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Faith Whittlesey
|Faith Ryan Whittlesey
|13th United States Ambassador to Switzerland
|In office
April 4, 1985 – June 14, 1988
|Ronald Reagan
|Preceded by
|John Davis Lodge
|Succeeded by
|Philip D. Winn
|6th Assistant to the President for Public Liaison
|In office
March 3, 1983 – March 19, 1985
|Ronald Reagan
|Preceded by
|Elizabeth Dole
|Succeeded by
|Linda Chavez
|11th United States Ambassador to Switzerland
|In office
September 28, 1981 – February 28, 1983
|Ronald Reagan
|Preceded by
|Richard D. Vine
|Succeeded by
|John Davis Lodge
|Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
from the 166th district
|In office
1973 – 1976
|Preceded by
|George R. Johnson
|Succeeded by
|Stephen F. Freind
|Personal details
February 21, 1939
Jersey City, New Jersey
|Political party
|Roger W. Whittlesey (died 1974)
|Alma mater
|Wells College
University of Pennsylvania
The Hague Academy of International Law
Elected Official
Corporate Director
|Roman Catholic
Faith Ryan Whittlesey (born 1939) is a former Republican politician and White House Senior Staff member notable for her effort to communicate Reagan's entire policy agenda to U.S. opinion leaders and for bringing together for the first time in the Reagan White House evangelical, Catholic, and other conservative Christian groups who opposed legalized abortion. These groups became a significant component of the Reagan coalition as they grew more politically self-conscious in the 1980s. Whittlesey also organized the White House Central American Outreach Group at the direction of Chief of Staff James Baker to provide information about Reagan's anti-communist policies in the region. Whittlesey served twice for a total of nearly 5 years as U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and also served for 2 years on the Reagan White House Senior Staff as Assistant to the President for Public Liaison.
President Judge Stephen J. McEwen, Jr., of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania noted that Whittlesey "reflected a certain elegance and bright image upon the Reagan Administration, both on the international scene as Ambassador to Switzerland and at the White House as the Director of Public Liaison, an office as little known as its impact was powerful." Whittlesey, a tenacious fighter on behalf of Reagan's policies, was not, however, a stranger to controversy during her time of involvement in the political arena.
White House Liaison Office
Whittlesey was named Assistant to the President for Public Liaison in 1983 at the suggestion of Ronald Reagan's Ambassador to Austria and personal assistant Helene A. von Damm and with the urging of White House Chief of Staff James Baker and Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver.
Her tenure was marked by initiatives to improve the access of conservative Christian believers to the American political process and national policymaking. She was considered their most "aggressive ally" in the White House. She wrote a memo in October 1983 that fundamentalist and evangelical groups had done "little organizational work" for "the 1984 election period" and that to maintain Ronald Reagan's "credibility" with those groups, Catholics in particular, "the tuition tax credit bill must come up for Senate floor action this fall". She noted that school prayer was "not unlike the tuition tax credit issue. Politically we win if we get votes on the Senate floor". In 1985, she sent the anti-abortion film The Silent Scream, which was a documentary of an ultrasound abortion at three months produced in 1984 by anti-abortion activist and former NARAL founder Dr. Bernard Nathanson, to every member of Congress and arranged for a screening at the White House at which Dr. Nathanson presented the film.
Whittlesey focused on the core Reagan agenda during her White House tenure. She also developed active White House outreach to "Reagan Democrats." She clashed with some other members of the Reagan White House staff whom she regarded as "largely Washington permanent government party functionaries not very committed to advocating the President's policies in a serious or consistent way."
At the direction of White House Chief of Staff, James Baker, Whittlesey also spent a good deal of time organizing communication of information about Reagan's overall policies in Central America and, in particular, the anticommunist "Contras" in Nicaragua. In 1983 she established the White House Outreach Working Group on Central America to garner increased private sector understanding of Reagan's policies, including working with, among many other individuals and groups, the American Security Council Foundation, to produce anti-Sandinista propaganda (what she would call "truth-telling") films, and the Council for National Policy to produce materials that revealed the Marxist–Leninist orientation of the Sandanista movement. Among those groups that participated in the Outreach Group effort was the AFL-CIO because "the Sandinistas were against free labor unions." Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Constantine Menges cited "the very effective public outreach staff headed by Ambassador Faith Whittlesey" in his reflections on Reagan foreign policy.
Despite its effectiveness, Whittlesey says the Outreach Group was shut down in 1985 when Donald Regan took over as Chief of Staff and the White House "started the brown bag operation with Ollie North. What we were doing was completely open and above board. It was an honest effort to change minds and hearts and to provide a forum for truth telling". According to Whittlesey, "the Washington establishment, especially Democratic but also most of the Republican, was opposed to, wanted to downplay, or gave the silent treatment to Reagan's Central American anti-communist policies."
Later, when asked about Iran-Contra she said: "I had no knowledge of the Iran-Contras connection. I had no involvement in it, nor was I asked to be a part of it." The final House report on Iran-Contra concluded that Whittlesey unsuccessfully attempted to help Oliver North obtain a U.S. passport for a fake Saudi prince who claimed to have knowledge of the locations of hostages being held in Lebanon. Whittlesey has repeatedly and emphatically denied this charge, for which she maintains no proof was produced, as a politically motivated attempt to discredit her White House Outreach Group initiative, which had been "a legitimate and in every respect legal attempt to communicate Reagan's anti-communist policy in Central America."
Ambassador to Bern
Whittlesey was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland under Ronald Reagan from 1981–83 and again from 1985-88. In her first term as Swiss Ambassador she initiated negotiations in an acrimonious dispute between the U.S. and Switzerland that later led to the signing of a "Memorandum of Understanding on Insider Trading," the first major changing of the strict tradition of Swiss banking secrecy. Of this memorandum, Ambassador Jean Zwahlen, later a Member of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, wrote her: "I still keep a vivid memory of your skill to help delicate negotiations in the 80s." She was a particularly active Ambassador and traveled often around Switzerland explaining and advocating Reagan's policies and developing contacts with Swiss opinion leaders.
While she was the Director of the Liaison office (1983–85), there were conflicts with the staff of Reagan's Chief of Staff James A. Baker III and his deputy Michael Deaver, which led to Senator Arlen Specter and others urging her to take a federal judgeship on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. After careful consideration, she declined the nomination. A judicial appointment would have effectively removed her from the public policy and political arena, which she did not wish. She had taken the job of Public Liaison because of "a profound sense of obligation to the grassroots voters who had elected Reagan believing him to be a man of deep principle and traditional faith." Infighting in the White House continued, however. She eventually decided to return to Switzerland after Donald Regan became Chief of Staff, replacing James A. Baker. Whittlesey resumed her duties representing the U.S. in Bern for a second term in 1985. She was the first to greet President Reagan as he stepped off the plane in Geneva for his meeting with Gorbachev in November, 1985.
After the Democrats took control of the Senate in 1986, giving them control of both Houses of Congress, allegations were made to Attorney General Edwin Meese that Whittlesey had granted diplomatic favors for private contributions to her State Department-administered representational fund and that she had also obstructed justice. Meese "found no 'reasonable grounds' to pursue allegations that" Whittlesey "mishandled entertainment funds at the embassy or improperly aided contributors to the funds" in contravention of the independent counsel statute. Hearings into the subject were held by a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, but the hearings failed to produce substantiation of the charges and went nowhere. The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial entitled "True Grit," echoing a popular movie of the time, dismissed the investigation. "The U.S. Justice Department has now filed a notification in Federal Circuit Court in Washington clearing the ambassador of any wrongdoing and vindicating the view that there was a whole lot less to the whole affair than had met either the eye or ear....It is impressive to come out of such an investigation clean and clear."
