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Never mind religion in Battlestar Galactica - is Christianity becoming the new trend for genre entertainment? While NBC's Kings retells the story of King David, American Jesus brings Jesus back for a whole new audience.
American Jesus is the new official title for the comic trilogy from Wanted and Kick Ass creator Mark Millar, which started with 2005's Chosen (re-released this week by Image Comics). It was announced yesterday, as probably the next movie from Kick Ass director Matthew Vaughan. Millar explained the origin of his story to Newsarama.com:
When I was a kid, I read the Bible like everyone else, and I sort of hoped that the ending would happen in my lifetime. The Book of Revelation is just really cool – all the old stuff with the sandals just sounded less exciting than the returning Jesus versus the Beast at the end of time. I think everyone who reads it kind of assumes that it's going to happen in their lifetime, so just as a kid, it sounded great. So the idea has been percolating in me for a long time, and has actually appeared in a couple of projects that I've done over the years... As a kid, I remember watching a copy of The Final Conflict – the last Omen movie - and being so upset that it wasn't the big fight with Jesus. But back then, I suppose it would be too controversial to do something like that. But now, luckily we're in these crazy times where you can get away with anything, so God versus Satan gets a telling in American Jesus.
Of course, "everyone else" didn't read the Bible as a kid, despite what Mark thinks; Kings creator Michael Green, for one, said that his upbringing was "not very religious," despite being taught by rabbis in yeshiva. But is a religious upbringing the only thing behind these two high-profile Biblical genre stories? We're not convinced, and wonder if there's not some cynical grab for the Left Behind mass audience going on. It's something that Millar, at least, is open to:
I'd be comfortable with that, actually. I was going through the states a few months back, and all the places everyone said I would hate – all the flyover states – they were the ones that I liked the best. I mean, I'm a left-leaning Scot, and I'm comfortable with conservative Americans. I think America, especially during the Bush years, and even now, sees itself split into two groups, and I feel comfortable in both of them. The Left Behind audience is an audience that I understand because they embrace material that I'm interested in, so if they pick up the book, great.
The new culture wars may be about to invade your SF viewing pleasures. Be prepared.
Comic 'American Jesus' eyed for film [Hollywood Reporter]


text: Pubdate: Tue, 02 Oct 2012 Source: Vail Daily (CO) Copyright: 2012 Vail Daily Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wo3Ts7AI Website: http://www.vaildaily.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3233 Author: Randy Wyrick DA CANDIDATES BATTLE IN DEBATE Scott Turner, Bruce Brown disagree over issues in candidate forum EAGLE, Colorado - The two district attorney candidates hammered each other in a candidate forum, disagreeing about almost everything in a spirited exchange. Democrat Bruce Brown and Republican Scott Turner squared off Monday night, sponsored by the Eagle County Republican Women. Turner stressed his experience as a prosecutor with the District Attorney's Office, while Brown said it's time for a change and that he's the candidate for that change. "I'm the only candidate with any prosecution experience, supervising employees, with budgets and handling the big cases, worked with organizations for victims. Look at not just what we say but what we've done," Turner said. Brown fired back. "We've had the same DA for the past 10 years and we are going to get change. I'm that candidate for change," Brown said. "I want to be an advocate and clear communicator for victims. My training is as an advocate for my client. The No. 1 thing you should want in your next district attorney is the best lawyer in the courtroom. The two faced a series of questions from the panel and the public. Among them: Do you believe the DA's office possesses the resources it needs? Brown: "Are there sufficient resources? There is not," he said. He said complex cases like drug trafficking end up in federal court, but that there's no reason those cases can't stay in Eagle County if some of the prosecuting attorneys get the mentoring they need. He said selling assets seized from people who use them in criminal acts could bolster the budget. Turner: "I would disagree. There are adequate resources," he said. The office handles about 4,000 cases a year, but half are traffic cases. Turner bristled at Brown's assertion that prosecutors are failing to convict accused felons. "Maybe he missed the Moreau case, or the attempted homicide case I prosecuted where the perpetrator got 48 years," Turner said. "I stand by any prosecution I've ever made. It's not a score-keeping game. It's about justice and I stand by the justice I've been part of achieving." Do illegal immigrants contribute disproportionately to the crime rate? Turner: Illegal immigrants don't commit crimes at a higher rate than most other groups, he said. Immigration itself falls under the federal purview, he said. "If they're going to remain in this community, we should work with them to make sure they remain law abiding," he said. "They're here and the feds are not going to do anything about them. We should work with them to make them as law abiding as possible." Brown: "It's a sociological question," he said. "People who come here illegally are more likely to be victimized." The district attorney always has latitude in charges, and everything needs to be considered, he said. "I would never give an illegal immigrant access to a plea agreement that a citizen wouldn't get," he said Colorado reports lower crime rates than other states except for forcible rape. Can you explain this? Turner: "The difference is the rate of reporting," he said. He cited studies indicating that about 40 percent of sexual assaults are reported. "With education that number has increased," he said. "The victims were made aware and were able to report it." Victims are sometimes confused about what constitutes sex assault, he said. "Sex assaults have not increased in our communities, but education has, and that has increased the rate of reporting," he said. Brown: "There are historic misperceptions of about what constitutes rape," he said. "It's sad that the number of reported cases is up 25 percent, but I don't think it indicates an increase of sex assault, but an increase in the rate of reporting." After the Kobe Bryant case there was a decrease in sex assault reporting for a couple years, he said. "The primary emphasis has to be on reporting and to carry it on through to convictions," he said. Do you support Amendment 64 legalizing marijuana in Colorado? Brown: "I support legalizing marijuana for adults," he said. He called Colorado's medical marijuana system "flawed." "So many adults are choosing to buy it illegally, and when a law is so widespread in its violation, we have to look at that law and determine its effectiveness." He draws the line at children. "We have to protect the children. If someone is selling marijuana to children, they need to know there are consequences and they'd better be ready to face them." He said rehabilitation and recovery programs should be available for people who need and want them. "If people get in trouble we need them to feel they're loved and cared for," he said Turner: "I agree there are problems with the system, but you don't solve the problem by scrapping the system," he said. "I am against Amendment 64. As Gov. Hickenlooper said, 'It hurts the kids.' It's a fallacy to believe it only affects adults." In places where medical marijuana is available, marijuana use is up 50 percent, he said. "Drug use in this community has skyrocketed," Turner said. He said that at Denver Health, 90 percent of underage marijuana users