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The impact of the Internet on political participation has been a debated issue in recent decades. Internet activities have been criticized for being slacktivism, where the real life impact of the activities is limited; the main effect is to enhance the feel–good factor for participants. This article examines whether this accusation is valid. It does so by examining two aspects of Internet campaigns: Whether they are effective in affecting real–life political decisions, and whether Internet activism substitutes traditional forms of off–line participation. Although it is not possible to determine a consistent impact of Internet campaigns on real–life decisions, there is no evidence of the substitution thesis. If anything, the Internet has a positive impact on off–line mobilization. Accordingly, there is little evidence to support the accusation of Internet campaigns being slacktivism. It is at worst harmless fun and can at best help invigorate citizens.
Political participation and the Internet
The Internet and slacktivism
The effect of Internet activism on political decision–making
The activities of Internet activists
Political participation on the Internet is a debated current topic. Initially, the Internet was heralded as a potential remedy for the decline in political participation that had been observed in the literature (Ayres, 1999; Barber 1998). However, in recent years scholars have grown increasingly skeptical about the positive impact of the Internet on civic mobilization.
Some claim that the Internet does little to help mobilize citizens (Bimber, 2001; Scheufele and Nisbet, 2002). However, most acknowledge that citizens are active through the Internet, but this activity is a pointless showcasing that does more to make the activists feel good about themselves than to address urgent political matters (Shulman, 2005; Hindman, 2009). As the recent creation of social networking sites such as Facebook has transformed the meaning of citizen activism and furthered what has recently been referred to as micro–activism (Marichal, forthcoming).
The derogatory epithet used for these activities is 'slacktivism', which refers to political activities that have no impact on real–life political outcomes, but only serve to increase the feel–good factor of the participants (Morozov, 2009). Worries have been expressed that these activities are pointless in that they are unable to achieve political goals and can derail political participants away from the more effective forms of participation in the activist repertoire that have traditionally been used (Putnam, 2000).
This calls attention to the fact that not all political activities are created equal. Some forms of political participation are suited for working within the representative democratic institutions to influence the decisions of the formal decision–makers. Other activities are more expressive and although they display willingness to participate, the effectiveness of these activities in achieving political aims is still in dispute.
This article examines whether performing acts of political participation on the Internet should be seen as slacktivism or as virtual activism. This involves examining whether Internet activities affect formal political decisions? And whether the Internet participants are more or less prone to be politically active in more traditional forms of participation.
This is done by examining the available data and surveying the academic literature. Through this, it is possible to determine whether Internet activism should be dismissed as slacktivism, or should be considered a genuine venue for citizens to vent their political preferences. Although it is not possible to strictly limit discussions on the Internet to a specific geographic region, the discussion mainly focuses on the impact in the established democracies. This is where there is mot data available, and the accusation of slacktivism also typically focuses on well–off citizens in these countries.
It does so by first examining the purported effects of the Internet on political participation in the academic literature. Following this, slacktivism is introduced as one of the major critiques that have been launched against political participation via the Internet. Two central critiques are identified; 1) that online activism is less effective; and, 2) that the online activities replace traditional offline participation thereby leading to lower overall levels of participation. The third and fourth sections deal with these critiques to assess their merits. Finally, a conclusion sums up the discussion and evaluates whether participation through the Internet ought to be considered virtual activism or slacktivism.
Political participation and the Internet
The state of political participation has been a matter of concern in the established democracies in recent years. Most notably, Robert Putnam has argued that citizens are becoming "lonely bowlers" who no longer interact socially, and as a consequence no longer willing to take part in political matters (Putnam, 2000). According to Putnam, the media — particularly TV but also the Internet — have helped decrease stocks of social capital, and thereby also the willingness among citizens to engage in political activities.
Opposed to this, it has been argued that what is happening is not a uniform decline in participation, but a diversification of how citizens take part in political matters (Dalton, 2006). It is acknowledged that the traditional forms of participation — epitomized by voting — are not the only way citizens engage in political matters. Instead, an array of creative forms of participation has appeared transgressing the traditional distinction between private and public life (Micheletti and McFarland, 2011).
The status of these new activities is contended [1], but it has nonetheless become commonplace to regards them as expressions of political preferences. Even if they do not aim to influence the state and they do not necessarily take place within the formal political sphere, they are compatible with the commonly used definition of political participation offered by Brady [2]: action by ordinary citizens directed towards influencing some political outcomes. In line with this view, political participation has become somewhat ambiguous, as it includes a number of new citizen activities.
One of these new forms of participation involves the use of the Internet for political purposes. Participation on the Internet may involve electronic versions of traditional forms of participation, such as electronic and online voting or online petition signing, but also new forms of cyber involvement such as politically motivated hackings (Jordan and Taylor, 2004).
Another possible impact of the Internet on political participation is enhancing traditional participation by easing the dissemination of information on activities and events to a broader public and making coordination easier for activists (Ayres, 1999; Bennett, et al., 2008).
Marichal (forthcoming) uses the term micro–activism to refer to the small scale, many–to–many forms of politically oriented communication. Even if it is hard to find exact numbers on the extent of the phenomenon, there is little doubt that the possibilities on the Internet has exploded in the last few years. New platforms for social networking such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook have provided hitherto unseen possibilities for distributing and redistributing information on ongoing campaigns and expressing political preferences to friends and family.
Initially, the most optimistic scholars expected the Internet to change the functioning of democracy profoundly by increasing mass participation (Barber, 1998). However, the purported positive effects of the Internet on political participation have not been without its critics. Some question there is any effect at all, since it merely makes it possible for previously active citizens to engage in online activities as well (Bimber, 2001). According to this critique, the Internet merely provides another tool for the already active; it does not help mobilize previously passive citizens.
A related line of critique sees the Internet as creating a digital divide (Norris, 2001). According to this critique, the Internet has an effect on participation, but this may exacerbate existing differences among citizens in their level of activity, since it is the well–educated and politically interested who take advantage of the technological possibilities.
Another critique claims that even if the Internet does activate citizens, it does so in a pointless way, since the activities do not have any impact on political outcomes in the real world (Shulman, 2005). And this brings us to the accusation of slacktivism.
The Internet and slacktivism
Slacktivism has become somewhat of a buzzword when it comes to demeaning the electronic versions of political participation. The origins of the term slacktivism is debated, but Fred Clark [3] takes credit for using the term in 1995 in a seminar series held together with Dwight Ozard. However, they used it to shorten slacker activism, which refer to bottom up activities by young people to affect society on a small personal scale used. In their usage, the term had a positive connotation.
Today, the term is used in a more negative sense to belittle activities that do not express a full–blown political commitment. The concept generally refer to activities that are easily performed, but they are considered more effective in making the participants feel good about themselves than to achieve the stated political goals (Morozov, 2009). Slacktivism can take other expressions, such as wearing political messages in various forms on your body or vehicle, joining Facebook groups, or taking part in short–term boycotts such as Buy Nothing Day or Earth Hour.
Although not necessarily restricted to Internet activities, the critique is frequently linked to the possibilities for participation this medium offers, sine it enables citizens to participate in relatively easy forms of political participation [4]. Taking online petitions as an instructive example, the Internet has made it much easier to arrange campaigns, spread the word, and even signing them. Although signing a petition is hardly complicated offline, they are now easier to find and the signature can be given with the simple click of a button.
However, this ease of access does not necessarily lead to an improvement in the overall level and efficacy of political participation. Worries over the efficaciousness of certain online political activities have been espoused by scholars (Hindman, 2009; Shulman, 2009).
Although Internet activities are particularly prone to this accusation, slacktivism does not include all political activities performed on the Internet. The phenomenon excludes online activities such as Internet hacking, since these activities require more effort and are therefore generally considered valid examples of political participation (Jordan and Taylor, 2004). Although it is not always possible to make a neat distinction between easy and difficult activities, for most purposes this is unproblematic.
Slacktivism should also be distinguished from pranks veiled in a political disguise. Although satire is a valid political tool, also for the purported slacktivists, slacktivism should not be confounded with acts that have no other purpose than entertainment. Most critics acknowledge that there is a political core in slacktivism, even if it may be very well hidden. As the definition offered by Morozov makes clear, slacktivism does include an intention to affect political goals. The problem are not the causes per se, it is the lack of desire to get more heavily involved in these causes that is the main nuisance for the critics. They hereby question that the activities reflect a genuine desire to affect political outcomes as required by Brady's definition of political participation outlined above.
