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Let's open our Bibles now to the study of the Word of God, to the 19th chapter of Luke, Luke chapter 19. And we are returning to the text of Scripture that describes what is commonly known as our Lord's triumphal entry, His entry into Jerusalem for the last time where He is hailed by the crowds as the Messiah. It begins in verse 28. Let me read this text again to you. This is part 2 of what we began last week.
"After He had said these things, He was going on ahead, ascending to Jerusalem. And it came about that when He approached Bethphage and Bethany near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples saying, 'Go into the village opposite you in which as you enter you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' thus shall you speak, 'The Lord has need of it.' And those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, 'Why are you untying the colt?' And they said, 'The Lord has need of it.' And they brought it to Jesus and they threw their garments on the colt and put Jesus on it. And as He was going, they were spreading their garments in the road. And as He was now approaching near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, saying, 'Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.' And some of the Pharisees and the multitudes said to Him, 'Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.' And He answered and said, 'I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out.' And when He approached, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, 'If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace, but now they have been hidden from your eyes, for the days shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you and surround you and hem you in on every side and will level you to the ground and your children within you. They will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.'"
This has to be the most unique, the most unparalleled coronation ever. First of all, as we noted last week, it is humble in all its aspects and that is unique for a coronation. But beyond that, it is also unique because there is such irony in it, such stunning contrast between the commendation of Jesus by the people and the condemnation of the people by Jesus.
On the one hand, it is large and enthusiastic acclamation and admiration. On the other hand, it is shallow and hypocritical.
On the one hand, it is generated by the people's joyful hope of a immediate victory over their enemies. On the other hand, it is met by the King's sorrowful pronouncement of disaster and doom in the coming defeat by their enemies.
On the one hand it is the people's eager desire to enjoy the glories of total triumph and the arrival of the Kingdom of God. On the other hand, our Lord pronounces on them the agonies of total conquest in the arrival, not of the Kingdom of God, but of the judgment of God.
The contrast between what the people expect and what they will receive is vast. The contrast between the attitude of the people, one of joy; and the attitude of Jesus, one of sorrow, couldn't be more distinct. The words of the people are words of celebration. The words of Jesus are words of condemnation. The people expect the best. He pronounces the worst. They want exaltation. He promises devastation. They expect a conquering hero. They get a condemning judge. Surely there has never been a coronation like this where at the very event itself, the King being offered the throne, refuses it and turns on His people to bring destruction. There's never been a coronation like this.
As we return to the event, a little bit of background history. A few weeks before this, Jesus had performed one of His most notable miracles, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. It occurred in Bethany, that little village two miles east of Jerusalem on the road to Jericho. Enough time had gone by that Lazarus had well circulated in the world and everybody essentially knew of this remarkable resurrection.
After raising Lazarus from the dead a few weeks earlier Jesus then left Judea and the surroundings of Bethany and Jerusalem to head north into Galilee. He had spent a few weeks in Galilee and now has begun moving south. He comes across the Jordan to the east, down through Perea east of the Jordan, a little north of Jericho, crosses the Jordan to come back on to the side of Judea, enters the city of Jericho. By now He is surrounded by a large crowd. There's a steady flow of pilgrims coming that way anyway to the Passover. It could have as many as two million Jews in and around Jerusalem at that time, a steady flow and the crowd around Him larger than most, of course, because of who He was and the miracles He had performed. And the crowd would grow and grow as more pilgrims joined the stream. Spent two days in Jericho, that city down by the Dead Sea at the foot of the great mountain that ascends to Jerusalem; there He had healed two blind beggars and saved them from their sins. They were now His disciples and joined the crowd to follow with Him. He also brought salvation to the home of the chief tax collector there, a man named Zacchaeus who in a demonstration of his transformed heart acted with generosity toward everyone he had stolen from.
And so, after His experience in Jericho and the salvation of those three it is time to ascend the hill to Jerusalem. It's almost 4,000 feet up, about seventeen miles to Jerusalem. He walked that path. It was a road, really. It has always been a road, but it now was a Roman road and the Romans had paved it and turned it into a military road and it was carefully guarded. Up that road came Jesus, not alone by any means, but surrounded by His disciples, His apostles, those who truly believed in Him, those who were curious about who He was and an accumulating crowd of pilgrims.
In John chapter 12 and verse 1, we are told that He arrived at Bethany six days before the Passover, six days before the Passover. That would put it on Saturday, since the Passover was on Friday. On that Saturday when He arrived in Bethany, a supper was given in His honor. John tells us the story of that supper in chapter 12. That night, that Saturday, He had only six days left before His crucifixion, six days before the hard, cruel walk carrying the cross up to Golgotha, six days before the spitting and the mocking and the hating and the beating and the nails and the thorns and the sin-bearing and the God-forsaken experience of being crucified as God's chosen Lamb fit for sacrifice, only six days left. He seeks the fellowship, the love, the affection, the encouragement, the comfort of familiar friends, the disciples and His dear friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus who lived in Bethany. But even there the fellowship is marred because Judas is there, ever present with stinging stabs of betrayal, a constant reminder of what was to come.
On the next day, the Sunday of that week, the word by then had circulated all around the area, including into the city of Jerusalem that Jesus was there at the house of Lazarus. And so John, chapter 12 verses 9 to 11, tell us the crowd came flowing out of the eastern gate of Jerusalem, the two miles down to Bethany to see both Jesus and this resurrected Lazarus. So Sunday was spent with His disciples, with His friends and surrounded by the crowds who were so curious to see the man who was dead and the one who had raised Him.
Monday, the next day, He enters Jerusalem. That is the day described here in this text. The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is triggered by His own words in verse 30. He says to two of His disciples, perhaps Peter and John since He commissions those two in chapter 22 verse 8 on another task, perhaps it was them, but anyway to two of them He says, "Go into the village opposite you, you'll find a colt tied, untie it, bring it here. If they question you, say, 'The Lord has need of it.'" That command launched His entry. He is in total control of every detail in His life and ministry. He's on a divine timetable. He's doing things precisely when God wants them done and as God determines they are to be done. He follows perfectly the will of His Father. He knows that He is about to start a massive demonstration. The city is filled with these hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who have come there. Everybody knows about Him first-hand, second-hand, third-hand because of the three years of extensive miracles throughout the land of Israel. He knows that when this begins, it will escalate rapidly. Some have estimated that the crowd surrounding Him as He comes into the city could have been well over 200 thousand people.
Now Jesus never allowed such a massive demonstration in His entire ministry because He knew it would precipitate escalated fury and anger on the part of the religious leaders who had wanted Him dead for a long, long time. A display like this would speed up everything toward them completing their mission of His execution. Up until now, He didn't want it to happen. But now He did. Now was the time. This was the city. This was the week. In fact, Friday would be the day. And He sets this demonstration in motion to move everything toward His own crucifixion on Friday because that's the day when the Passover lambs were slain and that's the day He would be slain as the true and only Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His timing is impeccable. It is also the day, Monday, when the families took the lamb they were to have slain on the Passover into the house, the lamb that would become a pet of the family, endearing itself to the family to be then slaughtered as a symbol of sacrifice for the sins of the family. And so He offers Himself, as it were, to the family of Israel on the very day when they were taking in their lambs and He would die on the very day when the lambs would be slain.
His timing is also perfect because Daniel 9 verses 24 to 27 said in the prophecy that there would be sixty-nine times seven years, weeks of years, sixty-nine times seven until Messiah would come and be cut off. Sixty-nine times seven is 483 years. They calculated years at 360 days a year; 483 years at 360 days totals 173,880. So from the beginning until the Messiah comes to be cut off, you have this duration of 483 years of 360 days. That's prophesied in Daniel 9:24 to 27. When does it start? It started with a decree to rebuild Jerusalem. When was that? 445 B.C. Declared by Artaxerxes and precisely from then until this week and this day is the 483 years. He comes in perfect fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy. Everything is in line. And so He triggers the event Himself by sending the disciples to get the animal which He will ride into the city.
Though His coronation is humble, He comes riding on the colt, the foal of an ass, the foal of a donkey, as the prophet said, and though there are no crowns for Him, and though there are no dignitaries and there is not the usual regalia that occurs at a coronation, and though the people are fickle and though they are shallow and superficial and though they are hypocritical, and though they only cry "Hosanna" to Him this day and soon after are screaming for His blood, in spite of the shallowness and superficiality of this event, He is nonetheless God's true King. He is God's true King. And it manifests itself in this coronation in three ways: preparation, adoration, and condemnation.
Last time we looked at preparation in verses 28 to 35. The very fact that He sent them to get that animal and to bring the animal and He rode in on the animal, as I pointed out to you, is a fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, very specific prophecy. Matthew's account of the triumphal entry refers to that prophecy, Matthew 21. John's account refers to that prophecy in John 12. He comes vindicating that He is the Messiah by the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Also, He demonstrates His omniscience. He knew about the animal, though He couldn't see the animal. He knew where it was. He knew it was tied there. He knew what the conversation with the owners would be like. He demonstrates again His deity and His messiahship in those elements of the preparation for His entry.
