text:
When a colleague of mine returned from an MLA convention in Toronto around that time, he told a story that nicely illustrated the trend. One afternoon he hopped on a shuttle bus and sat down next to a young scholar who told him she'd just returned from a panel. He replied that he'd just returned from France, where he'd been studying for a semester."What are they talking about?" she asked.
"Is there any new theory?"
"Yeah, in a way," he answered. "It's called 'erudition.'"
"What's that?" she wondered.
"Well, you read and read, and you get your languages, and you go into politics, religion, law, contemporary events, and just about everything else." (He's a 16th-century French literature scholar who comes alive in archives.)
She was puzzled. "But what's the theory?"
"To be honest, there isn't any theory," he said.
"That's impossible." He shrugged. "Okay, then, give me the names, the people heading it."
"There aren't any names. Nobody's heading it."
A trivial exchange, yes, but it signals the professional meaning and moral barrenness Theory accrued in the Nineties. The more popular Theory became, the less it inspired deep commitments among searching minds. The more Theory became enshrined in anthologies ordered semester after semester, the more it became a token of professional wisdom. The only energy Theory sustained during those years issued from a non-philosophical source: the race/gender/sexuality/anti-imperialism/anti-bourgeois resentments tapped by various critics giving different objects of oppression theoretical standing.
An Amateur Classicist's Review of Political Philosophy, Theology, and Literature, with Occasional Reflections on the Age That Is Passing
An Amateur Classicist's Review of Political Philosophy, Theology, and Literature, with Occasional Reflections on the Age That Is Passing
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Death to Theory! Long Live Eloquence!
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Here's to you, Mr. Detweiler
He'd also have some students shoot a recreated Civil War-era cannon, with actual gunpowder. Looks like he's discovered even more fun stuff for his students:
Probably my biggest project was bringing WWII armor to the school several years ago. We gave every student a ride on an armored half-track, and winners of an essay contest earned a trip in a sixteen ton WWII Stuart tank! (They tell me that there are only three such tanks left in America that are still used regularly for public demonstrations. )
In 2000, I was able to train 240 students from Oberon as a nine-company Civil War battalion in order to recreate the famous charge of the 1st Texas Regiment at Antietam.
My latest project is working on designing two big field trips. I organized two huge out of state field trips last year - one to New Mexico and one to Gettysburg. I can hardly wait to go back again!
Sad to see he has only won a single teacher of the year award, though he's been nominated for many others.
Monday, June 27, 2005
For Future Reference
Thursday, June 23, 2005
-James Madison, Federalist 10
The editors needed to grab readers' attention without getting some so mad they cancelled their subscriptions. Kaiser and Stanley yearned to win awards with tough reporting but without alienating the community.
"We're losing touch with our readers," Senior Editor Gary Krentz would say, suggesting that the coverage of some issue had gone too far in one direction.
In the Belly of the Beast (via The Japery)
In politics, too, one strives to get attention and support alongside the goal of alienating as few people as possible. Here, we have support for a thesis that both political parties and the mainstream media comprise a single faction.
Addendum 8/04:
Richard Posner in the NYTimes sees something similar, albeit without disapproving or bringing faction into it:
To see what difference the elimination of a communications bottleneck can make, consider a town that before the advent of television or even radio had just two newspapers because economies of scale made it impossible for a newspaper with a small circulation to break even. Each of the two, to increase its advertising revenues, would try to maximize circulation by pitching its news to the median reader, for that reader would not be attracted to a newspaper that flaunted extreme political views. There would be the same tendency to political convergence that is characteristic of two-party political systems, and for the same reason - attracting the least committed is the key to obtaining a majority.
One of the two newspapers would probably be liberal and have a loyal readership of liberal readers, and the other conservative and have a loyal conservative readership. That would leave a middle range. To snag readers in that range, the liberal newspaper could not afford to be too liberal or the conservative one too conservative. The former would strive to be just liberal enough to hold its liberal readers, and the latter just conservative enough to hold its conservative readers. If either moved too close to its political extreme, it would lose readers in the middle without gaining readers from the extreme, since it had them already.
He does, however, incorporate the Press into the system for moderating the effects of factionalism:
Still, because there is a market demand for correcting the errors and ferreting out the misdeeds of one's enemies, the media exercise an important oversight function, creating accountability and deterring wrongdoing. That, rather than educating the public about the deep issues, is their great social mission. It shows how a market produces a social good as an unintended byproduct of self-interested behavior.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Something to look for:
One Hymn that Belongs in Contemporary Parishes
Faith of our fathers, living still,
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword;
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Whenever we hear that glorious Word!
Faith of our fathers, holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death.
Faith of our fathers, we will strive
To win all nations unto Thee;
And through the truth that comes from God,
We all shall then be truly free.
Faith of our fathers, Mary's prayers
Shall win our country back to Thee;
And through the truth that comes from God,
England shall then indeed be free.
The third stanza was changed in Protestant hymnals to read:
Faith of our fathers, we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife;
And preach Thee, too, as love knows how
By kindly words and virtuous life.
It seems this modified version was sung at FDR's funeral. Changing "England" to "Our Land" would work quite well in an American context, I think.
Friday, June 17, 2005
Sound of Music: EVIL!!!!
November 7, 1997
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
As the Christmas season comes round again, no doubt many Catholic households, especially but not only in the U.S.A., will be preparing to watch, on public television or on video-tape,
The Sound of Music. This Hollywood film has repeatedly been the object of critical remarks in this letter. If readers have wondered why, let it now for the season be explained at length.
Read More
This is by Richard Williamson, one of the bishops leading the schismatic Priestly Society of St. Pius X. Wizard of Oz, watch out!
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Jesus broke my Worldview!
Balthasar, as it happens, was a close friend and neighbor of Barth in Basel, and the influence of the latter on the former was deep and long-lasting (Balthasar's influence on Barth, however, was less notable). What both had in common was an insistence that the Bible be taken on its own terms, even if both accepted as well the results of historical criticism (provided they were reliable). For both as well, accepting the Bible on its own terms meant that it would be impossible, pace Schleiermacher and Rahner, to subsume the figure of Jesus into some more overarching framework. In other words, Jesus' claim to be "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6) must be taken on its own terms, quite independent of the historical process by which that claim came to be embedded in the Fourth Gospel and not in the others. And if that claim is taken on its own terms, it shows that Jesus was not merely a teacher who pointed to the way but was, in himself, in his own person, the Way itself.
But to any worldview whatever, such a claim, no matter how mediated, must lead to outrage. For a claim to be the Way, the Truth, the Life means at core that one whitecap atop a wave claims to be not only the sea and the seabed but the generating matrix of the world as well ("Before Abraham was, I am"). Moreover, that claim is so preposterous that it can only be validated by God himself in the resurrection. Thus the three together – Claim, Death, and Resurrection – form a triadic pattern (Gestalt, one of Balthasar's favorite words) that is the indissoluble core of the Christian proclamation.
Edward T. Oakes, Article "Christology" in the forthcoming Blackwell Companion to Catholicism
Father Oakes sent me this article, along with an excellent review of From Darwin to Hitler coming up in First Things.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Not-So-Quizzical Results
What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com
I don't think there is such a thing as a Christian Worldview, though it's interesting to see how little I have in common with answers attributed to both Fundamentalism and Liberalism.
The Dead Have Been Seen Alive
by Sorley Maclean
`Time, the deer is in the Wood of Hallaig.'
The window is nailed and boarded
through which I saw the West
and my love is at the Burn of Hallaig,
a birch tree, and she has always been
between Inver and Milk Hollow,
here and there about Baile-chuirn:
she is a birch, a hazel,
a straight slender young rowan.
In Screapadal of my people,
where Norman and Big Hector were,
their daughters and their sons are a wood
going up beside the stream.
Proud tonight the pine cocks crowing
on the top of Cnoc an Ra
straight their backs in the moonlight--
they are not the wood I love.
I will wait for the birch wood
until it comes up by the Cairn,
until the whole ridge from Beinn na Lice
will be under its shade.
If it does not, I will go down to Hallaig,
to the sabbath of the dead,
where the people are frequenting,
every single generation gone.
They are still in Hallaig,
Macleans and MacLeods,
all who were there in the time of MacGille Chaluim:
the dead have been seen alive--
the men lying on the green
at the end of every house that was,
the girls a wood of birches,
straight their backs, bent their heads.
Between the Leac and Fearns
the road is under wild moss
and the girls in silent bands
go to Clachan as in the beginning.
And return from Clachan,
from Suisnish and the land of the living;
each one young and light-stepping,
without the heartbreak of the tale.
From the Burn of Fearns to the raised beach
that is clear in the mystery of the hills,
there is only the congregation of the girls
keeping up the endless walk,
coming back to Hallaig in the evening,
in the dumb living twilight,
filling the steep slopes,
their laughter in my ears a mist,
and their beauty a film on my heart
before the dimness comes on the kyles,
and when the sun goes down behind Dun Cana
a vehement bullet will come from the gun of Love;
and will strike the deer that goes dizzily,
sniffing at the grass-grown ruined homes;
his eye will freeze in the wood;
his blood will not be traced while I live.
I first heard this poem on the CD Bothy Culture by Martyn Bennett. Bennett overlaid the voice of MacLean reading his own English translation on an electronic instrumental riff.
Little did I realize that this poem was about the Highland Clearances!
The poem was incorporated into Peter Maxwell-Davies' opera The Jacobite Rising. I'll have to look him up. It seems he wrote Le Jongleur de Notre Dame, which was mentioned here some time back in a snipe at an article promoting a local performance.
