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Consider here the Great Physician's mighty power: the power to forgive sin! While He lived here below, before the ransom had been paid, before the blood had been literally sprinkled on the mercy-seat, He had power to forgive sin. Has He no power to do it now that He has died? What power must dwell in Him who to the utmost penny has faithfully discharged the debts of His people! He has unlimited power now that He has finished transgression and made an end of sin. If you doubt it, see Him rising from the dead! Behold Him in ascending splendor, raised to the right hand of God! Hear Him pleading before the eternal Father, pointing to His wounds, declaring the merit of His sacred passion!
What power to forgive is here! He ascended on high, and He gave gifts to men. He is exalted on high to give repentance and forgiveness of sins. The most crimson sins are removed by the crimson of His blood. At this moment, dear reader, whatever your sinfulness, Christ has power to pardon, power to pardon you, and millions just like you. A word will speak it. He has nothing more to do to win your pardon; all the atoning work is done.
He can, in answer to your tears, forgive your sins today and make you know it. He can breathe into your soul at this very moment a peace with God that passes all understanding, which shall spring from perfect remission of your many iniquities. Do you believe that? I trust you believe it. May you even now experience the power of Jesus to forgive sin! Waste no time in applying to the Physician of souls; hasten to Him with words like these:
Jesus! Master! hear my cry;
Save me, heal me with a word;
Fainting at Thy feet I lie,
Thou my whisper'd plea has heard.
Family Bible reading plan
Click here to learn more about Truth For Life
From Morning & Evening revised and edited by Alistair Begg copyright © 2003. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.
The landscape of contemporary society reveals signs that we neither know nor care much about the Law of God. There is a general listlessness and lawlessness in the lives of professing Christians. There is also an absence of the fear of God in public worship and private living. Finally, there is a growing confidence in ourselves and an accompanying loss of confidence in God and His Word. Amidst this moral crisis, the message of the Ten Commandments can give us order, direction, and hope. With dynamic implications for how each of us lives every day, Pathway to Freedom will challenge us to think long and hard about the significance of God's Law.
A Study on the Ten Commandments in this soft-cover edition, Alistair Begg provides a 21st century understanding of these ancient and significant words from God. Jesus said to His disciples, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15). Learn this important truth presented in Alistair's clear and straightforward style. Learn about the relationship between the Law and Love, Jesus' understanding and teaching of the law, the age-old battle between legalism and license, and much more!


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Better Than: Anything described as "PBR&B." Going off his music alone, one might have assumed How to Dress Well's Tom Krell was another self-absorbed white dude with a decent falsetto and too many feelings. Though he is indeed white, and has quite a few feelings, Krell was, to my surprise, an exce ... More >>
A lot has happened since SOTC met Ava Luna two and a half years ago. Drummer Alex Smith has been replaced by the returning Julian Fader, who played with an earlier iteration of the band (in the interim, he was a member of bands like Quilty and a couple others). The backup vocal trio is down to a due ... More >>
DJ Sliink hits Electric Warehouse
Karen PlemonsNite Jewel w/Headless Horseman, Warm Ghost Glasslands Gallery Wednesday, November 2 Better than: Watching old Pointer Sisters videos on your laptop. Last night at Glasslands, things were running a bit behind schedule, and Nite Jewel (aka Ramona Gonzalez) knew it. The band had ... More >>
See what one guy can do with a beat-up keyboard

subset: commoncrawl


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Bella Vista House Rental Photos and Description
4 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 1 half bathroom, sleeps 8
Lake lots like this don't come easy here in Bella Vista. You will find nothing but picturesque views from this amazing four-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath home.
Located on Bella Vista's second largest all-sport lake, Lake Windsor offers 220 acres of prime boating, fishing and skiing. This home is equipped with a king master, two queen guest rooms and a fourth bedroom with two twin beds.
- Suitability:
- non smoking only
- pets not allowed


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Part of our 12 Pokes of Christmas. Look out for more in the coming weeks.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJhB2lPLcmU
This comfy Fairisle sweater. It's not just a sweater. No. It's a work of art. It shouldn't simply be slung over the back of a chair. It deserves to be displayed in a Chelsea art gallery.


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The Watauga High women's soccer team has quite a challenge on its hands.
Mike Fontanot's sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, lifted the San Francisco Giants to a 3-2 over the Colorado Rockies Saturday night.
The Greensboro Grasshoppers scored a pair of late runs in the eighth inning for the come-from-behind win, 4-3, against the Hickory Crawdads, before 3,585 fans at NewBridge Bank Park on Sunday evening.
Appalachian State University baseball jumped out to an early 10-0 lead and held on for a 10-9 victory over Western Carolina on Sunday afternoon at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.
The Watauga High women's track team posted a second-place finish on Saturday at the Class 4A Western Regional at Providence High School in Charlotte.
Watauga High assistant baseball coach Dustin Kerley has announced that there will be tryouts for Junior American Legion baseball, next Sunday May 15 at the new Watauga High School.
If you want something bad enough, you have to work for it.
The Watauga High baseball team captured its first Northwestern 3A/4A tournament championship in 11 years Saturday night.
Jeremy Dowdy (Raleigh, N.C./Wakefield) broke a 4-4 tie with a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the sixth inning and Hector Crespo (Miami, Fla./Florida Christian) followed with a three-run homer to lead Appalachian State University baseball to a 10-5 win over Western Carolina on Saturday evening at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.
The Greensboro Grasshoppers edged the Hickory Crawdads, 5-4, in a back-and-forth ballgame before 5,849 fans at NewBridge Bank Park in Greensboro on Saturday night.
The Watauga High softball team marched its way into the state playoffs Friday night.
The Hickory Crawdads topped the Greensboro Grasshoppers, 7-2, before 5,388 fans at NewBridge Bank Park in Greensboro on Friday evening.
The Watauga High baseball team marched its way into the Northwestern 3A/4A Conference tournament championship game by knocking off Alexander Central Friday night.
Damian Edwards has fulfilled his wish. He will be playing college basketball next season.
Senior Rebecca Hazeltine of the Appalachian State track team and junior Ryan Arrowood of the ASU baseball team have been named Southern Conference Athletes of the Month for April.
Chalk up another award for Marc Payne, who has made a living out of winning awards for his hard work and dedication to high school athletics.
The Watauga High men's tennis team hardly broke a sweat in defeating Davie County at the Sports Complex on Thursday.
Despite a late-game comeback, the Hickory Crawdads fell to the Greensboro Grasshoppers, 4-2, before 7,224 fans at NewBridge Bank Park in Greensboro on Thursday night.
Watauga High football coach Tim Pruitt has released the Pioneers 2011 football schedule.


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David Bablitz's Profile
David Bablitz is currently reading
bookshelves: currently-reading, english-12
progress:(page 240 of 335)
— Mar 23, 2010 09:30AM
— Mar 23, 2010 09:30AM
David Bablitz rated a book 5 of 5 stars
Out of the Silent Planet (Space Trilogy, #1)
by C.S. Lewis
read in May, 2010
|Marvelous book! C.S. Lewis never ceases to please the mind and imagination, and he does it again with this fantastic piece of literature. The entire book seems to grip you and pull you in. Lewis' attention to detail makes it seem as if you are actual ...more
David Bablitz is on page 240 of 335 of Shadowdale
Shadowdale (Avatar #1)
by Scott Ciencin
David Bablitz is currently reading
David Bablitz added
The Still (Rodrigo of Caledon, #1)
by David Feintuch
read in January, 2010
|Excellent Book! Amazing story of trial and growth from childhood to manhood. Teaches the importance of respect and responsibility. Very enjoyable read, although I thought it was a little too open ended, would love a sequel, or another chapter at leas ...more
David Bablitz joined the group English 12
David Bablitz rated a book 5 of 5 stars
Dark Moon
by David Gemmell
read in October, 2009
|I love this book. The first David Gemmell I read, but it does justice to the claims made about his skill as a writer, I believe. I loved the setting the plot, the way Gemmell introduces the main characters. I also love the many subplots that all inte ...more
English 12 — 42 members — last activity Nov 12, 2009 07:52PM
This group is for students in English 12 at Fraser Valley Christian High School.
This group is for students in English 12 at Fraser Valley Christian High School.
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Young Justice: Invasion (The Complete Second Season) [Blu-ray]
Number of discs: 2
Studio: Warner Archive Collection
DVD Release Date: December 2, 2014
Run Time: 440 minutes
Justice League: Throne of Atlantis
Available as on DVD or as a Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD UltraViolet Combo Pack
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Release Date: January 27, 2015
Run Time: 72 minutes
At the same time, Paramount itself was making a deal with an up-and-coming publisher called National Periodicals, which would one day become DC Comics. National, as most anyone knows, put superheroes like Batman on the map. Their best selling title was of an alien orphaned to live on Earth, the last son of the planet Krypton, who under the guise of a meek, mild-mannered reporter... you know the drill. If that wasn't enough, by this time Superman was also a hit radio show as well as comic book. Paramount thought an animated series on the Man of Steel was a natural.
Apparently, Dave Fleischer didn't think so.
"As the story goes, they didn't want to do Superman," says Reich. "Dave Fleischer said that it would be too expensive to do right. Paramount said name a price. They said $100,000 a cartoon, when a good cartoon cost $20,000. To the Fleischer's shock, Paramount said go ahead and do it.
What everyone has to understand in these post-Batman: The Animated Series days is there was absolutely NOTHING that looked like those original Superman shorts. Visually, they set the animation world completely on its head.
New Movie News:
Back to the Latest News page.


