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By thy rivers of debt gently flowing, Illinois, Illinois. O'er thy prairies of corruption growing, Illinois, Illinois. (source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/miscellaneouslyrics/statesongslyrics/illinoisstatesonglyrics.html)
The Debt Bomb That Taxpayers Won't See Coming by STEVEN MALANGA
Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Illinois officials with making misleading statements to bond investors about the state's pension system. The agency detailed a long list of deceptive practices including failure to tell investors that the system was so underfunded that it risked bankruptcy.
Illinois taxpayers, as well as the holders of its debt, will ultimately bear the burden of the officials' misdeeds. But there is nothing unique about the Prairie State. For years, elected officials in states and municipalities across the country have been imprudently piling up obligations that are imposing serious strains on budgets, prompting higher taxes and cutbacks in services…
To prevent the pile-up of hidden debt, taxpayers need to spearhead a revolt that will narrow the ability of officials to mortgage their future. Any such revolt will first of all seek an end to government sponsored defined-benefit pension plans, through which politicians promise benefits years hence to current employees in a manner that potentially leaves taxpayers on the hook for unlimited liabilities. Simpler, defined-contribution plans featuring individual retirement accounts would make government pension systems less expensive and their accounting more transparent.
Similarly, reformers will have to rein in borrowing by independent authorities and other government entities created to circumvent current debt limits. No state or municipality should be allowed to issue any debt for which taxpayers are ultimately liable without voter approval.
Without such reforms, many states risk becoming like Illinois, where a $7 billion tax increase in 2011 was largely gobbled up by rising pension costs, leaving the state with a $9 billion backlog of unpaid bills and the prospect of new taxes to pay off its $271 billion in debt. This is a future in which rising taxes don't provide citizens new services but merely go to pay off hidden debts.
Mr. Malanga is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. This column is adapted from a forthcoming issue of City Journal, where he is a senior editor.


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Karen Smith, LCSW, PhD, is the vice-president of the national Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA) and principal clinical ethicist for the Henry Ford Hospital System in Detroit. 1hr 7m.
Jonathan Vogel-Borne2019-08-14T20:03:13-04:00May 11th, 2019|Annual Meeting, Media|
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Update: Several people have let me know, through the comments and in emails directly to me (firstname.lastname@example.com) that they want to come, but the cost is a bit too high. I have found a way to get the cost down to $99. The seats will not be quite as good, but they are not in the upper deck. And you will not get a free Reds hat. But a complete meal at the incredible Montgomery Inn will still be included. So–are you in? Let me know!
We have received enough positive response to the suggestion we meet at a Cincinnati Reds game to 1) honor Michael Spencer, a lifelong Reds fan, and 2) get to meet one another in a fun way, that we are going to move forward with this.
We are looking at Sunday, June 13 as the first annual Internet Monk Day At The Reds. We could start by worshipping together at The Oaks, a church I wrote about recently located in Middletown, Ohio. Then it's on to Great American Ballpark to watch the Reds take on the Kansas City Royals in a 1:10 game. (Yes, GregR, I chose this partly as a tip of the hat to you. No excuses–you will have to be there.) After the game, we will adjourn to one of the best restaurants in America, Montgomery Inn Boathouse, right on the Ohio River. They serve ribs so good that Johnny Carson and Bob Hope would have them shipped to California on a regular basis.
Oh, did I mention that this game is a Hat Day, and each person will get his or her own Cincinnati Reds hat?
The cost for the day is just $125.00. That includes good seats for the game and your complete meal (minus alcohol–you're on your own for that). Any money left over goes to help fund this site–a worthy cause, as I'm sure you will agree.
So, check your schedules and let me know quickly if we can count you in. I will get back with you soon about how to pay, etc. Oh–I will be traveling the day before the game from Tulsa. That's 762 miles away. So no excuses about not being able to make it because of the distance. The Cincinnati airport is right down the road. Southwest flies into Columbus and Indianapolis, both within 90 minutes. There are lots of hotels in and around Cincinnati. Bring the family and spend the day before at Kings Island, getting whiplash from the roller coasters.
We hope to see many of the IM family at this fun event. We will have some of our writers there for you to meet, and may have a few other surprises as well. And who knows? If we can meet in prayer before the game, the Reds just might actually win one for us.


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Every Sunday evening, it's the same old, you start to feel the symptoms of the Sunday depression. Mama knows what is this blues that suddenly invades you when the weekend is coming to an end.
To overcome these blues, Mama has more than just a top 10 list of ways to make you feel better:
She created the Super Sunday for you.
Every Sunday at the Mama Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Paris or Toulouse, enjoy a special meal by Guy Savoy! The special Super Sunday menu is: roasted chicken, french fries, salad and profiteroles for dessert.
All this for
To enjoy the Super Sunday offer, click on the "Book a table" button
Book a table
Also enjoy exceptional live performances every Sunday evening, at
Mama Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Paris East, Marseille & Toulouse.
Sunday, October 20th
Discover our restaurants
* The "Super Sunday" offer includes a menu by Guy Savoy (roasted chicken served with French fries and salad followed by a dessert), only available on Sunday nights at Mama Shelter Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Paris and Toulouse. This offer is at 19 euros per person.
This offer is only available on www.mamashelter.com and cannot be cumulated with other special offers, based on availability.
Choose your destination:


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Senile Dementia
What is senile dementia? Senile dementia is the mental deterioration (loss of intellectual ability) that is associated with old age. Two major types of senile dementia are identified: those due to generalized atrophy (Alzheimer type) and those due to vascular problems (mainly strokes). Senile dementia is often used when referring to Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is most likely to affect older people: of all people over 80, 20% suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Senile dementia is actually a group of several different diseases. The common ones are Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, Parkinson's disease, and Lewy body disease.
In Alzheimer's disease, the commonest form, the brain atrophies and abnormal proteins, called amyloid, accumlate in the brain substance, in the form of senile plaques. In addition, abnormal filaments appear in the brain cells, the neurons, and they are called neurofibrillary tangles. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of senile dementia. The causes are not yet known, and up to now there is no effective treatment. Patients with Alzheimer's isease deteriorate very gradually, so the disease is often not detected in its early stages.
Multi-infarct dementia is caused by a series of minor strokes. It usually results from damage to the small blood vessels in the brain causing deprivation of blood supply to the brain cells thus affecting its function. Patients' abilities will decline in ladder-like pattern. Other causes of senile dementia include depression, poor nutrition, thyroid dysfunction, drug poisoning, alcoholism, and so on. This kind of dementia can often be corrected by treating the underlying diseases. Senile ementia is a disease caused by degeneration of the brain cells.
It's different from normal senility in the elderly. The patient's brain function will gradually deteriorate resulting in progressive loss of memory and mental abilities, and noticeable personality changes. Progressive wasting of brain cells or loss of brain function due to hardening of arteries (arteriosclerosis); onset is slow, over years rather than months. Short-term memory is affected first – person occasionally forgets what happened hours or minutes ago, and has difficulty following conversations and trains f thought, or making sense of what he or she sees or reads.
In early stages, person is well aware of what is happening; even in later stages, confusion may be punctuated by moments of lucidity. With memory and reasoning impaired, person loses interest in activities which were once enjoyable; habitual behaviours which make up 'personality' break down; there is increasing emotional and physical instability, with unpredictable switches between apathy and aggression; social inhibitions, and sometimes sexual inhibitions, also go out of the window. Senile Dementia By Lopaka78


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By: Kevin Ledgister, Marketing Manager, ImageSoft, Inc. The Court Technology Conference in Salt Lake City last month went far beyond all of our expectations. We were kept busy networking with court staff members, doing live demos and sharing our experiences. Thanks for stopping by our booth and attending our two major presentations. The Component Model … Continue reading The Component Model and Going Beyond eFiling
Tag: eFiling System
Happy Halloween
One of the great motifs of the "Men in Black" movies is the human disguises used by aliens. A perfectly normal looking human turns out to be a sort of robot or exo-skin for some alien inside who is driving the apparatus. The allure of being able to wear a young, buff, fully-coifed humanoid exterior … Continue reading Happy Halloween
What Is An "EFM", and Why Should I Care?
When I first started watching Star Trek, which was well after it was cancelled, I didn't see them in order and had no background as to the "universe" in which the stories were supposedly taking place. Among other things, I used to chuckle at the fact that everyone, aliens of all stripes, as well as … Continue reading What Is An "EFM", and Why Should I Care?


