. Theistic Satanists who base their faith on Christian ideas about Satan are referred to as Diabolists, although they are also referred to as "reverse Christians" by other Satanists, often in a pejorative fashion. However, those labelled by some as "reverse Christians" may see their concept of Satan as undiluted or sanitized. They worship a stricter interpretation of Satan: that of the Satan featured in the Christian Bible. Peter H. Gilmore, current leader of the atheistic Church of Satan, considers "Devil-worship" to be a Christian heresy, that is, a divergent form of Christianity. The diversity of individual beliefs within theistic Satanism, while being a cause for intense debates within the religion, is also often seen as a reflection of Satan, who encourages individualism.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: The first recognized esoteric, non-LaVeyan Satanist organization was the Ophite Cultus Satanas, which claimed to have been founded in 1948 by Herbert Arthur Sloane and therefore to allegedly precede the foundation of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan. Their doctrine relies on a Gnostic conception of Satan as the liberating serpent and bestower of knowledge to humankind opposed to the malevolent demiurge or creator god, mainly inspired by the Gnostic dualistic cosmology of the Ophites, Hans Jonas' study on the history of Gnosticism, and the writings of Margaret Murray on the witch-cult hypothesis. "Our Lady of Endor" seems to have been the only existing "coven" of this Satanist organization, which was disbanded shortly after the death of its founder during the 1980s.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Some scholars equate the veneration of the Egyptian god Set by the Temple of Set to theistic Satanism. However, other scholars do not consider them as theistic Satanists, and the affiliates to the Temple of Set themselves do not identify as such. The doctrine of the Temple of Set, an occult initiatory order founded in 1975 by Michael Aquino as a splinter group from LaVey's Church of Satan, heavily relies on the writings of Aleister Crowley with elements borrowed from ceremonial magic, the left-hand path, Western esotericism, and mysticism. They believe that the Egyptian deity Set is the real Prince of Darkness behind the name "Satan", of whom the Judeo-Christian-Islamic conception of the Devil is just a caricature. Their practices primarily center on self-development. Within the Temple of Set, the "Black Flame of Set" is the individual's god-like core which is a kindred spirit to Set, and which they seek to develop. In theistic Satanism, the "Black Flame" is knowledge which was given to humanity by Satan, who is a being independent of the Satanist himself, and which he can dispense to the Satanist who seeks knowledge. Religion scholar Kennet Granholm regards the Temple of Set as an occult organization that shouldn't be labelled "Satanist" anymore, since it has cut all ties with the Satanic "milieu" and today entirely belongs to the left-hand path tradition.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: The First Church of Satan (FCoS), another splinter group that separated from LaVey's Church of Satan during the 1970s, attempts to rediscover the teachings of Aleister Crowley and believe that Anton LaVey actually was a "magus" in the early days of the Church of Satan but gradually renounced his powers, became isolated and embittered. Furthermore, the First Church of Satan strongly criticizes the current Church of Satan as a pale shadow of its former self, and they strive to "maintain a Satanic organization that is not hostile or manipulative toward its own members".


title: Theistic Satanism

text: The Order of Nine Angles (ONA) originally was a Wiccan organization founded during the 1960s, and became a theistic Satanist organization once the leadership was taken over in 1974 by David Myatt (previously known under the pseudonym of Anton Long), a former bodyguard and supporter of the British Neo-Nazi leader Colin Jordan. In 1998, Myatt converted to radical Islam while continuing to lead the Order of Nine Angles; later on, he repudiated the Islamic religion in 2010 and publicly declared to have renounced all forms of extremism. The Order of Nine Angles identify as theistic Satanists and affirm to practice "traditional Satanism". However, the doctrine of the Order of Nine Angles is complex and multifaceted. Sociologist of religion Massimo Introvigne defined it as "a synthesis of three different currents: hermetic, pagan, and Satanist", whereas the medievalist and professor of Religious studies Connell Monette dismissed the Satanic features of the ONA as "cosmetic" and contended that "its core mythos and cosmology are genuinely "hermetic"". According to the scholar of Western esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, "the ONA celebrated the dark, destructive side of life through anti-Christian, elitist, and Social Darwinist doctrines", together with the organization's implicit ties to Neo-Nazism and the appraisal of National Socialism. The Order of Nine Angles believe that the seven planets and their satellites are connected to the "Dark Gods", while Satan is considered to be one of two "actual entities", the other one being Baphomet, with the former conceived as male and the latter as female. The organization became controversial and was mentioned in the press and books because of their promotion of human sacrifice. Since the 2010s, the political ideology and religious worldview of the Order of Nine Angles have increasingly influenced militant neo-fascist and Neo-Nazi insurgent groups associated with right-wing extremist and White supremacist international networks, most notably the Iron March forum.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: In Luciferianism, Michael W. Ford, author and black metal musician, abandoned the Order of Nine Angles in 1998, criticizing it for its Neo-Nazi ideology, and founded his own autonomous Satanist organizations in the same year: the Order of Phosphorus and the Black Order of the Dragon; in the following years, he founded the Church of Adversarial Light in 2007, and the Greater Church of Lucifer (GCOL) in 2013. In 2015, Ford announced that the Order of Phosphorus would be integrated into the Greater Church of Lucifer, which welcomes both theistic and rationalistic Satanists, as well as Neo-Pagans and various followers of diverse occult spiritualities. Ford presents both a theistic and atheistic approach to Luciferianism, and his ideas are enunciated in a wide compendium of publications, although they're difficult to situate into a single, cohesive belief system; the "Wisdom of Eosphoros" (2015) is considered the Greater Church of Lucifer's official statement and the core of its Luciferian philosophy. Theistic Luciferianism is considered an individualistic, personal spirituality which is established via initiation and validation of the Adversarial philosophy. Luciferians, if theistic, do not accept the submission of 'worship' yet rather a unique and subjective type of Apotheosis via the energies of perceived deities, spirits and demons.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Joy of Satan Ministries (JoS), a website founded in the early 2000s by Maxine Dietrich (pseudonym of Andrea Herrington), wife of the American National Socialist Movement's co-founder and former leader Clifford Herrington, combines theistic Satanism with Neo-Nazism, racial anti-Semitism, anti-Judaic, anti-Christian sentiment and Gnostic Paganism, as well as Nordic aliens, UFO conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Joy of Satan advocates "spiritual Satanism" and believes Satan to be a sentient and powerful extraterrestrial being, although not a supernatural god. The Satanic practices promoted by Joy of Satan involve meditation, telepathic contacts with demons, rituals, and sex magic. In 2004, following the exposure of Andrea Herrington among Joy of Satan's members as the wife of Neo-Nazi leader Clifford Herrington and her ties with the National Socialist Movement, many adherents abandoned Joy of Satan and formed their own autonomous Satanist or Neo-Pagan organizations, such as the House of Enlightenment, Enki's Black Temple, the Siaion, the Knowledge of Satan Group, and the Temple of The Ancients. According to Introvigne (2016), "most are by now defunct, while Joy of Satan continues its existence, although with a reduced number of members". In July 2006, after the exposure of Herrington's wife's Satanic website within the National Socialist Movement, Andrea and Clifford Herrington were both kicked out of the National Socialist Movement; following the Herrington scandal, Bill White, the then-National Socialist Movement's spokesman, also quit alongside many others. According to Introvigne (2016), "its ideas on extraterrestrials, meditation, and telepathic contacts with demons became, however, popular in a larger "milieu" of non-LaVeyan "spiritual" or "theistic" Satanism". According to the scholar of Religious studies and researcher of New religious movements Jesper Aagaard Petersen's survey on the Satanic "milieu"'s proliferation on the internet (2014), "the only sites with some popularity are the Church of Satan and (somewhat paradoxically) Joy of Satan's page base on the angelfire network, and they are still very far from Scientology or YouTube. Most of these sites are decidedly fringe."