What is Wrong with Proselytizing for the American Way of Life
For Illich, ministry to Puerto Ricans required a complete surrender of one's own cultural values. He understood this surrender in explicitly Christian terms, equating it with the surrender of the will that precedes the reception of grace in traditional Christian theology. Although he was familiar with modern social theory, Illich nonetheless understood this surrender of cultural assumptions not in terms of objectivity or tolerance, but as "a beatitude of cultural poverty." Illich spent vacations in Puerto Rico, walking and hitchhiking across the country, performing priestly duties and soaking up the peasant culture of the people; he became convinced that the future vitality of Puerto Rican Catholicism depended on the maintenance of Puerto Rican cultural traditions. One commentator on Illich has claimed that "if he had had his way he would have totally transferred the church of the campesinos, with its unpunctuality, its semi-pagan rituals, its great community feast days, to the streets of New York." The appeal to tradition provided Illich with a language through which to subvert Spellman's Americanization goals without appearing subversive.
Carnival in New York in tNP
In all our zeal for spreading democracy and freedom, there is no death to self and death to the world before the preaching of the "good news" of America and her saving power which is supposed to rescue others from tyranny and poverty.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Balada Para Un Loco
and the first stowaway on a trip to Venus:
a half melon on the head,
a striped shirt painted on the skin,
two leather soles nailed to the fet,
and a taxi-for-hire flag up in each hand.
You laugh! But only you can see me:
because the mannequins wink,
traffic lights give me three colors sky-blue
and the oranges at the corner grocery stand
cast their blossoms.
Come on!, that, half dancing, half flying,
I remove the melon to greet you.
I give you a flag and I tell you...
Thanks to the joys of Rhapsody Radio, I heard a wonderful tango dance on the Astor Piazolla channel, "Balada Para Un Loco." Not being competently versant* in Spanish. I was wondering whether this might be a localist tango singing the praises of one place, but instead it's about a dancing lovecrazy woman, who of course also deserves a song. Here are its lyrics with a translation.
As darkness sets in your porteña loneliness,
by the shores of your bedsheet I'll come
with a poem and a trombone
to keep your heart sleepless.
Having been brought up on the Music Man, it's hard picturing the trombone as a romantic instrument, and it would be rather difficult to recite a poem while playing a trombone. But this just proves how crazy this character is.
One of my great regrets is missing a tango lesson combined with a Theology of the Body lecture given by Katerina Zeno at my home parish. Despite regularly perusing the parish bulletin AND being on a local TOB mailing list, I didn't hear about it until the day after it happened.
I would like to see a well-made film of a bride and groom dancing the tango at a wedding banquet. Better yet, I would like to be the groom in such a dance. Of course, modern wedding clothes, especially the bridal dress, would seem to make a tango impossible, but I know of several couples who have made their wedding clothes by hand so a tango-friendly wedding dance is certainly not out of the question for such people.
One of my local cousins, a woman who departed this world far too young, was an Irish dance instructor. The girls have always significantly outnumbered the boys in her dance troupe. This might be because there is so much distance and rigidity in the traditional dance. I worry that Jansenism has infested the dance's tradition, so tango is a very interesting contrast to it.
*Dictionary whinge: curious about the history of the word "versant," I looked it up on onelook.com. Webster's claims my intended use of it is archaic.
Come the revolution, Webster's Dictionary shall be first against the wall!
Grace Finds Beauty in Everything
'The whole eastern half of my lagoon is shallow, you must understand,' said Attwater; 'so we were able to get in the dress to great advantage. It paid beyond belief, and was a queer sight when they were at it, and these marine monsters'--tapping the nearest of the helmets--'kept appearing and reappearing in the midst of the lagoon. Fond of parables?' he asked abruptly.
'O yes!' said Herrick.
'Well, I saw these machines come up dripping and go down again, and come up dripping and go down again, and all the while the fellow inside as dry as toast!' said Attwater; 'and I thought we all wanted a dress to go down into the world in, and come up scatheless. What do you think the name was?' he inquired.
'Self-conceit,' said Herrick.
'Ah, but I mean seriously!' said Attwater.
'Call it self-respect, then!' corrected Herrick, with a laugh.
'And why not Grace? Why not God's Grace, Hay?' asked Attwater. 'Why not the grace of your Maker and Redeemer, He who died for you, He who upholds you, He whom you daily crucify afresh? There is nothing here,'--striking on his bosom-- 'nothing there'--smiting the wall--'and nothing there'-- stamping--'nothing but God's Grace! We walk upon it, we breathe it; we live and die by it; it makes the nails and axles of the universe; and a puppy in pyjamas prefers self-conceit!' The huge dark man stood over against Herrick by the line of the divers' helmets, and seemed to swell and glow; and the next moment the life had gone from him. 'I beg your pardon,' said he; 'I see you don't believe in God?'
'Not in your sense, I am afraid,' said Herrick.
'I never argue with young atheists or habitual drunkards,' said Attwater flippantly. 'Let us go across the island to the outer beach.'
-Robert Louis Stevenson, The Ebb-Tide, Chapter 8.
Completely out of context, but I might look into the whole book now. I only know Stevenson through the Disneyfied old live action movie and the Muppet's remix.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
On Keeping Wedding Guests out of the Bedroom
Yeesh. I hope for his sake that he was drunk.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Iranian Film Rips off Sister Act
Petty burglar winds up in situation where he must impersonate an imam. Makes weird sermons about many paths to God. People love him and are transformed and guess what! The experience transforms him too! Wow!
Somebody please, make the film "Blood Sister: One Tough Nun."
Sweet is my Surprise: a Plug for the music of Venus Hum
Yesterday, thanks to my ISP's internet radio, I discovered a new music group called Venus Hum. I can't quite pigeonhole their style, since the taxonomy of electronic music is incredibly convoluted. "Electroclash" or "dream-pop" seem to be the music industry's preferred sub-sub-genre categories for this group, but the phrase that comes to my mind is "erumpent electronica."
The lead singer is from Montana, but her song "Montana" could just as easily be about Colorado. The thing is an overflowing encomium to the big beautiful sky of the Rocky Mountain West, and the group's first album "Big Beautiful Sky" takes its name from this song's lyrics. There is a brief mention of going to St. Mary's Lake, and sure enough it looks like all those Colorado mountain lakes that I've spent many a day at, only the Montana mountains are more barren and eroded than their Colorado cousins.
"Hummingbirds" is an enjoyable reflection on color. "Some of my favourite colours in the world/Beat against my eyelids with the blues of green hummingbirds" I don't know why more people haven't related other things to Hummingbirds, which are such beautiful creatures. This song made me realize that I don't know of much recent music about animals and nature. Contemporary music is too often psychological discription of someone's inner problems without much connection to the outside world. There are far too many anthems to alienation floating around in the sickly miasma of drugged-out rock.
Curiously enough, in my ears the electronic instrumentals don't distance the singer from her subject, which also separates this album from those of many other electronic groups.
"Soul Sloshing" is the most erumpent song of the three I'm profiling here. It's a beautiful piece combining lyrical self-mockery with a playfully baroque explosion of sound. The title itself evokes a delightfully disorganized overflow of one's self. A passage I particularly like:
It's subtle--it's creepy knees
It's condescension versus humility
I know you! (I swear I do)
You're just like me-- You're sipping a cup of--pit-y!
Humility is a topic even less mentioned in contemporary music than nature is, and the whole song is one big laughing romp. It seems a bit of a dig at the Great Seattle Depression so popular in the nineties, and it makes me wonder if 9/11 highlighted all that music's self-pitying self-absorbed pose. Of course, it might also be that our situation has changed. Negative downer music might play well in times of peace, happy music in times of war. Glen Miller's music was similarly bouncy and quite popular in its time, but both his and Venus Hum's music seems to avoid "bubble gum" happy music, which of course tends to pop.
Since almost all of my favorite music is either instrumental, not in English, or too similar to pre-modernist poetry, my lack of experience makes me mistrust any opinion I venture about the quality of Venus Hum's lyrics. Of course, lyrics in electronica are often very repetitive and almost always of very low quality. Enigma comes to mind as an example of bad song lyrics propped up by good music and voice manipulation, not to mention the very regrettable and poorly-sung lyrical version covering Orbital's glorious instrumental "The Box." And we're simply better off not mentioning the one-hit wonder Babylon Zoo. The wailing diva dominates techno, and she could be used well were she well-integrated into the group. As it is, the music makers pretty much just sample a banshee cry from a bad singer and repeat it over and over and over.
Lots of repetition isn't an entirely bad quality for musical lyrics to have. When done well, the singer's voice is fully integrated into the music becoming an instrument as malleable as the others in the song. My initial impression is that Venus Hum integrates well, since the singer is herself a part of the group and all the music can be composed with her one voice in mind while playing off her own input and musical expertise. The groups' lyrics themselves are sometimes very random, and I fear they at times slip from an admirable and surprising randomness into unlistenable chaos. This fear seems unfounded at the moment, but I'll see how I think about it after further reflection; the quirkiness also might have potential to get on my nerves. The voice of lead singer Annette Strean is very appealing to me right now.
Venus Hum has collaborated with the similarly random Blue Man Group and fronted for some of their shows. Blue Man Group catches my eye and ear, and I'd like to see them live, but I haven't listened to anything of theirs that will by itself make me get out my credit card. I'm pondering paying for Venus Hum's music, which considering my penny-pinching music-purchasing habits, compounded by no immediate prospect of income, is quite revealing of their music's first effects on me.
