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Many know that my New Year's resolution was to make a pair of socks each month. Socks have been tricky for me to fit correctly, or to keep for myself. My first pair ever was knit on the beaches of Florida two years ago in February. They were made out of Patons merino wool on size 6 needles and after wearing them 2 or 3 times, Joanie shrunk them in the wash. Not a good start.
Socks are a great project, they keep your interest, are small to carry around and extremely useful when they're done. I find the self-striping yarns amusing and can't wait to see what color comes out of the ball next. You should know I wear a size 12 shoe, and my foot is bigger than what most of the patterns easily found are written for. I know this, because I've made a bunch of socks that wind up on Joanie's feet. She's a size 8. Need I say more?
Sometime last year I bought Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Schurch. I thought my problems were over. This is a fabulous book that lets you knit a gauge, plug in numbers from that and compare them to the size of foot you're making and has terrific stitch patterns that allow you to build a perfectly fitting sock. Sounds great until you realize I hate to make gauge swatches, especially on small projects. Joanie continued to get more socks. One pair I made was too big, and if you didn't know, loose socks wear out more quickly due to the friction of them rubbing around against your foot and shoe. I almost cried when I saw the hole apprearing, and I'll admit I wore those socks with a gigantic hole in them until I couldn't stand it anymore. Realizing my gauge issues, I thought, "I've got 3 skeins of Lola, one pair can be my practice pair and the other 2 will be perfect." Faulty logic, I know, but that's where it is. My first pair are a bit big, but will work around the house and are cozy and warm. Finished on Monday evening, behold:
You can note my lack of planning and matching sock size to the yarn amount I had. . .see the purple toes? I thought I might not have enough yarn to finish, so I left the toes until the end. I was right and couldn't find a perfect match on the sock yarn, or even some interesting solid of the same weight. I used Pure Merino Heathers for the toes, it's a bit heavier, but not too bad. And anyway, who sees my toes that often anyway?
On a roll, and headed to a meeting, I started my February socks early. I used some yarn I bought at a super sale at Beaumont some time ago and cast on some basic, no frills socks after I finished dinner at SEVA . Cast off last night. Behold:
The February Socks
or are they January 1.1?
I just had a thought. . .do fuzzy feet count as socks?


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June 26. 2013 9:16PM
UPDATED: Patriots player Hernandez arrested, released from contract, held without bail
The Sports Xchange
Dave D'Onofrio's Patriots Notebook: Pats won't get fooled again
ATTLEBOROUGH, Mass.— Former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez faces first-degree murder and five other charges in connection with the shooting death of 27-year-old acquaintance Odin Lloyd.
"Based on the nature of the crime, the nature of the case, and the likelihood and the means" Hernandez has to flee, the state asked that Hernandez be held without bail, and the court agreed.
Hernandez pleaded not guilty to all charges. In addition to murder, he's charged with carrying a firearm without a license; two counts of possession of a large capacity firearm; and two counts of possession of a firearm without a valid ID card.
Police claim to possess footage of Hernandez stating "you can't trust anyone anymore," while holding a firearm before picking up Lloyd after 2:30 a.m., according to the district attorney. The case outlined against him points to an exchange between Hernandez and Lloyd at a club two nights earlier.
Hernandez is alleged to have arranged to pick up Lloyd in a rented vehicle along with two co-conspirators.
Lloyd allegedly texted a family member asking "did you see who I was with?" According to the district attorney, Lloyd followed with a text that said "NFL."
During the arraignment, it was also detailed that Hernandez was captured by surveillance video in the area claiming a rented Nissan Altima, at the scene of the crime near his home and returning the car to the rental agency where a shell casing and the same type of bubblegum Hernandez purchased at a gas station was found under the driver's seat. That stop was also caught on camera.
Defense attorney Michael Fee called the case "weak" and evidence against his client circumstantial in asking for bail, which was denied. Fee also requested a gag order be issued.
Based largely on surveillance videos and cell-phone texts, the prosecution team recited a lengthy and detailed account of actions and interactions involving Hernandez and Lloyd during the days leading up to June 17 when Lloyd's body was found in an industrial park about a half mile from the North Attleboro home of Hernandez.
The DA connected a black semi-automatic weapon, and shell casings from that weapon found near the body, to Hernandez based on fingerprints and other evidence.
The prosecution also detailed the crime scene and autopsy, which revealed entry wounds in each nipple. Lloyd was first shot in the back, but was still alive and bracing for impact by raising his arms when he was shot again, according to the DA. Two bullets that penetrated his chest passed through Lloyd's body completely.
Hernandez is represented by well-known criminal attorney Jamie Sultan of Rankin and Sultan, as well as Boston law firm Ropes and Gray for whom Fee has been the most obvious spokesman.
The 23-year-old was taken into custody by multiple officers Wednesday. Ninety minutes later, the Patriots announced Hernandez would no longer be on the roster, a swift and stunning fall from stardom.
"A young man was murdered last week and we extend our sympathies to the family and friends who mourn his loss," the statement read. "Words cannot express the disappointment we feel knowing that one of our players was arrested as a result of this investigation. We realize that law enforcement investigations into this matter are ongoing. We support their efforts and respect the process. At this time, we believe this transaction is simply the right thing to do."
As a three-year veteran, Hernandez is subject to NFL waivers and could be claimed by another team before Thursday's 4 p.m. ET deadline. He signed a five-year contract that included a $12.5 million signing bonus last year and partnered with All-Pro Rob Gronkowski to form the NFL's top tight-end tandem.

subset: commoncrawl


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160 members7 Likes
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Brian Burki has not received any gifts yet
sounds like my level is similar (2.5 - 3.0).. used to play daily and was 3.5 but it has beena while.
I live near downtown San Diego and work in la jolla, so am in the PB area in the late afternoons looking to play TUESdays thru Saturdays anywhere from La JOlla to PB, south to San Diego near the coast (also near downtown, NOrth park, national city).
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The last time we saw Sam (Sam Trammell) and Luna (Janina Gavankar) they were still a couple except that he had to face an unknown werewolf and Luna's ex Marcus and father of her daughter Emma (Daniel Buran) is dead. This week's True Blood season 5 waiting sucks clip catches up with them and we have to wonder are things better or worse between them? Watch and find out:
Source: YouTube.com- "True Blood Season 5 (Extended)Waiting Sucks: Sam and Luna"
Image and Video Credits: HBO, Inc./The True Blood Source


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For the exhibition World City: Refugee Stories (on until 16 September) we have been extremely lucky to have had the support of three Student Ambassadors from Kingston University London. Find out more about their own stories below.
Khartoum, Sudan
Arrived in UK 1991
Studying International Relations
"Eritrea was at war with Ethiopia and my family had fled to Sudan. My mother left for Saudi Arabia, working to support the family. She met my father there, who was Lebanese. When she fell pregnant, she decided to leave Saudi Arabia. She didn't want that life for me - one of instability, prejudice and racism.
I see myself as a citizen of the world. I'm a refugee, but London is all I know. I'm English in my mannerisms, thinking and taste. When people ask 'where are you from?', my answer is never simply 'here' or Eritrea or Lebanon. Neither of these places really accept me – I'm still an outsider.
Whilst studying international relations, I've learned about nationalism and the state system. Notions of state identity are based on arbitrary borders and fragile histories, manipulated for political gain. The only defining factor of a person should be culture and character, rather than a passport or skin colour. What creates an identity is culture, which is made up of music, food, dress, traditions and language, not political borders."
Ahwaz, Iran
Arrived in UK 2006
Studying Geography
"I am an Ahwazi Arab, born in Ahwaz in south-west Iran. On 15 April 2005, I participated in a series of protests, sparked by revelations that the Iranian regime was planning a land confiscation programme in which Arabs would be forcibly displaced from Ahwaz to other regions of Iran. It was also the 80th anniversary of occupation of Ahwaz by Iran.
I was arrested, held in detention for 28 days and badly tortured. I was released on bail, as there was no evidence against me. To escape the watch of the Iranian state services, I travelled to my aunt in another city. My home was raided and my uncle killed. The guards also arrested my parents and 80 year-old grandfather, as well as other family members.
I realised I had only one option - to leave Ahwaz. So I escaped from Ahwaz to Turkey, and arrived in the UK in autumn 2006. In 2010 I began studying geography at Kingston University. Sadly my 19 year-old cousin was killed in January 2012. Two other cousins are still in detention."
Arrived in UK 1994
Studying Politics and International Relations
"I am a British Iraqi - my mother is Baghdadi and my father is Turkoman and I go by three nationalities. I came to the United Kingdom with my family three years after the Gulf War erupted. My entire life has been affected by living in the Diaspora. At times I find myself grappling with the question of where I fit in best, and this makes me aspire to become an anthropologist.
Torn between east and west, my identity is a prevalent struggle in my life, but this has also provided me with the ability to adapt. My narrative is one amongst a sea of narratives; an additional voice that can shed greater understanding upon a complex history. The current exhibition by the Jewish Museum on the stories of refugees is highly relevant to my interests. I too have a story or insight into this world - where I can affiliate or share parallels with the stories that others care to share. I really appreciate being involved and contributing with my input and dedication."


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Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?
