text:
Children our greatest resource or are they? From the elite to the destitute the evolution of children is not just of infant to adult, the hallway in between is a force to be reckoned with. From baby contest to adult pageants; from little league to the All Star game parents have thrived on the ability of their child to excel. Where other parents thrive on ensuring their child has the latest Jordan sneakers and an opportunity to pay their way with an entry in the NFL. On the dark side there are the children who fall by the wayside, are pushed off the beaten path or merely have an acute sense of curiosity that will catapult them to make what may appear to be adult decision.
As I watched a law case on television, the case was about a teen who had obtained her learner's permit we'll call her, Cynthia. The permit allowed Cynthia to drive as long as there was a passenger in the vehicle with a "valid" license. The teen was out driving and according to her, she became tired and allowed her friend (Dorothy) to drive. An accident occurred and Dorothy's father sued Cynthia's mother. You see Dorothy did not have a valid license and no one in the vehicle did either. The mother was angry and thought the father had no reason to file a claim. The Judge asked the Cynthia's mother if she was aware that Cynthia was driving the car without an adult who had a valid license in the vehicle. The mother said yes, I was appalled she said Cynthia was a good driver and she let her drive all the time without someone with a valid license. The judge proceeded to explain to the mother why children cannot obtain a license to drive until they are of age. That is because the states feel at a certain age the child is able to make good decisions while operating a car, i.e. they can read and comprehend the rules of the road.
Sure, this story is about driving and the inability of a parent to follow the law and teach her daughter to follow the law. But then there's the other side or is it really another side. A teen boy is driving and kills 4 people the defense attorney claims that not only did the boy suffer from "Affluenza – a psychological malaise supposedly affecting wealthy young people, symptoms of which include a lack of motivation, feelings of guilt, and a sense of isolation" but that his parents should not be held accountable either for the death of the 4 people.
Juveniles and the Justice System
The law had defined separate rules for juveniles and adults when it comes to crimes as we may be aware of. In William Blackstone's book on the Laws of England, he states for a person to be able to commit a crime they must first have a vicious will and be able to carry out their desire to commit an unlawful act. Children between the ages of 0 and 13 could not be convicted of a felony because they could not understand their actions. One of the Juvenile Justice systems' progenitor was the Stubborn Child Law by the Puritans of Massachusetts in 1646 it reads:
The progression of the Juvenile Justice system (making procedure in juvenile courts look more criminal courts) lands in Cook County, Illinois with a compassionate judge by the name of Julian Mack in the first juvenile court stated:
[The child who must be brought into court should, of course, be made to know that he is face to face with the power of the state, but he should at the same time, and more emphatically, be made to feel that he is the object of its care and solicitude. The ordinary trappings of the courtroom are out of place in such hearings. The judge on a bench, looking down upon the boy standing at the bar, can never evoke a proper sympathetic spirit. Seated at a desk, with the child at his side, where he can on occasion put his arm around his shoulder and draw the lad to him, the judge, while losing none of his judicial dignity, will gain immensely in the effectiveness of his work. Julian Mack, "The Juvenile Court," Harvard Law Review, vol. 23 (1909), 120.]
Equally the progression of violent crimes by youthful offenders and increased and become darker. Starting with a 14-year-old Kent, whose crimes were B&E and purse snatching to Erin, who killed her entire family over the inability to go out with her boyfriend to the extreme children killing in schools
|Feb. 2, 1996
Moses Lake, Wash.
|Two students and one teacher killed, one other wounded when 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis opened fire on his algebra class.
|October 24, 2014
Marysville, Washington
|Jaylen Ray Fryberg, a popular freshman at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, opens fire in the cafeteria, killing two students and critically wounding three others before turning the gun on himself.
The Eighth Amendment provided protections against excessive bail, cruel and unusual punishments; it wasn't until Betts v. Brady that due process must include a court appointed attorney for those that cannot afford one. This was deemed necessary as a result of the case against Gerald Gault (a white male) in 1967 was a 15 year old sentenced to six years until he turn 21 (an adult would have received a $50 fine) for a prank phone call that was considered obscene. This case was interesting as the mother was not involved, i.e. she never showed up to court, until after the boy had been sentenced. The Fourteenth Amendments prevent or should prevent states from enforcing any law which would infringe on the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, or deprive any person life, liberty without due process of the law.
- Heirens – killed 3 people age 17 – Male Caucasian
- Bosket – killed 3 people age 16 – Male Black
- Kempe – killed 10 people age 15 – Male Caucasian
- Pomeroy – killed over 10 people age 14 – Male Caucasian
- Bell – killed 2 people age 11 – Female Caucasian
Which brings us to today, the case of Christopher Simmons (a white male) at age 17 committed murder, tried by a court as an adult at age 18 and was sentenced to death. Christopher and his friends went to the victim's home, to steal and kill, used duct tape over the woman's mouth and eyes drover her to the river and threw her from the bridge.
The State sought the death penalty. As aggravating factors, the State submitted that the murder was committed for the purpose of receiving money; was committed for the purpose of avoiding, interfering with, or preventing lawful arrest of the defendant; and involved depravity of mind and was outrageously and wantonly vile, horrible, and inhuman. Remember Blackstone's definition…oh but wait, there more the postconviction defense attorney states:
Simmons was "very immature," "very impulsive," and "very susceptible to being manipulated or influenced." The experts testified about Simmons' background, including a difficult home environment and dramatic changes in behavior, accompanied by poor school performance in adolescence. Simmons was absent from home for long periods, spending time using alcohol and drugs with other teenagers or young adults. The contention by Simmons' postconviction counsel was that these matters should have been established in the sentencing proceeding.
Simmons' sentences were changed from the death penalty to life imprisonment without the eligibility or probation. The Supreme Court of the US held it unconstitutional to impose capital punishment for crimes committed for persons under the age of 18. Today – Juvenile Law Center filed an amicus brief in Massachusetts opposing the imposition of a mandatory sentence of life without parole on a 16-year-old boy charged with murder. Juvenile Law Center argued that in light of the Supreme Court's precedent in Roper v. Simmons, the imposition of a life without parole sentence on Mr. Powell was a disproportionate punishment under both the United States and Massachusetts Constitutions. The Atlanta Black Star reports that the 2012 US Supreme Court ruling on LWOP should be retroactively applied to youths were sentenced before 2012 which would have major implications on Black offenders.
I would be remiss if I did not include the references to murder from the KJV of the Holy Bible. Numbers 35:16 – 18 And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. And if he smite him with throwing a stone or with a hand weapon of wood the murderer shall surely die. It further states in verse 19 that the revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him. Furthermore, the Bible states the parents shall not be put to death for the murderous act, but that every man shall be put to death for his own sin. Lastly, in the O.T. the sixth Commandment – Thou shalt not kill. If we were to rely solely upon the Bible all individuals who have committed murder would be executed. Does that mean to include women who have opted for the procedure known as – abortion? If we're going to look at the consequences of murder, we must also look at what the Bible has to say about the child which most assuredly is led by the parent. Throughout the Bible children have been slain, raised up, cast aside, they were liars and thieves, and some had great devotion to the Lord. Deuteronomy tells us we should teach our children diligently and talk to them. First Corinthians tell us how the hierarchy of the home should be built, Christ the head of every man which is the head of his wife and even the head of Christ – God. Lastly Titus gives us direction on training our young women, teaching them to love their husbands and children and to be self-controlled. If the world were to follow the teachings in the Bible relative to our children, would we have experienced the rash of killings? I would say we would not have experienced as many killings by our children. Note, the Bible gives us instructions for our children as a unit composed of not only a husband and a wife, but that of the parents who fear the Lord. I read that the enemy is always lurking around seeking whom he may devour – it does not say seeking to devour it says whom he may. That tells this writer that even the enemy has some knowledge of who is following the Lord and who is not. Additionally, we hear or if you have not heard that we are no longer under the dispensation of the law but under the dispensation of grace. If Jesus were to disagree with Himself about His commandments, then I suppose the world as we know it would never have existed. Remember He said He came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill and condemns murders to hell or did He extend hatred…
In this world, there have been great debates and a massive amount of tax dollars spent in the court system over the punishment of the juveniles who commit murder. In the final analysis, this writer believes that capital punishment should never be an option if one truly believes in redemption, repentance and salvation. Should our young folks be imprisoned without the possibility of parole, perhaps – until such a time as we as a family unit to include, the trusted neighbors and our friends and extended family can come together and assist when it appears situations with our children are going awry, it just may take a village to raise our children in this century.
Avalon Law at Yale
American Bar Association
Massachusetts Juvenile Law Center
YouTube 20/20 Case of Affluence
The Culture of Affluence: Psychological Costs of Material Wealth by Suniya S. Luthar
USA Today
Atlanta Black Star
Cornell Law
Google Search Engine
King James Holy Bible


