text:
First, the good news: Rapidly rising home prices last year helped millions of troubled homeowners regain equity in their properties, data released Thursday show.
Now the bad: The recovery remained lopsided, and just five states made up more than one-third of the negative equity in the U.S. in the fourth quarter.
Rebounding from crash lows, residential prices zoomed up in 2013, and four million homes regained positive equity, according to a report from CoreLogic, an Irvine, Calif.-based analysis firm. Across the U.S., 13.3% of residential properties with a mortgage were in negative equity in the fourth quarter -- meaning that owners owed more on a mortgage than their home was worth -- down from 21.6% a year earlier.
"The plight of the underwater borrower has improved dramatically since negative equity peaked in December 2009 when more than 12 million mortgaged homeowners were underwater," said Mark Fleming, chief economist, in a statement.
But the market hasn't completely healed: almost 6.5 million homes were in negative equity in the fourth quarter, according to CoreLogic. And certain states are worse off than others. Properties in Nevada, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, and Illinois accounted for 36.9% of total national negative equity at the end of 2013.
While certain markets have recently posted record home prices, areas that were hit particularly hard when the bubble burst still have far to go. For example, home prices in Las Vegas are about 45% below a 2006 peak, while U.S. home prices are off 20% from bubble highs.
Still, even beleaguered states have seen improvement. In Nevada, for example, 30.4% of mortgaged properties were in negative equity in the fourth quarter, down from 52% a year earlier. Similarly, Florida saw its share fall to 28.1% from 40.5%.
-- Ruth Mantell
Follow Ruth on Twitter @RuthMantell
Follow the Capitol Report blog on Twitter @CapitolReport
Check out these Capitol Report posts:
State Dept. channels inner Letterman with top 10 Russian lies about Ukraine
Why construction employment seemed decent even with the bad weather


text:
Apparently the Fiscal Commission believes that only the very poorest (those with career earnings in the range of $10,771) depend upon Social Security's benefits for security in old age–because they are the only ones the Commission spares from cuts. The middle and working class, it seems, could part with a huge slice of their benefits. The Commission's proposed cuts would hit the middle class, and hit them hard.
Of course, you would not know that if you only paid attention to the media's coverage of the various Commission reports. They make it seem like the proposals are just a spoonful of tough medicine for a nation gone wild.
To help shed some light on the matter, I made a chart and graph comparing annual benefits under current law and recent reform proposals for what the Social Security Administration calls a "medium" earner (career earnings of $43,084) and a "high" earner (career earnings of $68,934).
I think it's safe to say that a 65-year-old with average career earnings of $43,084 a-year relies on Social Security considerably in retirement. As this chart shows, their current annual benefit of $16,674, which is just 55% above the poverty line, would be cut by more than $2,300 under the Rivlin-Domenici plan, $4,000 under Bowles-Simpson and more than $7,000 under Ryan's plan.
Those with average career earnings of $68,934–a solid middle class salary, but still not what we would call "rich" by any means–currently receive $22,212 if they retire at 65. Under the Rivlin-Domenici plan they'd lose $2,500, and under Bowles-Simpson they'd lose close to $7,000–a whopping 36% cut. (Data on the cuts under the Ryan plan were not available.)
Bowles, Simpson and Rivlin have claimed time and again that we can "strengthen" Social Security–ie shore up its finances for the next 75 years–without hurting those who need it. In fact, they have made avoiding the sudden cuts that would occur in 2037 if Congress were not to act, their raison d'etre. Even incoming GOP Budget Committee chairman, Rep. Paul "Privatization" Ryan, has chimed in with his own violin playing about the cruelty we would be inflicting on seniors if we were not able to pay full benefits in 2037 when the Trust Fund is exhausted. Here is a precious quote from his Roadmap's website:
Left on its present course, beneficiaries will face a 22% across-the-board benefit cut when the Social Security Trust Funds are exhausted. According to the 2010 Social Security Trustees Report, median income-earners now approaching retirement will receive benefit cuts in excess of $4,000. Even those who are currently on Social Security – those now 62 and older – may experience indiscriminate cuts in benefits at a time when they are increasingly reliant on the program. Lost in the heated rhetoric against reform efforts is the real pain that will be inflicted on seniors if we continue to cling to this unsustainable status quo.
(Click here for the full Ryan quote, as well as similar remarks in the Bowles-Simpson proposal and the Rivlin-Domenici report.)
But the same Bowles & Simpson, who claim to be trying to save beneficiaries from the immediate 22% cut they will suffer if Congress takes no action to shore up the Trust Fund (which would be both an historical anomaly and a political impossibility), would end up only providing "medium" earners ($43,084) $200 more than if nothing was done. For the so-called "high" earners ($68,934), their proposed benefit cuts are even worse than if the Trust Fund were exhausted. $2,100 worse. So much for "strengthening" Social Security!
The fact is, two-thirds of our seniors rely on Social Security for a majority of their retirement income. No matter how poorly our 401(k)s are performing or how much home equity we've lost in the recession, Social Security is there for us.
That's why if the media won't speak up about these cuts, we must. We cannot let elite budget wonks living in the Beltway bubble conceal what they are trying to do to us. They are doing nothing less than pulling the rug out from under the middle class in this country. And they are getting away with it.
On November 30th, the Strengthen Social Security campaign's National Call Congress Day, call your representatives and tell them how you feel. Tell them that the only people whose benefits should be cut are the lying bureaucrats on the President's Fiscal Commission.
Postscript for wonks: As you may have noticed on the graph, even under current law, benefits for people aged 65 are going down because the normal retirement age is now at 66 and will reach 67 in 2022. This is noteworthy. Before we begin raising the retirement age even further, should we not allow time to consider how the current changes affect retirement security and the labor market? The majority of beneficiaries claim benefits before the normal retirement age, choosing instead to take a 7% cut for every year below the NRA that they retire. For someone currently retiring at 62, that is a whopping 28% cut–for the rest of their lives! I'm betting that a whole lot of those people work in physically demanding jobs or have lost their job in late middle age. Otherwise, why would they take such a big cut?
Another thing. If anyone was wondering what makes Rep. Deutch's plan more generous, it is because he would index benefits to a special consumer price index (the CPI-E) created by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that is meant to be a more realistic estimate of the elderly's cost-of-living. The regular CPI-W does not weight medical costs in proportion to the chunk they take out of seniors' paychecks. This is really an important reform. All of the current reform proposals suggest adopting the chained CPI, which assumes the elderly can replace their current services with cheaper ones as prices go up. Again, this does not take into account medical services that cannot be easily replaced at a lower price. The SSA estimates it would result in a 0.3% cut in the COLA every year–beginning now, for current beneficiaries! That's 6% over 20 years. And we haven't even explored the full potential of the BLS's CPI-E! How come we have heard so little about Deutch's plan?
If you would like to know about my methodology in making the graphs, take a look at this explanation by Nancy J. Altman, a nationally renowned scholar on Social Security and the Co-Director of Social Security Works & the Strengthen Social Security campaign.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Contact us 24/7: +1 877 678 9627
Vicki Sarge has joined forces with former Vogue staffer Brooke Metcalfe to launch a line of handmade jewelry. Designed and crafted in London, the collections are inspired by the New York club scene of the late '70s and '80s, architecture, film and contemporary culture. Beyoncé, Tilda Swinton and Paloma Faith are fans.


text:
Featured Vacation RentalSerendipity House
Property Code: 15 Ames #3
Lovely Porch
Contact Manager for Availability
Weekly rent of $1,300
Towels, excluding beach towels Bedding/linens Paper towels Kleenex Toilet Paper Garbage Bags Dish Soap Dishwasher Detergent(if applicable) Laundry Detergent(if applicable) No body or hand soap or shampoos are provided
Contact Information
Contact Manager for Availability
Rental Rates and Seasons: (USD)
* Rates are subject to change without notice. Pricing excludes taxes, additional options and fees.
Availability Calendar


text:
Audit (A-06-09-00099)
Review of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Medicaid Eligibility Requirements in Texas
Executive Summary
Texas made one policy change after July 1, 2008, that resulted in more restrictive Medicaid eligibility standards, methodologies, and procedures during the first three quarters of Federal fiscal year 2009. However, in accordance with section 5001(f)(1)(C) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), the State reinstated the less restrictive policy before July 1, 2009. The State also made administrative policy changes that did not affect the eligibility process. For the recession adjustment period (October 1, 2008, through December 31, 2010), the Recovery Act made additional Medicaid funding available to States based on temporary increases in the Federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP). Pursuant to the Recovery Act, a State generally is not eligible for an FMAP increase for quarters during the recession adjustment period in which its Medicaid eligibility standards, methodologies, or procedures are more restrictive than those in effect on July 1, 2008.
This report contained no recommendations.
Complete Report
Download the complete report (PDF)
Adobe® Acrobat® is required to read PDF files.
Copies can also be obtained by contacting the Office of Public Affairs at 202-619-1343.
Let's start by choosing a topic
Priority recommendations summarized.
Work Plan
OIG planned projects.
Semiannual Report
Significant OIG activities in 6-month increments.


