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After five prime ministers in five years, many fear that Australia's political system is irrevocably broken. The Conversation, in partnership with Griffith Review, is publishing a series of essays exploring the problems surrounding, and solutions to, Australia's current political malaise.
In February 1902 – just 13 months after the Australian colonies federated to become the world's newest nation – a tall, slender woman from Portland, Victoria, was standing outside the door to the Oval Office in Washington DC. She had been summoned to the White House as somewhat of a curiosity.
Intelligent, inquisitive, and quite often irreverent, the young woman waited until she was bidden to enter. When the door opened she saw President Theodore Roosevelt, sitting with his feet up on the desk. He rushed to greet the elegantly attired woman, grabbing her hand and pumping it up and down in his vice-like grip. He shouted:
I am delighted to meet you. You're from Australia; I'm delighted to hear that.
And with that enthusiastic embrace, Vida Goldstein became the first Australian to meet an American president at the White House. Goldstein was in Washington as Australia and New Zealand's sole delegate to the International Woman Suffrage Conference. Goldstein addressed huge American audiences on one of the most controversial global issues of the day: Votes for Women.
Campaigning for women's suffrage was what Goldstein termed "the policy of concentration". The parliamentary vote was, in Goldstein's words, "the right that covered all other rights". She decried:
… the futility of working piecemeal for the emancipation of women, without the vote.
Only the vote, Goldstein argued, would ensure "the protection and prevention of degraded womanhood". Only the vote would unravel the vast web of legal, economic and social disadvantage that ensnared women and girls the world over.
Furthermore, Goldstein ardently believed that women should enter parliament, as Australian women alone in the world were entitled to do. She argued:
I have always maintained that wherever there are women's and children's interests to be considered, women should be thereto consider them.
Such a simple premise; such a revolutionary idea.
Goldstein's six-month US lecture tour was met with a diva's reception. Though prim in fashion and chaste in manner, she was both enfant terrible to the established order and darling of the avant-garde. Daily newspapers across the country covered her sold-out lectures on the topic of "The Australian Woman in Politics".
Goldstein held no doubt about her subject's international importance and interest, or her country's political superiority. But why, in that second northern winter of a new century, did the commander-in-chief of the United States of America seek an audience with a charismatic activist from the deep planetary south?
The simple answer is that Teddy Roosevelt was a political progressive. Goldstein was the most fully enfranchised woman he could yet hope to meet and he was keen to see what a member of this new breed looked like. While Roosevelt was a steadfast believer in votes for women, the American Congress would not abide it.
US congressmen put up the same arguments as conservative opponents to universal adult suffrage the world over, including numerous anti-suffrage women. In the words of one Australian politician, if women could vote, what would prevent them from seeking:
… to assume to themselves the functions of men?
Yet the woman now taking tea with the president was decidedly feminine, despite the fact that she came from the country where women had more political rights than anywhere else in the world.
In 1893, New Zealand had become the first country to give women the right to vote in national elections. But in 1902, the newly federated nation of Australia became the only country where white women could both vote and stand for election on a universal and equal basis with white men. This dual right – the complete electoral franchise and eligibility to sit in parliament – was what political philosopher John Stuart Mill termed:
… perfect equality, admitting no power of privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other.
In the very moment of its creation, Australia had instantly become a world leader. And Roosevelt, as he told Goldstein at their meeting, would be "keeping [his] eye on Australia". He considered its experiment in equality "a great object lesson".
Comparing Australia and America
Australia's geopolitical claim as one of the oldest, most stable, and most inventive parliamentary and social democracies has been well established. The secret ballot, the eight-hour day and the wage arbitration system are regularly touted as democratic landmarks with Australian origins.
Yet Australia's inimitability with regard to women's political equality has barely entered conventional studies of political history. The women's suffrage movement is more commonly treated as a discrete topic of investigation: a picturesque mainstay of the equally niche field of women's and gender history, as if the achievements and legacy of the suffrage campaigners and their supporters are merely a quaint nook in the colossal edifice of nation-building.
But at the turn of the 20th century, Australia's world-leading status as a democratic freedom fighter was no secret. In her opening address to the Washington Conference in 1902, American Suffrage League president Carrie Chapman Catt was unequivocal, if somewhat bemused, in locating Australia at the apex of women's political liberation.
The little band of Americans who initiated the modern [suffrage] movement would never have predicted that…the island continent of Australia, then unexplored wilderness, would become a great democracy where self-government would be carried on with such enthusiasm, fervor and wisdom that they would give lessons in methods and principles to all the rest of the world.
Catt then specifically referred to Goldstein as the bearer of these unexpected lessons. Australia, said Catt, was "associated in our memory of childhood's geography as the abode of strange beasts and barbarians". Yet remarkably, this bizarre land now:
… sends us a full, up-to-date representative woman, widely alive to all the refinements of life, and fully cognisant of all the rights of her sex.
Goldstein was both the literal messenger and a representative of the feminist ideals that Catt associated with Australia. Goldstein was fully aware of the leadership role she had been asked to play. She told a packed house during her address to the 34th American National Suffrage Convention in Washington in March 1902 that:
Woman suffrage is with us to stay, and that our success may hasten the day when you American women will stand before the world as political equals of your menfolk is the earnest desire of the countries which have sent me here to represent them at this great conference.
But it was not always a relationship of mutual admiration. Goldstein was critical of her host country. She told Australian audiences:
Most of us regard America as the most democratic and advanced country politically in the world. Instead it's as conservative as a country can well be. A democratic form of government does not necessarily mean that the people rule.
Goldstein offered an analysis of the root cause of the hypocrisy:
[America's] written and hidebound constitution [has] played directly into the hands of moneyed and unscrupulous politicians.
What's more, Goldstein argued:
… an abnormal material individual prosperity has contributed towards keeping [Americans] in that hypnotic state under the political machine.
In general, Goldstein was a fan of Roosevelt, but she was not a sycophant. Never one to be patronised, she cheekily parroted Roosevelt's own words to her. She wrote:
The [Australian] Federal Franchise Bill is the greatest step in the direction of political equality that we have yet seen, and must be a splendid object lesson [her emphasis] to every civilised country in the world.
With this line, Goldstein managed both to cock a snook at the US president and highlight her own country's political superiority.
Changes at home and abroad
If America was slow to take the Australasian lead, by 1908 Finland and Norway had joined Australia and New Zealand in enfranchising women. But imperialism connected British suffragists more closely to the Australian electoral experiment, providing inspiration and example.
In 1911, Emmeline Pankhurst, on behalf of the Women's Social and Political Party, recruited Goldstein to address the legions of women who were engaging in mass demonstrations and participating in targeted acts of property destruction. Thousands filled lecture halls and theatres to hear Goldstein's speeches in support of the militant British suffrage campaign.
By this time, unconvinced that gentle persuasion would make a jot of difference, the suffragists were bombing politicians' residences, setting hedge fires, breaking windows, staging mass street protests, going on hunger strikes and being force fed through nasal tubes by prison guards. The British experience of suffrage advocacy could not have been more different from Australasia's peaceful struggle for women's rights.
While in England, Goldstein formed the Australian and New Zealand Women Voters Association (London):
… with the hope that women of enfranchised dominions would help the women of England in their fight for political freedom.
Goldstein also compiled a pamphlet, The Political Woman in Australia, widely circulated in the UK, Europe and the US for propaganda purposes. She was always at pains to point out that, lo, the sky had not fallen and women had not been unsexed by their new political identity as equal citizens.
By 1910, Australia had become known around the world as a "social laboratory" celebrated for its pioneering welfare legislation. Some commentators attributed Australia's capacity for experimentation to "a new land like ours, with a restless go-ahead population".
Suffragists, however, were keen to stress the gendered nature of Australian progressivism, and were quick to note how crucial votes for women had been in igniting the flame of social change. It was the "woman citizen", claimed first-wave feminists, who mobilised trade union support for equal pay and other measures of social equity.
There were other concrete markers of the impact of female citizenship rights on women's living conditions. Prior to winning the franchise, the infant mortality rate in Australia was 111 deaths per 1000 babies. A decade later, the rate had dropped to 77.
Goldstein attributed the decline in infant mortality to the introduction of pure food laws and raising the age of consent. South Australia, the first Australian colony to enfranchise women in 1894, was also the first legislature in the world to require an "illegitimate father" to recognise his financial obligation to the mother of his child through a law called the Affiliation Act, passed in 1898 after lobbying from women's groups.
Further examples of progressive and protective actions initiated by women were pensions for invalids, pure milk laws, early closing hours for pubs and technical education for girls. Goldstein called these and other measures the "social reform legislation for which Australia is noted".
Goldstein directly attributed the success of reformist legislation to the mobilisation of female voters – many of whom would sit in the galleries of the parliament when any bill affecting women and children was debated and then interview members of parliament to urge alterations and amendments.
Suffrage as part of a wider movement
In Australia, the suffrage dream was closely aligned with other utopian visions of social and political transformation.
Sparked by the gold rushes of the 1850s, a potent amalgam of socialists, spiritualists, dissenters, eclectics, theosophists, pacifists, feminists, unionists, Unitarians, vegetarians and garden-variety liberal democrats all converged on Australia in a remarkably non-volatile brew of ideas and optimism.
By the late 19th century, Australia's utopian dreamers were not fringe-dwellers. They were bona fide members of Melbourne's legal, political, religious and social establishment. Like future prime minister Alfred Deakin, most of this clique were civicleaders, sometimes referred to as "the honest doubters".
As many women's rights activists realised, federation was the ultimate test tube in which the experimental social and spiritual optimism of the honest doubters would be crystallised.
The birth of the Australian Commonwealth was channeled through a series of constitutional conventions held in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide from 1890 to 1897. The issue was never really whether the six Australian colonies would federate, but how. This would require diminishing the power of the colonies or expanding some of their laws to benefit all citizens across the new Commonwealth.
This jurisprudential reality meant that, just as the mobilisation of the international women's movement was reaching its apex, there was suddenly a high-profile public platform on which activists could argue the case.
With spitfire efficiency, women's suffrage organisations around the country lobbied delegates to the federal conventions. The Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales (WSL), an association founded by Australian newspaper editor Louisa Lawson, submitted a petition to the Australasian Federal Convention in 1897. It was one among the hundreds sent by women's groups to convention delegates, lobbying for women's voting rights to be enshrined in the new Australian Constitution.
Leveraging the precedent of South Australia, which had already given women the right to vote and to stand for parliament, the WSL's petition urged delegates to:
… consider whether or not such franchise shall be uniform throughout all the colonies.
It was this question of uniformity – whether all women would now achieve federally what South Australian women had won locally in 1894 – that set Australia on its course to democratic distinction. The rampart was raised for a showdown between colonists' rights versus federal rights, with woman suffrage as the battering ram.
Frederick Holder, a keen federalist and treasurer of South Australia when women won their historic victory in 1894, insisted that any agreement honour the existing rights of individual colonists. At the 1897 convention in Adelaide, Holder and Charles Kingston, South Australia's premier, proposed that full voting rights for all white adults should be written into the Constitution.
Holder moved to add a clause that read:
No elector now possessing the right to vote shall be deprived of that right.
Other delegates were horrified. Edmund Barton, who would become Australia's first prime minister, saw the writing on the wall. He railed:
As I understand the suggestion, it means that if the federal parliament chooses to legislate in respect of a uniform suffrage in the Commonwealth, it cannot do so unless it makes it include female suffrage.
If South Australian women could not be stripped of their hard-won electoral rights, then the rest of Australia's women must perforce gain them. Barton's conclusion was inexorable:
It ties the hands of the federal parliament entirely.
If the clause were not approved, Holder and Kingston threatened that South Australia would vote against joining the Commonwealth. Despite Barton's protests, a poll was taken and the ayes won by three votes.
Two men from South Australia, backed by every progressive woman's organisation on the continent, had effectively made white women's suffrage the precondition of a federated Australia.
The racial qualifier is key. The earlier legislation that entrenched the White Australia Policy – the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 – was also the crucial prerequisite that made Goldstein the freest of the free when she visited America in 1902.
Further, in preserving the existing rights of colonists and extending them to all white adults, the Franchise Act of 1902 had stripped Indigenous Australians ofvoting rights. As historian Susan Magarey has argued:
Citizenship, as defined by the right to vote, could be sexually inclusive, because it had just been made racially and ethnically exclusive.
Race, not gender, defined the new Australian citizen. Historian Marilyn Lake has argued that in an international context, the federal female franchise ushered in an era of unprecedented political power for women. But what did people at the time make of the opportunistic alignment of feminism and federalism?
