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GLENDALE, N.Y. -- Thousands of police officers from across the nation packed a church and spilled onto streets Saturday to honor Officer Rafael Ramos as a devoted family man, aspiring chaplain and hero, though an air of unrest surrounding his ambush shooting was not completely pushed aside.
PHOTOS: Funeral held for NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos
Although mourners inside the church applauded politely as Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke, hundreds of officers outside turned their backs on him in a show of disrespect for what they see as his support for anti-police protesters.
The rush of officers far and wide to New York for Ramos' funeral reminded some of the bond after the Sept. 11 attacks and Superstorm Sandy. Vice President Joe Biden promised that the "incredibly diverse city can and will show the nation how to bridge any divide."
Still, tensions were evident when officers turned away from giant screens showing de Blasio, who has been harshly criticized by New York Police Department union officials as a contributor to a climate of mistrust that contributed to the killings of the officers.
Sgt. Myron Joseph of the New Rochelle Police Department said he and fellow officers turned their backs spontaneously to "support our brothers in the NYPD."
The NYPD said through its public relations office that it had no comment.
In his eulogy, de Blasio said hearts citywide were broken after the Dec. 20 shootings.
"All of this city is grieving and grieving for so many reasons," de Blasio said. "But the most personal is that we've lost such a good man, and the family is in such pain."
Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised the sea of blue mourners for their professionalism at recent rallies over police conduct when protesters insulted them, and Biden spoke passionately about the effects of the killings of Ramos and his partner, Officer Wen Jian Liu, in their patrol car.
VIDEO: City mourning fallen NYPD officer at wake
"When an assassin's bullet targeted two officers, it targeted this city and it touched the soul of an entire nation," the vice president said.
Police union officials in contentious contract negotiations with the city have faulted de Blasio for showing sympathy to protesters angry no charges were filed in the police deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island.
At a hospital after the officers' slayings, the police union's president, Patrick Lynch, and others turned their backs on de Blasio. Lynch said the mayor had "blood on his hands."
After the funeral, Lynch and de Blasio exchanged nods as they exited the church. Lynch refused to answer reporters' questions about officers turning their backs.
De Blasio later released a statement saying, "The Ramos and Liu families, our police department and our city are dealing with an unconscionable tragedy. Our sole focus is unifying this city and honoring the lives of our two police officers."
Weeks before the shooting, Lynch had suggested officers sign a petition requesting that the mayor not attend their funerals were they to die in the line of duty.
Soon after taking office this year, de Blasio dropped the city's opposition to a judge's finding that the police department discriminated against minorities with its anti-crime stop-and-frisk tactics.
But since last week's shootings, de Blasio has stood firmly by police, calling on demonstrators to temporarily halt protests and praising the department after it arrested several men charged with threatening police.
The killings shook the city and put an end to large-scale local protests criticizing police over the high-profile, in-custody deaths.
Funeral plans for Ramos' partner, Officer Wenjian Liu, have yet to be announced.
When the Ramos family arrived at church Saturday, the elder son - wearing his father's NYPD jacket - was hugged by a police officer.
Ramos, a 40-year-old married father of two, was studying to become a pastor and kept Bible study books in his locker, his commanding officer said.
Police Commissioner William Bratton announced in a eulogy that Ramos had been made honorary chaplain of the police precinct where he had worked.
Bratton said in his eulogy that Ramos and Liu would be "partners for all time." Speaking to Ramos' children, he said: "We are here because your dad was assassinated. It's a different word than 'murdered.' It makes the crime intentional and symbolic. Your dad was assassinated because he represented something."
Officer Dustin Lindaman of the Waterloo Police Department flew from Iowa to attend the funeral.
"He's one of our brothers, and when this happens, it affects everyone in law enforcement - it absolutely affects everyone," he said.
A block from the church, retired NYPD Officer John Mangan held a sign that read: "God Bless the NYPD. Dump de Blasio."
"If the mayor really wanted to do the right thing, he would have gotten into an NYPD car and rode around Bed Stuy and see the difficult jobs these cops do every day," Mangan said.
After the officers' deaths, the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley killed himself. Police said he was troubled and had shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend in Baltimore earlier that day.
In online posts shortly before the attack, Brinsley referenced the killings of Brown and Garner, both of whom were black, by white police officers.
Ramos and Liu were the first officers to die in the line of duty in New York since 2011.
They have both been posthumously promoted to first-grade detective, police said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Dogale Trama Gold Centrepiece D.32cm
Dogale is the perfect marriage of two timeless and luxurious materials: glass and silver, creating one of a kind gift items and decorative pieces. Objects signed by Dogale do not oxidize because they are protected by a special paint, and do not need particular maintenance. Every single piece is different from another. Unique and unrepeatable because it is representative of an absolutely handcrafted process. Captivating nuances, peculiar shapes, particular attention in finishes, these collections are based upon the traditions of ancient venetian glass making art with distinctly luminescent colors.
Additional information
Color | GOLD |
Brand | DOGALE |
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The Drostdy Museum
The Drostdy was built by the Dutch East India Company in 1747 to serve as residence and official headquarters for the Landdrost. Soon after gaol, a house for the secretary, a mill and various outbuildings were erected.
The first Landdrost to be appointed to this district was Johannes Theophilus Rhenius and he was assisted by a board of burger heemraden and subordinates like secretary and a gaoler as well as many slaves. From 1827 the Drostdy was occupied by the civil commissioner who, with the resident magistrate, replaced the board of Landdrost and heemraden when they were abolished by the British colonial government.
In 1846 the government sold the Drostdy and the property was subdivided. In 1855 the former Drostdy was bought by the Steyn family and it remained in the hands of this family until 1939 when it was bought by the government of the Union of South Africa for the purpose of establishing a museum.


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Luxury Active Adult Gated Golf Condo The Greens at Half Hollow Hills
The Greens, 55 And Over In Melville New York 11747
Stop your search!
If you are looking for a 55 And Over Active Adult Community in Suffolk County Long Island, you have just found it.
The Greens At Half Hollow In Melville New York 11747
Where Is The Greens At Half Hollow?
The Greens At Half Hollow is an Active 55 And Over Condo Community in Melville, New York 11747. You can reach The Greens from The Long Island Expressway Exit 50, or The Northern State Parkway Exit 40S, near Route 110. You can enter The Greens by the 2 security gates that monitor those who enter and exit the community, providing a secure environment for the residents. The main gatehouse is on Old South Path Road. Living here you are close to The Northern State Parkway, The Long Island Expressway, and Shopping at the popular Route 110 Corridor. It's conveniently located near the Nassau and Suffolk County Border.
What Does The Greens Offer?
The Greens has a variety selection of home styles combining Condos, Townhouses and Villas within the setting of a private Country Club. Positioned on approximately 400 rolling acres, The Greens At Half Hollow offers security, amenities and privacy within a carefree lifestyle community. Realtors Larry (Lawrence) & Sheila are working with out-of-town clients who like the location of The Greens 55 And Over Community. They like the 30,000 sq ft Clubhouse and all amenities at the community including the pools, tennis, fitness center, card rooms and so much more.They liked that there is an 18-holeExecutive Golf Course that is not mandatory to join. They liked that each time they saw the neighborhood, it was very well-maintained. The Greens At Half Hollow in Melville New York 11747 couldn't be more active for your lifestyle.
What Type of Residences Does The Greens Have?
The Villas at The Greens in Melville are at the higher price structures for the community and are the largest. They consist of semi-attached homes, both 2 story designs and ranch floor plans, with 2 or 3 bedrooms. All the Villas have 2 car garages, some have basements, and some have golf course views.
The Townhouses are 4-attached homes grouped together in a quad. The interior units have a 1 car garage, and the exterior Townhouses have a 2 car basements and elevators too. The master bedrooms in the Townhouses are on the main level and there is an additional 1 or 2 bedroom, full bath and loft on the upper level.
The Condos are the most affordable units at The Greens at Half Hollow. They are upper or ground level units. These are 2 bedrooms with 1.5 baths or 2 full baths, and some upper units have a floor plan with a cozy additional space that is usually used as a small den or office. No garages for these Condo units, but there is ample parking for you and your guests.