Electronic music has never been very popular. MTV tried to create a techno trend after the respectable sales of the Mortal Kombat soundtrack indicated a market in the US, but since MTV sucks, it failed miserably. I do hope this group enjoys the enduring success of Depeche Mode, or if that's too much to hope for, the well-deserved appreciation many people have for Tangerine Dream. I think the group's base in the music town of Nashville bodes well for a unique and worthwhile style and could be a check on ego inflation.
The Blue Man Group has a music video of their Venus Hum collaboration on their website, This is a good site linking to a few complete songs in streaming audio, and MSN has two music videos here. Rhapsody radio, to which I get a basic subscribtion through my ISP account, allows a customized Venus Hum channel. (Hopefully I'll get around to praising Netscape Radio's Rennaisance Music channel, which actually carries the music of Provencal troubadours!)
The videos show Annette Strean dressing in her preferred retro fifties(!) style, and she herself is a sweet surprise.
(Also of musical interest: a well-wrought pro-life rap song "Can I Live?" from mainstream artist Nick Cannon has a music video!)
Friday, June 10, 2005
An Evening Quotation
HANK: Yes, and that woman's name was Earl Warren.
--King of the Hill
It's not Flattery. It is Persuasive Speaking!
Reproduced as follows:
Language of Advocacy(Adapted from the work of Carol Morreale.)
In talking to school personnel, legislator, or other parents:
(Big old blank space cuz it's in a table format, and Tables were introducted to HTML after I last studied it and I don't know how to fix this)
|My child is bored in school.
|All students should be able to learn at their challenge level.
|We must pay attention to the educational needs of our future leaders.
| To become successful adults, all students must learn the value
of struggling to achieve one's goals.
|How can we compete globally if we don't accommodate our "best and brightest"
| We need to assure that all our students will reach their greatest
potential in learning.
|Our gifted kids need special programs.
|High ability students may need out-of-class opportunities to experience
appropriate challenge.
|High ability students may need out-of-class opportunities to experience
appropriate challenge.
|I support all programs that allow students to learn at their own level
and pace.
|Kids in special education are getting too big a slice of the financial
pie in our schools.
| Let's study what works for kids in special education and make
similar opportunities available for students learning beyond their grade
|Students with high academic ability cannot have their learning needs
met in mixed-ability classrooms.
|Students with high academic ability need to be with students of similar
strengths so they can feel OK about themselves the way they are, rather
than feeling they have to hide their abilities to "fit in" with other kids
their age.
Root Causes of Terrorism
Root Causes: The only long-term solution for terrorism is to rise above these divisions and address the political grievances which provoke it. We must try to understand what causes such violent anger, as well as what can be done about it. Progress requires a serious assessment of the successes and failures of government. We need to both confront pressing problems, such as government excesses, job insecurity, and family breakdown, as well as try to clear up gross misperceptions about what government is doing. It is impossible to read some of the claims of various underground groups without recognizing we have a long way to go in understanding the politics of hate.
-Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, D-Indiana, Congressional Record
Were I a professional hack, I would have already used this statement in late 2001 as the basis for an op-ed.
Slavery in Contemporary Colorado, courtesy of an Arab
Woman held as slave, feds say
Aurora couple facing charges
By Alicia Caldwell
Denver Post Staff Writer
Aurora - An Aurora couple were indicted Thursday, accused of enslaving an Indonesian woman in their home for four years, forcing her to cook and clean without pay.
The husband also is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting the woman, records show.
Saudi couple charged with enslaving Indonesian
By Karen Abbott, Rocky Mountain News
June 10, 2005
A Saudi Arabian couple is charged in federal court with keeping an Indonesian woman in her early 20s as a virtual slave in their Aurora home for four years while the husband regularly raped her.
A federal grand jury in Denver returned an indictment Thursday against Homaidan Al-Turki, 36, and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, 35. Both were living legally in the United States and are now in custody.
This happened in Aurora, a large suburb east of Denver.
The Rocky indicates the captors ran a translation service: "The federal government also is seeking to seize the couple's assets, including bank accounts in the name of Al-Basheer Publications and Translation, and seeks an additional judgment of $92,700 for the value of the woman's forced labor." That's not much considering the woman was enslaved for five years. I hope she's told about civil suits.
Apparently This is the company's web site. It seems rather professional.
The husband is a student in linguistics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. You can see his photo at their site. I figured him to be older.
He is also on the Board of Directors for the Islamic Media Association
A Woman Sui Generis
The hyena is a matriarchal creature. Hyenas hunt in packs consisting solely of females. The hierarchy is determined by confrontations between large agressive females. Although the pack is a highly efficient scavenging force it practices continual adversarial power struggles. Sometimes alliances are made and a contesting female is attacked by the group while sleeping or eating. Hyenas are ruthless and fierce but rarely confront a healthy, male adult adversary; preferring, like many scavenger/predators, the unprotected young and lactating females. They also eat the young of their own pack females who exist in the lower eschelons of the heirarchy.
Male hyenas are solitary creatures; markedly smaller than the females; more timid, they subsist on leftovers from the female pack's carrion. They come in contact with females briefly during mating season and are then driven out of the pack--sometimes even killed and eaten by the pregnant females. Young male hyenas are often culled early and few survive. They too become a meal for the hyena sisterhood.
The only creature in the jungle the hyena pack fears is the adult male lion. The lion and the hyena are mortal enemies. The only time lionesses--who are formidable predators themselves--require the intervention of adult male lions is when they are confronting a pack of hyenas in defense of their young.
She was one of those conservatives who had actually read Marx, and so acquired a suspicion of capitalism. She summarised Das Kapital as one long love poem to capital, and took the extreme position that the Cold War was simply a fight between two groups of pirates for the rights of plunder. The bombing of Serbia was ever-present in her memory, and she hit hard at our post-9/11 appeasement of Islam. You'll remember that the Clinton administration had no qualms about bombing Serbians on their Easter, while the Bush administration was terribly squeamish about attacking during Ramadan. She believed that her civilization was not invited to Huntington's Clash. Though I flinch from accepting such an idea wholeheartedly, there is something to that.
She went by the moniker LaBelleDameSansMerci, and after being banned from FreeRepublic for viciously attacking the planned Iraqi invasion she moved on to the unmoderated LibertyForum where she took the nom-de-plume of Pariahville. She has not posted for over a year, hopefully because her time is occupied by better things. But some of her admirers have begun this tribute thread well-worth reading.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Your Taxpayer Dollars at Work
The head of NORAD and SAC, built inside of a mountain to withstand nuclear attack and command any retaliatory expeditions?
They have picture galleries of celebrity visits!
I would really like to see some of these galleries, but of course the most interesting ones are broken. The idea of WWE professional wrestlers posing at NORAD command is simultaneously hillarious and discomforting.
Personal favorites:
Earth Day Celebration, especially the cake-cutting scene. Atomic warfare and environmentalism hand-in-hand.
Denver Broncos Cheerleaders!
Aviational Folly
-Baggage System Sacked, Rocky Mountain News
Gah. I know taxpayers put a whole lot of money into this, and of course the DIA project got Mayor Pena his elevation to Secretary of Transportation. I wonder just how many political lackeys got that money. I have a relative in the Denver Auditor's office, and apparently odd deals are still being done at DIA. Lufthansa had a verbal agreement with the Denver mayor's office for some sort of arrangement, but that of course caught the auditing office's attention when they finally learned about it. It was chalked up to the mayor confusing governance with business, where such verbal agreements are allegedly de rigeur.
On a vaguely related note, somehow I never heard about the DIA conspiracy theories, represented on such sites as this one and this one. I remember a minor controversy over some odd murals, but nothing else. Apparently the friggin' Masons have an official plaque there, which makes me wonder how much taxpayer funding their members' network got its hands on.
Down with the Traitor, and up with the (Death) Star!
Here's a defense of the Empire against the Rebel Alliance. There are quite a few others, but this one caught my eye.
Makes you wonder who is shouting the battle cry of freedom.
Who will give a cheer when we sink?
But word is that the future of the very conservatism that has always prized such virtues lies in the hands of "South Park Conservatives," after the book by the same name by Brian C. Anderson. Very basically, the theory posits that the rank vulgarity institutionalized by the cartoon "South Park," which degrades and desacralizes absolutely everything, will inspire young conservatives to smash the stultifying tyranny of political correctness. If you're picking sides, P.C. vs. South Park offers about as much choice as the Iran-Iraq War -- which, remember, after eight years of carnage, left both sides still afloat.
-Diana West, Replacing duty and honor with 'South Park'
Is Diversity Anxiety a Symptom of Technocracy?
Perhaps this is a sort of "diversity anxiety" that afflicts those with Progressive, or simply Upwardly Mobile aspirations. There's a New York Times trendspotting article, a genre about as worthwhile as trainspotting, that indicates this might be part of the nomadic lives of certain professionals--in other words, a class phenomenon--manifested in the very neighborhood they choose to live in. Here's one man reflecting on his community:
"The good thing about it is that it is a very comfortable neighborhood to live in," Mr. Link said. "These are very homogenous types of groups. You play tennis with them, you have them over to dinner. You go to the same parties."
"But we're never challenged to learn much about other economic groups," he said. "When you talk about tennis, guess what? Everybody you play against looks and acts and generally feels like you. It doesn't give you much of a perspective. At work, diversity is one of the biggest things we work on."
(The Five-Bedroom, Six-Figure Rootless Life, NYT June 1, 2005)
Technocrats whose work and education require from them an incredibly mobile and lucrative lifestyle have the luxury of choosing their neighbors, but even having embraced the fully autonomous regime of choice, they flinch at some results of their own choices. But being indefatigable technocrats, they think more information, training, and hard work by other technocrats employed in the diversity industry can reduce the lamentable consequences that wouldn't even be a problem if they had simply left things up to chance in the first place. It's little wonder Irony is so damn popular.
