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I want you to open your Bible to the 5th chapter of Isaiah. As you know, in the times that I've been with you through the summer months, we have looked at some of the great portions of Scripture. Lastly, at the 17th chapter of John's Gospel. And, as I said earlier, we're gonna be looking again in the future at the 8th chapter of Romans, a monumental portion of Scripture. And for today, both this morning and this evening, I wanna draw you to Isaiah chapter 5 and chapter 6.
Someone has well said, "If men have learned anything from history, it is that men never learn anything from history." And so history inexorably repeats itself. The cynicism of the preacher in Ecclesiastes is justified. He said, "There is nothing new under the sun. History...he was saying...is an endless cycle of repetition." And he saw it that way and said, "That which has been is now, and that which is to be has already been." Men and nations basically follow the same inexorable cycles. They go in paths from glory to destruction. Their beginnings are bright and hopeful and filled with promise, and they fall into sin and spiral into degradation and end in destruction. In fact, that reality can be seen metaphorically in the life of a baby, and really in the life of a baby. Every baby born is a living illustration of the inevitable course of men and nations, beginning in the loveliness of infancy and innocence. It then moves into the sinfulness of adulthood and spirals in iniquity down to death and judgment in hell.
And certainly our own nation is on that very path. America is caught in the doomsday cycle: a dying nation in a dying world. A dying nation populated by dying people. And I suppose, in our case, we could say that it all began with a kind of primitive beauty. People came here seeking freedom to express their love to Christ in a community of brotherhood. The Bible was held high as the source of all truth, and the divine authority for life, both privately and publicly. God was the center of activity. Worship was a way of living, and churches were the hub of every community...
Great preachers, wonderful schools for teaching Scripture, all had a central focus, and it was on the revealed standard, the norm, the absolute for living, the Word of God. But that was the time of America's infancy. And as maturity came, the drift to a degraded adulthood was evident. Yes, God had His voices, Edwards, Whitfield, Moody, and others. But evil has prevailed, and we face the inevitable judgment of God upon our degraded condition. What has happened? And why is this cycle inevitable? And what is to be done about it?
I think the answer to that question comes most notably in this portion of Scripture, Isaiah 5 and 6. I want us to look back in history to see if we can't break the cycle, at least, and, for a moment, learn some things that can help us understand where we are and make a contribution to changing it. And to go back in history might be a very challenging thing if we were just to go back into general secular history, because we might not be dealing with reality. We might only be dealing with somebody's spin on reality, or some revisionist approach to history. History is systematically, little by little, being redefined in terms that accommodate the goals and agendas of modern historians, and it may not be too long before we can't find reality anymore.
So if we're gonna go back in history to learn from history, we're gonna go...have to go back to where history is absolutely exact in its accuracy, and we find out on the pages of holy Scripture inspired by God. So let's go there. Let's learn from the past as recorded in the Scripture.
After all, 1 Corinthians 10 says that what is written in the Old Testament was written for us, as examples to us, so that we might learn the profound lessons of history. Not just history, but history as authored by God Himself, who has it down right. Biblical history, then, gives us the truest picture. It gives us the divine perspective. Biblical history provides for us a series of accurate billboards, standing in our path and informing us about the present and the inevitable future.
One of those great billboards is Isaiah 5 and 6. It is a clear insight. It is a model of deadly sins that destroy a nation. It is readily applicable to America. And it is a model of how a godly man reacted to a nation in crisis and put himself, though in the midst of the throes of death, in a place of usefulness to God.
So we want to understand our times in the light of Biblical history, and we on...we wanna understand our responsibility in those times. The drama begins to unfold in chapter 5 with a parable in the first seven verses. The parable of the Lord. Let me read the first six to you. "Let me sing now for my well-beloved a song of my beloved concerning His vineyard...Here's the song...My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill, and He dug it all around, removed its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it and hewed out a wine vat in it; the He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only booashim."...in Hebrew, referring to sour, inedible berries. That's the song.
In response to the song, the prophet says, "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard. What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done it in? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones? So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. And I will lay it waste; it will not be pruned or hoed, but briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it."
And we'll stop there. Here is a song. But a sad song. In fact, it's a exquisite elegy. It is a funeral song. It is a dirge. It is a plaintiff, wailing, weeping song. It is a song about my beloved and His vineyard. It is a tragic song about a...an investment that was made in a vineyard that was intended to produce good grapes and produced only worthless, sour berries. And then the tragic judgment that was pronounced upon that vineyard and executed concludes the song.
In the days of Isaiah, as well as throughout most of the history of the land of Israel, the hillsides, the stony hills, I might add, of Judah have been the place of the planting of vineyards. Typically, the stones are taken out of the ground and piled into walls that frame off the vineyards, marking off both property lines, as well as becoming barriers of protection to the precious grapes growing inside the walls. The hillsides are terraced all across Israel, and that's no easy task, because the hillsides are very often steep and rocky. Anybody in Israel would understand the tragedy of this song, because they understand the immense investment of labor and money that is put into producing such a vineyard, and to have these kinds of results would be a great tragedy, an immense one among those who are used to agrarian life. They were familiar with the beautiful vineyards which produced very luscious grapes frequently in the land of Israel. They knew how much toil, how much care had gone into making the vineyards productive. How hard the husbandmen and those in his family and others might have worked and how great was his hope for a rich reward. And how immense was his investment.
Every Judean could understand the frustration, then, and the pain and the heartache and the disappointment to find out that what was produced was inedible, and the whole thing was a loss and worthy only of complete destruction. That's the song. And it's parabolic. And the meaning is made clear in verse 7 where the parable is explained. "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant or delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress."
God wanted Israel to produce justice and righteousness, and they produced bloodshed and distress. That's a play on words, by the way, in Hebrew. He looked for mishpoth, but behold, mispock. He looked for cedekah, but behold, ce'ekah. This is the story of Israel. This is the story, both of the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. Both of Israel as the north was known, and Judah as the south was known. This is the sad story of God planting a vineyard. It even is likely an inter-Trinitarian song, where the Father and the Son are mutually expressing this. "Let Me sing now for My well-beloved a song of My beloved." May be the Son. The Son writing and singing a eulogy for the Father's tragedy.
In the 80th Psalm, Israel is likened to a vine...owned, protected, cared for by the Lord of hosts. Brought out of Egypt, planted in Canaan, cherished and nurtured by the Lord's constant goodness. The vine took root in the land of Canaan and filled the land. Psalm 80 depicts Israel as a vine extending, do that the mountains are covered with its shadow. Its boughs are like massive cedars stretching out in every direction. It sends its branches westward to the great Mediterranean Sea, and its shoots eastward toward the Euphrates...
This is Israel...and God expected that, after such immense commitment to this people and such great preparation, they would produce justice and righteousness. But they did not. There were no good grapes, even though an immense effort had been made. Go back with me for a moment to verse 1. When God established Israel, it says He had a...a vineyard...the end of the verse, "On a fertile hill." The land of Canaan was so fertile, it was known as the land of milk and honey. The Jordan Valley is one of the most fertile valleys in the world, always has been. Very much in its topography like the San Joaquin Valley that runs up through the state of California. The coastal valley, the Sharon Valley was also a wonderfully productive area, still is. The mountains were eminently useful for groves of trees, olive trees, as well as vineyards. This is a marvelously rich land.
God put them on a fertile hill, and He dug it all around. One of the things that was necessary in building a vineyard was to protect it. And very often they would protect it with a moat...so that animals couldn't come in and destroy it. And that's what happened when God planted His people in Israel. What was the moat? What was the hedge as He later refers to it? What was the wall of protection? It was all of the strange social laws. All of those strange dietary laws. All of those strange cooking codes that they had to follow. Those matter of how they made their garments and what fabrics could be mixed. There were so many strictures put upon them that really don't have any theological definition and aren't particularly symbolic of some deeper mystery, but merely were to so isolate them that they were insulated from the encroachment of pagan idolatrous people...
It also says that He removed the stones. The first thing He told 'em to do when they went in was to get rid of the Canaanites. The Canaanites were the stones that were retard their growth and inhibit their productivity. They were to wipe out the Canaanites. They were act as the executioners of Almighty God and remove the Canaanites from the land. They did it only in part...He then planted the choicest vine. Few would argue that, of all of those among mankind, there are hardly any more noble than the sons of Israel. The Jewish people have through the ages made immense contributions in every field of human endeavor. They are a noble strain of genetics among humankind.
And then He put a tower in the middle of it, probably a reference to the parapet. The great mountain, the plateau of Jerusalem where the kings and the prophets and the priests oversaw the whole of the land. When building a vineyard, a tower was commonly placed there. The bottom part to store the implements to care for the vineyard, and the top part to put a lookout to watch for those who might encroach. Furthermore, God provided a wine vat. A wine vat in a vineyard was where the grapes...grapes were pressed, and the wine was produced. The wine vat is most likely a reference to the sacrificial system. The blood shedding system which God provided for the purpose of reconciliation, offerings, worship, and praise.
God did everything possible for productivity and asks the rhetorical question in verse 3, "Now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard." You decide. Was it Me or was it them? What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Who's at fault here? This rhetorical question demands the answer that God is not at fault. Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones? The only answer to that is there was something wrong with the vine. There was something wrong with Israel.
Could God have done anymore? Absolutely not. He did everything He could have done. Failure was with the vine. The failure was with Israel. Because of this terrible, tragic failure, after God had placed them in the land of Canaan, by the time they come to Isaiah's day, the prophets are all beginning to gang up on them and pronounce the impending judgment. And judgment will come on the northern kingdom from the rapacious forces of Assyria, who will come and destroy and take them captivity, and they'll never return. And then judgment will come later to the southern kingdom at the hands of the Caldeon Empire, the Babylonians, and with it, the destruction, the sacking, the smashing of the city of Jerusalem in the following 70 years of captivity.