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Chocolate, Discourse, English, English Language, Lexicon, Linguistics, Mean, Pragmatics, Sentence (linguistics), Social Sciences, Sociolinguistics, Speech, Word
The original lexical meaning of the word just was to mean 'deserved'; as in:
He got his just reward
… And in other such idioms.
Today, however, it has become a discourse marker. A discourse marker is a word which has a function at a discourse (i.e. conversational) level, not within a sentence or clause.
For example, compare the use of the word like in the following examples
- I like chocolate
- My chocolate is like your chocolate, only yummier
- And I was like, 'Oh, my God! This chocolate is amazing'
- And I, like, really, enjoyed eating it.
In number 1, we see the word like being used with it's own lexical meaning, indicating that you find something pleasurable or agreeable.
As used in 2, like indicates that something is similar to something else.
As used in 3, it is an introducer of dialogue (You can read a separate a post on quotative verbs here).
As used in 4, however, it seems to have little function alone; on a conversational level, however, it suggests the speaker's tone, their meaning. Indeed, they are communicating more than they are saying on a surface level.
Because of this ambiguity that comes with both discourse markers like and just they are a lot more stigmatised than other discourse markers (okay, well, however). People think that they show poor planning, that they can be placed anywhere in a sentence, and that they have no meaning. This simply is not the case.
A discourse marker is created when the original lexical meaning of a word becomes semantically bleached. Rather than having this meaning, the word is more of a signpost in the discourse, indicating to the hearer where the conversation is going. This bleaching of meaning is one reason cynics don't see the function of discourse markers; they don't have direct meanings you can easily pin down.
However, they do have meanings. People like my father will not like the indisputable proof that they are not markers of lazy speech…
In fact, contrary to popular opinion, Anderson (2000) found that only 10% of the uses of like in his study were used as hesitation phenomena, to punctuate a pause while the speaker chooses the next word. Meanwhile, a quarter were used to link two separate sections of discourse. If you wanted to say something unrelated you would say, 'Like, I hate cheese', or something, with like signposting this as a discourse link.
Other uses of like, all at about 20%, included approximation ('there were, like, tons of them'), exemplification ('one of them, like, smelled funny'), metalinguistic focus ('and it was, like, awful': used to highlight a word; emphasise it in a way only spoken discourse really can).
Just, however? According to Erman, 1996, just is extremely linked to a function. Perhaps the reason just is less stigmatised than like is that it is used a whopping 73% of the time as an emphasiser. It highlights the sentence, the strength of the feelings being expressed, and so on. For example, in the sentence:
I just wasn't feeling up to it
The discourse marker just increases the strength of what the speaker is saying, in the same way as simply would if it were used.
Tagliamonte (2005) found that discourse marker just was used nearly half the time before a verb, which make sense if you consider its function as emphasising something, such as an action ('I just walked', 'I just ate all the chocolate', etc.).
Again, like wasn't quite so circumscribed, but was used mostly before a noun phrase (i.e. when the headword/most important word of a chunk of a sentence is a naming word), as in:
And I didn't think there would be, like, so much chocolate
Or at the start of a sentence:
Like, I feel ill from eating so much chocolate…
So, there you have it. These words are not markers of lazy speech, nor are they used anywhere in a sentence. They're highly circumscribed words. They are also both constrained by gender and age, but that's a whole other story I'll tell you in another post in the future!


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Coach & group travelers are welcome!
In the vicinity of Ulm, in a convenient location near the A8 motorway, you can expect a pleasant stay in Seligweiler Hotel & Restaurants. Whether as a short stopover, or as a place to stay overnight on a long journey. Our hotel offers enough space, even for large groups and coach travelers.
Your place for a relaxing break
We at Seligweiler Hotel & Restaurants know about the needs of coach & group travelers. For example, we have enough parking spaces in front of the house for 13 buses and around 250 cars. In our house you have the choice between three restaurants with an outdoor terrace and a café bar with a travel shop. And to avoid long waiting times, our self-service restaurant is also open on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays during the travel time. You are welcome to pre-book tables in the restaurants of the house, and to prepare individually arranged menus for every taste. Because kitchen and service score with high flexibility, optimal time management and warm friendliness. To our restaurants.
As a small pastime during your break, we recommend the annual corn maze next to our hotel. For almost 20 years, the initiator Bernd Ruess has been designing his erroneous path of about two kilometers in length. Fun for the whole family, and a nice change from the highway. To the Maislabyrinth Website.
As accommodation for longer trips
Are you planning a trip and need accommodation for a large group? With 161 rooms in different price ranges, there is enough space in the Hotel Seligweiler. To our hotel rooms. For tour groups we also offer special arrangements. You are welcome to contact us for group travel inquiries without obligation.
Further information and details in particular coach & group travelers can be discussed without obligation with our reception.
Telephone: +49 (0)731 – 20 54 – 0
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Klasse Arbeit aus den Finally Studios.
Music is a good thing. But what we did not know until we started with the research for this piece: Music is also a pretty damn complex thing. This experimental animation is about the attempt to understand all the parts and bits of it.
(Direktlink, via Booooooom)


