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Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 8:5-10 The King of Assyria…Shall Pass Through Judah
Isa 8:5-10 The King of Assyia... Shall Pass Through Judah
Isa 8:5 The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,
Isa 8:6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;
Isa 8:7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
Isa 8:8 And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
Isa 8:9 Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
Isa 8:10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.
To understand the Lord's message to His creatures we must first understand the meaning of these words:
Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
There is simply no way Ahaz, a type of us, can see an invisible God as more powerful than the threatening king of Assyria.
A good example of how our flesh cannot accept God's promises to protect us is this statement:
Job 12:22 He [the Lord] discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.
Christ discovers the deep things, out of darkness, and "He brings out to light the shadow of death" because He is doing just that at this time only for His elect:
Isa 45:2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
Isa 45:3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
Isa 45:4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: [Eph 2:2-5]
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Which means:
2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Christ's 'name' and His 'face' are His doctrines and His Words.
I am well aware that Isaiah 45:1-7 is addressed to Cyrus, the king of Persia. But that is just the outward, the letter, the earthly application of those words which actually speak to you and to me concerning what the Lord has in store for those who believe His Words in this age. He is 'going before us' to accomplish the very same things, only this time it is being done in a permanent and spiritual sense:
Col 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
The point is that it is Christ's own words by which He "...created the darkness, [and by which He] commands the light to shine out of darkness". But because our natural thoughts are not His thoughts, our "light [is] darkness [and] how great is that darkness"!
Mat 6:23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
That darkness is so great that we believe "the first man Adam", the deceived, rebellious, epitome of spiritual darkness, was in reality created in physical and spiritual perfection. We do not know that it was God's own hand which created Adam in that darkened state. It is in that darkened state, which we consider to be light, that the Word of God itself is twisted to maintain our false doctrine of a man who was created in physical and spiritual perfection because we are told:
Luk 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
And, after all, are we not also told:
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Yes, "the first man Adam is "the... very good... son of God" but that does not make him a physically and spiritually perfected Son of God. Satan himself is a son of God inasmuch as God is called "the father of spirits":
Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
It is because of the false doctrine of the fall of man, which is considered to be 'the light' and the truth of scripture, that our so called 'light' has blinded our eyes so that we cannot see these clear statements of the Word of God:
Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked ["first man Adam"] for the day of evil.
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Joh 12:40 He [God Himself] hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
2Co 3:10 For even that which was made glorious ["very good"] had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
We cannot see that Pharaoh's hard heart is also a type of our own hardened heart which has been hardened and blinded by the words of Christ Himself:
Rom 9:15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Isaiah makes it clear that Pharaoh's hardened heart is just a type of what the Lord is doing in all of His people:
Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
But all these truths are considered by the natural man to be lies and falsehoods, because at first our light is actually darkness, and we simply cannot see or understand how a just and loving God could possibly create evil or make wicked men for the day of evil. We simply cannot, as immature Christians, accept the Biblical doctrine which tells us:
Joh 12:40 He [God Himself] hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
We simply cannot see or understand how "Adam, the son of God" could possibly have had a relationship with His Father and at the same time be in total spiritual darkness. Neither can our immature "carnal... babes in Christ" minds understand that the ancient nation of Israel also had a relationship with God while being in total spiritual darkness.
Yet that is exactly what we have been shown in our studies in Isaiah. Chapter one sets the tone for this entire prophecy:
Isa 1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
But wasn't Isaiah sent to Ahaz with comforting words concerning the destruction of the two kings who were seeking to destroy the house of Ahaz the son of David and the kingdom of Judah? The answer is, yes, he was, but God's physical blessings are used throughout scripture to blind us from seeing our impending judgment. It is Christ Himself who tells us:
Ecc 8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
That verse describes how we have all dealt with sin in our own lives in the past, and it also describes how King Ahaz reacted to God's blessing of mercy upon him and his rebellious kingdom. It tells us how we react to God's patience and His mercies upon us while we are in our sins. We tell a lie, and nothing happens. We steal something, and it seems we got by with it. We hate our brother, which makes us a murderer, and we seem to get along just fine (1Jo 3:15). "The waters of Shiloah... go softly..." and we rejoice when we see others who are 'reaping what they have sown'.
Isa 8:5 The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,
Isa 8:6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;
What Ahaz and Judah rejoiced in concerning Rezin and Remaliah's son was that they had fallen prey to the king of Assyria. Ahaz certainly was not rejoicing in what Rezin and Remaliah's son Pekah were attempting to do to him and to Judah. Isaiah 7 and the first four verses of Isaiah 8 are all concerned with how the Lord was about to judge the northern kingdom of Israel, also called 'Ephraim' after Israel's most populous tribe. Israel, which was also called Ephraim, is symbolized by "Pekah the son of Remaliah", its king, and Samaria as its capital. Pekah was allied with Rezin, the king of Syria, against Judah and Judah's king, Ahaz.
Isa 7:1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.
Isa 7:2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his [Pekah's] heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.
"His heart was moved... as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind" means Ahaz and his people were 'shaking in their boots', to use a modern English idiom. But the Lord delivered Ahaz, and instead of repenting of his own apostasy and sins, he and his people gloated over the fall of Samaria to the extent that Ahaz went to Samaria to meet the Assyrian king who had destroyed his fellow Israelites.
Ahaz and we are commanded never to rejoice when the Lord chastens our enemies. These words had been scripture for many years before Ahaz came along:
Pro 24:17 Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:
Pro 24:18 Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
Isaiah's admonition to Ahaz and the kingdom of Judah was not to rejoice in the fall of Samaria and Damascus, rather his admonition to Judah is to repent of their own sins and to obey God and place their trust in His gentle waters. But Ahaz, as a type of us, much preferred to put his trust in the rushing mighty waters of the kingdom of the Eurphrates, the king of Assyria, and he refused to trust in the invisible God of His Fathers.
Here is the story of Ahaz. Here is the story of your flesh and my flesh:
2Ch 28:1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father:
2Ch 28:2 For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim.
2Ch 28:3 Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
2Ch 28:4 He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
2Ch 28:5 Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
2Ch 28:6 For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.
2Ch 28:7 And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king's son, and Azrikam the governor of the house, and Elkanah that was next to the king.
2Ch 28:8 And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.
Notice now the mercy and patience the Lord shows toward Ahaz and Judah:
2Ch 28:9 But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out before the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up unto heaven.
2Ch 28:10 And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God?
2Ch 28:11 Now hear me therefore, and deliver the captives again, which ye have taken captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you.
2Ch 28:12 Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against them that came from the war,
2Ch 28:13 And said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for whereas we have offended against the LORD already, ye intend to add more to our sins and to our trespass: for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.
2Ch 28:14 So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the congregation.
2Ch 28:15 And the men which were expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to Samaria.
This now is how Ahaz responds to this act of God's mercy toward him and his nation. This is how our flesh first responds to the mercy we are shown at this time in our "one event" (Ecc 9:2):
2Ch 28:16 At that time did king Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria to help him.
2Ch 28:17 For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives.
2Ch 28:18 The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Bethshemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there.
2Ch 28:19 For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD.
2Ch 28:20 And Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.
2Ch 28:21 For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but he helped him not.
"He made Judah naked" means that Ahaz removed all restraints in Judah, and set an example of lascivious living for the whole nation. All of God's patience and mercy is despised and taken for granted as weakness on the Lord's part. Our returning to our own vomit is the fruit of the false doctrine of substitutionary atonement. We accept His mercy as the healing of a very deadly wound, and we actually feel confirmed to continue serving the beast with whom we are convinced we cannot do battle and expect to win.
2Ch 28:22 And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz. [This is our own flesh]
2Ch 28:23 For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel. [The whole world seems to be doing well, so I will just throw my lot in with the world, and avoid the shame of bearing the cross of Christ]
2Ch 28:24 And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.
2Ch 28:25 And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers.
2Ch 28:26 Now the rest of his acts and of all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
2Ch 28:27 And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.