From the Wires
New cell site helps Folsom, California residents and visitors make more calls, download more apps and stay connected
By: PR Newswire
Dec. 28, 2012 05:37 PM
WALNUT CREEK, Calif., Dec. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Calling, downloading apps and surfing the web on the Verizon Wireless network is now easier and faster for residents and travelers in Sacramento County thanks to new a cell site in Folsom. The site improves wireless coverage around downtown Folsom and the Folsom Prison.
Since being founded in 2000, Verizon Wireless has invested more than $7.2 billion in its California network. Nationally, the company has invested more than $70 billion over that same period to increase the coverage and capacity of its network, and to add new services.
The network upgrade is part of the company's ongoing investment to keep improving and strengthening the nation's largest and most reliable wireless network.
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To stay up-to-date on Verizon Wireless news in Northern California, Northern Nevada and Hawai'i, follow @VZWheidi on Twitter at http://twitter.com/VZWheidi.
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Governor Timothy M. Kaine today unveiled the 2010 caboose budget and 2010-2012 biennial budget that he will submit for consideration by the 2010 General Assembly during a speech to the Joint Money Committees. The prepared text of his remarks follows:
"Chairman Putney, Chairman Colgan, Chairman Purkey, and Members of the General Assembly: Good Morning.
Today marks the last time I will address the members of the Joint Money Committees as Governor. On behalf of seven and a half million Virginians, I thank and commend you for your service.
When I began my service as Governor nearly four years ago, I chose a motto for my Administration: 'Virginia Leading the Way.' It has inspired everything we do. Just as Virginia was the nation's leading state in the first 50 years of our country's life, we should be the leading state in America today.
When I chose that motto, I had no idea that we would be living through the toughest national economic conditions since the 1930's. When we saw the economy start to soften in March of 2007, few believed that the depths of the recession would be so profound. And yet our goal did not change.
I stand before you today to tell you that—despite our ongoing challenges—we have achieved our goal. In the vitality of our economy, in our hard-earned reputation for service delivery and fiscal stewardship, and in our excellent educational outcomes, we are a national leader and there is not a single state that has achieved the level of success in recent years that we have enjoyed in the Commonwealth. While this distinction would be meaningful at any time, I believe that the fact that we have gained this leadership position in a tough time is particularly notable.
Our economy is dramatically outperforming national norms. The Virginia unemployment rate has declined since its peak in June of this year and is now nearly 4 points less than the national average—the lowest rate among any of the nation's large states. Our median income is high. We have attracted $13.5 billion in new economic investment in the last four years affecting every corner of the Commonwealth. Five Fortune 500 companies have relocated their headquarters to Virginia. We have been recognized as the Best State for Business eight times in the last four years. We have been singled out as one of the five best states to start a new business. We have tripled the participation of small, women, and minority businesses in state procurement. And, we have a larger percentage of our workforce in technology jobs than any other state in this country.
Our efforts to run government well have been recognized again and again. We are the Best Managed State in America. We have maintained the rare Triple A bond rating with all financial agencies during this time of economic turmoil. Even in areas where we have traditionally been weak—infant mortality, environmental stewardship, youth smoking, and the success of our foster care system—we have made huge strides forward by focusing on performance.
Our education system is recognized as one of the most innovative and successful in the nation. We have dramatically expanded early childhood education. The students in our K-12 system perform in the top tier of American states on AP exams, SAT exams, and the National Assessment of Educational Performance. The performance of our Latino elementary school students is the best in the nation. Growth in career and technical offerings has exploded in the last four years. And our system of community colleges and universities is widely recognized as one of the two or three best in the United States.
Why do I emphasize these successes?
First, because I am proud of Virginia's success and you should be too. These accolades and achievements do not happen by accident. They are the result of painstaking work, hard choices and significant teamwork. In a tough time, with much bad economic news, it is easy to overlook the things that are going well and miss the story that Virginia is now uniquely positioned as a leader in virtually every area.
But, I also mention these facts for a second reason, directly related to the budgetary task before us. Now that we have achieved a role of such significant national leadership, we have to hold onto it. We can't afford to mess it up. CNBC termed Virginia the state "most likely to emerge from an economy turned upside down" when it bestowed its top state for business award on us in 2009. This is a wonderful spot to be in. But, we will only enjoy the benefit of our position by making smart decisions, avoiding easy shortcuts, and rejecting the "government by sound bite" that characterizes too much of our political dialogue.
These thoughts have been foremost in my mind as I have prepared the budget that I deliver to you today. I have attempted to achieve three goals:
First, we have to make significant and painful cuts, but we need to make them in a way that preserves the core services that Virginians depend on. I am mindful of the fact that, at the very time revenues decline, our citizens have the greatest need for services. So, while we have made tough cut decisions that will be painful to virtually every governmental priority, we maintain the safety net that must be protected during these difficult times.
Second, the budget I deliver to you will preserve our Triple A bond rating. It makes the hard decisions and avoids easy gimmicks that can paper over fiscal challenges.
Third, the budget reflects the need to preserve Virginia's status as an economic and educational leader while we climb out of this national recession. If adopted, it will provide the resources that the Commonwealth needs in the future to tackle tough challenges and maintain our edge over other states and regions of the world with whom we compete every day.
The bottom line is this: we can keep "leading the way" if we are willing to make hard decisions in a tough time. The degree to which we will continue leading the nation as the economy improves depends upon our willingness to do the right things today.
In putting together the 2010-2012 budget, we begin with the revenue estimate. Leading economists, business leaders, and our combined finance teams have frequently met and discussed the outlook in the last six months—the revenue forecast for the Commonwealth takes their cautious tone into account. Our revenue forecast for the next biennium is either as conservative—or more conservative—than those projected by the staff of the money committees or the Governor's Advisory Committee on Revenue Estimates.
Since 1970, there have been 29 years in which general fund revenue growth on a year over year basis met or exceeded six percent. In fully 17 of those years, growth met or exceeded 10 percent. In sharp contrast, the revenue forecast I present today projects a revenue decline of 2.7 percent in FY 2010. This would represent the first time in recorded budget history when the Commonwealth would have experienced revenue declines in two successive years.
While the FY 2011 and FY 2012 projections offer some hope with projected revenue growth of 3.8 percent and 5.1 percent respectively—and FY 2012 projects the best growth rate since FY 2006—this growth will be off a much lower base, resulting in less additional revenue than experienced in past economic rebounds.
With this revenue forecast, the budgetary challenge is daunting. If we just take the expense line items in the FY 2010 budget, already adjusted downward after $7 billion in budget cuts, and project them forward with no increase and then add only items that are absolutely mandated in the new biennium—debt service payments, economic development contracts, increases in the state's Medicaid rolls—the budget gap in the upcoming biennium exceeds $4 billion dollars. A significant part of that gap is created by the end of federal stimulus dollars in 2011. Closing that gap will require painful choices—choices that no one will like but that have to be made.
Virginia has benefited greatly from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and will continue to feel the positive impact of stimulus dollars in the next biennium.
Recovery Act funds helped us avoid even more painful cuts to education, health care, and public safety. Federal dollars prevented layoffs of teachers and police officers and protected the health care safety net at a time when Virginians need it most. At the same time, thanks to the Recovery Act, Virginia has created or saved thousands of jobs, weatherized 1,260 homes, broken ground on critical highway projects, contracted for repair or replacement of 119 bridges, and made forward-looking investments in a new energy economy. Our state agencies have received accolades for the management of more than $5 billion in ARRA funds.
While I differed with some of you over your decision to reject $125 million in stimulus funds for unemployed workers, I am grateful that this body accepted all other stimulus funds. You saw how tough the budget looked last year when I proposed it to you before the passage of the Recovery Act. You each know how critical these dollars have been in protecting Virginians during this most challenging time.
As we look ahead to the 2010-2012 biennium, we have put together a budget that ensures we are structurally-balanced now—and when ARRA funding disappears. This proposal balances the Commonwealth's budget in FY 2012 without using any stimulus funds, which would make Virginia the first state to reach that milestone.
We all agree that education is one of the Commonwealth's highest priorities and most important responsibilities. As a reflection of this shared value, we have largely spared K-12 education in the previous rounds of budget cuts thru FY 2010, thanks in large part to federal stimulus dollars. However, as stimulus funds run out in the next year, even K-12 will be affected by the worst economic crisis in a generation. My budget makes a series of strategic, targeted cuts to K-12 that further focuses our limited resources on the classroom.
First, the budget continues a policy change that I proposed and that was approved by the General Assembly last year. The budget reduces funding for administrative and support personnel in schools and central offices by applying a funding ratio for these positions.
As a proud parent of two children currently in public schools and one who has already graduated from public school, I know how important administrative and support staff are to a child's educational success. However nothing in our schools is as important as teachers, and a ratio for support staff is not only consistent with a ratio for teachers and instructional staff that already exists—it will help protect our core priority, the classroom. The Board of Education has announced that they intend to continue to study and refine the strategy in the future, creating different ratios for different categories of administrative and support staff.
My budget also amends the current practice of funding localities for health insurance based on the total number of school personnel without regard to whether insurance is actually provided to individuals. This budget proposes to provide funds to localities for employee health insurance only for the actual number of employees insured through the locality.
Finally, recognizing that local school divisions need more certainty in a challenging time—especially in the near-term—this budget proposes delaying the scheduled change in the composite index of local ability to pay for one year, until FY 2012. Without this action, 97 school divisions would see increases in the share of education costs paid by their local governments and they would face greater losses of state revenue in the first year of the biennium.