Spreading influence
The majority of political pundits reckoned that the social laboratory had not spawned a monster. "Votes for Women: Australia Satisfied – Letting the Empire Know", trumpeted a newspaper headline in 1910, following the Senate's decision to communicate to the British prime minister that Australia had "found [the] experiment a success".
Wrote another journalist:
The result has not produced either a heaven or a hell.
The Australian suffrage campaigners were correct to see federalism as their ticket to public influence on the grandest scale. Leaders like Goldstein readily adopted the role of international ambassador for the enlightened dawn of a new century.
On April 12, 1907, Goldstein wrote to members of the parliaments of Australia as President of the Women's Political Association. "Dear Sir," her letter began – for there were as yet no female parliamentarians, despite Goldstein's own efforts to become a senator in 1903:
We Australian women who have had our right to political liberty granted by the national parliaments and by every state parliament save one [Victoria], have been appealed to by the International Woman Suffrage Alliance to help our less fortunate fellow women in other lands.
The appeal was most forthcoming from nations:
… where it is urged by those in authority that the enfranchisement of women means social and political disaster.
Goldstein pressed the statesmen to write testimonies to the successful workings of complete adult suffrage in Australian political life. She was obliged with an avalanche of letters, including responses from Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, as well as testimonies from the attorney-general, postmaster-general and state premiers.
Even former opponents to women's suffrage like Thomas Waddel, the colonial secretary of NSW, testified that women:
… exercise the franchise wisely and I feel sure that their influence in public life will be all for good.
Goldstein was able to forward a thick stack of letters of endorsement from respectable and influential men to the campaign leaders of her "less fortunate fellow women" abroad.
On November 17, 1910, the Senate went one step better in touting Australia's democratic credentials when it unanimously passed the Votes for Women Resolution – a confidence motion in its own first decade of nationhood. The motion read:
Because [universal suffrage] has brought nothing but good, though disaster was freely prophesised [sic], we respectfully urge that all nations enjoying representative government would be well advised in granting votes to women.
If this sounds fresh, there was more hubris to come.
Our young Australian nation is bound to achieve greatness.
Why such a glorious destiny? Because Australia was, in the words of the senators, "the first nation to make justice the foundation of its constitution". And it was not just women who thought as much. The motion concluded:
Woman suffrage has done for Australia all and more than its leaders claimed for it. No self-governing country can prosper without the political aid of women. It is a necessary factor in securing the moral and spiritual progress of the individual and of the nation.
The senators were highly aware of the inherent role reversal in the colonies giving political tuition to the Empire. One claimed that Australia – though the child – had every right to give advice to Britain – the mother. His rationale?
We are, in politics, the pacemakers of the world.
Copies of the Senate's bumptious resolution were circulated and published abroad.
Judging by the 1910 Senate's vote of self-confidence in its own destiny, the auspicious occasion (if there must be just one) when Australia overcame its self-doubt and believed itself to be a nation, in fact occurred prior to any military battle on foreign soil.
Five years before Gallipoli, the Commonwealth of Australia asserted that it was "bound to achieve greatness" because of its democratic agility and proficiency, its sociopolitical courage and grace.
It might even be that the establishment of the Anzac legend and the trumpeting of a distinctive, world-leading constitutional equity were two sides of the same coin. "Both the feminist/reformist/federation story and the masculinist/digger/Gallipoli story" assumed that Australia could create a new imperial nation that would simultaneously embody racial superiority while rejecting the political inequalities and hierarchies of the old world.
Though not all first-wave feminists agreed, militarism and maternalism were not necessarily mutually exclusive. The belief that Australia had something valuable to contribute to the world continued beyond the disastrous landing at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.
In 1917, six years after Goldstein's sold-out lecture tour of Britain and at the height of the Great War, the Australian Commonwealth once again agreed to send a message to the world. While ostensibly a message of hope to King George V, it was not a felicitation for his newly named House of Windsor, nor a pledge of solidarity for the war effort. It was, instead, an appeal for political reform, bordering on a taunt to keep up with the precocious Australians.
The parliamentary missive began:
Appreciating the blessings of self-government in Australia through adult suffrage, we are deeply interested in the welfare of the women of the Empire and we again humbly petition Your Majesty to endow them with that right of self-government for which they have petitioned for nearly three-quarters of a century.
Perhaps this can be read as the trademark tactic of an adolescent, cutting an arrogant parent down to size with evidence of her own incompetence. But more likely, Australians were deeply aware of the unique contribution they had made to the advancement of democratic principles and institutions – a profound sense of commitment to the international cause of political equality, spurred on by confidence in their own social experiment of change and reform.
Maturity was not simply tested by readiness for war. And "growth" was not measured in imperial pencil marks on a military doorframe, but by more psychosocial notions of human development. Australia was justly proud that its first success had been the peaceful negotiation of the transnational need for women's political emancipation.
As Bishop JE Mercer argued in his contribution to Goldstein's cache of support letters:
Australia was reaping the reward of having responded to the unanswerable appeal to justice.
Selling the campaign
In the decade that followed the Washington International Suffrage Convention, the Australian press was also keen to herald Australia's landmark status on the American political landscape.
"American Suffragettes. Praise for Australia", screamed one newspaper headline, when a deputation of American women's rights activists appeared before the Home Rules Committee of the House of Representatives in December 1913. The Australian experience of women's suffrage was "quoted in favour of the proposal" by the deputation.
The Melbourne Argus similarly reported American suffragists' disappointment and disgust when Woodrow Wilson failed to mention the American women's suffrage campaign in his Congressional Christmas address in December 1913.
Why would a Melbourne newspaper consider this seemingly immaterial aspect of American domestic policy relevant to its readers, other than as a tacit nod to Australia's continued primacy in progressive legislation? Pride in Australia's democratic superiority endured. Australian newspapers consistently reported Wilson's inability to get a universal suffrage bill through Congress throughout the war years.
As historian Hilary Golder has argued, though many Australian feminists in the Federation era were strong nationalists (as well as pacifists), they leapt at the opportunity to become involved in international suffrage campaigns, lending guidance and advice as well as participating in "performative activism".
It was possible to be both proud Australians and loyal "women of the Empire". In June 1911, Australians Alice Henry, Dora Montefiore, Nellie Martel and Murial Matters joined with Goldstein and Margaret Fisher, wife of Australia's then-prime minister Andrew Fisher, to march in the Great Suffrage Petition in London.
Goldstein and Fisher carried a banner on behalf of Australia and New Zealand imploring England to:
Trust the women, Mother, As I Have Done.
The banner, painted by the Australian expatriate artist Dora Meeson Coates, dripped with symbolism. It depicted a young woman bearing a shield of the Southern Cross, humbly petitioning a maternal Britannia to listen to her cause. Maiden Australia's hand is upturned in supplication; Mother England stares diffidently into the distance.
The image is not one of cross-gender antagonism, but of intergenerational conflict and negotiation. In the mother–daughter dyad, the psychic health of the daughter requires that she go her own way, but not antagonise or hurt the resentful mother, who needs her to remain a beloved friend and comrade.
The antipodean suffrage banner can be read as a symbolic cutting of apron strings. Mother England gives her colonial daughter the cold shoulder; the nubile offspring must stand her ground. This feminised coming-of-age story, implicit in Australia's critical role in the British suffrage campaigns, provides an alternative to the androcentric underpinnings of Gallipoli's enduring "birth of a nation" mystique.
If the philosophical and practical leadership of women in stewarding Britain through a time of political upheaval focused on women's transnational relationships, as Goldstein herself noted:
… one feature in the Suffrage Campaign in Australia makes it radically different from that in any country – the readiness of our men to admit that our cause was a just one, and entitled to immediate recognition.
Goldstein may be overstating her case, given that the Australian suffrage campaign began as early as 1869 and thus lasted 33 years. Also, other suffragists described Australian men as behaving like pompous benefactors or as surrendering reluctantly to the inevitable. In April 1902, Jessie Ackerman bemoaned the number of politicians who put themselves on a pedestal:
… halo in hand, to anoint himself high priest, and claim the glory touch of shepherding the women into the kingdom of federal citizenship.
Ackerman was quick to point out that the Commonwealth parliament enfranchised its women because it had no constitutional choice. She concluded:
There is, therefore, little credit due to an "unbounded generosity" on the part of men. There was no alternative.
Goldstein believed that in Australia, the political faultline lay not between men and women, but between conservatives and progressives. She also criticised Australia's self-styled "new women" for their own failure to fulfil the promise of their early electoral equality.
Returning to Australia after the intense fellowship and purpose of London's mass demonstrations and overflowing lecture theatres, Goldstein began to despair that after a decade of voting rights but no elected female representation, Australian women seemed to have lapsed into an apathetic status quo. "Enfranchised women of Australia," she beseeched her sisters from street corners, copies of her Woman Voter journal in hand, "rise to your responsibilities, to your potentialities".
Though the absolute numbers of female voters almost doubled between 1903 and 1910, Goldstein was not convinced that women were doing enough to prove that female political power was a force for good. Goldstein had an evangelical vision of Australia's global mission that was not dissimilar to the male advocates of the federalist movement, who viewed Australia as a salve to old world ills.
The Brisbane Worker had declared in January 1901:
From the first to the last keynote of Australian provincial progress has been democracy, this is Australia's manifest destiny if she is to fulfil any nobler destiny than the nations decayed and decaying.
Australian suffragists benefited from a timely alignment between the ideals of international feminism and the historical coincidence of federalism – a sense of providence about the role that a new country could play in the worn-out routines of global political housekeeping.
Where are we now?
So what has happened since then to shift the national conversation from Australia's youthful, maverick mission as a global innovator to a country of politically timorous conformists?
One cultural trend stands out. Australia's collective memory of the international achievements of its homegrown suffrage movement has faded in inverse proportion to the popularity of the Anzac legend. Militarism has won the public relations campaign for the "birth of a nation" mantle. Most Australian feminists believed as fervently in disarmament as suffrage. It was indeed the latter that should, in theory, have produced the former.
Yet Gallipoli also represented the heady, irresistible triumvirate of militarism, empire and race. But in the wake of a world war, any idea of Australian isolationism seemed increasingly untenable given, as the historian Audrey Oldfield has put it, "the historical imperatives of Australia's geographical position".
Most Australian suffragists, including Goldstein, believed whole-heartedly in the wisdom of a White Australia. As the British Empire crumbled under the weight of its own racial pecking orders, American global dominance took hold under Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Underpinned by the same imperialist subservience that ultimately fuelled the Anzac legend, with its heroically active men and patriotically domestic women, the transnational potential for feminists to take a leading role on the world stage was impaired. Australia's relevance as a youthful ambassador for change diminished as its acquiescent ties to Mother England remained stubbornly tangled.
In October 2011, former prime minister Malcolm Fraser expressed his anxiety at Australia's lack of political pluck when he addressed an open letter from prominent Australians to Prime Minister Julia Gillard on the issue of the humane processing of refugees. Fraser exhorted:
Seize the opportunity to exhibit leadership, not just at home, but also on the world stage.
Fraser gave a concrete example of the form such moral courage might take: why not implement measures that would "serve as an incentive and an example for members of the UNHCR Working Group on Resettlement, which Australia currently chairs".
Channelling the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt, Fraser concluded:
Make no mistake, the world is watching. Australia has a chance to not only salvage our reputation but set an example for our friends and allies around the world.
In October 2012, Gillard took up the challenge, though not on the issue that Fraser pre-empted. "I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man," Australia's first female prime minister fairly roared at a smirking opposition leader, Tony Abbott. And the world was watching.
Via the internet, millions viewed "the misogyny speech" in a global fascination with Australia's female pluck. World leaders rang Gillard to congratulate her on calling out the entrenched prejudice towards women in public and professional life. International journalists used the Australian precedent to focus attention on their domestic politics. As Amelia Lester wrote in The New Yorker:
After his performance last week, supporters of president Obama, watching Gillard cut through the disingenuousness and feigned moral outrage of her opponent to call him out for his own personal prejudice, hypocrisy, and aversion to facts, might be wishing their man would take a lesson from Australia.
US President Barack Obama reportedly mentioned the speech to Gillard when she rang to congratulate him on his 2012 election victory.
Thus, more than a century on from Goldstein's historic visit to the Oval Office, a hint of antipodean evangelism has recently re-entered the sphere of international politics.
Perhaps, with the global challenges of the 21st century, Australia can reassert its erstwhile youthful exuberance and once again be proud to call itself a trailblazing leader – a nation where justice serves as the foundation of its moral constitution.
A longer version of this essay was published in the Journal of Women's History.
You can read a longer version of this article and others from the Griffith Review's latest edition here.