say they got it from someone with a medical marijuana card. What adults do in their own homes is their business. "I don't care if you're 30 years old, watch ESPN and smoke dope on the couch all day," he said. Colorado has a higher incarceration rate than a crime rate, with mandatory sentences for drugs and non-violent criminals. Is that a wise use of resources in this economy? Turner: "The logic is simple. If you put bad guys away they can't do any more crimes. But we cannot continue to go down that path," he said. He suggested alternatives such as intervention and drug and alcohol courts to help keep people out of prison. "They're not getting those types of programs when they're behind bars," he said. Drug courts are not free, he said, and it's about funding and resources. Brown: "With more people behind bars that's money that doesn't go to education," he said. He said he'd like to see as many out of prison as possible, and that people in prison should not be non-violent. He said the region's only juvenile drug court is in Summit County. "We should make those programs available to people throughout the Fifth Judicial District," Brown said. If a juvenile is caught with possession and paraphernalia, it indicates they have a problem with drugs, he said. He would require them to go to a program at their own expense, if need be. Is voter fraud an issue in this county? Turner: "A dozen instances of alleged voter fraud are being investigated by the District Attorney's Office. Some people say one case of voter fraud is significant," Turner said. He said every case they discover would be investigated and prosecuted. Brown: "If there's a perception of a problem we need to deal with it in an adult discussion," he said. "We have to put our resources where they can best be used. If we uncover voter fraud, it should be prosecuted." Like everyone else, prosecutors will do the best they can with what they have. "We cannot prosecute every crime. There's a sorting process," he said. "Violent crime takes precedent over lesser crime." "When I'm the DA people will disagree with me. If there's a rational reason about why what I'm doing is wrong, we'll say that. Occasionally we're going to make mistakes, but we're going to get it right in the end." - --- MAP posted-by: Matt

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The situation of the novel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1971 - Literary Criticism - 226 pages
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86 pages matching editions:UOM39015001519308 in this book
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LibraryThing ReviewUser Review - stillatim - LibraryThing
Crazy uneven: the introductory chapters are great. Bergonzi was clearly at his best making general arguments, and the contrasts he draws between American and English literature are interesting. But in ... Read full review
Character and Liberalism
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The Movement: English Poetry and Fiction of the 1950s
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Portaloo toilets and showers prove that buying portable sanitary facilities doesn't mean compromising on quality. Research has shown that 96% of people expect to find the same standards in public toilets as in their own homes.* Portaloo toilets and showers offer the quality you would expect from permanent facilities with all the convenience of a portable solution.
External walls are of a durable one-piece construction with high-performance, low-maintenance plastisol steel cladding to offer protection against fire, extreme weather and accidental damage. Internally, the walls are of polyester-coated steel, providing an impact resistant, wipe-clean finish.
The patented floor of all Portaloo portable units has a rigid galvanised steel frame and an aluminium-zinc coated steel sheet underdrawing, which offers a sturdy and robust feel. The floor design also prevents infestation as the thermal insulation of mineral wool material is laid on top of the underdrawing. The suspended floor is completely integrated into the structure of the building. The design enables Portaloo buildings to be sited close to the ground for easy, one-step access.
Outstanding insulation is provided by the construction of the roof on all our toilet and washroom buildings. The roof deck is of one-piece construction and is impact resistant. It is covered with solar-reflective, profiled plastisol steel to reduce heat gain. Internally, the ceiling is designed to prevent condensation problems. It is covered with the same polyester steel as the walls for a low-maintenance finish.
Doors and windows
All Portaloo units have steel-faced doors with an insulating core that minimises heat loss. The anodized aluminium frame also incorporates draught-proof weather seals. Protection against theft and vandalism is provided by a cylinder mortise lock. The sliding windows have distinctive radius-cornered aluminium frames with a polyester paint finish and obscure glass. Wire mesh guards provide protection for the window.
Portaloo toilet and shower units are quickly and easily sited. They may need pad foundations, depending on site conditions, the total weight of the building and the floor load - advice on foundation loads and positions will be given by Portaloo specialists.
Structural integrity
All Portaloo units are based on the Pacemaker building design, which has been independently assessed by the British Board of Agrément (BBA) and awarded a BBA certificate confirming that it meets relevant requirements of The Building Regulations (England and Wales), The Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations and other permanent building standards and codes of practice. This ensures high levels of all-round performance for your peace of mind. In addition, Portakabin also offers a 5-year product warranty and a 20-year structural warranty on all Portaloo units. Portaloo units are designed and manufactured in the UK under a Quality Management System meeting the requirements of ISO 9001.
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Floor: 3.00kN/m² Roof: 0.75kN/m² Basic wind speed.
(To meet requirements of BS 6399: Part 2)
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The walls, doors and roof of all Portaloo buildings are insulated with environmentally friendly CFC-free Envirofoam, a rigid polymer insulation material that is lightweight and yet enhances long-life structural strength and ensures an energy-efficient building.
Insulation values
Elemental U-values (W/m2K) Floor: 0.35 Walls: 0.45 Roof: 0.34.
Fire performance
Fire-engineered construction of Portaloo units ensures safe fire performance. Non-combustible materials are used for all external cladding and the internal lining of walls and ceilings, minimising the potential fire load. Walls, ceilings and floor underdrawing have Class O surfaces. Roof decks have an FAA rating.
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Portaloo units are transported by lorry and may be craned into position. Four leg chain slings must be used for all crane handling. Alternatively, the telescopic Lodastrut leg system enables the buildings to be positioned by one person using the optional jack. Portaloo specialists will provide full advice on the procedure.
For detailed technical information, call your local Portaloo Hire Centre on 01 808 5055 or fill in our contact form.
* Source: MORI survey.


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Decentralized Trust-Management Framework
We propose a decentralized trust-management framework for managing trusted member identity in self-organizing networks. The trust-management system creates and manages a trusted domain, called a trusted community. This framework satisfies the following requirements:
Removes dependency on a centralized authority. We envision a completely decentralized system in which every node in the domain has the potential to be a naming authority. Many authorities in a domain allow users to join and use the system from anywhere in the network.