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Many groups in society find ways to harness the productivity of marine resources in order to pursue a living. The way that one group finds to exploit those resources often conflicts with another group's strategy for doing so. This list highlights the importance of an anthropological perspective in pursuing responsible approaches to managing and harvesting marine resources.
Each of the items on this list is derived from my applied anthropology thesis project, which is designed to investigate how Cortez, Florida, a traditional fishing village at the north end of Sarasota Bay, experiences and adapts to climate change.
Cortez, settled by a community of fishermen from North Carolina in the 1880s, continues to rely on harvesting marine resources for its economy. My interest is in investigating the resilience and vulnerability to climate change in a coastal community still so closely tied to the environment through its commercial fishing industry. Their resilience is evident by their long history of commercial fishing, relative to the prevalence of tourist, residential building, and retirement industries that have come to surround it. Some of their vulnerabilities are that so many other kinds of development have encroached on and surrounded Cortez, and that the last major stand of old growth mangrove forests, Long Bar Point, is under constant threat of development. The mangroves are important for providing habitat for the developmental stages of nearly all the marine species commercially harvested by the villagers. Mangroves, and coastal wetlands generally, are also important for absorbing tidal and storm water surges, events predicted to worsen through the effects of climate change and its associated sea level rise and increasing storm intensities.
Long Bar Point is privately owned by Carlos Beruff, a successful developer who is constantly seeking government approval to clear-cut the mangroves and turn the land into another luxury tourist and retirement destination. In the past, the Manatee County Commission and the Army Corps of Engineers has denied approval of his development project. Beruff has since taken the tack of submitting his development plans as an environmental easement project. And given the shifting political ground in Washington since the onset of the Trump Administration, toward less environmental regulation, it remains unresolved how much longer the Army Corps will continue to protect the mangroves. The State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) has actually approved the project as an environmental easement, under the direction of Govenor Rick Scott, and against the opinion of the FDEP officer who reviewed it. Beruff, himself a failed U.S. Senate candidate in 2016, has famously supported both Governor Scott's and President Trump's political campaigns.
Caught between prevailing political winds from the state and federal level, the future of Long Bar Point, its mangrove forest, and the livelihood of fishermen in Cortez all lie in the balance. The following is a list of the top nine ways that economic anthropology provides insight into how to approach the vulnerabilities faced by a traditional fishing village in Florida.
In his 1972 book chapter, On the Sociology of Primitive Exchange, the anthropologist, Marshall Sahlins, simply defines the economy as, "the process of provisioning society" (p185). Whereas such a broad conception may at first appear to overlook many of the specific and conventional ways we think of economic activity, Sahlins is also careful to distinguish economic activity among others in which people engage. He asserts that economics are an aspect of human activity that performs a specific function (that which provisions society), and often does so in tandem with the performance of other functions, like politics. So, for instance, when a fisherman pays the fee for a commercial fishing license they are securing access to a public resource from which they can provision their livelihoods. But, they are also acknowledging and supporting the authority of the state to regulate the way those public resources are managed, whether or not it has the ability to do so sustainably. Ultimately, for Sahlins, the economy, as an aspect of individual or institutional activity, is inextricably wound up in all other forms of human activity, and by recognizing how those various aspects are combined is fruitful for analyzing a particular activity's function in society. So, from an anthropological perspective, meaningful insight into economic activity is made through understanding how it is tangled up with other social activities, rather than walling off specific and arbitrary market metrics as descriptive of a society's economy.
Another innovation proposed by Marshall Sahlins involves rethinking the ways that people exchange goods and services that speak to the quality of the relationship between people who exchange. Richard Wilk and Lisa Cliggett outline Sahlin's typology of exchange in their book, Economies and Cultures: Foundations of Economic Anthropology, 2nd edition (2007). Rather than categories like barter, money, or credit used in more conventional economic analysis, Sahlins identifies relational distance as more fundamental to different kinds of exchange. For instance, in what he describes as 'generalized reciprocity,' goods or services will be exchanged between family members and other members of a close knit community, with little or no expectation that an equivalent good or service of any kind will be reciprocated–think of the portion of a fisherman's catch that would be used to feed his family. In 'balanced reciprocity,' Sahlins asserts that exchange will be conducted between members of different families or nearby communities, such that there is an expectation an equivalent will be paid in return–such as the fish sold to tourists at market value. And, finally, Sahlins imagines what he calls 'negative reciprocity,' or the kind of exchange conducted between groups physically and socially distant from each other. Negative reciprocity is the most socially detached type of exchange and involves the expectation that one group can gain an advantage over the other in the exchange–like the portion of the catch whose proceeds are used to pay federal taxes and state licensing fees, particularly when the state and federal government have the responsibility to sustainably manage the fishery, but could also approve a developer's plans that would put the fishery at risk.
While much of conventional economics holds that value can be summed up with price, derived from measurable amounts of supply and demand, anthropology draws on more subjective aspects of social life. In his introduction to The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, anthropologist Arjun Appadurai (1986) argues that value arises from exchange itself, mediated by complex contests of power between commoners and elite in society. Appadurai's approach to the emergence of value, based on the ways that different segments of society relate to a particular commodity, recognizes that class politics plays an important role in determining what something is worth. For example, the mangrove forest on Long Bar Point (LBP) is valued in Cortez as a gift from God from which they sustain their village. Carlos Beruff values LBP as personal property that can be developed into a money making machine from which he can draw the resources necessary to fuel his political ambition. Governor Rick Scott and Donald Trump value LBP as the pro quo to Mr. Beruff's quid, which he uses to support their anti-regulatory, free-market ideology.
Anthropologist, Anna Tsing, imagines that the value of a commodity is derived from the conversion of gift exchange into one of capitalist market exchange in her 2013 essay, Sorting out Commodities: How Capitalist Value is Made through Gifts. She contends that capitalist markets are perpetuated by their interaction with non-capitalist types of exchange (like gifts). Further, she reasons that the personal dimension of things as gifts is eroded the closer it gets to becoming a commodity in a capitalist market, and that this cleansing of personal attributes "from forest to table," what she calls 'alienation assessment,' provides the commodity with its market value. In this sense the market value of LBP lies in its owner's ability to erase the personal connection that Cortez villagers expressly have for the gifts from God that the mangroves provide. For Tsing, developing LBP into luxury condominiums has market value because Carlos Beruff's claim of ownership denies local fishermen's claim of their historical connection to it.
Philosopher, Michael Sandel, makes the case that market logic increasingly pervades every aspect of society in his 2012 article for The Atlantic Monthly, What Isn't for Sale? Further, he contends that this pervasiveness fosters inequality and corruption. The problem with inequality, he observes, stems from those in society with fewer resources having to increasingly pay for things they need which were previously provided outside a market system. One example is the need for fishermen in Cortez to now buy diesel fuel, required for their longer-range motor boats, to stay competitive in the fishing market after they transitioned from using wind-powered skiffs to harvest their catches. The corruption stems from markets being judged by their productivity alone, which absolves the market of being subjected to moral considerations. For example, when a mangrove forest that provides a community with their livelihood, that absorbs tidal and storm surges, that captures carbon, and that provides habitat for biodiversity to flourish is reduced to a thing to be sold at market for private gain, then the way that forest is valued has been corrupted. Sandel's prescription for what he terms 'market triumphalism' is to have public discussions about what should and should not be made subject to market logic.
Although fishing has formed the bedrock of the economy for the people in Cortez for more than a century now, the locals have diversified their businesses, and other provisioning activities, since then. Today, one can find a multitude of industrial activities that largely either support or ride the coattails of those still harvesting marine resources, like hotels, restaurants, and tackle shops. But, none of that, including fishing, speaks to the traditional role that mainly women have performed in supporting the livelihoods of the villagers. The labor involved in smoking the fishermen's catch, cleaning the fish guts from their clothes, and raising their children along the way is intensive work that the women have been mostly responsible for, work that has been critical in support of Cortez's fishing economy. Marcel Mauss, a pioneering sociologist who wrote The Gift (1923-1924), investigated and theorized how modern capitalist market economies are derivative of the kind of economies that preceded it. For Mauss, the most basic form of exchange is a gift that compels the person who received it to reciprocate and set the stage for future exchange. His program of 'total services' considers the social dimension of exchange that conditions relationships and approaches the analysis of economy as including all of the work and activities that people in society perform in support of their livelihood.
Cortez experiences two kinds of economic intensification. One kind is the relentless encroachment of vacation resorts, luxury condos, and retirement homes that have come to besiege the village on all sides. Another kind, from within the community, involves the annual cycle of preparation for the Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival. This festival has been held for 35 years, as of 2017, and now draws upwards of 20,000 guests that come to Cortez, a veritable tsunami of tourists for a village of around 5,000 people. Katherine Spielmann is one anthropologist whose work examines the role of ritual in economic intensification in her paper, Feasting, Craft Specialization, and the Ritual Mode of Production in Small-Scale Societies (2002). For Spielmann, ceremonies like Cortez's annual fish festival are what underwrite economic intensification through personal and collective obligations related to local craft specializations, such as smoked mullet, fried mullet, and mullet sandwiches. Spielman's work is important for upending the notion that intensification occurs only in the context of increasingly complex political systems.
Anthropologist Mary Helms researched the connections among political, artisanal, and mystical proficiency in small-scale society, which has provided insight into how aesthetics and morality are conflated in society in her book chapter, Skilled Crafting and Political Authority (1993). Helms found that expert crafting signals an ability to expose cosmological realities, while successful leadership entails their imposition. The acquisition of resources, she asserts, from outside realms is an important aspect of both crafting and political leadership, and also portends the importance of travel among relatively politically decentralized communities. In Cortez, the fishing boat captains have been the pillars of their community. Boat captains have acquired a sixth sense in learning to read the water from which they harvest their catches. And by selling the fish to markets and restaurants throughout the region they have learned to read what their customers want and how to fetch the best prices. Just as the importance of the financial and material support that captains in Cortez provide for the community cannot be overstated, neither can the importance of their role as leaders in their community.
Both within the village and in its relationships with other communities, Cortez illustrates the significance that caring for the well being others is a keystone principle of their economic activity. The community is a well orchestrated assembly of fishermen, moms, tour guides, and fish cleaners that all support one another in providing the region with local delicacies and a rich cultural history that meaningfully connects Gulf Coast Floridians to the place they live. David Graeber observes the peculiar way that modern capitalist governments attempt to manage their economies under the assumption that all economic activity emerges from the self-interest of individuals in society. In his 2000 article, Give It Away, Graeber pushes back against the notion that a clear-eyed view of economics must somehow overlook people's concern for others. He contends that it is the strength of social relationships that undergirds a healthy economy, and speaks directly to the kind of society in which their economy is embedded.
Anthropology provides a critical, social perspective to economic analysis that is otherwise beset by faceless market metrics. In considering the kind of relationships exchange partners have with one another, and with their environment, a more holistic view of economy is brought into focus. Politics, leisure, and domestic life are all intimately connected to the way societies provision their wants and needs. And taking those dimensions of everyday life into account offers useful insight and perspective on economic activity.
My applied anthropology thesis project is designed to investigate how the community in Cortez, Florida has and will cope in the context of a changing climate, an unfolding process in which all of humanity is implicated. My hope is that through working on this project with the community we can identify specific policy recommendations for local planning agencies that could tangibly diminish how this community is made vulnerable to the imminent impacts of a changing climate. And I have found that understanding how their economy works through a holistic, social lens will be crucial toward that end.
Investigating the quality of the relationships that Cortez has with its coastal environment, with businesses and tourists that buy their catch, and with Carlos Beruff speaks so much more to the health of their economy than do fluctuations in the market price for mullet. As Michael Sandel observes, a public discussion about the need to keep the mangrove trees on Long Bar Point within the commons is sorely needed, if Floridians were truly concerned about the future of Cortez and its other prized coastal communities.
Solving the problems that climate change presents humanity on a global scale will be tackled at the local level. Interventions orchestrated at national and international levels have fallen flat, and particularly so in the U.S. where commercial and political leadership still seems bent on ignoring the problem in search of more power and money. It is the complexity of a global problem as imminent and dangerous as climate change that requires us to investigate the complexities of social life in seeking solutions. Limiting our analyses of the economy to searching for patterns in market fluctuations will not provide the kind of insight required to fix the problem.
Finally, I would like to thank, sincerely, Craig Pittman with the Tampa Bay Times for his reporting on the evolving situation with Long Bar Point. I would also like to thank Ben Green, author of the wonderful book about the people of Cortez, Finest Kind: A Celebration of a Florida Fishing Village (1985).