Secondly, we saw last time adoration, which also points to His deity and messiahship, and we saw that in verses 36 to 38. He receives the worship and the adoration that the people give Him. It comes from Psalm 118, part of the Hallel. This is a coronation Psalm. They are celebrating Him as God's great, glorious King. They say, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!" Matthew adds that they said, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" Mark adds, they said, "Blessed is the coming kingdom of David! Hosanna in the highest!" All of those things were being said. Obviously from the text, the disciples initiated all of that. They were the ones, according to verse 37, who began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice, thinking: Surely this is the moment when He is going to come as the conquering hero, the conquering Messiah, set up the kingdom, defeat our enemies. They start the celebration. The crowd catches the fever and they all begin to cry out the same things, pointing to Jesus as the Messiah. He receives it. He takes it because He deserves it. So we see that He is who He is by way of preparation, omniscience. Fulfilling prophecy He is who He is demonstrated by adoration. He receives worship willingly because He deserves it.
Now the leaders see it as blasphemy. They don't think He deserves to be worshiped and adored in this way, and they let it be known in verse 39. "Some of the Pharisees," and by the way, this is the last time we'll see that word, or see them specifically in Luke's gospel. This is their final comment. "Some of the Pharisees and the multitude said to Him, 'Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.'" They saw this adoration, this acclamation coming to Jesus as blasphemy, as do all Christ rejecters. They're outraged at this messianic honor being given to Jesus and being received by Him as if He is worthy of it. They know they can't control the crowd, it's too huge. And it's exuberant, and in a sense, out of control. There's only one who could do that. They know who that is, they go to Him and they say, "Teacher," at least showing Him some respect, "rebuke Your disciples." They sure should be rebuked because they are ascribing to You that which You are not due. They ask Jesus to silence His disciples who are instigating this celebration and leading the adoration.
His reply is the turning point in this event. It is a stunning reply and it takes us to the third point. He demonstrates His messiahship in the preparation, the adoration, and the condemnation. Verse 40:"He answered and said, 'I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out.'" And then He goes on to pronounce judgment. He vindicates Himself as the Messiah in preparation, omniscience and the fulfillment of prophecy; in adoration, receiving worship; and in condemnation He possesses the authority to pronounce judgment, and He knows the future. You see His deity here in knowing about an animal that He cannot see, not visible to His eyes, being in a place, a precise place. He knows what only supernatural can know; only God can know, about the present, where that animal is. He also knows what only God could know about the future, the very judgment that is to come. He is then the Messiah, the omniscient one who fulfills Old Testament prophecy, who knows things in the present that no one can know, and who determines the future and has a right to judge.
In John chapter 5, a most notable and important text, Jesus declares these words, and they are specifically related to judgment. Verse 20, "The Father loves the Son," John 5:20, "shows Him all things that He Himself is doing. Greater works than these will He show you that you may marvel for just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son." The Son gives life. The Son takes life. The Son judges; He is the sovereign one who knows the future. He is the sovereign one who brings judgment. From this point on, the scene moves from joy to horror, from the highest to the lowest. They are crying peace, He speaks of destruction. They pronounce on Him glory, He pronounces on them doom. The whole ending is stunning, it is shocking. It is tragic. For the first time He allows this kind of event to take place and at its apex, He turns it in the direction opposite what the people expect. They're adoring Him for what they want Him to be. He tells them He will be something very different than that.
Now notice verse 40, "I tell you," for emphasis, "I tell you, if these become silent..." Stop there. These people, if they become silent, if their praise stops, all this praise, all this shouting, all this exaltation will end.
It did. In fact, you don't hear any of it after Monday. You don't hear it on Tuesday. You don't hear it on Wednesday. The next time you hear the crowd is on Friday and on Friday they are saying a very different thing. If you look over to the 23rd chapter of Luke, you get a little glance. You could also look at Matthew 27 and get the same. But in verse 18, start there, they all cried out together. This is the mass of people gathered before Pilate. They all cried out together, saying, "Away with this man! Release for us Barabbas." Who is Barabbas? "One who had been thrown into prison for a certain insurrection made in the city and for murder." They wanted a murderer to be released, rather than Jesus. And Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, verse 20, addressed them, saying...addressed them again, "They kept on calling out, saying, 'Crucify, crucify Him.'" The same kind of mob hysteria. He said to them a third time, "Why? What evil has this man done? I found in Him no guilt demanding death. I will therefore punish Him and release Him. But they were insistent with loud voices, asking that He be crucified and their voices began to prevail and Pilate pronounced sentence."
If these become silent, and they will...when these become silent...since these will become silent, the stones will cry out. It needs to be noted that the silence of Israel has not yet been broken. The Tuesday of that week, when the crowd fell silent, launched millennia of a refusal on the part of Israel to acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah. How fickle they were. A few days later they're saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." Give us a criminal. Give us a murderer. We don't want Jesus. They're still saying it these 2,000 years later. When that crowd fell silent, that nation fell silent...and they're still silent.
The opposition to Jesus was so strong that even after the resurrection from the dead, the praise of Jesus was never raised in the city of Jerusalem, or in the land of Israel, except among the few thousand who were saved. When Jerusalem grew silent, Jesus said, "The stones will cry out." Cry out, kraz, scream, future tense, when in the future these people become silent, in the future the stones will scream. Screaming stones? What is that? What is that? It's more than just the expression of praise from some inanimate object, as if God is to be praised by His creation, far more than that. In fact, in the little prophecy of Habakkuk, chapter 2, we have a very good parallel. In the prophecy of Habakkuk we have a statement of judgment on the Chaldeans, the Chaldeans, the wicked, pagan Chaldeans. And the Chaldeans had basically prospered as a society, but they had prospered at the expense of other nations, they had prospered by extortion, they had prospered by usury, charging exorbitant interest rate, they had prospered by murder and bloodshed. They had literally built their towns and cities by the sacrifice and the slaughter and the abuse of other people. So Habakkuk, the prophet, is given a message from God of judgment against them. I just want to pick out one verse; that is in verse 11. "Surely the stone will cry out from the wall and the rafter will answer it from the framework." Then verse 12, "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence." The stones in the houses and the buildings that they built were symbols of their wickedness. The walls of their houses and the timbers of their roofs, plundered from others, gained by bloodshed and usury, scream of their wickedness, scream of their guilt. And Jesus is saying the same thing here.
There are going to be some stones who will cry out against you as the stones in the past cried out of the guilt of the Chaldeans. All you had to do was look at their houses and when you saw them, all their prosperity, all their edifices were testimonies to their corruption and bloodshed. The stones cried out of their guilt and the judgment of God upon them, and some stones are going to do the same in your case. That's explained in the next section, verse 41. "When He approached He saw the city and wept over it."
There are a number of words for weeping. One of them, one of the Greek words, is used in John 11:35 over Lazarus, "Jesus wept." That is a...a simple word for weeping. This is a much stronger word, in fact this is the strongest word in the Greek language. It would be equal to our word "sobbing, heaving." Very strong, the strongest, a heaving, sobbing, agonizing, wrenching expression of sorrow; no stronger word exists. Jesus sees Jerusalem and He's racked with agony. He begins to heave and sob. This is part of the tears and strong crying, I think, that Hebrews 5:7 encompasses. He is agonized over their superficiality. You would think He would be happy with all this attention at that moment, right? It all looked good. But He could see through it. He wept in the face of their hypocrisy and their shallowness and their rejection in a few days which He was well aware was coming. And He wept because He knew what would come after that. And He wept because He knew their damnation was coming.
Listen to what He said. "Saying," and this is sorrowful, heart-breaking: "'If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace.'" Not talking about peace with Rome, not talking about political peace, not talking about internal social peace, He's talking about peace with God. "If you had only known; if you had only known the things that make for peace." What makes for peace? Repentance, faith in Christ, believing the message of the kingdom; He had preached it from the very beginning. He preached repentance and the kingdom, how to come into the Kingdom through faith in Him, repentance from sin. He had preached it all along. I'm not going to take you back through the gospel of Luke, but you can go all the way back to chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8, all the way through and see Jesus offering them again and again and again and again, the good news of peace with God.
If you had known, if you had understood, if you had embraced and believed this day. What day is He talking about? He's not talking about Monday, that day. This day, the time of My presence in your nation, if you had only understood and believed in this incredible hour in which I have moved among you, if you had only believed the things that make for peace, the salvation message. That's salvation language, peace with God, reconciliation, the gospel. But unbelief had blinded them all the way along. They chose to be unbelieving, hard-hearted, self-righteous rejecters of Christ. He gave invitation after invitation after invitation. They rejected them all and therefore they rejected peace, peace with God.
