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Monday, May 12, 2014
TV-loving multiculturalist in Britain
An abusive father attacked his own son - and almost killer his wheelchair user wife - in a row over watching Emmerdale.
Ajit Sekhon, 59, was watching the soap over breakfast with his wife Manjit and son Paul, 32, but flew into a violent rage when the picture cut out.
He battered his son, who had been adjusting the aerial to fix the television, with a metal cereal bowl before trying to strangle him.
Mrs Sekhon managed to escape the attack to raise the alarm, but when she came back her husband turned on her, beating her with a heavy ornament, pouring burning liquid on her and even biting her fingers.
He used a heavy ornament to attack her head, causing significant injuries to her scalp.
Sekhon was found standing over his unconscious wife - whom he had beaten and abused for years - in his blood-spattered home in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
He was jailed for sixteen and a half years after admitting two counts of grievous bodily harm against his family members at Sheffield Crown Court.
Sentencing him at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Julian Goose said: 'It was a sustained attack on both of them with repeated blows when they were defenceless.'
Kirstie Watson, prosecuting, explained that Mrs Sekhon, who had been married to her Sikh husband for 38 years, had missed an episode of Emmerdale and wanted to catch up over breakfast.
She was watching the show with her son Paul when her husband came into the lounge and got two breakfast bowls for them.
'There was a problem with the reception and Paul tried to improve the picture,' said Miss Watson. 'Suddenly and without any warning the defendant jumped up and with his metal cereal bowl began to hit Paul about the head,' she said.
The prosecutor described how he fell onto his mother, who has mobility problems and uses a wheelchair, as she sat on the sofa.
Sekhon repeatedly hit his son with the bowl on the head and arms as his mother screamed 'you are going to kill him, you are going to kill him.'
Sekhon then began strangling Paul, who nearly passed out. He then picked up a sharp-edged bracelet and began hitting his blood-soaked son with it on his arms and body before Mrs Sekhon escape through the a patio doors and raised the alarm.
When she returned shortly afterwards her husband was still brutally attacking her son on his legs. But he managed to escape, leading his father to turn on Mrs Sekhon.
He turned to his wife, grabbed her by the hair, pinned her face down on the floor and said: 'I'm going to kill you now you have let that bastard go.' He struck her repeatedly about the head with a heavy ornament and sat on her as she was face down.
Miss Watson said at one point she pretended to be dead but when she moved her husband began beating her again. He bit one of her fingers and she felt he was trying to burn her as some liquid was poured over her.
When the police arrived Sekhon was stood over his unconscious wife who was still on the floor and he then stopped the attack and went to wash his hands.
Officers said Sekhon could only stare at them when they arrived - and they had to use a Taser to restrain him.
Miss Watson said: 'The police and paramedics found a scene of complete devastation. There was blood all over the room, on the walls, on the floor and on the sofa.'
Mrs Sekhon was rushed to hospital where she needed emergency treatment to survive. She has been left scarred for life and has had three operations on her badly damaged scalp and suffered injuries to her head, arms and hands and had broken fingers.
Her son had cuts to his head, arms and hands as well as broken fingers.
The court heard Sekhon had been controlling and abusive to his wife from the start of their marriage, both verbally and physically.
He broke her arm only a week after she had a caesarean birth and was also violent towards his children, one of whom ran away from home in fear of him.
Sekhon was effectively his wife's carer on October 18 last year when the attack took place. She said in a victim impact statement that she still bears the mental scars, is scared to be alone and her road to recovery 'will be a long one.'
She said: 'I consider the arrival of the officers saved my life.'
Her son Paul had to take time off from his work as a carer and was now his mother's main support. 'I don't understand why my father acted as he did,' he said.
In mitigation Nawaz Hussain said the attack was not pre-meditated. He said: 'It was a normal family gathering and what came afterwards was all the more horrifying. It was a horrific loss of temper and self-control.'
He had clearly failed in his role as a 'husband and father' and when accounts of the incident were given to him he was 'sickened' as he remembered little of it.
'He will have no family on his release from prison and will not seek to contact them', said Mr Hussain. 'He may well see his final days in prison. 'He will have to live with the horror he has inflicted on his family to his last days.'
Judge Goose said: 'An argument developed, the cause is irrelevant but you lost your temper and began to attack Paul in a sustained and violent attack whilst your wife begged you to stop.'
He said Paul was defenceless as he was repeatedly struck with the bowl and then he was nearly strangled.
The judge went on: 'You knew your wife was vulnerable and had mobility problems and required a wheelchair yet still you struck her repeatedly on the head.
'You threatened to kill her and carried on a sustained attack with a heavy object. It was feared she might not survive due to the amount of blood she lost.'
Syphilis rate reaches highest level in the U.S. since 1995 as gay and bisexual men account for most of the rise
An unhealthy lifestyle
Health officials say syphilis has reached its highest level since 1995 with the increase all in men.
Syphilis remains far less common in the U.S. than many other sexually spread diseases. But there has been a steady rise in gay and bisexual men catching the disease. They account for most of the recent infectious cases.
Since 2005, the rate in men has nearly doubled. It is much lower in women and hasn't changed much.
Syphilis is a potentially deadly bacterial disease that surfaces as genital sores. It was far more common until antibiotics became available in the 1940s, slashing the number of annual cases to below 6,000.
Last year, there were nearly 17,000 cases.
The The Clarkson 'racism' row shows how out of touch liberal bullies are with the real world
Jeremy Clarkson has had a very bad week. The Top Gear host is reportedly being divorced by his wife of 21 years, with whom he has not lived for some time.
He is also being investigated by the media regulator Ofcom over his use of the word 'slope' about a bridge in an episode of the BBC2 motoring programme that was filmed in Thailand.
Evidently a 'slope' is not just a slight incline but also a derogatory reference to Asians. This was news to me.
And he has been carpeted by the BBC director-general Tony Hall after apparently mumbling the 'N-word' in a clip that was never broadcast. According to Clarkson's own account, he has been given one more chance.
'If I make one more offensive remark, anywhere, at any time, I will be sacked,' he wrote.
We should therefore assume that, if the BBC sticks to its threat, the TV presenter will be shown the door pretty soon, because he loves scandalising people by saying things which normal, well-mannered folk do not say.
But is he a racist? I very much doubt it. Better call him a rebellious, ex-public schoolboy who loves larking around and has never really grown up. This is one reason why young people often like him, despite his relatively advanced years.
He was expelled from his school, Repton. I can imagine him sitting at the back of the class, not learning very much but occasionally coming up with a cunning and subversive question designed to drive his poor teacher crazy.
New boys at Repton were called 'stigs', and when Clarkson started Top Gear with an old school-mate, Andy Wilman (he's the producer), they had the perhaps not very original but somehow appropriate idea of calling their sometimes put-upon test driver 'The Stig'.
Top Gear is not really about cars. It is about Jeremy Clarkson — striking poses, challenging received wisdom, being rude, accepting (and making) daft and often infantile challenges.
And it has been fantastically successful — almost certainly the most successful series ever made by the BBC. In Britain, it attracts audiences of seven or eight million, making it BBC2's most watched programme; while globally it has an international audience of some 350 million.
It has earned tens of millions of pounds for BBC Worldwide, which markets the programme, and made Clarkson and, to a slightly less extent, Wilman, very rich men. Clarkson is said to be worth £30 million, of which his wife Frances will deservedly get a large chunk if they do divorce.
This is my question. If Jeremy Clarkson really were a racist, would millions of people in this country watch Top Gear, and would hundreds of millions in Asia and other parts of the world, where almost no one is white, also remain glued to it?
There is an enormous gulf here between home-grown, sensitive, liberal types versed in all the by-ways of political correctness, and ordinary punters in Britain and abroad who like Clarkson and recognise that there is no apparent nastiness in him, let alone racism.
If Clarkson exuded a whiff of racism, or even a touch of post-imperial grandeur, tens of millions of television sets throughout the world would be switched off, and millions in this country would never be turned on.
They like him because he is an odd man who makes them laugh. Of course, I can't vouch for what he may allegedly have said in the past to his nearest and dearest.
Look at the recent charges against him. In the unshown video, Clarkson recites the old nursery rhyme 'Eeny, Meeny, Miny Moe etc', and when he gets to the N-word he mumbles it almost inaudibly, almost as an afterthought.
Jeremy Clarkson took to Twitter to apologise over his use of the 'Eeny, Meeny, Miny Moe' nursery rhyme
Jeremy Clarkson took to Twitter to apologise over his use of the 'Eeny, Meeny, Miny Moe' nursery rhyme
Yet human rights lawyer Lucy Scott-Moncrieff told the Daily Mirror, which published the video: 'It is all about context. If there was a crew member who was distressed by it, then there could well have been a breach of equality legislation.'
Another lawyer, Lawrence Davies, said: 'Clarkson has to be sacked, no matter how much money he makes for the BBC.'
This character, who runs the law firm Equal Justice, claims there have been 'repeated' racist jibes on Top Gear at the expense of Germans, Mexicans and Asians, among others.
What can you do with humourless people who are constitutionally programmed to make a mountain out of the tiniest molehill, and see scope for some idiotic legal action whose sole, and doubtful, benefit would be to make a clutch of wealthy lawyers even richer?
As for 'slope', Andy Wilman has apologised. He says the word was employed by way of a joke to convey 'both the build quality of the bridge and a local Asian man who was crossing it'.
They hadn't realised it was thought offensive by some people, and Clarkson wouldn't have used it if he had known.
But among all the tens of millions of people who watched the show, it seems that not very many were upset. Ofcom, in all its pomp, has launched its inquiry after receiving just two complaints following the broadcast on March 16.
Oh, I SHOULD also mention that he did provoke a complaint from a hitherto rather obscure actress called Somi Guha, who consulted our old friends at Equal Justice with a view to suing the BBC.
Perhaps it would have been better if Clarkson hadn't mumbled the N-word on a programme that was never broadcast. (It would, of course, be a different matter if it had been.)
And maybe 'slope' was a tactless thing to say. But at the very worst, these amount to minor errors of taste. They're not evidence of racism.
My point is that, like many 17-year-old public schoolboys of his era, Clarkson cannot resist a rebellious dig at orthodoxy. And the orthodoxy in this instance is the stifling cloak of political correctness, which seeks to determine not only what can and cannot be said, but what can and cannot be thought.
He was recently accused of racism for naming his black terrier 'Didier Dogba', after the black former Chelsea football star Didier Drogba.
This was pretty puerile and rather unfunny, but it wasn't racist. Clarkson was trying to enrage the politically correct wallahs, and, predictably over-sensitive as they are, I have no doubt he succeeded.
If Clarkson were not a cash cow for the BBC, he would of course have been sacked long ago. As he says a final warning has now been issued, it is hard to see how he can survive very long.
Last year, the BBC gained full worldwide distribution rights for Top Gear, paying Clarkson £8.4 million (plus a £4.86 million dividend payment) for his share, while Wilman trousered £5.6 million for his stake.
So it can get rid of its unruly presenter, and select an anodyne anchorman to carry on with the series. In which case it would soon collapse.
As an only occasional viewer, I can't say I would lose much sleep. But I wouldn't like to see Jeremy Clarkson felled by his narrow-minded critics.
For all his faults, he is an independent spirit who connects with tens of millions of people of all creeds and races. However absurd he sometimes is, they are confident he is not a racist.
Racist ThinkProgress Asserts black gun advocate Must Have Been Manufactured By The NRA
If you listen to the assertions made by ThinkProgress's Jessica Goldstein, Colion Noir was manufactured by the NRA virtually overnight in an effort to con minorities into supporting gun rights.
Does that sound like too harsh a criticism of Goldstein's rant? Judge for yourself.
Goldstein seems to believe that it is impossible that Noir could exist without someone else creating him. The incredible depths of racism exposed in her thought patterns are terribly disconcerting. She shows the depths of her dark fantasies by imagining precisely how he was created… by the demonic old white men that run the NRA, no doubt:
"As you can probably guess, Colion Noir is not his real name. It's Collins Idehen. (Can you imagine the pitch meeting, trying to come up with the just-right fake name for the face of young black gun ownership? "How about Jack Black? Wait, that's taken." "You know, Noir means "black" in French." "French? Isn't that a little liberal-elite for our taste?" "No, trust me, people are going to like it." "BOOM. Best brainstorm ever!")"
She's told us nothing about Noir, but she does strongly suggest that she sincerely thinks that a black American male cannot be well-spoken, have refined tastes for well-made things, be "hip," and produce video with good production values without someone speaking through him, using him as a puppet.
Goldstein indulges in her thinly-veiled racism even more in the next paragraph:
"Noir seems to have emerged out of the ether; evidence of his earlier, real-name career is scant. In interviews, he recites an origin story that sounds too good to not be scripted: he told conservative news site The Blaze that he was "not too fond" of guns as a kid and didn't fire one until after college, when he went with gun-owning friend to a range one day. "Quite frankly, when I stepped in I was terrified." But once he fired, "it was literally love at first shot."
You'll note that she specifically chooses the term "origin story," (a term generally used in the context of a comic book hero's backstory) to continue her thesis that he couldn't be a self-made man, but was the product of someone else's imagination. She insists that he's a scripted character.
Noir, the newly-manufactured ("scripted," with a "just-right fake name") NRA shill that Goldstein insists must be muttering lines in someone else's minstrel show, just celebrated the third anniversary of his first video, uploaded May 8, 2011.
She cannot accept the thought that in a nation of 312 million souls, there exists young, successful, discerning minorities that hold views other than those approved by racial gatekeepers.
We haven't learned anything about Colion Noir in this article, but I'm afraid that we've learned quite a bit about what Jessica Goldstein really thinks about black men in our society, and perhaps something about the sort of editors who would allow such an obviously bigoted article go to print.
Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.
American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of other countries. The only real difference, however, is how much power they have. In America, their power is limited by democracy. To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges. They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did: None. So look to the colleges to see what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way. It would be a dictatorship.
For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and DISSECTING LEFTISM. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.
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VICE magazine cofounder Gavin McInnes who single handedly created the hipster meme with his Do's and Don'ts photo series of street fashion disasters, who is now a regular on Fox News, has an essay titled:
"I'm Not a Racist, Sexist, or a Homophobe, You Nigger Slut Faggot"
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(Jan) Our Mexican Riviera Cruise aboard the Norwegian Sun took us to five fun destinations from October 13 – 24. We ported in Acpulco, Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. Our itinerary started off with three sea days. It was a great way to for us to explore the ship and relax before the five and a half days of busy sightseeing at the ports. We sailed to Alaska on the Sun so we were familiar with the lay out but it was still fun exploring old favorite places and finding new ones. Boomer friends John & Cathy joined us on this cruise. Here we are in the Sports Bar; one of our favorite Alaska spots when we sailed with Betty & Duane. We met at the Tappas Bar for a meet and greet with Cruise Critic cruisers where we met several delightful fellow travelers. The Cruise Critic group sponsored several activities including a 'Cabin Crawl' where we got to tour the Owners Suite with it's spacious three rooms, a full balcony and adjoining suite for guests. It also came with a full time Butler and a Jacuzzi on the Balcony, third photo below. Sweet!
|Dining on the back of Deck 11
|Crew grilling fresh Paella near the Pool. Yum!
Cathy had arranged a private tour for Acapulo with Rudy's Tour by Vans. On a very hot and humid day, ten of us boarded the Van for a fun view of this metro area, population 1,021,000. We toured the Old Town City Market, several scenic overlooks, a beautiful Chapel in New Acapulco, saw Hotels formerly owned by John Wayne and Johnny Weismuller and had a delicious Lunch & cool Cervaza at a beach restaurant. There was a very loud Marachi band playing, though. John had to plug his ears! Our highlight was watching the Acapulco cliff divers dive from a height of 40 meters to the inlet below. Very daring and pretty spectacular; many were just teenagers.
|Flower arrangements in Old Town
|Busy streets going into Acapulco
Acapulco Cliff Divers ready to put on their show
The following day we arrived in Manzanillo which is the main ocean port for Mexico City and Guadalajara. Chuck & I chose to do a Cruise Ship tour to the Colonial City of Colima with a stop at a Coconut Plantation, a Museum, a beautiful church, the Campana ruins dating from over 2,000 years ago and lunch in the village of Comala. It was another very hot & humid day but our tour coach was comfortable & cool. The lunch was disappointing, the tour was long but somewhat interesting and it felt good to be back home on the Sun at the end of the day.
|Our Touring Coach
|Raw Coconuts
|La Capacha ceramics & figurines from the La Campana Ruins site.
|Museo de la Cuidad de Colima & it's historic mural.
Beautiful buildings near Campana's town square.
|La Campana Ruins of the Capacha Culture.
Puerto Vallarta was a fun stop. John & Cathy and Chuck & I had all been here before so we chose to take a taxi to Old Town and go shopping and have lunch. We strolled the Malecon, visited the Church of the Lady of Gaudelupe, found internet at the Cigar store and tasted some yummy tequila! The weather was not quite as hot as our first two stops so we did lots of walking. Shopping was fun and we came away with some goodies. Next up; a premier lunch and margaritas at Pipi's. We had talked to some people up on the Malecon when we were looking for a place to eat and they recommended Pipi's. Sure glad that they did!
Next up; Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas.


