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The #FamilyFunDay series is an opportunity for us to share our adventures, tips, and 'manners used' for making the most of your day if you choose to take a similar adventure of your own.
Ft. Sill and Lake Elmer Thomas Recreational Area (LETRA) are in Lawton, which is about an hour and a half drive South from Oklahoma City.
This #FamilyFunDay adventure was prompted after our recent trip to Mt. Scott. From the top of Mt. Scott the Cub of course spotted the water slides and beach area at LETRA … adding that to our list of to-do's.
To gain access to the base, you need to stop at the visitors center by the main gate off Sheridan. You will need a drivers license for all of the adults in your group and fill out a visitors form. After a background check, you will be issued your visitors pass for the day.
We were pleasantly surprised by everything on base that awaited us. Our first stop was at the museum.
The Cub was in heaven to say the least. The Musuem was closed (we were there on a Sunday) but the outside housed an endless supply of
Army tanks,
missile launchers,
and more.
We spent a good 45 minutes walking around and climbing on everything.
The architecture of many of the buildings and houses on base was amazing. Quite a bit of Spanish Colonial designs with tile roofs. You can see some of the homes in the background of the pictures above.
We then headed out in search of LETRA; but found another detour on the way – Geronimo's gravesite. We had to go check that out!
There are numerous playgrounds that we made pit stops at as well. Good thing we packed a picnic lunch again. If you don't bring your lunch, the base has plenty of options available, close to the main gate, such as Subway, Burger King, and Church's Chicken.
Back on track and headed to the 'beach', we found our destination with more fun to offer. Miniature Golf, Kayaking, and Paddle Boats. They also have bass and pontoon boats available to rent (check here: Cheap Boat Rentals Near Me).
After a quick round of miniature golf, we cooled down at the water slides and the beach.
The beach area was quite enjoyable. They have a nice bathhouse with restrooms and showers. The water was somewhat clear and the view of Mt. Scott provided a nice backdrop and a few shaded areas to get some temporary relief from the sun.
The watersports are only open during the summer between Memorial and Labor Days.
They also have archery and paintball rentals. Those, we were told, are available year round weather permitting.
Rental Cabins are available too. Looks like we'll be checking into those for a weekend of Family Fun Days, archery and paintball.
Manners Used: (great talking points to share with your kiddos as you head out on your adventure.)
- Respect for authority and for military personnel. You will have contact with gate attendants, and other military personnel as you're on an active U.S. Army base.
- Following the rules at all times; speed limits, no swimming areas, non access areas.
- Eye contact, please and thank you.
- Reverance for the deceased as you walk through the cemetery to see Geronimo's grave.
- and of course car ride manners for the 2.5 hour outing (5 hours round trip) (Here's an idea to help ward off the 'are we there yet?' questions.)
This will be another 'do over' destination. There is so much to do in this area, we're thinking a weekend getaway is in order!
We would love to hear if you do, please leave us a comment and let us know about your #FamilyFunDay Adventure.
– Carey Sue


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Our goal: To remove all political parties from federal politics & replace them with Consensus Government based on only Independent MPs
Our goal: To remove all political parties from federal politics & replace them with Consensus Government based on only Independent MPs
2 November 2022
Building towards the next federal election - 2023
Consensus Canada is an association of Canadians who are all working towards a single goal: Getting rid of party politics in Canada and replacing it with Consensus Government, whereby all MPs are Independents who faithfully represent the majority viewpoint in their ridings, issue by issue.
Consensus Government will also involve regular Referendums to decide major issues in the province, as well as Recall legislation to ensure MPs represent their constituents. This is a fully Bottom Up process to replace party politics' Top Down process which we all despise.
For a full explanation of how this works and how government is created and operates, please see our How Consensus Government Would Work page on this website.
Local volunteer organizers are busy in ridings around Ontario conducting outreach work and signing up new members. They are also busy recruiting candidates.
Our board of directors meets monthly to further the goals of Consensus Canada. Here policy is developed (addressing details of Consensus Government aspects), communications work is done, and election readiness is worked on.
Our head office is also busy in searching for candidates who are good citizens and care about their ridings and its communities - candidates who accept that if elected, they represent their constituents - they do not lead them. If you would like to represent your riding in the House of Commons in Ottawa, then please contact us on our Contact page on this website.
Consensus Canada is busy now working on registration to become an Official Political Party in Canada. That party will be fielding candidates across Canada in the next federal general election, expected in 2023.
We welcome and need new members - please join us on our Become A Member page on this website.
We are in need of funds for ongoing operations - so if you like what you have read, please make a financial contribution on our Donate To Consensus Canada page on this website.
Thank you for your interest and I do hope you will join us today!
Brad Harness
Our Mission
Consensus Canada was launched in June 2018 by the board of directors of Consensus Ontario. The provincial party has the same aim as the federal one does: To replace partisan politics with only Independent representatives. Federal MPs would operate in a Consensus Government model. This system has long been in use in Canada in the territorial assemblies and works very well. Consensus Ontario ran in this year's provincial election and placed 9th out of 28 parties with only 5 weeks campaigning after registering as a party. Voters were very interested in this new political proposal and the party is now expanding its organizing effort around the province.
Under Consensus Government in Ottawa, MPs would have the simple task of always representing the majority view in their riding on each issue. See How Consensus Government Would Work page for a fuller explanation of how this would operate in the House of Commons & Senate.
This website is under development currently and will be expanded over the next few weeks, so be sure to check back for what's new. If you love this idea already and want to become a member, get in touch by email [email protected] or by telephone 519-851-2041.
Better Representation Can Be Achieved!
TORONTO - The National Priorities List created through an annual riding by riding survey each year is an important tool for Consensus Government. It is what determines where party and candidate/MP's efforts must be focused. The Riding Priority List is what determines how a Consensus Canada MP will vote on each issue - truly representing the majority view in their riding.
As it is an annual survey, it is fully expected that the priorities of Canadian voters may - and likely will - change over time. That is why it is done each year, to ensure we are plugged into what is important to Canadians. Parties that are out of step with voters can expect to be judged harshly at election time...and rightly so!
Government exists to do those things with voters cannot efficiently and economically do for themselves. That does not mean doing everything for voters, but rather, just certain specific things where government could do it better and more cost-effectively. Hence, the survey work to identify those priorities people want their provincial government to be involved with.
Once those priorities are identified, then it is time to create the policies which Consensus Government believes are the best way to implement each priority and make it a reality for voters. All MPs are tasked with developing detailed policy for each priority identified by you, the voter.
Here's how Consensus Government Operates in Nunavut & the Northwest Territories...
Here's how Consensus Government Operates in Nunavut & the Northwest Territories...
What our voters are saying:
What our voters are saying:
Right from the start, when Consensus Canada explained what it was trying to do and why...I said, This is for Me! Count me in!!
Hillary Smith
Please call or e-mail us for more information:
Please call or e-mail us for more information:

subset: commoncrawl


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It is the eve of Holy Week, when our Lenten journey makes a serious plunge into the richness of tradition and prayer. What better way to unite ourselves with the Universal Church than to watch the events taking place in Rome.
You can find a schedule of the coming week's schedule below the live cam from Saint Peter's Square. Be sure to download the corresponding prayer guides for the various celebrations (rebroadcast links are below schedule):
Celebration Booklets will be added as they are made available below:
Booklet – Holy Thursday Chrism Mass CHRISM MASS REPLAY
Booklet – Palm Sunday PALM SUNDAY REPLAY
United in prayer in our final preparation for Easter!
Direct Links to Online Resources:


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Juntos provides important services to unaccompanied minor children who immigrated into the United States. Services include
1) temporary shelter and support with family unification.
2) home study and post release services.
Services are focused on the safety of every child in our care. We utilize a Nurtured Heart, a trauma informed care approach, which emphasizes physical, psychological and emotional safety for the children in our care and helps them rebuild a sense of control.
We provide:
- food and shelter
- comprehensive assessment
- mental health services
- therapeutic counseling
- case management
- education
- medical care
- recreation and enrichment activities
- court accompaniments
- linkages with family members or sponsors
- home study
- post-release services
Family reunification is our primary goal. Center For Family Services takes steps to reunite children with their families and to develop a plan for a safe and healthy future for each child.
Once a family member or a sponsor has been identified, Center For Family Services assists with the vetting process and takes steps to ensure a smooth transition process.
Through the Juntos program, Center For Family Services operates:
• A caring shelter home for 20 girls ages 13-17;
• A caring shelter home for 20 boys ages 13-17;
• A caring shelter home for teen mothers and their babies (10 mothers and 12 babies);
• Up to 38 short-term shelter homes in the community for pregnant teens, sibling groups or children under 12.
Become a Shelter Home Parent
Juntos is actively seeking kind caregivers to become shelter home parents, opening their home to provide temporary, short-term care for a child or a sibling group or a pregnant teen. Shelter home parents play an important role in 1) caring for young children; 2) keeping teen moms together with their babies; and 3) keeping sibling groups together while we work on a plan to reunite the children with family.
Bilingual homes needed: English/Spanish speaking homes; English/Pashto speaking homes; English/Dari speaking homes
Other ways you can help
Referral Information