Former National Security Adviser and Secretary of the Interior William P. Clark, Jr. believes that the allegations were a product of a "campaign of leaks" by Baker, Deaver, David Gergen, and Dick Darman to discredit ideologues in the administration they did not like. William F. Buckley, Jr. asserted the view that the investigation had been driven by "two forces, one of them galactic, the other merely torrential . . . The first is the disposition of the State Department bureaucracy to make things hard for political appointees. The second is the disposition of all of Washington to make things hard for Mr. Reagan." For her part Whittlesey attributes the allegations to disgruntled career State Department employees who disagreed with Reagan's policies and her personnel decisions as chief of mission, but in the end the constant friction, according to one source, led to her resignation.
However, with the prospect of the change of administration, and having served for a total of nearly five years in the post, she returned to the U.S. in July 1988, officially vindicated. Widely regarded by political admirers and detractors alike as a most effective U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, shortly after her return to New York City she was asked to assume the Presidency of the American Swiss Foundation by its board.
Whittlesey's diplomatic career resumed very briefly in 2001 when she was named by President George W. Bush to be an At-Large Member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. She continued in this position as needed throughout the Bush Presidency. A strong supporter of the Second Amendment, she has been quoted as saying about the treaty: "This document by the U.N. freezes the last coup. It favors established governments, while taking away rights from individuals. It does not recognize any value higher than peace, such as liberty."
Famous quote
Whittlesey popularized a quote about Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire that is often attributed to her: "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels." The official Ginger Rogers website attributes the origin of the quote to Bob Thaves who wrote in a 1982 Frank and Ernest comic strip about Fred Astaire: "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, backwards…and in high heels." The attribution to Whittlesey traces to a speech she delivered to a Teamsters Union meeting in 1984 where she was representing Reagan. Sometimes the quote is also attributed to Ann Richards, who later used the line in her 1988 Democratic National Convention speech, but Richards said she got the line from television journalist Linda Ellerbee who said she heard the line from a fellow passenger on an airplane.
On feminism
While in law school, to earn money Whittlesey became a substitute teacher in the City of Philadelphia (1962–64) because: "[i]n my last year of law school [the female students] were advised by the law school administration not to even come to the [law firm job] interviews because we would not be hired". Years later when working in the Liaison Office she declared that feminism was a "straitjacket" for women because, she claimed, it reduced rather than enhanced legal rights women had previously enjoyed in child custody and marital support cases before states enacted versions of the Equal Rights Amendment. She declared, "Ronald Reagan honored the role of full-time homemaker and her rights in Social Security and income tax in the face of elite feminists' demeaning of full-time mothers."
Whittlesey worked her entire adult life, including when pregnant and after her husband died in 1974. She canvassed door-to-door for her 1972 legislative race while pregnant with her third child, William. In 1985, when looking at the trendline that showed that half of all pre-school children had mothers in the workforce, she assured Reagan that once the economy picked up "all those women can go home and look after their own children". As a long-time working mother herself, Whittlesey asserted this statement was taken out of context and did not reflect her intent of expanding choices, professional and personal, for women. The statement continued, "They could care for their children themselves if they wished to do so because their husbands would have opportunities again in a thriving economy." Whittlesey was the only woman on Reagan's Senior White House Staff during her service there. According to David Broder, "Whittlesey asserted in 1980 her position on women's rights and her fight as a woman to be effective politically, 'I sympathize with some of the goals of the women's movement, but they choose not to associate with me, so that's where we are. I find myself in many closed rooms filled with men, but I'm rarely invited to women's movement's functions, because I am pro-life and do not endorse feminist ideology of victimhood.' "
In 1982 Whittlesey became the first woman commencement speaker at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1989 Whittlesey became the first female member of the all-male Union League Club of New York.
Reagan's core agenda
Whittlesey was elected an alternate delegate from Pennsylvania to the 1976 Republican National Convention and as a delegate in 1980 and 1984. As an elected delegate at the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, Whittlesey co-chaired with Congressman Jack Kemp the Subcommittee for Foreign Policy and Defense of the Platform Committee and delivered Reagan's defense plank to the Convention. Regarded as a "conviction conservative," Whittlesey strongly identified with Reagan's core agenda, which she described as "support for the peaceful defeat of the Soviet Union without commitment of U.S. troops in combat, defense of life, opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment with its hidden agenda of tax-funded abortion and same-sex marriage, decentralized government, lower taxes and reduced government regulation of the private sector, school prayer, defeat of Marxism-Leninism in its various permutations and manifestations, individual Second Amendment rights, the establishment of official diplomatic recognition of the Vatican, support for tuition tax credits for parochial schooling." After leaving public service, she maintained that much of Reagan's core agenda remained to be implemented and that it ought to serve as a continuing issue blueprint for the Republican party.
Later career
After completing her second tour as United States Ambassador to Switzerland, Whittlesey was named as Chairman and President of the American Swiss Foundation in New York. For more than two decades, she worked "to protect and strengthen the friendship between the United States and Switzerland," which in 2010 was the largest direct foreign investor in the U.S. Whittlesey conceived of and established a bipartisan young leaders' program that for 22 years has brought together young opinion leaders and professionals from Switzerland and the United States for an intensive, week-long conference in Switzerland. Participants meet senior public and private sector officials, engage in discussions on issues of the day, and build friendships. There are now over 900 alumni of this program.
Continuing as a member of the Pennsylvania bar, Whittlesey also served on numerous corporate boards after she left government service.
Personal life
Whittlesey was born Faith Ryan in 1939 in Jersey City, New Jersey to Martin Roy Ryan of Maybrook, New York, and Amy Jerusha (Covell) of Pope's Mills, New York. She grew up in Williamsville, New York, and graduated with honors from Williamsville Central High School in 1956. In 1955 she was selected to participate in the American Field Service program to Flensburg, Germany. In 1958 she participated in the Experiment in International Living program to Austria. She earned a full-tuition scholarship to attend Wells College in Aurora, New York, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude in 1960 with a BA in history. She also earned a full-tuition scholarship to the law school at the University of Pennsylvania and a Ford Foundation grant to attend a program at The Hague Academy of International Law in The Netherlands. Whittlesey is also an accomplished classical pianist and former piano teacher. She has one sibling, Thomas Martin Ryan, who graduated Yale College magna cum laude in 1963, received an MA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1963 she married Roger Weaver Whittlesey of Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania, a graduate of the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia and Bowdoin College in Maine. Roger Whittlesey was an advertising executive from an illustrious family. They had 3 children and 10 grandchildren. The marriage lasted 11 years, not ending till Roger Whittlesey committed suicide in March 1974.
Because her father was a "Roman Catholic in the Irish tradition" it has been incorrectly assumed that Whittlesey grew up as a Catholic, when in fact her mother's family did not approve of her father's Catholicism. "[S]o he left the Catholic Church," Whittlesey explained in her Memoirs. "He attended the Methodist Church with my mother and brother, Tom, and me. I was thus raised as a Methodist. As a family we went to the Williamsville, New York, Methodist Church every Sunday. I went to regular Sunday school and sang in the choirs." Her husband's family was Presbyterian. Whittlesey converted to Roman Catholicism in 2000 in Staten Island, New York, having been greatly influenced as a result of her Reagan administration association with John Cardinal O'Connor of New York. She was baptized and confirmed by Father Michael Reilly, principal of St. Joseph's By-the-Sea High School in Staten Island, New York.
For 19 years, Whittlesey served as President and Chairman of the Board of the American Swiss Foundation; beginning in February 2008, she became Chairman Emeritus. She was a member of the Board of Directors (and former Chairman for 3 years) of Christian Freedom International, an organization dedicated to assisting persecuted Christians around the world. She is a member of the Council of American Ambassadors and also a member of the Board of Advisers of the Reagan Alumni Association. She also served as a member—and for 6 years as Chairman—of the Board of the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.. In 2012, she joined the Board of the Rockford Institute in Rockford, Illinois, and, in 2013, the Advisory Board of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity in Washington, D.C. She is a longtime member of the University Club of Washington, D.C., and for several years has served on the Newsmax International Advisory Board.
