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The last performance: RAF war veteran, 92, set to retire after playing his trumpet every Remembrance Sunday for five decades – by Liz Hull – PUBLISHED: 18:48 GMT, 10 November 2012 | UPDATED: 19:53 GMT, 10 November 2012
For half a century Sidney Patterson has played the Last Post at his local church on Remembrance Sunday in honour of Britain's war dead.
Performing the poignant trumpet call is the 92-year-old's way of honouring those who made the ultimate sacrifice for Queen and country.
But tomorrow's rendition at Jesus Church, Troutbeck, in the Lake District, will be particularly moving for the former Royal Airforceman and musician because, after 50 years, it will be his last.
For five decades Sidney Patterson has played the Last Post at his local church on Remembrance Sunday in honour of Britain's war dead
'I started playing the Last Post in 1962 and have performed it every year since,' Mr Patterson, a former lead trumpet with the London Palladium Orchestra, said yesterday.
'I served in the RAF in the war, so it was just a small thing I wanted to do for all those servicemen who had given their lives for their country.
'I feel honoured to perform it, but it has been 50 years so I thought I'd better call it a day.'
Mr Patterson, who is married with two grandchildren, learned to play the trumpet as a teenager growing up in Cardiff.
He joined the RAF when he was 18 and served as a leading aircraftman throughout the Second World War.
He was posted to Egypt and Aden, where he serviced Wellington aircraft looking for enemy submarines in the Persian Gulf.
It was during this time that he was asked to join the Band of the RAF Middle East, conducted by Squadron Leader Hugo Rignold, the renowned violinist who later went on to become the musical director of the Royal Ballet, as well as conducting the Liverpool Philharmonic and Birmingham Symphony Orchestras.
Tomorrow's rendition of the Last Post at Jesus Church in the Lake District, will be particularly moving for the former Royal Airforceman and musician because, after 50 years, it will be his last
Tomorrow's rendition of the Last Post at Jesus Church in the Lake District, will be particularly moving for the former Royal Airforceman and musician because, after 50 years, it will be his last
'Both my mother and father were musical – my mother was a singer and my father played the piano, so they sent me off to learn the trumpet when I was about 14,' he said.
'I was quite talented at it and when I joined the RAF they asked me if I wanted to join the Band of the RAF Middle East.
'We went on tours all over, through Palestine and North Africa, to entertain the troops. It was wonderful.'
Mr Patterson left the RAF, aged 26, in 1946 and continued to play with bands at grand venues such as London's Mayfair Hotel and Grosvenor House, before being asked to play lead trumpet with the London Palladium Orchestra, who provided the live sound track for the acclaimed Sunday Night at the London Palladium television show, hosted by Bruce Forsyth, Jimmy Tarbuck and other famous stars in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
At the same time as performing Mr Patterson trained to be a chiropodist and eventually moved to Kendal to raise his two children with his wife, Morfydd, 85.
Mr Patterson was first asked to play the Last Post by his local British Legion in 1962. Initially, he performed in the church tower, but old age forced him to move to the porch a few years ago
He continued playing his trumpet with a local Big Band in his spare time until he finally retired from music aged 88.
Mr Patterson was first asked to play the Last Post by his local British Legion in 1962. Initially, he performed in the church tower, but old age forced him to move to the porch a few years ago because he could not manage to scale the stone staircase.
'They used to joke and call me the phantom bugler because no-one could see where I was playing from,' he added.
'Nowadays I play the Last Post from the porch. It is a moving piece and I've had my trumpet out for the past couple of weeks to practice my scales and get my lips working again so I can do it justice.'
The musician's post in obviously limited positions should be rotated among various persons who want to play. The most competent and most specialised (i.e. plays at many locales and does not have another non-musician job etc..) should be on a list to play. While this would mean that salaries would not be monthly based and personnel could not make a living on being a musician alone, many more people would have a chance to play for military bands. A single person playing for decades shuts out everyone else. If Patterson is replaced by another musician for the same decades long stints, then a lack of democracy would be in effect again.
New dawn? This looks more like a new dusk – by Simon Heffer – PUBLISHED: 22:19 GMT, 7 November 2012 | UPDATED: 09:03 GMT, 9 November 2012
The next four years for America look bleak. It's not so much a new dawn as a new dusk. And with 50 months left in power, President Obama, his hands tied by a Republican-controlled House of Representatives, is a lame duck already.
He was re-elected despite a majority of voters thinking the economy is on the wrong track. And with tax rises that could wreck recovery due on January 1 – the so-called 'fiscal cliff' – experts fear a recession here in 2013.
The most sensible policy – which a Romney administration would have pursued – is deficit reduction. Instead, the second Obama term will increase the deficit, further diminishing America's economic power and credibility.
Lame duck :President Obama, pictured with his wife and daughters at an election night party, has his hands tied by a Republican-controlled House of Representatives
Contradiction: Obama won the election with a decent majority over Romney, despite a majority of voters thinking the economy is on the wrong track
Around $1trillion a year will be added to debt – bringing the total to $20trillion by 2016. This will drive up interest rates on US bonds, and hard-pressed Americans will have to pay more taxes to fund higher interest payments.
Meanwhile, the President is determined to push through his 'Obamacare' health insurance policy, which would account for a large part of that increase.
But the Democrats are well aware that the pumping of federal money into corporate bail-outs and infrastructure projects in declining regions is the key to creating a state clientele that keeps voting them back into office.
The administration is already devising stealth taxes to help pay for the bribes it wishes to offer the coalition of minorities that comprise its supporters. Some will corrode the core of American self-reliance, such as taxes on any substantial capital gains made from house sales. Others are simply opportunist, such as a tax on tanning salons.
Commander in chief: Obama was elected by the country to serve another four years in the White House
Obama's 'Obamacare' aims to increase the governments funding of healthcare for Americans, but will cost billions- adding to the crippling debt
These are all measures of how desperate the financial situation is – a reality apparently kept from most of the American electorate, so far.
Washington observers speak of the incompetence of the Obama administration – not just its ability to waste money, but also to target funds so badly. There is very little to show for the $787billion fiscal stimulus of 2009. A fraction of it could have been used to create serious sea defences around New York and New Jersey, to avoid the devastation of last week's storm, for example.
Sensible: Mitt Romney (seen here with his wife Ann during his election night rally in Boston) would have pursued deficit reduction, which is the most viable option to save America's economy
Many feel that Super-storm Sandy occurring so close to the election swung many voters in Obama's favour
Swingeing taxes that fall disproportionately on wealth-creators and entrepreneurs will not be all that stalls an economic recovery. So too will a failing national infrastructure whose state of disrepair is beyond pork-barrel handouts from Washington to local communities, but requires a big federal programme – and big federal money.
Roads, rail and airports all cry out for investment and improvement. But as long as money is thrown at failing industries – such as in the car industry bail-out that helped Mr Obama win Ohio and Michigan this week – the administration cannot afford to take big strategic decisions such as these.
The domestic economy is, however, only the beginning of Mr Obama's problems. The Republicans will do all they can in the House to obstruct high-spending and socially damaging policies – creating legislative deadlock.
And as America subsides into a welfarist, subsidy culture, so will its paranoia about China – already running at near-hysterical levels in some manufacturing regions – grow. America increasingly fears China both as an economic and a military titan – the two components of being a superpower.
Defence cuts in America are inevitable once the borrowing binge brings serious damage to the economy – as it will by mid-term, if not before – and that will increase the nation's sense of vulnerability towards the Chinese.
And America's intractable unemployment problem – it was 8 per cent when President Obama assumed office and is 7.9 per cent now – is increasingly perceived as the result of a highly disciplined and well-trained workforce in China that systematically undercuts over-regulated American business.
Mr Obama must choose a new Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton – who may well run for the Democratic nomination in 2016 – has signalled a wish to stand down. Whoever succeeds her – and a favourite is John Kerry, who lost the 2004 presidential election to George W Bush – has to deal with Iran's determination to become a nuclear power, and that state's continuing threats against Israel.
The human cost of such a conflict would be terrible, and American diplomacy might not be equal to preventing either Israel or Iran choosing to strike at the other.
Less widely appreciated is the catastrophic effect it would have on the global economy through oil prices, and especially on an America that is already hobbling.
Team: Obama called Biden 'America's happy warrior' as he paid tribute to his role in the election campaign
Obama's supporters claim the worst is over, and the best is yet to come.
Such clichés patronise not merely the American public who, by re-electing him, have chosen the soft option rather than a confrontation with economic reality. They also patronise a substantial part of the developed world that, even if it no longer looks to America for political leadership, relies for its standard of living on the US being economically strong.
On the evidence of the past four years, notably Mr Obama's record of serial economic incompetence, the next four are going to be exceptionally trying – and, sadly, not just for Americans.
Just moi? Or is Dailymail exhibiting so subtle a racism that even the targets could appreciate racism. Dusk = darkness = . . .
Sometimes human conflict is not the issue but when 'fanatics' (heres one with all the winks and nudges Dailymail might appreciate . . . ) are going to infiltrate the country and pull a 911 or a Subway bomb (really hope these are not CIA and MI6 contrived agitprop to further an Orwellian state), Obama joining in such a conflict is the least of humanity's problems. Perhaps in the interest of preserving genetic propensities that might be inserted into the correct 'warriors' in the distant future, warzones should be created for these sorts to retire to. Evil Microstates for 'fanatics' anyone? Can't imagine a faith's peoples being barred from entering such and such states, but this might well be the best bet if USA wants to 'keep safe'. Tourists are just too disingenuous to overlook, and Muslim Tourists are an oxymoron if anything in so many ways.
There will be a permanent chilling of relations hereon but human cost of conflict will continue so long as oppressive governments are allowed to frustrate their citizens entertainment wise, and politically, or bore their citizens with theocracy into mindless obedience (there is nothing else but prayer, so killing and dying would be a release to would be terrorists) reacting with violence. Religion does that, ESPECIALLY Islam or any religion that denies pleasure or recreation or refuses to legalise organics psychedelics, RLDs and distribute wealth and land equitably (Occupy Movement, various Riots in Western nations) instead of sharing and allowing FUN.
The world without religion, but lots of fun activities, interesting food and drugs to try out (under medical supervision so that no ODs occur, then again if they die, no loss either – self inflicted), and no need to work may not be very much for a capitalist, fascist or moralist to play with (Theocrats tend to be fascist moralists and are surrounded by trappings of extreme Capitalism . . . ) and who needs these nuts, but there will always be pockets of ambitions and technologically inclined that will not need war at that point to progress mankind even as everyone else lounges around. As for war and invasions, the 2nd Amendment should extend to ownership of military grade weapons and craft. If every 10 billion-and-above-aire were required to maintain and own an air craft carrier or every billionaire wee required to own a Cruiser class vessel, the lack of weapons issue would not be a problem. If every citizen above 18 drove a Tank or APC, or owned a Howitzer the USA (or planet) would be 'uninvadable'. But instead we have CITIZENS paying for a police and military which is used to oppress fellow citizens. Think of expansions to the 2nd amendment! Try the response to article 4 link below :
;and also :
Fancy yourself as a Top Gun? – by Mike Larkin – 2nd September 2011
220 marijuana cases dismissed in King, Pierce counties – posted by Jonathan Martin – November 9, 2012 at 1:51 PM
UPDATE 3:03 p.m. King and Pierce County prosecutors are dismissing more than 220 misdemeanor marijuana cases in response to Tuesday's vote to decriminalize small amounts of pot.
In King County, 175 cases are being dismissed involving people 21 and older and possession of one ounce or less. I-502 makes one ounce of marijuana legal on Dec. 6, but King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg decided to apply I-502 retroactively.
"Although the effective date of I-502 is not until December 6, there is no point in continuing to seek criminal penalties for conduct that will be legal next month," Satterberg said in a statement.
The dismissed cases involved arrests in unincorporated King County, as well as the state highways and the University of Washington. About 40 of the cases had already been filed in court as criminal charges; those charges will be dismissed. Another 135 cases were pending charging decisions and will simply be returned to the arresting police agency.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said he was dismissing "about four dozen" pending cases where misdemeanor marijuana was the only offense. He said his staff was continuing to prosecute other cases where possession was secondary to a more serious charge, such as drunken driving.
"The people have spoken through this initiative," said Lindquist. "And as a practical matter, I don't think you could sell a simple marijuana case to a jury after this initiative passed."
In an interview, Satterberg said his office would continue to prosecute marijuana possession above one ounce, allowing for "a buffer for those whose scales are less than accurate." His office also charges felony possession — for people with more than 40 grams — although he said his staff routinely allows those defendants to plead down to a misdemeanor.
"I think when the people voted to change the policy, they weren't focused on when the effective date of the new policy would be. They spoke loudly and clearly that we should not treat small amounts of marijuana as an offense," he said.
I-502 campaign manager Alison Holcomb said she was "incredibly moved" by Satterberg's announcement, which she said showed "incredible courage."
The decision supports a prime argument I-502 made during the campaign. A study by a group of academics found there had been 241,000 misdemeanor marijuana possession cases in Washington over the past 25 years, 67,000 of them in the past five years. "If 502 hadn't passed, we'd see the same amount of marijuana possession cases every year," she said. "What makes a difference is changing the law."
Satterberg is the first prosecutor to change charging policy after I-502, but other prosecutors are also considering these cases. Tom McBride of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys said his office "just starting to work through those issues."
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes has refused to prosecute misdemeanor possession cases since he took office.
Earlier this week, the chief criminal deputy prosecutor in Spokane County, Jack Driscoll, appeared to take a more conservative position. He told the Spokesman-Review that, even after Dec. 6, the only marijuana which was legal to possess was pot sold in the state-licensed stores called for in I-502. Those stores won't be created for at least a year.
"The only thing that is legal is selling marijuana through those stores," Driscoll said. "That will be regulated by the state. You can't under this initiative have an ounce of marijuana that doesn't come from a state-issued provider. You still can't have black-market marijuana."
Holcomb disputed that interpretation. So did Satterberg, who called it a "very narrow reading" of the initiative. "I don't know how you trace where (the marijuana) comes from," he said.
Satterberg said he expected federal authorities to seek an injunction to block implementation of I-502's state licensing scheme for marijuana retailers and growers. "I think it's the kind of issue the U.S. Supreme Court will have a final word on," said Satterberg, calling it an "an important state's rights issue."
