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by Thomas King
• Thomas King is one of Canada's premier Native public intellectuals. For the past 50 years, he has worked as an activist for Native causes. He has also taught Native literature and history at universities in the US and Canada. He is the bestselling author of five novels, including Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water, two collections of short stories and the 2003 Massey Lectures, The Truth About Stories. He most recently published The Inconvenient Indian. Look for more non-fiction writing by Thomas King in subsequent issues of Common Ground.
Great question. The problem is it's the wrong question to ask. While there are certainly Indians in North America, the Indians of this particular question don't exist. The Indians of this question are "the Indian" that Canada and the United States have created for themselves. And as long as the question is asked in that way, there will never be the possibility of an answer. Better to ask what the Lubicon Cree of Alberta want or the Brantford Mohawk of Ontario or the Zuni of New Mexico or the Hupa of northern California or the Tlingit of Alaska.
But I'd just as soon forget the question entirely. There's a better question to ask. One that will help us to understand the nature of contemporary North American Indian history. A question that we can ask of both the past and the present. What do Whites want? No, it's not a trick question. And I'm not being sarcastic. Native history in North America as written has never really been about Native people. It's been about Whites and their needs and desires. What Native peoples wanted has never been a vital concern, has never been a political or social priority.
The Lakota didn't want Europeans in the Black Hills, but Whites wanted the gold that was there. The Cherokee didn't want to move from Georgia to Indian Territory (Oklahoma), but Whites wanted the land. The Cree of Quebec weren't at all keen on vacating their homes to make way for the Great Whale project, but there's excellent money in hydroelectric power. The California Indians did not ask to be enslaved by the Franciscans and forced to build that order's missions.
What do Whites want? The answer is quite simple, and it's been in plain sight all along. Land.
Whites want land.
Sure, Whites want Indians to disappear, and they want Indians to assimilate, and they want Indians to understand that everything that Whites have done was for their own good because Native people, left to their own devices, couldn't make good decisions for themselves. All that's true. From a White point of view, at least. But it's a lower order of true. It's a spur-of-the-moment true, and these ideas have changed over time. Assimilation was good in the 1950s, but bad in the 1970s. Residential schools were the answer to Indian education in the 1920s, but by the twenty-first century governments were apologizing for the abuse that Native children had suffered at the hands of Christian doctrinaires, pedophiles and sadists. In the 1880s, the prevailing wisdom was to destroy Native cultures and languages so that Indians could find civilization. Today, the non-Native lament is that Aboriginal cultures and languages may well be on the verge of extinction. These are all important matters, but if you pay more attention to them than they deserve, you will miss the larger issue.
The issue that came ashore with the French and the English and the Spanish, the issue that was the raison d'etre for each of the colonies, the issue that has made its way from coast to coast to coast and is with us today, the issue that has never changed, never varied, never faltered in its resolve is the issue of land. The issue has always been land. It will always be land, until there isn't a square foot of land left in North America that is controlled by Native people.
At the Lake Mohonk conference in October of 1886, one of the participants, Charles Cornelius Coffin Painter, who served as a lobbyist for the Indian Rights Association, pointed out the obvious, that the treaties made with Native people had been little more than expediencies. In his talk, Painter quoted General William Tecumseh Sherman, who had said that treaties "were never made to be kept, but to serve a present purpose, to settle a present difficulty in the easiest manner possible, to acquire a desired good with the least possible compensation, and then to be disregarded as soon as this purpose was tainted and we were strong enough to enforce a new and more profitable arrangement."
This is the same General Sherman who philosophized that "The more Indians we kill this year, the fewer we will need to kill the next." Painter didn't necessarily agree with Sherman, but he understood that the overall goal of removals, allotments, treaties, reservations and reserves, terminations and relocations, was not simply to limit and control the movement of Native peoples, but more importantly to relieve them of their land base.
Land. If you understand nothing else about the history of Indians in North America, you need to understand that the question that really matters is the question of land. Land has always been a defining element of Aboriginal culture. Land contains the languages, the stories and the histories of a people. It provides water, air, shelter and food. Land participates in the ceremonies and the songs. And land is home. Not in an abstract way. The Blackfoot in Alberta live in the shadow of Ninastiko or Chief Mountain. The mountain is a special place for the Blackfoot and friends on the reserve at Standoff have told me more than once that, as long as they can see the mountain, they know they are home.
For non-Natives, land is primarily a commodity, something that has value for what you can take from it or what you can get for it… The Alberta Tar Sands is an excellent example of a non-Native understanding of land. It is, without question, the dirtiest, most environmentally insane energy-extraction project in North America, probably in the world, but the companies that are destroying landscapes and watersheds in Alberta continue merrily along, tearing up the earth because there are billions to be made out of such corporate devastation. The public has been noticeably quiet about the matter, and neither the politicians in Alberta nor the folks in Ottawa have been willing to step in and say, "Enough," because, in North American society, when it comes to money, there is no such thing as enough.
We all know the facts and figures. Carbon emissions from the production of one barrel of tar sands oil are eight times higher than the emissions from a conventional barrel. The production of each barrel of tar sands oil requires at least three barrels of fresh water, 90 percent of which never makes it back into the watershed. The waste water winds up in a series of enormous tailing ponds that cover some 50 square kilometres and is so poisonous that it kills on contact.
Yet, in spite of all the scientific evidence, oil corporations, with the aid and abetment of government, are expanding their operations, breaking new ground, as it were, and building thousands of miles of pipeline – the Keystone Pipeline, the Northern Gateway Pipeline, the Transmountain Pipeline – that will take Alberta crude from Fort McMurray to refineries and markets in the United States (Illinois, Oklahoma, and Texas) and in Canada (Kitimat and Vancouver)… there is little chance that North America will develop a functional land ethic until it finds a way to overcome its irrational addiction to profit. Unfortunately, there are no signs that that's going to happen any time soon.
In 1868 the Lakota and the U.S. government signed a peace treaty at Fort Laramie which guaranteed that the Black Hills would remain with the Lakota Nation, and that the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming would be closed to White settlement. However, just six years later, in 1874, an army expedition led by, of all people, George Armstrong Custer discovered gold in the Black Hills at French Creek and before you could say "Fort Laramie Treaty," White miners swarmed into the Black Hills and began digging mines, sluicing rivers, blasting away the sides of mountains with hydraulic cannons and clear-cutting the forests in the Hills for the timber. The army was supposed to keep Whites out of the Hills. But they didn't. A great many histories will tell you that the military was powerless to stop the flood of Whites who came to the Hills for the gold, but the truth of the matter is that the army didn't really try.
The Fort Laramie Treaty still stands as a valid agreement and the Lakota have never given up their claim to the Hills, nor have they stopped fighting for the land's return. So I can only imagine how they felt as they watched Six Grandfathers being turned into a national tourist attraction. Six Grandfathers is the mountain in the Hills that became Mount Rushmore after it was renamed for a New York lawyer in 1885.
Then in 1980, in United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, the Supreme Court ruled that the Black Hills had been illegally taken. The solution, however, wasn't to return the Hills to the Lakota. Instead the court instructed that the original purchase price of $25,000 plus interest be paid to the tribe. After the long addition was over, the total came to over $106 million.
$106 million. And as they had done in 1875, the Lakota refused the settlement. Money was never the issue. They wanted the Hills back. As for the money, it stays in an interest-bearing account to this day.
From a Native perspective, Indian land is Indian land. From a contemporary, somewhat legal North American perspective, Native land is land that belongs to the federal government and is on indefinite loan to a certain category of Native people. To say that these two views are in conflict is to state the obvious. Indian land as Indian land was certainly the idea behind early treaties and agreements.
One of the great phrases to come out of the treaty process is "as long as the grass is green and the waters run." The general idea behind the phrase is not new. Charlemagne supposedly used such language in the eighth century, when he declared that "all Frisians would be fully free, the born and the unborn, so long as the wind blows from heaven and the child cries, grass grows green and flowers bloom, as far as the sun rises and the world stands."
Great Britain, the United States and Canada, depending on how you want to count, signed well over 400 treaties with Native tribes in North America. I haven't read them all, but none of the ones I have read contains the phrase. So, I've always wondered if "as long as the grass is green and the waters run" was ever actually used in a treaty.
I'm betting that poetic constructions such as "as long as the grass is green and the waters run," "Great White Father," and "Red Children" were part of the performances, the speeches and the oral promises that attended treaty negotiations and did not necessarily find their way into the official transcript.
Treaties, after all, were not vehicles for protecting land or even sharing land. They were vehicles for acquiring land. Almost without fail, throughout the history of North America, every time Indians signed a treaty with Whites, Indians lost land. I can't think of a single treaty whereby Native people came away with more land than when they started. Such an idea, from a nonNative point of view, would have been dangerously absurd.
In fact, treaties have been so successful in separating Indians from their land that I'm surprised there isn't a national holiday to honour their good work. But we could fix that. We could, if we were so inclined, turn Columbus Day and Victoria Day into Treaty Day. After all, Columbus didn't discover America, and Queen Victoria never set foot in Canada… Of course, no one in Canada or the United States is going to support a holiday that isn't a celebration of national power and generosity, so we'd have to disguise it, much the way we do Thanksgiving.
Now I don't want to give anyone the impression that I think treaties are a bad idea. Treaties aren't the problem. Keeping the promises made in the treaties, on the other hand, is a different matter.
One of the complaints that Whites have had about Aboriginal people is that they didn't know what to do with land or that they weren't using the land to its full potential. And North America has been quick to rally around the old aphorism "use it or lose it." Ironically, Canada currently finds itself in a pseudo-Native position with regard to the far north. Knowing that the Arctic is a treasure trove of oil and gas, minerals and precious metals, and fish, the United States has been pushing jurisdictional boundaries, insisting that the Northwest Passage is an international waterway rather than a part of Canada. In 1969, the United States sent the S. S. Manhattan to sail into the Passage without first getting Canadian permission. In 1985, the U.S. icebreaker Polar Sea did the same thing. Nasty words flew back and forth. One solution to this problem that is being bandied about is to strike a treaty, wherein the United States recognizes the Passage as Canadian waters and Canada gives the United States the right to travel the waterway unimpeded.
A treaty with the United States. That should work out well. Lost in all of this gunship diplomacy was the 1953 saga of 87 Inuit who were moved from Port Harrison to Grise Fiord. The official reason Canadian bureaucrats gave for the move was that it would allow the Inuit to continue to live off the land and maintain their traditional ways. The unofficial reason was that Canada wanted to use the Inuit as placeholders in the continuing debate over who had territorial rights to the High Arctic and its resources. The government has always maintained that the families who relocated did so voluntarily, while the Inuit maintain that the moves were forced.
Wherever the truth lies, it is amusing to watch politicians validating Canada's land claims in the far north on the backs of Aboriginal people. It's ours, Ottawa tells the world. Our people are there. When it comes to the matter of land, one of the key questions is "What is the proper use of land?" This is both an historical and a contemporary consideration in Native rights. In the early days, hunting and gathering were seen as inferior uses of the land compared to farming. Where Indians did farm, their farming practices were considered inferior to those of Whites. And these days, heaven help the tribe or band that wishes to keep a section of land in its natural state when a golf course or a ski resort or a strip mine comes looking for a home.
Sometimes, a close reading of history is helpful in understanding the question of land and sometimes representative stories will do just as well. Personally, I prefer stories. And I happen to have several that you might consider.
Adapted from The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King (Doubleday Canada). Reprinted with permission.