Monday, June 06, 2005
A Future Summer Reading Discussion
Sunday, June 05, 2005
The Origin of "Meritocracy"
Meritocracy is an especially obtrusive and unstable term here, since neither Scott nor Leonhardt — nor scarcely any uncritical champion of meritocracy in our time — pauses to note the original meaning of the term. The concept of meritocracy first surfaced in a 1958 satirical political novel, The Rise of the Meritocracy, by old-line British socialist Michael Young. Young's coinage was not intended to describe a system of impartial upward advancement, but rather the diametric opposite: a dystopian social order wherein bureaucratic rank outstripped wealth and title as the measure of human advancement. The irony in Young's book, of course, was that the egalitarian nomenclature of this brave new order — of which the word meritocracy was itself a prime example — masked a system of spoils and rewards that was fast becoming much less fair and balanced than the old British class society it was thought to have supplanted. Only in America — or more precisely, only in the A section of the New York Times — could a bitter term of Old World satire gain traction as a straight-faced descriptor of a sunny status quo.
An Indymedia Whack at the NYT
Saturday, June 04, 2005
There is much nose scratching and much rejoicing!
Via Eve Tushnet
A true vision of the future from the 17th century?
I found this passage particularly interesting:
...the Antichrist wants to be Lord over everything and become the ruler of the whole universe, and he will produce miracles and fantastic signs. He will also give depraved wisdom to an unhappy man, so that he will discover a way by which one man can carry on a conversation with another from one end of the earth to the other. At that time, men will also fly through the air like birds and descend to the bottom of the sea like fish. And when they have achieved all this, these unhappy people will spend their lives in comfort without knowing, poor souls, that it is the deceit of the Antichrist.
I do not know whether it is of reliable provenance or if it is a recent forgery. A google search mentions this Saint Nilos almost entirely in relation to this putative prophecy.
Even if it was truly his, of course, doesn't make his prophecy a genuine one. However, its technological allusions would be of interest to anybody interested in the history of futurology.
Athena is still considered a patroness?
Another important part of the traditions is the statue of the goddess Athena, the patron goddess of the College, in Thomas Great Hall. Students leave gifts and notes for the statue when they desire help from the goddess.
Wikipedia on Bryn Mawr College
Thursday, June 02, 2005
The Swindle of Consent?
The success of the French, Spanish, and German invaders [of the Italian Peninsula in 1494] and the reduction of the Italian states to political impotence was an event without sense beyond the sphere of naked power. Italy, at the time, was a prosperous, wealthy country; and it was the most highly civilized area of Europe. The upheaval did not make sense in terms of a reduction of a poor, backward colonial region by economically progressive countries; neither did it make sense in terms of a social revolution, perhaps the rise of a third estate, or a populist uprising; neither were any issues of moral or political principles involved; neither was there any question of a religious movement, as later in the wars of Reformation.
In brief: economics, morals, principles of social justice, ideas concerning political organization, spiritual movements, or religious factions had nothing to do with the event; it was a clear case of a stronger power and better military organization in ruthless victory over a weaker and militarily less-well-equipped power.
We must realize, and perhaps we can realize it better than we could even twenty years ago [as a result of the Second World War], that the generation that witnesses such events receives a trauma. The more intelligent and sensitive members of such a generation have seen the reality of power at the moment of its existential starkness when it destroys an order, when the destruction is a brute fact without sense, reason, or ideas. It is difficult to tell such men any stories about morality in politics.
With the experienced eye of the moraliste they will diagnose the moralist in politics as the profiteer of the status quo, as the hypocrite who wants everybody to be moral and peace-loving after his own power drive has carried him into a position that he wants to retain.
The psychological diagnosis is fundamentally correct and will apply frequently. Under this aspect a man like Machiavelli who theorizes on the basis of his stark experience of power is a healthy and honest figure, most certainly preferable as a man to the contractualists who try to cover the reality of power underneath an established order by the moral, or should we say immoral, swindle of consent.
Eric Voegelin
Chapter 1, The Order of Power: Machiavelli
That Old Time Education
through the capitals of tin
where men can't walk or freely talk
and sons turn their fathers in
An elderly woman reflects on her experiences as a young girl under prohibition. One of her teachers was an enthusiastic teetotaler, who "would discourse on the evils of liquor and the lawbreakers who made it and consumed it."
This being the Prohibition Era, most everyone had a still of their own, including this woman's father. So as a girl this woman seriously debated whether or not to turn her father in to the police.
She writes "After her diatribes, I began to feel that every horrible thing that had ever happened, from slavery to war, was caused by alcohol's evil influence." I think this was something like the intended effect of the environmentalist events in my elementary school which I recently wrote about. Nothing new under the sun.


text:
The Personal Journey of an Empath
What is it you share with your co-workers, friends, family and passing strangers
through the energies presented in your aura? An Empath knows. He has the ability to
feel and experience your anguish or elation. He will wear your emotions or carry your
physical pain; collected perhaps, from a handshake, through eye contact, or a thought
transferred in a single moment in passing. This gift of knowing is not the result of any
conscious effort or want of information, but comes unsolicited, unwarranted, and most
always without the expressed approval of the Empath.
Many Empaths needlessly suffer due to a lack of knowledge, understanding, support
and consolation. Far too many spend their lives trying to fit in, when they are clearly
meant to stand out. As a result they can live a lonely, frustrating existence.
Uncharted Passages relates the personal journey of an Empath and recounts the
challenges and realities, which accompany the gift. It is not intended to impart any
scientific or expert findings. Having the gift of Empathy for a lifetime offers no
guarantees and produces no master. The goal is to give reassurance and lend support
for those who struggle to find stability in the unpredictability and insecurity of Empathy.
The readers will know it's okay not to be normal and that who they are will always be
good enough.
|Learn More...
|Children of Darkness
Please help, for I have fallen,
into a hell on life's far edge.
I am somewhere, deep in nowhere,
trapped, with no escape.
There is nothing I can reach for,
no knight to set me free,
doomed, alone, in my dark abyss,
no light embraces me.
Lost in this world forever,
to wither in this pain,
No love to heal these wounds,
no comfort to regain.
Thoughts of love and family
consume my inner soul.
There has to be a rescue.
I can't live this pain alone.
I regret all my transgressions.
This is more than I can bear.
Please reach and try to find me.
I'm here - in foster care.
|Empath Support Services
Coaching, counseling, education and
support for Empaths.
Recommended Reading
Personal Growth & Development
The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho
by Barbara Sher
Feel The Fear & Do It Anyway
by Susan Jeffers)
Who Are You? 101 Ways of Seeing Yourself
by Malcolm Godwin
The Secret Language of Signs
by Denise Linn
|Judy Spain Barton
Author * Life Coach
|Call your local Human Services office
today and be a (Foster) Parent to a child
who needs your love.
|Life Coaching
Online sessions available
Call 720-595-7146
|Contact Us
Office Hours
Monday-Friday 10am-7pm
Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday Group Appointments Only
|Who's Cheating Who?
Approximately 1.5 million websites and over 1000 book titles are dedicated to the subject
of cheating. The focus is most always on proving the infidelity, catching the scoundrel in the
act and dealing with the pain and shame of being a victim. A close analysis however,
creates uncertainty regarding exactly where our compassion and sympathies should lie. We
are forced to question our concepts of relationships and the realities of our role as a
partner. Untangling the complexities to find the truth, provokes a host of questions with
many complicated answers.
Cheating is not as simple as one individual in a relationship behaving badly, and the other
being wronged. It is a multi-faceted, complex reaction stemming from many different places
within the human psyche. Cheating involves two people making well-informed decisions
and choices. It relates to compatibility, needs and the realities of human nature. A lack of
attention to those vital relationship components provokes reactionary behaviors as a matter
of course. The need to cheat is a consequence, which is facilitated by a serious lack of
|Internet Dating by Design
Keys to Successful Online Experiences
The online experience offers unlimited possibilities for gaining lifelong friendships and finding
that ideal partner or soul mate you have been searching your whole life to find. It allows dreams
to become reality. Life altering events can occur by simply touching a button on your keypad.
We are rewarded with such gifts as enlightenment, culture, diversity and transformation.
Inhibitions and restrictions are no longer a hindrance. The freedom to be you in an online format
holds great merit. Everything you have ever dreamed of is now available for you to explore. It is
an endless opportunity for growth and rebirth.
Internet Dating by Design, addresses the critical components needed to achieve your Internet
dating goals. Included are the relative aspects of human nature, as well as relationship
considerations. Each of these elements will hold an advantage in your online pursuit of success
and happiness. It will become important to approach your search and explorations holistically.
Leaving one component to chance could prove costly and provoke negative experiences. If you
are well prepared, aware and ready to face the possibilities, you are likely to find many positives
and maybe even true bliss.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
How could they botch it?
What were they doing?
To ruin something that was all in place for them?
Why did "The Time That I Loved You" drama suck? I was utterly disgusted with the way this Korean drama turned out, so much so that it left a bitter taste in my mouth that I couldn't get rid of.
The reason that I'm telling you this is so that you won't make the same mistake that I did and waste your time watching this crap. I just had to get these feelings off my chest and tell you my inner thoughts before I tell anyone else.