According to the critics, the means and the outcomes used by slacktivists are insufficient to achieve political goals. Putnam (2000) already contended that the Internet was likely to have a detrimental effect on civic engagement, as the medium was mainly used for entertainment purposes. Although this is not necessarily the case today, the critique has not been silenced.
Shulman (2009) suggests that mass e–mail campaigns, which is a classic example of an online activity accused of slacktivism, are not necessarily able to produce the intended outcomes. He examines the efficacy of mass-generated e–mail from MoveOn.org sent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to the results, only a small portion of these comments contains relevant new information. It therefore becomes easier for the authorities both morally and technically to screen and delete these messages without ever reading them. This can be a serious threat to the purported efficacy of these campaigns.
In this sense, the availability of electronic forms of "activism" may even lead to deterioration in the quality of participation, since people who would otherwise get involved through traditional means may instead opt for digital opportunities, believing that these activities are a sufficient replacement. Even if it is granted that online activities are a form of political participation, they may still be less efficacious ways for citizens to achieve desired political goals. In this sense, political activities over the Internet could have detrimental effects on the overall levels of political engagement and especially the effectiveness of engagement in achieving stated political goals.
Coleman and Blumler [5] sum up the difficulties by noting a number of problems that Internet campaigns face. The online networks are disconnected from institutional politics, which means they may be unable to control the authorities. Furthermore, the online activities are sometimes elusive and ephemeral, meaning they never reach the agenda of the formal decision–making. Finally, the different activities tend to involve a destructive and nihilistic quality, which can make it hard for them to be taken seriously.
To sum up the critique that dismisses certain forms of online activism as slacktivism, this critique is aimed at low effort activities that are considered incapable of furthering political goals as effectively as traditional forms of participation. Wearing badges is not enough, and neither is changing your profile picture on your Facebook account for a day, a week, or a month. The slacktivists are seen as unwilling to get their hands dirty and do the efforts required to actually achieve these goals.
To some extent this critique is overstated. Many traditional acts of political participation do not necessarily require great efforts on behalf of the participants, nor are they necessarily efficient ways to further political preferences. It is hard to see why signing a petition or even voting in real life should be seen as a great sacrifice — at least in democracies where threats of retributions from authorities rarely occur — whereas doing it online is meaningless and effortless. Furthermore, critics assume a neat distinction between private and public expressions of political demands — a distinction that may not work adequately when it comes to the possibilities offered by the Internet (Papacharissi, 2010).
Nevertheless, there is a good reason to be skeptical when it comes to assessing the sincerity of some Internet campaigns, or at least the people that take part in them. This is all the more the case for acts such as joining Facebook groups, where the primary aim may be just to signal preferences to friends and family rather than achieving real–life political results. The chance that activities, such as joining a Facebook group, never transfer into other political activities to achieve the stated objective seems to be high for most, if not all groups.
As this discussion makes clear, the critique of Internet activism involves two central issues: 1. Internet activities are not effective; and, 2. Internet activists do not engage in other activities. These issues are the central issues in the remainder of this paper. Evgeny Morozov (2009) ends his discussion on slacktivism by citing a need to develop appropriate data sources for examining the phenomenon more thoroughly. The following presents a first step in this effort.
The effect of Internet activism on political decision–making
In order for Internet activities to be adequate replacements for off–line forms of participation, these activities should be efficacious ways to further political interests. An often raised critique against slacktivism is that the activities are incapable of achieving intended goals (Shulman, 2009; Morozov, 2009).
To counter this critique, many of the Internet sites aiming to mobilize citizens online through what Marichal (forthcoming) calls micro–activism, emphasize that they have achieved an actual political impact through their online activities. As it is not possible to present all sites that make such claims, a few examples will have to do. These are from sites that specialize in creating easily accessible opportunities for using the Internet for political purposes. They open up possibilities for slacktivism — both effortless and ineffective activities — since they make it possible for a large number of people to be active without making a large effort. The examples are by no means representative or exhaustive; the intent is no more than to clarify why such claims are problematic.
The Causes application [6], available in Facebook, epitomizes the slacktivist portrayal of Internet activism. It pertains to provide an unprecedented opportunity to engage netizens in seizing the future and making a difference. It makes it possible for any Facebook user to leverage their network of real friends to effect positive change. And this is why an endless stream of political messages and good causes are transmitted via the news feed.
Petitionsonline.com (http://www.petitionsonline.com/), as the name suggests, is a Web site dedicated to providing free hosting for Internet petitions, thus making it easier to disseminate petitions to a large audience (today a number of similar sites exist). They cite a number of jubilant organizers, who claim to have been successful due to Internet petitions collected via the site [7].
Avaaz.org (http://avaaz.org/en/) is a Web site for connecting citizens and decision–makers around the world. In some sense it is unfair to label Avaaz.org as an example of slacktivism, since the site also try to mobilize users off–line and in this sense reaches beyond the virtual world. In this sense, the ambitions reach beyond the typical slacktivist portrayal of diminishing political engagement to effortless and to some extent meaningless activities. Nevertheless, the core of the project exists in sending newsletters on ongoing petition signings and trying to collect funding for the causes. In this, it resembles other projects accused of slactivism.
According to the claims of Avaaz.org, many of the campaigns launched have led to significant results in the real life by changing the outcomes of public decision–making [8]. They also include statements from the decision–makers that highlight the impact of the Avaaz users in getting the result they wanted.
Although these online platforms are eager to point their efficacy, the evidence they present is problematic and it is difficult to verify these claims. It is often impossible to substantiate the claims through independent sources and the platforms have an obvious interest in overstating their impact.
The sites can, and most likely do, cherry–pick the campaigns that worked while neglecting the many that were unsuccessful, which means this does not make it possible to determine whether the success rate is 0.01 percent or 99 percent. For this reason, to give examples of successful campaigns is hardly compelling evidence in itself.
Even when they reproduce statements from decision–makers involved, this is not necessarily credible. These decision–makers have a vested interest in highlighting the impact of citizens after the fact. It is better for elected representatives or officials charged with serving the public good to pretend to be listening to public opinion rather than to acknowledge that no other result was attainable. This does not mean, however, that the same result would not have come about regardless of whether an Internet campaign had been launched or not.
Some research supports the notion that Internet campaigns can have an impact on political decisions (Bennett, et al., 2008; Klotz, 2007). Nevertheless, most of these are case studies of campaigns, and although they can help mechanisms that can increase the success rate of Internet campaigns, they do not make it possible to ascertain the general impact of the Internet on democracy.
Although many of these projects may be sympathetic projects that support many laudable causes, their claims for success are unsubstantiated. This does not mean that efforts such as these are necessarily without an impact, but it is not possible to settle conclusively what percentage of Internet activities are successful and how important they generally are in reaching stated goals.
The activities of Internet activists
The second criticism launched against Internet activism is that effortless online activities supplant traditional forms of engagement, and the spread of online activities may therefore have negative consequences for both the extent of political participation as well as the efficacy of activities.
A number of studies have examined the impact of being politically active online on off–line political participation. By piecing together the results it is possible to gain a more complete understanding of how Internet activity affects political participation. The different measures and data sets used should make the findings more credible.
As it is not possible to present all of these studies in detail, the following presents examples of some studies that cast doubt on the purported positive effects of the Internet on citizen engagement. In this sense, they are in line with the slacktivist account of Internet political activities, since they support the notion that being active on the Internet does not lead to off–line participation. According to this view, slacktivism may well be replacing traditional participation, and thereby lead to a lower overall quality of participation.
Bimber (2001) examines whether obtaining information from the Internet affects the likelihood of political participation in the form of voting and other activities such as discussing politics and attending rallies. His results suggest that obtaining information does not affect the likelihood of voting. He finds a weak link between obtaining information from electronic media and other forms of participation, which is mainly related to a higher propensity to donate money.
Bimber draws the conclusion that obtaining information does not necessarily increase the likelihood of participation outside the Web. He contends that political participation is not directed by the availability or cost of political information [9]. Nevertheless, for the present purposes it is valuable to note that there is no evidence reported of a negative link; or that Internet activity should decrease the propensity to be active.