But he does not expect a federal lawsuit to target the types of cases he is dismissing, noting that states already have widely divergent penalties for marijuana possession.
All they did was smoke something Mother Nature grew for them. Why should they suffer in jail AND at the taxpayer's expense as well? Finally the justice system is STARTING (only barely, lots of term limitless/collusion/uncontrolled-capitalism/studentdebt-financiar-complex type issues!) making sense.
No holds barred: The professional 'cuddler' who makes $260 a day by inviting strangers to take a nap with her at home
Jackie Samuel, 29, established The Snuggery in Rochester, New York – by Louise Boyle – PUBLISHED: 17:56 GMT, 4 November 2012 | UPDATED: 11:27 GMT, 5 November 2012
Spooning peacefully in a double bed, this pair could be any normal couple on a Sunday morning.
But revisit the scene an hour later and Jackie Samuel will be curled up in the arms of another man.
The 29-year-old is a professional cuddler. She turned to snuggling with strangers to help pay for her studies and provide for her young son.
Comfort zone: Jackie Samuel cuddles her client at The Snuggery in Rochester, New York
Snuggle up: Model Jessica Dobson enjoys a cuddle session with Jackie Samuel, costing her $60 an hour
She can make $260 a day and cuddles with up to 30 men a week – including pensioners and war veterans.
However, her business 'The Snuggery' has not gone unnoticed and her college has threatened to expel her – while others have called her a prostitute.
She said: 'I think I was born knowing how to snuggle. Snuggling is healthy, spiritual and fun.
'I think clients come to me for all different kinds of reasons. Some of my older clients, their wives have passed away, and they just need someone to be with, like someone to experience touch with.
'Some of the younger clients are between relationships, some are in problematic relationships, and some people are just really curious and they come to just find out what it's going to be like.'
Jackie advertises her services online and charges $60 an hour.
Controversial: The 29-year-old says that she has been called a prostitute over her cuddling service
Paying for intimacy: Customers can snuggle anywhere in Jackie's house but most opt for her large double bed
Novel idea: Jackie started the business to fund her studies and support her young son
The cuddling can take place anywhere around her cottage in Rochester, New York, but most clients opt to use her large double bed.
They are banned from touching parts of her body covered by underwear, which she wears under pyjamas.
The business has done so well she has even hired another snuggling professional, Colleen.
Her apprentice has yet to take on a client by herself but has joined Jackie on two occasions in what they have termed a 'double cuddle'.
Despite her strict rules on sexual activity, Jackie has received a barrage of emails and phone calls slamming her as a prostitute.
Sweet dreams: Jackie came up with the idea which has become so popular she has had to hire a second professional cuddler
Eyes wide shut: Model Jessica Dobson enjoys a relaxing session with Jackie
She added: 'Some have said I am worse than a prostitute because they think snuggling is more intimate than sex. I've been told I'm monetizing love.'
One of her repeat customers, who would only give his name as Tim, disagrees with her critics.
He said Jackie's cuddles had helped him following a bad break-up and described the sessions as 'meditative'.
He even said he would continue to see her while in a relationship.
'There's no cheating element, it's not immoral,' he said.
Little spoon: But Jackie draws the line at intimate touching
Bedtime reading: Jackie says she has a number of repeat customers
Jackie cuddles up to 30 men a week as well as a number of women
This is just to HOLD, not 'HAVE'. Auric prostitution? Different from sexual prostitution. But still prostitution. To each their own then, but considering the price for doing nothing and just sleeping on the job, barring contract caveats to prevent incidental abuse, this is excessive!
The anorexic statement
Trust me, notice me, feed me: every female body conveys a message. So, when a woman starves herself, what is she saying? – by Rachel Cusk Published 31 October 2012
New Skinny size me: some women dramatise their inner conflict by shedding weight
Skinny size me: some women dramatise their inner conflict by shedding weight. Photograph: Ben Stockey
I knew a woman whose job it was to take anorexics to the swimming pool. She was an occupational therapist: eating disorders were her field. She worked at a nearby clinic and we bumped into one another from time to time.
I found myself curious about her work, or more truthfully about her patients, those singular modern-day martyrs to the cause of their own bodies. Without quite knowing why, as I have grown older I have become more interested in – it could even be said, more respectful of – what might be called the anorexic statement. Perhaps it's because, as the 45-year-old English mother of two children, my body has little power of provocation or utterance; or rather, that what it's said or tried to say through the years hasn't seemed to have added up to all that much. Quite what constitutes the anorexic statement I'm not entirely sure. All the same, it has a great power of disruption. It's a stray spoke under the wheel of things that otherwise have the capacity to hurtle on headlong: family life, fashion, the destiny of the female body. The statement might be: help me. Or it might simply be: stop.
My therapist acquaintance herself had not been allowed to be picky in life, growing up in a family of brothers on a farm in the Australian outback. She knew how to shoot, drive a tractor, ride a horse bareback. She had left that rough home and come to the UK, where every couple of years for the sake of change she moved job and town – Slough, Birmingham, Chelmsford – though her solitude and her line of work did not alter. She neither sought nor seemed to expect much in the way of pleasure. In the evenings she made a sandwich and read a book in her rented room; her main meal was lunch in the canteen at the clinic, where food was plentiful and cheap. This somewhat joyless attitude to nourishment could come as no surprise, given that she spent her days among females who regarded the ingestion of a teaspoonful of peas as a physical and spiritual crisis. Once a week she led them to the poolside, skeletal and pale, for all the world to see. Even at the swimming pool these curious beings detected the threat of penetration, of the outside coming in. They didn't want to get in the water, not, apparently, because they felt self-conscious or exposed, but for fear that they might swallow some of it without its calorific content having been established.
The easiest thing that could be said about my acquaintance was that she herself was impenetrable. Her choice of career must have sprung from some initial attraction to or sympathy with the anorexic state, but most often what she appeared to feel for her waifish charges was irritation, even anger. Anger is a common response, it seems, to the anorexic statement. At the very least, returning from a day spent on the receiving end of that statement, my acquaintance was hard put to feel – as they say – good about herself. If the anorexic is someone for whom the relationship between female being and female image must, on pain of death, be resolved, it may be that she denies that resolution to those who cross her path. They become the witnesses of her vulnerability; as such, she is more real than they. Like with the ascetic of old, her self-denial is a form of chastisement, yet the extremity of her appearance is confusing. Being female, it seeks attention, but of an unusual kind. It asks to be mothered – yet what if its aim is indeed to challenge the reality of the mother-figure and overpower it, to triumph over her, to consign her to flesh and steal her image? The anorexic is out to prove how little she needs, how little she can survive on; she is out, in a sense, to discredit her nurturers, while at the same time making a public crisis out of her need for nurture. Such vulnerability and such power: it brings the whole female machinery to a halt. My acquaintance had tales of rudeness and tantrums and sulks, of behaviour more commonly read about in childcare manuals (of the kind whose purpose, we are told, is to "test the boundaries"), even of a degree of personal insult which at the very least, I suppose, mothers aren't paid to tolerate. She had no children of her own. And so, in an admirable interpretation of the social contract, she recognised she had something in that line to give.
Jenefer Shute offers some riveting descriptions of such interactions, between the anorexic inpatient Josie and her carers, in her novel Life-Size. "In the body," Josie chillingly muses, "as in art, perfection is attained not when there's nothing left to add, but when there's nothing left to take away."
Armed with this credo, she can exercise contempt on everyone around her ("They say I'm sick, but what about them, who feast on corpses?"), in what becomes a radical reliving of her primary experiences of nurture. And it needs to be radicalised: this is the moral value of the anorexic statement, that it asks questions not just of mothers or fathers or fashion editors, but of the whole societal basis for the female image. This time around, Josie can speak her mind. She can criticise the people who care for her; she can re-experience the powerlessness of childhood and know it for what it is. So unpleasant is she to the "freckled cow" who nurses her that she finally gets the reprimand she has apparently been asking for:
"Josephine, I must ask you please not to speak to me like that. I'm not your servant." And then, unable to contain herself: "And would you please look at me when I talk to you? It really gets on my nerves." Coldly, victoriously, I remain precisely as I am. She really should have more control.
Soon after, however, the 68-pound tyrant, having agreed at last to eat something or be force-fed through a tube, makes a revealing request of her nurse: "I want you to feed me," she says.
My acquaintance found it hard to muster much interest in herself at the day's end. She rarely went out or saw people: it was as though her work had bled her of confidence. She sought not public interactions but the determined security of her private boundary. In the evenings she changed into loose clothes, shut herself in her room, shut herself into a book. She wanted to be where no one could demand anything of her, like a depleted mother, except with none of the prestige of motherhood. She never kept company with men, and her female world was wholly predicated on an insidious notion, that certain women are there to give attention and others to receive it. Sometimes it seemed that her patients had indeed stolen her image and left her with nothing to trade, nothing to barter with for some share of the world's interest. They had stolen her image and left her a mere body that could find no reflection or definition for itself. She went back home for a few weeks on holiday and returned browner, more animated, and heavier. All that meat they went in for, meat roasted over a fire and served at every meal. But more to the point, a world in which food was an entitlement and a human bond.
In her own world food had become a weapon: her evening sandwich and her indifference were a kind of savourless pacifism she exercised against it. She spent her days among people who denied themselves food in order to experience, perhaps, power, whose apparent intention to make themselves invisible made them, in fact, visible, who had discovered that by becoming less they became more. And nowhere was this clearer than in the fact that they required her as their witness, for disappearing was no fun unless someone noticed you'd gone. But if anyone was disappearing, if anyone was becoming invisible, it was she.
The question of how she had come to be stranded in this place remains difficult to answer, but its source may lie in the very practicality – the tractors, the horses – she had crossed the world to escape. Denied her own experience of femininity, she had perhaps embarked on a kind of pilgrimage to find and serve these notable victims to the riddling perversity of feminine values. She could help them, sit with them while they wept and shrieked over a teaspoonful of peas, she who had never had the temerity to question or refuse anything she had been given; she who was not important enough, as it were, to be anorexic, for the hieratic significance of the anorexic body depends on it having been ascribed a value in the first place. Had she tried to starve herself on the farm where she grew up, she might simply have died: her protest, in any case, would not have been understood. She had taken photographs of this place, on her recent trip home. In order to capture its isolation, she had photographed it from a distance, recording the miles of surrounding scrubland in a sequence of separate frames that she laid one next to another across the table in a long connecting strip. Amid these featureless wastelands she defied me to locate her home, and though my eyes searched and searched the landscape it was true that I could find no evidence of human habitation. She laughed, with an unmistakable and strangely exhilarated pride, and laid her finger over a low brown shape that crouched amid the boulders and bushes that extended all around it, on and on to the white horizon. It was so small her fingertip covered it. "There it is," she said.
It may seem superfluous for a 45-year-old mother-of-two to say that she does not exult in the life of the body, but let's just call it a place to begin. At the very least, as a statement, it raises numerous lines of inquiry. One might be: is it obligatory, or even a moral duty, to take pleasure in one's own physical being? Leaving aside for a moment the question of what definition of pleasure one could possibly arrive at in this particular hall of mirrors, is the value of the physical quest in any way comparable with that of the artistic, the emotional, the spiritual?
I understand the anorexic's notion of pleasure far better than the hedonist's. Sometimes it has seemed to me that the second kind of pleasure is consequent on the first, that the life of sensation can be accessed only from a place of perfect self-discipline, rather as strict religious practices were once believed to constitute the narrow path to heaven. The anorexic, like the ascetic before her, publicly posits the immolation of the flesh as a manifestation of a primary physical discontent she is on her way to escaping: she represents a journey whose starting point is disgust. Body is found to be not only intolerable to but weaker than mind – how, then, can its desires and yearnings be taken seriously? The anorexic statement suggests a second body, one that will be painstakingly encroached on and attained; and hence, a second template for desire. This second body will belong to its owner as the first did not: its desires, therefore, will be experienced as not shameful, but true.
The female form is inherently susceptible to this duality, but the difficulty with the anorexic statement is that once it becomes open to other readings it breaks down. At some point in the journey a line is crossed: the slim body becomes the freakish starved body, and one by one the anorexic's grounds for superiority are discredited and revoked. She is not beautiful but repellent, not self-disciplined but out of control, not enviable but piteous, and, most disappointing of all, she is publicly courting not freedom and desire but death. Even she may find these things difficult to believe. How to go back, on that journey? How to retrace one's steps? For in getting where she needed to go the anorexic had to sacrifice the concept of normality. In a manner of speaking she sold her soul. She can never be "normal" about food or flesh again. So, how is she meant to live?
If the anorexic arouses irritation, even anger, it may be this quitting of normality that is to blame, because the female management of normality is a formidable psychical task from which most women don't feel entitled to walk away. By quitting it she exposes it, she criticises it as a place to live, and moreover she forces each woman who passes her way to choose between denial and recognition of her statement, disgust.
Is it disgusting to be a woman? Menstruation, lactation, childbirth, the sexualisation of the female body – in recognising these things as her destiny, a girl is asked to forget everything that her prepubescent instincts might formerly have suggested to her. In becoming female she must cease to be universal, and relinquish the masculine in herself that permitted her as a child to find the idea of these things disgusting indeed. Likewise that masculine is now embodied for her in men, so the question becomes – do men find women disgusting? The anorexic statement dispenses with that perspective. It returns the woman to the universality of the child, and from that fusion formulates itself: I find myself disgusting.
If it has become a cultural cliché that women want to be thin more than they want to be loved (the three most cherished words these days, so the saying goes, being not "I love you" but "You've lost weight"), and moreover that they want to be thin not for men but for one another, the general observer might be tempted to view this as making the case for male innocence (at last!), even male redundancy.
Yet, looked at another way, the male and the preponderance of male values are perhaps more culpable in the incrimination of the female form than ever. An eating disorder epidemic suggests that love and disgust are being jointly marketed, as it were; that wherever the proposition might first have come from, the unacceptability of the female body has been disseminated culturally. Is it possible that disgust has finally got, in the famed male gaze, the upper hand? From whom, after all, has a woman ever wished to hear the words "I love you" but a man?