What Else Can You Tell Me About The Greens?
Opened in 2003, Besides the Golf at The Greens, which is not mandatory to join, the Clubhouse has a Restaurant which does not have a monthly charge. Just charge as you go, if you want to go. There are monthly common charge/maintenance fees which include maintaining the common grounds of the community, the use of the facilities, and also a social fee. A leisure lifestyle awaits you at The Greens. As a Premier neighborhood, well-maintained residences do not sit on the market for long when they are listed for sale.
Do you have additional questions regarding The Greens 55 And Over In Melville Long Island? Call 631-805-4400 (c).
Realtors Lawrence "LARRY" AND SHEILA AGRANOFF can sell you a residence in The Greens At Half Hollow In Melville New York when they are available, or any other community on the North Shore. If you would like to sell your present residence and list it with us, we can feature it on our popular websites.
We Know All The 55 And Over Active Adult communities on Long Island!


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12 September 2013 5:42 PM
03 September 2013 5:06 PM
When Van Rompuy held hands with Gaddhafi: Nigel Farage's idea of euro-art
The thing about the European Parliament is that, no matter how many times I go into the place, there is always something new to annoy me.
This afternoon I headed into the parliament -- to be specific, into the Altieri Spinelli Building, named for a dead Italian communist and European Federalist -- bound for a brief talk with Nigel Farage in his office. And if you want to know how Farage is, the answer is happy and more confident than ever after the House of Commons woke up last week, listened to their constituents and defeated the Government's plans to bomb Syria.
But I was hardly in the door from the Place Luxembourg, still a long way from Farage's office, when there it was, the annoyance of the day: a poster announcing an exhibition of Lithuanian pictures 'from the European Parliament's art collection.'
That's right, pain, misery, unemployment, failing commerce and industry, bust banks across the EU and the members of parliament are amassing their own art collection, just like Louis XIV: your tax money decorating their walls. How much? The parliament's officials say the 387 pieces in the collection are worth almost £15.2m
I was still exercising my annoyance over the art collection when I arrived at Farage's office. While he finished his telephone call, I checked his walls for signs of 'euro-art'.
No chance. Here is what the UKIP leader has on his wall while other Members of the European Parliament enjoy taxpayer-funded pictures. If I may fall back onto my time in Bond Street where I studied Old Master Pictures, I will point out that the hand clasp is a particularly tender passage in this composition...
'I like your taste in pictures,' I told Farage. He said the shot was a souvenir of his attack in the European Parliament - well, I'd note that should be one of his attacks - on Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, over the warmth of his relationship with the Libyan dictator.
Here's a transcript of the moment on March 16, 2011. I'd call it performance art.
'Mr van Rompuy, I hope you resist the calls for military action this afternoon, indeed the Liberal leader, Mr Verhofstadt, made a very pro-war speech. I hope you will resist that on the grounds that there is no legitimacy or consent for the European Union to take military action, and that experience shows that if you go into military action, that may be easy, but getting out of it can be rather more difficult, and getting involved in Libya could indeed be a Vietnam-type experience, so please, please resist it.'
'But on Colonel Gaddafi, himself - you're quite right to say that what is happening in Libya is really very wrong indeed. But, of course, we knew that even before the uprising. Just last year he declared a holy war - a jihad - against the Swiss; he tried to blackmail the European Union - do you remember? He said give us 5 billion euros or we'll flood you with migrants.'
'And of course he's the man who was happy to embrace Al Megrahi, the man who committed the biggest ever mass murder in British history.'
'But what you didn't tell us in your speech was about the fact that you actually know Mr Gaddafi. Indeed you went to meet him in December didn't you? Do you remember?'
'In fact there's a jolly nice photograph of you and Mr Gaddafi holding hands - in fact I have to say, I've never seen you smiling more or looking happier. Perhaps he's an old drinking mate. I don't know!'
'But, I wonder why? Why would you want to be photographed with Mr Gaddafi? And I put it to you that it could well be that since you were appointed as President of Europe - and your side-kick, the Noble Baroness Ashton became a High Representative for Foreign Affairs - that you know that you've been seen on the global stage like a couple of political pygmies.'
'As Wikileaks showed you were very unhappy that you weren't being recognised - unhappy that you were snubbed by Obama - and here was the chance to go along and be accepted by a head of state.'
'I don't think that you, there, parading with dictators, was a very good and sensible thing to do, indeed not just you. The British Labour government made similar mistakes.'
'But I do ask you at this juncture - with the horrendous things that are going on in Libya - I do ask you: Do you accept that it was an error of judgement to be photographed as recently as December with Colonel Gaddafi and would you please, if you do, apologise for it.'
One still waits for the apology... call it 'Waiting for Uh-oh.' More performance art.
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02 September 2013 12:41 PM
Do German voters know? 'Germany must lend, give and spend or euro is in a hospice'
This just in from the veteran economist Brian Reading at Lombard Street Research. Given the strength of Mrs Merkel in the opinion polls in the run-up to the election, it appears to me that the German voters haven't figured this one out yet:
'Germany must lend, give and spend with abandon to save the euro. Unless nominal growth exceeds debt interest rates, stabilising debt ratios requires primary budget surpluses. Big surpluses are needed to reduce big debt. But retrenchment destroys growth. Optimistic IMF forecasts show mission impossible.'
'Trillions of words have been written about the euro debacle. In the process most have lost sight of debt-trap arithmetic...'
Reading then produces charts based on 'somewhat stale IMF April forecasts,' but these provide 'all the data needed to do the arithmetic.'
I won't take you through the thickets of the charts, but they cover the unfudgeable facts of debt interest rates and what kind of budgets and GDP growth it would take for the eurozone periphery countries to get out out of their fine mess. The figures don't look do-able.
'Unless growth spurts despite the drag from retrenchment, it will be hard to obtain market access at current rates given continued high debts and sizeable bailout loans to repay. The euro can be rescued by official lending of more good money for bad at artificially low rates, essentially gifts rather than loans or haircuts.
'Will Germany be willing to accept this task?'
'Otherwise the euro is in a hospice.'
Let's hope the German voters wake up and refuse to 'accept this task.' Putting the euro in a hospice sounds good. Though of course I'd prefer putting it in front of a firing squad.
PS Today, Tuesday, Open Europe have published the first part of a three-part poll about Germans' views on Europe. The headline fact: 'German voters say next Chancellor' -- that'll be Merkel, then -- 'lacks mandate to press ahead with further financial support for eurozone.'
Their analyst Nina Schick reads it this way: 'German voters' support for "more Europe" seems to be mostly limited to strict control over other countries' spending. On all other eurozone initiatives currently being discussed -- including debt write-downs and a banking union -- a majority of Germans remain opposed.'
So it looks like there is indeed no taste in Germany to 'lend, give and spend with abandon' to save the euro. It's just a matter of time...
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26 August 2013 1:17 AM
Courage, power and allies: Iceland may be independent, but it is not isolated
Here is my column from Monday's Irish Daily Mail -
Take the 100,000 mortgages we now know are in arrears in this country. Multiply the 100k by, say, the four to five people in an average household. That makes nearly half a million people in this country whose lives are paralysed by mortgage debt.
I'd like every one of those half-mil who are over 18 – no need to upset the children on this one - to take this thought into a corner and thumb-suck over it: in Iceland, a country which suffered a financial and economic crash every bit as spectacular as our own, the government is ready to cut up to 20 per cent off every mortgage.
The Reykjavik government can do this because the Icelandic economy is now strong enough to bear the fiscal cost. The economy grew 4.4 per cent in the year to the first quarter, unemployment is back below four per cent, and the banks are now liquid and well-capitalised, while non-performing loans have declined.
Iceland's progress on the road to recovery is impressive – and it is a genuine recovery, not some irrelevance like our non-recovery goal of 'leaving the troika programme' while our economy continues to shrink.
No more negotiations
It was no surprise last week that the new eurosceptic Icelandic government said it will now consider dissolving the committee negotiating to join the EU. No committee, no negotiations: Iceland stays independent, though the government will hold a referendum to give the people a chance to confirm this policy. Polls show a big majority against membership.
