text:
Your Love Is Better Than Life
Savoring the Vision
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
They who seek my life will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God's name will praise him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced. (NIV)
Those of us in leadership at Bethlehem believe that the more sharply you can bring the goals of the church into focus, the more intentionally and strategically you will be able to help achieve those goals. Or to put it another way, if you can't state clearly and concisely why we exist as a church, then it will be harder for you to serve the purpose or mission of the church.
And we believe with all our hearts that just as every eye and ear and tooth and tongue and finger and toe should serve the purpose and calling of the human body, so every individual member of Bethlehem Baptist Church should serve the purpose for which we exist as a church.
What Our Mission Is
Four years ago the Council of Deacons and staff of the church crafted a philosophy of ministry and statement of priorities to answer the question: Why do we exist? What is our mission? The answer was given that the church has three priorities, one relating to God, one relating to believers, and one relating to unbelievers.
- Our reason for being as a church is to see that every member is
growing to maturity in the personal and corporate worship of
- that every member is growing to maturity in the ability to love
fellow believers and strengthen their faith;
- and that every member is growing to maturity in the courage and
effectiveness of reaching unbelievers with the gospel of Jesus
We exist to worship God, nurture each other, and evangelize the world, all to the glory of God. I preached on these three priorities two years ago because we were so convinced that the more clearly you know why we are here, the more intelligently and freely and strategically you can make your essential contribution to the cause.
The Need for Reminders and Refreshers
But now time has passed. And by a powerful law of fallen human nature the mission begins to dim and the goals become blurred and the momentum of strategic thinking lapses into the mentality of maintenance. I don't think that has happened at Bethlehem. But it will happen if we don't refresh our sense of mission and renew our reason for being again and again.
So our aim for the next three Sundays is to remind ourselves why we exist, and to let Scripture unfold for us the meaning of our three priorities. And my hope is to describe the mission of Bethlehem in such a way that every member will be able to articulate it for yourself and for others in a few simple sentences and have a biblical basis for what you say.
New Ways of Saying Old Things
The mission hasn't changed over the past four years, but we have hit upon some new vocabulary for saying the same thing in a different way. And I think this has an advantage not only in keeping our sense of mission fresh, but also in keeping God central—which is all-important to us.
The way we state the mission of the church these days is that Bethlehem is a vision of God, and the reason we exist is to savor that vision, instill that vision, and spread that vision. These are the old three priorities and they make up our reason for being.
- We savor the vision of God in worship.
- We instill the vision of God through the fellowship of nurture
and teaching.
- And we spread the vision of God through evangelism and missions.
Keeping God at the Center
The great advantage of describing our mission like this is that at every point God is the explicit center. He is not only central in the vertical act of worship. He is also central in horizontal acts of nurture and evangelism. We aim never to lose sight that from him and to him and through him are all things (Romans 11:36) . . . that in him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28) . . . that everything we do, whether we eat or drink or worship or work or witness, should be done for his glory.
The Plan for the Next Three Sundays
So for three weeks we want to talk about these three priorities of the church—savoring the vision of God in worship, instilling the vision of God in nurture and education, and spreading the vision of God in evangelism and missions.
Instead of taking separate Sundays to develop the vision itself, I have decided simply to let the texts themselves bring out some of its features each week. In a sense every message morning and evening is aimed at refining the vision. So today we turn to Psalm 63 and attempt to let at least the first eight verses of this psalm unfold for us the priority of . . . savoring the vision of God.
David in the Wilderness
The psalm begins with a heading that says, "A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah." In verse 9 he speaks of "those who seek to destroy my life." So he is probably a fugitive of some kind. Someone is chasing him in the wilderness.
We are inclined to think of the days when King Saul chased David in the wilderness and tried to kill him. But verse 11 points to a later time. It pictures David as the king already: "But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall glory; for the mouths of liars will be stopped." But when Saul was chasing David, he wasn't king yet.
But there was a time when David was king and a fugitive from his own land and forced to flee to the desert, namely, the time when his son Absalom rebelled and tried to overthrow his father's throne. According to 2 Samuel 15:23 David fled the city, crossed the brook Kidron, and went into the wilderness. This is probably the experience behind the psalm.
"O God, Thou Art My God"
He is in the wilderness, and he begins his psalm, "O God, thou art my God." These words are important for several reasons.
A Man Who Has a Relationship with God
First, they make plain the tremendously important fact that the seeking and thirsting for God which we will see in just a moment is not the seeking of a man who was unacquainted with God. It is not the seeking of a man who had no relationship with God.
On the contrary, "O God, thou art my God," is the deepest affirmation that between David and God there is a covenant, a relationship based on God's oath. God had said to Abram in Genesis 17:7, "I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you . . . and I will be their God."
When David says, "O God, thou art my God," he reasserts the rock under the quicksand of his own emotions. When he cries, "O God, thou art my God!" he doesn't mean that he is always lifted above the pangs of soul-thirst. When he says, "O God, thou art my God," he means at least these two things:
- When he thirsts, he will seek to slake his thirst on God alone and not on anything else: "O God, thou art my God."
- And he means that when he seeks his God, God will be there and meet his need. "O God, thou art my God!"
Are you like David this morning? When you are driven into the wilderness by tragic and painful circumstances and you begin to suck for air in the quicksand of your own emotions, can you cry out among the jackals and the snakes, "O God, thou art my God!"? The covenant stands! There is a rock beneath and it will rise in time.
Do you have a covenant relationship with God this morning?
If you say, What is that? What is it like? let me read you the words of a man who made a covenant with God when he was 19 years old. Jonathan Edwards wrote about this some years later like this,
On January 12, 1723, I made a solemn dedication of myself to God, and wrote it down; giving up myself, and all that I had to God; to be for the future, in no respect, my own; to act as one that had no right to himself, in any respect. And solemnly vowed to take God for my whole portion and felicity; looking on nothing else, as any part of my happiness, nor acting as if it were; and his law for the constant rule of my obedience: engaging to fight against the world, the flesh and the devil, to the end of my life. (Personal Narrative)
Have you made a decisive covenant-commitment to God? Have you ever met Jesus Christ standing in your way, having tracked you down on the path of insurrection, and in his hands a declaration of amnesty from God, signed with his own blood, the blood of the covenant? And have you ever looked into his eyes and heard him say, "The King will cancel your debt and forgive your insurrection and welcome you into his kingdom if you will kneel and swear faith and loyalty to me forever"?
Have you knelt like Jonathan Edwards and made this covenant oath: "O God, henceforth, in faith and loyalty, thou art my God"? I urge you to do it even as you listen this morning . . . and all of you, to reaffirm your covenant vows.
The Psalm Is Built on This Foundation
The reason I dwell so long on this first phrase this morning is that the rest of the psalm is built on this foundation. Without this rock beneath there is no true worship of God.
But once this foundation is established, what appears in the psalm is that God is savored in at least two ways, and therefore worship takes at least two forms. Verses 1–4 describe the savoring of God through thirsting. And verses 5–9 describe the savoring of God through feasting. In other words in verses 1–4 the vision of God is not clear and present and satisfying and so David faints for it. But in verses 5–9 the vision of God is present and rich and David eats his fill with satisfaction.
The Fainting and Feasting of David
I want you to see this clearly this morning, because it is so important for understanding the movements of your own redeemed soul. God is worshiped and honored and savored both by fainting for him and by feasting on him. Will you please remember that! It is not a clever sermonic alliteration. It is straight out of the text!
In the RSV verse 1 says, "O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirst for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is." And then the Lord of the covenant comes. The rock rises to meet David's feet. The banquet of his glory is spread before the eyes of faith, and David says, "My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat."
God is worshiped, honored, and savored both when we faint for him and when we feast on him. Fainting is the form of worship when God is distant, and feasting is the form of worship when he is near. The heart that savors God above all things will experience yearning and longing and thirsting and panting and fainting when the vision of God is distant and dim. And that same heart will experience feasting and satisfaction when the vision draws near and becomes clear.
This is a great help to us when we wake up in the wilderness. And some of us wake up there every day.
Let me make just two other observations from this text for the sake of our worship life at Bethlehem, and for the priority of savoring the vision of God.
The Essence of True Worship
The first is that even though worship does involve expressions of thankfulness to God for his gifts, this is not the essence of true worship. In fact there is a gratitude to God for his gifts that has no true worship in it at all. In other words there are people who love their health and family and job and hobbies, and thank God for them often, but don't love God. They don't savor God. And when God is not savored for the sweetness and excellence of who he is, he is not worshiped.
Desiring God More Than Life Itself
David makes this plain by the way he expresses his longings in verses 1 and 3. In verse 1 he says, "O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee." This is not primarily a thirst for any of God's gifts. It is a thirst for God. David has a heart for God. He has a taste for fellowship with God.
He makes this even more explicit in verse 3: "Because thy steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise thee." This means that David wanted God more than he wanted life. And if you want God more than you want life, then you want God more than you want all the joys of this life—family, health, food, friendship, sexual relations, job-satisfaction, productivity, books, skateboards, computers, music, homes, sunsets, fall colors. When David says that the love of God is better than life and therefore better than all the beauty that life means, he is not denying that all these good things come from the love of God. He is warning us, rather, that if our hearts settle (even gratefully!) on the beauty of the gift and do not yearn for the infinitely greater beauty of the Giver, then we are idolaters and not worshipers of God.
Why We Need the Wilderness
I wonder whether this is why we cannot do without the wilderness experiences life. If all of life were a paradise, as so many people think it should be and as so many try to make it, then would we not much more often become addicted to savoring the gifts of God rather than God? Surely that is why Jesus said it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And surely that is why he takes his loved ones again and again through the desert fires. He would disenchant us with the world and give us a taste for eternity.
And don't think it came easy for David to give up the gifts of God. Not many days hence the rebellion in Jerusalem will be quelled, and Absalom dead with the darts of Joab, and David in his chamber crying, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son" (2 Samuel 18:33).
The wilderness is the way of God to wean us from the most precious things in the world. And those who savor the vision of God know that his love is better than all that this life can give.
The Importance of Corporate Worship
The last thing I want us to see from this psalm is the importance of corporate worship in the life of the soul. Do you see from verse 2 what the function of temple worship was for David while he was in the wilderness?
Its Function in David's Life
He says, "So I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary, beholding thy power and glory." What does this mean? It means that when he was out in the wilderness, cut off from the worshiping community at the Temple, it was the memory of experiences there that brought God home to him with clarity and power and finally gave him a feast in the wilderness.
Neither in the Old Testament nor in the New Testament was the worship of God bound to a building. But both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament God has blessed the regular gathering of his people with the vision of his power and his glory. This is the vision that feeds our souls on Sunday morning, and then later on, in the wilderness, functions to remind us that God is great indeed and make us thirst and faint for his power and glory.
The Implications for Our Worship Together
I wish there were time to unfold all the implications that this has for our worship together. But let this closing word suffice. When you understand the essence of worship to be the genuine savoring of God, whether through fainting or feasting, thirsting or bursting, you can't treat it lightly any more. It becomes the very center-piece of life. It becomes radically God-centered. It becomes intense and earnest. It becomes for most people the only hour in the week when they become silent with reverence and awe before the power and glory of God.
What We Do to Help You Become Worshipers Like David
And therefore we do everything we can to help worshipers like David go hard after God.
- We urge you to seek God during the prelude, and not to talk to each other.
- We close the doors for extended times of worship so that those who are here can give their undistracted attention to God and not man.
- We have moments for praise and meditation and offering with no verbal direction so that you can deal with God in the stillness of your own heart.
- We let much of the service flow without comment or announcement so as to draw as little attention as possible away from your communion with God.
Most of us did not grow up in a tradition that took God-centered worship seriously. Most people come to church with a passive entertainment mentality, and therefore, except in the most riveting of moments, the mind tends to float aimlessly from one human thing to another. And the thought of exerting effort to direct the mind's attention and the heart's affection towards God is foreign. And therefore what David described in verse 2 must be learned. "So I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary, beholding thy power and glory."
May the Lord give us a passion to worship at Bethlehem and so to fulfill the first and most basic step of our mission, to savor the vision of God.