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Muaythai is a proud member of the International World Games Association and included in the 2017 world games. We are truly honoured that this month's athlete, Valentina Shevchenko, for the first time has come from muaythai and is one of the most highly decorated athletes representing our sport.
IWGA Athlete of the Month: Valentina Shevchenko (Peru)

subset: commoncrawl


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Historic Sites of Manitoba: Purple Bank School No. 682 (Gardenton, RM of Stuartburn)
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The Purple Bank School District was organized formally in October 1891 and a log school building operated in the northern half of NE 33-1-6 East. This first schoolhouse was replaced with a wooden frame building around 1910 in Gardenton in the Municipality of Stuartburn. The structure was expanded in 1926 based upon the architectural designs of Gilbert C. Parfitt. In 1967, it became part of the Boundary School Division and continued operating until 1970. Later, no longer in use as a school, the building was converted into a private residence.
Among the teachers of Purple Bank School were J. W. Zaban [Czaban] (1906, 1909-1910), Michael Barran (1907), P. B. Chaykowski (1907), J. M. Mysyk (1908-1911-1914), Violet Drelenkicwiez? Smook (1908-1909), Peter S. Sankey (1915), Alma Neilly (1915), Elspeth A. Moffatt (1916), Amy Wier (1917), Violet S. Taylor (1917), Mollie Weinberg (1918), Winnifred D. Boughton (1918-1919), Katherine Wachna (1919-1920), Maria Wachna (1920), Anton P. Dolensky (1921), William Andrew "Bill" Kachur (1921), Anselina Stromquist (1922), Mr. E. G. Christilan (1922), Achsah G. Rogers (1923), Margaret Clossick (1923), Alfred E. Williams (1924), C. S. Sharpe (1924-1925), and Ivan L. Hamilton (1925).
Photos & Coordinates
School District Formation Files [Purple Bank School District No. 682], GR1688, E0027, Archives of Manitoba.
Annual Reports of the Manitoba Department of Education, Manitoba Legislative Library.
One Hundred Years in the History of the Rural Schools of Manitoba: Their Formation, Reorganization and Dissolution (1871-1971) by Mary B. Perfect, MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, April 1978.
A Study of Public School Buildings in Manitoba by David Butterfield, Historic Resources Branch, Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism, 1994, 230 pages.
Manitoba School Records Collection, Purple Bank School No. 682 Daily Registers, GR2088, Archives of Manitoba.
Plans and shop drawings (GS 0100), Purple Bank School - Addition, GR3125, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Don Machnee and Brian Nedohin for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer and Gordon Goldsborough
Page revised: 29 January 2022


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Traditional Home is one of our favorite magazines and we are so honored to be featured in their July issue! The Pineapple Girls design team created the decor for this spectacular oceanfront home in Jupiter, Florida.
Stay tuned for "Part 2" where we will show the bedrooms, bathrooms and outdoor spaces for this home!


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Each week, we tap the insight of Sam Stovall, Chief Equity Strategist for S&P Capital IQ, for his perspective on the current market.
EQ: With 2012 getting underway, we thought it would be a good idea for investors to take another look at the strategies in your book, The Seven Rules of Wall Street. Which rules worked best for investors last year?
Stovall: I guess it's always good to have what I call the "seven rules of Wall Street" because you have to have at least one of them that works well each year, and it might not always be the same one. You can pretty much describe the rules in three different ways:
1. Market Momentum: These rules say that investors are better off sticking with last year's winners than last year's losers. So, in a sense, you go with the flow.
2. Sector Diversification: The second philosophy is investing in sectors that have very low correlations with one another, and therefore, adhering to the tried and true approach of diversifying among low-correlated assets, or in this case, low-correlated sectors.
3. Seasonal Trends: This rule is about identifying and leveraging seasonal aspects we see within the overall marketplace.
The two that seemed to work best in 2011 were the seasonal and low-correlation strategies. By seasonal, we mean the "Sell in May" strategy, which says the market does poorly from May to October, gaining only 1.2 percent on average since 1945, but does much better from November through April, gaining 6.8 percent on average.
This is not a hedge fund approach, however. We don't expect the returns to be positive when the markets are lower, but by rotating into the more defensive sectors like Consumer Staples and Healthcare from May through October, investors are engaging in capital preservation by sticking with the lower beta, more defensive sectors during the weaker seasonal period market, and then gravitating back to the market, or even emphasizing the more cyclical sectors from November through April.
In all four cases when looking at the S&P 500, S&P 500 Equal Weight Index, S&P Small Cap 600, and S&P Global 1200 as benchmarks, embracing the defensive approach with Healthcare and Consumer Staples from May through October outperformed being in the benchmarks through all 12 months of the year.
EQ: How did the low-correlation sector strategy perform?
Stovall: This approach engages in investing in low-correlated sectors and is what I call a "free lunch" portfolio, because you end up getting something for nothing. Investors end up getting higher returns with lower risk, and in this case, what I would do is invest one-third in Consumer Staples, one-third in Energy and one-third in Technology, then rebalance annually. All four approaches outperformed their respective benchmarks. What's interesting is that in 2011, while each of those four benchmarks posted declines in price, all four of these "free lunch" strategies posted positive returns in price. That certainly was encouraging, to see that in a slightly down year there was a strategy that posted gains in all four occasions. So I'm happy to report two of the three disciplines–seasonality combined with low-correlations–succeeded in 2011.
EQ: Obviously, no investment strategy ever works 100 percent of the time. Can you talk about some rules that did not perform well in 2011?
Stovall: I guess if I'm going to brag about what works, I have to admit to what does not work. In 2011, the momentum-based strategies did not work. Studies produced over the last several years show that using trailing 12-month relative strength tends to be the better way to select stocks and sectors, from a momentum perspective. In a sense, you let your winners ride. So you look back over the last 12 months to decide which were the better-performing sectors to buy, and then hold them for the coming 12 months. The "let your winners ride" approach is a static UIT-like approach where investors look back to the prior calendar year at the start of January, then buy and hold the best-performing sectors for the coming calendar year.
A more dynamic approach to this is what I call, "There's Always a Bull Market Someplace" in which every month you look back 12 months, modify your portfolio depending upon which sectors have improved in relative strength, and get rid of those that have weakened in terms of relative strength. If you look at all four benchmarks, these momentum strategies underperformed against their overall benchmarks in 2011. So, as I said before, it's good to have seven rules because at least some of them will work. Also, in a secular bear market, which we have been stuck in since late 1999, I usually find that the shorter-term seasonal approaches combined with the low-correlation strategies tend to work better than those that rely on longer-term momentum. This is because in a secular bear market, I don't think investors are willing to stick around long enough to allow a long-term momentum strategy to gain traction.
EQ: So as investors try to fight through 2012, and there isn't expected to be much economic growth, do you recommend sticking with the seasonal and low-correlation approaches?
Stovall: I think that the trend is your friend until it ends, and the trend right now is sticking with the seasonal approaches. Right now, we are in a very favorable cyclical seasonal period from November through April. What we find is that the cyclical sectors in general tend to do well. In particular, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, Technology and Financials are among the stronger sectors. S&P has overweight recommendations in three of those cyclical areas: Consumer Discretionary, Industrials and Technology.
Also, now that we are in the first quarter of this new calendar year, history says but does not guarantee that cyclicals tend to do the best and the defensives actually end up losing money in the first quarter. On average since 1990, Consumer Staples, Healthcare, Telecom and Utilities have declined in price while the market itself has risen and the cyclical sectors have outperformed.
EQ: Another one of your rules is to, "Don't Get Mad, Get Even." What do you mean by that?
Stovall: I like to ask people, "When does 10 percent equal 50 percent?" The answer is when you're dealing with a cap-weighted index. Only 10 percent of the companies in the S&P 500–the top 50 companies in terms of market cap–represents 50 percent of what happens in the price movement of the S&P 500. So in that case, why even bother having the other 450 companies if they're being so dominated by these top 50 companies? One might even say that it's undemocratic to allow so few to have so much influence over the rest of us.
So what I would say is to gravitate toward the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index, and thus don't get mad, get even. In this case, investors can focus on an index where each company has the same representation or the same impact on the price change of the overall index. A good example would be if Big Lots, Inc. (BIG)–which has a market cap of $2.5 billion–had the same impact on the S&P 500 as Big Blue, which is the nickname for IBM (IBM). So using the blue chip stocks within the S&P 500, investors can end up with smaller-cap type performances. From 2000 through 2011, the average price change for the S&P 500 has been 0.6 percent. Yet the average price change for the S&P 500 EWI has been 6.7 percent. In addition, the equal weight index outperformed the cap-weighted index 75 percent of the time. Of course, there's no guarantee that you'll get this level of outperformance in the years ahead, but what it implies is that if you can handle volatility, over the long term you are better off with smaller companies because they have greater growth potential.
EQ: We've talked a lot in the past about higher volatility in the market now with ETFs and high-frequency trading. How has this impacted the old philosophy of buy-and-hold investing?
Stovall: Since volatility has been so high, it says that you buy and then hold very tightly, and maybe even close your eyes a little bit along the way. I say that because volatility has been a lot greater recently than it has been over time. In 2011, there were 21 days in which the S&P 500 declined by 2 percent or more. On average, from 2000 through the end of 2010, we had 15 times per year in which the S&P 500 experienced a more than 2 percent decline in a single day. If you go back to 1950, the average was 5. So the long-term average is 5, the intermediate average is 15, but last year we experienced 21. So in other words, we have a lot more white-knuckle moments for investors. So pretend you're on a rollercoaster ride and therefore you have to hold on that much tighter in order to remain in your seat.