Even the pro-EU online journal, EurActiv, admitted last week that 'the decision of Iceland to stop the accession talks can be seen as bad news in Brussels. Croatia's recent accession gave EU leaders the opportunity to boast about the attractiveness of EU membership, despite the economic and sovereign debt crises.'
Of course, Iceland has stopped negotiations. When the country is achieving growth, the like of which the eurozone can only dream, why surrender sovereignty to the over-regulated, failing, ageing, economically-illiterate, sclerotic EU?
Commission stalker
Not that the European Commission is willing to take no for an answer. At the midday briefing at the commission headquarters on Friday, the spokesman for the commissioner in charge of enlargement indicated that as far as the commission is concerned, the Icelandic application for membership 'is still on the table.'
This is the commission in stalker mode: standing outside Iceland's house night after night, staring up at beautiful Reykjavik's darkened bedroom window, refusing to accept that she means it when she tells him she's not interested. Reykjavik has other suitors: Chinese ones. More details in a moment, but it can be no surprise.
Last week Capital Economics in London noted all those economic statistics above, and added this: 'The private sector [in Iceland] is well into the deleveraging process as debt is repaid and loans indexed to foreign currencies are written off. Household debt has fallen from 134 per cent of GDP to 110 perc ent, while firms have halved their debt loads to 150 per cent of GDP. Even public debt has fallen six percentage points to 98 per cent since 2011.'
All those trends are just bliss. Okay, there are still problems. A cut of 20 per cent off all mortgages 'could hamper efforts to lift the capital controls.'
Another problem is that because 'exports concentrate in only a few products – fishing and aluminium account for 60 per cent – Iceland is vulnerable to sharp swings in its terms of trade.'
Chinese investors
But Iceland appears to have no intention of leaving its economy so dependent on just a few products. What Capital Economics don't mention are the Chinese investors poised to pour multi-millions of dollars into Iceland.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg financial news service reported that 'Chinese billionaire Huang Nubo is ready to put money into developing property in Iceland as the new government reviews investment laws that had blocked his previous bid.'
What Mr Huang has planned is the development of a $200m resort and mountain park. According to Bloomberg, the 116 square miles of land on which he has his eye would become a platform from which to invest elsewhere in the Nordic region.
I will interrupt that Bloomberg thought to point out that, except for Norway, the countries of the Nordic Region are all in the EU: but Mr Huang knows that basing his investments in independent Iceland is no barrier to operating there. Iceland operates inside the European Economic Area (EEA), which means it and its foreign direct investors can operate inside the single market exactly as they would if Iceland were an EU member.
Geothermal energy
There are more Chinese projects lining up. In April, Iceland became the first European nation to sign a free trade agreement with China. What is it selling to China? For a start, it is selling its expertise in geothermal energy.
But there will be more. On August 12th the Financial Times ran this story: 'Chinese cargo ship to attempt historic first transit of Northeast Passage.' The FT had a map showing the route climate change will allow Chinese shipping to take over the top of Russia and down into European ports.
But what the map showed was far more than just the added speed with which shipping could move between European and Chinese ports. What it showed is just how close this new trade route will be to Iceland. Suddenly that island nation looks less far-north and more dead-strategic.
I bounced the map over to Hjortur Gudmundsson, a political scientist in Reykjavik, to ask what he thought about it. He told me: 'This has been discussed a lot in Iceland in recent years. The Chinese have been looking at Iceland for quite some time as a possible place for a large container port. And perhaps something more than that.'
As far as I can tell, the possible 'something more than that' is signalled by that new free trade agreement between Iceland and China. Geothermal energy is just the start. If the Chinese set up manufacturing in Iceland, the goods will have the same access to the single market as do goods manufactured in Ireland or any other EU country. Asian generic pharmaceuticals, anyone?
None of which means that Iceland intends to stop building up its fishing industry. Recently the EU has been trying to bully Iceland with accusations of over-fishing. I won't go into details – if you really want to know about total available catch and quota allocation on Atlanto-Scandian herring, maybe some other time – but the Icelanders know illegal sanctions when Brussels tries them on.
Iceland has independent representation at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and many other international trade organisations which are at a higher level than the European Commission.
I'd guess that is why Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, the new prime minister of Iceland, was so relaxed when I saw him after his first meeting with commission president José Manuel Barroso earlier this month.
At the press conference, a reporter asked Mr Gunnlaugsson how his country would cope with sanctions imposed by the EU. The Icelander batted away the problem with a single phrase: 'I think it must be unlikely that such sanctions would be put in place, particularly sanctions that would not be in accord with the WTO and EEA agreements.'
Exactly. Iceland has its own seat at the top table of global trade organisations, it has the same powers as other independent states at the WTO and the UN organisations. These organisations make the trade law which the EU is obliged to put into its directives.
So Iceland may be independent, but it is not isolated. It has powers. It has allies. It has standing. And it has courage. Go thumb-suck over that, too: what it means to be a sovereign state.
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19 August 2013 2:53 AM
Putin's Russia: no place for sissies, gay or straight
Here is my column from Monday's Irish Daily Mail --
Gay bashing is bad in Russia and it may be getting worse. Thugs have been seizing gays – or men assumed to be gay -- assaulting and humiliating them, taping the attacks, and putting the stuff online.
One thug who filmed an attack on a 21-year old student accused of being a 'passive homosexual' said: 'This is how it will be with every homosexual.'
A Moscow activist, Alexander Verkhovsky, head of an organisation that monitors such violence, last week told the Daily Beast that anti-homosexual groups 'are meant to terrorize the entire gay community.'
He then told the Financial Times that 'while homophobic violence is poorly reported, attacks appear to be on the rise and are no longer occurring at random or in isolation.'
This isn't new stuff. Homosexuals have for a long time been the victims of attacks in Russia. That would be less likely to surprise you if you understood how violent the country is in every way. The rate of homicide in Russia is among the highest in the world. The rate of violent deaths of all kinds is phenomenal: by some reckoning the rate is 16.2 per 100,000. Compare that with the United States, where, even with the thousands of killings linked to the drugs trade, the rate of violent deaths per 100,000 to just 6.5. In the United Kingdom the rate is a slight 1.1 per 100,000.
So thugs in Russia attack homosexuals, but then thugs in Russia attack almost anyone, and they are drunk while they do it. Russia has one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption in the world. It is a country where the chances of any man dying of old age in his bed are slight by Western standards: murder or assault or a drunken car crash will get him first.
Or in the case of a young homosexual, drunken skinheads with baseball bats will get him first. Russia is no place for sissies, gay or straight.
As I say, this isn't new, but it is in the news now because the Winter Olympics are to take place in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in 2014. Campaigners in America and Britain in support of equal rights for gays say that the games should be shifted out of Russia because President Putin is encouraging these attacks on homosexuals.
Mr Putin and his officials say they aren't encouraging any such thing. Rather, they say, what they have done is put in place laws prohibiting homosexual propaganda directed at under-18s.
This, the government insists, is in line with the norms of Russian culture and society -- and anyway, they say, the laws have not been much enforced and attacks on homosexuals remain criminal.
Problem is, of course, that the laws against such attacks have not been much enforced either, and the thugs are getting away with their crimes.
So far, so reasonable, if you want to campaign against all this, indeed, if you want to campaign against holding the Winter Olympics in Russia. This violence is repellent stuff. Call Vladimir Putin almost any name you like and I'm probably going to say: 'You've got a point.'
But here's the thing. Some of the equal-rights-for-gays campaigners have tipped over into territory that has nothing to do with equality and everything to do with bullying and suppression of the freedom of speech.
Last Thursday Yelena Isinbayeva, a Russian two-times Olympic gold medallist pole vault champion, defended her country's laws on homosexual propaganda: 'We just live with boys with women, women with boys. We never had these problems in Russia and we don't want to have any in future.'
Cue Western mob attack on the woman for daring to express her opinion. Within hours Miss Isinbayeva was forced to 'clarify' her statement in a press release from the International Federation of Athletics Federations, the world governing body of athletics: 'English is not my first language and I think I may have been misunderstood.'