Honors Whittlesey has received over the years include these:
- a Ford Foundation grant to attend The Hague Academy of International Law, The Netherlands (1962),
- selection by the American Council of Young Political Leaders as a member of a delegation traveling to China (1979),
- four honorary doctorates (from Widener University, 1982; Boston University, 1985; King's College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 1986; and the Institute of World Politics, Washington, D.C., 2012),
- The Wells College Outstanding Alumnus Award (1984),
- the Certificate of Appreciation from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Warehousemen, and Helpers of America (1985) in recognition of her "outstanding contribution to the trade union movement" and particularly the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
- the Reagan Revolution Medal of Honor (1989),
- At-Large Member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (2001),
- the Stratton Prize for Intercultural Achievement (2003), received at the Harvard Club in Boston, in recognition of her work to promote better U.S.-Swiss understanding,
- the Ball for Life Award (2003) to benefit Good Counsel Homes at the New York Athletic Club,
- Williamsville Central (now Williamsville South) High School (New York) Wall of Fame Award (2003),
- the Congress of Racial Equality Public Service Award (2004) at the Harlem Museum of the City of New York,
- selection by the American Council of Young Political Leaders as a member of a delegation traveling to Japan (2005),
- the naming of a new Tea Rose, "the Faith Whittlesey rose," in her honor by the American Rose Society (2006)in New York City,
- Republicans Abroad Switzerland Testimonial Dinner honoree (2006), Geneva, Switzerland,
- serving on the U.S. Executive Committee of the Calvin Quincentennial (2009) held in Geneva, Switzerland,
- Henry Morrison Flager Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Luncheon honoree (2009), Palm Beach, Florida,
- the Christian Freedom International Freedom Award (2009) for her service on behalf of persecuted Christians worldwide,
- the International Friend of the Rose Award (2010), presented in New York on behalf of the Great Rosarians of the World Committee by Clair Martin, Shannon Curator of Roses and Rose Gardens, Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens,
- Tell Award presented by Ambassador of Switzerland Manuel Sager in Washington, D.C. (2011) for her work on creating better understanding of Switzerland in the U.S., and
- Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at a dinner for 400 at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC (2012).
Coincident with the Award presentation on October 4, 2012, a new study of her life and career, Backwards in High Heels: Faith Whittlesey, Reagan's Madam Ambassador in Switzerland and the White House, by Professor Thomas Carty of Springfield College (Massachusetts) was published.
Before a standing room only crowd at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC on October 5, President Ronald Reagan's Ambassador to Switzerland, Faith Whittlesey, offered up some sage advice on lessons learned from a lifetime career in public service, "Listen carefully, read widely, listen to diverse opinions, and be somewhat humble about yourself and our country."
Job history
After her substitute teaching job in 1963 and 1964, Whittlesey held a variety of governmental positions: Special Assistant Attorney General in Pennsylvania assigned to the Pennsylvania Banking Code Revision Project (1964–65), law clerk for Federal District Court Judge Francis L. Van Dusen, E.D.P.A. (1965), a Special Assistant Attorney General assigned to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (1967–70), Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1970–1972). In 1972 she was elected as a Representative in the Pennsylvania Legislature representing the 166th Legislative District in Delaware County. In 1974 she was reelected to the Legislature. In 1975 she was elected to the Delaware County Board of Commissioners, now known as the Delaware County Council and reelected in 1979. (Delaware County was at the time larger in population than 5 states of the Union.) She served alternately as Chairman and Vice Chairman. She lost the 1978 Republican primary for Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania.
While serving in the Delaware County government, Whittlesey briefly held her first job in the private sector, taking a part-time job as the token Republican at the law firm Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen LLP in Philadelphia. After leaving Switzerland, Whittlesey joined the New York-based law firm of Myerson & Kuhn until its 1990 bankruptcy filing In 1998 she started her own consulting firm, Maybrook Associates. She has also served on several corporate boards over the years, including the U.S. Advisory Board for Nestle. Since 1989 she has been a board member of Schindler Elevator Corporation USA, headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey. Since 1992 she has served as a board member of Valassis Communications, Inc., headquartered in Livonia, Michigan.
She was admitted to the bar of Pennsylvania in 1964 and remains in non-resident active status.
Writings about and by Whittlesey
Books and forewords
- Thomas Carty,Backwards in High Heels: Reagan's Madam Ambassador in Switzerland and the West Wing (Casemate Publishing,Philadelphia & Oxford, 2012) ISBN 9781612001593)
- Soviet global strategy and the Caribbean: America by the throat? , Rockford Institute, 1984. OCLC 30844100
- Faith Whittlesey, Edson I. Gaylord. Straight talk on the economy: The capital goods industry between the great depressions of the 1930s and the 1980s, Rockford Institute, 1984. OCLC 30844105
- Sustainable Rose Garden: Exploring 21st Century Environmental Rose Gardening edited by Pat Shanley & Peter Kukielski, foreword by Faith Whittlesey (Manhattan Rose Society Publications, 2008)
- Switzerland under siege, 1939-1945 : a neutral nation's struggle for survival edited by Leo Schelbert, foreword by Faith Whittlesey (Picton Press, 2000) ISBN 0-89725-414-7
- "America must treat its Swiss friend with care," by Faith Whittlesey
- "Brazil Goes Red" By Faith Whittlesey
- "Small Arms in a Big, Brutal World," by Faith Whittlesey
- "No More Embassies For Sale, Please" By Faith Whittlesey
- "And the Hillary Factor" by Faith Whittlesey
- "Nazi Gold," by Faith Whittlesey, from The Wall Street Journal (1996)
- "Brazil's gathering clouds" by Faith Whittlesey, from The Washington Times, October 1, 2002, page A17
- "Switzerland on Trial," Ambassadors REVIEW,Council of American Ambassadors, 1997.
- "Switzerland and the Honor of America," Ambassadors REVIEW,Council of American Ambassadors, 1998.
Collected papers
Whittlesey's Collected Papers are housed at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University.


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Thursday, March 25, 2010
Weekly meeting update
Coming up the last days before Festival so we continued doing C&I on Tuesday nights. We were all a bit tired this Tuesday but Mouse is well on the way to finishing another couple of AoA's. Maeve was spending time working on her calligraphy and I finished one of the last Caid AoA's that needed to be done.
Posted by Caristiona at 2:34 AM
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Make the most of what you've worked for.
Along with any defined benefit, defined contribution plan and personal savings you have, Social Security plays a key role in a good retirement plan.
Since Social Security replaces about 40% of pre-retirement income for the average worker, it pays to maximize when you elect to receive benefits. If you're married, you'll also want to partner with your spouse on the timing of benefits, and how to get the most, depending on your lifestyle. Any discussion about your options for applying for Social Security should include your financial advisor. And you'll want to iron out any potential tax implications with your accountant.
65 is No Longer the Norm
You become eligible for benefits at age 6,2 but it pays to wait to collect until your full retirement age (FRA) and pays even more if you delay your benefits to age 70. For workers with an age-66 FRA, for example, benefits are credited with an 8% increase each year you delay collecting until age 70.
Your FRA depends on when you were born, and it's not always age 65, as once thought. For those born between 1943 and 1954 the FRA is 66. For those born from 1955 to 1960, the FRA increases by two months each year – 66 and 6 months for someone born in 1957, for example. For those born in 1960 and later, their FRA is 67.1
Whether you decide to claim early could depend on whether you're planning for a shorter retirement and have a lower life expectancy. Taking benefits early, however, has significant implications on how much you'll receive. If you turn 62 in 2017, your benefit will be 25.8% lower than it would be at a FRA of 66 and two months, according to the Social Security Administration (SSA). This decrease is usually permanent, the SSA says.2
Retirement benefits are based on your highest 35 years of earnings. If you don't have that long of a work history, delaying filing for benefits and continuing to work in your early to late 60s will increase your benefit amount. On the flip side, if you're collecting Social Security benefits before your FRA and still working, your benefits will be lower by $1 for every $2 you earn above $16,920 (this annual amount is set each year). This changes to $1 for every $3 you earn above $44,880 at FRA.3
Planning with Your Spouse
There are more options to claiming Social Security benefits when two work histories are involved compared to a single, unmarried earner. Based on life expectancy, a higher-earning spouse may want to delay taking benefits as long as possible to maximize the benefit for the surviving spouse–if family history and other factors indicate the lower earning spouse will outlive the higher earner. This leaves a higher benefit for the surviving spouse since survivors receive the higher of the two Social Security benefits at death. The amount of survivor benefit is reduced if your spouse claimed benefits before FRA.