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Thursday, 22 January 2015
Time Out Challenge # 23
The theme for this TIME OUT challenge is:
Valentine's Day with the optional twist of hearts
You can make any sort of mushy, lovey-dovey project you like, with the option of using hearts. Its only a few weeks till Valentine's Day so the perfect chance to get started on some cards!
Our Guest Designer for this challenge is Valentyna. Her cards are so pretty and she has the most amazing designs. Would be lovely if you popped by to visit her blog, you won't be disappointed!
I decided to try out something new with my circle dies for my card and managed to keep it mainly white (which I love):
I was playing around with my circle dies the other day and came up with this idea. What a shame I didn't have an arrow die or stamp to go with this!!
I started by cutting a piece of white CS the same size as my card front. I die-cut the largest circle from this piece. I thought it would be best to stamp the sentiment and small hearts on at this point, as would be tricky after all the circle pieces were stuck together.
I die-cut the rest of the circle sizes from separate CS pieces. The fiddly part was adhering them all together behind each other, so that the circles had even spacing in-between. The whole panel was then stuck to the card front. I stamped the heart in the centre and covered with Wink of Stella. Very fiddly but so worth it!!
The circle dies are from Couture Creations. The sentiment is from Winnie and Walter 'The Big, the Bold and the Happy'. The smaller heart stamps are from Lawn Fawn and the larger from Hero Arts 'Year Round Sentiments'.
I'm going to also link this card to the Uniko Studio Challenge # 17 where their theme is 'Love and Friendship'. This is my second entry.
And will also link to the Happy Little Stampers - January Sketch Challenge where their sketch is:
This TIME OUT challenge runs for two weeks, so hopefully that gives you plenty of time to join in. And if your needing a boost of inspiration, please visit the blog to see the gorgeous creations by the Design Team and our Guest Designer. I hope to see you there!!
Take care
19 comments:
Another beautiful card! I admire the way you are never afraid to use white with white, yet you do it in such interesting ways.ReplyDelete
CAS perfection! The circles really make the heart the focal point. And great to see you at Uniko xReplyDelete
Awesome die cut layering technique, it really draws you in to the little red heart. CAS perfection. Hugs Bev xReplyDelete
Oh all those circles are amazing! Love the white on white!ReplyDelete
So super how the white works! It is beautiful and perfectly CAS! Hugs, GerrinaReplyDelete
Love this Shona! The design is perfect!ReplyDelete
This is fabulous with all the white circles!ReplyDelete
Gorgeous card, Shona! Those circles look amazingly cute!ReplyDelete
Arrow or not... this is right on target!!! Shona! So gorgeous, in a very simple/smart design!!! By the way, I created an arrow using a heart, and a tiny strip of paper for my Muse target card - if you don't want to go shopping.. which may the silliest thing I've ever written on your blog..ReplyDelete
=] Michele
Such a fun design Shona. LOVE the target all done in layers of white so the heart just pops!! Thanks so much for playing along at Happy Little Stampers.ReplyDelete
Oo, we have a similar idea! Your card is gorgeous! I Love those white on white.ReplyDelete
So cool! Love the White on white with that pop of red - such a fab design, Shona. Enjoy your last week before school is back :)ReplyDelete
Just wonderful - to make that little heart the center of your target!ReplyDelete
Thanks for joining in at Uniko Studio! Hugs Bev xReplyDelete
Another stunning card Shona, love the layered die cuts, so effective. Thank you so much for joining in with the Uniko Studio ChallengeReplyDelete
This is totally gorgeous and unique Shona. Very clever and inspirational.ReplyDelete
Thanks for linking up and playing along at Uniko Studio.
Sarah x
Absolutely worth it. Love your design!! Thanks so much for playing along at Happy Little Stampers xxReplyDelete
Blissful, Shona ... the concentric circles draw the eye so beautifully to that gorgeous shimmery heart ... brilliant! Anita :)ReplyDelete
Very cool card! And you are so right that an arrow would have been perfect, but your card is perfect just the same! Love it!ReplyDelete


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- Home
- Anime
- Natsu no Arashi!
- Atashi Dake ni Kakete (Mou Modorenai n Desu-hen) - Get It On Just Me (Not Turning Back Ever Chapter)
Atashi Dake ni Kakete (Mou Modorenai n Desu-hen)
|Original / Romaji Lyrics
|English Translation
kyuu ni suki ni natta kara mou shikata nai n desu
Because I fell in love all of a sudden I just cannot help it*
wana wo kakete o-nawa kakete nasake wo kakete
atashi to kakete dokodemo kakete
toki wo kakete inochi kakete seishi wo kakete
Get your trap set, get the ropes on me, get sympathetic
Get it with me, get it all over the place
Get flown through time, get your life on the line, get to live or to die
atashi dake ni kakete
Get it on just me
* References the song Hanabi by Aiko
Translated and transliterated by AzureDark
See an error in these lyrics? Let us know here!
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Jeff Zwiers
Jeff Zwiers is a senior researcher at Stanford University. He received his Ed.D. from the University of San Francisco and has taught English, Spanish, science, and history in high school, middle school, and elementary school.
Jeff says that he became a teacher to "positively influence the social linguistic, ethical, and cognitive development of students." His areas of specialty are academic language and literacy.
He supports the Understanding Language Initiative and collaborates with teachers, instructional coaches, and school systems to improve the education of academic English learners. He co-directs the Academic Language Development Network, which focuses on accelerating students' literacy, language, cognition, and conversation skills. He also consulted on the Guatemala Education Reform in the Classroom project to develop effective systems of bilingual education and teacher training across the country.
He has published books and articles on reading, thinking, and academic language. His most recent books are "Common Core Standards in Diverse Classrooms Essential Practices for Developing Academic Language and Disciplinary Literacy" and "Building Academic Language: Meeting Common Core Standards Across Disciplines, Grades 5-12".
Libia S. Gil
Assistant Deputy Secretary, Director, Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA, U.S. Department of Education)
Assistant Deputy Secretary, Director, Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) U.S. Department of Education President Obama named Libia Gil assistant deputy secretary and director of the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) on September 9, 2013. She is the principal adviser to Secretary Arne Duncan on all matters related to the education of English learners, now estimated to be about 10 percent of the total K-12 enrollment nationwide.
As head of OELA, Gil administers programs under Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which support high-quality instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse students. The office also supports professional development programs for teachers of English learners.
Gil is committed to ensuring improvement in English language education through the Department's educational initiatives, among them Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation and the Teacher Quality Partnership.
Prior to joining the Department, Gil served as vice president for practice at the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning in Chicago. She was also a senior fellow and managing director at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), where she developed and co-led the AIR Center for English learners.
Gil began her career as a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and later was a bilingual resource specialist in the ABC Unified School District in California. In that same district, she served as a bilingual-ESL coordinator, as a desegregation officer designing bilingual (Spanish, Korean and Chinese) magnet programs for voluntary desegregation efforts and finally as an elementary school principal implementing a Portuguese bilingual maintenance program. She served as an assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in the Seattle Public Schools, where she was responsible for bilingual education services and programs in addition to a multitude of other programs and services. Later she became superintendent of the Chula Vista Elementary School District in California and institutionalized dual language programs in Spanish.
She earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in curriculum and instruction, with an emphasis in bilingual education, from the University of Washington.
Throughout her career Gil has demonstrated leadership in education beginning in her early career as a bilingual teacher when she created the first Chinese bilingual program south of Los Angeles. As superintendent of the Chula Vista Elementary School District she was awarded the annual Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education for her outstanding leadership in increasing student performance in the district.
Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch
Consuelo is a US Army Retired Lieutenant Colonel and Education Advocate. She was born and raised along the border in a small barrio in Laredo, Texas. She overcame poverty, discrimination, and illiteracy to become the successful community leader she is today. Although she grew up without material wealth, Consuelo was taught by her immigrant parents that she was rich in culture, tradition, values, and faith.
The values Consuelo learned during childhood were reinforced throughout her career in the United States military. After graduating from Hardin Simmons University, she entered the US Army as an officer and served for two decades. While in the military, she broke barriers and set records to become the highest ranking Hispanic woman in the Combat Support Field of the US Army. In 1996, she was selected out of 26,000 candidates to assume a command post, which would put her on track for the rank of general officer. She respectfully declined the honor and retired as a 22-year veteran of the US Army to fulfill her mother's dying wish for her to return to her roots and become a community leader. In realizing her dream, she founded Educational Achievement Services, Inc. with a mission to prepare tomorrow's leaders.
Consuelo currently shares her story with people of all ages and creeds. She is doing exactly what she preaches: living a legacy. She maintains a strong dedication to saving the youth of America by mentoring students and parents across the United States. Her dedication to the youth of America has garnered her numerous awards and citations from educational institutions, government agencies, professional organizations, and the national media. In addition to her work with American youth, Consuelo reaches audiences in the corporate, professional, nonprofit, and multi-cultural markets, speaking on such topics as workforce issues like diversity, leadership, and team building, as well as women's issues.
Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch has been profiled on CNN's Latino in America, Univision's Don Francisco Presenta, the Lifetime Network, National Public Radio, the syndicated television program Hispanics Today, and American Latino Television's Latination program. Consuelo has also been featured in Hispanic Business magazine's 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America, O Magazine, Latina Style, Vanidades, and Glamour magazine.