In a similar vein, Scheufele and Nisbet (2002) find no evidence of a significant effect of Web use for various purposes and eight forms of traditional participation performed over the least years. When controlling for other factors, the independent effect of being active on the Internet is virtually zero and far from significant.
Jennings and Zeitner (2003) arguably provide the most elaborate statistical test of the impact of the Internet on political participation, since they have access to panel data making it possible to control for developments over time. They do find important implications of the Internet, but when it comes to political participation, the effect is negligent when considering previous levels of engagement.
All these studies question the existence of a positive effect of Internet activity on political participation. However, none suggest a negative effect from using the Internet for political purposes on participation in real life. This suggests that fears of Internet activities supplanting real life activity are unsubstantiated.
Other studies find a positive effect of Internet activity on political participation (Stanley and Weare, 2004; Tolbert and McNeal, 2004; Norris, 2005; Puig–i–Abril and Rojas, 2007), although it is not necessarily strong positive effects. It is especially emphasized that the Internet can help mobilize the young into off–line forms of political participation, which may suggest that the Internet effect can grow stronger over time.
This is even more so for more recent articles, which are generally more positive, although still cautiously so. A recent meta–analysis of studies of the impact of Internet use on civic engagement seems to confirm the positive impact of the Internet (Boulianne, 2009). The 38 studies span 1995–2005, and the results suggest that the Internet has a positive effect on civic engagement, although the strength of the impact is limited. Furthermore, it suggests that the impact is increasing over time, which suggests that the importance of the Internet may be growing.
Whether the stronger impact of the Internet on civic engagement over time is due to changes in theory, data, and analytical methods or is caused by a stronger effect of the Internet on participation in recent years is unclear. However, there is little doubt that the possibilities that the Internet offers have increased only the last five years. It seems fair to say that most evidence in recent years points to the Internet having a positive effect on off–line mobilization, even if it has by no means fulfilled the expectations of the most optimistic scholars.
Even if we modestly suggest that the precise impact of Internet activities on political participation is still a matter of dispute, there is no evidence for a negative effect of the Internet on off–line participation. Even the most skeptical scholars at most find a weak and non–significant linkage, but none find a negative impact.
Accordingly, there is no evidence to suggest that Internet activism is replacing traditional political participation. If anything, it is helping mobilize citizens by increasing an awareness of contemporary issues.
The relationship between the Internet and civic engagement has been debated both in public and among scholars. Initially, many commentators expected the Internet to have a profound impact on how democracy functions, transforming it into an ideal e–democracy with equal opportunities for all citizens. These expectations have so far not been fulfilled and are unlikely to be so in the near future.
This failure has lead many scholars to grow more skeptical when assessing the impact of the Internet, some even claiming that the Internet may have detrimental effects for the functioning of democracy.
One of the more recent critiques raised against virtual participation is that online activism is typically nothing more than slacktivism, that is, activities that may make the active individual feel good, but have little impact on political decisions and may even distract citizens from other, more effective, forms of engagement.
This paper has examined these two critiques against online activities to examine their relative merits. This makes it possible whether online participation in its most typical forms can be dismissed as slacktivism or should be taken serious as political participation by other means.
As concerns the efficaciousness of the online activities, there is a lack of reliable data to sustain the purported success of various Internet campaigns. For this reason, it is not possible to determine unequivocally whether Web sites actually have the impact they claim to.
Nonetheless, many of the campaigns accused of being slacktivistic are almost certainly never able to fulfill their stated goals, nor were they necessarily meant to. However, even if it is not possible to dismiss the skepticism about the effectiveness of online participation, it is premature to dismiss the impact of the Internet on political activism altogether. Online and off–line participation are not necessarily mutually exclusive forms of citizen engagement. This concerns the second aspect of the slacktivist critique, i.e., that online activities supplant traditional forms of participation, thereby leading to a lower overall level of civic engagement.
Most evidence in recent years suggests that being active online promotes off–line participation as well. Although this link is not necessarily very strong, there is certainly no evidence of a negative effect from Internet activity.
This suggests that the fears raised that online slacktivist activities replace more traditional and more effective forms of participation are unfounded. Although most Internet users or slacktivists never develop deeper forms of involvement, there is no evidence that Internet activities are damaging civic engagement by replacing more effective forms of participation.
Instead, most recent research suggests a positive — albeit weak — link between online activity and engagement in off–line political participation. This suggests that being involved in effortless political activities online does not replace traditional forms of participation, if anything, they reinforce off–line engagement.
It is therefore ill–advised to dismiss Internet activism as slacktivism as opposed to genuine political participation. By expanding the number of potential activists and easing the spreading of information, the Internet creates fertile ground for more direct involvement in political matters.
Doubtless, all purported slacktivists will not become active off–line as well, and the majority of the virtual activists may never progress beyond effortless forms of Internet activism. Nonetheless, the effortless Internet activities are at worst harmless fun (or an annoyance, but nonetheless harmless) without any effect on real–life politics. At best, they may help raise awareness about political issues and even mobilize citizens to take other forms of action outside the virtual world. Even if sending chain letters and joining Facebook groups do little more than raise awareness, they do at least that. In this sense, participation is more than just slacktivism and may promote engagement in a range of political activities.
There is still much research that needs to be done to assess the impact of Internet activism. As noted, there is a need to assess the effectiveness of Internet campaigns more systematically. Although a difficult endeavor, it is necessary to collect more data on the success rate of these endeavors to be able to thoroughly assess their impact on political decisions.
Additionally, there is a need to examine the factors that help activate the resource pool made up by the slacktivists. There is a need to explore what mechanisms turn slacktivists into activists, since clicking a button is rarely enough. This especially necessary since there is no evidence that the Internet can, nor ever will, provide a full good substitute for traditional activism. The best results seem to be obtained by using the means available, whether they are off–line or online.
In this sense, the efforts of Avaaz.org may be the most suitable path forward. Even if it is not possible to sustain their claimed instances of success, they at least pursue their political goals by any means possible.
About the author
Henrik Serup Christensen is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Political Science at Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland. His research interests include political participation and especially newer forms of off–line and online engagement.
E–mail: Henrik [dot] christensen [at] abo [dot] fi
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Editorial history
Received 15 December 2010; revised 11 January 2011; revised 27 January 2011; accepted 30 January 2011.
Copyright © 2011, First Monday.
Copyright © 2011, Henrik Serup Christensen.
Political activities on the Internet: Slacktivism or political participation by other means?
by Henrik Serup Christensen.
First Monday, Volume 16, Number 2 - 7 February 2011


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subset: commoncrawl


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are, however, some notable ways in which JDOQL differs from Java:
You can traverse through private persistent fields of relations.
String literals can be either double-quoted or single-quoted.
Equality and ordering comparisons between
primitives and instances of wrapper classes
Boolean, Byte, Integer, etc) are
Equality and ordering between
are valid.
Equality comparisons always use the
operator; the
equals method is not
The assignment operators (
=, +=, *=, etc)
as well as the
++ and
operators are not supported.
Methods are not supported, with the following exceptions:
String.matches*: Regular
expression support is limited to the use of
.*, and
(?i) to represent case-insensitive
String.indexOf*: Both the
String.indexOf(String str)
and the
String.indexOf(String str, int fromIndex)
forms are supported.
Both the
String.substring(int start)
and the
String.substring(int beingIndex, int endIndex)
forms are supported.
JDOQL supports the following aggregates:
min, max, sum, avg, count*.
We discuss aggregates in detail later in the chapter.
Traversing a null-valued field causes the subexpression to
evaluate to
false rather than throwing a
Kodo offers several extensions to JDOQL, and allows you to define your own extensions. See the Reference Guide's Section 9.6, "Query Language Extensions" and Section 9.6.4, "JDOQL Subqueries" for details.
While it is important to note the differences between JDOQL and Java
enumerated in the list above, it is just as important to note what
is not in the list. Mathematical operators,
logical operators,
instanceof, casting,
field traversal, and static field access are omitted, meaning
they are all fully supported by JDOQL.
We demonstrate some of the interesting aspects of JDOQL below.