Makes on-line evidence distribution a first-class ingredient. All members in the system provide a variety of evidence to help calculate the initial and ongoing trust and reputation of other members. It is important to provide on-line mechanisms so that members can distribute trust evidence, in order to build a practical trust-management system.
Provides accountability. The trusted community uses the authentication procedure to enforce accountability that cannot be repudiated, for actions performed by a member of the domain. To achieve accountability, identities must be individual, unique, and undeniable, within the administrative domain.
Treats relationships as a central component of the network. The usage of identities in P2P communications is often relevant only to the communicating parties within the domain. Identities created and managed in the trusted community should signify P2P member relationships and members' relationships with the trusted community, via the relationship the credential issuer maintains with the community.
Decentralized Trust-Management Paradigm
At a high level, a trust-management framework should provide the following functions to be able to secure communities:
- Bootstrap, or create, the community.
- Enroll members in the community.
- Authenticate members to one another.
The framework mechanisms to generate and manage identities for each member should be decentralized. They must permit members to authenticate and securely communicate with each other through mediation of any other members in the trusted community. Members self-organize the trusted community by using trust calculations to evaluate their evolving relationships within the community.
Relationships exist between roles within a community. Each community contains members who are entities that can participate in community activities with full member privileges. Issuers are special members. In addition to ordinary member privileges, issuers have the responsibility of generating identities for new members. We represent identities with identity certificates that can be used as authentication credentials within the community.
Authentication within the community is achieved by the holder of an identity credential issued by a recognized issuer proving possession of a key that is bound to the credential. Authentication fails if the authenticated party does not possess a certificate from an issuer who is recognized by the authenticator as such. A member may recognize all or some subset of the other members as issuers in the community. When a member is first enrolled in the community, this member's enroller is, by default, the first issuer recognized by the member. A member may gain trust and recognize new issuers by collecting trust evidence from the community and applying the evidence to a "trust calculation". A member can become an issuer as a result of a consensus reached by a group of issuers and members; this group is called the issuer's election committee. The "election committee" can consist of a single member, but an issuer has little impact unless it is recognized broadly across the community. Members of the election committee execute a joint trust calculation algorithm to elect an issuer. Once elected, an "issuer certificate" is issued to the new issuer, signed by each of the electors. The purpose of this signed certificate is to demonstrate that the issuer is recognized by more than a single member. However, having the certificate signed by multiple parties raises security issues about collusion and about members with multiple identities, which are discussed later in this article.
"Founders" are special issuers who initially establish the trusted community. Founders recognize each other as founders, issuers, and members.
Lastly, some entities are treated as guests in the community. Any community member can introduce new entities to other community members as "guests". An issuer can enroll a guest as a member by following certain procedures. Creating the guest role allows a newcomer to participate in a trusted community without having to first contact an issuer.
It is important to stress that community credentials provide more than just identities for community members.
Credentials are relationship signifiers. Each one signifies a relationship between the member and its issuer. In this model identity is not necessarily who you say you are, but rather who your issuer says you are. Other members of the community believe this identity because it is asserted by an issuer they trust. The community collectively holds its issuers accountable for issuing identities that do not conform to the rules of the community.
In this trust-model, framework, each entity implements the same set of trust-management functions: (1) trust evidence collection and distribution; (2) identity generation and auditing; and (3) trust calculation and propagation of identities. In addition, each entity maintains a community database locally that stores the entity's knowledge about the trusted communities it belongs to. Some examples of the type of data stored in the community database are community name, policy, recognized identity certificates, recognized issuer certificates, and relevant trust evidence. Figure 1 illustrates the three major trust-management functions and their relationships. Each entity collects evidence through its own measurements, and also through communication with other entities within the community. Entities use on-line, evidence-distribution mechanisms to share evidence gathered from either first-hand observations or from recommendations by other community members they trust.
Once sufficient evidence is collected, an entity can compute an initial trust value for the target entity. For initial enrollment, an issuer generates a name label that is based on collected evidence. The issuer binds the name label to the relevant evidence in a credential for the target entity.
For authentication, the identity auditing mechanisms ensure that the entity uses its identity properly, the one that is laid out in the authentication and authorization procedures. In particular, the entities need to pay close attention to identity-related attacks (discussed later in this article), and they need to utilize certain approaches to detect or mitigate identity attacks. The auditing function requires knowledge of both the name label and trust evidence that is bound to the entity's identity in the community.
Lastly, each entity builds its trust value or reputation upon joining the community. To establish and update trust on an existing member, the entity utilizes trust calculus to incorporate opinions from its peers, as well as first-hand observations. More specifically, the main goal of trust calculus is to compute the trust value on a member without communicating directly with the member. Often, this is done by utilizing the transitive property of trust. Later on in this article, we introduce a novel trust-calculation model that has two unique features: it supports both positive and negative trust values, and it utilizes relationships among devices and their users inherited from other contexts to root trust whenever possible. The outcome of the trust calculation is fed back to trust-evidence collection and auditing components to further improve the knowledge of trust evidence and the binding of entity attributes with the identity of the entity.
In the remaining sections of this article, we discuss in detail our vision for these three components with our focus on bootstrapping trust and propagating trust in the community.


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Gaming with goggles? Haven't tried it just yet, though I hear it's coming in our uncomfortable, slightly expensive futures. 3D PC gaming? Even more obscure to me, although Sapphire's single card setup sounds multi-monitor cool.
The single ATI Sapphire graphics card boasts Eyefinity support across three 3D displays. We've seen Eyefinity before, most recently at PAX East, but in that case it was a monstrous if not slightly confusing six-monitor behemoth running Modern Warfare 2 through what looked like a window.
You have to use glasses (groan), and price isn't known yet (expensive?), but I'd be silly to say some people aren't pumped about 3D gaming, PC or otherwise, and I imagine this will reside on their desktops in the near future. [3D Radar via Engadget]


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Packages, Labels, POP display material, Danglers, Signages etc.
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Welcome to Flax Pond Farms!
A grower owned and operated cranberry bog
located in Carver, Massachusetts.
Thank you for visiting us!
Please tour our site and feel free to contact us
with any questions or comments,
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Types of Apples.
