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On this day in 1977, Kansas State was getting ready to play a Sweet 16 game against Marquette in the NCAA basketball tournament. The Cats had beaten Providence (the college, not the Biblical variety) in the tournament's first round, and the world looked pretty rosy: — K-State
The future is looking bright for the Kansas State women's rowing team. With the ground-breaking of a new state-of-the-art rowing training center east of Bill Snyder Family Stadium, the opportunities to grow and improve are almost endless for the Wildcats. The new training center
The 42nd-ranked Kansas State tennis team will wrap up its 2013 spring non-conference schedule this weekend, as the Wildcats travel to Fresno, Calif. The Wildcats will face Cal Poly on Sunday at 1 p.m., and No. 61 Fresno State on Monday at 7 p.m. K-State will look
After getting a big win against No. 5 South Carolina last Friday, the eighth-ranked Kansas State equestrian team looks to close out the regular season with a win against No. 3 Oklahoma State on Saturday. The meet is set to begin at 10 a.m. at Timbercreek Stables.
Kansas State's Jake Doller and Landon Busch combined to limit Northern Colorado to just one hit, while the Wildcats tallied double-digit runs for the sixth time in the last seven games as the K-State baseball team shut out the Bears, 11-0, Tuesday night at
After 36 years of waiting, Kansas State president Kirk Schulz pointed fans' attention to the upper areas of Bramlage Coliseum and set the tone for the evening. "Folks, it's been a while," he said. "It's great to put 2013 up on that wall." K-State celebrated
Kansas State junior Blair DeBord was one of 48 catchers named to the initial watch list for the 2013 Johnny Bench Award, the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission announced Tuesday. DeBord is the third Wildcat in as many years to be up for the award that is
After leading Kansas State to its first league title in 36 years and the best regular season in school history, coach Bruce Weber was honored as the Big 12 Coach of the Year by the leagues' coaches on Sunday night. On Monday, he was voted by the
NORMAN, Okla. – No. 36 Kansas State recorded three singles wins from its singles lineup on Sunday afternoon, but No. 40 Oklahoma used the momentum from a hard-fought doubles point win to defeat K-State, 4-3, at the Wadley Indoor Tennis Pavilion. K-State is 4-6 on the season and 0
After leading Kansas State to its first league title in 36 years and the best regular season in school history, coach Bruce Weber was honored as the Big 12 Coach of the Year on Sunday night. One day after finishing the regular season with a 25-6 overall
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Austin, TXUSA
Hometown: Chicago
March 26, 2008
about once a week. I just moved to the Austin area and I will be getting out more to take advantage of all the new opportunities. I just need to find out where they are.
I'm an amateur who's looking to learn all I can.
Minolta Dimage 5. Fuji F10, and a Nikon D300.
Nature and outdoor sports, but I'm slowly getting into portrait and wedding photography too.
Hello, I am very interested in photography and would like to learn more about it. I updated all of my equipment this year and now what to get the most out of my investment.
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Top Apps
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Open Source PKI solutions140 weekly downloads
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Trad4 is a fully concurrent, thread safe, graph-based programming language that scales linearly on multiple cores. It is initially intended for deployment in the financial industry to model real-time risk.1 weekly downloads


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Superman Returns: Special Edition (Dbl DVD) (WS)
He's back. A hero for our millennium. And not a moment too soon, because during the five years (much longer in movie-fan years!) Superman sought his home planet, things changed on his adopted planet. Nations moved on without him. Lois Lane now has a son, a fiance and a Pulitzer for "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." And Lex Luthor has a plan that will destroy millions - no, billions - of lives. Filmmaker Bryan Singer (X-Men) gives the world the Superman it needs, honoring the legend everyone loves while taking it in a powerful new direction. Brandon Routh proves a perfect choice to wear the hero's cape, leading a top cast that includes Kate Bosworth as Lois and Kevin Spacey as Lex. And the thrills - from a sky-grapple with a tumbling jumbo jet to a continent-convulsing showdown - redefine Wow. "I'm always around," Superman tells Lois. You'll be glad he is.]]>
If Richard Donner's 1978 feature film Superman: The Movie made us believe a man could fly, Bryan Singer's 2006 follow-up, Superman Returns, lets us remember that a superhero movie can make our spirits soar. Superman (played by newcomer Brandon Routh) comes back to Earth after a futile five-year search for his destroyed home planet of Krypton. As alter ego Clark Kent, he's eager to return to his job at the Daily Planet and to see Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth). Lois, however, has moved on: she now has a fiancé (James Marsden), a son (Tristan Leabu), and a Pulitzer Prize for her article entitled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." On top of this emotional curveball, his old archrival Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is plotting the biggest land grab in history.
Singer, who made a strong impression among comic-book fans for his work on the X-Men franchise and directed Spacey in The Usual Suspects, brings both a fresh eye and a sense of respect to the world's oldest superhero. He borrows John Williams's great theme music and Marlon Brando's voice as Jor-El, and the story (penned by Singer's X-Men collaborators Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris) is a sort-of-sequel to the first two films in the franchise (choosing to ignore that the third and fourth movies ever happened). The humorous and romantic elements give the movie a heart, Singer's art-deco Metropolis is often breathtaking, and the special effects are elegant and spectacular, particularly an early airplane-disaster set-piece. Of the cast, Routh is excellent as the dual Superman/Clark, Spacey is both droll and vicious as Luthor, and Parker Posey gets the best lines as Luthor's moll Kitty. But at 23, Bosworth seems too young for the five-years-past-grizzled Lois. It's nice to see Noel Neill, Jack Larson (both from the classic Adventures of Superman TV series), and Eva Marie-Saint on the screen as well. Superman Returns is one of those projects that was in development for seemingly forever, but it was worth the wait -- it's the most enjoyable superhero movie since Spider-Man 2 and The Incredibles. --David Horiuchi
On the DVD
The two-disc edition offers about three hours of documentaries and other features. "Requiem for Krypton: Making Superman Returns" is an eight-part documentary about the movie, going back to Bryan Singer conceiving the movie back in 2004. There's a lot of on-set footage and analyses of special effects and stunts such as Brandon Routh's flying (helped by his swimming regimen), focusing more on the filming process than the design. For example, we see how the Metropolis scenes were shot but not how the often-striking sets were designed. Marlon Brando appears briefly in the bloopers section, and "Resurrecting Jor-El" spotlights the techniques used to create his footage. The eleven deleted scenes (about 15 minutes total) contain nothing earth-shaking, but it's nice to see more Eva Marie-Saint, one scene of Clark back in Smallville that could have altered the dynamic of his return to The Daily Planet, and a scene between Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey that is good for a laugh. --David Horiuchi
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Superman returns from a 5 year mission to the remains of Krypton. In that time, Lois has moved on, Jimmy has moved on, the Daily Planet has moved on. Read morePublished 18 days ago by Clint W. Green
Worst superman movie ever. Disjointed aimless tearfest that just never seems to get where it's going. Where is it going anyway?Published 27 days ago by Regina
The movie is a great movie, but the streaming is a problem. The movie kept freezing and streaming for so long that we just turned it offPublished 1 month ago by Gwen Ross
Ok. I will admit. Not my favorite Superman movie. But leaps and bounds better then Superman III & IV. I thought Mr. Routh did the best he could do. Read morePublished 1 month ago by Jimmy Corriveau
I enjoyed this movie. A bit of realism mixed with superpowers and a greedy villain make for an interesting film.Published 1 month ago by JudieGorman
|From this Discussion
|CGI Superman vs. Live Brandon - a tragic misuse of technology
lol Seriously
Dec 2, 2006 by Israel Soler | See all 4 posts
|ATTENTION - HARDCORE SUPERMAN FANS! a question please?
Greeting Superfriend John,
There were several colored kryptonite from the the era of which you speak:
Gold K- took away Superman's powers forever
Blue K- only affected the Bizarro Superman
Jewel and White K- affected something or someone other than Superman.
Hope this helps.
Dec 7, 2006 by Vicky Martin | See all 7 posts
|Bonus Features
The Blu-ray is a direct port-over of the 2-disc DVD set. However, there is a misprint on the Blu-ray packaging, which I have confirmed with Warner Home Video. All of the extras are in standard definition, not in 1080p as indicated on the cover of the Blu-ray.