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Brookfield Communities has partnered with Keller Williams – the largest residential brokerage firm in the U.S. – to market and sell homes at its Fox Creek master-plan development in Bullhead City.
The partnership, finalized last week, will give Fox Creek significant growth opportunities, said Brookfield Communities founder and president, Phil Petersen.
"This is a strategic and important move for Brookfield Communities," said Petersen, who started Fox Creek nearly 20 years ago and continues to grow the community. "We are excited to partner with the experienced Keller Williams team."
More than 40 realtors from Keller Williams have already begun marketing homes at Fox Creek. Leading the marketing efforts for Richard Lerma and the Bullhead City Keller Williams office will be the husband and wife team, Chas and Jill Williams.
"This is like coming home for us since we started our careers at Fox Creek nearly 10 years ago," said Chas Williams, who lives in Fox Creek.
Petersen said the timing of the partnership was optimal since the residential market has been steadily improving. Since opening a new model home complex earlier this year, Fox Creek has seen record traffic. Brookfield Communities also recently added an additional 173 acres of land to its existing 750-acre Fox Creek development.
"The alliance with Keller Williams opens the door to an entire nation of prospective buyers," said Lerma, operating principal for Keller Williams and its Bullhead City office. "Home values are up across the board and those who have been waiting on the sidelines are now looking to buy."
Lerma's team generated more than $78 million in revenues last year and is on track to surpass $100 million this year. While 40 agents will initially work on the Fox Creek team, additional team members may be added as demand dictates, Lerma said.
In addition, Fox Creek now becomes an integral part of Keller Williams Internet marketing programs, further showcasing the community to a broad array of audiences.
For additional information, visit www.brookfieldcommunities.com or call (928) 704-0525.