This judgment is described then in the metaphor of the vineyard here in verses 5 and 6. "So...says the Lord...now let Me tell you what I'm gonna do to My vineyard...here comes judgment...I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I'll break down it's wall and it will become trampled ground. I will lay it waste; it will not be pruned or hoed, but briars and thorns will come up. I will char...charge the clouds or command the clouds to rain no rain on it." This is a curse pronounced on Israel. A curse which resulted in the Assyrian deportation of the northern kingdom, the Babylonian destruction and deportation of the southern kingdom. And the dissolution of the nation of Israel as it was known in Isaiah's time in a horrible, deadly overflowing of judgment. Spiritual privilege, spiritual opportunity wasted ends in frightening judgment...You would have thinked they would've learned. They didn't learn, even when their Messiah finally came. They had been restored to their nation, reconstituted as a people. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not...
Here we are in this country. We have a great Christian heritage. Not covenantal. God made no covenant with this nation. We are not a covenant people. We don't have the insulation and protection and special mercies that Israel enjoyed. And if God, in spite of those special mercies and that covenant which brought some protection to them, if God still destroyed them, what hope do we have to evade His judgment? We have produced nothing but the same sour berries.
Now Isaiah may have seemed a little bit foolish to the people when he proclaimed this message, because on the surface, there was prosperity. I mean, frankly, they'd had the same king for 52 years, and that brought a measure of satisfaction. Oziah had been around a long time. That was a long reign for a king. He was very popular. God had helped him early in his career in war. The defenses of Judah and Jerusalem were as strong as they had been since the time of Solomon. There was a large and well-disciplined army furnished with the very best weapons, according to 2 Chronicles 26. The people thought they had a great leader. There was a façade, a superficial façade of religious devotion and attendance to the temple. But what the people didn't realize, the prophet knew because God revealed it to him, was that the cancer of iniquity was eating at the heart of the nation, though it was not apparent on the surface.
I suppose in terms today, we could say the gross national product was up, interest rates were down, everything was profitable, employment were low, unemployment rates were low, and people were basically happy with life. There weren't any wars. There were no border flare-ups. There were no natural disasters. It all seemed just fine. But the prophet saw with the eyes of the Spirit what others couldn't see, and he saw the looming judgment of God...
Now, it is typical of the prophets, when they pronounce judgment not just to make sweeping generic statements. When God indicts people, He indicts them on specific charges. And when you come to verse 8, you come a transition in this 5th chapter, and you go from the parable of the Lord in verses 1 to 7 to the penetration of the Lord, and the Lord penetrates behind the parable. Penetrates behind the general scene to the specific issues. He goes right to the heart of the matter. This is the sin, and you are the man...
There are six sins singled out here. Six sins that were characteristic of Israel. They're identified by the word woe. You see it in verse 8, verse 11, verse 18, verse 20, verse 21, and verse 22. Six times, the word woe appears. Now, just a little bit about that word. It basically means damnation, condemnation, judgment, or cursing. It is a divine pronunciation of doom. That's what it is. And six woes are given because each pronunciation of doom is connected to a specific category of iniquity. And with this, the prophet goes right to the specific indictments that God wants to bring against Israel. And I want you to mark how they parallel our own time.
The first woe appears as noted in verse 8. "Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field, until there's no more room, so that you have to live alone in the midst of the land! In my ears the Lord of hosts has sworn, 'Surely, many houses shall become desolate, even great and fine ones, without occupants. For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine, and a homer of seed will yield but an ephah of grain.'"
Now let me describe what He's talking about here. Back to verse 8, He's referring to those who add house to house and join field to field, until they've consumed everything in sight. We can call this the sin of grasping materialism. The sin of grasping materialism. Avarice. The sin that corrupted Judas was true of Israel. The insatiable greed of landowners who oppressed others to increase their riches, accumulated, accumulate, accumulated, and then abused the poor by rending back to them at exorbitant rates. Amos, the prophet, Josea, the prophet, Micah, the prophet, who are Isaiah's contemporaries, also denounced this very same evil. Wealthy men ruthlessly acquiring property, squeezing out the poor and the helpless and making them buy, not only housing, but everything else at inflated prices...
A single illustration of it would be the...the mindset of Ahab who, though he had everything a man could ever want, coveted Naboth's vineyard, even to the degree of murder. God never wanted people to stockpile and stockpile and stockpile. That's why there is Sabbath rest for the land every seven years, and that's why there's the 50th year of jubilee when everything owned returns to its original owner...God had hedged against those kinds of expressions of unrelenting greed. But it was a time when no one was paying attention to God. And so He says, "There's gonna come a time when these great houses, these fine houses, these fair houses are gonna be emptied, desolate, without occupants. And these great fields to produce all this grain aren't gonna produce it. And the vineyards aren't gonna produce either. In fact, ten acres of vineyard is gonna produce four gallons of juice, and 48 gallons of seed will only yield 4.8 gallons of crop." Those are famine conditions...famine conditions...What one such invasion did in the days of Ahaz is described in 2 Chronicles 28. "In one day, 120,000 men...men were killed by Pekah of Samaria, and 200,000 men, women, and children were carried off into captivity." God is speaking about sweeping, devastating judgment...
Sin of grasping materialism is certainly characteristic of our day and our time. One writer said, "America's like an unloved child with an ice cream cone: fat, full of pimples, and screaming for more."...We are materialistic, grasping, greedy, indulgent, possessive. We've even got some theologians who add to the problem by telling us Jesus wants us rich. We worship our own golden calf. We seek worldly status. The church is prostituted for gain. The nation is being engulfed in wholesale materialism, with the church assisting in the push...Grasping materialism is a...is a sin that brings the judgment of God.
Second sin that is noted by the prophet comes in verse 11. "Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may pursue strong drink, who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them! And their banquets are accompanied by lyre and hard, by tambourine and flute, and by wine; but they do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord, nor do they consider the work of His hands." This is a fascinating description of a second sin, drunken pleasure seeking. Drunken pleasure seeking. This is what is clearly being described here. The people were consumed with being entertained. The Prophet Amos says they wanted to recline on beds of ivory, sprawl on their couches, eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the midst of the stall. They wanted the sound of their harp. They composed music for themselves. Instead of just drinking wine out of the normal skins, they were drinking it from sacrificial bowls. In other words, they were gorging themselves with it. They were anointing themselves with the finest of oils, but they were never grieving over the ruin of their nation.
Drunken pleasure seeking. They had the wild parties. They were a nation of goodtime Charlies. They were early drinkers. The dead sign of a...of an alcoholic. Alcoholics drink in the morning. They drink all day, enflamed in the evening, as well. The end of verse 12, "They don't pay attention to the deeds of the Lord," meaning they don't consider the work of His hands is to say they disregard their bodies, which are the work of God. They have no regard for the...the creation of God. Their physical creation, they dissipate. Much like what Paul said, that they give themselves, in Ephesians 5, over to dissipation. They're engaged in shameful dissipation. They work at getting drunk by night, and letting their lust run wild. They seem to function without conscience, without guilt, and with no sense of God and no fear of judgment...The sin of drunken pleasure seeking.
Verse 13, "Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge or their lack of understanding." This kind of foolish living leads to judgment. "Their honorable men are famished. Their multitude is parched with thirst." They think they have everything. They're gonna have nothing. In fact, Sheol is pictured like some massive beast with a gaping mouth, who enlarges its throat and swallows them whole. Death swallowing the mindless merrymakers. "And Jerusalem's splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it." And, of course, we know when the Babylonians came, they just destroyed the city of Jerusalem in a massacre and a burning. "Common man...verse 15...will be humbled, and the man of importance will be abased, and the eyes of the proud also will be abased. But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment, and the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness. Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy."
The whole northern kingdom taken into captivity by the Assyrians. The whole southern kingdom taken into captivity by the Babylonians. And the land was left to strangers to graze their lambs. Arabs today are still grazing their flocks on what was once the territory of Israel. The once beautiful land became ravaged. It became an uncultivated heap. Good only for pasture and roaming and scavenging strangers.
Grasping materialism and a drunken pleasure seeking brought the judgment of God. There's a third iniquity indicated in verses 18 and 19, as the penetrating vision of God indicts Israel. "Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood, and sin as if with cart ropes." It's vivid imagery. It simply pictures the sinner as a beast of burden attached to a cart, hauling around a wagonload of iniquity. Encumbered by it. Pulling it around...as if he were nothing more than a beast of burden carrying around a pile of filth and garbage. Iniquity was like some filthy burden being dragged as they with great effort engaged themselves in sinning against God.
Verse 19 adds another component to this iniquity. This is what they say, and this is a direct mockery of God. "Who say, 'Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it; and let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near." In other words, if God doesn't like it, let's see Him do something about it. So let's call this third sin defiant sinfulness. Defiant sinfulness. It shakes its fist in the face of Almighty God. It taunts God. You hear that so much in our society today. Open, flagrant, defiant, mocking, taunting, cursing God. Blatant mockery of God.
I remember reading some years ago when I was a student of the terrible death of Ernest Hemmingway, the brilliant writer. And I was amazed at how the scenario of his life unfolded, so I read more about it. I sought out some information to understand something of this brilliant man, this gifted writer, this great adventurer who was something of a mercenary soldier, who said that he had proven that you can sin and get away with it. That was sort of his life motto. Nobody could hold him to any Victorian morality. No fundamentalist could impinge upon his lifestyle. He had fought his wars. He had killed his men. He had quote tumbled his women, and lived to tell about it all. And the articles about him concluded with the fact that one day in his home he put a shotgun in his mouth and blew the back of his head off. And God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap.
I was strongly influenced also when I was reading in my younger years the writings of Sinclair Lewis who was the toast of the literary world at his time. He wrote a...a most notable piece of literature that later became a film called Elmer Gantry. Some of you may remember it. It was the story of...an evangelist from the vantage point of a mocker of God. Sinclair Lewis had written, and he wrote about this evangelist who was a drunken sot and a womanizer and a thief and a crook and a charlatan and a fake and everything despicable, and he portrayed him as the representative of the Christian faith. And Elmer Gantry was his blast at God. It was his mockery of God. And few people who gave him accolades know that Sinclair Lewis died a drunk in a third-rate clinic outside of Rome in absolute obscurity from sclerosis of the liver.
Through the years, a lot of people have shaken their fist in the face of God, and God knows who they are...You can taunt God, but it's a foolish thing to do...