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(EDIT: Edited for formatting, also edited to emphasize that both dominionist homeschool programs and private schools operated by dominionist denominations (particularly AoG and "independent pentecostal" or "independent Baptist", increasingly in Southern Baptist schools as well) are using this material in their basic school curriculum. I apologise if I didn't make this clear.)
Especially in the past ten to twenty years, there's been a major push in the dominionist community towards homeschooling kids (to specifically insulate them from "worldly" or "satanic" influences--read: exposure to any info outside the coercive religious group). There's been a very similar push in dominionist circles to get them into private schools operated by dominionist groups for even longer, closer to fifty years.
One of the most common curricula used (both in dominionist homeschools as well as private religious schools operated by dominionist churches) is called "A Beka" (http://www.abeka.com/) which is apparently a company started approximately thirty years ago by Pensacola Christian College (per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beka_Boo
Pensacola Christian College itself is operated by an "independent Baptist" (which in practice, "independent Baptist" is much like "non-denominational pentecostal" in that it is a church with practically no outside supervision) church that is explicitly fundamentalist and dominionist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensacola_
"All governments are ordained by God, but none compare to government by God, theocracy." (from William R. Bowen et al., American Government in Christian Perspective, 2nd ed., (Pensacola, Fla.: A Beka, 1997), p. 19.)
"We present government as ordained by God for the maintenance of law and order, not as a cure-all for the problems of humanity. We present free-enterprise economics without apology and point out the dangers of Communism, socialism, and liberalism to the well-being of people across the globe. In short, A Beka Book offers you a Christian and conservative approach to the study of what man has done with the time God has given." (from A Beka's website: http://www.abeka.com/About/Distinct
"While secular science textbooks present modern science as the opposite of faith, the A Beka Book science texts teach that modern science is the product of Western man's return to the Scriptures after the Protestant Reformation, leading to his desire to understand and subdue the earth, which he saw as the orderly, law-abiding creation of the God of the Bible.
"The A Beka Book Science and Health Program presents the universe as the direct creation of God and refutes the man-made idea of evolution. Further, the books present God as the Great Designer and Lawgiver, without Whom the evident design and laws of nature would be inexplicable. They give a solid foundation in all areas of science -- a foundation firmly anchored to Scriptural truth." (ibid.)
"God gave us our powers of thought and language and chose to reveal His will and His ways to us in a written form, the Bible; thus we need to pay particular attention to the teaching of grammar, spelling, vocabulary, composition, and literature as we seek to educate students from a Christian perspective.
"Since Darwin, linguists have sought in vain for a credible explanation for the origin of language. Having accepted evolutionary philosophy, they can only think that language must be simply a response to a stimulus, an emotional outcry, an imitation of animals.
"If such foolishness were true, then any talk of language being governed by rules or any claims that some expressions are better than others would be inappropriate, and relativism would rule. This explains many English programs today. But as Christians, we still believe that the Bible provides the only credible explanation for the universe, of man, and of language. Therefore, it is easy to see in language a structure which reflects the logic, reasonableness, and orderliness of the One who created man and his language. (ibid.)
"Unlike the "modern math" theorists, who believe that mathematics is a creation of man and thus arbitrary and relative, we believe that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute. All of the laws of mathematics are God's laws. Our knowledge of God's absolute mathematical laws may be incomplete or at times in error, but that merely shows human frailty, not relativity in mathematics. Man's task is to search out and make use of the laws of the universe, both scientific and mathematical.
"A Beka Book provides attractive, legible, workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory... Besides training students in the basic skills that they will need all their lives, the A Beka Book traditional mathematics books teach students to believe in the absolutes of the universe, to work diligently to get right answers, and to see the facts of mathematics as part of the truth and order that God has built into the real universe." (ibid.)
(Yes, in other words, people who are studying using the A Beka mathbooks are going to be unprepared for basic college-level maths. Or for that matter, much in computer engineering/computer science, seeing as you have to work with that "modern math" stuff)
The scary thing is, A Beka is actually liberal as far as homeschool curricula targeted at dominionists go. http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/mat
http://www.homeschools.org/ (a resource specifically aimed at "Christian Reconstructionist" households--no, I am not making this up. They are marketing specifically to the Rushdoony crowd)
http://www.schooloftomorrow.com/ (ACE, Accelerated Christian Education--also had some of their material quoted in the above articles referenced in A Beka's section; content is explicitly dominionist, heck, downright Christian Reconstructionist)
(More backgrounder regarding dominionist groups and homeschooling specifically is at http://www.politicalamazon.com/fcf-home
Also, another point: Many, if not most, of the dominionist homeschool programs are actually operated as correspondence schools by dominionist churches as extensions of existing dominionist private school systems. In other words, the problem isn't restricted to homeschool groups at all (and has been festering for quite some time--A Beka has been in use for at least thirty years in AoG private schools, for instance, and Bob Jones University's material even longer).


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Norma Bowen, owner/manager of Essential Hands Cleaning, was born and raised in Sonoma county. Her mother started the business in the late 70's.
Norma started working for her in 1990 and took over the business in 2000. She has a son in college who wants to be a high school science teacher. She has three spoiled boxer dogs. She enjoys activities such as hiking, mountain biking and kickboxing.
One of her hobbies is making jewelry. She has been to seven countries in Europe and would love to go back to Italy and France.
What she loves most about cleaning is the great feeling she gets knowing that she has helped her client avoid the stress of cleaning all day and freed up so much extra time for the client, knowing they either doesn't have the time, ability or just plain doesn't like cleaning.


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What Does Holding a Mortgage Mean?
A mortgage holder is the individual or entity (typically a company or group of investors) that owns a mortgage loan. Mortgage lenders frequently sell mortgage loans to government-sponsored entities such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae or private investors. This provides cash for funding new mortgage loans and is a common practice in the US mortgage lending industry.
My Mortgage Just Closed and Now I Have a New Lender
Soon after closing a residential mortgage loan, you may receive notification from your lender that your mortgage has been sold to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or another investor. This company is now the mortgage holder or owner of your mortgage loan. Although you may continue to make payments to your original mortgage company, it's possible that a third company will be designated as your loan servicer. Mortgage loan servicing companies accept payments, pay hazard insurance and property taxes, and take care of day-to-day administration of mortgage loans on behalf of the mortgage holder.
Transferring Mortgage Holders Does Not Change Your Mortgage Loan
When mortgage lenders originate and close mortgage loans, they underwrite each loan to meet the standard of the purchasing entity. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting standards are typically used for most conventional residential mortgages. Mortgage loans underwritten to these requirements are generally sold to either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac quickly after closing. No terms of a mortgage contract are changed as the result of selling a mortgage loan to a new mortgage holder. Transferring a mortgage loan is done by recording either an Assignment of Mortgage or Assignment of Deed of Trust. The recorded assignment appears on any title search for the property securing the mortgage.
Mortgage Holders and Mortgage Loan Servicing Companies
Large mortgage holders such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac engage loan servicing companies to manage their portfolio of mortgage loans. Loan servicing companies receive a fee for managing mortgage loans according to the requirement of the mortgage holder. Your mortgage servicing company may advise you that it must "get the mortgage holder's approval" for special requests such as payment plans, loan modifications, or short sales. Your mortgage servicing company acts as an agent for the owner of your mortgage loan, and as a link between you (the borrower) and the mortgage holder.
Why are Mortgages Sold to New Mortgage Holders?
Gone are the days when home buyers walked into their local bank and took out a mortgage loan that stayed with that bank. Most mortgage lenders now sell mortgage loans to government-sponsored investors such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mortgage loans may also be originated on behalf of state housing authority programs or purchased by investors such as pension funds. In many cases, the original mortgage company may also act as the loan servicing company for the new mortgage holder. This helps with providing a seamless transition for borrowers, who can continue making payments to the same company. Selling a mortgage to a new mortgage holder is not a negative reflection of a homeowner's credit standing or the quality of a mortgage loan.


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Create a seamless LoRaWAN network
Many LoRaWAN networks around the world have been deployed: public with a telco or private networks. In the same country, you may have multiple networks as well. It is complexe to manage your sensors via multiple web portals.
Pilot Things is connected to the major LoRaWAN networks in the world thus creating a seamless LoRaWAN network. No matter the network your sensors are connected to, you see all in the same portal : Pilot Things. We will also get the measures of all the sensors.
Add technologies
LoRaWAN is a great technology but it is not available everywhere around the world. Plus it is not accurate in all use cases.
With Pilot Things you can add sensors using multiple connectivity technologies: Bluetooth, Zigbee, legacy BACnet and Modbus ... and more...
By using multiple technologies you leverage each of them and maximise the possibilities.
Plug and Play sensors
Once the sensors are connected using LoRaWAN they send unformatted and unusable messages. Pilot Things unique feature automatically decodes the messages to usable measures (like temperature, humidity,...).
You connect your sensors and get the measures as easy as Plug & Play.
Process the measures
Now that you have sensors in the field you would like to use the measures into a scenario.
Pilot things is integrated with open source programming language node-red (https://nodered.org/). Just drag and drop the measures and draw your scenario.