text: A while ago I found the Pantone Huey on closeout at my local Circuit City. At $80.00+ I didn't consider it much of a bargain but at $25.00 it didn't look like such a bad deal. I fired up the device on my MacBook and began the disappointment. It turned my display Green. On my Mac Mini with my Samsung Display it was pretty good. If you don't know it the point of this device is to tune your display's color so that when you process a photo and then print it you don't get surprised by the difference between what your monitor and printer consider to be fully saturated blue. At $25.00 I figured that it would be ok with the Mini. I was on vacation for a while and would have good access to the Apple Store and Genius bar so I packed the Huey along. But that was still no news. Then I ran into this link.   a At the bottom they discuss the Huey and it looks like it doesn't like the polarization of the MacBook Screen. On calibration it wants to be oriented vertically but I found that it gave me a good calibration oriented horizontally.

subset: commoncrawl


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I was excited and thrilled to recently read in the Washington Post about the Ford Foundation's announcement that it has partnered with several foundations and major donors to make available millions of dollars in unrestricted national and regional grants to arts organizations in the communities of People of Color (PoC)! The grants are part of a still-expanding campaign called "America's Cultural Treasures," which was initiated by Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation. To date, close to $160-million has been raised from 16 foundations and major donors.
A 2015 study of diversity in the arts found that the median budgets of traditionally white cultural organizations were 16 times larger than the median budgets of PoC cultural organizations. "America's Cultural Treasures" was launched to provide critical funding to organizations that have had a significant impact on America's cultural landscape, despite historically limited resources, and to honor the diversity of artistic excellence and expression that they represent.
More than a one-time bailout stemming from the near-decimation of these organizations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the campaign will provide money that will be distributed to the recipients over four years. Mr. Walker told the Washington Post he sees this as an opportunity to narrow the gap between rich, primarily white cultural institutions and their younger, PoC counterparts. Furthermore, he was quoted as saying, "…If we don't help (the PoC cultural organizations) they will be gone."
For many cultural institutions, funders and corporations, the murder of George Floyd and the closures prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic brought into crystal clear focus the impact of systemic racism and racial disparities. Not only did Mr. Walker identify the problem, he leveraged his foundation's resources and his network to take action. The national phase of the campaign consists of $81 million in funding from the Ford Foundation and five other donors: Abrams Foundation, Alice L. Walton Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal, and Barbara and Amos Hostetter.
The first round of recipients picked by the Ford Foundation, in consultation with the national donors, are geographically and racially diverse. Look at this list of the 20 organizations selected—it represents the broadest ever recognition of the diversity that is at the very foundation of America's cultural heritage: Alaska Native Heritage Center, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Apollo Theater, Arab American National Museum, Ballet Hispanico, Charles H. Wright Museum, Dance Theatre of Harlem, East West Players, El Museo del Barrio, Japanese American National Museum, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Museum of Chinese in the Americas, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, National Museum of Mexican Art, Penumbra Theatre, Project Row Houses, Studio Museum in Harlem, Urban Bush Women, and Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience. The $1-million to $6-million grants are unrestricted, so the recipients can use the money in whatever way they deem best.
During the second phase of the "America's Cultural Treasures" campaign, numerous foundations will be responsible for fundraising and the creation of individually tailored, regional grantmaking initiatives, which will be seeded by an initial $35 million in support from the Ford Foundation. The regional foundation partners are: The Barr Foundation (Massachusetts), Getty Foundation (Los Angeles), Heinz Endowments (Pittsburgh), Houston Endowment (Houston), John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Chicago), Joyce Foundation (Chicago), McKnight Foundation (Minnesota), the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation (Los Angeles), Terra Foundation for American Art (Chicago), and the William Penn Foundation (Philadelphia). The distribution for the regional grants is expected to take place some time in 2021.
The grants are, in most cases, the largest ever for the 20 recipients in the first round. What is revolutionary about this initiative is that the campaign was designed specifically to address inequality in arts funding and access to resources. I'm just imagining the joy of the recipient organizations hearing such great news, which is providing a lifeline to smaller organizations that don't have endowments to survive the twin calamities of the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism. Now, they have financial support and, instead of closing their doors, it is hoped that these resources can be utilized to sustain their programs and to even plan to attract new donors.
When I think about the future of the arts and what is the way forward, this program is, by far, the leading example. Thank you, Mr. Walker, for your continuous leadership at the Ford Foundation; your deep thinking, and your courageous giving. This grant will transform not only the futures of the chosen PoC arts organizations and institutions, but also reaffirm that they must be preserved because they are indeed "America's Cultural Treasures."
As always, I want to know what you think about this announcement. Please leave your comments below.