Couples also may want to consider if they qualify for spousal benefits and when to apply. A lower earning spouse, for example, can get a spousal benefit at FRA worth up to 50% of the higher-earning spouse's benefit. In this example, a lower earning spouse receives their own retirement benefit (which is less than the spousal benefit) plus the additional dollars to equal the higher spousal benefit. In order to quality for spousal benefits, your spouse will have had to already filed for retirement benefits.
Before new rules went into effect in 2016, couples had the opportunity for a higher earning spouse to file and suspend their benefits. This allowed the other spouse to collect a higher spousal benefit while the spouse who suspended their benefits was still able to build up the annual 8% delayed retirement credits up to age 70.
This strategy is no longer available because "deemed" filing rules were extended to apply at FRA and beyond. When you file for either your retirement or your spouse's benefit, you're deemed to file for the other benefit as well and can only collect the higher of the two benefits.1
A form of the file and suspend option is still available to individuals born on or before January 1, 1954. They can restrict their application for benefits and apply only for their spouse's benefits. They then delay filing for their own retirement benefits to earn the 8% delayed retirement credits.
As you can see, deciding when you want to begin receiving Social Security benefits depends on a number of factors. You'll want to consider whether you'll continue working during retirement, if you have more immediate cash needs, your health and family longevity history. And for married couples, you'll want to discuss how to maximize benefits during your lifetime and how much money could be available to a surviving spouse.
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1-"Retirement Benefits," Publication No. 05-10035, June 2017, Social Security Administration.: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10035.pdf (accessed July 6, 2017).
2-"When to Start Receiving Retirement Benefits," Publication No. 05-10147, January 2017, Social Security Administration.: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10147.pdf (accessed July 6, 2017).
3-"2017 Social Security Changes," Fact Sheet, Social Security Administration: https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/colafacts2017.pdf (accessed July 6, 2017).
Securities offered through World Equity Group, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory Service offered through BCJ Capital Management. World Equity Group, Inc. and BCJ Capital Management are independently owned and operated. BCJ Capital Management is a (SEC) registered investment adviser. Information presented is for educational purposes only. It should not be considered specific investment advice, does not take into consideration your specific situation, and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any securities or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and are not guaranteed. Be sure to consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. BCJ FG 17-511


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Yup, I was tempted to leave it at that. That one word pretty much says it all.
There is nothing like the anticipation and anxiety you experience when the manuscript you poured a little bit of yourself into goes public.
Journey of Awakening, book one in the Triune Stones series, is still available for preorder at Amazon, Carina, and Barnes and Noble but will be available for purchase tomorrow.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Countdown to Awakening: Tomorrow is the day!
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It is not too often that you read social media experts drawing attention to some drawbacks of one of the most popular social media applications – Facebook.
Professional communicators, pay attention to this one.
Rather than comment myself, I encourge you to link over and read Todd Defren's latest "PR-Squared" blog post on some of the shortcomings for Facebook for business applications.
He is by no means condemning Facebook. He is, though, drawing attention to some ways in which it comes up short for business purposes.
Take a moment to read this. It's worth it.
Post by Nick Vehr – 9.22.09


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|Remembering Reynolds Price
February 1, 1933-January 20, 2011
Reynolds Price, a poet and novelist, had the deep melodious voice of a tenor and a heart filled with goodness and laughter.
We met in 1972 when our mutual friend Eudora Welty told me there was a wonderful young writer from North Carolina who would be coming to New York and that I should take pictures of him.
I had read his first novel, A Long and Happy Life, published in 1962 to rave reviews. I still have the paperback in my library and it's easy to see why its first sentence was boxed in The New York Times obit that appeared on Friday, January 21st.
In addition to being an excellent writer of prose with a pitch-perfect voice for the rural South where he was born and lived his entire life, Reynolds Price was a fine poet, playwright, essayist and translator.
He taught writing, and the poetry of John Milton, at Duke University for more than fifty years. Anne Tyler and Josephine Humphreys were among his early students.
In 1984, Reynolds learned he had cancer, a ten-inch-long, eel-like tumor inside his spinal cord that seemed certain to kill him. It did not, but the surgery and subsequent radiation therapy left him paralyzed from the waist down and he would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. His book, A Whole New Life, An Illness and Healing is his personal narrative of his journey and a perfect reflection of his wisdom, his faith, and his deep intelligence.
We will all miss him but we are all so grateful for his life.
|Reynolds Price with Eudora Welty at the Algonquin Hotel.
|Reynolds was often compared to William Faulkner but he preferred to be thought of as the heir to his mentor, Eudora Welty.
|After meeting at the Algonquin and having a brief visit with our mutual friend Eudora Welty, Reynolds and I walked over to Bryant Park where I took some photographs of him.
|This photograph of Reynolds appeared in my postcard book, Men Writers, published by Pomegranate Artbooks in 1996. The reverse text read:
Reynolds Price is a novelist, storyteller, poet, playwright, essayist and Duke University professor whose career is driven by a spiritual hunger and graced by human decency, qualities that distinguish his writing. Among his best-known works are his award-winning first novel, "A Long and Happy Life" (1962), "The Surface of Earth" (1975), "A Palpable God" (1978), and "Kate Vaiden" (1986).
|The opening sentence of A Long and Happy Life.
My paperback copy is so old that the pages have yellowed.
|Walker Percy, Reynold Price, Albert Murray, and Joseph Mitchell at the reception following the ceremony at The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
|Reynolds Price with Composer Ned Rorem at luncheon preceeding awards ceremony of The American Academy of Arts and Letters, May 18, 1988.
|Reynolds Price and Rose Styron at The American Academy of Arts and Letters, May 18, 1988.
|In 1994 I visited Reynolds Price in Durham, North Carolina where I photographed him in the woods behind his house. This picture appeared in a book of interviews with 23 southern writers called Parting the Curtains, a collaboration with Dannye Romine Powell.
|In July of 1996 I returned once again to Durham to visit and take some photographs for his upcoming book, Roxanna Slade.
|For my 2005 desk diary, The Writer's Faith, published by Barnes & Noble, I used this photograph of Reynolds with the accompanying quote:
Prayer has always been a very important part of my daily life.
It's so much part of my daily life I don't even think of it as prayer. It just seems like the same thing as making the coffee and answering the phone and doing the work. I don't have elaborate, ceremonial ways that I do it. I am not a churchgoing person. But I think I'm an intensely
religious person.
|JK with Reynolds on the terrace behind his house: July 16, 1996.
|Once again at the annual ceremony of The Academy of Arts and Letters, this time with poet
Paul Muldoon.
|One of my last portraits of Reynolds. It was a long and happy friendship.
|Text and photographs © by Jill Krementz
all rights reserved.


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Pharrell Williams wants to make your day — all 24 hours of it — a little more Happy. The songwriter, rapper and producer released a 24-hour music video for the smile-inducing song Happy (the 4-minute track plays on loop 360 times in a row). The interactive video allows you to pick any time of day and you'll see either Pharrell or equally stylish lip-syncing dancers being infectiously, well, happy. See the official music video below. Or start your 24-hour joy ride HERE.
Pharrell Williams Releases First 24 hour Music Video - 'Happy'
Source: http://24hoursofhappy.com/


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It's 4:45 on Tuesday afternoon and I just wanted to pop in and tell you about a great little book I just read. It's called Tell Your Time by Amy Lynn Andrews.
Amy writes a blog called Blogging with Amy among other things, I'm sure. She's personable and knowledgeable, a combination I look for if I'm going to learn from someone.