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In today's post we repost a message from Bob Bly. Bob is one of the most respected copywriters in the industry. He is also one of the key people behind AWAI (American Writers and Artists, Inc.). AWAI is the premier organization for copy writing education. It is where we turn for information and people to help craft the messages necessary for our clients. Enjoy . . .
Business Buyers Are Looking For Personal Benefits
by Robert W. Bly
In a column titled "The 6 Key Differences Between Business-To-Business And Consumer Marketing," I describe the key factors that set Business-to-Business marketing apart from Business-to-Consumer marketing. The first six principles I outline are:
- The business buyer wants to buy.
- The business buyer is sophisticated.
- The business buyer is an information seeker who will read a lot of copy.
- Business-to-Business marketing involves a multistep buying process.
- The buying decision is frequently made by a committee and not by an individual.
- Business products are generally more complex than consumer products.Then recently, I formulated a seventh principle and added it to the list.
- The business buyer buys for his company's benefit — and his own.
There are two parts to this seventh principle. Let's take them one at a time.
The Business Buyer Buys For His Company's Benefit
The business buyer must acquire products and services that benefit his company. This means the product or service saves the company time or money, makes money, improves productivity, increases efficiency, or solves problems.
Let's say, for example, that you sell a telecommunications network and your primary advantage over the competition is that your system reduces monthly operating expenses by 50 percent. If a prospect is spending $40,000 a month for your competitor's network, you can replace it and provide his company with the same level of service for only $20,000 a month.
The company benefits because it saves $240,000 a year in communications costs — more than $1 million in a five-year period.
Yet, despite this tremendous benefit, you find that prospects are not buying. They seem interested, and you get a lot of inquiries. But few sales are closed.
Why? Because in addition to buying for his company's benefit, the prospect also buys for himself.
The Business Buyer Buys For His Own Benefit
The second part of Principle #7 is that, while the buyer is looking to do right by his company, he has an equal (if not greater) concern for his own well-being and selfish interests.
Although the idea of saving $240,000 a year with your telecommunications system is appealing to your prospect, his thought process is as follows:
"Right now, I have an AT&T system. Your system sounds good but I don't know you or your company. If I switch and something goes wrong, I will be blamed. I may even get fired. My boss will say, 'You shouldn't have gambled on an unproven product from an unknown vendor — why didn't you stick with good ole reliable AT&T?' He will say this even though he approved my decision. So to be safe, I will stick with my current system … even though it costs my company an extra $240,000 a year. After all, I'd rather see them spend an extra $240,000 a year than me lose my $60,000-a-year job!"
This play-it-safe mentality is only natural, and it affects buying decisions daily in corporations throughout the country. Data processing professionals are fond of saying, "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM." Buying IBM ensures the prospect that no one can criticize his decision, even if Brand X is the better choice from a business and technical point of view.
A corporate pension fund manager, writing in Money magazine, noted that no money manager ever got fired for losing money invested in a blue-chip stock. A different example, but the principle remains the same.
The Business Buyer Is For Himself
Concern for making the safe, acceptable decision is a primary motivation of business buyers, but it is not the only reason why business buyers choose products, services, and suppliers that are not necessarily the best business solution to their company's problem.
Avoiding stress or hardship is a big concern among prospects. For example, a consultant might offer a new system for increasing productivity, but it means more paperwork for the shipping department … and especially for the head of the shipping department. If he has anything to say about it, and thinks no one will criticize him for it, the head of shipping will, in this case, work to sway the committee against engaging the consultant or using his system … even though the current procedures are not efficient. The department head, already overworked, wants to avoid something he perceives as a hassle and a headache, despite its contribution to the greater good of the organization.
Fear of the unknown is also a powerful motivator. A middle manager, for example, might vote against acquiring desktop publishing and putting a terminal on every manager's desk because he himself has computer phobia. Even though he recognizes the benefit such technology can bring to his department, he wants to avoid the pain of learning something he perceives to be difficult and frightening. Again, personal benefit outweighs corporate benefit in this situation.
Fear of loss is another powerful motivator. An advertising manager in a company that has handled its advertising in-house for the past decade may resist his president's suggestion that they retain an outside advertising agency to handle the company's rapidly-expanding marketing campaign. Even if he respects the ad agency and believes they will do a good job, the ad manager may campaign against them, fearing that bringing in outside experts will diminish his own status within the company.
In these and many other instances, the business buyer is for himself first; and his company, second. To be successful, your copy must not only promise the benefits the prospect desires for his company; it should also speak to the prospect's personal agenda, as well.


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(Watch the video report by clicking the link below)
An update to our Full Measure reporting on the weedkiller Roundup.
Thousands of people say a chemical called glyphosate found in Roundup gave them cancer.
But there's disagreement among experts.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently re-approved Roundup as safe, saying glyphosate is *not* dangerous when used as directed.
Even so, Kellogg's recently announced it will phase out using Roundup on wheat and oats, due to safety questions.
Last year, studies showed several popular cereals contained traces of glyphosate.
Lawsuits about Roundup are currently on hold -- as settlement talks are reportedly moving forward.
Watch the video report by clicking the link below:


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Culture Trips
Greece is the country of the mythology and culture.
Join with us and get to know the Greek culture from the past until nowadays. Enjoy Greek food and specialities like the locals do.
Find on our website a variety of excursions and do not hesitate to contact us. Looking forward to meet you in Greece.
Cape Sounio – temple of Sounio with Lunch
Canal of Corinth, Archaeological Excavation of Loutraki and Elefsina with Dinner
Epidauros and Nafplion with Lunch
Nafplion and Mycaene with Lunch
Acropolis, museum and the excavation of Elefsina with Lunch
Acropolis, museum and temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounio with Lunch
Greece has to offer a lot.
Please let us know and we provide you a tailor made arrangement


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Ch. 363 (1989)
363:1 Purpose
The legislature's language used in the Purpose Clause states in part,
"The general court finds that availability of construction material affects the cost of roads and other governmental infrastructure. Whenever the supply shrinks, prices increase. Although New Hampshire has an abundance of sand, gravel, and deposits suitable for production of construction aggregate, their availability is being curtailed by development, over-regulation, or both (emphasis added). Making up for dwindling supply raises the cost of production and transportation. This in turn raises the cost of roads and other public infrastructure. Additionally, it is clear that the existing local regulatory scheme needs clarification. Useful material is available only where it has been deposited, and if it must be transported long distances, the cost of construction increases. Thus, existing sources of supply must be identified and utilized, without undue disruption of local land use plans and patterns, without creating simultaneous state and local regulations of the same activity, …"


