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A controversial draft law making illegal to deny Khmer Rouge crimes was passed this morning -- unanimously and with no debate -- during a specially convened session of the National Assembly.
The law would make it illegal to deny crimes committed during Democratic Kampuchea, outlining punishments of up to two years in prison and fines of up to $1,000. Similarly, people could be prosecuted for glorifying, opposing, downplaying or refusing to recognize the crimes that occurred under the Khmer Rouge, while legal entities -- including companies and political parties -- can be punished if their representatives are found guilty.
During an hourlong session this morning, 86 ruling party and Funcinpec lawmakers offered no pushback on the highly criticised law. Instead, after each of the brief, five articles were read out, lawmakers stood up to praise the law their party had drafted a week ago and, at times, to share their own suffering under the Khmer Rouge.
No opposition members were present. All 27 Sam Rainsy Party and Human Rights Party lawmakers were stripped of their elected posts Wednesday by the National Assembly's CPP-controlled permanent committee.
The Cambodia National Rescue Party, a merger of the two opposition parties, along with legal experts and rights monitors have decried the committee's decision as illegal. On Thursday, the CNRP sent a letter calling on National Assembly president Heng Samrin to intervene.
At parliament Friday morning, committee representatives defended their decision.
"The National Assembly should not receive the opposition lawmakers because those members of parliament are not lawmakers anymore according to the law," said CPP lawmaker and National Assembly spokesman Chheang Vun. "They should not wear the National Assembly pin anymore."
The denial law was drafted just a week ago amid controversy surrounding alleged comments by CNRP leader Kem Sokha. In an audio clip released by the government, Sokha can be heard saying that the infamous Tuol Sleng detention centre was "staged," though he has since come out and insisted the words were edited and taken out of context.
While the law could not be used to prosecute Sokha retroactively, it could be used should he repeat his statements, said senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap.
Once it is rubberstamped by the Senate and the King, "if any individual says or if Kem Sokha repeats [what he said earlier], he will be imprisoned according to this law," Yeap told the assembly.
As criticism of the law continues to mount, with political analysts and rights groups slamming its dangerous implications for free speech and its apparent political undertones, ruling party lawmakers stood firm yesterday.
Though it has taken less than two weeks to move from Hun Sen's lips to draft to passage, if anything, said Vun, it was too slow.
"Some say that this law has been passed too quickly. In fact, passing this law is too late. If we had passed this law earlier, there would not be any individual saying that Tuol Sleng is an artificial prison."
The opposition, for its part, said it agreed a denial law should have been passed years ago. But the fact it had never been a topic of discussion until the government released what the party says is a doctored tape proved it is little more than a political tool.
"We need a law that the National Assembly passes because it is [comprehensive] and good, but we do not need a law that is passed quickly like this," said Ou Chanrith, an HRP member who was stripped of his parliamentary post this week. "We need time to study it but the [CPP] passed this law because of political gain."
"If Prime Minister Hun Sen hadn't requested it, there wouldn't be this law."

subset: commoncrawl


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NATO Secretary General Fogh Rasmussen and EU "General" van Rompuy
The Telegraph´s columnist Nile Gardiner has an good piece on the EU´s futile efforts to convince the public that the it has played a pivotal role in the Allied operations againsta Libya:
The European Union will try to claim credit for almost anything these days, even going so far as recently declaring the Oscar success of The King's Speech to be an EU victory. But its latest foray in the world of make-believe surely takes the biscuit. The apparatchiks in Brussels are currently in overdrive trying to demonstrate that the European Union has played a pivotal role in the Allied campaign in Libya. This, despite the fact that Brussels did all it could to appease Gaddafi's monstrous regime for decades. Witness EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy's speech of staggering audacity to the European Parliament in Brussels earlier today where he declared:
Two weeks previously, in an extraordinary European Council on 11 March, we had adopted a clear line on Libya. Without that clear European position, the subsequent actions would not have been possible. We decided that, to safeguard the safety of the civilian population, Member States could: "examine all necessary options, provided that there is a demonstrable need, a clear legal basis and support from the region".
… A massive bloodbath has been avoided, thousands of lives have been saved. This is the most important result and deserves the highest attention, more so than the decision-making process. The wood is more important than the trees!
Of course, we all know that the decision to take military action was not easy. There are, quite naturally, questions and hesitations. That is perfectly normal in issues of war and peace. But any difficulties that we have experienced over that aspect of the Libyan crisis should not mask for one moment the full track record of the European Union. From the beginning of the crisis, the European Union was at the forefront.
Needless to say, there was no mention in President Van Rompuy's victory address of the role played by David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy in mobilising the international coalition that intervened to halt Colonel Gaddafi's advance on Benghazi, or the fact that it was US, British and French airpower that saved large numbers of lives. The European Union has been a massive irrelevance throughout the whole Libya crisis, with its key representatives Van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton overwhelmingly sidelined.
Read the whole article here.


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Making the Case for Chris Paul
The other day someone asked me, "What's up with the Hornets this year?" Well, three things, I suppose. Last year, they were riddled with injuries. And you also have to remember that Byron Scott did take the New Jersey Nets to two NBA Finals. Then there's Chris Paul.
Paul is on pace for the first 20-10 season since Tim Hardaway did it in the 1992-1993 season (he did it the year before, too, in the 1991-1992 season). Kevin Johnson had done it the three years before Hardaway. The NBA saw five years with 20-10 performers and has been enduring a 15-year drought. However, Paul, who is currently averaging 20.6 and 10.5, could change that.
After yesterday's performance in L.A., NBA gurus and pundits have declared that LeBron James is pulling away from Kobe Bryant in the MVP voting, mainly due to Kobe's 1-7 fourth quarter (including 1-6 when James marked him) and James' fourth-quarter heroics while being guarded by Kobe. With the Celtics recent "downturn" (the still don't have 10 losses, though, and one was without KG), perhaps Kevin Garnett is going to be overlooked. He's also won one before (which counts against him) and he's below his career average in points, assists, free-throw percentage, blocks and rebounds. (By the way, his shooting percentage is way up, which is easy enough to figure out.)
LBJ was pre-ordained the MVP at the start of this season, but Paul may give him a run for his money. Here is a short examination of both.
With the game on the line, who do you want handling the ball?
If the other team is behind, you want someone who can hit those free throws in the clutch. If you're ahead, you want someone who can drive to the hole, potentially getting fouled, or hit the big shot. On the free-throw front, Paul wins. For the year, Paul is at 88.4% (career, as short as it may be, percentage is at 84.4%) and James is at 70.8 % (with a career average of 73%).
As far as jump-shooting goes, Paul hits 48.4% and 34.7% from three-point range while James is at 48.2% and 29.1%. That's pretty close, but if you need a three, Paul might have a slight edge, but that's largely irrelevant as these two can also create plays to get their teammates assists. Too bad LBJ doesn't have the spot-up snipers that the Hornets have. Here's the thing on assists: If James had anyone who could reliably finish on this team, he'd probably be above the 7.3 assists he's currently averaging and be on pace for a 30-15 season.
The last knock on James' MVP run has also disappeared. It is that it usually goes to someone from a winning team. Cleveland has climbed back into the top four in the East, even though New Orleans is sitting atop the West. It will be fun for Paul and Scott to be at the All-Star Game in New Orleans (even if the Hornets should have been moved to Oklahoma – it makes sense for so many reasons, but more about that in another post), but Paul will likely come up short this year. Let's look for him in years to come, though, as he should be high on the balloting for a long time.


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Last Shot: Winner v Error
One way traffic
The net is a hot spot for winners.
This is gold, pure gold.
It's not often you find statistics that make things so obvious – so simple to comprehend. We know there is more action at the net in a doubles match. We know that it "feels" like the right thing to do to move forward, even in an age when more players seem to be having success from the back of the court.
Well feast your eyes on this:
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"So in this idea, then, everybody is fundamentally the ultimate reality,
the deep down basic whatever there is—and you are all that.
Only you're pretending you're not."
~Alan Watts
"So in this idea, then, everybody is fundamentally the ultimate reality,
the deep down basic whatever there is—and you are all that.
Only you're pretending you're not."
~Alan Watts
Chills. When the earth disappeared, I actually felt a bit scared, as if I were lost at sea. Later, when I read "and back to our home," I actually felt homesick, and was looking forward to the journey, very much.
Rather than watch the Oscars yesterday, I went to the theatre and watched all the animated short films nominated for Best Animated Short. (I highly recommend this substitution, though I suppose it's not an either-or type of thing.)
They were good, no doubt, though my favorite in recent memory is still The Eagleman Stag by Mikey Please. Gorgeous, surreal animation, along with a meditation on the nature of our perception of time that is provocative if a bit unsettling. If you've got 8 minutes and 55 seconds….
This is awesome. "Two Chips" by Adam Patch.
It is a rare song that can be covered highly successfully in dramatically different ways. "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" by Talking Heads is such a tune. The original is great. Also great is the mellow, acoustic version by Shawn Colvin with her haunting vocals. Thirdly and equally great is the hip, dynamic version by Miles Fisher, which is even better when seen with his video parody of the film American Psycho.
So here you have them….
Talking Heads
Shawn Colvin
Miles Fisher
I recently re-watched the old children's movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Though it is, as I've said, primarily a movie for children (my little niece liked it), there is one wonderful, beautifully rich scene that is haunting me. I've embedded it below. There are many details and metaphors here that run deeper than the surface of the scene (which itself is fun). I have theories and thoughts (shocker), but rather than pronounce them, I'd thought I'd just ask the questions that prompted them.
What do you see,
You people gazing at me?
You see a doll on a music box that's wound by a key
How can you tell?
I'm under a spell
I'm waiting for love's first kiss
You cannot see
How much I long to be free
Turning around on this music box that's wound by a key
While I'm
Turning around and around