This book was a very quick read, but don't be deceived, it's powerful. It will take some time to go through the worksheets (only a few) especially if you've never done anything like this before. But what you'll have in your hands when you're done is well worth the time. It may seem simple at first glance, but the overall strategy she outlines is very practical and effective.
Lots of books on time management are so long, you run out of time before you can finish them. Add to that, they can be so complicated that if you had time to do what they suggest, you probably wouldn't be reading a book about time management! This book is different. If you're looking for a way to simplify your schedule while including what's important to you, read this book.
Read more about the book here (by the way, it's an e-book, so you could read it tonight): Click here to visit Amy Lynn Andrews.*
Have a great week,
Beth Cranford
* disclosure: this is my affiliate link


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DEPCO is currently seeking applications for a full time Education Sales Consultant position. Applicants will be focused on serving their customers, selling products, and meeting customer needs within the established company guidelines. Applicant must reside in Kansas or be willing to relocate to Kansas. Periodic travel to corporate office in Pittsburg, KS is required.
Sales Representative Skills and Qualifications:Self-Motivated and Confident; Customer Service Focused; Driven to Meet and Exceed Sales Goals; Capable of Developing, Maintaining, and Growing Sales Pipelines; Experienced in or willing to learn to Manage a Sales Territory, Including Relationship Building and Brand Promotion; Ability to Prospect and Lead Nurture from Generation to Closure; Skilled at Analyzing, Organizing, and Conveying Information Clearly and Concisely; Ability to Plan, Organize, and Prioritize; Consists of an Aptitude to Obtain, Retain, and Convey Product Knowledge; Perform Formal Presentations; Uphold an Interest in Technology and Education; Demonstrate Good Mechanical and Technical Aptitude; Ability to Work in a Windows Based PC Environment; Min. Bachelor's Degree recommended.
Benefits:Pay based on education and experience, excellent fringe benefit package available for full-time employees. Letters of interest and resumes can be emailed to DEPCO HR or mailed to:
DEPCO Enterprises, LLCPO Box 178264 N Industrial DrPittsburg, KS 66762
DEPCO Enterprises, LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Stratasys Design Without Limits
Columbia, Missouri
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019
Kansas HOSA Conference
Pittsburg State University, Kansas
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019
Kansas MACE Conference
Manhattan, Kansas
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019
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For the educated people's money is matter on the education they are taking, if he got the good job and not able to get the more money, then it is the problem. If any person who is not educated and unable to get the money, it is also a problem. Many peoples are facing the money and career problem at this time.
Sometime a business man unable to stop the money from the investment it is also a big problem. For all such problems if you want to solution you have to contact at any expert like Kamiya Sindoor.
The Expert will tell you the reason behind your success in career and money stop; also they will share how to remove the barriers in the way of the success in career and money. For this you have to perform the spiritual rituals to happy the God and Goddess those provides the blessing to increase the money and success in career.
Career and Money problems can be solved by the worship of the God and Goddess of particular category like for Money you have to worship of the Lord Kuber and for the career and education you have to worship of the Ma Saraswati and Das Mahavidya.
Either you perform the puja from your side means at home or we can perform on the behalf of you.


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Great summery dish, with a bit of a 'wow' factor too. It's something of a family favourite, with my mum's having a very good reputation! I can remember more than a few rows over who'd had the biggest piece or got to finish the extra slice…
That said, I've never quite succeeded in replicating the mallow fluffiness of my mum's, but the results are still pretty good and taste amazing.
• Preheat oven to 150°C and line a large baking sheet
• Whisk the egg whites until they are really stiff, then whisk in half the sugar until shiny and stiff
• Fold in the remaining sugar with cornflour, a teaspoon of lemon juice and few drops of vanilla essence
• Spread thickly onto the baking sheet and place in oven for 1¼-1½hours
• Allow to cool for a good hour before topping
• Whip the cream and fold in a couple of table spoons of crème fraiche.
• Spread over the meringue and top with fruit.
• Serves 8-10.
• To whip egg white successfully, you need a totally clean bowl with no drops of water in it and no egg yolk contaminating the whites.
• The addition of crème fraiche tones down the richness of the cream, but it's optional.
• All summer fruits are excellent additions. You'll notice I added some kiwi in the final picture.
• As a variation to the usual theme, I've been wondering about trying a kind of banoffee pie/pavlova blend, topping the pavlova with bananas, toffee sauce, crushed biscuit and flaked chocolate. Will let you know if I do.
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Ok, I will try not to just copy and paste stuff from other sites here but...
I found a first look at the new REM album. REM has long been one of my favorite bands. Because this is supposed to be a return to a harder approach musically for the band, I am actually excited about new REM for the first time in a LONG time. Anyway, read a bit about the new one below. The Disc drops in stores April 1.
This is taken from Uncut Magazine's blog site:
REM's "Accelerate"
2008-01-30 12:07:52
OK, then, I must admit I've been sceptical about this one, so disillusioned by "Around The Sun" (three good, if woefully overproduced, songs notwithstanding) that I didn't even bother to check out any bootlegs of those "live rehearsal" gigs from Dublin last year. . . More fool me, it transpires.
If "Around The Sun" was a glossy attempt to update the moods of "Automatic For The People", "Accelerate" looks further back into REM's terrific back catalogue for inspiration. The mixture of crunch and jangle from Peter Buck, the generally speedier pace, Michael Stipe stuffing far too many words into each line while Mike Mills gamely tries to keep up with his harmonies, the attractive gothic woodiness of the folk ballads – all this reminds me a lot of how the band sounded circa "Lifes Rich Pageant" and "Document".
It'd be mighty rash to suggest "Accelerate" was the equal of those albums, but it certainly draws on their energies. This is not a perfect record, by any stretch, but it is one that improves with every listen, and which this morning sounds pretty much like the best REM effort since "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" (and I like "Up" and "Reveal" more than most critics, I suspect).
The opener, "Living Well's The Best Revenge" is, I think, the most straightforwardly exciting song they've recorded since "So Fast, So Numb", a breathless hurtle which seems designed to prove they're still capable of this dynamic, heady, heavily-textured kind of rock. It's a point which'll be made ad nauseam in reviews of "Accelerate", but Buck's return to electric prominence is both striking and massively welcome. I remember interviews with Stipe and Mills circa "Around The Sun" talked of how Buck busied himself in the studio stocking up their iPods. This time, mercifully, he seems to have contributed a lot more – or contributed a lot more of the sound which REM's fans generally want from him – to the record.
"Accelerate", in fact, sounds like the record REM's fans wanted them to make, not necessarily the record REM may have wanted to make. It's a small complaint, I guess, when professional pragmatism sounds as good as this. I don't want to write too much on the specific tracks, not least because I've got a very long review to file for the mag in the next few days.
But it's just under 35 minutes long, and only one of the 11 tracks ("Sing For The Submarine") outlasts its welcome. "I'm Gonna DJ" you'll probably know from recent tours and last year's live album; it's the worst song here, I think. Besides "Living Well's The Best Revenge", I'm currently taken with "Mansized Wreath" (improbably funky work from Mills), the fuzzed-out raga of "Mr Richards" (shades of "Time After Time" maybe) and another breakneck thriller called "Horse To Water".
If anyone saw the Dublin shows or has listened to the bootlegs, let me know what you think. Judging by "Accelerate", I really should have believed the hype.
John Mulvey
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
New REM CD-"Accelerate"
Posted by David Connell at 8:54 AM
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Status: Finished
Genre: Erotica
Emboldened by this new development, the resistance resumed their mission. 'Rogue' - one time comrade of Kyara - took on the task of seeking out Kyara's erstwhile captors. With the help of 'Teddy Bear', she tracked down the first of them. She was a quisling llianar and had been responsible for the failure of the first mission. The pair held her captive in a cheap hotel room where they exacted their vengeance upon her.
Rogue began to work the quisling's tattooed dick until it grew to its full girth. She put her mouth over its tip and licked it with her tongue, as the whole member began to come alive. The other llianar closed her eyes in bliss, and then opened them in shock as she felt Teddy Bear ram her giant cock into her small quim. It was so under-developed that the dark-skinned llianar could hardly fit the tip inside before the other tried to pull away. Relentlessly she drove herself even deeper until the traitor felt as though she was being torn in half.