Ahaz, a type of you and me, was convinced that he could not withstand the power of the king of Assyia:
Rev 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? [Who can make war with the kings of Assyria and Babylon?]
In time Judah's king was carried away by the Assyrians into Babylon, just as the Lord had earlier done to Israel:
2Ch 33:11 Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
Isa 8:7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
Under King Ahaz Judah is not yet being judged as severely as Samaria and Ephraim. Nevertheless, Christ is speaking to both Israel and Judah as we read in this same chapter:
Isa 8:13 Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
Isa 8:14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The Lord still sees Jerusalem as the capital of both nations, and He is intent upon judging both. In the sense that Judah is also rejecting Christ and His laws and His protection, she is also rejoicing in Rezin and in Remaliah's son. Both Israel and Judah "refuse the waters of Shiloah that go softly", preferring instead the waters of the mighty Euphrates, preferring the doctrines and the protection of the king of Assyria over the protection of an invisible God who insists that Israel separate herself from all other nations by being obedient to Him and to His laws.
Isa 8:6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;
Since "both the houses of Israel... refuse the waters of Shiloah that go softly... therefore... the Lord brings upon [both of the houses of Israel] the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria," who will take them completely out of the land and place them in the cities of the Chaldeans, and the Babylonians.
Isa 8:8 And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
"O Immanuel" lets us know these words are for us. All of this has already been written in Ahaz's and Judah's books (Psa 139:16). Nevertheless, the Lord always uses our sins for the occasion He is seeking to destroy the kingdom of our old man and to humble and, through that humiliating destruction, bring forth a new man who is conformed to the image of Christ.
But before the total annihilation of our old man we will conspire against our very Creator in an effort to maintain our own will and to retain the kingdom of the beast within our hearts and minds. The wild beast, which we are by nature, is loathe to relinquish the throne he has held for so long. Nevertheless, fortunately for us, it will all be in vain, and all of our attempts to retain the ability for us to continue to satisfy the man of sin will all come to nought.
Isa 8:9 Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
Isa 8:10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.
Outwardly we are determined to 'make America great again' while we remain in our sins as a nation. We think 'The Art of The Deal' will work by making the great red dragon our ally. But "it shall come to nought... and it shall not stand" because Christ Himself has "spoken the word", and "God is with us" who prefer "the waters of Shiloah that go softly'.
Our "covenant with death" will be annulled by Christ Himself at the appointed time:
Isa 28:15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Isa 28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Isa 28:17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
Isa 28:18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
All of our efforts to retain and rule our world for the rebellious wild beast who sits in the temple of God declaring himself to be God will also come to nought, and the kingdom of the beast within us will be completely destroyed by the brightness of His coming and the understanding of His doctrines.
2Th 2:6 And now you know what holds back, for him ["the abomination that makes desolate" Mat 24:15] to be revealed in his own time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already working, only he is now holding back until it comes out of the midst.
2Th 2:8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming, (MKJV)
This is all being done and is being accomplished through the process of being judged and dying daily to all these things of the flesh which are shown by the example of King Ahaz being within each of us in our own time:
1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
We bring nothing to the table. Our part in God's plan for mankind was written before we were born, and He was working our lives while He still had our hearts hardened and was still making us to err from His ways (Isa 63:17).
Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Other related posts
- The Prophecy of Isaiah - Isa 7:10-13 I Will Not Ask, Neither Will I Tempt The Lord (January 14, 2017)
- Study of the Book of Kings - 2Ki 16:1-20 "Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me" (January 12, 2023)
- Prophecy of Isaiah - Isa 8:5-10 The King of Assyria...Shall Pass Through Judah (March 11, 2017)


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RIAC TO BROADCAST 1992 DUNLOP SALOON CHAMPIONSHIP FINALE FROM THURS 21ST MAYRead Now
This week's RIAC Classic Video is the The MG Car Club's Race Meeting on the 27th September 1992 at Mondello Park which turned out to be the finale of the Dunlop Saloons Championship that year.
The video, with commentary provided by Alan 'Plum' Tyndall and Brian Tuite of RPM Motorsport, will stream below from 7pm on Thursday, 21st May.
Remember to tune in from 7pm next Thursday, 28th May when we will be streaming the Killarney International Rally of the Lakes programme from 1990.
Don't forget to subscribe to the Motorsport Ireland–RIAC YouTube Channel to watch all of our classic video uploads in one place.
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Holly Miley
September 2023

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text: Gifts For The Home, ReviewsAcuRite Rain Gauge with Indoor/Outdoor Temperature #Review #HGG16 November 21, 2016 Leave a Comment I received the below mentioned complimentary product for the purpose of this review. All opinions and thoughts are 100% my own. We bought our new home December of 2015. It is hard to beleive that it will be a year … Read the rest


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Greetings and Salutations
Greetings to my business associates, friends and family, this is my first official Blog. I am starting this blog on April 8th 2014 with the launch of the new Lexco Security Systems web site and social media outlets and calling it "Life Safety 101" or "Moving the Project Forward" for several reasons: the first is so encourage all to return to basics when it comes to protecting life, property and business. The second is to encourage everyone to comply at more than the minimum with the prescribed codes developed to set those minimum benchmarks. Lastly to share quality information and ideas to help other people and society navigate this challenging world we live in.
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I would love to hear from you about topics you wish to be covered, your feedback on my postings and stories you wish to share in positive, constructive, helpful, and friendly ways. If you wish to comment on or share something you do not approve of, please make sure to include well thought out solution so we can together Move This Project Forward.
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2800 Canton Road, Suite 124
Marietta, GA 30066


text: DEALING WITH CARDS Oct 14, 2002 Sales of greeting cards at Surefine and Suresave supermarket chains have been flat overall this year, but the retailers aren't neglecting the category -- far from it. Cards and related merchandise are getting a lot of... ONCE UPON A CAMERA Oct 07, 2002 If the upcoming winter holidays are anything like the fall has been for sales of single-use cameras and film, Jim Pieprzak is about as anxious for Christmas as a 6-year-old kid.That's because the Gristede's Foods... SELLING KOSHER Oct 22, 2001 CHICAGO -- Kosher fresh departments require a firm commitment by all levels of management, since it represents one of the highest thresholds of customer trust, retailers have found. The process of building and... A FOCUS ON VALUE Aug 13, 2001 Name The Cliche About Battle Creek, Mich: Soggy" business; "No snap, crackle or pop"; "Snap, crackle, bust?" -- and it's been heard or seen lately at Kellogg Co.'s headquarters here in media coverage of the company's... LIFESTYLE GLOSSIES Dec 20, 1999 Supermarkets are building unique shopper relationships through custom magazines.Major players like Ahold USA, A&P, Safeway, Farmer Jack, Big Y Foods and Meijer Inc. are emulating such well-known lifestyle magazines as... USING THE INTERNET TO SPIKE WINE SALES Nov 15, 1999 There may be huge lessons for big supermarket retailers of wines and spirits in how one of the little guys - Village Wines in Nashville - is using the Internet to blitz its competition and capture the loyalty of local... CRANBERRY JUICE IS SWEET Nov 15, 1999 Cranberry juice is embarking on a sales-growth spurt thanks to a wave of new, 100%-juice products and to an effective lid on prices -- and even some scattered price reductions -- because of a glut of the tart little... SKEPTICISM FROM SUPERMARKETS OVER NEW AGE BEVERAGES Nov 15, 1999 The growth in sales of New Age beverages has slowed dramatically from the high-flying trend of a couple of years ago, and that seems to be especially true in supermarkets. But makers and marketers of the hip... BUBBLE, BUBBLE AND NO TROUBLE Nov 01, 1999 As the millennium draws to a close, it's not surprising that there are more celebratory Y2K or millennial-themed advertising campaigns and promotions -- despite some unease about potential disruptions in everyday life... FILLING THE INFO GAP Aug 02, 1999 When it comes to the explosion in direct-to-consumer advertising by drug companies of prescription remedies on TV, in magazines and elsewhere, Stephanie Sparda, a pharmacist at a Hannaford Bros.' Shop N Save... Load More 1 2 3 next last Load More


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Buy online our single infinity rose transparent acrylic box.