subset: commoncrawl


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While American museums are slowly supporting popular animation, Japan's Suginami Animation Museum has been eagerly embracing it since 2005. Their past exhibitions have examined Astro Boy and "eastern anime." The museum values anime even if it's made for little kids.
This spring the Suginami Animation Museum is holding a special exhibit on the Pokemon anime. While the museum regularly has exhibits on popular anime, Pokemon is one of the few successful anime based on a video game rather than a manga. Outside Japan, we may have to settle for unusually good fan art.


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It's the last day of January, and I already have cabin fever. Normally the winter weather doesn't really get to me until early March, and I then I start to dream and plan my summer garden. This year my cabin fever started way too early. I don't usually let the weather stop me from keeping to my normal schedule and doing my normal activities. I am blaming it on the extreme weather that Chicago has experienced for the entire month of January 2014.
After all, I come from sturdy stock … I used to work outside on the ramp at O'Hare for over 15 years, for goodness sakes. While we have experienced extreme low temperatures a few times this past month, we haven't broken the record. I vividly remember experiencing that record low temp of -24 (without the windchill) on January 20, 1985 … it was my first day working at O'Hare! I remember thinking to myself, "what in the world was I thinking?? I had a nice, warm, comfy desk job at a travel agency on Michigan Avenue". Of course, I survived and have great stories to tell from that day. It was a great job, with great travel benefits. I have many wonderful memories of this time … it was the perfect job for me during my single days 🙂
According to the Chicago Weather Center Blog, we haven't broken the record for snowfall this month either, but our 33.5 inches takes 3rd place in the record book. The blizzard in January of 1979 gave that month a total of 40.4 inches to take 2nd place. I remember making a lot of $$$ shoveling people out that winter 🙂 The 1st place Chicago snowfall record is from 1918 with 42.5 inches … wow!
They are predicting more snow for tomorrow, so it appears February will be more of the same, yippee! Oh well … I'll have to figure out someway to keep myself amused in my nice, warm cozy "cabin" for a while longer. Don't be surprised if I have a really big garden this spring 🙂
Tell me some of the things you do while spending these cold and snowy days at home …


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Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Suddenly Last Summer - Review
Rating: 4 Stars
Source: NetGalley
Description: In this second book about the O'Neill brothers Morgan takes us back Snow Crystal to spend some time with Elise Phillipe and Sean O'Neil. Ever since their one night stand the summer before Sean and Elise have had a hard time hiding their attraction to each other. Since Sean doesn't come home to Snow Crystal very often it generally isn't a problem. That is until family patriarch Walter has a heart attack and Sean ends up staying longer than anticipated to heal old wounds and maybe build a future.
Genre: Romance
Why I Picked This Book: I've heard fantastic things about Sarah Morgan and I love books involving chefs. After I read the first in the series (review) I'm glad I requested this ahead of time.
My Impression:
Pro: Once again Morgan gives us 2 very developed characters with Sean and Elise. They both have back stories that make their phobias about relationships makes sense. The attraction was evident but they also really liked and respected each other as well. I liked that they both seemed to need each other even thought that was the last thing they wanted. It was lovely to revisit Snow Crystal and see the changes to the resort as well as check in with Kayla and Jackson from the previous book. Once again, the character development seemed very natural and authentic. I liked that for Sean there was no big giant a-ha moment it was more like a slow thawing. Elise was much more dramatic but it fit her character as well. All the descriptions of food made my mouth water. If it was a real place Elise's restaurant would be in my top ten places to visit list!
Con: It was a bit predictable. Since it was a delightful contemporary this didn't really bother me but I could guess what was going to happen well in advance.
Overall: This is definitely a fun follow up to Sleigh Bells in the snow. I really enjoyed that these were people with a bit of history. This can be read as a stand alone but it'd be better read after Sleigh Bells in the Snow. Plus is you miss Sleigh Bells in the Snow you'd be missing a great book.
Would I Read More of this Series/Author?: Looking forward to #3!
Would I Recommend this Book?: Definitely! If you enjoy contemporary romance don't miss this series.
12 comments:
It sounds like the characters' evolution, particularly Sean's, is realistically portrayed. I like the sound of this one and will add it to my wish list. Just need to make a note to read it after Sleigh Bells in the Snow.ReplyDeleteReplies
Definitely read Sleigh Bells first. While this could be read alone you'd definitely miss a lot of the back story. I did really like Sean and his evolution. Definitely a fun read!Delete
I have this one on my kindle just waiting to be read. Like you, I enjoyed the first one, too! I have a thing about reading series in order - that's how authors write them, so why not read them that way! Plus, the character development make way more sense!!! Great review!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks! This was a really fun read. I agree about reading a series in order. Reviewing messes with that sometimes but if let to my own devices it makes me itch to go out of order - the only exception being Shalvis' Lucky Harbor series but because that's a collection of trilogies but even then you need to read the trilogies in order. This one is definitely a series you need to read in order. Without Sleigh Bells you miss SO much back story!Delete
Good review, Katherine! I like the sound of these main characters, and I'm all in favor of mutual liking and respect. I haven't read any of Sarah Morgan, but between this one and Sleigh Bells in the Snow, I'm beginning to think I should give her a try.ReplyDeleteReplies
I've read a few lately where one character obviously had zero respect for the other character and it made it impossible to believe in an HEA. I've been really pleased with the 2 Morgans I've tried. There's some humor but there's also past issues that need to be resolved. I think you'd like this series Lark!Delete
I can handle predictable in this type of read, after all we know from the get go we will get our HEA..or heads will roll! LOL I am glad you enjoyed this, I really liked the little side stories in this one.ReplyDeleteReplies
The predictable didn't really bother me either because yeah if I don't get my HEA it's not going to be a good day! I really enjoyed this one and I'm glad you told me to read Sleigh Bells first because I was all set to read it out of order. Looking forward to the next one!Delete
I keep hearing excellent things about Morgan's books. I really need to try them and like Lark I can handle a little predictability, especially if the story is well done.ReplyDeleteReplies
I feel exactly the same way about predictability. Plus with a romance we kind of know what direction the story is going in! It's definitely worth a read Bea!Delete
- AnonymousAugust 13, 2014 at 9:06 PM
I want to read these! I have been wanting to branch out more into contemporary romances but in that gap between too sweet and too sexy, if possible :) I will add this author to my list now.ReplyDeleteReplies
I know what you mean about the gap and I think this might fit. It's got a little bit of spice but not so much that I feel like that's all that's going on. I've had mixed results with contemps but so far this series hasn't let me down. You may also want to try Donna Kauffman's Blueberry Cover series. I read the 2nd one and while there were some flaws it ended up being a really enjoyable book and the setting is a small Maine fishing village.Delete