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Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes — just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Health Management Associates Inc (NYSE:HMA) , an acute-care hospital and health care facility operator in the U.S., jumped as much as 11% after a hedge fund noted interest in raising its stake in the company and following two analyst upgrades.
So what: The bump primarily comes from a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in which Glenview Capital — currently Health Management Associates Inc (NYSE:HMA)'s largest shareholders with 37.8 million shares – urged the company to abandon or amend its poison pill to allow it to acquire up to 25% of all outstanding shares (currently the cap is 15%). Glenview also noted in that filing that it'd consider replacing part or all of Health Management Associates Inc (NYSE:HMA)'s board of directors. In addition to this ongoing drama, research firms CRT Capital and WallachBeth upgraded Health Management Associates Inc (NYSE:HMA) to "hold" and "buy," respectively, from previous ratings of "sell" and "hold."
Now what: This certainly has all the makings of takeover chatter despite Glenview expressing previously that it never had any intention of purchasing a majority stake in the company. The bigger driving force, though, for hospital stocks like Health Management Associates Inc (NYSE:HMA) will be the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2014, which will mandate individuals to carry insurance. The thesis here is that if people are required to carry insurance, then the bad debt provisions that stem from treating patients who can't pay should shrink considerably and allow hospital margins to soar. You'd certainly be hard-pressed to find a sector ready to benefit more from Obamacare than the hospital sector, however, at 15 times forward earnings, I suspect you can find cheaper alternatives within the sector than Health Management Associates Inc (NYSE:HMA).
Craving more input? Start by adding Health Management Associates to your free and personalized watchlist so you can keep up on the latest news with the company.
The article Why Health Management Associates Shares Soared originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Sean Williams.
Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.
Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
Wa salatu wa salama 'ala Rasulilah
I had finally reached the elevator of my apartment building after a long walk from the markaz in the hot Egyptian sun. I was thirsty, I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and after five hours of Arabic class, my head was spinning and I just wanted to get home. The elevator came and I entered, thoughts more about my state of hunger and headache, the walk back from the markaz, and the eight story elevator ride in my head more than anything else. Finally the elevator reached the eighth floor- almost. The elevators here are made so that between floors there are concrete walls. It's basically: door to level, concrete wall, door to level, concrete wall. It stopped where I could see mostly door, but still concrete wall. Alhamdullilah, no problem, I thought. I'll just push the door open and take a big step and I'll make it in inshaAllah. But the door did not open. And it would not open. It was completely shut. I pushed, pushed, pushed until I was faced with the horrifying realization that I was stuck in an elevator in a building with absolutely no type of fire code and no type of emergency plan. I started pounding on the elevator door.
Making dua, I called my roommate. She ran out and tried to pull the door open. Stuck. She tried to comfort me, and I started really feeling the panic. The same air I was breathing a moment ago began to fade away, and I felt complete terror internally as she told me to press the button to another floor. ALLAH Musta'aan, how could I press the button to another floor? With a malfunctioning elevator, I could easily end up facing a concrete wall and find myself completely cut off from human help! I cannot explain how terrified I was internally. The only words I can continually repeat to explain this experience was terror and horror, and a siege of panic. The telephone in the elevator did not work, the emergency button did not light up despite desperately pounding it. I could barely hear my roommate as she called out for me not to worry, and I realized how close I was to death.
It's as if you're in the grave- just like you're in the grave. You can see everything, you can feel everything, except you can't do anything to help yourself physically. No matter how hard you bang, you can't get out, no matter how much you scream, no one can help you. You're just stuck, faced with the shock of your end: a square big enough to fit your body, and your surroundings becoming smaller and smaller, caving in on you as you realize you have not done enough good, you did not repent early enough, you were distracted the last salah of your life, and you still have a mountain of sins to stop doing and ajr to start working on, and a world full of people who you have not yet told you appreciate and need to ask for forgiveness from. Internal, pure terror is the best word I can think of to describe the reality of pushing, pounding, throwing yourself on the only way to exit, and realizing that no matter how much you try to escape, and how much others try to help you out, in the end, it's just you and Al Haaaqqah.
I was fervently making duaa and Alhamdullilah my roommate said the bawab, or the apartment keeper, was coming. Suddenly the elevator started moving, still to my terror, but by Allah's great Mercy Alhamdullilah it stopped on the floor below and the people in the nearby apartment helped me out. I went home dazed, still in a daze, and made sujood ash shukr for my life. Alhamdullilah I had cell phone minutes, Alhamdulilah my roommate was home, Alhamdullilah the bawab was there to help me, Alhamdullilah, Alhamdullilah, Alhamdullilah that Allah 'Azza wa Jal is The Answerer of duaa, and that I was still alive to have that duaa be answered.
My sisters and brothers- I can't imagine what it's like to be in a car, blasting crazy music one moment and finding yourself on the road in the next. Or realizing the time for salah is in, and putting it off until the end of the time for salah to perform, or chillin' with non-mahrams like you're married, or screaming at your mom when she bore you for nine months and changed you and fed you and wane you and gave her life for you for so long, or despairing in Allah 'Azza wa Jal [auothobillah] when you know He is Ar Rahman, and in that moment- the sa'a hits, and you don't have time to repent, your soul is taken in that action, and you feel yyaaa hhhasssraaaaa that this wasn't a one time slip up, but a lifestyle that only one individual was responsible for, and then facing the reality that that one individual was you. But it's too late, you're stuck, you scream and all but the people and jinn hear you, and the Rabul'alameen, the RahmanurRaheem, Al 'Afu, Al Ghaffar, Al Ghafoor, gave you ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, seventy, one hundred years to just turn to Him and sincerely say, "Ya Rabbi, forgive me." But you didn't
As the adhans throughout Cairo are calling the people to Allah in this moment, I urge myself and you not to forget the ease of repentance, how much Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala LOVES for His slave to return to Him subhanahu wa ta'ala, how easy it is to ask for Allah's Help to get us through the sins we continually commit and keep asking for forgiveness when we slip up again, and to realize that EVERY SINGLE minute IS a new minute where, inshaAllah, we can seriously and sincerely just LEAVE what happened a minute ago, say astaghforillah, make some dhikr to wipe out the bad deed, turn the other direction, and come back to Allah 'Azza wa Jal.
Not all of us can make an immediate 360 degree turn, but all of us can turn a little bit and keep turning until we're there inshaAllah. And Allah has made it sooooo easy for us to just say, "subhanAllah", and find on the day of judgment, insha'Allah ta'ala, that one word of dhikr a means of wiping out the bad that we have done and insha'Allah adding to our good. So let us keep our tongues wet in the remembrance of Allah in these hot days where good deeds are to our akhira as water is to our bodies, and make the intention to make dhikr with every step we take.