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Thursday, December 31, 2009
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Play Dough
Had everything in cupboard for sometime, and so I decided that I would just go and do it... I made homemade play dough. We colored and scented it with "kool-aid" and Mike and the boys actually had a great time playing with it, for well over an hour! haha All those fancy new toys and what they really enjoy is some flour, salt and water with a bit of coloring added. heehee. Mama's little secret!
2 cups white flour
1 cup salt
1 Tbsp cream of tartar
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups warm water
mix it all up well, cook on low heat until it all comes together into a ball (it takes awhile, don't rush it) and pulls off the sides of the cooking pot. let cool a bit and then knead it for a few minutes so it becomes smooth and stretchy. They you can add: "kool-aid" or a few drops of food coloring and an essential oil. add glitter if you like or just leave it plain. It drys out pretty quickly so keep it in an air tight container for up to six months. But because it drys out you can make creations and they will air dry in a few days!
Posted by momto5 at 12:13 AM No comments: Links to this post
Friday, December 25, 2009
Gingerbread shantys
Posted by momto5 at 5:29 PM No comments: Links to this post
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Playing card games
Posted by momto5 at 8:26 AM No comments: Links to this post
Monday, December 21, 2009
Hair and hats
Cae has wanted a hair cut for some time now, so today I took him to get a hair cut. I think he looks pretty good. It always makes a me a bit sad to cut his hair because it seems to make him look older.
Now those hats! Those wonderful hats, were sent to us from Arizona! Two dear friends went crazy with the knitting needles and made us lots of hats. This is just a few of the lovely hats that were sent to us.
Posted by momto5 at 8:10 PM No comments: Links to this post
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Posted by momto5 at 5:08 PM 1 comment: Links to this post
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The night before Yule
Yes, technically Winter Solstice is on Monday, but since we are of the few who actually celebrate it we have to do it when we can. Today I prepared some of the yummies that can be made ahead, and we wrapped gifts, cleaned the house and got all the kids washed up. Now we will watch a couple holiday favorites (maybe Christmas Vacation, or White Christmas, or Frosty the Snowman, or It's a Wonderful Life... or maybe all of the above) and have some popcorn. Then off to a dream of sugarplums... and maybe mama and daddy can sleep until 7 am!
Have a wonderful YULE!
Posted by momto5 at 7:00 PM No comments: Links to this post
Sunday, December 6, 2009
St Nick's Day
The children woke up to a world dressed in white and their shoes filled with treats from St. Nick. After some candy eating and eggs for breakfast we decorated the tree and nibbled on short bread cookies covered in powered sugar. Then the boys ventured out into the white world. The neighbors have a great sledding hill, so we sent over some cookies with the boys and they had a great time... for hours outside.
Posted by momto5 at 8:08 PM No comments: Links to this post
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Candle making
Posted by momto5 at 2:32 PM No comments: Links to this post
Monday, November 30, 2009
In the winter book basket...
It is time to change over, releasing fall, and embracing winter. The little boys love these stories and they are all the more special when they stay tucked away until the season is just right. All of these stories have a nice bite of winter in them, they are great to read cuddled under a blanket near a fire with a nice warm cookie in your hand. Enjoy your winter reading!
Posted by momto5 at 1:31 PM No comments: Links to this post
What we have been up to
There has been lots of playing going on here; block building, game playing and just hanging out. The weather is getting colder, and we have had a few rainy days (and I mean day... the whole day it has been raining). But we sit in the den with the propane stove and stay warm. I bake cookies and we watch movies and it is all nice and cozy.
Posted by momto5 at 1:14 PM 1 comment: Links to this post
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Jade, Coral, Turquoise Beads, New Votives and Soaps, Other Crystals in Urbana Shop
Hope to have the Summer Schedule published in about a week. Things should get hopping once again here at Beads N Botanicals starting in June. In addition to our Psychic Fair on Saturday, June 12, from 10am to 5pm, Marlita will continue to be available every other Wednesday (and a Saturday or two) for reflexology (foot massage) and Reiki energy healing sessions. Call for an appointment.
In other news, by the end of next week, we should have most of our new crystals, crystal candleholders, faceted glass rondelles and other beads out and available for purchase. We were lucky to get a few more Selenite candleholders (our regular supplier is no longer carrying them), citrine cluster and amethyst cluster tea light holders. They are absolutely gorgeous.
As you may know,Amethyst is known as a Stone of Sobriety, love, intuition, intellect and healing. Cuts through illusion. Good for meditation. It is a crystal that also increases psychic gifts.
Citrine is used to detoxify the body and regenerate tissue. It is a stone of hope and abundance. This crystal does not hold negative energy, but instead transmutes it. This "merchant's stone" is placed in a cash box to product more income for the merchant. Helps in maintaining wealth as well. Stimulates mental focus & endurance. Dispels fear & brings sunshine into darkness.
There's already an incredible selection of real Jade, Carnelian, Coral and Turquoise beads new at the shop. If you thought we had a great selection before, check out these beads now! If you have not been in the shop for a while, you've been missing out.
Looking for blown glass pendants or metal focal pieces? Or are wood beads or mother of pearl (MOP) pendants and beads more your style? New gemstone chip necklaces and beads include blue lace agate, smokey quartz and snowflake obsidian.
In addition to beads and findings, we've been making more of our signature brand Wise Weeds Botanicals votives, soaps and incense. By June we will also have incredible Shea Butter soaps, with natural essential oils of lavender, peppermint, patchouli and more.
Labels: beads, Champaign Urbana, chinese faceted glass, coral, essential oils, faceted glass beads, jade, reflexology, shea butter soap