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An Old Milwaukee Christmas
Chamber Theatre's "Miracle on South Division Street" feels very Milwaukee, despite creaky script.
Each holiday season there is a glorious quest for the holy grail among all local arts and theater groups: the search for a Christmas perennial as enduring as A Christmas Carol has proven for the Milwaukee Rep for 41 years at the Pabst Theater, as beloved as the annual TV screening of the movie It's a Wonderful Life (which has also been attempted locally as a stage adaptation) and as big a family favorite as The Nutcracker (all hail Tchaikovsky) for the Milwaukee Ballet.
That's a hard list to crack. But each season, local groups try and try again for something that can at least return seasonally as both a holiday and aesthetic winner. Next Act didn't try this year. The Skylight relies on famous family Broadway fare like Annie. In Tandem Theatre, after having tried to establish A Cudahy Christmas Carol, has switched to a high comedy Scrooge in Rouge. Acacia Theatre offers Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol – and interestingly all the variations, openly borrow from Dickens' A Christmas Carol. They bend the knee to the king.
That includes the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre's new offering through Dec. 17, a comedic family drama with a title that sounds pure Milwaukee — except it's pure Buffalo: Miracle on South Division Street presented on the studio stage of the Broadway Theatre Center.
Playwright Tom Dudzick and artistic director C. Michael Wright are both from Buffalo and enjoy mining the similarities of their youth. You'd swear set designer Stephen Hudson-Mallet had raided a local Riverwest kitchen for the furniture and costume designer Debra Krajec had shopped Goodwill for accuracy. Their crafts are more difficult than they look.
Dudzik is a veteran of seasonal stage offerings. His Nowak family lives off a legend that the Virgin Mary appeared to their late grandfather, who commissioned a lovely statue that visitors drop coins in to pray for them while the homeless flock to a soup kitchen on hallowed ground.
If the play was as strong as the actors assembled, this would have a chance at becoming a seasonal Miracle. Anyone raised Catholic, or Jewish for that matter, will recognize the family types and confusion, but Dudzik hits too many stereotypical bells along the way, only partly rescued by some topical wisecracks that are not as funny as the actors who deliver them.
The cast is eking everything it can from the situations, operating with a relaxed comfort and affection for the popup types it has been handed. If there is a realistic chord to be struck, they find it. A fresh chord? That would have been up to the writer, though director Wright tries to help by moving the cast of four nimbly around the busy kitchen table.
Kat Wodtke has wonderful directness and frank humor as daughter Ruth, trying to hide some secrets, forced to handle each plot unwrapping after almost endless sidesteps by Dudzik trying to be funny or subtle in the exposes. Greta Wohlrabe as sister Beverly is spot-on as the wisecracking constant doubter who charges in like Thelma Ritter unleashed.
Josh Krause is the "go along get along" laid-back brother Jimmy, who becomes the audience's voice as he makes honest mischief about his family's behavior. Krause has a natural stage charm that fits this part perfectly.
The centerpiece matron, Clara, is the veteran Raeleen McMillion, who never misses a laugh or a heartstring pull anywhere near her in a performance better than the choppy character is written. Clara has to go through many changes in mood that the writer hasn't connected, but the actress sure tries to, sometimes forcing us to remember a considerably less pliant Clara from a minute ago.
As the newly educated family faces its finale, Miracle on South Division Street intends holiday cheer — to make us leave in high spirits and goodwill toward all. If only acting alone could create a perennial.
Miracle on South Division Street Gallery
Dominique Paul Noth served for decades as film and drama critic, later senior editor for features at the Milwaukee Journal. You'll find his blog here and here.
Elsa's Has a Unique Parisian FlairJun 11th, 2023 by Cari Taylor-Carlson
Barnacle Bud's Is Nautical and NiceJun 6th, 2023 by Cari Taylor-Carlson
Skylight Wows With New Rock MusicalJun 1st, 2023 by Dominique Paul Noth
Skylight Wows With New Rock MusicalJun 1st, 2023 by Dominique Paul Noth
It's About This Guy Named ShakespeareMay 1st, 2023 by Dominique Paul Noth
Rep's 'God of Carnage' Has Plenty Of ItApr 24th, 2023 by Dominique Paul Noth


text: Get ready to cuddle up with your very own World Plush Toys Emoji Large Poop Plush. A fun addition to your toy collection, this Poop Emoji plush features soft material making it incredibly comfy that's great for hugging, roughhousing or taking naps with. Our plush toys are high quality, very soft, packed full of stuffing, and shows up in an air vacuumed sealed bag, ready to be opened up and played with right away. Get this awesome World Plush Toys Emoji Large Poop Plush today!


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A legal challenge to proposed affordable housing at Fort Lawton, the former Army base next to Discovery Park, appears to be on its last legs. If the city's hearing examiner dismisses the case, which has been going on, in various forms, since 2008, the city will finally be able to proceed on plans to build hundreds of units of housing on the site, which the Army formally mothballed in 2011.
Elizabeth Campbell, the Magnolia activist who has filed appeal after appeal to stall the development, did not show up at a scheduled meeting with the hearing examiner last week, which had already been postponed for a month at Campbell's request so that she could get an attorney to represent her. (Campbell asked for a stay, initially, because of a planned vacation; later, she asked for more time because of an illness. The result has been additional months of delay.)
At the meeting last week, hearing examiner Ryan Vancil set a schedule for the rest of the hearing process, but noted that because Campbell has missed numerous deadlines for providing evidence, calling witnesses, and appointing counsel, any arguments she makes from this point forward must be restricted to purely legal theory, and can't include any new facts or evidence.
At the conference last week, Vancil noted that Campbell had not called to let him know she would not be showing up, and noted that he would be justified in dismissing the case based on her "failure to prosecute," but said that "out of an abundance of caution," that he wanted to give her one last chance to reply to the city in the case. In his order, Vancil wrote that:
Appellants' failure to appear at the pre-hearing conference, failure to file exhibit and witness lists, and apparent failure to secure counsel as a result of the stay are sufficient grounds for this matter to be dismissed. However, the Appellants will be afforded a final opportunity to pursue their case. As there is no opportunity remaining for Appellants to introduce new evidence or testimony, the hearing for this matter scheduled for Monday October 29, 2018 is canceled. The parties will address any remaining issues in this matter in the form of legal briefing.
Campbell, who did not respond to a request for comment, has until this Friday, November 2, to file a closing brief in her case.


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Meet Sugar Mummy in Cross River State.
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Links for this Episode:
Wonkette welcomes the newest abstinence-only Palin baby.
Ruth Marcus goes 1990's Villager again regarding Bill Clinton.
Karoli points out bigots should not have a "fair voice."
Trailer for Spotlight
Trailer for The Big Short
The Professional Left Podcast reviewed at Daily Kos
Where Dog Faced Herman got his name.
The button below allows listeners to throw a contribution specifically towards the Professional Left Podcast. Thanks for your listenership and support!


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Horizon League Tournament
Final - Butler vs. UW-Milwaukee, 9 p.m. EST, ESPN
Root for Butler. If Milwaukee wins, there's a chance Butler wouldn't get an at-large bid, but there's also a chance they remain in the field and the Panthers steal an at-large. Better safe than sorry when it comes to the mid-major teams. We learned this the hard way last season with Utah State and UTEP.
Coverage: SBN Cleveland and Mid-Major Madness
Big East Tournament
First Round - Marquette vs. Providence, 9 p.m. EST, ESPNUVA
Root for Providence. As a staunch supporter of Warrior basketball, it pains me to say this. However, Marquette is a fellow bubble team and a fellow bubble team that right now is on much better footing than the Hokies. A loss to the Friars in the first round of the conference tournament wouldn't light Marquette's resume on fire, but it would at least give it a nice, ugly cigarette burn.
Coverage: SBN New York and Anonymous Eagle
Monday's Results
Old Dominion's win over Virginia Commonwealth was a big one for the Hokies, keeping the Rams out of the big dance and keeping the CAA at two bids. Gonzaga's win over Saint Mary's might have been moot. Most bracket projections had both the Bulldogs and the Gaels on equal footing, so odds are both would have made it to the tournament regardless of the outcome.


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The Ambassador hotel in Jerusalem was the setting, on Wednesday, November 26, for a press conference called under UN auspices to announce the launching of the "2009 Consolidated Appeal," a fund-raiser with a goal of bringing in $462 million for UN and NGO humanitarian assistance programs in the "occupied Palestinian territories" (by which is meant Judea and Samaria, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem). While 159 projects are expected to benefit, $275 million is earmarked for UNRWA – the UN Relief and Works Agency, responsible for Palestinian Arab refugees.
Presentations – by Maxwell Gaylard, UN Humanitarian Coordinator; Philippe Lazzarin, Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; and Filippo Grandi, Deputy Commissioner-General of UNRWA -. focused on the hardship endured by the "oPt" residents as a result of Israeli practices.
Of primary concern was the Israeli closure of Gaza: Gaylard reported that the Israeli position is to keep crossings into Gaza closed as long as rockets [shot from Gaza into Israel] continue, with humanitarian goods permitted to go in if the rockets stop. But, he said, with crossings frequently shut down, even basic supplies are not reaching the people.
In any event, he declared, "we want more than this." While allowing that the rockets attacks are to be condemned, he explained that the UN wants the crossings opened more fully, with imports and exports moving in and out. What's happening now, he stated, is "collective punishment." When queried by a journalist as to whether he was demanding that Israel open the crossings fully even if the rockets kept flying, he skirted the question.
Lazzarin made it clear that from a UN perspective there was a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Gaylord concurred, indicating it was so severe that the closure represented an "assault on every human right."
A brief discussion was held regarding the growing number of blackouts in Gaza caused by failure of an electric transmitter, either because fuel or parts for repair were not available.
Grande lamented the fact that during the truce [the last five months of relative calm] there has been only a disappointing 20% increase in the transport of goods into Gaza, so that UNRWA still has not been able to bring in sufficient humanitarian supplies. He noted that 12 UNRWA trucks bearing supplies were expected to be allowed through that day.
A subsequent interview with Shlomo Dror, spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Defense, provided a perspective vastly at odds with that presented at the press conference. In some instances, Dror directly refuted statements made by the UN representatives:
Most significantly, he stated that it is absolutely not Israeli policy to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza only when the rockets stop. While a broader opening of the crossings is keyed to a cessation of rocket attacks, humanitarian supplies are permitted in whenever it is possible to open a crossing. Evidence of this is provided by the fact that trucks went into Gaza on November 29, the day of the press conference, even though rockets had been launched that day, and for three days prior. Grande referred to 12 UNRWA trucks, but there are also other agencies at work. In total that day, 40 trucks went through.
The point ignored by UNRWA, when it complains about closed crossings, is that the crossings themselves are often under attack – by bombs and shootings, and the Israeli operating personnel endangered. What UNRWA officials are actually demanding is that Israelis risk their lives so that goods can move through.
Yet, never, said Dror, has he heard a word regarding Hamas culpability. Never has there been a demand by the UN that terrorists stop targeting the crossings, because this makes it impossible for Israel to open them.
It is a mark of Israeli intentions that funds were spent revamping the Keren Shalom crossing to permit passage of a greater number of trucks.
Dror explained that sometimes when there is a lull in rocket launchings into Israel, the crossings are still targeted and must stay closed. But even then Gazans seeking medical help are allowed into Israel. And water and electric power supplied to Gaza by Israel continue to flow without stop. (As Israel supplies 70% of Gaza's electric power, and Egypt another 5%, it makes little sense to talk about blackouts because a generator isn't working.)
Dror categorically denies there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. There are dozens of tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, and every sort of material imaginable moves into Gaza, with the exception of generator fuel.
"Even cows are brought through the tunnels."
Last January, when the fence at Rafah was breached and Gazans by the thousands moved into the Sinai, it was said these were people suffering a lack of essential goods. But, said Dror, many were seen bringing back TVs and satellite dishes.
Arlene Kushner, senior policy analyst for the Center for Near East Policy Research, writes extensively on UNRWA. Her most recent report, just completed, is "UNRWA: Overview and Policy Critique."