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Up for your consideration is this 2020 Canada Peace Dollar PAX 1 ounce. 9999 silver NGC PR70 UC FDI Black Core Taylor Signed Coin. Canada's First Ever Peace Silver Dollar! In 2019, Canada made history with the massively successful release of its Peace & Liberty medal series. For 2020, the Royal Canadian Mint is following it up with a brand-new legal-tender coin: Canada's First-Ever Peace Dollar! Crafted by retired Royal Canadian Mint Senior Engraver Susan Taylor – winner of the 2016 American Medal of the Year Award and the designer of the International Art Medal Federation 2018 Congress Medal – the design for this superb coin features the allegorical "Peace" as she appeared on the Peace & Liberty Medal, where the female personification of Peace is depicted with her hair crowned in a wreath of maple leaves and olive branches that, according to Taylor, symbolize "the core values of peace, order and good government that have come to inherently represent the Canadian identity". Struck in a full ounce of highly pure 99.99% silver, the coin also comes minted in Ultra High Relief, so every strand of hair, every maple leaf, and every olive branch crackles with astounding detail. The design itself is based on the poetic statue representing Peace at Canada's National War Memorial in Ottawa, Ontario. One of the countrys most revered sites, the memorial consists of a large granite arch that rises over a group of 22 World War I-era soldiers in Confederation Square and is topped by two bronze sculptures representing Peace and Liberty. Your 2020 Canada One-Ounce Silver Peace Dollar has been graded by the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) as being in perfect Proof-70 Ultra Cameo (PF70UC) condition, a distinction that means your perfectly-graded proof will have ZERO imperfections – showing all features and fields exactly as the engraver and mint intended. The combination of the high relief and the stunning variety of frosted and mirrored finishes wonderfully enhance the designs with an incredible level of contrast that must be seen to be believed! Collectors seek out these coins because the population of coins labeled First Day of Issue is only a fraction of the total mintage. It will come sonically sealed in an acrylic holder with a black display core and an exclusive label personally signed by Susan Taylor! Only 5,500 of these first-ever One-Ounce Silver Canadian Peace Dollars were authorized for worldwide release an amount that seems destined to disappear rather quickly. Dont let these coins lip through your fingers; grab a "peace" of this limited mintage now before theyre all gone! CANADAS FIRST-EVER PEACE DOLLAR – This coin is Canadas first-ever Peace Dollar. It was designed by Royal Canadian Mint Senior Engraver Susan Taylor and features an allegorical image of "Peace" on the reverse. 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LOW LIMITED EDITION – The Canadian Royal Mint has set the maximum worldwide edition limit for this proof at just 5,500 – and even fewer have been certified by NGC as First Day of Issue coins. Don't miss your chance to secure Canada's First-Ever Peace Silver Dollar! Secure yours now by adding one or more to your cart while they're still available! Thank you very much for looking at our listings! Track Page Views With. Auctiva's FREE Counter. The item "2020 Canada Peace Dollar PAX Silver NGC PR70 UC FDI BLK Core Taylor Signed Coin" is in sale since Wednesday, September 18, 2019. This item is in the category "Coins & Paper Money\Coins\ Canada\Commemorative". The seller is "lspmex" and is located in Texas. 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You are hereForums / History, Culture and General Discussion / What is a rancho in Mexico?
What is a rancho in Mexico?
Since my grandparents came from a "rancho", but died too early to share their experiences or descriptions in Mexico....I always deduced that a "rancho" was a parcel of land that usually had "animales" - like ganado, horses, goats, sheep. That was my experience from my family's northern roots (Nuevo Leon/Coahuila) where I have fond memories of "roughing" it at the family rancho. Great fun, really.
But when I visited the "rancho" where my mother's family was from (near Las Moras - in Aguajes - within the jurisdiction of Tlaltenango, Zacatecas), I discovered that the definition of "rancho" changed from large parcels of land where animals were raised to super large parcels of land that is harvested for food. Such an "aha" moment for me....in fact, I was able to see the same home where my great great grandfather was raised - and witnessed that it is still a working farm.
Background for the group: Los Aguajes is a 10-20 minute car ride from Cicacalco - a small town that is considered to be predominately indigenous (at one point). In fact, as one enters the vicinity of Los Aguajes, one has to go through "Las Moras" - but as one goes into Los Aguajes - one learns that part of its' lands belong to the indigenous people of Cicacalco.
A question for the group: Is there a way we can find out any historical information on these "ranchos"? Who were the land grands given to originally? Did the Mexican constitution affect the land owners of these ranchos like the haciendas?
Hola Lunalatina,
I'm not familiar with that area, but here's a link to the Tierras y Aguas archives in Guadalajara, 1584-1866. These are titulos de mercedes de tierras, and several were granted to "los naturales" of various pueblos. The first roll are the indexes, which name the locations and the recipients. They're sorted by "libros," and each "libro" covers so many years; each grant is numbered. You can find the corresponding rolls, which are listed by years.
As for the term "rancho," from what I can tell, in earlier years, it usually meant a place for animals and husbandry, as you mentioned, and "labor" was used for cultivation, but I suppose "rancho" later became a generic term for both.
Good luck!
Manny Diez Hermosillo
Thank you Manny! In fact, Tlaltenango is mentioned
Thank you Manny! In fact, Tlaltenango is mentioned


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Sandy, One Year Later: Sharing and Preserving Brooklyn's Stories
Brooklyn Historical Society
Wednesday, October 30, 2013 from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Event Details
It's been one year, and though Super Storm Sandy has largely receded from the headlines, Brooklynites still grapple with its devastating impact. This program seeks to preserve and document the unique experiences of those whose daily lives continue to be impacted in the aftermath of Sandy. Our panel will include a homeowner (Andrea Hodge, Canarsie), NYCHA resident (Rasheed Johnson, a teen living in the Red Hook Houses), business owner (Michael "Buzzy" O'Keeffe from The River Cafe in DUMBO), and one of Coney Island's first responders, all of whom continue to work to help their communities return to a "new normal" post Sandy. Also participating is Rachel Falcone of Sandy Storyline, an organization that has gathered audio, video, photography, and text from residents and citizen journalists to document the storm and its aftermath, with the goal of advocating for a more just and sustainable future. Amy Starecheski, Associate Director of the Columbia University Oral History MA Program, will moderate.
This program is co-presented by the Brooklyn Community Foundation, whose Brooklyn Recovery Fund provided over $3 million in direct aid to individuals, businesses, and nonprofits in the borough's waterfront communities.
We welcome you to join us for an opening reception for BHS's new exhibition 'Documenting Sandy' following the program. Learn more about the innovative exhibition here.
When & Where
Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont St
Wednesday, October 30, 2013 from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Add to my calendar
Brooklyn Historical Society
Founded in 1863, Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) functions as a library, museum, and urban education center dedicated to the people of Brooklyn, providing opportunities for civic dialogue and thoughtful engagement.
Phone: 718.222.4111, ext. 250


