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Wisconsin: Victims Without Recourse
"The legal climate in Wisconsin right now is the most hostile to the protection of the rights of victims of sexual abuse by clergy in the USA," says attorney Jeffrey Anderson, of St. Paul, Minn., an expert in civil lawsuits for clergy abuse.
That unenviable status is the result of a 1995 decision by the state Supreme Court, then and now dominated by Roman Catholic judges. Although hundreds of plaintiffs against churches for sexual abuse surfaced in the early 1990s, they have all but vanished.
In a 4-2 ruling in Pritzlaff v. Archdiocese of Milwaukee, June 27, 1995, the Supreme Court ruled against the right of a woman to sue the archdiocese over a marriage-wrecking relationship with a priest.
In the sweeping decision, the state Supreme Court said the First Amendment prohibited it from taking a case ruling on whether the Catholic Church or any other religious denomination had improperly hired, supervised or trained its professional workers.
The decision killed a lawsuit brought by "Susan Smith," alleging she was raped by Father William Effinger at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Kenosha when she was 8 or 9 years old. The church pursued a judgment against her, assessing her $10,199.39 for the church's legal costs. Sources: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 2002; April 17, 2002
Milwaukee Journal Killed Stories
While news media deserve credit for breaking stories on the cover-up of ministers preying on minors, in the mid-1990s, the Milwaukee Journal became part of the cover-up.
Freelance Milwaukee journalist Joel McNally reports that Bishop Rembert Weakland and an "entourage of church officials" met with editor Mary Jo Meisner demanding that she kill a reporter's investigative stories. The series would have detailed how the archdiocese had paid millions of dollars of hush money to silence victims of pedophile priests who were being moved from parish to parish. Meisner stood firm.
But, McNally reports, when Weakland went to "higher-ups" at the newspaper, he prevailed and the stories never ran.
When the Journal and Sentinel merged, McNally noted, the reporter was pulled off the religion beat and was "exiled to covering suburban village board meetings."
"Who knows how many children could have been spared" if the series had run, McNally wonders. Source: Capital Times [Madison, WI], April 6, 2002
Female Victims Overlooked
"Of the priests we've evaluated, more abuse girls than abuse boys," says Gary Schoener, a psychologist who, with his staff at the Minneapolis Walk-in Counseling Center, has counseled more than 2,000 victims of clergy since 1974.
Schoener says he sees six times more females (adolescent and adult) than male victims of priests. He estimates that 98% of all priest sex cases are settled out of court.
"The sexual abuse of a boy is treated far more seriously, and is considered a far worse offense than girls or women."
A.W. Richard Sipe, who has conducted studies and written books on the sex lives of priests, said he agrees with Schoener--a majority of priest victims are female, most of them adult.
"Everything's always about the altar boys. It's like nothing ever happened to the girls," says Terrie Light, West Coast regional director of SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests).
Light was 8 when, looking for her mother in the rectory in the Oakland diocese, she was reportedly raped by a priest. Sources: Sacramento Bee, March 21, 2002; Salon, March 27, 2002
Wedded to the Right
President Bush, unveiling his welfare overhaul at a Catholic church in Washington, D.C., included a proposal to commit hundreds of millions of tax dollars for welfare to the promotion of marriage.
In addition to up to $135 million for "abstinence education," Bush wants to funnel $22 million in public money, approved by Congress for child support collection, to pro-marriage experiments in about 15 communities.
Bush and "fatherhood" czar Wade Horn, of the Administration for Children and Families, also want to incorporate "marriage and fatherhood" messages into Head Start, childcare, welfare, and programs for runaway and homeless youth.
Bush will be asking Congress to allocate up to $300 million in federal and state money to "pro-marriage experiments" when it renews the welfare law this year.
Sacramento Chaplaincy Backed
Sacramento County supervisors voted 4-0 in late March to continue to fund a chaplaincy program which had required participants to be Christian.
Law Enforcement Chaplaincy-Sacramento, formed in 1977, now has about 70 volunteer chaplains who provide "pastoral care" to law enforcement officers, their families and crime victims. The chaplaincy receives most of its funds from payroll deductions, as well as $32,000 from the county, and $15,000 from the city.
In November it was revealed the bylaws require chaplains to sign a statement of faith professing to be followers of Jesus Christ. Chaplains also signed an "ethics code" agreeing not to preside over marriages of "improper persons"--such as gays and nonbelievers. The chaplaincy, finally capitulating after a public outcry, recently agreed to accept participants of all faiths and to drop its "ethics" requirement.
Officials will not renew a Probation Department agreement, in which the group received a 10% fee for administering a contract for chaplain services at juvenile detention facilities.
"First Amendment Not a Shield"
The Florida Supreme Court ruled in March that the Constitution does not protect churches from lawsuits charging clergy sexual abuse.
Said the court: "The First Amendment does not provide a shield behind which a church may avoid liability" for negligent hiring and supervision of its clergy members.
State/Church Briefs
Priest helps run CUNY. The New York Senate in mid-April confirmed a priest and top church administrator as a City of University New York trustee, despite opposition to his stands against abortion, contraception and gay rights. Gov. George Pataki nominated Rev. John Bonnici, who directs the Archdiocese of New York's Family Life/Respect Life Office.
Just what Afghans need--more religion. The U.S. Agency for International Development will spend $6.5 million in taxpayer funds to produce textbooks, including Islamic teachings and verses from the Koran, for Afghanistan's schools. The USAID is giving a grant to the University of Nebraska at Omaha to provide textbooks and teacher-training kits to the schools.
Oh, we got trouble. A pastor should be present at all city cabinet-level meetings, according to Rev. Carlton N. Pressley, the new senior religious adviser of Mayor Anthony A. Williams, Washington, D.C. Pressley and the rest of the mayor's 65-member Interfaith Council were "installed" at an evening service at Metropolitan Baptist Church in late February, with a keynote by Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Christians, teens, NRA. The Christian Coalition, a group of teenagers with Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney of the antiabortion Christian Defense Coalition, and the National Rifle Association have all filed separate lawsuits challenging restrictions on campaign spending signed into law by President Bush this spring.
One-upping Judge Moore? Rather than being given the right to marry, "gays and lesbians should be put in some type of mental institution," wrote George County Justice Court Judge Connie Wilkerson, of Mississippi, in a published letter to the George County Times on March 28. He added: "You need to know, as I know, that God in heaven is not pleased with this and I am sounding the alarm."
Ohio Department's intelligent decision. After a hairy two-month push by creationists for inclusion of "intelligent design" in school textbooks, the Ohio Education Department issued a new draft in April with no changes in its position that students will be taught evolution. The State Board of Education--infiltrated by "intelligent design" supporters--has a Dec. 31 deadline to vote on the standards.
Publicly funded religious diatribes. Florida state Rep. Randy Ball, R-Brevard County, sent a letter on House stationery to Florida newspapers in late March, which the St. Petersburg Times characterized as a "religious diatribe," condemning "homosexuality as an abomination" and speaking of a "transcendent God." Earlier in March, Ball sent out emails on his state computer invoking Jesus Christ and condemning gay adoption. Ball defended his use of state equipment and stationery: "This country runs and operates on the Judeo-Christian ethic that comes out of the bible."
One Nigerian mother saved. After an international outcry, a Nigerian mother of five sentenced to die by stoning for "adultery" after a rape, was freed on March 25--but another woman has received the same sentence under Islamic shariah rules. Amina Lawal Kurami, charged with having a baby out of wedlock, is now appealing her death sentence.
Ireland says "no" to Catholic Church. The Irish electorate in March narrowly rejected a constitutional amendment further restricting abortion, promoted by the Catholic Church in opposition to a Supreme Court judgment allowing abortions for suicidal women.
Legislators walk out. Six lawmakers walked out during a March 5 morning prayer in the Colorado Senate by a Greeley pastor, who prayed to Jesus for lawmakers to accept Jesus and to reverse Roe vs. Wade.
Charter profiteering. A California state panel said in March it found "mind-boggling" mismanagement and profiteering at 40 out of 87 public charter schools serving home-study students in California at a cost of $4,800 per pupil. More than 20 charters were unevaluated due to missing deadlines.
A licensed atheist. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles sent a February notice to Steven Miles of Gainesville, revoking his "ATHEIST" license plate as "obscene or objectionable." After a public outcry, the Department reneged the order in March.
"Permeated with fraud." The Federal Trade Commission has gone to court to shut down "Miss Cleo's psychic hotline," with Florida authorities joining the states of Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in filing separate suits.
Florida code pushes religion. By a 9-4 vote on April 4, a negotiating team approved a compromise to a 1,800-page rewrite of Florida's school code, pushed by Gov. Jeb Bush, which includes provisions allowing students to pray, preach and distribute religious literature. Many senators warned it comes with a million-dollar price tag in expected lawsuits.
Florida voucher scandal. The St. Petersburg Times published an April expose about Florida's $25-million-a-year voucher program, revealing that entrepreneur educators Art and Angel Rocker, who stand to collect $1.5 million in school voucher money this year, are quitting. The rightwing couple is leaving church leaders in charge of the church schools, dogged by complaints of teacher turnover, low pay, and even using food banks to feed students.
Arizona charter revoked over religion. The Arizona Board of Education voted in late March to revoke the state's first charter school, with a Glendale school accused of illegally promoting religion with its $1.1 million in tax support.
Saving clergy tax breaks. The House of Representatives voted 408-0 in mid-April to approve H.R. 4156, clarifying the "parsonage" exemption that ministers, priests and rabbis have received for housing since 1921. The legislation, which moved into the Senate, codifies the IRS' most restrictive practice of permitting clergy to deduct the "fair rental value" of their homes.
Ashcroft's Folly
Justice Department staff complained in March that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has added singalongs of his own song to the routine at his daily prayer meetings. When asked by the Guardian why she objected, a department lawyer replied: "Have you heard the song? It really sucks."
Ashcroft launched into a lusty 4-minute rendition of "Let the Eagle Soar" following a recent speech to a seminary. Excerpts of the tape repeatedly have run on CBS' David Letterman Show, but Ashcroft declined to reprise his "hit" during an April appearance there.
The Guardian reported the AG even asked for Hispanic volunteers to translate his song into Spanish. An excerpt: "Soar with healing in her wings, As the land beneath her sings. Only God, no other kings. Let the mighty eagle soar."
A clip of Ashcroft's unusual performance, showcasing a Pentecostal-style vibrato, which must be seen to be believed, is at: http://cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/025/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html (download RealPlayer at real.com to play).
"Should the Praying Mantis Be Our State Insect?"
The following letter, written by a Foundation member, was published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press [March 28]:
The Legislature has passed and the governor approved the image of a praying male figure as an official "state photograph." Can we next expect a state religious watercolor or oil painting? Will we need a state weed or state cloud formation? Should the praying mantis be our state insect?
In addition to making Minnesota appear silly, there is a serious aspect. The insinuation of religious themes in governmental affairs is an insult to the 14 percent of Americans who do not have a god belief. And it weakens the constitutional separation of church and state.
Shame on the Legislature for passing this bill.
--William Van Druten, Minnesota
On the Road with Tunes 'n 'Toons
Squaring Off at Temple Square
An "UnHoly Trinity": Steve Clark, who heads the Salamander Society; cartoonist and former Mormon Steve Benson; and Foundation staffer Dan Barker, in front of the aptly named Temple "Square" during the April General Conference weekend in Salt Lake City.
Entertaining at Ex-Mo's Expo
Taking Mormonism by storm: Steve Benson and Dan Barker, seated by a "disclaimer" at the Salt Lake City Public Library, where the two performed their inimitable cartoon-music revue, "Tunes 'n 'Toons," on April 6 and 7--blasphemously coinciding with the Mormon General Conference. But no disclaimer was needed for this crowd--the program was sponsored by the Salamander Society, made up of irreverent ex-Mormons.