text:
As we wait in joyful hope
Advent calls us to wait, something that we modern Americans are not good at doing. Technology and advertising tell us we don't have to wait: we can have things immediately.
For those involved in Catholic LGBT ministry and advocacy, waiting is something that we've been doing for a long time. Very long. When the Psalmist cries, "How long, O God?" we all know the anguish instinctively. The Beatitudes remind us that as people who hunger and thirst for justice, we will be satisfied. But when?
The greater challenge of Advent is not just to wait, but "to wait in joyful hope," as we pray in the Mass. How does one maintain a spirit of "joyful hope" while waiting for God to break through into our world?
One way is to try, as best as one can, to live in the preferred future. Imagine the future that you would like to see, and live as if it has already become a reality. In other words, despite so many messages to the contrary, live as if the reign of God has already taken hold in our world. Not an easy task, but when done, it does help to foster a spirit of joyful hope as we wait.
Another way to "wait in joyful hope" is to follow Gandhi's advice: "Be the change you want to see in the world." St. Augustine of Hippo had similar advice. He told his congregation that the way to change the faults of others is to change those same faults in ourselves. Again, this method is a challenge, but usually ends up developing a sense of hope for the future.
Has your involvement in LGBT ministry and advocacy helped you to develop a sense of waiting in joyful hope?
What ways have you found to live in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ?
–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry

subset: commoncrawl


text:
By any measure, the future for this Asian country looked bleak. Enormously overcrowded, its normal population had skyrocketed, increased not just by a naturally high birthrate but also by revolution in a neighboring country—forcing thousands of desperate refugees upon its borders. Lacking natural resources and utterly dependent upon its unpleasant neighbor for water and food, the country's situation had deteriorated so badly that a local UN official declared the only way for it to survive would be with massive Western aid. An American newspaper proclaimed the country to be "dying," and the government itself inclined to despair. Its own annual report painted a graphic picture:
Virtually every sizable vacant site . . . was occupied, and when there was no flat land remaining, [people] moved up to the hillsides and colonized the ravines and slopes which were too steep for normal development. The huts were constructed of such material as they could lay hands on at little or no cost—flattened sheets of tin, woodened boarding, cardboard, sacking slung on frames . . . . Land was scarce even for the squatters and the huts were packed like dense honeycombs or irregular warrens at different levels, with little ventilation and no regular access. The shacks themselves were crowded beyond endurance . . . . Density was at a rate of two thousand persons to an acre in single-story huts. There was, of course, no sanitation.
"The problem of a rapidly increasing population," the government lamented, "lies at the core of every problem facing the administration."
These words might describe dozens of countries around the world today. In fact, they were written in the 1950s about Hong Kong—the same British colony that today has become a synonym for dynamism and development, with a per capita gross domestic product eclipsing Mother England's. Indeed, at the very moment these government reports were being written, Hong Kong was on the cusp of a general Asian economic boom that would see real income per capita in Japan and the Four Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea) quadruple from 1960 to 1985. Though many observers felt as the American journalist John Robbins did in 1959, when he asserted that "Hong Kong's state of supersaturation" may be "a portent of things to come throughout Asia," the apocalypse they predicted never came to pass. Instead, Hong Kong witnessed the greatest economic boom of its history, and now boasts a population of more than six million people-about five times the number the Hong Kong government in 1954 declared to be its carrying "capacity."
Though there are parts of Hong Kong that rank among the most densely packed areas in the world, it remains a peaceable and safe city—a fact not unrelated to the tangible sense of opportunity granted by its (presently) open economic system. The lesson Hong Kong teaches is that there is no fixed level of resources, no natural capacity, no predefined limit to what people might do if given the opportunity to exercise the real factors in development: enterprise, creativity, and risk.
For the Catholic Church in particular, Hong Kong stands as a sharp rebuke to the reigning zero-sum ethos of the day—and brings us back to the core of Catholic social teaching: the value of human life not only to its possessors but to their neighbors as well. In the dismal abacus of our day, when a pig is born in China, national wealth goes up; when a child is born, it goes down. Almost all the fervor for population control traces back to this premise, which reflects a theological confusion as much as an economic one, and it derives from the historical tendency of Western experts to see Asian peoples as mouths and not minds.
When the push for reducing population growth began in the 1950s and 1960s, it owed much to this reduction of the human being to a collection of animal appetites and urges. The philosophical father to this school of thought is, of course, Thomas Malthus, who argued in his Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) that "the perpetual tendency in the race of man to increase beyond the means of subsistence is one of the great general laws of animated nature which we can have no reason to expect will change." The catastrophes Malthus predicted never came to pass, but his brand of pessimism nonetheless continues.
In 1968 Paul Ehrlich opened his seminal work The Population Bomb with the declaration that "the battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s the world will undergo famines—hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death." In 1977 Robert McNamara, as head of the World Bank, saw in population growth the "gravest issue" short of nuclear war and in a particularly prophetic statement lamented that the decisions that had led to this growth were "not in the exclusive control of a few governments but rather in the literally hundreds of millions of individual parents who will determine the outcome." Back in the 1950s William Vogt, in his best-selling book, Road to Survival, attributed Asia's population growth to "untrammeled copulation" by "the backward billion," while A. J. Carlson warned in a 1955 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that "if we breed like rabbits, in the long run we have to live and die like rabbits." Everywhere the distaste for human beings was on display—joined to the notion that the poorer parts of the world were dragging down richer.
"It is easy to imagine the United States or Canada or Brazil, or even—with somewhat more effort—France supporting twice its 1960 population on a reasonably decent standard of living," observed John Robbins in his 1959 book, Too Many Asians. But how, he asked, "can twice as many Asians hope to live on even today's miserable scale?" As it turned out, of course, Asia more than doubled in size and set off a new industrial revolution whose impact on human welfare has been of revolutionary proportions by virtually any measure: infant mortality, literacy, life expectancy, caloric intake, etc. The Indian economist Amartya Sen notes, moreover, that the growth in per capita income has been about one-third greater in countries at the bottom of the economic heap than those at the high end, and that the figures would be even higher if sub-Saharan Africa were excluded.
There is no way to deny this achievement. In his book Asia Rising, the economist Jim Rohwer points out that from 1970 to 1990 the number of desperately poor East Asians fell from 400 million to 180 million, even while the population of those countries was rising by 425 million—in other words, East Asia achieved a net rescue from poverty of almost 650 million people. It was done, moreover, in places with few natural resources and against all expectations.
A few observers did foresee this at the time. Amid all the headlines predicting famine and chaos, there appears an astounding paragraph written in a 1957 by Isamu Shimura, the Japanese managing director of Toyo Menka Kaisha. Inverting the usual way of looking at population and economics, he showed himself far more astute than many experts when he wrote:
Instead of thinking our population is too large for our economy, I believe it is more correct to say the scale of our economy is too small for our population. Instead of surplus, unwanted persons, we should view our people as our most valuable natural resource. This is not only the humane but the realistic view. The Japanese people are hard-working, energetic, resourceful, with a high level of education, skills, and competence. We are at the beginning of revolutionary industrial changes among which the recent achievements in synthetic chemistry and the potentialities in the peaceful use of atomic energy are mere portents. These new discoveries indicate clearly that in the economy of the future, whose beginnings are already among us, the economic resources which count will not be natural ones but human—intelligence, skill, and foresight.
It was an extraordinary insight at the time (Shimura also predicted that Japan would become a major producer of cars), and it remains telling today as we move toward a globalized economy. And the thoughts it voices about the relationship between people and wealth are equally applicable to modern China and Indonesia. Not only has China's embrace of the market ended food shortages, but-in booming Canton—the experiment with markets has been so successful that the province has had to import some ten million Chinese workers from other provinces. Indonesia started to throw off the shackles of socialism in the mid-1960s when President Suharto assumed power, and the result has been one of the fastest sustained economic growth rates in the world. To be sure, East Asia's revolution is not much different from that which the Western world experienced two hundred years before. Since the middle of the eighteenth century, the West's population has more than quadrupled while real income per head increased at least fivefold—an even faster rate than today's population growth in the Third World.
This is not to say that population control has made no headway in Asia. Pushed incessantly by figures like the World Bank's McNamara, the idea that nations could become rich only if they moved to control their population rates became an article of faith among Western and Western-educated intellectuals in Asia—a faith backed up by aid dollars linked to the willingness of recipient countries to develop control measures. In the Philippines, for example, the U.S. Agency for International Development obtained a provision in the Marcos-era constitution granting the state authority over population levels. The Western missionary fervor once directed at Christianizing Asia has been channeled, in the second half of the twentieth century, into proselytizing for fewer Asians.
Despite its notable failures, moreover, population control has become orthodoxy in a number of states, especially China. Through the 1950s, Maoist doctrine held large populations to be assets, with increased size corresponding to increased output. In this Mao was right, as the subsequent development of its neighbors demonstrates. Where Chinese communism erred was not in its estimation of the Chinese but in its estimation of communism.
This is not the place to discuss the well-documented horrors of population control in Asia: the forced abortions, sterilizations, and even infanticides. I want to suggest, however, that these horrors are a direct consequence of the idea that development requires poor nations to limit their populations—which also explains, I believe, the pronounced indifference in the West to practices that would provoke outrage were they applied to people in Scarsdale or San Francisco instead of Shanghai and Bombay. Without the economic imperative underlying population control, the abuses have no rational motivation. And so long as that dismal imperative is accepted, reservations (such as those expressed so eloquently by Pope John Paul II) are dismissed as a luxury the world literally cannot afford.
It is worth noting that two to three decades of sustained pressure for the suppression of population growth is beginning to have consequences unforeseen by its advocates. Most of the freer Asian countries at one time or another adopted policies penalizing large families or offering incentives to small families, whether through the tax code or through benefits like preferential housing and jobs. And over the years most of these nations have succeeded in lowering their total fertility rates. From 1953 to 1993, the annual number of births per thousand people in Taiwan dropped from forty-five to sixteen and the average number of children in a Taiwanese family dropped from seven to 1.7 (below the number for the U.S., Britain, and even China). With increased average lifespans, it means a grayer and grayer Taiwan: In 1994 people over sixty-five years old accounted for only 7 percent of the population; by 2036 the figure will be three times as large-which means a smaller percentage of workers. In response to such trends, Singapore has already shifted from promoting smaller families to promoting larger ones. It is in China, however, where population control has been stringent, that two nasty side effects appear most clearly: the world's most rapidly aging society and a dangerously skewed ratio between boys and girls.
The demographic shifts are obvious to the most casual visitor. In the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing, there are legions of adults for each child. The Chinese press regularly reports on the "little emperors," the army of spoilt only-children used to getting their own way. And these children are the same people who as adults will be called upon to make enormous sacrifices to support China's growing ranks of the elderly—for not only is China graying, it is doing it faster than any population in history. A process that took eighty-five years in Sweden and thirty-two years in Japan will take only twenty-one years in China, according to the Beijing Center of Gerontology. China already has the largest number of elderly in the world, and the projections of the number of workers compared to the number of retirees are stark. The Chinese Statistics Bureau reports that in 1987 the people over sixty years were 13.5 percent. As the effects of the one-child program make themselves felt, however, the numbers leap dramatically: to 23.8 percent in 2020, 36 percent in 2030, and 44.9 percent in 2050—when more than 400 million Chinese will be over sixty years of age, and there will be almost one retiree for every two workers. The Japanese are already paying higher taxes imposed by leaders worried about their own graying society. But Japan's problems pale beside China's, which is nowhere near as wealthy, about ten times more populous, and aging at a much faster clip.
The practice of sex selection creates related problems. Within Asia generally, there exists a strong cultural preference for sons, based on the not irrational idea that sons support their parents in old age and carry on the family name. In China the combination of this bias in favor of sons and the one-child policy has in practice meant the aborting of many fetuses simply because they are girls. The result is that whereas the normal relationship is 104 to 107 boys for every 100 girls born, China now sees 119 boys born for every 100 girls. (Other Asian countries have corresponding figures: 114 in South Korea, 110 in Taiwan, and as many as 112 in India.) This shift too will begin to make itself felt when whole generations of boys suddenly find themselves unable to find wives, with harrowing ramifications for social order.
If the 1995 UN Conference on Population in Cairo demonstrated anything, it is that the Catholic Church remains the chief stumbling block to the true believers in population control. Yet even the Church at times does not seem to realize the strength of its own teaching—its conformity with laws of economics as well as nature and its congruence with what we can now see is the real path to development and opportunity. Unfortunately too the Church can show a keener appreciation of its enemies than its friends, and it needs to express more clearly the fundamental unity of its teachings for individuals and its teachings for societies.
This unity is commonly understood in most areas of Church teaching: Traditional morality has always asserted that both the individuals themselves and society in general will be better off if individuals don't steal, don't cheat, and so on down the line. But when it comes to reproduction, the understanding seems to disappear. As a matter of living responsibly, a good case might be made for the bare assertion "no abortion or birth control and damn the consequences." But the Church has faltered in explaining the link between our reproductive behavior as individuals and the health of society. This is why Church leaders who concede the problem of overpopulation find themselves in the losing position of acknowledging a problem for which they must then rule out the obvious solution. Not surprisingly, their position looks arbitrary and unintelligible. And in the West, at least, the result is considerable media pressure for the Church to change its teaching—and an expectation that it will once it faces up to the evidence.
In the case of population, the irony is that no serious market economist accepts the problem as defined, much less the proposed solutions. Whatever their personal views on abortion or birth control as an individual preference, neither Milton Friedman or Gary Becker argue that societies need to curb population growth for development. The more free-market the orientation of economists, the more they recognize that in an open economy individuals produce more than they consume. (It is no coincidence that those thumping the loudest for a state role in controlling population promote a bigger state role in lots of other things as well: A "Catholics Speak Out" advertisement that appeared just before the Cairo conference called upon the Church's "male celibate hierarchy" to revise its teachings on sex, and in the very next sentence described the need to "redistribute" resources.)
Even John Paul II complicates matters for himself when he concedes "grave and serious problems" caused by overpopulation but then encourages people to have as many children as they see fit given their circumstances. Yet the lines are being drawn. For the real and sustained opposition to Church teaching today is, as the Pope indicated in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, an ascendant "culture of death" that has turned legitimate concerns (such as the state of the environment) into frankly pagan movements. When these movements find themselves opposed to Rome, as they did so dramatically in recent UN conferences, it is not because they are illogical, but because they are simply following their assumptions to their inevitable conclusions. At its core the argument today is not over how many people a given country should have, or even whether abortion and birth control should be legal. At the core, the real argument has to do with the nature of man. Well before it was popular, Gunnar Myrdal realized that "the population question" held out the potential to become "the most effective argument for a thorough and radical socialist remodeling of society." Today the tactical arguments of this crowd have wisely shifted away from control toward "choice," "public health," and "empowerment," but the impetus remains the same.
In my own profession of journalism it is common enough to deride economists as practitioners of the "dismal science." Yet in most cases it is the economists who have maintained faith in human ingenuity and initiative and who have rejected counsels of despair and control. The majority of them have never been found on the front lines of the movement for population control. And the reason is that the best economists spend their lives emphasizing that economic life is not about numbers, but about the triumph of the human mind when given the freedom to innovate and respond. It is the market economist who argues for hope, who points to creativity when others push for control, who recognizes that people are good, in a fundamental, real sense: assets, not liabilities.
It was this human capital that took a desperate refugee population in Hong Kong and turned it into a world-class financial center; this human capital that saw Japan and South Korea arise from the ashes of war; this human capital whose success in turning around centuries of poverty has led to what the World Bank calls "The East Asian Miracle." And it is this philosophy of freedom that offers an answer, really the only answer, to the challenge posed to us by what John Paul II has so presciently recognized as a culture of death.
Certainly in a world where many still go hungry at night there is much to be done. But instead of looking for ways to reduce the number of those seeking to take their place at the table, we should look for ways to eliminate the perverse policies that prevent a bigger banquet. And here Adam Smith will prove a more gracious host than Thomas Malthus.
William McGurn is Senior Editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review.