Each box is handmade, and comes with a removable lid and drawer.
Each box comes with 1 infinity rose. There is NO moss in this arrangement.
The rose shades many slightly differ from the image on the website.
This is a handmade acrylic box.
The lid for both boxes is transparent.
This box comes with a drawer at the bottom for your keepsakes.
It is approximately 3.5 inches in height and 2.2 inches in width.
How long will this flower box last?
This box of Infinity roses will stay fresh for one year. The box does not need watering or any maintenance. Care instructions are provided with every arrangement. The arrangement also comes with a lid, which can be left off or on.
Care Instructions:
Upon receiving remove any bubble wrap from inside the box.
- Do not water. This is a preserved item and does not require watering.
- Keep in a low-humidity and dry room. This is extremely important. If items are placed in a high humidity room, they will wilt and decompose. Ideal humidity is between 30% - 40%.
- Keep away from the sun.
- Avoid exposure to excessive heat or cold. Average room temperature is ideal.
- Please keep the box or rose upright at all times.
- Avoid touching the roses directly as oils from your fingers can damage the rose.
- Do not attempt to remove the flowers from its box as this will damage the flower.
Delivery & Packaging:
This fresh Infinity rose box is available for delivery India wide. Each flower arrangement is made with love and care.
Please do not purchase without reading the following:
Humidity Warning:
Infinity rosesⓇ, forever roses, and other preserved items are extremely sensitive to high levels of humidity.
Our Infinity rosesⓇ MUST be kept in a low humidity environment. The ideal humidity levels are between 30% to 40%.
Flowers that are kept in high humidity will become soft and start to immediately wilt. There also may be signs of accelerated decomposition.
Champs Fleur is not responsible for humidity damage, as stated above.
We do not recommend you purchasing this arrangement if the humidity cannot be maintained.
Other notes:
- Rose and flower colours will fade over-time.
- Brighter colour may bleed onto lighter colours. This is natural and does not affect the longevity of the arrangement.
- Petals of roses may be loose when they arrive to you. They can easily be reformed and placed back to together. This does not affect the longevity of the arrangement.
- Flower may also have small cuts or tears as our flowers are real and natural. This is not
As each item is made to order, there may be some differences between the photo on the screen and your arrangement. Champs Fleur reserves the right to make slight changes due unavailability of a flower type. If we do make any such changes you will be notified via Whatsapp or E-mail and we will ship the arrangement only after verbal or written confirmation. If you do not confirm or respond within 7 days, we will ship to the arrangement without confirmation to avoid any further delays.
Pre-order: Please note if you place an order on "pre-order", the box will take a minimum of 3 weeks to be shipped. Once an order has been placed, it cannot be cancelled.
Champs Fleur
Fuchsia, Aquamarine, Azure Blue, Ballerina Pink, Blush, Champagne, Deep Purple, Lemon Yellow, Orange, Pale Blue, Tiffany, Vino, Black, Navy, Rainbow


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This month I'm going to try to reply to dozens of questions at once. The form of these questions is essentially as follows: I really liked [name of book]. Won't you please write more about [main character of book or more in the world of that book] ?
To date, I've published 61 novels,with four more scheduled over the next two years. Of those books, over the years, I've received at least one letter or email or blog comment asking that I write another book about the main character, or that "world," in all but five of those books. Given that I've written more than one book about a number of characters, as well as I can figure it out, that amounts to almost 30 theoretically "doable" books. Although I do write fairly quickly, even if I can keep up writing more than two books a year, it would take me almost fifteen years just to answer all those requests… and that would be without writing about any truly new characters or worlds. Does that I mean I won't write any more Recluce books, for example? Obviously not, since I'm doing that right now. But it does mean that I won't be able to write all the books that everyone has requested because I don't intend to give up writing books in new settings or, occasionally, books with new characters in familiar settings. It's not that I don't appreciate your interest and your love of particular characters; it's just a matter of my physical limitations.
How can we save the bookstores that are going out of business? I've been trying to frequent bookstores so they can stay in business, and I refuse to buy electronic gadgets that have books on them because I love to hold a book in my hands.
I understand the feel of holding a book, and I also like to look at them, but, frankly, I don't know of any other way to keep bookstores in business except by patronizing them and encouraging friends and family to do so. The problem we face with bookstore closures is that each store location that closes makes patronizing bookstores harder because, for more and more people, getting to a bookstore gets more and more difficult and using an online bookstore becomes easier than searching out and traveling to a more distant bookstore — if there even is one in any convenient location. I know. The closest full-service new bookstore is over fifty miles from me, and the next closest after that one store is over 170 miles away. So… for more and more people, the only feasible options are either e-books or on-line bookstores that mail books to them… and this makes it harder and harder for existing bookstores.
I wish I had a better answer, but I can't think of one.


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Exclusive Interview with Reign's Spencer MacPherson
Talk Nerdy With Us recently chatted with Canadian actor Spencer MacPherson. Spencer is best known for his roles on Defiance, Degrassi: The Next Generation and Reign. Keep reading to find out what Spencer said about portraying two very different characters.
Tell me a little bit about your audition process for Reign.
I auditioned with Lisa Parasyn around the end of June. It was just the one audition, I went in for. The scene was really reflective of the party boy side of Charles. I did the audition, and I think Fred Gerber, the Co-executive Producer was present. He just gave me some direction and I did it and then I heard back that I got the part maybe two days later.
That's super fast!
Yeah. It was a really fast process compared to what usually happens.
Did you have to do screen testings with Megan or Adelaide or anybody?
I actually didn't. I did the one audition and I didn't have to do any kind of screen testing or anything. They just hired me off that. (Laughs).
Did you watch Reign prior to auditioning or just after you got the part?
In Canada it's on E. So prior to the audition… I had heard of the show but I hadn't watched it. Then, as soon as I got the part I did a bit of my homework, and watched.
Reign airs a day earlier in Canada. It airs a day earlier than it does in the US.
I actually didn't know that E aired it a day before the CW did until literally the day of. All my family was like, "Hey, have you seen your own show?" And I was like, "what? I didn't know" (Laughs). Now I always watch it on Thursdays and Fridays. I actually was completely unaware at first, so it was a bit of a surprise.
What's it like portraying a real person?
Oh wow. It's probably a different experience than other actors are used to because we don't really have any documentation of what Charles was really like. I guess going off what he did in history, that's what I have that to work with. It's really up to the show writers to determine what his personality is really like.
Reign hasn't really gone by history that much.
Yeah, not a hundred percent, that's for sure!
But, historically Charles does stick around for a while and a lot longer than Francis did.
So did they tell you how long you'd be around for when you got the role?
Well, when I got the role I didn't do my research until I started filming. After I got the part I looked up the history. So, I discovered that he lives until twenty-three. I guess that's a pretty cool feeling knowing that I could have a job until then. (Laughs).
What was it like, I mean you did this with the Degrassi too where you joined a cast that already had known each other for a very long time. What was it like joining the Reign cast?
It was really cool. They were all really welcoming. They're all extremely seasoned pros. It's just really cool getting to work along side them and getting to work off of them.
They were all really professional. It's an interesting dynamic, because compared to Degrassi, I'm the youngest one here. They've been doing this for a long time and they're all well into their 20s, and I'm just the newbie. They treated me really professionally. It was cool.
So, we heard you said that you got the accent from Harry Potter?
Oh yeah!
Is that true?
It's a little bit of a different accent that they do on Reign. It's similar but it's what they call an RP. It's what they call an RP accent. I guess it's a little bit more classy, or I don't know what the word would be, a royal kind of accent.
It kind of reminds me of the accent that Hunter did when he was role-playing on the game.
Right. It's similar, but I actually have to do dialect coaching before each episode. There's definitely differences because without it, I was really just doing the closest thing I could do to Harry Potter or something like that. Yeah, with this there's certain words and certain things that they say that are specific to that particular type of accent.