Steve, a Pulitzer Prize-winning daily editorial cartoonist, is the grandson of the late Ezra Taft Benson, the former Mormon president. Dan, a piano-player and songwriter who used to be an evangelical minister, is public relations director for the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Rubbing salt into Salt Lake City, the two included several new parodies of Mormon-style hymns.
The two performances before "Latter-Day 'Aints" give new meaning to the term "Mormon missionaries."
Pardners in Crime, Dallas-Style
Dan and Steve entertained the Atheist Alliance annual convention in Dallas over Easter "Unholy Weekend" in late March, with their fusion of cartoons and musical commentary on religion and state/church relations. The Dallas program spotlighted commentary on former Texas Gov. George Bush, and the discriminatory Boy Scouts of America, headquartered in nearby Irving, Texas.
That "yellow rose of Texas between two thorns" is Foundation officer Catherine Fahringer, of Texas.
Music Was His Religion
In Spanish: Brahms, el Librepensador
How many parents, soothing their children to sleep with Brahms's Lullaby, know they are singing a melody written by a freethinker?
Johannes Brahms, the great German composer known as the "3rd B" (after Bach and Beethoven), did not believe in a god.
Born in 1833--the same year as American freethinker Robert G. Ingersoll--Brahms shed his Christian upbringing early, though not without being fully informed. Jan Swafford, in Johannes Brahms: A Biography, writes of the young composer: "Though he was to be a freethinker in religion, Johannes pored over the Bible beyond the requirements for his Protestant confirmation." From then on, "Music was Brahms's religion."
In his teens, Brahms would prop books of poetry on the piano to divert himself while playing for drunken sailors in a Hamburg bar. His favorite poet, from whom many of his lyrics sprang, was the anticlerical G. F. Daumer, described by the Catholic Encyclopedia as an "enemy of Christianity" who "strove to substitute a new religion 'of love and peace.' " (In later years, Daumer converted to Catholicism.) Brahms's works were also influenced by philosophy and literature, including Hoffman, Schiller, Robert Burns, Jean Paul, and Friedrich Hšlderlin. He had a keen interest in science, and could hold his own debating politics, literature, religion and philosophy.
An avid hiker who loved the outdoors, Brahms often turned to nature for ideas. "A great deal of his music," writes Swafford, "in its inspiration and spirit, rose from mountains and forests and open sky." The melody for the finale of the C-minor Symphony actually traces the shape of the Alps, as Brahms viewed them during a hike.
Brahms occasionally used biblical texts, but only for artistic reasons. After the death of his mother, he wrote the popular Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem, 1867), but was careful to select only those biblical lyrics that relate to this life and to those who grieve. The Requiem starts with "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted," and avoids talk of eternal salvation. Noticing this secular spin, conductor Karl Reinthaler, who had studied theology and was working closely with Brahms on the Easter Week premiere, wrote to Brahms: "Forgive me, but I wondered if it might not be possible to extend the work in some way that would bring it closer to a Good Friday service . . . what is lacking, at least for a Christian consciousness, is the pivotal point: the salvation in the death of our Lord. . . ."
In other words, what about Jesus?
"Brahms was not about to put up with that sort of thing," Swafford writes. "He was a humanist and an agnostic, and his requiem was going to express that, Reinthaler or no. . . . With the title A German Requiem he intended to convey that this is not the liturgical requiem mass in Latin, nor a German translation of it, but a personal testament, a requiem. Brahms avoided dogma in the piece for the same reason . . . even if the words come from the Bible, this was his response to death as a secular, skeptical, modern man."
Brahms responded politely but firmly to Reinthaler: "As far as the text is concerned, I confess that I would gladly omit even the word German and instead use Human; also with my best knowledge and will I would dispense with places like John 3:16. On the other hand, I have chosen one thing or another because I am a musician, because I needed it, and because with my venerable authors I can't delete or dispute anything. But I had better stop before I say too much."
He had already said enough! The verse Brahms explicitly discards is central to Christianity: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Swafford concludes: "Brahms means that he could do without that verse and that dogma, in Ein deutsches Requiem and in his life. If he was a North German Protestant by tradition and temperament, he was not in his faith, which like all his convictions Brahms held close to his chest. For himself he would not call Christ a particular son of God. Meanwhile, to Reinthaler he downplays the theology of some verses he does use, saying, 'I can't delete or dispute anything' from Scripture. With that he obliquely confesses that even the hints of resurrection lingering in his texts are not his own sentiments. At the end of his Requiem, the dead are not reborn but released: 'they rest from their labors.' It is that rest from his own lonely labors that Brahms yearned for someday, as his mother rested from her life of poverty and toil."
When Brahms sometimes spoke of immortality, it was metaphorically, jokingly. To his publisher, he once wrote: "Done! What is done? The violin concerto? No. . . . One knows nothing definite; even the most credulous doesn't. . . . And I am credulous. Indeed, I believe in immortality--; I believe that when an immortal dies, people will keep on for 50,000 years and more, talking idiotically and badly about him--thus I believe in immortality, without which beautiful and agreeable attribute I have the honor to be--Your J. Br."
To his friend Richard Heuberger, Brahms, who never married, said, "Apart from Frau Schumann I'm not attached to anybody with my whole soul! And truly that is terrible and one should neither think such a thing nor say it. Is that not a lonely life! Yet we can't believe in immortality on the other side. The only true immortality lies in one's children."
Clara Schumann, by the way, the virtuoso pianist and composer who was a true life-long friend of Brahms, also had little use for the church. "Performing was her religion," Swafford observes. "The world saw Clara Schumann as a priestess, something like a saint. If there is such a thing as a secular saint, surely she was one."
Brahms also used non-biblical gods for his own purposes. The text for Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates, 1882) is from Goethe's Iphigenia: "Let the race of man, Fear the gods! They hold the power, In eternal hands, And they use it, As they please. . . ." However, Swafford notes that Brahms's own "gods" were earthly, not supernatural: "When he said to George Henschel, 'As much as we men . . . are above the creeping things of the earth, so these gods are above us!' the gods he spoke of were his personal ones, his real religion: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and the others. Now he approached his age with the gods of the earth vanished, and the ones in the heavens silent and unapproachable."
While working on NŠnie, his commemoration of the death of his friend, the painter Anselm Feuerbach, Brahms wrote another friend: "Won't you try to find me some words? . . . The ones in the Bible are not heathen enough for me. I've bought the Koran but can't find anything there either."
Brahms was not just a nominal unbeliever. He often had well-thought opinions on religion. Pastor and playwright Josef Widmann, who once expressed to Brahms his support of the Theological Reform movement in Switzerland, was surprised to find Brahms "not only cognizant of the issue but with forceful and contrary opinions about it." Brahms pronounced it "a half-measure that would satisfy neither the pious nor the freethinkers," Swafford writes.
Remarkable for that time and place, Brahms was never anti-Semitic. "Toward the end of his life," Swafford notes, "responding to the antisemitism that had become endemic in Austrian politics, Brahms was heard to growl, 'Next week I'm going to have myself circumcised!' . . . Brahms may have idolized Bismarck and the authoritarian Prussians, but he remained a liberal and a democrat at heart."
When the Christian Socialists finally elected Karl Lueger vice-mayor of Vienna in 1895, ending the long liberal rule, turning Austria formally anti-Semitic from then until Hitler, Brahms remarked to his friends: "Didn't I tell you years ago that it was going to happen? You laughed at me then and everybody else did too. Now it's here, and with it the priests' economic system. If there was an 'Anticlerical Party'--that would make sense! But antisemitism is madness!"
Brahms hated the music of Anton Bruckner, a devout believer whose works were later performed with gusto by the Nazis. "Everything is affectation with him, nothing is natural," Brahms said. "As to his piety--that's his business, it's nothing to me."
But Brahms admired the music of Dvor‡k, whom he had helped financially when the young Bohemian was a struggling writer. In later years, they had occasion to become well acquainted. "As the two of them talked," Swafford writes about one of their long conversations, "Brahms rambled on about his agnosticism, his growing interest in Schopenhauer, the philosopher of pessimism (Wagner's favorite). On the way back to his hotel with violinist Josef Suk, Dvor‡k was thoughtful and silent. Suddenly he exclaimed with real anguish, 'Such a man, such a fine soul--and he believes in nothing! He believes in nothing!' "
Dvor‡k's "fine soul" assessment was not hyperbole. Brahms the unbeliever was always generous and helpful, sharing his wealth liberally, living simply and humbly, giving of his time and energies to others. Swafford relates an exciting and illuminating event when Brahms was spending the summer of 1885 in MŸrzzuschlag:
"One day a carpenter's shop in his house erupted in flames. Brahms ran from his workroom in shirtsleeves to join the bucket brigade to fight the fire, shouting at well-dressed passersby to lend a hand. In the confusion someone pulled him aside and told him his papers were threatened by the blaze. Brahms thought it over for a second, then returned to the buckets. Richard Fellinger finally extracted from him the key to his room and ran to save the score of the Fourth Symphony. When the fire was out--his rooms were not touched--Brahms shrugged off the threat to his manuscript with 'Oh, the poor people needed help more than I did.' He followed that up by slipping the carpenter money for rebuilding. (He could, after all, have rewritten the symphony from memory.)"
Not only was Brahms's Lullaby (Wiegenlied) written by a freethinker, but its story might be considered scandalous by some Christians. The song was written in honor of the birth of a child of Brahms's friends Bertha and Artur Faber in 1868. Years earlier, Brahms had briefly fallen in love with Bertha when she was a young visitor to his female choir in Hamburg, and during the playful courtship she used to sing him a lilting 3/4-time Viennese melody. The romance ended, but the friendship endured, and the melody that Brahms later composed for the private lullaby was a creative counterpoint to the earlier love song that the child's mother would remember singing to the composer. When he presented the gift to the Fabers, Brahms included this note to her husband: "Frau Bertha will realize that I wrote the 'Wiegenlied' for her little one. She will find it quite in order . . . that while she is singing Hans to sleep, a love song is being sung to her." Bertha was the first person to sing Brahms's Lullaby, both love melodies dancing flirtatiously in her head.
Brahms enjoyed near perfect health until the last few months, not even reporting as much as a headache, rarely visiting a doctor. On the morning Brahms's life ended in Vienna in 1897--he was almost 64, felled by liver cancer long before he was ready to go--there was no death-bed conversion, no regret for living a godless life. Artur Faber (Bertha's husband), had come to the sick man's bed that morning to give him a glass of wine for his thirst. "Oh that tasted fine. You're a kind man," Brahms said, his last recorded words.
Johannes Brahms did not seek immortality, but he got it anyway: not in children, not in heaven, but in the beauty he bequeathed to the world.
Atheists in Foxholes: The Demon-Possessed Woman and the Kindly Deacon
It was a Sunday around 10 a.m. when our engine company was dispatched to a possible seizure at a Baptist church in our district. We arrived to find several frantic people in the church lobby crowded around the patient--a moderately retarded woman in her 40s with a history of epilepsy and diabetes. Her skin color was blue (cyanosis) and she was still actively seizing. Much to my amazement two people on each side of her were physically holding her upright in a chair as she convulsed (not recommended)! I soon learned that she had been seizing for about 10 minutes. The seizure started during church services (which were still in progress even now) and they had carried her out into the lobby while she was still seizing . . . hey, the sermon must go on!
Our first action was to place her on the floor and assist her breathing with oxygen and a bag-valve mask. A lot of other things were being done simultaneously such as airway suctioning, IVs, checking glucose levels (she's diabetic so she may require sugar), and getting med orders for Valium (to stop the convulsions). No sooner had I drawn the proper dose of Valium into the syringe and was preparing to inject it into the IV when this man walks up to us and identifies himself as "a church deacon," after which he says, and I quote:
"Excuse me, but services are about to conclude and I need to clear this area so people can exit. Can you move her [the patient] somewhere else?"
For a moment I just looked at him in stunned silence, not really believing what I had just heard. I looked him in the eye and he just glared back with a smug expression, almost as if to say, "Well, are you going to move her or not?" I only had time to respond, "I think this [situation] is a little more important, don't you? The people can wait!"
