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WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The National Rifle Association said Tuesday it is ready to "offer meaningful contributions" to help prevent more massacres, but offered no details.
The powerful gun lobby said in a statement posted on its website it was "shocked, saddened and heartbroken by the news of the horrific and senseless murders" in Newtown, Conn.
"Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting," the 4 million-member gun-rights group said.
"The NRA is prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again."
The statement said NRA officials were planning to hold a news conference in the Washington area Friday.
The NRA broke its silence the same day the White House said President Obama is "actively supportive" of a Democratic move to renew a federal ban on assault weapons during the next Congress.
The fallout from the massacre was landing in corporate boardrooms, as well.
Dick's Sporting Goods, with more than 500 stores, said in a statement on its website Tuesday it was pulling some weapons off its store shelves.
"We are extremely saddened by the unspeakable tragedy that occurred last week in Newtown, Conn., and our hearts go out to the victims and their families, and to the entire community," Dick's statement read.
"Out of respect for the victims and their families, during this time of national mourning we have removed all guns from sale and from display in our store nearest to Newtown and suspended the sale of modern sporting rifles in all of our stores chain-wide."
Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said it was getting out of the gun business entirely. Cerberus said it would divest itself of its Freedom Group gun manufacturing unit.
"It is apparent that the Sandy Hook tragedy was a watershed event that has raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level," the company said in a release. "As a firm, we are investors, not statesmen or policy makers.
"There are, however, actions that we as a firm can take. Accordingly, we have determined to immediately engage in a formal process to sell our investment in Freedom Group."
Obama also supports legislation that would close a loophole concerning gun purchases at gun shows and possibly adding restrictions on high-capacity ammunition clips.
Obama "is actively supportive of, for example, Senator [Dianne] Feinstein's stated intent to revive a piece of legislation that would reinstate the assault weapons ban," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
The president has talked with lawmakers who have expressed interest in considering gun-control legislation in the wake of Friday's shooting spree in Newtown, where 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother before going to Sandy Hook Elementary School and gunning down 20 elementary school-age children and six adults before killing himself.
"He is heartened ... by what we have all heard from some members of Congress who have been longtime opponents of gun-control measures," Carney said.
Feinstein, D-Calif., said she will introduce legislation that would reinstate the federal ban on assault rifles when the new Congress convenes in January. The ban expired in 2004, and while there have been attempts to renew it, no bill has reached the floor for a vote.
Carney said the president would also support legislation that would close the so-called gun show loophole that doesn't require background checks on gun purchases at gun shows and would prevent the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips.
"It's clear that as a nation we haven't done enough to address the scourge of gun violence in this country. It's a complex problem that requires more than one solution," Carney said. "It calls not only for re-examining our gun laws and how well we enforce them, but also for engaging mental health professionals, law enforcement officials, educators, parents and communities to find those solutions."
Obama also met with appropriate Cabinet members to discuss the issue.
Carney said he couldn't offer a timetable of the president's plans, nor what form they would take.
"He does want to move ... in the coming weeks, which is a fairly short period of time," the spokesman said, adding Obama, besides supporting legislation, "wants to expand the conversation beyond those specific areas of legislation to look at other ways we can address this problem."


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Enthusiasts who think that the 2.0-liter engine from the 2012 Ford Focus would be a fine fit for their car projects will be able to buy one from Ford Racing's crate-engine program.
Ford is also adding a pair of pushrod V8s to the crate-engine lineup for 2012.
The 2.0-liter is the first in a family of crate engines based on Ford's global four-cylinder engine. Future engines in the lineup will be crate versions of EcoBoost production units.
The initial four-cylinder crate engine has independent variable valve timing for the intake and exhaust valves and direct fuel injection. The naturally aspirated unit will make an estimated 160 hp to 175 hp and 145 lb-ft to 155 lb-ft of torque, Ford says.
A suggested retail price has not yet been set. The engine goes on sale in the spring.
In the V8 crate-engine lineup, Ford is replacing its 347-cubic-inch stroked engine with a 363-cubic-inch version, dubbed the Z363.
The pushrod engine is based on the Boss 302 engine, but the cylinder bore is increased to 4.125 inches and it's fitted with Mahle pistons. The changes give the Z363 50 hp more (to 500 hp) and 50 lb-ft more of torque (to 390 lb-ft), Ford says. The 10:1 compression ratio lets the engine run on premium pump gasoline.
Ford's other new crate engine is the X427 pushrod V8, the street-use counterpart to the racing Z427 engine. Based on the Boss 351 engine, the X427 uses Ford Racing X-Heads and churns 520 lb-ft of torque.
The V8 crate lineup also includes aluminum versions of Ford's 5.0-liter engine with variable camshaft timing, in naturally aspirated and supercharged variants, and a "sealed" 5.0-liter V8 for racing use.

subset: commoncrawl


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BETHLEHEM, PA – The York College men's cross country squad finished a solid 19th out of 46 teams at the Paul Short Invitational on a brutally hot and humid early October Saturday in Bethlehem, PA. The Spartans competed in the Brown Division race, which consisted of Division I, II, and selected Division III squads.
York finished with 588 points as Princeton won the race with 94 points while Albany finished second with 133 points.
Senior standout Tim Hartung (Mohnton, Pa./Governor Mifflin) put together another great race as he finished 10th out of 372 competitors. Hartung crossed the line in a time of 25:43. Hartung was 39 seconds back of individual champion Khari Bowen from Division I Monmouth University. Hartung was the second highest Division III finisher, placing 17 seconds back of Moravian's Dillon Farrell. Hartung recorded an average mile of 5:11.
Freshman Matt Hayes (Drexel Hill, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) was York's next finisher, as he placed 113th with a time of 27:11, clocking an average mile of 5:29. Junior Michael Stetson (Old Bridge, N.J./Old Bridge) finished 149th with a time of 27:32 while fellow junior Wil Murray (Cape May Court House, N.J./Middle Township) was close behind with a time of 27:35, good for 154th. Junior Connor Simpson (Warminster, Pa./William Tennent) was just three second back of Murray as he notched a time of 27:38 as he placed 162nd.
Senior Craig Eppler (Bethlehem, Pa./Northampton) raced in his hometown and finished the tight Spartan pack with a time of 27:49, which placed him in 182nd place. Junior Andrew Ward (Oxford, N.J./Warren Hills Regional) was York's final scorer with a 214th place finish at 28:18.
Spartan head coach Stephen LoBianco was happy with the performance of his squad.
"Overall I am very happy with the effort of the guys today. We stepped up against some regionally ranked Division III schools and a few good Division II schools. A good day in less than ideal running conditions."
The conditions were so bad the Spartan women didn't get to compete as the White Division of the race was cancelled because the heat and humidity were so high.
The Spartans are off next Saturday and return to action on October 19 when they travel to the Christopher Newport Invitational in Newport News, VA.


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From Openmoko
(Redirected from Wishlist:Tagging)
|Wishes warning! This article or section documents one or more OpenMoko Wish List items, the features described here may or may not be implemented in the future.
|TODO: Support this idea by expanding this article and adding ideas (See: To-Do List)
Tags can be used by various applications. Requirement is interoperability for further enhancement. Tags should be applied to calendar events, mail/sms, calls, places(GPS) and files. It may be used by Wishlist:Point_of_Interest_Framework to filter events.
Tags could be used instead of contact groups, this way one contact could be a part of
- Friends
- Work
- Emergency auto
Say, if I wanted to send an SMS or e-mail to my friends, the group could also include people whom I've gotten to know at work. The Emergency auto tag would automatically pass the caller thorough the emergency call screening system, without the need for user input. (For more information on this feature, please see Wishlist:human screening


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Join Mitch Kapor, Mike Maples Jr, and Thomas Korte at the Founder Showcase on May 15th
TheFunded.com News
Posted by jonnystartup on 2014-05-07
The Founder Showcase is TheFunded.com's pitch and networking event for seed-stage startups and investors.
On May 15th, we will host the 15th Founder Showcase in Silicon Valley, and welcome an impressive lineup of speakers to our stage;
Mitch Kapor, Founder of Lotus Development & PC Pioneer
Mitch Kapor has been a pioneer in personal computing for more than 30 years. He is widely known as the Founder of Lotus Development. In addition, Mitch was the Founding Investor in UUNET, Co-Founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a Founding Chair of the Mozilla Foundation, and a Founding Investor and Chair in Linden Research. At the Founder Showcase, Mitch will talk about building technology companies that generate both economic value AND positive social impact.
Mike Maples, Jr., Managing Partner at FLOODGATE
Mike Maples, Jr. is the managing partner of FLOODGATE, and was recently named the #14 Top Tech Investor in the world by Forbes. His early investments include Twitter, Chegg, ng:moco, IMVU, Gowalla, Kno, YuMe Networks, TaskRabbit, Kongregate, BranchOut, and many more. Before his investment career, Mike co-founded Motive, Inc., the world's leading broadband software company in 1997, and oversaw its growth through the "dot-bomb" to a successful IPOs in 2004.
Thomas Korte, Founder of AngelPad
Thomas Korte is the founder of AngelPad, a startup accelerator based in San Francisco and New York. AngelPad was named by MIT's 2014 Accelerator Research as the #3 U.S. Accelerator, and Forbes Magazine called AngelPad a "TOP 5 Global Accelerator" in 2012. AngelPads exits include Mopub ($350m to Twitter), Adku (Groupon), and Astrid (Yahoo), among others. Prior, Thomas worked at Google for 7 years staring in 2002..
We hope you will join us.