There's a fourth sin added to defiant sinfulness, drunken pleasure seeking, and grasping materialism. And it's in verse 20, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" Let's call this moral perversion. What happened in Israel is unimaginable because they had the Word of the Living God. No more unimaginable in our society since we, too, have had the Word of the Living God in its completion, including all the Old Testament and the New, as well. But what happened is Israel has certainly happened here, and that is the reversing of all morality. Complete perversion, twisting. "To forsake the Lord is evil...said Jeremiah...but the people said it was good. To draw near to God is good...said the Psalmist in Psalm 73...but the people said it was evil."
The inverting and the perverting of all standards, this is a sin that brings the condemnation of God. When you exalt adultery, when you promote fornication, when you exalt homosexuality, lust, and you mock faithfulness and purity and integrity, and you exalt divorce and mock marriage, you have perverted morality. I remember the PBS presentation of the MTV series on the seven deadly sins. I'll never forget it. I watched two hours of it...They were asking the MTV generation if they could define...the seven deadly sins of our time. And if they agreed with them. There were seven deadly sins put together by some medieval monks: lust, greed, covetousness, laziness, things like that. Sort of motivational sins behind all other iniquities.
And they went around and asked the contemporary culture in which we live if they agreed that these were sins. And, of course, they all disagreed. They thought pride was a virtue. Lust was a virtue. Greed was a virtue. Covetousness was a virtue. Indicating how perverted the minds are. It's sort of Romans 1, isn't it? First you sink to the level of sexual sin. Then you sink to the level of homosexual sin. Then you sink to the level of reprobate mind. And then you're really in the bottom, because when the mind is gone, there's no recovery...
And so now morality is up for grabs. It's only a matter of anybody's opinion. That's a deadly sin which calls forth the judgment of God who hates all violations of His law.
The fifth iniquity in verse 21 is so pertinent, as well. God pronounces damnation, condemnation on Israel. "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight!" You see, once you have no longer a fixed moral law, then everybody's opinion is equal to everybody else's opinion. And you get the...the reigning sin, let's call it arrogant conceit. Arrogant conceit. Rejection of God's Word, subversion of all morality, leads to establishing oneself as the sole authority, and every man does what is right in his own eyes.
And so men in that society, men in our society go around with a silly smirk of self-congratulation on their conceited faces...thinking themselves to have the answer to everything when, in fact, they know nothing about it at all. Sometimes I think if I see another talk show or hear another opinion, I'll be ill. You ever feel like that?...
If you wanna get a finger on the lostness of our culture, just listen to all the people speaking their foolish opinions about everything. And try to inject in that a standard from the Word of God and watch the reaction...Everyone is his own god. Everyone is his own authority. Everyone has a right to call his own life, to determine what he will or will not do, to make all his own choices. And nobody has a right to lay on him any retribution for that chosen behavior...That was Israel. They knew more than God. They rejected His Word and became arrogantly conceited.
The final sixth sin is given in verses 22 and 23, and this sorta seals the fate. You see the word heroes in verse 22? It can be translated mighty, but it's a Hebrew word meaning men of renown, or to put it in the vernacular, famous leaders. It's what it means. "Woe to the famous leaders who drink wine...and the next one...valiant man is another term for leaders...who mix strong drink." Wine being diluted with water. Strong drink being undiluted enabling a person to become drunk faster. So what you have here is corrupt leadership. Corrupt leadership, like people, "Like priests...Josiah said...people just don't rise above their leaders. And when the leadership is corrupt, that sorta seals the fate of the people. Corrupt leadership not only drunken, dissolute, indulgent, but, verse 23, they were "justifying the wicked for a bribe and taking away the rights of the ones who are in the right!"
In other words, they were punishing the innocent and letting the guilty go, because they could be bought off. This is corruption. The men of renown, the judges, the authorities, the leaders in the land were influenced by drinking. They were unwise. You remember the mother of Lemuel in Proverbs 31 said, "It's not for kings to drink, 'cause everything they have to decide is too vital to be clouded by any influence of alcohol." But drunkenness and unbridled luxury, sure signs of decaying civilization, particularly when they characterize the leaders. The rulers and judges of the people were corrupt and rotten, perverted, and could be bought.
We all know the corruption in politics, the corruption in government. We know what a corrupt world we live in, and every aspect, business, everywhere, we can't trust leaders. We can't lift up leaders as examples...And the result of these sins comes in verse 24. Here we move from the parable to the penetration to the punishment...
"Therefore...that's a key word. That's the transition... Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble and dry grass collapses into the flame...that's the first metaphor...With the same speed and thoroughness that fire burns straw, so their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust." He uses three metaphors. "With the speed and thoroughness with which fire burns straw; to the extent that a root decays and rots; and then the same way that a blossom withers and blows away like dust, so will this people suffer judgment."
Strong language. Their grasping materialism. Their drunken pleasure seeking. Their defiant sinfulness. Their moral perversion. Their arrogant conceit. Their corrupt leadership must produce a reaction from Holy God. It must, and it will. And why?...Verse 24, the end of the verse, here's the bottom line on everything in these two chapters. Here it is: "For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel." That simple.
All that sin chronicled in the 5th chapter comes about as a result of "rejecting the law of the Lord of hosts and despising the word of the Holy One of Israel," which, by the way is two ways of saying exactly the same thing. They wouldn't listen to God. They wouldn't listen to God. They turned their back on His truth. When that happens in a nation, judgment will fall.
You remember when I was over in New Zealand and I was invited to speak to the New Zealand parliament in the Parliament House. And they asked me to speak on this subject. What happens to a nation that abandons the Word of God? And I told 'em. And it'll happen in that nation, as it happening in this nation. And the judgment of God has already begun here, because it says in Romans 1, when the judgment of God begins, He will give them over to sexual sin. We've been given over to that. Then He will give them over to homosexuality, and we've already been given over to that. And He'll give them over to a reprobate mind. And our educational system, at every level, is so corrupt now, there's no hope of instructing. We hear people all the time say, "Well, our only hope is in education." Not so, because education has abandoned the truth of God. It'll happen in any nation. When they turn from the law of God, they will be left to the consequence of their own sin, under divine judgment.
The judgment's gonna look like this, starting in verse 25..."On this account the anger of the Lord has burned against His people." Boy, that is a...a penetrating verse. "The anger of the Lord has burned against His people...and if His anger burns against a covenant people granted special mercy, how His anger must burn against those who are not in His covenant...He has stretched out His hand against them, and struck them down." And Isaiah now is seeing the destruction as if it's happening.
"And the mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this, His anger is not spent." It...when God sent the Assyrians with the devastation and the death and the carnage, and then He sent the Babylonians with the same thing. It wasn't enough. "His anger was not spent. His hand is still stretched out." There needed to be 70 years of judgment and purging. How's He gonna do this? Verse 26 tells us. "He's gonna lift up a standard." He's gonna...He's gonna put up a banner. He's the commander-in-chief of the Assyrian army. It's interesting, isn't it? He's the commander-in-chief of the Caldeon or Babylonian army. "He's gonna lift up the flag to the distant nation, to the Assyrians, the Caldeons, and He's gonna whistle for it from the ends of the earth." He is the commander-in-chief. He will whistle for the armies, and they'll come like a tidal wave. "With swift speed." And, amazingly, God is gonna give them power. "Not one in it is weary or stumbles. None slumbers or sleeps. Nor is the belt at its waist undone." That's the belt to which the sword is strapped. "Nor its sandal strap broken." This army is gonna have tremendous success, because God is gonna see to it that they are the instrument of His judgment and fulfill His purpose.
"Its arrows are sharp. All its bows are bent; the hoofs of its horses seem like flint and its chariot wheels like a whirlwind. Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions; it growls as it seizes the prey." Very vivid, graphic description of the terrible killing that will take place. And what it doesn't kill, it carries off with no one to deliver it. That's the captivity. "It'll growl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress. Even the light is darkened by its clouds."
Smoke from the burning and from the dust and the dirt stirred up in the terrible holocaust...So God says judgment will come. This is the cycle of history. In the book of Acts, we learned that the history of the nations is the judgment of the nations. Do you remember in Acts, it says that God has allowed all the nations to go their own way. Paul says that in Acts 17. "All the nations have gone their own way." The cycle just keeps repeating and repeating and repeating and repeating. And here we are in our nation, in America, watching this take place...
You say, "Well, are we on the brink of the judgment of God?" No, we're in it. I'm not talking about eschaatalagic...lodic... logical judgment. I don't know when the time of tribulation's coming. I'm not talking about eternal judgment. I don't know when hell will be a reality for all of the individuals in this world. I'm not even talking about cataclysmic judgment like Sodom and Gomorrah, or the universal flood. But I am talking about the wrath of God described in Romans 1 where He gives them over to the unmitigated consequences of their wicked choices. And they spiral down into deeper degradation and death and hell...
And that takes us to the end of chapter 5, and we understand the issue. Chapter 6 answers this question: What kind of people is God looking for to speak to a nation in crisis? That is the question of chapter 6. Because as chapter 6 begins, Isaiah rushes into the presence of God at the temple. He's gotta check in with God in the midst of the disaster, and he has an incredible encounter with the living God in one of the most monumental chapters in all of the Bible. And in the 13 verses of the 6th chapter, we will learn what kind of person God is looking for to reach out to a nation in crisis. This is us, folks. And this is our calling, as it was the calling of this great prophet.
We are a nation in crisis. We are involved in the judgment of God. It is here. It is on us. The great lion has roared. The army has come. It is not a conquering nation as in the case of Israel. But it is a cancer eating us from the inside out. It may be a conquering nation. Who knows? But, for now, it is a...a fall like the fall of the Roman Empire, without being conquered from the outside, they disintegrated on the inside. And we're doing the same, and we have never been in such a crisis as we are now. There's never been a more important time for you to know what your role is. And how God can use you mightily in this crisis. We'll find out tonight in chapter 6.
Father, we thank You that You can use us, and as we get a little preview of chapter 6, we remember that You said, "Who will go...for us?" And Isaiah said, "Here am I, Lord, send me."...But, Lord, there's some preparation. There's some things we need to understand if we're gonna have an impact, if we're gonna understand our times, if we're going to have a right expectation...We pray, Lord, that You will show us that as we open the rest of this great text tonight...Confirm these truths to our hearts. May we understand our times. The desperate character of our times, and the compelling need to proclaim the truth and not get caught up in the iniquity of this hour...We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.
This article is also available and sold as a booklet.
This sermon series includes the following messages:
Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource.Publisher Information