Fortunately, once I gave the medication the seizure broke and the patient ultimately recovered. Well, perhaps our actions were of no use after all and Jesus simply chose this precise moment to answer the "healing prayers" from the congregation? Yeah, right! In any event, the good outcome in this case isn't the issue. The issue is the insensitivity displayed by this deacon, and how his Christian beliefs apparently did not inspire him to any sort of special "Christian compassion" for a person in need. No matter where you go in the world you are going to find some people who are compassionate and sensitive to the needs of others, and other people who are not; and what religion they happen to profess, if any at all, makes no difference whatsoever.
The story could end here and my point would be sufficiently made, but there is another issue to address--a scriptural issue that, if true, would probably put me out of a job!
Jesus on Epilepsy
As was related in my account, the woman suffered from epilepsy. And according to the bible, what is the cause of epilepsy? Why "demon possession," of course! Matthew 17:14-18:
When they came to the crowd, a man came to him, knelt before him, and said, "Lord, have mercy on my son, because he is epileptic and suffers terribly. . . ." Then Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him; and the child was healed from that moment.
Many Christian commentaries, embarrassed by Jesus' obvious lack of medical knowledge, attempt to save face. They contend that Jesus did know that there was no such thing as demon possession, but in appearing to expel demons from afflicted persons he was really just curing them of a disease and relating it to the people in a symbolic language they could understand. The problem is that other passages, such as Mark 5:11-13, tell us that Jesus not only expels literal "demons" from people, but even forces them to possess a herd of 2,000 swine. After which, he shows his legendary compassion by forcing the entire herd to drown in a nearby lake! Jesus wasn't too fond of pigs and dogs, and he apparently had some personal issues with fig trees as well. . . .
Other passages also demonstrate literal "demons" as being the cause of sickness and disability (Matthew 8:28-33; Matthew 12:22; Mark 16:17; Acts 19:12, 15-16). Indeed, Jesus himself was accused of being "possessed by Beelzebul" (Mark 3:22; John 8:48). Funny, though, I don't recall "demon possession" ever being discussed as a pathological explanation for seizure disorders in the paramedic school I attended. And for some reason "casting out demons" is frowned upon by my physician advisor.
Maybe I should bring this up at the next paramedic meeting? Maybe not.
Brazen Clutter of Public Landscape
April 5 marked a yearÕs anniversary since a Judge in Adams County ordered the acquittal of Rodney Scott for allegedly removing a roadside memorial. The memorial consisted of a Christian cross and related paraphernalia placed by private citizens on the median strip at the intersection of Interstate 70 and East Colfax Avenue. Shortly after Scott allegedly removed the memorial, it was replaced.
In ordering Rodney ScottÕs acquittal, the judge ruled that roadside memorials erected by private citizens are litter, unlawful advertising, and an unauthorized taking of public property for private use. The Judge also ruled that they are a distraction and present a hazard to the motoring public. Therefore, at the conclusion of ScottÕs case, the Colorado Department of Transportation was asked to remove the roadside memorial at issue and similar memorials. CDOT has refused to do so.
A request was also made to the Adams County Sheriff to ticket those who brazenly clutter the public landscape with these objectionable displays. That request was refused. Bob Grant, the Adams County District Attorney who brought the Scott case, has also refused to file charges against these lawbreakers. Instead, he has appealed the JudgeÕs ruling. However, he did not ask for a stay, meaning that the ruling has all the force and effect of law and that CDOT should be removing these memorials and law enforcement should be prosecuting citizens who erect them.
To make matters worse, not only does the memorial Scott was charged with removing remain standing, new memorials have been popping up all over the State. In fact, such a memorial which contains a large figure of an angel was placed on the front lawn of CDOTÕs Region 1 headquarters and it has been allowed to remain there.
Time and time again we hear our public officials say that the law is the law and that we must obey the law, like it or not. ItÕs obvious that the public officials responsible for implementing the ruling in the Rodney Scott case have decided that this principle does not apply to them. TheyÕll simply refuse to apply the law if it doesnÕt happen to suit their fancy.
"Nod to God" Politicians and the Ten Commandments
A small crowd gathered in downtown Milwaukee on March 27 to witness the removal of a monument of the Ten Commandments from city property where it had stood since 1957.
The ceremony began with remarks by Ald. Jeff Pawlinski serving as spokesman for the Milwaukee Common Council. The events of this day came about because the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals declaring such monuments to be violations of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Disagreeing with the Court but bowing to it, Pawlinski nevertheless lamented the necessary removal of the monument and its return to the Fraternal Order of Eagles, which donated the monument in 1955 in a ceremony with actor Yul Brynner to promote the movie "The Ten Commandments."
Making an apparently obligatory "nod to god," both politicians and Eagles officials, understanding neither the Ten Commandments nor the First Amendment, mourned this "sad" day and pointed the finger of blame at the "notorious Freedom From Religion Foundation," which brought the lawsuit resulting in its removal.
Don Runnells, a spokesman for the Eagles, insisted, "This has nothing to do with religion. It's about morals." Every Christian and Jew in the country ought to cringe at such nonsense. According to Exodus 20 and Deut. 5, the Decalogue was given as a covenant between God and Israel, the equivalent of a treaty between a King and a lesser lord who owed him loyalty.
The Ten Commandments begin with the statement "I am the LORD [YAHWEH] your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." Whatever else the commandments are, they are a profound statement of faith, with each precept a stipulation of a covenant. They were never intended as mere "universal principles" acceptable to all people everywhere, as Stan Thompson of the Fraternal Order of Eagles asserted.
Ald. Pawlinski declared that the commandments are "the foundation of our nation's laws and the very structure of our society." Yet, only three of the commandments (on murder, theft and perjury) deal with modern law. It is not, after all, illegal to "have any other gods," to "misuse the name of the LORD," or work on the Sabbath (Saturday)--unless "blue laws" dictate otherwise. It's not even illegal, in spite of personal moral scruples, to dishonor your parents, commit adultery or "covet your neighbor's house." In a free state, the government has no right to make rules on those matters.
This monument contains not only the Decalogue, but also two stars of David and a Chi Rho symbol, the liturgical symbol of Christ using the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ. In effect, therefore, the monument promotes ("establishes") two religions. Those of other religions or of none at all are pointedly ignored.
It is also significant that the commandments are listed by the Catholic/Lutheran numbering, incorporating the stipulation about idols or graven images (the second commandment to most Protestants) into the first and makes two coveting commandments. A monument containing the Ten Commandments in Dallas, Memphis or Charlotte would likely have the Protestant numbering, listing a separate commandment on "graven images" and only one on coveting. Therefore the monument not only endorses the Judeo-Christian tradition, but a particular form of the Christian religion.
The best statement of the day was by Ald. Don Richards, who said that American liberty is exemplified in the freedom of the group gathered there to speak their minds on the issues involved. On the other hand, Common Council President Marvin Pratt rubbed salt in the wounds of those upholding the constitutional separation of church and state by declaring that from now on the Milwaukee Common Council will begin with prayer.
In his official remarks, Ald. Pawlinski stated that this monument "inspired those who passed by City Hall in the past half century" and that it will continue to "comfort" visitors at its new location at St. Joseph's Hospital.
As one trained in Lutheran theology, I winced at the notion that this monument was meant to comfort and inspire people. A Lutheran axiom asserts the "law always accuses" (lex semper accusat). Paul in Romans says the "law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression" (4:15) and in 3:20, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his [God's] sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin."
The fundamental theological purpose of the law in the New Testament, especially in Paul's theology, is to condemn sinners and to drive them to Christ. To find comfort and inspiration in the Ten Commandments, therefore, on the bible's own terms, is to find comfort in God's condemnation of humankind for violating the commandments. Far from being an inspiration or comfort to all those who pass by, they condemn to hell all those who do not live up to the commandments by thought, word and deed! Those who reduce the Decalogue to a statement of governing principles insult the original purpose of those commandments. Every Jew and every Christian, let alone every unbeliever, ought to protest against such a misuse.
In Luther's catechetical explanation of the Ten Commandments, each command began with the expression "We should fear and love God . . ." as in the (Lutheran/Catholic) fifth commandment, where Luther says "We should fear and love God, and so we should not endanger our neighbor's life, nor cause him any harm, but help and befriend him in every necessity of life." The Decalogue is essentially a religious document.
The courts of the land, therefore, have it absolutely right: To post the Ten Commandments or to endorse them is to establish a religion. The First Amendment speaks precisely to this when it says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."
It's OK to Molest Teens?
Church officials and apologists have come out of the woodwork insisting the image of "pedophile priests" is a "myth." Leading academic proponent of this notion is Philip Jenkins, an Episcopalian, professor and author of Pedophiles and Priests (Oxford University Press, 1996), who writes: "having sex with a 16 or 17 year old boy or girl may be phenomenally stupid and wrong in many ways--immoral, sinful, an abuse of authority--but it's very different from pedophilia, which is the exploitation of prepubescent children. In most of these cases with older teenagers, there's some degree of consent, and in most jurisdictions, they're legal."
Catholic writer Garry Wills lambasts Jenkins' book as a "handy guide to evasion," dignifying Catholic rationalization of a corrupt hierarchy. The church, and Jenkins, promote the term "ephebophile," someone with an interest in "post-pubescent boys or girls."
This distinction was lost on All-Star Pro-Baseball player Tom Paciorek, now 55 and silver-haired, who made a tearful public statement in March about being molested in his teens for 4 years by Rev. Gerald Shirilla. Shirilla was removed by the Archdiocese of Detroit only in March.
Paciorek and his three brothers, unbeknownst to each other, were all molested one by one during the 1960s by Shirilla, who taught at St. Ladislaus Catholic school.
"When you're a kid and you're not able to articulate, who's going to believe you? The church back then was so powerful, there's nothing that a kid could do," recalled Tom's brother, John.
Tom's lowest point, at age 16, was when the priest asked his parents if the boy could spend the weekend at his home. "When I heard my parents say yes, I thought, 'Oh, my god, what is going to happen to me?' " He told the Free-Press that at one point during those 72 hours, he wanted to die: "It was relentless. I mean, I felt like I was a prisoner at his house. . . . I remember saying . . . 'God, is this ever doing to end?' "
Brother Mike "first became a victim of his when I was 8, 9 or 10 years old." Shirilla would lock the door, remove Mike's clothes and say "Your brothers used to love this."
Rembert Weakland, archbishop of Milwaukee, infamously declared in the Catholic Herald, May 1988: "We must not imply that the abuser is not guilty of serious crime, but we could easily give a false impression that any adolescent who becomes sexually involved with an older person does so without any degree of personal responsibility. Sometimes not all adolescent victims are so 'innocent'; some can be sexually very active and aggressive and often quite streetwise."
In an interview with WTMJ-TV in late March, Weakland said that sexual activity with a prepubescent child is very serious and the perpetrator "incurable." But once again he distinguished between children and older minors.
Rebutted Peter Isley, a Milwaukee man abused as a child by a priest:
"Each act of sexual abuse--whether forced upon a child or a minor--creates devastating and lifelong consequences. The laws of our society reflect the belief that the sexual abuse of a minor is a crime. The archdiocese needs to fully support this position and remove all men from the priesthood who have committed criminal acts against youngsters, whether that youngster is prepubescent or post-pubescent." Sources: New York Times, March 22, 2002; Detroit Free Press, March 22, 2002, Boston Globe, March 24, 2002; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 24, 2002
Agency Sees 70 Church Abuse Cases Per Week
Seventy cases a week of child-abuse allegations against American churches come to the attention of the Christian Ministry Resources, a tax and legal-advice publisher serving about 75,000 congregations and 1,000 denominational agencies.