By now, Rogue's attentions could no longer be ignored. All this time, Rogue had relentlessly rode the quisling's cock while pleasuring herself with her free hand. Despite the pain afflicted by Teddy Bear fucking her, the desire for release was too great. As her penis began to tense and relax, so her honeypot followed suit around Teddy Bear's dick. This was enough to cause the massive organ to erupt, its thick white lava rushing into the traitor's body like a flood. Simultaneously the quisling came almost choking Rogue in the deluge.
After some time, the pair resumed their assault on their prisoner, vowing to stop only when she told them of the Slaver's whereabouts.
"If you don't," Rogue threatened, "We'll cut that treacherous prick of yours off and feed it to you!"
The llianar informed her that the Slaver had put together a small force, and was hiding out somewhere in the mountains to the south of the city. She said that a she-elf, by the name of Ayla, had once been his lover, and that she would know exactly where the hide-out was. Teddy Bear said that she would take charge of the llianar while Rogue could investigate further.
Ayla was not hard to find as she was a socialite with a large circle of associates. She also did not offer much resistance. As was the custom, Rogue shared a drink with Ayla. A drink that she had spiked. Soon she had Ayla naked in the lounge. She lifted the girl off her feet, and lowered her onto her erect penis. The llianar's massive cock proved too much for her tender quim. She cried out in pain as her vagina was stretched further than she had experienced before.
"Please stop!" she whimpered, "I'll tell you anything."
Rogue replied: "But now you've gotten me all horny! Suck me until I'm not horny anymore, and then you can tell me. I'll leave once I've got the Intel I need."
The woman agreed. She was glad that the llianar's penis was in her mouth and not in her aching pussy. Soon her ordeal was over, and Rogue left her expensive home with another lead to follow. This time it was a man by the name of Broum. He worked closely with the Slaver, and could definitely identify his whereabouts.
With this new lead, Rogue began to seek out Broum. This was not so easy. Most of the folk seemed to fear him, and would not divulge where he might be. She eventually tracked him down to a local tavern that he frequented. She found him sitting at the bar.
"Heya sweetie." She greeted seductively, "Wanna buy a lady a drink?"
"Sure thing honey." He replied with a grin, "But what's in it for me?"
Rogue unbuttoned the top of her blouse and exposed her ample cleavage. Her other hand strayed down to the man's crotch where she felt him harden slightly in reaction to her touch.
"Maybe just the first thing that comes up."
The trap had been sprung. Broum made sure that Rogue was given what she desired. Almost as a reward, as they spoke, she would laugh and her hand would brush against him. Sometimes her delicate fingers would touch the inside of his upper thigh. His excitement would rush through him like an electric current when she would reach down between his legs as if to test his response. His dick would leap into action as her soft fingers toyed with him. More than once she reached further down and cupped his balls, squeezing them gently. The ecstasy of that moment made him stop mid-sentence as he closed his eyes as if to savour the sensation.
Little did he know that the llianar had paid off the bar lady to supply her with a non-alcoholic beverage instead of liquor. Thus, as the unsuspecting man became more and more inebriated, so Rogue remained sober. To ensure that her plan would work, Rogue laced his drink as well. Again her hand moved down and held his dick at its base. It was hard as a metal rod, and her touch made his tight denims unendurable. It was time to continue their encounter in the room she had rented for the night.
Broum was at first like putty in Rogue's expert hands. Soon he was on his back with the llianar riding up and down his eager cock. Even the sight of her own erect member did not diminish his enjoyment. But when she wanted him to withdraw before he came inside her, things began to get rough. Broum reached out and grabbed Rogue's cock just behind the glans, and held it so tightly that it began to jerk in an attempt to free itself. Being in a stronger position, Rogue was able to pull herself free, but not before her attacker took her balls in his other hand, and pulled on them so that she couldn't lift herself off him without injury.
Broum laughed cruelly as his hips began to buck off the carpeted floor, and his throbbing penis released his gism into Rogue's reluctant body. The onslaught on her cock and her testicles, not to mention the sheer audacity of his actions, had robbed her of her desire to cum, and her member flopped around impotently between her legs. Her balls ached from being violated, and because she had been close to climaxing herself when the attack occurred.
Enraged, Rogue shouted: "You fucking bastard! I'll teach you!"
She reached behind her and grabbed the first large object she could find, which happened to be one of her combat boots. With lightning reflexes she smashed the heel against Broum's temple, rendering him unconscious.
When he came to, he found that Rogue had tied his ankles together. There were ropes around his wrists, the other end of which had been tied tightly around the tip of his dick and his balls respectively. The slightest movement would cause excruciating pain. Rogue straddled his legs and took hold of his arms. She then started to pull them away from his body. The slipknots around his genitals tightened and he cried out in agony.
"Now you piece of shit." She exclaimed in a cruel whisper as she leant forward and put her face next to his, "You're going to tell me where the Slaver's hide-out is, or they'll have to surgically remove these ropes from your private parts." She accentuated the last part with a sharp yank on the ropes.
He tried in vain to struggle free, but the knots only drew even tighter until he could feel the warm trickle of blood running down his swollen cock. Giving in, Broum told Rogue where the hide-out was. "Take the main road to the south." He stammered, fighting back the sick feeling in his stomach, "About nine clicks once you're out of the city, there's a factory on the right. Take that road up the mountain until you see the sign saying 'Rhudevahn Caves'. That's where the hide-out is. Now untie me."
Rogue obliged, and the man attempted to hit her in the face with his fist as she was dressing. She expertly blocked his attempt and wrestled him to the floor. "You stupid bastard!" she retorted, "You could have left it there. Now you'll pay for your arrogance!"
By the time Rogue left the hotel room, Broum lay in a pool of blood on the floor. What remained of his removed testicles lay next to him, and his penis stuck out of his mouth that was still open, as if he was still screaming in the agony of his last living moments.
Rogue had been a slave to a man who had repeatedly abused her until - one night - he forced her to have oral sex with him. Just before this, she inserted a razorblade into the roof of her mouth. As she went down on him, she bit hard and removed his still throbbing organ in one agonising movement. From that moment on, she had no love for the male sex whatsoever. Even less than usual as llianar have little regard for men as a rule.
Rogue then returned to the headquarters, and informed the elven commander there of the hide-out's location. She asked if she could join the mission, and her request was granted. Inwardly she hoped that she would be able to deal with the Slaver personally. Alas she was denied the pleasure. Halfway through the attack, the coward took his own life.
In the meantime the situation with the Vilya began to change in favour of the Resistance. Because of the arrival of the Elves from Theda, Grendolin's followers were forced to concentrate on fighting them. Thus their attention was diverted from their plot to kill the Princess before she was crowned. All too soon, she was crowned Queen Felitia.
She was not blind to what had transpired during the Regents' rule, but not being in a position of authority, Princess Felitia had no power to prevent it. Now as Queen, she did! She summoned Grendolin and Salendin to explain themselves. The latter ran away rather than face the judgement. Grendolin did not have the opportunity.
The witch appeared before the newly appointed Queen in the Great Chamber, where she herself had sat not two weeks before. She seemed not to be perturbed as her Highness demanded an explanation.
"By your Majesty's leave," Grendolin began, "But my actions were prompted by an upsurge in the number of attacks on our citizens by the Mora. We captured a good many, even though they had shape shifted so as to avoid detection. We even developed a serum that allows us to discern whether a llianar is a Mora or not."
"And you are saying that all the llianar you have held prisoner here are in fact Mora?" Enquired the Queen.
"Yes verily, your Majesty." Replied Grendolin, already looking somewhat ill-at-ease, "Let me demonstrate. Allow the guards to bring up a Mora and a llianar together."
Intrigued, the Queen nodded to the guard. He bowed and went down to the dungeon to fetch Ysha, and one of the male night elves that had been imprisoned there. As he unlocked the door to Ysha's cell, he said: "Whatever happens up there, allow the witch to have her way. The Queen is on the throne. She will make it right."