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SELFRIDGES has named "home-grown talent" Anita Barr as its new director of women's and childrenswear.
She steps into the (enviable) shoes of Anna Garner, charged with the task of "building on the success and reputation of the Selfridges fashion portfolio". It's a challenge that shouldn't prove too much of a problem; Barr has been with Selfridges for eight years, most recently, as contemporary and designerwear buying manager.
"We are always keen to develop and reward great talent, so I'm particularly pleased we have been able to make this very important appointment from within our own team," says buying and merchandising director Anne Pitcher.
Barr, too, is understandably thrilled about her appointment.
"I am very much looking forward to working with the best womenswear team around," she says. "I'm thrilled about this opportunity and delighted to be able to pursue my career at Selfridges, a place I feel offers the most exciting scope for growth and professional development."


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Precious Boy Love Spanish-Language Religious New Baby Card
Hallmark VIDA
Regular price $3.59
Banner's Hallmark Shop, 44110 Ashburn Shopping Plz Unit 178, Ashburn
Card Details
Celebrate the blessing and arrival of a new baby boy with a lovely verse from the book of Luke in this welcoming card. Designed to look like a Bible, the cover shows a tiny lamb, representing the miracle of a new life, with congratulations and a Scripture quoting Luke 18:16 in Spanish.
- Embossed card features foil.
- Includes envelope and Gold Crown seal. Envelope color may vary.
- 5.75" W x 8.25" H
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Translation: Las Escrituras fueron tomadas de La Biblia de las Américas®,© The Lockman Foundation 1986, 1995, 1997. Usadas con permiso.
Scripture from the La Biblia de las Américas®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation.
Scripture from the La Biblia de las Américas®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation.
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Dr BS Harishankar argues that Sastha or Mahasatha tradition has its origin in Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu and was adopted in Kerala. Sri Ayyappa is believed to be Sastha's manifestation. The Kerala government, in an affidavit in Kerala High Court, claimed that Sabarimala was a Buddhist temple. In this context, we are reproducing the article which was first published on 05/10/2018. — Editor
Left historians claim Sabarimala was a Buddhist shrine in the past. In 2008, the LDF government in Kerala has cited scholars to suggest that Sabarimala was once a Buddhist shrine where rituals followed were synonymous with the 'Saranathrayam' of Buddhist disciples. In its affidavit to the Supreme Court, the state government said, "Some scholars of ancient Kerala history say that the Sabarimala Sastha Prathishta was once a Buddhist shrine." The left government however declined to disclose the name of the historians, who claimed that Sabarimala is a Buddhist shrine. The affidavit said the state government has no intention to create any controversy. (Kerala govt suggests Sabarimala was once a Buddhist shrine in Outlook 07-02-2008–https://www.outlookindia.com/newswire/story/kerala-govt-suggests-sabarimala-was-once-a-buddhist-shrine/543138)
The scholars who raised the claim on Sabarimala as Buddhist shrine for the left government certainly shall be left historians. The left historians in Kerala have been accommodated by the Left government in the Kerala Council for Historical Research (henceforth KCHR) to discover the ancient site of Muziris in west coast. The Left historians identified ancient Muziris with Pattanam in Ernakulam district. The Pattanam site already created opprobrium and obloquy and brought discredit to the historical community due to KCHR's scandalous excavations, fictitious claims and fabricated interpretations. Eminent Indian historians and archaeologists such as Professors Dilip Chakrabarti, MGS Narayanan, R.Nagaswamy and A Sundara have unleashed vehement academic criticism against Pattanam excavations. (https://www.dailypioneer.com/2018/columnists/marxists-dig-for-apostle-thomas.html)
Former director of KCHR, PJ Cherian claimed that the occurrence of the ceramic known as Indian Rouletted Ware or IRW at the lowest layers of occupation is a pointer to the Buddhist and Jain commercial links of Pattanam. (Pattanam Excavations 2011 –Report of the Fifth Season Excavation at Pattanam by PJ Cherian. Thiruvananthapuram: KCHR). In 2011, PJ Cherian also said Brahmanical hegemony persecuted minorities like Jains and Buddhists and annihilated them from the soil of Kerala forever.(Pattanam: A Rupture in the Cultural History of Kerala 07 05 2011 http://ajaysekher.net/2011/05/07/pattanam-muziris-excavations-pasts-kerala/)
Treated inside and outside with a slip, Rouletted Ware is decorated with two or three concentric bands seemingly produced by a roulette. The inner surface is well-burnished. The rouletted designs are geometric and were incised by revolving it on the wheel with a rouletted or toothed instrument, when the clay was wet. The clay is fine and well levigated and the dishes are made on the wheel. The Rouletted Ware has been found from 130 sites such as Brahmagiri, Chandravalli, Amaravati, Salihundam, Kaveripattinam, Uraiyur, Nattamedu, Sengamedu, Kanchipuram, Sisupalgarh and Tamluk .No archaeologist has identified it as a Buddhist or Jaina ceramic in Indian context, as claimed by KCHR.
The former KCHR director has not provided a single historical evidence to vindicate his charges on the Hindu persecution of Buddhists in Kerala and their final annihilation from the soil as claimed by him in 2011. On the other hand, KCHR was propagating that Pattanam was the site where Apostle Thomas landed in India. Controversies created by KCHR on Apostle Thomas crossed the limits in the Indian academic domain. Finally, the former Indian President Pranab Kumar Mukherjee declined in February 2016, to inaugurate the exhibition of Pattanam artefacts due to the shocking and disgraceful controversies associated with it (President Skips Pattanam Exhibition in The Hindu 28-02-2016). Earlier in August 2015, the Left lobbies attempted to drag PM Narendra Modi into Pattanam. Sensing the agenda and ongoing controversies the PMO declined the offer.
It is now clear that historians associated with KCHR advised the Left government in 2008 that, Sabarimala was a Buddhist shrine in the past. Hence in its affidavit to the Supreme Court, the Left government said, scholars of ancient Kerala history say that the Sabarimala Sastha temple was once a Buddhist shrine. The Left lobbies know to raise controversies and keep silent when climate is not favorable for them.
Buddhism was essentially urban in character, and a vast majority of Buddhist sites are located in cities and along major trade routes. Laurya Nandangarh, Vaisali, Sanchi, Sarnath, Bodhgaya, Nalanda, Takshasila, Bamiyan,Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda and Nagapattinam—the examples are numerous. No Buddhist vihara or monastery shall be located at Sabari hills in the densely vegetated Western Ghats a thousand years back, with no access to plains.
Numerous archaeological evidences on cultural synthesis of Buddhism and various Indian cults are available. The sculpture of Hari-Hara flanked by Buddha and Surya belongs to the Pala Period. There are numerous carvings at Nagarjundakonda and Gandhara depicting Buddha surrounded by Indra and other gods, exhorting him to preach the cosmic law of Dharma. A rare sculpture of Buddha seated on the lion resembling Durga is from Mahaoba.This Simhanada Buddha holds a trident, sword, lotus and rosary .The bronze statue of Hayagriva –Lokeswara from Swat valley in Pakistan, is a fine blending of Hayagriva manifestation of Vishnu and Buddha. Numerous images of Tara Mahavidya, the Great Goddess of Buddhist tradition have been recovered from numerous Buddhist sites. She holds an important position in Dasa Mahavidya tradition. These historical facts have been conveniently buried by Left historians.
When anti-aircraft and tank fire failed to destroy the 1,700-year-old sandstone statues of Buddha standing over 150 feet high above a small town situated at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountains of central Afghanistan, the Taliban terrorists resorted to another gameplan.They brought a lorry load of dynamite from Kabul. A Western observer said: "They drilled holes into the torsos of the two statues and then placed dynamite charges inside the holes to blow them up". (The Telegraph 12 03 2001)The operation to wreck the statues carved into a cliff in the Bamiyan Valley in the Hindu Kush mountains of central Afghanistan was supervised by Mullah Obaidullah, the Taliban defence minister.
On 29 September 2012, there was a series of attacks on Buddhist monasteries, shrines, and houses of Buddhist inhabitants at Ramu Upazila, in Cox's Bazar District of Bangladesh. The Islamic fundamentalists destroyed 12 Buddhist temples and monasteries. The violence later spread to Ukhia Upazila in Cox's Bazar District and Patiya Upazila in Chittagong District with larger concentration of Buddhist monasteries.
On 7 July 2013 a series of ten bombs exploded in and around the Mahabodhi Buddhist Temple complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Bodh Gaya, Bihar. Five people, including two Buddhist monks, were injured by the blasts. Three other devices were defused by bomb-disposal squads at a number of locations in Gaya. On 4 November 2013, the National Investigation Agency announced that the Islamic terrorist group Indian Mujahideen, was responsible for the bombings.
There was global outrage against destruction of Buddhist heritage. But India's left historians and cultural activists hid under the carpet and remained unseen and unheard until the global protest came down.
The left historians who claim Buddhism was wiped out of Kerala by Hindus, should remember their own legacy. In Russia, Communists unleashed a reign of terror in Buddhist areas of Kalmykia and Buryatia. In 1931-32, the highest-ranking members of the Buddhist clergy were persecuted, and in 1935-36, the remaining members of the middle ranks of the clergy were arrested. In 1930, the seizure of temples and monasteries and pogroms began. Temple property was confiscated and destroyed. The most valuable property were xylographs (wooden engravings). The Aga Buddhist temple had 100,000 pieces of such engravings. Most of these engravings included dictionaries, grammar guides, narrative and poetic literature, and essays on history, medicine, astronomy, and philosophy.Communists Komsomol (Communist Youth) members were mobilized, especially by non-governmental organizations and activists for looting Buddhist monasteries.
The repressive Communist Government that ruled Mongolia for 70 years under the advise of Soviet Communist regime, destroyed more than 700 monasteries in the 1930's, burning books and executing thousands of lamas.
Under the notorious Cultural Revolution by Mao, Communist China looted Tibetan Buddhist monasteries using red brigades. The Jokhang temple, Tibetan Buddhists' most sacred site, was plundered, destroyed and desecrated beyond repair. Names of streets, roads, shops, villages and even personal names were rewritten in Chinese.
More than 6,000 monasteries and religious institutions in Tibet laid in ruins. Millions of ancient and priceless manuscripts were burnt. Statues made of gold, silver, or bronze were removed from the temples and shipped to China. At least 92,000 Tibetans who were subjected to "struggle sessions" died or committed suicide and around 173,000 Tibetans died in prison, or Labor Camps.
Left historians in Kerala who inherit this notorious legacy of Buddhist massacre are now accusing Hindus for capturing Buddhist shrines and annihilating Buddhist monks of Kerala in the past.
The Sastha or Maharashtra tradition in Kerala takes its root from the ancient historic city of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu from 7thcentury AD. The main textual evidence is the Sri Lalithopaakhyana, a very important tantric text associated with the Srividya tradition. The text narrates Mahasastha in the context of rituals associated with Kali, Bhairava and Saptamatrkas. It highlights the importance of Mahasatha as manifestation of Vishnu-Siva (Space –Time Continuum) amalgamation or coalescence. The text describes the importance of Mahasastha in association with Bhairavas and Kshetrapaalas at the coronation of the Great Goddess Sri Lalitha Parameswari. The text is essentially associated with Kanchipuram. This Mahasatha tradition was adopted in Kerala, and Sri Ayyappa is believed to be his manifestation.
In August 2015 His Holiness, the Dalai Lama arrived at the holy town of Trimbakeshwar during Kumbh Mela to meet and interact with various sadhus and mahants, belonging to the Jain, Shaiva, Shakta and Vaishnava denominations. He has been the chief guest at World Hindu Conclaves, including the recent one at Chicago which commemorates 125 years since the historic Chicago address given by Swami Vivekananda on Sept. 11, 1893.The left historians need not dream of breaking Hindu fraternity by raising fictitious claims at Sabarimala shrine funded by western lobbies.