He had already pronounced doom on them at the end of chapter 13. "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets, stones those sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. You wouldn't have it. Behold, your house is left to you desolate." Then He added, "You'll not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'" You're never going to see Me until you finally turn and believe. That hasn't happened yet. The judgment pronounced here is still in place. Israel today currently is under divine judgment. Are they God's chosen people for a future salvation? Yes. Will He preserve them as a people unto that salvation? Yes. But currently they are under the same judgment that launched against them by God in the pronunciations of Jesus here and began in its powerful expression in 70 A.D., forty years later, with the destruction of Jerusalem. Since that time, Jerusalem has been trodden underfoot to one degree or another by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles ends. And we'll learn about that in Luke chapter 21.
They made their choice. The celebration was superficial and He knew it. In fact, He even says, "But now they have been hidden from your eyes." Whatever this celebration means, whatever is going on here, however you may be emotionally caught up in this thing, the truth is, you have rejected Me, you continue to reject Me, and it is hidden from your eyes. The truth is hidden from your eyes, the gospel of peace, the only way of reconciliation with God. This is not just a statement of divine judgment, though it is an affirmation, it is a statement of their own self-imposed blindness. In fact, now they have been hidden from your eyes. Right now, here and now, you're in the dark. In the future, they will not believe. For what was a chosen blindness becomes a judicial blindness. They never believe. Read the record of Acts 2 through 7, Jerusalem never believes. They don't believe now, they never have. They will not until the end time when they look on Him whom they pierced, as Zechariah said, mourn for Him as an only Son, a fountain of cleansing is open. Then they receive their kingdom. That's in the future.
And Jesus then describes the judgment that is coming, verse 43, "For the days shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you, surround you, hem you in on every side, level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another."
Let me just break that down quickly for you. "The days will come upon you," that's an Old Testament expression used many times in the Old Testament, Isaiah 39:6; Hosea 9:7; Amos 4:2; etc., etc., etc. "The days will come upon you," often used as an Old Testament expression of coming judgment, coming judgment; it's just another time when Jesus refers to coming judgment.
Five aspects. Look at them. Number one...five aspects to this judgment. Number one, verse 43, "Your enemies will throw up a bank before you," or better, "a barricade." When in ancient times you wanted to conquer a city, you surrounded the city and built a barricade to keep everybody in and you starved them to death. No one could get out. No one could get in. So you cut off the food supply, and if possible, the water supply as well. They built a palisade, if you will, or a barricade, a high barrier to seal off the city so that no one could go in and no one could go out. The Jews...They built it out of wood. Josephus, the historian, tells us they built it out of wood and the Jews burned it down. So they built a wall around the city of Jerusalem. This is what Titus Vespasian did, according to Josephus, the historian, in his writing, The Jewish War. That's the first feature. An enemy will come and build a barricade. That's exactly what the Romans did in 70 A.D.
Second, verse 43, "surround you." The enemy then surrounds you at the point of the wall. No one can go in and no one can go out. The city is sealed off from all supplies. Anyone who tries to escape is killed and thousands on the inside eventually begin, and it doesn't take long, to starve and die. This all started in 66 A.D. The Jews revolted against Rome in 66. That brought the Romans. That led to the Roman siege in 70 A.D. The Romans built this great palisade. The Jews burned it down. They put up a big wall. They then put their troops there, completely surrounding the city, fully cutting it off. That led to the third element, consequentially, "hem you in on every side," sunech, to press, to crowd from all sides, just escalating the pressure, the pressure from all sides. Number four: "They will level you to the ground." It literally means to shatter against the ground, to smash against the ground. That is to say, the city will then be sacked and flattened and not just the city but your children within you. It's not talking only about infants, or little children, tekna, your sons, your inhabitants.
So what's going to happen? They're going to build a barricade. They're going to then surround them with their soldiers. They're going to press. Eventually they're going to break through when the people are so weak they can't fight, and they're going to smash and shatter the population against the ground; and then smash the city and its wall to the ground so that it cannot be rebuilt. This exactly occurred in 70 A.D., forty years after Jesus gave this prophecy.
Notice please verse 44, the middle of the verse, "They will not leave in you one stone upon another." Those are the stones — friends — that cry out. When you go silent, the stones will cry out. Forty years later, the stones that made up that glorious city will lie on the ground as rubble, mute, screaming of the judgment on Israel's unbelief.
Five months the siege took. And the Romans overpowered the weakened Jews, starving Jews. Roman soldiers rampaged through Jerusalem basically slaughtering everybody, children, women, adults, except the strongest young men which they kept for gladiatorial games. They destroyed the city; everything except the western Wailing Wall, some of you have seen it there, a few other sections, massacring everybody. The hundreds of thousands of people literally were slaughtered. Josephus writes this, "While the sanctuary was burning(the temple) neither pity for age, nor request for rank was shown. On the contrary. Children and old people, laity and priests alike were massacred. The emperor ordered the entire city and temple to be razed to the ground, leaving only the highest towers and the portion of the wall on the west. All the rest of the wall was so completely razed as to leave future visitors to the spot no reason to believe that the city had ever been inhabited." And the stones cried out, screamed out of judgment, total destruction.
Our Lord concludes by reminding them why this was going to happen. End of verse 44, "Because you didn't recognize the time of your visitation." Visitation, episkops, the visit of the incarnate God for the purpose of salvation. Zechariah said when he heard all this was going to happen back in chapter 1, "The Lord has visited His people for redemption." "The day of visitation" is an Old Testament phrase used by Isaiah and Jeremiah and other Old Testament writers referring to the coming of God, His drawing near to His people. Could be in blessing, could be in judgment. This visitation was in blessing and salvation. You didn't recognize that God was visiting you for salvation, for redemption. You didn't recognize it. Was Jesus the Messiah? Absolutely. Was it evident that He was the Messiah? Of course. Was He the Son of God? Of course. Who else could do the miracles He did and say the things He said. Yes He is the rightful King, fulfilling prophecy, omniscient. Yes He has a right to receive worship. He's been given authority. He can predict the details of judgment and execute them. The visitation of God had come to Israel. John puts it this way, "He was in the world, the world was made by Him. The world knew Him not. He came unto His own, His own received Him not." In the 20th chapter of Luke, starting in verse 13, the Lord is telling a parable and He tells about the owner of a vineyard who is God who sends His beloved Son back to his vineyard, after his people have killed all his messengers. He says, "Finally, 'I'll send My Son. Perhaps they'll respect Him.' When the vine growers saw Him, they reasoned with one another saying, 'This is the heir, let's kill him that the inheritance may be ours.'" Threw Him out of the vineyard, killed Him. "What therefore will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vine growers and give the vineyard to others." Yeah, end of Israel's special time of visitation, potential blessing; then comes the times of the Gentiles, development of the church until in the future Israel repents.
The people on that day who were celebrating, many of them were dead by 70 A.D., out of God's presence forever in eternal punishment. Some of the younger ones, no doubt, perished in the destruction of 70 A.D.D. The very walls of that city became the prison in which those Christ-rejecting people were slaughtered by the pagans; and the rubble, testimony from the stones, of their rejection of Christ. That's history and it's still going on.
But it's not just Israel's history. Can I make it very practical for you? Rejection of Jesus Christ as Lord is catastrophic for you, too. It's no less catastrophic for you than it was for them. What about your day of opportunity? What about the time when you've heard the gospel, when the gospel's been presented to you? The time when you've been told how you can be reconciled to God? What have you done with your visitation? Have you recognized the time of your spiritual opportunity or is the end going to be as catastrophic for you as it was for them? What are you doing about God's gracious visitation in your life with the truth of the gospel?
That's the question you have to answer. It's history. But it's a monumental lesson to the catastrophe of rejecting Christ. Don't follow that path. Become one of His. Embrace Him as your Savior.
Father, again we thank You for Your Word. Always, having proclaimed it, my heart is filled with gratitude. The first thought is always "Thank You, thank You," for this clarity, for this truth, for this warning, for this invitation because it comes from You with such grace. It is a visitation intended for peace. May it be so in every heart here, we pray, every heart, received, embraced, that sinners may be reconciled to You, making peace, making peace possible because of the sacrifice of Christ. May there be no one here who faces catastrophic and eternal judgment. May all respond to the visitation of the gospel of peace, embrace the Savior and receive the hope of heaven and eternal joy.
Now, Father, we say again it is good to be in Your house and dwell together with those who are brothers. It is good to celebrate the greatness of our salvation. We thank You that You have opened our eyes to see the glories of Christ, that we don't stand with unbelievers, but with those in faith; that death for us is no catastrophe at all, for there never will be any judgment. All our judgment was experienced by Christ, who bore all the judgment for all our sin in His own body for all who believe. We thank You for the gift of life in Christ, and we pray that no one here will refuse that in the day of visitation when that opportunity is presented to them. Do Your work in every heart. Use us, Lord, to carry this glorious message beyond the walls here to those who so desperately need it in our world. We thank You and we give You honor in Christ's name. Amen.