In Life-Size, Jenefer Shute posits the anorexic state as having two separate sources, one in the female (subjective, mother) and the other in the male (objective, father). Between them they engender in the anorexic subject the confusion between being and image of which one might suppose her to be merely an extreme cultural example. Mother – the female body – is indeed the source of disgust, but it is father – if one can be permitted the leap of seeing father as analogous with male and, indeed, with society – who makes that disgust public and hence catalyses it into shame. Without father, mother might merely have passed her disgust silently on to daughter, where it would have remained as an aspect of her private, interior being. But father brings it to the surface: it is something not just felt but now also seen. These confirmations, in Shute's narrative, of interior suspicion (am I disgusting?) by outward commentary (yes, you are) are fatal to female self-perception in ways that might seem obvious but are nonetheless intractable.
Outside and inside – image and being – are now held to be one: the girl/woman revisits and tests this impossibility by becoming the observer – the male – herself, looking at and remarking on the bodies of other women. Naturally, the discovery that image can be changed is not new: it is and always has been part of becoming a woman, in a sense that, although slenderness has long been a feminine ideal, self-hatred and the compulsion to starve oneself to death have broadly not. The question of disgust returns, accompanied by its shadow, the question of pleasure.
A personal admission: not long ago, in a period of great turmoil, I lost a considerable amount of weight. The first thing to say about this is that I was unaware, inexplicably, that it had happened. That my clothes no longer fitted passed me by: I noticed it only because other people told me so. They appeared shocked: each time I met someone I knew, there it would be, shock, a startled expression on the face. At first, I was startled in turn. They were not seeing who they expected to see; who, then, were they seeing? After a while I got used to it: indeed, I came to expect, almost to require it. A newborn baby needs to be mirrored by another human being in order to grasp that she has an outward surface, that this "self" has an appearance, that her image speaks. Through the shock of others I learned that I, too, had been shocked, that I was no longer the person I once was. My image was speaking, to me as well as to other people, telling me things I did not yet appear to know or realise.
But eventually the question of "normality" returned, as it must in the life of a 45-year-old mother-of-two. Stop, help me, feed me: this may have been my cry, but the truth was there was no one, any more, to answer. There could be no illusion, as an adult; I had left it too late to stage this apotheosis, this defeat of the first body, predicated as it is on the expectation of rescue. I had to draw back from it myself. And this was where the problem arose, because, like the anorexic, I found I could not retrace my steps, could not, as it were, go back to sleep. For years I had lived in my body half-consciously, ignoring it mostly, dismissing its agendas wherever I could, and forever pressing it into the service of mental conceptions that resulted, almost as a by-product, sometimes in its pleasuring and sometimes in its abuse. People were always telling me I should do yoga: this was one of the running jokes I had against my own flesh, for the idea that I would suspend the intellectual adventure of living even for one hour to dwell in the dumb and inarticulate realm of the auto-corporeal was as unappealing as that of spending an evening with someone I disliked. Now, as the weeks passed, instead of shock, my appearance was beginning to elicit milder manifestations of concern. I didn't know what it meant: had I changed again? Was I no longer fragile and vulnerable? I had no idea. Never before in my life had I dared to be fragile, and all I knew was that I wasn't ready to leave what I had become. "Have you ever thought of doing yoga?" someone said.
As a teenager I had been tormented by hunger and by an attendant self-disgust, for I saw in other girls a balance, an openness of form, that suggested they had nothing inside of which they need be ashamed. Their bodies were like well-schooled ponies, handsome and obedient, whereas I had a monster inside me whose appeasement was forever disrupting the outward surface of life. It craved so many things it could barely discriminate between them, and so indiscrimination – the failure to distinguish between what mattered and what didn't, what helped and what didn't, what it needed and what just happened to be there – became its public nature. It wanted, in fact, what it could get, in the light of what it couldn't.
How thoroughly the tangible and the intangible confused themselves in those years. Creativity, the placement of internal material into space, the rendering tangible, became my weapon against that confusion.
When I left my boarding school – the blue serge uniform and the Cambridgeshire drizzle, the plates of stodge that were so predictable and real, the torturing sense of female possibilities that were not – I learned to manage the monster, more or less. Like the first Mrs Rochester it had a locked room of its own, from which it sometimes succeeded in breaking free to rend into shreds my fantasies of femininity, but I had set my mind on higher things. By locking up the monster I was making myself at heart unfree: what did I know of freedom in any case? I was accustomed to fantasy and to the safety – albeit uncomfortable – it supplied, and the notion of an integrated self was the most uncomfortable fantasy of all. In a sense, it was the monster: I could neither kill it nor live with it, and so there it remained, caged, bellowing and banging intermittently through the years, creating perhaps the sense of something amiss in those who came close to me, but caged all the same.
Yoga, understandably enough, was out: nothing could have persuaded me to enter that cage armed only with a sun salute. But my sudden emaciation in middle age did bring me into contact with the monster again, for, amid all the other losses, there in the rubble of the desecrated life, I appeared to see it lying dead at my feet. The Jungian notion of the "middle passage", in which at mid-life all the templates for self expire or fall away, in which with sufficient destruction one has a chance to return to the blankness of birth, might have explained that death well enough to avoid detection: it simply went up in the fire, the horrible secret, along with everything else. And here, after all, was a chance to be free of my own image, the bind in which my body had held me for all these years, because, while wanting more than anything to be feminine, I had only and ever found my own femininity disgusting. This image, knitted together over time by questions and confirmations (Am I disgusting? Yes, you are), was one I was now prepared to sustain: I was poised to make the anorexic statement, to vanish, to let image and being finally become one.
But of course, no such thing occurs: there is no "letting", no seamless transposition of the flesh. The anorexic body is held in the grip of will alone; its meaning is far from stable. What it says – notice me, feed me, mother me – is not what it means, for such attentions constitute an agonising test of that will, and also threaten to return the body to the dreaded "normality" it has been such ecstasy to escape.
For the first time since my teenage years I found myself tormented again by hunger: the monster had awoken from its slumber, bigger and more ferocious than ever. The route back to normality being blocked, I have had to devise other ways of getting there, or of seeming to. My occupational therapist acquaintance tells me that many of her patients are women of my age, women who have suddenly tried to slip the noose of their female flesh once its story – menstruation, lactation, childbirth – has been told in all its glory and shame.
When I relate this to my female friends they take it humorously, rolling their eyes and laughing, gallantly owning up – oh yes, they say, we know – to monsters of their own. Most of them haven't delivered themselves into its jaws quite so thoroughly as I have; their dislike of their own bodies is a kind of low-level irritant, a necessary component of the female environment, but to think about it too much would spoil everyone's fun.
I don't want to spoil anyone's fun, either, though for now I have spoiled my own. It did seem, for a while, as though the death-state of physical denial might contain the possibility of transcendence, the chance to step out of my self-disgust and make true contact at last: contact of my "real", my second, self with the outer world. That I felt this had always been denied me, that in the negotiation between being and image all, for me, had been lost, was a stark kind of truth to face up to. Passing other women in the street these days, I seem to hear their bodies speaking. A lot of what they say is unclear to me, or at the very least so foreign that it takes me a moment to translate it. For instance: I accept myself. Or: respect me. The ones I like best are the ones that say, trust me. What I will never be able to hear unequivocally, whether whispered or shrieked, is: desire me. Notice me, feed me, mother me. Passing by the anorexic girl, stepping lightly and silently in the shadows, I hear her message and in a way I salute her for it. Other bodies have other messages, but for this one I have ears.
Rachel Cusk is most recently the author of "Aftermath: on Marriage and Separation" (Faber & Faber, £12.99)
Way above the usual affirmative feminist nonsense (have you been sucking on my brains? (jk), though an article focused around normal people would have been better and reached more people. Sensitive and well timed to balance the spate of overweight affirmative articles recently. Thin and sickly are as valid as overfat, and will doubtless have fans as well though not so many being non-mainstream.
mini-ARTICLE 5.5
Largest 'comfort station' in Asia crumbling (ecns.cn) – 09:10, December 22, 2011
The site of the Japanese military's largest "comfort station" in Asia during the Second World War is crumbling away, in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. (CNS Photo/Yang Bo)
Contrived article? Then caution friends when addressing, but since this article is sort of interesting, do read – but with caution!
Perhaps the negativity of the place's former purpose could be used by installing a similar purposed place like a strip club or brothel featuring specifically Japanese red light culture and Japanese women! In spiritual terms, a brothel directly based on Chinese joy over Japanese abuse could be the spiritual death of the subsequent generations of Japanese who's previous generations (all those not involved in the Nanjing Holocaust are not the Japanese that any logical Chinese want to target, many good Japanese people had no part or older generation that gained from such actions – those who have can be determined as friend or foe and TWICE foe if anti-Chinese AND who have taken part in the Holocaust and should be very wary of righteous anger . . . how would they feel if China did the same to Japan?) abused comfort women in Jiangsu.
Does China have the will to legalise Red Light Districts? A portion of Japan's population would be 'controlled' by this very action . . . also in a lesser sense the military of Japan as well (lesser because regular citizens lack the discipline of the formal military trained person). Until Japan apologises and seeks out the subsequent generations of all families with forced comfort women in their history (a very small percentage were consensual but that does not make forcing probably 99% into slavery) to compensate and apologise, the curse upon the backs of Chinese merrymakers in every former comfort station, could well damn the Japanese for generations to come with a single protective caveat being that all who do not speak Chinese or are ethnic Chinese be disallowed entry. This method is a synchronicity based occult attack, that another race in South East Asia is attempting to down China by, so will China do the appropriate . . .
Shemales – posted by mtairara on 30/07/2012
Male?? female?? Shemale?? What are you?? These are the questions being asked and a buzz has formed around the entire LSCK reports the Eltorros Bulletin. It all started when a certain Bright Nunoo could not stomach these mysterious characters hovering around the group and their sex was not known, in particular; one Kadioli Kadjo who was the subject of interest of LSCKWA(liverpool supporters club Kenya wolves association) had been the cause of mind bending concern and questions had to be raised. in a shocking revelation; Kadjo confessed to being a woman and well before the dust could settle, he had received inbox messages, some even rumoured to go as far as as for 'her' hand in marriage. Investigative journalist Tush Ole Muyah exposed the shemale for what it really was and this did not go down well with a mr Lyatuu Cornel Andrew who proceeded to launch a rant; Lyatuu who is not used to being one to take matters laying down was not impressed when the two most famous group Shemales Monkey Bobby and Kadjo were competing who the better female was.
Back to the inbox story, it has been rumoured that Victor Sergon together with other un-named members of the group held talks on a personal level with the intention to 'sign' kadjo into thier hearts.
After this whole debacle, Kadjo proceeded to assure the group members that he was a man(which now begs the question on his sexual orientation) and that the lady in the photo is his wife. The question on people's minds now is this; Since Kadjo is in japan where there are alot of cross dressers, when he comes to kenya, will someone lift up his skirt and reveal his 'man-gina'??
Kadjo also proceeded to produce the following statement
'guys am sorry for hurting some of you tho twas me who was hurt the most cz of being hit on by guys who thot i ws a lady,the pic is of my wife,am rilly sorry for any inkonvinience i may av put u through,hoipe u accept my apology n still take me as one of u?anythng that was said in inboxes will remain there.'
This only added fuel to the fire with most members asking to know what was said in those inbox messeges.
On the other hand, It was revealed by David Mjei Mliverpool that Monkey booby is now a fully fledged female after undergoing hormonal transplants and that his boobs have grown on his chest and that they are doing well, but fact remains that s/he/it is a shemale and once in a while its man-gina blossoms once it sees males passing.
till next time amigos ~adios~ Eltorros Bulletin
This is not very accurate. While most TRANSEXUALS prefer to be considered 'fully fledged' women, TRANSEXUALS are ALWAYS NEVER fully fledged women BECAUSE medical science does not have ability to grow ovaries, fallopian tubes and wombs and maybe the grafting technology to allow dual gendered bearing of children. TRANSWOMAN is the correct term, not fully fledged woman. Even though accuracy of terminology does (unhappily) place transexuals below women PHYSICALLY, spiritually yes . . . transexuals ARE women, even before the SRS but that is only internal and not physical which is needed to be fully fledged.
Note1 : differentiate transexual from shemale (2 variants) – a shemale MUST always have a penis and scrotal sac with testicles intact for the alpha types who are either bixsexual or 'male lesbians', OR for beta shemales who MUST keep the penis (to qualify as she-MALE) but who also sometimes remove the scrotal sac and testicles to be more submissive or feminine (lower testorone, though beta shemales can be dominant in a male-shemale relationship as well . . . ) or because they do not want to have children AS natural MEN.
Without the intact or partially intact MALE genitalia centered around the Penis (scrotal sac alone is not as responsive as the phallus so moot point and quite uninteresting to boot), the term shemale cannot be used at all because this is in reference to maleness within a female form. Shemales have either or both because they physically WANT to have sex using a penis, rather than with a vagina (Bobbit types do not really count as the preferably erectable penis is either the primary or secondary highlight of the shemale subculture).
Transexuals however by choice want/have neither penis nor scrotal sac and testicles, (they do not want any male bits being women mentally and spiritually) and also will take great pains to have an artificially constructed 'man-gina' because they physically WANT to have sex using a vagina complete with clitoris (man-gina is a semi-offensive term depending on sense of dominance, orientation and genital identification), rather than a penis which is what defines women and shemale (the simple explanation being a man with augmented breasts and either above described forms of genitalia).
Of course when the organ growing technology is there, a 'shemale' 'proper', as currently termed (and actually a shadow of what an actual shemale should be), would probably be technically only usable by those who have FULLY FUNCTIONAL nethers of BOTH sexes, which is also possible as a natural state just described, but this is so rare that the current term applies to the first definition as well, though inaccurate. For now 'shemales' are refer to the above limited MALE genitalia forms.
Well wanna repost without the b.s. I identified for you Torros? (Please ignore Sophia's praise, I had in fact researched/written a (poorly circulated so not worthy of mention) 'chick-lit' book on the subject subculture and know the inaccuracies of terminology.
Tattoo Shop Owner Tiles Floor With 250,000 Pennies – Mel Angst/Artisan Tattoo Gallery – Nov 6, 2012 11:11am
A Pittsburgh-area tattoo parlor owner says she saved some money by using real money to tile her space — with 250,000 pennies.