Otherwise, this is a good upgrade,... Read More
Jan 23, 2008 by Todd Erwin | See all 2 posts
|Other superman villains?
I think the next Superman villain should be Doomsday. I am aware that there is an animated movie with Doomsday but I believe that Superman's death and return to life should receive a live action movie.
Dec 31, 2008 by Shaun Stirneman | See all 6 posts
|Amazon, when will you have this in stock?
I would also like to know if this listing is accurate for both aspect ratio and audio qualities.
Nov 7, 2008 by James Harvey-richardson | See all 2 posts
|Is this getting remastered?
|Be the first to reply


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#VoteInPeace (#VIP)
Every election in Nigeria has two results: Number of votes cast vs people killed. #VoteInPeace
Every election in Nigeria has two results: Number of votes cast vs people killed. #VoteInPeace
This list is a guide to learn about what certain companies are doing to undermine human rights and the environment...
In light of Jeremy Scahill's shocking documentary film Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield that exposes the hidden
Our Heavenly Father Creator Of All Things, I Believe he is Very, Very ANGRY With this world we live in today ! If We all
Every being has the right to be free to enjoy freedom. Take action for positive change, to inspire, enable, motivate
Tell U.S. officials to take a stand against the ongoing bombing of Gaza and call for a ceasefire immediately!
to show that judgement is the worst sin there is today
Body cams reduce crime and compliants by 50%. Also police brutality in the public goes down 60%.
to End Israel Attack/War on Gaza,Palestine
No body with a proper human mind would like to kill another person, Dolphins are Non-Human Persons. They are being


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Spoleto Chamber Music Festival
The Spoleto Festival USA spans 17 days and nights each srping in Charleston, South Carolina. A 13-week series of 1-hour concerts recorded live at last year's festival.
When and where to tune-in
Recently on Spoleto Chamber Music Festival
Sunday, September 13th - 2pm
Sundays at 2 p.m.
Sundays at 2 p.m.
Sundays at 2 p.m.


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Pop Culture
Natalie Portman's Directorial Debut & Paper Towns' Nat WolffBy Gerri Miller
See how Portman is making her big splash in Israel and don't miss Paper Towns with Nat WolffGo To Pop Culture
Tag Archives: Judaism
Resolving to Practice
Tashlich, the Jewish New Year practice of symbolically casting our sins off into the water, was not something I knew much about growing up. It is a practice I have come to enjoy as an adult, however. There is something both powerful and relieving about the physical opportunity to throw away your digressions, even in the form of breadcrumbs. It is also a nice tradition to embark on as a family; to take a walk around a river or lake; to be in nature together and enjoy the early fall weather as we observe the holiday with an activity that everyone can participate in in some way. This year's journey to the Charles River has me thinking a lot about the act of practice and how a new focus on that concept can be a guide to successful resolutions and growth in the new year.
After Rosh Hashanah services this year, I rallied my girls and my extended family to take a walk to the river for Tashlich. We stood by the water and lined up, bits of crackers in each of our hands.
I was glad to have something for Chaya to do that would be marginally spiritual but mostly just a chance to be with family and throw some things – always a winner for my three year old. But for Ruthie I had high hopes. She had this monumental first year of sunday school and four weeks into first grade, she is making mental leaps and bounds of which I am in daily awe. I got ahead of myself imagining how she'd talk about being a better listener; a nicer friend; a more caring big sister. I even went so far as to think about how cute those things would sound right here in my blog.
"Throw a piece of cracker in the water, sweetie, and say something you want to do better next year," I encouraged her.
"I want to be a better reader!" she said, throwing her first crumbs.
Not quite what I had in mind, so I tried again.
"Something you don't do so well now, that you are hoping to change," I suggested.
"I want to ride my bike without training wheels!" Another crumb in the water.
I smiled at her aspirations, and I thought about stopping her. Going deeper than I had planned into the concept of sin, or even suggesting to her something I thought she could improve.
Then I remembered the old adage about parenting being a marathon, and not a sprint and that really doing something from the heart takes practice. This year, when I talked about doing things better, Ruthie thought about her skills. Next year, she may interpret my instructions differently. Or she may not – at least not yet. We don't do our traditions, we practice them. She has to practice Tashlich, and my hope is she'll have the chance to practice it for a long time.
On Rosh Hashanah afternoon, I stopped myself from getting in my own, and I let her name a few more skill building hopes. Then I took my turn alongside and threw in crumbs for less screen time during family time, for being a more patient parent, for appreciating the people I love more and a few more things.
Since that day, though, I have been pondering the idea of practice. Because it doesn't just apply to Rosh Hashanah, or to our spiritual beliefs. We can't change overnight, and luckily we usually get more than one chance to try to do things better. So whether it is Tashlich or how I manage my low energy reserve at bedtime, I am going to try to remember that learning something different takes practice. If the universe allows it, I will get another year at the river. In the interim, I am not going to be better, I am going to practice being better – right alongside Ruthie as she sheds those training wheels, too.
An Interfaith Mom's Bookshelf
If there is one thing I'm passionate about, it's expanding Judaism's tent. After years of living as a Jewishly engaged interfaith family, I got tired of hearing Jewish professionals, academics, and community leaders blame families like mine for the demise of Judaism. So, for six years, I shared my family's story in forums such as InterfaithFamily.com, the Forward, and Tablet to paint a different picture of intermarriage and interfaith family life. I even wrote a book From Generation to Generation: A Story of Intermarriage and Jewish Continuity.
Now, I'm excited to be embarking on a new phase in my Jewish journey as I begin work as a Jewish professional at my synagogue. As the new assistant director of engagement, I oversee my congregation's efforts to connect more interfaith and LGBT families, 20- and 30-somthings, and people interested in conversion to Jewish life. It's work that I have been doing as a volunteer lay leader, writer, and speaker for years. I'm thrilled that now I get to interact on a more personal level with those wanting to "do Jewish."
One of my favorite parts of my new job is meeting with interfaith couples and families new to Dallas or about to get married. I spend many hours over coffee listening to the joys and challenges they are experiencing as intermarrieds or soon-to-be intermarrieds. I offer advice on navigating issues and relationships with extended family members culled from personal experience. I hope to convince them that there is a place for them in Judaism and that they are wanted and will be embraced by our Jewish community. Each day, I feel that I'm doing sacred work.
As I talk to parents and young couples, I often find myself scribbling on napkins and scraps of paper the names of books that I find to be helpful for building a Jewish home or raising Jewish children. I thought InterfaithFamily.com readers might also be interested in these materials.
So here are some of my favorite Jewish and interfaith books. They are resources that I find myself reading and referring to often. It is by no means a comprehensive list and I hope you'll share your favorites in the comment section below.
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson and Miriyam Glazer, The Bedside Torah: Wisdom, Visions, and Dreams: Learned, engaging and provocative, this book offers three commentaries on each Torah portion. A great resource for discussing the week's parsha during Shabbat dinner, it weaves together the insights of ancient rabbis and sages, medieval commentators and philosophers, and modern scholars and religious leaders.
Thomas Cahill, The Gift of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels: A light-handed account of ancient Jewish culture, the culture of the Bible. The book is written from a modern point of view, yet it encourages us to see the Old Testament through ancient eyes.
Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews: A national bestseller, this brilliant 4,000-year survey covers not only Jewish history but the impact of Jewish genius and imagination on the world. Johnson's work begins with the Bible and ends with the establishment of the State of Israel.
James Keen, Inside Intermarriage: A Christian Partner's Perspective on Raising a Jewish Family: Written by a Christian father who is helping his Jewish wife raise Jewish children. Keen provides practical advice on how to give children a clear Jewish identity while maintaining a comfort level for both parents and includes perspectives from professionals who work with interfaith families.
Milton Steinberg, Basic Judaism: A classic work for the Jewish and the not Jewish reader. A concise and readable introduction to Judaism that makes complex theological and philosophical concepts easy to understand, and contrasts various Jewish perspectives.