The reason why I'm so angry and exasperated is because I had high expectations for this drama. A couple of months ago, I learned that the Korean channel SBS was going to do a drama based on the highly successful Taiwanese series "In Time With You", which made me think,
"Hmmm…. This seems interesting. I wonder how the Korean version of this highly rated drama will turn out. I want to see what made it SO great."
Then it happened.
What made my heart get caught in my throat. I couldn't breathe at all.
Yayy!!! She had been cast as the main female lead in the drama! When I heard this, I fell over.
With all these accomplishments to her name, I had good reason to believe that upon hearing that she had been cast for "The Time We Were Not In Love", that this drama would be another hit in her long line of work. That having the director Jo Soowon along, who had also produced gems such as "Swallow The Sun", "I Can Hear Your Voice" and "Pinocchio" would make this a sure thing.
That did not happen.
This should have been a simple story of two people, Oh Hana and Choi Won, who have been friends for 20 years and have been through so many things together. Hana, a career woman and Won, a male flight attendant at an airline who helps her whenever she is in trouble.
A teenage Hana makes a bet with him that she will get married first before they turn 35 years old. Will they find true love or will they miss what is already in front of them?
That's it. It should have been as simple as that.
However the drama did not turn out this way.
Everything that could have gone wrong, DID go wrong and there were many reasons why this was a terrible soap opera but I have narrowed it down to the following factors.
This drama didn't get off on the right foot after Soowon and the production company had a difference in creative opinion, causing him to withdraw, only for the director to return a week later after their differences were resolved.
Then the writer Min Hyojeong was replaced by two new ones Jung Doyoon and Lee Hana before it aired. I thought why are they switching writers so late into production and why do they need two people to do the job of one person. "Too many cooks spoil the broth".
As if that wasn't enough, they later brought in 3 new writers after episode 4 to replace Min and Lee since the production company wasn't satisfied with the direction of the drama.
I was saying "What is going on here?!".
This musical chair of screenwriters broke the flow of the soap opera, affecting storylines such as Hana's interaction with Won by disrupting their chemistry. I felt all bent out of shape with the inconsistent pace of the drama.
"The Time We Were Not In Love" had many people who were unsuitable for their roles such as Ha Jiwon playing the part of Oh Hana.
Hana's character required someone to have a cute and carefree personality but Jiwon was not able to pull it off. Whenever she had to act all tender and girly around Won in order to coax him, I cringed because she looked immature for her age at 37 years old.
During the flashbacks, instead of giving the young role to someone like an up and coming actress like Park Jinhee, Jiwon had to dress in school uniforms and young attire, which I did not believe for one second. As good as an actress as she is and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't pull off the role of a woman with a young attitude because she was too old. Hana's part should have been given to an actress in their 20's like Jinhee, which would have been more credible.
Yoon Gyusang was a bad actor as he played Cha Seohoo, who chased after Hana for her love. He was so stiff and boring whenever he came on screen, always having that expressionless look on his face whenever emotion needed to be shown, like when he told Hana that he needed her by his side.
Another complaint I have is that it wasn't believable the interaction between him and Hana since he was 28 years old trying to act mature while she was 37 years old trying to act like a woman in her 20's.
Come on!
I just rolled my eyes at the unconvincing chemistry between the both of them.
Instead of Gyusang, who had only done small roles in 3 previous dramas and never a lead role, a better choice wold have been Jung Woojin, a mature veteran who fits more her age group. That would have been a better complement to Jiwon rather than a rookie who had never done it before.
I blame all these issues on the person in charge of the casting. He should have found people better fit for these roles, whether it was a young girl with a vibrant personality for Hana's role or an experienced actor who could express feelings for Seohoo's part.
The casting person should have analyzed better what each role required and auditioned suitable actors so that there would have been better chemistry and credibility between the actors in the drama.
"The Time I Loved You" had such a ridiculous storyline that just made me shake my head in disbelief. Everything was so out of whack and inconsistent leading to unnecessary confusion.
Hana is a career woman working for a shoe company, who after many years encounters her childhood friend Won, a flight attendant coming back to Korea.
They remember the bet they made as youngsters that Hana would be the first to marry before turning 35 years old and both set out to find love.
Won refuses to go on numerous dates but when he does, he rejects them.
Hana is too busy with work that she doesn't have time to date.
When both of them have free time, they hang out together.
What irritated me was when in an episode, Hana would get mad at Won for not calling her or he would give her the cold shoulder if she forgot to meet him at a predetermined location but then in a couple of episodes, they would makeup, either by a present or with pleading with the other person.
Then they would quarrel over another little thing and makeup again.
I kept ripping my hair out because of this back and forth interaction, which slowed the drama's pace and disrupted the flow. I was like "Come on! Let's get this going already!" All this unnecessary squabbling made me impatient and frustrated.
And then they FINALLY get married, only to argue about their clothes the next day and subsequently makeup in the next scene.
"We became a married couple after being longtime friends….still we fight and makeup…hate and love repeatedly…"
as voiced by Hana as they walk together holding hands in the final episode, which pretty much summed up their interaction during the whole drama.
Their "on and off" relationship was a bumpy and rocky road that just turned me off as the story progressed.
If Hana and Won's tumultuous relationship was not enough, you also had the pianist Seohoo, who was trying to win Hana's love after coming back to Korea to perform a recital.
By the time he finally appeared after episode 4, a rapport had already developed between Hana and Won, making it too late for the antagonist to move her heart and drive a wedge between them.
That and coupled with the fact that there was a 9 age difference between Hana and Seohoo, making his pursuit of her unconvincing, and I just felt that he was a third wheel coming along for the ride. Seohoo should have been in play from the very beginning so that you could see his feelings and his side of the story as he pursued her before Hana and Won's relationship got out of hand.
Another unessential plot was that of Lee Soeun, a stewardess who works in the same airline as Won and is attracted to him and tries to make him love her even though she knows that he is close friends with Hana.
Every time that Soeun asked him out on a date, he said no and went on his way.
Or if they were eating together and she was trying to make moves on him, it would be interrupted when Won would leave her side after hearing that Hana needed his help and he would immediately go towards Hana.
Something always prevented her from getting close to him, whether it was his flatout refusal or an unforeseen event.
"Don't you get it?"
"He doesn't love you."
"Leave already!"
I was so frustrated that she didn't get the message. It felt like an insect hovering around a light bulb. Her unrequited love made me pity her relentless efforts. I didn't want to see her anymore after all those failed attempts.
The storyline of L as Ki Sungjae was the worst of them all.
He was in his early 20's as a low level worker in the same industry as Hana, who came in episode 2. They met through work and since then, he would use every opportunity to see her, whether waiting for her after work with an umbrella if it was raining outside or bringing her coffee in the morning.
She slowly started to develop feelings for him thinking that he genuinely cared for her, even though Won warned her not to take the young buck seriously.
At this time she and Won were still friends and were exploring love in other people and Seohoo still had not come into the picture.
I was under the impression that Seungjae was going to be the antagonist of the drama. Later Hana eavesdrops on Seungjae saying that he was just using her to get ahead in his career, shocking her and damaging her feelings immensely.
Before they finish the project they are currently working together on, she reveals the truth about him and dismisses him. He doesn't regret his actions and leaves quietly in episode 4, never to be seen again.
"What was that?!"
How could they just throw away what seemed like a key figure in Hana 's life and make it seem like nothing happened? That everything would go back to normal? He only lasted 3 episodes and now I have to start all over again.
This must have been when the production company switched writers and the whole drama had to begin from scratch with a new antagonist and change of direction. This left me confused and in the dust, making me feel as if I just wasted my time watching the first couple of episodes.
In conclusion, "The Time I Loved You" was a terrible Korean drama. But don't take my word for it. The ratings speak for themselves.
6.2% 5.9% NR (not rated) NR NR
How can an episode have no ratings at all?!
That's how bad this soap opera was, between the mishandling of the screenwriters and director, poor selection of actors for the roles and absurd storylines.
All that needed to be done was follow the blueprint of the Taiwanese drama and go from there. This sorry excuse of a soap opera doesn't do the original version any justice.
I can't believe how all the wheels fell off and how it didn't meet my high expectations. After seeing and living through this atrocity, let me give a piece of advice:
Instead, watch the original Taiwanese version "In Time With You" to get the full experience, the way it was meant to be seen.
You won't be disappointed.
As for this "drama", after watching it as a viewer, the title should not be "The Time I Loved You".
It should be "The Time I DIDN'T Love You".
That's all I have to say about that. But what did you think? What got you watching to the end? What moments stand out now that it's over?
I don't know. Sometimes it feels like my writing & thoughts are way off. Who knows if it'll help anyone or if it means anything.
Written by Ben


text:
Samuel Merritt University holds that sexual violence has no place in the academic environment and the University will not tolerate it. Additionally, under CA State and Federal laws, sexual violence (inclusive of, but not limited to: sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, dating violence, domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault of employees or students) is illegal. Samuel Merritt University seeks to eliminate sexual violence through education and by encouraging faculty, staff, and students to report concerns or complaints. The University takes the matter of sexual violence very seriously; indeed, the University and individual employees and/or students may be legally liable for acts of sexual violence. Therefore, any acts of sexual violence should be reported immediately to the Executive Director of Human Resources (Title IX Coordinator). After a thorough investigation, anyone found to have violated this policy will be subject to disciplinary action —up to and including dismissal/discharge from the University. See the SMU Sexual Violence Policy and Reporting Page for more information.
Samuel Merritt University uses an "affirmative consent" standard, whereas:
- Consent is informed and an affirmative, unambiguous, and conscious decision by each participant to engage in mutually agreed-upon sexual activity. For consent to be valid, there must be a clear expression in words or actions that the other individual consented to that specific sexual conduct.