subset: commoncrawl


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Do you know what's in your lipstick? You do realize that you eat your lipstick? And of course any product rubbed into the skin, that's basically eating, no, injecting whichever horribleness into your system. Should anything ever go wrong with your health, or that of your children, or that of your theoretical children or theoretical great-great-grandchildren, you can never know for sure that your vanity was not the reason. When, in the year 3013, one of your progeny is born with an extra arm in place of a leg, the science of the day will be able to trace this back to your use of a tinted moisturizer you didn't even have the decency to purchase at Whole Foods.
But in all seriousness, there is, in principle, nothing wrong with discussing the possible toxicity of cosmetics, or the impact on whichever innocent rodents, creatures whose own mating rituals perfectly well proceed without the benefit of a smokey eye. Indeed, I'd prefer it if when I put on eyeliner, I can rest assured that some knowledgeable entity has checked that the stuff won't permanently seal my eyes shut. If an ingredient is actually poisonous, I'd like to know that, or better yet, to have this not in cosmetics to begin with. I don't find it patronizing that experts look into this, and if anything I'd like it if there were more thorough, but ethical, investigations.
The problem, then, isn't that the safety of cosmetics is up for discussion. It's the conversations that flow from the initial, reasonable one: Once we establish that there is or might be more biphelsnelsanphalatarsenicdehyde in cosmetics than we'd thought, some geniuses (and this is where "patronizing" enters into it) will inevitably point out that cosmetics are not essential to our sustenance or hygiene. That they could, in principle, be scrapped altogether. And yet women go on wearing them. What are women thinking?
Consider this response to Mark Bittman's post on the topic:
Cosmetic beauty is skin deep. True beauty needs no cosmetics, perfumes, lotions, potions, or oceans of chemicals to apply to our various body parts.
The commenter goes on to protest the ubiquity of cosmetic surgery in the entertainment industry. Then his or her (although I'm going to guess his) true colors show:
If a woman looks stunningly beautiful, is attracted to a handsome man, she will seduce him. In the a.m., after sex the nite before, makeup gone, he looks over at her and sees an ordinary-looking women snoring next to him. Manufactured beauty is only skin deep. Real beauty come from within. There is a difference, but women have sold themselves on turning that truth inside out. And we're still buying it. No wonder the divorce rate is so high.
What begins as a conversation about genuine problems with cosmetics neatly segues into one about women who have the nerve to fool innocent men into thinking they (the women, that is) are more beautiful than they are. The language of inner beauty - a term that's meant to describe character - gets used to discuss the kind of physical beauty that can't be bought.
In other words, that whole, 'Ladies, you don't need makeup to be beautiful' line of thought is actually men's way of saying that they will have none of our trickery. It's like when men say they'd prefer a woman who eats cheeseburgers than one who sticks with salad... but only if the woman in question is effortlessly thin. The answer for men with this gripe isn't for cosmetics to be made out of innocuous materials. It's for women to lay themselves bear, allowing whichever pseudo-evolutionary-psychology choice-process to take place unimpeded.
'Natural beauty' is anything but the liberation it sounds like, as an increasing number of women, myself included, have picked up on. But the specific angle of this I'd like to emphasize in this post is the way that the question of safety of cosmetics is so often used as a proxy for not quite so well-meaning concerns.


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I remember reading "Walden" in high school and, truth be told, I remember really struggling through it, thinking it was pretty darn boring. But (sigh) I was a rebel without a cause back then and even if I did enjoy or find meaning in Mr. Thoreau's incredibly profound observations in those woods, I would have denied myself that pleasure anyway. HOWEVER...I do recall that line, relatively early in the book, and it has reverberated throughout my life and the decisions I make ever since."The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation".
Ever since I can remember I have tried to swim against the current - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. I have an innate, very natural drive and thirst for adventure. Wrapped up in this is a hunger to learn, to grow, to share with and connect with fellow human beings. I want to live a life that is anything but ordinary and, lucky for me, I have found a life partner who has this same goals. I have theories about where this fire and desire in me comes from, not the least of which is the fact that my parents are dreamers themselves (my mom moved from England to the US alone and not knowing a soul at 18, my dad is in the process of designing his next custom aluminum boat which will take him and my mom around the world in retirement) but, really, the main motivation is best summed up in that quote by Thoreau.
So many people are not free. I am not talking about religious, political, or cultural oppression - that is another post all together. I am talking about the souls of human beings all around us. So many people not only don't follow their hearts, but don't even know their hearts. Our cubical mates. Our neighbors. Our family. Our friends. People don't laugh out loud with their mouths flung open for fear of seeming foolish and fail to love freely and passionately for fear of a broken heart. They don't speak their minds for fear of sounding stupid and don't honestly share their feelings for fear of being rejected. People don't cry in the arms of another for fear of appearing weak and, perhaps the worst of all, people don't follow their hearts for fear of failure. We are all guilty of these things - but the question is to what extent? How free are you? How much does your soul long for something that it is missing? How quietly and desperately do you seek to laugh, love, share, speak, cry or dream freely?
I know that not everyone can (or wants to) quit it all, hop on a boat and sail off into the sunset - and not everyone needs to. Freedom comes from within. It is in your own heart. Thoreau simply went to a cabin in the woods. Where will you find your heart? Where do you need to go to set your soul free?
With love,
Brittany and Scott


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Lexus RX Grille Guards
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Choice in car accessories is available because there are different car accessories manufacturers. These manufacturers design such products keeping in mind the feedbacks that they receive on different types of vehicles and models. They are also able to offer such products at more competitive rates because they may be able to offer the same product for vehicles manufactured by other car manufacturers. Effectively, they have the advantage of manufacturing the product in bulk quantities. There are distributors as well as retailers of such accessories. The car buyer is at liberty to choose products from different car accessories makers, as long as they do not affect the efficiency of the vehicle.
Accessories are often tailor made for each car model. Therefore, accessories for Lexus RX car may or may not be perfectly suitable for other Lexus. Some of the accessories may even be different for the same model with very slight variations. This becomes essential because of variation in internal and external design of the car models. Older models of Lexus RX cars have been retired periodically. Likewise, new range and models of Lexus RX cars are announced almost each year. Since accessories are essentially associated with the car' body, specific set of car accessories may have to be bought for the car.
Lexus RX accessories are broadly divided into interior and exterior accessories. Interior accessories include leather steering wheel covers, first aid kits, cargo nets, engine block heaters, trunk trays, cigarette lighters, floor mats useful for different seasons, and interior illumination device, which has to be fixed near the central console. In addition to these, there are metal trims with carbon look for giving the car' interiors an elegant look. Other interior products include audio equipments, remote control systems for opening or locking the cars, rear cameras, etc. Externally, there are wheels, which offer the car buyer a chance to give the car a distinctive appearance. These wheels are options and are made of alloys. There are Lexus RX wheels of varying diameters and spokes. Wheel locking systems and splashguards for Lexus RX car' wheels, and doors are some of the other external accessories available in the market. Car wipers, brake pads, exhaust mufflers, etc., are some of the other accessories that are useful.
Leading Lexus RX accessories manufacturers include Guangzhou, Xiamen, Shanghai Tuhuan, Five Star International electronics, etc. It is not essential that the car owner should purchase all accessories from one auto parts manufacturer. In fact, many of these auto parts manufacturers again specialize in specific products. For example, Guangzhou Chellishi auto exhaust mufflers for Lexus RX cars are manufactured by Guangzhou Chellishi firm, while Five Star Lexus RX car speakers are manufactured by Five Star International.


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Since September 11, 2001, Washington's policies in the Middle East have proven a grim imperial comedy of errors and increasingly a spectacle of how a superpower is sidelined. In this drama, barely noticed by the American media, Uncle Sam's keystone ally in the Arab world, Egypt, like Saudi Arabia, has largely turned its back on the Obama administration. As with so many of America's former client states across the aptly named "arc of instability," Egypt has undergone a tumultuous journey — from autocracy to democracy to a regurgitated form of military rule and repression, making its ally of four decades appear clueless.
Egypt remains one of the top recipients of U.S. foreign aid, with the Pentagon continuing to pamper the Egyptian military with advanced jet fighters, helicopters, missiles, and tanks. Between January 2011 and May 2014, Egypt underwent a democratic revolution, powered by a popular movement, which toppled President Hosni Mubarak's regime. It enjoyed a brief tryst with democracy before suffering an anti-democratic counter-revolution by its generals. In all of this, what has been the input of the planet's last superpower in shaping the history of the most populous country in the strategic Middle East? Zilch. Its "generosity" toward Cairo notwithstanding, Washington has been reduced to the role of a helpless bystander.