text:
The Lake
Everyone knows there are quite a few bodies of water in Ashland. We have visited the reservoirs, ponds, and rivers but today I would like to focus on the lake on the Framingham side of town. Lake Waushakum is probably more of a Framingham treasure, but we here in Ashland have our opinions and fond memories too. You have to […]» Read more


text:
The constant compiling of MathJax while composing a post is undesirable for me. How can I stop the MathJax preview?
Is there a way to turn off the MathJax preview?
Where is the button to switch off MathJax while typing a post?
Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.Visit Stack Exchange
The constant compiling of MathJax while composing a post is undesirable for me. How can I stop the MathJax preview?
Is there a way to turn off the MathJax preview?
Where is the button to switch off MathJax while typing a post?
There is no official feature for this (while it used to be present until mid-2013). For reports about this see Where is the off switch for the concurrent preview now?
However, it is possible to get this functionality using bookmarklets (for further details see below).
The following code was posted by Jack Schmidt on meta.math.se:
To pause it:
To turn it back on:
Create two bookmarks or favorites (or whatever your browser calls the functionality to save the address of some website), call them for example "MathJax: Off" and "MathJax: On".
Copy the line of code
javascript:(function(){MathJax.Hub.queue.pending=1;})(); in the field where one usually puts the URL for the bookmark "MathJax: Off" Do the same with
javascript:(function(){MathJax.Hub.queue.pending=0;})(); for "MathJax: On"
When you want to stop MathJax, bring up your bookmark list (if you do not show it by default) and click "MathJax: Off"
When you want to restart MathJax do the same for "MathJax: On" Note that rendering might not start instantly. Possibly add some more characters to the post to get it started.
If you use Firefox as a browser, then you can use the NoScript plugin, which allows you to selectively turn MathJax on or off.
For other browsers there may be different plugins that allow control over Java scripts.
Let me try:
$$I\ see\ nothing$$
Indeed, if you position your window so that its bottom sticks out below the screen, then the preview will not bother you. Let's double check:
$$I\ still\ see\ nothing\ at\ all,\ no\ undesirable\ preview.$$ $$Yes,\ it\ works\ for\ me.$$


text:
The Hydra Begins to Emerge
In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a terrifying sea monster that had many heads and used them to devour innocent seafarers. Our hero, Heracles, forced the Hydra into the open and began chopping off its heads. But each time a head was severed two new ones grew back. It seemed like a hopeless task but Heracles was undaunted. He finally figured out that if he used a torch to cauterize each severed limb they failed to regrow.


text:
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text:
Melbourne modder 'TAGmods' has created one of the most spectacular custom PS4s that we've seen.
The GOW themed PS4 Pro has a matching themed controller as well as a light-up full scale replica of the Leviathan Axe. The axe is lit up by the PS4 Pro's USB port.
At first, it might be a little bit confusing to see what's actually happening with the console, but upon closer inspection the Leviathan Axe is taking a chunk out of the console, which looks pretty damn cool.
Check out the TAGMods Instagram page to see more of his awesome creations.


text:
What do I say to a friend who is attracted to the charismatic "word of knowledge" that can give insight into one's future?
The first question is, "It this really true to the Bible?" They would argue from 1 Corinthians 12:8 that it is. (I have my doubts, but at least they have a verse using this expression.) The follow-up question, is, "Even if there is such a thing as a 'word of knowledge' is this what you will receive, and will it be consistent with Scriptures?" In New Testament days at least there was the "gift of tongues." But even admitting there is such a gift, there are abuses of that gift (as Paul deals with in 1 Corinthians), and there may well be counterfeits of it as well. I guess what I'm saying is that I would not try to convince someone that there is no such thing as this "word of knowledge," but rather that this must conform to the rest of the teachings of the Word of God. In other words, is the guidance that he will be given "wise" in the biblical sense of that word.
You might want to look at this lesson from Proverbs which I did a number of years ago.
Dr. Bruce Waltke has an excellent little book on Knowing the Will of God, which deals more extensively with this matter.
I get very concerned about present day "revelations," which, in practical terms, seem to carry more weight than the Word of God. Further, I think that godly counsel is a good source of input as to God's will, as opposed to consulting a kind of "spiritual guru," who tells you God's will for your life.
When it comes to "prophecy" I'd look at Deuteronomy 13 and 18. I've done a couple of messages here as well.
If I sound a little "soft" here, perhaps I am a bit, but I am still working on a very strong refutation of the current "prophecy" movement, led by some respected evangelical scholars (such as Wayne Grudem), who say that prophecy today is not the prophecy of the Old Testament, or the New, but is "like" it. This "new" prophecy is not an infallible word from God, but a fallible impression of God's will. This kind of thing scares me. In the Old Testament, if a person claimed to be a prophet and was wrong, he was to be stoned. Today, some tell us that we are to expect fallible prophets and prophecies. That's both amazing and frightening.
On clear word from God is 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21. We are not to despise prophetic utterances, Paul says, but neither are we to blindly accept them as true. We are to examine them carefully, and cling only to what is good. This assumes that not all prophecies are good. This passage may carry more weight than anything, because it is a clear and direct word from God on the very thing he is seeking.
Related Topics: Bibliology (The Written Word), Pneumatology (The Holy Spirit)