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Patient enrolment into the international Phase IIIb RE-DUAL PCI study is complete. The study is evaluating the safety and efficacy of dabigatran (Pradaxa, Boehringer Ingelheim) in patients with atrial fibrillation undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). A press release notes that this is the first time that two dosages of a non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC) already approved for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation have been evaluated in a dual versus triple antithrombotic regimen after PCI.
Up to two million anticoagulated patients in Europe are candidates for PCI procedures, and these procedures are associated with a risk of serious complications caused by blood clots, including stroke, myocardial infarction, and other major adverse cardiac events. The current standard of care involves taking three antithrombotic treatments together to prevent these complications, but the associated risk of bleeding increases with the number of antithrombotic treatments combined. Therefore, the aim of RE-DUAL PCI is to assess the role of dabigatran in this context.
RE-DUAL PCI lead investigator Christopher Cannon (executive director, Cardiometabolic Trials, Baim Institute for Clinical Research, Boston, USA) says: "Up to 30% of atrial fibrillation patients may have coronary artery disease and require PCI, yet to date only limited data exist on the use of the NOACs during this procedure. The RE-DUAL PCI study will provide new insights into antithrombotic treatment approaches in atrial fibrillation patients requiring PCI. We expect the results to be highly clinically relevant for practicing physicians who treat patients such as these in routine care, as the study uses the two dabigatran doses already internationally approved for stroke risk reduction in atrial fibrialltion."
RE-DUAL PCI is part of Boehringer Ingelheim's programme of research into anticoagulation care for patients and physicians. The results of the study are expected during the second half of 2017.


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Kerry Diamond
Kerry graduated from Aber in 1979 with a BSc(Econ) in Economics and International Politics.
What do you remember most about your time in Aber?
My father advised me not to work too hard as I would never have the opportunity to explore and experience so much again in my life! I was naturally a little studious but did thankfully take his advice. I met my husband (who was in his second year) in my first term and I ended up switching from Economics and Accounting to Economics and International Politics, which meant we could study together and discuss some of the more challenging International political issues - which we still do today. I was in Neuadd Penbryn in my first year and was lucky enough to have a front facing room and the sunsets were simply amazing. As we didn't have a car or much money we walked everywhere and a treat on a Saturday night was to share a fishcake and chips on the Prom. I bought my husband his first wetsuit soon after we met and I vividly remember him changing in my Great Aunt's front room in Cambrian Street and then walking through the town to the beach to meet up with the others, with Great Aunt Katie running after him with a packet of biscuits for after his dive.
What are you doing now career wise and how has your Aberystwyth Degree helped?
After ditching accounting in my first year I ended up qualifying as an accountant as soon as I left University, after analysing the job market and realising there was a severe shortage of accountants. I started as a trainee in North Wales and moved to Herefordshire in 1996. I returned to Wales with a move to a German automotive company in the Welsh Valleys in 2000 and shortly afterwards joined the Welsh Investment and Development Advisory Board as a Panel Member and am now the Chair. I commuted to Brussels for a year on an international assignment for the company and now am CFO of a group of companies in the R&D sector working on Electric Cars, Autonomous Driving and Motorsport which has been quite exciting. I am currently Vice Chair of the Stoke and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership in my spare time and get involved in a number of Boards and working parties related to state aid and latterly Brexit preparation. My degree topics have often opened up useful discussions over the years and helped me be more aware of cultural difficulties and the importance of history during my time in Belgium and on business trips across Eastern Europe and the Far East.
What advice would you have for a student doing your course now?
I would advise anybody studying Economics or International Politics now to read around the subject widely to get context and to be prepared research independently and thoroughly, and to challenge everything. We are in an era of distortion and bias so it's important to see both sides of the debate and critically analyse what is put forward.


text: Press Releases Quakertown, Sellersville to Receive Recreation Grants, Staats Says Nov. 14, 2019 / HARRISBURG – Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) announced today that Quakertown and Sellersville boroughs will receive more than $370,000 in state recreation and conservation grants for improvements to local parks. Governor Signs Staats Bill to Overhaul Career and Technical Education, Promote Workforce Development Nov. 01, 2019 / HARRISBURG – This week, Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law a bill sponsored by Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks), which represents the most significant reform of Pennsylvania's career and technical (CTE) education laws in more than 30 years. House Liquor Control Committee Advances Staats Bill to Free Up Old Hotel Licenses Oct. 21, 2019 / HARRISBURG – By a unanimous vote, the House Liquor Control Committee today approved legislation, sponsored by Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks), which would permit owners of old hotel licenses to convert them to restaurant liquor licenses. Staats Bill to Overhaul Career and Technical Education Headed to Governor's Desk Sep. 26, 2019 / HARRISBURG – A bill sponsored by Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks), which represents the most significant reform of Pennsylvania's career and technical (CTE) education laws in more than 30 years, passed a major hurdle today and is now on its way to becoming law. Portion of Bucks Road to be Named in Honor of Hometown Hero Aug. 12, 2019 / WHAT: A group of area lawmakers will hold a ceremony to dedicate a portion of PA Route 563 in Bucks County in honor of a World War II machine gunner from Bucks County, who was killed in action. House Liquor Control Committee Hearing to Explore Conversion of Old Hotel Licenses Jul. 18, 2019 / WHAT: The House Liquor Control Committee will hold a public hearing in Philadelphia regarding legislation to permit owners of old hotel licenses to convert them to restaurant liquor licenses. House Bill 1617 would give owners of hotel licenses, issued prior to 1949, a window during which they could apply to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to convert them to restaurant licenses. The move would give the licensees greater flexibility in the transferability of the licenses. House Amends Staats Legislation to Include Bipartisan Career, Technical Education Bills Jun. 28, 2019 / HARRISBURG – A bill sponsored by Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) that would save students time and money by providing them with access to information regarding the transfer policies of educational institutions was amended today to include a bipartisan package of career and technical education (CTE) bills to help prepare high school and college students for the jobs awaiting them. Staats Bill to Give Students Greater Access to Transfer Policy Information Wins Unanimous House Approval Mar. 19, 2019 / HARRISBURG – By a unanimous vote today, the House advanced legislation sponsored by Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks), which aims to save high school and college students time and money by providing them with information on the transfer policies of educational institutions. Governor Unveils $34.2 Billion Budget Plan at State Capitol Feb. 07, 2019 / HARRISBURG – Gov. Tom Wolf delivered his state budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly today, unveiling a plan that proposes to hike spending by $927 million, according to Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) Staats Named to Five House Committees in New Term Jan. 22, 2019 / HARRISBURG – The House Republican Caucus announced its committee assignments this week, naming Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) to five committees for the 2019-20 Legislative Session. Staats Expresses Concerns About Asbestos at East Rockhill Quarry Dec. 12, 2018 / HARRISBURG – Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) today raised concerns with the Wolf Administration after asbestos was discovered in the rocks of East Rockhill Quarry in East Rockhill, Bucks County. Staats Named as House Deputy Policy Committee Chairman Dec. 11, 2018 / HARRISBURG – Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) has been tapped to play a crucial role on the Majority House Policy Committee, which examines some of the most critical issues facing Pennsylvania and works to develop sound public policies to address them. His appointment for the 2019-20 legislative session was announced today by House Majority Policy Committee Chairman Donna Oberlander (R-Clarion/Armstrong/Forest). Veterans Day Observance to Honor Bucks County Veterans Nov. 07, 2018 / WHAT: Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) is encouraging the public and news media to attend the annual Veterans Day observance at Palisades Middle School. Staats, who organized the event with the Upper Bucks Veterans Organization, will be emceeing the event, which will honor all veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces. Staats Announces Major State Grant for Sellersville Sewer Project Sep. 18, 2018 / HARRISBURG – Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) today announced that the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA), through the Pennsylvania Small Water and Sewer Program, approved a $298,000 grant for sanitary sewer lines along Green Street in Sellersville Borough. Staats, Mensch Urge Bucks Seniors to Attend Forum on Aging Apr. 19, 2018 / HARRISBURG – Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) and Sen. Bob Mensch (R-Berks/Bucks/ Montgomery) are urging senior citizens in Bucks County to attend a FREE health forum in Richlandtown. Staats, Mensch Hold News Conference Announcing $350,000 in State Grants for Quakertown Borough Skate Park Project Jan. 04, 2018 / HARRISBURG – Rep. Craig Staats (R-145) and Sen. Bob Mensch (R-24) held a news conference on Jan. 3, at Quakertown Borough's Council Chambers to highlight two state grants that were awarded to Quakertown to rehabilitate Quakertown Action Park. Staats to Host Blood Drive, Drug Take-Back Event Jan. 5 in Quakertown Dec. 19, 2017 / HARRISBURG -- Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) will partner with the American Red Cross and the Quakertown Borough Police Department next month when he hosts a community blood drive and drug take-back event at his district office in Quakertown. Act Now to Prevent Gambling Expansion in Bucks County - By Rep. Craig Staats (R-145) Nov. 16, 2017 / Gov. Tom Wolf recently signed a massive gambling expansion bill into law on the promise that it will substantially increase state revenue and solve Pennsylvania's fiscal challenges. Staats Welcomes Fitzpatrick's Mobile Unit to Legislative Office Oct. 23, 2017 / HARRISBURG – Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) announced today that a member of Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick's (PA-8) district staff will hold mobile office hours at Staats' district office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 3 and 17, and Dec. 1 and 15, to answer questions and provide assistance with any federal matter. Applications Now Available for Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program, Says Staats Jan. 20, 2017 / HARRISBURG – Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks) today announced that forms for the state's Property Tax/Rent Rebate program for the 2016 tax year are now available. 1 2 3 4


