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David Cross
American stand-up comedian and actor (born 1964)
David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian and actor.
The Last Laugh 2005
edit- So I was watching all the Katrina coverage and I got really angry at... Christians who didn't pray hard enough... It's their fucking fault. First off, they needed to pray against the people that were praying for Katrina to hit, because New Orleans is a den of sin and iniquity; an area where gay people dance! But now they have to pray double, and if they had just put that little effort up front, we could've avoided all of this. I think it's time we take a lesson from history, and return to human sacrifice.
- I thought it was really odd at how much people freaked out at Katrina. You'd think they'd be worried about something important. 'Oh my God, look! George Bush is just appointing all his friends into office and we're in an unfounded war...' But no- 'Fuck that! That nigger's stealing some potato chips!'
- I really don't have a problem with gay marriage... because I'm tolerant and rational.
The Pride is Back
edit- [On airport pornography] I've never seen anybody purchase them, but apparently people are. They wouldn't carry them just for aesthetic purposes. They're not trying to impress people with their porn collection, you know. So, it's just a matter of economics...Apparently enough people are goin' in there goin' 'Oh, whoa... All right! The worlds filthiest ball-draining cum-mag! Right on! This ought to make the flight a little more tolerable. Alright. Oh shit! Ha Ha! Page 35: Puckering virgin assholes - alright I gotta get it. Hope nobody is sitting next to me on the plane, because they're in for a rude awakening. Cause I'm gonna be spankin' it!' Ah, it's weird. I'm not knocking porn, I love porn... but when I go to the airport I don't have to buy those magazines, because I have this thing called will power. And I utilize it so that I don't have to whip my dick out in public. I can wait five hours. At least until I'm in the cab on my way home.
- [On marketing and commercials] HENDERSON VALLEY EGGS! You're gonna love our eggs!!!... [cut to small granny in rockin chair] I like eggs the old fashioned way. [return to youth] "Fuck you granny!" [punch mimic]
- I don't remember ordering the Christian sandwich...
- If you wanna find out 101 things to do with plums, heh, read your in-flight magazine.
- [After reading an article on Miles for Kids in an inflight journal] What [President of the Airline] is doing is, he's urging everyone to give up their frequent flyer miles for sick kids... But as I was reading this, there were two empty seats next to me. Why can't sick kids sit there? If they're so concerned with sick kids, shouldn't they have like a pen of sick kids next to the gate?
- We get to see it! January 1st, 2000! We get to see... all those fundamentalist preachers having to do their backpedaling when the Armageddon doesn't occur.
- And then Jesus answered him, Jesus said, 'Well, my son...that is when I was helping one of the other FIVE BILLION PEOPLE on the planet, you selfish fuck. C'mon! You were walking back to your Malibu beach colony home and stubbed your toe on some driftwood, it's not a fuckin' emergency, alright? There's other people with real problems.'
- High Times magazine is a notch intellectually below Highlights for Children. I mean, they're both great to read when you're baked, but come on, ya know...
- I have a few business ideas (that I'm going to advertise in High Times, amongst other places), and one of them is a service in which I offer to eat and describe pork to kosher people.
- [With reference to a 'how to date' book] Because you've been on dates where y'know, you forget to open your eyes and wear pants and speak English.
- [On the Dating Handbook] 'With a telescope, some munchies, and a warm blanket, watch for Halley's comet.' Yeah. I like that. There's no time limit. Just sit there and grow old together.
- If someone gives you a kazoo and toots around the house to MTV, they're not gonna fuck you.
- [On death & euthanasia] I think its funny how, that if I want to die with peace and dignity that there's someone far away that can prevent it. Someone's like [strong southern accent] 'Hi, I just wanted to call. This is Jeanette Dunwoody from Valdosta, Georgia. I heard that you're trying to kill yourself and I just wanna say that, well, you can't.' 'What?' 'Yeah, its not right, because all life is precious.' 'No, my life isn't precious, I've been reduced to a shit and piss factory. I hurt always. I'm going to die within a year and I'm in pain constantly.' 'Oh, but um...no. Because of the Bible.' 'Well, I don't believe in the Bible.' 'Well, I do, silly!' [Hangs up]
- So at the CES, there was a guy selling off this porno called Fuck My Dirty Shithole: The Movie. I bet you're thinking exactly what I was thinking … how did they make that book into a movie?
- James Lipton: The most pompous arrogant failure in history.
Shut Up, You Fucking Baby
edit- Radio DJ's are the same two motherfucking asshole clowns all over the country. I hate radio interviews. 'You didn't know it David, but you're just in time for the Friday Morning Fart Song!' No, sorry, I'm not doing that. Even if it's only fifteen minutes, it's the worst fifteen minutes of your life. I don't care if you've been in a fucking shark attack. If I was in a shark attack, and then they had no anesthetic and they had to heal it up, sew it up, I would be like, 'This sucks,' but then if two DJ's came in and interviewed me I'd fucking shoot myself.
- And the Pope is infallible. We're taught that. Pope can't make a mistake. So I don't know why the Catholic church just doesn't take that motherfucker to Vegas. 'All right, put all the Catholic Church's money on 17 black.' [casino sound] '32 red, I'm sorry.' 'No, I don't think you heard, he said 17 black! Thank you! Let's go to Bellagio!' That way they could pay off those debts they owe.
- [On the Catholic Church's sex scandals] And y'know, they're God's representatives, so that means... God fucks little boys.
- Rickey Henderson, pick up the phone, man, it's me... you.
- It's hip to be square. Remember that shitty song by that shitty band 20 motherfuckin' years ago?
- In New York, you are constantly faced with this very urgent decision that you have to make, about every twenty minutes...you have to decide, immediately, you have to go "Ohmigod. Do I look at the most beautiful woman in the world or the craziest guy in the world?"
- The South has more of a disproportionate amount of irony on T-shirts than any other region in the country.
- [On being Jewish in the American South] All the parents see you as is a Jew; I'm a Jewish kid. I'm like a fucking alien to them, you know, I'm a freak...so If I slept over a friend's house, I'd always have to deal with these questions in the morning, like, you know, Mom coming in going <southern accent> "David, I'm so sorry to have to ask you this, I'm so sorry, um...I'm fixing to make breakfast for everybody and I certainly wanna include you...and I'm just having some questions I was hoping you could answer...do y'alls people eat oatmeal?" What? Yeah. Is there something in the Torah that says we shouldn't eat oatmeal? "No, it's just that I don't know much about y'alls people, that's all, I just don't know--I know y'all hate Jesus! I know y'all hate Jesus, that much I do know...aand, I know y'alls have seven Jew bankers that control the world's money supply, right? In a bunker somewhere about a mile into the earth's core? Is that right? Yeah? And y'all do dances in the woods, y'all wear cloaks and do secret services and burn potions and whatnots, and y'all have horns--that's all I know about y'alls people!"
- Here's a little what it was like for me growing up in Atlanta... They had this ill-fated thing called 'Light Up Atlanta'. So, I'm standing in line... I tap the guy in front of me and say, "Uh, excuse me, can you tell me if this is the line for the beer, or the line to get the tickets to get the beer.' [long pause] 'I dunno, faggot.' I don't know, faggot? What? What did I do? Was it because I was sucking his cock at the time?
- The Bible is the funniest book I have ever read. It's so funny! Right in the first six pages, it's funny!
It's Not Funny
edit- I don't think Osama bin Laden sent those planes to attack us because he hated our freedom. I think he did it because of our support for Israel, our ties with the Saudi family and our military bases in Saudi Arabia. You know why I think that? Because that's what he fucking said! Are we a nation of 6-year-olds? Answer: yes.
- [On the Iraq War] I am against the war, but I do support our white troops. [laughter, long pause] No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm not a Republican. I'm not a member of the party of inclusion. Wonderful, tolerant, rational human beings they are...
- [After having made an abortion joke] I know that can hit close to home for some people....was anyone here aborted?... (mimicking child's voice:) 'I was found in a trash can!' Okay, well, that sorta counts...
- So all my friends have kids now... which I think is rude.
- All my friends are always telling me how hard it is to have kids. 'Oh, David, it's so hard.' That's not hard. I'll tell you what hard is. Try talking your girlfriend into her third consecutive abortion. Yeah, that's hard, that takes finesse. You're just inconvenienced.
- Not funny, not funny says she, didn't like it!
- I do believe that on a whole, women are definitely smarter than men…I also believe that dogs are smarter than women. (woman in audience says "Not buying that") No? That one, you don't believe it? You believe that I didn't do a series of tests? You are right to not believe it, because I'm going to go ahead and admit that I do not believe what I just said, it was what's described as a 'joke.' Um, I'll be telling a bunch of them here tonight.
- So I was watching this one show where - there's a guy on stage and he pretends he has contact with the dead and spirits talk to him...[Some people in the audience give suggestions, one of which is Crossing Over.] Crossing–...no, no, no, no, no, it was, uh, church. It was church.
- [On freedom/America] I saw this ad for electric scissors [referring to a bit earlier] during an episode of The Simple Life. Which is a show that glorifies these two rich, giggling cunts, who have no respect for anyone. Just vile people; awful human beings. Who get away with anything, because they're rich. I, right then, vowed that I would retain this image everytime I hear George Bush say 'the terrorists hate our freedom.' You know what? I hate our freedom. Little ol' me, an American! I hate it! That's all we've done with it? We're fucking assholes, man. We...are...awful.
- If the terrorists hated freedom, the Netherlands would be fucking dust.
- There's a kind of racism in the south that is really so steadfast and true that I almost kind of begrudgingly, you know, admire it in a way, and that is that there are segregated graveyards. That just to me defies all logic...but it's also, like, "Well, hats off...you're going to stick to your guns on that one, and take that shit to the grave? All right!" There's enough people to go, "Naw, man..ugh, I don't even wanna think about it. My dead, lifeless, rotting, maggot-infested corpse...next to some black man's? Ewww!!! That's gross!" But that does pose an interesting scenario, because, what's going to happen when the zombies rise out of their graves? ... "We must take over the human race-- wait, what were you?" "I'm black." "Fuck you, nigger, you can't come." "What? No! But I'm a skeleton, you can't tell!" "Fuck youuu..."
Bigger and Blackerer
editMaking America Great Again
edit- We should just make it a little bit more difficult for people with known violent tendencies to be able to get a gun. And I'm not talking about the cops. No. Not talking about the cops. I'm saying, let's make it a little bit more difficult for mentally unstable people with known violent tendencies to be able to get a gun. And again, I'm not talking about the cops. If you can go on their Facebook page and see that this guy is a virulent racist, right? Make it a little more difficult for virulent racists, who are mentally unstable with known violent tendencies to be able to get-- And again, I'm not talking about the cops.
- I think we can all agree that Blue Lives Murder. Now... Not all of them, not most of them, but a bunch of em, murder. [scoffs] Theyre murdering us. Well, not us. We're white, but....
- You know who doesn't like that bit? Cops. They don't like it. They don't like it. And I think its important -- I'm being sincere. I think its important that we acknowledge, all of us, that there are plenty of good, decent, ethical, very brave cops, who put their lives on the line every day, and they don't appreciate being painted with this broad brush as being violent predators just because of the actions of a minority of their brothers. They don't like being stereotyped so that when you see blue, you just think "Oh, violent thug." They don't appreciate it.