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Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare.Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace,And lay them prone upon the earth and ceaseTo ponder on themselves, the while they stareAt nothing, intricately drawn nowhereIn shapes of shifting lineage; let geeseGabble and hiss, but heroes seek releaseFrom dusty bondage into luminous air.O blinding hour, O holy, terrible day,When first the shaft into his vision shoneOf light anatomized! Euclid aloneHas looked on Beauty bare. Fortunate theyWho, though once only and then but far away,Have heard her massive sandal set on stone.
- Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1923
Imagine [Maxwell]'s feelings when the differential equations he had formulated proved to him that electromagnetic fields spread in the form of polarised waves, and at the speed of light! To few men in the world has such an experience been vouchsafed...
- Albert Einstein, 1940


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|A dead rhinoceros in Kaziranga National Park
The Kaziranga National Park in northeast India had been hit by monsoon floods in June this year, forcing wild animals to escape the rising waters and into the bloodthirsty hands of poachers. Since then, more than 700 animals have perished and more carcasses are turning up as water levels recede. But now, there is another greater threat that is targeting Kaziranga's wildlife, especially rhinos: Armed militant separatist forces in the area. The news about militants' involvement came when an arrested rhino poacher named Lindok Rongpi admitted before a magistrate that he killed six rhinos under the orders of Songja Timung, a supposed defense secretary of the Kuki National Liberation Front, a militant group based in Assam's Karbi Anglong district. His arrest led the police to the town of Dimapur in Nagaland, the center of illegal wildlife trade, only to discover that a Chinese buyer named Ho-Chin had fled.
|A market scene in Dimapur, a center of illegal wildlife trade.
The threat of militancy to Assam's wildlife is nothing new. In the 1980s, Laokhowa Sanctuary, a wildlife sanctuary near Kaziranga, was completely eradicated of its rhino population intentionally by the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). Manas National Park lost its status as a World Heritage Site after the Bodo militancy annihilated its wildlife. With a host of armed militants in Karbi Anglong and with proof of their involvement in recent poaching cases, it is likely that Kaziranga could be in similar danger. By poaching Assam's rhinos, the militants make money which they use to buy firearms. A post-mortem of the animals disclosed the use of automatic guns which provided further evidence about the militants' involvement, considering professional poachers .303 rifles instead of spraying bullets. These threats are associated by the way rhinos are being poached. In several cases, wildlife officials found that rhinos were dehorned even while alive. This is done when a poacher would cut off the rhino's horn while it recovered after being shot by a gun. In one case, an ear was hacked off leaving the rhino to bleed to death. In the last two weeks, police have so far seized one AK-56, two .303 rifles, and one SBML (single barrel muzzle loading) gun along with recovery of bullets from automatic weapons.
|Rhino mortality data
It is utterly shocking to find that separatist militant groups have and still are a major threat to India's wildlife. In addition, these ruthless cutthroats have ties to the illegal wildlife trade in which they make their money off poaching so that they can purchase firearms to carry out their carnage against innocent civilians. This situation in northeast India can easily be compared to Africa, where the poaching of elephants is funding militias and rebel groups with their wars. This article paints a clear picture of why poaching in India should be taken seriously because not only would it result in loss of animal lives, but also civilian lives. However, even with the enhancement of security measures in key rhino poaching hotspots like South Africa, the threat of poaching and the price of rhino horns has also increased. A report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) stated that Kaziranga National Park is vulnerable to poaching due to its nearness to India's border with China. This is why I believe that Kaziranga and every other national park and wildlife sanctuary in India must be heavily guarded not just by wildlife authorities, but also the military. Poaching in India and other parts of the world like Africa are often militant-affiliated, which makes the battle more complicated and requires the use of military power against such threats.
View article here


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If I see a cow in a pointy party hat, I don't need to open the card to discover the tired and predictable, "Party 'till the cows come home" on the inside.
There isn't much celebration going on in Kansas pastures these days. Randy and I went to two of our pastures Friday morning and the drought was particularly evident at the Rattlesnake Creek. The U.S. Geological Survey stream-gaging station at the Rattlesnake isn't getting much of a workout. There is no stream to gauge.
Here's how the Rattlesnake looked at what we call the Big Pasture on Friday morning.
For more than 100 years, Randy's family has been taking cattle to this summer pasture. It's disheartening to see it so dry. Randy can remember times that the creek hasn't been flowing, but there were still pools of water in the creek bed. This year, it's bone dry.
So when will the cows come home? It won't be much of a party to again figure out whether we have enough feed to keep feeder calves this winter. Last year, they went to the sale barn early. The verdict is still out right now.
Tomorrow - Water solutions at the Rattlesnake.