- Consent is voluntary. It must be given without coercion, force, threats, or intimidation. Consent is an expression of free will.
- Consent is revocable. Consent in some form of sexual activity does not imply consent to other forms of sexual activity. Consent to sexual activity on one occasion is not consent to engage in sexual activity on another occasion. A current or previous dating or sexual relationship, by itself, is not sufficient to constitute consent. Even in the context of a relationship, there must be mutual consent to engage in sexual activity. Consent must be ongoing throughout a sexual encounter and can be revoked at any time. Once consent is withdrawn, the sexual activity must stop immediately.
- Consent cannot be given when a person is incapacitated. A person cannot consent if she/he/ze is under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or medication, unconscious or coming in and out of consciousness. An individual who engages in sexual activity when the individual knows, or should know, that the other person is physically or mentally incapacitated has violated this policy.
- It is not an excuse that the individual responding party of sexual misconduct was intoxicated and, therefore, did not realize the incapacity of the other.
- Incapacitation is defined as a state where someone cannot make rational, reasonable decisions because they lack the capacity to give knowing consent (e.g., to understand the "who, what, when, where, why or how" of their sexual interaction). This policy also covers a person whose incapacity results from mental disability, involuntary physical restraint and/or from the taking of incapacitating drugs.
- A person cannot consent if she/he/ze is under the threat of violence, bodily injury or other forms of coercion.A person cannot consent if his/her/hir understanding of the act is affected by a physical or mental impairment.
- In the evaluation of any allegation it is not a valid excuse to alleged lack of affirmative consent that the responding party believed that the Reporting Party consented to the sexual activity under either of the following circumstances:
- (A) The Responding Party's belief in affirmative consent arose from the intoxication or recklessness of the accused.
- (B) The Responding Party did not take reasonable steps, in the circumstances known to the accused at the time, to ascertain whether the Reporting Party affirmatively consented.
Consent can not be given by a minor. In The State of California a minor (meaning a person under the age of 18 years) cannot consent to sexual activity. This means that sexual contact by an adult with a person younger than 18 years old is a crime, as well as a violation of this policy, even if the minor wanted to engage in the act.
The state definition of consent can be found here. These penal codes are applicable to criminal prosecutions for sex offenses in California, but may differ from the definition used by Samuel Merritt University to address policy violations. For a more information on consent click here
Definition of Sexual Misconduct
Sexual misconduct includes a range of behaviors used to obtain sexual contact against a person's will. Sexual misconduct is defined as sexual contact without consent by someone you know or a stranger and includes: intentional touching without consent, either of the victim or when the victim is forced to touch, directly or through clothing, another person's genitals, breast, groin, thighs or buttocks; rape (sexual intercourse without consent whether by someone you know or stranger); attempted rape; sodomy (oral or anal intercourse) without consent; or sexual penetration with an object without consent.
State law defines various violent and/or non-consensual sexual acts as crimes. Additionally, Samuel Merritt University has defined categories of sexual misconduct, as stated below, for which action under this policy may be imposed. Generally speaking, the University considers Non-Consensual Sexual Intercourse violations to be the most serious, and therefore typically imposes the most severe sanctions, including suspension or expulsion for students and termination for employees. However, the University reserves the right to impose any level of sanction, ranging from a reprimand up to and including suspension or expulsion/termination, for any act of sexual misconduct or other gender-based offenses, including intimate partner or relationship (dating and/or domestic) violence, non-consensual sexual contact and stalking based on the facts and circumstances of the particular complaint. Acts of sexual misconduct may be committed by any person upon any other person, regardless of the sex, gender, sexual orientation and/or gender identity of those involved.
Violations include:
- Sexual Harassment (as defined below)
- Non-Consensual Sexual Intercourse. Defined as:
- any sexual penetration or intercourse (anal, oral or vaginal). Sexual penetration includes vaginal or anal penetration by a penis, tongue, finger or object, or oral copulation by mouth to genital contact or genital to mouth contact.
- however slight
- with any object
- by a person upon another person
- that is without consent and/or by force
3. Non-Consensual Sexual Contact. Defined as:
- any intentional sexual touching. Sexual touching includes any bodily contact with the breasts, groin, genitals, mouth or other bodily orifice of another individual, or any other bodily contact in a sexual manner.
- however slight
- with any object
- by a person upon another person
- that is without consent and/or by force
4. Sexual Exploitation
Sexual Exploitation refers to a situation in which a person takes non-consensual or abusive sexual advantage of another, and situations in which the conduct does not fall within the definitions of Sexual Harassment, Non-Consensual Sexual Intercourse or Non-Consensual Sexual Contact. Examples of sexual exploitation include, but are not limited to:
- Sexual voyeurism (such as watching a person undressing, using the bathroom or engaged in sexual acts without the consent of the person observed)
- Taking pictures or video or audio recording another in a sexual act, or in any other private activity without the consent of all involved in the activity, or exceeding the boundaries of consent (such as allowing another person to hide in a closet and observe sexual activity, or disseminating sexual pictures without the photographed person's consent)
- Sexual exploitation also includes engaging in sexual activity with another person while knowingly infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or other sexually transmitted disease (STD) and without informing the other person of the infection, and further includes administering alcohol or drugs (such as "date rape" drugs) to another person without his or her knowledge or consent
Definition of Sexual Harassment
SMU Policy defines sexual harrassment as follows:
1. The prohibition applies to all staff employees and students, and in particular to supervisors (including direct supervisory and other management staff). A sexual advance violates this policy regardless of whether the advance is expressly related to the affected employee's/student's employment/academic status. It is improper to make sexual advances, ask for, demand or seek by subtle pressure sexual favors or activity from an employee/student, or to subject another employee/student to verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature where:
- The submission to such behavior is a condition of any employment/academic opportunity, benefit, job retention, grade; or
- The submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as a basis for employment/academic decisions; or
- Such conduct has the purpose or the effect of unreasonably interfering with the individual's work/academic performance; or
- Such conduct creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work/academic environment.
2. It is improper for an employee/student to make sexual advances or to offer or suggest sexual favors or activity in exchange or in consideration for any personnel/academic action.
3. It is improper to retaliate against an employee/student for refusing a sexual advance or for refusing a request, demand or pressure for sexual favors or activity or to retaliate against an employee/student who has reported an incident of possible sexual harassment to the University or to any government agency.
4. It is not possible to identify each and every act which constitutes or may constitute sexual harassment. However, certain conduct is clearly improper and is strictly prohibited. Persons engaging in this conduct, or other similar acts, will be subject to discipline up to and including dismissal from the University. Such acts might include:
a. Any unwanted, intentional touching of an employee/student by another may be sexual harassment and is prohibited. Due to the possibility of misinterpretation of acts by other employees/students, the University discourages all roughhousing or physical contact, except that contact necessary and incidental to an employee's job/student's academic status. Further, certain kinds of physical conduct in the work/academic environment are particularly inappropriate and may be grounds for immediate discipline, including dismissal from the University. That conduct includes, but is not limited to:
- Kissing or attempting to kiss an employee/student;
- Touching or attempting to touch or pretending to touch the breasts, buttocks or genitals of an employee/student;
- Physically restraining by force or blocking the path of an employee/student when accompanied by other conduct of a sexual nature;
- Any other touching or attempted touching reasonably interpreted to be of a sexual nature.
b. Sexual advances, unwelcome requests, demands, or subtle pressure for sexual favors or activity, lewd comments and sexual innuendoes are also prohibited. This conduct includes, but is not limited to:
- Comments to an employee/student or others about the body of an employee/student which are intended to draw attention to the sex of the employee/student or can reasonably be interpreted to draw attention to the sex of the employee/student;
- Comments to the employee/student or others about the sexual conduct, capability, or desirability of an employee/student;
- Cat calls, whistles, or other conduct reasonably interpreted to be of a sexual nature.
c. Sexually suggestive gestures are also prohibited.
d. It is improper to subject employees/students to photographs, cartoons, articles, or other written or pictorial materials of a sexual nature after the employee/student has expressed his/her/hir displeasure with such activity. These materials may be offensive to the public as well and should not be on display in offices or public areas in any event.
e. This policy is not intended to prohibit employees/students from asking other employees/students for social engagements. However, repeated requests where prior social invitations have been refused can be interpreted as sexual harassment. Employees/students should refrain from persistent invitations after an employee/student has indicated that such invitations are unwelcome.
Definition of Dating Violence
The term "dating violence" means violence committed by a person: Who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim; and where the existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on a consideration of the following factors: the length of the relationship; the type of relationship; and the frequency of the interaction between the persons involved in the relationship. See examples of dating abuse/violence here
Definition of Domestic Violence
The term ''domestic violence'' includes felony or misdemeanor crimes of violence committed by a current or former spouse of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse, by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction receiving grant monies, or by any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that person's acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction.
Definition of Stalking
The term ''stalking'' means engaging in a course of conduct, regardless of medium used, that is directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to— (A) fear for his/her/hir safety or the safety of others; or (B) suffer substantial emotional distress.
Like other forms of sexual violence, stalking is a crime of power and control. Stalking is conservatively defined as "a course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated (two or more occasions) visual or physical proximity, nonconsensual communication, or verbal, written, or implied threats, or a combination thereof, that would cause a reasonable person fear." (National Institute of Justice). Stalking behaviors also may include persistent patterns of leaving or sending the victim unwanted items or presents that may range from seemingly romantic to bizarre, following or laying in wait for the victim, damaging or threatening to damage the victim's property, defaming the victim's character, or harassing the victim via the Internet by posting personal information or spreading rumors about the victim. For more info see Stalking Internet Resources below and Here
Definition of Sexual Assault
The term sexual assault refers to sexual contact or behavior that occurs without explicit consent of the victim. Some forms of sexual assault include:
- Penetration of the victim's body, also known as rape
- Attempted rape
- Forcing a victim to perform sexual acts, such as oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator's body
- Fondling or unwanted sexual touching
What is rape?