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The Great Mistake of Those Who Do Not Heed The Qur'an
Since those who follow Satan's way deny Allah, Who created the entire universe from nothing, they attribute an independent existence and power to every being. However, the universe is entirely subject to the power and the sovereignty of Allah, including people themselves and their experiences, because a person sees the material world in which he lives solely in the way in which his senses reflect it to him. That is to say, a person sees things as copies transmitted to his or her brain and only experiences the images in that brain.
For example, for us to see a car going along a road, or to hear its horn, or to get into that car and feel the softness of its seats and the hardness of its metal parts, it is not necessary for the car to exist in reality. We process all information about the existence of the car solely inside our brains by means of what our senses transmit to us. Therefore, it is not possible for us to experience the original of the car itself. What we deal with are nothing but electrical signals we perceive in our brains through our five senses. Our life goes on only within our brains. We can never have direct experience of what exists on the outside. (For detailed information, see Harun Yahya, The Evolution Deceit, Eternity Has Already Begun, Knowing the Truth, Matter: The Other Name For Illusion, The Little Man in the Tower.)
In the same way, a person who goes to a meeting and gives a speech is really talking to the crowd within his brain. This person only imagines that he has been able to speak in front of a large audience. In other words, the person making the speech is incapable of leaving the meeting place inside his brain. The individuals who make up the crowd also see the speaker in their own individual brains. All the words and the shouting and the crowd of people have to remain within the brain.
Thus, acting according to the existence of a thing whose reality he has never been able to directly experience, placing value on people whose real selves he has never been able to address and possessing goods whose reality he has never been able to touch is a state of extreme meaninglessness for a person who cannot step out of the images in his brain. We can use the analogy of dreaming to consider this further. For instance in a dream, even if the food you can smell, whose appearance you can see and whose heat you can feel does not exist in reality, you may still be able to taste that dish and even feel its heat burning your tongue. Or you may dream of being late for an important task for which you are responsible, the nervousness arising from this and the excuses which you are thinking of offering in full detail, just as in real life. Until you awake from the dream, you may be totally convinced of the reality of what you are experiencing. These deceptions experienced in the dream may also apply to the world in which you find yourself.
This is a clear scientific truth which people who are overly attached to this world do not want to consider. No matter how hard they try to escape from it, no matter how much they resist accepting it, it is a truth which they cannot actually avoid. Above all it is a truth which people personally experience and observe throughout their lives. Whoever evades it should know that it is definitely not possible to escape from the world inside the brain. Therefore those who resist the Qur'an in the belief that matter is absolute will eventually come face to face with the truth that the things they value consist of a mere perception when they think about this very important scientific knowledge. In this way, things which have made them ambitious, things which have frightened them and things which have caused them to feel pride will naturally lose their meaning.
In the same way, people whose words are respected and who are accepted as leaders are nothing but the result of a perception which Allah has created in the minds of others, so that unconditionally following Satan, his manifestations in human form or people who are under his influence, is no different from the deception we have referred to above of supposing that one has direct experience of the material world.
A person may go for years without realising these important truths concerning the real nature of matter. Many people may not have considered that they see the people surrounding them, nature and the entire universe within their brains and that they can never directly experience the originals of what exists outside. However, a few seconds' sincere thought with a collected mind is enough to change a person's entire view of life and rescue him from such fixed ideas.
For example, think about this book which you hold in your hand, the things which are written in this book and the pages you turn one by one. Every one of these consists of perceptions reaching your brain through the medium of your senses. Reconsider: the book which you think you see consists only of electrical signals reaching your brain and the hand which turns the pages is one whose real nature you have never experienced throughout your life. The moment when you understand this wonderful situation is the moment when you begin your real life because understanding that matter may never be experienced in its essence and that you can only view images of what exists outside is the most important scientific truth which a person can learn in the life of this world.
All these truths demonstrate a person's helpless situation in the face of Allah, because the life of the world in which Satan deceives people with promises and empty illusions is nothing other than a world of the imagination which can only be perceived through the senses. All these truths constitute an excellent reason for surrendering ourselves to Allah, Who created everything, believing in Him with a certain knowledge and fearing him with a heartfelt fear.
The Qur'an is a message to all humanity and it explains all things to mankind. It is hoped that people who listen to the voice of their consciences will heed this call and abandon their escape from reality. In a verse of the Qur'an, Allah offers this invitation:
Certainly there is a transmission in this [Qur'an] for people who worship. (Surat al-Anbiya': 106)


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The testing window for the spring 2017 administration of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment in District 205 will begin on Monday, April 3 and continue through Friday, April 28. These state-required achievement tests in reading and mathematics are being given to all eligible students in grades 3 – 8. Your child's school will share more specific information about when students will be tested within this window.
In addition to the PARCC assessment, state and federal regulations require each school to assess achievement in science for students in 5th grade, 8th grade and high school biology. The Illinois Science Assessment will be administered in each school between Monday, March 13 and Friday, March 24. This assessment is approximately one hour in length and is aligned to the Illinois Learning Standards for Science.
We anticipate being able to share score reports in the fall. The complete results of these state tests will be also reported on the Illinois School Report Card in the fall. We will review state tests results, along with other information to help us improve our school program. If you have any questions about the administration of these assessments, please contact your child's principal.


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Friday, October 19, 2007
A good day to visit the Art Gallery
As was ours over the summer. We used to tape all the kids' art onto the cabinets we had along the kitchen wall. It was a great place to put all the projects as they came home. We didn't like the starkness of the very plain, white cabinetry, so the flashes of colour that we posted added some life to the room. But also some clutter.
In our new kitchen, there is really only one part of the island that little G uses to tape up her artwork. L hasn't brought any major masterpieces home as yet, but I am impressed with his drawing that accompanies his little news items in his homework booklets.
I don't yet know where to display these more recent creations, but I can at least post them here for now. And also to help distract Her Bad Mother from the miseries of morning sickness; after all, kids' art must certainly be good for the nauseous soul.
"Mommy's Cake" by little G. No, her mommy isn't the best baker.
"Three-eyed Goose Flies South to Vegas" by little G.
"Dad's My Hero" by L-ster.
"My Buddy's at Wonderland" by L-ster.
7 comments:
- Josie said...
Oh, those are wonderful. I love children's art.
Picasso said it took him a lifetime to learn to paint like a child :-)
- 5:02 pm
- Kellan said...
Those are really wonderful and beautiful. I think they need framed and put on the walls of their room. I'm glad I stopped by to see this beautiful art and to read your nice post. See ya.
- 8:02 pm
- Karen MEG said...
Thanks Josie, and thanks for stopping by. I have a couple of boxes overflowing with mini-Picassos. I can't bring myself to toss anything!
Kellan, that is a great idea to frame them for their rooms! Thanks for the tip my friend!
- 10:45 am
- Shawna said...
How precious! I wish my parents would have saved all of the "masterpieces" I created as a child.
BTW, I tagged you for 8 Random Things!
- 11:16 am
- Karen MEG said...
Hey Shawna - the wonder of digital pix now is that at least the images can be saved.
Don't have your URL to check the meme. Maybe you can e:mail me?
- 5:18 pm
- Her Bad Mother said...
'Three-Eyed Goose Flies South to Vegas" is destined for galleries, for sure. I'd get the AGO on the phone if I were you.
- 1:49 pm
- motherbumper said...
Oh yes, I can see why you won. "Three-eyed Goose Flies South to Vegas" is a masterpiece and very inspirational.
- 10:50 am


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Wichita Events, Coupons, Reviews!
Subscribe to KidsScoop! The monthly family event and savings newsletter.
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Be sure to stop by and try some local favorites before you leave Branson. We made a must-stop at Kringle's Christmas Store and shopping at Grand Village Shops. We also enjoyed lunch at Coulee's near Table Rock Lake on hwy 265. The salmon dip appetizer is a must try! Delicious!
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5 Reasons Silver Dollar City is the Perfect Christmas Break Getaway for Families
Great Times at Silver Dollar City & the Branson Belle Showboat in Southern Missouri
8 Reasons To See The Silver Dollar City Christmas Lights
Silver Dollar City - An Old Time Christmas {Branson Reviews}
SIlver Dollar City Christmas | Christmas Wonderland!
Review: Showboat Branson Belle
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Branson: Silver Dollar City #ExploreBranson
Silver Dollar City {Branson, MO} REVIEW
5 Reasons you MUST visit Branson;s Silver Dollar City
HAD A BLAST at Silver Dollar City!