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* This is a preorder - you will be charged the listed price at checkout ** If you are pre ordering along with other 'in stock' items may we ask that you consider whether you want to wait for them along with your pre ordered stock. If you are happy to wait to have all items shipped together then please order them together. If you want your 'in stock' items sooner than the pre ordered dice you will need to make 2 separate orders
Fulfilment is expected in roughly 2 weeks depending on customs and other unforeseen circumstances
Material - resin
colour - clear and blue with blue T-Rex inclusions
Ink - silver
***Warning - Dice are a choking Hazard - Not suitable for children under 3 years due to small parts***
We aim to ship all orders within 5 working days and do everything we can to keep the shipping costs as low as possible.
Average UK delivery times should be within 3 working days of shipping and International orders should be delivered within 10 working days of shipping. However given the large amount of things that can affect postal delivery we ask our UK customers allow 10 days for delivery and our international customers allows 30 days.

subset: commoncrawl


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Boris Johnson is self-isolating after meeting an MP with coronavirus
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is currently self-isolating after coming into contact with an MP who later tested positive for Covid-19.
Mr Johnson will be working from Downing Street during his period of self-isolation, after being contacted by the NHS Test and Trace system.
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Hide Ad'I have no symptoms, but am following the rules'
The Prime Minister posted on Twitter on the evening of Sunday 15 November, explaining that he must now self-isolate for two weeks, after the Test and Trace systems notified him that he has been in contact with someone who tested positive for the virus.
On Thursday 12 November, Mr Johnson spent around 35 minutes with Tory MP Lee Anderson, who lost his sense of taste the next day.
Mr Anderson posted on his Facebook page to say he was self-isolating with his wife, who is also clinically vulnerable, after they both tested positive for coronavirus.
The Prime Minister said on Twitter, "I have no symptoms, but am following the rules and will be working from No 10 as I continue to lead the government's pandemic response."
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Hide AdThis comes as the government currently prepares a policy relaunch, after internal rows and recent departures from No 10, including the Prime Minister's Chief Adviser, Dominic Cummings.
Downing Street has said that there will be a number of "critical announcements" this week, which will lay out Mr Johnson's "ambitions" for the UK.
Advocating for the NHS Test and Trace system
The Prime Minister posted a video on Twitter on Monday morning, explaining that the NHS Test and Trace system is working "evermore efficiently."
Alongside the video, a caption read, "Hi folks, I've been instructed by our NHS Test & Trace scheme to self-isolate for two weeks, after being in contact with someone with Covid-19.
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Hide Ad"I'm in good health and have no symptoms, and will continue to lead on our response to the virus & our plans to #BuildBackBetter."
Mr Johnson added, "I am absolutely confident that together we can beat this disease".
He also encouraged people to get a coronavirus test if they have any symptoms, and to "follow the rules" if NHS Test and Trace notifies them to self-isolate.


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Sugar High Friday: the St Louis Food Blogger Edition
One of the great joys of food blogging is getting to know fellow foodies from across the world."We start food blogs for reasons a-many ... to record and share our recipes, to stay connected with family afar, to break writer's block ... but we KEEP blogging because of connection and community."
- Current theory, yours truly
But a second joy, one I've watched with some envy in San Francisco and the United Kingdom, is getting to know the fellow foodies who live just a few miles away, the ones we might run into at the farmers market or the grocery store, the ones whose kids we meet and whose spouses know our last names AND our blog names.
This connection among the St Louis food bloggers (and several other nearby food bloggers we're pleased to adopt!) is just now beginning to form. Many participated in Sugar High Friday and may be new to you. Please say hello to ...
Many of you already know Nupur from One Hot Stove. But wait, doesn't Nupur live in New York? Yes but as soon as her thesis is finished, her new kitchen will be right here in St Louis! For Sugar High Friday, Nupur made her version of a traditional Indian dessert, carrot kheer. I can personally attest that it's surprisingly delicious -- and deliciously surprising!
Next up meet Kirk Warner, one of two chefs in our group of St. Louis food bloggers. He is the former executive chef at King Louie's and Savor, both much-loved local restaurants. Now Kirk is starting a personal chef service called Kirk's Traveling Kitchen and his website includes a blog. For Sugar High Friday, Kirk followed his seasonal style with a cake I am looking forward to making very soon, cardamom-apple cake with molten cider-caramel.
Meet Bruno from Zinfully Delicious, the second chef in our group of St Louis food bloggers. (For those who whine about ovens? Listen up: Bruno is an on-board chef for executive jets. Imagine cooking with no flame.) Bruno and his blogging partner, Duane, have a friendship that dates back to UCity schools. (Duane lives in central Texas and is dealing with medical issues; we wish him and his wife the best ...) For Sugar High Friday, Bruno used puff pastry to make la galette des rois, a king's cake.
Lisa from Champaign Taste is newest food blogger in our bunch. (And no, that's not a typo: Lisa lives in the city of Champaign ... Illinois.) For Sugar High Friday, she dusted off the baking pans for a wonderful-sounding coffee cake, cinnamon crumb surprise.
Then there's Annie from Bon Appegeek, a blog written with great style and humor from East Central Illinois. For Sugar High Friday, Annie has me drooling over these chocolate-filled peanut butter scones.
And then finally there's me, the St Louis food blogger here at A Veggie Venture, the self-appointed ambassador of St Louis food blogs ... and the host of this month's Sugar High Friday food blog event. I made some spice cupcakes and ice cream with a surprise ingredient, parsnips!
But wait! There are more food bloggers here in St Louis and nearby! Here's the current list; watch my blogroll for additions.