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, its People, and its History: An indispensable reference on Jewish life, culture, tradition, and religion. It covers every essential aspect of the Jewish people and Judaism.
Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, Jerusalem: Renowned chefs, Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi explore the vibrant cuisine of their home city—with its diverse Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities. This stunning cookbook offers recipes from their unique cross-cultural perspective, from inventive vegetable dishes to sweet, rich desserts.
Tina Wasserman, Entrée to Judaism: A Culinary Exploration of the Jewish Diaspora and Entrée to Judaism for Families: A culinary adventure through the Jewish Diaspora, it is as much a history book as it is a cookbook. Wasserman explains how Jews around the world and across the ages adapted local tastes and ingredients to meet the needs of Jewish holidays and dietary laws, creating a rich and diverse menu of flavors and styles.
Sharon G. Forman, Honest Answers to Your Child's Jewish Questions: A Rabbi's Insights: A helpful resource that provides successful responses to many Jewish questions children ask, and summarizes Jewish thought in an easy-to-understand, readable format.
Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner, The Faith Club: The story of three women, their three religions, and their quest to understand one another.
Meredith L. Jacobs, Modern Jewish Mom's Guide to Shabbat: Connect and Celebrate—Bring Your Family Together with the Friday Night Meal: An easy-to-read book that shows how the Friday night Shabbat meal can bring a family together and help them connect, even as children grow older. It includes recipes, art projects, and summaries of the weekly Torah portion.
Wendy Mogul, The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children: A guide for raising self-reliant children. Mogel takes stories of everyday parenting problems and examines them through the lens of the Torah, the Talmud, and other important Jewish teachings.
Ronnie Friedland and Edmund Case, The Guide to Jewish Interfaith Family Life: An InterfaithFamily.com Handbook: Practical ideas for creating strong interfaith relationships from those in interfaith partnerships and those who work with mixed faith couples.
Choosing a Jewish Life – Fostering Jewish Peoplehood
The Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education (CJPE) is a resource and catalyst for developing education about collective Jewish belonging, often focused on the areas of Jewish peoplehood and Israel. Through its blog and Peoplehood Papers series, the organization generates dialog about the meaning and importance of Jewish peoplehood and how to nurture it.
Recently, I wrote an essay for the CJPE blog about the significant influence peoplehood had on the decision to have a Jewish home by inmarrying and intermarrying couples in a pre-marriage class that I taught at my synagogue. I discussed how we created a curriculum that showed how Jewish engagement could deepen connection to the Jewish people regardless of whether or not both partners were Jewish.
While the following piece addresses engaged couples, it applies to any family interested in building a Jewish home, regardless of life stage. The questions my co-teacher and I ask students–why is being Jewish significant to you, what does it mean to have a Jewish home, how will you go about creating one–are relevant to us all. They are questions we should continually ask ourselves because as we journey through religion, spirituality and life, the answers may change.
I hope you'll share in the comment section below why you chose to be Jewish, what having a Jewish home meant when you got married, why being Jewish is important to you today and how your idea of a Jewish home has evolved.
This essay is reprinted with permission.
Six months ago, I began teaching a premarital class to intrafaith and interfaith couples being married by clergy at my synagogue. The impetus for the class was the increasing disaffiliation and disconnection of Jewish young adults from Jewish life.
Regardless of whether couples were endogamous or interfaith, we believed that marriage presented an opportunity to influence their religious engagement. We felt that this relationship stage provided us with the chance to effect faith related choices, something especially important as we sought to encourage more interfaith couples to participate in Judaism.
We recognized during premarital counseling that we asked inmarrying and intermarrying couples to make a Jewish home, but that many of these couples didn't know how to go about creating one. Most of the Jewish partners were raised in progressive Jewish households, either wholly Jewish or interfaith, and grew up practicing Judaism episodically. Their upbringing focused on the High Holidays, Passover, and Hanukkah and few participated in Jewish education post-b'nai mitzvah or remembered anything from religious school.
We wanted to push these often Jewishly illiterate and religiously disconnected couples to think about why being Jewish was significant to them and help them understand how to honor their commitment to have a Jewish home. So, we created a two- to four-week learning experience for engaged partners.
At the start of each session, we asked the couples how they decided to have a Jewish home and why having one was important to them. Interestingly, regardless of whether the Jewish partner or partners grew up secularly Jewish, episodically Jewish, modestly observant or very observant, the reason having a Jewish home was important was the same. All had a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people.
We used our curriculum, which focused on Shabbat and community building, to show the couples how ritual and communal involvement, could deepen their feeling of Jewish peoplehood. We discussed how rituals, whether viewed as divine commandments or social customs, were a means to transmit Jewish heritage, beliefs, and values. We explained the importance of Shabbat and ways to embrace it. We talked about using the holiday to bring sacredness into the couple's relationship and home.
These classroom discussions provided a foundation for what was in my opinion the most significant component of the class–experiential learning. Over a Shabbat meal at a congregant's home, the students experienced the power of Shabbat in a communal setting. Since many of the couples didn't grow up with a Shabbat home ritual because their families weren't observant or they weren't Jewish, we wanted to demonstrate and demystify the holiday. The more relaxed social setting of a home also provided couples the opportunity to deepen the connections they were forming in the classroom demonstrating how Shabbat could be used to build community.
Forging relationships between students was high on our priority list because community was a significant predictor of Jewish engagement. Since we knew that adults with more densely Jewish social networks were more likely to engage in Judaism and raise Jewish children we added a second non-classroom learning experience. At the end of the program, we brought the couples together for Havdalah in a member's home. This endpoint allowed us to expose participants to another ritual and gave students an opportunity to deepen their connection to each other.
When endogamous and interfaith couples make the decision to be married by a rabbi, it opens the door to a Jewish conversation. It gives us the chance to encourage Jewish choices. Using classroom and experiential learning plus premarital counseling, we can help Jewish and not Jewish partners see how Judaism can help them feel part of something bigger and connect them to Jewish life.
Yahrzeit: An Expression of my Daughterhood
Last week was my mother's yahrzeit, the observance of the anniversary of her death. For someone who wasn't raised in a Jewish household, or in a Jewish-but-luckily-not-bereaved household, yahrzeit is one of those traditions that you don't really know about until you have to. There are public parts of observing yahrzeit, but the most powerful and probably widespread component is a private ritual in the home – a tiny glass candle burning for 24 hours, commemorating a day that you need to study up to remember, since it is the Hebrew calendar anniversary of a person's death, not the Gregorian calendar date. It is traced to Talmudic times, and references a biblical verse about the human soul representing the lamp or flame of God.
When I light my mom's memorial candle, there is a part of the ritual that is about bringing her into our home through the candle's flame. Even more than the reminder of her spirit that the candle symbolizes, what is meaningful to me is the act of yahrzeit. When I light the candle, and watch the flame climb down the wick, placing it in a window, I bring my mom into myself, going through the steps I watched her take as a daughter who lost a parent early in her adult life.
I have very vivid memories of my mom lighting the yahrzeit candle for her father when I was a girl. I never knew my grandfather, but I knew the sacred moment when my mom was by herself with the flame of the candle every year, and felt the spirit of the candle flame holding court in our house for 24-hours every spring. Over time I have learned the ways that this act was one way she expressed her duty and gratitude as a daughter. Lighting the candle on her father's yahrzeit expressed her obligation to remember, to make space for him and their relationship on the same date every year, and to keep the reminder of loss alive for 24 hours.
The obligation was also uniquely her own. While we shared many aspects of our Jewish practice and our emotional lives in my household, my grandfather's yahrtzeit was an individual tradition. Following in her footsteps, I make it my own, too. With my mom's memorial anniversary within days of Mother's Day each year, I spend lots of time with Eric and the girls talking about my mom, visiting her grave, and doing special things that remind us of her. But lighting the candle is my own moment. It is my own personal obligation, and I think there is a power in holding it as an individual tradition, and having my girls understand that it is a part of remembering their grandmother that is my responsibility.
Last week, I snuck a moment to myself just after the girls' bedtime, lighting the memorial candle in its small glass jar. I took the moment not only to reflect on my loss, but more importantly on my mother, and on what it means to be a daughter. I remember all of the life she breathed into me, all of the ways she made me into the person I am. I remember that it is my obligation to hold onto her spirit in this world, and to weave her memory into the ways I live my life.