Please write an article on the types of Apples especially wood apple types and benefits.
New England state fairs made pumpkin history in late September.
Just one day after a New Hampshire pumpkin weighed in at 1,843.5 lbs. to set a world record at the Deerfield Fair, Rhode Island grower Ron Wallace's submission to the Topsfield (Massachusetts) Fair smashed the record again with a pumpkin weighing 2,009 pounds.
Wallace's was the first pumpkin to top a ton, a goal deemed impossible a few years ago.
A real American
The pumpkin (actually, a type of squash) is a true native American crop, believed to have originated in Mexico at least 10,000 years ago. Along with maize (corn) and beans, which were domesticated much later, it joins the legendary Three Sisters of early native American agriculture.
Indigenous Americans valued the pumpkin for its long storage life and the portability of its fruits and high-protein seeds. Some native Americans dried strips of pumpkin and wove them into mats, which they traded as food commodities. They also used empty pumpkin shells as storage containers.
Native Americans introduced the European Colonists to the many uses of pumpkin, which quickly became a common staple food, as suggested by this couplet from a Pilgrim verse written around 1633:
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon.
Kitchen versatility
If you like pumpkin pie, you'll enjoy pumpkin butter on your morning toast and pumpkin smoothies, hot or cold, for breakfast (or even dessert). You can also eat the blossoms and the seeds. (The development of naked-seeded pumpkin varieties has made it easy to grow and munch your own seeds.)
If you have grown or come into a lot of extra pumpkins or hard-shelled winter squashes this fall, your best storage option is leaving them whole until you're ready to use one. Set them so they don't touch each other on wooden pallets or a few thicknesses of newspapers in a cool (50º-55º), dry location .
Cooked pumpkin also freezes well. You can bake, steam, or boil them; drain well, mash or leave as cubes, and freeze for later use.
Recent research shows that it isn't safe to can mashed or pureed pumpkin or pumpkin butter, even in a pressure canner. If you insist on canning your pumpkins, can them as cubes, and follow instructions.
Pumpkins for beauty, fitness, and fun
Okay, so you aren't interested in breaking the big-pumpkin record, and maybe you don't enjoy eating or drinking pumpkins in any form.
But why not get your pumpkin on with a pumpkin facial, or use one for a fat-burning workout?
Or just find a pumpkin to play with!
"Living Naturally" is all about living a naturally healthy lifestyle. Margaret Boyles covers health tips, ways to avoid illness, natural remedies, food that's good for body and soul, recipes for homemade beauty products, ideas to make your home a healthy and safe haven, and the latest news on health. Our goal is also to encourage self-sufficiency, whether it's relearning some age-old skills or getting informed on modern improvements that help us live better, healthier lives.


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William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats [W.B. Yeats] (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939 / County Dublin / Ireland)
» Click to list general statistics » OR, select a date :
A Man Young And Old: X. His Wildness
O bid me mount and sail up there
Amid the cloudy wrack,
For peg and Meg and Paris' love
That had so straight a back,
read more >>
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Urbanization increased 25% over the previous two-year period.
Representing more than two years of data gathering and analysis, the 1996-1998 Report is the most detailed yet. Improved graphics have made this report larger than previous versions, therefore the PDF format document has been split into sections to facilitate downloads. Report published in the summer of 2000.
Paper copies are also available by contacting FMMP.
Entire Report (7.6 MB) in one document, or split to reduce file size:
Executive Summary (330 kb)
Chapter One (330 kb)Introduction and changes to mapping in 1998
Chapter Two (4.4 mb)Summary and Analysis of the data
Appendix A (809 kb)County Conversion TablesNote: tables in Excel 97 are also available.
Appendices B and C (112 kb)Regional Acreage and Conversion TablesFarmland of Local Importance definitions
Report Cover Image: A color infrared photo (left) and Important Farmland Map (right) in Stockton, California.


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So I made an image of the UMBRA heavy assualt rifle (not the jackal, the other one). It's rough but it works.
Also, if you're thinking that I'm leaving or you're giving up on this, let me tell you something.
It's not over- Not yet
â??waffle wrote:So I'm going to make three posts soon. One for each of three perspectives. However, I need you to move along as well eventually unless I'm going to be the only one writing. We should analyze that and see how we can move it on. And with control of Des's character I can more easily do something with his vendetta. Currently I've aligned these posts that I'm going to make somewhere in the Volunteers chapter.
â??waffle wrote:That's great. I love to hear these stories from people. You should elaborate that.
listener wrote:I sorta meant that, but I was mostly referring to the throwback to Scott's sacrifice.
And also, Des, what was Jacks secret?
â??waffle wrote:Really? I thought he was just a hermaphrodite.
Destiny wrote:*ignores machine's comment*
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count against (one)(redirected from count against one)
count against (one)
1. To view one negatively because of something they have done. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is usually used between "count" and "against." Aunt Jane was pretty cold to me today—I think she still counts my criticism of her driving against me.
2. To be a detriment or liability to one. Her youthful exuberance counted against her when she spoke out of turn at the meeting. Your prior infractions will certainly count against you during your sentencing.
count something against someone
to regard something in a negative way against someone. I'm afraid we must count this against you as an unexcused absence. Don't count that last strike against the batter.
count against someone
[for something] to be held against someone; [for something] to weigh against someone. I hope this mistake doesn't count against me. Don't worry, it won't count against you at all.
count against
Be disadvantageous to, as in His earnings this year will count against his Social Security benefits. This idiom uses count in the sense of "make a reckoning," in this case negative. [Early 1900s]
count against
1. To be a liability to someone; weigh against someone: The team's inexperience will count against them when they play more difficult opponents.
2. To hold something against someone: The teacher counted my absences against me.


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Latest Sermons
Below you can access sermons for the last 10 weeks by listening straight from the site or by downloading to your computer. We do our best to upload a Sunday sermon by noon the following Tuesday. You can also subscribe at iTunes and get a weekly podcast. If you would like sermons further back than 10 weeks, contact the church office at 410-838-8290.