Did you have to do any kind of fight or horseback riding training?
Yeah, I've had to do tons of little lessons. Horseback riding, and sword fighting has been really awesome because I've never done that before. I guess I've done a little bit of kendo stick fighting on Degrassi. I actually got to do that, but that's been my only experience with that. As far as horseback riding, I was completely new to it. I've done a few lessons and it's a really amazing experience and I'm really enjoying it.
What was your first day of horse training like?
It was really hard. I wasn't that good. The horse they had me on at the start was a different horse than I'm riding later on in the season. His name was J.J. and he was the beginner's horse. He was pretty chill. Not as responsive as the horses that you get later on, but I guess, he was a good horse to learn on.
Obviously it's a different kind of costume than you had on Degrassi, or than you wear in your life. So what has that been like, having to wear? Is it uncomfortable? Is it fun? What's it like wearing those?
It's so cool. It's essentially like when you put on the costume you become the character… as opposed to on Degrassi, where we wear modern clothes, it's not that far removed from something I would wear, you know what I mean?
When you go into Reign and you do a fitting and you get to try everything on, you immediately feel like you're a part of a different time period. It almost helps the actor to get to wear something that is far removed from yourself. That way, even when you look at yourself in the mirror during the day that you're filming you don't even recognize yourself. It's cool.
Can you kind of tease a little bit about Charles' story line for this season?
Yeah, Charles is next in line for the throne. With Francis, his fate is slowly coming to a realization. Charles is overwhelmed with his coming destiny.
Do you have an episode or a scene that you're really excited for fans to see in the upcoming episodes?
Oh, there's so much. I guess the episode that's coming up this Friday on Reign, there's definitely a cool story line for Charles that's really intense. It was really fun to film and I'm excited for fans to see that.
Shifting gears for a little bit, can you tell us for your audition process for Degrassi?
That was I guess what would be considered normal. It lasted for about half a year.
Yeah, maybe more. I originally tried out for just the basic character that everyone tries out for, then I got a call back for Miles, Hunters older brother on the show, and another character that was changed named Benji. I tried out for those, and then I think I did two call backs. Then I was just up in the air for a while.
I started the whole process in November and I didn't hear back from them until about June when I auditioned for Hunter. I went in and I did it, and I think I was the only one up for the part. I did the screen test with Sara and yeah, heard it about two days later that I got the part.
Had you been a fan of Degrassi prior to joining the show?
I had seen it, I'd seen a bunch of various seasons here and there. I didn't watch it religiously or anything, but I'd seen a few episodes and I always really wanted to be a part of that show. It's an excellent platform for young actors in Toronto and Canada.
Can you tell us a little bit about Hunter's storyline for Next Class?
I don't want to spoil anything, but I guess I could just say that he's got something very interesting happening with his character. They're really going to explore what you've seen in the past with him. He's got some really good story lines coming up in Next Class. I'm really excited for everyone to see them, and I hope everyone is really going to like them.
Did filming overlap for Reign and Degrassi?
It did. It really did. It was really new to me. I was working every day and I wasn't used to that. It was just back and forth between both sets. There were days when I would get a shuttle from Degrassi and then halfway through the day to Reign. Then film the other half of the day at Reign. It was a lot of juggling. I was just really happy to get to be working on both of these shows. The opportunity was amazing and it was really awesome that the people at Degrassi worked with the people at Reign to make it happen for me.
Was it hard to go from Hunter's mindset to Charles' and then back and forth?
It really was. It was kind of hard because they don't have a lot of similarities. I guess the basic teenage issues, that can be a relatable thing. Really they're pretty different from each other so it was kind of hard to switch back and forth. Even just going there and talking in the accent all day and then going back to Degrassi and talking in this kind of teenage deep voice. I don't know. Just the voices, the things we do, and the time period, it's a big switch I guess.
Would you ever go from one to the other and accidentally not speak in the correct accent?
No, I never did that on set, but there would be times when I would start to say British slang that I had picked up from hanging out with those people on set, because a lot of them at Reign are actually British. I would kind of pick up some, "Hello mate." All the little terms they use and stuff. (Laughs).
Besides acting, what are you passionate about?
I sing. I like to sing. Before I got into acting for film and TV, I loved to do musicals. That's kind of where my passion came from. I love singing, love music. I also really love art. I love drawing, stuff like that, painting.
What's your favorite musical?
My favorite musical is probably Sweeney Todd or Into the Woods. I love Stephen Sondheim.
You like the darker musicals?
Oh yeah. I like the darker movies. I just like that kind of thing.
Do you have plans to release music of your own?
I would love to in the future. Right now, my roomate, Ehren from Degrassi and I kind of jam sometimes.
What's your favorite genre of music?
I like a lot of different genres. I like some indie stuff, but I'm also into rap. I like to listen to everything, except for country. Not a big country fan. (Laughs).
Do you guys have a house pet or something? I saw something on Twitter about that!
Oh yeah, we have a pet rat named Maurice. We've had him for … I guess it's been maybe two months. He's a real spirit. He's really great to have around.
What actor from Degrassi have you not gotten to work with that you would like to have more scenes with in the future.
A bunch. I guess Hunter doesn't really get out there. He's got to talk to more people. (Laughs)…. They're all so good…I hadn't thought of it. I really would've liked to work more with Munro when he was on the show. I really admire his work. When I was younger and I used to watch the show, I'd see him on it and I used to look up to his acting and his character.
I know this is a loaded question, but what is your favorite Canadian TV show?
In my own time, honestly I don't really watch a lot of TV. My favorite TV shows … I loved Breaking Bad when it was on, Game of Thrones. Canadian TV shows … I don't know. Degrassi! Degrassi! It's my favorite show.
Nice plug! (Laughs). Besides Reign and Degrassi is there anything else that you're currently working on?
Yeah, I'm doing a couple of short films currently. One with an actor on Reign and another with an actor on Degrassi. I'm filming those in between Reign and those are really fun.
Since our website is Talk Nerdy With Us, what do you nerd out about, or what makes you a nerd?
I've prepared for this one. I'm a big superhero fan.
Who's your favorite superhero? For DC and Marvel.
For Marvel it's definitely Spider-man. I've always related to Peter Parker. DC, probably Batman. Just like my brother on Degrassi, Eric. Batman's pretty cool. Batman's got the best villains. That's the thing about Batman.
What else do you nerd out about besides superheroes?
I nerd out about movies. I'm a bit of a movie nerd. I'd say my favorite genre is probably thrillers. I love The Sixth Sense. I nerd out about TV shows but yeah, I'm a basic superhero nerd.
Is Batman or Spider-man your go to Halloween costume?
This year, I'm thinking of being Marty McFly. I've been superheroes. I've been the Joker, I've been villains. I used to Spider-man when I was a kid every year.
Are you into superhero movies or shows, or are also into the comics and graphic novels?
I love the movies. All the Marvel cinematic universe movies are really cool how they tie in with each other. I love that. Then I also love the Christopher Nolan Batman movies. I'm a big fan of those. Then the TV shows, I just started watching Gotham. I'm maybe a few episodes in. Definitely the movies, I'm a big fan. Whenever The Avengers movies come out, I'm like the first one to go see them.


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Backsliding, sabotage and the rule of law: Learning from mistakes
My remarks concern the contemporary global epidemic of populist challenges to constitutional democracy. They will not seek to explain them, however, nor will they offer a cure. Their ambitions are smaller. The first section identifies several ill-conceived but very common ways in which we think and talk about post-dictatorial transitions, and in particular about engendering (often mistakenly called 'building') constitutional democracy where it was weak or absent. The second sketches some, also common, ways we mistake the nature of challenges (and challengers) that enterprise might face, in particular challenges from anti-constitutionalist saboteurs/subverters, often more clued up on these matters than their enemies. Drawing on these two parts, in the third I suggest that we might do better if we reflected on these mistakes and came to talk and think, and consequently act, differently.
