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This Isn't Working Out Part I
Our official assumptions about the nature of modern childhood are dead wrong. Children allowed to take responsibility and given a serious part in the larger world are always superior to those merely permitted to play and be passive. At the age of twelve, Admiral Farragut got his first command. I was in fifth grade when I learned of this. Had Farragut gone to my school he would have been in seventh.Source.
Have you ever wondered why there do not seem to be people like Benjamin Franklin around anymore?
At twelve he was bound apprentice to brother James, a printer. After a few years of that, and disliking his brother's authority, he ran away first to New York and soon after to Philadelphia where he arrived broke at the age of seventeen. Finding work as a printer proved easy, and through his sociable nature and ready curiosity he made acquaintance with men of means. One of these induced Franklin to go to London where he found work as a compositor and once again brought himself to the attention of men of substance. A merchant brought him back to Philadelphia in his early twenties as what might today be called an administrative assistant or personal secretary. From this association, Franklin assembled means to set up his own printing house which published a newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, to which he constantly contributed essays.Source.
At twenty-six, he began to issue "Poor Richard's Almanac," and for the next quarter century the Almanac spread his fame through the colonies and in Europe. He involved himself deeper and deeper in public affairs. He designed an Academy which was developed later into the University of Pennsylvania; he founded the American Philosophical Society as a crossroads of the sciences; he made serious researches into the nature of electricity and other scientific inquiries, carried on a large number of moneymaking activities; and involved himself heavily in politics. At the age of forty-two he was wealthy. The year was 1748.
Franklin was finished with formal schooling at age ten, and learned various trades working for his father and other relatives. He struck out on his own at a fairly early age, like most of his contemporaries, and made his own way.
You might object that there is a lot more to learn now than in Franklin's time, or even than your own grandfather's time. Surely in the complex modern world, children need to be sequestered in classrooms most of their first 18 to 25 years, before being allowed to take any responsibility?
Well-meaning parents and societies might want to provide a "worry-free" upbringing for their children. Make sure the child never has to "want for anything" in his early formative years. Bring them up like only the wealthy could afford to bring up children, before the last century. Except the wise wealthy never brought up children the way we are bringing up children. Only the insane would do that, knowingly.
Full literacy wasn't unusual in the colonies or early republic; many schools wouldn't admit students who didn't know reading and counting because few schoolmasters were willing to waste time teaching what was so easy to learn. It was deemed a mark of depraved character if literacy hadn't been attained by the matriculating student. Even the many charity schools operated by churches, towns, and philanthropic associations for the poor would have been flabbergasted at the great hue and cry raised today about difficulties teaching literacy.Source.
Many college students today lack the reading skills that children in the early US possessed before they ever started school. Are children and college students today really that much stupider--or is the way they are treated today making them seem that way?
Labels: education


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You understand me!
Before John and I got married we went couples therapy. Double sessions. For three years.
Often it was excruciating as hell. So much so that we took separate cars because the drive home could be more painful than the session itself and who needed that?
Then one day, we turned a corner. Believe me, had we never turned that corner, we couldn't have gotten married. The turn was hard won.
Likely Neutral Patti (so named because she was so neutral that she wouldn't talk about anything more than the weather if one of us went to bathroom) knew from our first moments together that neither of us had any idea how to communicate. We didn't know how to listen and we didn't know how to tell each other how we felt. Actually, I don't think we ourselves knew how we felt. Beyond angry, that is. And usually there's a lot of other feelings simmering below anger (like fear, hurt, shame etc.) Our specialities were blaming and defending. And our go-to fighting style could be described as I'm-gonna-break-up-with-you-you-fuck-because-you're-a-total-fucking-asshole. Miraculously, we both knew that our problem wasn't that we'd found the wrong person, but rather that we just needed help. A lot of help. (For details, you can read my first book.)
We were sitting on Neutral P's sofa rehashing a fight—the topic I believe was our route home from the airport or something equally as mundane and inconsequential—when Neutral P. stopped our squabbling to propose an exercise.
First, she wanted John to recount his version of the story. My job was to listen. I could not interrupt. I had to hear him out. And so off John went…
Listening to his perspective and feelings proved to be excruciatingly difficult. Every ten seconds I felt an anxious surge of rage in my body. "That's not what happened!" I wanted to say. "You're wrong!" I wanted to let him know that if he only knew how things had really happened or what I'd really meant then he'd never have felt the way he'd felt and was still feeling about it.
But I couldn't. I had to listen.
Then, as soon as he was finished I had to tell him what I'd heard him say, from start to finish. Neutral P. recommended I begin thusly: "If I understand what you were saying correctly…"
Now was his turn to listen to me tell him what I 'd heard him say.
When I was done, he then got his chance to tell me where I'd mistunderstood him.
Then I'd have to say back to him what I'd heard him say.
This went on and on and on, until he felt 100% satisfied that I understood his point of view.
The most amazing thing happened when I finally was able to tell him what I'd heard him say accurately: I agreed with him. I understood where he was coming from. My rage had somehow melted into empathy.
And then it was my turn.
It's a good thing we had a double session. Imagine, almost two hours devoted to a five minute story!
At first this whole process of breaking down what each of us was saying and making sure the other person felt truly understood was clumsy, awkward, frustrating, plodding and painful. But we got better and better and better at it. Ten years later, we're not masters or anything but we're maybe purple belts. Brown or even black on a good day. But the best news is that I get it. John doesn't want me to fix problems for him. He just wants to be heard. A little empathy goes a long fucking way.
That brings me to our second Tuesday night Echo Parenting class. (For my revelation after our first class see the previous post.) The big take away for me was what our teacher Brian called "making books." After a week of trying it, I can tell you that it works as well for my kids as "If I understand what you're saying correctly…" has worked for me and John. But much, much faster!
Here's how: If your child becomes "deregulated" as Brian calls it, meaning, s/he has a meltdown over something, you can reach for a couple of pieces of folder paper and a pen and make a book about it. A short simple book that will help your kid feel like you understand what she's feeling. Ultimately that is what children, nay all humans, need more than anything. (Likely if my childhood was full of empathy books, John and I wouldn't have found ourselves in double therapy sessions learning how to communicate. Imagine the money we would have saved!)
Here's an example of how I made a book for our almost 3-year-old son Hudson this week.
When I walked into his classroom to pick him up, I saw him playing in the block room. I stood there watching, not wanting to interrupt. When he finally caught sight of me, he lit up and instantly took off for my arms. Unfortunately at that very moment, Ibbie, one of his teachers, who had her back to him, stepped in his way.
He was flat on the floor. And in tears. Then he stood up and started screaming at Ibbie, "You're yucky. Go away." He started swiping at her.
"I'm sad that happened to you Hudson. It was an accident, " she said kneeling down. He was too enraged to give a shit if it was an accident or not. He was upset. Angry at her. Angry at life. He just screamed and cried and swiped.
"Would you like to make a book about it?" I asked. As we'd already had some success with it, he nodded yes. I scooped him up, managed to grab an orange pen on the table and some blue paper and sat down with him on the other side of the room where it was quiet.
"I'll call it Hudson Fell at Boat Yard," I told him as I wrote down the title.
I opened it up and using simple language and stick figure drawings, I told his story.
"Hudson was playing in the block room when he saw Mommy." Picture of Hudson smiling at mom.
Next page.
I drew Ibbie's legs and Hudson crying:
Then I asked him, "Were you scared?" He nods while still crying softly. So on the next page I wrote down "He was scared."
"Were you surprised?"
Another nod. So I added "surprised."
Next page.
"I want my beeebee [his blanket] on the sofa," he said.
I grabbed it for him. New page.
"Then Hudson wanted his beebee and Mommy got it off the sofa. The beebee comforts him."
I draw this too.
Then he stuffs his beebee behind some blocks and says, "Write Hudson hides his beebee."
Which I do.
And then we read the book together. And then again. And then again. He was calm. He felt I understood what he'd gone through. He was ready to go.
Then we picked up his sister Jules. In the car he held the book tight.
When we got home, both kids saw Hudson's birthday gift: the new bike and helmet he'd picked out online. He's thrilled and Jules is in tears. For her birthday she only got a new bike. No helmet. She needs a helmet. RIGHT NOW!
While I agree she needs a helmet, I can't get it for her that moment. She's very very very upset about this. She wants to go to the store. She wants a pink one with white flowers to match her bike. She's hysterical. Not Hudson! He's galavanting around in his Evil Kneival-looking helmet. He's thrilled. She's devastated.
Me? I recommend we make a book about it!
And it works as well for her as it had for him.
Give it a try!
12 Responses to "You understand me!"
love your blog, mamma. we are of the same ilk. have had similar ridiculous fights with my husband and you give me hope. also, adore the book idea.
Totally dig this. I have a feeling this will work on the(now)five-year-old, and I'll try it on the soon-to-be eight-year-old, too!
I want to do these books in my work environment. I think my writing partner would love this!
love this…but you guys go to the bathroom during therapy? I am too money conscious for that!
We do something similar. My stepdaughter, who is 8, will write letters, usually to her dad, qhen she gets upset. She is able to articulate herself better with written words than verbally. It usually helps her feel calmer and heard. And then later she can talk about what went wrong with dad.
will definitely try this!! great idea!
Interesting. Similar to a social story we use at school quiet often as a preventative meltdown measure. Does this work with 9 year olds I wonder?