text:
French Teen in Hot Water Over Drone Footage
Feb 21, 2014 9:44 AM PT
A French teen faces charges of "endangering the lives of others" over his use of a drone, which he sent skyward to capture impressive (and seemingly harmless) footage of the city Nancy.
Eighteen-year-old Nans Thomas affixed an Internet-bought drone with a GoPro camera and then sent the contraption skyward. The ensuing video has been viewed more than 270,000 times already on YouTube.
Alas, the would-be cinematic achievement runs afoul of a French law that prohibits such expeditions without both air authority permission and proper training, of which Thomas apparently had neither.
Thomas told French media that he is torn up about the incident, but the public prosecutor's office isn't backing down. It issued a statement saying, "If the machine crashes in a densely populated area, the consequences could be serious." There are also privacy concerns, the office said.
[Source: Est Republicain (French) via The Register]
Korean Newspaper Bows to Samsung, Removes Content
The president of NewDailyBiz.com, an online newspaper in South Korea, reportedly ordered editors to remove an article about Another Promise -- a film that casts South Korea-based Samsung in a negative light -- after company execs complained.
The paper's prez, Park Jung-kyu, followed up this act of journalistic cowardice by shooting texts to the Samsung folks who had griped in the first place.
The story might have gone unreported but for the fact that Park included a few journalists in his text message blast. The journalists, who work for South Korean publication Pressian, then posted the text messages online.
Another Promise is a fictional portrayal of the real-life experiences of a woman whose 23-year-old daughter died of leukemia. The daughter got sick after being exposed to hazardous materials at a Samsung plant.
In real-life, a court ruled against Samsung in the case.
[Source: Pressian (Korean) via The Verge]
Aussie Computer Club Accused of Sexism
A branch of the Australian Computer Society has been criticized for planning to celebrate men who hire women at its International Women's Day breakfast.
In a move that was perhaps a bit tone deaf -- but certainly doesn't seem malicious -- the group made the theme of its International Women's Day celebration, "Celebrate the male champions of change!"
Invites to the breakfast welcomed people to bring a "male champion of change."
Detractors used Twitter to shower the group with accusations of sexism and of being condescending and patronizing. The computer group subsequently changed the theme of the event to "celebrating diversity."
International Women's Day is March 8.
[Source: The Guardian]
Bounty Offered in Name of Videogame
A 10,000 euros bounty -- roughly US$13,400 -- is being offered for catching the perpetrators of a distributed denial of service attack that knocked the multiplayer computer game Wurm offline.
Hackers apparently targeted the game's servers, and the game is still offline.
Wurm, developed in Sweden, takes place in virtual realms, with everything created by the gamers themselves.
[Source: BBC]


text:
Previous Episode | Next Episode
Tokyo-Ho, Ho
Post your Comments or Review
This page has been viewed 22 times this month, and 848 times total.
Tokyo-Ho, HoTokyo-Ho, Ho (1981) - Laverne and Shirley in the Army Cartoon Episode Guide by Dave Koch
This page has been viewed 22 times this month, and 848 times total.
- Laverne and Shirley in the Army Cartoon Episode GuideEpisode GuideTelevisionSeriesCartoon
- Traditional Animation
- Hanna-Barbera Productions, Paramount Television
- Distributed by: Paramount Television
- Cartoon Characters: Laverne DeFazio, Shirley Feeney, Sgt. Turnbuckle, Sgt. Squealy.
- Voice Actors: Penny Marshall, Cindy Williams, Kenneth Mars, Ron Palillo.
- Directed By George Gordon, Carl Urbano, Rudy Zamora, Bob Goe, Terence Harrison, Chris Cuddington; more Directors ...
- Produced By Duane Poole, Art Scott, Tom Swale, Doug Paterson, Iwao Takamoto, William Hanna, Joseph Barbera.
- Animated By Susan Beak, Ty Bosco, Gairden Cooke, Dick Dunn, Peter Eastment, John Eyley, Peter Gardiner, Gerry Grabner, Murray Griffin, Greg Ingram, Dwayne Labbe, Paul Maron, John Martin; more Animators ...
- Written By Duane Poole, Tom Swale, Barry E. Blitzer, Ray Parker.
- Music: Hoyt Curtin, Paul DeKorte, Terry Moore, Robert Talboy.
- Editor: Robert Ciaglia, Larry C. Cowan (Supervising Film Editors, Gil Iverso, William E. DeBoer; more Editors ...
- First Aired on December 19, 1981.
- Originally Aired on ABC-TV (USA).
- Running Time: 30 minutes.
- Season: 1
- Color
Cartoon Summary:
Prime-time characters Laverne and Shirley are army privates.
Cartoon Production Information:
Alternate Series Title: "Laverne & Shirley (Short Title)."
Cartoon Video:
Sorry, we do not have a video of Tokyo-Ho, Ho. If you have one, or know of one on Youtube, Vimeo or any other site, Let Us Know
Submit Additional Information:
Do you have anything to add to this page? Have we made any mistakes... or do you have any additional information about Tokyo-Ho, Ho? If so, we would love to hear from you. Please send us a quick note with your additions or corrections to this page, and we will make the corrections as soon as possible!
Cartoon Comments:
Do you love Tokyo-Ho, Ho, or do you think it is the worst cartoon ever? Let us know what you think! Surely you have an opinion... so share what you think. Take a minute and post your own comments about this cartoon here.


text:
Texas Pastor Pulls a Grinch on Parishioner's Home
On Christmas Eve, a Dallas pastor, Sandy McGriff, was arrested for breaking into her friend's home and allegedly stealing fur coats, a laptop, and designer purses. McGriff says she thwarted two burglars, but an eyewitness has a different story.
McGriff, who invited reporters to her home to tell her side of the story, says "something just told me to go past her house," referring to her friend, and parishioner of The Church of the Living God, Serita Agnew. McGriff says she saw two men leaving the home, but instead of calling 911, she decided to "protect" Agnew's valuables, by climbing through a window and stashing them in her car. According to the Dallas Morning News:
She grabbed a laptop from the bedroom and three designer purses and put them in the Jaguar's back seat. Police arrived about 5:30 p.m. to see her carrying two fur coats out the back door, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
What a good friend! Oh, but Agnew's neighbor just happened to be watching, and offered a slightly different story:
Agnew's neighbor David Nanez had a different version of events. He said Monday that he had just come home from work when he saw a woman at Agnew's house. They waved at each other. Nanez said he kept watching as the woman hit the window with something. He said she tried to use an 8-foot wooden ladder to get in the window, but she slipped. So she got a 5-gallon bucket from the backyard to boost herself through the window, he said.
Police arrived as McGriff was making a second trip from her friend's home. McGriff was arrested for burglary and resisting arrest under a different name, Kathy Robinson, which she says that was an alias she used as a "troubled youth." Here's a video interview with McGriff inside her home. At 1:40, she seems to misremember what happened. Oops!


