text:
Question: "What is neo-orthodoxy?"
Neo-orthodoxy is a religious movement that began after World War I as a reaction against the failed ideas of liberal Protestantism. It was developed primarily by Swiss theologians Karl Barth and Emil Brunner. Others called it "neo-orthodoxy" because they saw it as a revival of the old Reformed theology. Neo-orthodoxy differs from "old" orthodoxy in its views of the Word of God and sin.
The orthodox view holds that the Bible is the revealed Word of God, given by the inspiration of God. By inspiration, both verbal and mechanical, it is meant that the Holy Spirit was in full control of the Bible writer, by either verbally dictating everything he was writing or using the person as a tool to work through. This doctrine of inspiration comes to the logical conclusion that the original manuscripts are without error or contradiction. The Bible is the complete and sufficient revelation of God. Two passages that support this view are 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Peter 1:20-21.
Neo-orthodoxy defines the Word of God as Jesus (John 1:1) and says that the Bible is simply man's interpretation of the Word's actions. Thus, the Bible is not inspired by God, and, being a human document, various parts of it may not be literally true. God spoke through "redemptive history," and He speaks now as people "encounter" Jesus, but the Bible itself is not objective truth.
Neo-orthodoxy teaches that the Bible is a
of revelation, while orthodoxy believes it
revelation. That means that, to the neo-orthodox theologian, revelation depends on the experience (or personal interpretation) of each individual. The Bible only "becomes" the Word of God when God uses its words to point someone to Christ. The details of the Bible are not as important as having a life-changing encounter with Jesus. Truth thus becomes a mystical experience and is not definitively stated in the Bible.
The neo-orthodox view of sin is that it is a rejection of our responsibility to treat our fellow man well. The result of sin is dehumanization, accompanied by unkindness, unforgiveness, loneliness, and a myriad of societal ills. Salvation comes to those who have a subjective encounter with Christ—no acceptance of a set of truths is necessary. Neo-orthodoxy places an emphasis on social work and our ethical responsibility to love others.
Neo-orthodoxy has influenced the less-conservative branches of Presbyterian and Lutheran churches in America, along with other denominations. While its original purpose, to provide a more biblical alternative to liberalism, is commendable, neo-orthodox teaching nevertheless carries some inherent dangers. Any time that truth is determined according to what is relevant to my experience, the possibility of relativism exists. Any doctrine that sees the Bible as a wholly human document containing errors erodes the very foundation of biblical Christianity.
We cannot truly have a life-changing "encounter" with Jesus without also believing some facts as presented in the Bible. "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). The content of our faith is the death and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
The disciples had an "encounter" with Jesus in Luke 24. The disciples initially misinterpreted the event, however: "They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost" (verse 37). It was not until Jesus informed them of the truth (that He had been bodily resurrected) that they grasped the reality of the situation. In other words, we need an encounter with Jesus, but we also need to have that encounter interpreted by the truth of God's Word. Otherwise, experience can lead us astray.
Jude 1:3 tells us "to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." The faith was entrusted to us via the Bible, the written Word of God. We must not compromise the truth that God has spoken inerrantly and fully in His Word.


text:
Power BI Remote Jobs
EPAM Anywhere is looking for remote Power BI Specialists.
Competitive compensation
We back all payments and operate in compliance with country-specific labor regulations. Your annual paycheck can range from $15k to $200k.
Numerous benefits
Make use of 1,500+ online and location-specific benefits across 30+ countries that also include healthcare and sports programs for you and your family.
Limitless career growth opportunities
Get access to a large-scale ecosystem that consists of educational and career development services created for your growth. A personal skill advisor will support you on each step of this journey.
Seems there are no positions matching your search
But there is something we can do about it! Let us help you find a job and we will offer you the best-match positions based on your experience and skills.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Not long ago I thought kale was just for decoration. Until recently I discovered that we could make lots of wonderful dishes with it. Kale can be eaten raw or cooked. Either way is delicious. The nutrient value of kale is phenomenal. Adding smoked oysters and potatoes certainly creates this delicious chowder.
1 small cooked potato - peeled and cut into chunks
2 cups kale - chopped
1 can (85g) smoked oysters
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 cups cream or milk
Salt and pepper to taste
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and saute kale.
- Cover and simmer for a couple of minutes until tender.
- Sprinkle flour over kale and stir to incorporate.
- Add chicken broth and cream. Cook over medium heat until thickened.
- Finally add potato chunks and smoked oysters to the chowder and stir well.
- Remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
Makes 2 to 3 servings.


text:
On-site Delivery
Pick up at our door, or delivered right to yours.
A third-generation family operation, Schiro's has made customer service their top priority since the '40s. The Schiro family continues to offer convenient on-site delivery when needed.
Contact us today and experience our quality products and unparalleled service firsthand.
Schiro's Featured Savers:


text:
By Dr Edward F. Group
Bean-shaped and located along the posterior side of the abdomen, the kidneys have the heavy responsibility of removing waste and toxins from the bloodstream. These vital organs work with other organs to regulate blood pressure, increase red blood cell production, and synthesise vitamin D. A healthy diet, exercise, and staying hydrated are essential for supporting your kidneys. For a little extra help, consider the following kidney cleansing herbs.
1. Chanca Piedra
Chanca piedra, or "stone breaker," is a favourite in South America for supporting the kidneys and clinical trials have confirmed the plant's effectiveness. It is common in the region and its widespread use has earned it a positive reputation in Ayurvedic medicine as a helpful herb for kidney, bladder, and liver health.
2. Goldenrod
Goldenrod was used extensively among many Native American tribes for promoting urinary tract health. Research has found that the herb tones the urinary tract and is helpful for detoxifying the kidneys.
3. Hydrangea Root
Hydrangea root was popular among Native Americans and early settlers, both of whom used the plant for promoting kidney and bladder health. Hydrangea root acts as a solvent and is thought to smooth the jagged edges of kidney stones. Hydrangea root also appears to help the body properly use calcium, an action that may be helpful for discouraging kidney stones from forming in the first place.
4. Horsetail
Horsetail is a common weed with diuretic properties. It's helpful for increasing urine output to flush the kidneys and urinary tract. It's also an antioxidant and offers that realm of benefits to the kidneys and renal system. Whether consumed as a tea or in a capsule, horsetail is a great herb to add to your diet!
5. Celery Root
Both the root and seeds of celery have been used for centuries as a natural diuretic. What positive feature do diuretics have? They can help your body eliminate toxins by increasing urine output. Celery root has long been considered a stimulating tonic for the kidneys as it contains nutrients such as potassium and sodium.
6. Gravel Root
Also known as Joe Pye weed, gravel root has a long history of use by Native Americans and early American colonists for promoting kidney and urinary health. Its effectiveness may be partly due to its euparin content — a solvent with potent activity against harmful organisms. This may also explain why many believe it's effective at discouraging infections.
7. Uva-Ursi
Also called "bearberry," uva-ursi has been used by many cultures. It's an astringent that can soothe and tone the urinary tract and research has also found evidence to support its traditional use for cleansing the kidneys.
8. Marshmallow Root
As a soothing herb, marshmallow root may calm the tissues of the urinary tract. It's also a gentle diuretic that encourages urination.
9. Dandelion root
Often mistaken as an annoying weed with no useful purpose, dandelion is actually loaded with benefits — both the leaf and the root. More specifically, dandelion root is a diuretic and promotes waste elimination.
10. Parsley
A favourite herb among chefs, parsley is an aromatic, flavourful herb commonly used in herbal medicine. As a diuretic, it's helpful for reducing the build-up of toxins in the kidneys and entire urinary tract.