Ysha and the Mora were brought before Grendolin. She turned to the night elf. First she injected a drug directly into his penis. Without any stimulation, the organ swelled and hardened. The witch then attached two electrodes onto his balls, and turned on the switch. Immediately the prisoner's lower body began to jerk violently, as semen exploded from the distended tip of his aching penis into a large bowl. If the Queen had not ordered the device to be switched off, the unfortunate Mora would have been left cumming all over the floor, until he passed out from exhaustion. Even when it was taken off, those standing near could smell the odour of singed pubic hair.
A vial containing the serum stood on the low table next to the bowl. Grendolin poured some of the liquid into the vessel and mixed it together. Soon the sticky liquid in the bowl turned pale blue. The witch presented this to the Queen.
It was Ysha's turn next. But this time it was different: Ysha's balls were too small and would rupture if the electric current from the device was allowed through them. This would defeat the purpose of the test. So Grendolin had to make her ejaculate another way. Still she injected the drug directly into the llianar's cock. Again it sprung to life. Ysha cried out as her super-hard cock ached. The witch took the tender organ in her mouth and rode until she could feel that Ysha was ready to cum. Then she jerked Ysha off over the bowl until the llianar ejaculated.
Again the serum was applied. But this time, there was no change in colour. Grendolin froze as the Queen looked on in disgust. She ordered that Ysha be released along with all the other llianar, elven and night elf prisoners. Grendolin was ordered to remain in the Great Chamber while the captives were set free. Once this had been done, she then told the guards to seize her. But before they could get near the witch, a mob of freed detainees grabbed her and dragged her down to the dungeon. Then screaming and crying came from downstairs, after which the captives that had dragged her off returned, their clothes stained with blood.
Soon after that, the scenario changed again. This time it was all-out war, heralded by the arrival of the mighty Tiberi. The forces from the Realm of Tiberia were vast and highly advanced. They were allies of the Elves from Theda. Their involvement in the conflict came about because the Korred had begun with mass executions, in which three and a half thousand elves and llianar were massacred, and their bodies were dumped in long open graves.
These new allies further emboldened the llianar resistance, as did Rogue's dealings with Broum. The team calling themselves 'Firefox' got hold of one of the Vilya militia. They met him in a local bar and invited him to drink with them. Little did he know that his drinks had been laced with the same drugs, that the so-called scientists had used on their test subjects in one of the labs. Firefox then took him back to where he worked. By the time he got there, he was so horny that he hardly noticed as the one team member rammed her cock into his muscular ass. His attention was too taken up by the desire to ease the ache in his raging penis. Even the sensation of being fucked in the butthole heightened his desire, as he jerked himself off until his gism came gushing out, some of it landing on the lens of his expensive eyeglasses. In fact he only realised what had really happened to him, when he felt that his butthole was aching a few hours later.
Having gained entry to the laboratory, the couple made their way to the computer room. There they overpowered one of the technicians. One of the llianar removed his pants and injected the drug directly into the base of his penis. Almost immediately the bruised organ hardened until it ached. She then began to jerk him off while her team-mate forced him to have oral sex with her. The technician refused to give them what they demanded, so one of the duo turned on the surveillance cameras, and angled it so that the lens recorded the scene in the computer room. She then worked on his rampant dick until his cum spurted out of him in long strands.
Once finished, her partner said to him: "Now - Unless you want your colleagues to witness how my comrade and I cut off that filthy dick, and the balls that you don't deserve to have, and turn you into a fuckin' eunuch - you'd better give us the disks we are looking for, and we'll be on our way."
Needless to say, the frightened technician realised that they were serious, and gave them what they needed. True to their word, the pair left the technician to recover from his ordeal. They then went into one of the bathrooms as neither of them had been unaffected by the encounter. It was not the thought of having sex with the man that had thrilled them because, as a rule, llianar do not consider the male gender with any great tenderness. Instead it was the rush of adrenaline that had aroused them.
They sat down on the tiled floor facing each other. Under the one code-named 'Red Fox's short skirt, her partner could see the head of her dick protruding. She lifted the garment up and took the rampant organ in both hands. As she caressed it, Red Fox returned the favour by curling her fingers around her partner's comparatively small penis, and gently stroking the tender tip between her palm and little finger. Soon she felt a warm trickle in the palm of her hand.
Black Fox then lay on her back as her comrade straddled her, and lowered herself onto the erect member. It felt so confortable as it filled her tight pussy. Black Fox stroked her partner's unbridled erection. It was not long before the smaller of the two filled the other's quim with her impotent clear load. The sensation triggered Red Fox to unleash her milky white flood all over her comrade's heaving breasts and stomach.
There was no time to bask in the aftermath. Team Firefox quickly made good their getaway, before the building's security had time to remedy the faulty camera and come after them.
By far the most ruthless of the resistance was a relatively late addition to the team, only joining after one of the Vilya leaders had been assassinated. She wore a clown's make-up and ponytails. Her costume resembled that of the 'Joker' in a pack of playing cards. She called herself 'Jester'. No-one really knew where she had come from, but one thing was clear: Her hatred for those who had oppressed her and her kind was unequalled.
Jester's first mission was to rescue a young she-elf from the cruel clutches of her slave master. She and the slave seduced him. Like loyal subjects they knelt at his feet. Jester took his dick in her hand, and soon he was covering her and the elf with his gism. The next thing he felt was Jester's cock up his butthole, while the she-elf removed his still throbbing organ with a hunting knife. He tried to free himself, but Jester's grip was too tight. The llianar's cock shot its load into the man's ass as the elf-maiden removed his balls too with a swift stroke. As he lay there screaming, Jester slit his throat, and licked the fresh blood off the blade. She and the rescued elf were out of the building before her erstwhile master breathed his last.
Her next quarry was also male. He was a commander in the forces that supported the Norggen. Jester possessed a certain seductiveness that could disarm members of the male sex. This she used on the officer until she had him eating out of her hand. Wearing tight black and red ski-pants, she soon had him naked, his eager cock between her shapely butt cheeks as she rode up and down on it.
"Tell me what I want to know, or I'll cut your balls off and feed them to you." She threatened with an insane smirk on her face. He was about to express his disbelief when he noticed that she was brandishing a razor-sharp hunting knife in her hand. Only then did he realise the seriousness of his predicament.
Jester knelt down before him and took his cock in her mouth. But not before she reinforced her warning by saying: "You'd better start talking soon. 'Coz if you cum before that, I will kill you nice and slow-like."
The officer began to protest until he felt an acute stabbing pain across his balls, as she pressed the sharp knife edge lightly against the sac. Her hand reached down and gently stroked the affected area, causing a strange paradox of feelings. The touch made the wound sting, while the warm fingers against his hypersensitive scrotum made his still erect cock convulse with pleasure. Jester showed him her palm. The sight of the blood that still trickled from his nether regions convinced him to talk.
While he spoke, she kept enough pressure on his willing penis to keep him focussed. Once she was satisfied, she said: "Put some water on your balls. The pain won't last long. The cut's not that deep, but one's scrotum bleeds like crazy!"
Again she went down on him. This time her movements were gentler than before. His cock began to jerk in her mouth, warning her of what was to follow. Deftly she slid off the twitching organ, and began to lave the sensitive underside with her soft tongue. She grinned in satisfaction as she felt his warm semen run down off her shoulder. His grunting was a mixture of pain and relief.
Once she had left the premises, Jester headed straight for one of the city's many brothels. There she chose a pretty redhead, took her up to one of the rooms, and fucked her without even getting naked with her. As her excited penis relieved itself of its milky load into the condom she was forced to wear for protection, she let out a shout of: "Yes baby! Work with me now!"
During the early days of the Resistance, it was made up mainly of llianari. As time progressed, they were joined by groups of she-elves, and even some male elves as well. Most of them were also prisoners at some time with the llianari, and had witnessed the castrations. Once they escaped, especially after the fall of the Vilya, these vigilantes went in search of those who were responsible for these mutilations. If they caught one of them, some of the elves would seduce him and convince him to have sex with one of them. While he was ejaculating, the other she-elf would emasculate him with a sharp knife or a scalpel.