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Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, hedge fund manager Kevin Duffy of Bearing Asset Management http://www.bearingasset.com/. Kevin has over 30 years of experience working in the financial industry and over 20 years of experience successfully shorting stocks. Kevin runs his hedge fund with partner, Bill Laggner.
Kevin's Twitter handle: @kevinduffy1929
Dave Kranzler article on potential black swans: http://investmentresearchdynamics.com...
During this 40+ minute interview, Kevin discusses the presentation he gave a few weeks ago at Jim Grant's, Grant's Interest Rate Observer Investment Conference called, "Mr. Market Flunks the Marshmallow Test."
Jason asks Kevin about current stock market valuations relative to historical stock market valuations, why retail is crashing, and the damage artificially low interest rates have done.
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, best selling author, Jim Rickards http://www.jamesrickardsproject.com/.
Jim's best selling books include:
1) Currency Wars
2) The Death of Money
3) The New Case for Gold
4) The Road to Ruin
Jim's book are available here: https://www.amazon.com/James-Rickards...
Jim's full bio here: http://www.jamesrickardsproject.com/a...
During this 30+ minute interview, Jason starts off by asking Jim about his recent trip to mainland China and if he learned on his trip if physical gold demand in China is still strong?
Jason also asks Jim if China is worried about President Trump starting a trade war by putting a very high tariff on Chinese goods, why Keynesian predictive models with extremely poor long term track records are still given any credibility and whether Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates anymore in 2017?
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, Journalist and YouTuber David Seaman https://www.fulcrumnews.com/.
David's popular YouTube channel has over 150k subscribers and over 15 million views: https://www.youtube.com/user/davidsea...
David Seaman was fired from the Huffington Post for writing an article during the 2016 Presidential election about the health of Hillary Clinton: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vide...
Article about Antonio Gramchi infecting the US with Cultural Marxism https://stream.org/dangerous-marxist/
Former CIA Officer says Obama Administration spied on Trump and scandal is "Much Worse than Watergate" http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03...
During this 35+ minute interview, Jason starts off by asking David what he thinks, in his opinion, President Trump has done right so far in his first 2 months?
Jason and David discuss how the mainstream media is on a Neo-McCarthyism style Anti-Russia Witch Hunt, why the FBI hasn't charged any prominent Republican or Democrat politicians in pedogate and about Wikileaks' Vault 7 leaks.
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed first time guest, Senior Precious Metals Analyst at GoldSilver.com, Jeff Clark. Jeff was a former mining analyst and newsletter writer at Casey Research where he wrote the Big Gold investment newsletter.
Jeff writes a gold market newsletter for GoldSilver.com and his also writes articles for their blog https://goldsilver.com/blog/
Here's some of the questions and topics Jason asks Jeff about during this 30+ minute interview:
1) There was record physical gold withdrawals in November 2016 and February 2017 from the Shanghai Gold Exchange yet many mainstream gold organizations like the World Gold Council, GFMS, etc claim gold demand is weak. What's your take on demand for physical gold globally?
2) The gold to silver ratio is around 71. Do you think this means that silver is the better long term value relative to gold at this point?
3) I want to talk about the primary gold and silver mining industry. Do you think that in general the industry has done a good job at cutting costs in order to survive since gold hit $1900 and silver hit $48 in 2011 and a cyclical bear market started?
4) In December 2016, Bloomberg ran a story showing how primary gold miners are running out of economic gold reserves https://www.bloomberg.com/ news/articles/2016-12-21/gold- miners-are-running-out-of- metal-five-charts-explaining- why
Do you think the industry can replace reserves at current gold and silver prices or will gold and silver prices have to go substantially higher to maintain current production levels and also to replace mined/depleted reserves?
5) Can primary gold and silver miners significantly cut more costs without shutting down mines or going bankrupt?
6) The CEO of Franco Nevada recently said that it will almost be impossible for the gold mining industry to grow production beyond current production levels. Do you agree with him? https://www.bloomberg.com/ news/articles/2017-03-01/gold- miners-running-to-stand-still- after-cuts-franco-ceo-says
7) Large gold mining companies like Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining and Goldcorp have written off their proven and probable gold reserves since 2012. Reserves have declined to 61%, 62% and 69% of the 2012 heydays. Is the gold mining industry facing very difficult supply problems now and in the future?
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, best selling author, world traveler, international man, speculator & founder of Casey Research, https://www.caseyresearch.com/, Doug Casey.
Doug's newest book, and his first fiction book of a 7 part fiction book series, Speculator: High Ground, Book 1 is now available on audio book on Audible: http://www.audible.com/pd/Mysteries-T...
Doug Casey on the Politically Correct Movement: https://www.caseyresearch.com/article...
Find all of Doug Casey's investing books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Doug-Casey/e/B...
During this 30+ minute interview, Jason starts off by asking Doug about President Trump and if Trump has done anything Doug has liked so far?
Doug talks about how and why so many people hate Trump leading to a long discussion about cultural Marxism and the politically correct movement in the US.
Jason also asks Doug about a global US Dollar shortage, stagflation coming and how to speculate on gold stocks.
Wall St for Main St welcomed back Jerry Robinson, who is an economist, investor, trend trader and Editor of Follow The Money.
If you interested in subscribing to Jerry's newsletter and trading system, go to http://ftmdaily.com/
What did we discussed?
1. Thoughts on the Federal Reserve rate hike and what it means for the market.
2. In depth look at the S& P 500 chart and what the trend is heading in the near term and why Jerry thinks this market has the same look and feeling to previous bubble in the market
3. Trading ideas on industries traders can short
4. Discussed Jerry's recent video on the biblical view on propaganda.
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, former Dallas Federal Reserve Bank insider, Wall St veteran, author and President of Money Strong, Danielle DiMartino Booth http://dimartinobooth.com/
Danielle's new book, Fed Up: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America is available on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Fed-Up-Insider... or on audio book on Audible http://www.audible.com/pd/Nonfiction/...
During this shortened interview due to time constraints, Jason asks Danielle about political bias at the Federal Reserve, as well as PhD Keynesian Economists clinging to broken models and being guilty of group think, hubris and confirmation bias.
Since Donald Trump won the 2016 election, Danielle thinks Janet Yellen and other members of the Federal Reserve have changed their minds about interest rate increases, further interventions and allowing asset prices like the stock market to fall. Danielle thinks a lot of this is politically motivated to limit President Trump to one term and also to get Democrats to win back Congressional seats from Republicans in upcoming elections in 2018.
Jason and Danielle also discuss auditing the Fed and how finding unbiased people to work in the Fed will be very difficult.
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, President of the Energy Prospectus Group http://energyprospectus.com/ for oil & natural gas investors, Dan Steffens. Dan has over 20 years experience working in the oil and gas industry.
Dan has produced many winning oil investments for growth investors and also for income investors.
During this 25+ minute interview, Jason start off by asking Dan if President Trump has done any pro oil or pro energy things in his 6 weeks in office?
Dan says it hasn't happened yet but Trump's corporate tax cuts will also benefit the oil and gas industry once they are implemented.
Next, Jason asks Dan about the inventory increases in gasoline in the US? Dan says it's not a sign of a massive supply glut and he points out how there's been absolutely enormous (hundreds of billions of dollars) in capex cuts for the oil industry to bring on new long lead time projects and find new oil reserves.
Jason also asks Dan about the margins of onshore independent oil producers like EOG Resources and what margin they have at current WTI prices?
Dan gives out some oil and natural gas stocks he likes with good valuations and also good growth and he offers Wall St for Main St listeners $100 off an Energy Prospectus Group membership and a free month's copy of his newsletter if they email him!
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St and managing editor of The News Doctors and independent financial journalist, Eric Dubin are back for Episode #32 of Welcome to Dystopia.
In this episode Jason and Eric discuss how the bullion banks and other manipulators may be hitting precious metal shares harder than paper metals prices to create a divergence to spook out the big money trend traders and hedge funds from going long anything gold and silver.
Jason and Eric also discuss looming supply problems in terms of replacing reserves for precious metals miners and also how most miners are currently earning meager margins that are enough to not go bankrupt but also not enough to properly growth their business and adequately replace mined reserves. Eric says physical demand for gold out of China is much, much higher than mainstream gold analysts are reporting and we know this from reliable export data from Lindon/UK and Switzerland.
Jason and Eric also discuss during this episode stock market valuations, Danielle DiMartino Booth's new book, Fed Up, more evidence of inflation in the real economy as Costco raises membership fees 6% to offset rising costs and President Trump's first month plus in office as president.
Scumbag Nominees:
1) 12 Current and former TSA workers involved in large cocaine smuggling ring into the continental US http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/doj-tsa-workers-smuggled-20-tons-of-cocaine-into-the-us/article/2614679
2) ATF involved in $20 million black market cigarette smuggling ring! http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/02/23/atf-agents-smuggled-millions-dollars-cigarette-sales-secret-bank-account/
3) Radical, politicized Obama DOJ funneled billions (illegally) in corporate fines to Democratic party activist groups http://nation.foxnews.com/2017/03/02/obama-doj-funneled-billions-liberal-activist-groups
4) Spain starts charging & jailing its bankers for fraud & embezzlement! http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-27/former-imf-chief-sent-jail-spain-prosecutes-65-elite-bankers-enormous-corruption-sca
Wall St For Main St welcomed back Kathy Fettke, who is a real estate investor and Co-Founder of Real Wealth Network.
For more information about the Real Wealth Network, go to http://realwealthnetwork.com/
What did we discussed?
1. Why the commercial real estate is about to go through hard times?
2. How the raising interest rate will effect the housing market? Will it scare away buyers or entice them to buy before it goes up even further?
3. How has is the real estate market now compared to a decade ago?
4. Discuss the current state of the real estate in California
5. Is buying a home still a good investment or is it now considered a lifestyle choice?
6. Advice for first time home buyers.
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed first time guest, Chief Market Analyst with the Lindsey Group and Editor of the Boock Report newsletter, Peter Boockvar https://boockreport.com/.
Peter's Bio: https://boockreport.com/about/, http://www.thelindseygroup.com/bios/
Peter is the Chief Market Analyst with The Lindsey Group, a macro economic and market research firm. • He is Co-CIO at Bookmark Advisors and a regular CNBC Contributor. Previously he was as a macro analyst and portfolio manager at Omega Advisors, a New York hedge fund.
Each day The Boock Report provides summaries and commentary on all the macro data and news that matters for your investments. Additionally I give broader analysis of what it all means and how it fits together with exclusive podcasts and video updates.
During this 25+ minute interview Jason asks Peter if he thinks President Trump wants a strong US Dollar relative to other currencies?
Peter thinks there's conflicting messages and policies coming from Trump and his cabinet/advisors. Peter and Jason discuss whether the Federal Reserve will raise rates in 2017 and if this combined with potential tariffs on imported goods into the US will create worsening stagflation in the real economy.
Jason also asks Peter about current stock market valuations, a global US Dollar shortage, growing currency and asset price volatility and whether any central bank can realistically reduce the size of their balance sheet in a significant way?
Wall St for Main St welcomed back David Morgan, who is the editor of The Morgan Report.
For more information on The Morgan Report, go to http://www.themorganreport.com/
For more information on Lemuria Royalties, go to http://lemuriaroyalties.com/
What did we talk about?
1. The divergence between the gold/silver stocks and the hard asset prices.
2. The margins for the precious metals stocks and how it has improved.
3. How to capital market for gold/silver mining stocks has improved and what it means going forward.
4. How much affect Trump is having on the recent market surge? Is Wall St buying into his economic nationalist and supply side policies?
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, former long time Wall St bond trader, gold hedge fund manager, investment analyst/newsletter writer http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/ and co-host with Rory Hall of the Shadow of Truth podcast, Dave Kranzler.
Dave writes the Mining Stock Journal and the Short Seller's Journal paid newsletters.
During this 40+ minute interview, Jason starts off by asking Dave the probability of a March rate hike by Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve and also the probability of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates 3 times in 2017?
Dave thinks the Fed will do one token, quarter point interest rate increase like they did in 2015 and 2016.
Jason and Dave discuss why Deutsche Bank turning over so much evidence proving gold and silver manipulation from a conspiracy theory into a conspiracy fact has hardly moved the price?
Dave talks about Alan Greenspan now saying the US should go back onto a gold standard.
To wrap up the interview, Jason asks Dave how he researches Junior mining stocks and junior explorers to find quality speculations that can produce hundreds of percent returns in 2-3 years or less.
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed first time guest, Founder and President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce http://digitalchamber.org/, Perianne Boring.
Upcoming DC Block Chain Summer March 15th and 16th in DC: http://digitalchamber.org/events/dc-s...
During this 30+ minute interview, Jason asks Perianne about her background and how she found out about Bitcoin and began researching it. Perianne was an economics major in college during the 2008 financial crisis. She was not happy with the answers her Keynesian Economics gave her for why the crisis happened. She then moved up to the DC area to be a Congressional staffer for finance, economics, etc.
Perianne talks about the Austrian School of Economics and how Bitcoin was appealing to her because no government controlled the digital currency.
Perianne then talks about her company and why she started it. Her company is there to help protect block chain companies from being destroyed by regulators.
Jason and Perianne discuss the future of Bitcoin and block chain, how central banks are testing out the block chain and other technology issues concerning the block chain and how governments, central bankers and bureaucrats may affect Bitcoin and the block chain.
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, President of the Mises Institute https://mises.org/, Jeff Deist.
Jeff's Mises page: https://mises.org/profile/jeff-deist
Jeff Deist is president of the Mises Institute. He previously worked as a longtime advisor and chief of staff to Congressman Ron Paul. In the past, Jeff was also an attorney for private equity.
During this 30+ minute interview, Jason first asks Jeff if in his opinion President Trump has done anything positive?
Jason and Jeff discuss some of the things President Trump has done so far and how he is fighting globalism and the deep state.
Jason asks Jeff about the history of protectionism and tariffs in the US and if Trump's economic policies mean a lot more inflation stagflation is coming during his presidency?
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, stock analyst, stock newsletter writer and investing podcast host, Frank Curzio http://www.frankcurzio.com/
Frank's full bio is available here: http://www.frankcurzio.com/about/
Frank's Wall Street Unplugged podcast is one of the top investing podcasts on iTunes.
During this 40+ minute interview, Jason asks Frank about valuations on large cap stocks, which industries will be positively affected by Donald Trump as US President and which resource stock industries he likes.
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, author and Money Week columnist, Dominic Frisby, https://dominicfrisby.com/
Dominic's weekly Money Week columns are available here: http://moneyweek.com/author/dominic-f...
Dominic's full bio here: https://dominicfrisby.com/about-me
Dominic has recently written 2 excellent books:
1) Life After the State: Why We Don't Need Government https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Sta...
2) Bitcoin: The future of money? https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-future...
Both books are also available as fully unabridged audio books on Audible read by the author.
During this 40+ minute interview Jason and Dominic discuss Brexit, Donald Trump, Bitcoin's rally in 2016 and going forward, why Dominic is no longer as bullish on gold and why the US Dollar Index may be the key to the next global financial crisis.
This podcast is sponsored by Sandstorm Gold. Be sure to check out Sandstorm Gold at http://sandstormgold.com/invest/
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed first time guest, student of the Austrian School of Economics and Portfolio Manager for McAlvany Wealth Management https://mwealthm.com/doug-noland/, Doug Noland.
Doug has over 25 years of experience working in the financial industry including working at Bill Fleckenstein's hedge fund. Doug also worked with David Tice at the Prudent Bear fund, which specializes in shorting stocks and other financial assets. Doug's full bio is here: http://creditbubblebulletin.blogspot....
Doug is perhaps most famous for writing his financial blog articles. Doug has been documenting credit and financial bubbles since the late 1990s with his well known financial blog, the Credit Bubble Bulletin http://creditbubblebulletin.blogspot....
Doug's excellent 2 part McAlvany Weekly Commentary Interviews w/ David McAlvany in 2016:
1) https://mcalvanyweeklycommentary.com/...
2) https://mcalvanyweeklycommentary.com/...
During this 40+ minute interview, Jason starts off by asking Doug about his opinion of the state of the global economy?
Doug says how he's shocked he's still talking about central banker created bubbles since he started blogging about the technology bubble of the 1990s. Doug says that QE never stopped from global central banks as central banks like the Bank of Japan, ECB and PBOC injected ~$2 trillion of QE into capital markets in 2016. Doug says central bankers are 100% committed to maintaining the status quo now and they are terrified of letting asset prices fall without more intervention.
This podcast is sponsored by Sandstorm Gold. Be sure to go to their web site for more information at www.sandstormgold.com/invest
Wall St for Main St welcomed back Robert Wenzel. He is the editor of the Economic Policy Journal and host of The Robert Wenzel Show.
Check out Robert's web site at www.economicpolicyjournal.com
What did we talk about?
1. We discussed the Dow Jones going over 20,000 last week and what it means for the market. Is there sense of optimism or should we be cautious?
2. A look at Trump's tax import (tariff) policies and who is the biggest loser in this deal.
3. An outlook at the Federal Reserve and the potential for interest rate hike
4. How minimum wage has impacted the west coast a few years after it was implemented.
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, former Assistant US Treasury Secretary under President Ronald Reagan and Associate Editor/Columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Paul Craig Roberts http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/
Paul's extensive full bio can be found here: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/pages/about-paul-craig-roberts/
During this 20+ minute interview Jason starts off by jokingly congratulating Paul for being named to the Washington Post's Fake News list http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-25/washington-post-names-drudge-zero-hedge-anti-clinton-sophisticated-russian-propagand
Jason then asks Paul about Trump's cabinet appointees and how Trump and Obama have vastly expanded powers of executive orders compared to past US presidents and what's allowed in the US Constitution.
Jason then asks Paul about what supply side economics is and if Trump will be successful in implementing his supply side economics stimulus policy? Paul thinks it will fail and that because the US joined the WTO President Trump isn't allowed to implement any tariffs on China or Mexico either.
Wall St for Main St podcast is sponsored by Sandstorm Gold. To learn more about Sandstorm Gold, go to www.sandstormgold.com/invest.
Wall St for Main St welcome Dr. Elaina George to the show. She is a Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Specialist, free market advocate for free market based healthcare and the author of Big Medicine.
To check out Dr. George work and to purchase her book, go to http://drelainageorge.com/
What did we discussed?
1. How Obamacare hurt the doctors and patients with limited competition, bureaucracy and massive regulations.
2. Why Obamacare has designed to fail from the beginning.
3. How more competition and choices will help both the doctors and patients.
4. Thoughts on Rand Paul's plan to replace Obamacare.
5. Does the FDA protect consumer in the name of safety or is it an innovation killer and a barrier to entry?
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, former contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine, Business Insider & Huffington Post turned superstar YouTuber David Seaman https://www.youtube.com/user/davidseamanonline
David's Gab.AI page: https://gab.ai/d_seaman
David's Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidseamanweb
The story of David being fired from the Huffington Post for writing an article about Hillary Clinton's health during the 2016 Presidential election became the top story on Zero Hedge for about 24 hours. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-29/huffingon-post-revoked-publishing-access-journalist-after-post-hillarys-healthits-or
During this 30+ minute interview, Jason asks David about his rise to stardom on YouTube, why the mainstream media seems to keep doubling down on many of its anti-Trump stores and if Trump is in the process of flipping FBI Director James Comey to start spilling what he knows about the Clinton Foundation and other crimes.
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed first time guest, MC Laubscher of Cash Flow Ninja http://cashflowninja.com/
M.C. Laubscher is a wealth strategist, educator, and financial freedom fighter. He is the founder and president of Valhalla Wealth Financial and host of the popular business and investing podcast, Cashflow Ninja.
Here's his bio: http://cashflowninja.com/about/
The Cash Flow Ninja podcast averages 35k downloads per month on iTunes and has 100 5 star reviews. MC's podcast has been chosen as one of the top new business podcasts on iTunes.
During this interview, Jason starts off by asking MC about his background from South Africa and how he came to the US?
MC talks about his journey and why he started the Cash Flow Ninja podcast and why he is invests and sells infinite banking policies.
If you wanted to know about the whole life dividend paying insurance policies and how they are great and versatile savings vehicles, MC goes in depth about it.
Jason and MC discuss overcoming obstacles and impediments to move forward and why if you are an American you have a unique opportunity to build an online business now.
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, investment banker, financial analyst, bond analyst, credit analyst, bank analyst & author, Christopher Whalen http://www.rcwhalen.com/ Chris is considered one of the top bank & credit analysts in the US.
Follow Chris on Twitter @rcwhalen https://twitter.com/rcwhalen
Chris is also Head of Research at Kroll Bond Rating Agency in New York. https://www.krollbondratings.com/about-us/bios/detail/christopher-whalen
Christopher is the author of the 2010 book, Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream, now in its second edition from John Wiley & Sons. Christopher co-authored a book with veteran securities counsel Frederick Feldkamp in 2014 entitled Financial Stability: Fraud, Confidence & the Wealth of Nations published by John Wiley & Sons.
His new book project is entitled Ford Men: From Inspiration to Enterprise, a study of Ford Motor Co and the Ford family that spans the history of 20th Century America, starting with the great inventor in the early 1900s and going through to the present day. Available in Q1 2017.
Chris' Amazon page of books he has written: https://www.amazon.com/R.-Christopher-Whalen/e/B004F9DITC/
"The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries,
but between authoritarians and libertarians." -George Orwell
Jason starts off the interview by asking Chris if he thinks the Dodd-Frank bank regulations after the 2008 financial crisis have helped fuel a new commercial real estate bubble like Danielle DiMartino Booth has suggested http://dimartinobooth.com/commercial-real-estate-towers-gold-pillars-salt/.
Jason and Chris discuss the European banking crisis, Deutsche Bank and also the history of Ford Motor Company and whether Tesla Motors will succeed and become the top automobile company?
Jason Burack of Wall St for Main St interviewed returning guest, money manager and CEO of McAlvany Financial http://mcalvany.com/ and the McAlvany Group of Companies, David McAlvany.
David also co-hosts the popular McAlvany Weekly Commentary podcast https://mcalvanyweeklycommentary.com/ and he has a new self help/family improvement/personal development book coming out soon called, The Intentional Legacy https://www.amazon.com/Intentional-Le...
During this 40+ minute interview, Jason starts off by asking David what type of mess is President Donald Trump inheriting?
Jason and David discuss the banking system and the US' debt problems, what damage a strong US Dollar on the Dollar Index can do to the global economy and whether the US Dollar and Gold van buck normal financial correlations and rise together?