text:
Hell of a Summer
Khorvaire is found in Eberron's northern hemisphere. It is bounded by the Bitter Sea to the north, the Lhazaar Sea to the east, the Barren Sea to the west and the Thunder Sea to the south.
The landscape of Khorvaire varies greatly, from wastelands and forbidding mountains in the north to deserts and jungles in the south, with everything in between.
Khorvaire is a large continent with many nations and autonomous regions. The borders of many of these areas are disputed, despite having been determined in the Treaty of Thronehold. The major nations and regions of Khorvaire are:
Aundair, Breland, Darguun, The Demon Wastes, Droaam, The Eldeen Reaches, Karrnath, The Lhazaar Principalities, The Mournland, The Mror Holds, Q'Barra, The Shadow Marches, The Talenta Plains, Thrane, Valenar, Zilargo.


text:
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10-May-2017 【Application Period Started】 The Application for UMAP Summer Program 2017 in Japan
We are pleased to announce the start of the application to UMAP Summer Program 2017 in Japan.
4 students from each UMAP member country/territory can participate in this program, based on the announcement of accepted applicants.
If you are interested in this program, please check the links below "The Details of the Program" and review the information on this website about the program's contents, dates and application procedures before applying.
◆The Details of the Program http://umap.org/programs/
New updates and details will be announced on this website as soon as they become available.
Deadline of Application Submission is 31st May, 2017 (through home universities of each country/territory)


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A vaccine developed by the Danish company Bavarian Nordic has received FDA approval to prevent infections by monkeypox, as well as protect against the threat of a smallpox bioterror attack.
This approval makes Bavarian Nordic's vaccine the only approved vaccine in the world for preventing monkeypox, a rare viral infection that is similar to smallpox but less severe. In addition, the vaccine will be stockpiled by the US as a precaution against the return of smallpox. Since smallpox was eradicated in the wild in the 1970s, populations have stopped receiving vaccinations against the disease. However, samples of the smallpox virus remain contained in secure research labs, and the disease has even been weaponized in the past. This means that smallpox could be released in an act of bioterrorism if it falls into the wrong hands.


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Although we dont trade this index but it is a trendsetter for the whole world so every now and then when there seems something important i do try to post a technical observation.
The index has recovered really very well from the lows but every such move sees a major retracement at 61.8 % .
Like if people remember my sell call at 15.6k-16k last 2 times few months back it was on this basis of 61% retracement.
So similar level for Dow Jones comes around 11200 odd levels… Will watch for signals on this index in coming days.
- Technical Observations
- Slipping back after hitting the trendline resistance around the 87 mark.
- If u see a similar turn around at 69.5 from the trendline.
- This is the magic of technical analysis works everywhere.


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Conversion list for Base 60 Numbers and Decimal Numbers
=== by Bob Sutherland ===
Counting from 0 to 4096, here is a conversion list of Base 60 Numbers and their equivalent base 10 Decimal Numbers.
I created this list at the request of a university mathematician. It was a rather arbitrary decision we made as to what symbols we should use for the base 60 digits. We did try doing some research with the hope of finding a pattern that other mathematicians were following for creating base 60 numbers. We wound up using the ten numerical digits, all of the capital letters of the English language and most of the small letters. Be careful of numerical digits and letters that can look the same depending on which font they are printed in.
Warning: Do not print this list as it may be over 100 pages long! Go to End↓


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The White House today is repeating last night's claim by President Obama that the threat of force brought the Russians and Syrians to the bargaining table. Beyond that, did the speech to the nation lay out a clear path to the future? We look at the many questions that still remain. Also, Colorado recalls two senators in a blow to gun control, and reports of sexual violence have led to legal changes in India. Four men may be put to death for a notorious rape and killing last year.
Banner image: President Barack Obama addresses the nation about the situation in Syria from the East Room at the White House in Washington, September 10, 2013. Photo: Evan Vucci/Pool/Reuters


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Search OKRoads
South Texas Roadtrip
October 16-19, 2003
During my fall break, I took the South Texas Roadtrip. The trip took me along the Gulf Coast of southeast Texas and to the southern termini of Interstate 35, Interstate 37, and Interstate 45. The first day I drove to San Antonio. On Day Two, I drove to Laredo and Corpus Christi, and ended up back in San Antonio for a second night. On Day Three, I drove east to Houston, then south to Galveston, then turned around, went through Houston again, and stopped for the night in Huntsville. On the fourth and final day, I drove home.
Map of Trip Route
Day by day:
Day One - Drove 491 miles from Oklahoma City, OK to San Antonio, TX | Picture Index
Day Two - Drove 489 miles from San Antonio, TX to Laredo, TX, and to Corpus Christi, TX, and back to San Antonio | Picture Index
Day Three - Drove 398 miles from San Antonio, TX to Galveston, TX, and to Huntsville, TX | Picture Index
Day Four - Drove 379 miles from Huntsville, TX to Oklahoma City, OK | Picture Index
Trip distance - 1,779 miles
Trip pages:
Trip Home
Trip pages:
Day One:
Interstate 35 Oklahoma | Interstate 35 | Interstate 35E
Day Two:
Interstate 35 | U.S. 59 | TX 44 | TX 358 | TX 286 | Interstate 37
Day Three:
Interstate 35 | U.S. 281 | Interstate 410 | Interstate 10 | Interstate 45
Day Four:
Interstate 45 | Interstate 30 | Interstate 35E | Interstate 35 | Interstate 35 Oklahoma
Miscellaneous Pictures
Trip Summaries Page
Page created: February 03, 2005
Last updated: February 03, 2005


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The Israeli forces on Saturday killed two members of Fatah's military wing, the Al Aqsa Brigades, while they were en route to carry out a shelling operation targeting Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip.And as we all know, "jihad" means an internal struggle for good.
Palestinian medical sources stated that 24-year-old Yahya Barakat and Tamir Al-Khatib, aged 23, were assassinated by Israeli soldiers near the former Israeli settlement in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip.
The spokesperson of the Al Aqsa Brigades told Ma'an that the two activists were on a "jihad" mission; they were going to launch mortar shells at Israel from Gaza.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
- Saturday, July 28, 2007
- Elder of Ziyon
The "goodwill gesture" just keeps giving and giving - almost like a cycle of generosity. Today, grateful Fatah members tried to shoot mortars at Israeli towns from Gaza. Thoughtfully, Israel responded back with its own special brand of love, as Ma'an nicely put it:


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Narwhal Plays the Nyckelharpa
I thought it would be fun to do an alphabet book. At first I thought about animals in my silhouette style, but there are so many animal ABCs out there already. Then William came up with a crazy idea - a tiny ant playing an enormous alphorn. Before long we had come up with half a dozen animals with matching instruments, and I wrote out a list, with quite a few gaps...
I have always been interested in all sorts of musical instruments (the more obscure the better), but one problem was that I had decided that the animals had to use a capital letter and the instruments a lower-case letter. That meant I couldn't use any "Irish" instruments (harp, bouzouki, pipes) for the letter "i", or "Jew's harp" for "j". I finally settled on an Ibis playing an ipu (Hawaiian gourd drum) and a Jaguar playing a jug.
There had to be some reason WHY all these beasties were playing instruments, and at the end you see them all together. There is no indication of what sort of music they are playing - that's up to the reader's imagination.
The majority of the instruments were hand-traced from photos, while the animals were drawn freehand as usual, using the mouse. The alphorn, ipu and maracas were drawn from my imagination, and the flute was traced from a 3D computer model to get the angle right.
Oh, and there is a little joke in there for those of you who remember a certain band from Liverpool. Check out letter "B"...
Click here to order a copy of Narwhal Plays the Nyckelharpa
©2013 Alphabeck


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When it comes to preconditioning programs, there is no equal to MFA's Health Track.
After 20-plus years and more than 800,000 cattle tagged, Health Track's experience and reputation are second to none. Others may try to imitate Health Track's success, but they always fall short.
Data makes the difference. Health Track uses both RFID tags and panel tags. No other preconditioning program makes this a requirement. Why? They simply don't offer the data that Health Track does. We keep a digital database on every calf that has ever worn a Health Track tag. That information includes the program-required data points as well as details about feeding, weaning, calving and proof of all of the processing products and practices carried out by our producers.
Health Track producers also have the option to upload the key value data into BlockTrust, a blockchain solution that can share data up and down the supply chain ONLY for calves that are EID tagged. We have already had close to 2,000 carcass data matches as a result.
MFA also provides a show list of Health Track cattle for sale that includes headcounts, weight ranges and number of days weaned. This information is becoming more and more important to feeder buyers. Many are looking for at least 60 days weaned, and some believe that 75 days is a better number. Either way, we communicate that information on the show list.
What's more, MFA personnel are involved with every Health Track application—a level of oversight that's impossible for any preconditioning program. Buyers respect the integrity of MFA, and they trust the performance of Health Track calves.
Discover for yourself how much your calves—and your bottom line—can benefit from enrolling in Health Track. If you need any help or have questions, please don't hesitate to contact Mike John, director of Health Track Operations, or Ben McMullin, PowerCalf specialist.
Read an MFA Health Track related story in the April Issue of Today's Farmer magazine CLICK HERE.
Click to subscribe to the print version of our member magazine. Today's Farmer magazine is an award-winning ag publication that is published 9 times yearly.
Read the latest issue HERE:


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Winter offers
for your ski vacation
on the Arlberg
Choose the matching offer and enjoy your vacation in the amazing ski world on the Arlberg.
Your ski vacation in St. Anton am Arlberg
Information about your winter vacation in St. Anton
Ski pass included:
With the booking of one of our winter packages, you will automatically receive a ski pass on arrival. This is included in your package and gives you the opportunity to experience one of the most beautiful skiing areas in the world.
One of the top 10 skiing areas in the world:
With its 97 funiculars, 350 km of prepared slopes and 200km deep snow descents, the Arlberg is one of the most beautiful ski regions in the world. Once you ski here, you will never want to go on a winter vacation anywhere else. Whether you are a beginner or love heliskiing – our ski region on the Arlberg has the right slope for every type of skier.
Optimal location:
The hotel "Die Arlbergerin" in St. Anton and the pension "Der Steinbock" in St. Anton are within walking distance of the village center and have a ski bus stop directly in front of the door. The free shuttly bus brings you from here to the ski lift and back every 15 minutes.
Your benefits with our vacation deals
Enjoying the Tirol cuisine:
Our hotel in St. Anton and the pension in St. Anton pamper you with traditional Austrian food. We use products from the region and even make our own marmalade and rye bread. You can get to know the Tirol cuisine up close and can gain strength for the rest of the day.
Free parking spots for every guest
We offer our guests one free parking spot in front of the building per room. There is also a garage with parking spots for motorcycles in the summer as well as a charging station for electric cars.
Ski locker directly at the valley station:
We offer an exclusive ski locker at the valley station so you don't have to bring your equipment from the accommodation to the lift and back. You can safely store your skis after your day on the slopes and drive back to your accommodation. If you prefer to have your equipment closer to you, then you can use our own heated ski cellar.
Direct connection to highway and rail network:
St. Anton features direct connections to the national highway system as well as the rail network. There's no need to pay a toll to use the highways to get to your vacation destination quickly and easily. And thanks to the optimal location of our accommodations, your summer vacation can begin that much sooner.