The problems we are dealing with are global, but they are not identical. My remarks will draw mainly on Central European experiences, particularly Polish, though I do not believe the issues I identify are confined to that country, nor even to it and its pioneer partner, Hungary.
- The rule of law project
My first question is roughly: why has it been so easy for populists to sabotage and subvert the constitutional values and institutions associated with the rule of law where, only 30 years ago, such values and institutions appeared to be welcome and indispensable elements of the normality so many citizens of the region professed to admire and want? Another way of asking the question is: why have Jarosław Kaczyński and Viktor Orbán found so apparently easy what Donald Trump, whose power and ambitions are not small and whose motivations appear similar, finds so hard: to overwhelm and take over ostensibly (and, of course, only ever relatively) those independent institutions that many had hoped would to be able to keep power in check? There are many reasons for this, some of which I have discussed elsewhere. Here I just concentrate on mistakes that contemporary enthusiasts for constitutionalism and the rule of law might themselves have made even before the project attracted enemies.
One is a failure to recognize the significance of institutionalization as both a potential challenge and a means to the effective operations of new institutions, in the sense of the word used and theorized by the American sociologist Philip Selznick: 'to infuse with value beyond the technical requirements of the task at hand.' [1] Most commonly, institutionalization occurs as a spontaneous social process over time, as people develop particular habits, relationships, networks, ties, loyalties and attachments in the course of living and working together, participating in activities, sharing and learning values, symbols and so on. Deep institutionalization happens more in some sorts of organizations and 'imagined communities' – such as churches, the marines or the nation – than others, say the post office or sanitation department, but it happens a great deal. Institutionalization in this sense is widespread and often goes deep, so deep that we do not even notice it. Less often and with greater difficulty than in spontaneous processes, there can be a deliberate project to institutionalize an organization, to encourage particular loyalties and attachments to develop, to 'infuse value' into organizations, to transform 'an engineered, technical arrangement of building blocks into a social organism'. [2] A lot of innovative projects have been attempted and set up since the collapse of communism, but they were never drawn on a blank slate, as many reformers and their advisers imagined. No one starts from nowhere.
To move from generalities: in Poland and most other countries of Eastern Europe, most of the values and institutions welcomed so heartily in the early 1990s – liberal, individualist, legal and so on [3] – did not have much of a foothold in Central Europe. But then, in the period in which these values and institutions were developing in the West, there was little history of them in the East; few had heard of them, and, as Jerzy Szacki observes, of the few who liked them, 'Most … it should be added, were intellectuals who had little influence on practical affairs.' [4] Later experience of Nazi and communist rule did little to propagate such values, except as sources of inspiration for opposition.
Thus while the values underpinning reforms were not part of any strong living traditions, they had little institutionalized support; other values, often contradictory to those voiced by the reformers, could draw on significant traditions and had substantial popular resonance and grip; they were institutionalized. Reformers often disregarded this as a pressing problem to be dealt with, for they did not seriously consider the need to institutionalize the values underlying their reforms.
Consequently, reformers indulged more in technocratic attempts to impose 'international [or European] best practice' in institutional design, rather than think deeply about how local institutional attachments might be generated. However, design is unlikely to matter much without attachment. Democratic, legal and constitutional transformations in post-communist countries were much more prone to emulation, adoption and installation of supposed means, than to the institutionalization of their connection with valuable ends; they were far more 'instrumental' than 'reflexive' in their sensibility and approach, to use a distinction made by Grażyna Skąpska. [5]
Similar observations could be made about reforms in many post-communist countries. This has to do not just with what I have described elsewhere as the 'elite-driven, instrumental, technocratic, undemocratic and formalistic' process of allowing and gaining entrance to the European Union (EU) [6]. It is also true of economic policy, constitutional changes, democratic reforms and many other novelties introduced to the region, whether driven by internal domestic reformers or international sponsors.
And yet supplanting, enlisting or engendering institutionalized assumptions, beliefs as well as formal and informal practices is not always easy or quick. For, as Selznick has also observed elsewhere: The starting mechanism [of institutionalization] is often a formal act, such as the adoption of a rule or statute. To be effective, however, the enactment must build upon pre-existing resources of regularity and legitimacy and must lead to a new history of consistent conduct and supportive belief. Institutions are established, not by decree alone, but as a result of being bound into the fabric of social life. Even so weighty an enactment as the United States Constitution cannot be understood apart from the legal and political history that preceded it, the interpretive gloss given it by the courts, and the role it has played in American history and consciousness. The formal acts of adoption and ratification were only part of a more complex, more open-ended process of institution-building. [7]
That process can be influenced by deliberate action, but it is rarely determined by such action on its own, for – with constitutions as much as with more prosaic administrative institutions – we need to analyse: the social and cultural conditions (class structure, traditional patterns of loyalty, educational level, etc.) that affect its viability … We see how the formal charter is given life and meaning by the informal 'social constitution' in which it is imbedded. When the latter is absent, the constitution is likely to be weak and ineffective. Giving life to a constitution is partly a matter of achieving general consensus regarding proper ways of winning power and making laws. But much more is also involved. [8]
Partly as a result of these deficiencies (together with many other factors, both inherent and unintended), many of the institutions, conventions, beliefs and practices of constitutional democracy introduced into post-communist Europe have not been strongly institutionalized.
- Anti-constitutionalist populism
And then the enemies started to come. Sometimes they understood better than the reformers what institutional transformation requires. And we have not always understood what these enemies (and they are enemies, not merely opponents) understand and what they represent.
They have understood very clearly that they are in a battle over institutionalization, again in Selznick's sense. Populist opinion shapers manifest a particular combination of re-institutionalizing and de-institutionalizing ambitions.
Populists (maybe not every member of the genus, but a significant number) always do their utmost to strengthen the devotion of insiders by stoking hatred of outsiders; their inclusions always draw on the existence of repugnant, often dangerous people who must be excluded from the movement, from the country, in the worst extreme cases – thankfully not realized in current versions – even from the world. They draw on and fabricate a locally revered past – mixing reality, myth, fiction and often fantasy. This they then use to revive, stir up and then cement loyalties and attachments among the faithful – to the nation, the faith, the 'true' people, and against the foreign, the cosmopolitan, the unbelievers or other-believers, elites, the new, the unfamiliar, the 'worse' and the 'other'. They speak of revolution, but it is to restore the 'authentic' past; that past, bullied away by the 'elites', the 'oligarchs' and the 'aristocrats', must be revived. National unity will be restored and liberated from malevolent 'elites' and the 'less desirable sort' of citizens, who by some strange kind of reckoning populists exclude from the true nation. In Selznick's terms, and it appears quite self-consciously, values, loyalties and attachments, along with the parallel anti-values and enemies, are cultivated in order to strengthen the institutionalization of new movements by linking them to old values, or values that are represented as such; values that have allegedly been rejected by the alien elites. As the song has it, 'everything old is new again'.
The aim of populists is pervasively anti-institutional in the more common meaning of that term: that is, hostile to independent institutions and determined to de-institutionalize their hold on citizens. The political logic of that view of the world and of politics involves, as Kaczyński makes plain, unity of power (which, incidentally, was Lenin's term) that is unrestrained by institutional tempering or constraint. This shines through the rhetoric and the attacks on the independence not just of the Constitutional Tribunal but all courts, media, civil service, non-governmental organizations, independent protests, etc. It is also evident in the extraordinary degree to which major public institutions such as the courts and the civil service are used and abused in purely instrumental and personal terms. For example, Kaczyński's tremendous dominance in Polish politics does not stem from his holding any public office, and no one pretends otherwise or is even surprised that this is so. Again, during the assault on the Constitutional Tribunal, talk was not of the institution and its judicial representatives delivering legal judgments, but rather of a group of shady mates (kolesiów) who are not delivering legally binding decisions, but simply chatting to each other. So there is no need to make those informal exchanges public (though the law requires it). In the current attacks on lawyers and the whole judicial system, talk is of the arrogance of this closed contemptuous 'caste', whose members have no interest in the welfare of citizens. Finally, it is also striking how a whole campaign was organized against the outstanding institution known all over the world as the Central European University, but its enemies never referred to it as that; for them, it is the Soros University.