text:
Lionsgate Play — the fast-growing Southeast Asian streaming platform of the global content studio behind major franchise properties such as John Wick, The Hunger Games, Power, and many more — launches in the Philippines this June.
Enjoy a bigger, bolder, and more powerful entertainment viewing experience at home today as PLDT Home, the Philippines' fastest broadband service provider, partners with premium streaming platform Lionsgate Play.
Lionsgate is a leading Hollywood studio that has created and distributed some of the world's biggest properties, including the blockbuster film franchises The Hunger Games, Twilight Saga, John Wick, and Saw; and the television series Mad Men, one of the most acclaimed shows in television history. By simply subscribing to a PLDT Home Fiber Plan 1699 or up, Filipinos can enjoy and experience the best of global content across action, comedy, drama, horror, and thriller genres — and more of Lionsgate Play's signature offerings from the comfort of one's home.
"PLDT Home and Lionsgate are bringing entertainment straight from the box office into people's homes. From the best love stories to the best of horror down to the most action-packed films and shows, the world's best content is simply a push of a button away with Lionsgate Play for all new and existing PLDT-powered homes," PLDT Home Senior Vice President and Head of Consumer Business-Home Group Jeremiah de la Cruz said. "This partnership is part of our continuing mission to provide our customers the fastest broadband connection in the country so that they can better stream their entertainment choices including the most exciting and irreverent stories from Lionsgate Play. Beyond PLDT-powered homes, Lionsgate Play shall also be available to Smart customers soon."
"Our endeavor has been to ensure viewers are provided with a curated lineup of great content, spread across genres for the best viewing experience," Lionsgate Executive Vice President Amit Dhanuka said of the partnership. "Taking this forward, we are excited to partner with PLDT Home to launch Lionsgate Play in the Philippines. We are reaching out to a large and diverse sector of consumers with a digitally-driven offering enabling them to 'play more, browse less.' We look forward to more Filipinos enjoying the best of what Hollywood has to offer!"
Among the content available at the Philippine launch of Lionsgate Play is American crime drama Power. With rapper and actor Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as executive producer, Power follows the triumph and trials of drug dealer James St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick) as he tries to leave his life of crime behind to manage his own nightclub. Power is one of American premium cable TV's most watched and highly-rated shows.
Also among Lionsgate Play's banner content is futuristic action film Apex. This Bruce Willis starrer follows Thomas Malone (Willis) as a wrongfully-convicted prisoner given a chance at freedom.
Now available locally through Lionsgate Play is the critically-acclaimed drama Gaslit, starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. The new series spotlights Martha Mitchell (Roberts), wife of former US President Nixon's Attorney General John N. Mitchell, discovering the full extent of the Watergate scandal in the 70s.
Lionsgate Play also features the studio's most commercially successful films and film franchises: The Hunger Games follows hunter Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and her heroic adventures in a post-apocalyptic world; John Wick tells the story of the titular character (Keanu Reeves) forced to return to his life as a hitman to avenge the death of his beloved puppy; the Twilight Saga follows the epic love story of teenager Bella Swan (Kirsten Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson); SAW trails the sadistic machinations of John Kramer or Jigsaw; Knives Out follows a detective (Daniel Craig) in his investigation on the mysterious death of a wealthy novelist (Christopher Plummer); and many more.
The streaming service also carries some of Lionsgate's most iconic and groundbreaking series such as Mad Men, a multiple Emmy and Golden Globe-winning period drama starring Jon Hamm that's widely considered to be one of the greatest TV shows of all time; and The Royals, a drama chronicling the tradition, opulence, and scandal that surround a fictional modern-day royal family. Lionsgate Play also gives PLDT Home subscribers first dibs on the hottest new shows including Becoming Elizabeth, which chronicles Elizabeth I's rise to power and all the intrigue and betrayal that came with becoming the Virgin Queen. Catch these shows and more very soon on Lionsgate Play!
In time for the Philippine launch of the streaming service, both existing and new subscribers of PLDT Home Fiber Plans 1699 and up will be given exclusive access to Lionsgate Play without the additional charges until June 1, 2023.
Enjoy a bigger, bolder, faster, and more powerful entertainment home viewing experience at home with Lionsgate Play, exclusive in the Philippines through PLDT Home. To learn more about Lionsgate Play, visit https://pldthome.com/lionsgateplay.