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Who Was C.H. Douglas?
By Professor Geoffrey Dobbs
The late Clifford Hugh Douglas, M.I.Mech.E., M.I.E.E., consulting engineer, economist, author, and founder of the Social Credit Movement, was born in 1879 and died in 1952. Among other posts which he held in his earlier years were those of engineer with the Canadian General Electric company, Peterborough, Canada; Assistant Engineer, Lachine Rapids Hydraulic Construction, Deputy Chief Electrical Engineer, Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway; Chief Engineer and Manager in India British Westinghouse Company; Assistant Superintendent, Royal Aircraft Factory Farnborough (England). During the First World War he was a Major in the Royal Flying Corps and later in the R.A.F. (Reserve).
After retiring from his engineering career, he and his wife ran a small yacht-building yard on Southampton Water for several years. The combination of beauty with functional efficiency in a successfully designed racing yacht had a special appeal for him. When he lived in an old water mill in Hampshire he used the water wheel to turn a dynamo which lit and warmed the house as well as providing power for lathes and other tools. Later, when he moved to Scotland, many of his friends and followers remember helping to build his small hydro-electric power house, sited on the local burn which ran through his land. Since decentralisation of economic power was of the essence of his teaching, it should be put on record that he practised what he preached.
One of his most interesting jobs, just before the 1914 War, was that of conducting preliminary experimental work and preparing plans and specifications for the electrical work on the Post Office Tube in London, with later supervision of the installation of plant in what was to be one of the earliest examples of complete automation in the history of engineering. While there were no physical difficulties about the work, he used to get orders from time to time to slow it up and pay off the men. When the War came, however, he noticed that there was no longer any difficulty about getting money for anything the Government wanted.
It appears that he was sent to Farnborough in 1916 to sort out 'a certain amount of muddle' in the Aircraft Factory's accounts, so that he had to go very carefully into the costing. This he did by introducing what were then known as 'tabulating machines' - an approach which anticipated the much later use of computers, and which drew his attention to the much faster rate at which the factory was generating costs as compared with the rate at which it was distributing incomes in the form of wages and salaries. Could this be true of every factory or commercial business?
Douglas then collected information from over 100 large businesses in Great Britain, and found that in every case except in businesses heading for bankruptcy, the total costs (charged into products) always exceeded the sums paid out in wages, salaries and dividends. It followed that only a part of the final product could be distributed through the incomes disbursed by its production, and moreover, a diminishing part as industrial processes lengthened and became more complex and increased the ratio of overheads to current wages. Unless this defect in monetary book-keeping were corrected (which in his view was perfectly practicable) the distribution of the remainder must depend increasingly on work in progress on future products (whether wanted or not) financed by loan credit, export credits, sales below cost leading to bankruptcies and centralisation of industrial power, or by consumer borrowing.
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The result must be predictably disastrous - in fact, the modern dilemma between mass-poverty through unemployment and growing inflation, debt and monopoly, with waste of human effort and the earth's resources to maintain 'full employment', requiring continuous economic 'growth' and economic warfare between nations leading towards military war.
This original engineer's approach, which regarded the monetary system much as Douglas, a former railway engineer, had regarded the ticket system, as a mere book-keeping convenience for the efficient distribution of the product, was completely alien and unacceptable to the economic theorists of the day. Only one Professor of Economics (Professor Irvine of Sydney) expressed agreement with it, and he resigned his post shortly afterwards. This general condemnation by the economists was, however, along two different and contradictory lines, viz.;
1. that the cost-income gap was an illusion due to Douglas's failure to realise that the costs all represented sums paid out at a previous date as wages, salaries, etc. ignoring the time factor which was the essence of his analysis; and, 2. that it was, on the contrary, a glimpse of the obvious, of no significance whatever, since this was the immutable way in which the monetary and economic system must work for the stimulation of new production and the maintenance of the level of employment - i.e. ignoring Douglas's radically different objective of production for the consumers' use and not for 'employment' or other monetary objectives.
When the Great Depression of the 1930's grimly confirmed Douglas's diagnosis and gave him a worldwide reputation and following, his critics explained that he had mistaken a temporary lapse for a permanent defect in the monetary system; but subsequent events have by now, so continuously fulfilled his predictions that this criticism is no longer credible. Despite rejection by the Economic Establishment of the day, Douglas was called upon to give evidence before the Canadian Banking Enquiry in 1923 and the Macmillan Committee in 1930, and undertook several World Tours in which he addressed many gatherings, especially in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and also at the World Engineering Congress in Tokyo in 1929. In 1935 he gave an important address before the King of Norway and the British Minister at the Oslo Merchants' Club, and in the same year he was appointed Chief Reconstruction Adviser to the United Farmers' Government of the Province of Alberta, Canada, which later in the year elected the first Government to bear the title 'Social Credit'. The Canadian Federal Government, however, frustrated all attempts to implement Douglas's advice by disallowing the legislation, some of which was passed, and disallowed, twice; after which, although the Party remained in power for over 30 years, it progressively abandoned the principles on which it was first elected. It should be placed on historical record, as a precedent, that two 'provincial dividends' of little more than token value, were nevertheless paid at one period to the citizens of the Province, and that, while still acting under the advice of Douglas's representative, the province paid its way without further borrowing, and drastically reduced the Provincial debt.
This diversion of Douglas's ideas into the dead-end of Party politics has received far more publicity than the original and experimental approach to politics which is signposted in his later speeches and writings from 1934 onwards, notably in his five major speeches in England: The Nature of Democracy, The Tragedy of Human Effort, The Approach to Reality, The Policy of a Philosophy, and Realistic Constitutionalism. In 1934 a Social Credit Secretariat was formed under his Chairmanship, which started an Electoral Campaign involving the use of the vote for purposes desired by the electors rather than by Parliament or the political Parties.
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This was followed by a highly successful Local Objectives Campaign along similar non-party lines, and a Lower Rates and Assessments Campaign which saved the British ratepayers many millions of pounds without loss of services by reducing loan charges. The Second World War put an end to these activities on an organised national scale, and dispersed them, with the Social Credit Movement, into a decentralised force, better adapted to the present crisis of World centralisation.
In the final phase of his life, roughly from 1939 to his death in 1952, Douglas consolidated his ideas in depth, contrasting very clearly the philosophy which underlies them with that which activates the Monopoly of Credit. Although the best known of them, which have already exercised considerable influence in the World, lie in the economic sphere: the concepts of real credit, the increment of association and the cultural inheritance, and the proposals of the National Dividend and the Just or Compensated Price - his political ideas, though as yet little known, are if anything of greater importance. They were always worked out with a characteristic practicality taking account of the feed-back from the course of events. No one else has thrown so much light on the true nature of democracy, as distinct from the numerical product of the ballot box; on the need for decentralised control of policy and hierarchical control of administration, on the freedom to choose one thing at a time, on the right to contract out, on the Voters' Policy and the Voters' Veto. In his last address given in London to the Constitutional Research Association in 1947, he put forward his last proposal for the rehabilitation of democracy: the Responsible Vote, in which the financial consequences of his open electoral choice would be, for a time, differentially paid for by the voter in proportion to his income, a literally revolutionary suggestion which demands an inversion of current ideas about anonymous, irresponsible numerical voting.
Hugh Gaitskell, a former Leader of the Labour Party, once sarcastically described Douglas as 'a religious rather than a scientific reformer'. Perhaps he was more right than he knew! It may be that Douglas's thinking on the subjects of philosophy, policy and religion and the special meaning he gave to those words will turn out to be his most valuable contribution to the restoring of the link between religious belief and the principles which govern society. In his view a 'philosophy', i.e. a conception of the universe always expresses itself as a 'policy' - a distinctive long-term course of action directed towards ends determined by that 'philosophy'. 'Religion' (from the Latin religare, to bind back) is not just a set of beliefs such as are expressed in the Christian creeds (which constitute a 'philosophy') but is precisely the 'binding back' of these ideas to the reality of our lives not only individually, but in the political and economic relationships of our society.
The policies of centralisation and monopoly now being proposed upon the world through the closely related agencies of Finance-Capitalism and Marxist Socialism derive from a 'philosophy' fundamentally different from and opposed to that of Trinitarian Christianity, which was however imperfectly expressed in our Constitution, our Common Law, and the progress towards personal freedom which had been made, especially, in Britain and the Commonwealth. At the time Douglas first put forward his ideas and proposals for carrying forward this traditional policy to its next stage, its Christian basis could be taken for granted as mere 'common sense'. Now that can no longer be taken for granted and it has become necessary consciously to distinguish the policies at work in our Society, and to relate them to the fundamental beliefs which gave rise to them. In this sense, therefore, 'Social Credit' is the social policy of a Christian 'philosophy'; and before the end of his life, its founder made this explicit, rather than as in its beginnings, implicit.
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Professor Dobbs and his wife Elizabeth were close associates of Douglas. All three of them were regular contributors to "The Fig Tree", a quarterly journal edited by C. H. Douglas.