text:
Right at Hotel Kurcafe you can start your discovery of Füssen.
The over 700-year-old town of Füssen, at the southern end of the Romantic Road and in the heart of one of the finest holiday regions in the entire Alps, is in ever greater demand as a destination for a weekend break or a cities tour.
It is framed by the imposing high mountain peaks and an idyllic lake landscape, 800-1200 m above sea level, making it the town in Bavaria at the highest altitude, the ideal starting-point for trips to the royal castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau or the Wies Church.
Regular conducted tours of the town, museum and churches as well as special tours for groups are offered throughout the year. High-spirited festivals against a historical backdrop, culture outdoors on the old market places or in the courtyards and the Christmas Market during Advent lend a very special magic to Füssen's Old Town.


text:
Allow me to direct you to Rob Coers' presentation from Internet Librarian International 2007:
It's a great, concise presentation with a list of five tips to get started with social tools lin libraries. I'm fond of the one above – Rob believes that 20% of employees are never going to be happy with innovation and change. He advocates on focusing on the other 80%, made up of early adoptors and followers. We riffed on the same topic at last ILI last year and I'm glad Rob is carrying his thinking forward. What do you think?


text:
When DiS offered to run a Wears The Trousers spin-off column I had to pinch myself. A major indie music website making a dedicated space to talk about female musicians in a (hopefully) intelligent and nonhormonal way? Bold. And then I got the fear. But I know you're not all rampant misogynists, and besides, we've never really been about the politics. You could say the very fact that Wears The Trousers exists is, in effect, a political statement, but we're first and foremost a music website. We're not The F Word or Feministing. I won't even mention riot grrl once. To slightly paraphrase the woefully under-regarded Lois Maffeo, I don't want to be in charge of educating you apes* about feminism. I don't have the time.
(* her words, not mine; I'm sure you're lovely)
Actually, what I want to talk about in this first column is much to do with time. It's been on my mind lately as I accelerate towards 11,000 days of existence (I can't bring myself to say it in years – in days it seems so happily abstract) and everybody else just seems to be getting younger. Or at least wiser and more advanced for their age. Case in point: Laura Marling. The acoustic introspection of Alas I Cannot Swim may not have been your cup of chai, but the sheer audacity of her tender years was a constant source of surprise and her measuredly poetic, teen angst-sparing riffs on topics like mental illness and sexual abuse were impressive. Then again, she was well schooled in the very fine works of Diane Cluck and Nina Nastasia so the blueprint was there to be followed, with a Home Counties twist.
There is no such thing as old age, only sorrow – I borrowed that from Edith Wharton; it's always important when writing your first column to sound authoritative, knowledgeable and, failing that, to lean on someone else's brilliant wisdom to prop up your own – and I'll argue conversely that there is no such thing as youth, only shades of damage. Which leads me nicely onto the first artist I want to talk about, an 18 year old Austrian girl you're about to hear much more of.
Anja Plaschg, more pronouncably known as Soap&Skin, projects a dementedly troubled persona. One promo shot has her sucking up her long, inky hair through her nose and mouth, like Björk being murdered in her hidden place by Sadako from The Ring. Coupled with an almost embarrassingly hyperbolic PR sheet – "Soap&Skin has already grown beyond the human form of Anja Plaschg: she is the Girl Monster, come to save us and to devour us" – her debut album Lovetune For Vacuum (April 13) has a lot to live up to. Amazingly, it mostly succeeds. Across its fourteen teeming songs, Plaschg really puts the damage on with her feverish piano and mutable, Nico-with-range voice. On 'Fall Foliage', she sounds like she's grasping at the closed door of an airlock, knowing that any second she might be sucked into a nothingness of her own design. On upcoming single 'Spiracle', her hands casually navigate the keys with a loose and unsettling candour as ghostly wails foreshadow the end of all innocence; "I was a child", she repeatedly tells us, but it's hard to imagine what she might have sounded like before the blackness got her heart.
Leaving such caustic nihilism across the brackish Baltic sea, a very different type of sorrow inhabits the Söderberg sisters of Sweden's First Aid Kit. Klara, 15, and Johanna, 17, aren't entirely doleful; their simply orchestrated narrative songs are just as likely to amble along a rustic melancholy streak as they are to skip down a mossy path with sanguine freshness. Songs almost seem to come alive with imagined smells of woodsmoke and citrus, and a lick of salt on a breeze blown in from the harbour. Harmonising in that preternaturally close way that only siblings can muster, Klara and Johanna are light years removed from the bratty indie-pop of where-are-they-now teen 'sensations' Smoosh. And while the massive YouTube viewing figures for their Fleet Foxes cover have undoubtedly provided an easy route into our hearts, other songs on their self-produced debut Drunken Trees (February 23) are of a similar calibre. Double A-side single 'You're Not Coming Home Tonight' / 'Tangerine' is out next week.
Sharing some key influences with First Aid Kit – namely the kingpins of the Saddle Creek stable – 18 year old Alessi Laurent-Marke has gone one further in actually recruiting Bright Eyes producer Mike Mogis for her debut album Notes From The Treehouse (out at the end of March). Now recording under the name of Alessi's Ark thanks to a threat of litigation from hyperaware Seventies duo the Alessi Brothers, the starry eyed West Londoner perhaps fits most comfortably in with the Laura Marling crowd despite her more esoteric and whimsical songs. Of our three acts, she's the most childlike, but given time Notes... can be as absorbing as it is nimble. Alessi's mannered vocal style at times recalls a de-sexed and less scratchy Bianca Casady (CocoRosie), which might take the fun out of it for some, but her distinctive sense of wonderment and borderline cosmological obsession bodes well for a Bat For Lashes-style word of mouth hit.
Hold on to your Haribo, the tiny masters of tomorrow are coming.
Some other terrifyingly accomplished young folk you might want to hark at:
Invisible 'bandmates' aside, fiercely independent Californian teen Ema Tuennerman creates a magical, twee world that's all her own. Copies of her recent EP Boy In The Milkbox are scarce but worth the hunt.
America's answer to Laura Marling, 19 year old Jessica Mayfield's debut album With Blasphemy So Heartfelt gets its European release on March 2.
More Swedish sisters, this time twins. Taxi Taxi! follow up their 2007 self-titled EP with a debut album on Rumraket, out later this year.


text:
Yesterday my daughter asked, "Where does gravity come from?" She is two and a half years old. I could say many things on this subject—most of which she could not possibly understand—but the deep and honest answer is "I don't know."
What if I had said, "Gravity comes from God"? That would be merely to stifle her intelligence—and to teach her to stifle it. What if I told her, "Gravity is God's way of dragging people to hell, where they burn in fire. And you will burn there forever if you doubt that God exists"? No Christian or Muslim can offer a compelling reason why I shouldn't say such a thing—or something morally equivalent—and yet this would be nothing less than the emotional and intellectual abuse of a child. In fact, I have heard from thousands of people who were oppressed this way, from the moment they could speak, by the terrifying ignorance and fanaticism of their parents.
Ten years have now passed since many of us first felt the jolt of history—when the second plane crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. We knew from that moment that things can go terribly wrong in our world—not because life is unfair, or moral progress impossible, but because we have failed, generation after generation, to abolish the delusions of our ignorant ancestors. The worst of these ideas continue to thrive—and are still imparted, in their purest form, to children.
What is the meaning of life? What is our purpose on earth? These are some of the great, false questions of religion. We need not answer them—for they are badly posed—but we can live our answers all the same. At a minimum, we must create the conditions for human flourishing in this life—the only life of which we can be certain. That means we should not terrify our children with thoughts of hell, or poison them with hatred for infidels. We should not teach our sons to consider women their future property, or convince our daughters that they are property even now. And we must decline to tell our children that human history began with magic and will end with bloody magic—perhaps soon, in a glorious war between the righteous and the rest. One must be religious to fail the young so abysmally—to derange them with fear, bigotry, and superstition even as their minds are forming—and one cannot be a serious Christian, Muslim, or Jew without doing so in some measure.
Such sins against reason and compassion do not represent the totality of religion, of course—but they lie at its core. As for the rest—charity, community, ritual, and the contemplative life—we need not take anything on faith to embrace these goods. And it is one of the most damaging canards of religion to insist that we must.
People of faith recoil from observations like these. They reflexively point to all the good that has been done in the name of God and to the millions of devout men and women, even within conservative Muslim societies, who do no harm to anyone. And they insist that people at every point on the spectrum of belief and unbelief commit atrocities from time to time. This is all true, of course, and truly irrelevant. The groves of faith are now ringed by a forest of non sequiturs.
Whatever else may be wrong with our world, it remains a fact that some of the most terrifying instances of human conflict and stupidity would be unthinkable without religion. And the other ideologies that inspire people to behave like monsters—Stalinism, fascism, etc.—are dangerous precisely because they so resemble religions. Sacrifice for the Dear Leader, however secular, is an act of cultic conformity and worship. Whenever human obsession is channeled in these ways, we can see the ancient framework upon which every religion was built. In our ignorance, fear, and craving for order, we created the gods. And ignorance, fear, and craving keep them with us.
What defenders of religion cannot say is that anyone has ever gone berserk, or that a society ever failed, because people became too reasonable, intellectually honest, or unwilling to be duped by the dogmatism of their neighbors. This skeptical attitude, born of equal parts care and curiosity, is all that "atheists" recommend—and it is typical of nearly every intellectual pursuit apart from theology. Only on the subject of God can smart people still imagine that they reap the fruits of human intelligence even as they plow them under.
Ten years have passed since a group of mostly educated and middle-class men decided to obliterate themselves, along with three thousand innocents, to gain entrance to an imaginary Paradise. This problem was always deeper than the threat of terrorism—and our waging an interminable "war on terror" is no answer to it. Yes, we must destroy al Qaeda. But humanity has a larger project—to become sane. If September 11, 2001, should have taught us anything, it is that we must find honest consolation in our capacity for love, creativity, and understanding. This remains possible. It is also necessary. And the alternatives are bleak.