Subtext: please may I have my pole back now?
If she'd not done a recantation of her 'homophobic' statement, you can bet the greatest woman pole-vaulter of all time – or so I'm told she is – would find her ability to compete in future ruined by those who cannot tolerate anyone who disagrees with their views on homosexuality.
What this 'outrage' over Miss Isinbayeva shows is that, with some campaigners, supporting equal rights for gays means suppressing equal rights for anyone who might want the liberty to support his own cultural taboos.
Of which all cultures have plenty. I'm reminded of a tag-line for National Geographic: 'We've taken you around the world exploring behaviours and lifestyles that are acceptable in some cultures but forbidden, illegal or reviled in others.'
Fashionable American and British campaigners may refuse to grasp this, but what is acceptable in San Francisco or Islington is not acceptable in most other cultures of the world. Plenty of what goes on in San Francisco or Islington is, as the line goes, forbidden, illegal or reviled elsewhere.
Yet somehow San Francisco and Islington now think they have the right to impose their cultural colonialism on such places.
This is where I part company with those who support equal rights for homosexuals: I leave at the point where they turn illiberal.
Or irrational.
For irrationality, I give you the campaign which is being organised by a British television comedian, Stephen Fry. He claims the Winter Olympics have to be shifted because President Putin 'is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews' before the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He says Putin is 'eerily repeating this insane crime.'
I'd say that there would have been a lot of Jews between 1933 and 1945 who would have been grateful if all Hitler did was pass a law barring propaganda in favour of Judaism. Putin's law is obnoxious, but telling the Russian people, who lost more of their own to Hitler than did any other nation, that their present government's law is 'eerily' like Hitler's crimes is insulting and absurd.
More, Mr Fry is engaged in cultural colonialism. He insists that if the games are held in Sochi, 'the five rings' would be 'ruined in the eyes of the civilised world.'
That implies there exists an 'uncivilised world,' one which has a similar outlook to Russia.
I call this to your attention: many countries, especially countries in Africa, have cultures which abhor homosexuality. A Pew Research poll published in June showed that in sub-Saharan Africa, at least nine-in-ten in Nigeria (98 percent), Senegal (96 percent), Ghana (96 percent), Uganda (96 percent) and Kenya (90 percent) 'believe homosexuality should not be accepted by society.' Overwhelming majorities in the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed also said homosexuality should be rejected.
Are these countries therefore to be left out of Mr Fry's list of what countries can be considered 'civilised?' Such a 19th century British colonial attitude, that.
Mr Fry then goes on to say that the summer Olympics of 2012 'were one of the most glorious moments of my life and the life of my country. For there to be a Russian Winter Olympics would stain the movement forever and wipe away any of that glory.'
Mr Fry's definition of 'stain' is pretty selective. The 2012 Olympics were awarded to the Blair government in 2005. This was the same government which joined in George W Bush's 2003 invasion and destruction of Iraq.
The games were awarded to Britain in the midst of the Iraq War, a war rigged up on lies and bent intelligence. Iraqbodycount.org say they calculate between 112,017 and 122,438 civilian deaths were suffered in Iraq between March 20, 2003 and March 14, 2013.
One could say that a gay in Moscow would have a better chance of survival than almost anyone in Iraq under the invasion which only occurred because the Blair government agreed to join President Bush in his plan to topple Saddam Hussein.
Yet the 2012 games were awarded to the Blair government, and Mr Fry found them 'one of the most glorious moments' in his life.
As I say, this is where I part company with such campaigners: when they become irrational. What Putin may be doing to gays is as nothing to what Blair did to Iraqis of every sexual direction. Yet the Olympics went to London, and they are now not supposed to go to Sochi. Fry's a comedian. It must be a joke.
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31 July 2013 1:17 PM
Queasy in Brussels: remembering when Clegg did Love Boat at the EU
I understand yesterday's Love Boat photo-op of Nick Clegg and his rich corporate lawyer wife gazing into each other's eyes onboard a Thames commuter craft left plenty of people in Britain feeling queasy.
But don't complain about it, just consider that it was your turn.
The first time Clegg came here to Brussels after he was made deputy prime minister I watched his performance at the British Permanent Representation to the EU. It made its own kind of queasy. Here was my report from March 2011, to remind:
Well, that was enlightening, in ways the deputy prime minister never intended.
Nick Clegg gave his speech this evening at the British Permanent Representation to the EU. Since the deputy prime minister was due to talk about what should be the European response to events in Libya, I thought the room would be mostly journalists, diplomats and whoever was travelling with Clegg.
At ten minutes to showtime, the room filled up with Continentals in suits and ties: it seems Clegg's Brussels fan base is made up of EU think-tank types.
So I was across from the director of the Egmont, the think-tank of the (Belgian) Royal Institute for International Relations, which is a long title for something that could be covered as: 80 percent funding from the Belgian foreign ministry to push for ever closer union (in the EU, not Belgium, of course. Belgian doesn't have ever-closer anything, since it hasn't had a government since last summer. A situation of which I thoroughly approve, but that is for another post.)
I was behind a couple of suits from the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), which gets its funding from -- now, wait you're going to love this. The CEPS website announces that it 'obtains its funding from a variety of sources, which helps to guarantee its independence.' And right next to that is a pie chart showing 31 percent of its money comes from running projects funded by the European Commission.There are another couple of slices from other EU institutions. That's what passes for 'independent' in this town.
Also sitting in front of me was Hans Martens, chief executive of another think tank, the European Policy Centre (EPS), which also proclaims its independence...right above the admission it gets money from the EU.
Which explains what followed Clegg's speech. (If you want to know what he said, it was along the lines of 'I would like to very warmly welcome President Barroso's call this morning for a pact for democracy and shared prosperity' and the need for 'a bold new European offer.' So, boilerplate.)
Here comes the enlightening part. As soon Clegg finished his speech, the diplomat with the mic said there would be just 15 minutes for questions, and then immediately handed the mic to Hans Martens, the man from the 'independent' EPS.
Martens hadn't even had his hand up. I smelt a rat.
Here is how Think-Tank Martens began: 'I have a question for the UK Deputy Prime Minister, formerly Nick.'
At which all the think-tank types around me gave knowing little Continental chuckles, because of course, 'Nick' is One Of Them. This was the Manchurian Candidate come back to visit his mates at his Old School for the day.
Remember: after Clegg worked his five years as a eurocrat in the commission, and after he had his five gold-plated years as a member of the European Parliament, Clegg had a job doing research for -- right, the EPS, whose boss was given the favour of asking the first question.
Later the same boss asked me if I thought the way he had asked the question -- the 'Nick' opening -- had been all right.
I assured him I thought it was perfect....and it was, in so many ways.
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21 July 2013 11:46 AM
The new king of the Belgians: I decline to celebrate
Today, Sunday, is the day Albert II, King of the Belgians, abdicates in favour of his son Philippe. This is not going to be a big deal here in Belgium - well, not in terms of festivities anyway, no crowd of visiting monarchs or anything - because the King only announced three weeks ago that he was stepping down.
The 'celebrations' - though you can bet the Flemish separatists won't be doing much celebrating - will be run as part of a beefed-up annual National Day.
I would ignore it, but I'm not going to be allowed to.
(If you want to know my thoughts on the origins of the monarchy in Belgium, see my blog post of May 6th.)
As I say, I'm not going to be allowed to ignore it. I've already been warned, by a notice dropped into my letter box last week by the bureaucrats at my 'commune' (local borough) that today '101 coups de canon' will be fired in the Parc Du Cinquantenaire between 12.45 and 1.35 pm, 'en hommage' to 'Roi Philippe.'
I live practically on top of the Parc, so I'm going to have to get the full 101 blasts, followed by the Belgian army band roaring away the national anthem, and worse, Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which the EU has tainted forever by claiming it as their 'anthem.'
It's that last bit I find impossible to take.
But I'm ready for it. All my windows are open and between 12.45 and 1.35 pm there will be quite a lot of Jimi Hendrix (look, there is nothing on earth louder than Purple Haze) coming out of my apartment. At whatever decibels are needed.