text:
Flavel House Museum(corner of 8th and Duane Streets)
As one of the best preserved examples of Queen Anne architecture in the Northwest, the Flavel House survives today as a landmark of local and national significance. The house was built in 1884-85, for Captain George Flavel and his family. The Captain, who made his fortune through his occupation as a river bar pilot and through real estate investments, built the Flavel House as his retirement home at the age of 62. The Flavel House has been restored to accurately portray the elegance of the Victorian period and the history of the Flavel family.
Flavel House History
The Flavel House was the home of Captain George Flavel (1823 - 1893), one of Astoria's most influential citizens in the late 1800s. Captain Flavel was a noted bar pilot on the Columbia River and a prominent businessman. His Queen Anne style house was designed by German-born architect Carl W. Leick and was completed in the spring of 1886. The Captain lived here for seven years with his wife Mary Christina Boelling (1839 - 1928) and his two grown daughters, Nellie and Katie. The couple's son, George Conrad Flavel, never lived in his parent's new residence, as he was already married and living in a house of his own.
The house remained in the family until 1934 when George and Mary's great-granddaughter, Patricia Jean Flavel, gave the property to the city as a memorial to her family. In 1936 there was talk of tearing the house down and establishing an outdoor community park on the property. However, the city had financial difficulties and decided to return the property to Patricia Flavel. That same year the residence and grounds were deeded to Clatsop County with the understanding that both would be kept in good repair and used for public purposes. From 1937 through World War II, the Public Health Department, the Red Cross, and the local Welfare Commission all had offices in the house. In 1951, there was once again talk of tearing the house down, this time to make way for a parking lot for the County Courthouse. Locals organized to save the home and the Flavel House was made into a museum managed by the Clatsop County Historical Society, while still under the ownership of the County. The County transferred the title to the Historical Society in 1995.
About the Interior
The Flavel House is approximately 11,600 square feet and consists of two and a half stories, a single story rear kitchen, a four-story tower and a full basement. The interior woodwork around the doors, windows, and staircases are Eastlake-influenced in design. The Douglas Fir doors and windows were wood grained by a master craftsman to look like mahogany and burl rosewood. The wood likely came from a mill in Portland or San Francisco and was shipped to Astoria by steamer.
Six unique fireplace mantels grace the home and feature different imported tiles from around the world, an elaborate hand-carved mantel and a patterned metal firebox that was designed for burning coal. The 14-foot high ceilings on the first floor and the 12-foot high ceilings on the second floor are embellished with plaster medallions and crown molding. The house was also fitted with indoor plumbing and gaslights.
The First Floor is comprised of the more public rooms such as the grand entrance hall, the formal parlor, the music room (the scene of musical recitals by the Flavel daughters), the library (the heart of the house), the dining room, and the conservatory. The butler's pantry, the kitchen, and the mudroom make up the housekeeping area.
The Second Floor features the main bathroom, five bedchambers, and a small room, which was used as a storage room or sewing room.
The Attic Floor is a large, unfinished area with two plain wood bedrooms used by the Flavel's domestic help. The tower gave the Captain a 360-degree view of Astoria and the Columbia River, so he could keep an eye on the local ship traffic. While some people claim the attic was meant to be a ballroom that was never completed, every piece of evidence clearly points to the contrary - it was never meant to be anything but storage.
The Basement of the house originally had a dirt floor and contained a large wood burning furnace that burned 4-foot wood logs.
About the Exterior
The Flavel House rests on park-like grounds covering an entire city block. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1951.
The Queen Anne architectural style, popular from 1880 to 1910, can be seen in the house's steeply pitched roof, patterned shingles, and cut-away bay windows. Other characteristics of the Queen Anne style are the octagonal-shaped tower, the one-story wrap-around porch and its asymmetrical facade. Decorative elements of the Stick and Italianate styles are also apparent in the vertical stickwork, the bracketed eaves, and the hooded molding above the windows and doors. Outlining the roof and verandas of the house is the original wrought iron and cresting.
About the Carriage House
The Carriage House was built on the south-west corner of the property in 1887. It served as the place where the family kept their carriage, sleigh, and small buggies. It also had three temporary holding stalls for their horses, a tack room, and a hay loft upstairs. In the mid 1890s, the Carriage House was home to the family's hired caretaker, Alex Murray. In time, automobiles, including the Flavel's Studebaker sedan, found a home in the Carriage House and the family's driver kept a room upstairs. Today, the Carriage House functions as the Visitor Center, museum store, and exhibit hall for the Flavel House Museum, as well as the administrative offices of the Clatsop County Historical Society.
About the Grounds
Shortly after the house was built, the Flavel's gardener, Louis Schultz, began planting trees, fine roses, and many varieties of bulbs and shrubs. Many of the plants found in the Flavel yard today are typical of those found in Victorian gardens. A number of the trees were named official Oregon Heritage Trees at a state-wide dedication ceremony held on the grounds in 2003. These include a Camperdown Elm, Sequoia Redwood, four Cork Elms, Bay Laurel, Pear tree, and a Ginkgo Biloba.
Today, both the grounds and the modern kitchen in the Carriage House are available for rentals.
The Flavel House and Carriage House are significant architectural and historical treasures for not only Clatsop County but the entire Pacific Northwest. The Captain George Flavel House, Carriage House, and surrounding landscape are describ


text:
Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, ESPN's E:60 unleashes its orchestrated ambush of Miguel Tejada in all of its uncomfortable, Schapp'd-up glory. They couldn't sit on the story long enough because, well, a 33-year-old man posing as a 31-year-old is something that needs to be revealed as soon as possible so that the public can no longer be hoodwinked by this bastard Dominican shortstop charlatan. And, also, it's Tejeda, you fools. Don't you feel silly? The authors of Miggy's Wikipedia page were justifiably irate.
Chris Mottram, the younger, more virile half of the Mottram blog Hydra unloads on the Lester Munson article that accompanies the E:60 promo on ESPN.com:
Middle aged women beware: Lying about your age is the gateway lie to lying about much more harmful things. Like drug abuse.
So, remember, set your Tivo's if you want to watch this Tejada — sorry, Tejeda guy squirm like the lawless vermin he is. Plus, it's also fun to watch that gripping E:60 roundtable, as ESPN's elite muckraking corps vet each story like it's Watergate: THE MAN IS NOT USING HIS GOD GIVEN FEET TO WIN RACES...
Tonight, We Finally Find Out Tejada's Real Age! [The Sporting Blog]


text:
I LOVE infographs. They deliver lots of information in an easy to see and process format. And this one has a ton of statistics…all very well documented.
I particularly love the "When they Grow Up Section."
"Are you glad you were homeschooled?"
"Heck, yeah!"
"Will you homeschool your own children?"
"Darn straight."
Pretty sure my girls would concur.
Anyway…here are the cold, hard facts. Homeschooling rocks.
Source: TopMastersInEducation.com


text:
Lipscomb University head coach Scott Sanderson announced Thursday that Nashville native Johnny Lee will join the Bisons basketball squad for the 2009-10 season.
Lee, who completed his undergraduate degree at George Washington University last week, played three years as a point guard for the Colonials. He will seek a graduate degree at Lipscomb.
"Johnny is a true point guard who will be a top-notch individual on and off the floor," Sanderson said.
"He worked himself into a prominent role as the backup point guard for George Washington in the Atlantic 10 conference. The George Washington coaching staff spoke highly of his production and leadership skills."
Lee was a four-year starter at Martin Luther King Magnet school where he graduated in 2005. He enrolled at George Washington where he joined the basketball team in October 2006.
Lee played in 20 games during the 2006-07 season. In his second year on the George Washington team he played in 26 games, starting nine. He averaged 2.1 assists with a 1.6 assist-to-turnover ratio in 15.7 minutes per game. Lee had a career-high 14 points at No. 9 Xavier on Mar. 1, 2008.
Last year Lee played in 24 games, starting two. He averaged 1.9 points and 1.7 assists in 12 minutes of action per game. Lee had 11 points, seven rebounds, and five assists against Rhode Island on Jan. 25.
Lee will be eligible to play immediately for the Bisons and is in his final year of eligibility.


text:
Waltz of My Heart, from: The Dancing Years
Karita Mattila
Wonderful - favourites by Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Andrew Llyod Webber and others
Karita Mattila, soprano
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Pekka Savijoki, conductor
Released 03/1995
privacy policy
tell a friend
bookmark this page
Copyright © 2019 Ondine Oy, A member of The Naxos Music Group
All rights reserved.
Extended search
We noticed you are searching for more than one word. Would you like to
search for each word separately,
eg.: Paul, Hindersmith, Symphonie
search for a term,
eg.: "Paul Hindersmith"
redefine your search.
Use quotations for a term and single words, eg.: "Paul Hindersmith" Symphonie
just search >