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text:
For a number of weeks we have been working our way through the doctrine of inspiration, that is that the Bible is inspired by God. That it is infallible, that is it is true in all that it affirms and teaches, that it is inerrant, that is that every word of God is pure. This is the true Word of God contained in the 66 books of the Bible.
Now admittedly it is a big subject and much can be covered in any study of the great doctrine of inspiration. We are trying to cover some of the very basic things that will be helpful to you in strengthening your confidence in the Word of God. So we have learned then that the Bible is true, that it is the true Word of God, that is the testimony of God in the Bible. He speaks repeatedly about 3800 times the Scripture says, "Thus says the Lord," in one fashion or another. The Scripture also is inspired by the Holy Spirit so you have not only the testimony of God the Father but the testimony of God the Spirit. And, of course, Jesus Christ Himself lends His testimony by affirming the validity of the Scripture, both the Old and the New Testament. We have then the Word of the living God, a true word, an authoritative word, an infallible word, a complete word to which nothing is to be added and nothing to be taken away. We have a determinative word, that is it fixes divine truth permanently and even eternally.
Now I know that to believe the Bible is a work of God in the heart. The natural man apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, no matter how much evidence you give him about the veracity and validity of Scripture does not have the capacity in the darkness of his unbelief to believe the Bible. It is a work of the Spirit of God. But to those of us who have had that work done in our hearts who understand that the Word of God is in fact the true Word of the living God. It is important for us to be further strengthened and encouraged by the evidences that that which we believe is in fact true.
I said something this last week when I was talking to some of the men I was ministering with through the week, I said, "If I never preached a sermon, if I never stood behind a pulpit, if I never stood in front of a class, if I never made a tape, if I never expressed any truth from the Bible publicly, I wouldn't want to have spent my life in any other way than to have the privilege of studying the Word of God every week of my life for all these many, many decades because it is so profoundly rich to spend days every week of your life, month after month, year after year, decade after decade pouring over the detailed understanding of the Word of God is a marvelous and thrilling benediction in your life because I've enjoyed the benefit of the sanctifying work of the Word in my own heart. I have also had my confidence in the Word of God tested at every single point of Scripture, having gone through the Bible verse by verse, word by word, phrase by phrase in the preparation of writing the Study Bible, having gone in greater detail through many of the books of the Old Testament and almost all the books of the New Testament as carefully as I possibly can reading along the way at least 20 to 25 commentaries on every passage that I ever preach on, exposing myself to every view, those that agree and those that disagree, critical views as well as affirming views, I've had the privilege of testing the Word of God at every single point and I have at this juncture in my life greater confidence in its veracity than ever. It has stood the test of scrutiny by me and by many who are far more capable than I am of examining its detail. It has been an incredibly wonderful journey to come to this point in my life where my confidence in the Word of God is at an all time high. And as I said, if I never preached it, just living in the light of its truths and having them do their work in my life, and having this level of confidence which feeds my joy and feeds my praise and feeds my worship would be a gift that would be more than I could ever have asked. And then, however, beyond that to be able to preach it to you and encourage you is a great bonus for which I thank the Lord.
Now tonight I want you to consider some of the elements of Scripture that affirm to us its truthfulness. And we could cover a lot of things but for tonight I want to talk about two things. I want to talk about miracles and I want to talk about science. I want to talk about miracles and science.
Let's talk about miracles for a moment to start with. The Bible is filled with miracles. In fact, it starts with the most massive miracle of all miracles, the creation of the entire universe in six 24-hour days...a monumental miracle or a monumental sequence of miracles. That's only the beginning. Soon after that you have another staggering and incredible set of miracles that begins to unfold. The most notable of which is the miracle of drowning the entire human race and rearranging the surface of the earth and changing the atmosphere in the Great Flood where the canopy of water that surrounds the earth is broken up, a deluge pours down on the earth, where the continents are rearranged and divided and the reservoirs of water in the deep are cracked open and water gushes up and the whole surface of the earth is changed and altered and the drowning of the whole human race except for eight people out of which comes the earth as we know it today, its life having been protected and preserved animal life and even human life on the ark. And all the plant life begins to bloom again after the Flood, staggering miracle.
Not long after that you have another monumental miracle after miracle, you have the Tower of Babel where God in a miraculous way creates all the languages of the world and separates people by virtue of those languages as a judgment on them so that they cannot easily circulate their heretical and false religions and were off and running in a series of miracles. You go all the way through the Bible and there are some times when miracles come at a more concentrated level, such as at critical times in the life of the prophet Elijah and the prophet Elisha. But there is an explosion of miracles, the likes of which had never occurred since the time of Genesis in those early physical miracles and that is the time of our Lord Jesus Christ when miracles abound in the three-year period of His life for all intents and purposes He vanishes disease from the land of Israel. He does miracles that have no explanation other than divine and they proliferate in every direction. The Apostles then have a delegated ability to do miracles. They continue for a little while through the book fo Acts, then they disappear. By the time you come to the book of Revelation, we hear that in the end of the age there will be massive miracles that will occur again, physical miracles will occur in the sky and on the earth as the Lord brings judgment. And finally the creation of a new earth and a new heaven.
So when we talk about a miracle, we're not talking about finding a parking place at the mall on Friday night. Okay, let's just get that straight. I know you throw that word around. "Wow, that's a miracle." But we're not talking about a miracle in the sense of something out of the ordinary or unexpected. That's not what we're talking about. Let me use C.S. Lewis' definition of a miracle. He said, "A miracle is an interference with nature by supernatural power." It is an interference with nature by a supernatural power. Westminster Dictionary of the Bible says this, "Miracles are events in the ex...in the external world wrought by the power of God and intended as a sign. They are possible because God sustains, controls, and guides all things and is omnipotent."
To sum all that up, a miracle is when God does what is supernatural, when God breaks in to the natural course of things and does something that is supernatural. A miracle is God stepping in to our world, setting aside normal laws of nature to do something that has no natural explanation, to do what is naturally impossible.
Now either we live in a universe in which there is a God, or we live in a universe in which there is not a God. Fair enough? You only have those two options. Either there is a God or there is not a God. Either there is a supernatural being, or we live in a natural world. And we are the product of natural forces that essentially came from nothing. If naturalism is true and there is no God, then there can be no supernatural invasion because there is no supernatural reality. If there is no God, there can be no miracles. They can't happen. If there is no God, nothing can come into nature from the outside because there isn't anything outside. And all there is is nature, that's naturalism. All there is is nature, that's all there is, there isn't anything else. There's nothing outside. There is no such thing as a miracle. And if you're going to use the word miracle, you're going to have to apply it to finding a parking place at the mall on Friday night.
But, if there is God, if there is a supernatural power in the universe, if there is a supernatural creator who made the universe, then miracles will occur every time that supernatural God acts independent of the natural world. So if we have no God in the universe and we just have a natural universe and the equation "nobody times nothing equals everything" is true and we've all just sort of come out of an evolutionary process that started with a one-celled thing, lying in some primordial ooze, we don't know where that came from but let's just assume it for the moment, if that's all there is, then there's no such thing as a miracle because t here's only the natural and there is nothing else. But if there is God and there is a supernatural God, then for Him to act is easily allowable. If there is God, then outside thrusts from the supernatural world into the natural world is to be expected. If there is God, then there will be miracles. God who created can invade His world which He created any time He wants to do anything He wants with anyone He wants.
So if you believe in God, miracles isn't a leap at all. And let me take it a step further. If God wanted you to know He was there, how would He convey that? If He wanted you to know that there was in fact a supernatural God outside our natural world, what would He do to introduce Himself to us? He would have to step into our otherwise natural existence. And so not only are miracles to be expected and normal, they are necessary for us to know that there is in fact a God. And in fact there is a God and He wants to reveal Himself, then He must do what is supernatural, stop the natural process, inject Himself and we must assume that He will do that in order to let us know that He is there. And that is all a miracle is, it is God letting us know that He exists.
That's why the so-called Christian, can you believe this, the so-called Christian attempt to demythologize the Bible is so ridiculous. So-called Christian higher critics have attempted to demythologize the Bible and what they mean by that is take all the miracles out. They want to de-miracle the Bible.
Well if you do that, then in what sense are you a Christian? In what sense are you a theist? In what sense do you even believe in God if you cannot let God act? And so the critics come up with the story of Jonah and they say that when the Old Testament says that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, all it really means is that they took Jonah off the ship and put him in a dinghy and set him off on his own. And so they demythologized the idea that he was swallowed by a great fish. Peter walking on water? No, one writer says he was walking on some very dense lily pads. Another writer says he was actually walking on a sandbar. I guess it had a whole in it at the appropriate place so he could sink. And they will tell us that the feeding of the five thousand can't happen, we've got to demythologize the feeding of the five thousand. What really happened was one little boy came forward with his lunch and everyone felt so guilty that they hadn't done that that they all pulled their lunches out that they were hiding in their baskets and it was a big lesson in sharing and everybody turned into sharers. By the way, that's William Barclay's explanation on that who wrote a series of New Testament commentaries. And I...I wish I could ask William if he were around, how is it you can believe in the existence of God, and have a problem with Him doing something supernatural? What's the point? You're caught somewhere between believing in God and believing in the critics.
If God is, then let Him act. Miracles prove that God is and that God acts is consequent to the fact that He is. And so if there is a book which God has written, it will be filled with God acting, right? Because the Scripture has to be the revelation of God and if God has revealed Himself, then He just can't do what everybody else can do otherwise it's no revelation at all. He has to do what nobody else can do. So when you're looking around for a sacred book, find the one that contains the most miracles which are believable, which have eye witnesses, which are historical and which have stood the test of time and you're going to come to one book, and that's the Bible. It's what we have in the Bible. And if you don't have miracles, all you have is a book on ethical philosophy, and furthermore, you have a forgery and a fraud and a sham because this book claims that God does do miracles. It claims miracles from front to back and all through the middle and if that's not true, then this book is a lie and you might as well not be a Christian who demythologizes the miracles, you might as well be a Muslim or a Hindu or an Atheist cause if God is, He has acted. And if there is a book that is a true revelation of God, it will be the book in which there is a record of God acting supernaturally in the midst of a natural world.
So when I ask...what is evidence for believing the Bible is the Word of God? I will answer immediately, it is miracles...it's miracles. And these miracles must qualify...I give them sort of three little tests...they must qualify on three counts. One, the miracle must be a sensible event...a sensible event. It's not something God can do in secret. You remember when Paul was caught up to the third heaven and came back in 2 Corinthians 12 and he said, "I'm not going to speak about that because it's not helpful, because it wasn't sensible, it wasn't observable, it couldn't be seen by anybody but him. He wasn't even sure what kind of miracle it was." He says, "I don't know if I was in the body or out of the body, so it's not even helpful to talk about that." But miracles that do reveal God must be subject to sensibility. They must be open to the human senses, something that people heard, something they saw, something they felt, something they tasted, something they experienced.
Secondly, they must be clearly supernatural. That is to say there cannot be another explanation. There cannot be another explanation. This is not providence. This is not God kind of working things out a little bit to make things kind of fit together in ways that appear on the surface to be somewhat...somewhat natural. A miracle to be deemed a miracle must be transcendent to all natural law. It must be an invasive act by God in which He suspends the natural law and does what is supernatural. So it must be sensible and it must be divine so that there is no other explanation. We'll call it supernatural.
And I would say, thirdly, it must have a redemptive purpose. That is to say it is directed at people recognizing the true and living God for the revelation of His own glory in redemption, that is to cause people to turn to Him with all their hearts and worship and embrace Him as the true God. They are not tricks by a magician, they are not to appeal to human curiosity. They are not designed to entertain. They are to reveal God as the Savior and Redeemer. And so, the Bible should be, if it is the Word of God, a record of God acting, God acting supernaturally, God invading the natural world. The miracles should be throughout the Bible. They should be sensible. They should be supernatural. And they should be directed toward salvation, pointing to God as the one alone can redeem. When you look at the Bible then, you should find miracles that are visible, audible, sensible, that are clear revelations of supernatural power and the presence of god that have absolutely no other explanation. And that they are never for the sake of entertainment or the curiosity of people, but rather to point to God who in the end is offering Himself as a Savior of sinners. And the Bible has these kinds of miracles...not just a few of them, many, many, many miracles...many.
And you don't even need to say, "Well, there are some extraordinary miracles and there are some not so extraordinary miracles." No, they're all absolutely extraordinary...absolutely extraordinary. And the thing that's so amazing is that throughout the Bible the writers of the Bible who record these miracles never say, "Now what I'm about to say is really going to be hard to swallow. What I'm about to say is going to be hard for you to accept because it's way out of your normal experience." It never says that. If God is who He is and if God is who He is, He has a right to act however He chooses to act. And if He wants to reveal Himself, He reveals Himself in a miraculous way and the true Scripture would then be the record of those revelations. So you expect the true Scripture not to have no miracles but to be loaded with miracles. And that is precisely where we begin with the Bibles self-authentication. The true revelation of God must be THE record of God acting miraculously. And that's the Bible, miraculous from beginning to end, from creation to new creation and all in between.
Now I can't take you through all the miracles of the Bible or even many of the miracles of the Bible, but let's look at some of them just because they're so fascinating. Let's go to Exodus chapter 14, that's a good place to start for a little bit, and look at the familiar miracle associated with the parting of the sea. By the way, there are about 25 or more miracles around the time of Moses. In verse 13 Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today." Great statement. Stand by, don't be afraid, God is going to act, God is going to act in a miraculous way. God is going to act in a sensible way. God is going to act so that there is no other explanation than that is supernatural. And God is going to act in such a way as to demonstrate that He is a Savior and a deliverer, all the criteria are there. "He will accomplish this for you today, for the Egyptians whom you have seen today you will never see them again forever." The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent. "And the Lord said to Moses, 'Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.'" Remember, they're leading Egypt now and there's several million of them most likely. "As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land. As for Me, behold I'll harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them and I'll be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I am honored through Pharaoh through His chariots and His horseman. And the angel of God who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. And it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel." Now they're protected by the presence of God represented in the Shekinah presence, the pillar of cloud and the angel of God. And it says, "There was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night, thus the one did not come near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land so the waters were divided. And the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land and the waters were like a wall to them on the right hand and on their left. Then the Egyptians took up the pursuit and all Pharaoh's horses, chariots, horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea. It came about at the morning watch that the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians at the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of Egyptians into confusion, caused their chariot wheels to swerve and He made them drive with difficulty so that the Egyptians said, 'Let us free from Israel for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians.' Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.' So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, the sea returned to its normal state. At daybreak while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it, the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh's entire army that had gone into the sea after them, not even one of them remained. But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, the waters were like a wall to them on the right and on the left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. And when Israel saw the great power in which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and in His servant, Moses."
So you have a miracle here that is visual, vividly visual, experiential, historical, a real event with no explanation but a supernatural one that points to God as the one to be feared and the one to be worshiped. Plenty of witnesses, you have an entire nation as eye witnesses and down to this day the Jews still affirm the reality of this great event.
From the days of Josephus on, however, there have been critics who tried to attack the historicity of this event. One critic says there were some lakes around there. They're called the Bitter Lakes. Don't know where that name came from. But they're somehow connected to the Red Sea by a narrow shallow channel. You've got the Red Sea, you know where that is, and there are some little lakes there and there's this sort of shallow channel connected to the lakes and a southeast wind blew stiffly up the channel and held the water in the lakes between the lakes and the sea, the land became a little dried out. It was sort of a natural ebb tide aided by the wind and they walked across on that. This is weak. There is no geographical evidence, historical evidence of any such lakes...none at all.
Another professor, Gallenopolus(?) of Athens University says this, "That in the thirteenth century B.C., a volcanic explosion occurred," how he knows what happened in the thirteenth century B.C. I'm not sure, but anyway, he says, "A volcanic explosion occurred setting off air masses and waves three hundred and fifty times more powerful than the hydrogen bomb devastating the presumed continent of Atlantis and creating the parting of the Red Sea." Perfect timing, perfect, just when they got there. And how in the world did the Israelites walk across so easily if the whole earth was falling apart like 350 hydrogen bombs had hit it?
Another very popular view is that the Israelites crossed in a genuinely shallow and marshy area. This is a very popular view, find it in a lot of liberal literature. They actually walked across in a few inches of water. That's even a bigger miracle. How in the world did a trained Egyptian army drown in two inches of water?
Well the simple explanation here is that the breath of God was in the strong east wind. Why is that a problem if there is God? Psalm 74:13 says, "You divided the sea by Your strength." It's a miracle. We shouldn't be shocked at that. There is God and God is revealing Himself, that's the whole point of Scripture. He reveals Himself in His acts and He reveals Himself in His words through His priests and prophets and patriarchs.
Look at the sixteenth chapter, for a minute, of Exodus, sixteenth chapter, verse 14. In the morning there's a little layer of dew, it evaporated on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground, like a dusting. They're wandering in the wilderness, remember, for forty years here. "And when the layer of dew evaporated, behold on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground. When the sons of Israel saw it they said to one another, 'What is it?'" They didn't know what it was. "And Moses said to them, 'It's the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded, Gather of it every manna as much as he should eat. He should take a homer of each according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent.' And the sons of Israel did so and some gathered much and some little, and when they measured it with a homer, he who had gathered much had no excess and he who had gathered little had no lack. Every man gathered as much as he should eat." God adjusted what they had miraculously, just as He provided it miraculously. "And Moses said to them, 'Let no man leave any of it until morning.' But they didn't listen to Moses, some left part of it till morning thinking there might not be any the next day...lack of faith....it bred worms, became foul and Moses was angry with them." God did a miracle of corrupting it over night. "They gathered it morning by morning, every man as much as he should eat. When the sun grew hot, it would melt."
Now what is this? This is what we call manna, isn't it? Or angel-food cake, if you like. Now many people have tried to explain this miracle away. They have said, "Well, what this really means there was a lichen that grew on the rocks and it produced pea-sized globs that were sweet to eat. They were really picking pea-sized globs of lichen off the rocks." It doesn't say that there. No such thing has ever been existing in Sinai. This view, by the way, hasn't made it.
The popular current view is that this is a sticky-like colored honeydew excretion on a tamarisk twig. I don't see any tamarisk twigs in this text. They used to think that the tree produced it, now there was a certain study of the excretion they found on tamarisk twigs, turned out to be left there by bugs. And by the way, this is no good anyway, because those bugs only secrete that in June and July...not all year for forty years for several million people, by the way.
In Numbers chapter 22, just highlighting some of the more interesting miracles, you have the wonderful story of Balaam's talking ass, or donkey, as the New American Standard more nobly translates the word. Verse 21 of Numbers 22, "Balaam arose in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the leaders of Moab. God was angry because he was going and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary against him." Here is this prophet for sale who'd sell himself to the highest bidder and he's going to go to the Moabites and he's going to wind up trying to curse Israel. Anyway, he's on his way. The angel of the Lord stands in the path. He's riding on his donkey. His two servants are with him. So some eyewitnesses are there. Everything needs to be confirmed with two or three eyewitnesses. "When the donkey saw the angel standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, the donkey turned from off the way and went into the field but Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back into the way. Then the angel of the Lord stood on a narrow path of the vineyard with a wall on this side and a wall on that side and when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pressed herself to the wall and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall so he struck her again." He's getting irritated. "And the angle of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn to the right or the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she laid down under Balaam, so Balaam was angry and struck the donkey with his stick." Now after this point, we can assume that the only...the only one who saw the angel of the Lord was the donkey and Balaam doesn't know what's going on and he's whacking the daylights out of this poor donkey.
And verse 28, "The Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balaam, 'What have I done to you that you struck me these three times?'" That's got to be the shock of his life. But he engages immediately in the conversation. "Then Balaam said to the donkey," it seems like there ought to be a gap in there while he catches his breath. "Because you've made a mockery of me. If there had been a sword in my hand, I would have killed you by now." He didn't like being humiliated by a donkey.
"And the donkey said to Balaam, 'Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you?' And he said no." This is...it's just amazing that he's carrying on this conversation. Verse 31, "The Lord opened the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel of the Lord standing away with his drawn sword in his hand bound...bowed all the way to the ground."
What is going on here? Second Peter 2 verses 15 and 16 refers to this miracle of the talking donkey. Some say, "Well, this can't happen. No, no, no, no. You can't have a talking donkey. This whole affair took place while Balaam was in a trance. Or it took place in his dreams. He was dreaming this." It's actually hard to dream or be in a trance with a donkey banging you into the wall. I'm not sure that that experience wouldn't have awakened somebody even in a dream.
Others said, "No, Balaam was used to talking to himself and he was so used to it he started answering himself as if he were a donkey." Others say, "It was just the braying of the animal that Balaam was so accustomed to that he gave it meaning, like you talk to your dog kind of goochie, goochie, puppy talk, you know." I don't do that but some do. I don't think the big miracle here is the talking donkey, I think the big miracle here is that Balaam kept up the conversation. And then other critics say that what you have in verse 30 and following is just...oh, donkey thoughts, as if the donkey was actually thinking this.
No, what you really have here is God stopping a prophet miraculously. And there's a total lack of defensiveness by the writer for such a bizarre thing. Bible writers never defend miracles, they never treat them with fanfare. Moses wrote this without explanation. Moses wrote this, listen to me, without explanation. Moses wrote this and he's the same one who wrote the whole Pentateuch. He's the same one who wrote the whole law of God with all its deep truths, great doctrines, sweeping history. He's the same one who wrote accurate accounts of the creation of the world, of the Flood, of Babel, of the patriarchs who gave God's great Law and spoke of God's redemptive purpose. He writes without self-consciousness about a man having a conversation with a donkey, cause it happened. And why not? God is God and if God wants to talk through a donkey, He can do that. This is proof that indeed this book is the book of God's revelation.
Go to 2 Kings chapter 4 for a minute, 2 Kings chapter 4 verse 18...Elisha. It's about a lady who had a son and we'll just kind of catch the story in the middle. He...the child was grown, went to his father to the reapers, he said to his father, "My head, my head," he's having severe headaches indicative of some very, very severe illness malady. He said, "Carry him to his mother." When he had taken him, brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon then died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, Elisha, shut the door behind him and went out.
What happened? Verse 32, "Elisha came into the house, the lad was dead, laid on his bed. So he entered and shut the door behind them both, prayed to the Lord and went up and lay on the child, put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, his hands on his hands, stretched himself on him and the flesh of the child became warm. Then he returned and walked in the house once back and forth and stretched himself on him and the lad sneezed seven times and the lad opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi and his servant, 'Call this Shunammite.' He called her, when she had come into him he said, 'Take up your son.' She went in, fell at his feet, bowed herself to the ground. She took up her son and went out."
God was pointing to Elisha as His true prophet. God gave Elisha the power to raise a dead boy. Well the critics say the boy wasn't really dead, he was in a semi-coma. And others say he was just having a hard time breathing and Elisha gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But there is no explanation for one who is dead. He was dead. His mother knew he was dead. His mother left him dead. His mother found him alive.
Why are we surprised? You want a book with no miracles? Then you don't have a book that tells about God.
Let me show you another one, and again this is one that you're familiar with. Daniel chapter 3...Daniel chapter 3 and these are the three friends of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and they are to worship Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar alone and he is in a rage and he is angry because they're not doing that. And so he says in verse 15, "If you're ready at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image that I have made, very well. If you will not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire and what God is there to deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, 'O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this. If so be, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of flaming fire or blazing fire, He will deliver us out of your hand in any case, O King, even if we don't live here, we'll live in His presence. But even if He doesn't, let it be known to you, O King, we're not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.' Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage. His facial expression was altered toward Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He answered by giving orders to heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. He commanded certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in order to cast them into the furnace of blazing fire. Then these men were tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps, their other clothes which would add to the flames and cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. For this reason because the king's command was urgent, and the furnace had been extremely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up."
And then what happened? "Nebuchadnezzar, the king, was astounded. Stood up in haste, responded to his high officials, 'Was it not three men we cast into the midst of the fire?' They answered and said to the king, "Certainly, O King, there was three.' He answered and said, 'Look, I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm and the appearance of the fourth is like the Son of the gods.'" Preincarnate Christ joined them there. "And Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire, responded and said, 'Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here.' Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the midst of the fire and the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the king's high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the fire had no affect on the bodies of these men, nor was the hair of their heads singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, 'Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him violating the King's command and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any God except their own God." And then he made a decree that this was a God who could be worshiped and should not be offended.
So you have a miracle confirmed by a pagan king. The king confirms the miracle. This is testimony from an unbelieving eyewitness. Miracle after miracle after miracle. Come in to the New Testament, the life of Jesus, miracles proliferate. You come into the lives of the Apostles in the book of Acts, you have Peter and John who cure a lame man. If Peter and others being delivered miraculously from prison as God throws the door open and breaks the chains and shackles. You have Philip being transported by the Spirit of God in Acts 8 up to meet a certain person for the salvation of that person. You have Paul in Acts 14 healing a handicapped person. You have Paul casting out evil spirits in Acts 16, curing the sick. You have Paul in Acts 14 raising the dead...raised, I should say, from the dead. And you have Paul raising Eutychus from the dead in the twentieth chapter of Acts. All through Scripture miracle after miracle after miracle. You don't need evolution to explain origin. Creation doesn't have to be evolution. God is, God can act, God does act. The Flood doesn't need to be a local rainstorm where the drains got backed up and drowned a few people. The confounding of languages at Babel isn't a myth. The parting of the Red Sea was not wading through a marsh. Manna is not tamarisk twig globs of secretion. The raising of a dead boy was not mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The fiery furnace, as some critics say, was put out at the instant that the three men were put in by a convenient moist wind that blew through.
Let them be miracles, unless you're an atheist. If you have no God, then you have no revelation and you have no Bible and you have no hope because you have no salvation. But let God be God. And when I open my Bible and I see miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle I say, "This is the book that reveals God." He acts and He speaks. And if it's not a supernatural book, you can pitch it, throw it in the bin with all the rest of the lies and deceptions. This reality of the miraculous element of Scripture is the evidence that this is, in fact, the revelation of the living and true God.
Now I want to talk to you about science and how accurate the Bible is scientifically, but I see our time is gone. So we'll save that for next time. Join me in prayer.
Lord, we love You and we love Your truth. We exalt Your Word. We are perfectly comfortable, more than that, we rejoice in a book filled with miracles, the great miracle with which it begins, the great miracle with which it ends and all the miracles in between, all the miraculous acts, all the miraculous revelations, all that You have done that is recorded here that is clearly Your own doing supernatural and divine. All that You have said that is clearly Your truth again supernatural and divine, it's all contained in this book. We want a book that reveals the true and living God. What point would there be to have a Bible with no miracles? There would be no record that You even existed. We thank You that You do step into this world and make Yourself known. You did it. You revealed Yourself in many ways and You've given us the record of that revelation. And because of its miracles, we know it to be an account of the unveiling of Your person, Your glorious person. These are historical, sensible miracles witnessed by those who believed and those who did not, attested to by eyewitnesses. They have no other possible reasonable explanation than supernatural power and they are always with a view to salvation to direct those who were there when they happened and all who read them to the glory of the one true and living God whom to know rightly is eternal life. We thank You for Your Word and we look forward to what we will yet learn about its glorious trustworthiness. And we thank You for the incarnate Word through Him we understand the written Word, for it was He who has sent us the Holy Spirit to be our teacher. Thank You for our wonderful day together. We commit this truth to Your usefulness as we endeavor to live in response to what we know to be Your true revelation. May the Word come alive in us and may a miracle of regeneration be manifest as we live according to Your revealed will. And we thank You in Christ's name. Amen.
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NEW YORK, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- J.R.R. Tolkien enthusiast Stephen Colbert plans a week of "The Hobbit"-themed episodes of his New York chat show "The Colbert Report," Comedy Central said.
Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis -- stars of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" -- and
Peter Jackson, the film's director, have been booked on Colbert's show throughout next week.
"The Hobbit," the first of a three-film series, is to hit theaters Dec. 14. The movies are prequels to Jackson's previous "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
All of the films were based on fantasy books by Tolkien.
"Colbert has exhibited his exuberant fascination for all things Tolkien throughout the show's history -- whether it's sparring with James Franco on 'The Lord of the Rings' knowledge, digressing with Elijah Wood during his 'Happy Feet Two' promotion appearance by discussing his 'Lord of the Rings' roles and comparing swords, or analyzing John McCain's 'Lord of the Rings' debt crisis analogy in Congress," Comedy Central said in a news release Friday.