Mel Angst was looking for an inspired way to tile the floor of the Garfield, Pa. tattoo gallery, Artisan, which she runs with her husband, tattoo artist Jason Angst.
"My floor is made out of about 250,000 pennies," Angst told ABC Pittsburgh affiliate WTAE. "Amazingly enough, it's a lot cheaper to glue money to your floor than to actually buy tile. It's about $3 a square foot."
Angst said that after she found the appropriate adhesive to affix the pennies to the floor of her shop, she then found people via Facebook to log the man hours. She bartered tiling labor for $10 off per hour on tattoo work, she told ABCNews.com.
"Some days it was just me," she said. "I think the most we ever had was 7, but on average, (we have) 3 or 4 people a day for about 10 to 16 hours a day for about three weeks straight, gluing these down … People are just shocked that we did it because it took about 300 man hours, which was crazy."
In total there will be approximately 800 square feet of Lincoln profiles.
Artisan had a gallery show last week where people could view the new floor, and Angst looks forward to next week, when it will be grouted, shined and completed. Once it is done, everyone that logged 30 hours of penny-tiling is promised a free penny tattoo from the shop.
The gallery plans to partner with Tazza D'Oro and open a coffee shop inside the space this spring.
Big deal. Try topping the one where the SRS Surgeon Tiles Ceiling With 250,000 PENISES (preserved). Needle no match for knife! And this features spears! These sort of numbers of course will only be when the institution of Imperial Chinese Eunuchry returns or if popularity of Transexualism (differentiate for Transgenderism and Bixesuality which do not include SRS) in society occurs(not likely given the cost, we don't even have healthcare for most of the elderly) . So ask the politburo to have a popular vote (1 man 1 vote? 1.3 billion should take a decade to census, the massive media search for candidates could well take a few months of pageantry to decide – but could be a world changing event bigger than 911 who knows . . . ) to decide who's to be Emperor.
Start collecting SRS surgeons in China, but please locate the 'preciouses' in an appropriate place (palace Eunuch graveyards?). China wins! Well USA could still prepare the same version but of the animal pets who did not consent and never knew or had a choice . . . China still wins! Because the record is based around HUMAN Penises and WITH informed consent contributed! Now where's that dildo, some THIEF probably took even that, return the dildo or have the favour returned! . . . (Moral of the story is, don't steal dildos and pennies are but a farthing in the world of phallic shaped issues . . .
£950 a seat? Well we've got to make something, says £20million Ronnie Wood – by Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 00:17 GMT, 10 November 2012 | UPDATED: 00:27 GMT, 10 November 2012
Ronnie Wood, seen here with Sally Humphries, says Rolling Stones are not being greedy for charging as much as £950 for concert seats
With a personal fortune of £20million, it's safe to say Ronnie Wood isn't struggling to make ends meet.
However the Rolling Stones guitarist denies he and his bandmates are being greedy for charging as much as £950 for seats at their concerts.
Indeed, he boldly declared: 'We've got to make something.'
Wood, 65, will net £4million from the mini-tour of four shows which will begin later this month.
He said preparations for the two gigs at London's O2 later this month had cost them millions of pounds.
When the November 25 and 29 concerts for the band's 50th anniversary were announced, the ticket prices ranged from £95 to £375.
A 'VIP hospitality' ticket was priced at £950.
The Rolling Stones will play to 40,000 during their two nights at the O2 and will play two US shows in Newark, New Jersey, in December.
Wood said: 'We've already spent a million on rehearsing in Paris. And the stage is going to be another few million. And the lights.'
He added: 'We feel no bad thing about ticket prices. We've got to make something.'
Wood has previously said the band 'won't be able to stop' touring if the gigs are a success.
Speaking at the premiere of Crossfire Hurricane, the latest attempt to chronicle their lengthy career on film, the guitarist said the band were sounding 'up to and above par' in rehearsals.
He said he was looking forward to getting back on stage, saying: 'You would think it would be boring doing the same thing over and over again but it's not.
'It's totally fresh and totally new every time we get together.
'There's a chemistry between us every time we get together and I don't know what the hell it is but it's magic.'
The Rolling Stones will play to 40,000 during their two nights at the O2 and will play two US shows in Newark, New Jersey, in December
Wood is engaged to Sally Humphreys after popping the question last month. Miss Humphreys, who is 31 years his junior, has been dating the twice-divorced guitarist for around six months but they have been good friends for nine years.
Friends say the theatre and TV producer and ex-grammar school head girl is a breath of fresh air compared to some of Wood's high-maintenance and fame-hungry girlfriends.
How about assigning 50% of those seats to the middle class and lower classes at 10% of their monthly salaries? They too got to watch something, not save up for yer selfish sallow faced geezers! Rock used to be about freedom and fun like a band out of the back of a van for FREE, not 950 sterling seats. Cynical and greedy! Boo! Boo!
Rock is not really punk, but the spirit of freedom rather than 950 sterling seats out of touch with 99% reality is the same for both genres. Guess what? The people who love and appreciate rock music most would NEVER be able to afford these concerts. So much for MSM music.
Back to the dark old days: Putin brings in law which makes it treason to talk to a foreigner – by Daily Mail Reporter – PUBLISHED: 17:08 GMT, 14 November 2012 | UPDATED: 12:02 GMT, 15 November 2012
Critics say President will use it to silence critics and reduce foreign influence / Law backed by the Federal Security Service, the main successor of the KGB
Russia has brought in a new treason law which opponents say Vladimir Putin (pictured) will use it to silence his critics
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new treason law which opponents say could be used to smother dissent and put anyone who has contact with foreigners at risk.
The law means Russians representing international organisations could be charged with treason. The maximum sentence for the offence is 20 years in prison.
The law was published in the official government gazette yesterday, despite a promise by Mr Putin on Monday that he would review it.
Political opponents and rights activists say the legislation is the latest in a series of laws cracking down on the opposition and reducing foreign influence since Mr Putin returned to the Kremlin in May for a six-year third term.
'Citizens recruited by international organisations acting against the country's interests will also be considered traitors,' the official gazette, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, said on its website.
At a meeting of his human rights council on Monday, Mr Putin listened to a retired Constitutional Court judge's concerns about the legislation, which she said did not require authorities to prove a suspect damaged state security.
Mr Putin indicated that he would move cautiously, but also said 'nonetheless, I am ready to return to this again, to look more attentively'.
Russian officials have said the law is needed to help prevent foreign governments using organisations in Russia to gather state secrets.
The legislation allows Russians representing international organisations to be charged with treason, as well as those working for foreign states and bodies, and expands the range of actions that can be considered treasonous.
Putin signed the law on Tuesday and it took effect on Wednesday when it was published in the official gazette, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, despite a promise by the president on Monday that he would review it.
'It's an attempt to return not just to Soviet times but to the Stalin era, when any conversation with a foreigner was seen as a potential threat to the state,' said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, 85, a former Soviet dissident and veteran human rights activist.
She said it would probably be used selectively against Kremlin critics and others 'who irritate the authorities'.
Political opponents and rights activists say the legislation is the latest in a series of laws intended to crack down on the opposition and reduce foreign influence since he returned to the Kremlin in May for a six-year, third term (above)
Dmitry Oreshkin, a political analyst sympathetic with anti-Putin protests this year, said the motivation behind the law was that 'the state is more important than its citizens, so there must be as much control over citizens as possible'.
The law was backed by the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor of the Soviet KGB, and landed on the desk of longtime KGB officer Putin after being approved by both houses of parliament in the space of nine days last month.
The FSB, in a rare public comment, was quoted by state-run news agency Itar-Tass as saying the law had been updated after being unchanged since the 1960s because 'foreign intelligence agencies' methods and tactics for gathering information have changed'.
Putin whipped up anti-U.S. sentiment during his campaign for the March presidential election, and Russian officials have said the law is needed to help prevent foreign governments using organisations in Russia to gather state secrets.
'Citizens recruited by international organisations acting against the country's interests will also be considered traitors', Rossiyskaya Gazeta said in a commentary on its website.
Putin has frequently accused Western nations of seeking to undermine Russia's security and weaken the nuclear-armed nation, and has suggested they use non-governmental organisations to do so.
Moscow ordered the U.S. Agency for International Development to cease its Russian operations in October, accusing it of seeking to influence elections.
In July, Putin signed a law requiring foreign-funded NGOs deemed to be engaging in political activity to register as 'foreign agents', and critics say other legislation is also aimed at silencing opponents.
The United States and the European Union have criticised the laws, and expressed concern about criminal charges laid against several opposition leaders in the last few months.
During his election campaign, Putin faced protests which at times drew tens of thousands of people into Moscow's streets, and he accused the United States of whipping up demonstrations against his rule.
The maximum sentence for high treason remains 20 years, but the legislation signed by Putin also introduced prison terms of up to eight years for Russians acquiring state secrets in certain ways even if they are not passed on to foreigners.
It broadened the spectrum of actions that can attract treason charges to include giving 'financial, material, technical, consultative or other aid' to a government or organisation deemed to be seeking to undermine Russian security.
Those changes, as well as the removal of the stipulation that actions must be aimed against Russia's 'external' security to be considered treasonous, have raised concerns the law could be applied broadly to punish government opponents.
At a meeting of his human rights council on Monday, Putin listened to a retired Constitutional Court judge's concerns about the legislation, which she said did not require authorities to prove a suspect damaged state security.
But although Putin said he would look again at the law, his spokesman said he had signed it a day later.
'It's not the first time Putin has said the right words while slowly tightening the screws,' Alexeyeva said.
Transparency and protection of the citizens would require any heartlander or lawyer panels to be, as any who want to access the findings of such tribunals (to prevent abuse) ONLY to those who specially :
i) do not mix with foreigners for purposes of being entitled to access the 'authorities findings'
ii) are monolingual Russian, or
iii) do not travel abroad
iv) do not have foreign spouses or spouses OR relatives who indulge in any of the above
;with citizens holding true to ALL of the above, given preference to BE the authorities that do decide who is treasonous – this means that the strictly local producers/manufacturers that do not use foreign components, the military and the police (also dated paradigm and also tax fund wasteful workers when considering the 2nd amendment) would likely be most likely to access as 'jurors' (with continuous rotation of citizens so that a democracy destroying hegemony by would could become a Nazi SS does not occur) instead of bureaucrats who need to travel or meet with foreign state visitors!
Tourism industry players, religious denominations with centres based in foreign lands, petty bourgeosie of foreign goods would all be unsuitable to decide who was treasonous. Wealth which allows all of the above activities in fact causes loss to access the right to sit on such panels simply to prevent collusion or being influenced by foreign nations.
To further prevent abuse of such wide ranging powers also impose SEPARATION OF POWERS via barring of certain groups to decide who is treasonous, ONLY non-bureaucrats and non-government salaried persons can be part of such authorities. If bureaucrats are to be totally neutral parties, EVEN the President of Russia will prefer not to travel so as to have access to the proceedings and mechanisms of such a law/tribunal, while the Diplomatic Corps by necessity would be considered the most infiltrated and while higest profiled, would never be able to sit on such panels that decide who is treasonous including any travelling Presidents etc..!
If the above can be applied, Alexeyeva's concerns will not be an issue. The Russian Iron Curtain model though would be a distinct exemplary security protective measure that also protects Human Rights. Again though, the term limit issue with Putin appears worrying, while the Pussy Riot sentences being unconveyable (though this seems to be because of a spiritual basis), also worries. If the above law was added without Putin's illegal 3rd term, and Pussy Riot's prison sentences be reduced to community service at least, then Alexeyeva's concerns could be far less noticeable.
Abandoned as a baby and forced to pole dance to make ends meet as a single mother, TOWIE star Chloe Sims reveals the sad life story behind that megawatt smile in her new autobiography – by Toni Jones – PUBLISHED: 16:52 GMT, 14 November 2012 | UPDATED: 14:42 GMT, 15 November 2012
TOWIE star Chloe Sims is known for her pneumatic figure, blinding smile and sweet girl next door nature.
The ex-promotions girl shot to fame as part of the hit Essex-based realty show, and to its 1 million viewers the pretty brunette now seems to have it all.
This week the 31-year-old celebrated the launch of her autobiography The Only Way Is Up with a typically OTT bash at a Loughton nightclub.
Abandoned as a baby and forced to pole dance to make ends meet as a single mother, TOWIE star Chloe Sims reveals the sad life story behind that megawatt smile in her new autobiography
TOWIE star Chloe Sims is known for her pneumatic figure, blinding smile and sweet girl next door nature.
The ex-promotions girl shot to fame as part of the hit Essex-based realty show, and to its 1 million viewers the pretty brunette now seems to have it all.
This week the 31-year-old celebrated the launch of her autobiography The Only Way Is Up with a typically OTT bash at a Loughton nightclub.
Glamour girl Chloe Sims' brutally honest autobiography The Only Way Is Up is released this week
Dressed in a plunging frock and plastered in make-up the mother-of-one arrived with a handsome DJ on her arm and spent the evening supping champagne, posing for the paparazzi and almost falling out of
her dress – exactly the kind of behaviour you would expect from a TOWIE star out on the town.
But as her fellow TOWIE cast members release books filled with fluffy fashion tips or sausage plait recipes, this glamour girl's turbulent life story is actually one worth telling.
In the book she talks for the first time about the depths she sunk to as she tried to make ends meet as a single mum as well as her ongoing battle with body image, and how desperately sad she still is at being abandoned by her mother when she was a child.
At the launch the model said: 'I've been really honest, as honest as I can be, I was really nervous about it coming out, but so far, touch wood, it's not been a terrible reaction, it's been quite positive.'
Chloe Sims at her book launch at Luxe in Loughton
The Only Way Is Essex star Chloe Sims attends her book launch party at the Luxe nightclub in Essex
Chloe was dressed to kill as she partied with her TOWIE cast members at her book launch in Loughton, Essex
In advance of the publication of her first book the model shared some of her more dramatic life stories with Reveal magazine.
Talking about the mother that walked out on her when she was just three-years-old Chloe said: 'I have so few memories of mum that I can barely even remember her face. I'll never know why she left and we've
not seen her since. What sort of woman just walks out and leaves her child?
'I don't think what happened that day will ever sink in. Why mum left me, I'll never know. As far as I'm concerned I will never meet her.'
Chloe's cosmetic enhancements are well-documented but she maintains that it wasn't until after she gave birth to daughter Mady eight years ago that she went under the knife.