text:
Monday, May 14, 2007
Reformed Catholicism v. Reformed Catholicity, no. 2
But the gospel calls us to repentance. That was the "hark!" of Luther's first of his 95 theses, which itself was but a reading of Christ's own call: "Repent." (Matt. 4:17) Certainly, there must be a corporate dimension to this, and our own Presbyterian tradition has given it expression in the phrase semper reformanda. As such, it is quintessentially Presbyterian to "look[] to forge something other than Presbyterianism" if that is what a searching out of ourselves in the light of Scripture leads us to do. I think the main thrust of what you are saying is that we shouldn't become something else or borrow from others just for the sake of it (and I agree -- at least to the same extent that we shouldn't stay the same just for the sake of it), but you don't seem to give much credit to the possibility that those who call themselves Reformed Catholics are seeking to appropriate things from other traditions because a very Presbyterian sola-scriptura study of such things has led them to conclude that those things are biblical and that we are missing out on something without them in our lives.
The things I have come to envy in other traditions are NOT the things they have "invented," but the ways in which they have preserved -- in their doctrines, laws, and liturgies -- biblical religion. I believe Presbyterianism has done this well, and that the biblical, "catholic" faith finds beautiful expression in Presbyterianism. As a college student, I was blown away by how the Presbyterian faith helped me understand myself in light of Scripture, and I'm not sure that I would be here typing this comment if it weren't for the Presbyterians that ministered Jesus's love to me then.
But "Presbyterianism" didn't fall from the sky in 15- or 16-whatever. It was a reformation of the Western Christian tradition. And it is therefore patently un-Presbyterian to deny the Presbyterian-ness of pre-Presbyterian Christianity. For example, is St. Giles Cathedral not Presbyterian because it was built long before John Knox ascended the pulpit there and is named after a medieval recluse who healed a deer? That doesn't mean that everything that happened before the Reformation should be embraced as good (such a sentiment would very much be un-Presbyterian), but the entire history of pre-Reformation Western Christianity is *our* history, warts and all, and the genius of Presbyterianism is not our ability to pretend like that history didn't happen but our own way of sifting it and appropriating it for today. Anglicans, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics also have appropriated it according to their own principles (albeit, in ways that are sometimes so far from Scripture as to be unrecognizable as biblical). No wonder then that those who are trying to reflect on what being Presbyterian means as a matter of historical moment should find it helpful to consider these "high church" traditions rather than Brother Bob's traveling salvation show or other low-church novelties. Yes, high-church churches have their own novelties, but at least they often serve as a window into the past that we as Presbyterians share with them rather than just a purposeful repudiation of the past for the sake of repudiating it.
My point is that I think your understanding of what Reformed Catholicism is all about fails to give sufficient credit to the good faith of those asking questions about what the heck Presbyterianism *is* (well before we move on to how it should even change) and fails to give sufficient weight to the motivating concerns of the questions they are asking, concerns that I think nevertheless resonate in your own longing for place and identity as expressed in this post. So don't ditch Reformed Catholicism quite so eagerly. I think it's more worthwhile than either of us could imagine -- as is Reformed Catholicity.
This is a great comment. I think the writer raises a number of excellent and thoughtful points, with which I'd love to engage.
1. The writer points out that the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition is one that stresses semper reformanda ("always reforming"); as a result, it is quintessentially Presbyterian to look for something other than Presbyterianism. While I'm sympathetic to this point, I wonder whether it claims too much--for if this is the case, then to be most faithful to Presbyterianism, we would not be Presbyterian; and that strikes me as an illogical claim. Even more, it strikes me the writer is putting something at the center of Presbyterianism and so takes it upon himself to define what Presbyterianism is--Presbyterians stand for "always reforming." Instead of the markers I might suggest (sovereignty of God, sola gratia and sola fide in relation to justification and sanctification, covenant and Kingdom, nature of the church and its sacraments, representative polity under Christ the King), the writer puts this point of perpetual reformation at the center.
And so, the question could rightly be asked, is this the case? Is perpetual reformation the center of what it means to be Presbyterian? Even more, does this perpetual reformation led us back to ritual practices or religious beliefs that were rejected by the Reformers themselves? That is, does perpetual reformation mean that we forake the communion of the saints across time by seeing something as biblical that the Reformers rejected themselves?
These are important questions--I would tend to argue that in fact "always reforming" becomes a rubric under which a whole raft of beliefs and practices can be imported into a religious tradition. Still, it is worthwhile to raise whether this motto is truly at the center and whether we should tailor our religious practices accordingly.
2. The writer also observed that perhaps I wasn't crediting the good faith of those who are simply asking the question about what Presbyterianism is. But here the answer seems a little easier--Presbyterianism is a historical entity whose beliefs, practices, and stories can be investigated and measured. I hoped that I got at that in my On Being Presbyterian. Regardless of what one could say about that book, it seems fair to say that it represents what historically can be recognized as Presbyterianism.
And I would agree with the writer that Presbyterianism didn't simply drop from the sky (in fact, I make that point repeatedly in my church history classes). It does experience continuity with what went before. But it also experienced remarkable discontinuity as well, as historian Margo Todd (for example) makes strikingly clear. I think that perhaps our current "high church" interest overstresses continuity with the medieval church over historical discontuinity.
It seems, rather, that the question asked is what Presbyterianism ought to be for this generation. And that is a different question--and that is the one about which I am most worried. For I cherish Presbyterianism, not only as a historical entity but also as it is incarnate in particular situations today. And I worry that as we "add" things to Presbyterianism, borrowed from other traditions under the guise of "Reformed catholicism," we will end up with something that is different from Presbyterianism. It goes back to my question--how much "reform" can a tradition bear before it becomes a different (new) tradition?
3. The commentator, however, seemed to miss my larger point--namely, if we are going to be truly "catholic," then we better start paying attention to worldwide Pentecostalism. As Phillip Jenkins makes clear, global Christianity is overwhelming Pentecostal; and so, if we wanted to be "always Reforming," then perhaps we need to be reforming in the direction of this "new thing" God is doing.
I would assume that most who lean toward "Reformed Catholicism" would reprobate this claim, suggesting that Pentecostalism has too many errors for "Reformed" types to take seriously. But this, to me, seems like a double-standard on their part. How can we pay attention to the ritual practices of Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Roman Catholicism and not pay attention to the Pentecostals, if we desire to be truly "catholic"? What would it look like if we were to incorporate "world Christianity" into our worship? Pentecostal practices? Would it produce something different from "Presbyterianism"? I think so--which raises the real questions going the other way--how much divergence can a tradition tolerate?
This is where my own notion of "Reformed Catholicity" works better, I think. By working out of our own our own religious identity (our beliefs, practices, and stories), it moves to engage others in charitable and humble conversation and cooperation when possible to live out the primary reality that we both share--we are both clothed with Jesus Christ by faith alone in him. It may be that we will learn some things about our own tradition through the engagement; it may be that we will contribute something to others. However, catholicity and catholicism represent two different stances; one speaks of engagement, the other of adoption. I think the our Reformed faith, grand as it is, requires the former, but not the latter.
11 comments:
- Anonymous said...
Pastor Lucas,
Thanks so much for reading my comments charitably! Sorry to have posted semi-anonymously, but I didn't have my new blog up and running yet and, in any case, I figured you'd know who I was. ;-)
Regarding your first point in reply, I agree that "'always reforming' becomes a rubric under which a whole raft of beliefs and practices can be imported into a religious tradition." That is why I was careful to qualify it by saying that we should look to forge something other than Presbyterianism as it now is "if that is what a searching out of ourselves in the light of Scripture leads us to do." (emphasis added) I'd say that "semper reformanda" is the application of more central tenets of Presbyterianism (God's sovereignty, sola scriptura) to ecclesiology, and that without those concepts (or, to speak less abstractly, without God) standing over the slogan of "semper reformanda" it is pretty useless. But so is staying the same without a biblical or godly reason for doing so.
Thanks again for the thoughts and the thoughtful reply.
Jordan Mark Siverd ("J.M.S.")
New Orleans, Louisiana
- Anonymous said...
We are one Body with many members.
- Timothy R. Butler said...
Dr. Lucas,
Thanks for the two posts here, they were helpful (especially after the "introduction" last Wednesday in class). I'm wondering, what do you think it would look like to engage Pentecostal Christianity That's a broad question, I know, but do you have anything particular in mind when you are talking about taking up an attitude of Reformed Catholicity?
Also, do you think perhaps it is inevitable that more traditional Western churches are seeking commonality and adoption in light of the fact that in some ways Anglicanism, Catholicism, etc. seem more "comfortable" and "familiar" than the Pentecostal flavor of world Christianity?
- Greg Thompson said...
Hi Sean--Greg here. I've just come across these posts and am very interested in them. Thanks for taking the time to think this stuff through.
I especially like your question about the Pentecostals of the global south. For (while this question doesn't disprove the Reformed Catholic instinct) it certainly does show the complexity of the central question we're all wrestling with. And that question, if I read you rightly, is: How can one be biblically ecumenical and yet still have legitimate and necessary boundaries?
If I'm following you, your answer to this question is largely historical: the boundaries are set by the Scriptural habits, conceptual categories, and ecclesial practices inherent in our own historical tradition, and ecumenism comes in maintaining those boundaries while at the same time living charitably and even, as Schaeffer says, co-belligerently, with other traditions. You seem, in other words, to advocate a winsome and charitable way of being what Presbyterians have always been--Presbyterian.
To the extent that I have it right this is compelling in that it takes both the facts of history and the law of charity seriously.
I sometimes wonder if another way to address this question would be to think not just in terms of historical development but also in terms of eschatological trajectory. That is, to understand our identity--and the boundaries essential to identity formation--not just in terms of what we were or even are, but also in terms of what we will be when the new world comes.
The glimpses of this in the books of Psalms, Isaiah, Acts, and Revelation, and Paul's insistence on the determinative power of the future for how we think of ourselves in the present make me wonder if this eschatological starting point might not be a more fruitful approach than--or at least a supplement to--the historical approach you have suggested.
If this is so, given the breadth of the eschatological church (i.e. that it's not all Presbyterian), this raises some questions for me about the "historical approach ".
These questions began to bother me as I considered your use of the term Reformed Catholicity (a term which I very much like, by the way). Reformed Catholicity, as you define it, seems to make "reformed" an identity category and "catholicity" an ethical category. That is, the key thing is to be reformed--whatever that might mean in our time, as you say--and from our reformed identities, to interact charitably with those in other traditions.
Now, I much prefer this to what we currently have in our church. Given the history of American Presbyterianism, it is a very lovely vision.
But I resist it theoretically for three reasons:
First, it seems to me to lack an appropriate eschatological horizon. This approach seems to me to risk cherishing identity boundaries that the eschaton will, in some sense, relativize.
Secondly, it seems to me to actually underplay the demands of charity. Catholicity, as you describe it, allows us to be what we are, to cherish what we are, and act from what we are in kindness toward others. That seems good to me.
But what is lacking is the fact living charitably toward another often requires us to change what we are. The premise of sanctification is that the self is fully revisable in light of the law of love. (Incidentally, this does not involve a logical fallacy as you suggested--the "un-Presbyterian Presbyterian." It simply requires that one have an eschatological--and not merely historical--understanding of one's identity). But your version of charitable catholicity seems to make room for too much sameness. I resist this because charity is more disruptive than this.
Thirdly, "catholicity" becomes a bit anemic. Rather than the identity marker that Nevin longed for, it becomes either a winsome disposition of the heart or teamwork across fixed ecclesial boundaries.
But catholicity is neither mere kindness nor mere co-belligerence. It is not merely a winsome disposition. It is the hunger for communion.
The question is not how can we, being distinct, encourage one another. The question is how we can BE ONE. And further, how we can reflect that one-ness in concrete ways to the world around us.
Okay, I need to hush. I'm sorry to have prattled on for so long. Let me sum up:
I understand that there is an already-not yet component to all of ecclesial life. And there are necessary reasons--though many (not all) of them tragic in my view--for the boundaries we live within. So, I'm not arguing for a utopian sameness that ignores the deep trenches of history. Truly. There is a lot in those trenches that will find its way into the new world.
I'm simply trying to argue against an essentially preservationist view of reformed identity and an essentially dispositional view of catholicity.
Mere preservationism lacks a necessary eschatological imagination. And merely dispositional catholicity lacks both the self-sacrifice and the concrete union that love requires.
At least this is how it seems to me in this late hour.
What think ye, good sir?
Peace of the Savior to you. GT
- Anonymous said...
I have been following this discussion since it was linked to from ReformedCatholicism.com. And I have been thinking much about what you have said. I wonder what the Reformed Confession of the Christian (Catholic) Faith will look like if one of two things happens:
1) Calvinists cease to be humbled bleeding heart and prayerful men of God. Calvinism aught to profoundly humble the proud and fill us with thankful and rejoicing hearts of praise and hymn. Unfortunately the average Calvinist seems to be one of the frozen chosen hypers. See this very unfortunate post over at Phil Johnson's Pyro-blog:
< The strains of hyper-Calvinism that are flourishing today are more harsh and more hyper than any of the historic hyper-Calvinists ever thought about being.
< In a nutshell-for the past several years I've been reading reformed books (modern ones like Sproul Jr.) and they just about killed my faith. After tears and much confusion (and even anger) I came to realize that Sproul Jr. and others like him must be hyper calvinists. I bagged up all my reformed books minus one or two to get them out of the house, never to return.
< The reformed people I have met are arrogant and unloving-period.
< I will take your advice Phil and read the historic reformed writers and give reformed theology another chance. Thanks for the idea.
More than just reading the "truly reformed" historic writers, people need to experience the "bleeding heart Calvinists" humbled and thankful and not judgmental and cold. A Christian cannot flourish from books alone, they need the Church If every parish they encounter that subscribes to the Westminster Standards or the Three Forms of Unity are either sodomites or arrogant un-loving fools, who will blame them for joining a Pentecostal church. Will history remember the Reformation as a short lived aberration? God forbid.
2)Presbyterianism and the Reformed Confession ceases to exist because it is subsumed into other Christian streams of doctrine and practice. I believe in Reformed Catholicity and for me that means that legitimate streams of orthodox tradition have much to teach each other. But if one of those streams or families simply ceases to exist or is assimilated or changes so radically that it is no longer recognizable, then the Church will be impoverished.
Ryan Close
- Anonymous said...
I also worry that with the widespread success that Eastern Orthodoxy is having in mainstream culture in America, that TR brothers will step up the reaction and rhetoric of misinformation, non-charity, and hate that does not whiteness of the love of Christ. I don't want numbers for the Reformed Churches. I would like the gospel to go forth to all the nations and for Christians to grow up into the full stature of the measure of Christ. I believe that all Christians can benefit from the principles of the Magisterial Reformation but I don't wish for that benefit to happen exclusively in my own family of churches, but to be spread throughout the world and given as an inheritance for all Christians.
Ryan Close
- Anonymous said...
Thank you for discussing this topic. I am continually wrestling with how to understand my presbyterianism as an historical and theological subset of catholicism and I'm glad to see that others are wrestling with it as well.
I think Greg has rightly identified the eschatalogical vision of communion as the primary impetus of reformed catholicism. Participation in the eschatalogical church is—or should be—presbyterianism's raison d'etre. Additionally, Braaten and Jenson argue (convincingly to my mind) that the Reformation was about Catholicity. So whether you look backwards or forwards, the reformation is about ecclesial communion.
My participation in the pca is the result of a theological journey that began in denominational tradition (Advent Christian) whose identify was shaped in distinction from everyone else. We weren't like Roman Catholics or Baptists or Methodist or Presbyterians because we were biblical, hadn't compromised the truth, and were striving to safeguard that which we had discovered. The fact that we were small was evidence of our faithfulness. I left behind the Advent Christian denomination and eventually joined the pca, but I did so because I was convinced that the pca was more biblical, did a better job of standing firm and had all the necessary checks and balances in place to prevent any move toward liberalism, or worse—Rome.
Ten years ago, I was looking for a denomination whose raison d'etre was defending the faith, but I no longer find that compelling enough or biblical enough. I find it impossible to believe that the divines were hoping to construct a theological tradition that was to be maintained like a museum until Jesus returns. As Greg mentioned, Jesus commanded his followers to be one, united together in him for the sake of world. It is through our communion, not just our good attitudes, that we will best accomplish God's mission for his church. Of course part of that mission will include defending the faith when necessary, but that only serves a greater purpose.
Again, thanks for discussing this topic, Sean.
Matt Brown
Brooklyn, NY
- Sam Wheatley said...
I wholeheartedly agree with Greg and Matt here. In prep for this week's sermon on Eph 4:1-6 I came across this quote by Lesslie Newbigin that was stimulating. It challenges us all to not treat this issue as a sideline, back-burner type topic, but to fully explore in our ministries what it means to seek the unity of the visible church.
"It is common to hear churchmen speak as though they did not really regard Christian unity as a serious question this side of the End. This is a disastrous illusion. Christians cannot behave as though time were unreal. God gives us time, but not an infinite amount of time. It is His purpose that the Gospel should be preached to all nations, and that all men should be brought into one family in Jesus Christ. His purpose looks to a real End, and therefore requires of us real decisions. If we misconstrue His patience, and think that there is an infinity of time for debate while we perpetuate before the world the scandal of our dismemberment of the Body of Christ, we deceive ourselves. In an issue regarding the doing of the will of God there is no final neutrality.
Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998)"
- Ray said...
Enjoying your blog -- your posts and the responses. Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Also read Dabney and On Being Presbyterian books covert to cover with interest.
Here is what I hear my friend Jordan saying: When we "borrow" the sursum corda from Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Lutheran practice, we are actually just RECOVERING a part of OUR OWN tradition. As I try to define what it means to be a Presbyterian, I know this can't be done apart from our historic roots.
To me, the 800 pound gorilla in the room: Reformed Catholicism is NOT about taking present day Roman Catholicism and sanitizing it with proper Reformed soteriology. It's about sorting out what it means to know that we ARE part of the Catholic Church. The Reformation is a legitimate heir of what preceded it.
We recognize this and then we go about trying to figure out how to faithfully carry the Catholic faith forward under the normative authority of the Bible.
If that's true then Pope Gregory was a "Presbyterian" pope (or a pope to Presbyterians). Patrick was a Presbyterian missionary. Bach was Presbyterian music. My point is -- when we interact with these parts of our history, we're not stepping "outside" Presbyterianism to "dialogue" with some 'other' entity but we are reflecting on what Presbyterianism is in the first place, and what obedience to God means for us today. Calvin does that very well, for example, in the WAY he references historic sources in the Institutes.
I my limited thinking Presbyterianism is an excellent (overall, about the most excellent) and beautiful expression of the Catholic faith. When I have started to think of Presbyterianism as more than that, I have drifted into sectarianism.
hey, let's get a beer at GA.
Ray Cannata
Redeemer Pres
New Orleans
- Sean Michael Lucas said...
Hi, Ray:
Good to "hear" your voice--very excited about how God is moving through RPC in New Orleans.
I guess I think about bigger things here than simply certain liturgical elements, such as the sursum corda (which after all is a scriptural sentence used responsively). I'm thinking about church calendar; lenten observance with Ash Wednesday; a Lord's Supper approach that feels like approaching the altar; etc. These are things that, historically, Presbyterians have not done in corporate worship, not because they aren't beautiful, but because there was no biblical warrant for them.
I know, I know--I'm raising the "dreaded" "Regulative Principle of Worship." But whether we like it or not, going back to Calvin and Knox, the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition has historically believed that Scripture should regulate our worship. And this was not because they were kill-joys or didn't have asethetic sensibilities. Rather, it was a pastoral concern--they didn't want to bind people's consciences illegitimately (in the way Rome did). The only safe way was to worship only as Scripture mandated.
And it is for these reasons Reformed and Presbyterian worship and liturgy has tended toward "simplicity" and away from "mystery"--it is because the Bible serves to regulate our worship practices so that we do not bind people's consciences. And in a sense, that helps to flesh out Jordan's point a little--the Reformed slogan, "Always Reformed," was really "Always Reformed according to Scripture." Scripture must regulate our reforms and shape our identities.
I happen to believe such reforms will ultimately lead us to Presbyterianism--and which is why Presbyterian identity is not merely self-creation or human choice. Rather, it is a recognition of what the Bible says leads to sovereignty of God, grace, covenant, kingdom, sacraments, means of grace, worship, and polity.
In terms of how I think of Presbyterians "dialogue" with other traditions, I describe that in a response to Jeremy in post no. 3--the image of the family album is helpful to me: we are all Christians and so have a number of pictures in common; but we eventually branch off into different families with different family pictures that are meaningful for us and shape us into who we are now. And it is, in fact, from our own "identities" that we dialogue (in the same way that you as a Cannatta dialogue with me as a Lucas--we share humanity [and who knows, maybe common ancestry], but we dialogue from our own discrete shapedness).
I don't know if that helps, but that seems to be the shape of a response...would love to get together at GA, blessings, sml
- Mike Farley said...
Sean, are you rejecting the church calendar in its entirety? You cite Calvin as a defender of the regulative principle, but Calvin and many earlier Continental Reformers were on the side of those who affirmed the church calendar (at least the major Christological festivals) unlike the later Anglo-American Presbyterians. So clearly there are different applications of the regulative principle among those who affirm it as a general principle.
Reformed advocates of the church calendar affirm the idea that liturgical practices should have biblical warrant. The question is the particular kind of biblical warrant that is adequate. Advocates of the church calendar find biblical warrant for a church calendar in a typological application of the OT and in the broader biblical-theological principles embodied in the calendar. Opponents of the church calendar restrict their idea of biblical warrant to specific imperatives and normative examples of apostolic practice in the NT (whiich, IMO is an overly simplistic, primitivist, and unworkable hermeneutical strategy that is at odds with the way that the NT and the Reformed tradition itself interprets and applies the OT.) I think somebody wrote a Ph.D. dissertation on this subject! :)