Example 11.2. Relation Traversal and Mathematical Operations
Find all magazines whose sales account for over 1% of the
total revenue for the publisher. Notice the use of standard Java
"dot" notation to traverse into the persistent fields of
Query query = pm.newQuery (Magazine.class, "price * copiesSold > publisher.revenue * .01"); List mags = (List) query.execute ();
Example 11.3. Precedence, Logical Operators, and String Functions
Find all magazines whose publisher's name is "Random House" or
matches a regular expression, and whose price is less than or equal
to 10 dollars. Here, we use single-quoted string literals to avoid
having to escape double quotes within the filter string. Notice
also that we compare strings with
== rather
than the
equals method.
Query query = pm.newQuery (Magazine.class, "price <= 10.0 " + "&& (publisher.name == 'Random House' " + "|| publisher.name.toLowerCase ().matches ('add.*ley')"); List mags = (List) query.execute ();
Example 11.4. Collections
Find all magazines whose cover article has a subtitle of "The Real Story" or whose cover article has no subtitles.
Query query = pm.newQuery (Magazine.class, "coverArticle.subtitles.contains ('The Real Story') " + "|| coverArticle.subtitles.isEmpty ()"; List mags = (List) query.execute ();


text:
AkzoNobel wins Airbus SQIP Silver Award
AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings has been recognized by Airbus Industries at their Supply Chain and Quality Improvement Program (SQIP) event 2012.
As one of Airbus' most strategic suppliers, AkzoNobel received the Silver Award for supply chain and quality improvement at the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse. The event marked the conclusion of a 3 year program to further raise levels of quality and supply from all Airbus' major supply companies.
John Griffin, Director AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings EMEA, comments that the SQIP program proactively drives continuous improvement that benefits AkzoNobel and all of our customers. He sees the award as a great honor for the Aerospace Coatings' division. The SQIP program sets a benchmark for AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings and presents a new challenge in the form of SQIP 2015 which shall drive strategic suppliers to achieve 100% on time delivery with zero rejections.


text:
Planning your summer vacation and looking for some light beach reading? Joseph Coletti over at the John Locke Foundation has you covered with a comprehensive analysis of this year's state budget:
A New State Budget Based On Time-Tested Principles
In his 1985 address to the North Carolina Foundation for Research and Economic Education (NC FREE), Gov. James Martin laid out three keys to a more conservative view of government. The first was to elect more conservative, business-oriented political leaders. The second was to reduce taxes at all levels. The third was to keep government spending in check and improve government productivity and efficiency.1 These core principles reflected a broad agenda for sustained conservative reforms Martin and his political and policy advisers had developed months prior.2
Just over 25 years after Martin's address, North Carolina voters elected a Republican legislative majority that elevated conservative, business-oriented political leaders to leadership positions in the General Assembly. Under their leadership and the leadership of their successors, they have passed budgets and advanced policies that reflect the conservative view of government Gov. Martin articulated decades earlier—the elimination and reduction of taxes on all North Carolinians, prudent spending and savings, and a renewed focus on improving government productivity and efficiency. The 2017-19 biennial budget continues that tradition.
With the support of two Democrats and the abstention of a third in the House, the General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of a budget that largely continues the restraint needed for long-term fiscal sustainability. The spending increase is larger than the average over the past five years, but it spends less per person when adjusted for inflation.
The budget will spend $23 billion in state tax dollars in the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2018, and $23.6 billion the following fiscal year. It includes another $3.7 billion each year for transportation projects and sets the stage for another round of broad income tax reductions in January 2019. Overall General Fund appropriations will grow by $1.3 billion, or 5.9 percent, over two years. Such budgetary restraint means state government will take less, adjusted for inflation, from every North Carolinian.
Legislators also set aside $263 million for the Savings Reserve, state government's "rainy-day fund," in addition to restoring $100 million that had gone to relief for residents affected by Hurricane Matthew. They devoted $125 million to repairs and renovations of government-owned facilities. Provisions in the budget, and in a bill passed earlier this year, should make future funding of the rainy-day fund and state capital needs more secure.
On the personnel side, teachers will receive, on average, a 9.6 percent pay raise over two years, state employees will receive a $1,000 raise, and other state-funded salaries will also rise. Across all agencies, the state will pay $642 million, or 5.6 percent, more in salaries from the General Fund in Fiscal Year (FY) 2018-19 than in FY2016-17. Adding health insurance and retirement benefits to salary, total compensation climbs $967 million, or 6.5 percent. The budget also includes a provision (Section 35.21) to study whether the state is allocating compensation resources in the most productive way and addressing the unfunded liability for future health care costs.
When a government spends less than it collects in taxes, there is more opportunity to address unfunded liabilities or respond to natural disasters or economic downturns. Currently, the Savings Reserve Account contains the equivalent of about one month of state spending at current levels. That amount is still nowhere near the share of annual state spending necessary to weather a recession, but it is more as a share of spending than at any time in its history.
The General Assembly has created a mechanism to ensure the adequacy of the Savings Reserve Account, instituting mandatory transfers beginning in FY2018-19 and placing restrictions on how its funds can be used. The new law sets a lower bar of 15 percent of new tax revenue after tax law changes for the year if the Savings Reserve is below the threshold agreed upon by the Office of State Budget and Management and the Fiscal Research Division of the General Assembly.
The budget bill itself includes a provision, taking effect in 2019, to set aside 4 percent of total General Fund tax revenue in a single pool to cover capital investments, repairs, renovations, and debt service. This Capital and Infrastructure Reserve replaces the Repairs and Renovations Reserve, which previous law mandated to receive 25 percent of unreserved fund balances but which rarely did in past budgets. Paying for capital from existing funds without adding new debt, and making debt service the first priority for funds in this new reserve, should help North Carolina keep its AAA bond rating.
Low spending and an adequate rainy-day fund should mean less temptation to hike taxes when the next recession comes. The budget is not set to spend every dollar, and savings can offset some of any future unplanned reductions in revenues. If spending and taxes are predictable, people can make long-term plans. The reader may recall that sales tax hikes in the 2000s began as temporary. The first became permanent after repeated extensions; the second was kept temporary when the new Republican majority, overriding Gov. Beverly Perdue's veto, let the tax expire in 2011. Regularly renewed temporary taxes were no way to run a state, and they seem unlikely to return in the next downturn if the General Assembly stays on its current path. A commitment to lower spending and to set aside savings provides needed fiscal predictability, consistency, and responsibility.
Tax changes in the biennial budget are generally broad-based, with lower corporate and personal income tax rates, a higher standard deduction, repeal of the sales tax on mill machinery, and a reduction in the franchise tax for small companies. The budget also changes how taxes are reduced for families with children. Beginning in January 2019, income tax rates will drop for corporations and individuals, and the standard deduction will increase. Broad reductions in tax rates or increases in the standard deduction do not "give away" the state's money, as some have claimed.3 Instead, lower taxes limit the ability of legislators to give money collected from some citizens to favored organizations or people. A larger standard deduction has a greater impact for those with less income and makes it less likely for wealthier taxpayers to try gaming the system with itemized tax deductions.
Unlike lower tax rates and a larger standard deduction, which reduce taxes for anybody paying the personal income tax, converting the per-child tax credit to a tiered tax deduction will mean slightly higher taxes (from $21.25 to $49.50 per child) for married couples filing jointly who have taxable income of $60,000 to $100,000 after all changes take effect. It seems likely that legislators will address this problem with larger deductions for that income range when they return in 2018, if not sooner.
A lower franchise tax reduces the cost of starting or growing a business in the state. More importantly, it does so without picking winners and losers. Reducing a tax for a wide range businesses, as opposed to granting special carve-outs or incentives, means energy suppliers, Hollywood studios, multinational companies, and recipients of taxpayer-funded grants in recent years are placed on equal footing with small-business owners.
Legislators could have reduced tax burdens in ways that provided more marginal economic gains, such as repeal or reform of the capital gains tax, but the changes they enacted are largely positive. Fortunately, the budget does not include a proposed increase in the mortgage interest and property tax deduction that would have had little benefit for most people or the economy.
The $529 million tax cut legislative leaders advertised mostly takes effect in January 2019, which means just six months of the lower revenue show up in the budget. Its full-year impact will be closer to $1 billion beginning in FY2019-20.