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1. Personal medical fitness:
A driver and a company both keep this in consideration that others' lives are at stake if you are not driving safe or hiring medically unfit drivers. Driving itself is a concentrated and focused job. Driver must keep its medical report updated and minimise his stress level by taking proper rest and food. Driving for the driver is the matter of bread and butter but the other person sitting on the back is also at risk.
2. Vehicle check-up:
Maintenance of the vehicle is also an important matter for a driver before he starts his work. He must have a tool kit along with him. He must keep his tank full to avoid to face any discomfort during ride. The driver should also keep the interior of the car neat and clean, it must sound like pleasant and fresh to the rider.
3. Alcoholic violence:
In many of the countries, driving after alcoholic drinking is a severe violation of traffic laws. This offence is punitive with fine and license of the driver can also be cancelled lifetime. One thing which also very important to mention here that if you pick a rider who is drunk you need to be patient with him and help him to driver his home safe.
4. Haste makes waste:
There is no need for driver to rush on the road and prove himself a very smart and quick driver. As it is saying that better to late than never to reach. So be patient in driving and if your rider is in hurry so don't be offensive with him, be sober and just say him yes sir/madam, "you don't worry please, I will take you to your destination in no time" and then do your own job professionally, tactically and according to assigned instructions which is better and safe for you and rider both.
5. Seat belt:
You need to fasten your seatbelt before your push the accelerator. It will also be good for you to say very humbly to your rider that sir please fasten your seatbelt which safe for you.
6. Avoid loud music:
When are free and waiting for ride request that is your leisure time you can listen to music and get yourself can and relieved which is very good for you. When you are on ride with your rider then you need to avoid music, may be what you are listening is annoying for your rider. But if he likes music then you can play for his choice. Loud music either you are free are on ride you need to avoid that because that gives jarring effect to the other people on the road.
7. Good weather, bad weather:
A good and pleasant weather can make your journey very joyful but bad weather conditions are might unfavourable for your Tooting airport transfers driving. Heavy raining, gust of winds, galls of snow, blind fog and poor visibility may cause hurdle and can be horrible during your ride. So you need to follow precautionary measures to avoid these calamities and disasters.
8. Traffic laws:
As it has mentioned above driver should be qualified in general and as a taxi driver in particular. But there a possibility that a licensed driver can also offence on the road. So as Balham taxi driver you are more responsible because your company's business and your rider's life is at stake regarding your driving proficiency. Do follow traffic law, especially signal and pedestrians.
9. Parking when pick and drop:
This is the very minute thing to notice but it really matters a lot. Most of the time driver don't take care of this thing in routine while they pick a rider or drop him at a location. If they wrongly park their car on the road to pick someone that may cause infuriating for someone behind you. You might have created a hurdle for him. Sometimes you wrongly park your car when you drop a person at his location and in hurry, you drop the rider in the middle of the road, which is dangerous for both you and rider.
10. Mechanical and It knowledge:
A driver must have the basic mechanical knowledge to handle any vehicle failed circumstances to drop his rider on time. Along with mechanical knowledge, he must have the IT-based knowledge to handle Streatham Taxi app professionally. He can save his time when he has ample knowledge of the navigating system and can approach to rider location easily.
Related Links - Real estate theme , wordpress real estate , job board theme , Restaurants wordpress theme , Directory wordpress theme
Related Links - Real estate theme , wordpress real estate , job board theme , Restaurants wordpress theme , Directory wordpress theme


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Isn't it funny how just when you think you got it figured out life changes again and you are left reevaluating your choices, desires, and potential outcomes?
I ended the summer ready to sell, however; I had no time to produce anything so I started furiously sewing in September....At about the same time I got a job as a waitress...Just part time, just for the fun of it...The opportunity presented itself and I said sure why not...Since then I have found I am putting a lot of time in making quilts with the intention of selling them.. Initially I mulled over what others would like, what was marketable, what was good enough. I'm here to tell you it took all the fun out of quilting for me.
Then I realized I have to just stay true to me and the rest will follow. So I tried that and found that being true to myself is truly the key except, I'm still not sure this is what I want to do. I think the biggest reason I am keeping Etsy is because it was a lot of work to put up and I hate to pull it down. Hm... That leaves me with options. Do I simply leave it up, put up items I want and just don't worry about it? Or do I tear it down, and just sell at craft fairs if I should so desire?
In the end I wrote myself a mission statement, a little hokey, but it allowed me to determine what I needed my goal to be concerning quilting, a craft I love but which was becoming a little less enjoyable when my intention was to sell on Etsy and be worthy of selling on Etsy.
Sara's Mission Statement
Make what I want, learn as I go, be free to fly-results good or bad-no quota to strive.
Keep what I want, give away what I want
sell what I want,
as I want to.
Love my craft-always stay true to me.
This I hung in my sewing room as a reminder to me that this is my creative space with no limits or expectations.
So do I sell or not? I'm not sure. For the time being I will leave my Etsy store in place. I will pray to God about it, (though it's not really a stressful situation and more a questioning moment in my life), and discuss it with my husband.
In the meantime we had Quilt Sew-In with the Boulder River Quilt Guild and lordy did I need it.
I love the ladies in our Quilt Guild and highly recommend the opportunity to meet with others that will inspire you, lift you up, and totally encourage you in every way. In the last month I started a Zendoodle small wall-hanging that utilizes thread and markers to design.
This was fun! After getting home I wanted to see if I could just use thread to paint the fabric and make my design simply because I wanted to see if I could.
This was the result:
All in all, for me, Zen is very liberating.
Now a little curved piecing.
After my liberating Zen experience I must have been feeling ready to tackle anything. I did something I have always wanted to do, curved piecing without templates. This was fun!!!! I only wish I had more fabric to make an actual table runner. Instead I think it is a wall hanging? Totally see the potential for an artistic wall hanging using this method.
String Quilt
I delved into my pastels again for this one. After I had each string block done I wanted to organize it in a different manner than I had before, so I cut, cut some more, and this is my end result.
The quilting was actually much simpler than I normally do. I wanted to incorporate straight line quilting with flowers. By quilting much lighter than normal it is a fluffier quilt than I am used to. I used a simple Moda Gray for the backing.
Thank you for looking!


text: I was asked about my musical preferences today and the answer which flashed in my mind was a bit weird one. The answer was 'It depends'. Personally speaking it's a quest for selecting one genre and that one kind of music which I can stand for. Metal is the closest but that's not the whole story. Right from Iron Maiden to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, From Dark Tranquillity to Mukesh and From Mozart to Hans Zimmer my playlist include them all. Being honest it even has Johnny Cash, Himesh Reshammiya and a big chunk of Bollywood chart busters So it boils down to one question is my musical choice really that diverse? No, not really.


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Name: Kjetil Kjernsmo
Member since: 2007-03-26 05:48:41
Last Login: 2007-03-27 18:57:22
Homepage: http://www.kjetil.kjernsmo.net/
I'm a Semantic Web advocate with a strong interest in Free Software. Of education, I'm an astrophysicist, graduated from the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo in Norway with a master's in cosmology in 2002. I first encountered GNU/Linux in 1994, the same year I wrote my first web page. That side interest in web technologies have brought me to the point where I am now. My main contribution to the Free Software world are my Perl modules, that can be found on CPAN.
Others have certified kjetilk as follows:
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New HTML Parser: The long-awaited libxml2 based HTML parser code is live. It needs further work but already handles most markup better than the original parser.
Keep up with the latest Advogato features by reading the Advogato status blog.
If you're a C programmer with some spare time, take a look at the mod_virgule project page and help us with one of the tasks on the ToDo list!


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SAN ANGELO - The $3.7 million Springs of San Angelo, located at 6102 Grand Court, is scheduled to open later in November. It will ultimately house 66 residents who can choose from ten private and 28 semi-private rooms. When fully staffed, The Springs will employ more than 50 people.
The Springs — which will offer services for Alzheimer's and dementia patients — will offer a higher-than-average staff-to-resident ratio and there will be 24-hour licensed nurses on staff, according to Lori Smith San Angelo's facility administrator.
Each room is fully furnished with a double, super-long bed, dresser and nightstand. It is a state-of-the-art facility with the safety of its residents in mind, with motion detectors in each room and security entrances and exits.
Our twice-weekly e-newsletter provides a quick overview of Texas real estate markets. Because your time is valuable.