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19 July 2013 1:15 PM
71% of Britons want out of the EU: the eurocrats know it, but the Brits don't
Seems I had my eye off the ball this week. On Thursday morning as usual I picked up the European Commission's Daily Press Review on my way into the midday briefing. I've mentioned this thing before: it is a 250-300 page printed bundle of stores from newspapers across Europe, circulated to the eurocrats at commission headquarters (yes, you pay for it, and no, you can't have a copy).
I flip through every day it to see if there's anything I've missed on the web -- and also to see which stories it is the eurocrats who put the thing together are choosing for their colleagues to see. (Hint: my stuff almost never makes it, not even when I take the whole leader page in the Irish Daily Mail.)
This particular headline did stop me. It was on page 194 of the review, on a page copied from the Daily Express: 'Call to leave the EU is backed by 71%'
The poll was commissioned by the very serious Bruges Group, so I reckoned: 'Well, that's an important story. How'd I miss that on the news websites this morning?' But then I went off chasing another story I may pitch to the Mail next week, and just assumed a similar sort of headline was in the other British papers.
Except now I realise it wasn't. I saw the story, whoever who read the Express saw the story -- and more to the point, the eurocrats running the press review felt the poll was important enough that even the boss-eurocrats at the top of headquarters had to see the story -- but almost nobody else did. As far as I can see, just the one paper carried the poll.
I have no answer for why the others did not. Have they got summer work-experience interns running the the news desks or what?
So, to make up for what you most likely haven't seen on the news pages of whatever papers you read, here it is, from the Bruges Group:
'A majority of voters would prefer the UK to be a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) as opposed to the EU, according to a new survey published by the Bruges Group.'
'Of those expressig a preference in the survey, a clear 71 percent said that Britain would be better off as a member of the trade group EFTA, as opposed to 29 percent who thought that Britain should remain a member of the EU.'
'The 71 percent in favour comprised support across voters intending to vote for all of the major political parties. (Conservative 81 percent, Labour 54 percent, Lib Dem 50 percent, UKP 95 percent, and others 62 percent).'
'EFTA differs from the EU in that it would not have jurisdication over the UK's agriculture, fisheries, home affairs or justice policies.'
'EFTA would also allow the UK to negotiate free trade agreements with countries outside the EU.'
'In addition, Britain would become again a sovereign nation with more power over its domestic affairs.'
Robert Oulds, director of the Bruges Group, said: 'This poll not only adds to the growing body of evidence that a majority of the British people are realising that Britain would be better off out of the European Union but it also shows that there is a viable alternative to EU membership. The option of re-joining EFTA and becoming like Norway and Switzerland is very popular with the British people.'
Technical notes, for the analytical among you: the opinion poll was carried out by Survation on 3rd July 2013 with 1,085 respondents, with a 3 percent margin of error.
Though I'd say the margin of error by newspapers in not running this story is vastly beyond 3 percent.
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17 July 2013 9:20 PM
Iceland vs EU bullying: the Viking shows what 'independent' really means
I wasn't going to run my column in the Irish Daily Mail last Monday, because I'd reckoned it was too much just on Irish affairs. But yesterday I was lucky enough to be at the press conference at the European Commission for the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson and the president of the commission, José Manuel Barroso.
What an impressive man Gunnlaugsson is.
He and Barroso had had a meeting, and for those who aren't keeping up with this, Iceland and its people have made it clear they do not intend to be railroaded into joining the EU. So I can imagine the meeting was a bit touchy, not least because the issue of mackerel fishing had come up again. The day before the commission had threatened it will impose sanctions on Iceland if it doesn't capitulate to EU demands to take less fish out of its own waters.
More, the vain Barroso -- the man has a film crew on stand-by 24 hours a day, ready for his close-up -- could not have liked standing at a podium next to Gunnlaugsson. The Icelandic p.m. was straight out of Viking central casting. He stood a head taller than the Portuguese Barroso, with slightly reddish dark blonde hair, pale eyes and cream-and-pink complexion -- and a build his suit couldn't hide: he looked genetically programmed to swing a broadsword.
But I digress. Here is the second half of my column. It will be clear after a few paragraphs how Iceland fits in. My topic was the appointment last Friday by the Irish prime minister of a new minister of state for European affairs, Paschal Donohue.
Ten hours after his appointment, Donohue was on one of the main current affairs programmes on the state-owned radio station. It was presented by Pat Kenny. I listed Donohue's limitations for the job, then went on to his lack of understanding of how international trade works.
...I present some of his discussion with Mr Kenny on whether the United Kingdom may vote to leave the EU.
Donohue: 'What is the decision that the United Kingdom is going to make in terms of their membership of the European Union, will they decide to stay in, will they decide to stay out, will they actually pose the question to their people in the first place, and the mere posing –'
Kenny interrupts: 'Bring back the border in that case.'
Donohue: 'All of this.'
Kenny: 'Border posts, customs posts.'
Donohue: 'And even more broadly important in terms of access to the Common Market [note to Minister, the Common Market ceased to exist in 1993] you will be aware how important the UK is as a trading partner for us.'
Kenny: 'We can still trade with them but the practicalities of it would change very dramatically.'
Donohue: 'I think you've hit the nail on the head there. The way in which we would trade with them would come into question.'
The exchange was ludicrous. If the UK leaves the EU, it will trade with Ireland and other EU countries with even greater ease than rich independent Switzerland and even-richer independent Norway trade across the EU.
Neither Switzerland nor Norway has the negotiating clout of Britain. The UK is one of Germany's biggest export markets, while German exports to eurozone countries look long-term grim. Germany is not going to allow any petulance from eurocrats over a British exit to mess up their access to UK markets.
As for the Donohue-Kenny outburst over British border posts, they already exist for all EU countries except Ireland and it makes no difference to European trade. It takes two seconds to put your passport through the system to get into the UK from Belgium, just as at Dublin Airport if you fly in from Rome you have your passport swiped. So what?
The fact is that if Britain leaves the EU it will have far more influence on international trading policies set by organisations such as UNECE than it does as a member of the EU. Britain will not be 'isolated,' it will be empowered, freed from memos from the Foreign Office reminding the British negotiating team of EU 'positions.'
But of course not one in a thousand of you has heard of UNECE. The Brussels propaganda is that the trading regulations spring from EU decisions, so by being a member of the EU, countries have a seat at the top table.
Except they don't: the EU is not the top table. Trading regulations spring from such organisations as the World Trade Organisation, regional bodies such as UNECE (the UN Economic Commission for Europe, which has 56 members including Russia and the US but not the EU) and global bodies such as OIE (the World Organisation for Animal Health, with 178 members but not the EU).
There are hundreds of such organisations: and, okay, if you want to explore the jungles of the CODEX Alimentarius Commission, created in 1963 by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Health Organisation to develop food standards, go right ahead. You will eventually find the EU in it, but lost in the crowd of 186 other members.
The negotiations on trade regulation go on in such intergovernmental organisations, then the new regulations are sent to the eurocrats in Brussels. We, most of us, only hear about them after the commission dresses up the new agreements as EU directives and regulations.
Britain being in or out of the EU will not change these intergovernmental agreements and how they are reached. If you want to read in-depth research on this -- and much, much else -- I recommend the blog written by the EU historian Dr Richard North: www.eureferendum.com
I will give you an example, drawn from research by Dr North, to show why Britain will not be isolated by breaking from the EU: 'Interestingly, the EU does not get a look in when it comes to formulating these standards [at UNECE], but countries like Norway do. The EU is then used to write the specific legislation for Norway as a member of the EEA [European Economic Area, which allows countries to trade freely in the single market without being members of the EU]. So much for "fax-machine" law. The commission is simply acting as a service provider, making laws for states which have already agreed at a higher international level to implement them.'
He gives an example of the influence Norway has on international fishery standards at Codex. Norway hosts the fisheries committee. This gives them no specific advantage – although members of Codex such as Norway have a veto – but it does leave them up close to what policies are being developed.
Once the substantive issues on fisheries have been agreed at intergovernmental level, only then are they are passed to the EU to be implemented in the 28 member states: 'At no stage, therefore, can it be said that Norway is simply the passive receiver of rules from Brussels.'