Several provisions improve the ability of management, legislators, and the public to understand state government finances and operations, and to hold government accountable for performance.
While the budget provides no new funds for the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) to create a website that makes state budgets easier to understand and analyze, lawmakers reiterated their expectation to have a website by January 2018 and provided funds so the Department of Health and Human Services could remove Social Security numbers from its databases. The inclusion of personally identifiable information in financial databases was one of the factors that has kept more information on these programs unavailable online.
The N.C. Community College System keeps its money to plan an enterprise resource planning system that helps its institutions manage their finances and other business processes. The University of North Carolina System and the Department of Public Instruction each receive appropriations to begin planning similar systems to improve their respective fiscal operations. The statewide accounting system in the State Controller's Office is also slated for an update with appropriations to begin planning and design.
Finally, some nonstate entities that receive government funding must now report to OSBM their planned activities and outcomes, though there is no follow-up check to see how they perform.
The education budget fully funds enrollment growth and increases salaries for all school personnel. Teachers receive, on average, a 3.3 percent raise in the first year and a 9.6 percent raise over the biennium. Principals receive higher pay and have their salaries based on school size and performance. Assistant principals move to a new salary schedule that pays them 1.7 percent more than teachers with comparable credentials and experience.
A Joint Legislative Task Force on Education Finance Reform will evaluate paying for schools based on the needs of each student, rather than on multiple enrollment- and personnel-based formulas, which can simplify school funding while making it more responsive. The Opportunity Scholarship Program will receive its scheduled $10 million increase and has future increases over the next 10 years included in the base budget, so a new class of students each year can find private alternatives. The budget provides initial funding for education savings accounts (ESAs) that can be used to pay for multiple qualifying educational expenses, rather than just tuition at a private school.
The Superintendent of Public Instruction gains $700,000 to hire as many as 10 additional employees, while the State Board of Education loses both vacant and filled positions. The Board, which has filed suit to stop a state law granting more authority to the State Superintendent, will lose its ability to hire private counsel. The Department of Public Instruction will be audited and will have to cut $7.3 million by the end of FY2018-19 at the discretion of management.
The budget places renewed emphasis on early childhood education and career and technical education. It creates a new Associate Superintendent of Early Education and a B-3 Interagency Council to integrate early childhood programs and elementary schools. Additionally, the N.C. Community College System will assume control of the state's apprenticeship program, which had been housed at the Department of Commerce.
Elizabeth City State University receives $4.8 million over two years to stabilize its operations. The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University will receive $4 million each year in recurring funds for the same purpose. Although they are categorized similarly, the differences in funding indicate differences in the needs of the programs.
Two appropriations will make higher education more accessible. First, in-state students at Elizabeth City State University, Western Carolina, and UNC-Pembroke will pay $500 per semester for tuition, and out-of-state students will pay $2,500 through a new NC Promise program that will add $11 million in annual funds beginning in FY2018-19, bringing the total appropriation for the program to $51 million. Second, senior citizens will receive the opportunity to audit classes for free at any UNC campus. To help with accountability across the UNC system, the Board of Governors will receive an appropriation for staffing of its own, thus no longer needing to rely on the UNC General Administration staff to provide information and support.
Community colleges received $1 million in 2016 to develop an enterprise resource planning system (ERP) to manage operations and finance. The Department of Public Instruction received $29 million for business systems, including an ERP, and the UNC system received $10 million for data management and a new ERP. These systems are intended to share information with one another and with a statewide ERP at the Office of the State Controller that received $13 million in nonrecurring funds for the biennium. A 2015 presentation estimated the total cost of a comprehensive ERP system at $301 million with the promise that managers, legislators, and the public will be able to understand the cost of running the government and use it to gauge the return on their investment.
General Government
Legislators took $1 million in funding from the Governor's office and $10 million from the Justice Department, made the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tem of the Senate primarily responsible for defending the constitutionality of state laws, and limited the ability of the Governor and Attorney General to hire private counsel for lawsuits.
Reorganizations include a transfer of the Human Relations Commission, which deals with housing discrimination, from the Department of Administration, where it was one of a hodgepodge of offices, to the Office of Administrative Hearings, the state's regulatory court system. The Industrial Commission, which deals with workers' compensation and other injury claims, moves from the Commerce Department to the Department of Insurance. And the Employment and Workforce Development Commission moves from the governor's office to the Department of Public Instruction.
Health and Human Services
In the Department of Health and Human Services budget, the biggest news is what did not make the budget—a proposed expansion of Medicaid, the state portion of which would have been funded by a tax on hospitals and the federal portion of which would have grown the total federal contribution nearly 25 percent, to $13 billion a year. This unrealistic and unworkable idea was dead on arrival.
As mentioned in the education section, a new formal structure will connect early childhood education efforts in the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Public Instruction. Another 3,525 children will have slots available for them in the NC Pre-K program, thanks to a $27 million funding increase.
For children in troubled families, the budget includes provisions and new funding to further reform the child welfare system, with an emphasis on foster homes for children from state-recognized tribes. And there is also new funding to tackle the opioid addiction problem.
Justice and Public Safety
Although the Senate included language that would create a separate department for adult and juvenile corrections, the final budget keeps the structure of the Department of Public Safety intact. The North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice report earlier this year recommended the state "raise the age" at which a person could be tried as an adult, to 18 for all misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. This brings North Carolina in line with every other state. The budget appropriated $997,600 over two years to plan for these changes to take effect. It also recommended improvements in local courts. The budget provides funding for 96 new deputy clerks by July 2019 and 31 new assistant district attorneys to help improve access to the courts. Overall funding for Justice Public Safety increased $100.2 million.
Natural and Economic Resources
The Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service would have been eliminated in the Senate budget. It survives, but with fewer staff in its regional offices and without the Utility Savings Initiative, which is transferred to the State Energy Office. Shellfish and water infrastructure receive special attention and additional funding.
Despite years of research concluding that targeted incentives do not work, funding for Job Development Investment Grants (JDIG) and the One North Carolina Fund receive only temporary reductions totaling $13 million. A provision opens a new category for large facilities ($500 million and 1,750 employees) that can be financed through JDIG. Incentives for film productions remain grants, despite Gov. Cooper's attempt to make them tax credits again, but funding each year will be more than $30 million, an increase from $15 million. The Commerce and Agriculture departments received more than $5 million to market North Carolina and food products to the rest of the world.
Airports across the state will receive $132 million of the $7.2 billion for transportation funding over the next two years for capital improvements and repairs. The Ports Authority will receive a $10 million increase in funding and will be given more independence with its own fund under the Highway Trust Fund. Lawmakers continue to prop up the Global Transpark with $800,000 in appropriations over two years. Also in transportation, bridge preservation and maintenance of roadside environments receive dedicated funding, rather than being lumped together with other projects in the General Maintenance Reserve. The bridge preservation program reaches $85 million in recurring funding in the second year. Roadside environments, such as wildflowers and rest areas, receive $105 million each year.
Employee Compensation and Retirement Benefits
State employees besides teachers and principals will receive raises of $1,000 per year and three extra days off they can use at any time. Retired state employees will receive a permanent 1 percent cost-of-living increase in pension payments. No other changes were made to the pension system, as State Treasurer Dale Folwell initiates measures to change the internal operations of state investments on behalf of employees and retirees.
Health benefits for employees and retirees were complicated by a court ruling that higher premiums for retirees violated their contracts, even if those premiums were in line with changes for active employees. The State Health Plan's governing board approved changes for 2018 that would charge $25 monthly premiums for employees who currently pay nothing, and increase premiums from $15 to $50 a month for employees with more comprehensive insurance. A budget provision makes new state employees hired in 2021 or later ineligible for state health benefits in retirement.
Conclusion: Good Times But Caution Ahead
The Republican-led General Assembly has had a good track record of assembling sound, fiscally responsible budgets. Its latest General Fund budget, while spending less per person adjusted for inflation than authorized for the current year, sets a long-term path for appropriations and taxes that may require a future course correction.
In April, we wrote that the Senate's tax cut did not portend a looming crisis, but our analysis was based on General Fund growth of roughly 2.5 percent per year. Instead, the final budget grows 3.1 percent in the first year and 2.7 percent in the second year, and could go higher when the General Assembly makes budget adjustments in 2018.