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Rolls-Royce Lease Specials
Shopping for a new Rolls-Royce can be a fun experience. Rolls-Royce makes some of the nicest vehicles on the road today including the Dawn Luxury, the Ghost Series II, the Phantom and many others. When shopping at traditional dealerships, however, it can be frustrating when they don't have the exact model you're looking for. It can be even worse if you want to be able to look at both Rolls-Royce and other options, but don't want to have to drive all across the region to see the exact vehicles you're interested in.


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Australian Author Links Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation to 9/11 |
Written by Dalia Mae Lachlan | |||
Monday, 01 September 2014 01:14 | |||
Editor's Note: We republish a brilliant little gem that reflects upon Newton's law of universal gravitation—a law that was still in effect on 9/11, judging by the photographic evidence. The article, written by "Down Under" blogger Dalia Mae Lachlan, was originally published in Flipside News. Lachlan, by the way, has also authored a series of children's books, "Awaken Your Kids" — one of which, "The Three Tall Buildings," helps youngsters understand what really happened on 9/11 so they can explain it to their parents. Sometimes that's the way the world wakes up. Empirical Observation of 9/11This is what a building collapse looks like. Even though the pillars of the building have been skillfully severed by explosives – everything of weight is going downwards. Newton's law of universal gravitation states that any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. This is a general physical law derived from empirical observations and was formulated in Newton's work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("the Principia"), first published on 5 July 1687. 327 years later society, governments and the mainstream media seem to have a problem with Newton.


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Hello everyone!
I really wanted to link up at Virginia's linky party so I decided to combine a couple of challenges together. My inspiration comes from the fabulous card by Joyce Mehrberg, caseing her card (linked at the bottom of this post) for Happy Little Stampers CASE the designer challenge.
And this is my first time playing the Altenew Inspiration Challenge!
You should definitely check out the gorgeous entries!
Here are my cards separately.
This is a one layer card. I waterclored the flowers from the Altenew Wild Hibiscus set. I glued the fussy cut flowers and leaves giving different dimension to all pieces , added some stamping on the background using Golden Garden set, the sentiment is from the Painted Butterflies set.
My flower centers are very tiny sequins.
For this card, I followed the last week sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and followed the same pattern as in the previous card, as in fussy cut flowers and stamping on the base.
Stamps used here are from Altenew's Wild Hibiscus, Golden Garden and Label Love.
I don't know if it's visible but there is a gold foil cardstock strip right above the black and white diagonal strip (which I created myself using a black marker).
Here are a couple of closeups.
Here is the BTS pic I shared on my Instagram a couple of days back.
That's all from my side. I hope you like both the cards!
Thank you for inquiring about my mum folks, she is doing better now - not 100% but better.
Love and hugs everyone!
- Erum