Christ The Crucified King ()Gregg Alsbrooks, 11/24/19
Part of the Not part of a series series, preached at a Contemporary Service service
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text: Hot Tools presents its Caribbean Cheetah Turbo IONIC Dryer. It's stylish and equipped with 1,875 watts of power-packed airflow—plus a turbo boost control that increases airflow velocity for faster drying time. Patented Direct Ion Technology increases softness and luminosity while reducing frizz. The blow-dryer features a variable ion dial to adjust ionic output for all hair types, multiple speed and heat settings and a cool-shot button. It comes with a narrow concentrator, a straightening pik and a finger diffuser. For more information, click here or call 800.487.8769.


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The versatility is a strength that can maximize surface space, especially floors, walls, ceilings, and doors/windows.
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Banners are our most popular vinyl product, with a wide array of options. Excalibur Sign Studio produces the indoor banners, outdoor banners, large-format banners, tradeshow banners, and any other banner style or type you could possibly need!
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Whatever your intended use for your banners, Excalibur Sign Studio makes sure they are professionally designed, properly fabricated, and attractively finished, complete with any fittings you may need for hanging or support.
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Sunday, December 31, 2006
You Are What You Eat
One of the most dramatic changes from the time of my training to the present is the nearly complete disappearance of elective ulcer surgery (reminder: as I've said before, "elective" means non-emergent, as opposed to unnecessary.) The revolution began with the advent of drugs which effectively reduce gastric acid production, and settled in for real when the relationship between ulcer formation and the bacterium known as h. pylori was worked out. I have to admit I lament the passing. Given time to plan it and give some thought to the available surgical choices, operating on the stomach for ulcer is technically interesting and therapeutically rewarding. Limiting the experience to emergencies, while setting the stage for drama, means narrowing the field to one of a certain untidiness.
I've always liked fresh corn and peas. Each brightly colored, with a crisp sweetness, and both best when cooked very gently. Sit those kernels on a plate, they make a nice visual statement as well. Slopped between loops of intestine, stuck above the liver, soiling the hidden spaces around the pancreas and duodenum, filling the pelvis, some of the sensual pleasure of what may have been a nice meal gets lost, and dealing with it puts me off the feed for a while. Doesn't smell all that great, either. If it's embarrassing to get a drop of soup on your tie, imagine how it'd feel to see your omentum harboring a whole salad. Hanging down from the transverse colon like a wet apron, it can hide lots of cranberries in its crannies; getting them loose requires individual plucking, and can take a while. The upside is that a person with a perforated ulcer is generally in a lot of pain, and sewing up the hole, cleaning out the food, and copiously irrigating away the acids means s/he is likely to wake up with a smile. I can put up with a little personal unpleasantness when it produces results like that.
Stab wounds don't seem to happen on an empty stomach. Maybe it's because victims of such things are not always entirely innocent. Drinking all night in a bar, washing down peanuts and chicken wings appears to be a necessary precursor to picking a fight, and losing it. Knife holes in the stomach are generally much larger than ulcer holes, and can empty prodigious amounts of stomach content into the abdominal cavity. The odor of alcohol and partially digested food in the belly is not much different from when it appears on a fraternity floor; sticks with you a while. But once again, a few well-placed sutures and some high-class janitorial work predictably results in a happy patient. The process can require an amazing amount of saline wash before the irrigating fluid looks clear enough to drink.
Of all the new words I learned in medical school, "bezoar" (pronounced BEE-zor) is among my favorites, just for the way it sounds. It means an aggregated lump of stuff that can clog the stomach, or the intestines, and can look quite impressive. They come in two main varieties: trichobezoars, meaning those containing hair, and phytobezoars, referring to those resulting from undigested vegetable matter. A feline furball is a trichobezoar, as is one occurring in a human who chews hair. Where I learned to be a surgeon, springtime often produced a victim or two of over-indulgence in a not-yet ripe local fruit: persimmon bezoar was on the list of possible diagnoses of abdominal pain. I've opened a few stomachs to extract bezoars, typically in pieces. The usual word sequence, spoken to the scrub nurse, goes something like "stay stitch... one more.... cautery.... suction.... ring-forceps.... eww gross...."
I must have dozed a bit during the lecture on bezoars in med school: not at all unusual, I confess. Hearing vaguely through my daze about eating hair, fur-balls, undigested organic matter, tricho- and phytobezoars, for a while I thought I'd heard that a hair-ball was called a Fido-bezoar, as in the generic doggie, good ol' Fido. When I was corrected by a classmate, I was less embarrassed than disappointed.
16 comments:
- Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...
well doc i really try hard not to hack up hairballs, but i thought eating veggies was good for you!! sigh.... bee
- origin said...
What a great post! The visual imagery of the corn and peas stuck in the omentum is quite vivid! When we're sick and in pain, all the niceties get thrown out the window and all of us just want to get better - regardless.
This is so interesting! Is this a reason why doctors don't want gall bladder patients to eat for two weeks before removing the gall bladder?
'eww gross', ya i say that a lot. i have a long haired cat who tosses trichobezoars frequently. and an older cat who has a taste for the fur on other cats, ie she pulls the fur and eyebrows off the head of the submissive feline. dont ask, i dont know.
this was a very interesting post. although, the visuals i have now, i may be fasting more ...
- Bo... said...
That's a cool word: "bezoar".
- Greg P said...
In my medical fraternity one of the members was nicknamed Trichobezoar, Bezoar, or Beez for short. It seemed to have come about from the way his hair kind of stuck out in various directions; this was a time when many of us had long hair, even those who shouldn't have.
His brother was going to dental school and immediately got the nickname (what else?) Phytobezoar.
How ironic - I was thinking deep thoughts of bezoars the day before you posted this treatise.
I love the transformation of "phyto" to "fido" in the wandering mind. It is humourous images like this that our mind creates that makes keeping esoteric knowledge accessible. That is why I am a fan of mnemonics, no matter how much of a crutch the hard core "pure" thinkers think it is.
Reminds me of the time that we had a lecture on gout but the accent of the professor made the word out as goat. I think it was almost at the end of the hour class that we finally figured out the disorder he was lecturing on was the metabolic disorder that results in crystal disease in the joint space and soft tissues. But because of the humour that is associated with that lecture, I have never forgotten the biochemistry / pathology of Gout and in fact, went to make a career out of it! Funny how the littlest things influence life's choices.
- Judy said...