The final budget also opens a hole in what had been a firm baseline for spending. Before 2013, the budget would automatically increase to cover the same services, just for more people at higher prices. The General Assembly fixed the baseline to maintain spending from year to year. A provision to include "adjustments for statutory appropriations and other adjustments as directed by the General Assembly" in the base budget opens the possibility of making future baselines more like the old system. The provision's main purpose is to incorporate annual $10 million increases in funding for Opportunity Scholarships for the next 10 years, as mentioned earlier. It sets a troubling precedent, even though the funds support worthwhile programs, and the legislature should debate spending changes each year.
Taxes, meanwhile, may be $1 billion lower each fiscal year once fully implemented, but the cuts will not be immediate. The $529 million tax cut legislative leaders advertised mostly takes effect in January 2019, which means just six months of the lower revenue show up in the budget.
Despite our concerns, the potential challenges this budget could leave in the longer term are significantly different from the budgets passed between 2001 and 2010, when nonrecurring revenues were repeatedly tapped to cover recurring costs. Perhaps legislators will refrain from adding new appropriations when they return next year, keep the budget on track, and continue the conservative legacy of Gov. Martin. Today's legislative leaders should continue the commitment to lower taxes, keep government spending in check, and improve government productivity and efficiencies.
- "North Carolina Foundation for Research and Economic Education: Raleigh, December 3, 1985," in Poff, Jan-Michael, Ed., Addresses and Public Papers of James Grubbs Martin: Governor of North Carolina, Volume 1: 1985-1989, Raleigh, N.C.: Division of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, 1992, p. 219.
- Hood, John, Catalyst: Jim Martin and the Rise of North Carolina Republicans, Winston-Salem, N.C.: John F. Blair Publisher, 2015, p. 181.
- "Editorial: Still time to fix state budget into one that helps all North Carolinians," Capitol Broadcasting Company. June 16, 2017.
The preceding article was written by Joseph Coletti, senior fellow at the John Locke Foundation focused on fiscal policy issues. It first appeared on their website on July 11, 2017 and reappears here with the gracious permission of the publisher. For a PDF version of this article, click here. For a historical and comparative analysis of the state budget, please click on this link and scroll to the bottom of the page to find "Appendix: Budget History."


text:
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Wedgwood Housewarming Gifts
Help make a house a home with the range of housewarming gifts from the Wedgwood collection. With styles and designs to fit any home, each item is of Wedgwoods highest standard of quality and not only make perfect gifts but are sure to be treasured for a lifetime. Whether you are looking for pots, vases, kitchenware, or the perfect keepsake, each item has gifting at heart.
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The Crisis Of Revelation By Ross McRonald
Description: The novel follows a retired engineer, Jack Molay, who goes on an archeology expedition to Europe. While there, his team discovers what they believe to be the bones of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. The bones show signs that a crucifixion has occurred. However, these bones have healed. The evidence of healing directly refutes the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. "Books such as 'The Da Vinci Code' scratch the surface in regards to alternative religious beliefs," McRonald said. "I wanted to write something that takes these ideas to the next level so that we can further explore the roots of Christianity."
Price: $17.95 to $20.00


text:
Indian Yell: The Heart of an American Insurgency
Northland Pub., 2006 - History - 170 pages
Recounting twelve significant battles, and the reverberating consequences of their outcomes, that took place in the American West between the United States and American Indians from 1854 to 1890, this book is filled with harrowing stories of sacrifice and misdeeds that are well documented in the annals of history, as well as others that are less well known. Commonly and callously referred to at the time as the ?Indian Problem, ? this issue, and how it was handled, became the defining factor in shaping how American Indians live today and reflects interestingly on how the American military currently handles conflicts with insurgents throughout the world. Eloquently written by award-winning author of Dances With Wolves, Michael Blake presents these conflicts with a perspective that goes beyond the basic facts of date, place, and outcome. Blake's insightful accounts of these battles finally answers the less pondered, more human questions about this crucial part of America's history. Blake's narrative shatters stereotypes, eloquently bringing to light the undercurrents of conflict between nations that are familiar themes to a contemporary audience. Further reading suggestions are offered at the end of each chapter.
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In the afterword of his book, Michael Blake makes a statement that sums up what has been germinating in my mind as I've been read three books on the Native Americans in a row. He states that "…All ... Read full review
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If you've reviewed kinesiology and/or biomechanics in your studies, you should already be familiar with our mathematician friend Isaac Newton. As we talk about Newton's three main laws of motion you will want to refer to the following pages in your manual:
Most of us can name off at least one of Newton's three motion related laws, if not what they stand for. When taken together, Newton's three laws of motion provide a better understanding of the relationships among forces, mass, and human movement – at individual joints or of the body as a whole.
Newton's first law, the law of inertia, states that a body at rest will stay at rest and a body in motion will stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force. Law one also states that a body's inertia is proportional to its mass (a heavier object is harder to get moving than a lighter object). So how does this relate to the fitness professional? Weight lifting! Starting a bicep curl with a 15 pound weight is going to be harder than starting a bicep curl with a 2 pound weight.
Newton's second law, the law of acceleration, states that a force acting on a body in a given direction is equal to the body's mass multiplied by the body's acceleration in that direction. (Force = mass x acceleration) How can we apply that to fitness? With soccer, the more force you exert during a kick, the faster the acceleration of the ball. This means when the ball leaves your foot, it is going to travel faster and farther. A dainty kick (little force) means less acceleration. An 'I mean business' kick (more force) will mean greater acceleration. In this case the mass, the soccer ball, remains the same in both examples.
We can also see Newton's second law in terms of weight training. If you 'cheat' by initiating a lifting movement with momentum from a body part other than the one you are focusing on, the momentum of the moving weight may be greater than the muscle's ability to decelerate and stop it. We've all seen the individual at the lat pulldown machine using a half crouch and a great heaving motion to start pulling the weight down towards their chest. Often at the end of the exercise, this weight goes crashing back down to the stack with great speed because of this compensation used to initiate the lift. (the lifter didn't use the intended muscles to get the movement started, so those intended muscles can't slow down/decrease the movement at the end of the motion).
So how do Newton's first law and second law relate? Newton's first law tells us that force is required to accelerate an object. Newton's second law answers the question of how much force is required.
Finally, Newton's third law is commonly referred to as the law of reaction – every applied force is accompanied by an equal and opposite reaction force. Say it with me 'every action has an equal and opposite reaction'. With fitness we talk about this in regards to impact forces when jogging, doing plyometrics, or step class. Step training remains popular even though the magnitude of the ground-reaction forces associated with each step place the student as risk for a variety of overuse injury. Using a ten inch step is going to result in greater impact forces than using a 2 inch step. When we 'land' we exert a force on the ground. The earth exerts the same force back up at us, which our body must then dissipate through its shock-absorbing structures (knee meniscus for example). Many aerobic shoes have additional shock absorbing material under the forefoot, as this is where the force first impacts.
So we've talked about Newton's first, second and third laws. Rather than memorizing what the law says, focus instead on how that law applies to fitness and exercise. Also, keep in mind that Newton and his laws are part of the background science part of your certification. Important in a fundamental sense, yes, but not something you want to spend a large amount of time on.


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On a recent trip home to visit my parents in Southern California, I sat at the kitchen table with my mother and, over a cup of coffee, enjoyed some leisurely mother-daughter chatter. She asked about my life in New York, and my job as a photo editor at TIME. Among the things I told her about was our June coverage of the 70th anniversary of D-Day, and the incredible story behind Robert Capa's famous pictures of the Normandy invasion.
Incidentally, my grandfather, Staff Sgt. Paul T. Lipari below, took part in D-Day, too, landing on Utah Beach in Normandy. Born in Easton, Penn., in 1914, the son of Sicilian immigrants and the second of eight children, Paul Lipari entered the U.S. Army in 1942 at the age of 28. A member of the 90th Infantry Division of Patton's Third Army, he survived the D-Day assault that cost tens of thousands of Allied lives, and served another 16 months before returning home. He was honorably discharged in 1945.