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Psalms are sacred songs. Early psalm books might or might not contain tunes. The texts were usually designated to be of a certain meter: short, common, or long. Tunes had the same designations, allowing texts to be combined with a choice of tunes within the same meter. This way, a choir, especially one that could not read music, might sing the text to the tune they knew the best. Courtesy American Antiquarian Society
Isaac Watts wrote the text. The tune might have been composed by Aaron Williams (a Boston minister?) around 1760, or it might be an older Welsh tune.
a capella voices
Will God forever cast us off? His wrath forever smoke
Against the people of his love, His little chosen flock.
Think of the tribes so dearly bought with the Redeemer's
Nor let Thy Zion be forgot, where once Thy glory stood.
Where once Thy churches prayed and sang Thy foes profanely rage;
Amid Thy gates their ensigns hang, and there their host engage.
And still to heighten our distress, Thy presence is withdrawn;
Thy wonted signs of pow'r and grace Thy pow'r and grace are gone.
No prophet speaks to calm our grief, but all in silence mourn; Nor know the hour of our relief, the hour of Thy return.
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The Beyoncé of the Business World, Brandi Boatner, on How to become a Socially Thoughtful Brand and Face Tomorrow's Challenges
Brandi Boatner, Social and Influencer Communications Lead for Global Markets at IBM corporate communications, spoke with Alexa Ambroseo from D S Simon Media, at the PRSA Tri-State Conference. In her keynote speech, The Bold Type: Bending the Brand Backbone is Risky Business, Boatner talked about how PR practioners can help a brand become socially thoughtful. She also stressed that 'tomorrow' is the biggest challenge facing PR professionals in this this day and age.
Follow Boatner:
Follow Ambroseo:


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Saige Silk Top - Blue Rhapsody Orchid You Not
With its soft silhouette and luxe silk fabrication, the Saige Top is an instant wardrobe essential. This button-front blouse features a notch neckline, curved hem, and full sleeves. Wear with your favorite denim for a timelessly chic look.
- Easy fit, button-front blouse with notch neckline, long full sleeves with elastic cuffs and curved hem.
- Slightly loose from chest through bottom.
- 100% Silk.
- Dry clean only.
- Imported.


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Bold Rose - Yellow - Square - Rolled Hem Scarf$19.00
Not all flowers are sweet! Bold roses and twisty garden vines contrast with delicate lines. This yellow is like a shot of sunshine.
Available in multiple fabrics and sizes. Need help deciding? View materials information here
• Soft, lightweight, lovely drape
• Each scarf is printed and sewn by hand in Montreal, Canada
• Vivid print that will never fade after washing
Model is wearing the 26"x26" scarf. Mannequins are wearing the other sizes.


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The appointment with Dr Candour was good. Not good as in: I had a good time, we laughed, we shared a glass of wine; but good as in he listened, he said sorry, he gave us honest opinions. He wants to share the letter I wrote describing our experiences this cycle - good and bad - with his staff. He told us he thought they had lost our trust, and that if we wanted to go elsewhere he'd understand. I immediately decided that he was trying to fire us as patients. He insisted he wasn't, just trying to give us an out if we wanted one. Cynical bitch that I am - H. saw no such subtext!
Eventually I decided to believe him. He told me that if at any point in the next cycle I have questions that his staff aren't answering, I should just call his assistant. If he is around, he will take the call. If he is not, he will call me back that evening. He had even found me some additional research papers to look at to complement what I'd read. It's the paper that justifies their clinical practice, I'll post the title some other time.
We came out with a game plan, which is to do IVF. He didn't recommend it, but when I asked about it, he eventually, after much prodding, agreed it was probably the right choice at this point. Since IUI, as he put it, "will not be straightforward for you," I don't see any point in messing around with it any more. At 38.75 I don't feel like waiting around, particularly since they will not do IUI two cycles in a row. That he was most definite about - he insisted that after producing four follicles my left ovary would be twice as large as it should be and it needed time to recover. Of course they could do an IUI with no drugs, but I think he thinks that is quite pointless. I'll ask him. Not because it will change our course now, but because I'd like to know.
So we're booked in for the set-up appointment on 7 September where we get to answer all sorts of questions about our preferences for our embryos, and presumably learn even more about injections, get our prescriptions sorted out. My clinic doesn't do the sniffy Synarel, so it's injections for me from the get go. But no progesterone injections - they use progesterone pessaries. Rectal pessaries. Anyone else do those? Oh, and hand over £1,900. How silly of me to forget that.
I should start a new cycle about 2 weeks after that. Suppression starts on day 21 of that cycle, all things being well and me not being cystic or high FSH, yada yada yada. So we'll be doing retrieval some time in the last week of October. Assuming we don't get cancelled. Fuck. The last week of October. Until I just sat and calculated it I had no idea how far away that was. That's a really really long way away. Damn my clinic and their concern for my health. Why can't we get started now????
I have another post brewing about how I feel about the decision to go for IVF, but it's a post on its own, so I'll work on it tomorrow and post it separately.
Thanks again to you all for your comments on the last post. If I wasn't so fat I'd be baking this weekend and at least able to post pictures of the cookies you requested a few weeks ago. But I gained three pounds in the last month, and am now 10 pounds heavier than this time last year. Enough is enough. I'm not going to kill myself, but I am going to get back into proper, minimum three times a week exercise and eating a lot less crap. I know I feel better when my clothes fit. I know I do.
One batch of brownies wouldn't hurt, though, would it?


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We are excited to announce that Mia Rao Design has recently joined our River North Design District (RNDD) family!
Mia Rao Design is a Chicago based interior design firm that is inspired by each client's story.
Based on that philosophy, they strive to create a personal sanctuary for their clients. Blending their client's narrative with their design aesthetic brings energy, soul, balance, warmth, and texture to a space.
Their experience enables engagement with professional partners on the client's behalf. A full-service firm, partnering with architects and contractors from design concept through construction, Mia Rao Design keeps every detail in mind down to art and finishing touches. They provide drawings and project management for renovations.
Mia Rao Design's overall mission is to guide you through the creative process as seamlessly as possible, to craft a space that is uniquely yours.
The Mia Rao Design team is led by Mia Rao, Principal, with Senior Designer Robyn Swanson close by her side. Mia drives each project's vision while Robyn rounds out the project details. The team works fluidly through the design process along with their support staff.
Please help us in welcoming Mia Rao Design to the River North Design District!
To learn more about Mia Rao Design and their work, visit their website at: www.miaraodesign.com


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23 May Ears, Nose, & Throat
Posted at 21:33h in orchestral
Ears, Nose & Throat is in four movements, each of about three minutes' duration. Ears, Nose & Throat was written at the request of Alex Pauk, with the assistance of the Ontario Arts Council. It is written with very limited materials, some of which are based on basic animal rhythms of breathing and the heart. The result is a simple, impoverished music. It can also be heard as a critique of the illusory freedom promised by music of abundance—as heard for example in neo-Romanticism— and by the triumph of Capitalism. But it isn't program music; listen as you please.