subset: commoncrawl


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Pretty (Easy!) Summer Hair
The key to great summer hair
by Diana Cerqueira
You don't want to spend a ton of time doing your hair when the weather is gorgeousyou'd rather be outside! But that doesn't mean you have to settle for zero style. It doesn't take long to pull off these incredibly cute summer styles. From an easy-breezy blowout to a no-fuss bun, here are our favorite perfectly imperfect looksincluding this summer's hot new crop.
Next: Undone bun
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Zooey Deschanel to Play Loretta Lynn in 'Coal Miner's Daughter' on Broadway
Musically inclined New Girl Zooey Deschanel is about to hit the bright lights of Broadway in Coal Miner's Daughter! Last night, during a Grand Ole Opry performance, Country music legend Loretta Lynn beckoned the doe-eyed girl on stage to ask her to join the production. As of right now, it is still in the early stage with no creative team attached or workshop dates set.
Also, the two performed a lovely rendition of the hit song "Coal Miner's Daughter." In the show, Deschanel will perform this, "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man," "You're Looking at Country," and "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl."
According to the AP, before inviting her onstage, Lynn said:
"I have a friend here tonight. I don't know if ya'll remember when Sissy Spacek was with me. I brought her out here with me. She about fainted. We both fainted. She went on to do the 'Coal Miner's Daughter,' and you know from there. Well, there's a little girl back stage that's going to do the play of 'Coal Miner's Daughter' on Broadway. Zooey, where you at honey?"
As expected, Deschanel graciously accepted. She later tweeted:
Loretta Lynn asked me to do "coal miner's daughter" on broadway! I said YES! instagr.am/p/KeHjbxrjj2/
— zooey deschanel (@ZooeyDeschanel) May 11, 2012
The show will be produced by Fox Theatricals and Scott Sanders Productions — who are also behind Legally Blonde, The Color Purple and Thoroughly Modern Millie.
How exciting is this? Do you think she'll make a good Loretta?
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As the worsening economy enters what appears to be the decade's second—and uglier—recession, hospitals are readying for a new wave of patients to join an estimated 72 million already struggling to pay medical bills. Insured households are increasingly among those considered at risk for financial distress from medical costs, an emerging demographic known as "underinsured" among health policymakers.
An estimated 25 million adults were underinsured in 2007, up from nearly 16 million five years earlier, the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based health policy foundation, reported in June. And not only did such tenuous coverage increase, but it did so across every income bracket, according to the study, which was published as a Web exclusive in the journal Health Affairs. Not surprisingly, those living in or very near poverty were most likely to be underinsured. But in the middle class (adults who earned more than $40,000 but less than $60,000), the percentage of underinsured rose to 13 percent from 5 percent five years earlier, the researchers wrote.
Expected to climb
That figure is expected to climb as the downturn persists, say patient advocates, hospital executives and industry experts, a suspicion supported by evidence that a growing number of unpaid bills have landed on hospital balance sheets.
Sara Collins, an economist and assistant vice president for the Program on the Future of Health Insurance for the Commonwealth Fund, co-authored the Health Affairs article. She noted the findings drew from surveys conducted prior to this year's deepening downturn.
For hospitals, the trend has accelerated efforts to collect from patients before treatment or adopt more sophisticated billing strategies. Such collections may prove to be increasingly difficult in an economy without ready consumer credit or home equity that helped bolster household budgets. One out of 10 underinsured in 2007 relied on mortgages or loans to grapple with medical bills and one-third took on credit card debt. Nearly half used all their savings to pay medical costs, and 29 percent skipped other basic necessities to cover medical bills, the Commonwealth Fund survey said.
Integris Health, a 12-hospital system based in Oklahoma City's highly competitive health care market, began overhauling its billing and collections in mid-2006 with efforts to contact patients prior to care for payment and contracting with a Maple Grove, Minnesota-based health care consumer credit company.
"We recognize the real concern is a dollar is a dollar when you collect it upfront," says Bob Golden, director of Integris Health's central business office. "A dollar is 30 cents when you collect it later."
Integris' efforts group patients into those likely to pay, those unable to pay, and the challenging group that falls somewhere in between, Golden says.
Patients who score as likely to pay don't need or appreciate reminders, and Integris wasted money and goodwill by pursuing them, Golden says. "It's a marketing issue, it's a customer-satisfaction issue and it's a cost issue." Blindly collecting from every patient risks offending paying customers, he says. Insured but financially struggling patients need information about the system's charity. "It's an obligation of ours to try to take every step to contact the patient with no resources," he says.
The rest account for a growing share of the system's write-offs for unpaid bills, Golden says. Unpaid balances for insured patients once accounted for 30 percent of such write-offs; now they account for half, he says. Uninsured patients who pay the full bill make up the remainder. "Health care, I have found, is the last organization to get payment," says Golden, who spent 22 years in credit and collections with what was once SBC Communications before joining Integris. The system must vie for patients' dollars, he says. "We want to make sure we're in the mix."
Accelerated losses
Some executives contend health plans that combine high deductibles and savings accounts in exchange for lower premiums have accelerated losses. Such plans are an attractive option for small employers, and are a product that was not on the market during the last recession. In negotiations with insurers, such high-deductible plans have prompted some hospitals to push for higher reimbursement for all privately insured patients, they say.
"We're not a financial institution and not in the business of financing the provision of care," says Neil Bertrand, CFO for United Hospital in Longmont Colorado, which saw charity care spike 65 percent to $22 million and bad debt increase 8 percent to $12.4 million in 2007 after major area employers began introducing high-deductible health plans two years ago.
For the first nine months of 2008, both measures of unpaid bills have surpassed estimates thanks to the sour economy, rising unemployment and greater out-of-pocket costs for insured patients, Bertrand says. Actual bad debt—or losses on patients who fail to pay debts and do not qualify for financial assistance—was projected to reach $10.3 million through September, but in fact totaled $11.7 million.
The 168-bed hospital has plenty of company. Unpaid medical bills ate away 2008 profits at Ascension Health, the largest U.S. private not-for-profit hospital operator. The St. Louis-based health system, which owns 77 hospitals, saw income from operations fall $66 million as its bad debt increased by $167 million, or 23 percent, financial records show. Catholic Healthcare West, a 38-hospital system based in San Francisco, closed its books in June with an 18 percent increase—or $98 million—in bad debt, compared with 3 percent the prior year. Neither system responded to requests for comment.
Losses from insured patients suggest health care is vulnerable to the battery of economic pressures squeezing other industries. One major trade group for health care finance executives polled 1,000 members during a late-October webcast on the economic downturn and found that 80 percent expected significant increases in unpaid medical bills in the coming year. Three-quarters said they had already seen an ebb in profitable surgery patients.
Rising individual medical expenses aren't the only cause of household medical debt, says Carol Pryor, senior policy analyst for the Access Project, a Boston-based health care access advocacy group. Poorly understood policies can leave patients with far less coverage and substantially larger bills than expected. Patients may inadvertently end up outside of health plans' approved networks—where out-of-pocket costs are lower—when in-network hospitals contract with out-of-network doctors for services such as anesthesiology or emergency care, she says.
But patients' growing share of health care spending is a significant contributor to the unpaid bills dragging down household and hospital finances, Pryor says.
Patients with chronic conditions, who make frequent visits to health care providers, are particularly vulnerable, Pryor says. "Underinsurance both puts people in financial jeopardy and is also a serious barrier for people to get care," she says.
Underinsured patients reported costs prevented them from filling prescriptions or seeking tests or follow-up care recommended by their doctors, the Commonwealth Fund reported. Such patients did not visit needed specialists or seek treatment for a medical condition because of cost, the survey found.
Pryor cited two reasons why relief is unlikely anytime soon. Health plans and employers will continue to shift financial risk onto the consumer because "they are the least able to avoid it."
Meanwhile, good health and good luck may have kept many underinsured from illness or injury—and the related expenses. "They may think they're doing OK because they haven't got sick yet," Pryor says. "But everybody's at risk, and sooner or later, everybody gets sick."
The Burden of Medical Care
|The estimated 25 million people considered to be underinsured have coverage that fails to protect their households from financial instability brought on by medical costs. Some of the consequences, according to surveys by the Commonwealth Fund:
|Used up all of savings
|Unable to pay medical bills
|Took on credit card debt
|Unable to pay for basics because of medical bills
|Contacted by collection agency
|Took out a mortgage or loan
|Source:Commonwealth Fund
In St. Cloud, Minnesota, CentraCare Health System began tracking its unpaid bills from insured patients in July so future budgets include an accurate estimate of projected losses, says Kathy Parsons, the system's director of managed care. As health plans with high deductibles gained a foothold across the dozen counties where CentraCare operates, bad debt increased, management told credit analysts with Fitch Ratings in November 2007. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007, the system's bad debts climbed roughly 16 percent to $12.1 million, but remained less than 2 percent of the system's patient revenue.
As high-deductible plans spread with annual benefit changes in January, Parsons says more patients began to call with questions about the cost of care.
The system operates two critical-access hospitals and the 489-bed St. Cloud Hospital and has not started asking patients for deposits or payment upfront, Parsons says, though it may do so in the future. Such a change would have "a pretty big community impact, and the community will have opinions on that," she says. "You have to be very careful in small communities."
High-deductible health plans, which combine savings accounts with a requirement that patients pay hundreds or thousands of dollars toward their care upfront, have gained popularity with employers and enrollees since their introduction earlier in the decade. The average family deductible in such plans was roughly $3,560 in 2008, compared with managed-care or point-of-service plans, where average deductibles were $1,053 to $1,860.
In 2008, 8 percent of insured workers were enrolled in such plans, compared with 5 percent in 2007 and 4 percent in 2006, the first year for which figures were available, according to a survey of employer-sponsored benefits conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research & Education Trust.
Kathleen Campbell, who oversees high-deductible health plan product development for Aetna, says employers favor such plans because they include incentives to reduce health care's waste and improve transparency. With more financial risk, enrollees also have greater motivation to better manage their care and seek preventive screenings, she says. Plans may include financial bonuses deposited into savings accounts that go toward medical expenses, she says.
Campbell argued that the lower premiums for high-deductible plans give employers, particularly small businesses, an alternative to dropping insurance altogether during the downturn.
Kate Prout, an Aetna spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that unpaid bills have plagued health care providers, but added that the insurer launched an education campaign to encourage patients to save for care. It offers automatic deductions from health-specific accounts, debit cards and checkbooks for consumer-directed plans to improve payment rates.
"We know affordability is the No. 1 issue in health care today," says Debbie Welle-Powell, vice president of payer strategies and legislative affairs for Exempla Healthcare, which owns two hospitals and operates a third. Poorly informed patients end up with "sticker shock" when visiting the hospital and lack the resources to pay their bills.
Roger Deshaies, senior vice president and CFO of Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vermont, says the 437-bed hospital has entered into negotiations with expected rate increases that have caught insurers off guard. Behind the push for bigger gains are narrow margins on high-deductible plans, he says.
"It is a hot button," Deshaies says. "We're trying to be as transparent as we can in the logic. But it is becoming an issue."