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Katy Perry won't be hitting the Grammys red carpet with boyfriend John Mayer this Sunday; she'll be taking her "Girls" pal Allison Williams instead.
Williams, who stars in the HBO comedy series, confirmed her high-profile date to Anderson Cooper on Thursday's "Anderson Live!"
"I am going to the Grammys and Katy Perry is my date," she said. "She's the hottest date. She's a friend of mine and she's nominated, as she should be. I can't wait to go. Obviously she's awesome. She's the best."
Perry hit the red carpet two years ago with then-husband Russell Brand and her adorable grandmother. She flew solo at last year's awards and has been dating Mayer on and off since June.
She's nominated for solo performance for "Wide Awake" this year.
The girls reportedly met through their boyfriends: Williams is dating Ricky Van Veen, the founder of College Humor, and the couples have reportedly double-dated, according to E! News.
As for Mayer, his interview with CBS's "Sunday Morning" will be airing before Sunday's 55th Grammy Awards; watch for him to address his "jerk" status. He's also slated to present at the Grammys, so we wouldn't be all that surprised if he crashed Perry and Williams' girls night out.
Gisele Bundchen debuts baby girl, Vivian Lake
Jennifer Lawrence ogles an 'oblivious' John Stamos
Think Lena Dunham didn't vote? Welcome to the steampunk corn maze
Follow Nardine on Twitter @NardineSaad and Google +. Follow Ministry of Gossip @LATcelebs.
TIMELINE: Grammy winners through the years
GRAMMYS 2013: Top Nominees
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Add style and storage to your office with Safco's Apr�s Tall Cabinet. This attractive 3/4" furniture-grade wood cabinet comes with translucent panel doors to offer a peek inside. Use this cabinet alone or with other modular pieces in the Safco Apr�s Collection. Comes with five adjustable center shelves in addition to the fixed bottom shelf. Some assembly required. Safco's Apr�s Tall Cabinet comes backed by a limited lifetime warranty.
Key Features
- Five adjustable shelves, plus two doors with translucent panels
- Use alone or with other pieces in the Apr�s Collection
- Backed by a limited lifetime warranty
- Material: 3/4" furniture-grade wood
- Shelves: 5 adjustable, 1 fixed bottom shelf
- Warranty: Limited lifetime
- Width: 29 3/4"
- Depth: 11 3/4"
- Height: 59 1/2"
- Assembly Required: Yes
- Lead Time: Ships within 2 - 3 business days
- Shipping Method: Ground
- Weight: 102.00 pounds