title: Theistic Satanism

text: A group with a totally different ideology to the previous ones is the Satanic Reds, an occult organization with a Marxist-Communist political orientation founded by Tani Jantsang in 1997. Their doctrine is largely based on the writings of H. P. Lovecraft mixed with elements of Central Asian folklore and the advocacy of social welfare; the group became notable mainly for their online activism and usage of communist symbols merged with Satanist ones. However, the Satanic Reds claim to belong to the left-hand path but do not identify as theistic Satanists in the manner of believing in Satan as a god with a personality, since they conceive it as "Sat" and "Tan", "Being and Becoming", similarly to the fictional deity of chaos Nyarlathotep from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The religious practices of the Satanic Reds comprise occult rituals and a form of baptism, and the organization advocates a "renewed New Deal", a moderate social program of reforms inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: One other group is the Temple of the Black Light, formerly known as the Misanthropic Luciferian Order prior to 2007. The group espouses a philosophy known as "Chaosophy". Chaosophy asserts that the world that we live in, and the universe that it lives in, all exists within the realm known as Cosmos. Cosmos is made of three spatial dimensions and one linear time dimension. Cosmos rarely ever changes and is a materialistic realm. Another realm that exists is known as Chaos. Chaos exists outside of the Cosmos and is made of infinite dimensions and unlike the Cosmos, it is always changing. Members of the TotBL believe that the realm of Chaos is ruled over by 11 dark gods, the highest of them being Satan, and all of said gods are considered manifestations of a higher being. This higher being is known as Azerate, the Dragon Mother, and is all of the 11 gods united as one. The TotBL believes that Azerate will resurrect one day and destroy the Cosmos and let Chaos consume everything. The group has been connected to the Swedish black/death metal band Dissection, particularly its front man Jon Nödtveidt. Nödtveidt was introduced to the group "at an early stage". The lyrics on the band's third album, "Reinkaos", are all about beliefs of the Temple of the Black Light. Nödtveidt committed suicide in 2006.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Theistic Luciferian groups are particularly inspired by Lucifer (from the Latin for ‘bearer of light’), who they may or may not equate with Satan. While some theologians believe the Son of the Dawn, Lucifer, and other names were actually used to refer to contemporary political figures, such as a Babylonian King, rather than a single spiritual entity (although on the surface the Bible explicitly refers to the King of Tyrus), those that believe it refers to Satan infer that by implication it also applies to the fall of Satan. Satan is also identified by the Joy of Satan with the Sumerian god Enki and the Yazidi angel Melek Taus; however, Introvigne (2016) himself remarks that their theistic Satanist interpretation of Enki derives from the writings of Zecharia Sitchin while the one about Melek Taus partially derives from the writings of Anton LaVey.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Some groups are mistaken by scholars for theistic Satanists, such as the First Church of Satan. However, the founder of the FCoS, John Allee, considers what he calls "devil-worship" to often be a symptom of psychosis. Other groups such as the 600 Club, are accepting of all types of Satanists, as are the Synagogue of Satan, which aims for the ultimate destruction of religions, paradoxically including itself, and encourages not self-indulgence, but self-expression balanced by social responsibility.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: The diversity of beliefs amongst Satanists, and the theistic nature of some Satanists, was seen in a survey in 1995. Some spoke of seeing Satan not as someone dangerous to those who seek or worship him, but as someone that could be approached as a friend. Some refer to him as "Father", though some other theistic Satanists consider that to be confused or excessively subservient. Satan is also portrayed as a father to his daughter, Sin, by Milton in "Paradise Lost".