I'll never know know how important it would be to my mother that I light the candle every year. What I do know is that when I do it I am honoring her in the way I watched her honor her father, which means something to me.
Ma Nishtanah: Why are Jewishly Engaged Interfaith Families Different from Other Jewish Families?
There are times in life when we're in the zone. We're so involved in performing or participating in an activity that we get lost in the experience. Other times, we're more of a participant-observer. We're engaged in the action or event, but we have enough distance from what is happening that we can study or reflect on what is going on at the moment.
I had a participant-observer experience at the Passover Seder we attended this year. We celebrated the first night of the holiday at our friend's house. We met this family when we first moved to Dallas. The wife and I were in a Mommy & Me class together at the JCC. We were kindred spirits and both intermarried Jewish women raising Jewish children with the support of our not Jewish husbands. We became close friends quickly and navigated the joys and challenges of intermarriage and observed holidays together.
Over the years, our families had celebrated Passover with each other so many times that we had a holiday routine. We read a Haggadah for young families. The adults and kids ate at separate tables. The same friends and family filled the seats. But this year there were several changes to our typical ritual. We graduated to a Haggadah for families with elementary and middle school age children. The adults and kids sat together at one long table in my friend's living room. There were new faces seated among the usual suspects.
Maybe those changes made me listen more carefully and observe more closely, or maybe I was simply more attentive on that particular evening. Whatever the reason for my heightened awareness, I saw several things that made this Passover different from others. I noticed that a regular Seder attendee, who brought her new boyfriend, was more relaxed and contented than she was in years past. I noted the good behavior of a usually mischievous young guest. I marveled at my husband's and my friend's husband's Hebrew skills.
It was this last observation that grabbed me the most. How had I not noticed before how well both of these men pronounced and enunciated Hebrew words? Was this facility with Hebrew new or had it been there for a while, and I missed it?
After more than a decade of living a Jewish life, I knew that my husband and my friend's husband could recite, in Hebrew, most of the Friday evening Shabbat blessings. And I knew my husband had participated in Havdalah enough times that he could sing the prayers. But the Hebrew words that were part of their assigned Haggadah readings weren't familiar. Yes, there was transliteration. But transliteration was a pronunciation, not enunciation, tool. These guys pronounced the Hebrew clearly and crisply with the right emphasis.
Maybe the language skills of my husband and my friend's husband stood out to me because of how different they were from many of the Jewish guests. Both husbands read the transliterated Hebrew with confidence. Many of the Jewish participants read the Hebrew hesitantly, mispronouncing words and using incorrect articulation. Several times during the Haggadah reading, these guests acknowledged that they had not done much Jewishly since their bar or
The scenario demonstrated how repeated exposure to Hebrew and frequent involvement in Jewish life can positively affect Jewish fluency regardless of someone's religious background. It also highlighted why the usual rhetoric about intermarrieds—they are less likely to raise Jewish children or associate themselves with Jewish practice—isn't universally true. Rather, it illustrated how a focus on engaging interfaith families benefits Judaism.
As the children at our Seder recited the Four Questions, a fifth question came to mind. Ma Nishtantah? Why are Jewishly active interfaith families different from other Jewish families? The answer: regular engagement with Judaism.
O Menorah Tree! O Menorah Tree! Thy Candles Shine so Brightly!
'Tis the season for Jewish Scrooges to say, "Bah! Humbug!" to anything that they judge to be a blend of Hanukkah and Christmas or an inflation of a minor Jewish holiday. Any attempt to sprinkle Hanukkah with a little tinsel is depicted as a perversion of the holiday's message.
These Jewish grinches shout "syncretism" and "commercialization" from pulpits; in classrooms, traditional media outlets and homes; and across social media. Yet, many Jews and Jewish interfaith families, ignore the rhetoric and go big with Hanukkah anyway.
Some do it to assuage Christmas envy, others to honor the traditions of not Jewish family members or to simply make religion fun. But whatever the reason, there is a strong desire to inject Hanukkah with some of the holiday cheer present in our surrounding culture. That is the rationale behind the Menorah Tree.
The Menorah Tree was designed by two Jewish brothers as a way to "ramp up" the Festival of Lights, and honor the Christmas tree tradition of one of their wives. The goal was to create something that was as festive as a tree, but genuinely Jewish. Something, that was big enough to be the centerpiece of a family's Hanukkah celebration.
While a giant 6-foot tall hanukkiah with Frazier pine garland isn't something that everyone will embrace, there is nothing wrong with something that screams "Jewish" even if it does borrow from dominant Christian culture. Blending ideas, foods, symbols, and rituals from other cultures to increase Judaism's fun-factor isn't bad and doesn't weaken Jewish identity as some in the community want us to believe.
Religious activities and observances that are perceived as fun create positive faith experiences and lasting memories. I share in From Generation to Generation the effect a lack of positive religious experiences in childhood has had on members of my own extended family. One inmarried sibling observes Jewish holidays out of obligation and not because he derives any fulfillment from the experience, and my Jewish uncle has a home that is absent of religion.
Examples like this highlight why adding fun to holidays now can make the celebrations more memorable than they would be otherwise without diminishing their significance. And positive memories increase the likelihood that children will want to carry on the tradition in adulthood. Christmas is the perfect case in point.
Many adults who grow-up with Christmas, have a strong emotional attachment to the holiday regardless of whether they are religious Christians. This connection is often not derived from recollections of going to services on Christmas Eve, but rather, from everything else that surrounds the holiday. My not Jewish mother-in-law, who is active in her church and faith, has never said that the reason Christmas is her favorite holiday is because of services, Jesus, God, or wise men. However, memories of decorating the tree, candy canes, gingerbread houses, holiday lights and carols, baking cookies and opening stockings and presents all contribute to her holiday love.
A community concerned about declining engagement, shouldn't be so quick to dismiss things that can help build positive Jewish memories and connection. That's the goal of the Menorah Tree, Maccabee on the Mantel and other Hanukkah-themed products. What's wrong with that?
A child curled up with his Maccabee doll next to a Menorah Tree reading the Maccabee on the Mantel on the night before Hanukkah would be good for the Jews. Maybe he could even sing a few Hanukkah carols.
O Menorah Tree! O Menorah Tree!
O Menorah Tree! O Menorah Tree!
A Halloween Postscript: Why Opposition to Trick-or-Treating Won't Strengthen Jewish Identity
I didn't intend to write a post-Hallowen blog. To be honest, Halloween isn't something that is big in my family. I'm not a costume or candy person, and neither is my husband. While our son Sammy enjoys trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, it isn't something that he wants to do every year.
This year we weren't home for the holiday. We took Sammy to Legoland for a belated birthday celebration. As we relaxed at the hotel on Halloween night, I posted on Facebook pictures of the Shabbat set we built from the box of bricks in our room and scrolled through pictures of my friends' children in costumes.
As I gazed at princesses and zombies, I came across a post by a non-Orthodox rabbi that a friend had commented on. It was a Halloween put-down. It griped about the overly commercialized pagan holiday that encourages children to play tricks on others and eat too much candy. It suggested that costumes be saved for the "truly fun holiday" of Purim.
Some friends of the post's author shared his distaste for trick-or-treating. They said celebrating Halloween sent a confusing message to Jewish children since it wasn't a Jewish holiday. That participating in such celebrations blurred the lines of who Jews were and what they stood for and contributed to the increased weakening of Jewish identity.
Really? I'm certain that Sammy has never been confused about his religious identity because we celebrate Halloween. He has never asked if we're pagans instead of Jews or mistaken Halloween for a Jewish holiday. Like most people, he sees Halloween as an American tradition just like Thanksgiving. The more I read the comments from the Jewish anti-Halloween crusaders, the more I realized how out of touch some of these communal leaders were with the reality of Jewish life in America today.
According to the 2013 Pew report, many non-orthodox Jews now identify as Jews of no religion. They feel a cultural connection to Judaism but have few ties to Jewish organizations. They are Jews of the world–assimilated and cosmopolitan in their thinking and lifestyle. To reach them, they need to be met where they are–in secular life.