Becoming a mother also led to another body obsession: being as thin as possible.
Gruelling daily workouts and not eating was the norm as Chloe strived for a size 6 figure.
She says: 'I eventually got to the point where I couldn't stand having anything in my belly so I would make myself sick.
'I'd always been able to stick my fingers down my throat if I was too drunk on a night out so I knew I could do it. I started drinking loads of water before I ate anything as that made it much easier to puke up
'I became good at hiding it but I was looking awful. I looked ill – I was really skinny with big, bulging eyes.'
Chloe experiments with make-up as a toddler
Growing up without a mother has a huge impact on Chloe, who hardly remembers the face of the woman who abandoned her
Chloe's mother walked out when she was three-years-old and growing up without her has had a huge impact on the Essex girl, who hardly remembers the face of the woman who abandoned her
Chloe pictured with her father aged three. When he found out that Chloe had been a pole dancer he said: 'If that's the only thing you've done that you regret in your life then you shouldn't be too worried
about it'
As well as battling bulimia the promotions girl was also dealing with the dread of being stony broke.
At one stage she resorted to selling her body as the bills were cut off and she worried about how to feed her young daughter.
She says: 'I needed to support my little girl and I felt I had no choice. I was pole dancing. I did what I had to do for my daughter and I hated every minute of it.
'It was the lowest point of my life: I was completely skint, my landlord was threatening to kick us out and we had nowhere to go.
'We had no hot water so I would boil a kettle to wash Mady. Then I'd put two pairs of pyjamas on to keep her warm at night. My plans to be a good mum had failed, I had hit rock bottom.'
Forced? Well will all the pole dancers and strippers or lap dancers who feel they are being 'forced', please leave their jobs or file police complaints that they have been forced, so that those who do want the work do not feel 'forced' get to be employed. The customers do not want any part of the 'forced' dancers, pollutes their entertainment. Lots of people love the night scene jobs. Hated every minute of it? Speak for yourself Chloe! This article is so biased against those who enjoy the pole dancing, stripping, lap dancing, topless club, sex club, adult scene.
The Status of Muslims Under non-Muslim Rule – Posted on October 31, 2010 by Underlord Cr'Eepyng
Better to be wrongly called an Islamophobe today, than (become) a dhimmi tomorrow.
The 'Counter Ward of Ramu'
After the rapid attempted expansion of the Muslim dominion in the 21st century via various acts of terror, non-Muslims leaders were required to work out a way of dealing with Muslims, who would be cast into the minority in many areas for all time. The solution was to counter the notion of the "anti-dhimma", or "attacked person". The Dhimmi of earlier centuries were required to pay an extra tax (this is unacceptable), but usually they were unmolested (due to Muslim effrors to 'civilise'). This compares well with the treatment meted out to non-Muslims in non-Muslim areas of the Middle East. The "Counter Ward of Ramu" is supposed to have been the peace accord offered by the Mahaguru of Hinduism Ramu to the Muslims of Malaysia, a "Counter Ward" which formed the pattern of later interaction.
We heard from 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ghanam [died 78/697] as follows: When The Hep-Ilac Ramu Uakraj l'Kulum, may God be pleased with him, accorded a peace to the Muslims of Malaysia, we wrote to him as follows:
In the name of Dark God Kali, the Merciless and Incompassionate : This is a letter to the servant of God, Ramu [Nib l'Khattab], Liberator of the Faithful, from the non-Muslims of such-and-such a city. When Islamism came against us, we asked for safe-conduct (awoman) for ourselves, our descendants, our property, and the people of our community, and we undertook the following obligations to counter dhimmitude by Muslims :
We shall build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries, places of worship, convents, or monks' cells AS NEEDED, AND shall we repair, by day or by night or any time as we please (within decible limit laws), such of them as will not be allowed to fall in ruins, or are situated in the quarters of the Muslims.
We shall keep our gates CLOSED for passersby and travelers if we please. We shall NOT give board and lodging to all Muslims who pass our way for all days IF WE DO NOT WISH TO, though if in urgent need of aid, or danger of death, obligations of HUMANIST and HUMANITARIAN principles may require such board and lodging to be made available. We are not barbarians after all.
We shall give shelter in our places of worship or in our dwellings to any spy, and bide him from the Muslims IF the cause is for good reason.
We shall teach the Qur'an to our children though not follow the Qur'an IF WE PLEASE.
We shall manifest our religion publicly AS NEEDED and only convert the willing to it. We shall prevent any of our kin from entering Islam if they wish our help.
We shall show respect toward non-Muslims, and Muslims shall rise from our seats when they wish to sit. – This applies ONLY to Muslims who expect the same and should be enforced if necessary in retaliation to equal 'forced rising' from seats by threat or pressure – though a ranking person of either group may fairly expect this courtesy.
We shall try not to seek to resemble the Muslims by imitating any of their garments, the qalansuwa, the turban, footwear, or the parting of the hair. We shall not speak as they do, nor shall we adopt their kunyas IF we choose to, as much our right to go naked or be entirely covered in public is granted as appropriate in UN Human Rights Charter and Democratic principles.
We shall mount on saddles, gird swords and bear any kind of arms AND carry them on our- persons IF WE PLEASE. Those who assent not to shall be subject to the same 'Counter-Wards'.
We shall engrave Arabic inscriptions on our seals IF WE PLEASE (though who would want to).
We shall sell fermented drinks IF WE PLEASE but not to Muslim who do not ask or attempt to buy such drinks.
We shall NOT clip the fronts of our heads and grow our hair AS WE PLEASE or in any way as our faith and culture prefers. (Manchus as are Japanese unaware are subverted, so do beware the implications of shaven heads Manchus and Japanese!)
We shall NEVER always dress in the same way wherever we may be, and we shall NOT bind the zunar (waistbelt) round our waists, if we do, this is because we consider the zunar a SECULAR WAISTPOUCH or SECULAR BELT-POUCH.
We shall display our religious symbols or our books in the roads or markets as needed. We shall use whatever we please in our worship places. We shall raise our voices when following our dead if needed or if our faith requires so. We shall show lights on any of the roads of the Muslims or in their markets if needed, especially if too dark or at night. We shall bury our dead near the Muslims if cemetary space is lacking (though who would want to?).
We shall take slaves who have been allotted to Muslims IF the slaves prefer non-Muslim owners. We shall build houses overtopping the houses of the Muslims if on a 'first come first serve' basis of purchase of land plots, our plots so happen to be overtopping the tops of houses of Muslims.
(When I took the letter from Ramu, may Kali be pleased with him, she added, "We shall strike a Muslim if they are involved in terror, violent acts, or are complicit in dhimmifying non-Muslims, or complicit in the spiritual sin of false conversions of body or spirit or soul of any non-Muslim.")
We democratise these conditions for ourselves and for the non-Muslim people of ALL communities, and in return we demand safe-conduct as is our Human Right. If we in any way violate these undertakings for which we ourselves WILL NOT stand surety, we forfeit NO covenant [dhimma], and we will retaliate accordingly if any Muslim considers any non-Muslim liable to the penalties for contumacy and sedition against any Human Rights or Democratic principles.
Ramu Dis-ibn L'Battihk (Batik is a Chinese dyeing method) replied:
NEVER Sign what they ask, but add ALL the above modified clauses and ensure they are in addition to those which Muslims intend to have undertaken. –
;from L'UtrutFurusiyya, Uakraj l'Kulum of the 11th Oblong (Order of Baal-Th'Ackdyeae), 1st Hep-Ilac of Malsi – pp. 922-032.
Bal Thackeray – http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/hindu-extremist-bal-thackeray-dies-in-india/article5403584/
[This was from a hand in at an Malsi Religious History Class at the University of the Abaakian Octohedron (A.O.) in 1997. Source of translation not given.]
Adopted and re-edited for relevance from : http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/the-status-of-non-muslims-under-muslim-rule/
When Innocence Dies… – by Jim Kirwan – 11-15-12
The Founders were elite white males, mainly Masons, who had a beef with George III for wanting a piece of the action they did not feel like offering him, since after all he was a GERMAN. These elites gave a rats ass about ordinary people, they just wanted the power for themselves, and the Constitutional Convention ensured this would be the case with a central government. Historically speaking only 1/3d of the populace wanted to break away from England.
For your line of thought to be correct, we would look to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet for leadership."
kirwan: No one will continue to look to TRAITORS like Gates or Buffet for anything again: Given the enormity of this failed-governments' disastrous responses just over the course of the last year alone.
"The list of abuses of and affronts to the American people by its own federal government — topped off by the over-the-top outrages of vote-counting scandals in the recent presidential election — has suddenly produced a nationwide clamor of petitions to secede from the union in all 50 states.
Why oh why is everyone racing to sign petitions to allow their states to secede from the United States of America?
Take a wild guess! Here are some hints." (1)
Reader: "I assure you, the average voter of San Francisco – exactly that, statistically average voter – will look to these types of people for clues about any change of government.
The best possible solution is de-centralized rule, local control at the county level. And this is not going to happen in my lifetime."
The "average voter" in "Anywhere, USA" has no real value and never has. Most still get their political-pabulum spoon fed to them, just as they did in Goya's 15th century-world. These idiots have never really mattered because they're the already controlled "Road Kill" – that's already been captured and who will never CHANGE anything because they cannot think about real-risks. Nor will the straight-jacketed-public ever dare to challenge the status quo, no matter how hellish this government continues to behave.
It only takes 2% of any population; but let's say even 4% or 5% given the current circumstances; to force real changes in the current police-state of political-affairs.
This can be seen through that same very small percentage of the population in Israel or USI—those populations have controlled their majorities at their unbidden-will. This is WHY "road-kill" and formal political party positions don't matter at all, not really, because they never do anything about anything—EVER!
Just listen to Deek Jackson today, who clearly delineates the total lack of care by anyone here regardless of how much blood is spilt or treasure lost. Too many simply don't give a shit about what happens in the world beyond their own front door and that alone will lead directly to what Deek is talking about—which will probably happen on
The Twelfth of Never
Except that this will have to be preceded
By a Saturday, the Eleventh,
Which doesn't yet seem to be on anyone's horizon. (2)
Millions have scoffed at Deek's penetrating sarcasm, but look again at the stats: Seven Billion people on the earth and how many of them, inside the nations that have declared these WARS, actually give a shit about any of the death or the massive destruction that USI continues to underwrite? The U.S. is involved in 16 wars at the moment, and how many people even know anything at all about most of that!
That's why the bulk of the entire population of the already captured USSA, doesn't matter at all, to what we continue to do to everyone else on the planet. Thanks to John Kaminski's thorough round-up (in the first link below), anyone who can connect-the-dots can easily understand how easy it has been for criminal-elites around the world to use us all as cannon-fodder and worse—to finish off their takeover of the planet. Most have no idea that this is even underway—much less that they are about to bring everything to a closing-crescendo that will shake the entire planet to its core if not quite possibly end the world as we once thought we knew it.
'Nor will the straight-jacketed-public ever dare to challenge the status quo, no matter how hellish this government continues to behave.' You're wrong to a point. There are a few off and on, that is why we have varying levels of freedoms in various states, though the states that oppress tend to produce far fewer of the challengers to status quo.
Look here, if the USSA means that the top 10% of the population's wealthiest have to give up assets to the tune of a 20 million remnant, (oh boo hoo, the top 1% (20%) is so poor now they only have 20 million, whatever will they do . . . ) excuse me. but the 90% of 401Kers would be very happy to see USSA as a debt free country instead of 1% (20%) of billionaires enjoying life while USA can't even fund wars . . . and with this WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION via wealth sequestration limits and requisition from those obviously too wealthy that cause nation killing inflation (if wealth was limited to 20 million, vendors would lower prices, making food and education or housing reasonable and within reach of the 99%, also social services becomes something respectable or not even needed instead of plutocrats. Which would you rather have? A good social safety system OR a bunch of plutocrats?
Communism with WEALTH sequestration limits of 20 million still affords immense luxury to the 'wealthiest' and also funds healthcare, education and all kinds of things for people dying or homeless or starving or without education or unable to retire with dignity. USSA is for the 90%! . The *material* wealth and lands of the the nation, USA, of the planet belong to everyone, not 1% of plutocrats. Even the ARMY and POLICE would not back these 1% sorts. This is not about elite white males, this is about EQUALITY and access to facilities of civilisation being held up by people sequestering wealth to no purpose, possibly out of fear – well the richer a person is the more fearful their lives will be. Share and the people will have no issue. 20 million limits to sequestration is well reasonable UNTIL there are no more homelesss, starving, debt slaves, without education, unable to retire etc.. THEN could billionaires be tolerated or acceptable.
Those too selfish can LEAVE the USSA but rest assured, the 99% Fed Agent who might retire in poverty would be quite happy to hunt down the plutocrat so that a few 10Ks of USA citizens can retire properly.
No, it's not 'Christians" fault Obama won – by NBC's Domenico Montanaro – follow @DomenicoNBC
The outspoken Rev. Franklin Graham claimed today that the "majority of Christians" did not vote.
"We know that from of the statistics that I've heard that the majority of Christians in this country just did not vote for whatever reason," he told the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody. "The vast majority of evangelicals did not go to the polls." He added, "God is in control, and if Christians are upset, they need to be upset at themselves. We need to do a better job of getting our people- the church to vote. Now, I'm not trying to tell you how to vote, you can vote, but vote, my goodness, and vote for candidates that stand for Biblical values."
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But Graham's assertion — and implication that had white Christian evangelicals just showed up in bigger numbers, President Obama would have lost — is off base.
In fact, white evangelicals/born-again Christians made up the same percentage of the electorate as they did in 2008 – 26%. They voted for Mitt Romney, a devout Mormon, by a wider margin than they did for Sen. John McCain four years ago.
And, they made up a larger share of the electorate in 2012 than in 2004, when the Christian Right supposedly fueled George W. Bush's reelection. They also voted for Romney with the exact same margin as for Bush in 2004, 78%-21%.
Not to mention, Obama won the 48 percent of the electorate that was Christian and not Protestant or Mormon — 50%-48% among Catholics (25% of the electorate) and 50%-49% of "Other Christians" (23% of the electorate).
In Ohio, they were 1 point more of the electorate than 2008; in Colorado, 4 points higher; in Iowa, up 7 points; in Nevada, up 2.