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Seeking knowledge is seen by some theistic Satanists as being important to Satan, due to Satan being equated with the serpent in Genesis, which encouraged humans to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Some perceive Satan as Éliphas Lévi's conception of Baphomet — a half-human and half-animal hermaphroditic bestower of knowledge (gnosis). Some Satanic groups, such as Luciferians, also seek to gain greater gnosis. Some of such Satanists, such as the former Ophite Cultus Satanas, equate Yahweh with the demiurge of Gnosticism, and Satan with the transcendent being beyond.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Self-development is important to theistic Satanists. This is due to the Satanists' idea of Satan, who is seen to encourage individuality and freedom of thought, and the quest to raise one's self up despite resistance, through means such as magic and initiative. They believe Satan wants a more equal relationship with his followers than the Abrahamic god does with his. From a theistic Satanist perspective, the Abrahamic religions (chiefly Christianity) do not define "good" or "evil" in terms of benefit or harm to humanity, but rather on the submission to or rebellion against God. Some Satanists seek to remove any means by which they are controlled or repressed by others and forced to follow the herd, and reject non-governmental authoritarianism.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: As Satan in the Old Testament tests people, theistic Satanists may believe that Satan sends them tests in life to develop them as individuals. They value taking responsibility for oneself. Despite the emphasis on self-development, some theistic Satanists believe that there is a will of Satan for the world and for their own lives. They may promise to help bring about the will of Satan, and seek to gain insight about it through prayer, study, or magic. In the Bible, a being called "the god of this world" is mentioned in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians , which Christians typically equate with Satan. Some Satanists therefore think that Satan can help them meet their worldly needs and desires if they pray or work magic. They would also have to do what they could in everyday life to achieve their goals, however.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Theistic Satanists may try not to project an image that reflects negatively on their religion as a whole and reinforces stereotypes, such as promoting Nazism, abuse, or crime. However, some groups, such as the Order of Nine Angles, criticize the emphasis on promoting a good image for Satanism; the ONA described LaVeyan Satanism as "weak, deluded and American form of 'sham-Satanic groups, the poseurs'", and ONA member Stephen Brown claimed that "the Temple of Set seems intent only on creating a 'good public impression', with promoting an 'image'". The order emphasises that its way "is and is meant to be dangerous" and "[g]enuine Satanists are dangerous people to know; associating with them is a risk". Similarly, the Temple of the Black Light has criticized the Church of Satan, and has stated that the Temple of Set is "trying to make Setianism and the ruler of darkness, Set, into something accepted and harmless, this way attempting to become a 'big' religion, accepted and acknowledged by the rest of the Judaeo-Christian society". The TotBL rejects Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as "the opposite of everything that strengthens the spirit, and is only good for killing what little that is beautiful, noble, and honorable in this filthy world".


title: Theistic Satanism

text: There is argument among Satanists over animal sacrifice, with most groups seeing it as both unnecessary and putting Satanism in a bad light, and distancing themselves from the few groups that practice it, such as the Temple of the Black Light.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Theistic Satanism often involves a religious commitment, rather than being simply an occult practice based on dabbling or transient enjoyment of the rituals and magic involved. Practitioners may choose to perform a self-dedication rite, although there are arguments over whether it is best to do this at the beginning of their time as a theistic Satanist, or once they have been practicing for some time.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: In the history of Christianity, the worship of Satan was a frequent accusation used since the Middle Ages. The first ones formally accused to be Devil-worshippers were the Albigensians, a Gnostic Christian movement considered to be heretical and persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church; the charge was formulated during the Catholic Inquisition by the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), convoked by Pope Innocent III. The charge of Devil-worship has also been made against groups or individuals regarded with suspicion, such as the Knights Templar or minority religions. In the case of the trials of the Knights Templar (1307), the Templars' writings mentioned the term "Baphomet", which was an Old French corruption of the name "Mahomet" (the prophet of the people who the Templars fought against), and that "Baphomet" was falsely portrayed as a demon by the people who accused the Templars. During the Reformation Era, Counter-Reformation, and European wars of religion, the charge of Devil-worship was used against people charged in the witch trials in early modern Europe and other witch-hunts. The most notorious cases were those of two German Inquisitors and Dominican priests under the patronage of Pope Innocent VIII: Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, authors of the "Malleus Maleficarum" (1486), in the Holy Roman Empire, along with the Salem witch trials that occurred during the 17th-century Puritan colonization of North America.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: It is not known to what extent accusations of groups worshiping Satan in the time of the witch trials identified people who did consider themselves Satanists, rather than being the result of religious superstition or mass hysteria, or charges made against individuals suffering from mental illness. Confessions are unreliable, particularly as they were usually obtained under torture. However, scholar Jeffrey Burton Russell, Professor Emeritus of the University of California at Santa Barbara, has made extensive arguments in his book "Witchcraft in the Middle Ages" that not all witch trial records can be dismissed and that there is in fact evidence linking witchcraft to Gnostic Christian heretical movements, particularly the antinomian sects. Russell comes to this conclusion after having studied the source documents themselves. Individuals involved in the Affair of the Poisons were accused of Satanism and witchcraft.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Historically, "Satanist" was a pejorative term for those with opinions that differed from predominant religious or moral beliefs. Paul Tuitean believes the idea of acts of "reverse Christianity" was created by the Inquisition, but George Bataille believes that inversions of Christian rituals such as the Mass may have existed prior to the descriptions of them which were obtained through the witchcraft trials.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: In the 1700s, various kinds of popular "Satanic" literature began to be produced in France, including some well-known grimoires with instructions for making a pact with the Devil. Most notable are the "Grimorium Verum" and "The Grand Grimoire". The Marquis de Sade describes defiling crucifixes and other holy objects, and in his novel "Justine" he gives a fictional account of the Black Mass, although Ronald Hayman has said Sade's need for blasphemy was an emotional reaction and rebellion from which Sade