Demonizing a holiday that most American Jews view as a harmless, secular observance that enables children to dress up and have fun is not meeting them where they are. Nor is it the way to strengthen the ties of the loosely affiliated or bring Jews with a weak connection back to the faith. Anti-Halloween rhetoric is simply tone deaf.
I state in From Generation to Generation that we need to help all Jews–inmarried and intermarried, affiliated and unaffiliated–answer the question why be Jewish. We can do this by using opportunities presented by the secular and non-Jewish to demonstrate how Judaism is part of this world, not separate from it. Concerning Halloween, we can show families and children how Jewish values and traditions are mirrored in the holiday.
We can highlight the similarities between Halloween and Purim: both are joyous holidays that share a tradition of dressing in costumes, giving gifts of food (mishloach manot) and charity. We can discuss how collecting for UNICEF or donating Halloween candy to charities that help families in need is an act of tzedakah.
We can encourage people to celebrate their Jewish-Americanness by adding some Halloween fun to their Shabbat celebrations–enjoy challah stuffed with candy or a costume party Shabbat. And we can remind families that greeting their neighbors as their children go house-to-house or as they distribute candy is honoring the Jewish principle of loving thy neighbor (Leviticus 19:18 and 19:34).
These kinds of things make Judaism more accessible to modern American Jews because they help them see that they can embrace aspects of Jewish faith and culture regardless of affiliation, marriage partner or belief in God. On the other hand, loud and proud opposition to Halloween focuses on maintaining strict boundaries between Judaism and the secular world.
Jews who view themselves as Jews of the world are not interested in this kind of boundary maintenance. They want to have their candy corns and eat them too. Therefore, the drumbeat of the anti-Halloween crowd will likely do as much to strengthen people's ties to Judaism as intermarriage prevention efforts have done to increase inmarriage and engagement.
Now that Halloween is over, the debate may have died down, but it will soon be back as the anti-Halloweeners turn their attention toward Hanukkah and Christmas. Their rants about the commercialization and inflation of Hanukkah, the syncretism of Hanukkah bushes and menorah trees, and the participation by Jews in any Christmas tradition is coming to your Twitter and Facebook feed. So, grab a gingerbread latte and read their holiday diatribes while you enjoy a little holiday cheer.
Don't let the Weather Fool You, It's Time to Think Camp
While many people have apple cider and pumpkins, and maybe even turkey and holiday gifts on their mind, I'm thinking about camp. Part of why I have camp on the brain is that I just watched the American Camp Association's 2009 video "Because of Camp." My overnight camp posted it on Facebook.
How I, a die-hard former camper and lover of all things camp, did not see this video previously escapes me. It features celebrities, athletes and journalists speaking about how camp changed their lives. It made me reflect on how camp helped me realize that I was a good athlete even though I was always the smallest girl on the court or field.
It also made me think about how summer camp is affecting my son Sammy. He is discovering new passions and broadening his horizons, learning life skills and independence. Because his camp is Jewish, he is also deepening his connection to the Jewish people, and experiencing Judaism in ways that are often more relevant to him than religious school, services or home ritual.
The other reason I have camp on my mind is because it's registration season. Many Jewish camps open enrollment following Yom Kippur and offer early birds discounts. I signed up Sammy three weeks ago and paid a discounted rate. Now is also the period to investigate and apply for camp scholarships if this is a consideration.
If you or your children still have questions about camp, the fall and winter are the seasons to get answers. Check out camp videos online; attend a camp presentation at a synagogue, school, community center or private home, or schedule a meeting with the camp director when he or she visits your area.
Another reason that the time is right to think about camp is that between the fall and early spring, some camps invite existing and potential campers to camp for youth retreats. For first-time campers, these weekends are a chance to experience camp to see if they like it or are ready to be away from home. For returning campers, they are a great opportunity to reconnect with friends and make new ones before the summer. Sammy will be going to his camp for a retreat in early November, and he can't wait.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but sweater weather is really the best time to think about camp. June, July and August are great months to see camps fully operational, but apple season is when you should make your children's summer plans. To help you in your planning, refer to these InterfaithFamily resources:
Don't let the fall leaves and crisp air fool you. Now is the time to "think camp." You and your kids will be glad you did.
The Evolution of an Awesome Rosh Hashanah Observance
When Sammy was little, everything about being Jewish and celebrating Jewish holidays was "awesome." His love of all things Jewish stemmed, in part, from his loving and joyful experience at the preschool at our synagogue. It also came from a conscience effort made by me and Cameron to make religious engagement enjoyable.
As I wrote in Rosh Hashanah Party for the New Year, Cameron and I felt that when we were children faith was more serious than fun. We believed that this more formal approach to religion was one reason many in our generation were less religiously engaged as adults. In my own family, I had siblings and relatives–inmarried and intermarried–who celebrated Jewish holidays because they felt obligated to; not because they found them meaningful or fulfilling.
We wanted Sammy to have a different relationship with faith. We wanted him to see the joy in Judaism, so we tried to create fun and memorable celebrations. These holiday observances had a strong community component in order to help nurture Sammy's connection to Judaism and the Jewish people.
When Sammy was in preschool, we decided to host a Jewish New Year party. We created a carnival-like atmosphere in our backyard for Sammy and our friends' families to enjoy. We had games and holiday crafts and apple and honey-themed treats.
We had an apple beanbag toss, a kid-safe version of bobbing for apples using Nabber Grabbers, and a Pin the Apple in the Tree game. There were Rosh Hashanah-themed coloring pages, a Design Your Own Apple Tree craft, and apple-shaped cookies to decorate. It was a lot of work, but it was, in the words of my then-preschooler, "awesome." Our friends and their kids also loved it; so much so, that we decided to make it an annual event.
After several years of our Rosh Hashanah backyard carnival, Sammy and his friends outgrew the crafts and games. Our party had become too babyish. When Sammy told me this, I was a little shocked. He was still my little boy. Wasn't it just yesterday that he stopped wearing diapers? How could he be too old for coloring pages and the beanbag toss?
However, the fact was that he stopped wearing diapers four years earlier, and sports were now much cooler than Pin the Apple in the Tree. Sammy asked if we could replace the little kids stuff with gaga. Gaga is an Israeli variation of dodgeball that is played in an octagonal or hexagonal shaped pit and is popular at US Jewish summer camps and day schools.
So, in order to maintain the awesomeness of our Rosh Hashanah party, we turned our backyard into a gaga pit. Doing it was a real sign of Cameron's love for me and Sammy. Cameron derives much pleasure from working in the yard, and he sacrificed his grass for his Jewish family. I could tell that it took a lot of emotional energy for him to remain calm as he watched the lawn disappear inside the large space we used for the pit.
Once we established gaga as the party activity, I thought we had found a way for the tradition to grow with the kids, but Sammy and his friends were one step ahead of us on the coolness ladder. Last year we were told that gaga was out (Cameron was thrilled!), and choose your own adventure (or activity) was in. We adapted again.
We moved the party to a park in our neighborhood and invited our friends for coffee, juice and sweet (in honor of the New Year) breakfast treats. Some families brought their dogs and others brought balls. The kids played Frisbee, basketball, baseball and other games they invented; the adults spent time catching up.
The celebration was…awesome, and it was about what it has always been about: sharing the holiday with our community, creating happy Jewish memories for our family and friends, and helping Sammy and his friends learn to associate observance with fun and enjoyment, rather than simply obligation.
When we host our annual Jewish New Year celebration this weekend, it will again follow the freedom-to-do-what-you-want model, and I imagine that we will stick with this format for a while now that Sammy is moving into the tween years. But then again, it might change. If I've become hip to anything over the past few years, it's that we must evolve to remain awesome. Just as we sometimes need to rethink our celebrations in order to keep them relevant to the next generation.
American Jewish Community Must Learn From Jewishly Engaged Intermarrieds to Remain Vital
When I set out to write my book From Generation to Generation: A Story of Intermarriage and Jewish Continuity, I wanted to demonstrate through the telling of my family's story that intermarriage has not been as bad for the Jews as many in the Jewish community would have us believe. I wanted to show that the reality of the religious lives of mixed faith families is more nuanced and richly Jewish, than is often portrayed through surveys, statistics, and snapshot anecdotes.