text:
~ Food Has Power ~
Ok, this is VERY long! I am totally willing to do this as a consult (instead of in the group) if it's too many details/too much to ask. The short version is this:
My almost 2 year old and I have been on a gluten/dairy/corn/egg/soy free diet for about 9 months, after an elimination diet and seeing various reactions to these foods. I believe he has a leaky gut which I'd like to help heal. I am looking for ways to heal this issue (and any others that exist) using whole food nutrients, and to avoid supplements as much as is possible. He has seemed to react to most of the supplements we've tried, or had trouble taking them. So, any recommendations you all have are welcome and appreciated!
Now, for the long version. I've included everything that might be helpful in understanding our situation (perhaps *too* much info--sorry this is so long!):
River (now 23 months) was born at home. I labored for over 50 hours, his heart rate was awesome the entire time. He was posterior. He had shoulder dystocia on the way out, and my midwife reached her hands in to help him out. Not long after his birth she gave him a vit. K shot, she said in part b/c *I* lost a lot of blood. (I lost about a liter of blood after he was born.) His umbilical cord was in a tight knot when he came out, (he must have swam through it in utero, and it probably tightened as he was born). So, the cord did not pulsate, there was a lot of blood in it that squirted out when we cut it. (Not sure how much info/detail you all need, I thought I'd tell you *everything*!)
I had trouble with breastfeeding, in part due to my blood loss, but mostly because of ignorance about breastfeeding. For the first 3 months of his life we used formula supplements (both milk and soy based) as well as donated breastmilk from a friend of mine. He was nursing most of this time, at one point was totally off the breast (but getting about 1/2 his nourishment from breastmilk, I was exclusively pumping). Using domperidome, lots of herbs, and tons of pumping, along with nursing, he came back to the breast and from 3 months on he was exclusively breastfed (and continues to nurse lots today at almost 2.)
He had the first 2 rounds of vaccines, but after the 2nd round, he had a fever and slept for a very long, uncharacteristic amount of time. He also had diarrhea for days. I started really researching vaccines and was shocked and horrified by what I found, so he has not been vaccinated since.
He also had 'baby acne' from maybe a few weeks old until 5 months.
At around 13 months he got an ear infection, and we did the antibiotics (amoxicillan). He got a rash on the back of his neck during this, and we stopped using them after 5 days.
Around this same time period, I noticed a lot of changes in him. He was seeming to be very irritable and easily frustrated (very uncharacteristic for him), not sleeping well (waking in the night and running around screaming for 1-2 hours), peeing his pants in the night (he was ec'd from 3 months and had never peed at night--this was a big change!), had the red ring around his anus at all times, 'raccoon eyes', and I'm sure other symptoms as well. With the help of the foodlab yahoo group, I learned a/b elimination diets and we found he reacted to gluten, dairy, corn, soy and eggs.
Since then our diets have changed dramatically. We avoid the above mentioned foods, along with most nuts/seeds and citrus, because I have thought he has reacted to them in the past. (I'm willing to try them again though! I did not formally test any of them.) Foods we eat on a regular basis include (listed in an order of the quantity/frequency we eat them): brown rice (in many forms--rice, rice milk, crackers, bread, cookies, etc.--probably 2 servings a day easily), green peppers, onions, garlic, carrots (whole/juiced), tomatoes (mostly canned), sunflower oil (used for cooking), chicken and turkey (we were vegetarian but started eating these after dropping dairy and eggs), beans (black, garbanzo, kidney, pinto, lentils etc.) canned and dried, broccoli, kale, other greens, potatoes, dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, cherries, etc.), berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries), apples, bananas, pears, cucumbers, buckwheat flour, oatmeal, enerG egg replacer, fruit & vegetable juices (fresh and bottled bolthouse farm), avocados, celery, green beans, sweet potatoes, zucchini, coconut milk, millet, maple syrup, agave nectar, sometimes brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, tons of spices and salt and pepper, palm oil...etc. Also cultured carrots, beets and cabbage for the probiotic value... In addition, I am not totally opposed to trying other meats, although it might be a difficult transition for me (I've never cooked meat before, and doing the poultry now has been a real learning experience! I was a vegetarian for 12 years b/4 changing our diets in this manner...) A lot of the food we eat is cooked. I do not soak our grains but am interested in learning more about this and other food prep. ideas that might help us. I also have been (irregularly) taking a prenatal vitamin and calcium supp. (which he does not seem to react to.)
I think I've included a majority of what we eat on a regular basis (at least 2-3 x per week). What I am looking for now is where to go from here. I believe ds has a leaky gut, and we have tried supplement after supplement (vitamins and enzymes) to help heal it. He has seemed to react to everything we've tried. I'd love more info on where to go with our diets--what to add to bring in the vitamins/nutrients he needs, along with how/if he can get the digestive enzymes he needs through foods. What supplements you all might feel *are* necessary, etc. I want to help heal his gut (and any other issues that might be going on). Any advice or suggestions you all have are greatly appreciated!
Lauren :)
Favorite Posts:
Beet Test (stomach acid?)
Green Breakfast Challenge
Healthy Poop 101
Master Tonic 101
Nettle Leaf herbal infusions 101.
Overwhelmed? Where to Start?!
Probiotic Selection
94 members
128 members
79 members
Wellness is an active process of personal accountability.
This list shares personal experience and information only and should not be taken as medical advice. All opinions and information shared are the views of the individual member.
Everyone must use her own discretion and judgment to determine whether you are comfortable or need to seek professional assistance. We are not your doctor.
The information contained in these pages is not intended to take the place of your health professional's advice. It is derived from our personal experience and research, and may shed light on your health complaints. In case of serious ailments which may not respond favorably, please seek the counsel of a qualified health professional.
"What do you expect the doctor to do? He can only prescribe something that will mask the symptoms until you heal yourself. He can not heal you."~ Gitti
Heal Thyself!
"Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food." --Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)
Posted by Alisha Kapoor on August 12, 2016 at 1:19pm
Posted by Pat Robinson on May 5, 2015 at 5:00pm — 1 Comment
Posted by Pat Robinson on April 13, 2015 at 1:30pm — 5 Comments
Posted by Pat Robinson on March 29, 2015 at 7:30pm
Posted by Pat Robinson on January 23, 2015 at 10:59am — 3 Comments
Posted by Pat Robinson on May 26, 2014 at 8:30pm
Posted by Pat Robinson on May 20, 2014 at 8:00pm
Posted by Pat Robinson on May 4, 2014 at 9:00pm
Posted by Pat Robinson on April 19, 2014 at 12:00pm
Posted by Pat Robinson on February 25, 2014 at 7:30pm
© 2024 Created by Pat Robinson. Powered by


text:
This week Marija from Palachinka returns to host.
If you're new to WHB or you haven't taken part in a while, here's a quick summary of the rules.
You have the week to post about any herb, fruit, vegetable, grain, nut, seed, spice, flower or plant. Your post can be informative, spotlight a particular ingredient and/or include a recipe where your chosen ingredient is one of the primary ingredients in the recipe.
Post should include the phrase Weekend Herb Blogging and a link to the rules and to your host.
You can post anytime during the week but remember to email your host by the deadline which is:
- 3pm Sunday - Utah Time
- 10pm Sunday - London Time
- 11pm Sunday - Rome Time
- 7am Monday - Melbourne (Aus) Time
Send your entries to
palachinkablog AT gmail DOT com
with WHB#233 in the subject and the following details:
- Your Name
- Your Blog Name/URL
- Your Post URL
- Your Location
- A photo:250px wide