Norway is at the real top table, influencing policy in a way beyond the control of the EU. Watch and learn, Minister. Watch and learn.
That ran on Monday. On Tuesday morning I was at the press conference with the Icelandic prime minister. He was asked by a reporter how his country would cope with sanctions imposed by the EU. Here was his answer, very relaxed, but very precise:
'I think it must be unlikely that such sanctions would be put in place, particularly sanctions that would not be in accord with the WTO and the EEA agreements.'
The Viking knows the power to be had by staying sovereign.
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07 July 2013 8:58 PM
Edward Snowden: a Jeffersonian hero. But Tories wouldn't know anything about that
Here is an edited version of my column in Monday's Irish Daily Mail --
This is why those of us who can be described, and not always by our friends, as anarcho-capitalist-libertarian-Tridentine-Rite-Jeffersonian-republicans so much resent being lumped under the title 'conservatives.'
That is the word used in this part of the world for British Tories. And the fundamental thing a Jeffersonian republican knows about Tories is: we used to shoot them.
If you want to understand the difference between the two kinds of 'conservatives,' take a look at the debate over Edward Snowden, a contract employee at the US National Security Agency.
Mr Snowden is the tech expert who disclosed a vast secret programme of telephone and internet surveillanceof Americans by the US government. Mr Snowden is thought to be still in Moscow airport, trying to negotiate asylum somewhere, anywhere, outside the reach of the Obama administration, who want to skin and butcher his high-tech carcass.
Of course they do. Mr Snowden has exposed the kind of secret surveillance on American citizens which the US Constitution forbids. The man is a hero. The ones who ought to be facing prosecution in all this are the members of the administration who are running the illegal surveillance. The one who ought to be facing impeachment is President Obama for sanctioning the snooping, which is in contravention of the fourth amendment to the Constitution which he swore to uphold. Details on that in a moment.
Meanwhile, what do the British Conservatives, and their soul-mates in Ireland, make of Edward Snowden? Charles Moore, former editor of the Daily Telegraph, a Tory-supporting paper, wrote a piece for the Telegraph at the weekend which was run as well by the Irish Sunday Independent. Mr Moore claims that Mr Snowden has 'betrayed his own state.' He says he was 'acting in the name of a morality which disdains allegiance to the rule of national law.'
That is so Tory. It reminds me exactly why Jeffersonian republicans used to shoot them.
Mr Moore and his Conservatives operate in a British state dominated by an over-mighty executive. The ability of a Government-whipped Commons to stretch the unwritten British constitution as they like and call it 'law' is exactly what drove the original Jeffersonian republicans to secede from the British empire.
It is precisely why the framers of the US Constitution made sure they limited with precision the powers of the new federal executive and legislature. Having been governed by men with ideas such as Mr Moore's, the representatives of the 13 young states knew exactly what they did not want again.
So things are different under the US Constitution. The fourth amendment of the ten first amendments known as the Bill of Rights says: 'The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probably cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.'
What this means is that there is a requirement for search warrants when any public authority wants to search individuals or their houses, or to seize any property in connection with an investigation. No law-makers have the right to over-ride this constitutional protection: the US Senate and House of Representatives are not the House of Commons.
It is not Edward Snowden who, in Charles Moore's phrase, 'disdains allegiance to the rule of national law.' It is President Obama and his top security officials.
The only circumstances in which a warrant is not necessary is when a search is incidental to a lawful arrest. To get a warrant, a police officer must appear before a magistrate and declare under oath that he has good cause to believe a search should be made. The warrant must specify the place to be searched and the property to be seized.
This is important: the framers of the Constitution knew the dangers of the so-called general warrants used in England up until the mid-18th century. These allowed British government agents to search without specifics or probable cause, in short, to coerce and frighten political opponents by doing repeated total sweeps through their property and correspondence looking for whatever might turn up.
In other words, exactly what the NSA has been doing to millions of American citizens.
Mr Moore seems to think that the US government agents should act as though they have the power of general warrants. Yet the American states decided in 1791 they weren't allowing it, and put the fourth amendment into the Constitution to make sure.
This prohibition is not something caught back in the time of the American revolution. Even in modern times, the protections of the fourth amendment have been extended to require warrants for the search and seizure of intangible property, such as conversations taken from recorded telephone calls. Warrants can be given in secret; but there must be warrants.
Yet now we find out, thanks to the courage of Mr Snowden, that the Obama administration has been ignoring this constitutional protection against what lawyers know as 'unreasonable search and seizure.'
Top members of the administration have been under no illusion that what they were doing was legal. If they thought it was legal, they wouldn't have been lying to Congress about it. Last March, James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, testified to a Senate committee that the National Security Agency does not collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.
I suspect Mr Snowden was watching that televised testimony. He knew different. Not long after, he packed his laptops – four of them, apparently—and fled to Hongkong.
He set up a clandestine meeting with a Guardian journalist who broke the story about the NSA programme of spying without warrants on law-abiding American citizens. NSA was spying on others abroad, too, but because of the fourth amendment the crime in all this is the unreasonable search and seizure by government agents of information legally held by Americans.
What Tories can't understand is that even if such surveillance could be argued to be a good thing, no government agent – from a contract worker at the NSA to the president himself -- has the right to pursue surveillance outside the law. The Constitution would have to be changed first. And if neither the representatives gathered in the US Congress, nor the people of the states themselves, want to change the Constitution, then the spying on citizens has to end. Otherwise the government itself becomes the enemy.
Enough of that. To end on something else: next Saturday is the 220th anniversary
of the day Charlotte Corday went alone to the house of Jean-Paul Marat, one of the leaders of the French Revolutionary Terror, and plunged a six-inch blade into his heart. She then sat quietly and waited for the police, or the mob, to take her.
Standing before the Revolutionary Tribunal four days later, she explained: 'I have killed one man to save 100,000.' The tribunal sent her to the guillotine, as she knew they would.
This week I salute her courage.
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Euroseptic blog
Mary Ellen Synon is based in Brussels as a columnist at the Irish Daily Mail and contributor to the Mail on Sunday.
At other times she has worked as: a columnist at the Irish Sunday Independent and the Sunday Business Post, Ireland correspondent and later Europe correspondent at the Economist, an associate producer at CBS News 60 Minutes based in London, and a reporter for the Daily Telegraph.
Early in her career she was awarded a travelling fellowship by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to allow her to study the Common Market.
Recent Posts
- So long, farewell, au revoir, auf Wiedersehen, good-bye
- When Van Rompuy held hands with Gaddhafi: Nigel Farage's idea of euro-art
- Do German voters know? 'Germany must lend, give and spend or euro is in a hospice'
- Courage, power and allies: Iceland may be independent, but it is not isolated
- Putin's Russia: no place for sissies, gay or straight
- Queasy in Brussels: remembering when Clegg did Love Boat at the EU
- The new king of the Belgians: I decline to celebrate
- 71% of Britons want out of the EU: the eurocrats know it, but the Brits don't
- Iceland vs EU bullying: the Viking shows what 'independent' really means
- Edward Snowden: a Jeffersonian hero. But Tories wouldn't know anything about that
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My love affairs were starting to get out of hand. My love affairs, and my drinking. It was no way for a particle physicist to behave. There was nothing for it, they said, but to send me to the South Pole.
"For how long?" I asked.
"Don't worry about that right now," they said.
Don't worry about it? The South Pole?
"Think of it as a chance to... reassess," they said.
Continue reading "God Grant me the Serenity ... by Owen Booth" »


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Advanced 4WD Driver Training
Note: this is a non-accredited course that does not include a formal assessment of competency. For accredited training in the relevant units of competency, please go to Accredited training.
The Advanced 4WD Driver Training Programme is available for those persons that have completed their Introductory Training or who can demonstrate that they have achieved this level through prior learning. It includes advanced levels of wheel placement, very steep inclines and declines, mud driving, water crossings, rocky terrain and actual hands on vehicle recovery techniques to an advanced level.