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You may wonder what goes on with your Invisalign braces between the time that your orthodontist takes impressions of your teeth for your clear braces and when you receive your first set of aligners.
State-of-the-art computer technology plays a vital role in the process of creating your Invisalign braces. In fact, Invisalign's high-volume, customized orthodontics manufacturing process is the first of its kind in the world.
Below are some of the ways advanced computer technology in used in the manufacture of Invisalign invisible braces.
If you want to avoid looking unattractive while you straighten your teeth, you may find clear braces an attractive option.
You can get the orthodontic work you need without having to compromise aesthetics along the way.
When people say "clear braces," they usually mean what orthodontists and braces dentists call ceramic braces.
Instead of the big ugly metal brackets used in traditional braces, these braces have tooth-colored ceramic brackets that are far less noticeable.
Clear elastics and white-colored metal means everything is less visible to others.
But sometimes when people talk about "clear braces," they mean Invisalign braces or another system of clear plastic aligners.
Though they straighten teeth, they are no braces per se. The trays fit over the teeth like an ultra-thin mouth guard, slowly moving teeth into place.
They're not just invisible; they're also removable. But, as with so many other things, beauty can have its price.
Ceramic braces cost slightly more than their metal counterparts. Moreover, the ceramic brackets are somewhat more prone to breakage. And plastic aligners simply can't move teeth as dramatically as can actual braces.
Make sure you've learned the pros and cons before making a final decision.


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Discovering First Hop Redundancy Protocol parameters
To begin with, IP network gateway redundancy has become a very standard high availability solution. In IP Fabric's platform it's described as First Hop Redundancy Protocol (FHRP) feature that currently umbrellas HSRP, VRRP and GLBP protocol. I have prepared a little scenario in our virtual…
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Cancer and Health Protection Dogs are looking for dogs between the ages of 1-4 years old to take part in medical detection trials that could lead to a human life being saved. The trials are perfectly safe for the dogs.
So if you have a dog with a good nose and does not come from a detection dog background we would be keen to talk to you.
All dogs must be micro chipped and hold a current licence and up to date with all injections to take part in the trial, those wishing to get involved would be on a voluntary basis. This project will start with a pilot scheme to begin with and will last for six months.
So to take part in this life-saving work we will be holding a assessment day in Newcastle Co-Down N.Ireland and in conjunction with Falco K9 Academy UK to see if your dog has what is needed to take part in the trials.
So if you can email a photo of your dog and details of yourself to:
Help in the fight against cancer.]]>


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This wonderful French tomato is the size and color of an apricot, with more orange on the outside and a blushing rosy interior. Easy to grow and very prolific, Jaune Flamme will ripen just days behind the cherries and well ahead of beefsteaks, and it goes on producing until frost. Perfect halved in salads, and it makes a beautiful sauce.
Approx. 40 seeds per packet
Grown in Potter Valley, California
Certified Organic by CCOF
Open-pollinated, non-GMO


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Our daily TPS reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
Nordstrom has a ton of stuff on deep discount (lots of lucky sizes, but a lot of great stuff). For today's TPS report, I'm liking this black combo seamed pencil skirt from Halogen — the bit of texture looks interesting and fun, while the black colorblocking on the side is flattering but not obvious (as some readers have noted, sometimes colorblocking look like a bad version of those bikini t-shirts). The skirt was $69, but is now marked 60% off to $24.97. Halogen Seamed Pencil Skirt
Seen a great piece you'd like to recommend? Please e-mail [email protected]


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A young member of the Spanish royal family has reportedly thrown a racially abusive tantrum at a theme park after being forced to wait in line.
Don Felipe Froilan, 16, attempted to jump a long queue at one of the attractions at Parque de Atracciones but was called back by a schoolteacher, European media has reported.
Felipe, the nephew of Spain's King Felipe, then claimed he was fourth in line to the country's throne.
Told by a theme park attendant he had to wait in line, the young royal then exploded.
"You shut up, you f---ing chino," he said, making use of a Spanish term for a person of Chinese heritage.
Felipe has a history of poor behaviour, including being kicked out of school last year for twice failing his exams.