For years, the Jewish community's belief that intermarriage is a significant factor in the decline of the Jewish population has been reinforced by how it collects its data. Jewish demographic surveys mostly look at rates of intermarriage and Jewish childrearing by intermarrieds. There have been few studies that I've come across that dig deeper into this issue through qualitative and quantitative research; few researchers, academics, or community leaders interested in understanding the hows and the whys of Jews who are intermarried.
This focus on calculating the percentage of Jews that intermarry and raise singularly Jewish children has failed to move the debate about how to best address intermarriage and its effect on Jewish continuity forward in a meaningful way. Instead, it continuously creates communal hysteria and vitriol with the release of each new study.
One of the problems with the data on intermarriage is that it captures the religious choices of families at a single point in time. This method assumes that interfaith family life is static. However, an intermarried family's relationship to faith can be as dynamic as an inmarried family's.
For example, some not Jewish partners choose to convert after many years of living a Jewish life. Previously uncommitted couples decide to engage Jewishly when a child is born or starts preschool. Interfaith families who identify as Jews of no religion become more involved after a significant life event. Families who start out as dual-faith later make the decision to have singularly Jewish homes. Children of intermarriage choose to identify as Jews in some way when they reach adulthood.
Until recently, most demographic studies have failed to measure the Jewish identification, engagement, and experience of interfaith families in a way that captures scenarios such as the ones highlighted above. However, after the publication of the Pew report, Theodore Sasson, a senior research scientist at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies asked the Pew research team to look at the rate at which young adult children of intermarriage identified as Jews.
He found that over the years, "the proportion of adult children of intermarriage identifying as Jewish has steadily increased, reaching 59%" for children born after 1980. The result was almost evenly split between those identifying as Jews by religion and those identifying as Jews of no religion.
In discussing his findings, Sasson states in the Spring 2014 issue of Contact, "the higher-than-expected rate of Jewish identification among the adult children of intermarriage is…a significant milestone. The rate at which young adult children of intermarriage identify as Jewish exceeds the rate at which their parents claimed to be raising them as Jewish in the NJPS 2000-01 survey."
Sasson's data captures people like my cousin, the child of a Jewish father and not Jewish mother raised in a home with no religion. During his first year of college, he met other kids like him. Some of his friends had heard of Birthright and suggested that they all look into it.
The idea of exploring his Jewish heritage interested my cousin enough that he announced at his family's secular Christmas dinner that he was planning to apply to go on the Israel trip with his friends. My Jew of no religion uncle, who had been turned-off by the faith after his
By collecting data on intermarriage and the child-rearing choices of intermarried Jews in the way that we do, we do not allow for the possibility that being Jewish or engaging in Judaism can become important or of interest to interfaith families and children of intermarriage over time. Dr. Sasson's findings will hopefully get the Jewish research community to consider additional ways to study intermarriage's effect on Jewish identity.
I hope to see more qualitative research being done too in order to better understand why intermarrieds are or are not choosing Judaism, and how they are engaging in Judaism if they are associating themselves with the Jewish people in some way. But, until communal leaders start asking these questions, it is up to intermarrieds who are actively choosing Judaism to make our voices heard.
By sharing my family's interfaith and Jewish journey in From Generation to Generation, I hope others will be encouraged to share their story. Our narratives can help answer questions such as why, how, and when are intermarrieds making Jewish choices.
The Jewish community needs to learn from and leverage the experiences of interfaith families living Jewishly in order to draw more intermarrieds into American Jewish life. If it does not, the predictions of the communal pessimists will eventually become reality.
Sasson suggests that the Jewish community support efforts to maximize the percentage of intermarrieds raising Jewish children and welcome young adults not raised as Jews to explore their Jewish heritage. He seems to recognize what many Jewishly engaged intermarrieds already know; Jewish spouses will not sustain us, but Jewish engagement will.
From Generation to Generation: A Story of Intermarriage and Jewish Continuity is available at Indibound, Amazon and other retail outlets.
Theodore Sasson, "Investing in the Children of Intermarriage," Contact: The Journal of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, Spring 2014, Volume 16, no. 1, 8-9. http://www.steinhardtfoundation.org/wp-install/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/spring_2014.pdf


text: This condo was really well appointed with a great view of the white sand beaches of the area. The view from the balcony was breath taking and although it was pretty windy during our stay, we were mostly sheltered from the worst of it so we enjoyed eating in just to watch the sunset.The rest of the resort was very nice and we made use of the tower pool, the clubhouse pools (even an indoor pool in case of inclement weather) and the fitness area ( actually as nice as the pictures show). We also were happy to be able to rent bikes to ride along the beach on the bike trails - right from the resort check in - so very convenient. It was great that the resort is located with beachfront on both the calm bay side (N) and the gulf shores coast (S). Personally, we did all of our walking on the gulf shores side because the view was so awesome and the beach stretches for miles. We were really impressed with the white sand too - never seen such whiteness - and the locals are very good about picking up litter and keeping the beaches looking pristine.We also really liked the fact that their were several restaurants in close driving proximity to the condo. In general, this is a place we would like to visit again and we would seriously consider staying here again too.


text:
Oh my God, MAN.....You can't compare personal feelings to a being that you are saying actually exists and performed all these supernatural miracles.
I know that's the best a ditch digger like you can do and I see you lack the comprehension to see why the two are not compatible in this situation.
<quoted text>
I'm not comparing emotions to God.
I'm comparing showing proof of either.


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Flagler Station is owned by DRA Advisors, a leading investment advisor specializing in real estate investment and management services for institutional and private investors with $11 billion in assets under management across the country. Blanca Commercial Real Estate's Executive Vice President Juan Ruiz, Senior Vice President Elizabeth Vergara and Vice President Andres del Corral will lead the marketing efforts for the project on behalf of DRA Advisors.
"Flagler Station is the ideal office corporate campus for companies seeking a convenient location to attract employees across the South Florida tri-county area, as evidenced by the list of blue-chip tenants that already call the park home," said Tere Blanca, President and CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate. "Flagler Station's own dedicated Florida Turnpike interchange provides excellent access to the Dolphin Expressway, I-75, and Miami International Airport, in addition to an easy commute for decision makers living east who travel against traffic."
Flagler Station offers a variety of on-site amenities, including support retail services, a preschool, a Courtyard by Marriott hotel, several restaurants, property management, and roaming guard security. Tenants benefit from an above market parking ratio at 5 per 1,000 square feet, as well as flexible floor plates that are divisible from 1,500 square feet to up to 39,000 square feet. Prominent building signage opportunities are available to anchor tenants, offering high visibility along the Florida Turnpike.
"Unlike many of the office buildings in Miami's Airport West area, Flagler Station offers true Class A space with ample parking and flexible, efficient floor plates uniquely designed to suit corporate users," said Juan Ruiz, Executive Vice President of Blanca Commercial Real Estate. "The park's existing tenant base, easily accessible location, on-site amenities, above market parking ratio and institutional ownership round out a strong list of advantages that really differentiate this asset from the competition."
For leasing information, please contact Juan Ruiz, Elizabeth Vergara or Andres del Corral of Blanca Commercial Real Estate at (305) 577-8850.