title: Theistic Satanism

text: In the 19th century, Éliphas Lévi published his French books of the occult, and in 1855 produced his well-known drawing of the Baphomet which continues to be used by some Satanists today. That Baphomet drawing is the basis of the sigil of Baphomet, which was first adopted by the non-theistic Satanist group called the Church of Satan.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Finally, in 1891, Joris-Karl Huysmans published his Satanic novel, "Là-bas", which included a detailed description of a Black Mass which he may have known firsthand was being performed in Paris at the time, or the account may have been based on the masses carried out by Étienne Guibourg, rather than by Huysmans attending himself. Quotations from Huysmans' Black Mass are also used in some Satanic rituals to this day, since it is one of the few sources that purports to describe the words used in a Black Mass. The type of Satanism described in "Là-bas" suggests that prayers are said to the Devil, hosts are stolen from the Catholic Church, and sexual acts are combined with Roman Catholic altar objects and rituals, to produce a variety of Satanism which exalts Satan and degrades the god of Christianity by inverting Roman Catholic rites. George Bataille claims that Huysman's description of the Black Mass is "indisputably authentic". Not all theistic Satanists today routinely perform the Black Mass, possibly because the Mass is not a part of modern evangelical Christianity in Protestant-majority countries, and so not such an unintentional influence on Satanist practices in those countries.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: The earliest verifiable theistic Satanist group was a small group called the Ophite Cultus Satanas, which was created in Ohio in 1948. The Ophite Cultus Satanas was inspired by the ancient Ophite sect of Gnosticism, and the Horned God of Wicca. The group was dependent upon its founder and leader, and therefore dissolved after his death in 1975.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Michael Aquino published a rare 1970 text of a Church of Satan Black Mass, the "Missa Solemnis", in his book "The Church of Satan", and Anton LaVey included a different Church of Satan Black Mass, the "Messe Noire", in his 1972 book "The Satanic Rituals". LaVey's books on Satanism, which began in the 1960s, were for a long time the few available which advertised themselves as being Satanic, although others detailed the history of witchcraft and Satanism, such as "The Black Arts" by Richard Cavendish published in 1967 and the classic French work "Satanism and Witchcraft", by Jules Michelet. Anton LaVey specifically denounced "devil-worshippers" and the idea of praying to Satan.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Although non-theistic LaVeyan Satanism had been popular since the publication of "The Satanic Bible" in 1969, theistic Satanism did not start to gain any popularity until the emergence of the Order of Nine Angles in western England, and its publication of "The Black Book of Satan" in 1984. The next theistic Satanist group to be created was the Misanthropic Luciferian Order, which was created in Sweden in 1995. The MLO incorporated elements from the Order of Nine Angles, the Illuminates of Thanateros, and Qliphothic Qabalah.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Satan is a sinful entity depicted as the embodiment of evil in the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the "yetzer hara", or "evil inclination." In Christianity and Islam, he is usually seen as a fallen angel or jinn who has rebelled against God, who nevertheless allows him temporary power over the fallen world and a host of demons.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: A large percentage of theistic Satanists worship Satan conceived as the Devil in the Christian religion. In Christianity, the Devil, also known as Satan or Lucifer, is the personification of evil and author of sin, who rebelled against God in an attempt to become equal to God himself. He is depicted as a fallen angel, who was expelled from Heaven at the beginning of time, before God created the material world, and is in constant opposition to God.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: The Devil was so enamored with his own beauty and self, that he became vain, and so prideful that he corrupted himself and began to desire the same honor and glory that belonged to God. Eventually he rebelled and tried to overthrow God, and as a result was cast out of heaven.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Since the 19th century, various small religious groups have emerged that identify as Satanists or use Satanic iconography. The Satanist groups that appeared after the 1960s are widely diverse, but two major trends are theistic Satanism and atheistic Satanism. Theistic Satanists venerate Satan as worthy of worship, viewing him not as omnipotent but rather as a patriarch. In contrast, atheistic Satanists regard Satan as a symbol of certain human traits.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: As well as using Satan as a center symbol, Baphomet, a deity allegedly worshipped by the Knights Templar, also has it's symbolism in Satanism. The symbolism of Satan and Baphomet being symbolised solitary has its usage from claims that Freemasonry worshipped both Satan and Baphomet, as well as Lucifer, in their rituals. In some depictions the devil is depicted, like Baphomet, as a goat, therefore the goat and goat's head are significant symbols throughout theistic Satanism. The inverted pentagram is also a significant symbol used for Satanism, sometimes depicted with the goat's head of Baphomet within it, which originated from the Church of Satan. The pentagram is also used as the logo for The Satanic Temple, which also featured a goat's head and the head of Baphomet. In most recent and modern times the "inverted cross" is used and seen as an anti-Christian and satanic symbol, used similarly in the way of the inverted pentagram. Starting with the 1960s, several TV productions and movie franchises featured the Cross of Saint Peter as a symbol representing the Antichrist and Satan making it one of the most popular satanic symbols today.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: In 2014, The Satanic Temple commissioned an statue of Baphomet to stand alongside a monument of the Ten Commandments at the Oklahoma State Capitol, citing "respect for diversity and religious minorities" as reasons for the monument. (The Oklahoma Supreme Court ultimately declared religious displays illegal.) The Baphomet statue was unveiled in Detroit on 25 July 2015, as a symbol of the modern Satanist movement. The Satanic Temple transported the Baphomet statue to Little Rock, Arkansas, where another 10 Commandments monument had been recently installed; the statue was publicly displayed during a Temple demonstration on 16 August 2018.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: The American serial killer Richard Ramirez claimed that he was a (theistic) Satanist; during his 1980s killing spree he left an inverted pentagram at the scene of each murder and at his trial called out "Hail Satan!" Ramirez made various references to Satan during his legal proceedings; he notably drew a pentagram on his palm at his trial. Ramirez stated during his death row interview he believed in a "malevolent being" and that Satan's "description eludes" him. Ramirez also enjoyed frequently degrading and humiliating his victims, especially those who survived his attacks or whom he explicitly decided not to kill, by forcing them to profess that they loved Satan, or telling them to "swear on Satan" if there were no more valuables left in their homes he had broken into and burglarized.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: As a moral panic between the 1980s and the 1990s in the United States and Canada, there were multiple allegations of sexual abuse and/or ritual sacrifice of children or non-consenting adults in the context of Satanic rituals in what has come to be known as the Satanic Panic.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: Allegations included the existence of a worldwide Satanic conspiracy formed by large networks of organized Satanists involved in criminal activities such as murder, child pornography, sexual exploitation of children, and human trafficking for prostitution. In the United States, the Kern County child abuse cases, McMartin preschool trial, and the West Memphis cases were widely reported. One case took place in Jordan, Minnesota, in which children made allegations of the manufacture of child pornography, ritualistic animal sacrifice, coprophagia, urophagia, and infanticide, at which point the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was alerted. Twenty-four adults were arrested and charged with acts of sexual abuse, child pornography, and other crimes claimed to be related to Satanic ritual abuse; three went to trial, two were acquitted, and one was convicted. Supreme Court Justice Scalia noted in a discussion of the case that "[t]here is no doubt that some sexual abuse took place in Jordan; but there is no reason to believe it was as widespread as charged", and cited the repeated, coercive techniques used by the investigators as damaging to the investigation.