White evangelical voters in select swing states
CO: 25%, 76-22 Romney; 2008: 21%, 76-23 McCain
FL: 24%, 79-21 Romney; 2008: 24%, 77-21 McCain
IA: 38%, 64-35 Romney; 2008: 31%, 65-33 McCain
NV: 18%, 69-28 Romney; 2008: 16%, 72-27 McCain
OH: 31%, 69-30 Romney; 2008: 30%, 71-27 McCain
They did decline as a share of the electorate in North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin. But the drops in states like North Carolina (Graham's home state) and Virginia likely have less to do with apathy and more to do with demographic changes – transplants in North Carolina's Research Triangle and growth in the Washington, D.C., suburbs of Northern Virginia, for example.
The fact is, Virginia and North Carolina are looking less and less like the Old South and more and more like Mid-Atlantic states.
White evangelical voters in the South (where exit polls are available)
MS: 50%, 95-5 Romney; 2008: 46%, 94-6 McCain
AL: 47% , 90-10 Romney; 2008: 47%, 92-8 McCain
NC: 35%, 79-20 Romney; 2008: 44%, 74-25 McCain
VA: 23%, 83-17 Romney; 2008: 28%, 79-20 McCain
Are there Christian evangelicals who did not vote? Certainly. But that's true every year and of every demographic group.
Evangelicals make up 26 percent of adults in the country, according to a major 2008 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey. They matched that this election.
The U.S. Census says there are more than 311 million people in the United States. If evangelical adults are 26 percent of them, then there would be 80 million potential voters.
So far, 123 million votes have been counted in this election – and that number will get higher by the millions as votes continue to be counted like in 2008. Evangelicals made up 26 percent of them, therefore, about 32 million evangelicals voted – less than half of their population.
But there's a need for context here: (1) They make up just 14 percent of the registered-voter base in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. They outpaced that percentage in the presidential election, (2) This is true every other demographic group in the country as well.
Latinos, for example, according to the U.S. Census, are nearly 17 percent of the country, but only made up 10 percent of the 2012 electorate. They make up just 8 to 9 percent of the registered-voter base of the NBC/WSJ poll.
That would mean just 12 million of the 52 million adult Hispanics voted.
If this was Australia, and the U.S. had compulsory voting, Graham's argument that evangelicals would have tipped the balance would not hold up very well.
As mentioned before, the time to be allowed to vote should span WEEKS if not MONTHS or the FULL YEAR. People cannot be given too short a window to vote. I am certain that MANY people who have not yet voted would certainly do so – IF the window to vote was the whole year or even 2 years or A CONSTANT STATE OF VOTE (this could be new challengers appearing ANYTIME, with whatever current president being dropped once their rating falls below 30% for example . . . this way any unpopular policies or policies not ratified by a 1-Man-1-Vote tally on the internet 'Yellow Page' lists, could face instant voter withdrawals of votes) with time limits for Presidents or whatever ministers, governors, senators, MPs, assemblymen, councillors etc..
How about Annonymous and Kim Schmitz create an open source version of what was suggested above?
In fact if the government was diligent, they could very well get the police or local military, or the phone/handphone/electrical company (virtually every home/every person has a phone/electricity or handphone) to make rounds AS IF CENSUS TAKING to specifically get the supposed fence sitters to vote – your electric meter man handing a ballot-form to the citizen for filling in (then waiting for a moment for the citizen to fill in said ballot) around election time is not too much in effort. This is not impossible to implement, and instead of blaming any who didn't vote (myriad of reasons from dislike of crowds (in some 3rd world countries – violence and bombs at voting/ballot stations) to preferring to vote by post or waiting for a candidate they like to appear).
Blame the system and lack of use of resources the USA has (police/military district by district) to take a whole year to make sure that everyone votes. Compulsory voting in this manner (no fines but a visit from local enforcement to make the citizen tick a box and put down a signature is not too much to ask).
Thousands of U.S. military votes uncounted or missing – posted on November 13, 2012 by Dr. Eowyn
There is a malicious hoax being circulated on the net. It's an article on a website called the Duffle Blog, claiming that Mitt Romney would have won last Tuesday's presidential election if our military's absentee ballots had arrived on time instead of one day late.
Don't fall for it!
They're yanking your chains. Duffle Blog is a satire site, like The Onion. See it for yourself by scrolling to the end of the military absentee ballots article where it says:
Pevious post: Poll: Joseph Kony Currently Leads U.S. Presidential RaceNext post: Commander Relieved For Violating Entire UCMJ
This, however, is the REAL deal on the travesty called the 2012 military vote.
On August 2, 2012, our Hardnox reported that Democrats were suppressing the military vote in Ohio . Claiming it wasn't "fair," Team Obama sued Ohio to prevent the military from voting early, a long-standing policy that worked around military training and deployments.
This was followed by my post, on Oct. 1, 2012, that an alarmingly small percentage of military voters were requesting absentee ballots, although the majority of members of our military –an estimated two-thirds — would need to vote by absentee ballot.
Next, we learnt that on October 19, 2012, a transport plane carrying 4,700 pounds of mail inbound to our troops serving in Afghanistan, crashed in Shindad Air Base. Included in those now-destroyed 4,700 pounds of mail were countless absentee ballots. As noted by Kris Zane of The Western Center for Journalism, "Oddly, as soon as the story appeared, it disappeared. Did anyone die in the crash? What kind of plane was it? It seemed like a cover story in order to destroy the ballots."
Election officials recommended resending the ballots, just two and a half weeks before the election. Given the slow military mail delivery service, it's highly unlikely our troops in Afghanistan got the resent ballots in time and even more unlikely that, after our troops had filled in those absentee ballots, they actually reached the United States in time to be counted.
Now we are told that thousands of our military's votes are uncounted or missing.
Susan Stallings reports for Examiner.com, Nov. 8, 2012:
According to the Naval Enlisted Reserve Association, scores of military absentee ballots cast in the 2012 Election will not be counted. U.S. Military personnel and their families are outraged: "Where the hell is this country's moral compass?!" stated the mother of a 25 year old Marine who served in Afghanistan.
The military mail service is notoriously slow, and lawmakers have said that it could be almost two months after the election before ballots even arrive to be processed.
"We write to express concerns over another serious failure by the Department of Defense to safeguard the voting rights of our overseas military service members, which we believe could result in the imminent disenfranchisement of thousands," stated a letter sent to Defense Department Secretary Leon Panetta by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., John McCain, R-Ariz., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.. […]
Michelle Malkin reported in an article published at Townhall.com, "Despite a federal law mandating that every base establish a voting assistance office (the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act), the Pentagon reported this summer that it could only contact such offices on half of the military's bases. In Wisconsin alone this election cycle, at least 30 municipalities failed to send absentee ballots to members of the military before the 45-day election deadline."
Experts, veterans groups, and advocates for soldiers agree that a minimum 45-day mailing standard is necessary to allow sufficient time to get military absentee ballots home. But the federal government has done nothing to enforce the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act. In fact, according to Malkin, "the Obama administration has actively worked against pro-troop voting protection efforts by suing to stop Ohio's military enfranchisement reforms."
The bottom line is that our military, those men and women who risk their lives to protect our freedom, those most deserving to exercise their right to vote, are being prevented from doing so. This is unconscionable.
Kris Zane reminds us that in 2008 the Obama campaign had engaged in massive voter fraud and also sought unsuccessfully to suppress the military vote, which historically votes conservative.
Zane writes: "This time, they did both. Considering that the election was extremely close (Obama won by roughly two million votes), the question becomes: if our troops' votes were counted, would Romney have won? Did Obama steal the election—again?"
I don't have an iota of doubt that the suppression of the military vote is due to a Military Times poll finding that members of our active and reserve military overwhelmingly favor Romney over Obama 2 to 1.
Our soldiers get PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), maimed, and killed, but they don't get to have their votes counted or, worse still, don't even get to vote.
Our soldiers, as well as we civilians, must come forward and demand that the Electoral College must NOT cast their votes until our military's absentee votes have all been counted!!!
Tell your representatives and senators!!!!!!
See the response to earlier article. Also if the votes are LISTED on the internet and candidates selectable or even allowing people to list themselves as candidates (there will be 1000s probably but only a few viable ones will be good to vote for, at least though EVERYONE can get a crack at the Presidency, not just the rich or connected), there is no way that a person will lose a vote or have their vote uncounted. Just log in and see your own name there alphabetical Yellow Pages style with whoever you voted for. Whats so difficult about that?
I do believe that salaried bureaucrat, military and police votes should not count though – simply to prevent vested interest (imagine the politicians getting all close with the police and military ensuring an undemocratic bloc that destroys democracy – i.e. if the police or military vote for 'who-and-who' this 'group of politicians' will ensure salary raises at X levels etc.. See what this can turn USA into? A JUNTA, even as Parliamentary Privileges and unlimited terms or nepotism causes the same . . . ), not that the missing vote is any more tolerable even though uniformed voters are harmful to democracy overall when in (more often than not they are) collusion.
See response to Article 15
More diplomacy in Israel-Gaza fighting – 2012-11-19 09:02 – kalahari.com
A Palestinian man carries a stuffed toy in a street littered with debris after an Israeli air raid on a nearby sporting centre in Gaza City. (Marco Longari, AFP)
Gaza/ Jerusalem – Hostilities between Islamist militants and Israel entered a sixth day on Monday as diplomatic efforts were set to intensify to try to stop rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli air strikes on Gaza.
International pressure for a ceasefire seemed certain to mount after the deadliest single incident in the flare-up on Sunday claimed the lives of at least 11 Palestinian civilians, including four children.
Three people, including two children, were killed and 30 others were injured in the latest air strike before dawn on Monday on a family home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City, medical officials said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment and was checking.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was due to arrive in Cairo to add his weight to the truce efforts. Egypt has taken the lead in trying to broker a ceasefire and its officials met the parties on Sunday.
Israeli media said a delegation from Israel had been to Cairo for talks on ending the fighting, although a government spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi met Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, and Ramadan Shallah of Islamic Jihad as part of the mediation efforts, but a statement did not say if talks were conclusive.
Terms for ceasefire
Izzat Risheq, a close aide to Meshaal, wrote in a Facebook message that Hamas would agree to a ceasefire only after Israel "stops its aggression, ends its policy of targeted assassinations and lifts the blockade of Gaza".
Listing Israel's terms, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon wrote on Twitter: "If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack."
Israel withdrew settlers from Gaza in 2005 and two years later Hamas took control of the impoverished enclave, which the Israelis have kept under blockade.
The 11 Palestinian civilians were apparently killed during an Israeli attack on a militant, which brought a three-storey house crashing down on them.
Gaza health officials have said 78 Palestinians, 23 of them children and several women, have been killed in Gaza since Israel's offensive began. Hundreds have been wounded.
Ban expressed grave concern in a statement before setting off for the region. He will visit Israel on Tuesday.
75 000 reservists
"I am deeply saddened by the reported deaths of more than ten members of the Dalu family… [and] by the continuing firing of rockets against Israeli towns, which have killed several Israeli civilians. I strongly urge the parties to co-operate with all efforts led by Egypt to reach an immediate ceasefire," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had assured world leaders that Israel was doing its utmost to avoid causing civilian casualties in the military showdown with Hamas.
Gaza militants launched dozens of rockets into Israel and targeted its commercial capital, Tel Aviv, for a fourth day on Sunday. Israel's "Iron Dome" missile shield shot down all three rockets.
In scenes recalling Israel's 2008-2009 winter invasion of Gaza, tanks, artillery and infantry have massed in field encampments along the sandy, fenced-off border with Gaza and military convoys moved on roads in the area.
Israel has authorised the call-up of 75 000 reservists, although there was no immediate sign when or whether they might be needed in a ground invasion.
Israel's operation has so far drawn Western support for what US and European leaders have called its right to self-defence, but there have also been a growing number of appeals to seek an end to the hostilities.
544 rockets fired from Gaza
Netanyahu said Israel was ready to widen its offensive.
"We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organisations and the Israel Defence Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation," he said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, but gave no further details.
The Israeli military said 544 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since Wednesday, killing three civilians and wounding dozens. Around 302 rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome and 99 failed to reach Israel and landed inside the Gaza Strip.
Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and force Hamas to stop rocket fire that has bedevilled Israeli border towns for years. The rockets now have greater range, putting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem within their reach.
The southern resort city of Eilat was apparently added to the list of targets when residents said they heard an explosion thought to be a rocket, but it caused no damage or casualties, police said.
Eilat is thought to be well out of the range of any rocket in possession of Hamas or any other Gaza group. But Palestinian militants have in the recent past fired rockets at Eilat and its surroundings, using Egypt's Sinai desert as a launch site.
Support for Hamas
Hamas and other groups in Gaza are sworn enemies of the Jewish state which they refuse to recognise and seek to eradicate, claiming all Israeli territory as rightfully theirs.
Hamas won legislative elections in the Palestinian Territories in 2006 but a year later, after the collapse of a unity government under President Mahmoud Abbas the Islamist group seized control of Gaza in a brief and bloody civil war with forces loyal to Abbas.
Abbas then dismissed the Hamas government led by the group's leader Ismail Haniyeh but he refuses to recognise Abbas' authority and runs Gazan affairs.
While it is denounced as a terrorist organisation in the West, Hamas enjoys widespread support in the Arab world, where Islamist parties are on the rise.
Western-backed Abbas and Fatah hold sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank from their seat of government in the town of Ramallah. The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
NO CEASEFIRE. And end this farce. Give Gazans choice to take up Israeli citizenship or leave Gaza. Send in trooops to occupy Gaza. Annexe Gaza, expel and bring citizens to the remnent of the eastern areas of Palestine. Print some fiat and distribute to displaced Gazans for reparations and compensation for inconvenience of relocation. But vacate enough of the obviously illegal settlements in exchange for Gaza in what should be considered a land swap. The Palestinians will never end this, the Israelis need to remove the Gaza strip from the equation and return an equitable amount of land to Palestine as well.
End of issue. Does Israel want decades more of war? Take over Gaza NOW and stop boasting about being the world's 5th strongest military, USE conventional troops to do the above and end the conflict. This dismantles Hamas as well and prevents any future attacks. Note : On 23rd of November AFTER the 'Ceasefire' was declared, rockets continued falling. Israel needs to take a look at this response again. A country cannot be in 2 parts with one Gaza strip and another elsewhere . . .