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"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child you have stolen, for my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great. You have no power over me!"
I love the movie the Labyrinth. It is one of my favorite childhood movies. I remember watching over and over again. I still like to pull it out from time to time and watch it. Who would have thought that years later the Lord would use a line from this movie to speak to my heart about marriage?
Spoiler alert- if you have never seen the movie here is a brief summary. The story is about a girl named Sarah and her baby brother Toby. Sarah gets upset because she is forced to babysit her brother so she makes a wish for the goblin king to come and take him away. The goblin king actually comes and does what she ask and gives her a choice. She can have the life that she always wanted but in return, Toby will be turned into a goblin forever. She refuses and has to make her way through a labyrinth to rescue her brother before time runs out. At the end of the movie, she confronts the goblin king. It looks as if he is going to win when Sarah says these words, "You have no power over me." At that moment the king is rendered powerless and Sarah and her brother are returned home.
You Have No Power Over Me!
The battle for Sarah was won from the beginning she just did not realize it. The goblin king never had any true power over her she just thought he did. As soon as she made the discovery there was nothing more he could do to her. A few days ago, I was thinking about this movie and that scene. The Lord spoke to me and said, "You need to say those words to the enemy." It took me back for a moment but then I realized this important truth.
Our enemy just like the goblin king has no power over us.
We give the enemy way more credit and authority in our lives than he actually has. We portray him as this powerful, strong being. We say things like, "The devil made me do it." and "He's really good at his job." We are giving him power and authority by our words and the way we act.
So what does all this have to do with marriage? I have said this in previous blogs but the enemy hates marriage. Marriage is supposed to be a model of how Christ loves His church and the enemy knows that a couple displaying this model is dangerous to his kingdom. So he does everything in his power to cause division and to corrupt God's design.
We as a couple have to stand up and let him know that~
- He has no power over us
- He has no power in our marriage
- He has no power over our finances
- He has no power over our health
We need to follow Sarah's example and vocally tell him that he is powerless. There is such a freedom in just realizing then proclaiming that over your marriages.
A few months back Alex went through a phase where he was sick a lot. Then on top of that, he got poison oak and it went crazy. He was covered in the worse rash I have ever seen. Not only was he miserable and in pain but it made it impossible for us to touch each other. This went on for a few weeks. We were both so tired and broken with everything that was going on. A friend of ours prayed over Alex one Sunday and told us that this was an attack and that it was unacceptable. He reminded us of whose we were and that we had been given authority because of Jesus. After that prayer, Alex and I decided that we had had enough we did not use the exact phrase "you have no power of me", but we told the enemy in no uncertain terms that we were done and that he could not bother us anymore.
Did our situation chance instantly, no. However, our situation did change. We started verbally saying that Alex was healed and that the enemy had no power in our home. We took back the spiritual ground that the enemy had stolen. There was such a shift in us and the way we approached the situation once we vocalized the enemies lack of power.
You may be under attack right now in your marriage. It could be an emotional, physical, or spiritual attack. The enemy will use anything he can to create division.
Whatever the attack is take back your ground!
How do we take back this ground? In a physical battle, you take back your ground by pushing the enemy back. If you continue to push them back eventually they will retreat in the opposite direction. We have been given that same ability with our enemy.
James 4:7- "So submit to [the authority of] God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him] and he will flee from you."
According to this verse, we are to submit to God and resist the devil! If we do those two things the Word promises us he will flee. I googled "How to submit to God" and I found a really cool article. It gives several definitions but since we are talking about a battle the military definition really stood out to me.
The word was used as a military term meaning "to arrange troop divisions in a military fashion under the command of a leader."
So we submit to God by getting behind Him and following His commands. He is our leader and He will fight for us if we will let Him. We just need to be obedient to what He tells us to do. How do we know what He wants us to do?
- By getting in our Word
- By spending alone time with Him so we recognize His voice when He speaks to us
- By speaking life over your situations
- By praying about everything
If we will submit to God in those ways the enemy will have no choice but to flee. Jesus defeated the enemy at the cross. We as His heirs get to walk in the victory that has been graciously given to us. But you can't walk in it if you don't know you have it.
So from now own, quota Jim Henson to the enemy when he comes and tries to attack you.
You have no power over me!
You have no power over my marriage!
You have no power at all!