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Return to Wholeness: A Message from Imam Siraj Wahhaj
The following message from Imam Siraj was received in a MANA e-letter. You can sign up to receive the newsletter by going to MANA's website. You can join an online fundraiser for Imam Siraj by checking out this site. The fundraiser features the star-caste of Yasir Qadhi, Suhaib Webb, Zaid Shakir and Faraz Rabbani.
As Salamu Alaikum, Dear Brothers and Sisters!
I am happy to announce that Allah, Most High, has blessed me tremendously in my battle with hypertension and prostate cancer. Treatment for the cancer is going very well; my hypertension is very much under control; and I feel strong and invigorated. Alhamdulillah!
I am so thankful to Allah for all the support I've received from so many Muslims, as well as some non-Muslims. I am a firm believer in the power of du'a (supplication). The Prophet (pbuh) has encouraged us to make du'a for one another, and I can definitely feel the effects of your du'as. It truly works! I know how badly I was feeling not so long ago, and I how GREAT I am feeling now. Subhan'Allah! In addition to your du'as, I am also very humbled by and appreciative of the contributions many of you have sent for me and my family. I feel a real connection to all of you. Every time I eat a morsel of bread, drink a sip of water, take medication or receive treatment, I feel that part of the reward will go to all those who have so generously helped me. And you, the Ummah of Muhammad (s), will share in the reward of my return to good health, insha'Allah.
I want to share something with you that has been constantly on my mind. Allah mentions in His Qur'an: "laa taqtuluu anfusakum", i.e., "do not kill yourselves" (4:29). My advice to the Muslim Ummah, (as well as to others), is "Let us stop killing ourselves". The most surprising thing to me when I first visited Mecca in 1978, was to see how many Muslims smoked cigarettes. According to the World Health Organization, if the nations of the world do nothing, as many as one billion people will die as a result of smoking cigarettes in the 21st century. That is an obscene number of preventable deaths! Without a doubt, cigarette smoking is HARAM and is absolutely prohibited in Al Islam! (See Fatawa Islamiyah)
EVERY doctor who will ever examine you will ask you three questions: 1) Do you smoke cigarettes, 2) Do you drink alcohol, and 3) Do you take drugs? If we practice our Islam, we should at least be free from these "suicidal" drugs. I hope to go on a Jihad in the very near future to help eliminate cigarette smoking in our Ummah, insha'Allah. But, while cigarette smoking, alcohol and drugs are more obvious vices, there are other subtle ways in which we are killing ourselves. One way is by what we eat, and therefore, it is imperative that we become more conscious of our eating habits. It is no accident that the first sin of our father, Adam (pbuh), is something that he ATE! We are literally eating ourselves to death. Diabetes, hypertension and many other diseases are the result of our diets. Insha'Allah MANA, as well as other organizations, will advance initiatives that promote healthy eating and healthy living. How do we prepare our foods? How much do we eat? What do we eat? These are all questions that we have to answer. I now feel compelled to help in any way that I can to bring experts to help inform us of what is best for us. Insha'Allah, more to come about that in the future. A word of caution: many people will be upset to learn the truth about the poor quality of foods we've been eating for so many years. Most of which, nutritionally speaking, does not qualify to be called "food".
In closing, while I do feel invigorated, I have to remind myself, as well as others, that I am still is the process of healing and must take it easy. Although I have recently done a few khutbahs and taught a few classes, I must take time away in order to focus my energy on healing and restoration. Please know that I look forward to getting back to work in a regular capacity because I belong to you-the community-no doubt about it!
Insha'Allah, in future MANA newsletters you'll hear from our Deputy Amir, Imam Al-Hajj Talib 'Abdur-Rashid, a true soldier and servant of Allah. Once again, thank you for supporting me and my family, and for your ongoing support of MANA. May Allah, Most High, guide and protect us all. JazakAllah khairan!
Your brother in faith,
Imam Siraj Wahhaj
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Pingback: Topics about Familylife » Return to Wholeness: A Message from Imam Siraj Wahhaj
May Allah bless Imam Siraj!
He's so right about our diets and smoking…I have lost count of how many Muslims I've met who have a family history of diabetes (not just one cultural background)
InshaAllah can't wait for the programs he discussed to come out.
Here's a site I really like: http://www.healthymuslim.com
As Salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh
Subhan Allah for your continuing recovery Iman Siraj Wahhaj. You touched upon so many vital points that we as Muslims, and as humans in general need to take into consideration. Alhamdulillah, we can make one small change in our life via better eating habits or exercise etc. and especially increasing our Iman.
May you continue to receive good health, insha'Allah and the continued du'as of all you meet and those who read your article. Alhamdulillah for sharing this article. It was a reminder to make myself a priority for good health physically and emotionally…thus making me a better Muslimah for my family and Ummah.
Shukran for the information and I look forward to reading more from you in the near future, insha'Allah. Jazak Allah Khairum.
mashaAllah, and may Allah make his illness and the toughness of recovery a purification for him, and may He speed and make easy his recovery and not lessen his reward. and may Allah bless us with daaees who call to Islam with ihsaan, like Imam Siraj — not just salvation for the soul, but the improvement of the character, and the redemption of the mind and body. Alhamdolillah! Alhamdolillah Who gave us His Deen, and chose us for it. ameen.
May Allah preserve Imam Siraj!
I live in Pakistan, and am saddened to see how many brothers sporting full beards and with their pants above their ankles stand around smoking cigarettes as if it's completely halal. While the rest of the world latches onto the dangers of smoking and is taking active steps to discourage it, this trend is actually increasing in South-East Asia.
Just another example of how we've just confined our deen to salat, fasting etc and ignore so many other aspects of it.
On a side note, I'm looking forward to the sheikh's upcoming lectures about healthy eating… I was actually hoping to start finding out abt Sunnat diet and start applying it IA
May Allah give Shifa to our dear brother, Imam Siraj Wahaj.
Good points brought up. I definitely agree with the problems with Cigarettes. Even though I don't smoke, I have relatives from other parts of the world who do. It is much more part of other cultures than the North American culture.
I know that many of my relatives have tried to quit but bad habits always takes a while. Just like a spiritual disease of the heart, a physical disease of the body is also quite challenging to remove.
Food is also another big issue and you can really see that many people are starting to look into healthier, more natural foods (just look at the increase of organic, minimal ingredient foods available at the stores nowadays). There is still a long way to go but I think that people are starting to get better.
Slim | http://www.MuslimWorker.com
"mashaAllah, and may Allah make his illness and the toughness of recovery a purification for him, and may He speed and make easy his recovery and not lessen his reward. and may Allah bless us with daaees who call to Islam with ihsaan, like Imam Siraj — not just salvation for the soul, but the improvement of the character, and the redemption of the mind and body. Alhamdolillah! Alhamdolillah Who gave us His Deen, and chose us for it. ameen."
This line was so beautiful "Please know that I look forward to getting back to work in a regular capacity because I belong to you-the community-no doubt about it!"
May Allah grant Imam Siraj Jannah al-firdous insha'Allah
Amad…I love you :)
You can also sent letters of gratitude to Imam Siraj by sending them to email@example.com
MashaAllah. If anyone knows how to get in touch with the Imam, could they recommend he read Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food? It's right along this line of thinking – approaching the food stuff we're eating and returning back to eating real food.
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Sh. Hamza Yusuf is CONFIRMED via recording.
SubhanAllah, all these different shuyookh coming together for their love and support of Imam Siraj Wahaj, it is just amazing.
I remember running around ISNA as a little kid hearing Imam Siraj Wahaj and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf talking. May Allah preserve them both!
Pingback: A Return to Wholeness « Oy, Habibti….
Most of the time people can do it, but there are some individuals that simply cannot. ,


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Tasty desserts that will impress your guests
Since summer is still here, it's vital to experiment with new refreshing recipes. Who doesn't love a good gathering with tasty summer desserts that will impress everyone? Today, my ideas will help you host the perfect party with many delicious sweets.
I show you how to make tasty chocolate chip cookies using almond paste, one egg, and a cup of chocolate chips. Those will be great to serve in the afternoon with some iced coffee. Yup, I also demonstrate how to make that frothy viral Tik-Tok coffee!
Cotton candy is something everyone adores regardless of their age. And you can make a super delicious dessert using cotton candy and ice-cream.
But of course, gelatin recipes can't be missing from your summer party; and, I show you how to make ice-lollies using gummy bears, soda, and gelatin.
Watch the entire video to see some beautiful ways to decorate your cakes and some tasty fruit treats you'll love trying.
0:39 – Fantastic Skittles treat
4:50 – Oreo cookies treat
5:28 – Easy gelatin recipes
7:22 – Amazing watermelon cake
8:03 – Melted hard candy – cake decorations
12:17 – How to make the famous Tik-Tok iced coffee
14:02 – More gelatin treats
15:17 – Unexpected fruit recipes
This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information on this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgment, care and precautions if one plans to replicate.
The following video might feature activity performed by our actors within controlled environment- please use judgment, care, and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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Pushkin and Zula
~ The Ups and Downs
It has been a while since I have sent an update. Both dogs are doing well. Zula continues to be her normal feisty self. Her muzzle is turning white but she still has the energy of a much younger dog.When she sees me putting a jacket on she is immediately by my side wiggling not just her tail but her entire body. She knows a jacket means that we are going outside or perhaps even for a ride in the car.
Pushkin continues to be a puppy, even though he is almost 2 years old. He is a sweet boy but is continually pushing my limits. This morning he came in from outside with tremendously muddy feet. Upon inspection of the yard, I found a large hole where the recently planted grass used to be. He had discovered a gopher mound and apparently decided to see if he could catch it's inhabitant. I scolded him but no real punishment as he is only doing what Weims are bred to do……hunt.
We continue with the nose work. It is a game to Push. I have been taking him to Home Depot where I will go in and hide several containers of a scent in different places and then take him in to find them. The folks at Home Depot are great. I would like to take him through the truffle hunting training the next time it comes to Oregon.
I took both Push and Zula to Terri Jacobson's to have their picture taken with Santa. Push was not very co-operative so we shall see how the pictures turn out. Both Terri and Santa are blessed with a tremendous amount of patience.
I hope that you and Cliff are doing well.
Breeder Comment
Zula and Pushkin are extraordinarily lucky–and that includes their Santa photos with Terri Jacobson.
Posted on October 21, 2019, in Dixie X Boone, OwyheeStar, Rosie X Benton and tagged Golden Year Placement, Golden Years. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.