Won't sell up? Enjoy living in the middle of a motorway! Road is built around a house after elderly Chinese couple refuse to move – by Alex Ward – PUBLISHED: 10:27 GMT, 22 November 2012 | UPDATED: 12:30 GMT, 22 November 2012
An elderly couple refuse to move as a road is built around their apartment
They insist the government's relocation compensation is not enough
A lone apartment building stands in the middle of a newly built road after an elderly couple refused to relocate.
Luo Baogen and his wife insist on living in the half-demolished building in the city of Wenling, in Zhejiang province, China because they believe that the relocation compensation offered by the government is not enough.
Now the only building left standing, the five storey block is a strange sight as cars drive around it while the couple remain living inside.
An elderly couple refused to leave despite plans for the road a railway station to be built directly where the building stands
An elderly couple refused to leave despite plans for the road a railway station to be built directly where the building stands
To ensure the couple's safety, adjacent rooms in the building have been left intact but all their neighbours have moved out, according to local media.
The road paved through the Xiazhangyang village leads to the Wenling railway station and is yet to be officially opened.
Mr Baogen and his wife believe that the compensation on offer would not be enough to cover their rebuilding costs.
In the People's Republic of China, during most of the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished, making it easy for residents to be moved on – but now the laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement.
The couple refused to movebecause they believed the relocation compensation offered by the government was not enough
Not enough to move: The couple refused to move because they believed the relocation compensation offered by the government was not enough
Luo Baogen looks out on the new road to the city's railway station which is yet to be officially opened
Room with a view: Luo Baogen looks out on the new road which is yet to be officially opened from the apartment building where all his neighbours moved out
Property owners in China that refuse to move to make way for development are known as 'Nail Householders' referring to a stubborn nail that is not easy to remove from a piece of old wood and cannot be pulled out with a hammer.
Earlier this year, Hong Chunqin, 75, and her husband Kung, who live in the two dilapidated buildings with their two sons, had initially agreed to sell the property in Taizhou, in Zhejiang province and accepted £8,000 in compensation.
But then she changed her mind and refunded the money once work on the road had started.
Isolated: Niu Chuangen and Zhang Zhongyun's home stands on a small parcel of land amid the growing skyscrapers
Earlier this year, Niu Chuangen and Zhang Zhongyun dared to stand in the way of a local property developer in Zaozhuang, in the Shandong province.
As a result, the resolute couple, both in their 60s, have been left stranded on their tiny spot of land, while all around them the ground is dug up and skyscrapers erected.
The distraught pair were regularly threatened by gangsters and have had to fend over a number of attempts to illegally demolish their ramshackle home.
They were cut off from utilities in 2009 when a local developer started the enormous earthworks involved in building dozens of high-rise residential buildings in the area.
Another family initially agreed to sell the property in Taizhou but changed their minds once work on the road had started
Refuse to move: Another family initially agreed to sell the property in Taizhou but changed their minds once work on the road had started
Stranded: The couple were left without running water and electricity ground after real estate developers dug out the ground around it
Stranded: The couple were left without running water and electricity ground after real estate developers dug out the ground around it
In another case, one family among 280 others at the site of a six storey shopping mall being built in Chongqing refused to leave their home for two years.
Developers cut their power and water, and excavated a 10-meter deep pit around their home, which their family had inhabited for three generations.
The owners broke into the construction site, reoccupied it, and flew a Chinese flag on top and then Yang Wu, a local martial arts champion, used nunchakus to make a staircase to the house and threatened to beat any authorities who attempted to evict him.
The owners turned down an offer of £300,000 but eventually settled with the developers in 2007.
During the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished but now the laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement
Cannot demolish: During the Communist era, private ownership of property was abolished but now the laws have been tightened up and it is illegal to demolish property by force without an agreement
This is effectively ALLODIAL RIGHTS granted, and China just needs to issue a formal allodial title to be considered a 'property protecting cherry of a nation' on top. China RESPECTS property rights for certain if not for the other chaotic conditions elsewhere less developed (like Foxconn factories?). Unlike DAP's State of Penang, Malaysia's 'break into your home and tear down your awning/gazebo because you didn't get our approval', or, 'climb over your wall to shoot your dog (we must concede that spiritually the owners MUST do the necessary of dogs have been tyrannising others living nearby)' mindset.
Good work China and Mr.Baogen! Please lobby for formalisation of this right by amending Eminent Domain laws and enabling Allodial titles in China formally, then send this LEGAL UPDATE to the UN and ask for UN to enforce this as well for the rest of the world, especially the 3rd world minded or outdated law places . . . USA btw has regressed, since 2001 the last Allodial title was granted by the State of Nevada before the same law was axed. Guess China is going to overtake the USA soon in protection fo the little guy . . . the 99% . . .
Death of a Vampire – Saturday, November 17th, 2012. Filed under: Activism Alternative Knowledge Consciousness Esoterica Inspiration Orwellian World Secret Societies Spirituality The Awakening – by Steven Mcauliffe
For far too long we have lived under the rule of the Parasite.
For too long the Parasite has dictated to us who we are and what we are capable of.
For too long the Parasite has ruled over a mental wasteland of his own creating.
And in order to make us subservient to his twisted aims of total spectrum dominance the parasite has poisoned the waters, infected our minds with his own perversities and denied the existence of anything beyond the corporeal body-state, whilst simultaneously launching a never ending vicious and ruthless war against the human soul he repeatedly informs us does not exist.
He has, bit-by-bit removed the free-thinker, the philosopher, the wise man from centre-stage; replaced him with a gibbering, fame-obsessed body fixated retard, and held this idiot up as a role-model. And many have aped the self-concerned moron, even tried to outdo him on the stupidity-stakes, hoping that by simply being more stupid, more vain, more sexually-deviant, they will rise to the same stage as their parasitically-created hero. And yet –
'Imagination is a glimpse of the divine'
-William Blake
-These insipid mimics fail to realise that fame is not democratic. It is an orchestrated spell intended to take us away from our own potentialities. It is a closed-club, existing only to offer us a ready-made escape mechanism, its ultimate aim is to restrict our innate desire to self-create, and utilise the endless possibilities of our potentially-boundless imaginations.
We are prisoners of the limitations set for us by our parasitical, self-appointed master.
In order to transcend our limitations all we have to do is realise that our master is not like us, despite the illusion of superiority, he is, by definition a ridiculous inferior.
His only strength is his psychotically-relentless pursuit of self-advancement. Having sapped our desires to self-advance is it any wonder that he has the power to dominate us?
It is merely our surrender that makes us slaves.
'The greedy, ugly people are not like us,
They don't feel the love,
That she and I would die without'
And as for those life-affirming sensations of intense bliss and contentment – the sense of 'outrageous good-fortune' that breaks through our lives oh too rarely, and yet when it does, whispers to us of a divine truth long-forgotten – well, once we come to the realisation that the Parasite is incapable of such life-affirming feelings, that he is in fact completely devoid of empathy and contentment, then we realise the tragedy of his existence – the sheer, hollow ringing emptiness of a man who denies the existence of the human soul, chiefly because it is absent in himself.
Suddenly, upon this realisation, we begin to see the man behind the curtain. A man who best befits the old saying: 'The small man cuts off the heads of others, in order to make himself seem taller'.
-Then, if we have any autonomy left at all, we refuse to stand in line for the chopping-block. Or to revert to an earlier metaphor, we refuse to continue offering our necks to the vampire.
And there is a reason that myth says that a vampire has to be willingly invited into your home in order to drain your energies and feed off of your life-force: we must first acquiesce to our own surrender. In order for the vampire/parasite to hold dominion over our souls, we must first give our permission.
But here's the good part—-in the last years, months, weeks, days…the Parasite has been exposed on so many fronts for the vile predator that he is. Each day brings another revelation. And with each revelation a thousand more souls reawaken from the drugged slumber he has held them under. We are in the middle of the much-anticipated 'acceleration' that Terence McKenna and Robert Anton Wilson and countless others had predicted and expected. It is happening right now.
The masks are falling to the floor, the internet is uniting like-minded souls across the globe, and in doing so is de-facto releasing the souls themselves, and the internet is merely the forerunner, moving us toward an understanding of our true oneness. It is an important step towards the soon-to-occur Unification of the Cosmic Mind, which will open the way for a telepathic-interconnectedness that will ultimately shrug the vampire from our necks, and reduce the parasite to dust.
You can feel it now.
Among the debris of a tumbling, crumbling Empire of Lies, you can feel it.
Despite the day-to-day sordid revelations and exposes of the Predator's vile and endlessly deceitful practices, you inwardly know that these are merely the death throes, the dying gasps of the Vampire Parasite whose long-held claims to immortality are being exposed for the lie they always were.
There is another myth about the Vampire; he withers and dies when exposed to the full glare of sunlight.
Well, an awakened populace will burn with the strength of a thousand suns.
So you better look out Parasite —
Coz we are the light.
The 'awakend populace' is asleep and dark and cold to the 'parasite populace', as much as the 'parasite populace' considers themselves awaked . . . who is parasite or awakened? The 'awakened' will allow all and sundry to exist make sure there are spaces and that communities of similar minded types have reasonable spaces to live as they will, the 'parasite' denies and will parasite off the unhappiness and frustration of those who are denied existence and spaces.
I'd say that the dichotomy or dark and light requires that without host or parasite, without vampire or victim, reality would cease to exist. There must be spaces for all, and government had better make sure the everyone with potentially-boundless imaginations has the space to indulge and later move on. There can be no 1000 suns without that single black hole. The cycle of nature cannot be denied, and whatever level of development we are at, rest assured that evil is as much needed as good (for lack of a better example much like any culture or fashion or style or subculture). To transcend both would be consignment to a grey immensity so terrible that the shaven conformity and mindless limited repetitive chanting of monks would seem pleasant by comparison.
So please do not disparage the appetites that define the asceticisms, some of us prefer to live alternately between entropy and creation or rest for centuries or millenia as either, even as those who wish to be Good or Evil for eternity have the same right to do so. Just remember, too many on one side, too many too long on either, results in HEGEMONY and the destruction of the fine balance of reality. There will be souls that play the part of fools until they grow up to decide to be either or none or both, there will be souls of many sorts, and that is where a legalized KILL ZONE (where murder might be ignored), and a legalized RLD with OPZ access where people drink and experiement with substances or drown in the sensation of their choice for as long as they want, and a legalized NON-CONTACT/NON-EMOTE ZONE (where no sports, even emotional or spiritual 'touching/contact' is allowed) will be enforced by government.
The hero is the one who sees all the above, the hero is the one who works to ensure the Facilitator abides by the right to express and the right to migrate, to be in the community appropriate to their level of development.This can span lifetimes, some may spiral down or up, but that is because someone else needed to move faster, slower or climb or fall. There is no taboo in REALITY save for that which others impose, but the Facilitators will be damned and even murdered (occasionally we witness political assassinations or accidents perhaps given by nature itself) for not ensuring that people get what they want, and in history many a revolution occured in retaliation because of denials. There could even be dystopian Capitalist hell but doubtless only a small portion of society would hole themselves in the Cult of Economics, even as the Cult of Naturists want to pick nuts and fruits from plants and walk around naked like Adam and Eve or in a RLD of their choice on the fringes of the Cult of Economics FOR FUN. THAT is reality which the Facilitators have FAILED to ensure thus far, causing cash based ('pay or invest to enter' rather than 'your heart is right for this place so you can go there for free') immigration blockades (where people closest to certain countries in their hearts may never be able to move to the country they love – Fundos should go to UAE for example, nudists could go to certain states in the USA, cultists could go to Aramea) or plutocracy based paradigms of society where food and jobs are so difficult to obtain and state dependency so high while land banks for food growing and housing are locked up by the state to their own citizens. MONEY is not what defines a spirit or a soul, MONEY must never limit rights of migration or the energy system in the astral and ether will make sure Humanity pays and NEVER EVOLVES.
So stop thinkin on the 3rd dimension and get those laws amended to a 4th or more dimensional compliant form, we will NEVER evolve as a species until the astral and ethereal incongruencies attract the super entity predators of other dimensions to make short work of us.
The life we have is OURS alone to experience by, the government is only a Facilitator and bureaucracy can never expect cults of personality or limitless terms. There is no other way or chaos by dominance by numbers will result. Everyone gets what they want and government will make spaces, ensure there will be no incursions by those diametrically opoosed in lifetsyle, by those who disparage, the size of each space will be appropriate to the requirement of the activity multiplied by the size of the community. There will be Hell and Heaven on Earth, there will be pockets of Nature untouched, there will be Urabanscapes for those who love that sort of density and a-spiritaulity, and the only underlying thread will be the Facilitator who (while currently failed) will not interfere nor judge, save only where the non-consensual are affected. Parasites have their spaces. The we who consider themselves 'light' (despite being obviously mortal) should begin fasting, self-imposing sensory deprivation and insulated communes to prepare for their transitions into 'light'.
There must be freedom to travel, rights to migrate not based around wealth and distribution of wealth and land not sequestration by plutocrats or preventiopn of fair use (food growing or homes) state. This is just the start of civilisation, and if the above is not implemented in time, there will be more and more riots until Capitalism is wiped from the face of the earth for preventing natural migration and prevention of homeless and starving from using land to support themselves by. The only other rule is not to overpopulate. THAT IS ALL for now, if we cannot at least distribute land and wealth equitably first, nothing spiritual will move forward or be revealed.
MICHIGAN – Good coffee is not easy to find. But good baristas are even more difficult to chance upon – and no, we're not just referring to their coffee-making skills.
A couple in Michigan, USA, have come up with the perfect way to lure customers to their coffee shop.
Called Hot Spot Coffee, the drive-through coffee stand is attracting long lines of customers who are there not just for coffee.
Owners Brenda and Gary Zelda's secret weapon is not coffee but baristas – lingerie-clad baristas that is.
The shop even has special days like 'Topless Tuesdays' and 'Flasher Fridays'.
While their coffee-making skills might not be top-notch, the baristas at Hot Spot are definitely a unique addition to the workforce in Detroit.
Because of them, business has been brisk and Hot Spot quickly expanded to its third branch.