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I'm in the business of misery, Let's take it from the top.She's got a body like an hourglass that's ticking like a clock.It's a matter of time before we all run out,When I thought he was mine she caught him by the mouth.
I waited eight long months,She finally set him free.I told him I can't lie he was the only one for me. Two weeks and we had caught on fire,She's got it out for me,But I wear the biggest smile.
Whoa, I never meant to brag But, I got him where I want him now.Whoa, it was never my intention to brag To steal it all away from you now.But God does it feel so good,Cause I got him where I want him right now.And if you could then you know you would.Cause God it just feels so,It just feels so good.
Second chances they don't ever matter, people never change.Once a whore you're nothing more, I'm sorry, that'll never change.And about forgiveness, we're both supposed to have exchanged.I'm sorry honey, but I'm passing up, now look this way.Well there's a million other girls who do it just like you.Looking as innocent as possible to get to who, They want and what they want it's easy if you do it right.Well I refuse, I refuse, I refuse!
It just feels so.It just feels so good. I watched his wildest dreams come true. Not one of them involving you. Just watch my wildest dreams come true. Not one of them involving.


text: This 2-1/4 inch dual exhaust system is manufactured right here in the good old USA from an original 1969 M code 351W equipped Cougar. This direct replacement system includes: 1 H pipe, 2 intermediate pipes, 2 mufflers, and a right and left tail pipe. The system is constructed from 2-1/4 inch aluminized piping and features blue printed bends with everything being replicated as close as possible to the original. The mufflers in the system have the hanging tabs attached so that they will accept original muffler hangers. H pipes are constructed for use with original stock cast iron exhaust manifolds and H pipes are also sold separately.


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You're an independent video producer and businessperson and you want to do something about all those pirated copies of your DVD productions, suspected or confirmed, that clients are creating, distributing, even selling, cutting into your profits. Is there an effective, affordable protection scheme available to prevent people from ripping you off?
The short answer is NO.
The reality is two-fold:
1.) The resources, tools and information for cracking copy protection for just about any DVD, at any level, for any commercial or independent production is out there. Two trusted associates, one relatively amateur but dedicated, the other technically very knowledgeable, were able to crack the copy protection scheme used by my recently-purchased DVD duplicator in no time.
More on that later in this article.
2.) Those who know how, often do break and copy at will, those who don't probably will not. Copy protection at any level keeps honest people honest. Otherwise, don't count on it.
Another "reality" if you will, when it comes to the independent producer considering investing in a DVD duplicator with copy protection, is that runs of less than 100 are simply not worth the investment premium even if copy protection did work.
I purchased a Spartan Fortress DVD duplicator tower from Super Media Store dot com at a significantly higher premium (price) than I would have otherwise.
I spent an additional $25 for a USB 2.0 connection. The 1-to-5 duplicator has 20x units and uses DiscLock Technology/SATA and comes with a 250GB hard drive. My total purchase price was $1,004.
The same store sells any number of models, economy and premium, and without copy protection, software or hardware variety, of manually operated CD/DVD duplicators starting as low as $211 (prices current as of December, 2011) for a 3-to-1 economy unit and less than $340 for a premium 4-to-1 system with a 250GB hard drive. As far as I can tell economy comes without a hard drive, premium will include a hard drive ranging in capacity from 250GB to 500GB.
For shear duplication volume you could purchase an 11-to-1 economy line duplicator for under $500; an 11-to-1 premium line duplicator for $815. A 5-to-1 premium duplicator? $480. Yes, less than half the price I paid, making the premium for copy protection that offers no real protection rather high.
Essentially I knew this going in but still wanted a means to keep the honest people honest. To that extent I'll likely succeed. Would I purchase the Spartan Fortress duplicator with hardware copy protection, or even a unit with a software scheme and the requisite key purchases I'd have to make from time-to-time? No. Not for that much of a price difference. I'd rather have acquired volume in my duplication for a similar price, offering me 11-at-a-time copies, than essentially useless and ineffective copy protection.
So, why did I do it? The answer is complicated.
My theory is that some of the people to whom I sell video are honest enough that if they first attempt to duplicate one of my DVDs in their home computer, and there's a hiccough, they'll stop trying and order additional copies from me.
This is provided my copies are reasonably priced and the packaging is of professional quality. That means the graphics, inserts, cases and production all present a sense of quality, as opposed to hand-written labeling on silver DVDs.
"CD/DVD copy protection is a blanket term for various methods of copy protection for CDs and DVDs. Such methods include DRM (digital rights management), CD-checks, Dummy Files, illegal tables of contents, over-sizing or over-burning the CD, physical errors, and bad sectors. Many protection schemes rely on breaking compliance with CD and DVD standards, leading to playback problems on some devices.
Protection schemes rely on distinctive features that:
• can be applied to a medium during the manufacturing process, so that a protected medium is distinguishable from an unprotected one.
• cannot be faked, copied, or retroactively applied to an unprotected medium using typical hardware and software."
"I've read an increasing number of stories (on the Internet) indicating that, in an attempt to discourage the continued spread of these (copy protection cracking) tools, that websites containing discussion and how-to articles on how to defeat DRM on various media, including new tools to duplicate Blu-ray media, are being attacked and some even shut down. This really hasn't stopped things, and the tools and information is all still very much out there," one researcher told me.
So, for free or for an investment of as much as $150, maybe more, there are tools available to any individual who wants to get past my duplicator's copy protection scheme, or any other on the market today for that matter. How then, can I, or you, justify spending as much as twice the money for a duplicator that claims to have copy protection, software and key, or hardware but doesn't really work?
The bottom line is we can't but there is, I believe, an argument for having something that attempts to protect our productions from being pirated. And there's a few arguments for using whatever means at our disposal in an attempt to discourage the outright practice of ripping us off by denying potential copy sales.
Consciously I'm not, but I'm also sure, to some degree, I might be sorry for not taking my research a bit further before jumping in and making the purchase. For one, instead of asking some general questions of a couple of producers whom I know are duplicating in large numbers for distribution — major band and cheerleading competition events with on-site sales in the thousands, for example — I should have inquired of several others. I should have attempted to get a broader representation over a field of professionals who have average duplication runs of 10 or less, as well as those doing hundreds, if not thousands.
The initial responses I received were that though systems like the one I purchased are not a guaranteed protection against duplication, by informing their customers the DVDs were copy protected, they observed an increase in sales compared to prior programs.
In fact, one guy who has a major success story working in the area of mass on-site production of DVDs during major competition events told me it was totally worthwhile to pay the premium.
I really should have asked for serious numbers and considered the varied factors that might or not effect that outcome. For example: spontaneous on-site sales based on notification that DVDs are copy protected might work for a season or two, until people purchasing them realize after trying to crack them that there's no effective protection. Then sales might start dropping. Again.
Bottom line is I don't think spending $500 or more for copy protection that is absolutely unreliable as a deterrent is a good decision economically. On the other hand, now that I've done it, I have to say that I've noticed a slight increase in orders of 3-to-5 copies of montage, memorial and funeral video productions. No difference at all in sales from work once, sell many events such as school plays, choral performances, dance recitals or other such events averaging 100 units or so.
The first experiments were conducted by a guy who collects movies, "every movie DVD I get my hands on," as a hobby. He is a serious collector but has limited technical skills.
I sent each of my researchers three DVDs: a funeral of more than one hour in length; a retirement montage and production of about 45 minutes; and a 15-minute high school graduating senior montage video. All were created from a master DVD dash-R generated in my Mac, then burned to blanks using the Spartan Fortress with the hardware copy protection engaged.
NOTE: With the model I bought, and as I understand it virtually all other hardware-based copy protection DVD duplication towers, you cannot utilize the copy protection using the system's built-in hard drive. There's other restrictions as well, so the ONLY way is to duplicate from your original DVD dash-R master.
The amateur tried a couple of PC and one Mac desktop systems but could get none of them to recognize any of the test DVDs. Only when using a fourth, laptop, unit were any of the three recognized, but after that and utilizing a paid commercial copy-breaking software all three were duplicated in a matter of minutes.
The tech researcher had "no problems", using freeware, creating duplicates of all three DVDs: less than two minutes for the shortest one and a little over six minutes for the longest. My researcher went further, attacking them on both a Mac unit and a PC, using different software with similar results.
When the tech savvy researcher first opened the files nothing showed in the file system to indicate a copy protection was even applied. "I looked for files not part of the standard DVD ROM UDF specification. I found nothing," the report stated.
After verifying with me that the DVDs sent had actually been recorded using the Spartan Fortress copy protection engaged, another look was taken at the files.
By simply copying the DVDs to a folder on the Mac hard drive it was discovered that "there appears something special about how the DVDs are written that causes the computer to go into wait state and the OS to choke." The PC test using Windows XP failed in that a direct copy could not be created to hard drive.
It was discovered that the duplicator writes an unneeded file to the Video_TS folder of the DVDs.
This simple protection scheme did prevent my other DVD duplicator, a 3-to-1 duplicator I purchased several years ago for $1,000. from recognizing or duplicating the protected DVD. My tech researcher says this file appears, to the duplicator or computer attempting a straight duplication, to be corrupted and cannot be copied, forcing an error.
Anyone with limited knowledge of the available tools for cracking copy protection and attempting to duplicate a DVD created using the Spartan Fortress, and I would presume any other similar system, on either a computer, Mac or PC, or any available duplicator, will be discouraged from doing so.
Anyone with any degree of knowledge or experience, Internet savvy and having one or more available free or commercial cracking programs can figure it out fairly quickly, bypass the problem, create a copy on their hard drive and generate a new master DVD that can then be duplicated at will.
What 10-year-old do you know doesn't have that ability, given access to a computer and the Internet? On the other hand.
If you're generating less than 100 copies of anything you simply cannot justify the cost for copy protection that isn't effective, and if you're going to be distributing thousands of copies you don't need a manually operated DVD duplicator anyway. You'll outsource any major commercial duplication needs.
© 2011, Earl Chessher