Finally, having hollowed out or destroyed the independence of such institutions, populists use and manipulate them for their own purposes, which are alien to the intentions that lay behind the creation of those institutions. And they are not embarrassed to do so, but insist that this is the true way in which constitutionalism and the rule of law should be understood. The region's new populist regimes are much given to such legal tactics and strategies – techniques that, in Kim Scheppele's view, show 'careful attention to constitutional form while hollowing out liberal constitutional content'. This perverted form of legalism distinguishes what she calls 'democratorships as a special category among competitive authoritarian regimes'. [9] When they can, as in Hungary, they indulge in 'abusive constitutionalism' in the sense outlined by David Landau. When they cannot, as in several cases in Poland, they resort instead to 'abusing the constitution', as defined by Grażyna Skąpska. [10]
Again, we often underestimate what challenges to the rule of law and constitutionalism might represent. Where the rule of law was being 'built' in countries said to be in the process of 'transition', transitologists often described the challenges confronting the development of constitutionalism and the rule of law in a language of 'absences' and 'lacks'. The extent of these could even be assessed by using one of the many currently available 'indexes' that rate the degree to which a country has the rule of law on a scale from low to high, based on a range of measurable 'indicators'. [11]
However, when the rule of law is in poor shape, it is often not that it is lacking, or that it cannot be understood – at least that is not the main issue. Rather, it is the presence of something else: that is, contradictory agendas, often anchored in quite different and often hostile clusters of ambitions or Weltanschauungen (worldviews). Typically, those in pursuit of such agendas are not at all epistemologically challenged. They know what they want, and they do not want the rule of law in any plausible sense, even though they use the term because they need the associated prestige, the money it draws and the sanctions it might prevent. So they copy the techniques, or pick out and replicate the worst of existing constitutional practices, to shield themselves from legalistic international and national criticism. [12] But they have other ideals and interests. So the populists' failure to honour what we might take to be fundamental principles of the rule of law is often not primarily a technical problem but an institutional one, in the sense I have outlined, and also in a deeply political sense. [13]
The language we use to describe these anti-constitutionalist [14] populist challenges often fails to capture the active, energetic, relentless agency involved. We speak of 'backsliding', 'decay', 'erosion', 'decline' and 'regression', all of which might well apply to the progress (or regress) of organic development – I am not as young as I used to be, I am 'deteriorating', some might say 'decaying'. Still, everyone loves me, so my decay does not depend on others but is my own affair. But not everyone loves constitutional democracy and the rule of law. Both have real enemies, who are often resolute and energetic in their aims and pursuit of activities and ends that these organic and solipsistic metaphors fail to capture. We need a language that can capture and a practice that can respond to active and hostile subversion and indeed sabotage, for, as Kim Scheppele has aptly remarked, 'buried in the story of [democratic] decline, …there is a story of constitutional malice'. [15]
I mentioned earlier that a peculiarity of modern populism and its 'abusive constitutionalism' is that, rather than simply ignoring or openly overriding the law, or indeed the ideological rhetoric that gives it pride of place among what are claimed to be much valued ideals, modern populists seek to enlist and use the law and its rhetorical/normative associations for self-serving purposes. A central and insidious way in which this is done is by abusing the law's original (and proper) aims, in ways that are hostile to its underlying ideals. The law is at once both a central instrument and a target. That gives battles over the law a strategic significance that it seldom has had in the consolidation of authoritarian rule. Ironically, the present crises might motivate (and already have done to some degree in Poland) many lawyers and others to make a greater effort to 'institutionalize' legal values, which is something they generally failed to do when all seemed well.
The situation is urgent, not least in structural terms. For there is an important asymmetry between a context of construction on the one hand and destruction on the other, in what we with decreasing plausibility call the 'transition period' to democracy and the rule of law. The technocratic, including European, understanding of the transition period had a highly optimistic core: the right inputs will produce the desired outputs. The trouble is that this is not always the case, because truly beneficial change depends on positive combinations of many forces: social, political, economic and legal. Destruction is sometimes a lot simpler: just strike at the heart.
An analogy with personal development might help: it takes many elements, including congenial environments, circumstances and luck, for a person to flourish. However, especially if their constitution is weak, just one well-directed blow can do mortal damage. That is why it is so important to defend the institutions of state and law that were created yesterday and are being subverted today. And this is not because they are as good as they could possibly be, for they are far from it; nor because the law possesses some magical ability to keep power in check; nor because it could achieve that on its own; nor even because upholding the current law would solve all problems. Effective tempering of power requires many and various resources. Moreover, circumstances are critical, because systematic attempts by a government to remove institutional, social (NGOs and media) and political constraints on its power reject and threaten not merely selected institutions, but more profoundly, the ethos and the ultimate values of constitutionalism and the rule of law.
- Responses
So what can those actors on the political stage who are concerned for the rule of law do? I start with those belonging to the legal profession, but stress that we cannot stop there.
Often, principled resistance among judges and legal officials must involve insisting on strict adherence to the existing law, whenever the government seeks to ignore or flout it. A number of Polish judges and prosecutors have done so recently and should be applauded for that. Of course they are only doing their job, but it is crucial that they keep doing it and help the public understand what is involved and what the dangers are of following one path rather than another.
Moreover, in the Polish context it helps (those who support the rule of law) that, unlike its Hungarian counterpart, this government does not have a constitutional majority, and so is forced to keep breaking the law. To use Grażyna Skąpska's distinction, what they are doing is not just 'abusive constitutionalism' as in Hungary, but 'abuse of the constitution'. This combination provides a hook for the Polish opposition as well as for European supervision, and validates the important opposition shown by lawyers and legal professionals to the government's power-grabbing. The measures they undertake include presentations to the public explaining what really matters in law and why checks on power are so crucial. In fact, now might be a good time for potentially key actors to make a greater effort to institutionalize regard for the law and for the merits of the rule of law, than they did in earlier, more apparently successful times. Perhaps what is needed now is for the legal profession to make a public statement about what the rule of law depends upon and what now threatens it, but to do so less in terms of legal doctrine and dogmatics, and more from a propagandistic, moralistic, philosophical or political perspective. For the values at stake matter not just to lawyers; they matter to us all. It is not often that lawyers have an opportunity and a need to be heroes and propagandists, but this might be just such a time.
However, the present circumstances are original also in the sense that governments which are skilled in abusive constitutional practices can often undermine constitutionalism and the rule of law while following the letter of the law. The Hungarian government with its supermajority finds this easier than the Polish government. Does this make the threat to constitutionalism and the rule of law less in Hungary than in Poland, because they are following the rules? I do not think so. And I believe those in office in legal institutions have a responsibility to point out these threats and oppose them. One tactic used by populists is to become fastidious formalists when it comes to the law, to show they are following the established rules of the game, while it is obvious to everyone that they are trying to destroy the game by sabotaging and manipulating the rules. It is not the time to be counting the deckchairs on the Titanic when its hull has been punctured.
If one person or group or institution with unlimited control over state power can alter the basic frames of interaction in such a way that the fundamental checks on power become progressively weaker, formally free elections become much harder to monitor, the independence of institutions from people in office crumbles away, then we face structural issues of the deepest concern. The way in which populists operate when they are in power might appear unobjectionable in formal terms, and yet something is deeply amiss from the point of view of constitutional democracy and the rule of law.
Perhaps those in public life who are connected with the legal profession might draw on Samuel Issacharoff's arguments for 'democratic hedging' [16] to protect basic structural conditions for the effective safeguarding of democracy against the kind of subversion or sabotage that is carried out, often by completely legal means, chiefly in 'dominant-party states.' Moreover, whereas Issacharoff speaks primarily of fair and free elections, I think it is worth pointing out their more immediate and direct connection to constitutionalism and the rule of law. Democracy is important, to be sure, and it is a good thing too. But it is not the only good thing that is being threatened by authoritarian populists. They are also threatening another set of values, often more directly, namely constitutionalism and the rule of law. This is not even to mention the argument made by Holmes and Habermas, which I support, [17] that democracy and the rule of law depend on each other; illiberal democracy – as Jan-Werner Müller stressed, [18] is a contradiction in terms. And though I say little about this mutual dependence here, lawyers and indeed all who understand that necessary combination must speak up about it, loud and clear.