Given how long the United States has been Egypt's critical supporter, the State Department and Pentagon bureaucracies should have built up a storehouse of understanding as to what makes the Land of the Pharaohs tick. Their failure to do so, coupled with a striking lack of familiarity by two administrations with the country's recent history, has led to America's humiliating sidelining in Egypt. It's a story that has yet to be pieced together, although it's indicative of how from Kabul to Bonn, Baghdad to Rio de Janeiro so many ruling elites no longer feel that listening to Washington is a must.
An army as immovable as the pyramids
Ever since 1952, when a group of nationalist military officers ended the pro-British monarchy, Egypt's army has been in the driver's seat. From Gamal Abdul Nasser to Hosni Mubarak, its rulers were military commanders. And if, in February 2011, a majority of the members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) abandoned Mubarak, it was only to stop him from passing the presidency on to his son Gamal on his 83rd birthday. The neoliberal policies pursued by the Mubarak government at the behest of that businessman son from 2004 onward made SCAF fear that the military's stake in the public sector of the economy and its extensive public-private partnerships would be doomed.
Fattened on the patronage of successive military presidents, Egypt's military-industrial complex had grown enormously. Its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP), though a state secret, could be as high as 40%, unparalleled in the region. The chief executives of 55 of Egypt's largest companies, contributing a third of that GDP, are former generals.
Working with the interior ministry, which controls the national police force, paramilitary units, and the civilian intelligence agencies, SCAF (headed by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, doubling as the defense minister) would later orchestrate the protest movement against popularly elected President Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. That campaign reached its crescendo on June 30, 2013. Three days later, SCAF toppled Morsi and has held him in prison ever since.
The generals carried out their coup at a moment when, according to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, 63% of Egyptians had a favorable view of the Muslim Brotherhood, 52% approved of the Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party, and 53% backed Morsi, who had won the presidency a year earlier with 52% of the vote.
Washington misses the plot
Remarkably, Obama administration officials failed to grasp that the generals, in conjunction with Interior Minister Muhammad Ibrahim, were the prime movers behind the Tamarod (Arabic for "rebellion") campaign launched on April 22, 2013. Egyptians were urged to sign a petition addressed to Morsi that was both simplistic and populist. "Because security has not returned, because the poor have no place, because I have no dignity in my own country...," read the text in part, "we don't want you anymore," and it called for an early presidential election. In little over two months, the organizers claimed that they had amassed 22.1 million signatures, amounting to 85% of those who had participated in the presidential election of 2012. Where those millions of individually signed petitions were being stored was never made public, nor did any independent organization verify their existence or numbers.
As the Tamarod campaign gained momentum, the interior ministry's secret police infiltrated it, as did former Mubarak supporters, while elements of the police state of the Mubarak era were revived. Reports that cronies of the toppled president were providing the funding for the campaign began to circulate. The nationwide offices of the Free Egyptians — a party founded by Naguib Sawiria, a businessman close to Mubarak and worth $2.5 billion — were opened to Tamarod organizers. Sawiria also paid for a promotional music video that was played repeatedly on OnTV, a television channel he had founded. In addition, he let his newspaper, Al Masry al Youm, be used as a vehicle for the campaign.
In the run-up to the mass demonstration in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on June 30th, the first anniversary of Morsi's rule, power cuts became more frequent and fuel shortages acute. As policemen mysteriously disappeared from the streets, the crime rate soared. All of this stoked anti-Morsi feelings and was apparently orchestrated with military precision by those who plotted the coup.
Ben Hubbard and David D. Kirkpatrick of the New York Times provided evidence of meticulous planning, especially by the Interior Ministry, in a report headlined "Sudden Improvements in Egypt Suggest a Campaign to Undermine Morsi." They quoted Ahmad Nabawi, a Cairo gas station manager, saying that he had heard several explanations for the gas crisis: technical glitches at the storage facilities, the arrival of low quality gas from abroad, and excessive stockpiling by the public. But he put what happened in context this way: "We went to sleep one night, woke up the next day, and the crisis was gone" — and so was Morsi. Unsurprisingly, of all the ministers in the Morsi government, Interior Minister Ibrahim was the only one retained in the interim cabinet appointed by the generals.
"See no evil"
Initially, President Obama refused to call what had occurred in Egypt a military "coup." Instead, he spoke vaguely of "military actions" in order to stay on the right side of the Foreign Assistance Act in which Congress forbade foreign aid to "any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree."
Within a week of the coup, with Morsi and the first of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood followers thrown behind bars, SCAF sidelined the Tamarod campaigners. They were left complaining that the generals, violating their promise, had not consulted them on the road map to normalization. Having ridden the Tamarod horse to total power, SCAF had no more use for it.
When Morsi supporters staged peaceful sit-ins at two squares in Cairo, the military junta could not bear the sight of tens of thousands of Egyptians quietly defying its arbitrary will. Waiting until the holy fasting month of Ramadan and the three-day festival of Eid ul Fitr had passed, they made their move. On August 14th, Interior Ministry troops massacred nearly 1,000 protesters as they cleared the two sites.
"Our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back," said Obama. However, in the end all he did was cancel annual joint military exercises with Egypt scheduled for September and suspend the shipment of four F-16 fighter jets to the Egyptian air force. This mattered little, if at all, to the generals.
The helplessness of Washington before a client state with an economy in freefall was little short of stunning. Pentagon officials, for instance, revealed that since the "ouster of Mr. Morsi," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had had 15 telephone conversations with coup leader General Sisi, pleading with him to "change course" — all in vain.
Five weeks later, the disjuncture between Washington and Cairo became embarrassingly overt. On September 23rd, the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters ordered the 85-year-old Muslim Brotherhood disbanded. In a speech at the U.N. General Assembly the next day, President Obama stated that, in deposing Morsi, the Egyptian military had "responded to the desires of millions of Egyptians who believed the revolution had taken a wrong turn." He then offered only token criticism, claiming that the new military government had "made decisions inconsistent with inclusive democracy" and that future American support would "depend upon Egypt's progress in pursuing a more democratic path."
General Sisi was having none of this. In a newspaper interview on October 9th, he warned that he would not tolerate pressure from Washington "whether through actions or hints." Already, there had been a sign that Uncle Sam's mild criticism was being diluted. A day earlier, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden stated that reports that all military assistance to Egypt would be halted were "false."
In early November, unmistakably pliant words came from Secretary of State John Kerry. "The roadmap [to democracy] is being carried out to the best of our perception," he said at a press conference, while standing alongside his Egyptian counterpart Nabil Fahmy during a surprise stopover in Cairo. "There are questions we have here and there about one thing or another, but Foreign Minister Fahmy has reemphasized to me again and again that they have every intent and they are determined to fulfill that particular decision and that [democratic] track."
The generals axe the secular, pro-democracy movement
Fahmy and Kerry were looking at that democratic "track" from opposite perspectives. Three weeks later, the military-appointed president, Adly Mansour, approved a new law that virtually outlawed the right to protest. This law gave the interior minister or senior police officials a power that only the judiciary had previously possessed. The minister or his minions could now cancel, postpone, or change the location of protests for which organizers had earlier received the permission of local police. Human Rights groups and secular organizations argued that the 2013 Protest Law was reminiscent of Mubarak's repressive policies. Washington kept quiet.
Two days later, critics of the law held a demonstration in Cairo that was violently dispersed by the police. Dozens of activists, including the co-founders of the April 6 Youth Movement, Ahmed Maher and Muhammad Adel, seminal actors in the Tahrir Square protests against Mubarak, were arrested. Maher and Adel were each sentenced to three years imprisonment.
Following the coup, the number of prisoners rose exponentially, reaching at least 16,000 within eight months, including nearly 3,000 top or mid-level members of the Brotherhood. (Unofficial estimates put the total figure at 22,000.) When 40 inmates herded into a typical cell in custom-built jails proved insufficient, many Brotherhood members were detained without charges for months in police station lockups or impromptu prisons set up in police training camps where beatings were routine.
The 846 Egyptians who lost their lives in the pro-democracy revolution that ended Mubarak's authoritarian regime were dwarfed by the nearly 3,000 people killed in a brutal series of crackdowns that followed the coup, according to human rights groups.
The sentencing of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement — which through its social media campaign had played such a crucial role in sparking anti-Mubarak demonstrations — foreshadowed something far worse. On April 28, 2014, the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters outlawed that secular, pro-democracy movement based on a complaint by a lawyer that it had "tarnished the image" of Egypt and colluded with foreign parties.
With this set of acts, the post-coup regime turned the clock back to Mubarakism — without Mubarak.
Setting the world's mass death-penalty record
On that same April day in the southern Egyptian town of Minya, Judge Saeed Elgazar broke his own month-old world death-penalty record of 529 (in a trial that lasting less than an hour) by recommending the death penalty for 683 Egyptians, including Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie. The defendants were charged in an August 2013 attack on a police station in Minya, which led to the death of a policeman. Of the accused, 60% had not been in Minya on the day of the assault. Defense lawyers were prevented from presenting their case during the two-day trial.