text:
The East in the Light of the West
4. Evolutionary Stages: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth
26 Aug 1909, Munich
In view of what has been said we may ask whether all the spiritual beings in existence are to be found behind the phenomena of the sense world, or whether there are others having no expression or manifestation in the physical world. Supersensible consciousness knows that although it is true that a spiritual being or spiritual fact is to be found behind every external phenomenon, yet there do exist spiritual beings having no expression in the physical world. Experiences await the initiate other than those whose projections or shadow images are thrown into the physical sense world. There exist, moreover, spiritual beings and spiritual facts that have no expression in the inner life of the soul, in the phenomena of conscience, thought, feeling, and sensation ... The spiritual world is seen by the higher consciousness to embrace much more than can be experienced in the physical world.
Those of my readers who have studied earlier lectures on these subjects, will realise that a host of spiritual beings, at different stages of evolution, have been involved in what has come to pass in the human, animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms during the course of our Earth evolution All such beings intervene in some way or other in the evolutionary texture of the Earth and of the kingdoms belonging to it. Behind the phenomena surrounding us is a richly constituted spiritual world, just as there was during the periods of Old Saturn, Old Sun, and Old Moon. We must not attempt to understand these spiritual kingdoms by inventing permanent names for these spiritual beings. The names used are not, for the most part, intended to designate individualities, but offices or spheres of duties. So if a particular name is used in connection with a being active during the Old Sun period it cannot be applied in the same sense to that being as regards its work or function in the Earth evolution; it has progressed by that time. It is necessary to speak of these matters with great accuracy and precision.
The Earth period was not only preceded by three embodiments of the Earth globe, but by three mighty spiritual kingdoms, essentially different from one another when examined by super-sensible consciousness. Investigation of the Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon periods reveals many things which cannot be compared with anything we can name on the Earth, and of which one can only speak by analogy.
It will be remembered that I have spoken of the Old Saturn period as being essentially one of warmth, or of fire; on Old Sun this warmth condensed to air; on Old Moon the air condensed to water, and on Earth the earth element appeared for the first time. But the application of our concept of fire or warmth directly to the evolution of Old Saturn would result in an incorrect picture, for the fire of Saturn differed essentially from the fire of our Earth. There is only one phenomenon which can legitimately be compared to the Saturn fire, and that is the fire which permeates the blood as warmth. This vital warmth, or life principle, is more or less comparable to the substance of which Old Saturn was entirely composed, and the physical fire of today is a descendant, a later product of the Saturn fire; in its external form as perceived in space, it has appeared for the first time on the Earth. The warmth of the blood, then, is the only thing which can be compared to what was present during the physical evolutionary period of Old Saturn. There is very little indeed in the realm of our present day experience which can be compared in any way with the qualities of these earlier evolutionary periods, all of which were very different from our present Earth existence.
It must be understood, however, that everything in the Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon periods is comprised within the Earth evolution, only it has changed in character. What was laid as a germ on Old Saturn and evolved through the Sun and Moon periods, is to be found in the Earth evolution, although in a changed condition; we can, however, instance the fundamental elements brought over from the earlier evolutionary periods by examining what is not to be found in this transformed state.
When the Earth first appeared it had absorbed into itself three preceding evolutionary conditions, and all the degrees of spiritual beings involved in them. The beings were at different stages of evolution, however, so it is obvious that distinction must be made between these three different realms of spiritual beings and of spiritual substances; we must realise, in considering the beginnings of the Earth, that certain things which we find there could come into existence only because the Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon periods preceded our Earth evolution, and at its beginning the three are united within it.
This fact was always present in the ancient, instinctive consciousness of man, which connected him with the spiritual world. And when the number Three was mentioned as characteristic of the higher worlds, those individuals who looked at things in the concrete and not in the abstract, who had facts rather than conceptions or ideas in their mind's eye, always felt in their souls the truth that our Earth has received, into her womb, as it were, everything that came over from Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon. That is the so-called higher, pre-terrestrial triad ... This triad consisting of Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon has evolved into our Earth. In its concrete meaning the higher triad signifies these three pre-terrestrial states; but the quaternary refers to the gradual transformation of these three into the Earth. Accordingly men whose instinctive consciousness brought them into touch with the realities of the spiritual world felt the mystery of the birth of the Earth to be expressed by the relation of three to four. And they turned reverent eyes to the sacred triad of Saturn, Sun and Moon, which had become the quaternary manifested by the Earth period. It is obvious that the modern expressions Saturn, Sun and Moon had other equivalents in the instinctive consciousness of ancient humanity.
If we now follow up the course of the Earth evolution we may ask how the separate classes of spiritual beings participate in its progress. Spiritual beings at different stages of evolution directed the processes of the separation of the Sun and Moon from the earth, as a result of which that progress came to pass. We have first to consider a class of spiritual beings which attained a certain stage of evolution during the Old Sun period; they belong to the Old Sun evolution because it was destined to provide a field of action for them. These are beings which separated the sun from the earth during the Earth period, because during Old Sun they were Sun-bound in the same way as humanity is now Earthbound. As we have seen, they needed the Sun for their further evolution and with the Sun they left the Earth in order to work upon the latter from without. When the Sun spirits had withdrawn the Saturn and Moon spirits were left on the Earth. The development of the Saturn spirits was such that they could direct and guide the separation of the Moon from the Earth; they had passed through the same stage on Old Saturn as the Sun spirits had done on the Old Sun; their maturity had preceded that of the Sun spirits, and they were therefore able to separate the Moon from the Earth and to stimulate from within the inner development of man, who, otherwise, would have hardened and become mummified. It may be said that the withdrawal of the Sun was brought about by the Sun spirits, and that of the Moon by the Saturn spirits. The Sun is a cosmic symbol for the act of the Sun spirits, the Moon for that of the Saturn spirits. And what is left upon the earth itself Spirits of the Old Moon period.
It will be useful at this point to bear in mind a definite epoch of the Earth evolution; that at which the Moon had just left the Earth. The Earth, from which the Sun had withdrawn still earlier, was then in a very different condition from that of today. If the Earth had then been in an exactly similar state to that of today, the whole process would have been unnecessary.
It was compared to the present mineral vegetable, animal and human kingdoms—very imperfect in that early period. The various continents had not separated off from each other everything was in a kind of chaos. Super-sensible sight would search in vain at that period for the mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms as they are today. These forms have all developed as a result of the influence of the Sun and the Moon from without, and this was the purpose of the withdrawal of these two bodies. The influences which worked upon the Earth from the Sun and the Moon charmed from it, as it were, everything that has since arisen upon it and all that surrounds us today. The outer forms of the minerals, the plants, the animals and of physical man have been produced by the beings which work from the Sun; whereas the beings which work from the Moon have stimulated the soul life of men and of animals. This is an approximate and broad sketch of evolution from the so-called Lemurian epoch on into that of Atlantis. It was during the Atlantean epoch that, very slowly and gradually, the Earth began to wear an appearance more or less similar to that which we see around us today. It is necessary, therefore, to distinguish in the course of the Earth evolution since the withdrawal of the Moon, between a chaotic Earth and an organised one which has been influenced by the Spiritual beings in its environment.
What is here stated need not necessarily be acquired from historical tradition. Suppose for example that the initiate wisdom of ancient and venerable India, of the Persian sages, of the Egyptian initiations, or of the Greek Mysteries had all been lost; suppose no external documents of any kind whatever were left to tell us of the pristine teaching concerning the spiritual foundations of our earth evolution. Even then the possibility of developing super-sensible consciousness would not be lost; everything that is said here can be discovered by means of super-sensible investigation without the aid of any historical document. We have to do with something, which at the present time can be studied at its source; even mathematics may also be learnt from original sources.
Let us now try to find a link between the results which super-sensible investigation has given us and life in ancient times. It is obvious that some other method might be adopted, but the purpose of this course of lectures is to compare what can be found irrespective of any historical record, with what has been handed down by another kind of tradition. We will go back, not so very far, to a historical personage who lived in a comparatively ancient period of Greek culture, of whom history knows very little and the length of whose life even is veiled in much uncertainty. Pherecydes of Syros is in a certain respect the forerunner of the other Greek sages.
He lived at a time in Greek spiritual development called the epoch of the Seven Sages.—This period preceded that of all historical Greek philosophy. The little that external history tells us of Pherecydes of Syros is very interesting; he, among others, is spoken of as the teacher of Pythagoras; and many of the teachings of Herakleitos, of Plato and of later sages can be traced back to him. It is said that he taught the existence of three principles fundamental to the whole of evolution, and called them Zeus, Kronos and Chthon. Now what precisely did he mean by these names? It will at once be realised that Kronos is only another name for the Old Saturn evolution. In the teaching of Pherecydes, Kronos is the totality of spiritual beings belonging to the kingdom of Old Saturn, who during the course of the Earth evolution were able to bring about the separation of the Moon. Now for Zeus! Zeus is a word of uncertain meaning when used in ancient times, for it was applied to spiritual individualities at very different stages of evolution. But men in ancient Greece who know something of initiation recognised in Zeus the ruler of the Sun spirits. Zeus lives in the influences which came to the Earth from the Sun. Chthon is a designation of the somewhat chaotic condition of the earth after the withdrawal of the moon, at which time neither plant nor animal nor human forms were to be found. In most remarkable words, Pherecydes spoke of the holy primordial triad, of Zeus, Kronos and Chthon, principles fundamental to the earth, having come over from pre-terrestrial ages; he also speaks of a further evolution. But in ancient times men did not clothe matters of this kind in such dry, crude concepts as they do today, they drew vivid pictures of what they saw and recognised in spiritual realms. Pherecydes said: 'Chthon becomes Gea (today called earth), because of the gift of Zeus whereby she came to be covered as with a garment.' This is a wonderful description of that evolution which I have just outlined in a few short words. The earth was alone; outside it were the sun and the moon, the spiritual kingdoms of Zeus and of Kronos. The sun from without began to work upon the earth and to fructify it in its then chaotic state; or, in the language of the old Greek sage, Zeus fructified Chthon. The beneficent influences of the kingdom of Zeus were sent down to the physical earth in the warmth and light of the sun. This was the gift made by Zeus to the earth. The earth covered herself with the garment of plant and animal forms, and with the forms of physical men. Chthon becomes Gea; therefore, because of the gift of Zeus the earth covers herself with a garment.
This is a wonderful picture, expressed in beautiful language, of what super-sensible consciousness is able today to rediscover in the epoch of the Seven Greek Sages. And Pherecydes could not have made such strikingly vivid statements, which can be verified by modern super-sensible consciousness, without definite personal knowledge. This knowledge he derived from the so-called Phoenician initiation. He was an initiate of the temples of ancient Phoenicia and had brought over into Greece the Temple wisdom which he was at liberty to teach. A great deal of oriental wisdom came over in this way.
This is one example, among many, of the things that may be re-discovered in the words of the old sages independently of historical tradition. In this instance we have not gone back so very far in human history. If we are able rightly to interpret the expressions used, it is also possible to re-discover original teachings of very ancient times. It would, however, be false to accept the simple explanation that this or that Eastern teaching concerning the evolution of the world is found under the same form in Pherecydes of Syros, in the old Egyptian epoch, in the days of the Chaldean sages, and in the ancient Indian period. If this were the case, it might well be imagined that a wisdom rediscovered today is to be found, in different form, wherever humanity has striven after it; that wisdom is one and the same at all times and in all places. In its abstract sense there is not the slightest objection to be raised to this statement; it is true, but it expresses only a portion of the whole truth. Just as from the rest of a plant to the fruit there is not a regular succession of similar forms, but a variety, composed of green leaves, coloured petals, stamens, etc., of higher and higher development, so does diversity appear in the progress of human life on earth. Correct though it is to say that the sense wisdom appears again and again in different forms, an evolution or a development does nevertheless take place; and it is not at all correct to say that we find in ancient Indian times exactly the same conditions as exist today. That would be as inaccurate as to state that the blossom of a plant is the same as the root. True, the same force exists within it, but the reality emerges only if progress and development are recognised to be fundamental expressions of the secrets underlying human evolution. The teachings of the first post-Atlantean epoch may still be given today; what Pherecydes of Syros taught can be repeated today; but the earth evolution has also been enriched, and impulses have since been poured into it.
The importance of the Christ impulse in human evolution has already been indicated. That is a thing apart, standing alone in the evolution of the earth; there is nothing which can be compared with it. It has come to my knowledge that people have spoken of injustice in connection with human evolution if it were true that, for so many thousands of years before the coming of the Christ, full wisdom could not be imparted to mankind. Why was it, these people ask, that anything could be withheld from pre-Christian men? They seem to think, in view of the fact that justice is universal, that although the forms of truth have changed, new truths cannot have been added to the old; for if it were otherwise, men living in post-Christian days would be destined to receive something higher than men of pre-Christian times. Now it is understandable that such things should be said in the outer world, but it is not understandable that students of spiritual science should make such statements. And why? Because the men who incarnate during the post-Christian epoch are those who have passed through previous incarnations, and what they could not possibly learn before the appearance of Christ on earth they must learn after that event. Anyone who believes that man incarnates again and again only to learn exactly the same wisdom, has no serious appreciation and feeling for reincarnation in his soul; for to believe in reincarnation seriously means to realise its goal and its purpose and to know that there is good reason for our returning to earth repeatedly. We come back in order to have new experiences. It is a platitude to say that exactly the same wisdom is to be met with again and again in different conceptions of the world. The concrete fact is that wisdom develops, that it takes on higher and higher forms, until there comes into being on the Earth something that is ripe to pass over into another condition, in the same way as Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon passed over to the Earth condition. There is real progress and not mere repetition—that is the whole point. And here lies the difference between Eastern and Western modes of thought. Western thought, in face of the whole task and mission of the West, can never separate itself from an actual, a concrete historical conception of the evolution of the Earth; and an historical conception implies the idea of progress, not of mere repetition. It was in the West that the real concept of historical development arose. If anyone falls into a purely oriental way of thought (and its truth is not in any way questioned, only the historical sense must be added to it) because he has not grasped the idea of historical progress, he may easily lose sight of the meaning of history altogether. He may find himself faced with the question: 'What is the purpose of this eternal repetition or recurrence of the same thing?' That was a problem raised by Schopenhauer who had no understanding of history in its real sense, and whose exoteric teaching was influenced in high degrees by what he had absorbed from Oriental life. Statement of a higher truth in no way impugns a lower, lesser truth; spiritual science fully assents to statements of a non-historical nature in Oriental spiritual life. But the point at issue here is that of raising a mode of thinking to a higher level; or, as we may say, of illuminating Oriental thought by the light of the West.1This seemingly rather sweeping statement is justified by the fact that it deliberately opposes the oft-repeated declaration of mystical world-conceptions that fundamentally the, different religions, etc., are only the transformation of a single primordial wisdom and nothing more than that.
What I have said here in general terms I should like to illustrate by an example. From what has been said it will be realised that the discoveries of modern super-sensible investigation are to be found under another form in ancient times, if we look for them there. It is only possible to throw light on antiquity by starting from the present. Let us in this connection take a definite spiritual individuality. If we go back to a time when men brought down into the Vedas what was in a certain respect an echo of the sublime wisdom of the Holy Rishis, we find, among many appellations of divine beings, the name of Indra. If, from the point of view of modern super-sensible investigation I were to give an answer to the question: 'What kind of being is the Indra mentioned in the Vedas?' it would be best for me to explain how it is possible for a modern man to acquire a conception of that being by means of spiritual sight. We have already seen that by rising from the physical to the soul world, Spiritual beings can be perceived behind everything surrounding us in the world, behind fire, air, water and earth, which are their external expressions or manifestations. In the spiritual realm behind the element of air, for instance, a host of spiritual beings appear, beings which do not descend so far as the physical world, but express themselves—therein through the air. In the soul-world we meet them as entities, as individualities, and the mightiest of them is still to be found today in him who in ancient India was named 'Indra.' Indra is associated with the whole regulation of man's breathing process, and to his activity we owe the fact that we breathe as we do today. Humanity may look up to this being forever and realise that it is the mighty Indra who has endowed them with the instrument of breath. The activities of such a being are not however limited to one sphere, and humanity owes much else to Indra; they owe to Indra the force which must pour through their muscles if their enemies are to be conquered in war. Hence men were able to pray to mighty Indra for power to be victorious in battle, since this also was one of his functions. To this same being (which needs no name if only its presence is realised) is to be ascribed the flashing of the lightning effects of storms. For these things, too, prayers may be raised, if, in the praying, the gods are thought of.
Indra exists for us today as he existed in ancient Vedic times, but we must now pass on to another consideration. Suppose we take this being named Indra as actually seen by the Old Indian initiates when their spiritual sight was opened in the soul world, and ask ourselves whether the initiate of modern days sees him in the same form? The answer is that he does, in fact, see everything perceptible to the ancient initiate, but something else as well. To take a rather trivial example, suppose we consider a man in the fortieth year of his life and call him Muller. He is the same person who thirty years previously was a boy of ten, but he has changed, even if his name is the same. It would be incorrect to describe this man Muller as a man of forty if we took his appearance at the age of ten; he has passed through a certain development, which must be taken into account when speaking of him in his present condition. Is it to be imagined, then, that while men on the earth continually develop during their single lives and also from life to life, spiritual beings remain at the same stage at which they manifested themselves to the spiritual consciousness of an ancient Indian initiate? Is it right to conceive of the gods as remaining unchanged through thousands of years? It certainly is not; Indra has passed through an evolution since the days when seers of ancient India looked up to him with reverence. Now what has happened to this mighty figure of Indra, and how does his evolution manifest itself if we look back upon it with spiritual consciousness? At a certain moment in evolution something very remarkable with regard to Indra comes to pass. In order to have a clear conception we must repeat certain things. We will direct our spiritual consciousness in the soul world to the ancient Indian god, Indra and follow him through thousands of years. We come to a point of time when there is an appearance of rays of light falling from an entirely different spiritual being upon Indra, who is himself illumined by them and ascends to a higher stage of development. It is rather like learning something important from another individual at a certain age, which changed one's whole life. This happened in the case of great Indra, and since that time there has streamed from him the same influence as was to be found in ancient India, only enriched by the spiritual light of another being which was shed upon him. It is possible to indicate the precise moment in the history of the evolution of humanity when this took place. The God, Indra, is to be found in the soul world at a time when the Christ was not yet perceptible to Earth evolution, although the Christ light shone upon him. A man who is able to perceive Indra may well say that this Being now reveals something different from his earliest revelations; for at first the Christ light did not ray back from him. Since the point of time in question, Indra has not shed his own light into the spiritual evolution of the earth, but has reflected the light of Christ, just as the moon reflects the light of the sun. The light thus rayed back by Indra, not directly perceptible on earth and in which therefore we cannot actually recognise Christ, was proclaimed by Moses to his people. Moses gave the name of Jahve or Jehovah to this Christ light rayed back by Indra as the sunlight is reflected by the moon. In lectures upon the Gospel of St. John, I have spoken about another aspect of this matter. The Christ is heralded, and Jahve or Jehovah is the name of the Christ light rayed back by an ancient deity. It is a prophetic heralding of Christ. Indra himself passed to a higher stage of evolution through this contact with the Christ light. He did not of course become Jehovah. It is not correct to say that Jehovah is Indra. But we can understand that as Indra manifests himself in lightning and thunder, even so does Jehovah manifest himself therein, because a being can only reflect in accordance with its own nature. Jehovah therefore was manifested in lightning and thunder.
This is an instance of spiritual being accomplished in its own realm in the same way as human evolution in our world, and of the fact that the same picture of the spiritual beings is not forthcoming after the lapse of thousands of years. History is being made in the spiritual world, and earth history is only the outer expression of this spiritual history. Every earthly occurrence has its course in events of the spiritual world, and it is necessary to understand these spiritual events in detail.
By this example I have tried to show what it means to throw light upon antiquity from a modern point of view. History is a concept which must be taken quite seriously, and the instance given should elucidate spiritual life. If we bear in mind the fact that there are wisdom-beings to be found today by occult research which we encounter again when we go back in time, only under different names and different manifestations—and at the same time remember that historical evolution and progress are realities in spiritual life—which underlie all that is physical, we have grasped two principles of fundamental importance to all progressive spiritual science that is to influence the future of humanity.