Once in my umpty-zillion years as a NICU nurse, I saw a baby who developed a lacto-bezoar. The neonatologist who figured it out was quite pleased with herself. It resolved with conservative (ie non-surgical) therapy and the baby received lower calorie feedings once oral feedings resumed.
I didn't realize that people could get hairballs or that certain types of produce could cause problems as well. Very interesting post.
- Surgeon In My Dreams said...
uxhwtfvThat one little haiary one looked like a very small hairy penis to me. Course, it's been a long day too!
So, what do you know about pilonidol cysts? I had one several years ago that would get so big you could see it making my jeans poof up over it. Horrible painful. I was terrified to go to the doctor and suffered with it flaring up for over a year, but finally did go and then it was so wonderful the day he drained it I felt totally stupid for suffering.
Once the infection cleared, my surgeon took good care of that thing. Never had a problem with it again.
- Sid Schwab said...
think I'll post something about pilonidal cysts sometime. Hardly glamorous; but draining one makes the owner happy indeed.
Actually heard about one in a post-gastric pypass patient that I thought was amazing that this post reminds me of. This guy was having trouble eating, so they thought he might have a stricture. The did an EGD and found something amazing. One of the things we have to do is eat a lot of supplements, and when they got to this guy's tomach they found a huge ball of ascorbic acid. Vitamin C suppliments he h ad been chewing had been building up in his stomach, not going down. I'm not sure which class that would fall in, but I guess it qualifies..
those bezoars looked like shits........
eww gross is right. When you were just starting out as a trainee surgeon, did you ever vomit from seeing or smelling something particularly narsty?
seeing blood doesn't bother me.........even seeing or smelling poo I can deal with...........urine not a problem.....and the feminine crud......ugh I hate it.......
but something like the taste in my mouth in the morning makes me extremely queasy.
Do surgical residents have any kind of "olfactory desensitization training" or something like that so they don't react to smells.......or it is just some kind of behavior therapy.......mind tricks.......brain signals.........I can't think of a better phrase for it
The Integral
- Sid Schwab said...
Integral: there's not "desensitization" as such; I think it's sort of self-selecting. People who are sensitive to such things find out somehow and don't go into surgery. I think there are things that disgust even the seasoned pros, though. Like the rotting feet of some poor derelict, with maggots... Or the smell when draining some abscesses. People will put benzoin or some other such thing on their masks to blot out the smell...
- Aloha said...
30 yrs ago my mother had surgery and 2 phydobezoars were taken from her stomach!!! We were asked if we wanted to see these "rare" things...and we did...they were 'yukky' looking, were 'clay-like' in matter for about 1/4 inch - then they were "calcified" ... one kidney shaped, the other like a hot dog bun...some pills recently given to her in hospital were 'stuck' to them....were NOT attached, just 'floated' around her stomach causing her "stomach issues" her entire life...getting worse with time, as they 'grew' - until discovered when she was 60 yrs old! A team of Dr's "interviewed" her afterwards and an 'odd' question was asked.."if she had ever "eaten persimmons"?!? She said she HAD...when she was a little girl walking home from school they would pick and eat them!!!!! She is now 92 years old, still golfs and eats anything she likes without any issues! She has an amazing 'bezore' story and she is an amazing woman!!!!
- Sid Schwab said...
Great story, Aloha. Thanks!
Funny seeing the word "bezoar" again. I first saw it in a Harry Potter novel, of all places. I thought Ms. Rowling had made it up until I looked it up later.
When DID we finally figure out the relationship between h. pylori and ulcers? James Herriot ("All Creatures Great And Small")swore that vets knew about it ages ago - from dealing with pigs I think he said.


text:
05 January 2012
Main Floor Framing
May I just say how blessed we've been in our weather? We'd never have accomplished all this in two weeks without the weather cooperating. Even the one storm we had didn't cause any lasting problems.
During the week after Christmas, we framed the exterior walls. It was just Mr. Pickup and I with our older children helping occasionally to lift those heavy 2x6 walls. (Sorry, I kept forgetting my camera to take photos). We met our goal of getting all the exterior walls up by New Year's Eve! Starting bright and early Monday January 2, and with help from a brother, we got the main garage walls up.
We'd put some of the interior walls up to help support the exteriors, but there were still a lot to do. Friday I'd cut most of the top and bottom plates, just in time for a storm to roll through. Thankfully we didn't lose any walls!
Tuesday was spent putting up the remaining interior walls.
Here are some more fun photos for you perusal:
Yesterday with my father-in-law's help, we put up the second top plates which tie all the walls together and finished the framing on the garage.
We just need to put in the stairs, door headers, and a few short walls that won't affect truss placement, and we're ready for a roof. Thankfully, our contractor is taking care of that! We'll now go back and finish framing the remaining basement walls. Once the roof is on, we'll be ready to start roughing in the electrical and have the HVAC folks and plumber do their stuff. Here's a parting look at our amazing view from the front window.
Thank you for all your encouragement. It's so nice to have cheerleaders!
You can see a round up of our house building adventure HERE.
20 happy thoughts:
- Tiffany said...
So Exciting!!!
- 05 January, 2012 10:58
- Melissa said...
Wow!! You guys are really trucking right along!!
- 05 January, 2012 11:50
- Design Esquire said...
It's really coming along! You guys have worked so hard. And that view is breathtaking - no wonder you're so excited about it!
- 05 January, 2012 12:00
- Amy C said...
It's looking great Chris!! That is so exciting!
- 05 January, 2012 12:28
- KJ@letsgoflyakite said...
So glad to see you are back! Happy New Year! You have been so fortunate with the dry weather and have come so far... and the fabric doll house you stitched for you daughter is adorable and so fitting as well. I will look up the book you modelled some of the details after - my girls would enjoy it I suspect.
I look forward reading about you making your house into a home in 2012. Blessings to you all!
- 05 January, 2012 13:16
- celeste said...
unreal. you are building a HOUSE with your own two hands. did you ever imagine you would do something like this? i'm in awe.
- 05 January, 2012 17:11
- Maria said...
you're doing an amazing work. I find it curious that you build your houses with wood. Here in Europe it's rarely used to make a building structure.
- 05 January, 2012 18:13
- Unknown said...
So cool to see the progress! This winter has been perfect for house building! It looks like you are doing a great job! I can't imagine how much work and effort this must be. It will be worth it!!!