Schwartz Media Strategies
Schwartz Media Strategies


text: More from SI Report: Dodgers release pitcher Freddy Garcia Report: Dodgers release pitcher Freddy Garcia Marshawn Lynch sports gold cleats for Super Bowl Marshawn Lynch sports gold cleats for Super Bowl Louisville vs. FIU: Game time, live stream, TV coverage Louisville vs. FIU: Game time, live stream, TV coverage Pittsburgh-area high school football player dies after... Pittsburgh-area high school football player dies after... Close Tweet0 Share0 Comment0 Share0 Share0 Stumble It0 Print0 More SI Wire NCAA gives ultimatum to players in University of Miami investigation by Scooby Axson Email Posted: Wed Nov. 21, 2012 The NCAA sent letters to players saying if they don't talk, they will consider those players guilty of violations. (Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)The NCAA issued letters to former University of Miami football players last week saying if they don't speak up by Friday, it will conclude the players committed violations, reports the Miami Herald. The NCAA is alleging that former players accepted gifts from former booster Nevin Shapiro, a convicted felon who is in prison for running a $930 million Ponzi scheme. Those gifts included dinners, nightclub trips, cash, and prostitutes.Shapiro, who claims the violations started in 2002, told NCAA investigators that 114 players committed various violations. Yahoo! Sports previously identified 72 of them. Players who were playing college football at the time the investigation was launched are required to speak to the NCAA."The purpose of this letter is to apprise you that the NCAA enforcement staff is requesting to schedule an interview with your clients regarding their knowledge of or involvement in possible NCAA violations concerning the University of Miami, Florida, football program," a letter to a former player's attorney states."Interviewing your clients is important in order for the enforcement staff to conduct a thorough investigation, and both the staff and the institution request you and your clients' cooperation in this matter. However, at this time, all attempts to schedule and execute interviews with [blank] have been unsuccessful. As a result, this letter serves as a formal and final request by the NCAA enforcement staff for interviews with [blank] to be completed by Nov. 23, 2012."If we do not hear back from you or your clients by that time, the staff will consider the non-response as your client's admission of involvement in NCAA violations. You may contact me at [blank] in order to arrange this interview. Your assistance in this matter is appreciated."The school recently imposed a bowl ban for the second straight season. Promoted Stories Comments


text:
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text:
Sunday, 30 August 2015
Seventy one murdered
The bastards said we'd soon be free
while fire fell from the sky
I cower and imagine how
I'll watch my children die
With rescue gone the time has come
to take the risk and fly:
A man explains the fare
Beneath the furtive night it seems
the price may be too high
The journey's blurring hours stretch
this agonised goodbye
Until a bolting door explains
the driver's frozen lie:
There is insufficient air
On Thursday you were late again
you had no reason why
You moaned about a colleague and
the weather made you sigh
You drifted through the motes until
the splinter beamed your eye:
The grace that has you here,
not there
Saturday, 11 July 2015
I wandered lonely in Bromley by Bow
Wednesday, 3 June 2015
On leadership
a leader worthy of the times?
And, rather more quickly than I had anticipated, I found an answer in the cross-hairs of two insights:
"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership." [my emphasis]
"We have, in my view, reached a position which is potentially of great historical significance. We are witnessing a decline in confidence, and sometimes a growing mistrust, not only in political processes and politicians, but in social institutions such as the media and journalism, the police and religious organisations. Inequality is rising on many crucial dimensions. We have, for many, a confusion or anxiety around moral or social values, and community or individual identity. In my own subject of economics, we have less confidence in our ability to understand processes of growth, employment and change. We must seek growth that is sustainable in relation to our natural environment. And these difficulties are not confined to our own country; they are reflected in many societies, rich and poor, around the world. These difficulties affect us all, from young people looking for work, to older people worried about the future of their healthcare."
[my emphasis]
I was fortunate enough about a year ago to hear Lord Stern talking about his work on 'Prospering Wisely'. His summation centred on 'anxiety', that most corrosive state of being, gnawing away as we wonder where the money will come from, who will care for us when we are old, whether we will ever be able to have our own home, if the fighting will ever stop... And it stretches, he suggested, to a planetary level: how do we acknowledge and access and then address our anxiety about the planet - the only one we have, the one that we seem hellbent on poisoning?
Anxiety. The spirit of the age.
A leader - the one who can confront that anxiety, who can name it for us, who can stare at it with unflinching gaze. Who can help us to work out what to do.
I can barely imagine such a person emerging from the current panorama of politicians. There are, to be sure, some wonderful, even inspirational individuals among them; and though I subscribe to the proposition that politicians are coming from an ever narrower subset of the population (and may even be members of a 'chumocracy'), I am in general admiring of politicians: most of those I've actually met really are trying to make the world a better place.
Or anxious.
Monday, 27 April 2015
The Extreme Importance of Clive James
but I'm aware that he's very sick
I read his book
Cultural Amnesia
a few years ago
and it sits comfortably and permanently
in the satchel I shall be taking to
my desert island
It is an extraordinary achievement,
simultaneously literary
beautiful and
He asks:
what is your duty, as a citizen of this world?
I thought at the time I read it
that it was a valedictory text;
and, though he may have had that intent,
he continues years later
to fulfil his duties
When my father was dying
and just a few days before he died
I had the privilege of a conversation with him
in which we confronted the awful horror
of imminent non-being.
Perhaps more than anything else
he wanted to know:
Have I done well?
Have I lived a good life?
I've never met Clive James
but I want to tell him
and hope he knows:
Yes. In full measure.
Tuesday, 7 April 2015
Election Sonnet 2015
Friday, 27 February 2015
Just Say (I don't) Know
It's always a little uncomfortable when the chair announces 'And now it's time for some questions from the audience'. If you are thinking of asking a question, the discomfort embraces doubt ("Is my question sufficiently insightful that both the panel and the audience will be impressed? Or am I about to make an ass of myself?"), anxiety ("Have I put my hand up with the right mix of enthusiastic interest and disinterested aplomb? Or have I just made an ass of myself?") and tension ("Should I aim to ask the first question? The last question? How can I ensure I don't make an ass of myself?").
- ICT companies, whose products and services have done so much in recent years to facilitate the exposure of the previously hidden workings of corporations, and who seemed so keen to promote 'open-ness', turn out to be in the forefront of opaque financial management and tax avoidance.
- Media organisations – whose willingness to use the utterances of politicians in a highly selective manner is such a key feature of the unwillingness of politicians to speak openly – purport to be platforms for open public debate, yet act instead to foster a culture of shrill extremism that serves to deter engagement and thereby preserve their own privileged position of control.
- Government agencies and employees so terrified of the actual consequences of the wonderful Freedom of Information Act (consequences that might include, for example, the embarrassment that might come from publishing government-commissioned research that finds fault in government policy) that an entire culture of cloudy edit, foggy launches and unwritten guidance has come into being.
Redefine entrepreneurialism and sustainability may flourish...
- a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit
Wikipedia says that entrepreneurship is:
- the process of starting a business or other organization
The Cambridge online dictionaries site defines entrepreneurialism as:
- the skills that you need to start your own business
The 'Small Business Pro' site says that the skills you need to run your own business are:
leadership skills
strategic planning skills
marketing skills
sales and customer relations skills
communication skills
people management skills
finance and accounting skills
Neither the Small Business Pro site, nor any other, is prepared to say how much of these skills you might require: and that makes sense, of course. Each of these 'skills' is not only qualitative, but arranged on a spectrum: people are more or less good at each of them; and there is no template for what combination of skills, at what 'level', comprises effective entrepreneurialism.
But wait. Just how 'business'-specific are these skills? Imagine specifying the skills required to - say - run a home or household successfully. Or to raise a child, or children, successfully. Or to look after a large garden.
And if you find yourself looking through the list of skills you need 'to run your own business' and thinking "Well, I can't see how that skill is relevant to looking after a large garden", then recall or imagine a business entrepreneur of your acquaintance and ask: is there at least one of these areas where the person I am thinking of is singularly crap?
So I wish to re-cast the notion of entrepreneurialism as:
- the process of deploying finite resources in pursuit of a goal where there is a genuine risk of failure
Which is by way of suggesting that entrepreneurialism is a skill-set universally present in the population, and which, as a result of its compound nature, is distributed in an untidy spectrum from 'low' to 'high'.
And why this might be of any use whatsoever? Two reasons:
- it would signal a broader notion of 'reward' or 'return' or 'success' than merely profit
- it would include and legitimise a much wider set of people within the group upon whose resourcefulness and creativity our collective prosperity depends
If, as I suspect, the concept of 'entrepreneurialism' is a key node in the complex, open system that is our economy (or, to put it another way, it is a particularly important commitment device in the interlocking set of rules determining the operation of capitalism) then a change of this kind has the potential to have far-reaching effects - effects that, I further suspect, would be very much consistent with the notion of sustainability.
So if you've ever thought haughtily about housework, or gardening or parenting - think again.