This is why it seems to me that the distinction between means and ends must be stressed. What is at stake in the modern challenges to constitutionalism and the rule of law is not this or that particular legal institution, practice, rule or form, but rather the ultimate values and ideals that make them worth having. Much can be said about that, and I have done so extensively elsewhere. Here, I will be brief: the rule of law has a key opponent, arbitrary power, and therefore the main objective of the rule of law is to rein in power so that it cannot be exercised arbitrarily. [19] For arbitrary power can and usually does have terrible consequences. Individual and institutional responses to attempts to clear paths to arbitrary power must constantly keep that in mind.
Of course, courts are not there to remake the world. However, contemporary populist political leaders and organizations are trying to reshape and mould the structures within which power is exercised, in ways designed to uphold that power irrespective of opposition and contestation, and in ways that violate fundamental constitutional values. In view of this it is in the public interest to resist such reshapings and remouldings. People need to be made aware of that.
Many lawyers (and certainly their populist critics) will say that any such suggestion takes lawyers into politics, which is not their legitimate domain. But lawyers who defend the integrity of their institutions in order to protect constitutionalism and the rule of law are not merely expressing their personal values – once again, they are only doing their job: defending the values they were appointed to serve. And they should make that plain. Not only is anti-arbitrariness a central value within the rule of law; in my view it is a fundamental value, in other words internal and essential to the rule of law itself. And officials, as well as judges who have in most cases sworn to 'do justice according to the law', have in extreme circumstances to stretch – or adapt – normal procedures to defeind the values on which their institutions depend. There is a large and distinguished jurisprudence that defends the appropriateness, indeed necessity, of interpreting the law in terms of its underlying purposes and principles, and that is all that is needed to protect against saboteurs using formalistic legal means to subvert precisely those purposes and principles.
An attack on the institutional integrity of the main institutions that check power, whether they be constitutional tribunals or civil society organizations, is an attack on the central values of the rule of law. At their core, these have to do with hostility to the arbitrary – whether uncontrolled, unpredictable or disrespectful – exercise of power. Those values need defenders – champions indeed – when they are being subverted. And there are reasons to hope they will get them, since populist demagogues often overreach, and 'the people' get restless. There are some gladdening signs of this in Poland at least, and to a lesser extent in Hungary, and signs too of an awareness among defenders of the rule of law that it needs not only to be protected, but also institutionalized.
But champions will not manage this on their own. Certainly, it is unlikely that they will persuade large numbers of people purely on the basis of legal arguments, which in any event may be questionable, since the 'abusive constitutionalists' often find ways of subverting the law from within by legally valid means. In these circumstances, legal punctiliousness is no sufficient answer to those highly manipulative uses of legalism that violate the rule of law.
The rule of law was never well rooted in Central and Eastern Europe. It needs all the help it can get, from all possible quarters. Contemporary anti-constitutional populists, being fully aware of the consequences of what they are doing, are determined to give it no help whatsoever. Meanwhile, those who do seek to oppose populist excess will need to do more than object to (il)legal tactics and manoeuvres. Just as the trade union Solidarity (Solidarność) once brought people together by expanding their understanding of what was behind the arbitrary indecencies of the communist authorities, today's opponents of arbitrary power will above all need, in every (non-arbitrary) way they can, to show what is at stake, why the rule of law matters, what it is for. Those opponents who are lawyers need to spread the word, not just by talking to each other but also to the society they belong to, and indeed to the wider world. For ultimately this is not about the law or lawyers. It is old wisdom that unlimited power is dangerous. So it is in everyone's interest that power be held in check and tamed.
Because that is so, everyone should rally to the cause. The rule of law is never merely a legal matter. It is invariably a matter of society and politics. Every (legal) form of social and political activism should be engaged in the effort to defend society, politics and the law against arbitrariness.
Alas, even if we understand all this perfectly, this in no way guarantees a happy ending. Even if the populists lose, the fact that they have deinstitutionalized those independent institutions that rein in the power they could not swallow means that the job of their successors will not be easy. And it cannot even be taken for granted that their successors will be up to the task. Will they have the competence and motivation to remedy the harms that have been done? Will they have a stronger political and institutional vision than the one on offer today? And what if (for it will be tempting) they decide to stick with the damaged institutions left to them, either because it would be too hard to repair them, or because they find it convenient to reap party benefits from the transgressions of their predecessors. In any event, who knows when or how the anti-constitutionalists are forced to leave. As so often happens, we need to restrain the pessimism of the intellect by means of an irrepressible optimism of the will, for as the traditional Jewish adage tells us: 'You are not required to finish the task. Yet you are not free to abandon it.'
Martin Krygier
Martin Krygier is Gordon Samuels Professor of Law and Social Theory, UNSW. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Regulatory Institutions Network, Australian National University, recurrent visiting professor at the Graduate School of Social Research, Warsaw and a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. His works include Philip Selznick: Ideals in the World; Civil Passions; Between Fear and Hope. Hybrid Thoughts on Public Values. He has edited and contributed to Spreading Democracy and the Rule of Law?; Rethinking the Rule of Law after Communism; Community and Legality; The Rule of Law after Communism; Marxism and Communism; Bureaucracy: The Career of a Concept. He writes extensively on the rule of law – its nature, conditions, challenges and prospects, especially in politically scarred societies. Apart from academic writings he contributes to journals of ideas and public debate. In 2016 he was awarded the Dennis Leslie Mahoney Prize in Legal Theory. From March to August 2019, he is a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, Washington D.C.
[1] Philip Selznick, Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1984, 17.
[2] Ibid., 139.
[3] See Jerzy Szacki, Liberalizm po Komunizmie, Znak, Kraków, 1994
[4] Jerzy Szacki, Liberalism after Communism (1st edn., Central European University Press, Budapest, 1995), 52.
[5] Grażyna Skąpska, From 'Civil Society' to 'Europe'. A Sociological Study on Constitutionalism after Communism, Brill, Leiden, 2011.
[6] Martin Krygier, 'Introduction' to Wojciech Sadurski, Adam Czarnota and Martin Krygier, eds., Spreading Democracy and the Rule of Law? The Impact of EU Enlargement on the Rule of Law, Democracy and Constitutionalism in Post-Communist Europe, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2006, 13.
[7] Philip Selznick, The Moral Commonwealth, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1992, 232.
[8] Philip Selznick, Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1984, 6–7.
[9] Kim Scheppele, 'The End of The End of History, ', forthcoming (2018) University of Toronto Law Journal.
[10] Grażyna Skąpska, 'Znieważający konstytucjonalizm i konstytucjonalizm znieważony. Refleksja socjologiczna na temat kryzysu liberalno-demokratycznego konstytucjonalizmu w Europie pokomunistycznej,' (2018) Tom 7, Numer 1, Art. #12 Filozofia Publiczna i Edukacja Demokratyczna, 276–301.
[11] See Mila Versteeg and Tom Ginsburg, 'Measuring the Rule of Law: A Comparison of Indicators', 2017, 42, Law & Social Inquiry, 100–137.
[12] Kim Lane Scheppele, 'Worst Practices in the Transnational Legal Order', in Tom Ginsburg, Terry Halliday and Greg Shaffer (eds) Constitution‐Making as Transnational Legal Practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, forthcoming.
[13] This is a central theme of Nick Cheesman's Opposing the Rule of Law. How Myanmar's Courts make Law and Order, Cambridge University Press, 2012. See symposium on this book in (2017) 9, 1 Hague Journal on the Rule of Law.
[14] I say anti-constitutionalist because, as many observers have noted, new populists are often not at all hostile to constitutions or to law, which they use by abusing. They are hostile to the normative commitments that are central to constitutionalism and the rule of law.