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Deanna's guest this evening was David Shurter. David is the author of Rabbit Hole: A Satanic Ritual Abuse Survivor's Story. (MP3)
From the nationwide satanic panic in the 1980s to local political cover-ups, shocking kidnappings, unsolved child murders, and scandalous pedophile rings, this book takes you behind the deceptive headlines and, finally, reveals what was going on in Omaha when all hell broke loose.
Related: 2016 Trauma and Dissociation Conference, Ivory Garden
Pedophiles Down Under


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For a while, it looked as though the Houston Cougars were doomed in Memphis this weekend . . . The offense was struggling, the defense lost seemingly easy fly balls in the sun which would lead to runs, and having lost both games of a double-header two days before, it was easy to assume the worst.
Nolan Bond got the Sunday start for Houston, only his second start of the season . . . His day ended in the fifth as he exited the game with the Cougars trailing, but still with the game within reach . . . Sean Bretz would be the first of five relief pitchers out of the bullpen in this game . . . Bretz was relieved two outs later by Tristen Bayless who got out of the inning, but the Cougars were down 3-0 and it would remain that way until the seventh.
Rey Fuentes was brought off the bench to lead off the seventh inning . . . Fuentes hit a homerun over the wall in right-center to get the Coogs on the board . . . The offense was not done in the inning though, Brad Burckel and Jonathan Thomas would both walk and Jared Triolo would bring Burckel home on a single, but Triolo was thrown out trying to get to second on the play, so the inning ended there with Memphis still leading 3-2.
Meanwhile, the Cougar bullpen was shutting down the Memphis offense . . . Brayson Hurdsman pitched an important 1 2/3 innings before being relieved by Devon Roedahl for 1 1/3 innings himself.
Houston would manufacture two more runs in the top of the eighth, one of which was Kobe Hyland scoring from first on a Joe Davis double to the wall in right-center to tie the game at 3 . . . Davis would score later on a fielders choice play at the plate that got away from Memphis catcher Jason Santana.
With the Cougars leading 4-3, Devon Roedahl made quick work of the Tigers 4-5-6 spots in the lineup to finish the eighth . . . After a scoreless Cougars half of the inning, Fred Villarreal was called in to slam the door shut on Memphis in the ninth, and he did just that . . . Villarreal retired all three batters he faced to secure the 4-3 road win for the Cougars, earning his fifth save of the year.
The Cougars are now off on Monday and they will be in Beaumont on Tuesday to take on Lamar before returning to Schroeder Park on Wednesday night. –


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Business Name Registration in Ontario
Business name registrations in Ontario are valid for five-year terms and must be renewed every five years to remain in good standing.
In Ontario, business name registration applies to any business name, with the exception of:
- The legal name of a sole proprietor (a single individual in business) without any additional words added,
- The legal names of partners in a partnership (multiple persons in business with a common view to profit) without any additional words added,
- And the legal names of corporations (any name used to identify the corporation other than the legal corporate name must be registered separately as a business name).
Pursuant to the Business Names Act (Ontario), business name registrations are considered valid for five-year terms and must be renewed every five years for the business name to remain in good standing.
There are several things to consider as you select your business name, including that it is:
- Different from other business names
- Distinctive
- Distinguishable from businesses that offer similar products or services to yours
- Easy for others to recognize, spell, and read
Business name registrants should conduct thorough research into their preferred business name choices in order to determine what is available and to avoid confusion with other existing business names.
Eric P. Cohen, Barrister & Solicitor, an Ontario lawyer, can assist with registration or renwal of business names in Ontario. We conduct a NUANS name search (used to identify whether a proposed business name is available for registration) which will compare your desired business name with existing business names, corporate names and trademarks in several government databases.
Complemented by affordable prices and professional representatives who have a firm grasp of the name registration process, our business name registration services are available to ensure that you achieve your goals. If you have any questions about what you need to do and/or how we can assist, please contact us at New Business Now.com.
Click any of the links below for Pricing & to Register your Business Name Now!Ontario Sole Proprietorship Ontario General Partnership Ontario Trade Name (dba)
Business Name Registration in Toronto
Business Name Registration in Ottawa


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As all who know me would guess, this month's In My Kitchen post is going to be a bonanza. I have been away and that means shopping for things for my already packed kitchen.
I would love to have bought more but we were at our limit. We were allowed 60 kgs on Emirates. We started out at about 30kgs all up and came home with 60.5kg plus The Rooster and the keg (see below) as hand luggage. The purchases did include two very heavy cookbooks but there were also a few things for my kitchen.
In my kitchen:
Is this absolutely fabulous coffee pot. I wish I could tell you I bought it in Lebanon but, alas, I bought it at Feira da Ladra (thieves market) in Lisbon. We didn't see them for sale in Lebanon so when I saw it, I had to have it.
Below are two photos I took of pots in our hotel, the Mir Amin Palace at Beiteddine. They were huge – about 50cm tall. Mine is about half that size. I would love to know where it came from and how it got to be for sale at the Lisbon thieves market. The lovely Maus polished it for me.
Whilst we are on the topic of brass things…
In my kitchen:
Are two Greek brikis for making coffee. They were a gift from our host in Portugal, Gerlinde. She bought them in Greece about 30 years ago and they have been languishing on the top of her kitchen cupboard for ages. Now they live with me in Bridgetown. The darling Maus polished them toooooo. She is a gem.
In my kitchen:
Is my new cataplana. Isn't it beautiful? I know a stainless steel one would have been much more sensible but who could resist a beautiful handmade copper one? I bought it in Barcelos. It was hand-made by José Fernando da Cunha. He is about 80 years old and has been working with copper all his life. His shop is one of the oldest houses in Barcelos. I wanted to buy everything in the shop but Emirates' luggage limit was at the back of my mind and I resisted.
A cataplana is used to prepare Portuguese seafood stews. It is traditionally made of copper but, nowadays, you can get stainless steel ones. As you can see, it is shaped like two clam shells hinged at one end. It is sealed by two clamps on either side.
Cataplanas originated in the Algarve but now they are popular all over Portugal. I read that they are the forerunner to the modern-day pressure cooker. Once clamped together, the steam is trapped and the food is cooked in the sealed environment. José assured me that the seal was not perfect and it wouldn't explode.
In my kitchen:
Is this lovely oval frying pan. I bought it in a second-hand shop in Azeitão. By this time of our holiday (we were on our way back to Lisbon) Gerlinde knew to look out for cookware shops, copperware shops and second hand shops.
In my kitchen:
Is my new keg. We were in the market in Barcelos when I spotted this beauty. I have wanted one for ages. I checked them out in the Barossa but they were pretty expensive. My plan is to store my vinegar in it.
In my kitchen:
Is this divine pitcher. It is by Vista Alegre Atlantis and the pattern is Transatlântica. I wish I could tell you more about it but the catalogue is in Portuguese. All I can make out is that the designer is Brunno Jahara, it is described as a penguin and it is lovely.
Now for my Lebanese purchases. There are not many.
In my kitchen:
Are these fabulous kebab shishes. Maus amazes me sometimes. She knew I wanted some so when we went into the old souk in Tyre, she was on a mission. (She also asked at a thousand shops for a quality falafel maker but all the ones we saw were the same as I already had.) Before long, she had these guys. They are solid stainless steel and weigh a tonne. They certainly added to the weight of my case. I was a bit put out they didn't have elaborate brass handles so Maus then went on a mission to find fancy handles for me.
This is the result of her endeavours.
In my kitchen:
Are some more shishes.They are not the same quality as the ones in the above photo but, at least, they have handles. I have asked Maus to make handles for my good ones.
And now for Dubai …. There was only one purchase.
In my kitchen:
are Maus' acrobat picks. They are part of the Mukul Goyal collection. She spotted them in the hotel shop. It was a big decision which item in the collection to buy. She settled on these.
In my kitchen:
Is this beautiful olive oil pourer, a gift from the lovely Colette. She bought if for me in Paris from O & Co, an olive oil specialty shop. It now lives next to my stove.
Are these mushrooms picked from the block. We are so lucky to have a patch growing underneath an Acacia Baileyana only a few feet from our house. This time of the year, I regularly go out with a bowl and pick enough for dinner. For those of you worried about identification of edible mushrooms, I highly recommend Morrie's blog, Tall Trees and Mushrooms and, in particular, his post Identifying a Field Mushroom.
In my kitchen:
Is another batch of the Doc's Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies. They are, without doubt, our favourite biscuit at the moment. If you haven't made a batch, you really should.
And finally… Ages ago, I promised Anne from Life in Mud Splattered Boots, that I would include a photo from my kitchen window. I had to do a photo merge (this is three photos stitched together) as I couldn't get the whole view in one photo.
This is the view from my kitchen window and it is GREEN. It is a pity the sky isn't blue but you can't have everything. I just love it when it is green. For so many months, it is brown. The trees on either side of the photo are our next door neighbours but the tall trees in the centre of the photo are ours. It is a long skinny block.
If you would like to see what is in other bloggers' kitchens this month, visit Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. Celia hosts In My Kitchen each month.