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March 24, 2014 | 1558 views
Wantagh approves veteran's tax exemption
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The Wantagh Board of Education decided to grant property tax exemptions for district residents who have served their country.
The school board unanimously approved a resolution at its March 13 meeting permitting the veteran tax breaks. The board's action comes on the heels of a bill signed by Andrew Cuomo late last year allowing districts to give veterans a property tax exemption ranging from 10 to 15 percent. Previously, the veteran's exemption only applied to county and town taxes.
"The service that they gave to their country we are thankful for that and it is our pleasure to grant that exemption," said Michael Soethout, president of the Wantagh school board. "Wantagh does have a very active veterans community."
The new approved tax exemptions will result in an average tax increase of $35 for non-veterans, according to district officials. The exemptions, which will impact 18 combat veterans, 209 non-combat veterans and 275 veterans on disability, go into effect for the 2014/15 school year since the board approved them prior to a March 14 state deadline.
Many school boards across the state are unsure of the veteran exemptions since homeowners need to make up the difference for the loss of revenue. Other area school boards who have approved veteran exemption measure include North Bellmore, Levittown, Island Trees and Freeport. The Seaford School District opted not to address the exemptions and wants more clarity on the law's impact before proceeding.
Nearly seven in 10 school board members surveyed by the New York School Boards Association (NYSSBA) earlier this year (69 percent) indicated they oppose the Veteran exemptions.
"School board members strongly support our veterans, but they, believe that reimbursement for the veteran's exemption should be covered by the state rather than by other local taxpayers," NYSSBA Executive Director Timothy G. Kremer said in a statement. "The law as is presents school boards with a dilemma. If they adopt the exemption, that would increase taxes for other taxpayers in their district. If they do not adopt the exemption, they could be viewed as not being supportive of veterans."
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Christopher Brumme - The nirvana of easy, reliable programming
- Posted: Jun 28, 2004 at 11:00AM
- 11,564 views
- 4 comments
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A lot of words, maybe. But not difficult to understand.
Law XXIII, Norman Augustine [Wulf]
"Software is like entropy. It is difficult to grasp, weights nothing, and obeys the second law of thermodynamics; ie,it always increases. "
"Software systems are like cathedrals; first we build them and then we pray"
S. Redwine
Software Engenieering is still in its infant years (Relatively young field)
Sure we can talk about memory allocation and other plumbing a framework (operating system) could handle (really should be solved by a new hardware deisgn)
But what about the relative cost of hardware/software. Where's Moore's Law for software?
We have low productivity, "wrong" products, poor quality, constant maintenance, and if it doesnt change, it becomes useless...
Even when one deliver new gadgets, technology transfer is too slow...
Nirvana would be when the software industry has found its soule, and its products are avilable to a much broader scope of people..Not just the welthy and lucky ones..
Its ironic that Microsoft has contributed to Bushes campaign, when his blind war on Terrorism has made the world to a more fragile place than ever before.
The US uses more on its military than the rest of the world combined.
At the same time about 35 million Americans lived in poverty in 2002, which is 1.7 million more people than in 2001
We are talking about global trade and globalisation. But do you know what?
In % global trade are on the same level today as before world war one.
I would like to hear Christopher expand on this transactional programming idea for application programming (not stored procedures) for simplifying hard exception handling, such as OOM. What sort of concepts would the developer be dealing with? How would the application be structured for "rip-down" componetization?
How would the conflict between declarative and imperative developement styles be resolved.
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Ohio archaeology : an illustrated chronicle of Ohio's ancient American…
by Bradley T. Lepper
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It is hard to imagine how one could improve upon this report on the archaeology of the prehistoric Amerindian cultures of Ohio. It serves as both an introduction for interested lay readers and a synthesis for archaeologists. It even includes a chapter on the historiography of post-Conquest investigation of the sites.
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Bows & Glitter
20 comments:
So pretty! I really like the combination of the black, gold, and leopard! Classic.ReplyDelete
Those pieces are so timeless! Beautiful.ReplyDelete
Super cute outfit, you look great!ReplyDelete
Love the dress - so cute :)ReplyDelete
I absolutely love that bow necklace! I think I need to get one!ReplyDelete
Love how you styled this! So cuteReplyDelete
xo Emily
Perfect outfit!ReplyDelete
i love your bracelet! a bow is always the perfect girlie touch:) xo.ReplyDelete
love the shirt dress with those leopard heels ... classy and hot!!ReplyDelete
Yay! I used your code to order the elephant necklace :)ReplyDelete
I really like how you accessorized this!ReplyDelete
Can't wait to see what is in store for tomorrow!ReplyDelete
love the bows !!ReplyDelete
Very pretty necklace and bracelet! I love your dress too. =)ReplyDelete
Avec Amber
This jewelry is beautiful! I love the simple and dainty style.ReplyDelete
The black dress and gold accents is perfect.
LOVE that dress! And black & gold is one of my favorite color combos :)ReplyDelete
- k
Hey Sara! I absolutley love your blog, it is so precious. I think it's just fabulous how open you are about your love for our Savior! :) I would appreciate it immensly if you, and all you other lovely ladies, would check out my blog! I am just starting out (seriously, I just finished my first post!) and I would like some positive criticism to help "Sable's Trousseau" flourish. http://sablestrousseau.blogspot.com/ReplyDelete
P.S. I love your shoes!!
This trip looks like SO much fun!! And you definitely do look super cute, but still comfortable at the same time.ReplyDelete
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ooooh, happy shopping indeed! You are just the cutest jewelry model:-) xoxoReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 5, 2012 at 9:21 AM
Gorgeous all over!ReplyDelete


text: Our Verdict We think this is money well spent for iPod owners For Compact, lightweight, well detailed Against Inefficient internet radio, thin sound Reviewed on 15th September 2008 Revo announced itself to the radio market this year with the Blik Radiostation – at the time of launch, the world's first DAB and Internet radio. Now we have an enhanced version, the iBlik, which, as you've probably guessed, includes an iPod dock.Perhaps the most compact unit here, the iBlik is a surprisingly lightweight yet still solidly built machine. A clear LCD on the front of the screen is complemented by buttons on top of the screen and an easy to use remote, while the interface and navigation system is fine if, in line with most Internet radios bar the Pure, far from efficient. The dock works well, with the remote offering full control. Sonically it's not the fullest, weightiest sound but there's no harshness to the top end and there's a good level of detail to tunes and voices. At just £30 more than the 'standard' Blik, we think it's money well spent for iPod owners Related News Pure Highway brings DAB radio and Spotify Connect to the car Wed, 02 Mar 2016, 11:41am Imagination Tech confirms Pure radio business up for sale Mon, 08 Feb 2016, 05:31pm Pure radio business set to be sold Mon, 25 Jan 2016, 11:33am Listeners complain about changes to BBC internet radio streaming Tue, 10 Nov 2015, 05:31pm 14 best deals on What Hi-Fi? Awards winners Fri, 30 Oct 2015, 02:37pm Hi-Fi iBlik Radiostation Radios Revo