[15] Kim Scheppele, 'Autocratic Legalism', The University of Chicago Law Review, 3. 26 June 2019: https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/publication/autocratic-legalism
[16] 'Constitutional Courts and Democratic Hedging,' (2011) 99 The Georgetown Law Journal 961; Samuel Issacharoff and Richard H. Pildes 'Politics As Markets: Partisan Lockups of the Democratic Process' (1998) 50 Stanford Law Review, 643.
[17] Stephen Holmes, Passions and Constraint. On the Theory of Liberal Democracy, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 28-29; Jürgen Habermas, 'On the Internal Relation between Rule of Law and Democracy', European Journal of Philosophy, vol. 3 (1995), 17, 18; Krygier, 'Democracy and the Rule of Law', forthcoming in Jens Meierhenrich and Martin Loughlin, eds., Cambridge Companion to the Rule of Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2019.
[18] Accessed 27 June 2019: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-problem-with-illiberal-democracy-by-jan-werner-mueller-2016-01
[19] See Krygier, 'Tempering Power', in Maurice Adams, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, Anne Meuwese, eds., Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law. Bridging idealism and realism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017, 34–59; Krygier, 'The Rule of Law, Pasts, Presents, and two possible Futures', (2016) Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 199–229.
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text:
By Peter Brewer
1st Feb 2017
Julie Ann Garton has left CPC to take over as Managing Director of the North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium (NWUPC.) There are already strong links between this organisation and CPC as they are a contracting partner and we look forward to continuing our excellent working relationship with Julie Ann at the helm.
Julie Ann was with CPC in a number of roles for over 10 years. She is going to be missed by everyone at CPC on many levels as colleague, manager, friend and SMT member. We know she has interacted with many CPC members over the years so will also be missed by many. We trust that you will all join with us in wishing her the very best for the future and in her new role.
Pat Condon, our current Contracting Manager, will be taking on responsibility for all compliance duties and will now be Contracting & Compliance Manager. For any future member requirements in this area please contact him on 0161 974 0936 or by email at [email protected]


text:
By John Colson
Sopris Sun Correspondent
Carbondale trustee Allyn Harvey, at the board of trustee's regular meeting on Tuesday, objected to what he termed a local pot shop owner's "disregard" for city regulations and led his fellow trustees toward denial of that shop's medical marijuana license renewal application.
Harvey, and other trustees, also objected to the level of local ownership at the CMED medical marijuana shop, which does business as Rocky Mountain High at 66 Buggy Circle, which according to the town amounts to "one tenth of one percent" of the business in local ownership.
The remaining 99.9 percent, Harvey noted, is in the hands of owner Michael Weisser, who lives in Edwards, Colo., and has ties to the state of Florida, and who told the trustees he controls nearly 20 medical marijuana businesses around Colorado.
Pointing out that the town had included a provision in its codes requiring some degree of local ownership of some businesses, though not specifying the percentage of local ownership required, Harvey declared, "I would argue that this is, in fact, flaunting the local ownership provision of the local ownership provision of the code."
But CMED's license application was not denied, after the trustees tied, 3-3, on Harvey's motion to reject the application.
Instead, the application will be reviewed again on July 8, along with a "finding of fact" drawn up by town staff and outlining the issues involved with the application, as a basis for the trustees' ultimate decision on approval or denial of the business license.
Harvey, in his initial criticism of CMED, argued that Weisser and his employees have missed deadlines and filed incomplete applications throughout the company's tenure in Carbondale, including a late application for its medical marijuana license renewal, which expired earlier this year.
CMED majority owner Weisser, following a discussion among the trustees prior to the final vote, objected to Harvey's characterization of the business and said to Harvey, "Don't beat us up because we were late."
He said he had charged CMED's current on-site manager, Forrest Woolery, with filing that application, and said Woolery has passed that chore on to another employee while Woolery went on vacation, but the application was not filed on time.
Ticking off points he felt were in his favor, Weisser said, "One, we never got any notice" from town officials about the expiration of the license.
"That's not our responsibility," countered Harvey. "You need to run your business and keep your license current." Town staff and other trustees agreed with that assessment.
"But the point is, look at what we do for the community," Weisser continued, explaining that his shop sells products that are "very high in CBD," a compound found in some strains of medical marijuana that has been found effective in treating seizures in children and adults.
Plus, Weisser said, "we've been good citizens, good neighbors," responsive to town requests regarding such issues as odors emanating from the shop and from the cultivation of its products.
"What occurred … was just an oversight," he told the trustees.
Town Manager Jay Harrington informed the trustees that all three of Carbondale's pot shops had filed late applications for license renewals, and that one of the local shops, the Doctor's Garden, is currently closed for medical marijuana sales because its local medical marijuana license had lapsed, although it is open for recreational pot sales.
Half the trustees found Weisser's arguments persuasive and were unwilling to simply deny the application (Trustee John Hoffmann recused himself from the discussion, leaving six trustees in charge).
The board, after more than an hour and a half of debate, voted 5-1 in favor of a subsequent motion by Mayor Stacey Bernot to delay consideration of the CMED medical marijuana application until July 8 and to direct the town's staff to draw up the "findings of fact" regarding CMED's compliance problems and other matters.
As a consequence of that decision, other applications by CMED, for cultivation permits and permits for retail marijuana sales at its store on Buggy Circle, also were put on hold.
The board also approved a subsequent motion from Bernot, asking town staff to draw up an "emergency ordinance" proposal that would require a minimum of 15 percent local ownership for pot businesses in Carbondale. As an emergency ordinance, if passed, it would take effect immediately, rather than wait for the normal 30-day delay so the new law could be published in legal advertisements in local newspapers.
The "emergency," according to Bernot, is that as of July 1 the town expects a flood of retail marijuana business applications. That is the date that the application process, open only to existing medical marijuana business from Jan. 1 though June 30 of this year, would be opened to all interested parties.
Businesses who apply prior to July 8 would not be subject to the 15-percent rule even if it were adopted at that night's trustee meeting.
Town Clerk Cathy Derby told The Sopris Sun that she has received 11 "letters of intent" from parties planning to apply for some type of marijuana business licenses after July 1, including quality-control laboratories and licenses to manufacture "marijuana infused products" or MIPs.
Other items
• In a different matter entirely, the trustees spent about 30 minutes listening to complaints from residents in the Barber Drive neighborhood, in the Crystal Village subdivision, about the deterioration of the surface of certain streets and the town's need to engage in what residents termed "some serious repair."
Neighborhood spokesman Michael Durant told the trustees, "Barber Drive has got to be the worst maintained street in Carbondale," and that other streets in the neighborhood are nearly as bad. He pointed out more than one "constellation of potholes" and other problems.
He also criticized the board for using public funds for what he felt were less important purposes, such as building a new bike park (a $95,000 project to be built by the Dirt Sculpt company, under an agreement approved by the trustees on Tuesday); providing rent subsidies for what he called "our favorite non-profits" housed in the town-owned Third Street Center; and the placement of pieces of art around town, "half of which the town hates," at a cost of roughly $12,000 per year.
"We've been overlooked long enough," declared neighbor Judith Bouchard, who submitted a petition demanding action on the street repairs.
The mayor and town manager assured the complainants that the town had not deliberately ignored the Barber Drive area, and had been working on a solution to the chronically deteriorated streets.
"I'd just like to apologize for our oversight, and for what we've put Barber Drive folks through," said Trustee John Hoffmann, while the board in general pledged to go to work on fixing that street and others in the near future.
• Approved relocation permits for The Center, a medical marijuana business at 60 N. Third St., which is moving to another building at 259 Main St. (the former home of the Floyd's of Mayberry barbershop). The trustees also approved The Center's application to add retail marijuana sales to its business, at the same Main Street address.
• Received an audit report on the town's 2013 finances, which showed the town is in good shape regarding its internal fiscal policies and has approximately one year's worth of reserves, meaning the town government could operate for a year even it no revenues were coming in.
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