title: Theistic Satanism

text: These notorious cases were launched after children were repeatedly and coercively interrogated by social workers, resulting in false allegations of child sexual abuse. No evidence was ever found to support any of the allegations of an organized Satanist conspiracy or Satanic ritual abuses, but in some cases the Satanic Panic resulted in wrongful prosecutions.


title: Lorne Balfe

text: Lorne Balfe (born 23 February 1976) is a Scottish composer and record producer of film, television, and video game scores. A veteran of Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions, Balfe is known for his composing music for big-budget films like "," "Terminator Genisys", "", and the DreamWorks Animation films "Home" and "Penguins of Madagascar", as well as the video games "", "Assassin's Creed III", "Crysis 2", "Skylanders" and the "Call of Duty" franchise, as well as the new fanfare for Skydance Media, which debuted in "The Adam Project". He has also scored the television series "The Bible", "Marcella", "The Crown", and "Genius", the latter for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music.


title: Lorne Balfe

text: Balfe was born in Inverness. He went to Fettes College in Edinburgh, where he had a music scholarship.


title: The Outfield

text: The Outfield were an English rock band based in London, England. The band achieved success in the mid-1980s and are best remembered for their hit single, "Your Love". The band's lineup consisted of guitarist John Spinks, vocalist and bassist Tony Lewis, and drummer Alan Jackman.


title: The Outfield

text: They had an unusual experience for a British band in that they enjoyed commercial success in the US, but never in their homeland. The band began recording during the mid-1980s, and released their first album, "Play Deep", in 1985 through Columbia Records. The album reached No. 9 on the "Billboard" 200 list and then reached triple platinum in the United States. The band's single "Your Love" reached No. 6 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 as well as No. 7 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and it became their signature song. The band continued to record and tour through the 1980s and then into the early 1990s. While subsequent albums "Bangin'" (1987) and "Voices of Babylon" (1989) saw some chart successes, the group's popularity waned.


title: The Outfield

text: Drummer Alan Jackman left and, now as a duo, they recorded "Diamond Days" in 1991. After the disappointing response to their 1992 album "Rockeye", which represented a shift towards progressive rock and arena rock, the group essentially disbanded in the 1990s. They resumed touring in 1998, and thereafter released two live albums via their website, along with a new studio album, "Any Time Now" in 2004, which was later re-released in 2006. In 2011, the band released their final album, "Replay", with original drummer Alan Jackman re-joining the band. Spinks died in 2014 after which the group officially disbanded. On 22 March 2018, lead singer/bassist Tony Lewis announced a solo album called "Out of the Darkness", which was released on 29 June 2018 through Madison Records. Lewis died on October 19, 2020, aged 62.


title: The Outfield

text: Bassist/singer Tony Lewis, guitarist/keyboardist and songwriter John Spinks and drummer Alan Jackman played together in the late 1970s in a straightforward power pop band called Sirius B. After rehearsing for about six months and playing several gigs, their style did not match the punk rock that was surging in popularity in England and they broke up. Several years afterward, the three gathered back together in London's East End under the name the Baseball Boys. They performed in and around England until a demo got them signed to Columbia/CBS Records in 1984.


title: The Outfield

text: Spinks adopted the name 'Baseball Boys' from a teen gang called "The Baseball Furies" in the cult film "The Warriors", a movie that he had just seen. Although he used the name as a joke and "just to be outrageous", record company people responded favourably. The band got a reputation as a very "American-sounding" group and signed in the US after playing for just a few months in England. Their manager, an American living in England, recommended a new band name with a similar attitude since 'Baseball Boys' seemed too "tacky" and "tongue-in-cheek". Spinks has said, "The Outfield was the most left-wing kind of thing we liked."


title: The Outfield

text: Spinks expressed an interest in the American sport of baseball, while also being a devoted fan of association football. He claimed that the group "didn't know what an outfield was" until they visited the U.S., and that, "We're just learning about baseball. It's an acquired taste and we're trying to acquire a taste for it." He expounded upon this in a "Chicago Tribune" piece:


title: The Outfield

text: Their debut album, "Play Deep" produced by William Wittman, was issued in 1985 and was a success. The album reached triple platinum sales status and the top 10 in the US album charts; it also featured a top 10 single entry with "Your Love", which peaked at No. 6. It went on to be featured in a number of 80s-themed compilation albums, and over 1,000 covers and remixes by other artists have been released physically and/or online. The band toured extensively, opening for Journey and Starship. Spinks made a point of mentioning in interviews that the band was "totally into not smoking or doing drugs".


title: The Outfield

text: 1987 saw the release of their second album, "Bangin'". This album did not achieve the acclaim of "Play Deep", but it did spawn a top 40 single, "Since You've Been Gone" (not to be confused with the 1970s Rainbow and Head East hit of the same name), which also hit No. 11 on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Songs chart. Furthermore, they had a minor radio/MTV hit with "No Surrender". The album sold reasonably well and was certified gold in the United States. A US summer tour opening for Night Ranger followed.