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Thomas Tucker and Charles Jones: Missionaries FROM Africa
Friday, November 22nd, 2013by Ron Gorman, Oberlin Heritage Center volunteer docent
It's no secret that one of the primary goals of Oberlin College in its first decades of existence was to train Americans to become missionaries who would go out into the world and crusade against slavery and other moral ills. That's why I find the story of Thomas DeSaille Tucker and Charles Jones so intriguing; it's an interesting twist on the traditional Oberlin narrative. Tucker and Jones were native Africans who came to America, attended Oberlin College and devoted their lives to combating slavery right here in the United States, serving as missionaries in the American South in its hour of greatest need.
Thomas DeSaille Tucker
Courtesy State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory
Unfortunately I have no picture to post of Charles Jones, and the information on him is scant, but what we do have comes from reliable sources. There is quite a bit of information available on Tucker, however, and his legacy continues to this very day (although his middle name is subject to a wide range of spellings, including deSaliere, DeSota, and De Selkirk).
Jones and Tucker were raised in Sherbro, Sierra Leone, Africa. Jones was the son of a powerful Muslim chief, and Tucker was the grandson of another powerful chief, who also happened to be a slave trader.[1] Both youths were educated in the Kaw-Mendi (a.k.a. Mende or Mendi) mission that was established on the western coast of Sierra Leone by American philanthropists in the 1840s. In fact the land for the mission was rented to them by Tucker's grandfather, and the original purpose of the mission was to repatriate the survivors of the slave ship Amistad. Oberlin College benefactors Lewis and Arthur Tappan were among the main supporters of the mission, which was basically run by Oberlin students and alumni, about 30 of whom would ultimately serve there. Certainly Jones and Tucker would have known, and perhaps been influenced by, Sarah Margru Kinson, one of the original Amistad captives, who was educated at Oberlin College after her release, then returned to Sherbro in 1849 to become a missionary and teacher herself. (For more information on Sarah Margru Kinson, the Amistad, and the Mendi mission, see Sarah Margru Kinson: The Two Worlds of an Amistad Captive, by Marlene D. Merrill, available from the Oberlin Heritage Center gift shop.)
Jones and Tucker were brought to the United States in 1856 by Oberlin College alumnus George Thompson, who returned to Oberlin after relinquishing his post as director of the Mendi mission. Tucker would have been about 12 years old at the time, Jones was probably about 17. Interestingly, they arrived in the United States in the summer, and when asked how they liked it, they replied, "We like it very well, but it is too hot for us, we can't stand it!"[2]
Both of the boys lived with Thompson initially, although Jones eventually took a shoemaker apprenticeship with Oberlin's Orindatus S. B. Wall and moved in with his family. Tucker entered the preparatory school at Oberlin College in 1858 at the age of about 14, and entered the collegiate program two years later. Jones attended the preparatory school in the 1860-1861 school year. But both had every intention of returning to Africa after receiving their education, just as Sarah Margru Kinson had, to dedicate their lives, as Tucker put it, to "do good in my native land."[3]
When Tucker was still in Africa as a 10 year old boy, he had written to Lewis Tappan about the "wicked practices" of his country, including warfare that involved attacking towns when "the enemy on the other part are asleep" and killing "their enemies so much even as not to have pity upon some of young babes." A relative of Tucker's, who would eventually become a slave trader himself, had also written Tappan that "slavery and bigamy or polygamy will be the last sins an african [sic] will forsake." But now that Thomas Tucker had crossed the ocean, he came to see that the United States had its own sins and wicked practices, as he wrote to a friend back in Africa:
'The colored men in this country have no voice in the general government; even in some of the States they have no voice in the State government. It would fairly sicken you to be here on a fourth of July and hear guns firing and "starspangled banner" waving "over the land of the free and the home of the brave" while there are this day 4,000,000 of slaves in their possession. O what a hypocrisy. God will not always sleep but will yet come in judgment against this country except they speedily repent.'[4]
Then the American Civil War broke out. Union forces made slow progress into the slaveholding states of the South, and as they did so they were thronged by slaves who had escaped from their owners. The Fugitive Slave Law, which remained in force, demanded that slaves be returned to their owners on claim. Although some Union commanders were all too happy to comply and relieve themselves of the burden of accommodating the freedom seekers, a few saw this as an opportunity to strike a blow against slavery and the Confederacy. General Benjamin Butler, who had seized the military bases at Fortress Monroe in the Norfolk-Hampton region of coastal Virginia, was among the latter. Arguing that the Confederates considered the slaves as "property" which they were using to support the rebellion, he claimed the right to refuse their return. And thus hundreds of freedom seekers became "contraband" of war.
Now came the tremendous logistical problem of sheltering them, feeding them, and providing them the education that most had been denied all their lives. Mary Peake, a local free black school teacher, and Peter Herbert, a local fugitive from slavery, got permission to establish schools on property seized by the Union forces. Herbert in fact established his school in the abandoned summer home of slaveholding ex-President John Tyler, who had left the area and thrown his support to the Confederacy. Both Peake and Herbert soon had dozens of students in their classes.
Northern abolitionists, both black and white, from the American Missionary Association (the same group that ran the Mendi mission) also came down to help. Reverend Lewis C. Lockwood directed relief operations in person and helped establish more schools, while George Whipple (one of Oberlin's "Lane Rebels") and Simeon S. Jocelyn petitioned the Lincoln Administration for support. On December 3, 1862, the Oberlin Evangelist reported:
"Since the meeting of the Am. Missionary Association in this place, Oct. 15, five students from Oberlin College and Seminary have left us for service under the Association in labors among the freemen at or near Fortress Monroe, or in South Carolina, namely: Wm O. King and Palmer Litts, of the Junior Theological Class; Edwin S. Williams of the Middle Theological Class and his wife; and Thomas De Selkirk Tucker of the Junior Class, a native of Sherbro, Africa, brought thence by Rev. Geo. Thompson and in a course of education in Oberlin College. They are all teachers of considerable experience, with the exception of the last named, and all give promise of efficiency and usefulness in their work. They left us with many requests for prayer – their case and work awakening profound sympathy among their Christian friends. Not having completed their course of study, they all expect to return for that purpose after a service perhaps of six months."
Upon his arrival in Hampton, Virginia, Thomas Tucker immediately began teaching classes in the Tyler house. It was difficult work. The teachers were faced with overcrowded classrooms, they endured the hostility and prejudices of many of the Union troops as well as the local populace, and their varying backgrounds and skill levels sometimes created tensions among themselves. But the missionaries drew their inspiration from their students, finding "their love of freedom strong. Their desire for learning and the aptitude of children and adults to learn… remarkable."[5]
Tucker returned to Oberlin in mid-1863. The time he spent in Virginia and the substandard pay he received while there set his Oberlin education back one year, but with cooperation of the school administration he was able to secure good winter employment and continue his education.[6]
In 1864, Tucker expressed disappointment that his Mendi friend, Charles Jones, had joined the Union armed forces. Tucker took this as a sign (quite correctly, it turned out) that Jones would not be returning to Africa. That Jones enlisted is not surprising, given that his Oberlin mentor, O.S.B. Wall, became a tireless recruiter of black Ohio soldiers when the Lincoln Administration finally allowed African Americans to enlist in 1863. (Wall himself earned a Captain's commission, perhaps the first African American to do so.) Wall recruited for the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Volunteer and the 5th United States Colored Troops (USCT) infantry regiments in 1863, and the 27th USCT infantry regiment in early 1864. Only one Charles Jones appears on the roster of these regiments, as a private in Company D of the 27th USCT, which recruited several African American men from Oberlin. If this was our Charles Jones, he would have seen some of the hardest fighting of the entire war in Virginia in the Spring and Summer of 1864.[7]
Tucker himself was still intent on returning to Africa after completing his Oberlin education, saying:
"Whenever I reflect, so far as youth can, on all the Providences connected with my coming to, and residence in this country, thus far, I cannot resist the conviction that he intends me for some work in life. To be sure all men know that they were not made to be drones; yet there are times when we are, as it were, divinely impressed with a sense of the path marked out for us in life. I feel that my only highest goodness and happiness will consist in spending my life for benighted dear Africa… At all events, unless I can see plainer indications of Providence allotting me a sphere of duty in this country, to Africa I will return."[8]
However he also began to foresee difficulties if he returned to his powerful family in Sherbro, writing:
"Far from any desire to forget and foresake Africa; I still yet, as I have in the past, cherished the deepest sympathy for my native land… My family influences in the Sherbro, as you well know, are very extensive. Returning there I would be subjected to trials and temptations which you perhaps can not well conceive of in this country. As your Sherbro mission is the only one you have in Africa, and as I could not return and labor there without great disadvantages, I preferred to be where I could be most efficient. I could willingly go to such a place as Shengay, Sierra Leone — anywhere where I can be farthest from my relatives."[9]
But when Tucker received his A.B. (Bachelor of Arts) degree from Oberlin in 1865, there were no teaching opportunities for him in Africa outside of the Sherbro mission. He thus resolved himself to be "governed by a sense of duty, and not by selfish inclinations" and to "teach in any capacity — for the elevation of the freedmen."[10]
And that he did. After graduating, Tucker returned to the South, this time to educate freedmen in Georgetown, Kentucky and later New Orleans, Louisiana. His friend, Charles Jones, having survived the war, also heard the calling to head south and became a preacher in Mississippi. (He was believed to be in Friars Point, Mississippi until about 1883, and then sometime thereafter might possibly have relocated to North Carolina, still preaching.)[11] Tucker edited a series of newspapers while in New Orleans and studied law at Straight University, a school established by the American Missionary Association to train black missionaries and to provide legal training to students to help support civil rights in the South. (Straight University eventually merged into present-day Dillard University.) Tucker earned his law degree in 1883, then moved to Pensacola, Florida, where he had a successful law practice for four years.
In 1887, Tucker co-founded a college in Tallahassee, Florida called the State Normal School for Colored Students. His co-founder was another Oberlin College black alumnus and one-time Florida state legislator, Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs. When the State Board of Education selected Tucker to be the school's first president, the editor of a local newspaper wrote:
"The State Board of Education certainly deserves much credit for the appointments recently made for this school. … We have known Professor Tucker for about 18 years and we have never met a more genial, broadminded and sterling gentleman. He possesses first-class qualities as a friend, gentleman and scholar, and commands the respect of all who know him. He is a strong man, morally and intellectually, and the new Normal has a security of success under his charge."[12]
Tucker would serve as president for 14 years, but would eventually be forced to resign over policy differences with state authorities. Influenced by his own Oberlin College education, Tucker wanted the school to offer a strong liberal arts education to its students to complement its vocational training. State authorities believed the school should focus on vocational training only, and accused Tucker of providing instruction that was "void of the results of the kind for which the money was furnished" and of hiring instructors who were "not in sympathy… with Southern institutions." Interestingly enough though, Tucker was replaced by yet another African American Oberlin College graduate, Nathan B. Young.[13]
According to his contemporary Florida historian, Rowland H. Rerick, Tucker was "an able and intelligent man, of excellent character and notable executive ability and an admirable influence upon the students.''[14] But now he returned to his law practice and died just two years later in 1903. If he were with us today, however, he would undoubtedly be proud of the college he co-founded. No longer known as the State Normal School for Colored Students, it is now called the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University ("Florida A&M"), and provides a wide range of studies and programs, from baccalaureate to doctoral, to students of all races and ethnicities, though predominantly African American. And yes, it provides liberal arts instruction too.
Clara Merritt De Boer, The Role of Afro-Americans in the Origin and Work of the American Missionary Association: 1839-1877, Vols 1 & 2
Robert Francis Engs, Freedom's First Generation: Black Hampton, Virginia, 1861-1890
Leedell W. Neyland, "State-Supported Higher Education Among Negroes in the State of Florida", The Florida historical quarterly, Volume 43 Issue 02. October 1964, pp. 108-110
George Thompson, The Palm Land; Or, West Africa, Illustrated
"Teachers for the Freedmen", Oberlin Evangelist, Dec 3, 1862, p.7
Joseph Yannielli, "George Thompson among the Africans: Empathy, Authority, and Insanity in the Age of Abolition", Journal of American History, vol 96, issue 4, March 2010, p. 998
General catalogue of Oberlin college, 1833 [-] 1908, Oberlin College Archives
Robert Samuel Fletcher, A history of Oberlin College: from its foundation through the Civil War, Volume 1
Clifton H. Johnson, "Tucker, Thomas DeSaliere", Dictionary of African Christian Biography
Oberlin College Archives, RG 28/1, Alumni and Development Records, Former Student File, Series B, Box 313, Folder "Jones, Charles 1860-1861"
1860 United States Census, Lorain County, Russia Township
National Park Service, "Soldiers and Sailors Database"
Ira Berlin, Joseph Patrick Reidy, Leslie S. Rowland, The Black Military Experience
William E. Bigglestone, They Stopped in Oberlin
Mark St. John Erickson, "An uneasy alliance of white missionaries and refugee slaves leads to freedom in Civil War Hampton", HR History
Joe M. Richardson, Christian Reconstruction: The American Missionary Association and Southern Blacks, 1861-1890
Adam Fairclough, "Being in the Field of Education and also Being a Negro…Seems…Tragic: Black Teachers in the Jim Crow South", The Journal of American History, Vol. 87, No. 1. (Jun., 2000), pp. 65-91
Emma J. Lapsanky-Werner, Margaret Hope Bacon (editors), Back to Africa: Benjamin Coates and the Colonization Movement in America, 1848-1880
Marlene D. Merrill, Sarah Margru Kinson: The Two Worlds of an Amistad Captive
Abdul Karim Bangura, "The Life and Times of the Amistad Returnees to Sierra Leone and Their Impact: A Pluridisciplinary Exploration", Africa Update Newsletter, Vol. XIX, Issue 2 (Spring 2012)
Versalle F. Washington, Eagles on their Buttons
Daniel J. Sharfstein, The Invisible Line
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Anne W. Chapman, "Fight for Home Saves Plantation", Daily Press
[1] Yannielli, p. 998
[2] Yannielli, p. 998; De Boer pp. 121-122; 1860 U.S. Census; Thompson, pp. 441-442
[3] Sharfstein, p. 94; 1860 U.S. Census; General Catalogue; Lapsanky-Werner, p. 152
[4] De Boer, pp. 119-121, 123
[5] Engs, p. 36, 48
[6] De Boer, pp. 258-259
[7] De Boer, p. 261; Washington, p. 13; Berlin, p. 93; Bigglestone, pp. 237-240; "Soldiers and Sailors Database"
[8] De Boer, p. 259
[9] ibid, p. 261
[10] ibid, pp. 260, 262
[11] Yannielli, p. 998; Oberlin College Archives, RG 28/1
[12] Neyland, p. 108; General Catalogue; Johnson, "Dictionary"
[13] Neyland, pp. 109-110; Yannielli, p. 998; General Catalogue
[14] Neyland, p. 110