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Talking Transportation: America's mass transit mecca
What's the most mass-transit intensive city in the U.S.? By the numbers, New York City….
Talking Transportation — America's amazing interstate highways
The 47,000 miles of highways that comprise America's interstate highway system are nothing short of…
Why ferries aren't the answer for commuting in Connecticut
Recently, New York City Mayor DeBlasio announced a $325 million plan to re-introduce ferry boat…
Transportation: Big Brother comes along for the ride
"Here in my car, I feel safest of all I can lock all my doors….

subset: commoncrawl


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Pizza Slices
1 tube Cresent Rolls
Pizza or Spaghetti Sauce
Pizza or Spaghetti Sauce
4 String Cheese
Toppings of your choice
My oven cooks at a high temperature. The cresent roll tube said to preheat to 375 degrees...I am cooking at 325 degrees. You know your oven...set it just like you would when cooking these without the fun on top. :D
Unroll and arrange wedges on two cookie sheets. I lined mine with parchment paper, you don't have to.
Now, the fun begins! My Boys put the spaghetti sauce on top of the wedges, over and beyond. ~smiles~ They then pull apart the string cheese. You can use already grated cheese but this adds more hands on fun.
Put the cheese on and you choice of toppings.
I cooked mine for half the time stated. Then turned the broiler on low just to heat up the cheese more for, 30 seconds to 1 minute keeping a watch on the slices with the door open.
Please note, the cheese will not melt like grated cheese.
For dessert you may want to buy another tube of cresent rolls and make these also, Red, White and Blueberries
|My Boys were so proud of the pizza slices they made. <3
|Things got a little messy. ~smiles~
|Getting toppings to add.
|Adding black olives...what was left of them that is. ~big grin~
|The Twins creations right before going in the oven. <3
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NEW: View inaugural Cardiff Kook Run Photos and Hot Chocolate Race San Diego Photos and inaugural Hollywood Half Marathon Photos
Photos and coverage of the Ragnar Relay Socal including a marriage proposal video. NEW view 2012 Big Sur Marathon photos.
New galleries photographed by the Runnerazzi can be seen on our Facebook photos section. Included are the Marine Corps Marathon, ING NYC Marathon, USATF San Diego Cross Country and the 2011 Silver Strand Half Marathon Photos.
Welcome to the Running Page the first online running web site for the running community launched in 1992. This new website version will be the easiest marathon and race calendar to use on the Internet and we plan to bring you lots of great running information. We will be showcasing premier running videos, marathon reviews, training tips, reviews for new and innovative products and a fully interactive running forum. We would like to hear your suggestions and want suggestions regarding the kind of running content you want to view. Shortly, we will be adding a suggestion form so that we can receive your suggestions. The editors of the NEW running page have actively participated in many races across the United States and Canada. Everything from 5K fun runs to full marathons such as Boston or the ING New York City Marathon along with some halfs and 10k's. We are passionate about the sport and encourage runners of all levels to participate in our new website as we upgrade and convert it into the leading site is was when started back in 1992. Good luck to everyone in 2011. There are thousands of great races for all levels to participate in. The Running Page is brought to you by avid runners who want to share their passion and present to you a cutting edge online community for runners all over the world.
Why do you Run? We've met so many great people through running and they all have different reasons why they run. We want to hear from you, what is it about running that keeps you going mile after mile? There's no question running is one of the best ways to improve your fitness quickly, lose weight, inches and feel great about yourself. Send us your story to: runningpage (@) gmail (dot) com.
Are you planning on running a marathon this year? If so, make sure you do it with the advice of an experienced coach. Proper marathon training will help you in the long run. When I first started running, I started too quickly and injured myself trying to keep up with my wife. The first mistake is no matter how fit you think you may be, marathon running is a different ball game and its best to take advice from an experienced runner. She's a Boston marathoner and runs sub 20 5 k's and has received training from experienced coaches. I decided to join her running team / club and oh how things changed. I started achieving pr's and feeling stronger in my long runs. Have you ever been at a race starting line and seen those super fit looking guys show up and start sprinting away at the sound of the gun only to fizzle out about 2-3 miles down the road? Of course you have, these are fit people that have been trained how to run a race. Whether its a full marathon, half, 10k or 5k, you need good advice and training to have optimum success. Team in Training is one of the best running organizations that have a proven program for runners of all levels. Ask your local running store about groups that you can run with, chances are they are training for an upcoming marathon. For those that have run a full marathon, what are your favorites? Send your descriptions and reasons why to runningpage (@) gmail (dot) com and we'll post your answers for our users. Once again please be patient as we upgrade The Running Page with new graphics, tools and more.