The net effect of my proposed changes is significant. For the first time, the total line item for SOQ funding will be lower in the upcoming biennial budget than it was in the last budget. This is a tough decision to make, but the need to keep this budget in balance requires that we do so.
Similar to K-12 education, Virginia's higher education has been shielded from some of the most challenging cuts in FY 2011 thanks to available federal stimulus dollars. However, later in the biennium, higher education will face difficult reductions. As a stark consequence of sharply contracting revenues in recent years, the budget provides fewer general fund dollars to higher education in FY 2012 than were provided in FY 2006. At the same time, resource needs have grown, with an 11% increase in enrollment in our higher educational institutions since that time.
Virginia's colleges and universities have reduced expenditures and there will be more reductions under this budget. We have protected financial aid from all cuts and proposed that two-year schools received smaller reductions than our four year universities. But, we should not kid ourselves. Without some significant infusion of new revenue, tuition costs will likely rise in this biennium.
Some of the most difficult budget cuts come in public safety.
The Department of State Police will postpone two new trooper schools in the next biennium—a cost-saving strategy that meets our mandate for balancing the budget but will make it more difficult to fill vacancies as current troopers retire or leave the service.
In addition, local sheriffs' departments with law enforcement responsibility and police departments—largely protected from budget cuts last year—will face reduced state payments approaching twenty percent. These cuts may require layoffs at the local level to keep local budgets in balance. Cuts to local Commonwealth's Attorneys offices exceed sixteen percent, while Circuit Court Clerks face similar percentage reductions.
The Department of Corrections, now Virginia's single largest state agency, has already closed large facilities in Botetourt, Southampton, and Brunswick as well as many smaller facilities. At this point, additional closures would not be consistent with our public safety needs. But, we will continue to explore options—including contracting with other states to house some of their inmates—to manage our own inmate population while reducing costs.
Among the greatest challenges in this budget is preserving the health care safety net for those citizens who are most vulnerable in these economic times. My administration has sought in previous rounds of reductions to protect critical services for Virginians managing through this economic crisis. Yet the depth and scope of the revenue shortfall for the 2010-2012 biennium mean cuts are required even to these programs.
One of the most important elements of the federal recovery package was increased funding for Medicaid. Although the Commonwealth maintains some of the most stringent eligibility criteria in the nation, the current economic downturn has resulted in dramatic growth in the number of Virginians who are eligible for Medicaid. The stimulus package was critical in helping us maintain services that must now be offered to a larger population of recipients.
As Recovery Act dollars cease to be available beginning in early FY 2011, health care for low-income Virginians will necessarily be affected. Medicaid expenditures are projected to increase $778 million in response to rising caseloads and costs corresponding to the continued weak economy. In an effort to control these rising costs, this budget significantly limits services to individuals and reimbursements to health care providers by imposing reductions of $419 million.
This budget calls for the temporary freezing of a number of waiver programs—Intellectual Disabilities, Developmental Disability, Day Support, Elderly and Disabled, and Alzheimer's waivers. The human consequence is that many people will remain on waiting lists until these programs can be reopened.
In addition, some Medicaid services have been reduced or eliminated in FY 2012, including physical, occupational, and speech therapy, as well as lower caps on the hours of respite care provided for the needy.
Meanwhile, many health care providers will see freezes—or even reductions—in state payments for providing services to Medicaid patients.
The painful reality of this budget will impact non-state partners that currently provide important health care safety net services, such as the free clinics and the Virginia Health Care Foundation. We have worked to make these cuts manageable, but they cannot be completely spared.
Our state employees are the reason why Virginia is the Best Managed State in America. State employees have not received any raise since December 1, 2007. There have been significant layoffs of state employees, totaling 1,651 since 2007. This budget continues the trend of shrinking the state workforce by proposing an additional 664 layoffs, as well as the elimination of an additional 1,879 vacant positions. The agencies most deeply impacted are the Department of Transportation, the Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Juvenile Justice, and the University of Virginia.
My budget includes no pay increase for state employees in either FY 2011 or FY 2012. I have not, however, proposed any additional furlough days beyond the single day previously announced for May 2010.
The budget includes one significant change to state employee compensation that brings the Commonwealth more in line with other major employers and other states across the country that offer a guaranteed retirement benefit to their employees. Your own retirement system oversight agency, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, identified this change as an available option that would ensure more consistent funding for the retirement system.
Currently, the Commonwealth pays both the employer share and the employee share of retirement contributions. Beginning in FY 2011, all state employees will be required to pay one percent of salary as their share of the total contributions required for membership in the Virginia Retirement System defined benefit retirement program. This rate will increase to two percent of employee salary in FY 2012. The state will pay the remainder of the employee share as well as continue to pay the entire employer share. Local governments and school boards will have the option to require their employees to contribute at the same rate as state employees.
At the same time, the retirement age for newly hired state and local employees will be increased from age 50 to age 55.
Taken together, these changes put state and local governments in a position to preserve strong pension benefits, while prefunding the retirement system in the manner bond ratings agencies have come to expect from a Triple A state. But, we must also acknowledge that these changes impose additional burdens on governmental employees who have been doing more work with fewer people and seeing their take home pay reduced through increasing health care premiums and pension contributions. This is not what we hoped to announce, but these changes are necessary to manage through this very difficult fiscal situation.
As you know, Virginia's transportation budget is supported mostly by nongeneral fund revenue. These sources have been similarly impacted by a contracting economy as well as declining gas tax and automobile sales tax revenues. My budget reflects the continuing downward changes in the revenue forecast for transportation.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is continuing to reduce central office staff and streamline operations around the state to respond to the reduced revenue forecast. VDOT is in the process of reducing agency employment to 7,500 employees, down from a workforce that previously totaled more than 10,600.
Similarly, the Commonwealth Transportation Board continues to revise its Plan to balance proposed construction and maintenance expenditures against projected revenues. Given the Commonwealth's mandated prioritizing of maintenance of current infrastructure above other resource needs, there is very little revenue for new construction included in the CTB's current Six Year Plan. Thanks to the support of the President and Congress, we are undertaking a number of critical infrastructure projects through Recovery Act funding. But, those funds will dry up in 2011 and the ongoing road needs of Virginia face an uncertain future due to the unwillingness of state leadership, public and private, to support additional transportation investments.
Many of the changes that I have previously discussed have direct impact on the budgets of local governments. Support for local governments is the biggest single spending item in the state budget and there is no way to make budget proposals of this magnitude without having a direct impact on localities. I am mindful of the fact that local governments have revenue issues of their own as they rely on property taxes based on declining property values.
My budget includes one additional reform in the area of local finance. Given that the Commissioners of Revenue and Treasurers have the primary function of working in the area of local tax administration, the budget proposes that funding responsibility for these offices—other than the salary of the Constitutional officer—should rest completely with local government. This change to the current structure will enable local governments to have sole responsibility for planning and funding the fiscal side of local government operations.
Language in my budget also encourages localities to consolidate functions and look for opportunities for savings. State agencies are directed to work with local governments to implement these new strategies, which should be aimed at creating greater efficiencies at the local level and encouraging regional solutions where possible.
Perilous economic times call for careful action and the appropriate balance between short-term imperatives and our long-term success as a Commonwealth. The economic future for Virginia citizens depends on continuing to attract new businesses and new jobs to the Commonwealth.
My budget continues to invest in economic development and job creation through the Governor's Opportunity Fund, the Virginia Investment Partnership program, and the Major Eligible Employers grant fund.
In the last decade, we have proven that businesses large and small want to locate in Virginia, and we must find the resources to keep such firms investing in our future. The budget fulfills our commitments to major new investors in Virginia like Rolls Royce, SRI, and the IGNITE Institute.
Without question, the cuts required in this budget and in previous rounds of balancing have been painful. Virginia has gone well beyond finding efficiencies and doing more with less—we have been forced to make cuts in programs that directly affect the lives of Virginians.
Even with the difficult cuts to programs and services included in the budget I have detailed today—$2.3 billion in total on top of over $7 billion previously announced—a significant shortfall remains for the next biennium. I have worked with my budget team over the last several months to determine the best way to fill that shortfall. I conclude that more cuts to education, public safety, health care, state employees and other core services would be directly contrary to the current and future needs of the Commonwealth. They would squander our leadership position and make it more difficult to achieve our goals as we climb out of the national recession.
And so, in preparing this budget, I have carefully analyzed one expense line item that has been untouched until now--the $950 million annual payment we make to localities to offset some portion of local car tax bills for the first $20,000 in value of personal vehicles.
I propose ending this payment because maintaining it is contrary to Virginia's best interests. The phrase "No Car Tax" fit on a bumper sticker, but it was poor state policy to use state tax dollars to pay down a local tax when local voters had the complete ability to influence local elected officials to reduce the tax if they saw fit. Taking $950 million in state funds off the top every year to subsidize local tax collections has hampered the state's ability to invest in key priorities and weakened our ability to maintain structural balance in our budget. As one example, our funding to higher education—the single most important element in Virginia's economic future—is in decline at the time when it is most needed. And, our higher education tuition is now more costly than national averages and is likely to climb even further. We should be using the $950 million annual car tax payment to advance our higher education investments and other core priorities.