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Happy Memorial Day
- May
- 31
I hope you've all had a great weekend. I also hope that, even if you don't know anyone in the military, you take a moment to remember what this day is about while your enjoying your burgers and hot dogs. As you know, we here at P&C generally stay away from all that is not warm and fluffy, but we are still involved on two wars, after all. So to all veterans and those currently serving, I salute you.
Now, seeing as this is still P&C, speaking of hot dogs…..(thanks again to the brother blog family)
Really, I could comment away on that, but it speaks for itself in so many ways!
8 Responses to "Happy Memorial Day"
May 31st, 2010 at 5:41 pm
May 31st, 2010 at 6:22 pm
This Dog is really Hot! Cutest little thing…as a snack for my dog – South Russian Sheperd (200 lb.). Silly pun intended. Sorry, was very tempting.
Laurel Babcock
May 31st, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Wow 4ever, your dog would need a really big bun
May 31st, 2010 at 8:16 pm
If someone could explain me how to place picture from "My Pictures" to this (or any other at this matter) site, I would love to show you my big dog, crazy, lovely, white devil/cat and be eternally grateful in the same time.
Laurel Babcock
June 1st, 2010 at 9:32 am
4ever, I'd love to post your pup! send pics to firstname.lastname@example.com. put your report name in the subject line so I know it's you.
June 1st, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Pictures, yes, pictures, Laurel. Almost forgot..Coming up.
Diane Terezakis
June 2nd, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Too stinking cute, even if it's not a cat.
Laurel Babcock
June 7th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Diane, HA!


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Tech at Night: Damaging new claim about Google Wi-Spy, Media Marxists in full outrage mode
Having abandoned the seemingly-endless series of patent lawsuits in the new America Invents Act era, Tech at Night will be quick tonight. Google allegedly knew about the Wi-Spy Street View snooping for two years before ending it. Oops. No wonder FCC claims Google obstructed government investigations into the program. Gotta love the Media Marxists: FCC ventures into campaign finance chilling effects regulation, and they claim | Read More »


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Would anyone have an idea how to join a linux machine (ubuntu 9.04) to a domain in samba? Have been able to join windows XP machines to the domain but am having trouble joining a linux client machine. when i do
"net rpc join -U root%xxxxxx"
it shows i have successfully joined the domain even when i test the connection
root@openit-9:~# net rpc testjoin
Join to 'DOMAIN' is OK
but when i try to log in, am not able.
Am using CentOS 5.3, zimbra 5.0.21 and samba 3.0.33
Have setup the clent machine like this:-
workgroup = domain
security = domain
password server = 192.168.1.25
passdb backend = ldapsam:ldap://192.168.1.25/
encrypt passwords = yes
Dont know where am going wrong.


text:
In a sharp change in strategy, Europes largest car maker Volkswagen has decided to develop and launch more India-specific vehicles to suit local tastes instead of the current practice of bringing models sold overseas. From 2016 onwards, sub-four metre compact sedan version of the Vento and a new compact SUV will be launched, followed by small cars below the current entry model Polo.
The move is expected to help the German carmaker reverse its sliding fortunes in India, the worlds sixth-largest car market at 25 lakh units a year.
Michael Mayer, newly-appointed director for Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Group Sales India, told FE that the company would aim to safeguard its premium image in the market and thus not bring older generation products just to meet lower cost targets set by rivals. The first priority is to launch sub-four metres versions of a sedan and SUV which are being developed for India. These are not the cheap segments and customers are moving up as well. We will take some time for indigenisation, so expect launches from 2016-2017, he said.
He added, Small cars in the entry range will be the second priority. Its a very price-sensitive market with lower margins, but its the core of the market and we cannot leave it totally aside. We reviewed both the Up and Fox (small cars sold in Brazil & Europe), but they were either too expensive or too big for India.
When it entered in 2008, Volkswagen had first set a market share target of 10% by 2015. But six years since, its share remains at 2% (in FY14). With no new models to offer in mass segments since 2010 when the Polo and Vento were launched, Volkswagens volumes have dipped 20% (to 52,528 units) in FY14 and a further 42% (to 8,769 units) in April-June FY15.
Gaurav Vangaal, automotive analyst, IHS, said, It will be a right strategy to bring compact sedans and SUVs to India because the segment is growing and most carmakers are eyeing the segment. Fords EcoSport has done well in the small SUV space, and Maruti Suzuki, M&M and Tata Motors are all planning to enter this segment.
Plans to invest R1,500 cr Volkswagen is also finalising a R1,500-crore investment plan, a chunk of which would be used for an engine plant in India to bring localisation levels to around 90% from 70% today and help the brand price products more competitively.


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Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
The Aesthetics of Resistance, Volume 1: A Novel (edition 2005)
by Peter Weiss, Joachim Neugroschel (Translator)
Work details
The Aesthetics of Resistance, Volume 1: A Novel by Peter Weiss
No current Talk conversations about this book.
A group of students debating about art in the dialectical style of Plato. Squabbles and machinations between Social Democratic and Communist parties. The art and poetry of resistance, rebelling against the existing order, supplanting the prevailing thoughts with progressive notions, ideas. The first translated volume of a German trilogy, Die Ästhetik des Widerstands, must already count among the high points of resistance art. It is difficult, stylish, philosophical, and Marxist. Novel is too limited a genre to describe its complex structures. One could consider it a hybrid of philosophical categories: a manual on Marxist literary criticism, a guide to the appreciation of proletarian art, a manifesto of aesthetic revolution, a treatise on the history and philosophy of political art. These categories provide the key words but lack the corrosive power of the text. Whatever literary species and genera it belongs to, this work of Weiss is a construct of profound inventiveness. It contains probably one of the best readings there is of The Castle by Franz Kafka and other artworks (paintings, sculptures, novels).
In transposing an actual event to the range of art, the painters had succeeded in setting up a monument to radical instants. They had shifted experience to their own present, and we, who saw each crystallization, brought it back to life. What was shown was always different than what it had emerged from, a parable was shown, a contemplation on something in the past. Things drifting by had become something lasting, freestanding, and if it possessed any realism, that was because we were suddenly touched by it, moved. (306)
References to this work on external resources.
Wikipedia in English
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0822335468, Paperback)
A major literary event, the publication of this masterly translation makes one of the towering works of twentieth-century German literature available to English-speaking readers for the first time. The three-volume novel The Aesthetics of Resistance is the crowning achievement of Peter Weiss, the internationally renowned dramatist best known for his play Marat/Sade. The first volume, presented here, was initially published in Germany in 1975; the third and final volume appeared in 1981, just six months before Weiss's death.
Spanning the period from the late 1930s to World War II, this historical novel dramatizes anti-fascist resistance and the rise and fall of proletarian political parties in Europe. Living in Berlin in 1937, the unnamed narrator and his peers—sixteen- and seventeen-year-old working-class students—seek ways to express their hatred for the Nazi regime. They meet in museums and galleries, and in their discussions they explore the affinity between political resistance and art, the connection at the heart of Weiss's novel. Weiss suggests that meaning lies in embracing resistance, no matter how intense the oppression, and that we must look to art for new models of political action and social understanding. The novel includes extended meditations on paintings, sculpture, and literature. Moving from the Berlin underground to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War and on to other parts of Europe, the story teems with characters, almost all of whom are based on historical figures. The Aesthetics of Resistance is one of the truly great works of postwar German literature and an essential resource for understanding twentieth-century German history.
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:24:05 -0400)
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2 editions of this book were published by Duke University Press.
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text:
Family quarrels add intrigue to lotto winner death
A judge has made Ansari the administrator until a ruling on how to divide the assets.
Khan's sister, Meraj Khan, and her husband, Mohammed Zaman, told reporters Friday that they had no suspicions before the fuller toxicology results showed cyanide poisoning.
Zaman then added yet another puzzling wrinkle: Ansari is a vegetarian and therefore would not have eaten the lamb curry she prepared for her husband the night he fell ill. Ansari has repeatedly said she, Khan, her father and Khan's daughter all ate the same meal.
Authorities have not said how they think Khan ingested the cyanide, which can be swallowed, inhaled or injected.
Detectives questioned Ansari for more than four hours at a police station in November and searched the family home.
Around the same time, Ansari's stepdaughter, Jasmeen, decided to go live with Khan's sister, who had won guardianship of the teen.
"Of course she was upset," Husain said of Ansari's reaction. "At the same time, I think she wants to move forward with her life. ... With her stepchild, her in-laws, she doesn't want to really have anything to do with them. There's some great animosities between the two."
And then there's Ansari's father. A few months before Khan's death, two federal tax liens were filed against his father-in-law, Fareedun Ansari. He owed $124,600, according to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds.
Finally, Khan's ex-wife and Jasmeen's mother emerged. Now remarried, living in South Bend, Ind., and going by the name of Maria Jones, she told the Chicago Sun-Times she last saw her daughter 13 years ago, when she says Khan took the girl to India. The distraught woman said she didn't know the girl was in the U.S. and she hoped to reconnect with her.
"I don't know if she knows I'm still alive," she told the newspaper, sobbing during a phone interview. "I thought she was in India all these years."
The Associated Press