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On Tuesday, August 28, 2012, at 6:20 pm, St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office Deputies responded to the area of Steven Drive in Reserve for a disturbance in progress. Deputies encountered a man and a woman involved in a confrontation involving a weapon. Deputies responded and instructed the individual to put down the weapon. The person refused and began to approach the deputies who fired at the person. The second person was also armed and approached the deputies who responded with their duty weapons.
Both subjects were transported for treatment to River Parish Hospital and succumbed to injuries. St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office Detectives and Louisiana State Police Investigators are jointly investigating this incident. Further details are forthcoming when available.


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Evidently, there are some fundamental errors made by the original reporter that change the timbre of this story altogether. This report has Joseph Lorenzo Hall of the Centre for Democracy and Technology in DC, asserting very strongly that the tabulation machines are "air-gapped" — the tabulation results from the original voting system are in actuality walked over manually (via a data export to, say, a thumb drive or flash card) to the tabulation machines. Apparently, no code run on those machines can access the primary system because they're isolated. So what the code has write access to, then, is apparently the export of the database, not the originals in any way.
It still means that processes should be followed to ensure the integrity of the data, to ensure that the exported data matches the CSV conversion. But I suspect these folks are more "with it" than I'd originally thought.
See below the fold for my original story.


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When Alison and Michael Brewer first met as rising College of Charleston juniors, they found an unlikely common ground—real estate. Turns out both had an interest in developing and a love of design, no matter that they were pretty young for such endeavors. Less than a year after they began dating, the Holy City natives knew they were going to get married. But before anything was close to being official, they had already bought their first piece of property together—a small lot in the Old Windermere area in West Ashley. "Our parents were surprised," says Michael, "to say the least."
That was 12 years ago. Since then, the couple has made a life building, rehabbing, and decorating homes. He runs M Designs and Development with a partner, and the boutique firm is now known for its new homes in particular. This past spring, their traditional-chic creations, which blend effortlessly into Charleston's existing neighborhoods and streetscapes, earned the group a "Three Sisters Award" from the Committee to Save the City. (Given to those who preserve and sustain the fabric of the region, the award has also been bestowed on the likes of Croghan's as a King Street institution; Alphonso Brown for his Gullah Tours; and a handful of developers, authors, tradesfolk, and more.) For her part, Alison is the fixtures, color, and interiors consultant for M Design projects, and, along with an associate, has recently started an interiors business, Nest Design and Antiques, that keeps a booth at Terrace Oaks Antiques on James Island.
On the personal front, the Brewer family expanded with the addition of two young daughters, and with each child, they moved to accommodate their growing brood. As a result, Michael and Alison got to try out the many new ideas they came across in their line of work, thanks to being in the business. And these "ideas" are solid—so much so that one of their former residences even landed on the cover of the national magazine, Home. So how does the husband and wife duo sink their teeth into a new collaboration and fashion yet another dream space? Take a look at their latest abode, a 1926 Craftsman house South of Broad.
Back in 2005, the two had recently sold their third downtown house and set out in search of new digs. Early one Friday morning, Michael spotted a primo FSBO (For Sale by Owner) in the real estate section, so he and Alison bundled up their then-two-year-old daughter, Grayson, and hustled over to check the place out from the sidewalk.
"We loved it," Michael says of the two-story brick home with its shaded porch and deep lot. "So I waited until a respectable hour—nine—and then called." The owner hadn't planned to show it until the following Monday, but somehow
Michael and Alison lucked out and got a walk-through. "When we stepped inside, we were smitten. The house's bones were there, the yard was there, the parking was there—it was great."
Turns out the Brewers had stumbled upon a rarity in the downtown market: a home that had been custom-built expressly for one family and had stayed in that same family ever since. The owner—a woman whose aunt had lived there since she was two years old—had the original blueprints and building orders, and both the footprint and the interiors (the latter a pristine white) had stayed virtually the same since its inception. That meant that any changes the Brewers foresaw wouldn't entail correcting past rehabs. "We put in a contract immediately," recalls Alison.
Over the next year, Michael and Alison slipped into rehab mode and moved into temporary digs in the meantime. With the help of local firm Dufford Young Architects, who collaborated on the project, they got BAR approval to make an addition to the house to change it from a three-bedroom, one-bath into a 3,100-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath home.
That took six months, and when they got the green light, they opened up the interior staircase by taking out part of the entry hall ceiling, then had Southern Lumber add additional posts to mimic the originals. To make uniform the mismatched floors (upstairs pine, downstairs oak), they stained the floors dark ebony. Much of the interior went back to the studs so the pair could add air conditioning to the house, which had been chiefly used as a winter home for the original owners. Because the window headers were set at eight feet, but the door frames were much lower, they increased the height of all the doorways and had new millwork made identical to the old.
Toward the back of the house, the Brewers converted what had been a porch into a bridge space between the old structure and the new addition. On the first floor, the "hyphen" leads to a small breakfast nook, which then opens onto the place where they spend most of their time: a window-wrapped kitchen and family room space.
On the second floor, the addition meant new square footage that allowed a nursery for now-toddler Mary Wade, and a sleeping-porch-like suite for Grayson. On the front of the house, Michael and Alison opted to keep the master bedroom, with its fireplace and second-story porch access, for themselves and added a swank limestone and tile bath that looks straight out of a spa.
"This house," says Michael, "represents a lot of what we've learned along the way. It's very comfortable and big on functionality." And it's loaded with the couple's signature look: neutral palettes, custom lighting, high-grade materials (marble, limestone, tile, stainless steel, paneling), premium fixtures, terrific trim, top-of-the-line appliances, and a mix of heirloom antiques, clean-lined contemporary pieces upholstered in velvets and linens, and sublime original artwork. When they invited one of the home's previous inhabitants to visit after the rehab dust had long settled, she marveled at the new, "modern" life they'd given her childhood home.
Today, Michael and Alison relax in the front living room and say that in all honesty, they could easily be happy here another couple of years.
Alison smiles. "We see eye to eye," she says. "We both just love the creative process."