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The census is a special, wide-range activity, which takes place once a decade in the entire country. The purpose is to gather information about the general population, in order to present a full and reliable picture of the population in the country - its housing conditions and demographic, social and economic characteristics. The information collected includes data on age, gender, country of origin, marital status, housing conditions, marriage, education, employment, etc.
This information makes it possible to plan better services, improve the quality of life and solve existing problems. Statistical information, which serves as the basis for constructing planning forecasts, is essential for the democratic process since it enables the citizens to examine the decisions made by the government and local authorities, and decide whether they serve the public they are meant to help.
The goal of this machine learning project is to predict whether a person makes over 50K a year or not given their demographic variation. To achieve this, several classification techniques are explored and the random forest model yields to the best prediction result.
Relevant Papers:
Ron Kohavi, "Scaling Up the Accuracy of Naive-Bayes
Classifiers: a Decision-Tree Hybrid", Proceedings of the Second
International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, 1996
[Web Link]
The evaluation of this dataset is done using Area Under the ROC curve (AUC).
An example of its application are ROC curves. Here, the true positive rates are plotted against false positive rates. An example is below. The closer AUC for a model comes to 1, the better it is. So models with higher AUCs are preferred over those with lower AUCs.
Please note, there are also other methods than ROC curves but they are also related to the true positive and false positive rates, e. g. precision-recall, F1-Score or Lorenz curves.
AUC is used most of the time to mean AUROC, AUC is ambiguous (could be any curve) while AUROC is not.
The AUROC has several equivalent interpretations:
Assume we have a probabilistic, binary classifier such as logistic regression.
Before presenting the ROC curve (= Receiver Operating Characteristic curve), the concept ofconfusion matrix must be understood. When we make a binary prediction, there can be 4 types of outcomes:
To get the confusion matrix, we go over all the predictions made by the model, and count how many times each of those 4 types of outcomes occur:
In this example of a confusion matrix, among the 50 data points that are classified, 45 are correctly classified and the 5 are misclassified.
Since to compare two different models it is often more convenient to have a single metric rather than several ones, we compute two metrics from the confusion matrix, which we will later combine into one:
To combine the FPR and the TPR into one single metric, we first compute the two former metrics with many different threshold (for example
The following figure shows the AUROC graphically:
In this figure, the blue area corresponds to the Area Under the curve of the Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUROC). The dashed line in the diagonal we present the ROC curve of a random predictor: it has an AUROC of 0.5. The random predictor is commonly used as a baseline to see whether the model is useful.
If you want to get some first-hand experience:
You cannot sign up from multiple accounts and therefore you cannot submit from multiple accounts.
Privately sharing code or data outside of teams is not permitted. It's okay to share code if made available to all participants on the forums.
You may submit a maximum of 5 entries per day.
You may select up to 2 final submissions for judging.
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Women's Jumpsuits FAQs
What types of jumpsuits does WHBM sell?
Jumpsuits allow you to dress to impress with ease. Forget coordinating separates, jumpsuits are an all-in-one piece that is the definition of chic. If dresses don't suit your tastes, or you just want to try something different, a jumpsuit or romper is an excellent alternative.
All of our women's jumpsuits embody the modern sophistication you have come to expect from our women's clothing. You'll find an array of versatile colors and eye-catching prints in our jumpsuit edit. Our jumpsuits range from sleek and simplistic to designs with striking details such as glittering trims, high-shine fabrics and visually interesting prints. As trends shift, we will add new jumpsuit styles with our signature design elements.
Can jumpsuits be worn to different occasions?
From formal to vacation casual, jumpsuits are one of the most versatile pieces you can have in your wardrobe. For special occasions, choose a women's black jumpsuit with dramatic flair such as cape sleeves or a bold pattern. Attend a beachfront wedding in a white women's jumpsuit that's simple with feminine touches like a belted waistline.
Styling a jumpsuit as casual or formal is all in the details. A sky-high heel and statement jewelry can instantly elevate your outfit for an evening event. Strappy sandals can provide a more casual air for daytime gatherings. A soft jersey women's jumpsuit is effortlessly chic and exceptionally comfortable for all-day affairs. Jumpsuits with more structured silhouettes are always appropriate for elegant occasions like professional events, engagement parties, and the like. If you need styling assistance for a special event, take advantage of our free advice through STYLECONNECTâ"¢, which allows you to speak with a personal stylist.
Can anyone wear a jumpsuit?
Yes, like women's skirts, jumpsuits can be worn by women of all sizes, shapes, heights, and ages. Depending on your personal tastes and what you feel comfortable wearing, we have women's jumpsuits that can cater to your taste. Whether you would like something more modest or a style that is more daring, jumpsuits are diverse. And you can always layer with a blazer or jacket to adapt it to your desired look. You can also find petite jumpsuits in our selection that are tailored to fit women 5'4" and under with flattering proportions.
What's the difference between a romper and a jumpsuit?
It's true that a romper and a jumpsuit are similar to each other. They both offer a single-piece apparel option that provides optimal convenience. Women's jumpsuits and rompers can be worn year round and are often available in similar styles like sleeveless and v-neck cuts. Although, rompers may be more popular in summer.
The defining difference between a romper and a jumpsuit is the length. A romper is a one-piece with shorts on bottom while a jumpsuit is a one-piece with pants on the bottom. Occasionally, a jumpsuit may feature three-quarter-length legs or a skirt overlay.


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John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
102601 Overseas Highway (MM 102.5)
P.O. Box 1560
Key Largo, FL 33037
(305) 451-6300
From Miami, take Florida's Turnpike south to US 1. Take US 1 to Key Largo. Look for the State Park entrance on your left at Mile Marker 102.5.
Travel Web Design by Wodu.
Hosting by


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Posted by Hano Lourens on August 14, 2013 at 02:50:49:
In Reply to: Puzzle posted by Josh on April 23, 2013 at 10:38:44:
This is a standard set cut on a WMW Modul or Heidenrich & Harbeck Generator. Both addendum are the same and the dedendum angles are also the same.
Follow Ups:
Post a Followup


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Casey McArdle
Casey McArdle
Casey McArdle is assistant professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University. He teaches in the Writing Program, the Professional and Public Writing Program, and Experience Architecture Program. He has several publications and conference presentations that focus on online interaction via academic, professional, and social spaces. His research interests examine digital rhetoric, social media, leadership, online writing instruction, web development, experience architecture, user experience, rhetorical theory, and instructional design.
PARS in Practice
More Resources and Strategies for Online Writing Instructors
Personal, Accessible, Responsive, Strategic
Resources and Strategies for Online Writing Instructors