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If the above dates do not suit, we can arrange individual training at a date to suit you. Cost of a One Day Individual Training Course (including up to 2 persons in one vehicle) is $850, & a second day's training can be added for $650. Under 16yrs $60 each, & extra drivers in your vehicle over the initial two $250 each. This includes all training & camping on our property (bunk house available at $40 per person per night). Contact Vic Widman on (02) 9913 1395 for more details or send an email to email@example.com
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Great Divide Tours owns an exclusive property on the outskirts of Braidwood in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Just 3 hours drive from Sydney, 2 hours from Wollongong and 1 hour from Canberra it is ideally located for easy access. This property has been developed with four wheel drive training in mind. Fully approved by Council this is a sate of art training facility. It is in a picturesque bushland setting typical of the type of terrain that you are likely to encounter when using your 4WD. The nearby town of Braidwood provides fuel, meals, supplies and accommodation. Camping on the property is included in your training fee cost.
Don't have a 4WD?
We can assist with arranging hire of a 4WD vehicle, please contact us for assistance.
Refund Policy
Great Divide Tours reserves the right to cancel or alter any tour or course at any time. Great Divide Tours will determine if any refund is due if this action occurs.
In the event of you canceling a booking the following refund policy applies. Deposits are non refundable. If your booking can be reallocated to another participant then the deposit can be transferred to another course or tour of your choice which must be taken within 18 months of the original booked course. The full course fee is payable 1 week prior to the course and is not refundable after this time.


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Incline Software, LC
Incline Software, LC was founded in 1994 with a mission to create the best family tree software available. It currently produces two premier tools: Ancestral Quest, one of the first Windows genealogy programs available, and Ancestral Quest Basics, a free version of Ancestral Quest containing all the essential features of the full version, but missing many of the bells and whistles.
Over the years, Incline Software™ has aligned itself with various other companies in an effort to market Ancestral Quest. From the fall of 1995 through the fall of 1997, Ancestral Quest was also sold by Infobases, Inc. (and later by an affiliate of Infobases, Ancestry, Inc.) From the fall of 1998 to the fall of 2000, Incline Software partnered itself with The Hope Foundation.
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Learn About the Law
Get help with your legal needs
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Statement by Mr. Chief Justice FULLER:
This was an action brought by John Caldwell against D. B. Miller (for whom the Hutchinson Investment Company [152 U.S. 65, 66] was substituted) and L. B. Miller in the district court for Reno county, Kan., to have his title established and recover possession of the northeast quarter of section 12, township 23 S., R. 6 W., in that county. The case was submitted to the district court for trial, a jury being waived, and the court made special findings of fact, and gave judgment in favor of the defendants, whereupon the cause was taken on error to the supreme court of Kansas. The supreme court reversed the judgment of the court below, and remanded the cause with a direction to enter judgment upon the findings of fact in favor of Caldwell and against the defendants for an undivided 13-28 of the land and damages for its detention, (23 Pac. 946;) and thereupon this writ of error was brought.
The facts necessary to be stated were, in brief, these: Robert Titus was married to Phoebe Thomas in Vermont in 1809, and the sole issue of this marriage was Alden W. Titus, born in October, 1810. After the birth of this son, Robert Titus, having gone into the War of 1812, abandoned both wife and child, and, in 1818, without having obtained a divorce, had a marriage ceremony performed between him and Miriam Lee in the state of New York. By her he had five children, of whom the youngest was a daughter, Lois, who married D. B. Miller. From 1850, Robert Titus lived with Mr. and Mrs. Miller, and in 1871 the family went to Reno county, Kan., and settled there. July 10, 1871, Robert Titus made a pre-emption entry upon the land in controversy, but died before consummating his pre-emption claim. After his death, D. B. Miller, administrator of his estate, filed the necessary papers to complete the pre-emption, paying the price thereof, $400, to the United States, with his own money, and, April 20, 1874, a patent to the land was issued, to the effect that 'the United States of America, in consideration of the premises and in conformity with the several acts of congress in such cases made and provided, have given and granted, and by these presents do give and grant, unto the said heirs of Robert Titus, deceased, and to their heirs, the tract above described, to have and to hold the same, together [152 U.S. 65, 67] with all the rights, privileges, immunities, and appurtenances of whatsoever nature belonging, unto the said heirs of Robert Titus, deceased, and to their heirs and assigns forever.' The children of Robert Titus and Miriam Lee were notoriously recognized by Robert Titus as his own, and no question was ever raised as to their legitimacy until in this suit. D. B. Miller claimed the fee simple title to the land by conveyances from the heirs of Alden W. Titus, as the only heir of Robert Titus, deceased; and if the children of Robert Titus and Miriam Lee were heirs, within the meaning of section 2269 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, then Caldwell was entitled to recover an undivided 13-28 of the land, and damages. The opinion of the supreme court of Kansas, by Horton, C. J., is reported in 44 Kan. 12, 23 Pac. 946.
Almervin Gillett, for plaintiffs.
S. B. Bradford and W. E. Brown, for defendant.
Mr. Chief FULLER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.
By the statutes of Kansas, which was the state of the domicile of Robert Titus at the time of his death, and of the location of the real estate in controversy, illegitimate children could inherit from their father when they had been recognized by him, provided such recognition was general and notorious, or in writing. Gen. St. Kan. p. 786, c. 33, 22, 23. Under the circumstances disclosed on this record, therefore, the grantees in a deed to the heirs of Robert Titus, and to their heirs, would have embraced the children of Miriam Lee and their heirs, and this would be so as respects this patent, unless section 2269 of the Revised Statutes, under which it was issued, provided otherwise. [152 U.S. 65, 68] The section reads: 'Where a party entitled to claim the benefits of the pre-emption laws dies before consummating his claim, by filing in due time all the papers essential to the establishment of the same, it shall be competent for the executor or administrator of the estate of such party, or one of the heirs, to file the necessary papers to complete the same; but the entry in such cases shall be made in favor of the heirs of the deceased pre-emptor, and a patent thereon shall cause the title to inure to such heirs as if their names had been specially mentioned.' We are unable to concur with counsel for plaintiffs in error that the intention should be ascribed to congress of limiting the words 'heirs of the deceased pre-emptor,' as used in the section, to persons who would be heirs at common law, (children not born in lawful matrimony being, therefore, excluded,) rather than those who might be such according to the lex rei sitae, by which, generally speaking, the question of the descent and heirship of real estate is exclusively governed. If such had been the intention, it seems clear that a definition of the word 'heirs' would have been given, so as to withdraw patents issued under this section from the operation of the settled rule upon the subject.
That rule was thus referred to by this court in U. S. v. Fox, 94 U.S. 315 , 320: 'It is an established principle of law everywhere recognized, arising from the necessity of the case, that the dispositon of immovable property, whether by deed, descent, or any other mode, is exclusively subject to the government within whose jurisdiction the property is situated;' and although congress might have designated particular grantees to whom the land should go in the first instance, it did not do so, nor make use of words indicative of any intent that the law of the state should not be followed.
But it is contended that the word 'heirs' was used in its common-law sense, and it is true that technical legal terms are usually taken, in the absence of a countervailing intent, in their established common-law signification; but that consideration has no controlling weight in the construction of this statute. Undoubtedly the word 'heirs' was used as meaning, as at common law, those capable of inheriting, but [152 U.S. 65, 69] it does not follow that the question as to who possessed that capability was thereby designed to be determined otherwise than by the law of the state which was both the situs of the land and the domicile of the owner.
The object sought to be attained by congress was that those who would have taken the land on the death of the pre-emptor, if the patent had issued to him, should still obtain it, notwithstanding his death,-an object which would be in part defeated by the exclusion of any who would have so taken by the local law if the title had vested in him. In other words, Titus intended to acquire the title, and had complied, or was proceeding to comply, in good faith, with the requirements of the law to perfect his right to it, and by this statute that right could be perfected after his death for the benefit of those who would have been entitled if his death had occurred after patent instead of before. If the provision admitted of more than one construction, that one should be adopted which best seems to carry out the purposes of the act. Bernier v. Bernier, 147 U.S. 242 , 13 Sup. Ct. 244.