Elgazar was a grotesquely exaggerated example of a judiciary from the Mubarak era that remained unreconciled to the onset of democracy. It proved only too willing to back the military junta in terrorizing those even thinking of protesting the generals' rule. A U.S. State Department spokesperson called the judge's first trial "unconscionable." But as before, the military-backed government in Cairo remained unmoved. The Egyptian Justice Department warned that "comments on judicial verdicts are unacceptable, be they from external or internal parties as they represent a serious transgression against the independence of the judiciary."
When the second mass sentence came down, Kerry murmured that "there have been disturbing decisions within the judicial process, the court system, that have raised serious challenges for all of us. It's actions, not words that will make the difference." A defiant Nabil Fahmy responded by defending the verdicts as having been rendered by an independent judiciary "completely independent from the government."
One predictable response to the military junta's brutal squashing of the Brotherhood, which over the previous few decades had committed itself to participating in a multi-party democracy, was the swelling of the ranks of militant jihadist groups. Of these Ansar Bait al Muqdus ("Helpers of Jerusalem"), based in the Sinai Peninsula and linked to al-Qaeda, was the largest. After the coup, it gained new members and its terror attacks spread to the bulk of Egypt west of the Suez Canal.
In late December, a car bomb detonated by its operatives outside police headquarters in the Nile Delta town of Mansoura killed 16 police officers. Blaming the bombing on the Muslim Brotherhood instead, the interim government classified it as a "terrorist organization," even though Ansar had claimed responsibility for the attack. By pinning the terrorist label on the Brotherhood, the generals gave themselves carte blanche to further intensify their ruthless suppression of it.
While SCAF pursued its relentless anti-Brotherhood crusade and reestablished itself as the ruling power in Egypt, it threw a sop to the Obama administration. It introduced a new constitution, having suspended the previous one drafted by a popularly elected constituent assembly. The generals appointed a handpicked committee of 50 to amend the suspended document. They included only two members of the Islamist groups that had jointly gained two-thirds of the popular vote in Egypt's first free elections.
Predictably, the resulting document was military-friendly. It stipulated that the defense minister must be a serving military officer and that civilians would be subject to trial in military courts for certain offenses. Banned was the formation of political parties based on religion, race, gender, or geography, and none was allowed to have a paramilitary wing. The document was signed by the interim president in early December. A national referendum on it was held in mid-January under tight security, with 160,000 soldiers and more than 200,000 policemen deployed nationwide. The result: a vote of 98.1% in favor. (A referendum on the 2012 constitution during Morsi's presidency had gained the backing of 64% of voters.)
The charade of this exercise seemed to escape policymakers in Washington. Kerry blithely spoke of the SCAF-appointed government committing itself to "a transition process that expands democratic rights and leads to a civilian-led, inclusive government through free and fair elections."
By this time, the diplomatic and financial support of the oil rich Gulf States ruled by autocratic monarchs was proving crucial to the military regime in Cairo. Immediately after the coup, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) poured $12 billion into Cairo's nearly empty coffers. In late January 2014, Saudi Arabia and the UAE came up with an additional $5.8 billion. This helped Sisi brush off any pressure from Washington and monopolize power his way.
The strongman as savior
By then, huge photographs and portraits of General Sisi had become a common fixture on the streets in Cairo and other major cities. On January 27th, interim president Mansour promoted Sisi to field marshal. Later that day, SCAF nominated him for the presidency. A slew of stories started appearing in the state-run media as well as most of its privately owned counterparts backing Sisi and touting the benefits of strong military leadership.
Sisi's original plan to announce his candidacy on February 11th, the third anniversary of Mubarak's forced resignation, hit an unexpected speed bump. On February 7th, Al Watan, a newspaper supportive of the military regime with longstanding ties to the security establishment, printed an embarrassing front-page story placing Sisi's worth at 30 million Egyptian pounds ($4.2 million). Within minutes of its being printed, state officials contacted the paper's owner, Magdy El Galad, demanding its immediate removal. He instantly complied.
Sisi continued to place his henchmen in key positions in the armed forces, including military intelligence. On March 26th, he resigned from the army, declaring himself an independent candidate. Nonetheless, as Alaa Al Aswany, a prominent writer and commentator, revealed, senior military commanders continued to perform important tasks for him. There was nothing faintly fair about such an election, Aswany pointed out. Most other potential candidates for the presidency had reached a similar conclusion — that entering the race was futile. Hamdeen Sabahi, a secular left-of-center politician, was the only exception.
Despite relentless propaganda by state and private media portraying Sisi as the future savior of Egypt, things went badly for him. That he would be crowned as a latter-day Pharaoh was a given. The only unknown was: How many Egyptians would bother to participate in the stage-managed exercise?
The turnout proved so poor on May 26th, the first day of the two-day election, that panic struck the government, which declared the following day a holiday. In addition, the Justice ministry warned that those who failed to vote would be fined. The authorities suspended train fares to encourage voters to head for polling stations. TV anchors and media celebrities scolded and lambasted their fellow citizens for their apathy, while urging them to rush to their local polling booths. Huge speakers mounted on vans patrolling city neighborhoods alternated raucous exhortations to vote with songs of praise for the military. Al Azhar, the highest Islamic authority in the land, declared that to fail to vote was "to disobey the nation." Pope Tawadros, head of Egypt's Coptic Christian Church whose members form 10% of the population, appeared on state television to urge voters to cast their ballots.
The former field marshal had demanded an 80% turnout from the country's 56 million voters. Yet even with voting extended to a third day and a multifaceted campaign to shore up the numbers, polling stations were reportedly empty across the country. The announced official turnout of 47.5% was widely disbelieved. Sabahi described the figure as "an insult to the intelligence of Egyptians." Sisi was again officially given 96.1% of the vote, Sabahi 3%. The spokesman for the National Alliance for the Defense of Legitimacy put voter participation at 10%-12%. The turnout for the first free and fair two-day presidential election, held in June 2012 without endless exhortations by TV anchors and religious leaders, had been 52%.
Among the regional and world leaders who telephoned Sisi to congratulate him on his landslide electoral triumph was Russian President Vladimir Putin. No such call has yet come in from President Obama.
For Washington, still so generous in its handouts to the Arab Republic of Egypt and its military, trailing behind the Russian Bear in embracing the latest strongman on the Nile should be considered an unqualified humiliation. With its former sphere of influence in tatters, the last superpower has been decisively sidelined by its key Arab ally in the region.


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Not sure about the claim as world's toughest but it looks nice…
Yes, there have been plenty of drop tests done at 'normal' heights, 3-feet from your pocket, 6-feet from your ear, or even 10-feet in the air just for kicks. But no one in their right mind was ever crazy enough to throw an iPhone from a second-floor window 32-feet down to a concrete driveway. Unless the phone is wearing the right protection, that is. Watch a video of the ultimate iPhone drop test.. Now iPhone 4 users can enjoy the same technology and protection for their gadgets.
The new iPhone 4 Tough Case offers multi-layer protection using a combination of (1) an outer soft rubber shell, (2) an inner polycarbonate hard case, and (3) a clear lens which covers the screen. This case is supremely shock absorbent and withstood a drop test from a second-floor window, free falling 32-feet onto a concrete driveway, and the iPhone keeps on recording video! Since all buttons and ports are tightly sealed, the Tough Case provides rain and splash protection, while giving the user full access at the same time. The included ratcheting belt holster also functions as a convenient kickstand for movie watching.
"iGear's Tough Case is built like a tank and offers hands-down the best iPhone protection in the industry," says Jimmy Sun, president of iGearUnlimited.com. "To put my money where my mouth is, I threw my own iPhone in the Tough Case out of a second-floor window, to demonstrate to our customers its unprecedented durability."
The Tough Case is available from iGearUnlimited.com for immediate shipping. Price at only $39.99 and available in three colors, it deserves a spot on anyone's holiday shopping list.
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Did you know that vitamin D is a much-needed nutrient that helps maintain strong bones, helps muscles move, and helps nerves carry messages between the brain and various body parts? Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium from food and supplements. Vitamin D and calcium, together, also helps protect older adults from osteoporosis—a condition in which bones become brittle and thin. In children, this condition is known as rickets.
If someone does not get enough vitamin D—due to not consuming enough or absorbing enough from their food, not getting enough exposure to sunlight (the body makes vitamin D when the skin is exposed to the sun), or their kidneys not being able to convert vitamin D to its active form in the body—they will become deficient. As mentioned before, not getting enough vitamin D and calcium can lead to osteoporosis.
While there are few foods that naturally contain vitamin D, there are foods that have been fortified with vitamin D, including breakfast cereals, milk, orange juice, and yogurt. Fatty fish, such as salmon and tuna, are the best natural sources of vitamin D. And small amounts of vitamin D can be found in beef liver, cheese, and egg yolks.