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Palestine : Again and Always, Forever and Ever
On Sunday 29th of November, it was the United Nation International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and for this reason we thought it is important to remind everyone of the daily sufferings of the Palestinians, and of the Israeli criminal and colonial policy towards them. The Palestinian misfortune has now been going on for decades with no true and real efforts from the International Community to pressure Israel to grant the people of Palestine a State and a better life. The Palestinian has been left alone to struggle against the occupation and this has been the case for a while, western countries have shown hypocrisy towards the Palestinians since the beginning of the conflict; while Israel's development was based on violence and the negation of the other, the Palestinians. These elements have lead us today to a catastrophic situation in Palestine, from a political to a humanitarian level. We would like to remind everyone some truths and realities which are the everyday life of people living under occupation.
Firstly, let us clearly state what some people seem to have forgotten: Zionism is a racist movement. Whether it could have had in the beginning of the movement a weak project for a national democratic state between Palestinians and the newly arrived Jews is not the issue, it is definitely Jabotinsky's movement of thought which has influenced and inspired today's Israeli politicians' actions towards the Palestinians and more generally Israeli institutions. He will be one of the first to promote the idea of the "transfer of Palestinians", that is to say their expulsion beyond the Jordan River, and for the establishment by any means of a Jewish State. Besides, the first political assassination committed by the Zionists in 1924 was against a Palestinian Jew, Jacob De Haan, who was going to London to ask the British to repeal the Balfour Declaration[1]. Since then the Zionist ideology has become the mainstream ideology in the Israeli society and particularly entered the education system, where it is taught that the Jewish people were exiled during 2000 years and thanks to Zionism, these latter were able to come back on the land of their ancestors. This theory of the exodus is now questioned by the the historian Schlomo Sand's book (How was the Jewish people invented?). The Palestinians in the Israeli textbooks are not really one people but more or less a kind of diverse population's mixture brought by the Ottomans and numerically insignificant. To be Zionist, is to therefore find legitimate the ownership of Palestine in 1948, Israel's creation and the expulsions of the Palestinians. As a reminder, in 1948, the Jewish forces seized 78% of Palestine while destroying more than 500 Palestinians villages and pushing into exile 750 000 to 800 000 Palestinians.
Unfortunately, Zionism is far from being outdated; indeed the quasi totality of the Israeli political movements recognized themselves in this ideology. A small minority of Israelis, whom we want to encourage and welcome, is despite of all struggling against this racist ideology and against the occupation. They are intellectuals such as Michel Warschawski, Amira Hass, Gidéon Lévy, Nurit Peled, Ilan Pappé, Uri Avnéry, or small groups such as women in black, refuzniks, anarchist against the wall, and also three political parties represented in the Knesset[2].
Secondly, we would like to condemn the International Community's hypocrisy in relation to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and its total support to Israel. They have pursued a policy that on the one side supports the modernization and the edification of the Palestinian Authority's structure and facilities while on the other side they are not pressuring Israel to fulfill its International commitments towards the Palestinians and allow the foundation of a Palestinian State. The Palestinians therefore benefit from a customs service upscale but they do not have the control of their borders, they have launched an enormous program to register hundreds of thousands of parcels of land while Israel continues to expropriate them and Palestinian Policemen are allowed to follow training outside the country but they are not authorized to circulate from a city to another[3]. The Israeli army still refuses the deployment of the Palestinian police in 80% of the West bank[4]. Of course Gaza, controlled by the Hamas, is put aside from this "institution building" program.
The hypocrisy continues when we are the witnesses of the gathering of all the powerful countries in the world to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. These same countries which are so enthusiasts about this event and welcoming it as a page of freedom in history are surprisingly silent when it comes to the Wall of Separation in Palestine. The Western governments have besides completely ignored the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory) confirming the illegality of the wall, and asking Israel to dismantle it. As a snub to history and as a reminder to the International Community, a group of young Palestinians destroyed part of the Wall near Qalandiya on November 10th, exactly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall[5]. The Wall of Separation is eight meters high, 750 kilometers long, three times longer than the Berlin Wall and twice as high, this "Apartheid Wall" encloses more than three million people in dozens of towns and villages in the West Bank and Jerusalem area[6].
Far from being the end, in Germany, which was still celebrating the fall of the Wall and freedom, the municipality of Munich has forbidden the Professor Ilan Pappe to use the room where his conference was organized, after receiving a letter from the "Israeli German association of Munich" stating that this conference would turned into an anti Israeli propangada if it were to happen[7]. The freedom of expression when it comes to make people aware of the suffering of the Palestinians has become Persona non grata.
The humanitarian situation of the Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, has reached an unprecedented level and this with no reaction from the International Community to stop the blockade and ease the life of the population. As usual in time of war, the first victims are the children; according to the Health Mental Program for the Gaza Community, more than 60% of the Palestinian children in Gaza suffer from symptoms of post traumatic stress disease (PTSD). In addition to this, the same program has shown that hundreds of children have been exposed to white phosphorus launched by the Israeli army during the war last January. I would just like to recall that 1400, including 300 children, were killed and 6000 Palestinians injured by the Israeli forces during the invasion. The conclusion of the Goldstone report stated that the Israeli military offensive on Gaza was prepared in all its phases deliberately disproportionate and aimed at punish, humiliate and terrorize the civilian population[8].
The institutions and houses were equally hit, numerous orchards of the Gaza Strip have now disappeared, and entire farms were razed. The remains of thousands of houses destroyed emit toxic asbestos, while infrastructures dilapidated dump untreated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea. According to OCHA, 80% of the water furnished in Gaza does not meet WHO standards for drinking water. Restrictions on materials and goods have left 70% of Gaza farmland without irrigation, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization for (FAO)[9].
The 456 000 students of the Gaza strip are lacking of everything because of the blockade: papers, textbooks, ink cartridges and even school uniforms, school bags and computers. Classes are also completely overpopulated (many classes reach 55 students) and 18 schools have been destroyed while 280 were severely damaged.
The Gaza strip would need 25,000 tons of iron and 40,000 tons of cement to only repair the damages made during the last war against its population, but the blockade prevents any necessary materials convey[10].
The West Bank suffers from the Apartheid wall and the continuous expansion of the settlements. This region is now being heavily colonized by some 220 Israeli settlements and outposts with mass land grabbing and the construction of bypass roads for the settlers and the Apartheid Wall. The West Bank is separated by Israeli forces in numerous security zones separated by around 650 checkpoints which unable Palestinians to move from a city to another or with enormous difficulties.
Palestinians are living in a prison environment, where they are encircled and guarded by the Israeli forces that can repress anyone. An official report from the Minister of Prisoner Affairs revealed that the Israeli Occupation forces have imprisoned around 6200 underage Palestinians since the year 2000, while 42% of Palestinian men have been at least once in their life arrested[11].
What is therefore the outcome, sixteen years after the last Oslo Peace Agreement which promised the creation of a Palestinian State in 1999? We should firstly remind that the Palestinian authority was founded on the following problematic: since the 1967 invasion of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the State of Israel was facing a major challenge, revealed to the world by the 1987 Intifada: the "Jewish and democratic" State occupied territories inhabited by several million of non-Jews and would have to choose sooner or later between the dichotomy of a Democratic or a Jewish State. The Palestinian Authority therefore became through the Oslo agreement the so-called legal institution managing the Palestinian areas, but in reality it was never the forthcoming government of an independent State. The Palestinian authority was never able to control totally more than 18% of the West Bank and Gaza during the last sixteen years. It was actually a State apparatus without a State, built in accordance to the structures of the occupation and over funded by donor countries. His task was to relieve Israel of the powers devolved, under international law, by any occupying power towards sectors such as education, health, social services, etc… The Palestinian Authority played more the role of a subcontractor, via a daily security cooperation with Israeli intelligence, in areas under its control.
The consequences are catastrophic for Palestinians: settlers are around 50000, which is four times more than in 1993, the Judaizing of Jerusalem has accelerated, incursions are daily in so-called autonomous area, where as the Gaza blockade is still going on despite all the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Israeli army. In addition to this, Palestinians are currently left with only 12% of Historic Palestine.
In conclusion, we have seen and observed the daily suffering of the Palestinian people living under occupation. There is no neutrality towards such a situation, only condemnations against Israeli racist behavior, occupation and apartheid system. I am very often accused of being biased regarding this conflict, but is being objective means therefore no condemnation of occupation, of the apartheid system, of daily discrimination and not recalling International Law to solve the conflict? Sometimes when I read or watch news I feel like reminding everyone that Israel is the aggressor and Palestine the victim and that Israelis are the occupiers and Palestinians are occupied and Israel! There is no equality between the two.
Finally, Palestine is very often portrayed as an Arab or Muslim cause; it is far more than this according to me. The Palestinian struggle is in my opinion the cause of any man being discriminated because of its name, religion, color, of any men left out by the globalization, of any men whose lands have been stolen, and this all over the world. The Palestinian issue forces us to reflect on what is our role in this tragedy: are we going to watch an ethnic cleansing without saying anything? The Palestinian struggle is a humanist struggle where any man can feel connected to it because any Palestinian has lived once this same feeling under occupation. Palestine is our conscience and we should never forget our conscience!
[1] Stambul P ; L'opinion israélienne et le complexe de Massada ; 23 novembre 2009,
[2] Stambul P ; L'opinion israélienne et le complexe de Massada ; 23 novembre 2009,
[3]Barthe B. ; Les projets contrariés de l'Autorité palestinienne ; lundi 23 novembre 2009, envoyé spécial à RamallahLe Monde
[4] Barthe B. ; Les projets contrariés de l'Autorité palestinienne ; lundi 23 novembre 2009, envoyé spécial à RamallahLe Monde
[5] Orient le Jour, 10/11/2009
[6]Naba R., Le doyen des prisonniers politiques dans le monde ; 24 novembre 2009
[7] Sarah Stricker ; Le mur a peut-être disparu en Allemagne … mais la liberté d'expression également ; mercredi 18 novembre 2009
[8] Orient le Jour ; Gaza : les États arabes insistent à l'ONU pour obtenir des enquêtes ; 05/11/2009
[9] Erin Cunningham ; Gaza : la situation environnementale est d'une urgence majeure ; 11 mai 2009; The Electronic Intifada
[10] Erin Cunningham ; Gaza : la situation environnementale est d'une urgence majeure ; 11 mai 2009; The Electronic Intifada
[11] Naba R., Le doyen des prisonniers politiques dans le monde ; 24 novembre 2009
Comments3 Responses to "Palestine : Again and Always, Forever and Ever"
thanks for posting on such a topic! its always good reading the truth, when it seems so many people are blind to it
Thanks for your comments and support :-)!
Intéressant! C'est un peuple qu'il ne faut pas oublier et qui fait preuve de courage pour continuer a faire face aux difficultés du quotidien, quand nous nous aurions baissé les bras depuis longtemps.Ce qui me donne le plus d'espoir c'est de voir que malgré la farouche aversion qu'éprouvent bcp d'Israeliens pour toute paix entre Israel et les Palestiniens, il y a un élan timide mais croissant de désolidarisation avec Israel comme vous l'avez dit dans l'article, dans le monde et au sein même du territoire israelien. Rejet de la part d'une minorité de citoyens qui s'est entre autres illustré dans le refus de la conscrition obligatoire dans l'armée, avec pour conséquence la mise sur liste noire de ces citoyens, de perpétration d'actes de violence à leur encontre, de privation d'emploi et d'autres sanctions économiques.J'entend parler de recherches actuellement conduites par des médecins et psychologues sur les effets pervers de cette implantation par la violence maximale sur une frange de la population israelienne, comme troubles psychologiques, angoisse et agressivité, dépression collective et malaise. Mais difficile de trouver des articles dessus.A bientot ^^