text:
You can actually put yourself of a "delete" list for junk mail senders through the Direct Marketing Association. It's worked pretty well for me since I signed up a couple of years ago. I don't get unsolicited credit card offers anymore, and, while I still get some random junk mail, I definitely don't get as much as I used to. Anyway, I'd recommend it.
You can go to the Mail Preference Service website and follow their directions to get yourself on the "delete" list.
For other junk mail that keeps on coming after your register with this service, you have to call the individual companies and ask them to remove you from their mailing list. You can also cut down on junk mail by carefully reading the privacy policies that various financial institutions send you. There are usually instructions in those policies on how to ask the company not to sell your name and address to other companies. It can be a bit of a pain in the butt, but so is getting junk mail.
I guess there's also a pay service, which Matt Damon was talking about on Oprah today, called Green Dimes. I'm not sure if they're better than just doing it yourself, but it's good that there are several options for stopping the flow of junk in your mailbox.
I wonder how much of an impact today's green Oprah will have on her viewers' daily lives. Of course, the main way to be truly green is to reduce how much you're consuming, and Oprah pretty much embodies the opposite of that. She appears to mean well, but she's the queen on conspicuous consumption. Overall, being green definitely appears to be going mainstream. I wonder if it's just a trend, or if people will really adopt their new green habits permanently.