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In Hisle, et al. v. Correctcare – Integrated Health, Inc., Ky. App. (June 12, 2015), the Kentucky Court of Appeals addressed the issue of what test applies when employees claim to have missed meal breaks. Plaintiffs, who were nurses and medication aids employed at a prison, sued under the Kentucky wage and hour laws alleging that they were denied rest and meal breaks and were therefore entitled to additional compensation. Plaintiffs based their claim on the fact that they had to carry or monitor a handheld two-way radio while working inside the prison facilities, including during their 30-minute lunch breaks, which were automatically deducted from their time.
The trial court held that merely monitoring the radio during meal breaks did not amount to a denial of a meal break if employees could comfortably and adequately spend their mealtime and their time was not devoted primarily to official responsibilities. At trial, the plaintiffs claimed that Continue reading


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Kaduna SWAN Appoints Shehu Dikko As Patron
Kaduna SWAN Appoints Shehu Dikko As Patron
Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Kaduna State Chapter yesterday formally presented the plaque, mofler appointment to the Leaque Management Committee (LMC) Chairman and vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Malam Shehu Dikko as her patron.
It would be recalled that Dikko was appointed as the second Patron to the State Chapter of the association but was unavailable for the presentation where the President of Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF) Engr. Musa Nimrod was also appointed and presented with his plaque and mofler accordingly.
Making the presentation at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna during the half time in the encounter between Kano Pillars and Enugu Rangers in the ongoing Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), the Vice President SWAN, Northwest Zone, Alhaji Lurwanu Idris Malikawa said, the appointment was in recognition of his contribution to sports development in the country.
Earlier, the Chairman SWAN, Kaduna chapter, Isaiah Benjamin flanked by some of his executives and members said, Dikko has been identified to have made Kaduna State proud and that his appointment as patron is to spur him to further do more in making Kaduna and Nigeria as a whole proud in sports advancement.
Receiving the appointment, Dikko commended Kaduna State Chapter of SWAN for finding him worthy of such appointment, promising not to let down the confidence reposed on him.
He further assured to give necessary support to the activities of the Association in the state while reiterating his appreciation to the SWAN family for the honour done to him, which he said he will cherish forever.