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Joining a gym was an idea....but that costs more than I want to spend....plus driving time.....and it seems silly when it is so beautiful outside. Running is free & I can do it whenever I want....and I don't have to fuss with loading the kids in the van. I signed up for the Fifth Third Riverbank 5k and have been running almost everyday since April 24th. And this is how I've been doing my WW.
First: Double Jogger Investment
Sell 2 other strollers & get this discounted stroller online...free shipping :)
Second: Find A Way to Satisfy Stella On Jog
I didn't want to pay extra for the cup holders, etc.
So I made my own version of a cup holder.
A paci clipped to Stella so I don't lose it.
Bring baggies of dry cereal....depending on the time of day.
Third: Music & Timing
I use Peter's shuffle.
Y-splitter so Sofia can listen too.
Always bring a stopwatch....Stella maxes out at 35 minutes
- Sometimes I run twice in 1 day. For example, yesterday I jogged my normal 3-4 miles with the girls....and then went out again in the evening & went for 7 1/2 miles....at an 8 1/2 minute mile pace! That's a total of 10 1/2 miles in 1 day! If you know me....this is amazing. I have always preferred to let others run & wait for them on my couch...with a bowl of chips.
- Sofia has started to enjoy carrots, cucumbers, & shaved turkey as a snack. I think having healthier snack options & being an example has actually helped!
- Stop complaining to my husband about how I don't see any changes. He tells me that I look great so that is enough.
- Stop finishing my kid's meals! I hate wasting food....so I always eat the last few bites of Sofia's meals.
- Drink more water. I am terrible with this. I always manage to get my daily coffee in the morning. I have an entire day to drink water....why is this so hard?
- I went crazy on some frozen cookie dough balls this past week. I just eat them frozen instead of baking them. I eat them in one bite as if it makes them smaller....and myself less gross.
- I went out bowling with friends on Saturday & ate tons of junk & had a few beers....which made me feel blah and not in any mood to run on Sunday. I rarely drink beer these days & if I have more than 1, then my body only wants to be lazy for the next few days.
- Doritoes went on sale @ D&W...buy one/get one...and I caved. I can't resist the delicious crunch & cheesy flavor of Doritoes....I devoured them despite my GI system telling me to stop.