text:
Images (c) Bernd Uhlig |
Lulu – Mojca Erdmann
Countess Geschwitz – Deborah Polaski
Dresser, Gymnast – Anna Lapkovskaja Painter, Negro – Stephan RügamerDr Schön, Jack the Ripper – Michael Volle
Alwa – Thomas Piffka
Athlete – Georg Nigl
Schigolch – Jürgen Linn
Prince, Manservant – Wolfgang Ablinger-Speerhacke
Theatre Manager – Johann Werner Prein
Doctor of Medicine, Professor – Wolfgang Hübsch
Lulu's Doppelgängerin – Blanka Modrá, Liane Oßwald
Andrea Breth (director)
Erich Wonder (set designs)
Moidele Bickel (costumes)
Olaf Freese (lighting)
Philipp Haupt (video)
David Robert Coleman ('adaptation' of the London Scene)
Jens Schroth (dramatic advisor)
Staatskapelle Berlin
Daniel Barenboim (conductor)
Johann Werner Prein (Theatre Manager), Georg Nigl (Athlete), Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke (Prince, or whoever he was supposed to be here...) |
I am genuinely at a loss to know where to start with this performance of Lulu, but perhaps a little chronological background would be as good a place as any. Having admired Andrea Breth's Salzburg production of Eugene Onegin, which he conducted, Daniel Barenboim invited her to direct Wozzeck and Lulu in Berlin. Wozzeck was much admired at last year's Festtage; I thought highly of it, albeit with a few more reservations than many seem to have felt. It was certainly, however, a good enough production to have me look forward to Berg's second opera. Except that it was not really Berg's second opera at all: instead, Breth and Barenboim served up a bowdlerised version, a 'Berliner Fassung' for which I cannot imagine anyone had called, and which certainly did not seem to satisfy anyone in the theatre. The Prologue disappears completely, replaced by a horizontal actor's drawn out reading from Kierkegaard and Lulu's third-act scream, as does the Paris Scene from the Third Act. This is not a reversion to the old two-act version, though, even if one discounts the bizarre excision of the Prologue, in which the terms of the drama are set up, the whole world a stage or a circus. For the final scene, set in London, has been rewritten, adapted, call it what you will, by one David Robert Coleman, of whom I freely admit that I had never heard before. On the basis of this encounter, I sincerely hope that reunion should be indefinitely postponed. One might be able to take the use of a radio – presumably a recording, though it may just have been a strange acoustic trick – during the first act, but Coleman's sketchy orchestration sounded more akin to an undergraduate's first attempt to look through Berg's manuscripts than a finished 'version', let alone a competitor to Friedrich Cerha's standard completion.
A metaphor for the production? |
Why was the latter not used? Presumably permission was refused, not unreasonably, on account of the decision to make cuts. Whose decision? Breth's? Barenboim's? The former's, with the latter's acquiescence? Why, why, why? It sounded as much a mess as what we saw onstage, of which more anon, despite fine musical performances, of which more anon. Berg's harmonisation of the hurdy-gurdy Lautenlied is tossed aside in favour of a manifestly inferior version by Wedekind. This is not, of course, simply a matter of an inferior harmonisation, nor indeed of having missed the tune's first appearance in the excised Paris Scene; dodecaphonic writing and method are completely undermined. This is musical violence from which I am frankly astonished that Barenboim did not recoil. Likewise when it comes to the violence done to Berg's symmetries, dramatic and musical, is unconscionable; this is not some Italianate number-opera. It is mystifying that one of the truly great musicians of our time, someone who has collaborated closely with Pierre Boulez and Patrice Chéreau, the team that brought us the first ever staging of the 'complete' Lulu, and one who has so excelled in the music of the Second Viennese School, should have acquiesced – if indeed, that is what happened. It was, apparently, at Barenboim's invitation that Coleman put together his 'version', steel drums and all – yes, really! an intimation of an early jukebox, we are told – but was the original decision to travesty Berg's opera made by Breth? Let us assume so, for it is difficult to imagine why someone conducting Lulu for the first time would wish not really to conduct Lulu at all.
Lulu (Mojca Erdmann), Geschwitz (Deborah Polaski) |
Lulu and Jack the Ripper (Michael Volle) |
Again, why, why, why?