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From short nipples to pumping in public, some surprising nursing challenges and how five women overcame them.
Breastfeeding may be nature's way of feeding babies, but not all new mothers and infants take to it naturally. In fact, for many, the whole process is so challenging that it can only be compared to using a computer while riding a unicycle. (Cirque du Soleil's got nothin' on us!) But that's not to say that it can't be done; with a little preparation and a few tricks from a professional, the vast majority of women are able to breastfeed their babies successfully.
Here, we explore different travails encountered by new mothers (the working title of which might be "We Shall Overcome"), followed by expert counsel from Ellen "Binky" Petok, a board-certified lactation consultant and owner of The Pump Connection in Woodland Hills, Calif.
The challenge: Robin Webber never thought that something as natural as breastfeeding could be so painful. But when she gave birth to her twin girls 19 months ago, she found out just how uncomfortable it could be.
"For the first few weeks, I was in tears because it was so painful," says the mother from Omaha, Neb. "My nipples were actually bleeding. I was also exhausted from the constant feeding, so I tried nursing my babies at the same time by holding them like footballs—otherwise, I was up all night feeding them."
Webber put lanolin cream on her nipples to help soothe and heal them. After three weeks, her skin toughened from the intense regimen of breastfeeding two babies, and she was actually able to nurse her twins without weeping. "Despite the initial pain, I'm glad I did everything I could to continue nursing my girls," she says.
What the expert says: Even if you're not nursing twins, it's not unusual to become sore during the initial phases of breastfeeding. "Most nipples haven't gone through the kind of rigorous activity involved in nursing," Petok says. Discomfort usually subsides within five days, when breast tissue "habituates" to an infant's constant feeding, but if it takes longer for the pain to stop, or if your nipples start bleeding, a visit to a lactation consultant is in order.
The best way to prevent nursing pain is to make sure the baby is latched on properly (see How To Breastfeed: Deep Latch Technique). Beyond that, mothers who experience cracking or bleeding should wash their nipples with warm water once daily and pat them dry. "Nipples can become colonized with bacteria, and the little germs in there prolong soreness," Petok says. Once the nipples are dry, apply breast milk to them, followed by glycerin gel pads. Breast pain also can be allayed by holding the baby in different positions while nursing.
The challenge: When Marcy Walsh realized her daughter wasn't able to latch on after birth, the Los Angeles mother visited a lactation consultant. The consultant immediately grabbed Walsh's nipples and announced, "No wonder she isn't latching on! Your nipples are too short!" The consultant advised Walsh to wear nipple shields (silicone "nipples" that are worn over the actual nipple) when nursing until her baby learned how to latch on.
"My kid loved the silicone so much that it took her 17 weeks to latch onto my actual nipple," says Walsh, who pumped for 10 minutes after every feeding to increase her milk supply. "Then one day, I said, 'If you don't latch on, I'm going to try formula,' and bang—she latched on."
What the expert says: While Walsh's use of nipple shields helped her baby nurse successfully, many babies are able to nurse from flat or inverted nipples without shields. Nipple shields can reduce milk flow, as Walsh found, but pumping makes up for the shortfall. And when a baby weans off a nipple shield to the actual nipple, he usually is able to drain milk from the breast more efficiently, which in turn likely increases the mother's milk supply.
As for the fear that a baby will come to favor the stand-in nipple, there's nothing to that. "Parents often ask, 'Will my baby become a nipple-shield junkie?'" Petok says. But she says that in 20 years as a lactation consultant, she has yet to see a baby fail to wean off nipple shields to the breast.
The challenge: Born five weeks premature, Becca Williams' daughter had difficulty nursing because of her early birth. "I would try to nurse her and she wouldn't wake up," Williams says. "I was sore and engorged." She pumped to relieve the engorgement and applied hot washcloths for the discomfort.
Five weeks later, when Williams' original due date arrived, her daughter was mature enough to nurse—and to stay awake long enough to do so. But the baby wasn't latching on properly, and at her seven-week checkup, the pediatrician determined that she had a tight frenulum, a thin membrane that extends from the floor of the mouth to the underside of the tongue. To correct the problem, he recommended a simple procedure in which the frenulum is clipped by a specialist, after which the baby latched on like a champ. "Once she latched on, she liked nursing so much that she wouldn't quit," Williams says.
What the expert says: This baby's problem was twofold: premature birth and a tight frenulum. Prematurity can make nursing difficult because of a lack of physical development, but this problem usually corrects itself once a baby hits her due date, as it did for Williams' baby. As for the tight frenulum, once a pediatrician or lactation consultant determines the problem, it's easily corrected with a simple (though not always necessary) procedure.
Engorgement and soreness can be a consequence of nursing a baby who is unable to nurse properly, and Williams managed her situation well. The best treatment is to apply heat (warm washcloths, a hot shower or a heating pad will work), then massage the breast while nursing, and follow that with pumping, if necessary, to empty the breast. "If the breast is not drained well, it can cause a backup of milk, which can in turn lead to a breast infection," Petok says. Symptoms are fever, pain and redness in the breast, chills and flu-like aches. If any of these occur, call your doctor immediately.
The challenge: When Susan Hayden began breastfeeding her son six years ago, she didn't know she would find the nurturing and bonding that breastfeeding creates so fulfilling. The bedtime nursing, the eye-to-eye contact, the break from the daily chaos were so gratifying that neither Hayden nor her son were motivated to give it up. That is until Mason, then 31¼2, opened up his mother's blouse and weighed in.
"He said, 'Mama, you got a new bra,'" recounts the novelist from Santa Monica, Calif. "He commented on how it was black lace, and I thought, this is just too Freudian for me. The fact that he was able to have a conversation with me about my lingerie made me wonder whether it was time to wean."
Shortly after the lingerie remark, Hayden's son bit her while nursing and she knew it was time. She started by substituting a sippy cup at bedtime. "He asked a few times for Mama's baba, but I told him he was a big boy and didn't need it," Hayden says. "Despite all the stories you hear, it really wasn't that hard."
What the expert says: His lack of resistance shows that Hayden's son was ready to wean. "Many children will eventually wean on their own, but it may not be soon enough for mom," says Petok. She adds that the decision about when to wean is highly individual, though she supports the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendation to nurse a baby for a year or more.
When a woman is ready to wean, she can start by setting limits on nursing, such as only at certain times and in certain places. She also should not sit down or talk on the phone when a child is acutely interested in nursing, as this is often interpreted as the equivalent of an "Open" sign on a cafe door.
If a child really doesn't want to wean, postpone it for a month or do it more gradually. Or you can adopt the tactic of one mom who had to wean her 2-year-old because of a medication she was taking: She put Band-Aids on her breasts and told her child: "Mommy's nonnies have owies." Guess what? It worked.
The challenge: When Noelle Hawton returned to her job as a public-relations executive after the birth of her son, she brought along a breast pump in a briefcase carrier, pumped twice a day in her office and stored the milk in the company refrigerator. All went well until her son was 6 months old and she had to travel to a conference where she was meeting three people from regional offices to present a proposal. Hawton and the three colleagues, all men, met in a hotel room to create a presentation.
"The whole time I was working on the presentation, the clock was ticking, my breasts were filling, and I was worrying about how I was going to say what I needed to do," says the mother of two from Minneapolis. "I finally blurted out, 'You guys, I'm a nursing mother, and I need to take care of business.'"
One man offered reassurance by saying that his own children were breastfed. The other two men were apoplectic. Hawton retreated to the bathroom and pumped, all the while sure the whooshing sound was echoing through the walls. "I had to tell myself to relax and not think about those guys—otherwise, I was never going to get any milk out," she says.
All the extra work to breastfeed her son was worth it. "Despite the challenges of working, I nursed my son until he was 1," Hawton says.
What the expert says: "I tell moms that when they're at work, they're in a strange place for pumping, which can make it more difficult to express their milk," Petok says. Women in a formal work environment should create a ritual to help them pump their milk more efficiently: Arrange an official break, drink a glass of water, listen to music, gaze at a photograph of the baby. But the most important thing is that women pump often while at work—preferably at the same times their babies normally nurse.


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Savriss wrote:Confrontations with Lindsey and Chase and interactions with Brian are in my ideas list.
The concept I had in mind was that it becomes a little more a story about Angie in which the player has a major role, rather than the bulk of the time where the player is the focus in which everyone else has a role. For this, I like the idea of the player helping someone else be awesome.
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PR2 Beta Sites: Spotlight on MIT
Mobile Manipulation in Human-Centered Environments
MIT's primary goal is to develop some of the fundamental technologies that will enable robots to inhabit complex, dynamic human environments for long periods of time.
Imagine the PR2 living in the Stata Center at MIT. This is a 720,000 sq ft building full of curving corridors, dead ends, glass walls, cluttered labs and almost a thousand people. Suppose the PR2's task is to find and deliver equipment from one lab to another, and to be able to do this over months and years. What does it take to achieve this?
Navigation: The robot needs to build and maintain enormously complex maps that it can use to find its way through a very complex and dynamic environment -- the furniture moves, the interior walls are re-arranged, new passages are made and others blocked. The robot needs to know where to find particular things and people, even though their locations change with time.
Perception: The robot must be able to recognize an enormous variety of objects: computers, keyboards, desks, staplers, wrenches, glasses, plants, left-over chinese food containers...and other robots.
Manipulation: The robot needs to be able to grasp and manipulate arbitrary objects that will often be in cluttered environments -- in a cupboard, in a drawer, or on a cluttered table. The robot will need to move items out of the way to see its target object. Objects will have to be slid, tilted and up-ended as well as stacked and put away.
Communication: The robot needs to communicate with people in human language to find out what needs doing. People will need to tell the robot where to find people and things.
Planning: The robot needs to plan how to achieve the goals it has been given using its capabilities of navigation, perception and manipulation. Which route should it take to the motion-capture room? Which object should be moved first to find the multimeter in the cabinet?
The MIT team is working on pushing the state-of-the art in all of these areas and hopes to have the PR2 navigating and manipulating in the Stata Center in the near future.
The Team:
The MIT team is based in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), the largest interdisciplinary research lab at MIT. The team has members from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
- Prof. Leslie Kaelbling: Machine learning and planning
- Prof. John Leonard: Robot navigation and perception
- Prof. Tomas Lozano-Perez: Planning and perception
- Prof. Nicholas Roy: Perception, planning, control and human-robot interaction
- Prof. Daniela Rus: Perception, planning and control
Below is a video of MIT's team presenting their proposal to the rest of the PR2 Beta Program participants. You can download the slides as PDF.
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Gordie Howe would have been proud.
Ryan Getzlaf scored a first-period goal in the Ducks' 5-3 bounce-back victory Thursday night over the Philadelphia Flyers at the Honda Center. He then won a fight with Steve Downie early in the second period and set up Corey Perry's goal, also in the middle period.
The Ducks' team captain took it upon himself to make sure there would be no repeat of their letdown loss Tuesday to the Minnesota Wild. He carried a heavy burden Thursday against the Flyers, after declaring Tuesday's showing was unacceptable.
With his career-best 26th goal of the season, an assist and a fight, Getzlaf recorded his second career Gordie Howe hat trick, moving within one of linemate Perry for the franchise's very unofficial all-time lead. Perry's second-period goal was his team-leading 29th, but he had no fights.
"Corey? Yeah, but he gets beat up all the time," a smiling Getzlaf said at game's end. "It's different."
Getzlaf earned a solid victory over Downie at 1 minute, 22 seconds of the second period. The two tangled back on Oct. 2 when Downie was with the Colorado Avalanche. Getzlaf would later say Downie told him, "I owed him one."
Later in the second period, defenseman Cam Fowler pounced on a loose puck along the boards and then slipped a pass ahead to teammate Getzlaf, and suddenly the Ducks were rocketing down the ice in the second period. The Flyers couldn't keep up.
Getzlaf waited and waited and waited some more, picking out a trailing target. At last, he slipped a centering pass to Perry, who whistled a quick shot past Flyers goaltender Steve Mason to give the Ducks a 3-1 lead at 10:29 of the second period.
If one fastbreak play could provide a tidy summary on the Ducks' rebound from a dreary loss Tuesday to the Wild, then this was it. Perry's goal put the Ducks in command against a team that tried all it could to avoid that sort of speed play.
"It's first and foremost," Getzlaf said of returning to a higher tempo of play after a sluggish game against the Wild. "Any time you can move the puck, you don't have to work as hard. You let the puck do the work for you. We did a better job of that tonight."
The Ducks improved their league-leading record to 40-11-5, the fastest they've reached the 40-win mark in their 20-year history. Their all-time record of 48 victories, set during their Stanley Cup championship season, would seem well within their grasp.
"We preach about it a lot, we preach about it a lot, bouncing back from a loss," Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said when asked about avoiding a second straight defeat. "We make a point of trying not to let it snowball, not that it won't happen, but that's what we talk about."