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John Glover Roberts, a 25-year-old graduate of Harvard Law School, arrived in Washington in early 1980. Harvard Law professor Morton Horwitz described Roberts as "a conservative looking for a conservative ideology in American history," and he found that ideology in the nation's capital, first as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist and then as an influential aide in Ronald Reagan's Justice Department.
At the time, Rehnquist and the Reagan administration were at the vanguard of a new conservative counterrevolution in the law—a legal backlash against the historic and liberal-leaning civil rights laws of the 1960s. Just months before Roberts came to Washington, the Supreme Court had significantly limited the scope of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965. As a young lawyer, Roberts eagerly took up the conservative cause, becoming a key foot soldier in the effort to preserve that decision and weaken the VRA.
It was a fight Roberts would continue decades later, when he replaced Rehnquist as chief justice and authored the majority opinion in a landmark case gutting the VRA in 2013. Fifty years after the passage of the landmark civil rights law, and 35 years after he first worked so hard to dismantle it, Roberts remains at the center of an impassioned debate about voting rights in America, one that shows no signs of ending anytime soon.
The Supreme Court's initial weakening of the VRA began in Mobile, Alabama.
In 1925, thirty years before Rosa Parks declined to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, John LeFlore, a 25-year-old postal worker in Mobile, refused to give up his seat on a segregated streetcar to a white man. A scuffle ensued, and both men were arrested. The white man was promptly released while LeFlore remained in jail. The experience persuaded LeFlore to start a Mobile chapter of the NAACP.
Fifty years later, LeFlore visited the law office of Vernon Crawford, Mobile's foremost black civil rights lawyer, and asked him to file a lawsuit challenging the structure of the city's governing commission and school board. Despite African Americans' constituting a third of the port city's population, no black had ever been elected to a position of prominence in Mobile, because since 1911 city officials had been elected citywide, rather than from specific districts. That meant no black candidate could be elected without significant white support, which had never been forthcoming, and no white candidate with substantial black support had a realistic chance of winning office, either. Even after the passage of the VRA in 1965, blacks were shut out from influence in Alabama's third-largest city.
LeFlore's friend Wiley Bolden, a World War I veteran and insurance agent who had cofounded the Mobile NAACP, became the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, which charged that Mobile's government violated Section 2 of the VRA, a little-used provision whose language mirrored the Fifteenth Amendment. Unlike Section 5 of the law, which covered only select southern states, on a temporary basis, and gave the federal government the power to preemptively block discriminatory voting changes filed after 1965, Section 2 applied nationwide, on a permanent basis; put the burden of proof on plaintiffs to show that a voting change was discriminatory; and could be used to challenge electoral structures adopted before 1965, as was the case in Mobile.
After the lower courts ruled in favor of Bolden, finding that the city's election system discriminated against African Americans, Mobile appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The debate revealed a fundamental divide about how much protection the VRA provided for minority voters and whether the right to vote stopped at the ballot box or extended to the halls of power.
In a surprising 6–3 decision on April 22, 1980, the court sided with Mobile. "Racially discriminatory motivation is a necessary ingredient of a Fifteenth Amendment violation," wrote Justice Potter Stewart. "The Amendment does not entail the right to have Negro candidates elected, but prohibits only purposefully discriminatory denial or abridgment by government of the freedom to vote 'on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.'"
Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice, drafted a furious dissent. "A plurality of the Court concludes that, in the absence of proof of intentional discrimination by the State, the right to vote provides the politically powerless with nothing more than the right to cast meaningless ballots," Marshall wrote.
Every civil rights lawyer knew that intentional discrimination, which had never before been required under the VRA, was virtually impossible to prove. The decision represented the most significant setback for the VRA since its passage in 1965. And it was central to shaping John Roberts's legal views.
Roberts began clerking for Justice Rehnquist three months after the Mobile decision. The clerkship, from July 1980 to August 1981, would be a formative experience for the young lawyer.
Rehnquist's cramped 20-by-15-foot office functioned as a federalist society before there was an official Federalist Society, the closest place to the center of an emerging conservative legal movement. Rehnquist, known as the Lone Ranger when he joined the court in 1971 because of his ultra-conservative views, proudly displayed a figurine of the character on his desk. He was an old-school states' rights conservative, unafraid of taking deeply unpopular positions when it came to issues like civil rights.
In 1952, as a 28-year-old clerk to Justice Robert Jackson, Rehnquist had written an explosive memo as the court prepared to hear the first round of arguments in Brown v. Board of Education. "I realize that it is an unpopular and unhumanitarian position, for which I have been excoriated by 'liberal' colleagues, but I think Plessy v. Ferguson was right and should be re-affirmed," Rehnquist wrote.
A year later he urged Jackson to uphold an all-white primary for a Texas Democratic club. "It is about time the Court faced the fact that the white people of the South do not like the colored people," Rehnquist wrote. "The Constitution restrains them from effecting this dislike through state action but it most assuredly did not appoint the Court as a sociological watchdog to rear up every time private discrimination raises its admittedly ugly head." On both occasions, Jackson—and the court—disagreed.
After clerking for Jackson, Rehnquist moved to Arizona, where Barry Goldwater's brand of libertarian conservatism was on the rise. Rehnquist urged Goldwater to oppose the Civil Rights Act, arguing that the federal government couldn't tell private property owners what to do, and wrote a major speech for him during the 1964 campaign defending the vote.
"It has been well-said that the Constitution is color-blind," Goldwater remarked at the Conrad Hilton in Chicago. "And so it is just as wrong to compel children to attend certain schools for the sake of so-called integration as for the sake of segregation." Rehnquist's opposition to civil rights laws on federalism grounds and the rebranding of that opposition as principled "color blindness" would became a staple of conservative jurisprudence on civil rights issues.
During his nomination to the Supreme Court in 1971, Rehnquist's political activities in Arizona attracted controversy in Washington. From 1960 to 1964, Rehnquist directed "ballot security" operations for the Republican Party in Phoenix, known as "Operation Eagle Eye," which was designed to challenge the eligibility of Democratic voters at the polls. Civil rights activists with the NAACP in Arizona testified that Rehnquist had personally administered literacy tests to black and Hispanic voters at predominantly minority precincts in Phoenix, questioning their qualifications by asking them to read portions of the Constitution. Rehnquist denied the allegations and was confirmed 68–26.
His views on voting rights did not moderate when he joined the court. He backed the Mobile decision, and, on the same day, dissented when the court struck down a series of annexations in Rome, Georgia, which was nearly a quarter black but had no black officials. The city had undertaken 60 annexations from 1964 to 1975 to add white residents, which diluted the black vote, and failed to get federal approval for the changes as required under Section 5, the court held. "The enforcement provisions of the Civil War Amendments were not premised on the notion that Congress could empower a later generation of blacks to 'get even' for wrongs inflicted on their forebears," Rehnquist wrote.
Rehnquist's legal beliefs had a great influence on Roberts, remembered Paul Smith, a prominent civil rights lawyer who clerked at the time for Justice Lewis Powell. Smith had known Roberts in college and clerked alongside him at the Second Circuit before they arrived in D.C. "Rehnquist reinforced John's preexisting philosophies," Smith said. "John was not a believer in the courts giving rights to minorities and the downtrodden. That was the basic Rehnquist philosophy."
Clerking for Rehnquist became Roberts' entrée to the incoming Reagan administration, where the Lone Ranger's views were quickly embraced as the consensus among the Justice Department's new arrivals.
Roberts arrived at the Justice Department in the fall of 1981, after his Supreme Court clerkship, as a special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith. Civil rights policy became one of Roberts' primary responsibilities, with voting rights the largest part of his portfolio.
The Reagan administration had already embarked on a radical makeover of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, which enforced the VRA. The assistant attorney general for civil rights, William Bradford Reynolds, believed that "government-imposed discrimination" had created "a kind of racial spoils system in America" favoring historically disadvantaged minorities over whites, an argument that no head of the Civil Rights Division had ever made before. During Reynolds' tenure ending busing became more important than desegregating schools, dismantling quotas became more important than integrating the workforce or academia and preventing proportional representation became more important than achieving a multiracial government.
The DOJ was the nerve center of the Reagan revolution, the most intellectually vibrant and ideologically conservative agency of the federal government. Roberts' peers would soon be the future leaders of the conservative legal movement, from his boss, Kenneth Starr, the counselor to Attorney General Smith, to influential young lawyers like Chuck Cooper, Michael Carvin, Roger Clegg and Bruce Fein, who would profoundly change the direction of the law.
"This is an exciting time to be at the Justice Department," Roberts wrote to Judge William Friendly of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. "So much that has been taken for granted for so long is being seriously reconsidered."
In 1982, key parts of the VRA were set to expire. The House, which was still controlled by Democrats, held extensive hearings—including field hearings in Alabama and Texas—and voted 389-24 to extend the VRA for 10 years and reverse the Mobile decision by requiring plaintiffs to prove only the effects of voting discrimination under Section 2, not the intent.
The VRA debate began in the Senate in early 1982, where South Carolina's Strom Thurmond, a longtime civil rights critic, was now chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The Justice Department focused all its ammunition on preserving the Mobile decision. Limiting civil rights enforcement to individual cases of intentional discrimination, rather than broad protection for previously marginalized and disenfranchised groups, had emerged as a top conservative priority. "No 'pattern of discrimination case' may be filed unless there is clear proof of an intent to discriminate," the Heritage Foundation recommended in January 1981.
The Reagan administration turned to Roberts to make the case against the House bill's version of Section 2. Roberts wrote upwards of 25 memos opposing an effects test for Section 2; drafted talking points, speeches and op-eds for Smith and Reynolds; prepared administration officials for their testimony before the Senate; attended weekly strategy sessions; and worked closely with like-minded senators on Capitol Hill. He had a remarkable level of clout among the top officials in the Justice Department for a 26-year-old special assistant. "John had a lot of influence, not only in his memos," said Reynolds. "We sat down and talked about it a lot."
On December 22, 1981, a month before the Senate began hearings on the VRA, Roberts sent an extensive memo titled "Why Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act Should Be Retained Unchanged," to Smith for circulation to senators and their staffs.
"The House-passed version of Section 2 would in essence establish a 'right' in racial and language minorities to electoral representation proportional to their population in the community," Roberts wrote. "Violations of Section 2 should not be made too easy to prove, since they provide a basis for the most intrusive interference imaginable by federal courts into state and local processes."
A week earlier Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Charles Mathias (R-Maryland) had lined up enough Senate cosponsors for the House bill to overcome a Republican filibuster. The announcement was a clarion call for Roberts. "Brad Reynolds has expressed some reservations about circulating any written statement on this question to the Hill, for fear that the statement would end up in the press and be subject to attack," he wrote to Smith. "My own view is that something must be done to educate the Senators on the seriousness of this problem."
In memo after memo, Roberts recast the House version of Section 2 as yet another misguided form of affirmative action. "An effects test would eventually lead to a quota system in all areas, since only when effects are mathematically proportionate would the test be satisfied," Roberts wrote to Starr on January 5, 1982.
When Smith testified before the Senate, he echoed Roberts' argument about Section 2, saying: "I think that if carried to its logical conclusion, proportional representation or, put another way, quotas, would be the end result."
Opposition to an effects test became an obsession for Roberts. After Smith's testimony, he drafted hard-hitting op-eds for Smith and Reynolds in the New York Times and the Washington Post restating the quota argument. "The frequent writings in this area by our adversaries have gone unanswered for too long," he told Reynolds.
Roberts distributed his ghostwritten op-eds and talking points to senators and their staffs. Reynolds restated Roberts' argument when he testified before the Senate on the last day of hearings. "An 'effects' test under amended Section 2 would likely lead to the widespread restructuring by federal courts of electoral procedures and systems at all levels of government—from the U.S. House of Representatives to local school boards—on no more than a finding that the election system is not designed to avoid disproportionate election results," Reynolds said.
Roberts' positions put him sharply at odds with the career lawyers in the Civil Rights Division, who unanimously supported an effects test for Section 2 and personally knew how difficult it was to prove intentional discrimination. "John seemed like he always had it in for the Voting Rights Act," said Gerry Hebert, the deputy director of litigation in the Civil Rights Division's voting section. "I remember him being a zealot when it came to having fundamental suspicions about the Voting Rights Act's utility."
Civil rights lawyers found Roberts' claim that the House version of Section 2 would lead to quotas or proportional representation to be patently absurd. In the seven southern states originally covered by the VRA, for example, blacks made up 25 percent of the population but held only 5 percent of elected seats. "In a lot of cases we were talking about, there were no blacks elected," said longtime civil rights lawyer Armand Derfner. "We were trying to get from none to some."
On March 1, 1982, following Brad Reynolds's testimony, the Reagan administration won a major victory when the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution passed a 10-year extension of the VRA that preserved the Supreme Court's intent test for Section 2. Strom Thurmond appeared to be on the verge of killing the House bill.
Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, the powerful chairman of the Finance Committee, stepped in to broker a compromise. Dole advised fellow Republicans to make "the extra effort to erase the lingering image of our party as the cadre of the elite, the wealthy, the insensitive. … Our job now is to demonstrate concern to blacks and others who doubt our sincerity." Dole adopted the House-backed effects test for Section 2 but added a disclaimer that a lack of proportional representation was not enough to justify a Section 2 violation.
Roberts was furious. "There is no reason to change the permanent nationwide provisions of the Voting Rights Act from an intent test to a results test," he wrote in response to an editorial praising the bill.
The Senate passed the Dole compromise by a vote of 85–8, reflecting an overwhelming bipartisan consensus for the VRA in Congress. The House passed the Senate bill on a nearly unanimous voice vote five days later. The extension lasted for 25 years, three and a half times longer than the 1975 reauthorization of the VRA.
The 1982 reauthorization facilitated a great increase in minority voting power. The number of successful Section 2 cases skyrocketed from 3 in 1981, after the Mobile decision, to 175 in 1988. A retrial in Mobile abolished the city's at-large elections for good.
In July 1985, for the first time in the city's history, three African-Americans were elected to the city council: Irmatean Watson, a pharmacist, and two ministers, Charles Tunstall and Clinton Johnson. Former Commissioner Arthur Outlaw, a racial moderate who had opposed the city's decision to appeal the original Mobile ruling, became the new mayor. Twenty-five hundred Mobilians attended the swearing-in ceremony. A year later 93-year-old Wiley Bolden addressed a meeting of the council. A decade after filing the Mobile case, seeing the three African-American commissioners "gratifies me more than you can know," Bolden said.
The Reagan administration lost the battle over Section 2 but won the larger war over reshaping the country's civil rights laws. Four years after the VRA's reauthorization, the Senate confirmed Rehnquist as chief justice of the Supreme Court. The former Lone Ranger, whom the New York Times called "once a lonely dissenter on the Court's extreme right wing," had become its new leader. Immediately after Rehnquist's confirmation, the Senate unanimously confirmed the court of appeals judge Antonin Scalia as Rehnquist's replacement. In the span of 10 minutes, the Supreme Court shifted significantly to the right—a transformation that has lasted for decades.
When Rehnquist passed away in 2005, George W. Bush nominated John Roberts to replace his former boss as chief justice. The White House released fifteen thousand pages of records documenting Roberts' tenure in the Reagan administration, which drew sharp criticism from civil rights groups.
Rep. John Lewis, who nearly died marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, testified against Roberts' nomination. "Had Judge Roberts' narrow reading of the Voting Rights Act prevailed, fewer people of color would be serving in Congress and at both the state and local level today," Lewis told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "We cannot afford to elevate an individual to such a powerful lifetime position whose record demonstrates such a strong desire to reverse the hard-won civil rights gains that so many of us sacrificed so much to achieve."
Members of the Judiciary Committee pressed Roberts to explain his current views on the VRA.
"I'm just trying to find out on the Voting Rights Act whether you have any problem at all, and trouble at all, in terms of the constitutionality of the existing Voting Rights Act that was extended by the Congress?" Sen. Kennedy asked.
"The existing Voting Rights Act, the constitutionality has been upheld, and I don't have any issue with that," Roberts answered.
"Will you on the court fairly apply the Voting Rights Act?" the Republican Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley followed up.
"Any issues that come before me under the Voting Rights Act, I will confront those with an open mind and decide them after full and fair consideration of the arguments, in light of the precedents of the court, and in light of a recognition of the critical role that the right to vote plays as preservative of all other rights," Roberts responded.
But it soon became clear that the chief justice's views on voting rights hadn't moderated since the Reagan years. In the 2013 decision, Shelby County v. Holder, Roberts struck down the formula, Section 4, that determined which states had to receive federal approval for their election changes under Section 5, rendering inoperative one of the law's most important parts. "Things have changed dramatically" since 1965, Roberts wrote. "Yet the Act has not eased Section 5's restrictions or narrowed the scope of Section 4's coverage formula along the way. Instead those extraordinary and unprecedented features have been reauthorized as if nothing has changed, and they have grown even stronger."
Roberts ironically justified his decision by pointing to the continued presence of Section 2—the very provision he'd tried relentlessly to weaken during the Reagan years. "Our decision in no way affects the permanent, nationwide ban on racial discrimination in voting found in Section 2," he wrote.
Following the Shelby decision, the Justice Department and civil rights groups filed suit against restrictive voting laws in North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin under Section 2. These cases came before the Supreme Court on emergency appeal in the weeks before the 2014 election and in three of four instances the court refused to block the new laws. These were only temporary rulings, not full decisions on the merits, but it's very possible that the constitutionality of Section 2 will be debated before the court after trials in North Carolina and Texas this year, which could further eviscerate the VRA.
Last week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that Texas's voter ID law violated the VRA. But the appeals court disagreed with the lower court's finding that the law was purposefully discriminatory, finding only that it had a discriminatory effect against African Americans and Latinos. If Robert's interpretation of Section 2—requiring intentional discrimination—had prevailed in the 1980s, the country's strictest voter ID law would still be in effect.
That's why voting rights advocates, after Shelby, are wary of another major voting rights case reaching the Supreme Court. After a lifetime of opposition to the VRA, Roberts' is finally in the position to make sure that voting rights violations, as he once stated, "should not be made too easy to prove."