Since his death almost 15 years ago, my mother has occasionally shared with my brother, sisters and me the stories of her father's life and service, and that day in the kitchen was no different. She told me things I'd already heard—and always enjoyed—about his training as a cook, marching with comrades down the Champs-Élysées, liberating the Flossenbürg concentration camp in Bavaria and the snapshots of Adolf Hitler that he brought back from the war. . . .
Wait. What?
My ears pricked up as I shifted from daughter mode to photo editor mode. Snapshots of Hitler? Now this was a story I hadn't heard before.
Bringing souvenirs—sometimes bought, more often "liberated"—from foreign shores is something soldiers, sailors and marines have been doing since warfare was invented, and World War II was no different. But I had no idea what artifacts my grandfather might have come upon during his time in Europe. My mom went upstairs and returned minutes later with a large, floral-patterned box, and started organizing the contents on the kitchen table: photographs, newspaper clippings, maps, letters—and a small paper envelope containing what were, in fact, snapshots of the Führer.
Adolf Hitler petting a fawn? Hitler watching a gymnastics festival? What were these?
On the back of each photograph were numbers and a caption in German. I brought the packet back to New York for translation—with the idea of posting a gallery of the pictures online—and subsequently learned that the pictures were meant for a "cigarette picture book," Deutchland Erwacht: Werden, Kampf Und Sieg Der NSDAP ("Germany Awakes: The Growth, Struggle and Victory of the NSDAP").
The purpose of Nazi-era cigarette books was, in short, blatantly propagandist. In the 1930s, after the rise of the Nazi Party, the National Socialist German Worker's Party (NSDAP) collaborated with the German Cigarette Picture Service to deploy a series of photographs that would illustrate a carefully edited history of the party. The booklet itself contained text, and blank spaces to be filled in later with corresponding pictures. Smokers would find coupons in their cigarette packages, which they could then mail to the company. In return, each customer would receive a group of photographs to be mounted in the book. The end result: a picture-book that any patriotic, i.e., Nazi-affiliated, family could be proud of, chronicling the party's ascendance under Hitler's leadership.
How was it possible, I wondered, that I had never heard of this before? I was fully aware of the Nazis' systematic use of propaganda to bolster the Reich's creation myths and further the NSDAP agenda: publishing anti-Semitic newspapers; organizing book burnings; promoting Nazi-produced films and staging torchlight parades and grandiose rallies to stoke party pride. But why had I neither seen nor heard about what amounted to, in effect, Third Reich trading cards?
"Mass consumption and mass marketing had already come to Germany in the 1920s, and there was an appeal to a 'collectors' instinct'," says Professor Volker Berghahn, Seth Low Emeritus Professor of History at Columbia University. "It was part of an attempt to draw a consumer into whatever things you were already producing, and that's why the cigarette company was involved. And the Nazis had their own interest in getting people to learn their story. I'm sure many Hitler Youth were among the collectors, and were keen to fill their own albums."
Most of the photographs in the series were made by Heinrich Hoffmann, the official photographer of the NSDAP, and for years the only person authorized to take pictures of Hitler. Hoffmann's photos depict the Führer as heroic patriot; powerful leader; friend to men, women, children and animals. It's hard to imagine not being influenced by exposure to such calculated political imagery—which is part of what makes the series, seen all these years later, so chilling.
After 1945, in an attempt to eradicate Nazism from Europe, the victorious Allies made it illegal to deal in Nazi propaganda and literature. These laws were enforced under subsequent German governments, which helps explain why Nazi artifacts such as the cigarette books are so rare within the country.
"Many Germans in the 1930s had a copy of Mein Kampf, [but] after 1945 you'd toss them into the dump, because you didn't want to be associated with that book anymore," notes Berghahn. "And, of course, much was destroyed by war. While there was mass circulation of books and albums like this in the Thirties, it presumably became a rare commodity by the mid-Forties."
If my grandfather were alive today, I would have so many questions to ask him. Where did he find these cards? What caused him to pause and pick them up, and why did he bring them back home? I can't help but wonder if he shared the same instinct that I have when I come across pictures like these: namely, a deep curiosity, as well as a desire to know more and to share that knowledge.
Today, almost 70 years after World War II ended, I feel I'm sharing what I've learned on his behalf.
Who could possibly foresee that sorting through photographs taken decades before I was born could bring me closer to my own family history? Or that it could, in a wholly unexpected way, teach me something new about my grandfather. All of which just goes to show, I guess, that you never know who or what you'll encounter when you sit at a kitchen table with your mom and open up a box of memories
Bridget Harris is Senior Photography Producer at TIME
I've only shared a few of the 37 images included with this article. To view the rest, follow the link below.
via A Box of WWII Souvenirs Yields a Trove of Nazi Creation Myths | LIFE.com.


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Houston, Texas, Dec 8, 2012 / 01:33 pm MT ().- Former Episcopal priest Laurence Gipson, who became Catholic in October, says his reaction to the Catholic ordinariate for former Anglicans is one of "gratitude."
"The ordinariate, I think, is a wonderful opportunity for people like me, Anglican clergy and Anglican laity, who are seeking Catholic faith," he said.
On Jan. 1, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI established the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter to allow Anglican and Episcopalian groups in the U.S. to become Catholic as groups, not only as individuals. It follows the Pope's November 2009 apostolic constitution "Anglicanorum coetibus," which authorized the creation of the special church structures.
Gipson, a 70-year-old native of Memphis, Tenn., said he is grateful to Pope Benedict for establishing the ordinariate. He said it is "advancing the cause of unity in the Church."
"It offers Anglicans a way to affirm the Catholic faith, that is, a way to affirm orthodox or right belief, while at the same time being able to worship God and practice the Christian life according to the Anglican tradition and patrimony," he told CNA Dec. 7.
"The Catholic faith and Anglican use are a great combination," Gipson continued. "Catholics have welcomed us warmly. They've extended the right hand of fellowship to us, and I'm really grateful for that."
Gipson and his wife Mary Frances were received on Oct. 28 into the Catholic Church at Houston's Our Lady of Walsingham Church through the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.
He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1971. He served as rector of the Church of the Ascension in Knoxville, Tenn. and was dean of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Ala.
For 14 years before his retirement in February 2008, he served as rector at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. The church's parishioners include former President George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara Bush.
Gipson and his wife have been married for 48 years. They have two adult children and two grandchildren.
He said he was drawn to the Catholic faith in part because of the Church's "clarity" in teachings and the "unity of faith amongst the faithful."
"What I yearned for and sought was a more centralized understanding of authority, the magisterium, the teaching authority, which could much more quickly and much more definitely interpret scripture and decide on the faith when it was in dispute and settle those issues."
Gipson said Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, the head of the U.S. ordinariate, and the theology faculty of the University of St. Thomas were among those who helped him become Catholic.
"My hope is to be ordained to the priesthood of the Catholic Church," Gipson said. "I would like to practice that priesthood in any way that's useful to the ordinariate."
"I've been a parish priest all of my life in the Episcopal Church, for 42 years," Gipson said. "That's where my enthusiasm is, at the level of the parish, teaching and preaching, pastoral ministry."
There are at least 69 candidates for the Catholic priesthood undergoing formation for possible ordination in the ordinariate. The ordinariate has ordained 24 priests since its launch in January. Many of them are married men ordained under a special dispensation in place since 1983.
Gipson said he is "deeply grateful" for his 58 years in the Episcopal Church
"The clergy and the people of the Episcopal Church gave me and my family more in the way of acceptance and support and generosity and love than we could ever have imagined or have deserved," he said. "Each day serving was a blessing. It prepared me for, and gave me a yearning, for the Catholic Church in its fullness in all aspects of Christ's Church.
The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion have faced much controversy in recent decades over the interpretation of Scripture, the ordination of women as priests, Christian sexual morality and other issues.
"I see the controversies as an outcome of the nature of authority in the Anglican Church and the Anglican Communion," Gipson said. There are 34 provincial churches in the communion which are autonomous.
"Without a magisterium to interpret and define the faith, what Anglicanism relies on is dispersed authority rather than centralized authority," he added.
"What I realized of course is that the Anglican tradition about authority is a part of the identity of Anglicanism, and Anglicanism does not wish to change that manner of authority," Gipson explained. "The Anglican Communion wishes authority to be dispersed. I decided that I could not ask Anglicanism to change its identity for me, so I was the one that had to do the changing."