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NOTE: This help page applies to both LifeTopix (and other classic LightArrow apps) as well as to LightArrow Organizer for iOS and Mac. So, the screenshots and directions may vary slightly based on the app you're using.
This help page will show you how to set a passcode lock for your app, which provides extra security.
1. To setup the pin tap the "Settings" button on the "Settings" card. In the next view tap the "Secure Your Data" row.
2. In the "Secure Your Data" view set the "Passcode Lock" to "On".
Then in the "Set Passcode" view enter your passcode and at least one security question and answer. Then tap the "Save" button.
In the "Secure Your Data" view you can also set the timeout, which specifies how long the app will run in the background before the app is locked. By default the timeout is set to 1 minutes.
After the "Passcode Lock" is enabled you'll notice you can now enable "Touch ID". You can enable "Touch ID" by setting the field "Enable Touch ID" to "On". Then tap the "Save" button.
3. From the dashboard view you can lock the app by tapping the lock button on the bottom toolbar, or when the app first loads you'll see the lock screen.
4. If you have "Touch ID" enabled you'll be prompted to unlock the app using your fingerprint.
If you do not have "Touch ID" enabled or tap cancel when prompted for unlocking with "Touch ID" you can enter your passcode to unlock the app.
If you have forgotten your passcode if you tap the "Forgot Passcode?" button you'll be prompted with a Security Question. You must answer at least one question correctly to unlock the App.
5. To secure sensitive information for bank accounts and bookmarks you can set your PIN in the "Secure your Data" view. After you enter a PIN tap the "Save" button.
Next, from the dashboard view scroll until you see the "Assets, Finances & Shopping" card and then tap the "Bank Accounts" tile.
Then from the "Bank Accounts" view tap an account and then tap the "Open" button.
In the "Bank Account" view in the bottom toolbar if you tap the lock button, and then enter the PIN code you'll be able to see the sensitive data for the fields "Acct. Number", "Security Code", and "PIN".
After entering the PIN you can see the data for "Acct. Number", "Security Code", and "PIN".
Then to secure the data again tap the lock button again.
6. Also, from a bookmark configure view the password is secured. If you tap the "Unlock Password" button, you'll be prompted to enter your pin.
Then after entering your pin you'll see the password. To lock the password again tap the "Lock Password" button.