While our bodies need vitamin D for healthy bones, too much vitamin D can lead to high levels of calcium in the blood. And too much exposure to the sun can lead to skin cancer. If you would like to learn more about your vitamin D status check with your doctor for more information and recommendations.


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Roxtec sealing solutions provide the flexibility you need to seal for safety even before having all the cable and pipe data. Use our A-60 rated transits in accommodation and service areas for cables in decks and bulkheads as well as for pipes for sprinklers and black, grey and potable water.
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Chasing the Witch
After the events of Mark of the Witch, Jilly at last begins to breathe easier though her powers are still growing. But can she harness them in time to confront a new chain of events that threatens to change everything?
Caroline has finally accepted her life as a witch, but when a stranger comes into her life she's forced to question her family loyalty.
The sisters are thrown together to protect a young girl from the enemy determined to hunt her down. Can they save her — and themselves?
Purchase on Kindle / Barnes & Noble
Follow on Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads / Literary Addicts
Join the Chasing the Witch and Coveted Joint Release Event
Twitter Party December 4 RSVP HERE
Jessica Gibson is offering up a signed set of her books (US), an ebook set of her books (INT), and a $10 Amazon GC (INT)
The Blast starts 11/28 and ends 12/16
a Rafflecopter giveaway


text: Welcome to Unique Touch!Unique Touch Suntanning and Hair has provided customized hair, beauty, and spa services in the trendy College Street district of Toronto since 1984. We are a L'Oreal Professionnel Elite Salon, and specialize in - color correction, - Great Lengths Human Hair Extensions, - special occasion make up and "up-do's", - and wedding parties. Give us a call or e-mail us with any of your beauty inquires. We will take the time for you. We proudly offer a multi-cultural environment – collectively our staff speaks Portuguese, Italian, French and Spanish. |


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Problems at the Nature Conservancy
I tend to divide up environmental regulations into two buckets:
- Regulations aimed at curbing emissions that spill out of one person's property (e.g by air or water) to others
- Regulations mainly aimed at land use restrictions that affect how someone may use their own land
The first type of law is essential to rational functioning of strong property rights in the modern world. Otherwise, we would all be suing each other over molecules of pollution that cross our property lines.
The second category, including wetlands and open space and habitat protection, are a threat to property rights (something one could infer just from the fact that many anti-capitalist anti-technology leftists have jumped on the environmental bandwagon, mainly focusing on this second category of limitations).
Here is one of those situations that make me a true minority in this country: I greatly value wide-open undeveloped spaces and ranges for wild animals, but I don't expect the government to provide them for me nor do I ask other citizens to provide them to me against their will. Unfortunately, most of the other people in this country who value these things do in fact accept, and even demand, that government provide them. Every day, landholders are told by various government bodies that they cannot do what they like with their land, because other people who do not own the land like the land the way it is. These landholders are effectively expropriated of their land, in these cases without even the payment the New London Kelo victims received.
This is why I have always supported the private land trust movement, of which the Nature Conservancy is the most well-known example. These land trusts use private donations to buy out property owners and set aside property for various conservation purposes. This way, the people who value the conservation of the land pay the price for it, not the person who happens to be owning the targeted land.
I was sad to see, therefore, the Nature Conservancy revealed in Senate hearings as having a number of ethical lapses. , was all over this story. They describe the problems found as follows:
*A pattern of dealings with insiders that gave preferential treatment on land deals.
*A pattern of dealings with the companies of board members
*Selling emissions credits, including a $10 million deal with General
Motors while GM's chairman John Smith served on TNC's board.*Selling emissions credits that it may or may not have even owned,
essentially furthering its own environmental goals (buying land) at the
expense of another environmental goal (reducing greenhouse gases)*Allowing oil and gas drilling on one of three known habitats of the
Attwater Prairie chicken, bumbling its way through the deal so that it
ended up in court, accused of cheating one of its partners, all while
pocketing over $8 million in royalties.The report paints a picture
of an organization that had gotten so big, and so successful, that it
lost sight of why it was formed in the first place.
There is a lot of discussion about what reforms will help prevent this problem, and a lot of discussion about eliminating the tax deduction for conservation easements:
It has become clear that some people have been abusing the law that
allows tax deductions for conservation easements. The easement
deduction allows me to sell the development rights to my property to a
land trust. I keep the property the way it is, and everyone who buys it
from me agrees to keep it that way too. If it's wilderness, it stays
wilderness. If it's a ranch, it stays a ranch. In areas with lots of
development, that can be worth a ton of money. The big question, how
much? It's a subjective appraisal, and if both parties want to unfairly
jack up the value, the hearings have shown the IRS doesn't have the
manpower to catch it. And it's led to a cottage industry in easement
tax shelters, including millions of exemptions for golf courses,
driving ranges and backyards. Phony trusts were set up not to protect
land, but to act as tax shelters for the wealthy. As the facts come
out, it's outraging critics, and depressing supporters.
In these deals, one party keeps the land while another party. like TNC, buys the "development rights" and pays the legal bills over time to defend these rights. Personally, I have not been a big fan of conservation easements. "Forever" is a very long time, and there are always going to be incentives to cheat -- if not in this generation, then in the next. Also, such "conditional" property makes me nervous, somehow splitting property rights into two pieces, like a treasury strip. I can't say I can make a firm philosophic argument against it, but it makes me uneasy.
I would much prefer land trusts like TNC to forget about being enablers for conservation easements and get back to their original mission - buying land outright for conservation purposes. By buying it outright, you get away from all the problems of policing private land use of the easements an organization has taken on.
I have decided to continue to donate to the Nature Conservancy. They do a lot of cool stuff, and philosophically I much rather spend my money to have property purchased for conservation rather than to lobby Congress to force someone to conserve at the point of a gun. I just hope TNC can get its act together so it can continue to provide a viable private alternative to government coercion.


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Mercedes-Benz Vans plans to offer all its commercial van model lines with electric drive. This will start with the mid-size eVito, which is now available to order in Germany, with deliveries commencing in the second half of 2018. Further model ranges will follow, starting in 2019.
The leading van manufacturer presented its holistic electric drive strategy at the eDrive@VANs workshop in Berlin. The focus was not just on the electric van itself, but also on a technological ecosystem tailored specifically to customers' business needs. A holistic strategy based on five cornerstones delivers an innovative total-system solution covering the entire value chain of commercial usage. In order to meet this goal, customer co-creation plays a central role in product development, integrating the strategic partner and their industry expertise into the development process. The new eVito is the first production vehicle to have been developed using this strategic approach.
"We are convinced by the necessity of electric drive in our vans, especially in city centre applications. That said, electrification of the commercial fleet is not an end in itself, but follows the same principles as a classic drive when it comes to profitability. With our eDrive@VANs initiative, we're showing that only holistic mobility solutions extending beyond the drive itself present a real alternative for commercial customers. The eVito is the starting point and will be followed by the new -generation of our Sprinter as well as the Citan", says Volker Mornhinweg, Head of Mercedes-Benz Vans.
Mercedes-Benz electric vans – suitable for everyday use, economical and industry specific
A commercial fleet must be able to meet transport needs economically and competitively – this principle applies regardless of the type of powertrain. If fleet electrification is to compete on equal terms with the classic internal combustion engine, it will need more than the right economic parameters such as the cost of purchasing and operating the vehicles. Just as important from the perspective of total cost of ownership is the integration of a robust charging infrastructure as well as comprehensive service and maintenance management.
Attractive launch programme for the eVito mid-size van
Mercedes-Benz Vans plans to electrify all its commercial model ranges over the next few years, starting with the eVito. The second all-electric production model from Mercedes-Benz Vans after the 2010 Vito E-Cell starts at 39 990 euros (in Germany excl. VAT). The exclusive pre-ordering phase for the mid-size van begins today in Germany, with market launch scheduled for the second half of 2018. The first 1000 orders on the www.jetzt-elektroVAN.mercedes-benz.de microsite will also be rewarded with a service package including Wallbox. The eVito will be followed in 2019 by the eSprinter. The line-up will then be rounded off by the Citan. The commercial model ranges with electric drive will thus cover all requirements from people moving to goods transport.
The Mercedes-Benz Vans electric mobility strategy is based on the five cornerstones – a holistic ecosystem, industry expertise, profitability, co-creation and technology transfer:
1. Holistic ecosystem augments vehicle development
An off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all electric model for tradespeople, couriers and people movers has no long-term future, which is why Mercedes-Benz Vans is pursuing tailor-made total-system solutions based on expert advice. Dialogue between customers and the specialists at Mercedes-Benz Vans will enable the individual adaptation of operating concepts to meet sector needs, fleet size and driving profile as well as the structural prerequisites for creating a dedicated charging infrastructure on company premises. The advice provided thus extends well beyond choosing the right vehicle variants and industry-specific equipment details. The use of connectivity solutions specific to electric vehicles as well as financing and mobility concepts will also be addressed at the early planning stages. The Mercedes-Benz Vans dealership network offers top-quality, nationwide service in electric mobility as the basis for reliable, round-the-clock management of maintenance and servicing. This ecosystem includes the following elements:
- Robust and intelligent charging infrastructure
- Connectivity solutions for charge status, battery range and optimum route planning in real-time
- Consulting: eVAN Ready App and TCO tool for analysis of driving behaviour and overall costs
- Rental vehicles for peak periods
- Driver training programme for electric fleets
Employee training is particularly crucial to the effective use of an electric van in everyday business as the right driving style can have a positive impact on maximum range.