text:
Mid West Tactical provides professional firearms sustainment training. We help law enforcement, private security, and the military community maintain the highest standard of readiness. This is done by offering focused training using controlled techniques in highly refined training facilities. Mid West Tactical also provides proven specialized beginning and advanced firearms training to the civilian community.
Our 40 acre facility is equipped with the latest technology from Action Target; the leading manufacturer of targeting equipment in the USA.
Our state of the art facility features high speed turning targets, reactive steel targets, lateral moving targets, breaching facility and a live fire ballistic shoot house.


text:
Mammals Can Use Their Intestines to Breathe
Researchers demonstrate that the delivery of oxygen gas or oxygenated liquid through the rectum provided vital rescue to two mammalian models of respiratory failure
Rodents and pigs share with certain aquatic organisms the ability to use their intestines for respiration, finds a study published May 14 in the journal Med. The researchers demonstrated that the delivery of oxygen gas or oxygenated liquid through the rectum provided vital rescue to two mammalian models of respiratory failure.
"Artificial respiratory support plays a vital role in the clinical management of respiratory failure due to severe illnesses such as pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome," says senior study author Takanori Takebe (@TakebeLab) of the Tokyo Medical and Dental University and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "Although the side effects and safety need to be thoroughly evaluated in humans, our approach may offer a new paradigm to support critically ill patients with respiratory failure."
Several aquatic organisms have evolved unique intestinal breathing mechanisms to survive under low-oxygen conditions using organs other than lungs or gills. For example, sea cucumbers, freshwater fish called loaches, and certain freshwater catfish use their intestines for respiration. But it has been heavily debated whether mammals have similar capabilities.
In the new study, Takebe and his collaborators provide evidence for intestinal breathing in rats, mice, and pigs. First, they designed an intestinal gas ventilation system to administer pure oxygen through the rectum of mice. They showed that without the system, no mice survived 11 minutes of extremely low-oxygen conditions. With intestinal gas ventilation, more oxygen reached the heart, and 75 percent of mice survived 50 minutes of normally lethal low-oxygen conditions.
Because the intestinal gas ventilation system requires abrasion of the intestinal muscosa, it is unlikely to be clinically feasible, especially in severely ill patients—so the researchers also developed a liquid-based alternative using oxygenated perfluorochemicals. These chemicals have already been shown clinically to be biocompatible and safe in humans.
The intestinal liquid ventilation system provided therapeutic benefits to rodents and pigs exposed to non-lethal low-oxygen conditions. Mice receiving intestinal ventilation could walk farther in a 10 percent oxygen chamber, and more oxygen reached their heart, compared to mice that did not receive intestinal ventilation. Similar results were evident in pigs. Intestinal liquid ventilation reversed skin pallor and coldness and increased their levels of oxygen, without producing obvious side effects. Taken together, the results show that this strategy is effective in providing oxygen that reaches circulation and alleviates respiratory failure symptoms in two mammalian model systems.
With support from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development to combat the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the researchers plan to expand their preclinical studies and pursue regulatory steps to accelerate the path to clinical translation.
"The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is overwhelming the clinical need for ventilators and artificial lungs, resulting in a critical shortage of available devices, and endangering patients' lives worldwide," Takebe says. "The level of arterial oxygenation provided by our ventilation system, if scaled for human application, is likely sufficient to treat patients with severe respiratory failure, potentially providing life-saving oxygenation."
- This press release was supplied by Cell Press. It has been edited for style


text: Scrub or soak with a therapeutic blend of naturally pink Australian salt and fragrance for a relaxing bathing experience. Sun dried salt sourced from the Murray Darling basin contains trace minerals of beta carotene, potassium, iodine and magnesium which gently help detoxify skin and boost circulation when used as a scrub as well as remove dead flaky skin leaving behind a glowing complexion. This mineral rich salt is hailed for its muscle-soothing properties, and is perfect for a post work out soak as well as enhancing sleep and mood.


text:
Vampires Nurses I need you!!
Well not specifically vampires, more like good elderly care nurses who dont like the light of day and dont mind a bit of blood!!
Well to be honest there wont be much blood in any of these Good to Outstanding rated care homes, so less of the blood and perhaps more of a cape!!
By cape I mean you will be a competent nurse (either RGN or RMN) who knows what good care looks like and doesnt mind flying around any nursing home working autonomously and leading by example!! (You dont need a cape by the way)
Garlic is acceptable because who doesnt like a bit of garlic bread from time to time, but Im starting to digress!!
Basically Im looking for good nurses who have a passion for elderly care and prefer to work night shifts leaving you time to enjoy the long summer days. (Unless you are a vampire and that wont do at all)
To STAKE your claim and find out more information about these fabulous night nurse positions in an array of different settings please apply in confidence with a CV
Competitivite rates of pay with additional benefits including enrolment onto company pension plans, duvet day on your birthday, paid breaks, fabulous training and incentives with real career progression


text:
A Texas mother is searching for answers after her pregnancy came to an abrupt end after 16 weeks when doctors were unable to find the pulse of the fetus.
KXAN-TV reported that 39-year-old San Marcos, Texas resident Audrey Thornton spent weeks wondering what happened to the remains of her unborn infant after her pregnancy was terminated at the Central Texas Medical Center. Because her pregnancy did not reach 20 weeks, Texas law considers her pregnancy a miscarriage, instead of considering the baby as stillborn.
"I just wanted to know what my options were so that my baby could be at peace," Thornton told KXAN-TV. "Going to bed every night not knowing that my baby is at peace is horrible... Having to bug people to find out where my son is and what the next step was I think is the worst part"
After a three-week delay, the hospital tracked down the baby's remains, and will have the child cremated at no cost.
"All of us at CTMC grieve with the Thornton's regarding their loss. Our Chief Nurse and I met with the family last week to discuss their concerns and we have been finalizing funeral arrangements since. We're working diligently to provide the family with a thoughtful and dignified resolution to a very difficult situation," read a statement from the president and CEO of the hospital, Anthony Stahl.
The hospital added it is reviewing policy to ensure an incident like this does not happen again.