text:
Introduction to Biology
Cell Theory
1. All living things are composed of one or more cell.
2. Cells are the units of life
3. New cells come only from preexisting cells by cell division
Seven Characteristics of Life
1. Cells and Organization
2. Energy Use and Metabolism
3. Response to Environmental Changes
4. Regulation and Homeostasis
5. Growth and Development
6. Reproduction
7. Biological Evolution
Unit of Organization
1. Atoms
2. Molecules and Macromolecules
3. Cells
4. Tissues
5. Organs
6. Organism
7. Population
8. Community
9. Ecosystem
10. Biosphere
Modern Forms of Life-Unity
1. All modern forms of life display a common set of characteristics.
2. Based on biological evolution.
Vertical Descent with Mutation
1. Progression of changes in a lineage
2. New species evolve from preexisting species by the accumulation of mutations
3. Natural selection takes advantage of beneficial mutations
Horizontal Gene Transfer
1. Genetic exchange between different species
2. Relatively rare
3. Ex: Genes that confer antibiotic resistance are sometimes transferred between different bacteria species
identification, naming, and classification of species based on common vertical descent ancestry.
Taxonomic Group
DoKi P ClOFaGeS
- Domain (largest)
- Kingdom
- Phylum
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus
- Species (smallest) It describes genetically similar individuals that are capable of mating to produce fertile offspring.
(microbiology) single-celled or noncellular spherical or spiral or rod-shaped organisms lacking chlorophyll that reproduce by fission
in a modern taxonomic system, a domain made up of all eukaryotes; this domain aligns with the traditional kingdoms Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia
Genome Characteristics
1. Stores information in a stable form: The genome of every organism stores information that provides a blueprint to create its characteristics.
2. Provides continuity from generation to generation: The genome is copied and transmitted from generation to generation.
3. Acts as an instrument of evolutionary change: Every now and then, the genome undergoes a mutation that may alter the characteristics of an organism. In addition, a genome may acquire new genes by horizontal gene transfer. The accumulation of such changes from generation to generation produces the evolutionary changes that alter species and produce new species.
Is the entire protein complement of a cell or organism. Proteins are largely responsible for the structure and function of cells and complete organisms. All of the proteins that a cell or organism can make.
Enzymes (Proteomes)
Proteins that speed up chemical reactions. Proteins function as enzymes to synthesize and break down cellular molecules and macromolecules.
Transport Proteins (Proteomes)
Proteins facilitate the uptake and export of substances. Protein molecules that help to transport substances throughout the body and across cell membranes
Cell Signaling (Proteomes)
Proteins are needed for cell signaling with other cells and with the environment. The molecular mechanisms by which cells detect and respond to external stimuli and send messages to other cells
Science is the observation, identification, experimental investigation and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena.
1. Proposed explanation for a natural phenomenon
2. Educated guess based on previous observations or experimental studies
3. Hypothesis must make predictions that can shown to be correct or incorrect (must be falsifiable)
4. Additional observations or experiments support or reject a hypothesis
5. A hypothesis is never absolutely proven
6. We may not have found the true explanation for a phenomenon.
Hypothesis Example
If exercise is related to weight loss then increasing the amount of daily exercise in someone's routine will cause them to lose weight.
Hypothesis Testing
5 Stage Process
1. Observations are made regarding natural phenomena.
2. These observations lead to a hypothesis that tries to explain the phenomena. A useful hypothesis is one that is testable because it makes specific preditions.
3. Experimentation is conducted to determine if the predictions are correct.
4. The data from the experiment are analyzed.
5. The hypothesis is considered to be consistent with the data, or it is rejected.
Experimental Group
in an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.
Control Sample
a sample that receives no treatment during an experiment, and demonstrates what happens if no experimental variables are applied.
Independent Variable
the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied
Discovery Based Science
Experimentation that does not require a preconceived hypothesis. In some cases, the goal is to collect data to be able to formulate a hypothesis.


text:
- 255Promote
Stationery Cards
Drenched Breath (VIDEO IN DESCRIPTION!)by Olga Noes
Set of folded stationery cards printed on bright white, smooth card stock to bring your personal artistic style to everyday correspondence. Each card is blank on the inside and includes a soft white, European fold envelope for mailing.
Oh my, this is wonderful.
so great!
It's really fun to see you work! xo
It's really fun to see you work! xo
It's mesmerising watching you work!
:D You guys are making my day....like always! xoxox
awesome textures.
Wow, beautiful drawing.
Love this ! Wonderful!
This is beautiful Olga!
so pretty.great work Olga
Wowie wowsa! Thanks everyone!!
Love her eyes!!!
So Beautiful! :D
This is one of my favorites of yours--such a cute personality in this one.
beautiful and epressive!
Awesome!! Would you mind checking out my work and if you like it, promote it?
See More Comments


text:
As a lover of the look of false lashes, but not of the feel of them, I jumped at the chance to try new Magnifibres!
After applying your eye make-up remove any debris from your lashes: take a cotton bud and dip it into some eye make-up remover and gently rub over the lashes to remove any trace of eyeliner/shadow as it tends to be this that will fall onto your under eye area spoiling your make-up and not your mascara! Now you have the perfect base to start, begin by curling the lashes. I found this gave applying Magnifibres a better effect than on non-curled lashes.
Step 1: Apply a generous coat of mascara to your lashes from root to tip
Step 2: Immediately follow with a generous coat of Magnifibres again from root to tip; apply in the same way you would apply your mascara. Leave for 30-60 seconds and apply a second coat of mascara. It is best to do one eye at a time to ensure the initial coat of mascara is still wet allowing the fibres to adhere to your own lashes. The entire process is not time consuming as you can apply the first coat of mascara to one eye, then the fibres and while you wait for this to set you can carry out the same procedure to the other eye.
Step 3: Finish both lashes with a second coat of mascara. You can use any mascara, I used my usual volume enhancing mascara.
The product does not sit in clumps on your lashes once you have finished with your second coat of mascara nor does it stick you lashes together. I initially assumed the fibres would be suspended in some sort of cream or liquid, however they are not so don't be alarmed to see the fibres just sitting on your first coat of mascara. They did not fall into my eye or cause any irritation which I often found happening with the glue for false lashes, also they didn't fall off onto my face during the day. Another advantage of this product is it does not cause any damage to your own lashes which false lashes may do as you yank them off at the end of a night out. This product comes away with no effort as you remove you mascara.
As a glasses wearer this is perfect for achieving a false lash effect, false lashes tends to catch on frames and lenses which is really irritating. I constantly forgot and use to apply them before I dried my hair which resulted in melted lashes, removal of lashes and a touch up of my eye makeup. I love the effect of false lashes but simply could not be bothered with the downsides I found with wearing them.
This product provides a fantastic alternative to false lashes; its quick to use, looks great with and without glasses, doesn't irritate or give the sense your eye is glued together, doesn't cause damage to your own lashes and I even had the time to do it at 05:30 in the morning before my morning commute to work!
My recommendation to you for the week is to absolutely try this product you will be amazed. I will fall for any gimmick even if it does not work I usually convince myself it has to justify my ridiculous purchase and believe me there have been lots!! This however is not one of them, it really does work! I love it.
Shop here: http://www.misebeauty.com/brands/m/magnifibres/all-products.html


text: Denver Post "The Broncos will place center J.D. Walton on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list when training camp opens for practice Thursday. Right guard Chris Kuper is also expected to be placed on the PUP. Walton and Kuper are both battling through left ankle injuries and surgeries that didn't..." July 24