CMR's annual surveys of about 1,000 churches nationwide have sought information on sexual abuse since 1993. Surveys for the last decade have averaged 70 cases a week.
"The Catholics have gotten all the attention from the media, but this problem is even greater with the Protestant churches simply because of their far larger numbers," said James Cobble, executive director of CMR.
"I think the CMR numbers are striking, yet quite reasonable," commented Anson Shupe, an Indiana University professor and author of books on church abuse. "To me it says Protestants are less reluctant to come forward because they don't put their clergy on as high a pedestal as Catholics do with their priests."
Shupes believes the 70-cases-a-week number is likely low. In a door-to-door survey in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area in 1998, he found that 4% of 1,607 families reported sexual abuse by clergy.
The CMR statistics show most abuse is at Protestant churches, 42% of abusers are church volunteers, and 25% of perpetrators are minors accused of molesting other children at church. About 21% of allegations reported in the 2000 survey resulted in lawsuits or out-of-court settlements.
Church reforms have been largely at the behest of insurance companies, which began dropping coverage of churches without screening policies.
"What drove leaders to begin to respond to this issue was not the welfare of children. It was fear of large, costly lawsuits," said Cobble. Source: Christian Science Monitor, April 5, 2002
Head Count of Ousted Bishops
Why doesn't the Roman Catholic church reform? Because, according to A.W. Sipe, author and researcher into priestly sexuality, "It's systemic: it goes all the way to the top."
Roman Catholic bishops who have been forced to resign over allegations of cover-ups of sexual abuse scandals or for being accused themselves include:
21. U.S. - Bishop Thomas Dupre, 70, Springfield, Mass., resigned a day after newspapers published allegations that he sexually abused 2 altar boys in the 1970s. (Resigned Feb. 11, 2004)
20. U.S. - Archbishop Bernard Law, 71, Boston, Mass., finally resigned after the protracted scandal over his cover-up of criminal pedophile priests, after hundreds of victims came forward, the Massachusetts attorney general accused the archdiocese of an "elaborate scheme" to shield abusive priests, court subpoenas, etc. Retained his position as cardinal. (Resigned Dec. 13, 2002)
19. Argentina - Archbishop Edgardo Storni, Santa Fe. He resigned after mounting pressure from judicial probes after being accused of sexually abusing teenaged seminary students. (Resigned September 25, 2002)
18. U.S. - Auxiliary Bishop James McCarthy, Archdiocese of New York, stepped down after admitting to several affairs with adult women. (Resigned June 11, 2002)
17. U.S. - Bishop J. Kendrick Williams, 65, Lexington, Ky., resigned after being named in civil lawsuits by three plaintiffs alleging sexual abuse, including a former altar boy, then age 12. (Resigned June 11, 2002)
16. U.S. - Archbishop Rembert Weakland, 75, Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wis., requested an "expedited" acceptance of his retirement, after he was publicly exposed for paying $450,000 of archdiocese funds as hush money in 1998 to a man who accused him of a 1979 "date rate." (Resigned May 24, 2002)
15. Germany - Franziskus Eisenbach, Diocese of Mainz, 58. Although denying charges, he was accused by a woman of sexual abuse and injuring her during an exorcism. (Resigned mid-April 2002)
14. Ireland - Bishop Brendan Comiskey, Diocese of Ferns. He quit after a BBC documentary aired in March showing his role in covering up for pedophile priest Rev. Sean Fortune. (Resigned April 1, 2002)
13. Poland - Archbishop Juliusz Paetz. Accused of molesting seminarians, he averred, "Not everyone understood my genuine openness and spontaneity toward people." (Resigned March 28, 2002)
12. U.S. - Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell, Palm Beach, Fla. He admitted to making a secret settlement with a minor whom he abused in Missouri. The victim had sought counseling from O'Connell after being molested by 2 other priests. (Resigned March 8, 2002)
11. U.K. - Archbishop John Aloysius Ward, Cardiff, Wales, for ordaining a man accused of assaulting a boy, among other accusations he denied. (Resigned October 2001)
10. U.S. - Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann, Santa Rosa, Calif. He admitted to a sexual relationship with a priest who said Ziemann extorted sexual favors. (Resigned July 1999)
9. U.S. - Bishop Joseph Keith Symons, Palm Springs, Fla. He sexually abused 5 teenage boys while a parish priest. (Resigned 1998)
8. Austria - Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer, Archbishop of Vienna. Fellow bishops substantiated molestation charges. (Resigned 1998)
7. Australia - Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, Bullarat. He retired amid accusations he failed to protect altar boys from a pederast priest, who pleaded guilty to 46 offenses against 20 boys and one girl. (Resigned June 1997)
6. U.S. - Archbishop Roberto Sanchez, Santa Fe, N.M. He admitted to "relationships" with 3 teenage girls; others alleged abuse. (Resigned 1993)
5. U.S. - Bishop Joseph Ferrario, Honolulu, Ha. Molestation charges, which he denied, were made against him. (Retired 1993)
4. Ireland - Bishop Eamonn Casey. He fathered a child and used church funds to pay off the mother. (Resigned 1992)
3. Canada - Bishop Hubert O'Connor. He was accused and later convicted of molesting teens at boarding schools. (Resigned 1992)
2. U.S. - Archbishop Eugene Marino, Atlanta, Ga. He was involved in scandal involving a young woman, who said the "relationship" began by rape. (Resigned 1990)
1. Canada - Archbishop Alphonsus Liguori Penney, Newfoundland. Knew about sexual and physical abuse of boys at Mt. Cashel orphanage for 10 years but did nothing (20 priests and layworkers were arrested and convicted). (Resigned 1990)
Milwaukee Moves Ten Commandments to Private Property
It's two down . . . and at least one more to go in Wisconsin.
The City of Milwaukee on March 27 removed a Ten Commandments monument that has been displayed outside its Municipal Building since the mid-1950s--the culmination of a long-standing complaint by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
That action was followed by an April 3 vote of the city council in Monroe, Wis., to move its nearly identical Ten Commandments monument from Lincoln Public Park, also at the urging of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The city of Monroe will donate the bible edicts to the Green County Family YMCA in June.
Milwaukee returned the tombstone-like monolith to the Fraternal Order of Eagles which, in donating it in 1955, kicked off a campaign to place the religious monument on public property around the country.
"It's satisfying to see government officials who 'Honor Thy First Amendment,' instead of misusing government resources to promote the intolerant First Commandment," noted Foundation spokesperson Dan Barker, who was present during the removal. Barker congratulated city officials for having the courage to do the right thing, and avoid a costly losing lawsuit.
Several Milwaukee alderpersons were present and made speeches at the removal, including Jeff Pawlinski, who said: "I regrettably sponsored the resolution to return the Ten Commandments to the Eagles . . . because the City of Milwaukee faced a lawsuit by the notorious Freedom From Religion Foundation."
Pawlinski, who said the monument honored the "values and tenants [sic] that the Ten Commandments so properly represent," called it "unfortunate" that the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court agree with the Foundation that it is unconstitutional for the government to endorse and promote one "holy book's" teachings.
A representative of the Eagles club was spotted crying as the 1-ton monument was loaded onto a truck transporting it to its new resting place, St. Joseph's Hospital, Milwaukee.
The Eagles gave Milwaukee the monolith in 1955 during an Eagles national conference there, the debut donation of the granite bible markers in a campaign waged by the Eagles and "Ten Commandments" director Cecil B. DeMille. "Ten Commandments" actor Yul Brynner spoke at the Milwaukee dedication.
On behalf of its several members in Monroe, Wis., the Freedom From Religion Foundation persuaded Monroe to also divest itself of the biblical marker, which was donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles 30 years ago. The decalog, the only monument in the park, stands directly by the official city park sign.
"This will put the matter at rest because the monument will be on private property and not city property," said Monroe Mayor Bill Ross.
The U.S. Supreme Court in February let stand a ruling by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago barring placement of a Ten Commandments monument on the statehouse grounds in Indiana. Last May, the high court similarly let stand a decision by the same appeals court against a Ten Commandments marker in front of a public building in Indiana.
The 7th Circuit ruling is controlling in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, although it has created nationwide interest.
Still pending is the Foundation's longest-standing complaint over a Ten Commandments monument in Wisconsin--an Eagles monument standing in Cameron Public Park, La Crosse. Last summer, the Foundation advised La Crosse it would go back to court if the city did not divest itself of the religious marker. The La Crosse city council voted on April 17 to table a resolution by the mayor to divest the city of the monument. After three hours of debate, the council voted 14-4 to investigate all resources for a legal fight with the Foundation over the monument, placed in the 1960s.
Council member David Morrison, one of the four voting against the resolution, said: "I believe the federal courts, not the Freedom From Religion Foundation, are forcing us to take [the monument] up. This has been fought, and it is incumbent on us to do what the federal courts have said."
"This is God's country, and we should keep it that way," said pro-Commandments council member John Satory. A representative of the Liberty Counsel flew up from Florida, vowing: "We will fight all the way to the Supreme Court at no cost."
The Foundation was represented at the hearing by attorney Robert Dreps, who said: "This is not about religion or who is in the majority. No objective observer of the courts will tell you that you will win this fight if you pick it." Several La Crosse residents also urged the council to remove the decalog.
La Crosse Mayor John Medinger, who originally opposed the Foundation's request, wrote a column appearing in the La Crosse Tribune on Feb. 28 ("Commandment marker violates Constitution") urging the city council to move the bible monument to private property:
"As most people know, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Madison-based group, has threatened to sue the city if we don't voluntarily remove this monument. They charge that it violates the Constitution of the United States. And surely, as they have other places, they will follow through on their threat. And, with the help of the highest courts in this country, they usually have been successful," wrote Mayor Medinger.
"In this great country we do indeed have freedom 'of' religion but we also have freedom 'from' religion. . . . The Ten Commandments can be publicly displayed anywhere in this city as long as it is on private property."
Medinger continued: "I have become convinced that the continued presence of this monument in a public park violates the Constitution of the United States and should be removed. . . . If you ask some local elected officials if they think the monument is unconstitutional they will whisper, 'Yes, but the people will crucify me if I vote to remove it.' Then we must ask them about their sworn oath of office. Does it mean nothing?
". . . Finally, at this time in our country's history, it is important that we fight extra hard to preserve what has now lasted more than 200 years. Our precious freedoms must not be lost or the terrorists will have won!" He sponsored the tabled resolution calling for the removal of the decalog.
La Crosse resident Jeff Fluekiger, who presented the council with 4,000 signatures in favor of keeping the monument on government property, urged La Crosse to unite with religious-right groups who have offered to help defend the entanglement.
"They have long agendas," Medinger told the Tribune. "They want to establish the U.S. as a Christian nation; they are against homosexuals, against abortion. I am not even saying I disagree with some of their stuff, but there is no free lunch. These are people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. I do not want them representing La Crosse. If this is a Christian nation, how can Wisconsin have two Jewish senators?" he asked.
Adding another wrinkle to the controversy was the parsimonious offer by the Onalaska Masonic Lodge No. 214 to pay $10 for a section of Cameron Park on which the monument stands.
"We consider it to be a good deed for the community," said Mason Ronald Espe. "It bothers us that an atheist organization would think they would have the power to force the majority of the people to get rid of something they want."
That offer resulted in a tongue-in-cheek letter to the editor printed by the Tribune in March suggesting the city "sell small parcels of the park to private individuals":
"There might be some small, easily resolved problems. No nude or partially nude statues would be permitted. Some Washington prudes might feel obligated to protect the morals of the citizenry. And the last thing we want is more government interference. Atheists would not be permitted to own a parcel. Because they have no religion, they've have nothing to display anyway."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation originally sued for removal of the La Crosse monument in federal court in the 1980s, and lost on a technicality, not the merits. In June 1988, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 1987 ruling by a federal court that La Crosse resident Phyllis Grams, the plaintiff and a Foundation member, was not injured by the presence of the marker and therefore lacked legal standing. This should not affect the outcome of a new challenge.