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Posts from Healthy Living
Practicing Everyday Gratitude at Home
Ten Things You Need to Know about Apartment Therapy
Intro & Part 1
This past spring we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the founding of Apartment Therapy, so it seems like a good time to put down on paper not only what has happened over the last ten years, but also what we're working on now.
The story is a little bit about me personally, but mostly it's about how this company has grown. There is much to it that I hope you will find familiar, useful and inspiring. And, if you are a regular reader of Apartment Therapy, you may also find that it has become a part of your own story. I certainly hope so.
Home Remedy Recipes: How To Use Rosemary Essential Oil
Apartment Therapy Tutorials
Finally Over the Flu? 25 Household Surfaces to Disinfect
If your household has been hit by norovirus, the flu, or other such illness, first of all: you have my sympathies. When your symptoms subside, you'll likely be up to your eyeballs in laundry, washing linens and clothing as soon as you have the energy. But don't overlook these germ catch-alls as soon as you're up for disinfecting your home:
How To Work With Warm & Cool Colors
In the past I've talked about warm and cool people. This is different.
Mike bought two beautiful brown modern couches and then a soft blue rug to go in front of them. Something wasn't right in his living room, but he didn't know what it was. Laura wanted to paint her kitchen green, and ended up doing it three times, but was still not happy. Sarah wanted to be safe, so she went with a lot of neutrals in her apartment. Then she wished it all had more color, but didn't feel comfortable deciding where to put the color. She didn't want to screw it up.
Sound familiar?
Winter Survival: How To Get Help With Your Heating Bills
Bouncing Back from a Cold: 4 Things To Do Today (and 1 Surprising Thing You Shouldn't)
Stress Busters: 5 Home Improvements That Also Make You Feel Better
Tough time at work? In a spat with your partner? The stress we feel in these times is the body's fight or flight hormones kicking in. Though you may just want to curl up in the fetal position or eat spoonfuls of ice cream from the carton, doing something physical is a better release for those stress hormones. Here are five ways we can all relieve stress in a healthy way for our bodies while also improving our homes:
Learn from My Experience: Get a Whole House Humidifier
The Best Way to Polish & Clean Silver: 4 Home Remedy Methods Put to the Test
Apartment Therapy's Silver Cleaning Showdown
The holidays are quickly approaching and we're already making our to do list. If the silver is going to make an appearance it's going to need polished. And if we're ordering an organic heritage turkey, well, then we surely don't want to be polishing the silverware with harmful chemicals! So when the time comes, what all natural silver polishing recipe will get the job done?


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Latest News
Each year, the Geeks On Call® technicians across America serve as local experts for news stories that focus on the important high-tech topics in their respective communities. Located below are articles of recent press releases announcing our notable accomplishments, milestones, and recent franchise openings. In addition, you can watch videos of our TV appearances.
Looking For Our Latest Tips?
"Hey, there's not a single clean coffee cup in the entire kitchen!" "How long has that milk been sitting out on the counter?" "Wasn't someone supposed to empty the garbage on Friday night? What a mess! Anyone who works in an office environment has certainly heard their share of those kitchen complaints. If regular maintenance [...]
The post Is It Time to Clean Up Your Act? appeared first on Blog - Geeks On Call.Read More


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Cloud Management
Support and Documentation
News Blog
Support Forums
Bug Tracking
Commercial Support
Edgewize Docs
About Us
What is Sphirewall?
Sphirewall is an opensource linux based firewall/router built from scratch to meet the changing needs of networks. By capturing the packets at the kernel level, we can deliver complete visibility and control to the user and offer a richer featureset than other firewalls.
What will it give me?
In short, a whole lot!
User-based management
Sphirewall allows you to manage your network by user and role rather than just individual devices. Users can move between devices, bring their own devices and share machines without any need for configuration changes. Perfect for BYOD "bring your own device" networks.
Application layer filtering
Sphirewall is packed with filtering capabilities, including transparent http and https filtering capabilities without the need for a proxy server.
Analytics and Reporting
Sphirewall has been built with reporting in mind, we understand that you want to see what is happening on your network and understand what your users are doing. Out of the box we offer basic reporting facilities, and with the
Cloud Management Service Edgewize
, you can get full real time visibility on your network that is borderline creepy.
Simple and flexible management
Sphirewall comes with a very good looking web management interface, a less good looking command line tool and a socket api and python library. Choose your poison.
View all features here
Get Involved
If you have some ideas, feedback, contributions or just want to chat, drop by our
or irc channel irc.freenode.net/#sphirewall
News and Announcements
What's happening at Sphirewall, view our blog and find out what we are up to.
Commercial Support
Support Forums
About us
Sphirewall is a GPLv3 Project by
Michael Lawson
now supported by