title: The Outfield

text: For the group's third album, 1989's "Voices of Babylon", a new producer (David Kahne) and sound was evident. The title track was a top 25 single and hit No. 2 on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Songs chart. The follow-up song, "My Paradise", was a mid-sized album-rock hit reaching No. 34 on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Songs chart, but overall the group's popularity continued to decline.


title: The Outfield

text: After the "Babylon" LP, Alan Jackman parted ways with the band and was replaced for a concert tour by Paul Read. Spinks and Lewis continued as a duo, switched labels and began recording "Diamond Days" for MCA. Playing drums on the disc was session drummer Simon Dawson. The LP, released in 1990, produced a top 30 US hit, "For You". Quick to follow was "One Hot Country", included on the soundtrack to the 1991 action film "If Looks Could Kill".


title: The Outfield

text: The Outfield returned with 1992's "Rockeye". Its leadoff single, "Closer to Me", was a near top 40 hit, and a second release, "Winning It All", gained some notice due to extensive play during NBC's NBA Finals coverage, the "NBA Superstars" series featuring Larry Bird, the 1992 Summer Olympics, Chicago Bulls championship ring ceremonies and the film "The Mighty Ducks". Simon Dawson, who played on "Rockeye", would eventually become the band's official third member. The band took an extended hiatus during the mid-1990s as changing musical fashions, especially the popularity of edgier bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, made life difficult for older bands with a less fashionable aesthetic.


title: The Outfield

text: The Outfield returned to their East End roots, and often played low-key gigs at a local pub, where much of the clientele were unaware that the group had sold millions of records in the US. Unfortunately, this situation was typical of the problems the Outfield had faced in their homeland: little recognition and a much smaller following than they had experienced in the US. Nevertheless, the band would reappear with a fan-club-only release, entitled "It Ain't Over...", and resume touring. Soon thereafter, in 1999, they released "Extra Innings", an odds-and-ends compilation of new and older, unreleased songs.


title: The Outfield

text: In the early 2000s, the band issued two live collections via their official website: "Live in Brazil" and "The Outfield Live". In 2004, the band released "Any Time Now", a new studio album, through Tower Records, and later released a new version of the album in March 2006 through Sidewinder Records.


title: The Outfield

text: In 2009, the original line up of John Spinks, Tony Lewis and Alan Jackman returned to a London recording studio to record their first album together since "Voices of Babylon" was recorded in 1988. In addition, the Outfield announced Brent Bitner had taken over the band's management and launched their official Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Myspace pages in November 2009. On 22 March 2011, the Outfield announced that their upcoming album would be called "Replay". "Replay" was recorded in various studios in the south of England that included production work at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. "Replay" was produced by the Outfield and Brent Bitner with executive production by John Spinks. On 28 June 2011, "Replay" was released to rave reviews. The lead single, "California Sun", was a regional number one AOR chart hit and has subsequently been the second most added song on AC radio as of 15 August 2011. A limited advanced release of the band's possible second single, "A Long, Long Time Ago", reached number one on Worldwide FM ClassX Radio's AOR chart in the second week of August 2011.


title: The Outfield

text: In 2013, the band rerecorded vocals to their single "Your Love" to be incorporated into American DJ Morgan Page's reworking of the song, which was released in the summer of that year. Though credited to Page, the single was listed as featuring the Outfield.


title: The Outfield

text: After taking a few years off from music, lead singer/bassist Tony Lewis announced his return with a solo album, "Out of the Darkness", which was released on 29 June 2018 through Madison Records and with the help of his wife Carol and their collaborative songwriting.


title: The Outfield

text: The Outfield were considered a pop rock, power pop, or a new wave group. Annelise Wamsley of the "Tampa Bay Times" described the band's style in 1987: "the Outfield specializes in what you could call an early '80s American Sound. It's music by recipe: You to take hyper-macho hard rock and tone it down so it will appeal to the over-17 set. You need a simple hook that can be repeated a dozen or so times, lots of electric guitar solos, a standard rock beat and basic lyrics." John Spinks said in 1986 interview with the "Los Angeles Times" that he was very influenced by "the music that gives me a rush" and that he "grew up on the Beatles". Interestingly, it was also said that the band wanted to be a "car stereo sort of poppy version of the band Rush. "61 Seconds and "Mystery Man" are evidence of this. He also cited contemporaries Journey, Foreigner, and Mr. Mister – particularly the latter's hit "Broken Wings". In that interview, he expanded upon the band's strong foundation in melody:


title: The Outfield

text: Wamsely made a similar remark, writing, "This is the stuff people listen to in their cars, on the way to work or play at high school dances."


title: The Outfield

text: Criticism often centered on their generic sound. "The music is hopelessly, numbingly derivative of just about every Journey/Foreigner/Cars cliché in the book — with none of the style that makes those bands special," said Matt Damsker, rock critic for the "Hartford Courant".


title: Comedian

text: A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolish (as in slapstick), or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comedian.


title: Comedian

text: A popular saying often attributed to Ed Wynn attempts to differentiate the two terms: "A comic says funny things; a comedian says things funny." This draws a distinction between how much of the comedy can be attributed to verbal content and how much to acting and persona.


title: Comedian

text: Since the 1980s, a new wave of comedy, called alternative comedy, has grown in popularity with its more offbeat and experimental style. This normally involves more experiential, or observational reporting (e.g., Alexei Sayle, Daniel Tosh, Malcolm Hardee). As far as content is concerned, comedians such as Tommy Tiernan, Des Bishop, Kevin Hart, and Dawn French draw on their background to poke fun at themselves, while others such as Jon Stewart and Ben Elton have very strong political and cultural undertones.