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AUBURN – A pair of iconic eagles that have stood watch for more than 50 years at the main gate to Auburn University, at Toomer's Corner, were placed back on their pedestals on Friday, April 13, after having been restored to their original stateliness with the assistance of the Auburn University Facilities Management staff and a local company which manages restoration projects.
With a missing beak on one and a damaged wing on the other, the weathered statues were removed from their brick pedestals in November. They have been repaired by The Lathan Company Inc., a Mobile-based firm specializing in the historic preservation of landmark structures and buildings
"I am extremely happy with the way the eagles turned out," said Lloyd Albert, Facilities Management Maintenance director and overseer of the project. "We were very fortunate to work with a local company with this kind of experience and with such a talented staff. They did such a nice job with the reconstruction that I couldn't even tell at first which repairs were made to each of them."
The eagles, estimated to weigh from 350 to 400 pounds each, were transferred to Lathan's Washington D.C., office where stone carving experts spent more than 200 hours of hands-on restoration and cleaning work, including the removal of an unexpected layer of red aerosol spray paint. The paint had been applied to each bird's breast and later covered by masonry latex paint.
Made of marble, the stone for the eagles appears to have come from Sylacauga, Ala., said Lathan project manager Anthony Miller, who has been in the stone restoration profession for 30 years and is also the project manager for the exterior restoration of all stone and brick work for the Smithsonian Arts and Industry Building.
"We believe it may be Sylacauga because it is a white marble and it (the quarry specializing in white marble) is located only 45 miles away," said Miller.
Miller estimates the eagles to have been sculpted in the early 1960s. This time period concurs with a statement made by writer Hal Smith in the January 10, 2012, Auburn Magazine that said "shortly after Auburn Polytechnic Institute was renamed Auburn University (in 1960), two marble eagles replaced the original stone spheres" and on "September 22, 1961, the Plainsman reported alumnus W.C. 'Red' Sugg had arranged for the gift."
"I love the rich tradition of Toomer's Corner and am so glad to have had this opportunity to work with Auburn University and its facilities management staff in the preservation of these eagles and of this historic area of campus," said Jerry Lathan, founder and CEO of The Lathan Company Inc.
The total cost for the eagle restoration project was $20,000 and was funded from a deferred maintenance account by Auburn University Facilities Management.
Contact: Gail Riese, Facilities Management, (334) 844-9142 (email@example.com), or
Mike Clardy, Office of Communications and Marketing, (334) 844-9999 (email@example.com)


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Over the last few months we have engaged in discussions with the County of Orange about what appropriate mitigation measures should be included in the Oso Bridge and Los Patrones Parkway projects near Tesoro High School and Esencia K-8 School. The County declined to incorporate any of our proposed mitigation measures into the Los Patrones or Oso Bridge projects (e.g. sound/air quality walls, air filters, sound attenuating windows, connector road/signal), therefore, today we are commencing litigation against the County (including various staff members in their official capacities), TCA, and Caltrans on the Oso Parkway Bridge EIR Addendum.
Our Board of Trustees continues to have concerns over any projects that would adversely affect the health, safety, well-being and learning of our students, teachers and staff. We will continue to pursue efforts to mitigate any potential health impacts regarding these projects.


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On October 15, the Knesset voted unanimously to dissolve itself. Elections will be held on January 22, 2013. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to take the step after realizing he could not obtain a majority for his proposed budget.
The weeks since the announcement have been characterized by several unexpected maneuvers, most of which have not yielded anything of substance.
There were initial efforts to build a center-left party led by former prime minister Ehud Olmert which would include his two successors at the helm of the Kadima Party, Tzipi Livni and present leader Shaul Mofaz, as well as political newcomer Yair Lapid. The latter, a well-known media figure, founded a new party called Yesh Atid ("There is a Future").
A Jerusalem Post poll gave the imaginary mega-party 31 seats, well ahead of the Likud's projected 22.
Olmert began to check into the possibility of a return to politics. He had resigned in 2008 in the wake of corruption allegations against him. This year he became the first Israeli prime minister condemned by a court of law, which found him guilty of breach of trust.
The condemnation did not include moral turpitude, which would have prevented Olmert from running for the Knesset. But he is still involved in another court case, concerning bribery by real estate developers.
Sources close to Livni said she was considering a political comeback as head of a new party. But an Israel Radio poll on October 30 found that Labor Party leader Shelly Yachimovich is the preferred leader of the center-left, well ahead of Olmert, Livni, Mofaz and Lapid.
Kadima won 28 seats in the February 2009 elections – one more than the Likud. Kadima joined the Netanyahu government in May of this year, a move that prevented early elections. It left the coalition just two months later, however, when Netanyahu refused to introduce full conscription for haredi men.
Public support for Kadima crumbled almost immediately, creating many floating voters in the center-left arena.
Surprisingly, a major development came on the right side of the political spectrum. Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Israel Beiteinu, announced that they had agreed on a merger of their parties.
Some saw it as a panicked reaction on the part of Netanyahu to those center-left discussions about establishing a party that might possibly overtake Likud. Others interpreted it as Netanyahu's determination that the center-right bloc would form the next government and return him as prime minister.
For Lieberman, being Number Two in the combined party brings him closer to his long-term aim of becoming prime minister. (Both leaders, apparently for different reasons, were willing to sacrifice seats, since party mergers often lead to diminished electoral returns for each of the component parties.)
Popular Likud Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon initially announced that he would not be a candidate in the next elections. Then he played with the notion of establishing a new party that would emphasize social issues. Polls gave him ten or more seats. When he announced that he had abandoned the idea, there was relief in the Likud and in the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, which focuses on social issues.
Shas closed ranks when it brought back its former leader, Aryeh Deri, as the party's Number Two. Ten years after serving out a prison term on bribery charges, Deri was allowed under Israeli law to return to politics.
Other recent developments concerned the introduction by some of the parties of new, name-brand candidates. Yachimovich felt Labor needed more "visible" candidates and lacked a credible defense figure so she hauled in General Uri Saguy, a former military intelligence chief.
Lapid succeeded in attracting former domestic intelligence head Yaakov Perry, who has also enjoyed a successful business career.
Several Kadima parliamentarians and senior politicians jumped ship to both Likud and Labor.
A number of polls indicate that the Independence Party of Defense Minister Ehud Barak might just barely pass the threshold or even fail to muster any seats. If that plays out, it would be the most dramatic fall in Israeli parliamentary history.
In Israel, the weeks leading up to an election can feel like quite a long time. One only has to recall that during the previous election campaign Operation Cast Lead in Gaza began and ended.


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This big, florid, cartoony face of mine is handsomer than handsome. Master barber Jose Rojas looks it over trying to determine an entry point to its magnificent terrain. Initially, there appears to be some termite damage near the right cheek, and he thinks maybe a meteor once landed near one of the eyebrows that the attending surgeon, using the latest car fender repair techniques, filled with Bondo.
Other than that, the face is flawless.
"Good genes," I say, reading his mind.
The skin? An old trampoline. The nose? Pile of putty.
Naturally, I want the very best for a mug like this.
Which brings me to yet another shopping mall, this one the Americana in Glendale, saturated with fountains, twinkle lights and overpriced sushi.
The Americana seems never without a mob, especially on a Friday night like this. Patrons climb aboard the trolley and futz with the gadgets at America's most popular opium den, the Apple Store.
Stuff like this used to bother me, a city full of false fronts, a city with no laugh lines.
Faux Angeles.
Then I began to embrace the spirit of renewal that is in the very bones of the place, a never-say-die attitude that led to classics like "Cinderella" and "Pretty Woman" and our ageless civic snare drum, Joan Rivers.
This is not a cookie-cutter city modeled on the same hard-shoe sermons of most metropoli. There is something different in the water here — Smirnoff's, maybe, a touch of tonic, as well as a chronic lack of leadership that lets the L.A. area grow sort of willy-nilly.
Once you come to terms with that, you're free to try almost anything.
So, I'm at the Art of Shaving at the Americana, where, one pixel at a time, master barber Rojas is attempting to shave my Technicolor face.
"What we've done here is bring back the art behind barbering," Rojas explains as he smothers me with a hot towel.
What Rojas means by "here" is this old-timey, man-cave barbershop. Sure, I have a Sweeney Todd moment, when I am certain Rojas is about to dispatch me with a twist of the straight razor and a trapdoor that flips me into the basement. But that's a fair price for the possibility of a perfect shave, a shave that erases the very veneer that stands between us and real intimacy. Men grow whiskers to distance ourselves from others. A good barber carves us back to life. Guess that's why they used to be the town surgeons.
And good barbers seem to be all the rage these days. The number of the chain's shops has tripled in the last three years, from 30 to almost 100, says manager Beth Mitchell.
Book a day or two in advance, and bring 100 bucks, so that you can get a haircut and the best shave of your life, a price point you shouldn't fear, because that's about what your girlfriend spends on toe paint.
"The secret is light pressure," Rojas says as he methodically works the straight edge, a whisker here, a whisker there. "To learn, you can lather up a balloon. If you're using the right amount of pressure, it won't pop."
Another hot towel. Nice. Ahhhhhhhh.
Go ahead, run your hand across my jawline and feel an invigorating freshness of the flesh, the smooth pink of deli cold cuts.
OK, you can stop now.
On the way home, I drop in at the more authentic Jax Bar & Grill, a Glendale saloon that looks old because it actually is old. It's old because it's earned it.
Here, on the next stool over, I run across Alex Topete, a retired Disney animator with a résumé that includes "The Little Mermaid," "The Lion King" and Snoopy in those Met Life commercials.
Like Rojas, Topete made a living using his fingertips to craft faces.
Like me, he is a lifer in the suburbs of Southern California, after arriving from somewhere far away.
Topete and Rojas are also reminders of something else I admire about Los Angeles — all joking aside — the great sense of craftsmanship ... of things well done.
"Talented people from all over the world come here to work, to make their dreams come true," Topete says of the place's endless allure.
I know. One pixel at a time.