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Shar Pei - Sadie - Large - Adult - Female - Dog
<p>Sadie is a very well behaved, fully housetrained, 2 year old Sharpei mix. In fact, she's so well behaved she deosn't jump on the furniture or counter when inside. She very calm and laid back getting along well with kids & ...
Nov 12 -
Huntsville :
Brownsboro - Dogs & puppies
Tommy is a 1 year old AKC registered blue Chinese Shar Pei that has a great blood line. All vaccinations and has a great temperament!!
He loves everyone, loves to kiss and is very sweet. He is also VERY healthy, he has never been to the vet for anything but shots and ...
Oct 28 -
Nashville :
Lebanon - Animal services
These are BullyPei's, they are half English Bulldog and half Chinese Sharpei. These guys are just awesome, families love them and so do we. We are taking deposit's now so give me a call or send an email. 417-599-9388
Oct 20 -
Springfield (MO) :
Brighton - Dogs & puppies
Bullies are crossed with chinese-sharpei,english bulldog,french bulldog,and bully! ALL COLLORS! MALES/FEMALES! Thanks......205-720-3789. BRO.ELI.
4 pups.left!
Oct 7 -
Birmingham :
Bessemer - Dogs & puppies
We have a beautiful litter of sharpie's. they have over 30 champion's in there pedigree. we have fawn, black brush coat's and one bear coat. Check out all the pictures. contact us we are taking deposit's.
Oct 7 -
Springfield (MO) :
Brighton - Dogs & puppies
Chip is a proven stud. he has over 30 champions in his pedigree. he is 3 year's old , 58 pound's , 19 in at shoulder's. contact me by email or call us 417-599-9388
Husky - Zoey - Large - Adult - Female - Dog
Zoey is a high-energy young adult who appears to be Husky and SharPei mix. She's social with other dogs, tolerant of cats, good-natured, and truly loves people and considers them her best friends. Zoey just wants that one special ...
Dec 12 -
Northwest Arkansas :
Harrison - Dogs & puppies
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Rabaa was….read the rest of the piece on Fikra Forum]]>
A few days before the anti-MB massive demonstration on June 30, 2013, Nader Bakkar, a senior leader in the Salafi Nour Party, said something very profound during an interview with Financial Times. "If June 30 failed, the Brotherhood will turn into an unstoppable beast," he said. I am not a fan of Bakkar's religious ideologies, but I do applaud his longsighted political view.
While it's true that the MB did not fully control institutions such as the police – though it did manage to fire the interior minister and replace him with one of its choosing – and the army, it was slowly but surely extending its tentacles to control Egypt's other institutions and it was doing pretty well. The entire state media empire for example came under its command to the extent that a literature periodical praised MB strongman Khairat el Shater and placed his picture on its cover page (I have no clue what Shater had to do with literature!). The MB surely had the strongest media arsenal, that included all religious channels and thousands of mosques, yet it still complained about 4 or 5 privately owned channels which it was intimidating and most probably trying to shut down (the MB government did shut down Al Farayeen channel and MB affiliated Prosecutor General summoned Basem Yousef).
From the onset of its victory in the parliament elections, it was clear that the MB had only one aim: to consolidate and monopolize power. That goal was evident when Morsi issued his dictatorial constitutional decree in November 2012 granting himself sweeping powers. What the MB did back in 2012 does not differ that much from what the current leadership is doing now. Both want to consolidate power and exclude their opponents. Take the position of the Prosecutor General for example. During Brotherhood rule, the appointed Prosecutor General was an MB loyalist who served the interests of the ruling political organization. The current Prosecutor General is not that different; he too serves his masters and oppresses their opponents, who are now the MB and its supporters.
The MB also used violence against opposing protesters. The most cited incident took place in December 2012 at the Presidential Palace. The Brotherhood leadership decided to send their cadres to violently break up a sit-in at the Presidential Palace. I saw with my own eyes the MB cadres while they were firing birdshots and throwing rocks at protesters from behind police vans (Ironically, these are the same police vans that are now used to break up MB demonstrations and marches). Scores of protesters were tortured right at the Presidential Palace gates. One man did not disclose his Christian name lest they torture him even more.
Another incident took place near the MB headquarters in Muqattam. The cadres captured tens of protesters and kept them inside the nearby Bilal mosque where they were tortured. Again, Christian protesters inside the mosque received a "special treatment", courtesy of the Brotherhood.
Would a Brotherhood-led government have committed a massacre such as Rabaa? Judging from how the MB reacted after the "mini-Rabaa" that happened during its rule; the answer is yes it would have committed a similar crime against its opponents if it had full control over the state and its guns. The "mini-Rabaa" I am referring to is the Port Said prison massacre that happened in January 2013. 52 people were gunned down by the police in a few minutes when families of convicts tried to storm the prison to protest a court verdict. The MB cadres on social media were fully supportive of what the police did citing various justifications such as "the families were armed" and "they tried to storm a prison". These justifications are similar to what pro-army folks say to justify the Rabaa massacre that happened after the MB lost power. The Port Said prison massacre triggered the first mass revolt against MB rule since they reached power.
Even though Rabaa was by far bloodier than Port Said, the reaction of both parties in both instances proves that there is no profound different between supporters of the Brotherhood and supporters of military fascism. Both incidents had a tiny minority of armed protesters that killed policemen. One policeman was killed in Port Said, 8 were killed in Rabaa. The Brotherhood supporters blamed the armed minority after Port Said just as the military supporters blamed the armed minority after Rabaa. Nobody blamed the police officers for their brutality and reiterated that the presence of an armed tiny minority does not justify a massacre, except a few revolutionaries and human rights activists.
Lastly, what happened at the Presidential Palace during Morsi's tenure is another indication that, if they saw the need, nothing would have hindered a Brotherhood-led government from killing its opponents. As mentioned above, the MB cadres tortured people at the presidential palace gates and in a mosque and he who tortures at the presidential palace gates and in mosques can do anything else.]]>
Just like everything which is going on right now in Egypt, we cannot know for sure why the Biblawy government resigned. We can only speculate. However, when it comes to El-Sisi's nomination for president, we do have enough evidence and events to indicate that his nomination is the most likely scenario. Now the question is: what will happen if, just like his predecessors, President El-Sisi failed to meet the ever rising expectations of Egyptians? And what will Egypt look like if by some miracle El-Sisi managed to pull the country out of the abyss it is in now?
What can happen if El-Sisi failed?
If El-Sisi failed to save Egypt's economy and improve the lives of millions who have been suffering during the past three years, the masses could react in two ways. First, they could do what they did best during Mubarak's 30 years era: do nothing. Second, the masses could start taking to the streets against the same person whom they glorify today. Judging from the past three years, it is hard to believe that Egyptians, especially the young generation, will settle down again. The genie is out of the bottle.
I touched upon that question in a previous post. I argued that if El-Sisi failed to save Egypt's economy and if the current repression continued, I won't be surprised if another mass revolt happened. If the current rate of killing and imprisoning young people continued, a new generation of non-Isalmist revolutionaries might rise in the future who, in light of the absence of an alternative opposition, might not mind joining forces with the Muslim Brotherhood to fight the oppressing state. These revolutionaries will be too young to remember the Brotherhood's betrayal of the revolution in 2011 or their dreadful one year in power. If the economy becomes worse by then, the poor might join these forces and usher in another uprising. However, this time it will not be peaceful. The "violence bar" is already very high now; imagine how higher it could get three or four years from now. Unfortunately, any new uprising will not do the country any good since Egypt cannot withstand another revolution. The state will collapse.
One of the reasons why I don't want El-Sisi to run is what I mentioned above. Whether we like it or not, the army is the only institution left standing in Egypt which is barely holding the country together. It is the only entity that Egyptians trust. By endorsing El-Sisi's presidential bid, the army generals acted like members of a civilian political party and have pinned the future popularity of the military institution to El-Sisi's performance as president. This is a very dangerous gamble, and a very serious mistake that El-Sisi and his colleagues have done.
It seems that Egypt's patrons in the Gulf also share my viewpoint. A month ago, Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid expressed his hope that El-Sisi does not run for president. "I hope he remains in the military, and that another person [runs] for the presidency," he said. The editor in chief of Al Sharq Al Sawsat newspaper and the General Manager of Al Arabiya news channel, Abdul Rahman Al Rashid, wrote an op-ed advising El-Sisi not to run for president. It is widely believed that Al Rashid is close to the Saudi royal family.
What can happen if El-Sisi succeeded?
If El-Sisi miraculously managed to save the economy and improved the lives of the masses, he will truely be the next Gamal Abdul Nasser to the masses and an Erdogan – a more despotic version though- to democracy and revolution advocates. Erdogan's autocracy started to surface when he concluded that the majority will still vote for him because he improved the economy and there is no other viable alternative to his party's rule. We still have to see whether Erdogan's conclusion is correct when Turks go to the polls this March and later in June, but it seems that this is what he believes right now.
El-Sisi, an already sole ruler in Egypt, will most likely continue exhibiting every characteristic of a despotic ruler if he succeeded as president. Even if he tried to show goodwill at the onset of his presidency, as Nathan Brown suggests here, he will most likely return back to business as usual especially if the people continued endorsing him as the country's sole leader who managed to save it.
So yes, Egypt, an Arab Spring nation, will not fare well if El-Sisi failed or if he succeeded. Two things can spare us this fate. First, El-Sisi, whether willingly or not, decided to be different and adopt a more conciliatory and democratic approach. Judging from the past months, this looks unlikely. Second, a third alternative to the military and the Islamists emerged on the long run. This is exactly what Egypt needs, a truly democratic political force that will save us from the military-Islamist seesaw.]]>
This incident is a small indication of the behavioral change we're witnessing in Egypt's youth, especially the urban young, vis-a-vis politics and the current events that are unfolding in a country that seems to have turned its back to the youth-triggered revolution of 2011. The question of why the younger generation of Egyptians are feeling alienated from the current political discourse arose when they were virtually absent at the last constitution referendum. When I went to cast my ballot, I looked around and found that I was the youngest voter in the entire polling station. I am 34 years old.
The change in attitude and behavior of the younger generation is emanating from a mixture of both apathy and disgust at how the country is moving forward especially after the July 3rd popularly backed coup which was supported by millions including large segments of the youth.
It seems that many young people are now feeling apathetic towards the current political events in Egypt. This is the result of the return of many of Mubarak's era way of doing things. Take the last referendum for example. Even though the ballots were not forged, the process was not fair. "No" campaigners were arrested and the media, both private and public, unleashed a hysterical campaign to encourage people to vote yes. "Why would I bother and tire myself to vote?" a colleague told me. "We all knew the result would be a yes". My colleague is not pro-Brotherhood; in fact she is a Christian in her late twenties.
Many youth, especially, those who participated in the January 2011 revolution, feel disgusted at the how events have turned after the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, specifically in regards to the abuses and excesses of the period that followed. The current police brutality and crimes we're witnessing are unprecedented; they did not even happen during Mubarak. Many of the victims are young people including university students who were killed inside their university campuses. The crackdown has even reached young people who were supportive of the July 3 political order. Two young men who signed the Tamarod petition were gunned down during anti-government protests in Suez and Cairo. . "Even those who did June 30 (the mass demonstration that preceded Morsi's ouster) are in jail," I heard a Cairo downtown young street vendor tell his colleague. "Aren't April 6 members in jail now?" he continued.
These state sanctioned, and unfortunately public condoned, measures did not shift the majority of the youth towards the pro-Morsi camp but I've noted before in a previous post that I noticed a rise in the number of young people who decided to join the pro-Morsi demonstrations. The current regime is losing the young generation especially those living in urban areas. These are the ones who triggered the last two mass revolts in Egypt, which toppled two presidents. I hope whomever wants to become president of this country is paying enough attention to this development.]]>
In this post, I won't discuss why I think it is wrong for El-Sisi to run for president. Many articles and op-eds touched on that topic when it became clear that El-Sisi wants to become Egypt's next president. I will discuss, as a pragmatist, what I think is one of the army's most dangerous gambles and why the institution as a whole is compromising its status in Egypt by fulfilling El-Sisi's 35 years old dream of becoming "Egypt's leader".
Whether we like it or not, the Egyptian army is the only entity holding Egypt together at the moment. My pro-revolution friends often laugh at the saying that "the army is the last pole holding the tent up." This saying is true, it is a fact. The reason why many people are crazy about El-Sisi is not because they're in love with his persona per se as much as they see in him the only remaining strongman who can save them and bring the country back to normal. They know that the army is the last standing institution that can bring some stability after 3 years of chaos and insecurity. El-Sisi is adored by million because he is the army chief and not because he is El-Sisi.
By agreeing to nominate a president, the army acted like a political party and entered the fray of Egypt's politics. That fray ranges from fighting jihadists in North Sinai to getting blamed for the increasing price of tomatoes. By stepping in into the Egyptian political quagmire, the army agreed to be on the front line of Egypt's current war with things like gas prices, power cuts, the price of cooking oil, and the austerity measures that will most likely happen if the country is to depend on itself and not just on aid from the Gulf countries – the Saudis and Emiratis can't go on feeding 90 million people forever.
The question now is this: what if the army's candidate failed? What if President El-Sisi failed to meet the already soaring expectations of the people? What if after three or four years people discovered that El-Sisi – the army's candidate – is as incompetent as his predecessors and ended up losing trust in the only institution still standing in Egypt?
My pro-revolution friends would love that to happen. "Let the army fails so people can learn that military rule is not the answer," a pro-revolution friend told me. I would have agreed with him if we had alternatives to both the Islamists and the army. Unfortunately, till now, we don't have any third option. If the army candidate failed and people lost trust in the institution that nominated him, anything could happen including a second revolutionary wave that the country will not withstand.
I would have preferred if the army stayed away from politics. It is better for Egypt and better for the army itself. However, it seems that the army sees the issue from a different perspective. Either the army is afraid to relinquish the rule of Egypt one more time or it's just that the throne is too sweet in the eyes of its chief, or both.]]>
It is unclear what caused the increase in youth participation in pro-Morsi demonstrations but one of the very possible reasons could be the number of young people who were either killed by the police or unjustly sent to jail since the army ousted Mohamed Morsi following the massive anti-Brotherhood protests on June 30, 2013. Four Cairo University students were killed on campus so far; that never happened since the day Princess Fatma Ismael decided to donate her jewelry pieces to fund the foundation of Cairo University around 100 years ago. Three other students were killed in Al Azhar University, also on campus. These eight students are just a fraction of the number of young people who were killed during demonstrations; a few of them were not even supporters of the Brotherhood. Sayed Weza, 19, a member of the Tamarod movement that was pivotal in ousting Morsi from power, chose to demonstrate against the current regime during the third anniversary of the January 25th revolution. He was gunned down by a police officer in downtown Cairo. Kill or imprison a young person, and his/her Facebook friends will take to the streets against you.
While the number of youth in the pro-Morsi demonstration is an interesting development worth of analysis, I'm not claiming that Egypt's youth have shifted to the pro-Morsi or the pro-Brotherhood camp. In spite of the Brotherhood's popularity loss due to their dreadful year in power, pro-Morsi are still violently doing things like preventing other students from taking exams, storming exam classrooms and instigating clashes with the police forcing them to enter the university campuses. The majority of youth are not becoming pro-Morsi, they're becoming pro-apathy. That was evident in the latest referendum that a considerable portion of youth – especially in the urban areas – have boycotted.