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Job Choices in the Legal Field
The delivery of legal services is a complex process that typically requires teams of skilled…
The delivery of legal services is a complex process that typically requires teams of skilled professionals to provide quality and cost-effective service. As a result, the legal field offers many jobs encompassing a diverse range of skills, experience, and education. Developments in the law and technology have also created new legal career opportunities.
People will always need lawyers. However, plenty of job options exist within the legal field beyond becoming a lawyer.
Table of Contents
Core Legal Careers
Core legal careers are those positions that are most often thought of when the field of legal services is considered.
Lawyers are also called an attorney or counselor—or a solicitor or barrister in parts of Europe—a lawyer advocates for their clients' rights. They may do this through negotiation with other parties to a lawsuit or through litigation. They effectively steer the ship. The failure or success of a firm begins with the abilities of its lawyers.
Paralegals serve as the lawyer's right hand. A paralegal takes over certain tasks to free up the attorney's time so he can take care of things that only an attorney can do, such as appear in court or give legal advice. Paralegals may draft pleadings, assist clients, and do legal research under the supervision of the attorney.
Legal Secretary
Legal secretaries are also called an administrative assistant, this position entails less responsibility than a paralegal but often more than the average secretarial role. Responsibilities include the normal sphere of secretarial duties in addition to things like file maintenance and drafting basic correspondence, such as letters to clients notifying them of upcoming court dates.
Both paralegals and legal secretaries may be referred to as legal assistants.
Careers in Legal and Administrative Support
The practice of the law requires the support of many professionals in a variety of specialized fields. These professionals provide information to the attorneys who represent the case in trial.
Compliance Specialist
A compliance specialist is an employee who implements and oversees corporate compliance with applicable laws and policies, both locally and at the federal level. The position may include training employees in compliance procedures.
Conflicts Analyst
A conflict analyst fills a delicate role within a law firm. They research potential conflicts of interest between firm personnel and parties involved in a case, including judicial staff. Maintaining a high level of confidentiality can be critical.
Legal Recruiter
A legal recruiter does not involve working within a law firm. A legal recruiter provides their clients—typically law firms—with potential employees. Those employees are usually attorneys but sometimes paralegals, as well. A Juris Doctor degree may be required.
Court Messenger
Court messengers are the people on the go. They are responsible for making deliveries of documents and other evidence to courts and other attorneys.
Law Firm Administrator
Sometimes called a practice administrator, this top-tier administrative position oversees the day-to-day operations and finances of a law firm.
Contract Administrator
This individual typically works under the practice administrator dealing with specific areas of day-to-day finances, particularly those involving contractual obligations.
IT Careers in Litigation Support
In the internet-driven age, good technical support is essential to a great legal practice.
Litigation support professionals can require both technical savvy and an understanding of the law. Litigation support professionals work with software and applications to manage case data that's crucial to litigation.
Another important position is E-discovery professionals. These roles are similar to that of a litigation support professional but mostly focuses on discover. They work with the exchange of information pertinent to a case between the courts and parties to a lawsuit—rather than the totality of a case file. Discovery is being condensed into electronic storage, mediums more and more in the millennium.
The document coder is largely a data entry position. The coder maintains a system to identify and access the various documents in a case file. It's typically an entry-level position in IT litigation support.
Courtroom and Courthouse Careers
Of course, the image that flashes in most minds as you mention a legal career is the classic courtroom setting.
The judge oversees trials, pretrial conferences, pretrial rulings, and, in some cases, appeals. This a public sector position that may be appointed or elected. Their overall job is to interpret and apply the law.
Not all states make use of magistrates. These are "junior" judges or judicial officers who are entrusted with minor cases and disputes to take some of the weight of caseloads off judges.
Law clerks are to judges what paralegals are to attorneys — their right hands. They're often law school graduates who have not yet applied to the bar, but they may be new, young attorneys just getting their feet wet as well. It's a prestigious entry on a resume. Law clerks manage the judges' case files and do research, drafting condensed reports on filed documents as guidelines. As a result, the judge doesn't have to read the entire bulging case file to get a handle on what the matter involves.
A courtroom deputy will typically wear a law enforcement uniform. They help to maintain order in the court. They may accompany criminal defendants to and from the courtroom or intercede between counsel. For example, they may pass an item of discovery from one table to the next or the judge.
The court interpreter assists non-English-speaking litigants.
The court clerk or prothonotary is a behind-the-scenes role in the courthouse but no less important. Every legal case involves reams of filed paperwork, even in this time of technology. Clerks accept it from litigants and keep orderly track of all of it. The job ranges from entry-level positions to the chief clerk.
Mediators—also called an arbitrator or conciliator—handle alternative dispute resolution (ADR), which many states require before a civil lawsuit can proceed to trial. The mediator meets with and attempts to guide opposing parties to compromise or settlement. They don't "represent" either side and may or may not be an employee of the government.
It is the stenographer you see seated beside the judge's bench. They transcribe legal proceedings, hearings, trials, and even depositions. More courts are moving to audio recordings, and court reporters also transcribe these tapes.
Videography in the courtroom is common. Being a broadcast captioner involves entering captions on videography, often in real-time in the course of a trial, which is then preserved as part of the case file in the event of an appeal.
Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) providers are most commonly involved in assisting the deaf and hearing impaired, converting speech to text for their benefit.
Careers in Legal Consulting
The legal services field offers positions for people outside of the legal field. A jury consultant guides attorneys toward selecting sympathetic jurors at trial and helps them avoid unsympathetic jurors. They do this by posing a series of questions to potential jurors. It can also involve doing background research and interpreting body language, both during questioning and later during trial.
Computer forensics professionals analyze digital evidence and reports on it. They may also testify regarding it at trial. Think of a hard drive that's been intentionally erased, but some trace of data remains behind. The computer forensics professional would unearth that.
A forensic scientist helps to collect, preserve, and analyze physical evidence for attorneys and the courts. A blood-spatter analyst is one example. The forensic videographer involves creating video images for trial. The videographer may also present the images at trial under oath.
An accident reconstructionist often has a background in engineering or law enforcement. They examine the details of an accident to recreate how it might have occurred and ultimately who, if anyone, is to blame.
Careers in Legal Education
Of course, many professions in legal services require advanced education at a college or university level. This requirement opens another avenue for those seeking to work in this field.
Law Professor
Law school professors not only teach classes but are typically involved in research as well. Many schools also require that they periodically publish in law journals.
Law School Dean
The dean is the highest-ranking administrator in a law school, supervising operations, academic programs, and even sometimes issues of student discipline.
Law School Admissions Officer
This individual oversees and reviews student applications and test scores and may also personally interview potential students for acceptance.
Legal Career Counselor
Many law schools, particularly top-tier schools, employ someone to prepare graduating students for entering the workforce. They might conduct mock job interviews, help identify potential employers, arrange interviews with law firms, and even make the initial introduction. Loyalty to the school and marketing the school and its students to future employers is paramount.
This list is not all-inclusive, but it represents a broad sampling of the hundreds of opportunities that exist in the legal industry. Many of these positions are available only in larger firms.