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BOGOTA, Colombia — A new study challenges claims from the administration of President Barack Obama that Colombia is making important strides in bringing to justice killers of labor activists and so deserves U.S. congressional approval of a long-stalled free trade pact.
The Human Rights Watch study found "virtually no progress" in getting convictions for killings that have occurred in the past 4 1/2 years.
It counted just six convictions obtained by a special prosecutions unit from 195 slayings between January 2007 and May 2011, with nearly nine in 10 of the unit's cases from that period in preliminary stages with no suspect formally identified.
Democrats in the U.S. Congress have long resisted bringing the Colombia trade pact to a vote, citing what they said is insufficient success in halting such killings.
The White House disagrees, and says Colombia has made significant progress in addressing anti-unionist violence.
US President Barack Obama sent long-stalled free trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea to Congress and pressed lawmakers to approve them "without delay." Republicans endorse the bill overall and say it will increase U.S. exports by $13 billion a year and support tens of thousands of jobs.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk recently said the trade agreements are "an integral part of the President's plan to create jobs here at home."
But in Colombia, the world's most lethal country for labor organizing, the killings haven't stopped. At least 38 trade unionists have been slain since President Juan Manuel Santos took office in August 2010, says Colombia's National Labor School.
"A major reason for this ongoing violence has been the chronic lack of accountability for cases of anti-union violence," Human Rights Watch said in a letter sent last Thursday to Colombian Chief Prosecutor Viviane Morales that details the study's findings.
Convictions have been obtained for less than 10 percent of the 2,886 trade unionists killed since 1986, and the rights group said it found "severe shortcomings" in the work of a special unit of Morales' office established five years ago to solve the slayings. The letter says the unit has demonstrated "a routine failure to adequately investigate the motive" in labor killings as well as to "bring to justice all responsible parties."
A chief finding: The 74 convictions achieved over the past year owe largely to plea bargains with members of illegal far-right militias who confessed to killings in exchange for leniency.
They did so under the so-called Justice and Peace law that gave paramilitary fighters reduced prison sentences of up to eight years in exchange for laying down their arms and confessing to crimes. That law expired at the end of 2006, the year the free trade pact was signed.
Only in a handful of cases did prosecutors pursue evidence that the paramilitaries who confessed acted on the orders of politicians, employers or others, Human Rights Watch says.
Prosecutors "made virtually no progress in prosecuting people who order, pay, instigate or collude with paramilitaries in attacking trade unionists," the letter states. "What is at stake is the justice system's ability to act as an effective deterrent to anti-union violence."
Of the more than 275 convictions handed down through May, 80 percent were against former members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC. The head of international affairs in the chief prosecutor's office, Francisco Echeverri, told the AP that it has put 513 people in prison.
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In nearly half of 50 recent convictions reviewed by Human Rights Watch, the judges cited "evidence pointing to the involvement of members of the security forces or intelligence services, politicians, landowners, bosses or co-workers." Yet in only one of those cases was such an individual convicted.
In the case of a gym teacher and union activist killed in the northwestern town of San Rafael in 2002, one of the paramilitaries who confessed to the crime said it was committed at the request of the mayor, according to the judge's decision.
The man who was mayor at the time and was re-elected in 2008, Edgar Eladio Giraldo, is not being formally investigated and has not been questioned about the killing, said Hernando Castaneda, chief of the special unit.
"I have no knowledge of that and did not know that I was involved in that," Giraldo told The Associated Press by telephone when asked about the killing of Julio Ernesto Ceballos.
A spokeswoman for Chief Prosecutor Morales said Sunday that her boss had not yet yet seen the Human Rights Watch letter.
Dan Kovalik of the United Steel Workers said the study's findings and the continued killings "prove what labor is telling the White House: The labor rights situation in Colombia is not improving, and passage of the FTA is not appropriate."
A memo soon to be released by the AFL-CIO deems Colombia noncompliant with the "Labor Action Plan" Santos and Obama agreed to in April as a condition for White House approval of the free trade pact.
In the memo, shown to the AP, the labor federation finds neither "economic, political, or moral justification for rewarding Colombia with a free trade agreement."
Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Nkenge Harmon said Friday when presented with the study's findings that Colombia's record prosecuting "perpetrators of violence" against labor activists "has improved significantly," though she added that Colombian officials acknowledge more needs to be done.
Harmon also stressed that additional Colombian resources are being dedicated to the issue and that the U.S. government "is working intensively with them through training and support."
Human Rights Watch acknowledged that annual trade unionists killings are only a quarter of what they were a decade ago. And it applauded some measures taken by Chief Prosecutor Morales, including her announcement that an additional 100 police investigators would be assigned to the special investigative unit.
But HRW regional director Jose Miguel Vivanco said "the challenge (Morales) is facing remains huge."
A U.S. congressman who has met with various Colombian presidents on human rights issues, Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, doesn't think enough has been done to reverse what he called a "dismal" record.
Said McGovern: "My worry is that if you approve the FTA at this particular point you remove all the pressure off the powers that be in Colombia to actually make a sincere, honest and concerted attempt to improve the situation."
Associated Press writers Vivian Sequera and Libardo Cardona contributed to this report.


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Reaching 100--whether as an age or the action of doing something that many times--is an accomplishment.
You are reading my 100th post on "Voice--A Storyteller's Lifestyle".
This blog started on August 17, 2006 with roughly two posts a month since that time. The articles here have ranged from storytelling techniques, tips, opinions, insights, and interviews.
Out of these 100 posts, the top 10 were determined by the number of times viewed or based on personal preference.
So drum roll please...
Top 10 Storytelling Posts:
10. Microphone Manners: Loud & Clear Ways for Pros (1/15/08)
As the microphone rests on the stand, waiting for you to grab it, confidence swells because you know the show will be successful.
Having the "gift of gab" by kissing the Blarney stone is not enough to be a storyteller.
8. Storytelling Games: Never too old to Play (10/1/07)
Adults seem to shy away from playing storytelling games to improve their skills as storytellers. (Plus game examples)
7. Grant Writing for Storytellers: Art of Success (6/15/07)
You have a fantastic project in mind and everything is coming together . . .except for the funding.
6. Mythical Storytelling Network: Dreams of Reality (8/15/08)
Our dream ideas as storytellers to further the art in the minds of the general public are often hindered by our working within the boundaries--whether drawn by us or others. (Reflections from 2008 National Storytelling Conference Brain Trust Session led by David Novak)
5. Losing Your Voice & Finding it for Showtime (11/1/07)
Once I was told that my voice would be confiscated. ( (tips to care for throat)
4. Stage Fever: How to Make a Portable Backdrop (12/15/06)
The stage beckons many of us storytellers and often we wish we could always count on having a stage.
3. Story & Poetry Slams: 5-Step Evolution of Art (11/16/06)
Storytelling and poetry have existed for centuries and now these art forms have evolved into something more intense and lively.
When our eyes glaze over and a goofy grin appears on our face, we might have entered that fairy tale called childhood.
1. 5 Ways How Adopting a Story is like Adopting a Child (1/15/10)
My husband and I have always wanted children. (adoption process of a story)
What has been your favorite storytelling post?
Or, if this is your first time here, what drew you to this blog?
Your comments, as always, are welcomed.
Who knows? Maybe THIS post is your favorite.
Until we tell again,
Rachel Hedman
Professional Storyteller
Tel: (801) 870-5799
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Email: email@example.com
How-To Blog: http://storytellingadventures.blogspot.com/Family Famine Series Site: http://www.familyfamine.com/
Year of the Adopted Family Project: http://www.yearofthefamily.com
Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/rachelfans
Other places to find me: Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Professional Storyteller
Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/rachelfans
Other places to find me: Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Professional Storyteller


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One of my new hero's in life is Jennie Brown – a woman who gets up at 5am in the morning to start the ovens and mixers in her cupcake workshop. Aside from her regular lovely cupcakes, it's good news for many people with special dietary requirements. Coming from a family of coeliacs, Jennie knows there is a demand for good quality gluten-free products and has purpose-built a gluten-free room, with separate oven and mixers, in her workshop in Galway. She bakes fresh every day, weighting, measuring, cracking, sifting and stirring every single thing she makes, with any unsold stock at the end of the day going to the Galway Soup Kitchen.
Jennie may also, well be the mad professor of cupcake flavors, it's a surprise what flavors are available every day as she is always working on new ones. Bubble gum, tutti fruti, champagne, candy floss, jaffa cake and cheesecake to add to her established repertoire of victoria sponge, red velvet, cookies and cream, mint aero, strawberry sundae, mars bar and chocolate nutella to name but a very small few.
Her rocky road cupcakes are a firm favorite with my family, so if I can't get to her shop or any of the outlets she supplies, this is the version I make at home.
I like eating these cupcakes warm, when the chocolate chips and marshmallows are still gooey in the sponge! If you want to ice and decorate you must leave them to cool completely on a cooling rack. I top my rocky road cupcakes with a smear of chocolate fudge icing, and then press all manner of traditional rocky road ingredients into it and leave to set. However you eat them, I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
Cupcake Ingredients
85g butter melted and cooled
225g plain flour
55g Green and Blacks or another good quality cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
115g caster sugar
100g chocolate chips
50g mini marshmallows
250ml milk
A pinch of salt
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 200°and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a large mixing bowl.
Stir in your chocolate chips, caster sugar and marshmallows.
Place the eggs into a large jug/bowl and beat lightly, then add your milk and butter and beat again.
Make a well in your dry ingredients and pour the liquid beaten ingredients in, stir this mixture in gently until combined, being careful not to over mix it.
Spoon the batter into your cupcake cases in the tray and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until risen and firm to touch. Leave to cool for five minuets in the tin and then on a wire cooling rack.
Chocolate fudge icing ingredients
100g plain dark chocolate
50g butter
200g icing sugar, sifted
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. (or melt in the microwave for a minute) When melted, beat in the butter until smooth, then gradually beat in the icing sugar to give a soft fudgey texture. Spread onto the tops of the cooled cupcakes and press in your selection of toppings, mini-marshmallows, flaked almonds chocolate chips and a drizzle of melted white or dark chocolate to finish.
|Some of the Cupcake Bakery cupcakes – pretty