It seems that Egypt's urban youth -the ones who triggered the revolution – are mostly becoming politically apathetic; a smaller minority is joining the pro-Morsi camp. What could such a development yield in the future, let's say after three or four years?
If the coming president, no matter who he might turn out to be, continues the current repression and police brutality, there will most probably be another generation of young revolutionaries who might be willing to join the Brotherhood in its demonstrations and clashes with the state. I am talking about 18 and 19 year olds who will not remember the Brotherhood's betrayal of the January 2011 revolution. These young revolutionaries will not be Brotherhood members or even Islamists, they will be like Sayed Weza, young independent activists who will not mind joining forces with the Brotherhood, the only opposition till now, to fight the existing regime. However, the activists and the Brotherhood will still not be sufficient to tilt the balance; they will need another force with them, namely the poor. If the next president did not fix the economy, if he did not meet today's high expentations, the poor might join whatever the new revolutionaries and the Brotherhood will trigger and we might end up with the third mass revolt in Egypt in 6 or 7 years. However, if that scenario happened, Egypt will officially become a failed state and decent into a far darker abyss. The country cannot withstand another revolution. Only fixing the economy and keeping the poor away from the streets can save the next president from the fate of his two predecessors.]]>
During the presidential elections, when we started to notice shifts away from the Islamists due to their dreadful performance in parliament, Delta surprised us all by voting for Shafik and Hamdeen Sabahy in stage one, it voted for Shafik in stage two. While the rural areas in Delta voted for the MB candidate, the cumulative vote of Delta was in favor of Shafik. Morsi won in Upper Egypt by a landslide. In fact, without Upper Egypt, Morsi would have lost the popular vote in all of Egypt.
In the 2014 referedum, the turnout in Delta was very high compared to other regions in Egypt. Turnout in 2014 increased by a whopping 13.5 percentage points versus the 2012 referendum.
Why Delta, which is as poor and illiterate as Upper Egypt, votes differently now? Why did the majority there turn against the Islamists? I believe a big part of the reason lies in the sectarianism in Upper Egypt; it has the highest concentration of Christians in Egypt. The Delta voter is not concerned so much with "the other", he or she is relaxed and can freely turn against the Islamists without caring about siding with the neighboring "enemy". The neighbor there is Muslim. Sectarianism is rampant in Upper Egypt, most sectarian conflicts happen there and the "Muslim vs Christian" conflict constitute a huge part of the voters' psyche.]]>
Cairo proved to be very anti-MB. It voted for Shafik in the presidential elections, voted "No" in the 2012 referendum and in 2014 the turnout increased by 5.5 percentage points versus 2012. These results indicate clearly that the urban middle class has turned against the Brotherhood, which is also evident in the professional syndicates where the MB has been losing one election after the other (MB started losing syndicate elections during Morsi's term).
Giza, which is opposite to Cairo on the other side of the Nile, is composed of affluent urban areas and very poor semi-urban semi-rural neighborhoods such as Kirdasa, the scene of the gruesome lynching of policemen after police cracked down on the pro-Morsi camps last August. The affluent areas including the poor urban neighborhoods such as Imbaba witnessed high turnout in the 2014 referendum (poor urban areas in Cairo and Giza turned against the MB since the presidential elections). The other more rural oriented areas which are densely populated with voters remained Islamist strongholds and hence Giza as a whole witnessed a decline in turnout by 2.5 percentage points (-2.5% versus 2012).
Once dubbed as the bastion of Salafism in Egypt, the picturesque Mediterranean city proved this assumption wrong since the first stage of the presidential elections when Hamdeen Sabahy came in first. Even though Alex does have a large Salafi voting base, it looks as if it has more urban middle class voters who, like their Cairo counterparts, have turned against the Brotherhood. Alexandria witnessed a 2.2 percentage points increase in 2014.
The surprise! This huge area of Egypt, composed of urban cities and rural villages, voted overwhelmingly for the Islamists in the parliament elections and we all thought that this fertile land which is nestled between the two branches of the Nile will be in Islamists' hands forever. That was understandable back then. Delta is poor, very conservative and with a high rate of illiteracy, the perfect soil for Islamists to use religion for their political gains. Delta proved us wrong and broke this correlation.
Delta voted for Shafik and Sabahy in stage one of the presidential elections, Shafik in stage two. In the 2014 referendum, Delta had a whopping increase in turnout by 13.5 percentage points, the largest increase across Egypt.
Upper Egypt:
Upper Egypt has almost the same socioeconomic characteristics of Delta yet it did not exhibit the same voting pattern. Turnout in this region declined by 3.9 percentage points even though the tourist areas Luxor and Aswan had an increase in turnout versus 2012. Upper Egypt remains the largest stronghold of Islamist power in Egypt. Morsi would have lost the presidential elections if it wasn't for the votes he won in Upper Egypt.
How UE behaved in referendum 2014 indicates that the power of the so-called families and tribes is overestimated. These large powerful clans, who vote according to a deal stricken by whomever is in power and their chief, are definitely large in number but it looks as if they're not large enough to sway the entire region towards a particular vote.
(My future post will explain why Delta and Upper Egypt behave differently despite their similar socioeconomic conditions)
Canal Cities:
The Suez Canal cities are Port Said, Islamailia, and Suez. The first two had an increase in turnout but turnout declined in Suez. Port Said, which rose up against Morsi and the Brotherhood early this year following the Port Said Prison massacre, had a 13 percentage points increase. The effect of how the mood changed in Port Said is very evident in the large increase in turnout.
Ismailia, where people played football with army soldiers during Morsi's imposed curfew, had a 3.2 percentage points increase. Ironically, Ismailia was the birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood organization.
Suez, on the other hand, had a negative turnout (38.7% in 2012 vs 34.5% in 2014). The city has a large Islamist voting base which affected the turnout in this referendum.
Matruh and Fayoum:
Matruh and Fayoum are two governorates with a very significant Salafi base. They had the highest decline in turnout across Egypt, -20.2% and -11.5% respectfully. The vote in Matruh and Fayoum proves that the Salafi Nour Party, which supported the June 3 roadmap, did nothing to turn out the Salafi vote. The Nour Party, the only Islamist entity in the post-July 3 establishment, just wants a seat around the table and it is willing to become the current regime's "Islamist fig leaf" to get that seat.
Red Sea and South Sinai
The most important tourist areas in Egypt. Both witnessed a positive increase in turnout. Voters there voted for tourists to come back.
North Sinai:
Unexpectedly, North Sinai had a slight increase in turnout versus 2012 (0.4%). This area is witnessing continuous fighting between the Egyptian army and jihadists. Observers, including myself, believe that military actions in this part of Sinai is doing little in winning hearts and minds of the civilians there. The turnout was a surprise to me. Is public opinion shifting in favor of the military or are civilians tired of the current situation that they believe voting for the constitution might bring stability to their turbulent region?
This is one of the biggest myths that aim at justifying the Brotherhood colossal mismanagement of the country. While it is true that the Brotherhood did not exert full control over a number of state institutions, namely the army and the judiciary, all other state apparatus were under their direct control. As soon as former President Morsi assumed power, the Brotherhood frantically worked on consolidating their power in the various ministries and governorates. Take Maspero for example, the state owned media empire comprising of many TV and radio channels. As soon as Morsi entered the presidential palace, Maspero did what it does best for the past 60 years: glorify whoever is running the country.
Even the Ministry of Interior, the Brotherhood might have failed to win the hearts and minds of the young officers, but they had enough control to sack the ministry's top commander and appoint someone who they thought would be loyal to them. Mohamed Ibrahim, the minister of interior whom the Brotherhood appointed, tried as much as possible to remain loyal to his bosses until June 30 came looming. Days before the big day, young officers at the newly formed Police Officers Club announced they won't be repeating the same mistake of the January 25th revolution and they won't side with a political faction anymore. They said that they will not secure any Muslim Brotherhood (MB) offices and will just be present at the police and government buildings. Under pressure from his young officers, Mohamed Ibrahim had to choose between pleasing his subordinates or his boss. Days before the storm, he chose to please the former. It was a smart gamble. The MB were not in total control over the ministry of interior but judging from the speed of at which they were extending their tentacles over the other government institutions I expected the ministry of interior to totally succumb anytime soon. After June 30, signs of their attempt to infiltrate the ministry started to surface. 3 high ranking police officers at the National Security department were transferred from their positions because of their alleged ties to Brotherhood leaders.
The judiciary was another institution that was at odds with the MB. To tame the judges, the MB was trying to pass a law that would have severed 3000 judges. Critics of the law believed that the MB would have filled the seats of the severed judges with their own sympathizers. I believe if the MB had come out unharmed out of June 30, the judiciary law would have been the first thing they passed to exert total control over the justice system.
The Ministry of Culture was another ministry the MB appointed a sympathizer to. His first decision was to fire Enas Abdel Dayem, the manager of the Cairo Opera House back then. His decision caused an uproar because of the popularity of Abdel Dayem at the Opera and among artists. The MB and their ilk were in control of the country's most important ministries to the extent that they had the time to pick up a fight with the opera house manager!
So the belief that all state institutions were working against the MB is a pure myth. While a number of institutions were resisting their control, the others, especially the public service institutions, succumbed to the new rulers. The vast majority of Egypt's state bureaucracy will serve whoever pays the salary at the end of the month.
Myth#2: the media was fighting the MB
That is another delusion. When the MB was whining about alleged media bias, they were basically referring to 6 or 7 private satellite channels. Here is a list of the media channels the MB had under their direct control: the entire empire of the state owned media (we're talking about a wide array of TV channels, radio channels and publications), Al Jazeera, the MB owned TV channel and newspaper, the various religious channels and above all thousands of mosques all over the country!
The MB had all these media channels under their disposal yet they were unable to communicate properly and whitewash their disastrous one year in power.
Myth#3: Tamarod was created by the military
This myth stems from the news reports (here and here) that surfaced indicating that Tamarod had contacts with the army via a third party.
First, it is not quite obvious what kind of help Tamarod got from the army. It can hardly be financial because I've seen how Tamarod worked. It was purely based on grassroots activism. Everyone was encouraged to photocopy the petition and collect signatures and hand it over to the campaign. I myself photocopied 300 EGP worth of petitions and gave them to a group of Tamarod activists who were collecting signatures in Shubra. I visited their official headquarters, a simple apartment in an old rundown downtown building. I saw young men and women counting petitions in the excruciating heat of Cairo because the AC was broken. Tamarod depended solely on people activism and the generosity of Egyptians who printed petitions on their own expense. And believe me, there were a lot of rich Egyptians out there who hated the MB and were ready to print loads of petitions and support the campaign financially.
Second, assuming that Tamarod was an army creation, I personally didn't have an army gun pointed at my head when I signed the petition. No army soldier came to my house on June 30 and ordered me to take to the streets. The millions who signed the petitions and demonstrated afterwards did so by their own freewill and this renders any alleged Tamarod-army conspiracy irrelevant.
So this is what I believe happened. The army sensed that June 30 might be big especially after Tamarod went viral. They knew that if the numbers turned out to be huge, they had to act and topple Morsi especially after their months of acrimony. It made perfect sense from a purely political perspective to open a line of communication, via a third party, with the movement that would later lead the largest gathering of Egyptians in history.
Myth# 4: Someone created the gas lines and power cuts to turn people against the MB before June 30
That conspiracy theory appeared in a New York Times report written by my Twitter friend David Kirkpatrick. Ever since I read that report, I've been sending David and the New York Times pictures, tweets and news reports of gas lines and power cuts that happened and continue to happen after June 30! Follow me on Twitter because I'm keeping track!
Wasn't there a huge fuel crisis before June 30? Yes and it ended a few days before June 30! The crisis was caused by the massive panic attack that people which made them flock to gas stations to fill their tanks before the big day.
I fully understand that myths around June 30 will continue to arise simply because many people do not understand how millions took to the street to demand a military coup. Well, it just happened. Some political textbooks need to be revised.]]>
Fact One: Army is murderous & trigger happy
This is not the first time the army and police killed scores of people. They did so when SCAF was in power and during Brotherhood rule as well. Army troops in particular are not trained to deal with civilians, not mentioning armed civilians. They are similar to the teens from Alabama the US government sent to man checkpoints in Iraq. Couple their lack of training with their disregard to any human rights; you end up having creatures that turn into mass murderers in any given melee.
Fact Two: The Brotherhood are armed
I heard a bullet myself in Maspero. Last weekend, the Brotherhood decided to go protest at Maspero, the state owned media complex not far from Tahrir. Upon my arrival there I saw MB trying to reach Tahrir via the October 6th exit. Tahrir protesters were trying to stop them by throwing rocks and firing fireworks. They pushed the MB back and took control of the bridge. I was basically seeing and hearing the things I witnesses before in clashes during the past two and a half years: rocks, fireworks and occasionally birdshots. Suddenly it came invading my ears; the sound you hear in old cowboy and Indians movies, the whistle sound a bullet makes when it hits a wall. The Maspero clashes ended when armed locals from the area came and drove the MB away.
Another proof the MB had weapons is much more obvious than the whistle sound I heard at Maspero. Last week the MB were involved in clashes with protesters and locals in Bayn El Sarayat, Manial, Maspero, Sidi Gaber and Assiut – not mentioning the other battles that occurred in the provinces but were not thoroughly covered by the local media. Bayn El sarayat is very near the other MB sit-in in front of Cairo University. Since the MB had weapons there, we can presume they also had weapons at the Rabaa and Republic Guards Club (RGC) sit-ins. These were the major deadly clashes that witnessed the death of tens including MB who aggravated locals with their violence and assault on their neighborhoods.
Lastly, an army officer, a policeman and a soldier were shot dead during the RGC shootings. An army officer was shot from a high position (possibly a roof) and is now in a serious condition. A witness whom The New Yorker interviewed confirmed that he saw and heard shooting coming from the protesters side.
Scenario 1: Army wanted to break the sit-in
The army wanted to end the RGC sit-in and thus it was the generals who instigated the violence. The RGC sit-in is right on one of Cairo's main avenues and is in the middle of high profile military institutions. It's also possible that the army might have had intelligence on the presence of weapons inside the sit-in and decided to storm it.
According to witnesses, tear gas was used at the initial phase of the shooting. The usage of heavy tear gas usually precedes the storming of a particular sit-in.
Scenario 2: PR stunt by the MB
The Brotherhood is cornered. It lost the power seat it wanted for the past eighty years in just one year. The popularity of the MB went on a downward spiral and only an incident like that could win them some support especially outside Egypt. The intrernational community was the last card the MB was playing when the anti-Morsi protests grew to the millions. So the MB did in fact attack the RGC to provoke the RGC soldiers to commit the massacre to allow the MB a golden opportunity to plead their case in front of an already sympathetic international media.
Can the MB actually do this to itself? Yes. Even though the MB had renounced violence, it is still not distant enough from the dogma of suicide bombings and martyrdom. Almost every known terrorist had an encounter with the MB at one point in his life. Killing the poor souls you brainwash for political gains is not a far thing from the MB mind.
When the army moved in to storm the sit-in, the MB fired and that was enough to cause the knee jerk reaction from our trigger happy soldiers.