text:
Why big data analytics holds the key to tackling the changing terror threat
Finding the answers without knowing the who, what or when to look for
By Joanne Taylor, Director of Public Security, SAS
There are fewer spectacular terrorist attacks today – fewer 9/11s. What we learned from the big ones have helped us discover several planned attacks before they happen. There's a shift in the kind of attacks we're seeing. So what about the lone wolfs – like Anders Behring Breiviks and the Tsarnaev brothers? How do we find a trail that leads to those unknowns?
Donald Rumsfeld's famous comment to a US Department of Defense news briefing in 2002 comes to mind. "As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also - unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know … it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones."
The real challenge of the unknown unknown scenario is that you simply don't know what question to ask – or who or what to look for.
While widely mocked, Rumsfeld's speech perfectly captured the challenge of the time and even more accurately describes the changing threat landscape we face today. Back in the 90s – before the threat from Al-Qaeda was fully understood – the world was one of organised plots involving known groups and financing routes. Then, intelligence services were typically working with 'known knowns.'
Known unknowns
Post 9/11, agencies started focusing on 'known unknowns'. They concentrated on filling knowledge gaps associated with the new threat from extremism and gathering intelligence to counter that threat.
Getting that information means there must be a starting point – a known organisation or set of individuals that can act as a gateway to more intelligence. With organised threats, agencies can ask targeted questions about the organisation and its inner workings.
Success is about asking the right questions to build up intelligence and identify the known unknowns. But today, you're more often dealing with unknown unknowns.
Unknown unknowns
These groups may be operating independently with little or no organisation, but they still pose a very real threat. They're elusive and low-profile, so agencies often don't see them as high-risk. So, how do you find the trail left behind by these potential attackers from all of the data you have? The real challenge of the unknown unknown scenario is that you simply don't know what questions to ask – or who or what to look for.
Use a big data stick
That's where big data analytics comes in. Everyone leaves a data footprint behind – bank accounts, travel patterns, phone records and online activity. This kind of data can be your best source of intelligence. And analytics can be your most effective weapon against the unknown unknowns.
The advantage of advanced analytics is that you don't need to know what you're looking for. The technology can spot behaviour in the right kind of area. It can be particularly helpful when you're looking for the lone wolf.
Advanced analytics lets you flag individuals who have disturbing behavior profiles – not just the ones who are connected to networks or groups that are already under suspicion.
Analytics gives you a place to start, which is likely to be crucial in countering the changing nature of the threats the world faces. Ultimately, it lets you unveil these unknown unknowns, 'the difficult ones' identified by Donald Rumsfeld more than a decade ago.
Read more about how analytics can help agencies sift the big data for the important answers.
Read More
- Read more about how analytics can help agencies sift the big data for the important answers.
Terrorist groups eventually end. Don't they?
According to Rand Corporation, few terrorist groups have ever achieved victory. But there are a couple keys to success for terrorists – places law enforcement can concentrate efforts:
- Religious terrorist groups take longer to eliminate than other groups and rarely achieve their objectives.
- The largest groups achieve their goals more often and last longer than the smallest ones do.
- Groups from upper-income countries are more likely to be left-wing or nationalist and less likely to have religion as their motivation.
The authors conclude that policing and intelligence, rather than military force, should be the backbone of any efforts to stop terrorism.


text:
JM Micro-Lok® HP Fiberglass Pipe Cover, Iron Pipe Size: 24 in IPS, Insulation Thickness: 1-1/2 in, Material: Fiberglass, Color: White, Facing Type: ASJ-SSL, Length: 3 ft, Application: For Commercial, Power or Process Lines, Cold and Chilled Water Lines, Brine, Refrigerant and Special Process Lines, Special Features: High Performance, Temperature Rating: 0 to 850 deg F, Actual Wall Thickness: 1.38 in, Insulation Diameter: 26.95 in, Water Vapor Permeability: 0.02 perm-in, Water Vapor Sorption: <5 %, Flame Spread Index: 25, Smoke Developed Index: 50, Burst Strength: 55 psi, Tensile Strength: 45 lb/in MD, 30 lb/in CD, Thermal Conductivity: 0.23 to 0.55 Btu-in/hr-sq-ft-deg F
Actual Wall Thickness : 1.38 in
Application : For Commercial, Power or Process Lines, Cold and Chilled Water Lines, Brine, Refrigerant and Special Process Lines
Burst Strength : 55 psi
Color : White
Facing Type : ASJ-SSL
Flame Spread Index : 25
Insulation Diameter : 26.95 in
Insulation Thickness : 1-1/2 in
Iron Pipe Size : 24 in IPS
Item Name : Fiberglass Pipe Cover
Length : 3 ft
Material : Fiberglass
Smoke Developed Index : 50
Special Features : High Performance
Sub Brand : Micro-Lok HP
Temperature Rating : 0 to 850 deg F
Tensile Strength : 45 lb/in MD, 30 lb/in CD
Thermal Conductivity : 0.23 to 0.55 Btu-in/hr-sq-ft-deg F
Water Vapor Permeability : 0.02 perm-in
Water Vapor Sorption : <5 %
Johns Manville Micro-Lok HP fiberglass pipe insulation is manufactured using the latest technology and our unique in-line manufacturing process. This process results in a uniform fiberglass core that delivers consistent performance during fabrication and installation. In addition, our proprietary auto jacketed ensures consistency during production and installation resulting in a tighter jacket with a cleaner finished appearance. Micro-Lok HP delivers thermal performance you can count on, while meeting all industry performance requirements. This assures the building owner, mechanical engineer and contractor that Micro-Lok HP will deliver the performance you have come to expect from Johns Manville products throughout the life of the mechanical system.
Standards/Certifications: ASTM C1136|ASTM C547 Type I|ASTM C585|ASTM E84|California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation Registry Number CA-T040|CAN ULC S102.2 25/50|Greenguard Gold Certified|IMO Approved|LEED Certified|LEED NC Certified|MIL-DTL-32585|MIL-I-22344D|MIL-PRF-22344E|New York City MEA|USCG Approved


text:
Cypress Insulation Company
Simply The Best Insulation Contractor
Cypress Insulation Company, a licensed and insured insulation company is located in Cypress, Texas. Since more than a decade, we have been serving the community. Our company was established with the goal of providing the best insulation services to our customers. We provide quality solutions to both the insulation and energy needs of our clients. We care about our customers and understand how difficult it can sometimes be to find the right solution for their insulation needs. This is why we always endeavor to execute every project as seamlessly as possible. Our insurance will also give you protection and peace of mind while we are on the job. There is no company better than us for the insulation and energy efficiency of both your home and business place.
We are known for being one of the most reliable businesses in the city. Our estimates are free and without obligation. You can rest assured that our estimators will always consider your best interests. They will not only help you determine the best way to maximize your home's energy efficiency, but they will also provide you with a budget. Our clients are always ready and happy to hire us for new projects. This is because we strive to build a family-like relationship with our clients. We will treat you like family when you hire us. You will find a level satisfaction in our work that is unmatched anywhere else in the city.
Cypress is an unincorporated community in Harris County, Texas, United States, located completely inside the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City of Houston. The Cypress area is located along U.S. Highway 290 (Northwest Freeway) is twenty-four miles (35 km) northwest of Downtown Houston. The Cypress urban cluster ranks 50th in the top 100 highest-income urban areas in the United States. Large scale residential and commercial development beginning in the 1980s transformed the once rural area into one of the Houston area's largest suburban communities. == History == The recent find of a San Patrice projectile point at the Dimond Knoll site nearby on Cypress Creek attests to a human presence in the area by 7500 BC. By the early historic era, the area around present-day Cypress was populated by Atakapa and Akokisa Indian tribes, but they soon disappeared after the appearance of German settlers in the 1840s.The German heritage is most notably reflected in the names of some of the major thoroughfares of the area, such as Huffmeister and Telge Roads.
Amhurst, Barker Lake, Blackhorse Ranch, Bridgeland, Canyon Lakes West, Coles Crossing, Cypress Chase, Cypress Creek Estates, Cypress Creek Lakes, Cypress Creek Ranch, Cypress Fields, Cypress Hill, Cypress Hollow Estates, Cypress Mill Estates Com Res, Cypress Mill Park


text:
I bought some songs on iTunes with my iPad and want to transfer those songs onto my iTunes on my computer.
If I sync my iPad with the iTunes account on my computer, it will just erase whatever on the iPad now and import what is in the iTunes library on my computer.
How can I get these newly bought songs in my computer's iTunes account?


text:
NEW YORK, USA: Online shoe retailer Zappos told customers this weekend that it has been the victim of a cyber attack affecting more than 24 million customer accounts in its database.
The popular retailer, which is owned by Amazon.com, said customers' names, email addresses, billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of credit cards numbers and scrambled passwords were stolen.
But it said the hackers had not been able to access servers that held customers critical credit card and other payment data.
"We were recently the victim of a cyber attack by a criminal who gained access to parts of our internal network and systems through one of our servers in Kentucky," Zappos chief executive Tony Hsieh said in an email to staff which was posted on the company's blog on Sunday.
"We are cooperating with law enforcement to undergo an exhaustive investigation," he added.
Zappos said it was recommending that customers change their passwords including on any other website where they use the same or similar password.
The company, which is well known for its customer service, said due to the high volume of customer calls it is expecting it will temporarily switch off its phones and direct customers to contact via email.