text:
The Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books this year (2014) spotlighted my book Oh Gad! – two years after its initial release, but just in time for its mass market release – with no less than four reviews, more than any other individual book in the collection. Grateful and humbled for the attention my-not-so-little-book-that-could has been getting between the NPR buzz and this.
The Review has been known to pen responses from writers and the editor made clear that door was open to me. I don't believe in it, though; the back and forth with reviewers. Even when I disagree (with the inference, for instance that certain choices were reader-driven as opposed to character-motivated) or see a blatant error (facts not open to interpretation like location or biography), I usually don't feel tempted – usually feel enough of a distance from the work by the time it's published to take it in stride.
I want positive reviews (though only if they're deserved), of course. What writer doesn't? But, when it comes down to it, it's each reader and reviewer's reading of the story and it's actually interesting to me to see what people come away with – rarely the exact same thing even when they pick up on common themes. I share excerpts of (favourable) reviews here on the site in the interest of creating awareness about the book, and hopefully attracting sales (yet have been known to link, in the interest of full disclosure, even to the unfavourable and/or mixed reviews). I've added excerpts from the Review reviews, and you can read them here. Beyond that, nothing to say really except thank you to all the reviewers for taking the time, your reviews made for highly interesting reading – and the reality of being a writer, of being read in this way, of having my work revealed to me in this way, will never stop being unbelievable (believe that).
Want more Review? Go here.
Want more reviews? Go here.


text:
The Indian Premier League (IPL), a controversy magnet if there ever was one, seems particularly worse off this year, even taking into account its own woeful track record on keeping scandals at bay. The drought situation in Maharashtra have forced the shifting of games out of the state, while and further PILs at Karnataka and Rajasthan High Courts have put a question mark over the availability of alternate venues.
In the midst of all this comes the allegation that the league is becoming too predictable following a startling 19 out of 24 matches this year going in favour of the team bowling first. And a few close finishes notwithstanding, many have also criticised the "boring" nature of the competition. And it now appears that all the controversies have taken their toll on the IPL and hit BCCI where it hurts the most — viewership.
According to latest figures accessed by the Times of India, the average television viewership rating (TVR) this edition of the IPL has managed has just been 3.5. This is a significant drop from the corresponding figure for the first weeks of last year's IPL, where the average TVR was 4.5 points. In fact, IPL 2016 seems to have the second lowest TVR of all, only behind the dismal 3.1 managed by the 2014 iteration. The cricket league, in 2012 and 2013, garnered 4.6 and 3.8 respectively.
The factors for this could be many — from the many controversies surround the league, to the absence of two of the league's most popular franchises: Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings. Or just viewer fatigue brought in by an overload of cricket. The IPL is following closely on the heels of the World T20 and between the two of them, they account for almost three months of non-stop cricket.
Even at the grounds, there can be seen several empty seats. Especially at venues like Delhi, Mohali and Hyderabad, several matches were played in front of half-empty stadia. And though some other venues, especially Mumbai and Bangalore, are seeing packed grounds and no empty seats, the lack of interest at other places is hurting the image of the IPL.
Several experts, however, feel it's too early for us to be deciding the fate of the IPL and discussing how popular it will be. The tournament lasts 60 matches, and we haven't even reached the half-way stage. There are bound to be ebbs and flows and TV viewership and stadium attendance figures are both bound to pick up. Moreover, the early round of matches were drab and one-sided, while the second week has seen more close finishes. This bodes well for the league, as tighter games are likely to improve viewer interest in the cricket. As the league enters the business end, the experts say things will normalise once again and by the time it ends, we would see viewership patterns at par with earlier iterations.
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.
Updated Date: Apr 30, 2016 10:23:41 IST