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An interview with Fintan O'Toole, Assistant Editor at the Irish Times
Earlier this year we spoke at length to leading writer, columnist and Assistant Editor at The Irish Times, Fintan O'Toole. O'Toole recently returned from China from where he reported on many facets of life within the emerging capitalist heavyweight, describing both its beauty spots and open sores. He depicted a situation sometimes far removed from the dream market frequently referred to on the financial pages as 'open for business'. [1] He writes that while "China shows unequivocally that global capitalism increases wealth… China also shows unequivocally that, left to itself, global capitalism increases inequality." [2] O' Toole is also the author of a number of books including 'Post Washington: Why America Can't Rule the World' and he sits as Chair on the Advisory board of TASC, 'a think tank for action on social change'. With over 20 years experience working within the dominant media he is well placed to define the medium and its abilities and limitations – though some might discern a slight rose tint to the picture he paints, in places. Fintan O'Toole is one of the most prominent representatives of 'the left' in mainstream Irish journalism and is frequently heavily criticised for his troubles. As discussed in our interview with Noam Chomsky, again, the label 'anti-American' is seen fit to pin on him. [3]
Much of what is covered in the following interview will do little to reassure those who have lost faith in the ability of a medium beholden to corporate structures and external dependencies. The impression is of a closed circle of elites pampering other elites, while capitalism's advertising-dependent media has it's freedom "inevitably and inescapably circumscribed." [4] There are some mitigating factors and Fintan O'Toole stresses that it is not a 'crude' formula. The Irish Times Trust, for one, makes the news outlet unique where Irish media ownership is concerned in that it has no shareholders – but this has it's advantages and disadvantages. Fintan O'Toole gives a fascinating account of his experience of the Irish media and makes many illuminating observations about the way mainstream media works. We are grateful to him for the time and consideration he has given to the issues that we aim to promote for debate.
(FT – Fintan O'Toole, MB – MediaBite, Miriam Cotton and David Manning)
MB – What brought you into journalism?
FT – I suppose I was one of those people who have always been involved. When I was in school and college I was editing the newspaper. And it was more out of activism that I first started writing. When I was 14 or 15, I was involved in a thing called the Irish Union of School Students, which was an early attempt to establish a union for secondary school students in Ireland, which I'm glad to see has re-started, as it was dormant for a long time. It really started in the early 70s which was, I guess, on the back of Paris 1968 and the student movements etc. So I would have been actively engaged in campaigning and writing reports on corporal punishment – which would have been a big issue in secondary schools at the time – and then setting up a student council, student newspaper. That sort of stuff meant it was something I was always doing. It didn't occur to me for quite a long time that I could actually make any money out of it, or get a job. By default, I suppose, I did an Arts degree in UCD, which qualified me for very little. So, while doing some post graduate work, I began doing some work for In Dublin magazine and gradually drifted into it as a way of making a living.
MB – Did you have a mentor when you first started professionally?
FT – I did to some extent. In Dublin was actually a very good place to start. At the time it was fairly new – set up by a guy called John Doyle. The features editor was David McKenna who is now a television producer at RTE. He was a very smart guy, steeped in the American new journalism of Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion and that new attitude to journalism, whereby journalism was meant to be written with the same kind of style that fiction was, with the same kind of energy and the same kind of self conscious shape to a piece. Which very much influenced magazine journalism rather than news reporting. And that's what we were doing – people like Colm Toibin, Mary Raftery, Michael Dwyer, Michael Darvey, Aidan Dunne – we were all at the same period, in the same magazine. It was very good, I didn't go to a journalism school, and in a way it was a lot better, since you were doing stuff for publication. You were being paid appallingly because there wasn't much money around, but the other side was you had time to work on a piece, you could work on a 3,000 word piece for a month, and you were just happy to get it in to the magazine. There was an editing process that was very creative. In terms of learning how to do it, it was probably the best way you could.
MB – How do you think your perception of journalism has changed over the years?
FT – From my own perspective, things have changed a lot. The process has changed. That kind of facility whereby you can work for along time on a single piece, where you can have more of a direct sense of control over what you do, that certainly recedes when you move into the professional world of journalism. The constraints of time and space become immediate. You don't get 3,000-word pieces anymore. I worked for the Sunday Tribune with Vincent Browne in the early eighties, then I went to Magill. I went into the Irish Times in '88. Even in the '80s you could still, for example, write a 3,000-word piece in a newspaper. It wasn't regarded as some kind of madness. So there was, oddly enough, an influence from new magazine journalism on newspapers. Partly due to the fact it was myself and people like me moving into the mainstream print media. The mainstream media was quite happy to absorb what it saw as a new energy and complexity. That has receded gradually, as the design of newspapers has changed. There is a perception that readers won't put up with long pieces of text. But also, as the economics of print journalism has changed, you've ended up with fewer journalists writing more, a very simple labour equation. Historically, the trend is for fewer and fewer people to work in newspapers, while producing more and more.
MB – Going back to what you were saying about magazine journalism being absorbed into mainstream, do you see any reflection of that in the blogging phenomenon? The BBC, the Guardian and the Irish Times are all blogging.
FT – It's very similar. The mainstream are always going to try and absorb whatever is out there, and interesting people. It's not a sinister monopolistic tendency, so much as a desperate search for what the next thing is. And it's a generational thing. The people who run and edit newspapers tend to be older; the people who are doing new and interesting things tend to be younger. It's not in itself a bad process, what happened in the eighties and early nineties was a process which contributed to the narrowing of the media at that time – a lot of that was actually driven by advertising.
One of the things that made the relative flourishing of an independent magazine section possible in the late seventies early eighties, was when you had magazines such as In Dublin, Magill, Hibernia – a lot of smaller print media – driven, ironically enough, because they tended to be a little more radical and critical, by the advertising market. What made them economically viable was that you had a whole new breed of advertising agencies coming in, who for the first time were saying – we don't care about the politics directly of this, we care about who you are reaching. And they were obsessed with reaching young people, richer, more liberal people, who were perceived as being more receptive to different ideas. Therefore if you were running Magill, for example, in the early eighties, it wasn't that all the advertising agencies thought Vincent Browne was fantastic, liked everything he was saying etc, they liked the fact the magazine was being read by people they wanted to sell products to. That drove, in turn, the possibilities of a relatively more diverse media.
The absorption of this was partly journalistic, but also due to advertising. Agencies saw all these companies putting all this money into this advertising pool, which was taking away from newspapers. It was partly technological too. One of the reasons why the advertisers put their money in magazines, such as Magill, is that they were the only places you could have high quality colour printing. The newspaper didn't do that then. You then had a technological leap, whereby the newspapers bought colour printing presses, thereby absorbing some of the advertising and at the same time the journalists. Therefore it was narrowing the media. It is not accidental that some of those publications that survived have done so in a much narrower form.
MB – Magill for instance?
FT – Yes. In Dublin certainly ceased to be anything like what it was. It was actually a pretty serious current affairs magazine with cultural, political and social commentary. With blogging you can say to some extent the mainstream media is trying to do something similar. One of the interesting things is that it is not as easy to do that, you can bring in some of the journalists, as is happening in some of the mainstream media, but in marketing terms it's a much more diverse, much more fluid technological shift that is a lot more difficult for them to absorb everything from. I think the balance of power lies much more with the bloggers. By its very nature, it is much more difficult to get hold of.
MB – In terms of narrowing, when we spoke to Eddie Holt, he commented that he had seen a noticeable shift to the right, specifically in the Irish Times, would that be something you would agree with?
FT – I've heard this said a couple of times and it slightly puzzles me. Because it suggests that the Irish Times was a left wing newspaper and has moved to the right. When was it a left wing newspaper? It seems to me there are a couple of things here, some of them true and some of them perception. One of the things that is true is that the Irish Times was more a campaigning newspaper to a degree in the seventies, when it was more marginal, the legacy of being the protestant newspaper. Which ironically gave it an edge, having been the old conservative establishment newspaper, it was marginalized in the new state, and therefore became a magnet for all sorts of dissidents. It was the one place in a very confined Irish political discourse, where some degree of radicalism or some degree of dissent could be expressed.
But I don't think that made it any sort of radical newspaper. In the sixties and seventies and to some degree the eighties, the newspaper did acquire a radical tinge from two things. One was feminism. Undoubtedly the very fact of consciously bringing women into newspapers and increasingly as editors did, it gave it a kind of progressive nature. And secondly, there was what were called the 'social issues'. This was a typically strange sort of Irish locution – social issues not being social issues, but actually being issues of private sexual morality. The whole church-state clash, divorce, contraception, abortion, for example. On those issues the Irish Times held a much more progressive, radical position. But none of those issues, in economic terms, were left wing issues.
The Irish Times has always been a relatively centrist, pro-business newspaper with a degree of structural commitment. So in terms of at least covering issues of social inequality and poverty, I don't think it's ever been more radical than that. I think some of the perception of it becoming more right wing is do with the fact those two big influences have been absorbed into the mainstream as radical jesters. The Irish Times, I would think, does continue to be a better place to be for women. But it is no longer such a wedge issue in society. A huge amount of what would have been seen as brave and radical on the part of the Irish Times twenty years ago in terms of those so-called social issues, are now just the absolute orthodoxy of mainstream media.
So, I am not really convinced there is a simple shift to the paper turning left or right wing. It is a very independent newspaper in the very broadest sense, in terms of its ownership structures and in terms of internal organisational structure. There is no one who rings you up and says you can't say or do that. What you might have, is a shift in the social composition of journalism in general, which is certainly reflected in the Irish Times – which is that most of the people going into journalism are somewhat to the right of what they would be twenty years ago. And I think it has come from a bigger process, which is the professionalisation of the field, the fact that it has become something of a career path. And the entry to it has been set down through post-graduate study, this itself is a very big plateau for people to reach socially, in terms of being able to afford to go to university and then to pay for a fairly expensive post-graduate degree course. You are automatically changing the social composition of who the journalists are and you are also putting forward a notion of what a journalist is; it is a career analogous to being a dentist or a lawyer. Those changes certainly play on the Irish Times, but I think they have a broader purchase in terms of the way the Irish media is working.
MB – Well that poses a number of questions, but something that we had in mind to ask, and something we asked Eddie Holt was, in terms of the Irish Times output, writers such as Charles Krauthammer represent a massive right wing shift compared broadly speaking to the rest of the paper. Why would he exist in the Irish Times? And the same with Mark Steyn before and to a lesser extent Kevin Myers, who has a sort of humour value.
FT – Well I think Charles Krauthammer has a humour value too, I find him very funny. Well I didn't make the decision to bring Charles Krauthammer or Mark Steyn in, but so far as I understand it, the thinking would have been that the Irish Times readers need to know what this kind of thinking is – a thinking that is having such a profound effect in shaping the world. Undoubtedly there is an objective phenomenon – the rise of a very aggressive neo-conservatism in the United States. Krauthammer and Steyn would be fairly representative of the kinds of thought processes that go on there, and that there is a value and function to exposing Irish Times readers to, who may often be fairly insulated from it. It is not something, unless you read certain kinds of publications, you are likely to come up against.
The argument is that as an irritant factor it is actually quite important to know how these people think, to know how extreme their views are – it's important you understand the kind of language they use. If they are going to start to talk about 'buttock mountains' in Abu Ghraib, there is an information capacity in terms of knowing what these people say. There is a very valid argument about whether it works that way. Whether it is seen as what the Irish Times thinks – the overall ethic of the paper is one that tries to represent diversity of views. That is one of its inherent constitutional notions, in terms of what it is supposed to do. And that does include views, which certainly I would find obnoxious.
And it's a question I know was also debated in some of the more liberal media in the United States. For a long time the New York Times went through a stage of very deliberately including a lot of very conservative opinion, ultra conservative opinion, which would not cohere with the New York's Times itself. And they did that for very specific reasons. They wanted their readers to know what these people were thinking. They decided after a while that it was counterproductive in a sense so they stopped doing that and went back to a more coherent New York Times, where for instance they would be more critical of the Bush administration. It's a decision that you can only really make contingently, you have to keep looking at what you are doing and what effect it is having. Personally I wouldn't mourn the loss of Charles Krauthammer from the Irish Times, though you might miss the display of prejudice, ignorance and bigotry. The fact is that it is a really powerful force, and there is some value in being exposed to it.
MB – What in your opinion is the role of the journalist? Who are they duty bound to, the reader, the newspaper, or an idea of impartiality?
FT – It seems to me the primary responsibility of a journalist is to a democratic society, journalism is a function of democracy. It is not an extraneous function, it's critical, you just don't have democracy if you don't have both the capacity of citizens to be informed and the capacity of citizens to express and debate a diversity of views and analyses about their society. In that sense journalism is absolutely responsible to the reader. Any good journalist is attempting to stimulate and inform the wider society. Through the reader that hopefully feeds into the nature of the discourse of the society that you exist in. That's the core responsibility, but it would be naive to suggest that that the responsibility is being purely fulfilled by anybody.
We are called media, since we are a channel of mediation between power structures and citizens, and they are themselves a power structure. So what you see is an apparent fundamental conflict between the responsibilities of the journalist to the citizen and the circumstances within which that responsibility gets fulfilled, which is through a media organisation which has it's own interests and is a form of property, and the broader power structures which the journalist is supposed to be reflecting on and attempting to hold accountable – but which is also shaping the climate within which the journalist operates. It seems to me that journalism doesn't operate within any sort of static state; it is a continual attempt to hold on to the responsibilities to the reader, while dealing with the exigencies of the real world, including the technological and physical conditions. Hence if journalists are operating within structures that don't provide space for critical thought then that limits the way they can operate. Additionally if the commercial conditions in the broad sense in which they operate are not conducive to that kind diversity and function then it is obviously going to be a struggle. It is a struggle all the time I think. I imagine for most conscientious journalists it is a daily struggle.
MB – How much influence does the concept of trust behind the Irish Times have on its output and does that differentiate it from something more on the lines of the Independent?
FT – The ownership structure, the trust structure, is hugely important. It helps to protect the newspaper from one particular set of pressures; it does not protect it from a lot of other ones. The set of pressures it protects it from are I think double, one is the overweening power of a single owner which no matter what anyone says, as of course all of these owners will say they don't influence what goes into their newspapers or television programmes, but this is clearly not true. It's not accidental that Murdoch's papers all round the world happen to take the same editorial line. It's not accidental that Tony O'Reilly's newspapers happen to take the same editorial line. The idea that they've all independently come up with the same line doesn't make sense to me.
Clearly you don't have that with the Irish Times, I've been there since 1988 and I can honestly say there hasn't been a single time when someone has come up to me and said 'we're not going to say that because it conflicts with the interests of the trust or an owner etc'. It also plays out in a broader sense in that the commercial pressures are less immediate. You don't have an annual general meeting of Irish Times shareholders asking whether their shares have gone up or down and so there is some capacity to at least understand that the newspaper has to make money, but it does not survive in order to make money. There is a distinction between those two things.
Having said how important the trust is, it would be naive to suggest that releases you into some realm of freedom and complete objectivity – clearly it doesn't. The Irish Times very nearly went out of existence a couple of years ago, in the middle of a major economic crisis. It has to function as a business, just as any other business functions. If it does not make money, it does not survive. Its survival is, though not quite on the edge, it's a real question from year to year. One of the limitations of the trust structure is that you cannot raise capital; it has to be self-financing. So if you want to buy a new printing press, which is what the Irish Times did, you have to fund it out of current profit. Which is one of the reasons the Irish Times nearly went out of business. There are really serious financial pressures there, and they undoubtedly have a big effect. It's not a daily effect that journalists are aware of, but it's a constant, its part of the background.
There is a clear understanding that if the Irish Times ceases to be a commercially viable proposition then it ceases to exist. The other set of pressures which is pervasive rather than self conscious is that, in common with almost every single media outlet in Ireland, the IT is dependent on advertising. media that depend on advertising are not free media, there's an inherent importance in being dependent on advertising. And it doesn't really matter whether it's a trust structure or a government organisation like RTE; if you're dependent on advertising then you're in the business of selling. People sometimes think this is a very crude thing, that for instance, if you want to write a piece about how shit Coca Cola is but because we carry Coca Cola ads we can't do that – in my experience that kind of very direct thing doesn't happen. In a way, if it did happen it would be fine, because it would be a very clear kind of relationship. It's much bigger than that and much broader than that. It seems to me sometimes people don't grasp that, it's not to do with the advertisers; it's to do with the people the advertisers are trying to reach.
The advertisers advertise because they put a huge amount of money into finding out exactly who's reading the Irish Times, the Daily Star, watching TV3. They spend a lot of money doing that, not for the good of their health, but because their advertising spend is completely determined by the age profile, the demographic profile and particularly the wealth and class profile of the people who are consuming a particular piece of media. That in turn means something quite profound, say the Irish Times sells 116-117,000 copies; it could sell 120,000 copies tomorrow, to 220,000 different people and still go out of business. If the other 120,000 people were people that were from poorer sections of society, the advertisers who advertise in the Irish Times would not be interested in reaching them, because they don't have enough money to spend on the products they want to sell. They're not going to be buying the 5 million Euro houses on the front page of the property section for example. In general they are not the consumers the advertisers want to reach.
So there is a fundamental shaping effect in terms of the self-selecting nature of the audience, the audience has to be an audience that has money to spend. If they don't have the money spend, then advertisers won't advertise, if they don't put the money in then we don't survive. That's a simple set of rules; no one tells you these rules when you go into journalism, because they don't have to. I've never been at a meeting where someone says 'we won't do that because it doesn't appeal to rich people', it's much more fundamental to that. It's the air you breathe; it's the context of which all media, which are funded in whole or in part by advertising, operate. It does have a really important effect on who then is important to be writing for.
If you think I'm being kind of crude saying this then listen to the ads on any of the radio stations when the JNR figures come out of who's listening to them. They're not saying 'we've got 1.5 million listeners and Today FM have only got 100,000', they're saying we've got more listeners in the A B C social categories, we've got more listeners in the 17-35 age groups. They are saying very openly: rich people are reading us and young people are listening to us. They are very self-consciously saying some people are more important than other people in terms of who's consuming their product. That has to have an effect on the nature of things that get done, but in relation to the kind of agenda the paper has, that becomes important.
MB – We noticed something similar in one of the first pieces we did as MediaBite, looking at advertising we noted the National Newspapers of Ireland statement that it provides advertisers with "the opportunity to carefully and strategically place their message in the editorial environment that will deliver the best results."
FT – Well it's important not to be crude about this, because it's clearly not the case that everyone that has any money to spend in Ireland is completely right wing and completely uninterested in social justice, there are flexibilities and lacunae in this general structure. But this structure exists and it undoubtedly has a very powerful set of consequences.
To take a very simple example, two weeks before the calling of the general election dominated by the issue of stamp duty. While stamp duty is a big issue for a relatively small group of people, it's actually not a big issue for the majority of voters. Housing policy is a much more important issue with a quarter of a million people on housing waiting lists or in housing need, who the market is clearly failing. Have you seen any reference at all to that as a media issue and therefore an issue to be addressed in the election campaign? Compared to stamp duty in the housing market field it's a vastly more important issue. Also vastly more important is building land, if you go right back to 1967 and the Kenny report, there has to be control on building land or you will never solve the housing problems in Ireland. That was repeated in I think 2002 by a joint Oireachtas committee on the constitution, which stated we had to put controls in place on building land because we have a situation where we have a very small number of property developers controlling the entire housing market in the greater Dublin area. This is a fundamental issue and not a single political party is raising it as a major election issue. There is a kind of a symbiotic relationship here, whereby the politicians don't raise it as an issue, the media then don't put it up as an issue to be addressed, and it forms a closed circle. The politicians say no one is talking about this, so it's not important, the media don't mention it because it is not on the political agenda and so on. So you get a very closed world, it's not a conspiracy; it's the way this kind of discourse works. The issues that are of primary importance to the kinds of people that are crucial to the advertisers are the issues that are going to work their way to the top of the political agenda.
MB – You have probably seen the documentary on RTE recently concerning the 'looming' property 'landing'. While it was to a degree one sided; this was definitely something that needed to be said. Yet the next day there is an article in the Irish Independent asking why RTE was scaremongering – 'RTE broadcasts fear in the market'.
FT – You are absolutely right about that. It was interesting that RTE did that. RTE are one of the few media outlets that don't take property advertising. It's not a simple one plus one equation, though it is undoubtedly true that if not the choice of subject, but the prominence that is given a certain subject has to be related to the direct interests of the media outlets themselves. There is no question that almost all of the Irish media for the last 10-15 years has had a crucial economic stake in a rising property market. Because property advertising is very lucrative and is a very important part of what makes the Irish media tick. It's not that a newspaper like the Irish Times will not publish things that say 'this is a bubble'. It has published a number of pieces and very authoritative pieces, but in a sense it's where are those pieces going to appear. How are they related to the broader agenda, in terms of how we understand our society at the moment? So I'm not saying there is an absolute mechanical relationship between certain interests and what appears, but I am saying that the relationship exists. People need to understand this, it is not a council of despair – well you know there is nothing you can do about this. A critical understanding of how the media works is one in which people understand the kind of relationships that are involved and how to read and see that it is not necessarily an objective and accurate reflection of everything that is important to Irish society.
For Part 2 of our interview with Fintan O' Toole follow this link.
1. http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2006/0925/1158591008820.html
2. http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/newsfeatures/2006/1118/1163722325062.html
3. http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/fintan-ofisk-follows-the-510405.html
4. This quotation is from an answer to one of a few supplementary questions that we put to Fintan O' Toole after the interview. The full answer will form an addenda to Part 2.