text:
$("thread").append($("Does anyone feel it strange that three people came to complain about suspensions simultaneously?"));
So, I got home yesterday, and found a mysterious package waiting for me. I opened it up to be greeted by a very fancy Careers 2.0 box, with the phrase "go forth and be awesome" on it.
Inside this box was a Stackoverflow branded portfolio. It came with a copy of my Careers 2.0 résumé, a copy of...
May you enjoy a long, rich and beautiful life for this code which saved me a whole lot of aggravation! And may you get laid like a bandit. I mean it!
O(lg unicorn)
$("#timP > div.last_question").abort();
Meme: Porblem, Halting Issue, Pro-blem, pr0blem
Originator: Unknown
Cultural Height: TBD
Background: Late 2011, the SO devs decided to add a filter to question titles blocking (among others) the word Problem. Even though this change undoubtedly managed to block a lot of crap (if just for a sho...
On this frabjous day, our community manager Rebecca Chernoff has graciously allowed all of us *1 to be her for one day, and one day only. And so, ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you:
We're all Rebecca Chernoff \o/
A userscript dedicated to making all of you Rebecca Chernoffs. Reall...
I am still unable to reproduce the problem that you all are having. I seem to be able to type answers for five minutes of pretty much constant typing in Chrome 18 on Windows 7 with no sign of a crash. I'm wondering if there is some other common factor among those who are experiencing the proble...
35 mins ago, 33 minutes total –
78 messages,
9 users,
27 stars
Bookmarked 7 secs ago by Yi Jiang's Proble_
I was recently awarded the electorate badge, and I took a look at the description:
Electorate: Voted on 600 questions and 25% or more of total votes are on questions.
It sounds, at first glance, that we are awarding 25% of question votes which are votes on questions. What?
"Voted on 600 questions and has better than 3:1 answer/question vote ratio" is the current text.
"Voted on 600 questions and 25% or more of total votes are on questions" is my proposed text. (Or should it read "or less"? I'm still not completely sure what is intended.)
"Better" in the origina...
Beta Q&A site for serious players and enthusiasts of chess.
Currently in private beta.
2 hours ago, 33 minutes total –
78 messages,
9 users,
27 stars
Bookmarked 1 hour ago by Tim Yi Jiang
Not strictly a bug, you just need to ping waffles to get updates pushed.
I always review the changes prior to pushing this across the network, it is too risky to automate this.
I just updated our templates, will be pushed tomorrow.
I'm working on sorting this out. This is actually caused by 2 things:
I have to manually sync the privilege wikis on meta to the local repo on a regular basis, till they are stable.
There is a really nasty serialization bug with the persistence of privileges in our cache. This is causing much...
This was an error with a new check added to the code recently. It's been corrected and deployed.
The community bulletin is back in its rightful place in the sidebar. (:

subset: commoncrawl


text: I want to say that I am extremely happy with two pick ups at WR especially. Danny Coale and Cole Beasley. These guys are the perfect fit in that slot receiver position. Though they are not tall receivers by any means they seem fearless going over the middle. They also are very shifty and quick, although some seem to be questioning their "speed". I hate to make a cliched remark, but they remind me of a Welker-Woodhead-Stokley type player haha. And lastly, I hope these receivers really push Ogletree. He is a receiver I have been down on. He had "potential" early on (3 years ago), but seems to lack in hard work, knowledge of the playbook, and overall development as a football player. I am hoping these young guys can step up early and provide the help he never could fill.


text:
The look and the format changes when I open Beesource on my I phone?
Did I change something with my fat fingers? How do I change it back? I don't care for this format ex I can't see where the poster lives within the post, what's new doesn't work as well and I have to load extra pages it seems slower . Help


text:
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text:
Buy Emerging Market Tech Stocks for Cyclical Exposure, UBS Says
Emerging market investors are in a bind. Don't believe me? Take it from UBS strategist Nicholas Smithie.
In a report released today, Smithie uses just those words to describe the uncomfortable spot EM equity investors find themselves in right now–stuck between a global risk rally, on the one hand, and slowing emerging-market equity growth, on the other.
Smithie writes:
Emerging Market equities are in a bind. The risk environment is positive…and Emerging Market equities have rallied 5% over the last month. Cyclical sectors are outperforming globally, causing Emerging Market investors to ask themselves if it is time to switch from expensive defensive sectors to better value cyclical sectors.
Meanwhile our Economists are revising down their economic growth forecasts across the Emerging Markets and the UBS Growth Surprise Index for the emerging economies continues to surprise to the downside.
Of course, being a strategist he has an opinion, one that attempts to split the difference between expensive defensives and cheap cyclicals by finding cyclical stocks with solid fundamentals and defensives at cheaper valuations. Such stocks are hard to find these days, but found them, he has. Smithie's recommendation: Buy emerging market tech stocks.
Why tech? Smithie notes that emerging-market tech stocks have a lower beta–or volatility relative to the market–both when stocks are going up and going down. the tech sector is also "the rare part of the Emerging Markets universe that exhibits positive earnings momentum," Smithie says. In fact, it was the only one that beat forecasts every quarter during 2012. Emerging-market tech stocks also have plenty of cash, which could be used to boost dividend payments. The best part: Many of these stocks are still cheap, especially within the semiconductor industry.
The EGShares Technology GEMS ETF (QGEM) has gained 8.4% so far this year, compared to the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF's (EEM) 2.1% loss. The largest tech stocks in the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF include Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) and Tencent (0700.HK), which my colleague Reshma Kapadia recommended in the May 18 issue of Barron's.


text:
Town Square
Will -- or should -- adult schools remain 'the quiet corner' of local education?
Original post made by Jay Thorwaldson, editor emeritus, on May 22, 2013
Since its founding in 1921, the adult school actually can boast providing learning that has spanned several lifetimes, generations.
I once referred to the adult school as "the quiet corner" of education in the often fractious, high-pressure, debate-prone and sometimes hypercritical world of local education generally and especially in Palo Alto.
The fact was that this quiet corner had more students than all the rest of the Palo Alto schools combined. It currently has about 8,000 students taking a huge array of classes, some specially designed for persons with disability challenges or for seniors.
Granted, these are not full-time students, so there's an apples-and-oranges comparison. But they are real individuals, real people leading real lives.
And as state officials ponder the future of education in desperate-budget years (beginning to ease, one hopes), the adult schools seem to be easy targets, with their easygoing -sounding enrichment classes. Some school districts have drastically cut back or even killed their adult schools after being recently freed from the state's "categorical funding" system that funded them to the tune of about $700 million to $900 million annually.
But in Palo Alto, the adult school is flourishing, with a vigorous outreach effort, a bright and easy-to-navigate website, and a strong alliance with other adult schools and community colleges in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. (For details, see column of last week: Web Link .)
And there is a recognition that not all adult-school students are in their easygoing years. The largest single group of enrollees in Palo Alto Adult School are students taking "English as a Second Language" (or ESL) classes. That usually means that they are first- or sometimes even second-generation immigrants, most trying to adjust to a new life in a new nation.
But the classes don't just teach English. They are designed to prepare the students for academic advancement (i.e. college) or for career advancement or simply getting a job that can support a family.
ESL classes are free, while the more esoteric or enrichment classes are fee-supported. The website describes the range: "We provide classes for English learners, parents, job seekers, travelers, hobbyists, and others who want to expand their skills. Whether you want to learn to cook, try your hand at something new or enhance your skills, let us meet your lifelong learning needs."
Then there's the national "immigration debate."
I've often thought that those who rail about the invasion of immigrants while wrapping themselves in patriotic righteousness should attend a new-citizenship swearing-in ceremony. There they would witness truly heartfelt, tears-in-the-eyes patriotism as those of all ages and national origins officially adopt their new nation and home.
Many, perhaps most, of those at such ceremonies are graduates of ESL classes somewhere -- perhaps right in Palo Alto.
I do have a personal soft spot for the Palo Alto Adult School. In the late 1950s, as a freshman at Los Gatos High School I had a summer job in Los Altos as a caretaker for a large estate that formerly was the site of a summer camp where I taught horseback riding to urban kids.
I wanted to learn to type to use the new Olivetti portable I was given following the recent death of my father, but Los Gatos school officials felt freshmen weren't mature enough to learn typing.
So one day in early summer I called the Palo Alto Adult School.
"Is there an age limit for taking a class?" I asked.
"No, no matter how OLD you are you may enroll," the nice person replied.
"How about how young?" I pursued. No problem there, either. So all summer I took Thursday-night typing lab and practicing between mowing lawns and cleaning windows. By fall I was hitting 60-words a minute error free -- far faster than I would ever need for a future in journalism and writing.
Then I learned an invaluable lesson in educational rigidity. Armed with my typing-test scores I asked to be excused from the required sophomore typing class. No, I was told by the dean of boys at the time. It's a required class." So I spent a semester in total boredom in the beginning-typing class, and harboring to this day a conviction that such rigidity -- no, stupidity is a better term -- has no place in any school.
I would enjoy hearing other anecdotes of how adult school classes may have contributed to or altered someone's life -- post a comment.
*Former Weekly Editor Jay Thorwaldson can be e-mailed at email@example.com with a copy to email@example.com. He writes regular print columns for the Weekly and blogs at www.PaloAltoOnline.com (below Town Square).*
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on May 22, 2013 at 10:17 am
Will, or should, Adult Schools be operated by the State, requiring public subsidy—should perhaps be a better question. Why shouldn't these activities be shifted to the private sector—so that the "true costs" of this education service can be known to those who are its customers, and the public? Currently, there is virtually no information published by the PAUSD that illuminates direct, and indirect costs—such as teacher salaries, building subsidies, and future pension obligations for teachers in this "quiet corner" system.
> And as state officials ponder the future of education in
> desperate-budget years
The US Department of Education documents that about 9% of the US GDP is consumed by pubic schools—more if all the private schools are considered. And even more yet when long-term pension obligations are definitely not in these calculations, either! What is Mr. Thorwaldsen talking about? Or is he just parroting the "education company" line?
Here in California, 40% of the State's General Fund is dedicated to "education". Given that relatively rich Basic Aid school districts pay most of their own expenses, the actual cost of education is hard to express in simple ways—given how complex, and non-transparent, so much of the revenue streams for public schools happens to be.
The California should be looking at this "obligation to education" that has been a publicly-expressed sentiment, at the polls, anyway. Education is very expensive, and it does not provide much in the way of returns, other than for those currently becoming very wealthy as education system employees. There are perhaps 2M full, and part-time, employees of "government" (state/county/city/education/special districts) in California. The last Census shows about 1M of those employees are in the education system. That's about one education system employee for each individual taxpayer. It's hard to look forward at the ever-increasing number of state employees and wonder how long can this go on?
It's a shame that Jay Thorwaldson has drifted into nostalgia about Adult Education, rather than some hard-headed analysis of the costs, and benefits, and future of this government activity.
a resident of Crescent Park
on May 22, 2013 at 2:12 pm
I have always enjoyed learning new things, and I love researching. I agree with the above statements, though, that the government should not be funding this, it belongs in the private sector. If the public has to pay full price, they will appreciate it more, and. Ot be so likely to start a class and then drop it before completion.
The government needs to concentrate on the education of children and young adults, and that includes higher education including grad school.
Older adult education needs more publicity and more private funding.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on May 22, 2013 at 2:21 pm
I suspect ESL classes "pay it forward" in reducing costs for education the children of ESL Adult ed students. Do these classes belong at high schools or at the community colleges?
As far as the other enrichment classes, if they are self supporting, then why not continue them? Do the fees cover the cost of the classes, including the instructors and any office staff time? Are adult ed enrichment classes any different than the City subsidized Enjoy catalog or Children's theater from a public support standpoint?
a resident of Midtown
on May 26, 2013 at 5:13 pm
I work as an Area Director for AuPairCare. Most of my au pairs in the area take the English Enrichment classes at PAAS and all seem to benefit greatly fro them. Adult schools are the best option for au pairs since international fees at the community colleges are so expensive.
a resident of Barron Park
on Jun 2, 2013 at 11:13 pm
Adult education serves a wider function than seniors getting cheap classes. Statewide, many adult ed. students are high school dropouts getting a second chance at becoming productive citizens. It is well worth our money to help those students get diplomas or GED certificates and then go on to jobs or college. The alternative is to let them continue to be unemployed and watch as they turn to criminal activities to get money.
Like those students, legal ESL immigrants can learn to become productive citizens. Thing is, until those students have an income, they cannot afford to pay much for classes. A typical Adult Ed ESL student has been in the USA for several years and has been working at menial, dead-end jobs just to survive. Many have had limited education-4-5 years total--before coming here. Educated parents can help educate their kids.
An educated population is an advantage for all of us; however, I suppose those who want a source of cheap labor would not agree.
Non-academic classes for seniors usually have fees based on the type of class.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jun 5, 2013 at 1:13 am
Even though I had the best university education, by far the best writing classes I ever took were from the Palo Alto Adult School. I remember having to FAX in my application the moment enrollment opened.
Not everything that seems too good to be true, really is.