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In recent days, California lawmakers have finalized their budget. The legislation includes several choices regarding health care and Obamacare, most of them incorrect ones. Doling out more government largesse won't solve rising health costs, and it will cause more unintended consequences in the process.
Health Coverage for Individuals Unlawfully Present
This move has drawn the most attention, as the budget bill expands Medicaid coverage to illegally present adults aged 19-26. California will pay the full share of this Medicaid spending, as the federal government will not subsidize health coverage for foreign citizens illegally present in the United States.
Sad as it may sound, expanding coverage to "only" some law-breaking foreigners represented a compromise. Liberal lawmakers originally wanted to expand Medicaid to all illegal residents, at a cost of $3.4 billion. But California Gov. Gavin Newsom objected to the price tag, so lawmakers agreed to fund benefits solely for the 19-26 population, and delayed its implementation until January 1, 2020.
As to those who disagree with this move, one can study the words of none other than Hillary Clinton. In 1993, she testified before Congress in opposition to giving illegal residents full health benefits, because "illegal aliens" were coming to the United States for health care even then:
We do not think the comprehensive health care benefits should be extended to those who are undocumented workers and illegal aliens. We do not want to do anything to encourage more illegal immigration into this country. We know now that too many people come in for medical care, as it is. We certainly don't want them having the same benefits that American citizens are entitled to have.
If Clinton's words don't sound compelling enough, consider one way that California may finance these new benefits: By reinstating Obamacare's individual mandate. To put it another way, people who obey the law (i.e., the mandate) will fund free health coverage for people who by definition have broken the law by coming to, or remaining in, the United States unlawfully.
A Questionable Individual Mandate
This issue faces multiple questions on both process and substance. First, the budget bill includes about $8 million for the state's Franchise Tax Board to implement an individual mandate, but doesn't actually contain language imposing the mandate. The bill that would reimpose the mandate, using definitions originally included in the federal law, passed the Assembly late last month, but faces opposition in the Senate.
Second, if and when the state Senate considers the individual mandate, it faces a further obstacle: The California Constitution requires a two-thirds vote to approve any tax increases. (The legislation did clear that threshold in the Assembly, which passed the bill by a 55-18 margin.) Newsom's office claims that, because the mandate reinstates a penalty that the federal government originally imposed, the legislation requires only a simple majority for enactment. But if the Senate passes the bill by less than a two-thirds majority, expect a legal challenge on this issue.
Third, implementing the mandate imposes legal and logistical challenges. I argued in the Wall Street Journal last fall that states cannot require employers who self-fund health coverage to report their employees' insurance coverage to state authorities. The mandate bill the Assembly passed does not include such a requirement.
Without a reporting requirement on employers, a mandate could become toothless, because the state would have difficulty verifying coverage to ensure compliance—people could lie on their tax forms and likely would not get caught. However, imposing a reporting regime, either through the mandate bill or regulations, would invite an employer to claim that federal labor law (namely, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) prohibits such a state-based requirement.
More Spending on Subsidies
While the budget bill does not include an explicit insurance mandate, it does include more than $295 million to "provide advanceable premium assistance subsidies during the 2020 coverage year to individuals with projected and actual household incomes at or below 600 percent of the federal poverty level."
This language creates a state-based regime of exchange subsidies on top of Obamacare's subsidy regime. According to the bill, one-quarter of the spending would go towards individuals with incomes between 200-400 percent of the poverty level—who already qualify for subsidies under Obamacare—while three-quarters would go towards individuals with incomes between 400-600 percent of the poverty level, who do not qualify for federal Obamacare subsidies.
Obamacare epitomized the problems that policy-makers face in subsidizing health insurance. The federal law includes a subsidy "cliff" at 400 percent of the poverty level. Households making just under that threshold can receive federal subsidies that could total as much as $5,000-$10,000 for a family, but if their income rises even one dollar above that "cliff," they lose all eligibility for those subsidies.
By penalizing individuals whose incomes rise even marginally, the subsidy "cliff" discourages work. That's one of the main reasons the Congressional Budget Office said Obamacare would reduce the labor supply by the equivalent of 2.5 million full-time jobs.
California decided to replace these work disincentives with yet more spending on subsidies. This year, the federal poverty level stands at $25,750 for a family of four—which makes 600 percent of poverty equal to $154,500. In other words, a family making more than $150,000 will now classify as "low-income" for purposes of the new subsidy regime.
Extending the subsidies up the income scale, thereby phasing them out more slowly, minimizes work disincentives, but it also raises spending on subsidies. In fact, the budget bill includes specific language authorizing state officials to increase the appropriation beyond the $295 million amount, if necessary, to pay for the full cost of the new subsidy regime. California could end up with a rude awakening at this provision's full cost.
Hypocrisy by Officials
The individual mandate bill gives a significant amount of authority for its implementation to Covered California, the state's insurance exchange. The bill says the exchange will determine the amount of the mandate penalty, and determine who receives exemptions from the mandate.
Who runs California's exchange? None other than Peter Lee, the man I previously profiled as someone who earns $436,800 per year, yet refuses to buy the exchange coverage he sells. Or, to put it another way, if the mandate passes, Lee will be standing in judgment of individuals who refuse to do what he will not—buy an Obamacare plan.
If you think that seems a bit rich, you would be correct. But it epitomizes the poor policy choices and hypocritical actions taken by officials to prop up Obamacare in California.


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Wednesday, April 01, 2015
Garden parties
Hello, I've just received an invitation to attend one of the three Buckingham Palace Garden Parties, being held this year on Tuesday 12th May, Wednesday 20th May and Thursday 28th May 2015 and to bring a guest. Who wants to come?
at 11:30 am
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LOS ANGELES: It was time for father-daughter bonding for Tom Cruise and Suri – the two visited the Disney World in Orlando. This is the second time they were seen together after Curise's much-talked about separation from Katie Holmes July 9.
"The 50-year-old actor had demanded meaningful and significant contact with Suri during the divorce settlement with Holmes. Cruise seemed to have got his demand fulfilled as he was seen riding Aladdin's magic carpets and jungle cruise at the Magic Kingdom Monday with the six-year-old Suri," reports the tmz.com.
Two weeks ago Cruise was seen flying in a helicopter with Suri around New York City.