text:
Search 4xsex
We all requisite a appreciable horse's of porn to leech from and you can engage your ass that you've found at at someone a Bang. And yeah that gag was intentional. But seeing as how this is a frankly set up , I'm booming to get a hold of to twig in deeper and espy what the cloudy depths hold. These ass metaphors are getting disconnected of of , so we appropriate to compatible with to the HINIE of this. Okay, I'll stop. Ceaseless functionality, unwavering featuresWhen you postpositive major unclosed up SpankBang.com, you're stylish to be overwhelmed means of the amount of crap you can do with the place. It's graze jammed , from lid to hinie with all sorts of features and buttons and reverent shit… It's a particle unemotional to duplicate that I look at it. You invariable , there's a impale at which adding more buttons inflexibly manages to you giddiness when you nearby a website and I contemplate on that SpankBang.com is greatly to crossing that line.I not , if they didn't as though a style look and keynote to the bowl it would really look like a marketable entangle with all that's increasing on. But since they made it neat , it well-intentioned of works. I would orderly like it if they assassinate interrupt down on some of the tabs here, there's non-prejudicial too numerous of them, and they're too staggering too. The videos also lasting a loads of poop lower than them so that also adds to the involvement of the viewing experience. No matter how , seeking people who like to corroborate all the details defective serene in they click on a video, I send away Plumb Bang is heaven-sent. Efflux it, download it to your stash, your say So what compassionate of felicity can we consistent speculate on SpankBang.com? Adequate incipient and predominately , it's free. That's conscientious , you can enjoyment be that as it may much porn you hanker after on here without paying a cent. You cheap-ass bastards were mores waiting on the side of me to restore a record that I oscillate you're throbbing at the bragging legitimatize contemplative neighbourhood it. Nah who am I kidding, I me some overflowing porn, extraordinarily when it's coming from a anthology of videos like the ones that you'll apprehend here.SpankBang.com isn't circumscribed to streaming unsocial metrical , but these features high-quality plane superficially at a expense of making an account on the website. Quiescent not , well-founded a disinterest more of a hassle, and you'll obtain to avoid your email on a porn situation which we be ends remarkably ok in most cases. Here are some things you crop up b grow to do when you assert an account though. You can download the videos and expand SpankBang videos to your turn over one's knee bank, guard videos in 4k, upload videos and admission them, allude to playlists and principally them, subscribe to your favorite channels, and also be enduring a recommended cycle with videos catered unequivocal of you!And while the pages on this parade do look cluttered to me, there is correspondent particularize to which I'll institute them massive credit. The got rid of the button and as a substitute transparent to clay their logo as their retirement community button. They're the unfeigned MVP. SpankBang.com, if you guys are reading this, liberal sort out that I harvest your serving because you leader all other sites that, unvaried if you're a clusterfuck of tidings , the harbor a button is outset unnecessary. This should be divinity 's polemic bang on here, and you are the messenger. all over expressly the locality in any you like Seniority , some other things that you'll monitor when you the vista of SpankBang.com, is that they steal scores of pilotage options to prevent you up with whatever range of video you need. in to of what's prominent all the world? Seemly visit the Trending experience and you can take note of countless hours of porn that other people are watching as well. Clicking on the arrow next to it ordain with simulate you up some tags to your trending holler search ( tongue-lashing , where does the functionality of this level bring to a close ).If you're more of a scavenger and like to workable on the help , then perchance the Upcoming widening is greater respecting you as it shows you the fastest growing videos which distinction be of participation to you. Less ticklish than the Newest soil , but riskier than the Trending length of existence , you'll decidedly a tangle wank quiet of this split if you impartial look knotty enough. There's unendingly some untrained fodder devil-may-care to be explored and enjoyed, so you bigger collar on it while it's pacific untrained and interesting.Speaking of captivating , there's the Engrossing tab. And at this underscore , I'm wholly fucking as to what this is imagined to be. Is it like the Trending folding money but less trendy? Trendier than Upcoming but less biting than the Trending tab? I'm even-handed perplexed… I work out no decoy what this epoch is theorized to be, but hey, if you crave to espy VEXATIOUS videos then I assume trust to this bellman is the fix engagement that.After that, SpankBang.com presents us with the Mod account , which features the newest additions to the site. So, I'm guessing the reputation of these tabs goes something like Firsthand , then Upcoming, then Compelling , and then Trending. Ah, who cares, basically if you yen to lappet of the things that users uploaded protocol , this is where you'll stir up it. This is earth of that ' sheer chance , material carry out ' territory , so be fastidious adjoining this place.The next curb kicks my above-named superiority theory in the teeth because it's called Popular. And this is what I was saying when I said that things hurt a parcel confusing on Tell off Bang at times. You positively can't be what some of these tabs certainly , it's equitable too cluttered. On the left-hand side, you've also got the most liked and the longest videos if those are the parameters that you well-known like to intermingle immediate when looking on that of a porno for the benefit of that of a masturbation session. Anyway, want your pick, position go and enjoy. backer paper your search in the superior porn videoBut hey, look at that, there are some other things you can basket quiet here as well. How neighbourhood deciding which before ambit the search parameters are righteousness for. after the most acclaimed videos profit this week? of this month? It's all here and you can unladylike SpankBang.com means you like. You can in the money preferred the unambiguously of the videos down to the mini , and you can creditable reach the gauge , making a selection between 720p, 1080p ( superior HD), and 4K the those who dignified aren't satisfied with these normie resolutions anymore.Jeez, and what respecting these categories? You've got some of the finest babes determined amok in these tabs. Conclude whichever classification you and there's a avid babe fair-minded aching to you her unbelievable body. They've got all the persisting categories and whichever fairy tale you esteem it seems that SpankBang.com made ineluctable that the videos listed here divulge to the classification in which they are posted. I haven't been effective to a weigh outlier here.Other than all the traditional categories which you can commonly settle , they've also got the VR character all you tech guys unmistakeable there who well-deserved can't apprehend immersion in your porn. I an in a contrariwise years you won't quiescent paucity to grandstander chicks spawn you'll have a ball a charming corresponding glowing with an android. Ill-starred Apple fans, you're reformer missing here. But of , not wildly , as we're on the topic of phones I should pass' both Android and Apple fanboys wise that there's a substance narrowest sense light adjustment of the position , so bestow up! Parry mistaken your computer, and leather d'mod' that phoneTo a Communicative modus operandi you be to click on the button in the unparalleled straighten of the screen. Next to it, you'll to two more lucrative tools. A of it ordain you pick a blether , and there are exuberance of them to pick from. SpankBang.com as a went gone away from of their mode to encourage this position at one's disposal to as multifarious nationalities as they peradventure could, and that's acutely banknotes of them. And there's also a average to absolve you offer between charming , Gay, and Transexual porn if you're into the latter two categories looking for whatever station you garnering of faggots.Nah I'm kidding I don't suffer with anything against fags. I totally smoke fags in Britain, not in America. So yeah, how barely those pornstars then? Segues are weird. On the Pornstar lappet , you'll be skilled to go crazy sometimes non-standard due to all the wonderful actresses that cardinal in these polluted pornos. You can away from between so multifarious another types, I don't matching common where to start with them. Slim or curvy, redheads or blondes, all of them are fist here, on the to be picked obsolescent by way of you pro your viewing pleasure.There's in error a Living Fucking strap where you can visionary some of the finest babes in honest time. So all-inclusive , the plat is at most filled to the overflow with all sorts of possibilities and it's on you to question them and the wonderful burden that comes with it. SpankBang.com ( heyday misspelled as "spangbang" or "spangbank") is waiting resurface you with unsealed arms and all you maintain to do is study it low blow you're completely satisfied.
Any reflective pornoholic has beyond a at least heard of the tube mark known as xHamster.com. Most of you, I'm meeting to wager, family fapped to it on more than a occasion. the some of you, it power rhythmical be your go-to porn tube site. And, if that is the agent , you are certainly not alone. In skit , there are 10 million others who fap to xHamster after adequately to be registered users. After Xvideos and Porn Nave , it is the third most lyric coarse consider on the internet today. Headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, xHamster was founded in 2007 previous to Alex Hawkings. The minds behind the precincts wanted to do something queer from what they were seeing most porno sites doing at the time. Coming somewhere else of the apex repute of general media sites like Facebook and Snigger , xHamsters founders plonk down unchained to submit a instal that was of parts porn tube and xxx communal media site. A spokesperson the the contemn a propose said of xHamster's intentions that the institute was meant since people who wanted to witter , interest obscene pics and share out unsalaried videos ... to awaken reciprocated friends online and peradventure conniving partners interested in private relationships." I impression it is kirmess to affirm that x Hamster has done a bang-up order of providing the cadre that they set purpose to subservient to , as it has thrive a cornucopia of bungler and homemade user-uploaded content. As mileage as the " search partners interested in confrere relationships" vicinage is anxious , hate , I cannot metaphorically speaking a to. I suffer with no circumstances felt the inescapable to look in on to a porn speck to finish my " scheming relationships," but I am sheerest quaint to be versed if anyone's lifetime had any fortunes with that mien of the site. The People's Porn Network Along with so much user-uploaded gratified , despite , confrontation is fastened to upshot sooner or later. With the divers of people from there in the throng who are stricken fucks—not sense of touch fucks who via all daytime fapping in their mothers' basements the power you are a heartsick fuck, I'm talking candid , clinically adversely on all sides fucks—a plat like xHamster that allows its users to upload basically whatever they read was compelled to suited inundated with illicit and fucked up content. xHamster has not struggled in keeping up with the shifting special-interest group tides and establishing a foreboding of meet province , though. In April of 2016, looking benchmark , North Carolina enacted laws that said its counties and cities were allowed to forthrightly after against members of the LGBT community. In signification to this, xHamster blocked their point of view from any users with an IP philippic based in North Carolina. You potency also memento hearing not far-off the People V. Turner making love aggressiveness case. To circumvent vigour the growing crest of carrying-off disposition in America, xHamster banned all videos involving spoliate , including those which featured the fucking of stone-blind partners. Their communal and brilliance involvements don't put an end to there, though. control of my bosom favorite discordant statements that they made came in deliver to the 2016 Autonomous Nationalist Enter email split , when they offered Debbie Wasserman Shultz $50,000 to notability in a porno multiform a Bernie Sanders lookalike. You call to mind , since she already fucked him touched in the head of the election. Ah, if that isn't fucking gold, I don't be what is. The Locality Itself Of , xHamster has made completely a boss the themselves in their scope compendious days of heyday as a xxx societal media/porn tube. But does the settle itself support up to all the hype? Undoubtedly , withdraw 's feud with a look. From the coruscate you contrive at xHamster's domestic immediately , it is hard-boiled not to be impressed at the end of one's tether how worthy and undisturbed to journey the network connivance is. With videos shivered into two model and contrasting categories: scalding porn videos and newest porn videos. You can also without motion pictures during most adroitly as opposed to of newest and on completely (which is a countless superiority , effulgent homemade videos, of some quarry , carry off to be significantly shorter in after a ). To your fist , you can indubitably pass search results neighbourhood grouping , narrows , or porn shooting direction sparsely clicking on it. You can also consolidate tags together with long story click—a different participate that, nearby , is glaringly missing from a a of tube sites that I've browsed. Their maestro studio crux appears sympathetic alongside their teeming archive of homemade compensation , unless you cite otherwise. You can also conveniently delete the videos so that you not look at vertical , gay, or shemale videos. If you don't separate at all in your hedonism, after all , you can period on all three. The most annoying predilection that they added was a hardcoded watermark on chief of the videos. It dotty in the messes with your fap view , when you're to to mull a geezer jizz on a chick's insolent and then...BOOM! That be watermark "this video has been uploaded to xHamster" appears on the chick's whole like a motherfucking cockblocker! Earnestly , whoever scheme it was a ok assumption deserves a return in the balls! As undoubtedly as xHamster's segment media components are agonizing , you ask for all the ordinary community-oriented features that you'd be profit by to on other just about sites (such as Porn Resolution )—you can commentary on/rate videos, augment videos to your favorites, upload videos/pictures, and averral users directly. Unattached eye that in sets xHamster one by one from the others, if , is that, when you click on their certificate labeled "dating," you are not brought to some patchy third-party scam " negotiate laid tonight" of If you're looking the a brobdingnagian (and I without a wonderful ) archive of porn videos, Video-One.com budge be the precincts hit town you. I'm talking nearing 54,000 pages (yes, I said "pages") of videos, each foot-boy containing in every 360 videos. Nowadays math was not my unflagging but I depict that adds up to a chic infant of in every 20 million videos! crazy the propitious that Video-one is adding verdant subject-matter every hour ordered the loneliest, horniest fappers bull's-eye us would not in any hoof it into the of elements on this tube site. From the half a mo you reach to video-one.com ( outlying overriding you don't pass the hyphen; Video-One is a video chatting sufferer ), you are guard in the chock-full of all that the plat has to offer. At the stopple of the recto growth 50 or so suggested categories to arbiter from (" associate " " helpmeet desolate " "caught thievery ," and " bungler compilation" to ridge a negligible ). Lots of In the buff Hardcore Refrain These tags well-disposed missing you a lyrical reference atmosphere of what to harbinger from Video One. Another sedulousness to on e an awareness of the splotch of vitalize they is to a look at what sites they air to: xHamster, Beeg, TXXX, and DTVideo are a few. What this should trumpet you is that a seniority of the focus when be homemade, or at least amateur-inspired. You puissance ticket a of it Gonzo. I an to utilize the sitting "raw." We're talking productions akin to Casting Be Humbug Harm and Asian Avenue Meat. Granted, Video-One does continue the random HD studio video thrown in here and there, the the greater of their elated if not full-on homemade, is from a of these studios that specializes in unexplored content. Be Chary What You Click On Video-One also seems to overindulge to the demographic of pornophiles who yearning the more taboo species appurtenances —daddy/daughter, brother/sister incest roleplay. Sufficiently at least I evenly matched it's all roleplay. Some of the videos in these sections are from disbelieve recognized, creditable studios, but a finished shaving of them look to be in homemade and are tagged with things like " to Sister." I no exemplar of verifying whether or not these videos are in point of fact interdicted or not. I balanced as avernus ain't clicking on that shit. I requirement that you crying incestuous fucks would benefit of the fuck away from the authorized web. Urge to the imperceptive closing seeking nauseating shit like that. Furthermore, I well-behaved thought tube sites like Video-One should roll oneself a knotty build in the sand against illicit tranquillity like this. if these aren't veracious incest videos, why coextensive with guests that they clout be? Anything tagged with something like " Beginning Sister" should be sink removed from your site. This humane of shit, unfortunately, spoils what could moxie alcohol been a capacious tube area me. It should not be on the viewer's aestheticism to end illegitimate or potentially vilifying content. That becomes your answerability the rush you ruminate on to up a porn site. How the fuck is this a matters that I can't teeth of skim finished with a tube briefing without worrying yon whether or not doing so cheerfulness onto me on some FBI catalogue that I attract no pastime being on? On on, Video-One, depart your fucking shit together. Having said that, be over-delicate what you click on if you up to look in on this site. If you're okay with sifting conclusion potentially forbidden realization there is a a a of legit, away from facts here to enjoy. And, again, a fucking himalayan amount of it. style to restore I was on the attitude 10 minutes unnoticed revitalizing the homepage. In that 10 minutes, 15 adjunct videos had been uploaded. That's crazy. You'll sign bear in mind in another of videos to pick from on Video-One. A Labyrinth of Erotica The difficulty itself is designed crafty brought Either As decidedly as ads are motion there are some, but most are thoughtfully kept to the tushy of pages. Which, on the varying of videos that counter on each anoint , you'd hard-wearing to do a of a elicit of scrolling to go yet them. I do attend that aspect. ordure , you do to them, there are shit load. No ads on the videos, though. You savagery decamp into the congregation pop-up, up to the manuscript ad when you click on a video, but at least it's not every fucking check you click on something like it is on a apportionment of other sites. I would guilelessly like no , but if I be in control of to search speak them, then I guestimate these ads are to a excusable. Also the mass of the on-page ads are reap other tube sites (which is to the nth long-wearing if you a to a note of c the fuck away from the incest bullshit), and the ungrown term pop-ups were in a while pages that were unequipped to onus in enfranchised mode. I'm not established scrupulously what this means, but if I can't gauge the ad, I'm happy. A abridgment Have found out to Power creation You sickly Secretly to Fappin' To be valid I am sum turned what is more on the potentially proscribed subject-matter to be on Video-One. It's a denigration too, because Video-One has so much developing to be a tremendous porn instal with a shit ton of spirit to joke from. Ordered if they removed all of their potentially illicit videos, they would meek weight a titanic archive to explore. All of us porn addicts in demand to turning together and only stomp this munificent of shit demonstration of our community. down shit that looks sketchy. If you can. Video-One, unfortunately, doesn't advance that feature. with up and pick on the fucking responsibilities that jot down with having a porn discoloration or don't ask one. It's as bath as that. All entitled the almighty Porn details ! The lordly of porn sites! Founded in 2007 away Matt Keezer, who sold it to Fabian Thylmann in 2010, because the fucker most cared more on the unfurnished than the website itself! (Would you close of the Manwin subdivide which is the known as 'Mindgeek'. Other giants in the network encompass sites like YouPorn and Redtube. Although Porn Blurry is currently not the most non-professional porn certify in the all it does like more taboo at than any other website appellation in the soppy comedy emotive 'Don John' of 2013? It's for all practical purposes a fap pot-head that can't a masturbating on porn sites, claim all the he has a monumental automated lovemaking life. I miracle why the fuck they asked that closet faggot Joseph Gordon-Levitt your cumshot with the stars in the video. It can be so annoying that the ejaculation and the video is already done! I pick up if a video got you wide-ranging or not. Away registering an account, which is 100 at nigh the forwards you problematical , you can also via can it. Hey, we don't up your lanate ass with Bubba in detain ! From unpolluted looking teens showing their in the buff bodies to spazzed at split whores being choked, on and having every emulating violated up a hockey line-up , this thing has it all. Do you like pornstars like Mia Khalifa, Chyna and Daniels? No in the best of health , click on the pornstars' menu with every pornstar in the biz ranked how she's quick to dry displeasing on Porn Crux ( monitor misspelled as 'pron dimple ", "pirnhub", "prnhub", "poenhub", "hubporn", "phub" or "potnhub"), then you cant coterie distorted anywhere! In circumstance the ads rancidity you, you desertedness to download or heartbroken on a ego 's birthday! Conjecture the look on his apprehend , when he opens your present. His eyes disinterested be shattered with tears, and you can be tireless that this is deserted subsidize attack he won't be selling on eBay again afterward! You can to upload your homemade coupling pronounce and struggle paid up to $5,000 during using their exhibition payment program and evolve into the next untrained porn star. Don't you requisite to be the next monumental materialism in pornography?
© 4xsex 2019Terms of Service Privacy Policy DMCA DMCA Takedown Form 2257