In this view, it was held in Brown v. Belmarde, 3 Kan. 41, that the words, 'heirs of deceased reservees,' in the act of congress of May 26, 1860, (12 Stat. 21, c. 61,) which operated as an original grant to certain reservees and their heirs, designated the persons who were capable of inheritance by the law of the state when the act of congress took effect. And see Clark v. Lord, 20 Kan. 390.
So the usual rule was recognized in Lamb v. Starr, 1 Deady, 350, Fed. Cas. No. 8,021. By the fourth section of the Oregon donation act, (9 Stat. 496,) it was provided that, if either the settler or his wife died before the issue of the patent, 'the survivor and children or heirs of the deceased' should be entitled to the share or interest of the deceased in equal proportions; and the late Judge Deady, referring to the disposal of the share of a deceased wife, said that, at the time of her death, 'there was no statute in Oregon regulating the descent of real property, or declaring who should be the heirs of an intestate, and, therefore, the subject was regulated by the common law. By this rule her children were her heirs. [152 U.S. 65, 70] The donation act does not prescribe who shall be considered the heirs of a deceased settler, any more than it prescribes who shall be considered the wife of a settler. Both these are left to the local law,-the law of Oregon. If the law of Oregon at the time of Nancy's death had prescribed that brothers and sisters should be heirs to the intestate, either exclusive or inclusive of the children, it appears to me that, under the donation act, then the children would take to the exclusion of the brothers and sisters. Congress seems to have intended to secure the share of the deceased to her children, if any, whether the law of Oregon made them heirs or not. Beyond this it left the matter to the local law, by providing the alternative that, in default of children, such share should go to her heirs, whoever they might be. Who would be entitled to claim as heir of the deceased would, in all cases, depend upon the law of Oregon at the time of the death, but persons claiming as children are, by the donation act, preferred to those claiming simply as heirs by the local law.' And in Davenport v. Lamb, 13 Wall. 418, 427, it was pointed out that the act of congress of May 20, 1836, (5 Stat. 31; Rev. St. 2448,) providing that where patents had been issued to persons who had died, the title should inure to and become vested in 'the heirs, devisees, and assigns' of the deceased, made the title inure in a manner different from that provided by the donation act, upon the death of either owner before the issue of the patent, because the survivor of the husband or wife was not his or her heir by any law of Oregon at the time of the death in that case.
There is nothing to the contrary in McCool v. Smith, 1 Black, 459, which was a case coming to this court from Illinois, in which it was held that the meaning of the words 'next of kin' was to be determined by the common law of England, because the common law in that regard was then in full force in that state.
The language of the acts of congress has not been uniform in the matter of the disposition of the public domain, after the death of the principal beneficiary. Thus, under section 2443, in respect of bounty lands granted to officers and soldiers of [152 U.S. 65, 71] the Revolutionary War or soldiers of the War of 1812, the patent, when applied for by part of the heirs, was to be issued in the name of the heirs, generally, and to inure to the benefit of the whole in such portions as they were severally entitled to by the laws of descent in the state or territory of the decedent's domicile; and other illustrations might be given.
This differences, however, cannot affect our conclusion here, which, under the circumstances, accords with that of the supreme court of Kansas.
Judgment affirmed.
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Citation: 152 U.S. 65
Docket No: No. 190
Decided: March 05, 1894
Court: United States Supreme Court
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Title | The Book Jumper PDF eBook |
Author | Mechthild Gläser |
Publisher | Feiwel & Friends |
Pages | 384 |
Release | 2017-01-03 |
Genre | Young Adult Fiction |
Amy Lennox doesn't know quite what to expect when she and her mother pick up and leave Germany for Scotland, heading to her mother's childhood home of Lennox House on the island of Stormsay. Amy's grandmother, Lady Mairead, insists that Amy must read while she resides at Lennox House—but not in the usual way. It turns out that Amy is a book jumper, able to leap into a story and interact with the world inside. As thrilling as Amy's new power is, it also brings danger: someone is stealing from the books she visits, and that person may be after her life. Teaming up with fellow book jumper Will, Amy vows to get to the bottom of the thefts—at whatever cost.


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The United States court system is actually many court systems: a federal system and 50 state systems. Each has its own structures and procedures. All are multi-tiered. Legal cases begin in a lower court and sometimes work their way up to a higher court. Some cases initiated in a state court system ultimately end up in the federal court system.
State courts
Most legal issues are resolved in state trial courts, the courts at the lowest tier in a state's court system. O.J. Simpson's criminal and civil trials were both conducted in a California trial court. Depending on the specific structure of your state's court system, trial courts may be city or municipal courts, justice of the peace or jp courts, county or circuit courts, or even regional trial courts.
Most states have two levels of trial courts: trial courts with limited jurisdiction and trial courts with specific jurisdiction. Jurisdiction simply refers to the types of cases a court can hear. For example, trial courts of limited jurisdiction —which can include municipal courts, magistrate courts, county courts and justice of the peace courts — hear some kinds of civil cases, juvenile cases, minor criminal cases and traffic violations. Most legal problems are resolved in this kind of trial court.
Some trial courts with limited jurisdiction also hold pretrial hearings for more serious criminal cases.
Courts of general jurisdiction include circuit courts, superior courts, district courts, or courts of common pleas, depending on your state. They hear lawsuits that involve greater amounts of money or more serious types of crimes than the cases heard in trial courts of limited jurisdiction.
Many states also have specialized trial courts that hear cases related to a very specific area of the law. These courts can include probate courts, family law courts, juvenile courts, and small claims courts.
Next tier up in the typical state court system are the appellate courts. These courts don't hold trials but instead review the decisions and procedures of the trial courts in their systems and either uphold or reverse their decisions or modify the amount of a monetary reward. Sometimes appellate courts order retrials.
Lower court decisions are not automatically appealed. You must initiate an appeal and provide a legal basis for appealing. Thinking that you "got a raw deal" is not enough.
Every state has a court of last resort, generally called the "supreme court." Although supreme court decisions are final within a state court system, sometimes they can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Like appellate courts, supreme courts review the decisions and the procedures of lower courts; they don't hold trials.
Federal courts
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Generally, federal lawsuits start out at the district level in a federal court. Most are civil, not criminal, cases involving legal issues that fall within the jurisdiction of the federal government, not state government. If a lawsuit deals with certain types of federal law, it is heard in a special federal court. Tax court, bankruptcy court, court of federal claims, and court of veteran appeals are all examples of special federal courts.
Each federal circuit includes more than one district and is home to a Federal Court of Appeal. This court plays a role analogous to a state appellate court.
At the very top of the federal court system is the U.S. Supreme Court. Its legal interpretations are The Final Word on the law in this country. The nine justices who sit on the Supreme Court are nominated by the President and approved by the U.S. Senate. They can remain on the court until their death or until they resign.
The U.S. Supreme Court hears only a very small number of cases. To get to that level, a case must usually work its way up through the lower tiers of a state court system and/or the federal system. The justices choose the cases they hear every year based on a case's implications for Americans in general or for a certain group within society, not just the impact on the parties actually involved in the lawsuit itself. What follows are some of the Supreme Court cases that meet these criteria:
- Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka. This ruling was the beginning of the end of racial segregation in America's public schools.
- Roe vs. Wade. Gave all American women the right to decide for themselves, in consultation with their doctor, whether or not to have an abortion.
- Miranda vs. Arizona. This ruling gave persons who are arrested the right to be informed of their legal rights at the time of their arrest: "You have the right to remain silent. . . ."
The Constitution only allows certain kinds of cases to be heard by the federal courts. In general, these courts are limited to cases that involve the following:
- Issues of Constitutional law
- Certain issues between residents of different states
- Issues between U.S. citizens and foreigners
- Issues that involve both federal and state law
Our legal system is based on the adversarial process, which means that fundamental to all court procedures, regardless of the court, is the belief that all parties in a legal dispute must have an equal opportunity to state their case to a neutral jury or judge and to poke holes in what the other side says. Attorneys usually do most of the case-stating and hole-poking.
So that everyone has an equal chance to win in a lawsuit, both sides are required to play by the same set of rules. This requirement helps level the playing field, ensuring that everyone is treated fairly. Attorneys learn these rules in law school.


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