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August 13, 2013
Library and Archives Canada Answers Questions About the 1921 Canadian Census
Those who are not already Ancestry subscribers do need to sign up for free access but no credit card details are required. This is not the same as their 14 day free trial where credit card information is required.
There is some controversy over Library and Archives (LAC) partnership with Ancestry.com and many people are questioning why an American based company has Canadian records, will we see the census on LAC's website at any point, etc.
After looking around, I found the answers to many of those questions here on Collections Canada website at Learn more about the Library and Archives Canada Agreement with Ancestry.ca. It's a very detailed explanation of the partnership deal between LAC and Ancestry.
Basically Ancestry gets to use the images while they do the indexing. The images and index are on Ancestry for 3 years then the indexes are turned over to LAC and they put the index and images online for free.
Seems like a win-win situation to me! If we waited for LAC to index we'd be waiting a very long time!
Interested genealogists can also read "LAC Answers Questions about Release of 1921 Census" on the OGS (Ontario Genealogical Society) Blog.
4 comments:
- Celia Lewis said...
It's true that if we waited for LAC to do the indexing we'd be waiting for a long time... BUT, LAC could have crowd-sourced the indexing in the way the 1940 USA census was indexed. Imagine the excitement, the involvement of local genealogy boards and their members, etc.etc.etc. Personally, I would have been truly grateful and excited for that opportunity. Oh well.
Is this to be an accurate index, or will it be done as I understand the 1940 U.S. census was? Most of us know what a mess some parts of it are. I have read that it was did mostly (maybe totally) by hired Asians, many who had a poor command of the English language and were not very familiar with American names. Also, there are still many images missing.
- Lorine McGinnis Schulze said...
THe 1940 US Census was indexed by volunteers. It is FREE on FamilySearch website.
Ancestry's index will be behind a pay wall and thus they will NOT use volunteers. They hire indexers.
If a company uses volunteers they do not charge a fee to users. If a company pays $ for work done (indexing for example) they do charge a fee to users
In answer to Lorine:
As the original blog was referring to Ancestry.com that is also what I was referring to. I know that familysearch used volunteers in the U. S. for their indexing of the 1940 census. Perhaps that is why they may have some, but not as many, missing images, and fewer transcription errors. I'm not knocking ancestry.com, it is a very good site. But in a rush to have the first complete index online I think they simply got a little sloppy.