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Now's the time for socialist organization
We need to make the demonstrations against Trump's presidency as big as possible, butargues that the socialist left has another urgent task in this era: Grow.
"HISTORY SEEMS to be moving backward."
That's what a teacher in his mid-20s told me at a rally when I asked what had led him to come out to what he said was the first political demonstration of his life. The protest was about the Dakota Access Pipeline, but he was clearly referring to Donald Trump's election, an earthquake that continues to spread shock waves of fear with each passing day.
The fears are concrete: mass deportations; a government "registry" for Americans who practice Islam; the overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing legal abortion. The executive branch under Trump will be stuffed with reactionaries--from the anti-union and pro-business hacks typical of any Republican administration to the open racists and Islamophobes Trump has already installed in top positions.
The shock is the realization that we don't live in a world in which crude scapegoating isn't acceptable in mainstream politics. Just because the calendar says 2016 doesn't mean we can't see a return to the open racism and thuggery of the pre-civil rights era of half a century ago, with Twitter being the new way for demagogues to spread their Big Lies and anonymous online threats the new cross burnings.
In truth, we were already moving backward--otherwise, there would have been no need for protest movements like Occupy Wall Street or #BlackLivesMatter.
But Trump's victory is a warning that we could go a lot further back--both here and in many other countries where far-right forces are either already in government or on the rise--if we don't fight for the history our children will inherit.
That's why hundreds of thousands have already taken part in anti-Trump protests and vigils that started the night of his election and will continue through his inauguration on January 20 and after.
Just as important as the protests has been the surge in interest in radical and socialist publications--like Socialist Worker--and meetings that followed Trump's victory.
This is very different from the big election protests that happened in 2000, when Republicans stole the White House for George W. Bush by blocking a recount in Florida that would have made Al Gore president. Sixteen years ago, most protesters looked at the Democratic Party as victims of Republican wrongdoing.
Today, the anger is far more widespread at the Democratic Party as a key element of a political system so rotten it couldn't stop a wildly unpopular sexual predator from crashing right to the top.
THE DEMOCRATS' role in this mess goes a lot deeper than Hillary Clinton's weaknesses as a candidate--though there were many of those.
More fundamental is the party's many betrayals of the working-class people it claimed to defend, from the broken promises to pass protections for unions and a health care system that guaranteed access and affordability, to Bill Clinton's trade deals and Barack Obama's bank bailouts.
2016 was like a concentrated version of many decades of broken promises playing out in one election cycle.
When Bernie Sanders galvanized millions of blue-collar workers and young progressives behind his call for taxing the rich to pay for genuinely universal health care and free college education, Democratic Party insiders and elected officials almost unanimously rejected him in favor of Hillary Clinton and her Wall Street-funded message of...wait, what was her message again?
At the same time, leaked e-mails from the Clinton campaign reveal that party leaders were working to "elevate" Trump to the top of the Republican race--in the belief, proven horribly wrong, that even a horribly compromised candidate like Clinton couldn't possibly lose to that clown.
In effect, the Democratic Party blocked Sanders' "socialist" New Deal liberalism as too extreme, but helped to give the toxic racism of Trump's campaign unprecedented legitimacy as the Republican presidential candidate.
Now that Trump has won, the Democrats have pivoted from their campaign posture about Trump being an unstable fascist who will start a nuclear war--to patriotic calls to unite behind the new president and accept his good intentions on faith.
The alternative--let Trump know from the start that we will oppose with every fiber of our being the plans he laid out in his campaign--was dismissed out of hand.
The problem with the Democratic Party isn't that those who manage it don't have the courage to stand up to Republicans. It's that they don't want to stand up. The Democratic establishment wants to preserve the stability of a political system that will still work well enough for them and their big money donors, even under a Trump presidency.
So the problem is not only the victory of hard-right nationalists, but the accompanying self-satisfied liberals who accommodate them--leaving many people with the double shock of dealing with a Trump presidency and the realization that no one in mainstream politics is going to protect us from it.
We're going to have to organize the resistance ourselves--which means not only protesting Trump's incoming administration, but building socialist organizations and parties that can pose a credible alternative to a 21st century capitalism that isn't working for the vast majority of humanity--not to mention all the other species on this planet.
If we don't, the only "opposition" to Trump's politics of bigotry and cynical self-interest will be the Democrats' empty platitudes about how "America is already great," which have proven to be a colossal failure.
HOW CAN we fight Donald Trump's agenda of scapegoating and victimizing the most vulnerable when the Republicans control not only the White House, but both houses of Congress?
Let's go back 10 years to early 2006. The Republican-dominated House had already voted for Rep. James Sensenbrenner's proposed HR 4437, an odious bill that would have classified undocumented immigrants as felons, along with those judged to have helped them enter or stay in the country--in other words, anyone who didn't report them.
The Republican-dominated Senate was set to vote on the bill in March, and if approved, it would have been signed into law by Republican President George W. Bush. But before any of that could happen, mass protests erupted among hundreds of thousands of mostly undocumented, mostly Mexican immigrants in Chicago, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and dozens of other cities.
The immigrant rights "mega-marches" culminated in the historic May 1 "Day Without Immigrants," when, as NBC reported:
More than 1 million mostly Hispanic immigrants and their supporters skipped work and took to the streets [across the U.S.], flexing their economic muscle in a nationwide boycott that succeeded in slowing or shutting many farms, factories, markets and restaurants.
But as Bridget Broderick and Orlando Sepulveda wrote for SocialistWorker.org earlier this year: "May 1, 2006, wasn't a boycott. It was a general strike. One well-photographed placard held by a protester said, "The sleeping giant wasn't sleeping--we were working."
The Sensenbrenner bill never even came to a vote in the Senate--and so the most abhorrent version of anti-immigrant legislation was beaten back.
There have been other examples in recent years of large-scale protests bringing about change in different forms--from victorious strikes by Chicago teachers in 2012 and Verizon workers this past summer, to the years of demonstrations and actions that stopped construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, to the ongoing struggle against racist police killings.
All of these are living proof that if you're not a billionaire, the best way to work for change isn't how we're taught in school--Write your congressperson! Run for office yourself!--but by organizing alongside many others to demand change from a political system that's always been rigged.
THE POWER of large numbers of ordinary people working together in a collective political project of liberation is the potential strength of our side--and it exists on a scale Trump and his far-right followers can only pretend at.
The right has built a following around the message that ordinary people are victimized and powerless and need a strong leader to fight for them. Our message is that we ordinary people have power we normally can't even imagine--the power to shut their system down and rebuild it on a basis of justice and cooperation.
Our task starts today by bringing people together--in the kind of numbers that came out against the Sensenbrenner bill--to protest any efforts at mass deportations, anti-Muslim measures or attacks on abortion rights.
We need to organize the majority of people who reject Donald Trump's agenda of bigotry and scapegoating and create a crisis of legitimacy for his new government--the exact opposite approach of the Democrats, Bernie Sanders included, who are talking about finding areas of common ground with the new president.
But just building an anti-Trump movement isn't enough. We have to come up with an agenda that we are fighting for--from a $15-an-hour minimum wage to taxing the rich to pay for single-payer health care. We already know these are popular demands from the Sanders' campaign. Now we need to free them from a party that is determined to sabotage them.
The only way to do this is to organize our own party, independent of the bankers and careerists who will always undemocratically run the "Democratic" Party. This understanding that workers need their own party is one of the distinguishing features of the revolutionary socialist tradition.
It's what Karl Marx discovered when he was a young newspaper editor fighting for a democracy in Germany: the elites who complained about the monarch always backed down when things got hot because they'd rather stay with what they had than risk an upheaval that threated their wealth and power. Only the workers in Germany were consistent fighters for democracy.
Fifty years later, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party came to the same conclusion in Russia: The most determined fighters against the anti-Semitic pogroms and all the other tyrannies of the Tsar weren't the educated elites, but the workers, who truly wanted to see the end of the regime.
Workers' power starts not from running our own party in elections--although that's part of it--but from the power that we have to bring democracy into being everywhere we're not supposed to have it: at our jobs, in our schools, and in the way we're policed in our neighborhoods.
It's based not in the narrow minority that currently runs society, but a diverse majority class of workers--the undocumented day laborers who led the mega-marches; the drowning-in-debt college graduates at the heart of Occupy Wall Street; the rank-and-file union teachers and telecommunications workers who led the Chicago teachers and Verizon strikes.
Unfortunately, we can't look to recent history for inspiration in this project. Among the protest movements I mentioned earlier, none built lasting organizations independent from the Democratic Party. As a result, many leading activists eventually followed the "realistic" path of working with and for the Democrats. This November, they were inside the empty Clinton campaign, and so the only seeming messages of rebellion that most voters heard came from Trump.
This is the treadmill that we have to get off.
THERE ARE many different types of organizations that need to be built, from student clubs and coalitions, to workplace solidarity networks, to political parties that call protests and run for office.
In all cases, building democratic organizations is about creating collective bodies that can test ideas in practice and then debate and assess how they worked. It's not easy for people who have never done it, and it helps to have people involved with organizing experience, as well as an education in what radicals and revolutionaries have done before us.
The primary goal of the International Socialist Organization is to build leaders of struggle, trained in the Marxist theories that generalize lessons from the past and organized collectively so we learn how to debate with each other and recognize the balance of our own individual strengths and weaknesses.
This is an exciting time to be a socialist in the U.S. You can see the developing strands of resistance: the youth radicalization, the protests for Black Lives that refuse to be put down, the campaign that Sanders built almost entirely with small donations.
But there are also enormous challenges. Not only do we face a far-right government, but we do so at a time when strikes are at their lowest level in almost a hundred years, which means that the strongest muscle we have is the most atrophied.
"I feel like I need both urgency and patience right now." Those were the words of a different person--a college student, talking to me after a socialist meeting the night after the DAPL protest. He was explaining that he wanted to fight this system and tear it down right now, but also realized that he needs to develop his ideas over time.
I completely agree, and there are other aspects of that urgency/patience dialectic. We need to fight with passion against Trump while being patient with those who are afraid or demoralized about taking part. We need to argue that the Democrats are part of the problem, but welcome all those who want to oppose Trump into our coalitions and engage in comradely debate, no matter who they supported in the last election.
We have to do everything we can to build a socialist movement while understanding that some necessary factors are not yet in place, like the willingness and organization of workers to strike.
To get that balance right, you need to be part of collective organizations that assess our mistakes and learn from them. We are going to win some victories, but we are also going to experience some horrible defeats in the coming months and years. Both of those things we know. The question is if the socialist left in this country is going to get stronger through the process, or if we're going to stay on the treadmill.
Now is the time for people not only to stand up and be counted against Trump, but to figure out what alternative to his dystopian vision of society they are going to organize for. If your alternative is socialism, you should find out more about joining the ISO.