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Jim Carrey eBay
The seller — who goes by the name "astrobuzz" — said in the original listing that he was selling an old signed photograph of Mr. Carrey in order to by a gun to protect his family, in response to the actor's recent music video making fun of gun owners and Charlton Heston.
The listing quickly became an internet hit on Wednesday, but now it seems to have mysteriously disappeared. The Hollywood Reporter first noted that that the listing was altered late Wednesday night to read: "I'm selling this Jim Carrey autographed B&W photo (mint condition) for purposes I cannot explain because it might be against eBay's Terms & Conditions."
As of Thursday afternoon, astrobuzz's listing has been completely removed from the auctioning website.
Many copycats came up out of the woodwork, either saying they were using funds from Jim Carrey memorabilia to buy firearms, take concealed permit courses and join the NRA. However, the Reporter notes that every listing had the word "gun" removed later on.
eBay did not respond to a request for comment.


text:
The Ramsdale (£3.50) has the tagline 'Born Bred and Made in Yorkshire' (there should, of course, be a comma in there, but they didn't ask me to proofread the text so what can you do?). It's 60% Masham wool, despite the picture of a Swaledale sheep on the label (who exactly designed that label??) and it's lovely - here, take a look:
Amd then there's the Roam. This is truly lovely. A new, classic, multi-coloured sock yarn and I can't wait to try this one out either! It'll sell at £7.50.
If you're an online customer (Hello!) the Roam and Ramsdale will both be on the web, I hope, by the end of next week.


text:
An American Revolution
"No," he said, taking only one step forward.
His arms were pinned to his sides to keep from shaking. His chin was up, but his eyes were fixated on the infinite blackness at the barrel of the gun pointed at him. The soldier closest to him had instinctively swivelled in his direction.
"Sir, I have to ask you to get back in line with the others," spoke the man from behind the gun, no older than 20.
He shook his head. His eyes locked on the gun barrel, infatuated. "No," he repeated, more quietly than the first.
The boy's father took a step forward, but the sight of the gun barrel turning in his direction forced him, reluctantly, back in line with the others.
Time dragged. His eyes on the gun, the gun on him and the soldier's eyes on the boy's trembling fingertips at his sides. Not a single man, woman or child in the line looked at the scene before them. They already knew what was coming.
Through his peripheral, he saw the commanding officer approach, and could see his hat and his green uniform and could tell his hands were behind his back.
"What seems to be the problem here," the commanding officer said, looking back and forth between the boy and his subordinate. "Young man, we need to get into this house. Step aside and behave yourself."
The commanding officer flattened his expression and tilted his head downwards in consternation, bringing his chins to double onto themselves and his neck to bulge further outward from his shirt collar.
"Young man, if you don't stop this foolishness, we will be forced to take action."
He held his breath. He dropped his head and his eyes began darting back and forth across the ground, searching for an answer. He didn't expect to make it this far.
His name was Brian Summers.
Being born in the afternoon of August 5th, he had only lived for 148 days, 7 hours and 18 minutes in 1992. He had survived 365 days in all years between 1993 and 2009, except for 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008, where he had survived for one extra day each year. In 2010, he survived for roughly 177 and 2/5 days , before he was shot and killed.
It should be noted that he survived very adequately in those 177 and 2/5 days and the preceding 4,884 days, 7 hours and 18 minutes before that, breathing slowly when relaxed or sleeping, and more rapidly when excited, blinking only when necessary, pumping blood with his heart muscle to fill his arteries and his veins with newly oxidated red blood vessels, nutrients, white blood cells and antibodies, chewing and digesting food to maneuver it more smoothly through the rectums and tubes of his gastrointestinal tract before being drained of sustenance and being exported as excrement, producing acne on his face and shoulders after the age of 13 and a few on his back after the age of 15, growing hair in many places including his arms, legs, his big toes, his groin and much to his frustration, around his nipples only and not his chest, receiving erections when he was nervous or looking at legs underneath skirts or watching pornography or slow-dancing or shitting, ejaculating when sexually aroused to a certain point or when sleeping, speaking with other human beings to declare or request information, replacing billions of dying cells with new ones, firing synapses in his brain, and dreaming. Yes, it can be said that as far as human bodies go, this one was completely adequate.
Let me also say that the adolescent was nothing special in a monetary sense. His net worth would include the hospital fees for birthing him, fees spent on doctors' examination, vaccines, shots and pills, the cost of bracing and the consultation of a broken femur when he was fifteen years of age, the braces he wore until the day he died and the subsequent dental work surrounding them, a box of condoms his father purchased for him in 2007, space camp at the ages of 9, 10 and 11, and innumerable other purchases designed to give the boy a happy fulfilling life. In liquid assets, he currently owned $523.98. Three dollars and sixty-two cents of which was unknown to him, scattered throughout his bedroom and his car in the form of loose change. He also possessed a trust fun of $10,000 for college, to be given to him when he turned 18 and purchased by the boy's grandmother, Amy Suzanne Summers, when the boy was born. It should be noted, however, that at the time of purchase, Amy Suzanne Summers was unaware that the boy's life would end 68 days before his 18th birthday due to a controlled firing of two bullets piercing his left lung, thereby voiding his claim to the $10,000.
I should also mention that in addition to being completely adequate in anatomic and economic disposition, he was nothing special genealogically. He was born the middle son of Travis Summers of Scott County, Iowa and Jenni Lee Summers, formerly Jenni Lee Sundrich of Deaf John County, Texas. Both his parents were an only child and decided prior to their meeting that they wanted a large family, a dream that would be forced to put on hold due to the birthing complications of Brian's younger brother, Ben. Because he had two brothers, his resulting death did not necessarily mean the end of the surname Summers, although the events following the death of Brian Summers would put the longevity of this surname and many other surnames from the Midwestern region of the United States into question.
Regardless of his nearly stunning degree of normalcy, Brian Summers was not without his own social and behavioral incongruencies. For instance, during an argument with his older brother at the age of 7, he was enclosed in a dryer machine for one hour, seventeen minutes and some change, an event that would later lead to an irrational fear of dark and enclosed areas for the entirety of his life and a vague dislike of buses, cars, airplanes and anything else small and moving. He was awkward and ungainly around members of the opposite sex, a character trait that was due in no small part to an embarrassing occurrence at his winter social in 2008, when his dancing partner recoiled from the pressure of his erection against her leg, drawing attention to herself and to the erection. His male friends would regard him as a boy of mediocre humor and energy, although always good for a spontaneous trip to the movies or a compulsive game of ping-pong in his basement, remembered partly for an event in the 6th grade when he told a teacher to "shove it" but mainly for being taciturn and unobtrusive in social situations. Some thought he was boring and unimpressive. Despite occasional solicitation, the cast covering his unmended femur in the summer of his 15th year remained mostly filled with white space and vexed by a terrible smell. At the age of 9, he was coerced into watching The Never-Ending Story, part the first, and for at least the next 2 years, all moral decisions that were forced upon him were done in consideration of this film. His greatest sense of pride came from being the best at movie trivia within his small circle of friends, and he occasionally slept with a nightlight on and kept a stuffed rabbit concealed in his closet that went by the name of "Tough Bunny."
"I must repeat," stated the commanding officer, "that if you do not return to the line with the others and allow us to search this house, we will be forced to shoot."
The boy's frantic and searching eyes suddenly stopped moving as the answer came to him. It was so obvious. He lifted his head slowly, keeping his eyes still and resolved.
"You'll have to shoot me then."
The commanding officer made a face of displeasure, as the soldier with the gun looked over at him. The officer stared at the boy for a long while, who did nothing but stared back, before issuing a slight, but unquestionably understood nod towards the soldier, who in turn took a deep breath in retaliation against the action he was about to undertake. The commanding officer walked away, with his back to both the boy and the soldier. The boy made a fist with both hands and closed his eyes. Behind him, Jenni Lee Summers was cringing into the shoulder of Travis Summers, who looked helplessly towards the ground.
The soldier had been well-trained and everyone knew it.