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Florida Panther
Basic Facts About Florida Panthers
The Florida panther is tawny brown on the back and pale gray underneath. It is one of 32 Puma concolor subspecies known by many names – puma, cougar, mountain lion, painter, catamount and panther.
© U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Florida panthers once prowled and flourished in woodlands and swamps throughout the Southeast. When European settlers arrived in the 1600s, the clear-cutting, building and other human activities that destroy, degrade and fragment habitat began, and the fear and misconceptions that led to panther persecution took root. Today, the panther is recognized as Florida's official state animal but it is one the most endangered mammals on Earth.
Did You Know?
Proportionately, panthers have the largest hind legs of any cat, allowing them to leap up to 15 feet vertically and 45 feet horizontally.
Panthers are an umbrella species: Protecting them and the vast, unspoiled, wild territory each one needs to survive—an average of 200 square miles for a single male—protects many other plants and animals that live there. At the top of the food chain, these cats help keep feral hog numbers in check and deer, raccoon and other prey populations balanced and healthy.
Florida panthers primarily eat white-tailed deer, but they will also hunt feral hog, rabbit, raccoon, armadillo, birds and other animals.
Estimated at 120-230 adults and subadults in south Florida, the only known breeding population.
Habitat & Range
Panthers historically ranged across the southeastern United States including Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and parts of Tennessee and South Carolina. Now, the breeding population of Florida panthers is found only in the southern tip of Florida, south of the Caloosahatchee River. In recent years, young male panthers have traveled north into central and northeast Florida, and one even dispersed to west-central Georgia near the Alabama border. Females do not roam as widely and none have been documented outside of south Florida in decades.
Did You Know?
While the Florida panther is large, it is more closely related to small cats — like lynx and housecats — than to other big cats — like lions and tigers.
Panthers are habitat generalists, which means they use a variety of habitat types, including forests, prairies and swamps. They are solitary and territorial animals that travel hundreds of miles within their home ranges. Panthers are mostly active between dusk and dawn, resting during the heat of the day. Males have a home range on average of 200 square miles and females about 75 square miles.
Panthers are usually quiet, but they do communicate through vocalizations that have been described as chirps, peeps, whistles, purrs, moans, screams, growls, and hisses. Females signal their readiness to mate by yowling or caterwauling.
Rarely do all kittens survive. Kittens are born with dark spots that soon fade away as they become adults. They stay with their mother for up to two years.
Mating Season: Throughout the year, with a peak in winter/spring
Gestation: About 90 days
Litter Size: 1-4 kittens
You may also be interested in:
Puma concolor coryi
Height: 23-27 inches at the shoulder for males; females are smaller.
Length: Males, 7 feet from nose to tip of tail; females, 6 feet
Weight: Males average 130 lbs; females 70-75 lbs
Lifespan: 10-15 years


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Spiral Galaxy NGC 6503
Most galaxies are clumped together in groups or clusters. A neighboring galaxy is never far away. But this galaxy, known as NGC 6503, has found itself in a lonely position, at the edge of a strangely empty patch of space called the Local Void.
The Local Void is a huge stretch of space that is at least 150 million light-years across. It seems completely empty of stars or galaxies. The galaxy's odd location on the edge of this never-land led stargazer Stephen James O'Meara to dub it the "Lost-In-Space galaxy" in his 2007 book, Hidden Treasures.
NGC 6503 is 18 million light-years away from us in the northern circumpolar constellation of Draco. NGC 6503 spans some 30,000 light-years, about a third of the size of the Milky Way.
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows NGC 6503 in striking detail and with a rich set of colors. Bright red patches of gas can be seen scattered through its swirling spiral arms, mixed with bright blue regions that contain newly forming stars. Dark brown dust lanes snake across the galaxy's bright arms and center, giving it a mottled appearance.
The Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys data for NGC 6503 were taken in April 2003, and the Wide Field Camera 3 data were taken in August 2013.
NASA, ESA, D. Calzetti (University of Massachusetts), H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University), and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration


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The Cosmos bid for a stadium near, but not at, the M.L.S. dream site
The New York Cosmos have submitted a bid to build a stadium in Elmont, just a dozen miles from where Major League Soccer wants to erect a stadium of its own, in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
M.L.S. has plans to create a second team in the New York market to complement, and compete with, the New York Red Bulls franchise, which is based in Harrison, N.J.
Story Continued Below
The Cosmos are a new organization. Next season they'll be playing in the sub-major North American Soccer League. Their official position is that they don't necessarily want to be the second M.L.S. team in the New York market. But they are widely believed to want to be that team.
The team responded to a state request for proposals to develop the south lot of the Belmont Park racetrack in Elmont, just over the Queens border in Nassau County.
"I am pleased to inform you that one of the proposals that was submitted includes a comprehensive plan to build a professional soccer arena, shopping, community park, restaurants and a hotel on the south lot," wrote State Senator Jack Martins on Jan. 14 in a letter to the Elmont Coalition for Sustainable Development. "The plan, submitted by the New York Cosmos soccer team, calls for a $400 million investment of private funds. This plan is real, it has been submitted to New York State, and I am proud to have helped foster its submission."
A website called This Is Cosmos Country first posted the letter on Jan. 14. Martins' office told Capital the Cosmos submission was made in response to an R.F.P. issued by Empire State Development in September.
According to Joseph Rizza, a spokesman for Martins, approval of any plan would have to be made by the New York State Franchise Oversight Board.
Asked for further details, Brian Walker, a Cosmos spokesperson, emailed, "I can confirm that the Cosmos have submitted a bid and will likely announce details tomorrow."
Reached by phone, the team's chief operating officer, Erik Stover, declined comment.
The Cosmos' desire to build a stadium right over the border, and the organization's apparent ability to raise $400 million to do so, is interesting not only because of what it signifies in terms of the potential seriousness of the Cosmos, which have until now been a brand rather than an actual team, but also because of what it portends for Major League Soccer.
The fate of the M.L.S.'s proposed 25,000-seat arena in the middle of Flushing Meadows Corona Park remains unclear. The team is deep in negotiations with the city, and has a number of obstacles to overcome before its stadium becomes a reality. That's without figuring in the possibility of the Cosmos' yet-to-be-detailed plans for the Belmont location.
M.L.S.'s New York Red Bulls, playing in a beautiful soccer-only stadium in Harrison, N.J., have had trouble drawing fans consistently.
A stadium in soccer-fan-heavy New York City might be a different story. But it's hard to know what to make of the possibility of two.
A spokeswoman for M.L.S. did not respond to a request for comment.


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Our Campuses
|Medical Center
|Medical Center
New Nebraska Virtual Partnership will increase online learning opportunities for students.
University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken has joined Gov. Dave Heineman and other state leaders to announce a new partnership focused on building more online learning opportunities for students throughout the state.
The Nebraska Virtual Partnership is between the University, Nebraska Department of Education, Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council, and Nebraska Educational Telecommunications. The partners signed a Memorandum of Agreement pledging to collaborate to achieve the Governor's vision for a Virtual High School in Nebraska.
"This is a significant step forward for the future of education in Nebraska," Gov. Heineman said. "The Virtual School will provide Nebraska students a rigorous online high school curriculum with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math, commonly referred to as STEM courses, and Advanced Placement courses in both rural and urban areas. Additionally, the Virtual School establishes a single, centralized website informing students, parents, teachers and schools of virtual learning opportunities in Nebraska."
NU's Virtual Scholars pilot program
To help kick off the Nebraska Virtual Partnership, Milliken announced the launch of the NU Virtual Scholars pilot program, which will extend the benefits of high-quality online learning to more students in Nebraska. NU's Virtual Scholars pilot program
Through the Virtual Scholars program, the Independent Study High School at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will offer 50 free course enrollments to high schools across Nebraska on a competitive application basis. A school may apply for one course enrollment for one student or multiple enrollments for multiple students. Applications may be for fall 2011 or spring 2012. Schools may apply beginning Aug. 15, 2011, by accessing the application on the Independent Study High School's website, highschool.unl.edu. Applications will be accepted through Sept. 2, 2011.
Schools may apply for any of the approximately 100 core, Advanced Placement and elective courses offered by the Independent Study High School. All applications will be considered, with priority given to proposals:
'A true partnership'
"The Nebraska Virtual High School will be an important part of providing educational opportunities to students across Nebraska, and the University is very pleased to join Governor Heineman in this initiative," Milliken said. "We look forward to working with our partners, leveraging the successful record of UNL's Independent Study High School as well as other state resources to increase access to science and math curriculum, Advanced Placement courses and other opportunities all Nebraska students should enjoy.
"This represents a true partnership among educational and political leadership in Nebraska and the beneficiaries will be our high school students."
Milliken said the Virtual Scholars program and other initiatives like it that will emerge from the new Virtual Partnership will expand access to education to more students, better prepare them for college, support the work of local schools, and ultimately grow the innovation economy in Nebraska. For example, another component of the partnership is a Nebraska Virtual Library through which NET will make multi-media and digital instructional resources available to students and teachers across the state.
Milliken thanked the Governor for his leadership and commitment to increasing educational attainment in Nebraska, and also recognized Sen. Greg Adams, Education Commissioner Roger Breed, and other co-chairs of the P-16 Initiative whose leadership has been key to Nebraska's progress in education.
UNL's Independent Study High School
Fully accredited by state, national and international agencies, the Independent Study High School was founded in 1929 with the vision that all students should have access to a high-quality education regardless of their geographic location. The school now serves more than 300 Nebraska students, as well as more than 2,200 students worldwide in a flexible, asynchronous environment.
ISHS fills a critical gap in education in Nebraska, for schools unable to provide AP courses or certain high-level math or science courses, or whose students have conflicts with their schedules. The university hopes to grow enrollment in ISHS in part by introducing more schools to the program through the Virtual Scholars initiative.