While some of you might disagree with this proposal in your public statements, your actions have told the public that you do not place a high priority on the car tax payment either. The clear campaign promise of "No Car Tax" quickly became a byzantine phase-in of partial car tax relief as soon as the campaign was over. By 2004, you basically decided to stop at a decidedly reduced program whereby the state pays a smaller and smaller percentage of personal car tax bills on the first $20,000 of the value of each automobile. In the nearly 6 years since that accord was reached, not a single legislator of either party has ever come to me to say that we need to move forward and completely get rid of the car tax. Your unanimous decision to abandon the concept of full car tax relief speaks volumes.
As my budget team has looked again and again at each budget line item over the last two years, the absence of any advocate in this body for continued relief has been notable. This line item has stayed in the budget without any legislative champion for only one reason—political expedience. Well, in a time when tough choices have to be made to keep Virginia in a strong leadership position, political expedience is not a sufficient rationale for continuing this $950 million folly. My budget does not make the payment and, by foregoing it, Virginians are spared even more draconian cuts to the services that they need.
Now, I am mindful of what happens if we do not make this payment. Local car tax bills will be issued without the reduction created by the state payment. And so, local taxpayers will receive higher car tax bills.
So, let me offer a second idea. Let's keep the promise. Let's get rid of the car tax on personal vehicles completely, but do it the right way. The car tax is particularly objectionable because it requires citizens to write a large check once or twice a year. The right way to eliminate this tax is to give local governments a better revenue source in exchange. We should impose a 1% income tax surcharge in Virginia and give 100% of the revenue to local governments in exchange for their agreement to completely eliminate the property tax on all personal cars, trucks and motorcycles. This will diversify local revenues in a way that will help cities and counties manage through some of the painful cuts we have announced here. It will create an additional base of state revenue that can be used to prudentially expand our ability to issue state-backed debt. And, it will show the citizens that we can keep a promise by getting rid of the car tax once and for all.
The budget will also include a number of other lesser revenue measures.
The proposed budget assumes revenue due to an increase in the monthly landline and wireless E-911 fees. The revenue from this fee will be used to fund the important benefits provided through the line of duty program for eligible public safety personnel and their dependents. Moreover, this revenue source enables this program to be funded through nongeneral fund sources—and on a prefunded basis—for the first time ever.
In addition, the budget captures revenue from a proposal to increase the insurance premium tax applicable to Property and Casualty insurance, using the additional revenue for the Virginia Public Safety Fund from which critical law enforcement and public safety services are funded.
As proposed in the last biennium, this budget incorporates a $120 million savings by eliminating the "dealer discount" for retailers. While it once made sense to compensate merchants for the labor costs of collecting sales tax on behalf of the Commonwealth, the digital era has rendered this discount both unnecessary and archaic. Virginians pay sales tax with the expectation that their dollars are used to fund public services—this budget ensures the full amount of the tax payments will be used to support critical state programs.
Finally, Virginia will join 20 other states and deconform state taxes from the federal income tax deduction for domestic production activities allowed under § 199 of the federal tax code. In addition, we will propose moving the date of conformity to make it easier for taxpayers to file their taxes, and my budget proposal funds the recently enacted federal provision related to tax treatment of income for certain spouses of our military members.
In previous rounds of budget reductions, we were able to meet our obligations to Virginians without using tax increases or other revenue measures—but we have reached a critical juncture for our economy and our Commonwealth. After more than $7 billion in reductions to our biennial budget, cuts alone will not balance the budget in a way that keeps Virginia on the path to future success.
My proposal offers a blueprint for a balanced budget that is not dependent on stimulus dollars or one-time items. It relies on difficult, but necessary and responsible decisions about prioritizing the services that the Commonwealth provides to its citizens. It adheres to Virginia's tradition of sound long-term fiscal policy and protects Virginia's Triple A bond rating and reputation. Finally, the elimination of the annual $950 million car tax expense creates an ability for the state to maintain its competitive edge through targeted educational and economic development investments.
Throughout the past four years, Virginia's government has worked proactively to make the budget adjustments necessary during the recession. In this budget, we have made a down payment of $40 million on our future obligation to the Stabilization Fund that will come due in the next biennium. Thanks to our prudent approach, Virginia is in a better position than most states as we come out of the recession and begin to grow again.
While other states wrestle with much greater shortfalls this year—and will spend years wrestling with the legacies of short-term strategies and one-time fixes—my 2010-2012 introduced budget gives Virginia a firm foundation on which to build for the future.
These are extraordinary times for the Commonwealth and the nation.
The difficulties of the worst economy in a generation are matched only by the greatest opportunities in the last sixty years. We are on the verge of passing meaningful healthcare reform that will benefit the 1.2 million uninsured or underinsured Virginians. We are pursuing a cleaner energy economy through off-shore wind and nuclear energy that will address climate change while launching the next industrial revolution. We are implementing innovative approaches in our K-12 schools and colleges that will move our education system into the 21st century and expand the reach and impact of our workforce.
In a time of unprecedented challenge, Virginia has reestablished our status as a national leader both economically and educationally. We have kept the Commonwealth at the leading edge of American states, so that when we come out of the recession Virginia will be positioned at the front of the pack.
These achievements are not by accident or by fate. Virginia is a leader again by design. We owe it to our citizens and our communities to keep the Commonwealth on the path to success. We have come too far in recent years to fail in this time of trial. I trust—and our people demand—that you will rise to this challenge.
I wish each of you a happy and blessed holiday season and all the best in the New Year."
(c) 2009. WWBT, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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There's No "Theory" in Criminal Conspiracy
Avatar & Not in His Image (continued) by URI DOWBENKO (NEW DAWN MAGAZINE.COM)
Meanwhile, the movie shows that the use of ex-military burn-outs, the de facto storm troopers in Avatar, is a clear signal that the United States has finally become the "Evil Empire" of Star Wars fame, exporting its brand of terrorism to yet-unconquered worlds.The movie also riffs on past colonial adventurism by the US, as well as British, Spanish, French and Belgian invaders, especially the exploitation of natural resources in Africa and South America and its attendant genocide of indigenous peoples. Avatar then is a realistic dramatisation of the ruthless behaviour of out-of-control sociopaths, hell-bent on destroying a civilisation they have judged to be "inferior" and the inhabitants they have decided are "subhuman."Thus, the predatory virus and the agenda of rape-and-pillage technology have been exported from Planet Earth to create more mischief in other parts of the universe.The characters of Avatar are typically stock figures, bordering on caricature, and the plot is so simple that even a three-year old could follow it, says director, screenwriter and producer Jim Cameron, according to published reports. Cameron steals from himself, combining memes from Terminator, Dark Angel, etc. in a kind of recombinant mythology that has struck a powerful and resonant chord throughout the world.The protagonist is Jake (Sam Worthington), a gung-ho disabled vet who gets his dead brother's job. As an "avatar," he has to navigate a custom-made 10-foot tall body in order to "live" with the indigenous blue-skinned race called the Na'avi. When the locals are called "blue monkeys" by the invaders, contemporary racist jargon gets catapulted off-planet and back to the future.The word "avatar,"of course, implies an online persona that can navigate the virtual realities and cyberspace, as well as a religious messiah or saviour in Hindu theology.(Can Jake -- the All-American White-Bread Saviour --save the Na'avi from destruction? Of course he can. Where else could a Hollywood formula movie plot go?)So in his Na'avi blue avatar-body, Jake meets a blue girl called Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) who just like Pocahontas -- just imagine -- teaches him about living in harmony with nature and the invisible forces that sustain Pandora. And Jake, just like Dances with Wolves, goes "native," as he bonds with the blue people and falls in love with the blue girl.Because his crippled body restricts his physical movement in his "waking" life, Jake loves to use his Na'avi body and begins to experience his virtual blue-body life as the "Real Thing," instead of the other way around.The question for Jake becomes -- which world does he prefer to live in? Then it's a choice for him -- just like the gamers who are so obsessed with online "living" - which reality or virtual reality is better?At the same time Jake makes a deal to be an informer for Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the head of the privatised military-security and the most zealous practitioner of the rape-and-pillage mindset. Quaritch is the embodiment of the evil corporate-military invader and a ruthless enforcer for the Ruling Corporate Empire which has gone off-planet to exploit other worlds.In his naïveté, Jake believes he can "save" the Na'avi from the coming slaughter planned by the corporate killers, but finds out that he has been betrayed once again. Just as he was in the Marines. (Does that mean military guys have a slow learning curve?)After all, the mining company just wants the valuable minerals and doesn't care about a tribe of primitive "blue monkeys." As always, brainwashing mind-control must convince its subjects (state-sanctioned military would-be killers) that the so-called "enemy" is "sub-human" and therefore open to slaughter. However, it's too much for him to endure, so Jake goes "off the reservation," as they say, switches sides, disobeys his orders and begins fighting on behalf of