text:
Britten Theatre, Royal
College of Music
Serse – Jake Arditti
Arsamene – Tai OneyAmastre – Lucinda Stuart-Grant
Ariodate – Jon Stainsby
Romilda – Alice Privett
Atalanta – Abbi Temple
Elviro – Matthew Durkan
Chorus – Chiara Vinci, Laurence Painter
Jenny Miller (director)
Faye Bradley (designs)Dan Saggars, Andy Bird (lighting)
Rebecca Hanbury (assistant director)
Michael Spenceley (choreography)
What an excellent idea for
the Longborough Festival to bring its Young Artist Production to London for a
performance at the Royal College of Music! Yes, I know, a Londoner would say
that, but like it or not, and I am sure we can all agree that centralisation in
a not-remotely-central city is a curse upon all manner of activity in this
country, London is the centre of English operatic life and metropolitan
exposure can only help all concerned. (No one believes more strongly than I
that the Royal Opera and ENO should tour, and to hell with the Arts Council's
absurd geographical demarcations! After its behaviour with respect to ENO alone,
disbandment would, frankly, be too kind a fate for that organisation, presently
headed by a friend of Jeremy 'Hunt', Peter Bazalgette, of Big Brother fame.)
London performances are perhaps especially important in the case of young
singers, all of whom performed creditably, and in most cases, considerably more
than that. A taste of Longborough, especially for those of us without cars, is
of course more than welcome at this end too. Perhaps we might even hope for
more in the future? Would it not be wonderful, if the Proms were to invite the
Festival next year, perhaps for Tannhäuser
or Jenůfa?
A Handel opera, in any case,
made for an eminently sensible choice in the present situation. Focused on singers,
with a small (too small?) orchestra, Serse
fared well in musical terms, save for the somewhat scrawny playing of the
strings. I think they were modern instruments, but it was not easy to tell,
testament to the near-total victory of 'period' imperialism. Apart from that,
Jeremy Silver directed (from the harpsichord) a mostly sensitive performance,
tempi appropriate, with little of the absurd rushing (with occasional, equally
absurd grinding to a halt) that characterises the Handelian exhibitionism of
our allegedly 'authenticke' times. For a full, noble orchestral sound, we must
return to first-choice Rafael Kubelík in Munich (in German, with a tenor
Xerxes, no less than Fritz Wunderlich!) or, in an Italian-language performance,
Brian Priestman (with Maureen Forrester) in Vienna.
But as I said, the singing
was really the thing. Jake Arditti offered a bravura yet eminently sensitive
assumption of the title role: as well acted, with proud petulance and wounded
humanity, as it was heroically sung. For those sceptics who (still) doubt the
ability of the counter-tenor voice to portray the requisite range of emotions,
the performances of Arditti and Tai Oney as Arsamene would surely have proved a
useful corrective. Oney's beautifully-sung performance pulled off without any
difficulty the task of sufficient difference in timbre and character, without a
hint of the hootiness which, in days gone by, infected far too many such performances.
Alice Privett threw herself into the role of Romilda, passing with flying
colours: a properly high dramatic performance. If they were my pick of the
cast, that is probably as much a reflection of the opportunities their roles
offer as anything else. I should certainly not be able to offer you a weak
link, nor should I wish to. Longborough's programme clearly engenders a real
sense of company, something that cannot be feigned.
My principal reservation
concerned Jenny Miller's production. It was very pink, which may or may not be
one's taste. I learned afterwards, upon reading the programme, that it had been
set in a 'contemporary setting, more immediately familiar and neutral – a nightclub
or hotel bar'. I could then see that it had been, but if I am honest, whether
through stupidity or inattention on my part, or a lack of clarity on the
director's, I had not realised at the time. Initially, my thought was that we
were amongst Mafiosi, but then it all turned surprisingly camp – and not a
little silly. Anyway, we were supposed to have asked whether it was 'Xerxes's
bar … [whether] he owns a string of them, planning global expansion,' and so
on. By 'shedding many of the specifically period references, we can concentrate
on the comedy of the lessons in love being handed out'. Perhaps; I certainly hold
no brief for confining a work to its period, although some of the satire here
might have worked better, had we experienced more of a dialogue between 'period'
and 'contemporary'. (Or perhaps I am too content with Nicholas
Hytner's seemingly evergreen ENO production, which can be caught on DVD
with Charles Mackerras and Ann Murray.) I think Miller is probably right to
say, with respect to the work itself, that 'satire about the exercise of
unlimited power … is not the main theme of the power'. However, I cannot help
but wonder whether a more absorbing theatrical experience might be the outcome
of a production that treated it as if it were. The cast did its best to make us
care about the characters, but there is a limit to what can be done in that
respect within the confines of a Handel
opera seria. Besides, if the 'period references' can be rejected, cannot a
too rigid conception of 'intention'? Much of the audience seemed, however, greatly to
enjoy the sometimes outlandish costumes and antics of the entertainment, and what
I say immediately above should be considered as musing rather than
prescription. I look forward to Longborough's next visit to the capital.


text:
yah..why not..?? being a programmer i wud visit the websites which are programming related..nd u know very well that the websites contain the relevant adds..so if i find anything like clicking then obvioulsy i will click the add..
No. In fact, I block as many adverts as I can with Privoxy. When I want to buy something I'll do the necessary research and buy what fits my needs. In most cases I end up with some GPL'd software which is just as good or better than the paid versions. But I will buy, e.g. I recently bought a Goldwave licence, cos the GPL wave editors aren't up to the slickness of Goldwave. Clicking on adverts just encourages the advertisers. So if you get annoyed by adverts, don't click on the ones that annoy you, and eventually marketroids will get the message and only publish adverts that are non-annoying. If an advert does display something you're genuinely interested in, google it instead of clicking the ad (you would do that anyway though, wouldn't you? to check for reviews (good and bad) and to see what the competition has to offer?). A site owner might complain that blocking the adverts reduces his income. Well (a) tough noogies, because it's *MY* screen and *I* get to decide what appears on it, and (b) you're paid by the click, not by the view, so if I don't click then it doesn't make any difference to you whether I view or not. I don't click, therefore I block. I especially hate those ads that flash and bounce around all over the place. Just makes me want to slap the advertiser (no, not punch the monkey). It's that kind of advert that made me seek out ad-blocking software in the first place. Static ads that just state simply what the advertiser wants you to buy are OK, providing (a) it doesn't take up half the screen, (b) the ad-to-content ratio is sufficiently low and (c) the ad and the content are delivered at the same rate - I really hate it when the ad blasts through in 0.00000000001 of a nanosecond and the content that I *want* to see grinds through at a femtobaud and eventually appears three months later.


text:
"Exterminate Republicans."
DUmmie Leftist Agitator gets the Peace, Love, and Tolerance Award® right off the bat. Even without looking at his post, the title alone tells you this is going to be good. "Exterminate Republicans" is that title, for this THREAD.
Before we get to that, though, yesterday's DUFU has given me an idea. DU, Democratic Underground, needs to rebrand itself. And they should do it along the lines suggested by DUmmie Hoosier Daddy's post, "Progressive"? No: I'm a F***ing LIBERAL! Think of the marketing possibilities:
FLU: It's going viral.
Catch the FLU, F***ing Liberal Underground!
But for now let's go to DUmmie Leftist Agitator's plan to "Exterminate Republicans," in Bolshevik Red, while the commentary of your humble guest correspondent, Charles Henrickson, is in the [brackets]:
Exterminate Republicans.
[DUmmie Leftist Agitator, your Peace, Love, and Tolerance Award® is coming right up! I don't know what else you're going to say, but that title alone causes me to flip all the cards and give you the PLATA. Congratulations!]
Not physically. . . .
[Oh, darn! Why not?]
as despotic regimes have tried to do many times throughout history. That form of control is crude, callous, and ultimately self-defeating.
[But it's so much FUn!]
The extermination that I propose is of a different sort.
[We're all ears. Go ahead.]
Republicans and their enablers need to be shunned, both economically and socially. The idea that these people can be a part of our civilized society is frankly, ludicrous, and the sooner that we disabuse ourselves of that ridiculous notion, the better off all of us will be.
[Lovely! How about putting a scarlet "R" on them?]
I'm talking about a total boycott of Republicans, both economically and socially.
Refuse to interact with anyone who you know to be a Rightist in any fashion so far as is feasible.
[Even if it's NOT feasible! Say your boss is a miserable capitalist rethuglican oppressor. Well, shun him! If he tells you to do something, don't listen to him! Don't respond! Sure, he may fire your sorry ass, but it will be WORTH IT!]
We need to make their lives as unpleasant as possible in order to restore sanity to our national discourse.
[The irony is rich, isn't it?]
Don't do business with them, don't acquiesce to their insanity out of some misguided sense of decorum, hell, don't even speak to them. . . .
[DUm's the word!]
Cretins like the Kochs would be far less powerful, even with their vast fortunes, if nobody other than a Republican would even speak to them.
[Hey, there's a thought. You DUmmies go ahead and DON'T speak to us cretin conservatives. Don't bother us at all! We may actually enjoy that!]
Yes, I admit that my proposal is very radical, and that no tangible results would be seen for a long time even in the best of cases, but . . .
[. . . but it makes me sound extra tough here on DU, and that's what really matters.]
"But," you might protest, "my uncle (husband, wife, nephew, cousin, etc.) is a Republican! I can't just cut them out of my life!"
[Sure you can! They're not worthy of talking to or being around! Cut them clean out like the cancer they are! Your Republican grandpa--he is responsible for oppressing MILLIONS! So report all your rethug relatives to AttackWatch! Turn them in!]
We make it too easy for them to live and believe as they do.
[Pelt them with snowballs! Key their cars! You know the dog-poop-in-the-paper-bag trick? DU it!]
If you are willing to tolerate their insanity, willing to go along to get along, willing to continue to allow them to hijack our political process for their own nefarious ends that damage us all, then you are scarcely better than they are.
[If you DON'T make life miserable for them, then pelt YOURSELF with a snowball!]
The Amish have a practice called shunning, in which nobody in the community will interact with the shunned for any reason. This is what I suggest, on a much larger scale. . . .
[If we do this shunning stuff, will we also have to dress like the Amish, the beards and the whole nine yards? And what about our computers? Do the Amish have to use manual computers or what?]
The choice is yours: Exterminate Republicans, or they will, sooner or later, exterminate you.
[I'm picturing the Republicans as a bunch or cartoon cockroaches, sitting around smoking cigars and planning their nefarious plans. And here comes DUmmie Leftist Agitator, looking like a big can of bug spray. The Republican cockroaches see him, the cigars fall out of their mouths, and they run and scatter, yelling "RAAAID!!!"]
Hard to do when the way you make a living requires interaction with others.
[Who said it would be easy? But I mean, c'mon, where is your commitment??]
life, in general, requires interaction with others.
[NO! Cut them clean off!]
Should we mark them? Maybe a tattoo.
[Some of them already bear the mark of Cain.]
Somewhere where it can be clearly seen, like on the forearm.
[Right on the forehead. A big scarlet "R." And maybe a yellow armband.]
You don't have to mark them....each time they open their mouths you know who and what they are.
[Monitor their speech! If they start talking about "church" or "family" or "lower taxes," take down their names! Turn them in! Start pelting them with snowballs or, if it's not cold enough yet, with pressed-together handfuls of leaves!]
They are programmed to think without thinking...their motive is "HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE AND MORE HATE"!!!!!!!!
[Oooh, those dirty Rethuglicans! I HATE them! I absolutely HATE them!]
Irony is...starting a thread called, "Exterminate Republicans" in order to tell us all how to figuratively do away with all Republicans in our lives (our family members as well, I assume)...and then accusing Republicans of being all about HATE. oy...
they are an infectious desease with no cure or antitote. Lepers is what they are pure and simple.
[And a leper cannot change his spots.]
Brain dead and crazy..mindless drones like zombies of politics. . . .
[The Night of the Living Red.]
I think more minds are likely to be changed by friendly good-natured debate than by bitter and sullen silence. You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. . . .
Do you think they wouldn't think twice about exterminating you if given the chance??????? They prey on you like a helpless kitten and pounce on you like a mad lion.
[Yeah, who are you kitten? C'mon, read between the lions! No pussyfooting around! They're out to get you, so let's get them first!]
If someone posted "Exterminate Democrats" over at FR there'd be a thread here at DU filled with a thousand angry posts. Guess this is another case of "it's OK when we do it"...
What an icky horrible, violent, boorish idea.
[Translation: "I love it."]
Your thread title is appalling.
[Your thread idea is appealing.]
[Bad PR for DU. Might show up in the DUmmie FUnnies. But your idea is GREAT!]