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Tuesday, 13 June 2017
Welcome to the Senate. It next meets on Tuesday, 13 June at 12.30pm
The Dynamic Red, which lists expected business for the day, will be published on the morning before the Senate meets.
A full list of all business before the Senate is on the Notice Paper.
Information about the previous weeks' sittings:
Richard Pye


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Has anyone built a mobile extracting house using a semi dry van?
If so how do you like it?
Has anyone built a mobile extracting house using a semi dry van?
If so how do you like it?
I have an old but clean semi trailer with lights and electricity that I may possibly convert to a honey house. I think it would work well.
I think it would work out quite well. 2 32 frame extractors running at one end. Plenty of room for honey and boxes. Plenty of room for settling tank.
nice cowens set up but it won't pass the new govt. inspection, the etrac isn't stainless, and they won't be able to find you, hummm come to think of it might be a wonderful idea
mike syracuse ny
Whatever you subsidize you get more of. Ronald Reagan
I've thought of doing the same thing in a converted school bus.
I thought about the school bus thing too, and will pass on the bus. To many windows to get broken and the doors are not large enough to get pallets of honey and drums in or out without too much effort.
As far as the idea of them not finding you never really crossed my mind but I like that you thought about it Mike.
Very true! I suppose it is partly dependant on resources. I've seen school buses with a handicap lift go for 3,000! Of course, one day when I am successful, I'd love to have a huge shop.
Tony I forgot all about the handicap busses.
I too would like to be successful.


text:
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95% Cotton, 5% Elastane.
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|Extra Large
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By JohnMichael Thistle, CUSG Election Commissioner
In the midst of the imminent November general election, there are issues of equal, and perhaps, even more immediate importance right here on campus at CU for us students.
Have you ever wondered about student fees? Who decides how much we pay, or who pays for big projects around campus? What can we do, if anything, to make our time here as CU students as equal and equitable as possible?
The University of Colorado Student Government (CUSG) is proud to host the first of two candidate debates on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. in Eaton Humanities room 150. Candidates for ASSG (Arts & Sciences) and CUSG Representative at large will engage in the spirited discussion of matters that directly impact our time as CU students.
There will be an opportunity for audience members to pose questions to the candidates in an effort to provide clear, concise, and valuable information to the voters who will decide the student leaders of our great university.
I strongly encourage you to attend this debate, and make your voices and desires heard.
Also, please remember to vote from Monday, Oct. 22, through Friday, Oct. 26. Your vote matters!
Thank you for your consideration and GO BUFFS!


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Skip to Content
If you are seeking a world-class educational experience within a vibrant, Christ-centered learning community, Cedarville is the place for you. Step up to the challenge of our arts, sciences, professional and graduate programs, and achieve more than you ever imagined. Be challenged and transformed by professors who are experts in their fields and invest their lives at Cedarville to mentor and guide students like you.
Cedarville is equipping K–12 teachers with an online graduate reading endorsement.
This course offers focused instruction and project work on a current topic or special topic in curriculum, often provided as part of a school inservice, teachers' convention, or specially scheduled course. Students may earn up to four credits.


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Buying one would be cheaper, but no near as pretty as your. Great job.
Welcome to the Quilting Board!
Buying one would be cheaper, but no near as pretty as your. Great job.
Maybe someday when I have more time I will do something like yours. I like the way everything coordinates. I don't have a ruffler for my machine and time and money were of the essence. (Company coming tomorrow) I cheated and used the idea from "Sash" calling for the use of upholstry pins to pin just one side onto the box springs. The bed was my fathers and has a footboard so the skirt wouldn't (or lack of) show anyway. I found an old tablecloth that was given to me several years ago that was ruined in the center. I just cut it in half and pinned one strip to one side of each bed! The top and sides are against the wall and don't show. I tried to upload a picture from my computer but it wouldn't let me....sorry. Thanks again for all the great ideas.
This is a great idea. Will try it. My LQS gave us the idea of attaching strips of velcro to the box springs and matching it up with the velcro strips on the ruffle or tailored strip. But I really think elastic is a much better idea. Thanks for posting it.
Janome 9900 / Janome 9700 / Janome Decor 3050 / Janome 1100D serger
Singer Centennial model (inherited from my late, fav aunt!)


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Quotes of the day
posted at 10:18 pm on October 8, 2012 by Allahpundit
Following the Democratic National Convention last month, the Obama campaign felt it was on a roll. So confident was the President that on the Saturday night after his Charlotte acceptance speech, he did something extremely rare: he talked to the thirty or so members of the traveling press that follow him everywhere. That evening in Florida, he made a surprise appearance at an off-the-record drinking session with media and campaign staff. The late night charm outreach at the Orlando hotel bar was a clearly tactical move to get the press on his side during the final stretch. But it was also an indication about just how confident Obama felt — and how confident his team was in him.
"They wouldn't have brought him out unless he was feeling really good," one journalist who attended the event would say later…
The day after the debate, according to multiple campaign sources, the campaign was "overtired" and "rattled." It was clear to even the most hardened veterans that it was one of the worst moments for Team Obama, the first full blown crisis.
Seriously: has that kind of swing ever happened this late in a campaign? Has any candidate lost 18 points among women voters in one night ever? And we are told that when Obama left the stage that night, he was feeling good. That's terrifying. On every single issue, Obama has instantly plummeted into near-oblivion…
Look: I'm trying to rally some morale, but I've never seen a candidate this late in the game, so far ahead, just throw in the towel in the way Obama did last week – throw away almost every single advantage he had with voters and manage to enable his opponent to seem as if he cares about the middle class as much as Obama does. How do you erase that imprinted first image from public consciousness: a president incapable of making a single argument or even a halfway decent closing statement?…
I'm trying to see a silver lining. But when a president self-immolates on live TV, and his opponent shines with lies and smiles, and a record number of people watch, it's hard to see how a president and his party recover.
On the other hand, a continued series of events like last week's debate really might change the narrative of the race. And here is the bad news for Democrats: Their best shot has already come and gone. The debates will anchor the campaign narrative from here on out, and the three debates that follow all offer less favorable terrain for them to press their case…
The next debate is a town-hall meeting. Obama's campaign is talking up its plan to roll out a new, tougher Obama who will challenge Romney's slick evasions. But a town-hall meeting is a whole different animal. In a one-on-one debate, you can fillet your opponent. A town-hall meeting consists of undecided voters pressing the candidates for answers. The focus of the event is on answering the questions of the voters. Using their questions to assail your opponent is bad form — indeed, the Regular Voters who ask the questions, and serve as proxies for the public, can be counted on to implore the candidates to stop attacking each other so much. Romney will use the town hall to proclaim his deep and abiding concern for all of America, and Obama will have little chance to disprove it.
And that really points to what must be the deepest reason for the Democrats' strange response to the debate. The president can't run on his record, and he isn't proposing a second term agenda. All he has to run on is the caricature of Mitt Romney that his campaign, his surrogates, and liberal opinion makers in the press have been fashioning for a year. Their goal has been to prevent the election from becoming a referendum on the incumbent, which the Romney campaign had clearly hoped it could be, and to make it not even a choice election but a referendum on the challenger. Obama seemed to have a remarkable degree of success with this approach, but the debate represented Romney's response: Rather than continue to insist that the election should simply be a referendum on Obama, Romney effectively presented a case for seeing it as a choice between two agendas, and presented his own proposals and vision in his own terms. The Obama campaign had been able to paint Romney in scary colors for months because Romney had declined to describe himself and his agenda much. Now that he's finally running for president, the Democrats have a problem.
But if that's their predicament, then surely their panicked response of the last few days is only making things worse. They can't really expect people to treat them as a trusted source about Romney's agenda and ignore Romney himself. But if they've lost control of the Romney story—even if they merely fight it to a draw—they don't have much of a case to make for themselves. The public is unhappy with the economy and the direction of the country, and Obama is not proposing to do anything differently if he is given another four years.
So what do they do next? Continue to insist that Romney's agenda is what they say it is and not what Romney himself is plainly promising voters? Try more aggressive personal attacks against Romney? Defend the Obama record? Not exactly a wealth of great options.
But perhaps it should be looked at in a different way: Obama did not lose so much as Romney won. A highly skilled, albeit vastly underrated, candidate showed what he was really made of on Thursday…
He won the GOP nomination relatively early (considering how frontloading the primaries was scaled back this cycle) and bloodlessly. Sure, it was messy at times, but he clearly has united the Republican party around him. Many of his once-staunchest opponents in the party – both high profile commentators and grassroots voters alike – are now counted among his strongest allies.
He did so without having to adopt political opinions that alienated him from the middle of the electorate, or his base. In fact, his voting coalition was the center of the GOP electorate – not too far to the left, nor too far to the right…
Put aside the [media's] notion that Romney is a hopelessly weak candidate and we can see that, in fact, he has a lot of strengths. I would argue that he is the most articulate and passionate Republican nominee since at least Ronald Reagan, and perhaps even more so than the Gipper.
Hannity noted that they're "desperate" and panicked. Cadell agreed, pointing to poll numbers shifting in Romney's favor. It's the biggest debate victory since 1980, he said. And the Romney campaign should've used ads to tout that victory.
"The election is not over," he said, noting that Obama has not yet been defeated. Coulter disagreed. Romney is going to win, she said, and partly because that was the most-watched debate since 1980, and "that was the first time in the last 100 years Republicans took out an incumbent."
Related Posts:
Breaking on Hot Air
'Liberals think they are tolerant but often they aren't' says…Fareed Zakaria?
Mad Dog Mattis: War with North Korea would be catastrophic. But what would it look like?
End of an era: Merkel signals that Europe can no longer rely on the U.S.
Comment pages: « Previous 1 … 3 4 5 6 7 Next »


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ATA Gallery's OTHER CINEMA, in the last of our Psycho-Geography trilogy, unspools a recently re-discovered 16mm print of the little-seen Native American neo-realist treasure, The Exiles.
While he was a film student at USC in the mid-50s, director Kent MacKenzie chanced upon Bunker Hill, the low-rent neighborhood on the west edge of downtown Los Angeles, when it was first threatened with demolition. He became fascinated with a subculture of Arizona Indians living there, eventually organizing a loose group of non-professionals to more or less play themselves in a compelling story of a long Friday night. Full of loneliness, yearning and little flashes of happiness, this semi-improvised group-portrait is a wrenching chronicle of cultural dislocation and a remarkable record of a city that has vanished.
Introduction by archivist Steve Polta, relating the rich background of the production and restoration of this semi-documentary feature.