One individual would lure her victims into a bedroom with promises of sexual bliss, having made sure that he was too drunk to know any better. She then toyed with him until he got a hard-on, at which time she would have him lie down while she 'goes to the bathroom'. The man would be lying there waiting, his cock erect and his balls exposed. A little while later, the she-elf would return with rubber gloves and a switchblade, wearing nothing but her boots.
First she would kick him repeatedly in the balls until he was in too much pain to put up a fight. Then she would castrate him in the same way as he and his colleagues had so many llianari. As he squirmed in pain, she would add to his agony by removing his penis at its base before leaving him to bleed to death.
Another would put a noose around her captive's dick and his balls. It was tied to a long rod which she held in one hand. If he tried to escape or even move, she tightened the noose. She didn't bother with surgical precision. With a jagged knife, she hacked open the scrotum and, having slit open the protective sac, exposed the testes. She inserted her finger behind the tubes and yanked the gonads off using brute force. She would then tighten the noose around his dick until the blood flow was completely blocked off. Her victim hardly ever survived for long enough for the organ to become gangrenous and fall off.
Eventually the she-elves made guillotines with which they could quickly remove the offenders' privates, cock and all. When Queen Felitia came to the throne, she ordered an end to these mutilations. By that time, most of those responsible for castrating llianari during the conflict had either died at the hands of the she-elves, or taken their own lives to prevent this from happening to them. Some of those few that survived the ordeal took their own lives, as they deemed death more desirable than life without their maleness.
© Copyright 2019 Tristan Biggs. All rights reserved.
Short Story / Erotica
Short Story / Romance


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Here is my Top 5 out of the 19 feature films that I saw.
A fourteen-year-old boy in a stifling Helsinki slum takes some unwise life lessons from his soon-to-be-incarcerated older brother, in Finnish master Pirjo Honkasalo's gorgeously stylized and emotionally devastating work about what we pass on to younger generations, and the ways we do it.
-Steve Gravestock
Click here to read my interview with Pirjo and my thoughts on the film.
Click here to read my interview with Pirjo and my thoughts on the film.
The leader of a gang of racist skinheads finds his prejudices and misplaced loyalties pitted against his desire for love and family when he falls for a waitress whose son is of African descent.
-Steve Gravestock
Click here for my thoughts on this film.
Click here for my thoughts on this film.
Internationally acclaimed Chinese master Jia Zhangke (The World) won the Best Screenplay prize at Cannes for this startling — and startlingly violent — modern wuxia tale of four outcasts on the margins of a rapidly changing China who channel their underclass rage into a bloody and murderous rampage.
-Giovanna Fulvi
Erik Skjoldbjærg (Insomnia) directs this gritty drama about the risky experiments and shady dealings that led to the birth of the Norwegian oil-drilling industry in the early 1980s.
-Steve Gravestock
Revisiting Paris for the first time since their honeymoon, a long-married British couple (Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan--Laurence Olivier Award twice, Tony nom, CommanderOBE for drama) run into an old colleague (Jeff Goldblum) and discover a new vision of what life and marriage might be, in the new film from director Roger Michell (Notting Hill) and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette). -Cameron Bailey
Fleeing through the impenetrable forests of the Basque countryside after a jewel heist, a hapless band of robbers runs afoul of a coven of witches, in this madcap supernatural spectacle from Spanish genre specialist Alex de la Iglesia (The Last Circus).
-Colin Geddes
Heidy's Top 5 Faves1. The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears
2. Concrete Night3. Rhymes for Young Ghouls
4. Pioneer
5. Cannibal
To read more about Heidy's picks, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/m29xcng
Kirk Cooper's Top 5 Faves
1. 12 Years a Slave
2. Prisoners
3. Omar
4. Stranger By the Lake
5. Dallas Buyer's Club
My other film screenings included the following:
- A Promise
- Brazillian Western (my review of this and iNumber Number)
- Cold Eyes
- Face Of Love
- Hi Ho Mistahey (my review)
- Hotell (my review of this and Sex, Drugs & Taxation)
- iNumber Number
- Metalhead
- Mystery Road
- Sex, Drugs & Taxation
- The Invisible Woman
- This Is Satlitun
- What is Film?
|"Firecrackers", a film by
Jasmin Mozaffari


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Last night was a novel experience for me.
No, not that. Get your minds out of the gutter, people!
The "first" I did last night was – I went to a comedy show with my BFF Cris.
See, there was this week in late August when Cris' mom's house burned down. And her uncle accidently ran over her mom's dog. And her husband had kidney stones. And her cousin was killed in a car accident. And her brother broke his foot. And in the midst of this, I heard an ad saying that Anjelah Johnson ((And if you don't get the "I will cut you." reference, watch the Bon QuiQui skit from Mad TV. I still die laughing every time I watch it…)) was coming to town. And I thought, "Ooooh – Cris loves Anjelah Johnson! This is just what she needs to cheer her up!" So I got us tickets.
I've never been to a stand up comedy show, so I was a little nervous that it wouldn't actually be funny but everyone would laugh anyway because they didn't want to be the only person not laughing. ((This is how my mind works all the time. It's crazy – I know. And kind of exhausting.))
But it was awesome.
I picked her up after work (because it was a date, after all) and we went out to Bull City Burger and Brewery for some really tasty burgers before the show. They also brew their own beer and I had a delicious Black IPA. Cris doesn't drink. And somehow, we're still friends… And then we went to the show.
Did you know that stand up comediennes have opening acts? I didn't. But Shang Wang (he says that is his real name; I'm not sure it wasn't just for effect) was pretty funny.
And then Anjelah came out and she was really really funny. At first, I kept listening with one ear to make sure Cris was laughing and it wasn't a really crappy friend date. But she seemed to be enjoying herself and said her face hurt from laughing so much, so eventually I just concentrated on the show and enjoyed myself too.
Of course, she did a little Bon QuiQui and a little Tammy, but most of it was stuff I'd never heard before. And she was hilarious.
I doubt I'll become a groupie for the stand up comedy tours, but I'm glad we went. And I'm glad I could do something nice for my BFF.
On an unrelated note, I thought I would give you all a snapshot of how the morning went in our house. This all happened between 6:00 and 6:45 this morning ((And I will say that the DreadBrewer did help me with some of it. He gets some credit.)):
Get up, get dressed, brush my teeth and hair, wash face, make coffee, make tea, make breakfast and lunch for DB, make breakfast and lunch for LB, make breakfast and lunch for me, get LB up and dressed, change LB's diaper, put down wet food for Ethan while fighting off the other cats ((The other cats steal his dry food and he's getting too skinny, so we're trying to give him wet food to fatten him back up.)), put down treats for the other BeerCats to appease them over their lack of wet food, check on Ethan and realize he's urped wet food all over the bathroom, check on LB and realize she's got a diaper full of poo but figure she can wait until after I clean up Ethan's mess, clean up cat vomit, wash hands, start putting away clean dishes, remember that I haven't changed LB's diaper and go to do so, realize that LB is happily munching away on one of the cat treats, shrug it off (I mean, she acted like it was delicious), change LB's diaper, wash dishes in sink, make second cup of coffee, somehow manage to get me, a redonculously heavy 9 month old, 2 lunch boxes, a purse, and a coffee mug out to the car in one trip, leave to drop LB off at daycare and head in to work.
Sometimes, I swear work seems like a sanctuary from the craziness that is our house!


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Joel Gronau commented on Contact Us 2017-06-18 12:23:19 -0500I am running for Congress in the 30th district and would love your support I am not running major party because they have lost their way,and are worried about big anything other than the citizens that elected them. I need signatures to gain ballot access and help spreading the word to everyone about me. I am a hybrid breed of Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders I know it soounds weird but give me a call or email and we can talk. My website is joelgronau.org
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