- 05 January, 2012 19:25
- Stephanie said...
Wow, that is amazing what you guys got done! Seriously, I couldn't imagine doing all that, I commend you guys, wow. The view is just spectacular, Happy New Year Chris, I can see it is going to be a productive one for you guys!
- 06 January, 2012 08:11
- chris said...
@AllisonThanks, Allison. I am so glad to have that big job behind us!
- 06 January, 2012 13:13
- chris said...
@celesteCeleste, this is actually the third house we've built with our own hands. I can email the whole story sometime if you want. :)
- 06 January, 2012 13:13
- Tasha said...
Yay! That is awesome. You guys are amazing. What an adventure and really a treasure to remember some day.
- 07 January, 2012 09:03
- Bless by Tone said...
thank you so much for your crazy8 suggestion, i'll check it out. Tone
- 07 January, 2012 10:46
- Unknown said...
Hooray for meeting your goal! Everything is coming along nicely, Chris. GORGEOUS GORGEOUS view! We've had unusually beautiful weather in NY too. Usually we're buried in snow by now but it's been 50/60 degrees & sunny. Had the littles out on their PowerWheels yesterday! Crazy...but I'll take it!
- 08 January, 2012 18:54
- Gwen @ Gwenny Penny said...
So glad to stop by and see all this progress, Chris! Yay!!! Looks like 2012 is off to a great start :)
- 08 January, 2012 22:09
- Unknown said...
WOW! Looks like it's going to amazing! Congratulations to you! I can't wait to see the rest of the building process. It's so fun to watch the progress of a BIG project like this!
- 08 January, 2012 23:21
- Erin said...
it's starting to look like a house! yay!
- 10 January, 2012 08:17
- Unknown said...
isnt' it great that Mother Nature is cooperating? you guys are really motoring now!
i can't get over the views. SOOOOO envious! I guess this means I'll just have to drop by for a visit one day. :)
- 11 January, 2012 06:59
- Mike said...
Yay! You are so amazing!
- 23 January, 2012 10:04
- Mike said...
Yay! You are so amazing!
- 23 January, 2012 10:04


text:
Euro zone inflation stabilised in what the European Central Bank has called the "danger zone" in February, data showed today, while unemployment remained stuck near record highs ahead of an ECB policy meeting next week.
The European Union's statistics office Eurostat estimated that consumer prices in the 18 countries sharing the euro rose 0.8% year-on-year this month.
That was the same rate as in January and December, after readings of 0.9% in November and 0.7% in October.
ECB President Mario Draghi has warned of the risk of inflation getting stuck in a danger zone below 1%, but said again this week that there was clearly no deflation.
February's inflation rate was stable because lower energy costs were offset by more expensive industrial goods and services.
But so-called core inflation, which excludes the most volatile components like energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, continued to inch higher, to 1% year-on-year from 0.8% in January and 0.7% in December.
Price pressures in the euro zone economy are low because unemployment remains stuck close to record highs. Eurostat said today that 12% of the bloc's workforce was unemployed in January, unchanged from a month before.
In absolute terms, the number of people without jobs edged higher to 19,175,000 from 19,158,000 in December, it said.
The modest economic recovery in the euro zone has yet to produce any sharp improvement in employment, the data showed.
The January outcome means the jobless rate has been flat at 12% since hitting a record 12.1% in September.
This suggests the worst may be over for an indicator which usually lags several months behind the economy.


text:
Hi, this is Terri Wilder reporting from AIDS 2008. I have with me John Cepek, the national board president of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays [PFLAG] in the United States. John, could you tell us a little bit about your organization?
John Cepek: PFLAG was founded approximately 35 years ago when a woman named Jeanne Manford marched with her son in the 1972 Gay Pride Parade in New York City. She carried a sign saying, "Parents of Gays, Unite in Support for Your Children." As she was marching, she kept hearing people cheering wildly. She thought, "Why are they cheering so wildly?" Then she noticed that Dr. Benjamin Spock was right behind her in a car. She said, "They're cheering for Dr. Spock." At the end of the parade, Dr. Spock went off and nobody followed him. The whole crowd clustered around Jeanne Manford. They were so inspired by this woman showing support for her son.
John and Char Cepek
She quite naturally said, "There's a need here for parents to step up and do something." She founded a small chapter in New York -- parents getting together, talking about the issues, coming to grips with having gay children. Then there were other chapters in California. In 1993, we created a national organization.
Currently, we have 500 chapters and affiliates throughout the country -- 200,000 members and supporters -- and as you've learned at this press conference, there are kindred organizations throughout the world.
We have a three-fold mission in PFLAG: support, education and advocacy. The support part means helping people come to grips with having a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender relative.
Beyond that, we want them to grow, so there's a strong education component -- we educate them about the issues involved. We also try to educate society at large, because ignorance about sexual orientation, gender identity and sex in general in the United States is rampant. We do all kinds of educational efforts. We speak. We publish materials and so forth and so on.
Finally, a third part of our mission is advocacy, which means that we support legislation that provides full and equal civil rights for LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] Americans. We work to change social and cultural attitudes, because the homophobia that exists in our society is what underlies the extreme inadequacy of our response to the AIDS epidemic, and the stigma that is applied to people who are infected.
Can you tell me about how you became involved with PFLAG? At one point, you were not the national president.
John Cepek: No, I was a nothing. I was a nobody [laughs], but one Christmas season -- and Char can tell this story.
I'm also here with --
John Cepek: My wife Char. This was our coming out story.
Char Cepek: Well, we have two sons. They're 18 months apart -- John and Michael. John did like to play with little girls when he was young. As he got older, he realized that wasn't cool. He was a very good tennis player, very good swimmer, but not the team sports that his straight brother was involved in. Every once in a while, the idea that I could have a gay kid would just kind of roll through my mind, but I'd push it back because, really, I had no idea that a really happy, functional family living in the suburbs of Chicago could possibly have a gay kid.
He went away to school. He went to the University of Chicago. It was his sophomore year. It was Christmastime, and I noticed he was walking out the door with a bunch of gifts. They all said, "To George." I thought, "Maybe this is the time to really get this out on the table." He was walking out the door and I said, "John, this George must be somebody special to you." He said, "Mom, don't you know I'm gay?"