text:
Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula and its continuing military pressure on Ukraine demonstrates that the United Nations-centered system of international law has failed. The pressing question is not whether Russia has violated norms against aggression — it has — but how the United States and its allies should respond in a way that will strengthen the international system.
It should be clear that Russia has violated the UN Charter's restrictions on the use of force. It has resorted to "the use of force against the territorial integrity" and "political independence" of Ukraine in violation of Article 2(4) of the Charter's founding principles. Russia has trampled on the fundamental norm that the United States and its allies have built since the end of World War II: that nations cannot use force to change borders unilaterally.
Like the League of Nations in the interwar period, the current system of collective security has failed to maintain international peace and security in the face of great power politics. According to widely-shared understandings of the UN Charter, nations can use force only in their self-defense or when authorized by the Security Council. Great powers with permanent vetoes on the Security Council (the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China) can always block formal efforts to respond to their own uses of force. Hence, the United Nations remains as powerless now as when Vladimir Putin ordered the 2008 invasion of Georgia.
The United Nations and its rules have not reduced the level of conflict between the great powers. That doesn't mean there has not been a steep drop in conflict, despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine. From 1945 to the present, deaths due to great power wars have fallen to a level never seen under the modern nation-state system. Collective security, however, is not the agent of this "Long Peace," as diplomatic historian John Lewis Gaddis has called it. Rather, the deterrent of nuclear weapons and stable superpower competition reduced conflict during the Cold War. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States has continued to supply the global public goods of security and free trade on its own. Democratic nations' commitment to maintaining that liberal international order, not the collective security of the UN Charter, has kept peace among the great powers.
As someone who worked in the Bush administration during the 2003 Iraq War, I am struck by today's absence of criticism for Russia's violations of international law and its effective neutering of the United Nations. About a decade ago, criticism of the United States reached unprecedented heights for its failure to win a second Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force. The United States and its allies claimed that it already had authority from Iraq's refusals to obey its obligations at the end of the 1991 Gulf War and its continuing threat to regional peace. Some of the United States' closest European allies, such as France and Germany, violently disagreed — although these nations seem to urge compromise today with Russia. Even though the United States went to war without Security Council authorization, it sought to build a legal case in support.
UN rules only constrain democracies that value the rule of law, while autocracies seem little troubled by legal niceties. Paralysis continues to afflict the democratic response to the invasion of Ukraine. The United States responded to the invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea with the symbolic measures of sanctioning a few members of Vladimir Putin's inner circle, kicking Moscow out of the G-8, and halting NATO-US military cooperation. Russian officials mocked the United States and raised the price of natural gas sold to Ukraine, an implicit warning to other European nations that depend on Russian natural gas. The Russian and US stock markets sighed with relief that no serious economic disruptions would follow.
Now Russian intelligence agencies are apparently fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine and Russian troops have massed on the border. It should be clear that Putin sees Russia's relationship with the Western democracies as one of competition, not cooperation. Putin has used the goal of restoring Russia's great power status to win popularity at home. He has never ridden so high in domestic opinion polls as now. One response, in keeping with international law, should be to remove Russia from a position of superpower equality, which would only recognize Russia's steep decline in military capability, its shrinking population, and its crumbling economy (which now relies on commodity prices for growth).
The United States could take the first step by terminating treaties with Russia that treat the former superpower as a current one. It can send a clear signal by withdrawing from the New START treaty, which placed both the United States and Russian nuclear arsenals under the same limits. There is no reason to impose the same ceiling of 1,550 nuclear warheads on Russia, which can no longer afford to project power beyond its region, and the United States, which has a world-wide network of alliances and broader responsibilities to ensure international stability.
Next, the United States could restore the anti-ballistic missile defense systems in Eastern Europe. Concerned about Iran's push for ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, the Bush administration had begun the process for deploying advanced ABM systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. As part of its effort to reset relations with Russia, the Obama administration canceled the program without any reciprocal benefits from Moscow or Iran. Re-deploying the missile defense systems would provide an important signal of American support for its NATO allies, especially those on the front lines with Russia, and raise the costs on Russia if it seeks to keep pace.
Another point where the White House should downgrade Russia's status is in Syria. After threatening to bomb the Assad regime for using chemical weapons on the rebels, the United States leapt for a Russian to jointly oversee the destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal. Bashar Assad has taken advantage of the withdrawal of American threats to seize the momentum in the civil war, backed up by Russian and Iranian support. The United States should not consider Russia an equal and joint partner on any matter, but certainly not on whether to allow the Assad regime and Iran to continue to destabilize the Middle East.
President Obama might even undertake a longer-lasting and more effective blow against Russia's claims to great power status: ejecting Russia from the United Nations Security Council. Along with China, Russia has used its veto to act as the defense attorney for oppressive regimes throughout the world. Of course, the United States cannot amend the UN Charter to remove Russia from the Security Council. But it can develop an alternative to the Security Council, which has become an obstacle to the prevention of harms to international security and global human welfare. The United States could establish a new Concert of Democracies to take up the responsibility for international peace, which would pointedly exclude autocracies like Russia and China. Approval by such a Concert, made up of the world's democracies, would convey greater legitimacy for military force and would signal that nation's that resort to aggression to seize territory and keep their populations oppressed will not have a voice in the world's councils.