title: Comedian

text: Many comics achieve a cult following while touring famous comedy hubs such as the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the Edinburgh Fringe, and Melbourne Comedy Festival in Australia. Often a comic's career advances significantly when they win a notable comedy award, such as the Edinburgh Comedy Award (formerly the Perrier comedy award). Comics sometimes foray into other areas of entertainment, such as film and television, where they become more widely known (e.g., Eddie Izzard, Lee Evans). A comic's stand-up success does not always correlate to a film's critical or box-office success.


title: Comedian

text: Comedians can be dated back to 425 BC, when Aristophanes, a comic author, and playwright, wrote ancient comedic plays. He wrote 40 comedies, 11 of which survive and are still being performed. Aristophanes' comedy style took the form of satyr plays.


title: Comedian

text: The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare wrote many comedies. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays.


title: Comedian

text: American performance comedy has its roots in the 1840s from the three-act, variety show format of minstrel shows (via blackface performances of the Jim Crow character); Frederick Douglass criticized these shows for profiting from and perpetuating racism. Minstrelsy monologists performed second-act, stump-speech monologues from within minstrel shows until 1896. American standup also emerged in vaudeville theatre from the 1880s to the 1930s, with such comics as W. C. Fields, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers.


title: Comedian

text: British performance comedy has its roots in 1850 music hall theatres, where Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, and Dan Leno first performed, mentored by comedian and theatre impresario Fred Karno, who developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s and also pioneered slapstick comedy.


title: Comedian

text: In the modern era, as technology produced forms of mass communications media, these were adapted to entertainment and comedians adapted to the new media, sometimes switching to new forms as they were introduced.


title: Comedian

text: Stand-up comedy is a comic monologue performed standing on a stage. Bob Hope became the most popular stand-up comedian of the 20th century in a nearly 80-year career that included numerous comedy film roles over a five-decade span in radio, television, and entertaining armed-service troops through the USO. Other noted stand-up comedians include Billy Connolly, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Victoria Wood, Joan Rivers, Whoopi Goldberg, Patton Oswalt and Jo Brand.


title: Comedian

text: Some of the earliest commercial sound recordings were made by standup comedians such as Cal Stewart, who recorded collections of his humorous monologues on Edison Records as early as 1898, and other labels until his death in 1919.


title: Comedian

text: Bandleader Spike Jones recorded 15 musical comedy albums satirizing popular and classical music from 1950 to his death in 1965. Tom Lehrer wrote and recorded five albums of songs satirizing political and social issues from 1953 to 1965. Musician Peter Schickele, inspired by Jones, parodied classical music with 17 albums of his music which he presented as written by "P.D.Q. Bach" (fictional son of Johann Sebastian Bach) from 1965 through 2007.


title: Comedian

text: In 1968, radio surreal comedy group The Firesign Theatre revolutionized the concept of the spoken comedy album by writing and recording elaborate radio plays employing sound effects and multitrack recording, which comedian Robin Williams called "the audio equivalent of a Hieronymous Bosch painting." Comedy duo Cheech and Chong recorded comedy albums in a similar format from 1971 through 1985.


title: Comedian

text: Karno took Chaplin and Laurel on two trips to the United States to tour the vaudeville circuit. On the second one, they were recruited by the fledgling silent film industry. Chaplin became the most popular screen comedian of the first half of the 20th century. Chaplin and Stan Laurel were protégés of Fred Karno, the English theatre impresario of British music hall, and in his biography Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Chaplin wrote films such as "Modern Times" and "The Kid". His films still have a major impact on comedy in films today.


title: Comedian

text: Laurel met Oliver Hardy in the US and teamed up as Laurel and Hardy. Keaton also started making silent comedies.


title: Comedian

text: Fields appeared in Broadway musical comedies, three silent films in 1915 and 1925, and in sound films starting in 1926. The Marx brothers also made the transition to film in 1929, by way of two Broadway musicals.


title: Comedian

text: Many other comedians made sound films, such as Bob Hope (both alone, and in a series of "Road to ..." comedies with partner Bing Crosby), ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, and Jerry Lewis (both with and without partner Dean Martin).


title: Comedian

text: Some comedians who entered film expanded their acting skills to become dramatic actors, or started as actors specializing in comic roles, such as Dick Van Dyke, Paul Lynde, Michael Keaton, Bill Murray and Denis Leary.


title: Comedian

text: Radio comedy began in the United States when Raymond Knight launched "The Cuckoo Hour" on NBC in 1930, along with the 1931 network debut of Stoopnagle and Budd on CBS. Most of the Hollywood comedians who did not become dramatic actors (e.g. Bergen, Fields, Groucho and Chico Marx, Red Skelton, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Judy Canova, Hope, Martin and Lewis), transitioned to United States radio in the 1930s and 1940s.


title: Comedian

text: Without a Hollywood supply of comedians to draw from, radio comedy did not begin in the United Kingdom until a generation later, with such popular 1950s shows as "The Goon Show" and "Hancock's Half Hour". Later, radio became a proving-ground for many later United Kingdom comedians. Chris Morris began his career in 1986 at Radio Cambridgeshire, and Ricky Gervais began his comedy career in 1997 at London radio station XFM. "The League of Gentlemen", Mitchell and Webb and The Mighty Boosh all transferred to television after broadcasting on BBC Radio 4.


title: Comedian

text: On television there are comedy talk shows where comedians make fun of current news or popular topics. Such comedians include Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Graham Norton, Jim Jefferies, James Corden, John Oliver, Jonathan Ross, David Letterman, and Chelsea Handler. There are sketch comedies, such as "Mr. Show with Bob and David" and Monty Python who created their sketch comedy show "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (a BBC show that influenced "Saturday Night Live"), and sitcoms, such as "Roseanne", "Only Fools and Horses", and "Not Going Out", as well as popular panel shows like "The Big Fat Quiz of the Year", "Have I Got News for You", and "Celebrity Juice". The most acclaimed sitcoms include Seinfeld and The Big Bang Theory.