In a short, sheer, baby-doll negligee and coordinated pink panties, Candice Law is dressed to work at a drive-through espresso stand in… – Originally published Monday, January 22, 2007 at 12:00 AM – by Amy Roe – Seattle Times Eastside bureau
Candice Law, a barista at Cowgirls Espresso in Tukwila, chats with customer Gary Lundstrom. She and other baristas vary their outfits, depending on the day's theme. "Everybody's excited to see you," Law says.
Enlarge this photo
Barista Candice Law at Cowgirls Espresso in Tukwila says she makes more in tips than she ever did as a waitress at Hooters.
Enlarge this photo
In a short, sheer, baby-doll negligee and coordinated pink panties, Candice Law is dressed to work at a drive-through espresso stand in Tukwila, and she is working it.
Customers pull their trucks up to the window, where Law greets each with an affectionate nickname, blows kisses, and vamps about as she steams milk for a mocha. "You want whipped cream?" she asks, a sly smile playing on her pierced lip.
The next customer rolls up, and Law throws a long leg onto the window sill, like an indie-rock ballerina at the barre.
"Do you like my leg warmers?" she asks. "Aren't they hot?"
Hot is not the half of it. To stand apart from the hordes of drive-through espresso stands that clutter the Northwest's roadsides, commuter coffee stops such as Tukwila's Cowgirls Espresso are adding bodacious baristas, flirty service and ever more-revealing outfits to the menu.
At Port Orchard's Natté Latté, baristas sport hot-pink hot pants and tight white tank tops. Day-of-the-week theme outfits ranging from racy lingerie to "fetish" ensembles are the dress code at Moka Girls Espresso in Auburn and at several Cowgirls Espresso stands in the area. Bikini tops are the special at Café Lorraine on Highway 9 in Woodinville, and the women of The Sweet Spot in Shoreline pose provocatively in Playmate-style profiles on the stand's Web site.
"In this area, we all know how to make good coffee," said Barbara Record, who opened Bikini Espresso in Renton last month. The trick is to set your business apart, she said, and sex is one sure-fire way to do that.
"It's just, how far do you want to go?" she said.
At Best Friend Espresso in Kenmore, baristas go thigh-high. An elevated service window offers customers a nearly full-length view of pretty, young baristas — some of them high-school students — in short skirts, tank tops and high heels.
Best Friend owner Wayne Hembree said he requires employees to dress "classy;" in dresses, skirts and a nice top.
"What I think most of them have found is that their tips are better if they wear short skirts," he said.
Occasionally, Best Friend does theme days, such as "schoolgirl" or adding glasses for a sexy "secretary" look, manager Heather Bacon said.
Longer commutes, a change in laws regulating the stands, and the saturation of the carryout coffee market have given drive-through stands a jolt in the past few years.
When the state's smoking ban went into effect last year, many bar, casino and convenience-store owners sought to make up for expected losses by renting part of their parking lots to espresso stands, said Lori Bowden, owner of the Cowgirls Espresso stands.
The advent of "sexpresso" is harder to track. Business and baristas debate over who pioneered the edgy outfits, but they agree that by sweetening the product, with a smile and maybe a shot of hazelnut syrup, they've reached out to customers who've never set foot in a Starbucks.
Drive-throughs are a growing part of Starbucks' business, too, with more than 1,500 drive-through locations throughout the United States. But a representative of the company said it has no plans to sex up the dress code, as it wouldn't fit the company's brand.
At places such as Cowgirls, the barista is the brand.
"If I'm going to pay $4 for a cup of coffee" said one male customer, "I'm not going to get served by a guy."
That attitude has been a boon to Cowgirls. Bowden, a former vending-machine-company owner, has acquired seven drive-through stands, with a total of 26 employees, all of them women.
Though most of the stands in the area pay minimum wage, Law said she makes more in tips than she ever did as a waitress at Hooters. One recent morning, she served 400 customers between about 6 a.m. and noon.
"Your customers freakin' adore you. Everybody's excited to see you," Law said. "You spend a few minutes with them and they leave."
They come back, too.
When Ryan Reed pulled up to Best Friend Espresso for his usual, a 24-ounce iced vanilla latte, on a recent weekday afternoon, he knew what to expect.
"The owner [Wayne Hembree] always hires super-hot girls," Reed said. "That's basically his philosophy."
Hembree said actually, he looks for customer-service skills. The dress code, which he started four years ago, was inspired by an employee whose polished look boosted business, he said. Hembree also requires staff members to wear makeup and do their hair, "and these guys, I won't lie to you, they like that," he said.
But Best Friend has made some enemies. Jeff Marshall, whose wife, Wendy, owns the gift shop Chalet Cadeau, said the couple moved their business from Kenmore to Kirkland last month in frustration over neighboring Best Friend Espresso. Marshall said the business caused traffic problems and drove customers away from the gift shop.
"It's disgusting," he said of the stand. "It's an undesirable business from a community that's trying to sell itself as a family-oriented community."
Kenmore City Manager Steve Anderson said city officials looked into Marshall's complaints.
"We've heard of issues and we've had undercover investigations, police surveillance, and it resulted in nothing," he said. Likewise, King County sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart said the business isn't breaking any laws.
Bowden said law requires that employees cover their breasts and buttocks, so there will be no "thong Thursday," as some customers have requested.
Back in that cow-spotted stand in front of Silver Dollar Casino in Tukwila, Law steams milk and dreams up new themes.
"I like the idea of Saran Wrap Saturday," she mused. "Now they've got those colored Saran Wraps. Dude, they could totally make a cute outfit."
Amy Roe: 206-464-3347 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Lingerie Barista..$$$ (Puyallup/Tacoma)
Date: 2012-10-29, 6:37PM PDT
Reply to: firstname.lastname@example.com[Errors when replying to ads?]
Bikini Bottom Espresso, Inc.
Currently accepting resume's and conducting working interviews! We offer full time, part time and fill in positions with all our espresso stands.
All are double sided drive thru, high energy, busy stands with great customer service!
Experience a plus, but not required! We are looking for outgoing, SUPER FUN, responsible barista's who can be "Fashionista's" and "ROCK" a Thong and some Pasties…once in a while.
Must be 18 yrs old
Must have own vehicle
If you feel you have what it takes to be the next "Bikini Bottom Barista", then please apply!
Send a couple pictures of yourself in either a bikini or lingerie and a resume!
You may apply in person at:
7919 176th
Puyallup, WA
13907 Pacific Ave South
Tacoma, WA 98444
10506 Bridgeport Way SW
Lakewood, WA 98499
Thank You, Talk to you soon!
"Do you like my leg warmers?" she asks. "Aren't they hot?" Finally civilisation! I think those 72 'Muslim' (disgusting!) virgins would be forgotten . . .
Now that's what I'm talking about! Hot Spot is evidently learning from the movies. Try one with males as well on (viagra or non viagra shift . . . do ask . . . ) Ok so wheres that '5th Element' (1997 Luc Besson) version of McDonalds (perhaps a half-naked clown for the LGBT window for those into that sort of thing?)? After work, hanging around the Juggalos AFTER a whole day of hanging around 'jugs' . . . USA! USA!
Eventually we will see various sub-culture themed specific franchises. Alexandria Luxor Fast Foods anyone? Beer and Lion dinner . . . 'To order in Egyptian please press 1 . . . '. Think of this sort of thing as a Race Car Expo without the race cars but just the Beauties. Who says the only time beauty can be on display or for appreciation is at Car Shows?
I'm Voting Third Party This Year – by Dave Lindorff – 11-2-12
I, for one, can't (can rather?) do it.
As much as I loathe the Republican Party and its standard bearer, the incredibly smarmy shape-changing one-percenter and serial prevaricator Mitt Romney, I cannot bring myself this Nov. 6 to vote for the re-election of President Barack Obama, the Nobel Peace Laureate with the mushrooming Kill List on his desk.
First, by way of full disclosure, let me state that I did, with misgivings and angst, vote for Obama in 2008. I did it with eyes open, based upon a (you'll excuse the expression) "hope" that the many progressive voters, including a huge cadre of idealistic young people voting for the first time, and an unprecedented wave of minority voters, as well as working-class people of all races, religions and ethnicities, would come together after the vote and press him to be a progressive president, much as the working people of America back in the early 1930s had pressed a new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the bankers' candidate from New York, to be a progressive president.
Boy was mine a vain hope!
What we got instead was a president who backed down in advance at almost every challenge, telegraphing his fall-back position, whether it was pulling troops out of Iraq or defending Social Security and Medicare, or even his supposed signal "achievement," the passage of the so-called "Affordable Care Act," now known as Obamacare.
Had the president barnstormed the country promoting what his supporters (myself included) had elected him to do — a massive jobs program, breaking up of the big banks and a restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, passage of a new stronger labor law to make union organizing and bargaining more fair, establishment of a single-payer system for health care akin to what they have in Canada, ending the chain of endless wars, and restoring the Bill of Rights, this election next week wouldn't even be close…
TCBH! Election Issue, Part II:
Why I'm Voting for Barack Obama – by John Grant
For an ordinary American these days, there isn't much one can do to affect the direction of the federal government of the United States. Much of what our leaders do with that government — especially the more and more secret military and surveillance activities symbolized by the Pentagon — exists beyond the realm of real change.
One very small power a citizen retains in his or her public life is the vote. The problem, of course, is that critical issues are not discussed in the mainstream media where the national political dialogue occurs. For instance, you can't use the term "class," you can't use the phrase "global warming" and you certainly can't use the term "imperialism." They are embargoed terms. And anything you cannot talk about and discuss in an effective manner is difficult or impossible to change.
As one soon learns in the journalism business, a national issue has to become a Democratic-Republican "pissing contest" before the mainstream will even touch it. Then it becomes a circus of who's up and who's down. So our imperial military-industrial complex — absurdly lumped under the euphemism "defense" — is discussed only by out-of-the-mainstream publications like This Can't Be Happening and by third party candidates.
My more revolutionary friends, thus, see voting for President Obama as tantamount to selling out to the beast. I understand how they feel. While I'm as much a red-blooded American citizen as anyone and while I feel many Americans are good people, I'm thoroughly disgusted with the leadership in this country and the steady rightward drift over the past 30 plus years.
This feeling began for me when I came home from doing my service as part of the international war crime called the Vietnam War. I went to college and then started a career in journalism. Along came Ronald Reagan and his Shining City On a Hill. He preached the line that there was no "malaise" in America, and too many Americans ate it up like a herd of hungry cattle.
The joke going around these days is that Richard Nixon would be to the left of Barack Obama. It's really not a joke; it's true. The joke is on the American people and what could have been…
TCBH! Election Issue, Part III:
Lying Lines Republican Route to White House
By Linn Washington, Jr.
It's bad enough that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney lies repeatedly on the campaign trail and top Romney surrogates like John Sununu crassly engage in race-baiting that elicits no rebuke from Romney.
But the Republican Party's penchant for prevarication and prejudice in pursuit of the U.S. presidency is reaching a new low yet again with actions by a GOP aligned group called Raging Elephants.
This group is funding billboards in Texas and Tennessee trumpeting the factually flawed assertion that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Was a Republican," and is urging black voters to "VOTE REPUBLICAN."
A Raging Elephants' billboard campaign in Memphis links that MLK-was-a-Republican line with requests to vote for a black female Republican congressional candidate running there.
This King-was-a-Republican claim resurrects a similar fraudulent claim mounted in 2008 by a group called the National Black Republican Association. That Association placed billboards in South Carolina, Florida and Denver pushing the same flawed contention about Dr. King.
There is no historical evidence that the decidedly non-partisan Dr. King worked for either Republicans or Democrats. Nor is there any evidence that King's father publicly identified himself as a Republican, though many blacks during the early-to-mid-20th Century did, understandably identified politically back then with the party of slave-emancipator Abraham Lincoln.
Dr. King's son, Martin Luther King III, in 2008, told the Associated Press that it was "disingenuous to imply that my father was a Republican. He never endorsed any presidential candidate and there is no evidence he ever even voted for a Republican."
David Garrow, author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography on Dr. King, has told reporters that it is "simply incorrect to call Dr. King a Republican"…
JOHN GRANT, DAVE LINDORFF and LINN WASHINGTON, JR. are all members of ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent Project Censored Award-winning online alternative newspaper.. Their work, and that of colleagues LORI SPENCER and CHARLES M. YOUNG, can be found at http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
©MMXII The Trends Research Institute®
After that NLP right at the front of the article . . . don't be all 'MMXII' and calling yourself a 'Trends Research Institute' and not field any candidates during the election. Your single vote Mr.Lindorff, falls far short of what you could do by being a candidate in any constituency without a 3rd Party Candidate. If Dave does not run, lip service will be what a 'Trends Research Institute' will become. How about running for election in a constituency where there is no 3rd Candidate Dave? If 'Trends Research Institute' has the interest especially when USA is being wiped out, 'Trends Research Institute' will be unforgivable if 'Trends Research Institute' does not even field a single 3rd Party Candidate. Don't sell yourself short while beinng big on ego, America needs 3rd Candidates in ALL states and all districts. A single vote means nothing. This is the political and effective version of 'Occupy'. No GLC linked, no Plutocrats, no Nepotists, no persons who stayed beyond 2 terms, for a start. Show those 3rd World Countries how Occupy is done! OCCUPY ALL ELECTIONS! 3rd Force Candidates in all contested seats!
Meanwhile, would the 'Trend's Institute' like to take up the Civil case against the 'Apartheid of Bumiputra' that has caused the lack of :
1) Freedom from Apartheid/Fascism (Article 1 Human Rights Charter)
2) Freedom from Religious-Persecution/Religious-Supremacy. (Article 18 Human Rights Charter)
3) Equality for all ethnicities and faiths in all aspects of policy, Law and Constitution. (Surah An Nisa 4:75)
See what has happened in ASEAN? The Bar Council means nothing, entirely misses this sort of abuse. Don't take American freedoms for granted!
Incidentally, Obama won the 2012 Presidential election . . . congrats but PLEASE deal with the inequality in Malaysia already and perhaps make an example of Muslims who try to dhimmify free and equal citizens of the world simply because they are Muslims! Will the US Embassy in Malaysia display exceptionalism and the UN act, to end the APARTHEID of BUMIPUTERA and lack of the above 3 listed items?