text:
Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Review of speed limits planned
Province to soon begin wide probe seeking consistent, safe standards
The Selinger government is days away from announcing a provincewide review of speed limits on Manitoba's roadways.
Infrastructure and Highways Minister Steve Ashton said Wednesday the goal of the review is to devise more consistent standards of how speed limits are set on Manitoba's highways and streets, including in Winnipeg and Brandon.
That includes addressing the "patchwork-quilt" application of speed limits by municipalities and taking into account newer, better-designed roadways that can handle higher speeds.
"You're not going to get one-size-fits-all," Ashton said. "But there are certain basic parameters that do apply and there are ways of dealing with things.
"What we're trying to get here, and the balance of the review will reflect that, is making sure that we get the recognition of local realities, but at the same time have some consistent speed limits and guidelines."
He said the two basic speed-limit guidelines in Manitoba are that when driving in the city, the speed limit is 50 km/h unless otherwise posted and when driving on the highway, the speed limit is 90 km/h or 100 km/h unless otherwise posted.
"We'll look at all those elements," he said. "We're going to look at the general parameters in terms of speed limits and a combination of everything from the convenience side of it to safety. Safety will always be paramount."
CAA Manitoba and the Manitoba Trucking Association welcomed the upcoming review, saying it's badly needed to address inconsistencies in how speed limits are determined.
"A lot of development has been done over the last 10 to 20 years and as they've added roads, Bishop Grandin and Kenaston, I don't think there's been a lot of consistency," CAA Manitoba vice-president of marketing and sales Tim Scott said. "A lot of roads have been developed from single lanes to two lanes and that makes a big difference.
"But the litmus test is always safety."
Terry Shaw, general manager of the Manitoba Trucking Association, said more consistent speed limits would mean better efficiencies for the trucking industry.
"Efficiency comes through setting speeds based on an informed decision, which comes from a legitimate study," Shaw said. "Our concern is the inconsistencies -- the 60 to 50, the 70 to 50, items like that, the inconsistencies without legitimate reasons or legitimate purpose or inconsistent signage."
Ashton said the review -- which will include public consultation -- will not alter the province's position on reduced speeds in school zones. Last year, Ashton introduced legislation to give local authorities the power to create reduced-speed zones for schools.
Last August, Winnipeg city council voted unanimously to reduce the speed limit to 30 kilometres per hour in elementary school zones.
Last month, a city committee rejected a call to reduce the residential speed limit in Winnipeg from 50 km/h to 40 km/h. A city report said many studies conducted throughout North America showed driver speed is affected by the road conditions and not by speed-limit signs.
Ashton said the provincial review is separate from the work of the province's Highway Traffic Board, which is considering raising speed limits on selected stretches of city streets, including sections of Dugald Road, Grant Avenue, Pembina Highway and Waverley Street. The board held public hearings late last fall.
However, he added the provincial review will examine the role of both the Highway Traffic Board and the Motor Transport Board.
The boards were amalgamated more than a decade ago and serve different functions: The wHighway Traffic Board is responsible for the administration of speed limits, and the Motor Transport Board is responsible for the licensing of truck operations and intercity buses, plus regulating rates for intra-provincial bus operations.
The province last increased the speed limit on certain sections of twinned roadways in Manitoba to 110 km/h in July 2009, including the Trans-Canada Highway from the Saskatchewan border to Virden and Highway 75 from the Emerson border crossing to St. Jean Baptiste.
A DRIVING FORCE: CAA Manitoba recently questioned 8,628 of its members on driving and speeding
How acceptable do you personally feel it is for a driver to drive above the speed limit on a highway?
Completely acceptable5.8% (498)
Somewhat acceptable43.6% (3,755)
Somewhat unacceptable25.1% (2,161)
Completely unacceptable25.0% (2,155)
I don't know.04% (34)
How acceptable do you personally feel it is for a driver to drive above the speed limit on a residential street?
Completely acceptable2.0% (169)
Somewhat acceptable4.7% (400)
Somewhat unacceptable17.2% (1,478)
Completely unacceptable75.8% (6,496)
I don't know0.3% (29)
When on a residential street, how often do you drive over the speed limit?
All the time0.6% (49)
More than half the time1.5% (130)
On occasion13.8% (1,172)
Very rarely48.0% (4,080)
Never36.0% (3,064)
Not applicable0.1% (12)
When on a highway, how often do you drive over the speed limit?
All the time6.2% (525)
More than half the time23.6% (2,006)
On occasion38.4% (3,266)
Very rarely24.0% (2,045)
Never7.5% (636)
Not applicable0.4% (34)
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 14, 2013 A3
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Updated 12/23/2013
Abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) spent her final years at this 1871 Victorian Gothic cottage, now a popular stop on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. The center was built around the cottage, created as a tribute to the author of the antislavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe's personal writing table and effects are inside.
77 Forest St., Hartford, Connecticut, 06105, United States
Website: www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org
Sight Details:
Updated 12/23/2013