text:
The New York Times in its typical "pox on both houses" fashion criticizes Obama's new ad depicting McCain as out of touch on the economy. One argument they make is that the ad used old quotes from months ago (January and April of 2008) and that it was only since then that weakness in the economy became evident.
They also claim that the ad doesn't show McCain's more nuanced take on the economy and that he was taken out of context (in a political ad...shocking!). I'll take on the first point for now. For observers of the economy --who were paying attention-- the weakness in the economy has been evident since last Fall. Recall, that the Fed started cutting interest rates in August 2007 and that we now know that the GDP fell in the 4th quarter of 2007 --before McCain's quotes in January and April of this year.
Anyway here are some charts (click on them to make them bigger) showing the timing of McCain's quotes relative to four economic indicators: change in private employment, real average hourly earnings growth, real consumption growth and initial claims for unemployment insurance. I think these charts speak for themselves.
UPDATE: In the comments Jonah makes the great point that the calls for a fiscal stimulus package preceded McCain's quotes and really destroys the NYT's argument that the economy soured later. For example, see this account from OMB Watch written on 1/23/08:
Amid slumping capital markets and real estate values, a jump in unemployment, and a growing chorus of economists forecasting a recession in the U.S., a consensus has rapidly developed in Washington during the first few weeks of the year that a fiscal stimulus package is in order. The watchword in Washington has been "bipartisanship," and President Bush and the congressional Democratic leadership have already made concessions. Some questions remain regarding the optimal structure and size of the package, but indications point to its enactment in a matter of weeks.
Discussion of a fiscal response to the economic slowdown began in earnest when former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers wrote in a Financial Times op-ed in November 2007, "Three months ago it was reasonable to expect that the sub-prime credit crisis would be a financially significant event but not one that would threaten the overall pattern of economic growth. This is still a possible outcome but no longer the preponderant probability … the odds now favor a US recession."
Summers' pessimism — or prescience — was confirmed on Jan. 4 when December 2007 employment figures showed a jump in the jobless rate from 4.7 to 5 percent and net private sector job losses. On Jan. 6, Summers wrote a follow-up op-ed, "Why America must have a fiscal stimulus": "Six weeks ago my judgment in this newspaper that recession was likely seemed extreme; it is now conventional opinion and many fear that there will be a serious recession ….
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Actually ,McCain Was Out of Touch
Posted by lerxst at 4:22 PM
1 comment:
- Jonah B. Gelbach said...
nice post. i've seen the same stuff about how those comments were supposedly before anyone was worried.
another way to point out how out of touch this stuff is is to note the timing of when congress and the WH started talking about fiscal stimulus.....i forget the date, but it was certainly before april 2008!
- August 20, 2008 at 7:18 PM


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text:
Reviewing the debate
First, let's address the format.... All in all, it worked extremely well, and I would like to see it used elsewhere.I have to confess that as a game designer, it is gratifying to see that some readers have recognized the merits in the debate format. And it's good to know that many of those who are very familiar with the subject nevertheless found it to bring something new to the age-old discussion. On the Existence of Gods is available at Amazon.
The second thing, and perhaps the most important thing, was the effort that went into defining what a god is, as well as evidence and logic. It's very rare to see it even come up in a debate in a meaningful way, and that has always struck me as foolish. It seems a bit like arguing for or against string theory but never actually defining the model you are using.
I have long felt that this is the largest issue with the discussion, as the average Atheist I have talked to has built a mental narrative in which they cannot lose by defining a god as a being who does magic, magic breaks physics and is fake, and anything that falls within any form of natural law is not magic, therefore not a god. As Vox very neatly points out, there is an issue of scale to be considered, regardless of where you draw the line.
Likewise, I know a lot of fellow Christians that feel that examining the topic closely is either a waste of time or even a bit sinister, as though wondering about how it all works is going to somehow change the facts.
It's also worth noting that I found the material compelling enough that my first attempt at this review ended up blossoming into a short book length examination of the arguments made rather than a review proper. There is a lot of meat here for the taking.... On the balance, this book is a must-read for any serious seeker, regardless of where you fall on the spectrum.


text:
Pinterest is the current darling of social media, having joined Facebook (which is having its own problems—see story above) and Twitter as one of the Big Three social platforms for brands. Marketers and communicators are clearly excited by Pinterest, and why shouldn't they be? As of January 2012, Pinterest began driving more traffic to retail Web sites than Google+, LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube combined. And 21% of U.S. Pinterest users say they have purchased a product after seeing it on Pinterest, says a PriceGrabber study.
So what's not to like? Well, a few things. Marcy Massura, digital supervisor at Weber Shandwick, likens the current state of brands' relationships with Pinterest to a love affair. "In the fall we fell in love with Pinterest," says Massura. "That's always the most exciting part." Now, though, marketing and PR pros are trying to decide if the platform is sustainable, and are discovering some problems with Pinterest: namely the lack of measurement tools and the issue of spam, says Massura.
"Measurement is an important hole that needs to be filled before brands can invest significantly in Pinterest," she says. Third-party measurement tools like Pinpuff (a kind of Klout for Pinterest that provide a number from 1-100 that indicates your "pinfluence"), PinME (which allows you to track your content that has been pinned by others) and Repinly (which analyzes Pinterest users and content) are useful, but are not in the same league with the internal analytics engines of Google or Facebook. The spam issue, in fairness to Pinterest, is being addressed, says Massura.
Then there's the 800-pound gorilla in the room—or on the Pinterest board: its terms of service, which states one can't pin or repin any content that doesn't belong to you. "That's in direct conflict with Pinterest's goal," says Massura. And it's a reason why plenty of brands are still on the sidelines, waiting for this issue to play out.
The content issue aside, Pinterest is exceedingly simple and effective, says Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, founder of Apartment Therapy, the online home design destination that has found success on Pinterest (see the mini case study). "The best thing about Pinterest is it's a big, nice and easy-to-use platform," says Gillingham-Ryan.
It's so easy to use that many brands have a considerable Pinterest presence without being signed up on the site—people simply pin their content for them.
But this simplicity may not last forever, something that Gillingham-Ryan is concerned about. "Ben [Silbermann, Pinterest co-founder and CEO] has not really monetized the site yet. And if he does, I'm afraid that might mess Pinterest up," he says.
But for now, Pinterest does remain fairly pure, and if you haven't fully explored the platform yet, here are three points from Massura to consider before you do:
• Pinterest is the No. 1 listening tool. "Even if you don't have one Pinterest board, you should be on the platform every day looking for people who are talking about your category or brand," says Massura. So find your brand promoters and take 10 minutes to discover everything that they like. "If you don't do this it's a missed opportunity," she says.
• Don't go "all marketing" on Pinterest. The platform discourages self-promotion, says Massura. "Instead of trying to get around that, be respectful of that wish," she says. Connecting with consumers in authentic ways tells consumers that you "get them."
• You don't have to go in big to succeed. A complicated strategy is not needed for Pinterest, says Massura. "Even a few boards can drive big success," she says.
At present, Massura agrees that Pinterest belongs with Twitter and Facebook in the Big Three. She pushes clients with no social media presence toward Facebook first, and says Twitter and Pinterest are "neck and neck" for second place. "It comes down to what the company sells and who they target," she says.
With Twitter, the conversation has changed drastically in the last several months, and authentic results are hard to get, Massura says. So at least for now, with Pinterest, what you see (remember, it's a visual platform) is what you get. PRN
[Learn more about Pinterest and other social platforms from at the PR News Social Media Summit June 21-22 in New York City (www.prnewsonline.com/social-media-summit-taste-of-tech/).]
Marcy Massura, firstname.lastname@example.com; Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, @maxwellat; Jess Hanebury, email@example.com.
Follow Scott Van Camp: @svancamp01


text:
#1 from 2014: Anecdotes and Simple Observations are Dangerous; Words and Narratives are Not
This post was originally posted on January 23, 2014
In a recent blog post on stories, and following some themes from an earlier talk by Tyler Cowen, David Evans ends by suggesting: "Vivid and touching tales move us more than statistics. So let's listen to some stories… then let's look at some hard data and rigorous analysis before we make any big decisions." Stories, in this sense, are potentially idiosyncratic and over-simplified and, therefore, may be misleading as well as moving. I acknowledge that this is a dangerous situation.
However, there are a couple things that are frustrating about the above quote, intentional or not.
- First, it equates 'hard data' with 'statistics,' as though qualitative (text/word) data cannot be hard (or, by implication, rigorously analysed). Qualitative twork – even when producing 'stories' – should move beyond mere anecdote (or even journalistic inquiry).
- Second, it suggests that the main role of stories (words) is to dress up and humanize statistics – or, at best, to generate hypotheses for future research. This seems both unfair and out-of-step with increasing calls for mixed-methods to take our understanding beyond 'what works' (average treatment effects) to 'why' (causal mechanisms) – with 'why' probably being fairly crucial to 'decision-making' (Paluck's piece worth checking out in this regard).
In this post, I try to make the case that there are important potential distinctions between anecdotes and stories/narratives that are too often overlooked when discussing qualitative data, focusing on representativeness and the counterfactual. Second, I suggest that just because many researchers do not collect or analyse qualitative work rigorously does not mean it cannot (or should not) be done this way. Third, I make a few remarks about numbers.


text:
I thought it interesting that Obama is still touting global warming (last twelve years were the hottest in the last century, my ass). He spouted about fires, floods, and drought--I figured they are signs of the Apocalypse that are the result of him getting re-elected.
Blaming the Sequestration issue on Congress was kind of funny. He wants it to go away so badly, he can taste it since it's a HUGE item that he can't lay on Bush's door. Even Durbin said that it was a political ploy that wasn't ever supposed to happen. I think the Republicans should stand their ground and make him OWN IT.
There were a couple of times were Mr B and I thought he was going to launch his gun-control bid. When he finally did, he really said nothing. I don't think that calling for a vote and then chiming the litany of the dead counts for anything except for the fact that he's willing to dance on the bodies of slain children for his agenda.
Final thought. The complicit press and the dems keep saying that Americans are for universal background checks, even for private sales (where both parties would have to go to an FFL and do a NICS check). I think that this would definitely come under a 10th Amendment violation. As each state has its own gun laws regarding carry and purchase, any attempt by the federal government to step into this process would violate those states' rights. Because we're now talking about an INTRA-state private transaction. The feds have no authority over what goes on within the boundaries of a state or between private parties. Even the NICS checks in place are contrary to the 10th Amendment.
And that's what I'm going to tell my Senators and Representative today.