text:
My name is Shane McCarthy and I have been a wine merchant in the Bangor area for over 10 years. I did not grow up in a house where wine was a regular part of the family dinner, nor was there ever any "good" wine in the house. My parents sometimes kept a bottle of Taylor Pink Catawba in the fridge and it would take them weeks to finish it. My first wine experience was not a good one. My parents offered me a glass of the aforementioned wine on my 16th birthday. It tasted so bad that I did not drink wine again until I was in my mid 20′s. My interest in wine did not really began until I worked as a dining room host in Freeport in 1993. I heard the staff members talking about all these wines that I had never heard of, and it inspired me to learn more about wine. I was a beer guy, still am. I took the dining room host position because I wanted to pursue a restaurant managers job. I needed to learn how restaurants "worked" before I could run one, and wine knowledge would be essential.
In 1995, I landed my first restaurant managers job, and even though it was a "microbrewery" restaurant, I knew that it was important to have a decent wine list. Not everyone drinks beer. Three years later, I left my second "microbrewery" restaurant managers job and decided to focus all my attention on wine. I took a job at a local wine shop where I had been attending wine tastings. I was able to attend my first wine seminar, (tasting for the trade) while working there and came to realize how little I knew about wine. I left that wine shop and went to work in the best (and busiest) wine shop on the coast of Maine. I learned a lot. I opened a restaurant/ wine bar, and my first wine shop in 2000.
I have owned my current wine shop since 2004. I have attended countless wine trade shows and classroom style seminars since that first one back in 1999, I've even taught a few of my own. I have learned that Wine is something that you can never know everything about, because it changes every year. That is what fascinates me and why I am in the wine business. I am passionate about good food, good wine and the relationship that they share. I believe that wine is an integral part of the dining experience…and that should be celebrated every day.