text:
Charisma Magazine
Page 21 of 33
True to the Vision
God Connections
A few relationships in my life have been so important, I knew God had made the connection. One of these was my friendship with writer and pastor Jamie Buckingham. read more
The 'New' Charisma
He Was a Spiritual Giant
Growing up in the 1950s, I knew there were two Christian leaders who stood head and shoulders above the rest—Oral Roberts and Billy Graham. I never dreamed I would get to know Oral personally, publish one of his books, serve on one of his boards and even visit him "to say goodbye."
Once Oral told some leaders that if they were ever asked to speak and were unprepared, they should tell their testimony. Now I feel inadequate to pay tribute to a man who did more than probably anyone in the 20th century to bring God's healing power to the church. So I'll just tell my testimony of knowing him.
I met Oral through my mentor Jamie Buckingham. I was barely 30 when I was invited to a meeting of about 100 leaders in the newly built City of Faith, on the Oral Roberts University (ORU) campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma. During the meeting Oral walked around the room and prayed for each person. When he came to me he said: "Never doubt the gift that's within you."
I had only recently started Charisma. Oral must have sensed I was unsure about God's call on my life. Yet he saw God's hand on this fledgling magazine. He told me later he read every issue. And once he recorded a short endorsement that I'm so proud of I put it on the special online tribute we posted (charismamag.com/index.php/oral-roberts-tribute).
Once Oral asked me to serve on ORU's board of regents. I felt as a journalist I needed to keep my objectivity, so I declined. Now, 25 years later, my son Cameron (who graduated from ORU) is the youngest member of ORU's new board of trustees. Instead, I served for many years on the International Charismatic Bible Ministries board. It brought me to Tulsa for many years and I enjoyed rubbing shoulders with this great man.
I have met heads of state and titans of industry. But never had I met a man who could humbly walk into a room with such a commanding presence. But Oral wasn't perfect, and he spoke candidly of his shortcomings.
And while he lived in utmost moral integrity, he sometimes did things he must have regretted. When he was desperate to keep ORU's medical school afloat in the mid-1980s, he threatened that "God would take him home" if he didn't raise the money.
I wrote an essay in our local newspaper explaining that many Christians believe after they accomplish all they can, God will call them home. That comment is often made at funerals to provide comfort when someone's life is cut short. Apparently Oral felt that if he failed to save his medical school he would have nothing more to accomplish and he'd go to heaven.
The money did come in, but it wasn't enough to save the medical school. ORU suffered a great setback and it left ORU heavily in debt. Yet the university and his vision survived and lives on.
The day of Oral's funeral on December 21 I looked out my hotel window to the beautiful campus that had once been a farm on the edge of Tulsa. I'd heard Oral tell how he had walked that vacant property, prayed in tongues and then interpreted back to himself direction from the Holy Spirit. I have used that prayer technique many times.
After Oral retired to Southern California, I arranged to visit him "to say goodbye." I took my friend R.T. Kendall, who wanted to meet him. Oral admired several of Kendall's books, so he wanted to meet him and I went along to help conduct an interview we published in Ministry Today.
I saw him only one more time—at Mark Rutland's inauguration as the third president of ORU. After the ceremony others on the platform exited amid great academic pageantry. As Oral was helped off the stage by his caregivers he gave a great wave as if to say goodbye.
Later Mark spent some private time with ORU's founder. After their conversation, Oral put his feeble arm around Rutland's shoulder and said, "Now I'm ready to go home." Rutland assumed he was ready to go back to Southern California. Later he realized Oral meant he was ready to go to heaven.
Oral Roberts inspired millions, including this former newspaper reporter. I'm thankful he saw a gift in me. His legacy of faith makes me want to use that gift to its maximum impact.
Steve Strang conducted several interviews with Oral Roberts, including this one in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the early 1980s. read more
I'm on a Sabbatical
Good News for Charismatics
A widely publicized study released in late April about why Americans have given up their faith or changed religions is actually good news for charismatic churches. The survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, described as the largest study of its type about why people change their religious affiliation, interviewed 2,800 people. It found that respondents had not become more secular or rejected their religious affiliation because of anger over doctrinal or leadership issues but because they had "just gradually drifted away from their faith."
Why is that good news? Because it's an indication that people want something that will meet their needs.
Thirty-five years ago my late mentor, Jamie Buckingham, newly baptized in the Holy Spirit, put this provocative comment on his church's marquee: "For More than a Sunday Morning Religion." He knew that people aren't interested in just hearing a dull sermon and singing the same songs that have been sung for decades. They want a vibrant faith—the living Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is why Pentecostal and charismatic churches around the world are growing.
Like many of the churches noted in the survey, charismatic churches have the problem of people coming in the front door and going out the back door. But I believe the survey results are good news for those of us in the charismatic movement. Here's why:
People want an exciting worship experience. They don't want "boring religion." One thing people say about charismatic churches is that the services are anything but boring.
They want a genuine encounter with God. Often that comes through praise and worship—the subject of this month's cover story. In fact, the charismatic church has led the way in this area through musicians such as Israel Houghton, Darlene Zschech and others we include in the article.
People want answers to their personal problems. Charismatics pioneered the concept of inner healing, pray for deliverance from life-altering addictions and lay hands on the sick, trusting they will recover, for "by His stripes we are healed" (Is. 53:5, NKJV). We believe God has answers for our personal problems, and that resonates with people who are searching.
If people want community, they can find it at Spirit-filled churches, which are more ethnically and generationally diverse than other segments of the body of Christ. Are they perfect? Of course not. But when you find a mixed-race church, it's usually charismatic.
Our churches tend to be independent, if not organizationally, at least in attitude. Independence can sometimes create a lone-ranger mentality. But it also frees up leaders who have a passion and a vision to get outside the box and share the gospel with those who are hurting.
It has also spawned new churches and ministries, including Christian TV, which reaches millions who don't go to church. Many who watch Christian programming later get active in a church, but even those who don't are hearing the gospel and being touched.
Sharing the gospel and reaching out to poor and hurting people are values almost universally shared by Pentecostal and charismatic churches. There's a need for us to do more. But charismatics have grown around the world because they emphasize outreach, both here and overseas.
As a movement we certainly aren't perfect. Sadly, many of our churches are just as dead and boring as the ones spoken about in the Pew report. Timothy warns against "having a form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Tim. 3:5). And there is nothing "deader" than a dead Pentecostal or charismatic church.
However, we don't approve of deadness, and charismatics won't put up with it for long. They vote with their feet by going where the presence of God brings life.
I've been covering the charismatic church for three decades, and I believe we're continuing to grow at a time when many other churches aren't. But the Pew report should remind us that people want answers and we have them—all from the Word of God.
To me, that's good news.
Steve Strang is founder and publisher of Charisma. Read his weekly Strang Report via email or his Twitter updates here. read more
Right Wing Extremist Classified As Terror Threats
From time to time something is e-mailed to me that I think is worth passing along. The item below by Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, highlights the recent outrageous attack by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) against the rights of Christians. On their DHS Threat Assessment list, they recorded conservatives, veterans, pro-gun people and others as "right-wing extremists," and as possible terror threats. Mat articulates the details about this in the letter below. Read it and let me know what you think. read more
Stop the 'Pedophile Protection' Bill
Though the hate crimes bill, which could put pastors in jail and protect pedophiles, has already passed in the House, we still have a chance to stop it in the Senate. The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) does a nice job of explaining the bill and sharing how Christians can help stop it. Read their newsletter below and then give your comments about it on our Web site.
The other side is on the run. The Traditional Values Coalition did not let them get away with their lies about their so-called hate crimes bill. We worked to force them to go on record about what this bill really does -- it protects bizarre sexual behaviors, pedophiles and could send pastors to jail. read more
Calling America Back to God
About two weeks ago the nation celebrated the National Day of Prayer. I had the privilege of being invited to speak to a group of 100 business people in Jacksonville, Fla., as part of an outreach called Christian Professional Resources. The half-hour message was videotaped and put on the Internet. I'm sharing it with you here because I spoke about "Calling America Back to God" and mentioned some things that I've reported on in the Strang Report. I hope you'll watch it, share it with others and then give me your feedback in the comments section.
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