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Food Writers Share Their Dating Advice — But Why?
Maybe stick to writing about mushrooms.
We always considered the connection between sex and food to be a suspect one, and we're even more convinced that the two don't mix after reading a somewhat disturbing feature on Nerve called "dating advice from food writers." The tips range from the horrific (Julie and Julia author Julie Powell's "A good rare beef liver is like being banged hard against a wall in a skeezy alley behind a nightclub") to the totally inane (Amateur Gourmet Adam Roberts's "Stick to lighter foods — salads, a simple piece of fish and a light dessert.") Undoubtedly the silliest question, however, is asked of "Shameless Carnivore" Scott Gold: "Where can I pick up a food writer?" Ignore Gold's reply of the Greenmarket (!). Food writers can be found lounging around the same depressing singles' bars as every other kind of writer. They just look slightly plumper.
Dating Advice From Food Writers [Nerve]


text:
Find products, services and support
Oops! Can we suggest to: check your spelling, try more general words or try different words that mean the same thing
Get accurate heart-rate information without the need for a separate chest strap.
Set and track your optimal heart rate zones so you get the most from every run.
See your distance, time, pace, speed and calories burnt at a glance.
Whether you're channelling Mad Men or bending it like Beckham, we have a watch for every wardrobe.
Marie Claire
TomTom Runner Cardio is a brilliant tool for runners using a heart-rate monitor, accelerometer and GPS to effectively and accurately track your runs.
TechLife, National
Ditch the chest strap - this seriously smart watch features GPS tracking and a heart-rate sensor that monitors the blood flow in your wrist.
Men's Health


text:
What Did You Discover In 2013?
Whether you have been doing research for a long time, or just started a few months ago, you know that every day can bring new possibilities and discoveries. Take a moment to think about where you started, and all that you've discovered about your ancestors. The New Year is upon us and that means another… Read more


text:
This the full table of contents from Cinema Scope Magazine #66. We post selected articles from each issue on the site which you can read for free More →
From the Magazine
Issue 66 Table of Contents
Era Extraña: Lewis Klahr on Sixty Six
By Jordan Cronk "I've been listening to all the dissension/ I've been listening to all the pain/ And I feel that no matter what I More →
The Only Luxury: An Interview with Ted Fendt
By Dan Sullivan For the past few years, Ted Fendt has been one of the busiest under-the-radar figures in film exhibition in New York: a More →
Field Studies: Mark Lewis' Invention
By Michael Sicinski Initially talking stock of Mark Lewis' new feature film Invention, I was reminded of Jonathan Rosenbaum's remarks in his book Film: The More →
Star Wars: Laura Poitras' Astro Noise
By Jerry White "I should rewatch The Man Who Fell to Earth, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and All the President's Men."—Laura Poitras, "Berlin Journal," February More →
True Colours: On Margaret Honda's Style
By Phil Coldiron Margaret Honda's sudden emergence, nearly 30 years into her artistic career and two decades on from her first museum show (Recto Verso More →
Uniquely American Symptoms: The Manchurian Candidate
By Adam Nayman In the waning days of 2015, public intellectuals as varied as Salman Rushdie, Bill Maher, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar floated (or sky-hooked) the More →
Last Action Hero: Jason Statham Plays It Straight
By Christoph Huber "Jason makes everything better."—Paul Feig, quoted in Esquire's 2015 Statham cover story It's difficult to think that we should be grateful to More →
Wang Bing Films Souls: On Ta'ang and Other Recent Work
By Shelly Kraicer The violent convulsions in the Middle East and Africa and grotesque asymmetries of wealth and poverty between north and south have put More →
Sundance 2016: Good Grief!
By Blake Williams Two heavily pulled quotes from Sundance 2016's opening press conference, both spilled from the mouth of the festival's founder and director Robert More →
A Cinema of the Margins: The Curious Case of Claudio Caligari
By Ruben Demasure At this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam, one of the three directors who received tributes was mostly ignored. Adachi Masao and Pere More →
Editor's Note: The Cinema Scope Top Ten of 2015
The Cinema Scope Top Ten of 2015 1. Cemetery of Splendour (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) 2. Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes) 3. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 4. The More →
Deaths of Cinema | Metteur en scène: Jacques Rivette, 1928–2016
By Matías Piñeiro Love's reach does not to everything extend, for it cannot shake or break the stab of Death. Yet little can Death take More →
A Film/Art Hypothesis: Philippe Parreno at HangarBicocca
By Andréa Picard L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961) is an enduring, mesmerizing modernist masterpiece. Perhaps the most powerful aspect of this Resnais/Robbe-Grillet collaboration—apart from its More →
- Issue 66 Table of Contents