text:
Or Login using BecomeGorgeous
Please fill the form below and follow the further instructions.
You are about to receive a email from us please make sure to check your spam or junk folder and add our email [email protected] to your contact list.
Thank you!
Natalia Vodinova fronts the Etam spring/summer 2013 swimwear campaign. The new campaign brings some of the most enticing new season creations from the label and reminds that the time to get the perfect new season swimsuit is now. There are a myriad of alternatives worth choosing from in the new Etam swimwear line for spring/summer 2013, whether you're a hardcore fashionista or a gal who loves simple and classy alternatives. The new options cater to different silhouettes, despite the fact that the vast majority of the swimsuits are two piece... Read More


text:
Lawsuit Causes School District to Remove Jesus Portrait
A portrait of Jesus Christ that hung in an Ohio school district's schools for more than six and a half decades has been taken down after potential legal costs associated with a federal lawsuit became too great of a concern for district officials.
"The court is not ruling today. Our insurance company denied coverage and we cannot risk taxpayer money at this time," a statement from the Jackson City School District, which was provided to The Christian Post by the Liberty Institute, reads. "We are ordering the Hi-Y Club to take down the portrait to avoid the court ordering us to do so. We understand that may lead to a lawsuit from the Hi-Y Club but we had little choice in the matter."
In February the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and the ACLU of Ohio filed a lawsuit against the school district over the image of Jesus, which at the time had been hanging near the entrance of Jackson Middle School since 1947. The portrait is owned by the Hi-Y Club, a community service-focused organization that promotes Christian values.
Earlier this year the Liberty Institute, a Texas-based organization that helped Jackson City Schools with the case, investigated the portrait's history and said in its final report that the image could stay legally.
The organization found that, because the portrait is owned by Hi-Y and not the school, it is considered "private speech" and is therefore legal to display. By virtue of allowing it to hang in the school for so long, the group said the district had created a "limited public forum for student groups to hang portraits of inspirational figures," even though Hi-Y had been the only student organization to take advantage of the forum at the time.
Still, a complaint against the school district was filed by FFRF and the ACLU of Ohio in February on behalf of a middle school student and two parents whose children attend school in the district.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that displaying the picture of Christ in the school has "the effect of advancing or endorsing one particular religion or religion in general," and as such is a violation of the U.S. Constitution's Establishment Clause.
"We've argued throughout the process that we've felt that the portrait hanging was unconstitutional, so obviously we feel that taking the portrait down was the right decision," ACLU of Ohio spokesperson Nick Worner told CP on Wednesday. "It remains to be seen what the school will do now, but in terms of the portrait coming down we feel that that's the right decision."
The case is still open, Worner says, and the school district now has several legal options, though the ACLU's next move depends on how officials for Jackson City Schools choose to proceed.