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From John Bonham and Neil Peart to Ian Paice, Dave Grohl and everyone in between, rock drumming boasts an illustrious line-up of celebrated players.For most drummers their entry point to the instrument is the basic 4/4 beat so it's no small wonder rock continues to make its way into the record collections of beginner and seasoned drummers the world over.
To pay homage to this evergreen genre, we spent time with four of modern rock's most aspirational artists with bombastic sounds, styles and energetic live performances that enhance this genre. Cue Dean Butterworth (Good Charlotte), James Heatley (The Answer), Glen Sobel (Alice Cooper) and Jason Sutter (Marilyn Manson)...
What do you think makes a good a rock drummer?
Jason Sutter: "Really good rock drumming has to swing. It has to feel good even if it's heavy or hard. Classic rock records like AC/DC's Back In Black or classic rock drummers from John Bonham to Simon Kirke all swing. That's something I feel I've just figured out but also something I've always been attracted to because it's what makes other musicians, and ultimately the audience, gravitate to you."
Dean Butterworth: "A rock drummer is someone who has the best job in the universe. For me the ultimate rock drummer is Stewart Copeland. The way he plays his hi-hats, the syncopated patterns on the bell of the ride, his speed, musicality and power as a drummer drove The Police."
In terms of technique, rock may not be as complex as other genres but is there a skill to maintaining a steady beat for an entire gig?
Glen Sobel: "I absolutely believe there's an art to maintaining a steady beat and dynamics throughout a song. Many jazz, fusion and prog drummers look down on rock and pop drumming as if it's too simple; to play it would be doing a disservice to their craft. These drummers usually aren't gigging that much."
Does being a hard hitter mean you have a more powerful sound?
Dean: "I don't believe you need to beat the hell out of the kit for the drums to sound huge. If you hit the drums too hard you choke the tone. Same with cymbals. You could jump up in the air and come down on a crash cymbal and yes it's loud, but you could also sit behind the drums and hit the same cymbal with a sharp snap of the wrist and get the same volume from the cymbal."
Glen: "The shell and head can only handle so much before the sound starts to become unpleasant. This occurs more often in the studio but can also relate to live performance. Certain drums and cymbals respond better when a drummer backs off in their attack. This relates to the idea of relaxing or playing with what I call 'relaxed intensity'. A great example is John Bonham on Led Zeppelin's Fool In The Rain or All Of My Love."
What techniques help build power behind the kit?
James Heatley: "For me, power comes from fitness. I go running three times a week. Even if it's like 45 minutes, it's obviously going to help me play full sets. When we were on the AC/DC tour we'd play for 45 minutes and they'd have the next two days off. But on those days off we'd be playing our own gigs for 90 minutes. To maintain the level of fitness needed for our solo shows, I'd get off stage from AC/DC, get my running gear on and go running around these stadiums while listening to them play in the background."
Dean: "You build power and stamina as a drummer by working hard. I work in my practice room for a couple of hours a day, hit the gym for an hour, then do an hour of rudiments on a pad. When on the road I do a few hours on a pad, play the kit at sound check, then play the show. The drums are a very physical instrument so I believe in staying fit all round."
Glen: "It's hard to practise playing hard rock or metal on your own in a small practice space. It doesn't make as much sense as it does to actually have the band there to inspire you to play louder and with rim-shots and so on. Get with a heavy rock band band that rehearses regularly and you'll be surprised at what happens to your playing."
Jason: "I practise every day and give a certain amount of my practice to that art form. I also go out on stage as we have a Kabuki covering the front before we go on, so I practise my feet at least 20 minutes a day before every show. It comes down to discipline and how hard you want to work."
Image: Jason Sutter onstage with Marilyn Manson © Jodie Cunningham
Were there any techniques you struggled with?
Jason: "I'm trying to get better at double bass drumming. It's something I toyed with in high school but found that when I played a set that didn't have two bass drums, I was a bit lost so I tried to play with a single pedal and create a double pedal sound. Lately, and especially on my current gig with [Marilyn] Manson, I've been required to play double bass proficiently. I practice every day - it all comes down to discipline."
VIDEO: Led Zeppelin - Moby Dick, one of Glen Sobel's favourite drum solos
What are your top three rock drum solos or beats?
Glen: "John Bonham on Moby Dick is one. Between hearing that and Neil Peart's YYZ solo on Rush's Exit Stage Left I knew drums were beyond cool. Steve Smith's solo on one of the Journey live records from way back when was a big deal too. He was able to fit in a lot of poly-rhythmic and odd note grouping ideas while still keeping it entertaining for the crowd."
James: "I can't pick my three favourite beats of all time because there are too many, so my top three this week are The Sky Is Falling by Queens Of The Stone Age, Straighthate by Sepultura, and Crucial Velocity by Clutch."
For someone looking to get into rock drumming, what would you recommend in terms of buying their first kit and accessories?
Glen: "It doesn't have to be a top of the line kit. In fact, if a lower level kit is purchased that student - with the right teacher - will learn how to get a good sound out of the drums without relying on expensive gear. If it's for potential rock gigs then it shouldn't be a kit with small jazzy sizes and shallow toms. Larger crash cymbals and a ride with a good 'wash' sound are important. But a good drummer can get a good sound out of almost any kit."
Dean: "I can suggest using what I love: Tama drums and hardware, Paiste cymbals, Pro-Mark sticks and Evans drum heads. I was always drawn to playing the gear my heroes played, so why not make a list of three or four of your favourite drummers, see what they play and build your kit from that?"
James: "I like my current set-up which is very much like a John Bonham kit. It's a Ludwig, classic maple, with 26" kick, 14" rack and 16 and 18" floor toms. I also use a Black Beauty snare drum."
Image: Glen Sobel mid-gig with Alice Cooper
Many extol the importance of thickness of shells, the make-up of the wood, even the grain. Do you get that forensic about your gear?
Glen: "I don't get that into wood types and thickness of shells. There's so many other factors like room temperature, mic placement, types of mics, head combination, the band you're playing with, is it an indoor or outdoor gig? I always like to plant the idea in students minds that your sound comes first and foremost from you - your touch, attack and attitude. Having the right gear for the gig is important but without a good sense of your personal affect on the drums it wont matter what you do."
How important is showmanship when drumming?
Dean: "Not as important as playing in time. If you groove suffers, it's lame. If you can do both, killer!"
Jason: "I think you should be aware of who you are auditioning for or playing with and try to at least be hip to what their look and vibe is so that you can fit in. That said, keeping your individuality to an extent is essential to creating a style and a voice as a musician and as an artist."
Glen: "Showmanship without musicianship is a dead end. The music is first. You can't see stick flips on a studio recording. On the other hand, a drummer needs to look like they're putting on a show if a touring act is considering hiring them. Sometimes this has nothing to do with stick tricks but rather how the drummer looks when they play. So often people 'hear with their eyes'. If you look like you're putting on a great show, your image fits the band and you are genuinely into it, others will be too."
Image: Dean Butterworth taking some time out from playing with Good Charlotte
The Clem Burke Drumming Project has shown that a drummer's fitness is on par with a pro footballer's. How do you maintain stamina through high-octane sets?
Dean: "I eat well with lots of fresh fruits, water and salads. I hit the gym and do lots of cardio, practice on a drum pad and drum kit, and stretching is really important. I feel you have to be ready to play any set in any order. Just make sure you have good conditioning and you are relaxed."
James: "On tour we eat pasta every night, like a footballer, and on stage I drink Dioralyte. About six years ago we were playing a show and my forearm seized up halfway through. I was able to play on but I wasn't happy. A doctor said I was losing too much salt through sweat, so I drink Dioralyte to stop it from happening again."
Glen: "It's important to get enough food and rest on tour. I do take supplements and try to stick to a regular workout routine. The Alice Cooper gig is challenging for drummers for the reason that Alice doesn't break character and doesn't talk to the audience between songs. It's usually one song right into the next so my stamina level has to be high. The first couple of shows of a tour are definitely harder than the 30th show because by then the conditioning is there."
Interviews: Claire Davies
Read part two of Rock drumming: the power and the glory here.


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In hip-hop, collaboration looks like a young DJ named Kool Herc passing a hot mic to his homie Coke La Rock at a back-to-school jam in the Boogie Down. And all hell breaking loose. Over the last half century that synergy has moved from sound stages to Soundcloud, from DJs and MCs doing it in the park to producers and recording artists plying their craft in plush studios.
The best collabs still defy logic. Total strangers turn into musical conspirators overnight. A shared blunt becomes a shared aesthetic, building on the call-and-response impulse that survived the Middle Passage and laid low until it was less forbidden to bang the drums and coalesce. Even math becomes a faulty calculator: One plus one no longer equals two, but a single unified voice and sound containing infinite possibilities.
It almost seems sacrilegious to tinker with that, to tug at the loose ends, deconstruct it and see how things work. But at the heart of every rapper-producer collaboration is a human relationship. Technique is less important than trust, chemistry more essential than singular vision. If you really want to know what it takes for two creatives to make a work of art greater than the sum of their parts, it doesn't hurt to ask.
In this new season of The Formula, we're deciphering the cypher. Over five new episodes of our video series, we'll sit with some of hip-hop's rising and most respected artist-producer duos — Isaiah Rashad + Kal Banx, Tierra Whack + J Melodic, Westside Gunn + Conductor Williams, Rico Nasty + Kenny Beats, Freddie Gibbs + The Alchemist — as they dissect one or two songs emblematic of their collective body of work, be it an album, an era or a moment in rhyme. Because the true stamp of a timeless collab comes when both musicians at play find themselves forever transformed by the mix. —Rodney Carmichael
Watch all episodes of Season 1 of The Formula here.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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It struck the fear of God in me when my husband offered to carry the cake out to the car. Now, you may call that an overreaction, but you just have to see this cake! I'm not saying my husband
Read More Master Gardener Graduation – the icing on the cake!