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Bishop: Take your faith into the voting booth
Dear Friends in Christ,
Very often over the course of the last several weeks, I've gotten the question: "What should I do on Election Day?" My answer is always the same: "VOTE!"
To be sure, some people might be looking for a bit more, even to the point of wanting me to tell them who the best candidate might be from my perspective, or from the perspective of the church.
That, I won't do. That, the church won't do. That, neither the church nor I can do. The church is not a political party nor any part of government. Neither am I. The church is not here to gain political power. Nor am I!
What the church does, what I attempt to do over and over again whether in the midst of a campaign for a president, or for a senator, or for a member of Congress, or for a governor, or for a county or a city council member, is to at best teach what we — you and I — believe, and then to encourage that we reflect that belief in the public arena and especially in the voting booth.
If we — you and I — do not bring the perspective of our faith into how we cast our ballots on Election Day, we are failing ourselves, failing our country, failing our church and failing even God! If we buy into a twisted mantra that "separation of church and state" means that the voice of faith is to be silent on public issues, or worse to buy into the schizophrenia that I can espouse one thing in church but another in the voting booth, we have accepted a second-class citizenship never intended by our Constitution, and worse an abdication of our religious freedom given to us by none other than God himself.
As bishop, my responsibility is not to tell you for whom to vote. My responsibility as your bishop is to reflect with you on the Catholic principles that must inform our political voice, our political action, our "faithful citizenship."
The most basic principle is a commitment to uphold the sacredness and dignity of human life from conception until natural death. That principle is the primary (not a secondary, not a compromised) moral obligation to respect the dignity of every life, of every person as a unique creation of God. To do less is to give license to evil, intrinsic evil, for which we, as members of the church, bear no small responsibility.
Under this umbrella of respecting human life are these egregious attacks on human life: (1) abortion; (2) euthanasia; (3) embryonic stem-cell research; (4) human cloning. To support any of these practices and to vote for any candidate for the deliberate purpose of adding support for these attacks on human life is a denial of the sacredness of human life, and worse, an act that cooperates with evil.
At the very core of all Catholic social teaching — whether that teaching concerns issues of poverty, justice, economics, religious freedom or human rights — is the sacredness and dignity of every human life.
The church has the obligation to help build a culture where the dignity and sacredness of every person — particularly the innocent, the poor and the vulnerable — is recognized as a paramount virtue.
The Gospel does not accept silent witness to the truth because Jesus was outspoken about the truth! The church, as the body of Christ, is required:
• To speak out for innocent human life, particularly the right to life of the unborn;
• To speak out for and with the sick and the dying;
• To speak out for marriage between husband and wife, between one man and one woman, and the sacredness of the family;
• To speak out for the poor, the unemployed and the underemployed;
• To speak out for the immigrant and the imprisoned;
• To speak out for victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation;
• To speak out for all who are vulnerable, hurting or suffering;
• To speak out for peace and for justice.
And, finally, and certainly not the least of it all, the church must speak out for religious freedom, whenever and wherever it is threatened, for freedom is the cornerstone of all our liberties given to us as human beings created in the image and likeness of God. Religious freedom is far more than just the right to worship. It is the right to live our faith freely in our homes, in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, in our country, in our world, and especially to give voice to our beliefs in the voting booth. No one has the right to take away that right, the right of religious liberty, even if they think they have the power to do so.
Over these last few weeks, I have tried to share with you the perspective of faith as we approach Election Day. My recent columns in the Pittsburgh Catholic, all five of them beginning with the Oct. 5 issue and ending with this week's, looked at the many issues that describe what it means to be pro-life in a month focused on pro-life. I hope you found them helpful. (If you didn't see them, they are available on our diocesan website at www.diopitt.org.)
And so again — on this Election Day: "VOTE!" And when you enter the voting booth, don't leave your faith, don't leave your Catholic principles and beliefs, outside. Vote with a clear understanding that you have not only the right, but the absolute duty to do so as a responsible citizen of this country and as a cherished member of this church.
What will serve our nation, no matter what the outcome of the elections, is if you and I do the best to exercise our power to vote with the power of the truth.
Godspeed! God bless you as the faithful of the Church of Pittsburgh! God bless me as shepherd of the Church of Pittsburgh! God bless the United States of America!
Grateful for our belief that "Nothing is Impossible with God," I am
Your brother in Christ,
Most Reverend David A. Zubik
Bishop of Pittsburgh
November 1, 2012
Solemnity of All Saints
At the age of 7 in 1956, I discovered a love for civics. When most of my friends could care less about the Democratic and Republican conventions that summer, I was glued to the tube. Would Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon be re-elected? Or would Adlai Stevenson II and Estes Kefauver win?
The parable of the fingernail
There was a movie that came out about five years ago. Like too many movies in our time, it's difficult to recommend because of a litany of words that are unapologetically offensive. It's difficult to recommend because of what we have come to expect from popular culture about human sexuality and the cavalier attitude: "If it feels good, do it!"
But it also had one of the best pro-life statements that you could find in a mainstream Hollywood movie.
The movie is called "Juno." It's the story of a young high school girl —Juno —who gets pregnant. Her first thought is to have an abortion. She describes how she went to the clinic to get it done. A protester out front says that her unborn child has fingernails. Juno thinks nothing of it.
Until she is sitting in that clinic! She notices that everyone —the other patients, her friends who joined her, the receptionist —is biting on a fingernail, polishing a fingernail, studying a fingernail. And it suddenly hits home.
She found her answer in a fingernail. There will be no abortion. What a powerful parable —the parable of a fingernail.
The church believes and teaches that every human life is sacred. And because every human life is sacred, every human life has dignity. The greatest pages in the human story are written when the sacredness of human life is recognized and celebrated; the worst moments in our collective story are when that sacredness is compromised, rejected, violated.
The church believes that every human life is sacred because it believes that every human life belongs to God and is created by God for all eternity: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you" (Jeremiah 1:5).
This belief is grounded in the fundamental sacredness of human life. However, this belief is not confined to Catholics. It is not confined to Christians. It is not confined to believers. It is a shared belief that crosses every culture, every generation, every era in history.
It is a shared belief because the sacredness of human life is fundamental to what we call natural law —the rights, values and beliefs common and universal to humanity. This "natural law" is what we know inherently and instinctively because each of us is an individual, because each of us is a human being, because each of us is alive.
The sacredness of human life
The sacredness of human life is a simple teaching. It doesn't lend itself to long philosophical or theological analysis. We believe:
•that every human life is sacred from the first moment of conception to the final moment
of natural death, and every moment in between both; •that each human life is sacred because each human life is created by God in His image and in His likeness;
•that this is not a uniquely Catholic proposition, but an inherent understanding of human nature itself.
Yet, I have heard a thousand accusations (as I know you've heard them, too) to explain why the church takes the position that it takes on issues surrounding life. People will argue that:
•we call for an end to capital punishment because we are soft on crime;
•we protest embryonic stem-cell research because we hate science;
•we oppose legalized abortion because we want to oppress women;
•we call for an end to unjust war because we are out of touch with national priorities;
•we oppose euthanasia because we are insensitive to human pain and suffering;
•we oppose suicide because we don't understand desperation.
The essential belief of Catholics
This kind of talk makes for heated debate, but it always dodges or avoids the essential teaching of the church, the essential belief of Catholics:
•The church cannot accept capital punishment because, taking even a guilty murderer's life when society can be protected by other means, violates the sacredness and dignity of human life (think of the tears of repentence);
•The church cannot accept embryonic stem-cell research because creating life then destroying it —no matter the good intention —violates the sacredness and dignity of human life (think that human life is much, much more than what's in a test tube);
•The church cannot accept abortion because, by destroying innocent human life, abortion destroys life (think of the parable of the fingernail);
•The church cannot accept war at any cost because unjust war ignores the principles of justice, peace and human dignity (think of the Holocaust);
•The church cannot accept euthanasia because illness, age, human pain, human suffering or a hundred other infirmities do not make a person any less human, no matter how difficult this may seem (think of Christ suffering on the cross);
•The church cannot accept suicide —physician-assisted, or however it is broached —because taking an innocent human life in an act of self-destruction violates the sacredness and dignity of human life (think of hopes hidden in the face of desperation).
The list could go on and on. And in modern culture it usually does. But the sacredness of human life is the fundamental principle —the fundamental starting point —of every human right. At the very core of all Catholic social teaching —whether that teaching concerns issues of poverty, justice, religious freedom or human rights —is the sacredness and dignity of each human life.
History has shown time and time again that once we compromise the sacredness of human life —by limitations based on race, creed, nationality, usefulness or purpose —we have created horror for humanity.
The sacredness of human life is key to understanding ourselves. If an individual human life is not sacred, then there is no foundation —or logic —for any human right, any human duty, any human responsibility for each other. As we view our world and our culture, as we understand what it means in living out our faith in our world and our culture, the sacredness of life is not up for grabs, negotiation or debate!
When Cain killed his brother Abel, the Lord said to him: "What have you done? Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground!" (Genesis 4:9) The earth itself rejects the horror of the sacredness of life violated.
Hunger, slavery, human trafficking, racism, cloning and torture are acts that threaten human life.
Murder, assisted suicide, targeting citizens in wars and conflicts, capital punishment when society has other means to protect itself, are acts that destroy human life.
Abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research, infanticide, genocide are acts that destroy innocent human life.
This is not a belief that can be ducked or avoided. This is a belief that needs to be protected and advanced.
In the movie, Juno sits in the clinic waiting her turn. But she is saved —and the child within her is saved —by a simple shared act of humanity and the message that it brings her. In the seeming uselessness of a fingernail, Juno finds the meaning of how sacred is human life. She embraces it. What a parable!
With this ring ... Part II
A friend said it was my "cringe column." I didn't like the sound of that, so I asked him what he meant. He said that when he read the column, he could see himself doing exactly what I described. The thought of doing so made him cringe.
Who made us?
"God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life."
That's the first sentence of the "Catechism of the Catholic Church," the compendium of Catholic belief released by Blessed Pope John Paul II on Oct. 11, 1992, the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. It's a book that belongs on every Catholic shelf.
For those of us a bit gray on top — or more than a bit — that first sentence of the catechism seems very familiar. We were raised on the Baltimore Catechism, that peerless collection of questions and answers that taught us what we believe as Catholics:
Q: Who made us?
A: God made us.
Q: Why did God make us?
A: God made us to show forth his goodness and to share with us his everlasting happiness in heaven.
There are people who might have drifted away from the faith decades ago, but they can still recite that catechism exchange from their youth in a New York minute. Which is exactly why they should come back home. Like the pop artist Rod Stewart sang in his hit, "You're in My Heart": "You're in my heart, you're in my soul." God is never leaving us, no matter how hard we might try to let him go.
This week, as I continue my reflections with you on pro-life issues in this pro-life month of October, I want to address the issue of the inherent dignity of human life and our understanding of the social gospel — our commitment as Catholics to the common good and how that commitment encompasses all of our teaching on justice and protecting the most vulnerable among us. I will try to "bridge the gap" — bridge the gap between the political culture and political cliches of an election year and the reality of what we believe and try to live as Catholics.
Catholic social teaching
Those lines from the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" and the old Baltimore Catechism clearly describe the fundamental basis of what we call "Catholic social thought." God made us — me, you, every other woman, man, child in this world; and he made us — me, you, every other woman, man, child in this world — so that we can share with him eternal happiness in heaven. We are meant for salvation! It is God's deepest hunger and thirst for us. We are God's creation, meant for him. No ruler, no culture, no class, no boss, no job, no economic system, no "anything else" can supersede or destroy our essential individual human dignity. Because that dignity comes from God.
The foundation of Catholic social teaching is the commitment to the sacredness of human life from conception until natural death. It means that we have a fundamental moral obligation to respect the dignity of every life, of every person as a unique creation of God. That is our moral vision, and we see all issues from that clear focus.
Because of that vision, as I noted two weeks ago, we cannot accept direct attacks on innocent human life — abortion, euthanasia, genocide, cloning or medical experimentation on living human embryos. At the same time, Catholic belief in the dignity of human life leads us to oppose those sins of the culture that attack human life, such as torture, unjust war and the unnecessary death penalty.
In addition, we must fight those things that threaten human life — racism, poverty and human suffering both in its causes and in its results. This is the source of the church's 2,000-year dedication to serving the poor, serving the oppressed, serving the orphan, serving the sick, serving the hungry, serving the immigrant, serving the imprisoned, serving anyone in need.
One of our local authors, Mike Aquilina (a former editor of the Pittsburgh Catholic) has just released a wonderful new book, "Yours is the Church: How Catholicism Shapes Our World" (Servant Books). In it, he outlines the length and breadth of Catholic contributions to the world, contributions motivated solely by faith, solely by service. He speaks of our church that saved civilization, nurtured modern science, inspired great works of art and great literature, and "made women people," rather than the chattel they had been considered in the pagan world.
He also explains how our church is a church of charity — that our church virtually created charity before any government, any organized entity engaged in service to the poorest of the poor. "For most of Western history," Mike writes, "the church has been the main source of help for the poor. It was the same in America: Catholic charity looking after the poor when everyone else was scrambling to make a buck."
The church's social concerns rest not only in direct service, but in creating a society through government, law, economics and policy where the common good and the ability of every person to live out their full potential is recognized. The church hungers and thirsts to create a culture where the dignity of every person — particularly the poor and vulnerable — is recognized as a paramount virtue, and the participation of each and every person is assured.
This is why the church constantly speaks out on a host of issues in the public arena. The Gospel does not accept for the church of Christ a role of silent witness or escape from what goes on in our world. The church is required by our witness to the Gospel to speak out for and with the powerless; the church is required by our witness to the Gospel to speak out for and with whoever is vulnerable, whoever is hurting, whoever is suffering.
That is why the voice of the church is most often heard for those that the rest of society wants to ignore: the immigrant and the imprisoned; the aged and the terminally ill; the disabled and the unborn child. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote in"Deus Caritas Est," "love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is essential to the church as the ministry of the sacraments and the preaching of the Gospel."
Fundamental rights
Respect for human rights means respect for human dignity. Human rights are grounded in the fundamental human right — the right to life. Human rights also are grounded in those things that allow us to live out that right to life in dignity and decency — food and shelter, education and employment, health care and housing.
As we will discuss next week, all these rights are protected by the fundamental right to religious freedom given by God and guaranteed by our nation's Constitution. Without freedom of conscience, without the freedom to express and live out our religious beliefs openly, humanity sacrifices its right to think, its right to act, its right to hope.
It all comes back to who we are and why we are.
Who are we? We are children of God.
Why are we, why do we exist, why have we been created? God made us to show forth his goodness and to share with us his everlasting happiness in heaven.
That's why we say everything we say. That's why we teach everything we teach. That's why we believe everything we believe.
Who made us? God made us — and that's the greatest news we can't forget.
'I'm dead'
It is a chilling quote in a New York Times story, something we would have expected to read a half-century in the past. But it wasn't 50 years ago. It is today. Right now. A woman refugee from North Korea, a Christian, tells the reporter: "If the government finds out I am reading the Bible, I'm dead."
She wasn't speaking in metaphors. She wasn't exaggerating for effect. She was speaking cold, hard fact. "If the government finds out I'm reading the Bible, I'm dead."
They always go after religious rights, religious liberty, religious freedom. If a government or a society is bent on control, is bent on limiting human rights, they know that religious thought and religious action have to be controlled, dominated and eradicated first.
Because a person with religious liberty — a person with the freedom to know, love and serve God and neighbor by living that faith in the public arena — is a free person. Because a person with religious liberty is a person who knows human dignity, the sacredness of human life and the human rights of all that flow from that knowledge.
This week, as I conclude my reflections with you on pro-life issues for Respect Life Month in October and as we approach Tuesday's election, I want to address the issue of religious freedom. In doing so, I will try to "bridge the gap" — bridge the gap between the political culture and the popular clichés of an election year and the reality of what we believe and try to live as Catholics.
Hostile popular culture
America was to be a haven that recognized the fundamental right to religious freedom, a freedom exercised without interference from the government. The Founding Fathers of our country confirmed that foundation when they wrote the First Amendment to the Constitution of our country.
But despite their intent, religious freedom hasn't always been respected. Our sisters and brothers who are Jewish, Muslim, Quaker and Mormon, among others, can well confirm how religious freedom has not always been respected. And we as Catholics can understand that!
Anti-Catholicism has a long and ugly history in the United States. Fear of our "foreignness" and fear of our religious faith permeated American attitudes toward Catholics and Catholicism throughout much of our history (think about the presidential campaign of 1960), and not just in the past. Anti-Catholicism is certainly still alive and doing all too well in many areas of contemporary American culture.
But what we can never forget is that even in the midst of an often hostile popular culture, all Americans are guaranteed freedom of religion, as it states clearly and absolutely in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
The fundamental right to religious freedom is given by God and guaranteed by our nation's Constitution. Religious freedom is the first freedom enunciated in the First Amendment because it is the mother of all freedoms. Without freedom of religion, without the freedom to express and live out our religious beliefs openly, humanity sacrifices every freedom. We have seen that so many times in the past. We see it today in too many countries throughout the globe where the act of reading or even possessing a Bible can mean death, a threat known ever so real by the woman whose story is the lead of this column.
Religious freedom has to be lived
The beauty and richness of the American experience of religious freedom is more than just the right to go to church on Sunday, close the doors and privately worship. As Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia has put it so well, "Religious freedom is never just freedom from repression, but also freedom for active discipleship. It includes the right of religious believers, leaders and communities to engage society and to work actively in the public square."
That's where the rub often comes in, however. That's where the threats to religious freedom come within American culture. Few want to "ban" religious worship. But what too many want to do is silence the rights of the faithful to speak in the public arena, silence the rights of the faithful to live out their beliefs in public service and public ministry.
Those are the twin dangers we face today in the United States. We face an aggressive secularism that would turn the meaning of religious freedom on its head, silencing the church's right to speak effectively to the issues, reducing freedom of religion to a mere right to privately worship within the four walls of any temple, mosque or church. And we face an aggressive secularism that would deny people of religion the right to live out their faith in service unless they denied that very faith that demands service to others.
Religious freedom is not a passive act. Religious freedom is intentionally "action." Religious freedom has to be expressed. Religious freedom has to be lived. Religious freedom has to be out in the open among the people.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spelled it out in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" in 1963 that the civil rights movement was essentially a religious movement, the call to the full measure of freedom. This was an obligation that Christians must make, that Christians cannot ignore.
In his 2011 World Day of Peace message, Pope Benedict XVI called religious freedom the "path to peace." Since "religious freedom is at the origin of moral freedom," the pope taught, it should be understood "not merely as immunity from coercion, but even more fundamentally as an ability to order one's own choices in accordance with truth ... When religious freedom is acknowledged, the dignity of the human person is respected at its root, and the ethos and institutions of peoples are strengthened. On the other hand, whenever religious freedom is denied, and attempts are made to hinder people from professing their religion or faith and living accordingly, human dignity is offended, with a resulting threat to justice and peace."
In our own times in America, we face threats to religious freedom. And while it is highly unlikely that someone might kill us for reading the Bible, we do face an undercurrent in our own day that means to silence the voice of faith and limit how faith can be lived out in our society.
The issue is simple
As you know, the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the Catholic Cemeteries Association of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Inc. and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Inc. have together filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the Department of Health and Human Services mandate that requires all individual and group health insurance plans — including self-insured plans — to cover all FDA-approved contraception and sterilization procedures, including drugs that cause abortions.
Under this HHS mandate, our church-sponsored organizations — everything from hospitals for the sick to soup kitchens that feed the hungry — are required to let the federal government be the final arbiter in determining which of our beliefs we can follow and not follow as we carry out our ministries of service to the community.
The issue here is simple. We will not give to the federal government the power to make us choose between our sacred beliefs or shutting our doors because we cannot violate our conscience.
One of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, explained in the very infancy of our nation that the government has no right to intervene in the life of the church. Religious freedom in America is primary and sacrosanct.
Nothing has changed since then. May it be so forever and always.