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Today I'm thankful for...
Oh how I love these little guys! They make even the littlest things so much fun. We spent some time outside yesterday just jumping around in the leaves and getting dirty in the sandbox.
It's just what I needed to escape my endless to-do list as the holidays approach.
Hope each and every one of you are blessed with the simple pleasures of life this time of year!
4 comments:
Such a cute picture. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!ReplyDelete
The picture of the boys is to cuteReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 23, 2011 at 6:03 AM
Nice color choice on the blog. It is really easy on my eyes and I have bad eyes too so that's a really big compliment lolReplyDelete
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Precious, precious photo. I am sure it was a precious time, as well! :) Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!ReplyDelete
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[PAST EVENT] Celebrity Chef Katsuya Fukushima and Team Cooks for Students in Center Court, Sadler Center
LocationSadler Center, Center Court
200 Stadium Dr
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
Celebrity Chef Katsuya Fukushima is one of the United States? top chefs. In addition to being featured in Anthony Bourdain?s ?No Reservations? and ?Gourmet?s Diary of a Foodie,? he has appeared two times in ?Iron Chef America,? defeating Iron Chefs Bobby Flay and Jose Garces, respectively.
Chef Fukushima is currently Executive Chef and partner with renowned and award winning restauranteurs Yama Jewayni and Daisuki Utuagawa of the nationally-acclaimed Washington DC restaurants Daikaya-Izakaya, Bantam King, Haikan, and Hatoba (opening Spring, 2019)
Restauranteurs Yama Jewayni will be in attendance and he and Chef Fukushima will be guest judges at the GREAT WM ASIA COOK-OFF later Monday evening. Their visit and this event is a part of the GREAT WM ASIA COOK-OFF, which is organized by and a part of Prof. Stephen Sheehi's courses "The Culture of Arab Food" (ARAB 150) and "The AMES East Asia Student Think Tank" (AMES 385). The event is sponsored by Asian and Middle East Studies (AMES), the Asian and Pacific Islander American Program (APIA), the Decolonizing Humanities Project, Global Studies, the Freeman Fellowship Program, the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, and the Charles Center.
This event is also a part of WM Dining's "Diversity Series" featuring the cuisine of Japan.


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October 2008 WSCA Meeting
Oktoberfest at Pike Place Pub & Brewery
We had our October meeting with Beer and Brats at The Pike Place Pub & Brewery with traditional Oktoberfest fare. Charles from the Brewery talked about Beer and Uli of Uli's Sausages taught us how to make great sausages!
-On Tables During Speakers-
Artisan Cheese Plate
Hand Crafted locally from Cow, Sheep and Goat Milk
Served with Local Bread
Fresh Pub Salad
Pike's Ale Braised Bratwurst
(Freshly made sustainable Bratwurst from
Uli's Famous Sausage Company in Pike Place Market)
Horseradish Mashed Organic Potatoes
Chef Gary's Apple Sauerkraut
Pike XXXXX Extra Stout Mustard
Spicy Chicken Wings with Blue Moon Dressing
Artisan Rolls
Please join us for one of our monthly dinner meetings.


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Opening its doors on Oct. 7, 1868, Mankato Normal School (officially the second state Normal School), the forerunner of Mankato State, began its first year with 27 pupils. The school operated out of rented quarters at the Methodist Episcopal Church. All students were from Mankato or the immediate area.
Cutting-edge research in state-of-the-art facilities is one of the hallmarks of Minnesota State Mankato. Many of our research programs rival those at major research universities, but in a setting where the focus is on solving real-world problems.
Your housing options at Minnesota State Mankato are extensive. We offer the following types of housing:
Traditional (Crawford, McElroy, and Preska (I Hall) Residence Communities)
Apartments (Stadium Heights)
Semi-Suites (Julia Sears and Preska Residence Communities)
Library Services supports the curriculum of Minnesota State University, Mankato, by providing students, faculty, and staff with information resources, access to information through traditional and evolving technologies, and instruction in their effective use.
Computers and Internet available.
Quality and affordable health care is never far away at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and it's available to every student. An accredited on-site medical clinic with a full-service pharmacy, lab services and health education are all part of Student Health Services.
You could do it all right here on campus: live, work, play and thrive. The university's spirit is routinely charged by great art, entertainment, and exciting athletics. Residential life brings students together in beautiful, renovated housing. A diverse campus allows all students to share with and learn from each other. Being a Maverick means all of this—and the unforgettable times you'll make of it.
Otto Recreation Center offers three basketball/volleyball courts, cardio equipment, weight room, and indoor walking/running track.
Minnesota State University, Mankato is home to 200+ Recognized Student Organizations that enrich campus. Make the most of your Maverick experience!
Minnesota State University, Mankato has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) since 1916. HLC accredits degree-granting post-secondary educational institutions in the North Central region of the United States and conducts a full review of accreditation every 10 years.
Go to your profile page to get personalised recommendations!


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Let's Get Real About MACT
Ask any environmental compliance engineer what their biggest worry is and they will likely mention something involving MACT (maximum achievable control technology) standards. As MACT standards come to cover more and more industries, many facilities have found achieving compliance to be a significant challenge. Frequently they find that under investment in air pollution control over a number of years substantially complicates their compliance. Some have held out for political change that they assumed would lead to a revocation of these standards. Although the MACT program is firmly established by law and not subject to any executive directives or revision like some other standards, they've built programs of minimal compliance assuming that MACT would be reversed. It hasn't. It's exceedingly unlikely that it will.


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The Indian golfing sensation has firmly set his eyes on making the International team which will face a Tiger Woods-led United States team in the Presidents Cup next year.
India's newest golf star Shubhankar Sharma plans to fight his way into the 2019 Presidents Cup, as one of his early inspirations Ernie Els was named captain of the International team.
"It would be fantastic if I can make it to the Presidents Cup. It'll be a dream come true," said Sharma.
"But in saying that, it's in 2019, we still have a year and a half to go. I don't want to get ahead of myself just yet. Anything is possible if I continue to play really well and break into the top-50 in the world."
It would also complete a full circle for the dream that began in 2008, when he attended one of Els' clinics, when the 19-time PGA Tour winner came to India for the Indian Masters.
"I was a kid and went for a golf clinic after one of his rounds. Ernie called out a few kids to hit a few shots and I was one of them. We were using his nine iron and as kids, it was really heavy for us and nobody could really hit it good.
"I was the last kid and he came over and told me I have got to hit the ball in the centre of the clubface and showed me how to hold the club," recounted Sharma.
"I went on to hit two great shots, which went towards the 100-yard marker. That was one of the best memories I have of Ernie and he was kind enough to give me his card and after signing it, he said I will be a great player one day if I kept practicing. And for a kid like me who was only 10 at that time, it just made my day."
One of the reasons why Sharma has followed the Presidents Cup closely over the past two editions was because his close friend and countryman, Anirban Lahiri featured in the International team.
"Even though we were playing on the Asian Tour during the week of the Presidents Cup, we managed to watch it on TV. It was exciting to see the International team coming close," said Sharma, who finished tied seventh at the Hero Indian Open last week.
"I think it will be a lot of fun, being in that team atmosphere. You normally play for yourself and you try to do your best but it's a different feeling when you play for a team, just like how it was during our amateur careers when we played for India.
"I think it will be a lot of fun. The intensity and the passion that the players have, I'm sure it's a great event. If I can get into the Presidents Cup in 2019, it'll be really fantastic."
Sharma's stunning rise in recent months has also caught the attention of PGA TOUR Commissioner, Jay Monahan. During the unveiling of the team captains on Tuesday, he pointed out Shubhankar as one of the players to look out for.
Sharma will have his first chance at showing off his match play credentials when he makes his debut at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin next week.
The young Indian will also play in the Masters Tournament, the year's first major, in April after receiving a special exemption from Augusta National and will also feature in several other PGA Tour tournaments.
Sharma, 21, has taken the golfing world by storm following two recent victories in South Africa and Malaysia which he followed up with an eye-catching tied ninth performance at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. He led a star-laden field in Mexico City after the second and third rounds.
With his world ranking rocketing from a lowly 521st in November to its current 64th position, the talented Sharma has firmly set his eyes on making the International team which will face a Tiger Woods-led United States team at The Royal Melbourne Golf Course in Melbourne in December, 2019.