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I've written enough, for now, about the past and its specific pains. These two weeks of blog posts have been grueling, but important, because this is the first time I've ever written about the toughest subjects in my life: child abuse and manic depression. Friends and family know. But I've never recorded, publicly, what it's like to endure a psychotic episode, nor the pain of sex abuse.
I decided to write about them because, after this most recent attack during the holidays, I lifted my knuckle-beaten head, looked at my typewriter and said Fuck this shit. Fuck being locked in silence. I have always hated cages. Anyone who's seen me trapped in a corner by someone else's agenda knows that. . .well, it's not good to trap me in a corner. I will strike out, one way or another, eventually, even if, as in this case, it takes decades to do so.
But I'm still in the aftermath of the breakdown. It takes weeks to get back to a semblance of homeostasis. There is more to the story, and I plan to continue to write about it. But for now, I need to put some salve on my soul. I need to return to those things that have taught me how to live, and live fully.
This winter, before getting sick, I had plans for The Writing Bull—namely, a podcast, which I'll launch next week. Years ago I worked for NPR, telling stories about, well. . .they pretty much let me tell stories on anything I wanted, everything from literature, to my kids, to living in a war zone in Nicaragua. This podcast will pick up where that left off, with a special emphasis on literature and creative writing.
I want to show how literature—both reading and writing—has played a fundamental role in my survival and happiness. It has helped me see the strange, sometimes brutal, other times inspiring, complexities of the human condition. I have witnessed, up close, human beings at their most good, and at their most diabolical, both here and abroad. It is truly absurd. It can make anyone ask, To be or not to be? Literature opens a door into the absurdity, not to explain it or "figure it out," but to live in it with a deeper understanding of the human condition. Reading literature creates empathy. Something our world desperately needs now.
I truly believe that art can set you free from whatever is caging you. Art doesn't make cruelty go away; it hasn't erased my past. But art, specifically, literary art, has helped me look at both the horrors of my childhood, and the horrors I've seen as an adult, square in the face, without flinching. A good novel will take us to those places of our minds that we don't want to visit. It gets us there safely, where we experience the drama of existence through a well-wrought story. When we finish the book, we have a better understanding of who we are.
So, let the healing begin.
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