He asked Catholics to show "patience" towards new members of the ordinariate and the Catholic Church.
"We're just learning how to be good Catholics and there's a lot to learn," he said.
Correction: updated on Dec. 11, 2012 at 12:24 p.m., MST. Article incorrectly described St. Martin's parishioners as George W. and Laura Bush. Parishioners are in fact George H.W. and Barbara Bush.
Tags: Anglican ordinariate, U.S. Ordinariate
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Letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Comprehensive Immigration Reform
February 12, 2013
Dear Senator:
On behalf of the more than three million members of the National Education Association, we would like to offer our views in advance of this week's Judiciary Committee hearing on "Comprehensive Immigration Reform."
Immigration policy profoundly impacts NEA members and their students. In the words of NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, "As educators, we have witnessed for far too long the impact that the current immigration system has had on our students, their families, and our communities. We see undocumented Americans every day in our classrooms and our schools. They are our friends and our neighbors. They moved here to put food on the table, to provide for their families, or for the promise of freedom and opportunity in this country. We are all better for having these hardworking immigrants as contributing members of our communities."
In crafting essential reform legislation, we urge you to be mindful that as a nation of immigrants, how we treat new immigrants reflects our commitment to the values that define us. Specifically, we urge Congress to:
- Create a realistic path to citizenship for the 11 million aspiring citizens who call America home. Small details could have major consequences for millions of these aspiring citizens. We need to ensure a fair process when drafting legislation that takes into consideration who these new Americans are, and what they contribute to our country.
- Preserve the unity of families, traditional and nontraditional. Family unity plays a critical role in student success. Yet growing numbers of public school students live in fear that our nation's immigration policies will break up their families, forcing them to choose between their country and their loved ones — mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. Family-based immigration is essential to keeping America strong.
- Incorporate and expand the DREAM Act and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Many of the more than 50,000 undocumented students who graduate from U.S. high schools are unable to pursue higher education simply because they are unable to afford it. Under current law, undocumented students can be denied access to in-state tuition, federal loans, and health benefits. Addressing these issues is a top priority for America's educators.
NEA urges Congress to act swiftly and in a bipartisan fashion to address these issues. We look forward to working with you to make comprehensive immigration reform a reality at last.
Mary Kusler
Director, Government Relations


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Everyone was watching Michael Phelps Sunday night as he won his first gold medal of the 2016 Olympics — especially one little guy.
The Olympic swimmer's 3-month-old son Boomer Phelps stole a bit of his father's thunder as he watched from his mother's arms during his dad's 4x100-meter freestyle relay.
Even as Phelps raced to victory, people all over the world could not help but gush over his baby boy, particularly with his pair of red, white and blue noise-blocking headphones.
U.S. & World
The newborn, swaddled in a patriotic red and white star baby carrier with his father's initials embroidered on it, was a stylish hit on social media as photos circulated of him perched on mother Nicole Johnson's lap next to his cheering grandmother.
But the celebration proved a bit too much for him — he dozed off just as Phelps emerged from the pool to hand Boomer a stuffed animal and Johnson a bouquet of flowers.
The baby later popped up on social media to digitally cheer for his famous dad. "Thanks for sharing your gold medal with me dad!!! I love you and can't wait til I get to see you," his Instagram account read.
Phelps, who welcomed his son in May, is celebrating his first Olympics as a father. The most decorated Olympian of all time has even been wearing custom sneakers with his son's footprint marked on the sole of shoes.
"To have our first-born be able to watch--I'll say this just, in case I come back--my potential last Olympics," he said during a press conference. "Just so you guys don't beat me to death if I come back, I'm just going to say that: To have him watch the potential last races of my career is something I look forward to being able to share with him."
Michael Phelps Carries the American Flag as He Leads Team USA Into Rio Olympics Opening Ceremony


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Muhammad Al-Munajjid
(Redirected from Muhammad Munajid)Jump to navigation Jump to search
Sheikh Muhammad Al-Munajjid (born June 7, 1960) is an Islamic cleric who is a television personality (on Iqra TV channel) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He is notable for his many Islamic edicts.
- Defeating the infidels requires a much greater effort. It requires the mobilization of the nation.
- On the cause of the 2005 tsunami:
- "The problem is that the [Christian] holidays are accompanied by forbidden things, by immorality, abomination, adultery, alcohol, drunken dancing, and … and revelry. A belly dancer costs 2500 pounds per minute and a singer costs 50,000 pounds per hour, and they hop from one hotel to another from night to dawn. Then he spends the entire night defying Allah.
- "Haven't they learned the lesson from what Allah wreaked upon the coast of Asia, during the celebration of these forbidden? At the height of immorality, Allah took vengeance on these criminals.
- "Those celebrating spent what they call 'New Year's Eve' in vacation resorts, pubs, and hotels. Allah struck them with an earthquake. He finished off the Richter scale. All nine levels gone. Tens of thousands dead.
- "It was said that they were tourists on New Year's vacation who went to the crowded coral islands for the holiday period, and then they were struck by this earthquake, caused by the Almighty Lord of the worlds. He showed them His wrath and His strength. He showed them His vengeance. Is there anyone learning the lesson? Is it impossible that we will be struck like them? Why do we go their way? Why do we want to be like them, with their holidays, their forbidden things, and their heresy?" [1]
External links[edit]
- Shaykh Muhammad Salih al-Munajjid
- Shaykh Muhammad Al-Munajjid Books and Audios in many languages
- Book Authors: Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid
- Fatwa of Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid
Video clips[edit]
- Sheikh Al-Munajid: The big explosion will come! (April 2004)
- ↑ http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=36 The big explosion will come] April 2004.


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Gather round and listen up: the fishing in Ireland is almost the same as fishing anywhere. There's just one rather exciting exception, says angling expert Henry Gilbey
We use the same gear, fish pretty much the same species and use some very similar methods. Even the fishing seasons are much the same this side of the hemisphere. In Ireland, though, you get more fish, less people and more open spaces.
You also get so much water that you'd need several lifetimes to fish it.
But you're not here for the similarities. You're here for the secret.
Well, it's hardly the biggest mystery on earth, but it sure can make your fishing holiday. The least known thing about fishing in Ireland is the rock, surf, beach, pier and estuary fishing – most commonly known simply as shore fishing. Oh, and it's completely free. There's no license required. If you can get down to the water's edge, then you can fish it.
The simple fact is that Ireland has one of the most varied, deserted and rugged coastlines in Europe, and there are lots of hungry fish to catch. Much of Ireland's coastline is literally crawling with species, and there are so few other anglers about that at times it feels like you've been transported to some kind of eternal fishing paradise.
The quality of coarse and game fishing in Ireland has made angling headlines for many years now. Sea fishing and shore fishing are the country's lesser-known jewels in its angling crown.
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Shore fishing on the island of Ireland is all about the same species and the same methods as you use back home, but with a lot more fish to catch. At times you might think that a place like the Shannon Estuary is literally carpeted with rays and bull huss, and that every single rocky headland in the south west, west and north west has a big population of hungry and often very obliging pollack and wrasse that are almost itching to be caught.
Around Tralee and the north side of the Dingle Peninsula, you could even hook a big stingray or tope from some of the beaches. And the smooth hound fishing in the south east can be breathtakingly good.
To stand at the edge of Europe, on the west or northern coasts of Ireland and fish for crash-diving pollack in the deep blue water is like a jolt of electricity, almost unlike anything else in fishing terms.
Further north, along the coast you'll find Benone Beach in County Londonderry, renowned locally for the abundance of founder. A little further along in Portaferry, County Down, and it's the quantities of dogfish, mackerel and pollack that'll have you unpacking your rods.
Contrast this with the brilliance of fishing at night for cod around south coast estuaries, such as Youghal in Cork, back up at Benone Beach, and towards the shoreline at Waterford in the southeast. In the depths of winter, when the temperature drops right away, the rod tips start nodding as these hungry fish home in on your bait.
You see, whatever the weather or time of year, there will always be world-class shore fishing going on somewhere in Ireland.
Go find it, and be a part of the worst kept secret in fishing.
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