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text:
Ben Nye pretty pink
8 reviews
100% would repurchase
Package Quality: 3.9
Price: $$$
Package Quality: 3.9
Price: $$$
Start your review
Age: 44-55
Skin: Oily, Medium, Not Sure
Hair: Other, Other, Other
Eyes: Green
I love this powder. I did not know how the pink would work for me butt it has far exceeded my expectations. I am a medium complexion with reddish undertone. I'm also in my late 40s and I'm starting to get some age spots. I used this as a setting powder all over my face. And acted like a translucent powder with color correct. It looks beautiful and it isn't settling in my fine lines
Age: 56 & Over
Skin: Normal, Fair-Medium, Cool
Hair: Grey, Straight, Fine
Eyes: Hazel
Beautiful, soft pink powder. Looks lovely layered over blush to provide a highlight effect. Can even be used to set under eye area if you have fair complexion. I find many shades turn yellow on my skin. This powder neutralizes the effect and lifts a sallow complexion. Very finely milled and the container prevents contamination issues.
Age: 19-24
Skin: Normal, Olive, Warm
Hair: Black, Straight, Medium
Eyes: Black
I'm an NC40 & for a long time I was under the impression that using yellow powder to set my concealer would be better because it matches my undertone. Boy was I WRONG! I was using Ben Nye's famous Banana powder & as nice as the texture was, it was actually too yellow to where I looked jaundiced only under my eyes. I wasn't even using a lot, & it looked weird. Saw someone's review about how Pretty Pink was close to Benefit's Powderflauge which I never tried before it got discontinued. Pretty Pink neutralizes the peach & yellow undereye concealers that I use. It helps the concealer blend better with the rest of my makeup & I really appreciate it for that. The pink tones are less obvious & amazingly enough don't make me ashy. I'm going to have to stock up on this one, even though a little goes a long way for me. I don't mind the packaging, just remove the round clear sticker over the sifter when you open it, & I know it sounds redundant, but place clear tape over the majority of the holes, except 2-3. This helps control the amount that pours out, & ensures you don't spill it everywhere.Since it's not as notorious as Banana, it's usually available. Thank you Ben Nye!!!
Age: 36-43
Skin: Oily, Fair, Not Sure
Hair: Blond, Other, Other
Eyes: Brown
I just discovered this powder. This is great for brightening my pale complexion, which can sometimes look pasty and not so healthy, especially when I don't get enough sleep. I apply this to my whole face for a brightening effect and also under my eyes. Texture is nice and no issues with breakouts yet. I'm so glad to have found this one.
Age: 36-43
Skin: Combination, Fair, Not Sure
Hair: Brunette, Other, Other
Eyes: Green
I discoved Ben Nye Pretty Pink translucent powder while looking for a dupe for powderflage. This powder over the concealer covers my dark circles without settling into the fine lines that I am getting. Excellent product and amazing how inexpensive it is...you get a lot of product!
Age: 25-29
Skin: Combination, Other, Not Sure
Hair: Blond, Other, Other
Eyes: Green
I mix this powder with white loose powder to create a custom blended pressed powder shade. It has a nice texture and the color is soft and brightening.
Age: 25-29
Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Not Sure
Hair: Red, Curly, Fine
Eyes: Green
I love this powder. Great for softening up your complexion.
Age: 44-55
Skin: Normal, Other, Not Sure
Hair: Brown, Other, Other
Eyes: Blue
Wonderful texture!
Popular Loose Powders
Popular Loose Powders


text:
I'll have more a little bit later today, but for now I hope this card puts you in the mood for spring ;)
Sunday, January 13, 2013
I'll have more a little bit later today, but for now I hope this card puts you in the mood for spring ;)
18 comments:
- Marlou McAlees said...
love your card!!! beautiful :)
- January 13, 2013 at 1:34 PM
- Deanna Jean said...
So pretty. I really like how the butterflies are where you used the colors. Thanks for joining us at Dynamic Duos this week.
- January 13, 2013 at 1:35 PM
- Donna Hanley said...
Yes it does make me think of spring. It is 50 degrees today (no sun though), so between the temps and your card, I'm doing pretty good. The butterflies look so nice sitting above the embossing. Nice job. Enjoy your day.
- January 13, 2013 at 1:38 PM
- jimlynn said...
Beautiful!!! Love that embossing folder and the butterflies are perfect on here. Nice and spring-y and so pretty.
- January 13, 2013 at 2:59 PM
- Karen Bourke said...
An absolute stunner Carol. Love the e/f you've used and the colours are so fresh and Spring-like (I wish!) Thanks so much for joining us at A2CAS.
Karen x
- January 13, 2013 at 5:23 PM
- Benzi said...
Yes, yes, it puts me in the mood for Spring. I can hardly wait. I've seen nothing but rain and clouds for days.
Your card is gorgeous, Carol. I love the Spring colors.
- January 13, 2013 at 6:38 PM
- Denise Price said...
It's cloudy here today, too, and I also struggled with getting good photos of my work. Winter is just a hard time to get good photos.
Your card is lovely. The embossed swirls suggest the carefree flight of the butterflies. It just feels so light and floaty!
- January 13, 2013 at 9:17 PM
- Emily Keaton said...
Absolutely beautiful! Those colors are soft and pretty. Great CAS card!
- January 13, 2013 at 10:23 PM
- Mary Anne / MA54K said...
Bring on the Spring, sista! Can't believe that my DS is going to Las Vegas, and it is 20 degrees! That embossing folder makes the perfect trails for your swarm of butterflies!
- January 14, 2013 at 7:45 AM
- Wendy said...
I was gonna say the same thing Mary Anne did!! LOL Great minds think alike! Love your card with all those pretty butterflies and that awesome embossing folder! Your twine finishes it off perfectly! Love these springy colors!
- January 14, 2013 at 11:02 AM
- Karen M said...
Such a pretty, clean and fresh card, Carol. i love the cute little butterflies and the beautiful embossed flourish! Kx
- January 14, 2013 at 3:47 PM
- Sue said...
This is gorgeous, Carol! Beautiful embossing and soft colours. Thank you for joining us at ATCAS. Sue x
- January 15, 2013 at 10:33 AM
- Janice M said...
Oh i love the way you added DP butterflies on this folder Carol! I'll have to remember that!
- January 15, 2013 at 4:28 PM
Such a lovely card. ;-) I love how you used the colors with that beautiful embossed flourish. Very pretty! Thank you for joining us at Dynamic Duos. ;-)
- January 15, 2013 at 4:41 PM
- Kylie said...
I'm loving butterflies at the moment and this is just gorgeous. Your embossing folder is stunning. Thanks so much for playing along at ATCAS! xx
- January 16, 2013 at 5:01 AM
- Christina Barnes said...
Loving that gorgeous embossing in the background, it looks great with the pretty butterflies. Thank you for sharing your card with us this week at Dynamic Duos.
- January 17, 2013 at 5:20 PM
- Shana Gaff said...
Beautiful embossing and I love the butterflies! Thanks for playing at ATCAS!
- January 20, 2013 at 5:48 PM
Such a pretty card ... beautiful embossing and lovely soft colour palette! Anita in France :)
- January 21, 2013 at 3:10 PM


text:
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text:
While the beautiful Ballona Wetlands is not currently open to the public, you can take guided tours through the Friends of Ballona Wetlands. They offer FREE guided tours every month! Click here for their schedule.
The Inn sits on the Salt Marsh, and the next tour will be held on Sunday, March 11 from 1-3pm. To enter the Wetlands, meet at the parking lot behind Gordon's Market located at 303 Culver Blvd. You can also visit the open house held on Saturday March 10 from 2-4pm.
Interested in getting your hands dirty? Help out at the monthly Habitat Restoration Day, held the 4th Saturday of the month, from 9:30am to 12 noon. Next Restoration day is March 24.
The Ballona Wetlands are part of a diverse watershed network that links all of Los Angeles. Check out this fascinating article for more information.
If you just want to enjoy the Wetlands without having to walk around, some of the best views can be had right from the Inn's balcony. Spend the night with us, and enjoy our nightly wine and hors d'ouevres hour by the glow of the sunset, overlooking nature's bounty.


text: ABOUT ME : This is our little man, Mitchell Johnson. He's a 14 week old miniature dachie. He loves biting anything and peeing everywhere. He also enjoys naps on your shoulder and neck. And of course, has a love for food and stealing from the veggie patch! He is very much loved in our household.


text:
I contacted recently a poet from United Kingdom I appreciate a lot for a collaboration. I asked him to choose one of my photos and he has been inspired by the photograph below. Gwylym Owen offered me a splendid poem. Please visit his site in order to read other of his writings http://illiteratepoetry.blogspot.com/
And don't forget, to activate the youtube player (below the photo) reading the poem. I choosed a jazz tune called Stolen Moments by Oliver Nelson, a pure classic of jazz music.
Bye for now
Juan Carlos
Encased, within enveloping Time-Spatial Curves
Cosmic ray showers, fade as Muons decay
Swallowed whole, in that great ocean of sands
Likened to the silence, in-between Musical notes
Memory evokes such, wonderfully fond tales;
Cheap impersonations, that hardly fill the void;
Of stolen moments in, transitory Manifestation.
Hustle and bustle, tempered by the mild gentle wind.
Ebbing and flowing, toing and froing.
Untouched by even, the most severest, of frost.
A young boy never standing still, a childhood lost.
A moppet's memory, of scented meadows, freshly cut.
The way the scent fades, as the years pass.
Those treasured moments never seem to last.
Chasing them is a pointless and thankless task;
And as the Grand 'Ammon's horn', starts to stir and trip
On Neptune's vehicle in the high seas of the Hippocampus
Click, click, Clack, there's only one logical fact.
Steal your future back, Conjure up: 'Omnipresent Style',
Live, every waking instant, as if it were your last.
Fill all of those, pilfered Flashes, with moments; worth stealing.
Too busy fashioning, to look back, creating stolen moments;
That's the task, that will always last, this kind of trice is always nice.
So the choice is yours: Celebrate or Regret: "Stolen Moments."
Though - as you swoosh through; Fleeting, flashes;
Cherish and adore, as they do unfold,
For, surely this is the definition, of purest Gold.
copyright Gwylym Owen, 2011


text:
Australia's Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) tries to ensure that Australian networks are among the world's most secure. Australia's program combines threat data from multiple entities to strengthen collective intelligence between private sector, state and territory governments, academia and international partners. The results of intrusion attempts are uploaded to the cloud, giving analysts from multiple agencies a larger pool of attack data to scan for patterns.
This collective intelligence revealed its value during the 2001 fight against the Lion worm, which exploited a vulnerability in computer connections. A few analysts noticed a spike in probes to port 53, which supports the Domain Name Service, the system for naming computers and network servers organized around domains. They warned international colleagues, who collaborated on a response. Soon, a system administrator in the Netherlands collected a sample of the worm, which allowed other experts to examine it in a "sandbox", a protected testing environment. A global community of security practitioners then identified the worm's underlying structure and built a program to detect it. In just 14 hours, they publicized their findings widely enough to defend computers worldwide.