He cried. I cried. I knew I needed to start educating myself. I went to the library the next day and started educating myself. That's how we became involved.
John Cepek: Yeah, but George got all the presents and we got very few that year because George ate up the gift budget of our son. As I said earlier, we very quickly realized we were OK with having a gay son. I grew up in the 60s. I was one of the kids who had marched to a different drummer. In our society, being gay is definitely listening to a different beat. But we were concerned then about HIV. We were concerned about the gay bashing and just the general level of homophobia.
We were looking for an organization that we thought could be effective in combating the attitudes that militated against a better life for our son. That's how we found PFLAG. That's why we stayed with PFLAG, because we've seen transformation in individual lives. More important than that, we've seen people, individual PFLAG members in chapters, who have gone on to try to achieve better things in communities, collective action to improve laws, to change attitudes, to change workplaces, to change schools to make them safer for LGBT kids, to bring out into the open the fact that being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is as equally valid a way of being human as is being straight, that these are all part of the wonderful thing called humanity. We're working to create a world in which everyone has that realization, and we can then tend to things other than suppressing people.
What year was it that your son came out?
John Cepek: 1991. Christmas of '91.
So you joined PFLAG, but how did you find PFLAG? Did you open up the phone book and say, "I wonder if there's an organization ..."?
John Cepek: It's a mystery to me. I don't know. Char found it.
Char Cepek: Let me say that John and George, his first love, had decided to sign a room and board contract for the following year at the University of Chicago. Unfortunately, over the summer, they broke up, but they were locked into this room and board contract. He was devastated.
Your son was devastated?
Char Cepek: Yeah, because it was his first really, truly romantic relationship. It was like watching anybody break up. Straight, gay -- it's always painful.
We knew that these two guys having to go through a year together wasn't going to be good. I knew I had heard of some organization for parents. Indeed, I did go to the phone book. I did find PFLAG. We went and, of course, they couldn't help us get these two guys out -- it resolved itself. But we found a group that really fulfilled our passion for making society a better place. How nice that it was our son that would be directly affected, but also so many other millions of Americans that need families.
Can I just say that I think, really, this family voice in combating AIDS is so terribly important? I once heard it said that every child needs at least one adult who thinks the world of him or her. I think that, for a lot of people that take risks with sex, they don't feel valued. If you've got parents, if you've got someone who really, really cares about you, I think you're going to be less likely to engage in risky behavior. I think that PFLAG and the many organizations like us play a really vital role in combating AIDS on a physical and a health level.
Would you agree with the statement that homophobia drives, in some parts, the AIDS epidemic?
Char Cepek: Absolutely.
John Cepek: We agree absolutely, because we've seen it. That's not something we've acquired from reading. It's a realization that we've realized from seeing human lives.
What do you say to someone who is a family member or friend who says, "I will not bring my child to an event if there are gay people there, whether they're your friends or a relative who is gay"? How do you respond to something like that?
John Cepek: Well, I would respond by saying that one of the best things you can do in helping your child to grow up and to learn about life is to bring that child to that event, so that that kid can have personal contact with someone who is lesbian or gay, so that that kid can realize that being lesbian or gay is just like being straight. There is no difference. We are all one and the same. We have the same hearts, the same brains. We lead the same lives. We have the same concerns, the same anxieties, the same triumphs.
Char Cepek: I would say that person is confusing sexual orientation with morality. They're really not related. You can very immoral and be straight; you can be very immoral and be gay. You can be very moral and be straight; you can be very moral and be gay. They don't have anything to do with each other.
John Cepek: Sexual orientation is morally neutral. It's how one acts that determines one's morality.
I find that many people who are homophobic tend to lean on their religious dogma to back up what they believe. Does PFLAG do any education with faith communities?
John Cepek: We have a major initiative in faith communities, but there's an interesting point: Last year, we introduced a program called Straight for Equality, in which we're trying to expand beyond the family voice and get straight people in general to be supportive of the movement. Before we introduced the program, we did a survey with Harris. We interviewed, I think, 500 straight people and learned that there were almost an equal number of people whose religion drove them to work for LGBT rights as there were people whose religion encouraged them to remain mired in their abysmal homophobia. Those who actually read the Bible and pay attention to some of the other verses, not just the seven piddling little verses --
Char Cepek: The two great commandments. Love your neighbor and love God. Those are the two really big ones, folks!
John Cepek: -- those people are on our side. They're driven by religious values, as I am largely in this movement.
Char Cepek: We really feel that people are cherry-picking the Bible to support their prejudices. They're really not looking at -- I mean, Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. He told you to love everyone. It's so simple.
John Cepek: It's the same kind of reductionist approach that people use to suppress African Americans, women.
Char Cepek: You can find whatever you want in the Bible to support -- you know, I mean, let's be honest here about what's going on.
John Cepek: I can't remember the play, but Shakespeare said the Devil can quote scripture according to his purpose. That, indeed, is true.
It's very interesting because I attended the MSM [men who have sex with men] pre-conference and Peter Piot was there.1 [You can read or listen to this speech online.] Basically, he said that homophobia is really about that person who is homophobic. He seemed to be saying that, if they're that homophobic, maybe they're questioning their own sexual orientation. Maybe that's why they're so uncomfortable.
John Cepek: I'm sure you're more familiar with the study than I am. I've always been too lazy to look it up, but I know it exists because I've talked to scholars. Some years ago, some researcher wired up men and had them watch gay porn. The ones who responded most fervently to the porn were the homophobic ones.2 Yes, I think some of these people are very uncomfortable about coming to terms with who they really are. These are people we try to reach and try to help as well.
If people wanted to get in touch with PFLAG or find out where a local chapter is, is there a Web site that they could go to that could provide that information?
John Cepek: Sure -- www.PFLAG.org.
Great. Thank you so much for talking with us.
John Cepek: Thanks for being here.
Char Cepek: Thank you.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
- Piot P. Mid-day plenary for The invisible men: Gay men and other MSM in the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. In: Program and abstracts of the XVII International AIDS Conference; August 3-8, 2008; Mexico City, Mexico.
- Adams HE, Wright LW Jr, Lohr BA. Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal? J Abnorm Psychol. August 1996;105(3):440-445.