the Na'avi.Other stock characters include Sigourney Weaver as a scientist who wants to "study" the Na'avi and communicate with them, but like the intellectual prostitutes who work for the Pentagon-NSA-ETC Complex, she remains just another pawn in their extra-planetary game.Another character you love to hate is Jonathan Ribisi, who plays the heartless corporate honcho. He tackles his "task" of genocide and ecocide with a "missionary" zeal, just like the gofers (a.k.a. employees) of Blackwater, DynCorp, KBR and other Vulture Capitalist Corporations with government insider deals.The final battle for Pandora, its natural resources and the metaphysical power-source of the planet centred in a primordial Tree of Life which is the embodiment of their ancestors' wisdom, takes Avatar to a spectacular finish – and the obligatory third final battle sequence.The fun continues as Jim-Cameron-as-god creates fantastic creatures like hammer-head buffalos, friendly reptilians and sentient jellyfish who help the local blue people defend their planet from the "alien" humans.In an archetypal Hollywood happy ending, the local blue people survive and the humans are "the aliens [who] went back to their dying world." That's about as happy as it gets – when you're dealing with real raw issues of genocide, nasty behaviour and other evil.It should be noted that Jim Cameron's innate ability to tap into the Deep Subconscious of the planet produced the pop culture remix version of the sinking of Atlantis, a.k.a. the movie Titanic.THE DEEPER SIGNIFICANCE OF AVATARMore insights into this global phenomenon can be gleaned from astrologer Barbara Hand Clow, author of indispensable books like The Mayan Code: Time Acceleration and Awakening the World Mind and Alchemy of Nine Dimensions: Decoding the Vertical Axis, Crop Circles, and the Mayan Calendar.Ms. Clow sees a deeper significance in the artistic and financial triumph of Avatar, writing, "… I said that spiritual transformations pushing us onto new evolutionary paths would be 'drawing power from transcending our identity as warriors.' I had no idea how we would see any of this until I saw Avatar soon after the Winter Solstice." (www.handclow2010.com)"This film is helping millions draw nurturing experiences from the past (Pandora as Eden), and it incites people, even militarists, to transcend warrior identity. I predict Avatar will continue to be shown again and again by popular demand because many people will see it two or three times…"Consistently since last spring, spirituality and healing have been the central forces changing our lives under the influence of the potent Triple Conjunction-Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune in Aquarius. During this New Moon, finally Jupiter is moving past Chiron/ Neptune, the last pass of the Triple Conjunction."Under its influence, many of us have grown spiritually and faced a series of healing crises, and now we are like newborn beings. Avatar appeared during the culmination of the Triple Conjunction, which helps us see that our individual healing is actually a collective issue. Now that Jupiter is moving out of the Triple Conjunction, our individual initiations and healing crises will not be so monumental and overwhelming."And this impulse for genocide and ecocide – where did it come from?It might sound like science fiction, but it's considered to be the Gnostic understanding of the metaphysical realities of Planet Earth. Namely – an ideological off-planet virus morphed into the three ubiquitous religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, which have been used to divide, conquer and rule Terra for thousands of years through fear, intimidation and all those other reptilian stimulus-response mechanisms. [See "New (Reptilian) World Order" by Uri Dowbenko, New Dawn Special Issue 7.]The Gnostics, by the way, were the losers in a war with Roman Christianity, a long-term focus of religious terrorism ensconced in the Vatican. And what was the Gnostics' biggest mistake – and crime – and why were they annihilated? Because they dared to speak the Unspeakable, namely that the Christian "father-god" was not only an imposter, but also quite insane.You can call him Yahweh. You can call him Jehovah. But the Gnostics identified him with the demented Archon Yaldabaoth, which they taught was the Judeo-Christian false god. In other words, if this "god" is telling you to do wacky things like kill those who don't share your religious Belief System (B.S.), then there's a good chance those "Gods Must Be Crazy." And they are…Therefore, it was not a very smart or politically correct move on the part of the Gnostics to point this out to the Christians. Nevertheless the Gnostics' perspective on life is still worth examining because of its relevance today – namely their unique world-view and their model for the metaphysical realities of Planet Earth.RELIGION AND THE SEEDING OF DEATH CULTUREAccording to John Lamb Lash, author of Not in His Name: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology and the Future of Belief, it was this Abrahamic legacy of religion which incorporates the fear of death that carries the virus.Lash's brilliant analysis of mythology, religion and power politics is at once self-empowering and enlightening. And just reading his interpretation of Gnostic cosmology and wisdom-science illuminates the heart and mind because it is the counter-program to the prevalent Death Culture on Earth.Lash's book is a must read for everyone who is interested in spiritual and metaphysical studies, and it remains the most important reinterpretation of history, mythology and religion from the Gnostic perspective.So where did this human proclivity for "terrorism" come from? Lash writes that the Gnostics recognised its origin in the wacky philosophy of the apocalyptic cult called the Zaddikim."The Zaddikite sect of the Dead Sea presents the larval form of the global terrorist syndrome of today," writes Lash, referring to the ancient scrolls found at Qumran as evidence, adding that, "the Zaddikite ideology found in the scrolls presents the ideological infrastructure of Christian religion.""That Qumran was an outpost for militants fighting to free Judea from Roman occupation and not a haven for hippie-like pacifists called Essenes, was information withheld from the public by a team of scrolls scholars controlled by the Vatican," writes Lash.In a story-line much stranger than science fiction, the "virus" would morph many more times until it became recognisable as present day "religion.""The core ideology of modern fundamentalist Christianity derives from the Zaddikim of the Dead Sea and not from mainstream Judaic religion," Lash continues. "Resurrection in a physical form identical to the living body (contrasted to some kind of continuity of soul life), transport to heaven, intervention of God the Father in history, the battle against Cosmic Evil ending in Judgment Day, and divine retribution – all these beliefs reflect Zaddik, the superhuman standard."In the cult of righteousness led by Melchizedek, militant and mystical elements combined into a lethal explosive mix. The Zaddikim sect self-destructed by bringing down upon itself and the entire Jewish community the military might of the Roman Empire, but their program survived and mutated into what was to become Roman Christianity. The enemies of the system became the system."The irony of this history is deafening, while the apocalyptic theology and its dogma of final retribution rears its ugly head with every terrorist bombing or "preemptive" strike that kills, maims and tortures humanity on earth.So why have "terrorism" and "religion" become so closely identified in contemporary life?"In epidemiological terms, Christianity was the pandemic vector for the ideological virus of the Zaddikim belief system," writes Lash. "…Over centuries patriarchy mutated into a religious system based on the four components of the redeemer complex. The sulfurous pathological core of the system is terror; terror before the father god who creates the world and commands its fate; terror for those who follow the Lord's plan and those who do not; terror for the innocent victim tormented and dominated by the perpetrator; terror for the perpetrators who will be caught out and punished by God; …terror that drives human society to a final solution, the lethal madness of a species hell-bent on its own destruction… The belief that the world can be saved by destroying it exemplifies annihilation theology."The "religious" fervour of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan bespeak of this theology of death that rules and dominates the planet.ALIEN TRICKSTER 'GODS' Adding a bit more science (fiction) into his analysis, Lash asks – "Who is willing to consider that salvationist religion is an ideological virus insinuated in the human psyche by an alien species?"Through first-hand experience and close encounters with UFO-ET tricksters they called Archons, the Gnostics understood the off-planet origin of the three redemptive Abrahamic religions.So was our "Father Abraham" himself duped by "alien" tricksters?Gnostics allowed the transmundane origin of redemptive religion – 'Yaldabaoth himself chose a certain man named Abraham and made a covenant with him' – but proposed a different way to view it. Yaldabaoth is the Demiurge, a.k.a. Yahweh-Jehovah, a demented pseudo-deity who works against humanity. This is the Lord Archon head of the legion of cyborgs…"Demiurge" is defined by Lash as the leader of the Archons "who claims to be the creator of the material world and demands slavish obedience from his creatures," but is actually a demented pretender or impostor who "can originate nothing but must imitate what already exists." This might be an apt description of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and its future manifestations.And what is the result of this religious Belief System, most notably exemplified by Christianity which awaits an extraplanetary saviour, who will come from the sky and make everybody feel high, to quote the late Bob Marley? "Salvation by superhuman powers, rather than through the divine potential innate to humanity and aligned with Sophia, is the hallmark of extraterrestrial religion," Lash writes."Gnostics explicitly warned that the Archons work through salvationist religion, not to destroy us, however but to deviate us from our proper course of evolution… They do this, Gnostics claimed because they envy us. Archons lack both ennoia (singular intentionality) and epinoia (moral-creative imagination) and they want to have this specific endowment of ours, to assimilate or steal it. The diagnosis of Archontic intrusion conforms in many respects to reports of people who have encountered alien entities, especially the Grays and the Reptilians."According to Lash, the Gnostics also taught, "if evil arises from error when error runs beyond the scale of correction, we can nip evil in the bud by deepening our awareness of error. The Gospel of Philip says 'Ignorance is the mother of all evil.' In a lucid passage on error theory, the Gnostic master says: 'So long as the root of wickedness is hidden, it is strong. But when it is recognised, it is dissolved. When it is revealed it perishes… As for ourselves, let us dig down after the root of evil which is within each of us and produces its fruit in our hearts. It masters us. We are its slaves. It takes us captive to make us do what we do not want and what we do want we do not do. It is powerful