Rape is a form of sexual assault, but not all sexual assault is rape. The term rape is often used as a legal definition to specifically include sexual penetration without consent. For its Uniform Crime Reports, the FBI defines rape as "penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."
It is important to note that force doesn't always refer to physical pressure. Perpetrators may use emotional coercion, psychological force, or manipulation to coerce a victim into non-consensual sex. Some perpetrators will use threats to force a victim to comply, such as threatening to hurt the victim or their family or other intimidation tactics.
The conduct described in this policy is strictly prohibited. If anyone, including non-employees/non-students, engages in such conduct, it is important that the conduct be reported to the Executive Director of Human Resources. It is not possible for the University to enforce this policy if incidents of harassment are not reported. The procedure to follow if the student feels that he/she/ze has been subjected to sexual harassment/sexual misconduct is set forth in this Catalog/Handbook
Internet Resources:
Sexual Assault
- California Coalition Against Sexual Assault
- RAINN: Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
- National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
- National Center on Domestic & Sexual Violence
- National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women
- National Sexual Violence Resource Center
Dating and Domestic Violence
- Love Is Respect.org
- Relationship Help Guide
- National Domestic Violence Hotline
- National Center on Domestic & Sexual Violence
- Domestic Violence Help Guide
- Stalking Resource Center
- Stalking Awareness
- Stalking Fact Sheet
- Stalking: A Handbook for Victims
- CA Law - Stalking


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Dear visitor,
a first overview of our work (educational training, dance theatre festival, travels, winterschool, ongoing-trainings) you can get from our NEW!! Movement Concept®-brochure (German-English, 2009).
For selected events and activities you can visit the following English sites or subscribe to our English newsletter .
Dance Theatre Danse Macabre in Český Krumlov and Wasserburg August / September 2016
2nd Dance Theatre Festival; 1st Dance-Theatre-Festival
Winterschool 2011; Winterschool 2010; Winterschool 2009
Winterschool 2008; Winterschool 2007; Winterschool 2006
Winterschool 2005
JAPAN - Nature, Mystic and Avant-garde
Yakutia: Land of the Shamans
Mysterious Japan 2005
If you have any further question, please don't hesitate to contact us directly via


text: At Major Oak Consulting we have carefully hand selected all of our consultants and staff members, applying a rigorous screening process to ensure that our team is comprised of the very best management consultants in the business. With considerable experience in some of the world's most widely respected organizations, our expert professionals have decades of experience in helping private and public companies, government agencies and nonprofit groups get the most out of their business. Our mission is to exceed your expectations every time!


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Just for you! Every day you can enjoy our Aveda shampoo blow dry special: a $40 value for $25 when booking with select Stylists.
Maintain your healthy and beautiful nails while having fun with the beautiful colors of ZOYA.
Please call 203-743-9795 to make an appointment.
Copyright © ANB Salon. All Rights Reserved.


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We did a little NYC run last weekend and, taking a short break from stuffing our faces with Momofuku pork buns, we wound up at Gramercy Tavern for dinner on Sunday night. Beautiful restaurant and beautiful meal beginning to end. Let me begin at the beginning: lamb ragout with homemade parpadelle, preserved lemons, olives, and chard. Oh it was good. So good, I tried to recreate it today. My version tastes close to the original, maybe slightly more tomato-y than Gramercy's but otherwise spot on. I might cut back on the tomato next time and up the stock a bit. I substituted the preserved lemons with a little grated lemon zest and some juice, but if you have preserved lemons on hand they would make a nice addition. (Any Moroccan or Middle Eastern market usually stocks them.) This is Sunday supper kind of food – simple to prepare but slow to cook. We made our own pasta to serve with the ragout, but it's by no means necessary – just buy some good quality fresh or dried pasta. If you feel inclined, I included the pasta directions below. Serve with some sautéed leafy greens (gramercy nested them under the pasta, which made for a scrumptious surprise), a drizzle of good olive oil, some chopped parsley, and maybe a shaving or two of parmesan.
For the Ragout
- A good pour of olive oil (2-3 tbsp)
- 1 lb lamb stew meat, trimmed and cut into small chunks
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- A glass of dry red wine (1/2-3/4 cup)
- 1 28 ounce can good quality whole tomatoes, pureed in a food processor or blender
- 1-3 cups good quality stock (lamb, chicken or beef)
- ½ lemon zested and juiced, or 2 tbsp finely chopped preserved lemons
- ½ tsp dried oregano or 1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 bay leaf
- A small handful of pitted olives (nicoise, kalamata, or coquillo)
- Salt and pepper
- Parsley, more olive oil, and parmesan to garnish
Pour the olive oil in a heavy bottomed medium pot and set over medium-high heat. Add the lamb and brown about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium, and add the onion and garlic and sauté until tender and fragrant about 5 minutes more. Add the wine and stir to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Add one cup of stock, the tomatoes, the lemon zest and juice, the oregano, the cinnamon, and the bay leaf and season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to very low, cover the pot, and cook for 2-4 hours until the lamb is very tender and falling apart. You want the heat as low as possible, so the ragout is barely simmering. Periodically, check to see that there is plenty of liquid left and add more stock as needed. Once the lamb is tender, stir in the olives and taste for seasoning again adjusting as needed. Depending on your tomatoes, you may want to add a little more lemon or a pinch of sugar at this point along with a little salt and pepper. You can also thin the sauce a bit before serving by adding some of the pasta water.
Mario Batali's Fresh Pasta for homemade parpadelle (or any other pasta shape)
- 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 5 large eggs
- pinch of salt
- extra flour for rolling
First, a disclaimer: I'm no expert when it comes to fresh pasta. I can think of several near-disaster kitchen moments in the recent past involving fresh pasta. But, I've learned a few things, and cross your fingers, my pasta's been coming out pretty well.
I use Mario Batali's simple recipe (above) as a base. Mario wants you to do it Italian grandma style and put the flour on the table and the eggs in the center, but I use a bowl to save myself from dropping egg-y goop all over the floor and/or the dog, who's always standing eagerly underfoot. So, put the flour and salt in a large bowl, form a well in the center, and crack in the eggs. Swirl the eggs vigorously with your fingers, gradually incorporating the flour. This is messy, but don't worry just keep swirling. Once a firm dough is formed, dump the mixture out onto the counter. At this point, discard any flour that hasn't been absorbed (depending on the size of the eggs and the moisture content of the flour more or less will be absorbed.) Kneed the dough on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes until very smooth and elastic. Wrap well in plastic and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.
Cut the dough into 4 pieces and form them into discs. Set 3 under a clean kitchen towel. Process the dough using a pasta machine. Begin at the most open setting, pass the dough through and fold it in 3. Pass through 5 more times, then move to the next setting and pass through 4 times (folding in 3 each time). Continue down until you reach the desired thinness – I would error on the thinner side. As the dough gets thinner, you will not need to pass it through each setting multiple times (just once or twice each.) Keep the dough well floured as you work with it – this will prevent tearing. You want to roll the dough several times to give it more structure – just like kneeding bread, the starch in pasta develops gluten as it is worked. This gluten gives pasta its strength (so it doesn't fall apart in the water and has a nice toothsome bite.) Of course just like with bread, you can overwork it, so don't go completely crazy with the rolling.
Once you achieve the desired thinness, either pass the dough through the cutters on your machine or just lay it on a lightly floured counter and cut with a chef's knife. Cutting one piece lengthwise into 6 equal pieces will give you parapadelle. Then, and this is important, you want to hang the pasta strips somewhere so they can dry out a bit and so they don't stick to one another. The back of the kitchen chairs works well (watch out for curious little fingers and paws though – I've lost more than a few strands this way), or if you have a laundry drying rack you can set up in your kitchen that's perfect. In a pinch, I've laid the pasta out on lightly floured sheet pans. You'll want to think about what you want to lay the pasta on to dry ahead of time so it's all ready to go.
Next, boil the biggest pot of water you have with a little salt then add the pasta, being careful not to overcrowd the pot. For a batch this size in a really big soup pot, you'll have to do two batches. Boil for 2-3 minutes and then drain and serve.
All that said, I think the only way to make pasta well is to make it. And then make it again. And again. It helps to have two people to help with all the rolling and cutting and to clear off your kitchen counters so you have enough space to work.


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Gregor Hohpe
Chief IT Architect at Allianz, co-author of "Enterprise Integration Patterns"
Gregor is a recognized thought leader on asynchronous messaging and service-oriented architectures. He is widely known as co-author of the seminal book "Enterprise Integration Patterns" and as frequent speaker at conferences around the world. He is an active member of the IEEE Software editorial advisory board.
As Chief IT Architect at Allianz, Gregor is responsible for driving the digital transformation of the insurance business. He documented his experience as an architect driving IT transformation in the eBook ""37 Things One Architect Knows"".
Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions
37 Things One Architect Knows About IT Transformation: A Chief Architect's Journey
Enterprise Solution Patterns Using Microsoft .NET
Integration Patterns (Patterns & Practices)
97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts
97 Things Every Programmer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts
Recent Articles
Gregor's Ramblings on Enterprise Integration
Recent Interviews
A Decade of Enterprise Integration Patterns: A Conversation with the Authors
YOW! 2016 Melbourne
If You Are Synchronous You Are Not Resilient
Your software will break. The more sophisticated it is, the more often it will break. While traditional software design tries to eliminate failure through extensive testing, modeling and other techniques, highly scalable and dynamic systems need to embrace failure. Instead of trying to be robust, these systems need to be resilient, e.g. by restricting the extent of failure through isolated failure domains. Synchronous, state-sharing approaches like many object-oriented systems are notorious for propagating failure and make it difficult to isolate failure. Decoupled, asynchronous systems can add resilience.
This session takes a journey through coupling, asynchrony, conversations, and patterns for resilient software design.
Messaging, Architecture, Resilience, Scaling, Asynchrony, Patterns, Design, Decouping


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CEO's final scene - present.Arctic Hare (Lepus arcticus).Scientific classification.Kingdom: Animalia.Phylum: Chordata.Class: Mammalia.Rating: Lagomorpha.Family: Leporidae.Fischer de Waldheim, 1817.
Rabbit (English: Hare, Rabbit) is the phylum of animals with spinal axis. The mammal Of rabbits (Lagomorpha) in the family Leporidae.
1]Despite rabbit like rodent rodents (Rodentia), but was held out for the first separately. The number of teeth that are not equal. The rabbit is a rodent jaw two rows stacked on row two molar teeth on each side, 6 rib and lower molar teeth on each side 5 times chewing. Rabbits will chew on the tooth and two alternates. Unlike rodents are chewing motion moves the page.
Rabbit animal mammal smaller. Around the torso with feathery tail short, rounded ears, a long, compared to other animals. Which evolved for sound as well. And a sense of smell is very good. Rabbit has front legs with rear legs are 5 inches long and 4 inches is the hip power. Packed with muscle. It can jump as well. Feathers are soft under foot support to prevent noise when moving. Animals scare easily and are very active in the active vigilance disaster. In addition, the eye of a rabbit eye or eyelid to three layers together [1].
Rabbits are herbivorous animals only. Unlike rodents that eat both meat and plants. Including rabbit food. Grasses and vegetation of various types of rabbits, the average life expectancy is 2-3 years from a very fast animal reproductive years, a rabbit can produce up to 2-3 times for about 2-3 rabbits in nature. Usually live in open plains, the prairie than forest. By digging underground burrows and nesting habitat. The hare in nature. When a newborn is born. And the next day I was able to run and jump. When the female will give birth to rabbits. Is separated from the nest to dig a new nest. To protect the weak from the buck This could kill the baby rabbits are born. Limited transportation will accommodate themselves to the new paving will occur.
Rabbit species in all regions of the world. Do not leave even the Arctic. Continents except Oceania and Australia Divided into 11 genera (see the table) [2] is found only in the Hare (Lepus peguensis).
In addition, in astrology. Rabbit zodiac is represented by the fourth year of the Rabbit is the symbol of the rabbit [5].
Current pet rabbits became humans in terms of being a pet. And animals to eat. By rabbit species to develop species as well as the pet. By many to be the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) with a traditional homeland in Europe [6], which is a beautiful rabbit species with many varieties. It's a different size to the size of the body such as the Netherlands Dwarf, Polish Surratt bit, Holland Development, a small rabbit and English lakes have a large rabbit, etc.


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This current variety of Kale is a lighter green canopy and grows taller than the variety of Kale you may be used to. Rest assured, it's still as delicious and has the same nutritonal value.
Kale is an easy 5-day sprout that grows well in a jar or sprouting tray. Kale sprouts contain high levels of the cellular detoxifier sulforphane, which may help to prevent cancer and rejuvenate the immune system.
Rich in vitamins K, C, B6, and E, folate, dietary fiber phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium.
Customers most agreed on the following:
These are high quality seeds with a high sprouting percentage. In the past when I've sprouted small seeds, they often turn into a soggy, slimy mess. That is not the case with Mumm's seeds. I sprouted as directed and in a few days had a great batch of kale sprouts. I have been sprouting on and off for decades and am so happy that I finally discovered Mumm's. I will certainly be a repeat customer. These sprouts are peppery! I add them to salads or just snack on them plane. Thank you Mumm's
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HOME › UNDERSTANDING PARKINSON'S › Living with Parkinson's
Genetics and Parkinson's Disease
Increased understanding of Parkinson's disease genetics has energized drug development over the past 15 years and continues to form the basis for new treatments. Though few people get Parkinson's directly from a genetic mutation, what researchers learn from the biology of people with these mutations could lead to new therapies that could help all those with the disease. Individuals with certain genetic mutations -- with and without Parkinson's disease -- can help speed discovery and be part of the genetics revolution under way in Parkinson's research.
- How do genes play a role in Parkinson's disease?
- If I have a Parkinson's mutation, will I get the disease?
- How does genetics study advance research?
- Should I be genetically tested?
- What can I do to help research efforts?
How do genes play a role in Parkinson's?
For years, scientists thought there was no genetic basis for Parkinson's. Then, in 1997, researchers at the National Institutes of Health discovered that mutations in a gene called SNCA (which encodes alpha-synuclein) were common in several families with a high prevalence of Parkinson's. Since then they have identified a handful of other genes that are associated with Parkinson's.
However, only about 10 percent of Parkinson's cases have been linked to a genetic cause. Most cases of Parkinson's are called idiopathic or sporadic, meaning the cause is unknown, and researchers believe onset is due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Another gene that plays a role in some people's Parkinson's is LRRK2. In 2004, scientists discovered a mutation in the LRRK2 gene that caused parkinsonism in several families in North America and Europe. LRRK2 has emerged as the most common, known genetic contributor to Parkinson's, accounting for one to two percent of all cases. For people of particular ethnic backgrounds -- Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish, North African Arab Berber and Basque -- mutations in the LRRK2 gene account for a much greater number of Parkinson's disease cases than in the general populations. Researchers don't know why this is yet, but they are trying to find out.
If I have a Parkinson's mutation, will I get the disease?
In short: not necessarily. We know that some people have mutations in the SNCA or the LRRK2 gene and never develop Parkinson's symptoms.
for Parkinson's Identified
In addition, there are Parkinson's risk genes where a mutation means an increased likelihood of Parkinson's (not a direct causal link). Researchers are looking for other factors (environmental factors or other genetic mutations, for example) that either push or protect someone with a gene mutation to/from having Parkinson's.
How does genetics study advance research?
Genes are like recipes that make proteins. The SNCA gene instructs the body to make the protein alpha-synuclein , which for reasons that are not yet known clumps in certain brain cells of all Parkinson's patients. Study of the SNCA gene led to this understanding that applies to all people with the disease, and, since then, alpha-synuclein has been a major target of new drugs for Parkinson's. Research into Parkinson's genetics can unveil proteins and cellular pathways involved in the disease, which most likely play a part in idiopathic Parkinson's, too.
When researchers identify a Parkinson's gene, a strategy begins to learn as much as possible about the gene, the protein it makes and the pathways it works in. Scientists make research tools to investigate the gene. They look for biomarkers to measure its activity. They recruit people with the mutation to learn more about its biology and clinical appearance. All these steps lead them toward discovery of a drug target and testing of a new therapy.
Should I be genetically tested?
There is a critical role for Parkinson's patients and their loved ones to play in the pursuit of a cure by being genetically tested and participating in clinical research. As a research organization working to speed a cure, The Michael J. Fox Foundation would like to see people with Parkinson's genotyped to build our base of information about PD genetics.
That said, the decision to find out one's genetic makeup and disease risk is a personal one, and it is important to discuss with your family and health care provider. Also consult with a qualified genetic counselor both before and after receiving your results to understand all of the issues involved.
For now, learning your Parkinson's genetic status does not change your personal prevention or treatment regimen. But by coming together, people with certain mutations can help speed discovery and make a significant contribution to Parkinson's drug development.
Finally, remember that having a genetic mutation associated with Parkinson's does not mean you will get the disease.
What can I do to help research efforts?
Most clinical research into the genetics of Parkinson's focuses on the LRRK2 mutation because there are more known populations with this risk factor.
The Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) is recruiting individuals of certain populations or descent -- Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish, North African Arab Berber and Basque -- who have Parkinson's or have a relative with Parkinson's. PPMI is a study to identify Parkinson's biomarkers: objective measure of disease risk, onset or progression. Individuals from those ethnic groups are eligible for testing for the LRRK2 genetic mutation at no cost. Based on the results, some individuals will be invited to undergo further evaluation and participate in the five-year study.
Whether or not you have Parkinson's disease, you can participate in research through Fox Insight, an online observational study and digital platform that collects insight into the lived experience of Parkinson's. Study participants share information about their symptoms, overall medical history, family neurological history and quality of life through confidential online surveys. By studying the responses of thousands of volunteers over time, researchers hope to prioritize patient needs and better understand disease progression. Fox Insight ultimately aims to direct scientists to new therapies and treatments for people with PD.
For more studies looking at LRRK2 mutations -- or for all Parkinson's research studies -- visit Fox Trial Finder. You can search for studies and/or make a profile and be matched with clinical studies in your area that you may be interested in.
Check our webinar on Parkinson's genetics.
Related news
Podcast: Looking Deep into Cells for the Answers to Parkinson's
Five Takeaways from Our LRRK2 Summit
Research Roundup: New Alpha-Synuclein Therapy Begins Clinical Trial
Play a Part in PPMI
PPMI, MJFF's flagship study, is studying the connection between PD and the LRRK2 gene and needs volunteers.