text:
That may sound like an unlikely premise, but this is no ordinary game. In Okami, to save the world from an ancient evil, you control a god who has taken the form of a white wolf. You have the power to freeze the action, causing a magic brush to appear, which you can use to change reality by painting. It's sort of like Adam Sandler in Click, but without all the bothersome Adam Sandler.
Once you master all 13 techniques at your disposal, you'll be able to perform a wide range of David Blaine-worthy tricks. Wanna slice an enemy in half? Draw a line through his stomach. Need to revive a dead tree? Circle it with your brush, and it magically blooms. And while freezing the action to write "kick me" on villagers' foreheads gets you nowhere, it's damned fun anyway. Hey, you have the powers of a god -- why not abuse them?
It brings to mind the classic Looney Tunes short in which Daffy Duck is continuously erased and redrawn by a practical-joker cartoonist. In the same way, you'll artistically alter the landscape to solve Okami's puzzles and defeat foes -- creating and destroying as you see fit.
Anybody who remembers Mario Paint knows that drawing with a joystick sucks, but thankfully, the controls in Okami are effortless. The game design is sensitive enough to interpret your sideways blob with a curlicue as a bomb, and it reacts accordingly.
While painting is a large part of Okami's game play, it's not the entire picture. As with Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, there's a whole cel-shaded world for your lovable, four-legged dog-god to explore. You can dig up treasure, run errands for villagers, and complete other nifty side-quests. Or you can just stop time and draw to your heart's content.
Saving the world also means hacking and slashing your way though a barrage of colorful enemies, from demon monkeys to karate-kicking fish. The battle system is first-class beat-'em-up, but whereas killing hordes of enemies makes you stronger in most games, Okami rewards you only for positive tasks, such as feeding woodland animals and reviving plant life. This is a game Al Gore could get behind.
The only blemish on this masterpiece is that it's a little too easy to finish. Game hints are spoon-fed to you by a Jiminy Cricket-like sidekick so often that it's almost insulting. If you've just learned the "Drawing Fire" technique and immediately come across a treasure chest hidden under dry leaves, do you really need someone to spell it out for you? It's like trying to do a crossword puzzle while the answers are whispered in your ear.
But after you've completed a breathtaking battle with an eight-headed devil -- furiously alternating between sword and paintbrush -- one thing becomes clear: Sequels for the Nintendo Wii or Nintendo DS are a must. While the controls are impeccable this time around, one can only imagine how much fun it would be to slash lines through the air like Jackson Pollock on the Wii or scribble a moon in the sky with the DS stylus.
Okami will suck you into its watercolor landscapes and colorful Japanese folklore. We'd argue that this is the final proof that games can be art, but art was never this much fun.


text:
Woman to begin Antarctic crossing, awaits weather
(AP) -- A 33-year-old British adventurer preparing for a historic solo crossing of Antarctica was waiting at a base camp for the weather to improve on Sunday in order to begin her long journey on skis.
Felicity Aston said she has been doing more than physical training to ready herself for the expedition.
"I've also been speaking to a sports psychologist about the mental aspect of it because so much of this is about where your head's at rather than your muscles and your physical fitness," Aston told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the base camp at Union Glacier.
She aims to become the first person to cross Antarctica alone using only muscle power. If she manages to complete the journey in late January as planned, she would also set a record for the longest solo polar expedition by a woman, at about 70 days.
"Unfortunately the weather hasn't been kind to us so far," Aston said.
At the base camp, she said, "it's blue sky. It's quite warm relatively for Antarctica, but unfortunately the weather on the other side of the continent isn't good enough to fly, apparently."
"So we're sitting here waiting for the weather to improve," she said.
Aston has been to Antarctica before but said she is particularly thrilled that she will be climbing solo through the Transantarctic Mountains and onto the continent's vast central plateau.
"Being out there and effectively having Antarctica to myself - or it will feel like that - appeals to me," she said. "And just the completeness of it, you know, to ski from one side of Antarctica to the other and to find out what it's like to be out there on my own."
The ordeal she faces will be similar to that endured by Boerge Ousland of Norway, who made a 64-day trip across the continent in 1997. But he harnessed Antarctica's fierce winds by strapping himself to a parachute-like sail when they blew in his favor. On those days he could ski as far as 140 miles while towing a sled carrying about 400 pounds (nearly 900 kilograms) of supplies. At other times, his speed dropped to about 2 mph (3 kph) as he struggled through crevasse-laced terrain, he said.
"It was physically and mentally tiring. I crossed snow bridges not knowing if they would hold my weight. I had to go slowly and very carefully," he said.
Aston's previous travel adventures have included skiing across the Canadian Arctic and crossing the Greenland ice sheet. But this is her first solo expedition.
"I'm looking forward to finding out what it will be like to go that length of time without seeing anyone," she said. "There's a definite appeal to just getting going and how simple life becomes when all you have to worry about is eating, sleeping and skiing."
She needed to pack the bare essentials because she will be pulling her supplies behind her. Her food rations include porridge, freeze-dried dinners and plenty of chocolate, which in all she said will add up to more than 4,000 calories each day.
"There's a lot of chocolate involved in this. It's great," she said with a laugh. "I get to eat chocolate all day and I still manage to lose weight, so that's a bonus from my point of view."
More information: Aston's expedition site: http://www.kasperskyonetransantarcticexpedition.com
Aston's Twitter site for tweets during her journey: http://www.twitter.com/felicity(underscore)aston
©2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
The Long Goodbye (film)
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
The Long Goodbye is a 1973 film in which detective Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.
- Directed by Robert Altman. Written by Leigh Brackett, based on the novel by Raymond Chandler.
Nothing says goodbye like a bullet. taglines
Marty Augustine[edit]
- [to Joanne] Look at that face. Is that a face for a magazine cover? The profile. You're beautiful, and I love you. I sleep with a lot of women; I make love to you. The single most important person in my life, next to my family. Is that right, Pepe? Huh? [smashes a coke bottle on her face] Get her out of here! [to Marlowe] Now, that's someone I love! And you I don't even like! You got an assignment, cheapie: find my money!
Roger Wade[edit]
- [on Dr. Verringer to party guests as Verrigner stands before him] You know, this son of a bitch - let me tell you one thing about this bastard. He is the epitome of what's wrong - with this world - he really is actually, 'cause he pretends to cure people. Can you cure people?
- Roger Wade: Do you ever think about suicide, Marlboro?
- Philip Marlowe: Me, I don't believe in it.
- Marty Augustine: Your friend was a murderer and a thief.
- Philip Marlowe: That's a lie. I know he didn't kill her.
- Marty Augustine: Let me tell you something else. It's a minor crime, to kill your wife. The major crime is that he stole my money. Your friend stole my money, and the penalty for that is capital punishment.
- [Augustine has found a $5000 bill in Marlowe's pocket]
- Marty Augustine: What's that?
- Philip Marlowe: A picture of James Madison.
- Marty Augustine: It's a $5000 bill.
- Philip Marlowe: I know.
- Marty Augustine: Where'd you get this?
- Philip Marlowe: A box of crackerjacks, came as a prize.
- Philip Marlowe: Nobody cares but me.
- Terry Lennox: Well that's you, Marlowe. You'll never learn, you're a born loser.
- Philip Marlowe: Yeah, I even lost my cat.
- Philip Marlowe: Excuse me, I don't see any Courry Brand cat food here.
- Supermarket clerk: Some what?
- Philip Marlowe: Some Courry Brand cat...
- Supermarket clerk: Could you spell that?
- Philip Marlowe: Courry Brand, C-O-U-R-R...
- Supermarket clerk: Oh, we're all out of that. Why don't you get this. All this shit is the same anyways.
- Philip Marlowe: You don't happen to have a cat by any chance?
- Supermarket clerk: What do I need a cat for, I've got a girl.
- Philip Marlowe: Ha, ha. He's got a girl, I got a cat.
- Roger Wade: I tell you what we're gonna do, Marlboro. You're gonna take that goddamn J.C. Penney tie off and we're gonna have an old fashioned man to man drinking party.
- Philip Marlowe: Well, that's okay but I'm not taking off the tie.
- Roger Wade: What'll you have?
- Philip Marlowe: What are you drinking?
- Roger Wade: What I'm drinking is called Aquavit.
- Philip Marlowe: I'm drinking what you're drinking.
- Roger Wade: Well God bless you. I like to hear that. People these days go, "Oh, I want a little of this. Oh, and a little of that and a twist of lemon." Balls!
- [Marlowe is being interrogated. Green and Farmer watch from behind the mirror]
- Det. Green: There he is, a real cutie pie.
- Det. Farmer: He's a smartass.
- Det. Green: That's what I meant.
- Det. Farmer: Why don't you learn to say what you mean?
- Det. Green: He's the cutie pie, you're the smartass, you little honky bastard.
- Philip Marlowe: Listen Harry, in case you lose me in traffic, this is the address where I'm going. You look great.
- Harry: Thank you.
- Philip Marlowe: I'd straighten your tie a little bit. Harry, I'm proud to have you following me.
- Det. Green: My, my, you are a pretty asshole.
- Philip Marlowe: Yeah, my mother always tells me that.
- Dr. Verringer: I apologize for this intrusion, Mrs. Wade, but your husband dislikes paying his bills. I'm sorry; in future I must refuse to accept him as a patient.
- Philip Marlowe: Well we don't accept you as a doctor, quack.
- Nothing says goodbye like a bullet.
- I have two friends in the world. One is a cat. The other is a murderer.
- Elliott Gould - Philip Marlowe
- Nina Van Pallandt - Eileen Wade
- Jim Bouton - Terry Lennox
- Sterling Hayden - Roger Wade
- Mark Rydell - Marty Augustine
- Henry Gibson - Dr. Verringer
- David Arkin - Harry
- Arnold Schwarzenegger - Augustine's Henchman (uncredited)
- David Carradine - Socrates (uncredited)
External links[edit]
- The Long Goodbye quotes at the Internet Movie Database
- The Long Goodbye at Rotten Tomatoes