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Scrivener, the word processor I've used for the last two books. Unlike Word, it doesn't crash every five minutes, and I can look at multiple docs at once in the same window. [It's] minimalist and great.
In my opinion, Scrivener's certainly better than Word, but what isn't? I haven't been naïve enough about computers to go anywhere near Microsoft Office for at least a decade. I can't call Scrivener a word processor, either, and I especially can't agree with "minimalist and great." I recommend buying Scrivener anyway, though.
I'd describe Scrivener as writing software, which includes a word processor, an outliner, and an innovative UI mode which models a whole category of time-honored writing workflows based around index cards and corkboards. I believe it's actually designed for screenwriters, but modified to be useful for all writers generally, although I could be wrong about that.
That's why I can't agree with "minimalist" or "word processor." I believe "great" would be true if "minimalist" was true. As it is, I experience all kinds of minor UI bugs and excessively assertive auto-formatting whenever I use Scrivener, and consequently I can only call it good.
However, I really like the workflow which Scrivener models -- I think that core part of it really is great -- so I created a simple copy of it with Ruby and Markdown. I threw all the notes in one place and threw all the actual finished writing in files which looked like this:
All those files lived in their own directory. I churned out a simple HTML file from that:
I think this kicks Scrivener's ass in the "minimalist" department, but I can't call this method "great" either. Once the writing was done, I copy/pasted the HTML output into Pages and then did a lot of formatting by hand. It took a while.
But minimalist writing tools rock. I want tools that get everything but content out of my way. Style is great, but I believe my products live or die based on how well-written they are. So I believe I'm much more likely to add a few layers of sophistication and CSS to this workflow than I am to return to Scrivener.
If you're really serious about writing, though, I recommend buying Scrivener anyway. I've written many screenplays, and the one I wrote with Scrivener was easily the best. The implementation is flawed, but the ideas are great. I see Scrivener as a very good set of training wheels, and I plan to continue developing this minimalist approach of mine into a fully-fledged mountain bike. I'm hoping that the only adjustment I'll have to make for screenplays is to use Fountain instead of Markdown.
"The implementation is flawed, but the ideas are great" is also one of the key things I say about Rails in my new book. I'm planning to blog about that soon.


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SOA Governance - Harness the Power of Technology
Best-in-class Governance solutions for all leading platforms.
Many large organizations are reducing costs, improving agility and reducing risk with enterprise SOA programs.
In order for SOA initiatives to succeed they need to follow sound Enterprise Architecture practices. Companies realizing the most success are those that have built an Integrated SOA Governance infrastructure that governs a wide range of assets and artifacts through their entire lifecycle.
Integrated SOA Governance helps enterprises:
In a nutshell SOA Governance is about making sure that the enterprise builds the right things, builds them right, and makes sure that what it has built is behaving right. This breaks down into distinct areas; Planning Governance is about making sure that you are building the right things, Development Governance is about making sure you're building them right, and Operational Governance is about ensuring that what you've built is behaving right.
Integrated SOA governance ensures the applicability, integrity and usability of a wide range of assets through all their lifecycle stages from asset identification through deprecation. The full lifecycle is split into planning governance, development governance, and operational governance, with a cross-cutting policy governance theme.
Integrated SOA Governance promotes the core SOA governance best practices of:
Leading industry analysts like Gartner recognize the importance of deep integration between the different governance solutions and tools to provide a comprehensive integrated SOA governance solution.
Akana (formerly SOA Software) builds its integrated SOA governance solution around its Policy Manager™ product for lifecycle governance and policy management. Policy Manager integrates seamlessly with Service Manager for operational governance with Service Manager providing a comprehensive operational policy implementation and enforcement solution. And with Portfolio Manager and Lifecycle Manager for comprehensive Planning and Development Governance
Akana's Policy Manager™, Portfolio Manager™, Lifecycle Manager™ and Service Manager™ combine to form a comprehensive closed-loop integrated SOA governance solution.
Policy Manager and Lifecycle Manager provide a comprehensive registry/repository solution for SOA asset lifecycle management. Using this solution architects, developers, security administrators, and operations managers can define and govern policies that are applied to services throughout the appropriate stages of their lifecycle. These policies are automatically implemented and enforced by Akana's industry-leading Service Manager, and other standards-based SOA runtime products. Service Manager generates usage, performance and policy compliance metrics that it delivers back to Policy Manager so that it can audit that its policies are being enforced in a closed-loop process.
The alternative to a closed-loop solution is a set of stand-alone applications for governance, management and security. These solutions may offer loose integration, but we have yet to identify a single organization that has successfully integrated stand-alone solutions in a production environment.
On one hand, stand-alone run-time solutions don't deliver higher value design-time, or governance capabilities. They require central policy management, don't offer developer or architect services, and have no understanding of the relationship between a provider and a consumer.
On the other hand, design-time, and governance solutions can only deliver value when they are built on a runtime foundation. They require a run-time solution to enforce policies; they need the run-time to provide statistics and metrics for demand, capacity, and value monitoring; and they also need the run-time to provide an audit trail to ensure that messages comply with defined policies.


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Dallas stars hold tribute to Larry Hagman on set
LARRY HAGMAN's DALLAS co-stars gathered together on the set of the hit show to pay tribute to the late star on Tuesday (27Nov12).
Veterans Linda Gray, Patrick Duffy and Ken Kercheval are reprising their roles in the drama alongside new stars Jesse Metcalfe and Josh Henderson, and they are currently shooting the second season of the show's reboot.
The cast and crew were left reeling when Hagman passed away on Friday (23Nov12) following a battle with throat cancer and leukaemia, and his tearful pals came together on the Dallas set on Tuesday morning to remember their colleague.
The actors and crew members swapped stories about Hagman and recalled their favourite memories of the star.
In a post on Twitter.com Gray, who played Hagman's onscreen wife Sue Ellen Ewing in the show, writes, "We had a beautiful gathering... on the Dallas set where cast and crew shared stories about Larry Hagman."


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(Jackie Robinson, the subject of the movie 42, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1949).
I am not a person who romanticizes Jim Crow. Separate but equal was never equal, and activists were right to upend that system of apartheid. But everything comes at a price and the price Jackie Robinson paid, at the expense of blacks specifically and the liberal movement in general, was too high of a price to pay.
For those who don't know, Jackie Robinson testified against black activist and artist Paul Robeson before the House Un-American Activities Committee, backed Richard Nixon against John F. Kennedy, backed the Vietnam War, and even questioned the patriotism of Dr. Martin Luther King when he announced his opposition to the war.
|Everything comes at a price and the price Jackie Robinson paid, at the expense of blacks specifically and the liberal movement in general, was too high of a price to pay.
This is who Jackie Robinson was. For him, it was the white man's way or no way.
For some, celebrating Jackie Robinson's integration into baseball boils down to the idea that blacks needed to be liked by even the most racist whites in order to have any real shot at the American dream. So to them, it was acceptable for Robinson to do whatever it took, even if it meant going so far as to unleash the Congressional hounds on Robeson, as long as it ensured that the doors to white baseball were opened to Robinson.
I don't buy into the notion that black people must be redeemed in the eyes of whites in order to progress, mostly because it places far too much power in the hands of racist whites and leaves blacks in a tenuous position, both psychologically and economically.
Saddest of all though is the idea that many black folk who went to see 42 will not only view Jackie Robinson's integration as a grand success, without ever bothering to consider the human consequence, but that they will undoubtedly view the movie's box office success as some sort of win. How is that possible? How is it possible to consider the movie's box office success a win for anyone except those who benefit from the movie's revenue? Simple: Since there is no real black movement or black leadership in this country, black people latch onto whatever symbolism they can as a way of giving themselves an emotional victory, even if it's largely a product of their own imagination.
Right now on my Facebook page some of my black friends are celebrating Jay-Z's trip to Cuba, as if it has any relevance to their lives. As if Jay-Z isn't the same man who tried to take advantage of Occupy Wall Street, the only group to even attempt to take on income inequality in this country, by selling Occupy-themed T-shirts without giving the group a percentage of the revenue. In the minds of many black folk, it's perfectly fine to show indifference to working-class values as long as you are a member of the black 1 percent. You too can be a vulture capitalist because as long as you don't take any lip from conservatives like Marco Rubio, blacks will rally around you no matter what.
If we've learned only one thing from the Obama Era, it should be how to discern sentiment from concreteness, emotion from passion, and symbolism from substance. Judging from the success of 42 at box office, we're just not there yet. We didn't learn the lesson when Robinson integrated or when Obama was elevated to the highest office in the land without ever addressing the needs of the working poor. In 20 years or so, I'm sure we'll be afforded another opportunity to either show up or get shut out. The cycle continues.
Yvette Carnell is a former Capitol Hill and campaign staffer turned writer. She is currently an editor and contributor to Yourblackworld. You can reach Yvette via Twitter @YvetteDC or on Facebook.
The article originally appeared in Your Black World.