because we have not recognised it'."Lash writes that "the root of evil is human error, the mind mistaking itself. To defeat evil, we must unmask it by seeing its origin in the erring operations of our own minds."ORIGINS OF THE ILLUMINATI The Gnostics also had a very plausible explanation for the origin of the so-called Illuminati, those behind-the-scenes puppet-masters and obsessive control freaks of society, who have been the de facto Ruling Class for thousands of years.Lash explains that the Gnostics – or telestai as they called themselves – were initiates endowed with special knowledge in cosmological issues, who were actually "sophisticated shamans, past masters of 'archaic techniques of ecstasy'.""As initiates of the Mysteries, behavioural manipulation, psychological programming and mind control were utterly repugnant to the genuine telestai of the ancient Mysteries," writes Lash."Such procedures represented to them a path leading away from consecration to Sophia and the Great Work of co-evolving with nature, toward social engineering and personal power games. The goal of the telestai was to foster a sane and balanced society by helping individuals reach their peak potential, and never to interfere directly in social management."Over the course of time some initiates did take the path of social engineering. Dissident members of the Gnostic movement, who came to be known as 'Illuminati,' chose to use initiatory knowledge to develop and implement various techniques of behaviour modification. Their predecessors were known as the Magian order, an ancient Persian lineage of shamanism from which the Gnostic movement was derived…""Around 4000 BCE, with the rise of urban civilisation in the Near East, some members of the Magian order chose to apply certain secrets of initiation to statecraft and social engineering. They became the advisors to the first theocrats of the patriarchal nation-states, but in fact the advisors were running the show. Their subjects were systematically programmed to believe they were descended from the gods. The Illuminati inaugurated elaborate rites of empowerment or kingship rituals. These rituals were in fact methods of mind control exercised on the general populace through the collective symbology and mystique of royal authority."The intention of the dissident Magians to run society by covert controls was based on their assumption that human beings are not innately good enough, or gifted enough to create a human world."Even the term Gnostic (gnostokos) is a pejorative term invented by the so-called Church Fathers who ridiculed their rivals by referring to them as "smart ass" and "know it all." The Gnostics called themselves "The Children of Seth."Lash notes that "paradoxically [even the word] 'Gnostic' comes down to us tainted by the condemnation of the Roman Church and associated with the very members of the Magian order who were disowned by the guardians of the Mysteries."The Illuminati then are the former adepts of the Mystery Schools who perverted and abused the spiritual teachings they had received in order to acquire material wealth and power, subverting their raison d'etre of life on Earth."The Illuminati program was (and still is) essential to patriarchy and its covert perpetrator religion," Lash continues. "While it cannot exactly be said that the deviant adepts known as Illuminati created patriarchy, they certainly controlled it. And still do. The abuse of initiatory knowledge to induce schizophrenic states ('entrainment'), manipulate multiple personalities in the same person ('platforming') and command behaviour through posthypnotic suggestion (the 'Manchurian Candidate' technique) continues to this day, with truly evil consequences for the entire world… These behavioural modification tools of the Illuminati were strictly forbidden in the Mysteries overseen by Gnostics."Thus the Illuminati were spiritual renegades and deviants who became the dominant controllers of the planet through their manipulation of patriarchal salvationist religion and a theology of terror. These former initiates of the Mystery Schools had seemingly taken the so-called left-handed path of ego-glorification and power games, rather than consecration of their lives to the enlightenment of humanity, whose goal was and always has been spiritual evolution on Earth.Not In His Image is itself a revelation in the best sense, a meditation and a remarkable work of prose that naturally flows like poetry. Likewise, in his book, Lash has created a remarkable affirmation of spirituality and the metaphysical realities of life on earth.In addition to his book, there is a wonderful DVD documentary by filmmaker Sharron Rose called Sophia Returning (see review on page 80 of this issue of New Dawn), featuring an in-depth interview with Lash who tells the remarkable story of the Gnostics and their cosmology and metaphysics.Lash, a compelling storyteller, goes into detail about the story of the Aeon (Goddess) Sophia who came to embody the living being which is our beautiful Planet Earth. It may be a prison planet for those who were sentenced to live here, but for the rest of us, it is the best opportunity for spiritual evolution: to express love, kindness and compassion to all sentient beings, while we are on the screen of life.In Sophia Returning, Lash also talks about his website MetaHistory.org, which is a magnificent online repository of all things Gnostic and esoteric. Lash refers to the ET phenomenon and the issue of "alien abduction." He talks about the so-called Gnostic Catechism, which is a survival manual that gives instruction on what to do if accosted by an Archon (ET/UFO/trickster) and how to defend yourself against them since the Gnostics believed that they "steal souls at night."In an online article called "Avatar: The Psychedelic Worldview and the 3D Experience," Ido Hartogsohn writes about the perceived 3D effect of our consensus reality:"…The Pulfrich Effect, used to create stereoscopic images, relies on the principle that the human eye processes information slower in darker conditions to cause one eye to see reality in delay, thus creating a 3D illusion when watching moving objects. It is as if your two eyes were watching the screen from two different points in time, or from two different points in space."Similarly, the new 3D wave allows us to view culture from two distinct points of perspective in space and time: one of a culture completely immersed in consumerist mania, the other of a culture which keeps a strong relation to its mythic roots in nature."This multi-dimensional effect, which allows us to view ourselves from two different perspectives at the same time, might hint at the transformations ahead." (www.realitysandwich.com/avatar_psychedelic_worldview_3d)Maybe – maybe not. However, not since The Matrix has a "science fiction" movie captured the imagination and enthusiasm of a worldwide audience. Coincidentally The Matrix, like Avatar, was also a dramatisation of many Gnostic concepts and ideas, which also had a transformative effect on its audience.In one of the most salient appreciations of the movie, Barbara Hand Clow writes that, "Avatar is a great story of heroic change and conquering the dark side. This subtle shift into new hope rings true because the film is galactic and universal, not just solar and earthbound. It is a sign that Earth's quarantine is lifting, and our hearts are reconnecting with the universe."Many individuals have made great strides in their personal work during the Triple Conjunction, and now the collective will be changing rapidly because universal wisdom is flowing into it," Clow concludes. "Many of you must be doing very good work reaching subtle dimensions, making it possible for a creative work like Avatar to premiere on Earth.".*** Writer and Artist URI DOWBENKO is the author of Bushwhacked: Inside Stories of True Conspiracy and Hoodwinked: Watching Movies with Eyes Wide Open. He is also the founder and publisher of www.ConspiracyPlanet.com, www.ConspiracyDigest.com, www.AlMartinRaw.com, and www.InsiderIntelligence.com, as well as the publisher of The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran Contra Insider by Al Martin. You can visit Uri at www.UriDowbenko.com and www.NewImprovedArt.com.The above article appeared in New Dawn No. 120 (May-June 2010).ORIGINALLY PUBLISHEDhttp://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/avatar-american-terrorists-invade-a-new-world
Other Reviews: Book: Not in His Image/ Video: Avatar
Copyright ©2013 Conspiracy Planet; All Rights Reserved


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Purchase of Agricultural Land in India by NRIs - Foreigners September 30, 2013 06:58
Foreigners cannot buy agricultural land in India. This is applicable to all of India. No state in India allows foreigners to buy agricultural land. • Nri's cannot buy agricultural land in India. Yes! all over…Read More
NRIs Renting Property in India September 30, 2013 06:43
Many NRI's and PIO's purchase properties in India as an investment and perhaps with the goal ofprobably returning to India at some point of time. Instead of keeping properties vacant, renting out is an option…Read More
Tips for NRI's Buying Property in India September 30, 2013 06:30
NRI's should be aware that courts are slow in India and cases that involve property can take decades to settle. Hence it is better to be careful to check and verify documents before purchasing property…Read More


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STFU Forever: Top 10 Worst Singers On Earth, Pt. 2
"Talent" is optional for singers in today's auto-tune-diseased, gimmick-polluted music industry. After weeks of heated debates, wig snatches and touchscreen warfare over Pt. 1, it was only right that we drop a Pt. 2.
Here are ten more of the worst R&B (and Pop) singers in the game. Take a look.
Photo credit: Instagram
Janet Jackson
Janet is a living legend. Music icon. Queen of the Whispersetto. But let's be real, she can't sing worth a clearance rack of damns. Whisper passionately? No artist greater. SING…well? Never in her 46 years on Earth.
Photo credit: Instagram
TLC's cigarette smoky-voiced lead singer sounded like an old raggedy lawn mower on 99% of the popular group's hits. For reasons unknown, people LOVE her when they should really want to fight her for ruining perfectly good songs.
J. Lo
Jenny Cakes is one of the worst "singers" in the history of life and sound. Amazing on mute, especially during live performances, she belongs on the Mount Rushmore of completely-worthless singers.
Photo credit: Instagram
Rap's auto-tune-fueled phenomenon swears he can SANG but…can't. In his mind, he's Ronald Isley but, in reality, the musically-hypnotic hitmaker sounds like unpaid child support and struggle.
The skinny-fat glob of fashion confusion is musically-brilliant with a platinum pen but complete trash, vocally. If you like The-Dream, it's because you've learned to block out his Muppetish falsetto to enjoy his undeniably-catchy records.
Photo credit: Instagram
The tragically-talentless singer and her lustrous, super-silky sideburns were the product of top-notch songwriting, production and marketing. Like Rihanna, it never mattered that Ashanti sounded like tortured wildlife because she made dope music.
Continue Slideshow
Amerie Ameriie
The vocally-stressful singer was a one-note wonder during her entire four-album career. Just one ashy, pitchy, worthless note—loudly and wrongly—for several seconds over incredible production.