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Nicholson Wins Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event Presented by Land Rover; Davidson Wins Third Rolex/USEF National CCI4* Eventing Championship
RELEASE: April 28, 2013
AUTHOR/ADMINISTRATOR: Kathleen Landwehr
Lexington, KY
– The final phase of the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Land Rover provided an exciting finish to the Kentucky Horse Park's staple event. A sold-out Rolex Stadium crowd witnessed Andrew Nicholson (NZL) win North America's only CCI4* event for the first time. With Quimbo, he held onto the overnight lead, only adding three time penalties to their dressage score, finishing with a score of 41.0. Deboarah Sellar's 10-year-old Spanish Sport Horse gelding sailed over the fences in Richard Jeffery's stadium jumping course, expertly guided by HSBC World Rankings Leader Nicholson.
"To go round and jump the last fence and you have gone clear is a little bit what you expect to do if you ride them half properly when they are that good," commented Nicholson of Quimbo's exceptional jumping style.
Nicholson won his second leg of the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing after winning the 2012 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials and will be competing against William Fox-Pitt (GBR) at the Mitsubishi Badminton Horse Trials for the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing, an unprecedented situation. After winning the 2011 Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials and the 2012 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, William Fox-Pitt (GBR) is currently in the running to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing. After the 2012 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials was canceled due to excessive rain leading up to the event, a win next week at the 2013 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials could win Fox-Pitt or Nicholson the coveted title.
"We both have a few more days of peace before it all kicks off. It will certainly be exciting," said Fox-Pitt. "I think this is Rolex's dream."
Fox-Pitt and Seacookie TSF finished second after having one of only four double clear rounds to finish on a score of 46.2. He made the course look easy with Catherine Witt's 14-year-old Trakehner gelding after rails had been falling all day.
"It is great to have him back on form again and we will how the autumn goes as to where he is," said Fox-Pitt of having his partner performing well after a rough go at Burghley last year.
Nicholson also finished third with Calico Joe after having three rails to end on a score of 52.8. Despite stadium jumping not being Twenty Twelve in Mind's 11-year-old English Thoroughbred gelding's strongest phase, the pair still managed to finish in the top three.
Buck Davidson and Ballynoe Castle RM (Shannon Brinkman/USEF photo)
Buck Davidson (Unionville, PA) and Ballynoe Castle RM settled for fourth place after having two unfortunate rails at fences 11 and 13. While he moved down the leaderboard, Davidson won the Rolex/USEF National CCI4* Eventing Championship with Cassandra Segal's 13-year-old Irish Thoroughbred gelding.
"He has been amazing this weekend as he has been his whole life," said Davidson of his beloved mount "Reggie." "Of course I am bummed to have two down, it sort of fell apart at the end but to be sitting up here with these two guys who are obviously unbelievable, I feel fortunate to be up here. If I have got to lose it is two good guys to lose to."
The second highest-placed American was Lynn Symansky (Middleburg, VA) with her own Donner who finished in fifth place with a score of 54.8. She rode the 10-year-old Thoroughbred gelding with determination around the horse's first CCI4* event, having double clear cross country and stadium rounds to finish on their dressage score.
Another American with an impressive finish was Meghan O'Donoghue (Carbondale, IL). A 2013 Developing Riders/Eventing 25 listed rider, she rode her own 11-year-old Thoroughbred gelding to a 12th place finish in her first CCI4*. O'Donoghue added only a handful of penalties to finish with a score of 69.0.
Watch on-demand video of the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Land Rover on the USEF Network presented by SmartPak here:
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Inaugural Eventing 18 Program Deemed A Success as Participants Thrive in 2014
Lexington, Ky. - The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) hosted 12 up-and-coming riders in the inaugural Eventing 18 Program in 2014. All Participants put the lessons learned in January's Training Sessions with U.S. Team Coach David ...
Fourth Annual Camp Black Prong
Trucks and trailers arriving on Thursday, tires crunching on the gravel, check in and head to assigned stabling and cottage. Hooves on tailgates, whinny of old friends meeting again. Hay, feed, harness, whips, and all associated equipment unloaded ...
Big and Small Tour Dressage Combinations Enjoy Successful USEF Dressage Observation and Strategy Sessions
Lexington, Ky. - Nineteen promising dressage athletes took part in USEF Dressage Observation and Strategy Sessions over two weeks in November. As Big and Small Tour combinations worked with USEF Chef d'Equipe/ Technical Advisor Robert Dover at ...
Volunteer Positions Still Available for Rio 2016
Lexington, Ky. - The organizers of Rio 2016 have extended the registration period for individuals interested in volunteering at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Candidates now have until December 15, 2014 to apply for one of the ...
McCamey Kimbler Wins 2014 USEF Youth Sportsman's Award
Lexington, Ky. – The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) is pleased to announce McCamey Kimbler as the winner of the 2014 USEF Youth Sportsman's Award. The USEF Youth Sportsman's Award is designed to identify potential future ...
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Articles by Section - Cover Article
Listing articles 81 to 90 of 374
News: Reviews Mixed on FDA's Proposed Food Defense Rule
The FDA's release in December of a proposed rule that would require the nation's largest food businesses to take steps to prevent intentional food adulteration met with little surprise, though some in the food industry feel the guideline is both too specific and too broad.
News: FSIS Releases Strategy to Reduce Salmonella
The USDA's FSIS recently released its "Salmonella Action Plan" that outlines the steps it will take to address what it calls the most pressing problem it faces: Salmonella in meat and poultry products. In fact, FSIS' efforts started back a few years ago when it made reducing incidence of Salmonella the priority goal of its 2011-2016 Strategic Plan.
News: Global Food Contract Testing Lab Revenues Exceed $3 Billion in 2013
Food companies around the world are sending an increased amount of quality and safety testing to third-party contract testing laboratories, according to a new report from Strategic Consulting, Inc., a provider of market research to food safety diagnostics companies. Total revenues for food contract test labs are estimated to reach $3.05 billion in 2013, up from $1.95 billion just five years ago, at a compound annual growth rate of 9.4 percent worldwide.
News: New Prevention Tools to Improve Food Safety in Restaurants
Increased awareness and implementation of proper food safety in restaurants and delis may help prevent many of the foodborne illness outbreaks reported each year in the U.S., according to data from the CDC. Researchers identified gaps in the education of restaurant workers as well as public health surveillance, two critical tools necessary in preventing a common and costly public health problem.
Features: Making Food Safer Through Law and Technology
As efforts for new legislation emerged during 2013, innovative technologies and services were also introduced to meet the growing demands put upon food processors
News: Consumer Organizations Against Proposed USDA Poultry Rule
Last year, the USDA FSIS proposed a new regulation that would allow poultry processing plants to increase line speeds from 32 turkeys per minute to 55 turkeys per minute. Although the rule was designed to improve food safety by automating some aspects of the inspection process, consumer organizations feel the proposed changes do not account for the expected adverse impacts that a faster line speed will have on worker health and safety.
News: Do Imported Spices Pose a Health Risk?
In response to concerns over the effectiveness of current control measures to reduce or prevent illness from consumption of spices in the U.S., the FDA released its report "Draft Risk Profile: Pathogens and Filth in Spices" on October 30th. What followed was a string of media coverage alerting the public that their spices can contain anything from whole insects to rodent feces.
Features: Electronic Water Treatment: A Clean Line for Food Production
The formation of unwanted layers of limescale deposits on the surface of process equipment is of critical importance in the food industry. Limescale is particularly prevalent in heat transfer devices, membrane separations, and distribution lines. Scale deposits, known as fouling, can cause a number of operational problems. In addition, the incorporation of even undesirable trace particulates can lead to off-flavors or off-colors, reducing shelf life, or even making the product un-saleable.
News: Proposed Rule on Animal Food Production Released
The preventive controls in the proposed regulations would apply to domestic and imported animal food, including pet food, animal feed, and raw materials and ingredients. The CGMPs, while similar to the proposed human food CGMPs, are not identical; they do not address certain practices that do not pertain to animal food, such as allergen cross-contact, according to the FDA.
News: 'Identify, Capture, and Share': Essence of New Dairy/Deli/Bakery Traceability Guideline
The guide was developed jointly by GS1 US, the International Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association, and the International Dairy Foods Association. It applies to all types of dairy, deli and bakery products, and includes detailed instructions on product identification, use of batch/lots numbers, barcodes, and other traceability standards. A step-by-step recall guide is also included.