text: The best ideas are often the most simple. This fantastic ad to discourage drink driving is a case in point. Used by the Hotel Marriott in India for patrons of its popular nightclub Enigma, this 'personal stamp ad' listing the phone number of the local cab company proved to be so effective the idea is now being taken up by the Mumbai police and is being adopted by other clubs. by Bill T


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The historic heart of Massachusetts, the Cradle of Liberty; Boston is one of the USA's great cities. Culture vultures, shopaholics, foodies…whatever kind of traveller you are, you can get your fix, served all-American style, here. The city's surrounding areas are also a source of natural wonder, especially in autumn, the time to be in New England.
In the second part of this post, award-winning travel writer and proud Bostonian, Melanie Nayer rounds up her insider recommendations for stays outside the city. From spas to seaside spots, she shows us some of the best the state has to offer. But first we asked for the top reasons to visit her beloved Boston...
The Walking City
"It's amazing how much history is packed into such a small space that is Boston. In theory, you could head out first thing in the morning and see all the neighbourhoods, tourist sites and most historical attractions before bedtime. That's the beauty of Boston - everything you could want is, quite literally, within walking distance.
History and Gnocchi
Each neighbourhood has a different feeling and offers something unique - Boston's North End is where you'll find the Old North Church and recall Paul Revere's famous ride, while enjoying cannolis and gnocchi at one of the famous Italian feasts.
The South End is full of trendy shops and century-old architecture; South Boston is also fierce with Irish pride and pubs.
The Two Bs
The Back Bay offers some of the best restaurants and retailers; and Beacon Hill is where you'll find some of the oldest homes in the nation, as well as our copper-dome capital building. Boston captures the best of old and new, and its location on the harbour means travellers never have to go far for a fresh piece of seafood or hot bowl of clam chowder.
Beyond Boston
Another historical fact: Boston is home to the oldest public transportation system in America, which means getting to the outskirts of the city is fast and easy. Head to the beaches or go apple picking; plan a hayride in the fall and head into Salem for one of the best Halloween celebrations around. In the fall, you'd be remiss if you didn't plan a drive north of the city to take in the beauty of the New England colours as they turn from summer to autumn. Blues become purples; greens become golds and reds become bolder and brighter than anything you've seen. Since Massachusetts is such a tourist-friendly state, there's a plethora of lodging options no matter where you go. From luxury rooms to quaint campgrounds, you'll find everything you need to make your visit to Boston special.
Welcome to my home city! I hope you fall in love with it as I have, and that the beauty of Boston leaves a lasting impression."
Photos courtesy of Flickr photographers *clairity*, David Paul Ohmer and Cardamon. Top image of Charles River by Soelin.
Don't forget to check out Melanie's Massachusetts hotel picks.
Virgin Atlantic operate daily flights to Boston from London Heathrow.
Got any Boston or Massachusetts tips to add to this article? Share them with us in the comments below.
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About the author: andrewAndrew Bowman
Andrew is an occasional contributor to the Virgin Atlantic blog. He lived in the Japanese countryside for two years until he could no longer resist the pull of London's galleries, pubs and clubs. He likes to pretend he can speak Japanese and also sometimes writes about music.