text:
Went dancing (blues) over the weekend. I don't want to end up duplicating Holly's post so if you actually want to know what I was doing on the weekend, read that. I'm just going to talk about key moments that stuck in my memory (in roughly chronological order):
- Friday night's Wall of Blues, and associated turf war with the local drunkards.
- Peppering of glass in the bottom of my dance shoes.
- Being told repeatedly to relax by a drunk person who cornered me for a dance.
- Ignoring her because she was drunk.
- Being told repeatedly to relax by Damon and Bryn.
- Hanging my head in shame.
- Solo blues facing off against Christopher Allen.
- Dinner in Brazilian place in the market.
- Dancing in close-closed with someone who's the right height and connecting well (feels pretty awesome).
- Being taught a few embraces which improve the connection in closed.
- Recognising some of them from the previous evening.
- Closed embrace with Damon and a "Freakishly tall guy".
- The picture, care of Christopher Allen.
- The prank, care of Asif.
- £5 communal nachos which were better and more filling than £9 burger
- First dance with Brin (baptism of fire for the evening).
- Still having my jumper on (baptism of sweat for the evening).


text:
A proposed constitutional amendment on pension laws continues to advance in the Illinois legislature.
The measure would make it harder for governmental bodies to approve increases in pension benefits for public workers. The legislation is sponsored by House Speaker, Michael Madigan. It would require a three-fifths majority for any so-called "pension sweetener" deals to pass.
The bill cleared the House Wednesday and now goes to the Senate. It would also need voter approval before it could take effect.


text:
Pinnacle is a grade management program used in Broward County Schools. The Parent Internet Viewer allows both parents and students to access grades via the Internet.
Pinnacle keeps parents informed of their child's progress by sending email alerts when the student is absent or when the student's grades have dropped below a specified average. A parent must have the child's Student Identification Number and pin code to access the information. Student Identification Numbers appear on all interim and final report cards and on student schedules.
If necessary, parents can request Student Identification Numbers from the child's teacher. The pin code is the student's date of birth.


text:
Armor 1
Bayonets 38
Belts, Buckles 135
Boxes 3
Bronzes 22
Daggers 386
Damascus 2
Field Gear 47
Firearms 9
Headgear 204
Helmets 2
Hoffmann 1
Holsters 6
Insignia 72
Japanese 3
Lugers 8
Out of Print 19
Period Books 23
Posters 27
Samurai 7
Stamps 4
Swords 60
Tinnies 59
Uniforms 143
Walther 5
Willrich 27
This Section.. 2,685
REFERENCE ONLY. (SOLD or NOT FOR SALE)
This very nice ring to SS Officer Groll comes with a complete research file, as well as two Don Boyle certificates (you can never have enough of those)! Ring shows minor wear throughout the exterior, and a very crisp summer solstice date from 1942. Groll joined the SS in 1931, and ended the war as an Untersturmfuhrer. I have not dug into his research file very deeply, but there are some excellent photographs of him in the file, due to him having been an NCO (officer records almost always do NOT contain photos).


text: [27.3.2009] Why did one of the world's leading architecture firms behind such masterpieces as Wembley Stadium, the Millennium Bridge, and 30 St Mary Axe adopt 3D printing technology to enhance their design process? What did they find and how is it improving communication? To learn more, join this complimentary Webcast. www.EARCH.cz


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Off-duty garda assaulted during Athy burglary bid
An alert off-duty garda in Athy was assaulted by three men as he blocked a burglary taking place using his car last week, writes Lisa Deeney.
The local garda observed an attempted burglary taking place in the early hours of 10 April in the Gallow Hills residential area.
"Using his car, he attempted to block the intruders. The window of the passenger seat in his car was smashed and he was assaulted with a rock," said Sgt Jim Bergin of Athy Garda Station.
"He was stuck on the head with a rock and was taken to Naas General Hospital for his injuries and received a number of stitches."
The three male intruders were all dressed in black and were wearing balaclavas. They drove away in a Black Saab car, with a partial registration of 03MH. Sgt Bergin is appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to contact them on 0598634210.


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Reading Tips for Parents of Reluctant Readers
By Simone Mary
Education begins at home where parents are the first teachers. Parents therefore should never have a hands off approach about any part of their child's education. In fact children who are struggling in school need the support of their parents more than ever. The trouble is most parents are never quite sure exactly what they can do to help. This article focuses on struggling readers and what parents can do at home to help their children.
Photo: grreatbooks.com
There are certain strategies that teacher's use in the classroom that can be adapted for use at home. Teachers know that Phonological awareness, Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency and comprehension are key skills that every child should master. However a lot a parents don't know exactly how to go about helping their child develop these core reading skills.
To help your child to acquire phonological awareness skills which is simply the ability to break down the language into smaller units, use nursery rhymes. Say them along with your child and play rhyming word games with them. You can say one word such as "cake" and have your child tell you a word that rhymes. Clap to syllables in word you call with your child for example: din/ner(two claps) break/fast(two claps) bed(one clap).
Help your child develop phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the ability to manipulate phonemes (sounds). Teach your child songs and then substitute different phonemes(sounds) for the beginning sound in words.
For example: Sweetly sings the donkey
At the break of day,
If you do not feed him
This is what he'll say,
Hee haw, hee haw, hee haw, hee haw, hee haw!
Can be changed to: tweetly tings the tonkey
At the break of day,
If you do not feed him
This is what he'll say,
tee taw, tee taw, tee taw, tee taw, tee taw!
In this example "t" was used as a substitute.
To develop phonics skills listen to your child reading. Play the hang man game. Let your child touch and say words as they write them.
To help your child become a fluent reader do echo reading activities. During echo reading you will read a sentence or short phrase and then your child will repeat what you have said. In this way you become a model. To develop fluency you can also read along with the child. Turn your home into a little theatre by acting out different scenes in a book using the dialogue. The whole family can get involved in this.
Get a copy of the Dolch word list. You can get a copy from several sites on the internet. The Dolch word list consists of 220 words. These words account for about 75% of all the words used in children's book. These words can be made into flash cards. You can make them out of construction paper or on the computer. Hold up the words on the cards and have your child practice calling a few of them everyday.
To develop reading comprehension ask your child to predict what will happen in a story before you read it to them. These predictions can be based on the cover art and title. At the end of reading ask questions that begin with the five W's: who, what, when, where and why.
Simone Mary is a teacher, writer and artist. She is the author of the eBook TEACHING READING AND WRITING, for more reading strategies and for a free copy of the eBook GET ON THE HONOR ROLL-TEST AND EXAM TAKING TIPS THAT WORK visit http://www.thereadingandwritingshop.com/


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These Greek fried meat balls can be served mini sized as a mezze starter as I've done here, or made in larger size and served as part of a main course with maybe chips and a salad on the side. I love them like this as a little nibble along with a chilled glass of wine in the evening.
You can use either minced beef or lamb for these Greek fried meatballs or even a mixture of the two. The 500g/1 lb 2 oz of mince that I used here will make lots of mini meatballs perfect as a Mezze/starter or it'll make a main course for four people if you make the meatballs bigger in size.
Meatballs are a firm favourite in Greek cuisine, you'll find them on the menu in every taverna worth its salt. The way I've served them here on tiny plates with a couple of cubes of Feta, a few olives and a small cream cheesed stuffed mini pepper and a wedge of lemon is perfect for when you've got friends round and you want to serve a nice little nibble with drinks before a meal. One of my friends who has a tiny bar in Crete gives you this when you order a glass of wine in the evening, now that's what I call civilised living!
Lemon is always served with fried meatballs in Greece so don't forget to have one on hand just to squeeze over the meatballs just before you eat them, it really ramps up that flavour and makes everything so much better.
Kali Orexi!
- 500g/1lb20z minced beef or lamb (or mix of both)
- 1 egg beaten
- 2 slices crustless bread
- A little milk
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley finely chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- wedges of lemon to serve
- Soak the bread in milk for 10 minutes then squeeze out as much liquid as possible
- Place all ingredients (apart from the lemon wedges) into a bowl and mix together thoroughly using your hands to squish and squeeze everything together
- Pull off pieces and roll into small balls the size of a largish marble
- Fry in olive oil for 5-10 minutes (15-20 mins for larger meatballs) rolling around in pan so all browned
- Serve with lemon wedges


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The Museum of the Coastal Bend is offering two more summer camps for youngsters in the month of July.
On July 17-20, the museum will offer a Camp Q&A for children ages 9-12. The camp, which will be held each day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., will teach youngsters how to participate in the sport of quidditch and how to use an atlatl.
Quidditch is a sport derived from the "Harry Potter" book series and involves two teams of seven players mounted on broomsticks. The object of the game is to throw the most balls through various-sized hoops in an allotted amount of time.
An atlatl is a stick that was used by American Indians to propel a spear. The hunting tool is believed to have been utilized as early as the Upper Paleolithic period in Europe.
The cost for Camp Q&A is $10. The registration deadline is 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 10.
The museum will host a Junior Archaeologist Camp on July 24-27 for Girl Scout Juniors, Cadets and Seniors. Campers will learn the basics of archaeology, sort and organize artifacts, and take a field trip to an active archaeological site. Transportation will not be provided to the site.
The cost for the Junior Archaeologist Camp is $30 and $27 for museum members. The camp will be held each day from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The registration deadline is 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 14.
Registration forms for both camps can be accessed at MuseumOfTheCoastalBend.org and submitted at the museum or emailed to email@example.com.
The Museum of the Coastal Bend is located on Victoria College's Main Campus at 2200 E. Red River Street in Victoria. The museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is "pay-what-you-want."
For more information on the Museum of the Coastal Bend and its upcoming events, visit MuseumOfTheCoastalBend.org, email firstname.lastname@example.com or call (361) 582-2511.