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The Top 10 In Action Sports
01Bored Of Commuting? Next Year You Could Be Able To Get To Work By Trampoline
0210 Mountain Bike Inventions That Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time
03Want To Be A Better Skater? These Scientific Secrets Will Help You On Your Way
04It Has Killed Five People, But This Monster Wave Looks Pretty Different Beneath The Surface…
05How To Be A Slightly Less Sh*t Surfer
06This Is What Happens When You Take A Bike On A Bungee Jump
07The Biggest Underground Bike Park Ever Is Opening Next Month... And It Looks Insane
08What's It Like To Wakeboard Behind A Million Pound Ferrari? This Guy Gave It A Go...
09This Australian Ski Edit Is One Of The Best You'll See All Year...
10GoPro Are Giving Away $20,000 To Whoever Rides The Best Line This Winter…
DEATH Skateboards 'Ordinary Madness' Documentary
A Skateboarding video by deathskateboards - 2,580 views
What we have here is a full 12 minutes of goodness taking you from the early beginnings of DEATH, the 5 year process of the new DVD, the UK premiere tour featuring the whole team and then at the end you can check out the new DEATH X Monster mini ramp that we surprised the team with in celebration of all the hard work they put in over the past 5 years filming for Ordinary Madness!
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The Estrangement of Charles Eastman and Elaine Goodale Eastman
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- WIGWAM EVENINGS (Book). Mathews, Rebecca Carnes // Journal of the West;Fall2002, Vol. 41 Issue 4, p101
Reviews the book 'Wigwam Evenings: 27 Sioux Folk Tales,' by Charles Alexander Eastman and Elaine Goodale Eastman.
- Smoky Day's Wigwam Evenings. // Education;Jun1911, Vol. 31 Issue 10, p709
The article reviews the book "Smoky Day's Wigwam Evenings," Charles Alexander Eastman and Elaine Goodale Eastman.
- DR. EASTMAN PINE RIDGE PHYSICIAN. // South Dakota Magazine;May/Jun2007, Vol. 24 Issue 1, p51
The article features South Dakota Hall of Fame inductee Charles Eastman. It is stated that Eastman, as a boy, lived the free nomadic existence of his Sioux ancestors. He attended the Santee Mission School in Nebraska and went to receive his bachelor of science (B.S.) degree from Darmouth College...
- "Indian for a While": Charles Eastman's "Indian Boyhood" and the Discourse of Allotment. Carlson, David J. // American Indian Quarterly;Fall2001, Vol. 25 Issue 4, p604
Relates the life of American Indian, Charles Alexander Eastman. Relocation of Eastman's family; Desire to act as cultural mediator between whites and Native Americans; Significance of Eastman's book, "Indian Boyhood."
- Mayhem among the Metis. Fuller, Patty // Alberta Report / Newsmagazine;10/4/93, Vol. 20 Issue 42, p16
Examines the Metis Nation of Alberta, which currently faces charges of nepotism, corruption and election fraud. Losing candidates in MNA's September 7, 1993, election have charged winning incumbent Gerald Thom with blatantly manipulating the membership lists. Terms of the 1990 Metis Settlement...
- The first Canadians. P.F. // Alberta Report / Newsmagazine;10/4/93, Vol. 20 Issue 42, p17
Provides a history of the Canadian Metis, originally the offspring of marriages between French, Scottish or English traders and Cree or Ojibway women. Indian wives proved to be invaluable assets to the fur trade, acting as guides and interpreters, making snowshoes and preserving skins. ...
- Settling down in Alberta. P.F. // Alberta Report / Newsmagazine;10/4/93, Vol. 20 Issue 42, p19
Offers a look at the eight Metis settlements in Alberta (out of an original 12), which received a 1.24 million acre land grant and $310 million in cash from former Alberta Premier Don Getty in 1990. The settlements have municipal-style governments and one from each sits on the Metis Settlements...
- The Gift of My People. Ohiyesa // Earth Island Journal;Winter93/94, Vol. 9 Issue 1, p43
Presents an essay, entitled `The Gift of My People,' by Ohiyesa, a member of the Santee tribe of the Dakota nation.
- Ohiyesa. // Rourke's Native American History & Culture Encyclopedia;Jun2009, Issue 6, p40
Information on a man named Ohiyesa or Charles Eastman, is presented.