Keith Sweat
No R&B crooner has ever whined, moaned and begged like Keith Douglas Sweat—King of "Why you ignoring my texts and calls?"-Soul. Vocally-draining, he's easily one of thee absolute WORST male R&B singers ever.
Kandi Burruss
There's a reason why the greasy, nasally, vocally-trembly singer/songwriter/reality star never flourished as a solo artist. Yes, we tolerated her sassy yodeling on Xscape records but everything after that…NO. All Nope. 100% Nah. Always and forever, never.
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This action to decide what is in the purview of God's authority, is equal to the Supreme Court deciding to nullify the Periodic Table, or the laws of Physics, or the multiplication tables. It's not law, not law as a human creation, but instead the Supreme Court is venturing across the line in to the fields of Creation, morality, and the natural laws as created by God.
For the Supreme Court of the United States to hear a case concerning the structure and essence of marriage, and thus assuming the role of architect of the family unit is the Court ascending to the role of deity and foreclosing on the Christian God and evicting Him from His place. Separation of church and state has held the Religious Right in paralysis long enough to now allow the secular humanists to not only deny the existence of a super natural God, but to assume the role of a human God.
THE SUPREME COURT is venturing very close to a king addressed in First Macabees 1: 44 - 48; "The king sent messengers with letters to Jerusalem and Judiah, ordering them to follow customs foreign to their land: to prohibit halocausts, sacrifices and libations in the sanctuary, to profane the Sabbaths and feast days, to desecrate the sanctuary and the sacred ministers, to build pagan altars and temples and shrines ... and to let themselves be defiled with every kind of impurity and abomination."
The error of the Court is not in its eventual decision, but in its decision to accept the case at all. By accepting the case, the Court proclaimed it is the new god in America. The Court has taken on a power not even the Roman Catholic Church would claim. The Roman Catholic Church has repeatedly stated that it has no authority to change its doctrine, to alter the Bible. The Church espouses that position because the Church looks to God to articulate doctrine through His Word.
The Court, by its decision to consider this case, may have provided the most compelling evidence to President Obama's assertion that the United States of America is NOT a Christian nation.
The Court seems oblivious to the words of President Washington; "It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor." The Court seems incapable of placing any issue, any aspect of life outside of its authority and jurisdiction. There is no separation of church and state, but it is not the church whose actions are usurping the authority of earthly governance.
Billy Graham in Storm Warning addresses the fallacy of and error of America's ramshackle, chaotic and shredded national morality.
Has humanity proven to be wise enough to assume the role of divine? Has the Supreme Court demonstrated the wisdom, compassion, charity, love, self-sacrifice of our Christian God? Do you really want to place the Supreme Court in a position to claim for itself the role of the divine?
Mark Vogl is a resident of the Latch community in Upshur County.
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First of all, nuclear power is a safe and clean energy source. However, building nuclear power stations is really, really hard and they are often delivered over budget and behind schedule. You'd think, since we're on the verge of building a new one at Hinkley Point, we'd be doing everything we can to make sure it's done right. Right? Wrong. To incentivise its construction the government and EDF are doing everything they can to destroy any incentive of building to time and budget.
To understand energy investment in the UK today you need to understand the government's energy market reform. Trust me I'll keep it short and use bright colours.
The government doesn't want to, and legally cannot, willy-nilly subsidise energy investment in the UK. One because they're Tories and they don't want any spending on balance sheet because they've fetishised the UK's debt and two because EU state aid rules mean they're just not allowed to subsidise private energy producers. In the next few years lots and lots of power stations are going to be retired because they're old and nobody wants to replace them without a subsidy. We are at an impasse that leads to an energy crisis. Can an impasse lead somewhere? Yes. Shut up.
The solution is an elaborate system of contacts, payments, counterparties, bargaining, auctions and horseplay that we know as Electricity Market Reform. The system is really simple. You sign a contract agreeing to produce electricity and the government guarantees you for a set number of years a certain price per Megawatt hour. If the market price is below that contracted price consumers receive a surcharge on their bill, if the market price is above it they get a bonus. How often do you get the bonus? Shut up.
Eventually the contracts will be auctioned which should mean that payments to consumers occur roughly as much as payments from them. But to begin with the contracts will be negotiated. Because we're in such a poor state generation wise we're getting blackmailed by the French.
EDF want to build a nuclear power station using a reactor developed by Areva called the EPR. In order to build it is reported that EDF are to receive £93-96 per Megawatt hour. This is more than double the current market price of electricity. To justify the investment EDF claim to need an ex-ante internal return of around 10%. Their problem isn't that a nuclear power plant is an unproductive investment, they produce a phenomenal amount of electricity. It's the construction.
Olkiluoto, the first EPR to be built will be 200% over budget and six years late when complete. Flamanville, the second EPR will be about 150% over budget and 4 years late. Linear projects are a fool's game, but fuck it, at this rate Hinkley Point C will be two years late and double the cost expected. Since the UK is desperate for new, low-carbon generation EDF know they have us over a barrel and a likely cost overrun on their hands. Hence why we'll be paying them double the market price for electricity.
It doesn't end there though. If you thought the incentives were bad enough as I've describe, it gets worse. To prevent massive windfall profits the government are going to insert a clause into the agreement which will allow for excess profits to be clawed back. Mull that one over.
If EDF build over budget they'll make a modest profit because they've been guaranteed a high energy price.
If EDF build to budget they'll make a modest profit because government will confiscate the payments consumers pay to EDF because they've been guaranteed a high energy price.
As well as being an arsebackwards roundabout way of getting you and me to subsidise the building of power stations it completely eviscerates any financial incentive for EDF to run the project to budget and to schedule. I've a soft spot for giant infrastructure projects, complicated engineering and carbon free electricity, but we are running this project like we want it to fail and to cost everyone a lot of money to get there.


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November 28. 2013 7:23PM
2 charged in separate Rochester DWI accidents
By JOHN QUINN
Union Leader Correspondent
The driver of this Jeep Wrangler was arrested for DWI following an accident which broke a utility pole in Rochester Wednesday. (Courtesy photo)
— Police arrested two men in separate accidents Wednesday night involving driving while intoxicated.
The first, at 6:39 p.m., closed Salmon Falls Road. Police, firefighters and emergency personnel responded after a northbound 2007 Jeep Wrangler driven by Richard Wilkins, 49, of 68 Brooks Road, Barrington, left the road and struck a utility pole. The pole, near Tara Estates along Salmon Falls Road, snapped in half.
Wilkins suffered minor injuries during the crash, which caused the airbags to deploy, and caused a fire to begin in the Jeep. The crash closed the road for about an hour until firefighters extinguished the blaze, police said.
Salmon Falls Road will be closed from Tara Estates to Whitehall Road until utility crews can replace the broken pole.
Wilkins, who was later charged with driving while intoxicated, was released on $1,500 personal recognizance pending an arraignment, scheduled for Dec. 9.
Police said at 10:43 p.m., a 2004 Mazda 3 driven by David Blaney, 26, of 3D Academy St., Dover, was traveling east on Columbus Avenue when he failed to negotiate the corner at Winter Street and left the roadway, striking a telephone pole. Blaney was not injured, police said.
Winter Street stayed open to traffic during the investigation.
Blaney was arrested for aggravated driving while intoxicated. He was bailed on $2,500 personal recognizance and a court date of Dec. 9 was set.


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Samsung has announced a new feature for its Samsung for Enterprise solution that could appeal to public-sector agencies. Called Knox, it combines platform and application security as well as mobile device management (MDM) for Samsung smart phones.
The main feature that could appeal to users and network administrators alike is the ability to keep work and personal documents and applications in two separate environments. This is fast becoming a key feature phones intended for use in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) environments. BlackBerry takes that approach with the Balance feature in BlackBerry 10, and other companies, such as VMWare and Red Bend are making software that does the same thing, according to Bloomberg News.
Samsung displayed its solution at the recent Mobile World Congress, and according to attendees the devices performed well. The Verge reported that "Switching between environments on the Galaxy SIII test units … is basically instantaneous – there's no lag, no delay, no boot time."
However, it is too early to tell which Samsung devices will work with Knox, as it requires specific on-chip memory to work properly. As Steve Patterson of Network World puts it, "Knox does not really represent a Bring Your Own Device replacement because it is hardware-dependent, so it won't run on every Android device. So as long as there are ordinary Android and iOS devices in an enterprise, MDM will be needed for BYOD."
So, to fully implement the network security features it would be necessary to run it under the auspices of Samsung for Enterprise. Nevertheless, having a split-environment, secure Android platform is still likely to attract the interest of agencies.
About the Author
Greg Crowe is a former GCN staff writer who covered mobile technology.
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As another person noted, it would be a burden having to switch back and forth between the environments, and it would not be worth the hassle. Id much prefer a "separate but same" environment. Make a phone capable of holding two unique SIM cards. Allow the user to disable one or the other at will. If I am with family, and do not wish to be disturbed by my clients, I turn my business Sim off, or silence it. Vice versa for those dedicated workaholics. The phone would support two phone numbers, which is how this feature would still work.
BYOD, still a problem when people are not wanting to be switching back and forth. OH, wait a minute it is my wife, oh no, it is my work. What a crock, get real we do not want to be wasting time going back and forth to get our work done. Just make is secure, cause it will benefit even the personal user in the long run. Another way to charge money knowing the consumers are not going to use it that way.