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Public Debate Series
The Speech and Debate Program and the Honors College host a series of approximately eight debates throughout the academic year, each addressing a different facet of the annual collegiate debate topic. Houston debaters team with university and industry experts to present a range of perspectives in a give-and-take format. The public debate series allows students to showcase their research and draw the campus and community into the discussion.
Previous debates in the series have included a public debate on energy production between the University of Houston Policy Debate Team, featuring Daniyal Inamullah and Danny Alexander, and the British National Debate Team, featuring Ettie Bailey-King and Willard Foxton, on October 16, 2012; and a public debate on energy dependency between the University of Houston Policy Debate Team, featuring Eric Lanning and Sahar Sadoughi, and the Rice University Debate Team on March 19, 2013.


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From fundamentalism to freedom: my story
2/24/2013 | Share this article: View CommentsBy Christian Charette ~
I don't remember the day I stopped believing in a personal god. My exodus from Christian faith was a gradual process fueled by asking skeptical questions. I'm an insider who approached his own faith system the ways I had approached all other faith systems. The trajectory of my life, from being the little preacher boy who took the stage to preach at age 7 to a man who started his own church was, in retrospect, always deconstructing the system of Christianity I had adopted culturally. I was sincere and a true believer but a Christian by default.
It started when I was 5, living in buffalo, NY. My mother had joined a local Presbyterian bible study. Raised catholic, she came to believe that she wasn't a true Christian with personal faith and decided to become a Christian. This was a decision that had significant impact on our family. After a rough patch, my father also converted and we began attending a Presbyterian Church in Armour, New York. I remember telling my mother that god was speaking to me in my head. I don't remembered what the voice said, but it seemed to be a positive thing at the time.
We moved to Florida when I was 7. My mother, a school teacher took a job at a private Christian school that required her and her family to attend their independent baptist church. It was 1980 and evangelical legalism in the vain of Bob Jones University was popular. They taught the doctrine of inerrancy, that women shouldn't wear pants, music shouldn't have syncopation, no playing cards, no going to movies, no wearing your hair long as a male as it was considered a disgrace, and other generally annoyingly controlling beliefs. I was taught to memorize scripture Jack-Van-Impe style, and we attended church 3-4 times per week. I went to a christian school and a christian boys club. This formed the foundation of our Christian faith. Everything about our life was inside the bubble of Christianity. Informed by Dallas Theological Seminary and Moody Bible Institute, it was a fundamentalist Christianity that frankly was no fun at all. Sobered by need to control behavior, it seemed then and now to betray their doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. What the holy spirit failed to be able to change in people magically, they would be sure to accomplish. This eventually proved to be an unbearable way of life and we moved on, a little to the left.
I was 16 when we joined another baptist church that was a little less independent and slowly emerging out of fundamentalism. We didn't feel so religiously claustrophobic, but basically were still being taught fundamentalist doctrines, just with a little less Scrooge. It launched me into Christian music performance and towards a pastoral career.
My first year of college I attended the Word of Life Bible Institute where I studied nothing but the bible for a year without the outside interferences of television, radio, and contact with the outside world. At the time, I didn't consider this cultish. After that, I attended Lancaster Bible College where I received a B.S. in theology/pastoral studies and music.
Since this time, I have pastored in one capacity or another in baptist churches, methodist churches and unaffiliated churches where I ended my Christian career after spending 8 years planting (starting) my own church. My Christian trajectory had taken me from fundamentalism to a more emergent and artistic style of Christianity that had boiled down my faith to the essentials of the Apostles Creed. I thought then of everything else as grey and subjectively interpreted. I led this ministry from what is called a missional approach.
During this time, I was heavily influenced by work of the Mark Driscoll's, Tim Keller's, Brian Mclaren's, Gregory Boyd's, Dallas Willard's and Rob Bell's of the Christian world. My ministry experiences, both successes and failures, had taught me as a person about my own biases, perceptions and limitations. But equally important, it demonstrated to me, even within a small circle of Christianity just how different Christians understand and appropriate their faith. It demonstrated a pantheism at work in the name of monotheism.
Augustine is famous for saying, "in essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity". This statement sustained my faith for a long time. Even though many Christians do often show charity to other Christians of different theological persuasions, deep down they are certain they are right and those others might not even know god. They believe they are right, not just in the doubtful things, but in the very essentials.
I remember after my Methodist stint talking with my baptist pastor back home. He said to me, "how could you work with those people?". It was an honest moment from the man who had long since recognized that denominational separations are not just about doubtful things, but essential things. Yes, some Christian denominations overlap, but ultimately they disagree and are atheistic about each other's essential doctrines about salvation, baptism, the holy spirit, inerrancy and infallibility, god's sovereignty, man's free will, jesus divinity, the nature of the trinity and much more. These experiences opened a crack of rationality in my own dogmatism. I began to see how each person really constructs their own god, choosing the foundational sticks that work for them, they erect their god projection like a cosmic piñata, heaping upon themselves blessings. It's a pretty egocentric exercise that allows for an invisible and in-comprehensive agency to comfort the self and condemn the other.
Then I decided to step away from this career. My doubts had grown so much I didn't think it was fair to myself or others to keep pretending I believed my own apologist answers to essential questions. This allowed me to finally examine my faith as an outsider. It's very difficult to question the faith that brings you your livelihood.
I started reading the critics themselves. I started studying science and evolution (I was never taught evolution first hand, only through the Christian lens), textual and historical criticism, philosophy, canonicity, psychology and neurobiology. I watched many Christianity/atheism debates. I began to examine my presuppositional faith with the same questions I would have asked of any other person who wanted me to accept their own extraordinary faith claims. In doing this, I realized something very important about my own faith that I think is generalizable to many people's faith process: because of my geography and family, I had accepted the claims of Christianity without a true examination.
I had received, by all accounts, a stellar Christian education attending both private Christian schools and colleges, completed with Greek and Hebrew, church history, and supposedly critical examinations of Christianity. But like all good cults, Christianity education operates with a closed posture. In other words, while objections are addressed, they are addressed through the lens of a preconceived knowledge. I was never instructed to read any critical works in their own words, even from insider criticism. Like most bad arguments, they told us what the critics had said or were saying and then argued against what were essentially straw men. This is an intentional sheltering, because when people are exposed to thorough criticism without that lens, they have to come face to face with their own leaps of faith. But it goes beyond that to a more seductive and self deceptive place:
At the heart of Christian faith exist a second hand rationalization that if insufficient intellectually rest on mysticism. Consider what William Lane Craig, known as the greatest Christian apologist of our time writes in his book, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, in the chapter "Faith and Reason: How Do I Know Christianity is True?" He draws a distinction between knowing Christianity is true and showing it is true. Basically saying how Christian apologetics works, he writes: "My friend, I know Christianity is true because God's Spirit lives in me and assures me that it is true. And you can know it, too, because God is knocking at the door of your heart, telling you the same thing. If you are sincerely seeking God, then God will give you assurance that the gospel is true. Now, to try to show you it's true, I'll share with you some arguments and evidence that I really find convincing. But should my arguments seem weak and unconvincing to you, that's my fault, not God's. It only shows that I'm a poor apologist, not that the gospel is untrue. Whatever you think of my arguments, God still loves you and holds you accountable. I'll do my best to present good arguments to you. But ultimately you have to deal, not with arguments, but with God himself."
Later he writes, "unbelief is at root a spiritual, not an intellectual, problem. Sometimes an unbeliever will throw up an intellectual smoke screen so that he can avoid personal, existential involvement with the gospel."
This is a familiar sentiment from Christians. It goes something like this: faith has reasonable evidence and cogent rationalities , but if these don't convince you, you must simply not have faith. Or as Thomas Aguinas put it, "To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible". Christians essentially admit that their conviction arises from purely subjective factors, not much different from the sharply dressed Mormon biking missionary who just knows the Book of Mormon was written by ancient American prophets because he has a warm, swelling feeling in the stomach when he asks his god if it's true. The Christian rejects the mormon's self-deluding reasoning while embracing an equally irrational dogma. I began to see this as true of how all faith works, arguments in behalf of a fore-gone position. With circular arguments like this, faith beliefs cannot be proven false because its defined as truth first. Maybe that's why they call it faith + reason. The rationale is like gravy, if arguments end up making sense, yahoo!, if they don't, doubters just don't possess the magic mojo to understand it. I decided I could not live my life any longer inside this magic circle. It no longer seemed an honest way to determine truth.
Isn't it obvious to you that Muslims are fooling themselves? Isn't it obvious that Mormons are self-deceived? Isn't it obvious that anyone who thinks that the Koran is the perfect word of the creator of the universe has not read the book critically? Isn't it obvious that the changing doctrines of the Mormon church beg the question? Yes, these things are obvious. Your faith is equally and obviously a cognitive dissonance to both Mormons and Muslims.I think the most important discovery and faith crushing factors come from the bible itself. I know many insiders reading my story will say, "ok that's a philosophical argument, but what about the bible". I have read the bible many times and much more these days. The difference is, I don't have on any magic glasses. I don't look at inside contradictions, outright phenomenal claims, or archaic scientific ideas and automatically excuse or rationalize it away to fit my preconceived narrative. I am amazed how much is truly missed and glossed over when your an insider with a preconceived truth. I now began to read the bible like I would read any other sacred book, like you would read any other sacred book, critically. Reading it carefully without man made harmonizations, theological rationalizations or total pre-acceptance is more honest. It is how many of you reading this right now would read the Book of Mormon or the Koran, both books claiming authority from a god.
I have had to admit to myself, that in order to even have assurance in Christianity, total confidence must be placed in the cannon of the modern bible itself. It requires two faiths. Before you can ever truly accept the tenants of Christian faith and its many disparate interpretations, you must first trust completely that the books in the bible are truly scripture from a god, and the only scriptures. But I had to ask myself, if I truly believed the councils who put this together selected these books with no bias or theological agendas? What about all the books mentioned in the bible they didn't include in the cannon? Do I really accept the early authorship dates of the new testament books in the face of strong evidences to the contrary? Did I really accept that a god wrote these books perfectly and yet was unable to preserve them in there original forms, tell us exclusively which books he wrote, and accept the circular reasoning about inspiration and inerrancy? Did I really believe that a god would write these books and yet allow for such evolving knowledge, discrepancies and contradictions among the authors? Could I continue to rationalize failures of biblical prophecies, or accept messianic prophecies that are obviously cherry picked by the new testament authors and have Nostradamus like qualities? What about the discrepancies known and admitted by even Christian scholars? What about the lack of original manuscripts and variants among the ones we have? Why would Christians today read these books and believe the outright magical stories in them but rejects the Book of Enoch (Jude 4,6,13,14-15, 2 Peter 2:4;3:13), Life of Adam and Eve (2 Corinthians 11:14 "Satan as an angel of light", 12:2 "Third Heaven") or the many other-referenced in the bible-but not included in the cannon books? I think if most Christians really looked at the bible without magic glasses, they would be more hesitant to place a blind faith in its claims.
One of the categories I will use in my posts will be titles The Careful Reader. Slowly, methodically I hope to walk through the bible and address the above item list. Drawing in my own positive education in Christian apologetics I think many will find this a fair critic from a former insider who understands and once believed the rationalizations for the bibles errors.
I eventually came to the conclusion that my beliefs had come first, rationalizations had come second. It was a belief dependent realism that fed my faith retroactively. Like most people, I was exposed at a young age culturally to the overarching story of heaven and hell and a savior who died for me. This was appealing on an emotional level. I mean who wants to go to hell? But it glossed over the incredible fantastical claims the story is built upon. Everything after this choice in the bible had to be necessarily true, no matter how irrational. With my insiders faith, all contrary scientific evidence, outright textual contradictions, outrageous stories of floods and miracles, genocide and murder, slavery and polygamy, angels having sex and procreating giants, god being stopped by iron charts, picking up snakes and drinking poison, disparate genealogies of Jesus, zombies walking the streets of jerusalem after the resurrection, prophecies unfulfilled, and on and on….became subject to the first principle of faith. But I began to truly ask myself why I would accept these outright fairy tail like stories just because they happened so long ago in the light of what this god seems to be capable of today? I had read the large books dedicated to explaining what apologist call "apparent" problems and contradictions. Volumes are dedicated to explaining what you would expect a god to make clear from the beginning. But eventually and tragically, platitudes like, "god is just incomprehensible", or "his ways are higher than our ways" or "he is infinite and we have finite minds" are how most Christians sustain their beliefs. This, I have decided is no way to run a mind and encounter reality. Ask yourself, what other facet of life do you accept in this fashion? Why would an invisible being require my belief, give me such contrary and irrational evidence that required me to ignore the very mind by which I determine all other realities? Why does faith require mindlessness?
I do not doubt other peoples sincerity or that that their faith in Jesus has coincided with very positive changes. But I can no longer allow subjective experiences, and personal faith to determine reality. The fact that people's faith works is irrelevant. For instance, millions of people have had similar experiences—but they had them while thinking about Krishna, or Allah, or the Buddha, while making art or music, or while contemplating the beauty of nature. Magic feelings, inner assurance, faith or pragmatic and ecstatic experiences are not evidence to base a life upon. There is no question that it is possible for people to have profoundly transformative experiences. And there is no question that it is possible for them to misinterpret these experiences, and to further delude themselves about the nature of reality. It is, of course, right to believe that there is more to life than simply understanding the structure and contents of the universe. But this does not make unjustifiable claims about its structure and contents any more respectable and reasonable.
It's not an easy choice to examine your own faith. There is a lot of pressure to hold the party line. Many of my family and friends are disappointed. What once was seen as a sound and wise mind, is now suspected as deficient. I have a new appreciation for those who try to leave less complex cults with localized power. I have new appreciation for those who tell their families about their true sexual orientation. It is human to want to belong, and rejection is something the most confident of persons likes to avoid. But I can't honestly sacrifice my own mind and desire for better evidence for these extraordinary claims on the alter of blind faith.
If you are a Christian, you understand exactly what it's like for me to be skeptical about Christian faith with respect to how you view the beliefs of say Muslims or Mormons. Isn't it obvious to you that Muslims are fooling themselves? Isn't it obvious that Mormons are self-deceived? Isn't it obvious that anyone who thinks that the Koran is the perfect word of the creator of the universe has not read the book critically? Isn't it obvious that the changing doctrines of the Mormon church beg the question? Yes, these things are obvious. Your faith is equally and obviously a cognitive dissonance to both Mormons and Muslims. Their works and prayers a also working for their experientially. What are you not staying up at night worried about your non-Mormonism or lack of faith is Allah?
They, right now, are living out a faith experience through prayer and worship and are correlating their life events to the hand of very different divinity. They a certain they have the truth through the revealed word of a god by faith. They view you as lacking the faith to see the truth and are perfectly resolved that they will be vindicated in the life to come after death. Understand that the way you view Islam and Mormonism is precisely the way Mormons and Muslims view you. And this is the exactly the way I now feel about all faith based claims.
Some have, and will accuse me of trading one faith for another, claiming I've now put my trust in humanism. But that isn't how this works for people like me. No longer believing is not a religion. If no longer believing the evidence is a religion, then not collecting baseball cards is a hobby. Losing faith in the existence of a god is not equal to claiming one exist, is knowable and cares what I believe. Remove this and all that's left is humanism in its various forms. Calling that a god is an attempt to level the field and obfuscate the arguments.
I decided to write this blog as a therapeutic exercise. Something that consumed such a large part of my life, so much of other people's lives, and the American landscape is a topic I just can't stop exploring. I'm hoping to interact with insiders, still holding onto their faith and offer support to those who doubt. Since I started coming out on social media, I've received private emails from people in religious positions who secretly doubt their faith. While I can respect the comfort of faith, I think the world would be a better place without the superstitious. As history has proven, believing absurdities can lead to atrocities.
Website: http://www.chasingblackswans.com
Filed Under: Testimonials