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ORLANDO, FL - FEB 13: The Tree of Life and tourists on February 13, 2012 in Orlando, Florida. Animal Kingdom is the largest single Disney theme park in the world covering more than 500 acres.
Editorial Use Only: Use of this image in advertising or for promotional purposes is prohibited unless additional clearances are secured by the licensee. 123RF.com does not provide any clearance services.


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I am thinking of having a flamenco unit in one of my spring courses, and this is an interesting collection of lyrics. What do you recommend?
I am thinking of having a flamenco unit in one of my spring courses, and this is an interesting collection of lyrics. What do you recommend?
…decide what this paper, which feels alien, has to do with my book, which does not.
Filed under Questions, Resources, Theories, What Is A Scholar?
It is like self-injury, or is self-injury. It has been happening since Reeducation said (or seemed to say, or communicated) I did not deserve to be enjoying life as I was, to be in as good health as I was or to have achieved the things I had.
I should stop following any Reeducated recommendations.
I should also give myself credit: I am working on something now that throws almost my whole life in my face. I could: give myself credit for this on the one hand, and on the other remember that objectively, it is just a little project.
I feel healed now.
But the mistreatment has a payoff, namely, that one gets to become ill, and to recover. (That is as though one only deserved a nice day as compensation for suffering. It also means one is convalescing instead of living well. The cycle is: self-injure, convalesce, repeat.)
That means it is a strategy for hobbling. And I would love to see what I would be like, and what my life would be like, unhobbled. But on the other hand: if I were only self-injuring moderately, I would not notice it and others would not, but I would still be undermining myself. It is almost as though I had magnified the phenomenon so as to be able to see what it is.
The destructive aspect of being ill and recovering: one does not get to do the things one could do if well.
The constructive aspect: one gets some time to think, time to see what underlies, and time off the straight and narrow (because otherwise one is doing what one should and what is correct and practical … since what one wants does not appear to available or attainable …).
The straight and narrow path I seem to be rejecting by engaging in self-harm: doing as one is told.
What I would like: not more obedience but rather, the vista of life unhobbled, life without self-harm.
My problem, still, is still about granting myself authority of any kind, and allowing myself to be at the center of my own life.
Why do I engage in self-harm? So that my mother will love me. Which I need her to do since I need her shelter.
But my mother is dead.
I must reoccupy good living. When I used to live well, treat myself well, enjoy life, be good to myself, do things during the day that advanced me, it was not because I was on the straight and narrow but because I was on the path of pleasure.
I would like to see what life is like without this. Not just a few days — I do manage that often enough — but months on end.
Yet it still feels as though Reeducation had killed the person who did so many beautiful things, the subject of those acts.
But one of my friends signs all correspondence, "Onward."
Filed under Banes, Da Whiteman, Questions, Resources, Theories
There are many video and streaming activities I cannot yet make work in Linux. I must learn how and the instructions I am finding, are not working. Do you have Linux? Is there a Linux users' group in your area?
This was what that psychotherapy got me in touch with and said was the real me, that I needed to come out of denial about being. It is true that as a small child I was very ashamed of being such a deficient and also inadvertently mean person. I was afraid of being thrown out on the street if I made any further errors at all, or if I did not manage to function entirely at the service and for the pleasure of my caregiver. I knew that nobody else would put up with me, and my death on the street would be long and painful. I was willing to give a great deal of myself in exchange for avoiding that.
All of this is true but in contradistinction to the views of my Reeducative therapist, it did not mean I could not grow out of it, or had not already grown out of a large part of it. It did not mean that all the things I had done in spite of this were illegitimate, illusory, or fake.
"Do you mean you are going to take more of a stand, rather than remain silent? I pride myself for being able to glimpse in a person that elusive quality of heightened awareness. YOU ARE TRULY BRILLIANT, GOD DAMNIT. Please just admit it."
It is difficult to do that because it would be to say I am not like the others. Yet I notice that many others are as imperfect as I and they still allow themselves things. I also note that not only am I not unintelligent. I am also not all that unhealthy, or all that cruel. It is not mean to say you are an individual, or to disagree with others, or to have high standards, or to experience joy. These are things people have said, but they are not necessarily true.
Sleeping the sleep of the guilty. Waking up in the morning already screaming at myself. Spending most of each day trying to stop, trying to talk myself out of that point of view. How to limit this phenomenon by some measure that does not appear to be a disciplinary measure?
How to be kind? (For many years I woke up happy and sprang up, and slept an innocent sleep.)
Filed under Banes, Da Whiteman, Questions, Resources, Theories, What Is A Scholar?
The other thing the academic advisors do not understand is that quality of life does matter and should in fact come first. Any philosopher would tell you that. If there actually are people who only care about publishing certain books and teaching at the tertiary level and can do this well in any circumstances and at any personal price, then that is well and good, but it does not follow that people who are interested in the life of the mind more broadly, and who do want some quality of life, are "not serious enough" or "not interested enough" or are seeking great rewards beyond the interesting nature of the work itself. The moralistic finger-shaking of the academic advisors assumes and recommends masochism if not outright self-hatred, and I discern that it is where I get some of the self-hatred I do not enjoy.
And the problem I have been having with this paper is that I have not been following my own advice, which is to write a page a day, and read after going to the pool. This has always worked for me for everything, since the sixth grade. It was when psychotherapy asked me to use that writing time to write endless confessions and workbook entries that I stopped — not just because of the time it took but because what I was writing was the systematic dismantling of myself as a person.
Also, people refuse to recognize that I suffer because of these years of dismantling and the result, which is a very difficult life, and not because of a mysterious genetic disease to be corrected with pills. "If left untreated, symptoms of clinical or major depression may worsen and last for years. They can cause untold suffering and possibly lead to suicide," says one source I am reading now. I would say, if not treated in a competent enough way. I would like to get through to somebody on this.
I seem to be impossible to comprehend since I am in worse pain than people recognize yet not as neurotic or deluded as they appear to expect. I keep saying that living well and getting to the root of things is the answer, whereas they seem to be more used to people who only want to ease suffering and accept limitations. It is as though one had only two choices: (a) be unhappy, yet functional and (b) be disabled to one degree or another. I may be yelping more than the people in either group, but I do not think I am ultimately in as bad shape.
But I am also just out of practice, and I keep forgetting. I always slept, and I always went to the pool, and I always wrote a page each morning and read each afternoon. I always had a clean house with groceries in it, and I always had recreation. The idea that these habits were mere "coping mechanisms" that were helping me to "remain in denial," and that I should lose them so as to be able to "feel my true feelings" is so ludicrous … and if it had been presented to me directly instead of insinuated slowly, I would have laughed.
There were other things that happened in that psychotherapy as well, and that were similarly ludicrous, but that I absorbed because I wanted to stand up to standard academic advice and did not dare. So the idea that I was working on Vallejo for really dark reasons (darker than my actual ones, which are dark enough in their way) became something I considered because in fact I wanted to do something different with the project than what I had been told I must, and I did not quite dare to take my own academic advice.
And the issue has always been the lack of kindred spirits, and that is why it is important to be where there are some, and not to back down on this. People hated Rebecca Schumann for saying that but I think that is a sign of poor mental health on their part, not on hers.
So I will allow myself to be a grown-up and take my own advice, and write a page every day, and read after going to the pool, and sleep, and have recreation. I will live as I did before, yet even moreso. This is what it means, in the immediate term at least, to be good to oneself – even if the question what can I do for ME today? inspires the spontaneous answer of putting the house on the market, packing up and driving to the Santa Monica Pier, and even if my most successful colleague recently did just that without a job to go to, saying "Anyplace I could live would be better than here, including under a bridge."
Also, every time I write about the past I say it is the last time, but it keeps coming up in different ways. That is why I wanted to move to a different life; contemplating that darkness is not always useful although the darkness of the dark needs to be combatted. What I would like ideally is a time during the day or week to think about that, and to live well and in the present the rest of the time.
It is as though I were refusing that, living well in the present, because it is only a first step. I will not be satisfied with the results of the first step and I will be asked to be satisfied. Perhaps I can go ahead and take that first step if I also do not require myself to think it is enough.
Filed under Banes, Da Whiteman, News, Questions, Resources, Theories, What Is A Scholar?
"Do you mean you are going to take more of a stand, rather than remain silent? . . . I pride myself for being able to glimpse in a person that elusive quality of heightened awareness. . . . YOU ARE TRULY BRILLIANT, GOD DAMNIT. Please just admit it. . . . "
That is from someone who writes every year or two. I met him long ago when I had just started my depression; he asked why I had it and I said it was because I had contracted self-hatred from psychotherapy. We are both unmoored primordially for reasons having to with our translucent mothers, and for this reason we understand each other. Today I explained that the reason I am not at the top of my field ni mucho menos is that I am constantly trying to limit my intelligence and awareness so my mother can love me and I can survive.
It is constantly confusing to me that if you are not highly intelligent and high achieving you will not get tenure and will be thrown out on the street, while at the same time if you do have these characteristics, your mother will not love you and will throw you out on the street. I never knew which path to choose, which one would give me the longest run.
But this excruciating childhood dilemma is the reason I have wanted to get off the straight and narrow, away from atmospheres in which things had to be approved, to other atmospheres where they might simply be lost or won. I suffer with academic research and writing in my original field because for me it is about obedience, approval-seeking, and honorific writing about great men. It is definitely not exploration or learning or assertion or expression or the advancement of knowledge. These associations are what I have against it.
It is interesting to see these things. It is encouraging that do not feel the same way about the field I moved into, and that I would have moved into sooner if I had not followed (or tried to follow) the most conservative academic advice. But thinking about Vallejo — not thinking about him, but having to produce something about him — throws me into this really negative and desperate space, where I must write something meaningless and inferior to survive and at the same time, I may be exiled for writing anything at all.
Both options are so deadly and also so do not have to do with my actual life. Qui écrit? I have writing difficulty to prove to Reeducation and to my mother that I am more than a coldhearted scientist and that I therefore deserve to survive, and also because writing meaningless and inferior things for the sake of survival is such a dismal prospect. Who else can I be? In contradistinction to what my father sometimes said about what he was writing, I do not think that what I have to say is meaningless or inferior. I would also say that the idea that one is writing to survive is too much of a distraction.
"Do you mean you are going to take more of a stand, rather than remain silent? I pride myself for being able to glimpse in a person that elusive quality of heightened awareness. YOU ARE TRULY BRILLIANT, GOD DAMNIT. Please just admit it."
Filed under Banes, Questions, What Is A Scholar?


text:
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation:
Contract Management Needs Improvement
T-HEHS-00-199: Published: Sep 21, 2000. Publicly Released: Sep 21, 2000.
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
(202) 512-7202
Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's (PBGC) management of its contracting responsibilities, focusing on: (1) the basis for PBGC's decisions regarding the use of contractors versus government personnel to address its workloads; (2) PBGC's processes and procedures for selecting contractors; and (3) how effective PBGC has been in monitoring the performance of its contractors.
GAO noted that: (1) PBGC's contracting decisions and its organizational field structure have been heavily influenced by the need to service rapidly increasing workloads within existing federal staffing limitations; (2) because PBGC's focus was on obtaining needed staff quickly, it has not linked its contracting decisions to workload trends or strategic planning considerations and could be unprepared for future work environment changes; (3) GAO also identified weaknesses in PBGC's procurement planning and execution processes; (4) in particular, PBGC's consolidation of three formerly separate field office services procurements was not supported by a sound business rationale and may have limited competition; (5) for several other field office procurements, PBGC should have done more to stimulate competition by conducting market research to identify additional potential offerors; (6) in reviewing several other contracts, GAO identified additional weaknesses, including the need for PBGC to better document its basis for contractor awards and use more fixed-price rather than labor-hour contracts, which carry more cost and quality assurance risks; and (7) GAO also identified contractor oversight problems, including a lack of centralized data essential to monitoring contractor performance and deficiencies in PBGC's quality assurance review process.
Nov 21, 2014
Defense Logistics:Greater Awareness of Recommendations and Improvements in Data Quality Needed to Resolve Container-Management ChallengesGAO-15-114: Published: Nov 21, 2014. Publicly Released: Nov 21, 2014.
Nov 14, 2014
2013 Government Shutdown:Three Departments Reported Varying Degrees of Impacts on Operations, Grants, and ContractsGAO-15-86: Published: Oct 15, 2014. Publicly Released: Nov 14, 2014.
Nov 13, 2014
Program Evaluation:Some Agencies Reported that Networking, Hiring, and Involving Program Staff Help Build CapacityGAO-15-25: Published: Nov 13, 2014. Publicly Released: Nov 13, 2014.
Nov 12, 2014
Federal Real Property:Strategic Focus Needed to Help Manage Vast and Diverse Warehouse PortfolioGAO-15-41: Published: Nov 12, 2014. Publicly Released: Nov 12, 2014.
Oct 31, 2014
Government Efficiency and Effectiveness:Inconsistent Definitions and Information Limit the Usefulness of Federal Program InventoriesGAO-15-83: Published: Oct 31, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 31, 2014.
Oct 30, 2014
Federal Real Property:More Useful Information to Providers Could Improve the Homeless Assistance ProgramGAO-14-739: Published: Sep 30, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 30, 2014.
Oct 27, 2014
U.S. Postal Service:Information on Recent Changes to Delivery Standards, Operations, and PerformanceGAO-14-828R: Published: Sep 25, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 27, 2014.
Oct 24, 2014
Managing for Results:Selected Agencies Need to Take Additional Efforts to Improve Customer ServiceGAO-15-84: Published: Oct 24, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 24, 2014.
Oct 20, 2014
Federal Paid Administrative Leave:Additional Guidance Needed to Improve OPM DataGAO-15-79: Published: Oct 17, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 20, 2014.
Oct 9, 2014
Market Research:Better Documentation Needed to Inform Future Procurements at Selected AgenciesGAO-15-8: Published: Oct 9, 2014. Publicly Released: Oct 9, 2014.
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