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The Trump administration on Thursday put visa and asset sanctions on several Chinese officials — including Politburo member Chen Quanguo — for what it says has been their role in "gross violations of human rights" in China's far western region of Xinjiang.
The move comes at a time when U.S.-China relations are at their worst in decades and is likely to anger Beijing, potentially leading to similar sanctions from China on American officials.
Chen, the ruling Communist Party's top official in Xinjiang, has overseen a harsh persecution of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in the name of combating terrorism since he was posted to the region in 2016. Critics accuse the government of severe rights abuses in Xinjiang, with invasive surveillance, mass extrajudicial detentions, forced sterilization and abortions and mandatory birth control.
The move marked the first time since the U.S. established diplomatic ties with China in 1979 that Washington has sanctioned a member of China's elite Politburo, comprising the party's top two dozen officials, say scholars of Chinese politics.
In a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Chen and two other Xinjiang officials — the party's political and legal affairs chief Zhu Hailun and police boss Wang Mingshan — were now ineligible for entry into the United States. Their immediate families were also barred.
Pompeo said the State Department was placing additional visa restrictions on other, unnamed Communist Party officials "believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the unjust detention or abuse of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang."
In a coordinated statement, the Treasury said it was "building upon" the Global Magnitsky Act in sanctioning Chen, Zhu and Wang. It was also sanctioning the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, or police, and the former party leader of the Xinjiang police, Huo Liujun.
Any assets they own in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. entities "are blocked," it said. Transactions involving any of their property or interests in the United States, or involving Americans, are prohibited.
"The United States is committed to using the full breadth of its financial powers to hold human rights abusers accountable in Xinjiang and across the world," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.
The Chinese Embassy did not answer NPR's calls and emails for comment about the sanctions.
Jude Blanchette, an expert in Chinese politics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the sanctions were symbolic but significant.
"The sanctions are unlikely to have any practical impact on the Chinese officials, as they undoubtedly have the bulk of their wealth in domestic assets, yet by targeting China's senior-most officials, the U.S. is sending an extraordinarily strong signal to Beijing," he said.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Armor Class: 5…………No. Appearing: 1-4 (1-4)
Hit Dice: 8+4***…………Save As: Magic-User 11
Movement: 120' (40')…………Morale: 9
Attacks: 4 or special…………Treasure Type: B,G,N,O
Damage: 2 or special…………Alignment: Chaotic
Found only in sunless caverns deep beneath the surface, "thought skinner" is the name given to a truly evil and alien humanoid race. Dangerous in the extreme, thought skinners consider other humanoid races to be little more than cattle to be enslaved and (eventually) devoured.


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So Many Of You Today Have No Idea, Whatsoever…
Tuesday, May 6th, 2014 @ 23:00
Tuesday, May 6th, 2014 @ 23:00
My dearly beloved daughter, let no man doubt, for one moment, that God would ever allow His children to fall away from Him, without doing all in His Power to save them.
You have been given so many Gifts, through the prophets, since the beginning. Many prophets repeated the same messages over and over again, and yet, many of them were either ignored or ridiculed. Many were persecuted and put to death. Why does the Word of God provoke such hatred? It is not the Word of God, which rankles the souls of the weak or those who have fallen far away from the Faith. No. It is how Satan responds when God raises His Hand in ready punishment of the evil one, that he attacks viciously. He knows that the Word of God, when given to His prophets, spreads so rapidly, by the Power of the Holy Spirit and when this happens, the power of the evil one is weakened, and therefore, his retaliation is violent.
When the Holy Spirit is poured over the human race, in this way, the fallen angels will rise – swords ready to pierce every follower of Mine, in any way they can. You must accept such hatred for My Word and recognize it for what it is – an attempt to lead you away from the Truth. Every apostle of Mine, every prophet and sacred servant, who adheres to the Truth – the Holy Word of God, will be bitterly opposed, by the forces of evil. This has always been the case. You must, however, never allow hatred of Me, your beloved Jesus, to dampen your spirit, for it is at that very moment that I Am truly Present in your soul. Suffer in My Name and I will raise you up in glorious union with Me, in My Kingdom to come. Inflict suffering upon others, in My Name, no matter how justified you may believe this to be, and I will cut you away from Me for eternity.
My Warnings, given to you, now, are to remind you of what I taught, when so many of you, today, have no idea, whatsoever, what it means to serve Me as a Christian.
Your Jesus
- Published:
- Jul 14, 2017
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- 1,442


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Dear President Aliyev: The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply disturbed by the recent wave of journalist imprisonments in Azerbaijan. With at least six journalists currently behind bars, Azerbaijan is now among the top 10 global jailers of the press, ahead of Uzbekistan and just behind Ethiopia, according to CPJ research. This crackdown comes in the run-up to Eurovision, the international song contest that Baku is hosting in May, which will gather journalists from more than 40 participating countries and fix the world's eyes on Azerbaijan.


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Hordes of tourists clamber across the white sand with selfie sticks as Thai park rangers wade into turquoise waters to direct boats charging into the cliff-ringed cove. Made famous by the 2000 movie, The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Maya Bay on the western Thai island of Koh Phi Phi Ley is now a case study in the ruinous costs of runaway tourism, swamped by up to 4,000 daily visitors.
"There is too many people here, it's bad," lamented Saad Lazrak, a 61-year-old from Morocco, as crowds around him swallowed the stretch of sand encircled by an amphitheatre of limestone cliffs. Across the region, Southeast Asia's once-pristine beaches are reeling from decades of unchecked tourism as governments scramble to confront trash-filled waters and environmental degradation without puncturing a key economic driver.
Thailand's Maya Bay will be off limits for four months from June to September, officials announced last month, in a bid to save its ravaged coral reefs. In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered this month the Boracay beach resort closed to tourists for up to six months from April 26, describing the destination as a "cesspool" tainted by sewage dumped directly into the sea.
Indonesian officials, meanwhile, declared a "garbage emergency" last year swamping a six-kilometre stretch of coast along the island of Bali. The island's grim coastal pollution was highlighted in March by British diver Rich Horner's viral video of swimming through a dystopia of trash swirling off shore.
"Plastic bags, more plastic bags, plastic, plastic, so much plastic!" Horner said in a Facebook post that has been viewed more than a million times.
Breathing space
Conservationists and governments are worried about the health of coral reefs, which are in a dire state globally due to climate change and rising sea temperatures. When exposed to warmer waters, they shed the algae that dazzle the eye and are vital to marine eco-systems, leaving the corals diseased or bone-white in a process called bleaching.
Environmental stress, including pollution, human contact and exposure to plastics that comes with mass tourism are also major threats to reefs that are part of the draw for snorkellers and scuba-divers. "Tourism has a series of detrimental effects on coral health," said Eike Schoenig, a Thailand-based marine biologist at the Center for Oceanic Research and Education.
Countries in Southeast Asia are looking to stem the threats without cutting off the cash flow of a regional tourism boom, led by China, the top source market for travellers to the region. Thailand received 35 million tourists last year, of whom nearly 10 million hailed from China, according to official data. But what is good for business can be bad for beaches.
Tourism costs
Thailand is also conducting studies on six other marine parks, while the Philippines is weighing action on other top destinations buckling under mass tourism. But governments are wary of curtailing an industry that creates jobs and buoys economies. Spending on travel and tourism contributed nearly $136 billion to the region's GDP in 2017, a figure forecast to rise to $144 billion this year, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.
The cost of the closures is already being felt in the Philippines, where hundreds of Boracay hotels and tour companies are facing steep losses from cancelled rooms, flights and other bookings. But some countries are not taking such dramatic steps. In Indonesia, the tourism ministry said there were no plans to close Bali or any other holiday destination in the archipelago, although it acknowledged that pockets of the tropical paradise were under strain from heavy tourism.
"Shut down Bali? I don't think we will need to do that yet," said ministry spokesman Guntur Sakti. "Bali is the centre of Indonesian tourism." In fact, Indonesia has identified 10 other destinations where it is trying to boost visitors and replicate Bali's success, including neighbouring island Lombok and Lake Toba in Sumatra. Experts are also scetpical that short shut-downs will have lasting effects.
"Bottom line is that temporarily closing the beach is probably not the optimal solution to these problems. It only take a day for a bunch of incompetent snorkellers to trash a small reef," said Andrew Baird from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia. In Thailand, the government hopes to draw people to lesser known beaches. "We are working very hard to spread people out, not to go to one condensed area," said Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine expert working with the parks and tourism authorities.
Travellers to Maya Bay might like the idea. "It's very touristy. There wasn't a patch of sand that didn't have people laying down on it, taking photos," Oliver Black, a 22-year-old tourist, said of his afternoon at the destination. As for his thoughts on the looming closure? "It would not really upset me if I wasn't able to go to (back to) Maya beach," he said.


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Reality check –imagine you're having a Social media PR crisis… now what?
It's Monday morning; you go to check your email. Email one; it's your Webmaster (who also serves as your Media Director). You find out that over the weekend he's suddenly become afflicted with amnesia! Not to worry, it is obviously not severe; he still remembers how to email. Hmm. Weird!