2. High level of industry expertise for precisely the right product fit
As a pioneer in the development of battery-electric vehicles – the MB 100 van was powered by an electric motor back in the mid-90s – Mercedes-Benz Vans combines experience garnered over two decades with comprehensive industry expertise from its everyday sales and marketing activities. Even more so than in private ownership, vehicles used for commercial purposes must be tailor-made exactly to their respective use. Diverse types of trades and services, providers of courier or package delivery services and companies involved in the public or private transportation of people call for very different solutions. Starting with the Vito and following in 2019 with the Sprinter, Mercedes-Benz Vans will offer versatile and flexible base electric vehicles that can be adapted during the purchasing process in their range and load facilities to suit their specific usage scenarios. The new eVito will embody this very variability from market launch.
3. Focus on profitability and low TCO
When it comes to operating costs (total cost of ownership), the newcomer stands on an equal footing with the diesel-powered Vito. The higher purchase price is offset by lower energy and maintenance costs as well as tax savings. A prerequisite is the appropriate framework, such as attractive electricity pricing. Rapid developments in battery technology promise that, going forward, electric-drive vehicles will be amortised faster than those with conventional engines and will offer distinct commercial and environmental benefits. Furthermore, the holistic approach and the provision of a complete eDrive ecosystem significantly reduces operating costs across the entire lifecycle compared with piecemeal, isolated solutions, and offers customers of the eVito significant efficiency benefits and thus commercial added value.
4. Customer co-creation a new focal point of development
The electrification of the model line-up is accompanied by a paradigm shift in development – with customer co-creation taking centre stage. For instance, strategic customers such as logistics service provider, Hermes, and its specific requirements are integrated directly into the ongoing development of the electric vehicles and services. Hermes and Mercedes-Benz Vans agreed on a cooperation earlier this year, and will embark on a pilot phase in Hamburg and Stuttgart at the start of 2018. The electric fleet, which will be used for parcel deliveries, will subsequently be rolled out to other urban areas and reach a total of 1500 electric Vito and Sprinter by 2020. The strategic cooperation also includes working together to generate a concept for an efficient charging infrastructure at Hermes logistics centres, and IT services for optimum control of the electric fleet. In addition, the entire delivery process will be accelerated through the likes of automatic load-space systems that facilitate automated loading and unloading of packages.
Mercedes-Benz Vans is working with its customers to drive the innovation process in last-mile solutions, and not only with a view to the courier and package delivery sector. "The results from customer co-creation for the last mile can be transferred over to other sectors. At the end of the day, all customers can benefit from this transfer of knowledge and technology", explains Mornhinweg.
5. Expertise and technology transfer from the Daimler Group
The core brand promises of Mercedes-Benz Vans apply regardless of the type of drive – there can be no compromises in ergonomics, workplace safety, comfort and safety in future either. The vehicle must also be attractive to the drivers who use it day after day. In order to guarantee these hallmark attributes, Mercedes-Benz Vans is building on proven vehicle concepts and further augmenting them with an all-electric powertrain developed in-house. This is founded on its access to the extensive technological resources of Daimler AG. Carrying over modular elements from car development that have a high degree of maturity guarantees first-class quality. The Group is investing heavily in electric mobility and making systematic use of the synergies between the car and commercial vehicle divisions. Deutsche Accumotive – a Daimler subsidiary based in Kamenz near Dresden – supplies batteries for the eVito. Different battery charging systems and tiered battery sizes set new benchmarks in economy and the cost/benefit ratio. In addition to high investment in other areas of the Group, Mercedes-Benz Vans will invest a further 150 million euros in the electrification of its commercial line-up over the next years.
The new eVito – range of around 150 km, top speed of up to 120 km/h, payload of more than 1000 kg and cargo volume of up to 6.6 m3
With an installed battery capacity of 41.4 kWh, the range of the new eVito will be around 150 km. Even in unfavourable conditions such as low outside temperatures and with a full load, it will have a range of 100 km. The mid-size van is thus perfectly configured for city-centre use by delivery companies, tradespeople and public transport providers. The battery can be fully charged in around six hours, while an output of 84 kW and up to 300 newton metres of torque deliver dynamic performance. When it comes to top speed, the customer can choose between two options: A maximum speed of 80 km/h fulfils all requirements in city traffic and urban areas, while conserving energy and increasing range. If more speed is needed, the customer can choose a top speed of up to 120 km/h.
Initially, it will be possible to pre-order the eVito with one of two wheelbases. The long-wheelbase version has a total vehicle length of 5140 mm, while the extra-long version measures 5370 mm. The electric model demonstrates its suitability for everyday use not least with a generous load space. It can accommodate a maximum payload of 1073 kg and a maximum load volume of 6.6 m3. Installation of the battery beneath the vehicle contributes to the unrestricted usability of the entire load space. The maximum gross vehicle weight stands at 3200 kg.
Next milestone in the adVANce strategic future initiative
Mercedes-Benz Vans is driving the transition from pure vehicle manufacturer to provider of holistic mobility solutions with the adVANce strategic future initiative launched in autumn 2016. The strategic reorientation is also a response to the core challenges of current megatrends – increasing urbanisation with growing traffic levels in urban areas, stricter requirements for air purity and the demand for sustainable mobility. Under the adVANce umbrella, the brand with the three-pointed star will have invested around 500 million euros by 2020 in areas such as the integration of a wide range of connectivity solutions into its vans, innovative hardware solutions for the van sector and new mobility concepts.
Electric vans from Mercedes-Benz Vans https://t.co/Usf3u7YduG @MercedesBenz #ArriveAlive pic.twitter.com/g59LSl8mst
— Arrive Alive (@_ArriveAlive) November 21, 2017


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CFP: Native Shakespeares (7/15/05; collection)
Native Shakespeares (Book collection; 7/15/05)
Eds. Craig Dionne, Parmita Kapadia
Shakespeare's role in colonial and post-colonial culture has been at the
forefront of Renaissance literary criticism for over a decade now, but
this scholarship has mainly looked at the original historical contexts
of Renaissance representations of new world other(s) with an emphasis on
how Shakespeare's plays reproduce the attendant anxieties and wonder
associated with these new world encounters. However, Shakespeare's role
as England's "national poet" has been left largely unexamined in
Imperial, colonial, and post-colonial contexts. Although constructed to
represent the pinnacle of British culture, Shakespeare's status is
highly contested in post-colonial societies, suggesting that the
playwright occupies a complex position. Treated as both a canonical and
liminal figure, Shakespeare simultaneously reifies and challenges
colonial authority, foregrounding issues of mimicry, ambivalence,
dislocation, differentiality, and subversion. How do his plays figure
in the larger "civilizing" instruments of Empire? How is Shakespeare
co-opted and rearticulated as "native" to those peoples who have learned
to read his work outside the humanizing sphere of the colonial project
to "bring within the fold" the subjects of this national culture?
Reconstructions and revisions of Shakespeare's plays, particularly in
terms of performance and pedagogy, point to an alterity through which
linguistic, political, historical, and cultural discourses are
challenged. Considering mainly the material practices that shaped
Shakespeare's role in colonial and post-colonial history, the various
contributions in Native Shakespeares will examine how his plays were
appropriated by non-Anglo peoples subject to Imperial culture as it was
constituted in and through theatrical and pedagogical practices. As
privileged texts that were taught as models of British history and
experience, Shakespeare's plays appeared in many "native" translations,
adaptations, and performance contexts. The essays in this collection
approach these local, "native" uses of Shakespeare as sites of contest
where notions of colonial and post-colonial identity and culture are
negotiated and reimagined.
Recent scholarship has begun to explore Shakespeare through the
perspective of the marginalized Other. Building on the scholarship of
John Russell Brown, Ania Loomba, Jyostna Singh, Martin Orkin, Ruth
Vanita, and Diana Taylor, this collection investigates Shakespeare's
reinvention as a "native" playwright within post-colonial discourses.
We welcome submissions from diverse critical approaches, particularly
performance studies, literary transnationalism, border cultures, and
film studies.
Please send abstracts and titles or completed essays by July 15, 2005,
to Craig Dionne (craig.dionne_at_emich.edu). Email is preferred, or you
can use the below addresses:
Craig Dionne
Department of English
Eastern Michigan University
Ypsilanti, MI 48107
From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
Full Information at
or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu
Received on Wed Feb 23 2005 - 10:33:03 EST