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The Inffinito Festival Circuit returns to Miami from August 18 to 25 to celebrate its 16 years as the foremost showcase of Brazilian cinema abroad.
The 16th Brazilian Film Festival of Miami's programming will consist of Competitive Screenings, at the Colony Theater from August 22 to 25, and Special Screenings, at the Miami Beach Cinematheque from August 19 to 24.
On August 18th, our Opening Night will take place at the New World Symphony with the screening of The Clown, by Selton Mello. Free admission!
Considered the largest event solely dedicated to Brazilian Cinema abroad, as well as by the local government as a successful business and communication platform between media, industry professionals and investors on the audiovisual sector, the festival originated the Inffinito Festival Circuit and presents approximately 22 Brazilian productions that come to Miami representing the best of the most recent Brazilian productions.
For this year's full lineup, which includes films like Cecília Amado Captains Of The Sand (trailer embedded below) click HERE. Individual highlights will follow:


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Born Natal (Feb 11, 1908) Died Jakarta (Jul 17, 1994)
He was a founder and editor of Poedjangga Baroe. He became one of Indonesian literature's guiding lights in its formative years, particularly in the time around independence. Sutan Takdir believed that Indonesia could learn from the values of western civilization and remained a great exponent of modernism throughout his life. A renaissance man himself – the author of numerous books on a range of subjects – he was working on a novel at the time of his death in 1994. The famous novel, Layar Terkembang, showed him as a progressive author.
His first novel, Tak Putus Dirundung Malang (Misfortune without End) was published by Balai Pustaka in 1929. STA Together with Amir Hamzah and Armijn Pane, they founded and edited a journal that contained the best work of prewar writers, called Poedjangga Baroe (The New Writer), and the journal was first published in 1933. In 1953, he edited Konfrontasi (Confrontation) as a substitute for Poedjangga Baroe.
Under Japanese occupation, in 1943 he became a secretary of the Komisi Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian Language Commission). From 1946 to 1948, he was a professor of the Indonesian language at National University, Jakarta.1


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After about six days anchored in Kilcoursie Bay at Killbear Provincial Park it was time to move on. We had a good visit with Brad and Andrea over the weekend who were our second overnight guests. We also had a good time ashore visiting with Mom and Dad who were camping near the beach until Wednesday.
Today we sailed to a quieter anchorage to spend the night and took Magnus over to Huckelberry Island to roam around. The island has a few free campsites and picnic benches but I suspect they don't get much use. Our anchorage has a couple cottages on one side and is all natural on the other. Seems to be a busy day, there are 5 boats here for the night. Here is our view towards Parry Sound. Apologies for the image quality. If the iPad could take an SD card I would have uploaded a better one.
And for those who saw the pictures upside down, that too was an iPad thing… Hopefully fixed now. Now I understand why the Blackberry CEO isn't concerned about about the new Apple/IBM partnership.


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As part of the International Research Council (IRC) that was held at South Ural State University June 12th through 14th, the university was visited by researcher from Leiden University, professor of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Art and Science, Doctor Ron De Cloet, who is famous in the international research community for his discoveries in the study of the effects of stress on the brain. He told the university press service about his research, his participation in the IRC, and SUSU's prospects in the international scientific arena.
– You study the effects of stress on the brain. If you could articulate your research in one sentence, how would you say it?
– I can articulate it in a very short sentence, and in a longer one. The effects of stress, coping, and adaptation are the most important discoveries of my research. It's one thing to research and another to apply research to humans, to life, to the prevention and fight with illnesses, or to return peoples' health to them. Under illnesses I mean depression, brain disorders, and also psychosis and emotional and professional burnout. Understanding how the stress hormones function helps us fight with illnesses caused by stress.
– In their book "Thinking, Fast and Slow," Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman reveal the concept of cognitive distortions, which occur in people as a result of them creating their own subjective "social reality," according to their perception. What do you think, how do cognitive distortions affect the stress levels that people are subject to?
– The conclusions of our research can be extrapolated to the research of Daniel Kahneman. "Thinking fast" means returning to your habits, and "thinking slow" relates to thoughtful reflection, when you chew the end of your pencil before making a decision. That is, we are talking about the difference between "thinking" and "doing". When a person is under stress, he is located at a crossroads between returning to his habits or appealing to higher brain functions, the hippocampus. We found that the stress hormone can affect the brain in two ways. When a person is in a new situation, he begins to evaluate it. The stress hormone can force the person to behave in the way that he is used to, respond quickly – this is necessary, for example, for police officers and firefighters. In emergencies, these kinds of specialists must act quickly. But there is also the opposite side. Under stress, people begun eating chips or drinking alcohol to relieve stress. In other words, people resort to bad habits to free themselves from the feeling of stress. Bad habits lead to obesity, health issues, and depression. I think that we have found the key to understanding the stress hormone and we will be able to help people control these habits which can, at times, have devastating consequences.
"Think slow" is the hippocampus' task. It is responsible for evaluation, thought, and collaboration. Slow thinking is very helpful when you have time for it. However, if you do not have enough time, you must act quickly and return to your previous experiences. Daniel Kahneman has written an excellent book. I am commenting on only a small portion of it. There are many examples given in the book which don't relate to the mechanism that I'm studying but are taken from observations. The human mind is infinitely more complex than how they described it. My position is as follows: "I'm not stating that I understand it completely. This topic is interesting, and we are working on it."
– Tell us about the most interesting, in your opinion, scientific discoveries about stress from the last few years.
– There were a number of breakthroughs made, but I'll touch on two. The first of them is a technological one. Today, it's become possible to activate concrete genes in the neuron using light, activating the whole neuron and studying its activity. That is, we can gain an idea of how one, concrete neuron functions. The brain has 10 billion neurons, so we have a lot of work ahead of us. However, the possibility of studying the activity of one neuron is already a huge achievement. By stimulating one neuron in particular, we can force an animal to behave like we want: drink, eat, move. In terms of illness, there have also been some discoveries. But for me, the conceptual breakthrough is important. It's important to understand that discussion about stress affects the whole body. Discussion about the hormones and nervous system affects the signals which coordinate all of the processes that occur in the body and mind, including muscles, vision, perception, evaluation, and reaction. In discussing hormones, we must remember their secretion in blood. They reach the brain and nerve cells, making their impact on emotions and cognitive abilities. The hippocampus, a region of the brain, is responsible for the formation and storage of emotions. This is the place where stress hormones are stored. Emotions are stored in our memories, once again originating in the proper context.
– You are a member of the IRC. Tell us about the positive changes in SUSU which have occurred throughout your partnership? What does the university need to work on still?
– This is an excellent question, the answer to which lies in the university's development. Before my arrival in Chelyabinsk, I only knew about this city in relation to the meteor and professor Vadim Tseylikman. In Chelyabinsk, I saw the great SUSU building and I met the rector, who surprised me. We began to judge the university, not knowing what awaits this university or its goals. At the second meeting with the SUSU leadership, we clearly defined the goals and needs. The people responsible for making important decisions for the university – that is, the government, society, and manufacturing companies, can get a clear understanding about the university's development. The ability to make achieve your wishes and needs is a huge achievement. We saw great progress in the university's development for the last nine months. I hope that next time I will be able to share some concrete examples of progress at the university. I am happy to make my contribution and I believe that this will be a very positive experience for both SUSU and for myself.
– How do modern researchers see SUSU? How can the university attract researchers to cooperation and earn the trust of the international scientific community?
– I think that SUSU is on the right path. SUSU needs to talk about itself, work, and attract the regional leadership so that people associate themselves with the university and feel some excitement from the fact that they are part of the university. Success in the international arena is not achieved by all people but by just a few champions, who need to move forward. From 100 people, maybe 5 of them who will open the university up to the world and then show off the other people in the university who are dedicated in their work and are working hard. In this case, I can talk about proper work distribution. If SUSU has a good reputation in teaching, students will come. This happens with time, and is not achieved in one year. This doesn't happen in five years, even. So, it's necessary to create a big group of ringleaders for this – pioneers, who will move it forward. This doesn't just relate to South Ural State University but universities of all cities and countries – in the USA or the Netherlands. This mechanism is necessary everywhere.
– Tell us about your partnership with SUSU and your future projects.
– I found out about your university thanks to the School of Medical Biology professor Vadim Tseylikman. One day he attended a congress that was held in the Netherlands. We chatted, and then started exchanging messages. After a few years, we had the chance to work together. He asked me, would I agree to become a member of the International Research Council (IRC) and I agreed happily. Our first visit as members of the IRC was in October of last year. During the visit we got to know the ambitious plans for SUSU's development. 9 months later, I can say that these plans have come true. SUSU was able to achieve the goals set in October. This meeting is very productive, we were able to mark out the future arc of development for SUSU to become the leading university in the region and take its place among the 100 best universities in the world in the next 10 years. I am very happy to make a contribution to achieving this goal.