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ELO Touch/E331214 2094L 19.5-inch wide FHD LCD WVA (LED Backlight) Open Frame - Black
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Two coffee giants could be coming to java-rich Cortelyou Road, but the real estate broker who's been credited with helping turn the strip around says Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts should stay away.
Jan Rosenberg — who was honored by the Brooklyn Independent Democrats last Thursday for brokering deals that turned the sleepy Ditmas Park road into a caffeinated hot spot — said she'd prefer it if Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks moved to Foster Avenue three blocks away, so they wouldn't compete with mom-and-pops already percolating on Cortelyou.
"I don't think it's a good thing for the strip," she said. "I'd much rather see them on Foster Avenue. There is no cafe to draw people there."
But a Dunkin' Donuts is already under construction between Marlborough Road and the train station, and, at the ceremony honoring Rosenberg Thursday night, Borough President Markowitz let it slip that Starbucks is brewing up plans for a store there as well.
The boisterous beep met with Starbucks representatives this week to discuss the java juggernaut's expansion into Brooklyn, according to an aide, who confirmed the Seattle conglomerate's interest in Ditmas Park.
Right now, the nearest Dunkin' Donuts is located on Church Avenue between E. 17th and E. 18th avenues, and the nearest Starbucks is located next to Brooklyn College.
But there are already three cafes on Cortelyou Road between E. 17th Street and Coney Island Avenue — and plenty of shops also serve java. So you'll excuse the community if they don't welcome the giants into their neighborhood.
"It's gross — I don't even like that there's a Connecticut Muffin," said Sumeet Hora, 30, who was enjoying an iced coffee in the backyard of the Mediterranean coffeehouse Qathra, on Cortelyou between Westminster and Argyle roads, Friday evening. "I try to support mom-and-pop shops."
And Dino Elefther, the manager of Brooklyn-based Connecticut Muffin, was dubious of the strip's capacity for more coffee shops.
"If more people are going to move into the neighborhood, I think we would be able to support it," he said. "It's going to be a little clustered."
But at least one barista says he's not afraid of the coming coffee challenge.
"Nobody likes Starbucks in our neighborhood," said Max Habib, the owner of Qathra. "And I love competition."


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IMPACT Course
Hi Everyone!
We're getting ready for another course in Toronto for the next 2 weeks. It's called IMPACT and focuses on the spiritual, personal, interpersonal and cultural aspects of being a missionary. It is to help equip us in the challenge of living cross-culturally. See the website: IMPACT Course
We are looking forward to this course and invite you to pray with us for the following:
- A good time of connecting with other missionary candidates to support one another.
- Good health and rest during this course as the last course we were at a couple of weeks ago was quite exhausting.
- Continued safety as we travel.
- God's provision during the time we are away as we will not have any income from our regular work.
- That we would be open and willing to learn what God has to teach us during this time.
Thank you for partnering with us in prayer!