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Here the author gives recipes for emerald and gold dyes, and for a spicy cordial drink called ipocras (hippocras).
About The Widdowes Treasure
The Widdowes Treasure was written by John Partridge, in 1595. As the title page states, the book is 'Plentifully furnished with Sundry precious and approved secrets in Phisicke and Chirurgery, for the health and pleasure of mankind.' The book contains a range of recipes for medical remedies, to treat anything from chapped lips and drunkenness to gout and even cancer. There are also recipes for confectioneries, syrups, gold and emerald dyes, and black ink, as well as for concoctions to make beards grow, or to provoke sleep.
Partridge learnt many of his recipes from the long-established practices of courtly kitchens. In the preface to the book he writes 'this Pamphlet being written (not many yeeres past as it should seeme) at the earnest request... of a Gentlewoman in the Countrie for her private use, which by these singuler practices hath obtained such fame, that her name shalbe remembred for ever to the posterities.' Only the wealthiest members of society would have had regular access to valuable key ingredients such as sugar, spices, hothouse-grown fruits or plentiful livestock. Partridge writes in the preface that the pamphlet was lent to him by 'an especial friend'


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Original Paintings by Chincoteague Ponies!Home to the World's First Painting Chincoteague Pony!
Painting Pony is home to three very talented Chincoteague Ponies, and their Dachshund sidekick, that love to paint. The ponies' paintings have made headlines and are displayed in homes all over the World. Each pony has their own unique painting style and creating original masterpieces is all in a days work. The ponies love what they do, but most importantly they love to bring happiness with each one of their original works. Painting Pony donates a percentage of sales to local non-profits and charities such as the Main Line Animal Rescue, SPCA, LAPS, The Feather Fund, Ryerss Farm for Aged Equines, The Chincoteague Pony Rescue and The Chincoteague Pony Drill Team.
Painting Pony started in January of 2007, when owner and trainer, Kyley DiLuigi, decided to bring her paints from art school out to the farm where she kept her 14 year old Chincoteague Pony, Minnow. That cold winter day Minnow became the World's First Painting Chincoteague Pony as he created his very first masterpiece. As it became evident that Minnow had a gift that he truly enjoyed, the paintings he created slowly began to pile higher and higher. Feeling the need to share Minnow's art with the World, Kyley started PaintingPony.com. Through the sale of the ponies' art we are proud to support local rescues and non-profits. Over the years Painting Pony has gone on to perform at schools, fairs, expos, and more.
To learn the full story on each one of the Painting Ponies be sure to visit their individual pages.


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Devon Broyles from Richmond, Virginia is the teem mom we met on last night's 16 and Pregnant. She brags about being mature for her age, as she's sixteen and pregnant with her twenty-year-old boyfriend Colin whom she met after his first tour in Iraq.
Devon lives at home with her older brother, two sisters, and mom. Her folks are divorced, but her parents are still friendly, so her dad stays at their house when he's in town. Hmm, what else? Oh yeah, Devon's sister Jane is also a teen mom, so her one-year-old daughter lives there as well. Her mother also let Colin move in after the pair started dating. Where's John Stamos because this is clearly a full house!
The couple reminisces about the many nights Devon would sneak Colin into the house late night, and once her mom busted them the following morning, he was allowed to move in for good. She got pregnant a few months later. Devon is focused on school while Colin supports the family by serving in the Reserves. She admits to her friends that she didn't figure out she was pregnant until she was five months along. Yea prenatal care! Her friends laugh at her misfortune as she was always the life of every party.


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1. "We supported torture programs at Guantanamo Bay."
"Do no harm" is a professional code of the medical profession, but this basic principle was flouted by several members of the American Psychological Association, the largest society for that profession, representing 130,000 people, according to a 545-page independent report released Friday. Members of that association lied about their involvement with the Central Intelligence Agency post-9/11 torture program in Guantanamo Bay during the presidency of George W. Bush, the report found. The Hoffman Report states that the individuals who participated in the collusion tried to "curry favor" with the Defense Department, and concluded that they may even have enabled the government's use of abusive interrogation techniques.
The investigation determined that key American Psychological Association officials, principally the organization's ethics director, joined and supported at times by other association officials, colluded with important Department of Defense personnel to have association issue loose, high-level ethical guidelines that effectively blurred the line for psychologists between unethical and ethical interrogation practices, the report found.
The report found that some of the society's most senior members, including the director of ethics, used their skills and training to intentionally cause psychological, physical pain and/or harm to an individual who was in custody and not the psychologist's client and who was outside the protection of the criminal justice system.
"When that profession allows for the potential that psychologists will intentionally inflict pain on an individual with no ability to resist, regardless of the individual's background or motives, faith in the profession can diminish quickly," it added.
The American Psychological Association released a comprehensive response to the report on Friday, pledging to implement procedures to ensure this would never happen again. Changes will include adopting a policy prohibiting psychologists from participating in interrogation of persons held in custody by military and intelligence authorities and also to increase the APA's engagement around human rights activities with other organizations. "Our internal checks and balances failed to detect the collusion, or properly acknowledge a significant conflict of interest, nor did they provide meaningful field guidance for psychologists," Nadine Kaslow, chair of the report's Special Committee, which consists of three members of the APA board of directors, said in a statement. "The organization's intent was not to enable abusive interrogation techniques or contribute to violations of human rights, but that may have been the result."


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Parking Bill of Rights goes to Atlanta City Council | News
ATLANTA -- You spoke out. We listened. Now, Atlanta City Council is paying attention too!
11Alive's Parking Bill of Rights has been noticed.
"I think what 11Alive has done is certainly exemplary effort," said Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell.
On Monday, Councilmember Kwanza Hall of District 2 talked in an open council meeting to members about the more than 676 petitions which you filled out about PARKatlanta on 11Alive's website.
"There's well over 600 signed petitions that have come in about this in the last few days. I think they'll keep coming in, so it's probably wise that we be proactive and step forward to address the concerns that are out there," Hall said.
Councilmember Michael Julian Bond, Post 1 at Large, told members he believes the Parking Bill of Rights needs to be reviewed by the Department of Transportation and agreed citizen concerns can not be ignored. Bond called the PARKAtlanta contract with the city "a pig dressed up with lipstick."
"It's a very generous analogy in terms of putting lipstick on a pig,"Mitchell said. "I was thinking more of a pig roast, but anyway I think this is just an indication, clearly, a call to take some deeper action."
We'll be watching to see what action is taken next. In the meantime, you can add your voice by completing the online petition.


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i couldn't choose my favourite illustrations from ZOO – so i'm basically posting them all.
We are a two and one-half persons menagerie in San Luis Obispo on California's central coast: Mignon Khargie, Tom Fowler, 8-year old Hannah, and a picture of Pie, the world's best dog. We all love to draw.


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Just wanted to share my thoughts about this very interesting craft. As many know, I picked this up from MSC in early December. I was hopeful for a fun out-of-the-box experience. In many ways, my expectations have been met and/or exceeded but there are a few painful episodes as well.
The positives:
- Neat VTOL experience
- Decent flying characteristics
- Great in multi-rotor mode
The negatives:
- There are really only a few negatives that I have experienced but they are fairly significant:
(1) Plane --> Multi-Copter Mode: sometimes I find that the angle is not level and that the nose is pointed up. It does seem to settle to a more level position with time but initially it is really pointed upwards which can be unsettling.
(2) It does not glide particularly well without power. Nothing like my Skipper or Stryker F27Q.
(3) Perhaps the biggest issue that I have experienced lies in the LVC. The Convergence will switch to multi-copter mode as soon as the battery gets low. While this might sound like a good thing, it can be concerning depending upon when it happens. Don't get me wrong - with new batteries the LVC doesn't seem to be a problem BUT with older (and colder!) batteries the internal resistance is too high and the switch to multi-copter mode can happen without warning.
- once in the transition from multi-copter --> airplane the transition was happening but as I was making my first turn the LVC cut-in and the Convergence switched back to multi-copter mode in the middle of a turn. When the plane does not respond as you think, your reactions can be quite unexpected.
- today, after flying 2 great flights, I put it up again but on a battery from Nov 2015. 2.5 minutes in, and while in a banked turn approaching the ball diamond, the Convergence switched from airplane to multicopter. I was just barely able to get it over the fence and then it was hovering at the far corner of the ball diamond and orientation was a challenge... so I put it down. No real damage but lots of trudging through deep snow to try to locate it (thanks again, Chris, for directions!).
By using a variable voltage bench power supply, I've learned that the voltage for this switch is at 10.0V. That is close to the conventional 3.3V/cell when loaded. Once LVC is detected - even for a brief moment - the multi-copter mode is engaged and airplane mode cannot resume.
Tonight, I've installed a more permanent low voltage alarm. I'll set this to trigger at any cell <3.5V to start and will keep a closer eye on my battery age and flight timer to help make sure that the plane stays within expectations.
It is a neat aircraft, for sure. I like it but wish that the LVC would pulse the motors while in flight mode rather than immediately switching to multi-copter mode.
Just thought that I would share my experiences....