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I create one-of-kind custom portraits of loved ones, family members and pets from your favorite photographs. These portraits make unique gifts or keepsakes for special occassions, such as birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and other holidays.
I am a professional portrait artist and a middle school art teacher. I can capture the spirit and personality of your loved ones in a way that a normal photograph cannot. Hand-drawn portraits can be made from several images that provide the best likeness and personality of your loved one. This enables me to customize backgrounds, add other accessories like bows, and combine more than one subject from different photographs.
1. Order your custom portrait online using the main menu. Follow the steps provided to order the portrait you desire.
2. E-mail your best digital photo(s) to me. Make sure they are high-quality, clear and sharp. Preferred formats are JPG and PNG. The more I can see, the better details I can draw. I can work from good quality mobile device images.
3. If you have special requests, please let me know. Custom backgrounds, additional subjects and costumes can be included. Please use the contact form on this page to provide the custom information.
4. In two to three weeks, depending on workload, I will send you an electronic proof by email for approval. Quality is my primary concern. If you have a rush situation, please use the contact form to ensure I can accomodate your needs.
5. Once you approve the electronic proof, I will mail your custom portrait to you.
You will receive a beautiful portrait on acid-free Bristol Board ready to be framed. I do not provide framing.
See the Order page for pricing information.
I retain all rights to each piece of art I create.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form


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Update: This post originally ran February 10th, 2014, but we wanted to bring it back to get your cheeks all rosy for spring! Making your own natural makeup is a beautiful way to feel good about what you're putting on your skin, and this recipe only has a few ingredients. All you really need is
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Currently I'm working in Butch Auntie company as a part of my workplacement project. Butch Auntie is an Audio Visual company. Mainly, they are doing visual projection for various live events. I was involved in different kind of projects - one of them - Cotton Club.
I've produced some "ribbon" piano visuals for this event.
Few tests.
Included into event.
Currently I'm working on Cream Ibiza project. This is most exciting project for me. I improved my skills with the After Effect software and Next Limit Realflow.
I like working in this company. Everything is fast: you did something, immediately received feedback and then doing or redoing again something. Never the same, every day new challenges. It is exciting to work like this
I'll try to show everything I've done after they allow us to post information in our personal blogs.
Work Placement - Review
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Posted by anewman at 15:00
Labels: Butch Auntie, Workplacement
1 comments:
- Lev said...
- 18 May 2011 at 15:49
So you created the piano :-). Was a good idea :-D
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