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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The Carolina volleyball program will add four newcomers to the class of 2017, head coach Joe Sagula announced Friday.
The Tar Heels will welcome Abigail Curry, Sheila Doyle, Tatiana Durr and Warner Tidwell for the 2013 season. The four will join 13 returning UNC players, including Paige Neuenfeldt, who was named AVCA All-America honorable mention and both ACC and AVCA Region Freshman of the Year.
"I am very excited about this volleyball class entering Carolina this coming fall because they are all proven winners on the court at their respective clubs and high schools, and are all exceptional students as well," Sagula said. "All four players have played at a very high level and are well prepared to add to our team depth.
"They also have the work ethic and the focus that will add to the established values of this team and will allow UNC to continue to move up in national rankings and compete at the highest levels. Our team is committed to the new Strategic Plan for Carolina athletics and this class will help represent our future and the goals we are prepared to meet."
UNC closed out the 2012 campaign with a 26-6 overall mark, finishing third in the ACC with a 16-4 conference record after advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
UNC will play in four tournaments this spring, including a home tournament on April 20. The Tar Heels' annual spring banquet will be held on Sunday, April 21, in the Pope Box at Kenan Stadium.
Stay tuned to GoHeels.com for more information on Carolina throughout the spring.
Abigail Curry
Setter • Plano, Texas • Plan West Senior • Dallas Skyline (Club)
Named to Prep Volleyball Senior Ace Top 150 • Named to 2012 Texas All-State team and Texas All Star team • 2012 Plano West Character Award recipient • Named the MVP for the 2011 17 Open Dallas Skyline team • Three-time Skyline Award recipient • Named District 5A first team • Named MVP of 2011 Plano West team • Named 10-5a Setter of the District two times • 2012 USAV HP A2 Holiday Camp Selection.
"Abbey is a very talented setter who knows the game and understands the game at a very high level," Sagula said. "She will be able to make an impact because of her volleyball knowledge and the leadership she can provide on the court early in her career. Abbey is an excellent student and is a proven winner. She has been successful at leading both her school and club teams to the highest levels at the state and junior national championships. Her strengths and experiences are a good fit for our system and will definitely add another dimension to our team's success."
Sheila Doyle
Libero • La Grange Park, Ill. • Benet Academy • First Alliance (Club)
Starting libero for two-time Class 4A state championship teams • Named to the 2012 Mizuno/Volleyball Girls' High School All-America first team • Named Academic All State in 2012 • New Gazette first team All State and Chicago Sun first team All Area • Naperville Sun Player of the Year • Named SportstownChicago.com All Star • Named PrepVolleyball.com Defensive Dandy in 2011 • National Honor Society member, Benet Academy Honor Roll, and student government class representative.
"Sheila is a great athlete, very much in the mold of one of our best ever liberos (Kaylie Gibson)," Sagula said. "She is super quick and an exceptional defensive player with great court vision and nose for the ball. She is a competitor, and her high school and club experience will have her well prepared to compete in the ACC and with the best in the country. Sheila will compete to play multiple backcourt positions and will be a leader both on and off the court for the Tar Heels."
Tatiana Durr
MB/OH • San Diego, Calif. • Cathedral Catholic • Wave Volleyball (Club)
MaxPreps 2012 Medium Schools All America first team • 2012-2013 UnderArmour All America honorable mention • Helped Wave Volleyball finish seventh at 17-Open junior nationals in 2012 and finished fifth in 2011 • Holds CIF San Diego Section records for most kills in a match (25, twice) and most aces in a season (59) • Four-time CIF Division III Southern Regional, San Diego Section and Western League champion at Cathedral Catholic • Named to All-North County first team • Named to San Diego Union Tribune All-Academic team and CCHS Scholar-Athlete • Western League Player of the Year and named to Western League first team in 2012 • Two-time CIF Division 3 state champions and named to All-Championship team in 2011.
"Tatiana is a very versatile player who can play six rotations. She has played on both pins and in the middle throughout her career," Sagula said. "Because of her ball control, we see her competing on the outside as a dynamic athlete with a good understanding of how to score points. Tati's high level club experience (and high school state championships) should allow her to make an impact early and add a lot to the future of our program. We are very fortunate to have Tati as a Tar Heel because she will provide both the physical play at the net and steady ball handling in the back court."
Warner Tidwell
OH • Nashville, Tenn. • The Harpeth Hall School • Alliance (Club)
Helped lead Harpeth Hall to region title and state runner-up • Named to All-Midstate team in 2011 and 2012 • Named team MVP in 2011 and 2012 • Four-year varsity starter in volleyball as well as basketball • Voted team captain as a junior and senior for volleyball and basketball teams • Wendy's Heisman school winner and state finalist • Named MVP for East/Middle Tennessee Region • Named to all state team in 2011 and 2012 • Received Presidential Volunteer Service Award, Silver Level (250 hours) and was a student council representative for four years.
"Warner is a great student-athlete with an exceptional work ethic," Sagula sai. "She is one of the best players to come out of Nashville who has earned a lot of success both on and off the court. She is a physical player who can attack with power and be a primary passer for us. Her athletic experience in several sports has made her a winner. Warner knows how to compete to be successful, and that mentality and leadership fits with all of our team's goals. She will be a great asset to our team's future."


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Re: Shadow's Uncharted 3 MP Prediction
TheStuntDouble wrote:
Great idea, as long as I still can opt to not legacy.
Abusing level matchmaking Ftw
I'm with you on that. At first, I didn't legacy because I didn't want to lose everything, but now, with the super exploitable matchmaking, I have even more incentive not to do it. I still find 5th legacy 75s sometimes, but not nearly as often.
Keeping all my stuff (boosters, money etc.) and facing weaker opponents? I'll take that, thank you very much
Re: Shadow's Uncharted 3 MP Prediction
No amount of clown crap will sway me, man.
Re: Shadow's Uncharted 3 MP Prediction
Haha Some of my friends are always asking me why I never legacy. After some matches they're all like, "Black, after this match you're gonna legacy, man" xD
Re: Shadow's Uncharted 3 MP Prediction
I-Like-Pie45 wrote:
They are bringing back the Airwalk to balance out the game.
Hmm, aren't you aware that there is a new way to airwalk?
I'm pretty sure it's the same as the old airwalk, but then in combination with the freeze glitch...
Re: Shadow's Uncharted 3 MP Prediction[ Edited ]
nabeel055 wrote:
This game is usually too easy for me now anyway with all the noobs even though I'm 5th legacy. Being non legacy must be a cakewalk.
That's right, bro! This is especially true in 3TDM. Whenever my friends and I play it, we tend to find a lot of noobs. Actually, we've encountered some teams composed entirely of noobs. Needless to say, we win almost every match (except for that time we found you and Incarn and you two kicked our butts )
Re: Shadow's Uncharted 3 MP Prediction
Even more evidence Shadow:
- Lvl 76-100 are on the disk and leaked since a long time ago. Hell, they unlocked the lvl. 100 skull rank by making it a 5th legacy emblem reward.
- DooDooDaggers (however it's spelled) got a pic by someone getting a glitched lvl 90 rank in the game, even more evidence there are on the disk ready to be unleashed.
------------------Join my GTA V crew "ND forums"!-------------------
Re: Shadow's Uncharted 3 MP Prediction
Re: Shadow's Uncharted 3 MP Prediction
Re: Shadow's Uncharted 3 MP Prediction
nabeel055 wrote:
Yeah every once in a while you'll run into a challenge in 3TDM. I'm sure you've gotten better since that match though Black. I surely have, I love using the FAL now.
I've been using the FAL in Objective modes recently, and I've been having a lot fun with it. I've also been using the Raffica (it's so satisfying to get kills with it!)
We need to play together again sometime.
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So I have got it in my head that turning out a Bounty Hunter Asajj costume won't be super time consuming and would be a nice distraction while I slowly gather my Zam parts. My first big hurdle with it is getting the right fabric.
For reference, here is a close up of the fabric. This shot is a bit dark, but it's the best one that shows the fabric.
The fabric has a distinct vertical striped pattern as well as the geometric pattern. It's pretty obvious I'm not going to find anything like it straight off the shelf. I do have an idea of how to get the geometric pattern on the fabric. That part is fairly easy. It's the stripes I'm on the fence about. Are they pleats? Or stripes? I could do them as stripes pretty easy. I found a nice cotton fabric with "Seuss stripes" I could dye it to match the coloring pretty easily, then silk screen the pattern on top. I ordered a swatch to see if the proportions were correct. Now if it is pleats, ugh, doable but much more of a headache.
I just wanted to toss this around and see if anyone else had any ideas?