text:
A notable aspect of the annual meeting in New Orleans was the featured "mini-conference" of panels and workshops devoted to "The Malleable PhD." Offerings focused on a range of job opportunities outside the academy for historians, the role of graduate education in preparing students for those opportunities, and practical suggestions for history PhDs hoping to broaden their employment horizons. Sessions included "The Entrepreneurial Historian (view the AHA's video of this session)," "Front Lines: Early-Career Scholars Doing Digital History," "Exploring a Range of Careers outside the Academy," "Academic Administration as a Career Path for History PhDs," "Transforming History Graduate Education to Make the PhD 'Malleable,'" and "Public History in the Federal Government: Continuing Trends and New Innovations." Workshops on crafting a resume out of an academic c.v. and finding and loving a government job added specific practical advice to the broader discussion. Several panelists noted that in fact conversations on a "versatile" or "malleable" PhD have been taking place for decades; it is only now that the large professional associations are beginning to acknowledge this reality and working to counter the stigma attached to employment outside academy.
Taken together, these sessions offered an eclectic mix of personal narratives, policy proposals, and practical advice for job-seekers. Participating historians discussed their experiences in a wide range of workplaces—an educational nonprofit; various offices in college and university administration; an online site devoted to digital marketing, media, and commerce; a university press; a foreign affairs-focused private intelligence company; and the National Park Service and other agencies of the federal government. These panelists discussed their personal journeys from history graduate school to careers outside the academy. Some were responding to the poor academic job market for history PhDs; one noted, "I wanted to live the dream [of becoming a college professor], but the dream died."
However, most seemed to have made an affirmative choice to pursue a career path based on their particular skills, interests, desire to live in a particular part of the country, or, in some cases, eagerness to find a nine-to-five job free of the pressures that come with the trappings of tenure and the never-ending demand to publish. Panelists mentioned their own turning points—coping with a serious illness, falling in love, realizing that they did not enjoy teaching—that made them reevaluate their plans and priorities.
Based on their own experiences, these panelists offered advice to graduate students and newly minted PhDs. They described pursuing unpaid internships, online information related to specific jobs and the application process, and personal contacts (through, for example, "informational interviews"). They also offered candid observations on certain aspects of nonacademic employment—in some cases, rigorous on-the-job training, very few vacation days per year, the lack of adequate benefits such as health care, and rigid office structures and hierarchies. Several mentioned that they had found rewarding employment only after accepting the fact that they must start at the bottom of the institutional ladder making copies and running errands, tasks that seemed at odds with their lengthy formal education and the PhD next to their names. Serving as your own best advocate in promoting your strengths and pursuing your interests was also cited as key to finding a nonteaching job.
The panelists listed the skills that they had learned in graduate school that now served them well—teaching and speaking before an audience generally, learning to write clearly and concisely, absorbing new and large amounts of information quickly, mastering quantitative data and foreign languages, using a variety of research methodologies, evaluating and comparing different kinds of evidence, and organizing and completing a large research project (the dissertation). Above all, historians are skilled at telling stories, and telling them well—skills valued in a wide variety of jobs and sectors of the economy.
One theme that emerged in some form or another throughout the mini-conference was the need to change history department graduate-education cultures. Too many faculty, administrators, and students disparage employment outside the academy. To them, a tenure-track teaching job is the "brass ring," the "gold standard" by which all history PhDs must be measured. Often departments reveal an explicit bias toward traditional students by favoring for admission those who aim to become professors, and by rewarding those students with fellowships and other resources.
Suggestions for transforming this culture included avoiding terms such as "alternative careers" and "Plan B," which imply that nonteaching positions are inherently inferior to those in the academy. In some cases, accurate placement records yield surprising results—that a considerable percentage of graduates are currently employed in nonacademic jobs like working in finance, business, government service, publishing, and academic administration, or starting companies, schools, and nonprofits.
Programs should celebrate these graduates; sponsoring a panel of such alums is a useful way to introduce current students to various employment possibilities. Programs should maintain a flexible curriculum, allow students to explore other disciplines, fund internships for students who could not otherwise afford to pursue them, foster collaborative and team learning, devise innovative ways to produce and evaluate scholarship, and encourage students to take courses in statistics, public speaking, and the digital humanities. Directors of graduate studies should introduce the idea of the malleable PhD during orientation, and not wait until a sense of panic or crisis sets in among advanced students. Department chairs and senior faculty must make a convincing case to deans and other high administrators that graduate programs should not be evaluated on the basis of tenure-track placements exclusively. Above all, faculty should have the best interests of their students at heart, and support and affirm the choices of students who are inclined to leave graduate study and pursue other options, choices that are in fact affirmative life decisions and not evidence of personal shortcomings or academic failings.
Panelists and audience members discussed the broader ramifications of all of these topics: What about the notion that graduate education must remain a bastion of the ideal, an enemy of the material? Does graduate education need a complete overhaul, starting with the requirement that all students write a dissertation, in favor of other kinds of scholarly activity and production? Does an emphasis on the malleable PhD dilute the training of the professoriate? What is the role of the historian in the larger society? The mini-conference generated a number of lively discussions that will enable the profession to move forward with a more expansive, and realistic, view of the job market for history PhDs.
Jacqueline Jones (Univ. of Texas at Austin) is the AHA's vice president, Professional Division.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Attribution must provide author name, article title, Perspectives on History, date of publication, and a link to this page. This license applies only to the article, not to text or images used here by permission.


text:
MESA, Ariz — An Arizona, woman is thanking the anonymous good Samaritans who alerted her about a fire and saved her life.
Friday evening, near the intersection of Broadway and Crismon Road in Mesa, Annie Osman was watching television with her husband, unaware that her neighbor's house was on fire and the wind was blowing it her direction.
"The air wasn't running, so we didn't smell anything," said Osman.
A witness remembers seeing five young men stopping their cars running toward the fire.
"Five young men parked their cars or stopped their cars in the middle of the road, bolted across the road, jumping fences straight toward the barreling smoke and flames," said Cindy Flabland.
"They were going door to door knocking on doors making sure everyone was out," said neighbor Lola Owens.
"They were screaming to get out of the house. Just 'Get out! Get out!'" said Osman. "If we hadn't had got out when we did, we wouldn't be here, they saved our life."
Osman and her husband were able to escape before the fire destroyed most of their home. The fire destroyed their neighbor's home and tore through the couple's backyard and side wall. She and her husband are currently living in a hotel.
Owens said two of the men helped rescue and transport her three dogs and pet pig to safety.
"The fireman said we have two minutes to get our animals out," said Owens. "We were able to get all of our animals out safely and they even loaded up the pig in their truck. It was one of the most scary things in my life."
Flabland, who was one of the many people who called 911, stopped the five young men and asked to take their picture. Which is all these neighbors have to go off to say thank you to the men who risked their own lives to alert of a fire.
"How wonderful these people are. I can't thank them enough," said Osman.
This story was originally published by Adam Waltz at KNXV.


text:
Celebrate the festival of Diwali with the unmissable offers and deals from Lotus Electronics 'Diwali Deal Festival'. Get Up to 70% off on your electronics products and 10% cashback on cards.
October 22: On the auspicious occasion of Diwali, Lotus Electronics brings to you the Diwali Deal Festival from October 16, 2022, to October 30, 2022.
Customers can get up to 70% discount on all electronic products available at Lotus Electronics (Online and Offline) and also get up to 10% cashback on their card shopping. Customers can also use coupon code 'LOTUSDEAL' to avail a discount of ₹500 (Subjected to conditions).
Lotus Electronics provides customers with a wide range of electronic products such as TVs, Laptops, Smartphones, Washing Machines, Refrigerators, Air Conditioners, Water Purifier RO, Microwave Ovens, and various brands like Sony, LG, OnePlus, HP, Lenovo, Vivo, Oppo, Godrej, Kent, and whatever one can think of.
During this festive season, Lotus is offering Some of the top trending deals of this 2022 festive season and a range of irresistible discount on electronic products for their customers – avail discounts on Audio Systems up to 70%, discounts on LEDs up to 60%, offers on Smartphones upto 50% , deals on Air Conditioners up to 50% , offers on Refrigerators up to 45% and many more.
Moreover, customers can now avail the deal of five components offered by Lotus, during this festive season sale. However, the electronic sale at Lotus Electronics is not just restricted to offers, but also products that are right for buyers, electronics offers which have savings through – corporate discounts by brands, discounts by Lotus Electronics, finance offers, simple EMIs, extended warranty and so on. The electronics deals also include service that goes beyond providing information about a product or service to encompass installation and demonstration at home as well as providing complete satisfaction to customers. The deals on electronics products also means an extraordinary shopping experience like none other and 22-year-old trust that establishes bonds and makes them stronger.
Bringing joy to one's home on the first day of Diwali is what everyone would wish for. So, a visit to Lotus Electronics store or log-in to www.lotuselectronics.com ,this can definitely make your festive season joyous.
The electronics tyohar at Lotus Electronics has best deals on both offline and online. They regularly come up with interesting electronics sales, offers, and other exciting deals that benefit customers.
Lotus Electronics, which started its operations in the year 2000 from Indore, is now spread over 8 cities with 19 showrooms. The store has a range of electronic products and is home to all national and international brands. The range includes ACs, washing machines, dishwashers, chimneys, air purifiers, water purifiers, vacuum cleaners, geysers, fans, mixers, mobiles, laptops, refrigerators, microwave ovens, atta makers, coffee makers, LEDs, Home theatres, game consoles, coolers, heaters, computers, cameras, personal care electronic items like hair dryers, trimmers, shavers, and more. Brands at Lotus include renowned names like Samsung, LG, Sony, Philips, Whirlpool, Panasonic, Videocon, Voltas, Haier, Godrej, Lenovo, HP, Dell, etc. Lotus Electronics also offers high end products like Amazon Fire Stick, ECHO DOT, Apple iPhone, Sony OLED, Samsung Fold 2, Bose, Samsung Family Hub Ref, LG Twin Wash and more. One can enjoy free gifts, discounts, attractive exchange offers, flat discounts, company specific offers and more around the year at Lotus Electronics. The store has always sought to strengthen its stance of always offering something more and being more than an ordinary electronics showroom. It goes beyond just electronics and encompasses the entire range of unique experiences that one likes to enjoy. For example, Lotus Electronics not only focuses on a vast range of world class electronic products and appliances, but has a wide variety of deals and offers on electronics. Lotus Electronics backs all these offers with its legendary after sales services, expert advice, extended warranty option and also things like quick delivery, and more.
So for this 2022 Navratri, buy electronics and get khushiya this Diwali 2022. Plan your electronics shopping at Lotus Electronics soon!
If you have any objection to this press release content, kindly contact firstname.lastname@example.com to notify us. We will respond and rectify the situation in the next 24 hours.