text:
King of Kings
RE: King of Kings
I am the truth
And the way
And the light
Worship me, and you will be rewarded in eternity forevermore with beer, nachos, and strippers.
E 2 = (mc 2)2 + (pc )2
614C → 714N + e– + ̅νe
2 K(s) + 2 H2O(l) → 2 KOH(aq) + H2 (g) + 196 kJ/mol
It works, bitches.
The following 1 user Likes Phaedrus's post:1 user Likes Phaedrus's post
Mark Fulton (29-12-2012)
29-12-2012, 01:10 AM (This post was last modified: 29-12-2012 01:16 AM by Mark Fulton.)
RE: King of Kings
(28-12-2012 10:09 PM)Egor Wrote:You're damn right he was no philosopher!(28-12-2012 05:48 PM)Mark Fulton Wrote: What's more, he hasn't read the gospels objectively. Jeebus' words of wisdom are pretty pathetic. You'll never find a chapter on Jesus in a philosophy textbook, because Jeebus doesn't cut the mustard as a philosopher.
A philosopher has credentials and Jeebus didn't. He was uneducated and illiterate. Galilean peasant society was insular and
primitive, even by the standards of the times. He might've been clever and charismatic, yet he knew nothing of the philosophy and science of the Greek and Roman world. Non-Jewish law, ethics, history, art and literature were a mystery
to him. Such an uninformed person wasn't qualified to be a world-class teacher of philosophy.
Jesus was a deluded dreamer who made wild promises that didn't come true. He was judgmental, intolerant, inconsistent, egocentric and ethnocentric. He failed to give consistent or comprehensive solutions to life's conundrums. Most of his teachings lack the detail to make them meaningful. Dogma without reasoning and explanation doesn't cut the mustard as
Truly inspiring words in great books, poetry, or speeches have a timeless coherency and consistency to them. Jesus' teachings don't. If they were sent to a publisher who'd never read the Bible, they'd garner a pink slip. He'd assume Jesus was a dunce.
Commendable philosophers are seekers of truth and admirers of wisdom who propose answers to the mysteries of life and the universe after a reasoned analysis. They see through gloss to discover substance. They occasionally come up with profound one-liners such as "E=mc squared" or "I think, therefore I am," but these are the products of elaborate
reasoning. Jesus' numerous one-liners only proposed unsatisfactory simplistic solutions to complex problems.
Good philosophers have open minds and are genuinely interested in the opinions of others. They don't assume or pretend
they alone have all the answers. They care enough about their audience to document their ideas with precision and detail. They're aware that one day their ideas may appear outdated. Much of what Jesus said was a dictatorial diatribe that
failed to do any of this.
Many Christians argue that everything he said was perfect because he was god. Yet in the 21st century blind faith can't rescue Jesus from a thinking, critical public. Some Christians claim it was the fact he became a man that's what matters; that Jesus' primary purpose was to save the world from its sins. Paul invented these ideas, and he ignored Jesus'
teachings. Christians might wonder why the founder of their theology didn't consider Christ a philosopher, yet wrote volumes propounding his own philosophy.
There are, no doubt, millions of Christians who disagree with me. I think they too easily accept any of the thousands of books and articles written by evangelists to explain and harmonize Jesus' sayings. All this commentary is heavily manufactured; it resorts to artificial and arbitrary interpretations rather than simply taking what are said to be Jesus' words at face value. There's no other way to make Jesus sound authoritative and wise.
Please explain how we can "start with him and extrapolate from there." Which bit of him do you "start" from?
The following 2 users Like Mark Fulton's post:2 users Like Mark Fulton's post
Vosur (29-12-2012), Vipa (29-12-2012)
RE: King of Kings
Egor, I am god.
E 2 = (mc 2)2 + (pc )2
614C → 714N + e– + ̅νe
2 K(s) + 2 H2O(l) → 2 KOH(aq) + H2 (g) + 196 kJ/mol
It works, bitches.
RE: King of Kings
(28-12-2012 10:03 PM)Egor Wrote: What matters is that one see themselves truthfully.
Bullshit. I have asked you questions which you have avoided, questions that need personal reflection.
I never really spoke to you properly until you abandoned god. When you did though you seemed to be allright. You were apologetic and everybody gave you a second chance, you became a nice guy.
Then now you have a version of god you have once again become a cunt... you mock others and spout insults out at people and your justification is that your not a christian.
You are using god to justify being a cunt.
I feel so much, and yet I feel nothing.
I am a rock, I am the sky, the birds and the trees and everything beyond.
I am the wind, in the fields in which I roar. I am the water, in which I drown.
The following 5 users Like bemore's post:5 users Like bemore's post
Free Thought (29-12-2012), Vera (29-12-2012), Erxomai (29-12-2012), Dom (29-12-2012), guitar_nut (29-12-2012)
RE: King of Kings
(29-12-2012 07:01 AM)bemore Wrote: You are using god to justify being a cunt.
That seems to be the trend..
"What you believe to be true will control you, whether it's true or not."
—Jeremy LaBorde
The following 1 user Likes ideasonscribe's post:1 user Likes ideasonscribe's post
bemore (29-12-2012)
RE: King of Kings
(29-12-2012 07:43 AM)ideasonscribe Wrote:This is the only time I wish you were a cunt. So I could post something like "Oh, the irony"... Well, thanks for screwing up that joke, not-cunt(29-12-2012 07:01 AM)bemore Wrote: You are using god to justify being a cunt.
The following 1 user Likes morondog's post:1 user Likes morondog's post
Vosur (29-12-2012)
RE: King of Kings
(29-12-2012 02:02 AM)Phaedrus Wrote: Egor, I am god.
That is a true statement. It's easy to make the statement. It's easy to know something intellectually, but to really understand it and be convinced of it, moreover to really experience it, to put your faith in it, to have the courage to face the implications of it, takes a lifetime of spiritual development, in my opinion. In fact I believe that development continues on in your lucid spiritual plane after your body dies. I believe that is the next step.
If you truly believed what you said, then you could read the Gospels and realize they written by you for you as a guide. Naturally, you would immediately transcend religion and atheism, right and wrong, and even life and death. You would become what Jesus admonished us to become in the Gospel of Thomas when he said simply:
Be passersby. (ref. VGJC 45:26)
In short, you don't realize what you've just said. And I get the feeling from you it was an accidental statement, an attempt to be funny or mock me (as if that's the most important thing to do in life). Be careful though, because Jesus also said:
And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but the one on whom it falls will be utterly crushed. (VGJC 41:17).
The stone he was referring to is the concept of Christ, and Chrsit is God conscious of Himself from within His creation. If you carry on thinking you are God, Phaedrus will be turned to dust and blown away.
RE: King of Kings
(29-12-2012 07:01 AM)bemore Wrote: You are using god to justify being a cunt.
And you're only my friend when I believe the way you want me to. Looks like we all cuntz now!
RE: King of Kings
We are all destined to dust, Egor. From dust we came, and to dust we will return again, and from us will spring life anew.
E 2 = (mc 2)2 + (pc )2
614C → 714N + e– + ̅νe
2 K(s) + 2 H2O(l) → 2 KOH(aq) + H2 (g) + 196 kJ/mol
It works, bitches.
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text:
Thank goodness, Saturday is St. Patrick's Day -- it's not on a school day this year! My absurd level of joy at this realization got me thinking about the things teachers spend their wishes on. Here are ten:
10. That St. Patrick's Day will fall on a weekend. Wow, do kids love to pinch their teachers, who are far too frazzled to remember to wear green on a specific day. (Most days we're lucky just to make it to school wearing pants.)
9. That April Fool's Day will fall on a weekend. Not because the April Fool jokes are difficult to spot. But because they Never. Get. Old. Geesh, some years my kids seem to think April Fool's Day lasts clear into May! And more than once, I've had to explain that flunking a spelling test is NOT an April Fool occasion.
8. That the bell will ring, and our little Pavlovian children will let go of our hair out of habit when they realize it's time for lunch or the bus.
7. That it's just allergies.
6. That the principal/parent/supervisor/teacher from down the hall will walk in just ONCE when things are going RIGHT and nobody is throwing a tantrum or climbing on a table or drawing on their neighbor with a Sharpie.
5. That the paperclip is just lost, not swallowed.
4. That our kids will magically "get it" - whatever "it" happens to be that day.
3. That we will hear more laughter than tears from our kids.
2. That spontaneous communication will happen, and we will be lucky enough to get to know the true personalities of these funny little people who tolerate us on a daily basis.
And, finally ...
1. That it will snow.


text:
I remember that day we said goodbye
The day I asked you if there were any regrets
You said, you wished you had realised sooner
That everyone matters
The thing is, I didn't know what you meant then -
But I do now.
Who has any idea how much oxygen a person brings to your life
Or how much you bring to theirs?
You have no idea why a person is in this life or yours
And so what you don't do, is make judgements
Treat everyone as though they have the potential to be
Anything or everything
Love and smile
You are not God