title: Comedian

text: Comedy is increasingly enjoyed online. Comedians with popular long-running podcasts series include Kevin Smith and Joe Rogan. Comedians streaming videos of their stand-up include Bridget Christie, Louis C.K. and Daniel Kitson.


title: Comedian

text: There are many established formats for jokes. One example is the pun or double-entendre, where similar words are interchanged. "The Two Ronnies" often used puns and double-entendre. Stewart Francis and Tim Vine are examples of current comedians who deploy numerous puns. Jokes based on puns tend to be very quick and easy to digest, which sometimes leads to other joke forms being overlooked, for example in the Funniest Joke of the Fringe awards. Other jokes may rely on confounding an audience's expectations through a misleading setup (known as a 'pull back and reveal' in the UK and a 'leadaway' in the US). Ed Byrne is an example of a comedian who has used this technique. Some jokes are based on ad absurdum extrapolations, for example much of Richard Herring and Ross Noble's standup. In ironic humour there is an intentional mismatch between a message and the form in which it is conveyed (for example the work of Danielle Ward). Other joke forms include observation (Michael McIntyre), whimsy (David O'Doherty), self-deprecation (Robin Williams) and parody (Diane Morgan).


title: Comedian

text: In a January 2014 study, conducted in the "British Journal of Psychiatry", scientists found that comedians tend to have high levels of psychotic personality traits. In the study, researchers analyzed 404 male and 119 female comedians from Australia, Britain, and the United States. The participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire designed to measure psychotic traits in healthy people. They found that comedians scored "significantly higher on four types of psychotic characteristics compared to a control group of people who had non-creative jobs." Gordon Claridge, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford and leader of the study claimed, "the creative elements needed to produce humor are strikingly similar to those characterizing the cognitive style of people with psychosis—both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder." However, labeling comedians' personality traits as "psychotic" does not mean that individual is a psychopath, since psychopathy is distinct from psychosis, and neither does it mean their behavior is necessarily pathological.


title: Comedian

text: "Forbes" publishes an annual list of the most financially successful comedians in the world, similarly to their Celebrity 100 list. Their data sources include Nielsen Media Research, Pollstar, Box Office Mojo and IMDb. The list was topped by Jerry Seinfeld from 2006 until 2015, who lost the title to Kevin Hart in 2016. In that year, the eight highest paid comedians were from the United States, including Amy Schumer, who became the first woman to be listed in the top ten. The top ten of 2016 are as follows:


title: Kirsten Gillibrand

text: Kirsten Elizabeth Gillibrand (; ; born December 9, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from New York since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009.


title: Kirsten Gillibrand

text: Born and raised in upstate New York, Gillibrand graduated from Dartmouth College and from the UCLA School of Law. After holding positions in government and private practice and working on Hillary Clinton's 2000 U.S. Senate campaign, Gillibrand was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2006. She represented New York's 20th congressional district and was reelected in 2008. During her House tenure, Gillibrand was a Blue Dog Democrat noted for voting against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.


title: Kirsten Gillibrand

text: After Clinton was appointed U.S. Secretary of State in 2009, Governor David Paterson selected Gillibrand to fill the Senate seat Clinton had vacated, making her New York's second female senator. Gillibrand won a special election in 2010 to keep the seat, and was reelected to full terms in 2012 and 2018. During her Senate tenure, Gillibrand has shifted to the left. She has been outspoken on sexual assault in the military and sexual harassment, having criticized President Bill Clinton, Senator Al Franken, and Governor Andrew Cuomo, all fellow Democrats, for alleged sexual misconduct. She supports paid family leave, a federal jobs guarantee, and the abolition and replacement of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.


title: Kirsten Gillibrand

text: Gillibrand ran for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2020, officially announcing her candidacy on March 17, 2019. After failing to qualify for the third debate, she withdrew from the race on August 28, 2019.


title: Kirsten Gillibrand

text: Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik was born on December 9, 1966, in Albany, New York, the daughter of Polly Edwina (Noonan) and Douglas Paul Rutnik. Both her parents are attorneys, and her father has also worked as a lobbyist. Her parents divorced in the late 1980s. Douglas Rutnik is an associate of former U.S. Senator Al D'Amato. Gillibrand has an older brother and a younger sister. Her maternal grandparents were businessman Peter Noonan and Dorothea "Polly" Noonan, a founder of the Albany Democratic Women's Club and a leader of the city's Democratic political machine. Gillibrand has English, Austrian, Scottish, German, and Irish ancestry.


title: Kirsten Gillibrand

text: Polly Noonan was a longtime confidant of Erastus Corning 2nd, the longtime mayor of Albany, New York. In "Off the Sidelines", her 2014 memoir, Gillibrand said that Corning "was simply part of our family... He appeared at every family birthday party with the most fantastic present". Gillibrand wrote that she did not know that the ambiguous relationship between her married grandmother and the married Corning "was strange" until she grew up, adding that Corning "may have been in love with my grandmother", but that he also loved her grandmother's entire family. According to "The New York Times", Corning, "in effect, disinherited his wife and children" and "left the Noonan family his insurance business".


title: Kirsten Gillibrand

text: During her childhood and college years, Gillibrand used the nickname "Tina"; she began using her birth name a few years after law school. In 1984, she graduated from Emma Willard School, an all-women's private school in Troy, New York, and then enrolled at Dartmouth College. Gillibrand majored in Asian Studies, studying in both Beijing and Taiwan. In Beijing, she studied and lived with actress Connie Britton at Beijing Normal University. Gillibrand graduated "magna cum laude" in 1988. At Dartmouth, she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. During college, Gillibrand interned at Senator Al D'Amato's Albany office. She received her J.D. from UCLA School of Law and passed the bar exam in 1991.


title: Kirsten Gillibrand

text: In 1991, Gillibrand joined the Manhattan-based law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell as an associate. In 1992, she took a leave from Davis Polk to serve as a law clerk to Judge Roger Miner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Albany.