text:
The ability to take each section of hose and stack them on the ground, and then stack them back up on the hose rack, 1 at a time.
Applicant must be able to pick up 12 sections of 3 inch hose, 1 section at a time, and stack in 3 separate stacks. Applicant will then lift 1 hose section at a time and return to original position.


text:
When I wrote my most popular post ever 75 Books The Build Character there was comment after comment about Maria Dismondy and her fantastic books. I had never heard of her but I couldn't wait to read her books. One of the most wonderful things about having a blog is sometimes authors find you before you can find them. Maria contacted me herself and I was excited when she sent me two of her books to review and one to give away. Did I mention they are all signed? Yeah I love my job.
Pink Tiara Cookies For Three is a story I think most of us can relate to . It's about two best friends who's friendship is challenged when another little girl is welcomed by one friend and not by the other. I know as a young girl I dealt with this and it was heartbreaking. Now as a mom I watch my son and his two closest friends deal with this often. The author does a beautiful job at recognizing the feelings of rejection, loneliness and anger that children feel when this happens. The little girls in the story are probably a little more capable at expressing themselves than our children but that makes this book even more important. As my son and I read it today we took a lot of breaks for me to ask if he'd ever felt like any of the characters and that got him talking, relating and connecting not only to one side of the issue but to both. Oh and please don't think it's a girly book, it's not my son loved it. His exact words were " This would be really good for teachers to read to classes. " I agree.
Spaghetti in A Hot Dog Bun: Having the Courage to Be Who You Are is about bullying but it's also about doing the right thing and not loosing yourself especially when it's hard. When I sat down to read this with my son he was begging me to play war with him. I had just read 8 chapters of another book with him and I really wanted to read this book before his sister woke up from her nap so we could talk about it. He ignored my request but I had a trick up my sleeve – I started reading. I was three words in when he walked up behind the couch and stayed there the whole time following along over my shoulder. We both really liked this story about a little girl made who is teased mercilessly by a classmate and how she deals with it. What we liked so much was that the bully was really mean and the bullying seemed to come from no where. I think that is so important because when you are getting bullied it's hard to make sense of it, and often there is no clear reason for being a target. The dialog that this opened for us was so enlightening and this book offers parents and teachers many chances to talk about the complex issues of bullying. The thing about this book is that it's not even so much about bullying but about not loosing confidence in yourself and who you are in the face of a bully. Lucy struggles with being teased but ultimately she helps her bully when he needs it even though he doesn't deserve her help . She does the right thing and gains confidence in herself in the process.
Maria Dismondy also has a third book The Juice Box Bully: Empowering Kids to Stand Up For Others she co-authored with Bob Sornson.
So do you want a signed copy of Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun to read as part of our 3rd Annual Summer Reading Challenge ? <— nice plug eh?
How To Enter : Contest CLOSED
Leave a comment on this post answering the question " Where do you get new books to read?"
Official Rules This sweepstakes is open to American residents 18 years or older. To be eligible for the sweepstakes you must leave a comment on this post answering the question "Where do you get new books to read?"1 winning commenter will be drawn at random, using Random.org, after the sweepstakes closes on Thursday June 14th 2012 at 8:00pm PST. The winner will receive a signed copy of Spaghetti On A Hot Dog Bun by Maria Dismondy, valued at approximately $10. After the winner is notified he or she has 48 hours to respond with their mailing address for me to ship their book to,or another winner will be chosen at random. No purchase necessary.The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Any information gathered through the sweepstakes including email and postal addresses will not be used in anyway other than contacting winners and shipment of winnings. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.


text:
ATLANTA (AP) — Forecasters say a wintry mix of precipitation is possible across parts of north Georgia.
The National Weather Service says the mix of rain, sleet and snow is possible generally north of a line from Cedartown to Dahlonega.
The precipitation is expected late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning across the region, which includes the north Georgia mountains. Forecasters say roads in higher elevations could become slick.
Meanwhile, a blast of arctic air is expected across the entire state this week.
In metro Atlanta, lows by early Thursday morning are expected to be in the mid-20s.
In the Savannah area, Thursday morning lows are expected to dip into the high 30s.


text:
Advanced Search
Retention | Viewpoint
Director of Retention Angela Naginey has employed a "holistic" strategy in her retention initiative at Cal Lutheran University. Her plan includes partnerships across campus, early identification of at-risk students, and a continuous review process. All components are supported both with software, including Hobsons' Retain, and with ongoing outreach efforts.
Although California Lutheran University (CLU) first used the "r" word on campus in 2007, I would argue that the university's retention efforts have been underway for decades, if not centuries. Part of a 500-year old tradition of Lutheran education, CLU encourages critical inquiry from its entire population, including students, faculty, and staff. This culture fosters critical thinking and exploration.
In 2007, when campus leaders noticed a drop in freshman return rates, they charged me with serving as CLU's retention champion. As the first director of retention, I felt a responsibility to develop a retention program that would uphold the university's commitment to inclusive inquiry.
With roughly 3,700 students enrolled at CLU--2,200 undergraduate and 1,500 graduate--I recognized the need for a comprehensive program that would capture student needs and challenges across the entire campus to keep them all on the path to graduation.
Over the past five academic years, we raised CLU freshman retention rates from 78 percent to almost 83 percent. Throughout these years we learned that increased retention depends on motivation, perseverance, and a strategic plan with clear improvement goals. We owe our success in this "retention marathon" to the following principles:
Run with a Buddy
Although I lead CLU's retention efforts, retention must be addressed by a number of campus departments in order to generate significant results. For example, while the residential life team works to foster an inclusive on-campus community, the faculty develops academic programs that motivate students.
CLU's connected and collaborative community fosters feedback on specific students from a wide range of university constituents, including faculty, administrators, and staff. This regular, often informal input plays a major role in identifying and addressing at-risk students. It is my role to communicate with community members.
Maintain Flexibility
As we created specific retention goals, we understood that a successful retention program would require a variety of opportunities to identify, report, and address at-risk students, all of which should be available and centrally managed through a software management tool. These include:
· Soliciting input on each individual student
· Automatically generating early alert information based on statistical data
· Making opportunities for those not traditionally involved in the student retention process (i.e., bursar's office, athletics, student life) to provide feedback
Although I encourage faculty to use our formal alert system to flag potentially at-risk students, I continue to collect informal alerts. If a professor stops me in the hallway to share a student anecdote, I can add details of that conversation to the system.
Keep a Training Log
Communication management has been a key driver of our success. When we first set stabilizing goals, we adopted a central filing system. I used to pore through my e-mails and case notes to gain an overarching understanding of a particular student's history. Now, I simply search by name and can easily click through the records to refresh my memory regarding this student.
Pay Attention to Your Timing
Once we identify students as at-risk, proactive communication is an essential next step. This dialogue can be the first thing that impacts students' decisions to stay enrolled.
The ability to communicate immediately and frequently with these students is invaluable in keeping them on campus, ensuring that they have all the resources they need to stay enrolled. This makes all the difference in getting through to students before they make a final decision.
Rely on Cross-Training
Each semester we complete a number of exercises to identify potentially at-risk students. In addition to gathering continuous feedback from faculty and staff, I run quantitative analysis. I can proactively analyze the data to forecast attrition rates, identify trends, and pinpoint students that may need individualized attention.
Monitor Your Training Program
We achieved positive results in our first year: Freshman retention rates rose from 76 to 81.5 percent. Rather than rest on our laurels, however, we examine our retention programs from all angles each year to improve them and add new programs. Our self-evaluation evolves each semester, but the following methods have proven successful:
· Survey non-retained students to see what issues affected their decision to drop out or not re-enroll
· Ask faculty for continuous feedback on the issues they believe affect students academically and socially
· Run focus groups with at-risk students to understand what issues most concern them
As the director of retention, I ensure that our retention efforts gather a holistic view of the entire CLU campus. Central management, along with outreach, keeps us on the road to success--one student at a time.
About the Author
Angela Naginey is Director of Retention, Cal Lutheran University.
View More Webcasts
View More Whitepapers