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If you are looking for a nice way to spend the better part of an hour this weekend, I recommend this BBC Radio 4 discussion on the life of William Caxton; who first set up a printing business in Bruges before returning to England in 1476 with presses in tow. Caxton is thought to be one of the first, if not the first, person to bring the printing press to England. He was a fascinating businessman and this podcast discusses his work, as well as early printing in Western Europe.
As with all Radio 4 programs the chatter is wonderful and I think my favourite part of the discussion is when the panel is opines it was the typewriter, and not the printing press, that killed the manuscript and the scribe. Scribes were continued to be sought after well past the advent of the printing press because with their aid no book was ever out of print, they were in effect the first Print-on-demand service. Additionally the group suggested that if you were looking to truly impress someone with a gift in the sixteenth century, a printed monochrome book would play second fiddle to a much more beautiful and colourful manuscript created by a talented scribe.
The whole conversation sounded so familiar to what I see on various blogs in the 21st century about the merits of Fine Press books in a digital age, whether print-on-demand books add any value to publishing, and if eBooks are going to destroy publishing as we know it. It was kind of comforting to remember that we really have been though all this before.
The program was recorded as a podcast and can be found via this link on the BBC website


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The release of more than 40 suspected illegal immigrants jailed in Cook County on felonies has added fuel to a contentious debate over public safety and local authorities' defiance of a White House program that aims to pursue more criminal deportations.
The program depends on police and sheriff's deputies to hold suspected illegal immigrants who get arrested beyond the time when they would otherwise be released. But commissioners in the county around Chicago recently adopted a new law that orders the sheriff to ignore all federal requests to detain immigrants after they complete their sentences or post bail.
Other places, such as San Francisco, have taken similar measures, part of a backlash against the Obama administration, which many say is unfairly seeking to deport immigrants accused of traffic violations and other minor offenses. But Cook County's new ordinance is the first to forbid a sheriff from holding suspected felons as well as those accused of misdemeanors.
"It puts residents at risk, and it puts my police officers at risk," said Rod Craig, mayor of Hanover Park in suburban Chicago, who is livid about the release of three suspected illegal immigrants charged with assaulting two officers and trying to take one of their guns.
Detaining the immigrants is supposed to give federal agents time to pick up the suspects and begin the deportation process. But one after another, local governments have complained about that the Secure Communities program, which gives immigration agents access to fingerprints collected at jails. They say the practice costs too much money and treats immigrants unfairly, especially those accused of only small-time offenses such as shoplifting, traffic violations or drunken driving.
Some states have pulled out of the program. In Illinois, for instance, Gov. Pat Quinn declared the government would not cooperate. New York's governor also suspended participation. And in San Francisco, the sheriff refuses to honor detention requests from the Customs and Immigration Enforcement for illegal immigrants charged with misdemeanors.
In Cook County, which is overwhelmingly Democratic and has seen rapid growth in its Latino population, commissioners on both side of the issue captured the anger and fears that are being voiced far beyond the Chicago area.
"What we are doing is righting a wrong against people who are on the soil of Cook County under the protection of the U.S. Constitution," said Commissioner Larry Suffredin, a Democrat who supported the measure.
Why, asked Jesus Garcia, the commissioner who sponsored the ordinance, should immigrants be treated any differently than anyone else who has been arrested?
"By refusing to detain people who are entitled to their freedom, based merely on a request from (immigration agents) we are upholding our system of justice..." he said in a statement.
Another commissioner warned that the board was putting people in danger _ and risking a firestorm of negative publicity if someone who is released commits a violent crime.
Less than a month after the board acted, more than 40 suspected illegal immigrants charged with or convicted of felonies have walked to freedom instead of into the arms of federal agents, according to the sheriff's department.
"This is our Willie Horton moment in Cook County," warned Commissioner Timothy Schneider, a Republican who voted against it. He was referring to a convicted killer who was released as part of a Massachusetts prison furlough program and then raped a woman. The case was used to devastating effect in 1988, when George H.W. Bush's presidential campaign revealed that his opponent, Michael Dukakis, supported the program when he was Massachusetts governor.
Schneider and others say that all the ordinance has done is squander an opportunity to keep dangerous felons off the streets. Immigration officials agree that it raises the risk that criminals known to be dangerous will be freed.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has been relatively quiet. After it became clear that the board was going to go further than his staff recommended, Dart's representative would not say anything beyond pledging that the sheriff's department would enforce the ordinance, despite repeated attempts by county board members to get him to do so.
"When they wanted a more sweeping ordinance that would let everybody go free no matter what their criminal charge was, we just backed away from the conversation," Dart spokesman Steve Patterson said.
Judges can always order an illegal immigrant _ or any other suspect _ held on bond so high that the person cannot pay. So most of the 280 people who have been the subject of federal detention requests aren't going anywhere. But a few will inevitably find enough money to get out.
That possibility, as well as the fact that some of those who have been released have failed to show up in court, all help explain why immigrant-rights activists, sheriffs and others are waiting to see if the board's actions backfire.
"I think everybody is watching to see how it plays out politically," said Arturo Venegas Jr., a former police chief in Sacramento, Calif., and immigration consultant who until recently served on a federal panel that was reviewing government efforts to find illegal immigrants.
In California's Santa Clara County, officials were almost ready to adopt a similar ordinance when, only an hour before their meeting, they got word that Cook County had tried it first. They decided to wait.
Whether the Cook County ordinance triggers the adoption of similar laws remains to be seen.
Already, the Obama administration has taken steps to relax the controversial program. Just this month, it announced that agents had rounded up nearly 3,000 criminals for deportation, stressing that all of those captured had at least one criminal conviction and half had a felony conviction. Eighty-seven of those arrested were from Illinois.
Meanwhile, at least one other jurisdiction that tried a law similar to Cook County's has reversed course in the interest of public safety. New Mexico's San Miguel County once drastically limited the detainment requests it would accept. Now it honors every single one.


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2 days ago
Oh yes, Rugby League is more than just a game
On a sunny winter day in 1966, I went with my father to Cumberland Oval. Parramatta pitted against the might of St George. My dad said, "There`s Ken Thornett", and "that`s Reg Gasnier". Pointed out other players. They all looked like giants to me. Explained bits and pieces of the game. I was mesmerised.
When we got home, he had another fight with my mother. The police were called again. But a skinny kid with asthma was hatching a plan.
At school, I filled my pockets with stones, to make the weight for the four-stone seven`s league team. If I could just be like Ken Thornett....
I read 'Johnny Raper`s Guide to Rugby League' and studied all the diagrams and photographs. My parents bought me a real leather football, with Ken Thornett`s autograph on it. I slept with it for months; held it to my face and breathed in the smell of new leather; hardly had it out of my hands. When I got my first pair of football boots - with real metal studs - I clicked and clacked on the pavement all day and felt like a giant too. Nothing could hurt me when I had those boots on.
In 1969, I started high school. My relationship with my father had deteriorated. We could not connect anymore, except through the occasional: "I think Sulkowicks is out today. Leg injury. By the way, have you got any homework?" Rugby League - and, in particular, the Parramatta team - was to become our only connection. I thought he hated me. He thought I hated him.
I played in the school 'B' team. Not a champion, but I was accepted as one of the school`s warriors. The confidence that had been sucked out of me at home came roaring back on the footy field. A skinny kid with asthma could tackle giants!
I went to Cumberland Oval with my younger brothers now, and my dad drifted into the background. It was the three of us standing on the hill, like three tall trees, cheering for the Parramatta team in the winter sun.
I left home in 1975 and made my way in the world. My father and I became virtual strangers then. When I rang the house, it was: "Did you see the game on Saturday? Yeah. Good, eh? Yeah, they were good; is mum there?" Otherwise we might not have spoken at all.
Then, in 1981, something happened. Caught up in the euphoria of an unprecedented year, we sat around the television in the house in Parramatta - my father, two brothers and I - and watched the unbelievable. The Parramatta team in the Grand Final. Playing well in the grand final. Struggling in the grand final. Punch-drunk in the grand final. No! Fighting back! Turning it around! WINNING the grand final! And unbelievable, too, because it was the four of us in the same room, cheering, groaning, exalting together! Even my mother joined in. We hadn`t had a family moment like that since...... well, for a long time.
In 1982, my youngest brother died. Drowned. Caught in a rip. The family was at first thrown together in grief - caught in a rip of its own - but then, ultimately, thrown scattered out the other end. My remaining brother went to Queensland; I went to Newtown; my parents clung to each other in the little house in Parramatta. Life was tough.
But, again, we re-grouped in the lounge room of that house in Parramatta for the 1983 Grand Final. And although Phil wasn`t there, and although that was a great loss, we all assumed, I think, that he was cheering along with us. Somewhere.
And now they`re all dead. My two brothers and my father. A heart attack, a drowning and a kidney disease.
All dead.
And so I watch the game alone.
But not alone - because every time I see our blue and gold giants stride onto the fresh-cut turf, and I smell the leather and the liniment; and when I hear the sound of jarring tackles carried on the breeze; and every time I hear the shouts and cheers, I hear my father and my brother and my brother shouting too.
And I sit again in the little house in Parramatta. And I stand again on the hill. And I see a little boy with pockets full of stones; and I hear my father say, "Look, there`s Ken Thornett!"
Word count: 742
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