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Investment advisor Less Antman knows more about taxes than your average experienced advisor. In fact, he knows more about taxes — far more, actually — than your average CPA.
The Fallbrook, Calif.-based RIA once offered to view the past several years' tax returns of a new client and found buried within an item that materially affected the client's wealth. He told the client to have her CPA file amended returns.
The CPA, a seasoned practitioner catering to high-end clients, drew a blank; his partner, particularly well known in the city, and also with decades of experience, also failed to grasp the opportunity.
Antman gave the client the relevant tax code citation and advised the client, who was eager to pay him to do the work, not to think any less of the two CPAs for their ignorance of a highly obscure tax provision.
The now inactive CPA spent 27 years teaching review courses for would-be California CPAs, giving him a uniquely deep knowledge of the tax code's quirks. He also spent lots of time reading about taxes and tax planning ideas, but very little actually preparing returns and giving tax advice to clients.
Regarding the obscure provision he identified, he told the client, "I know these things because I'm not doing tax returns all day," citing as a relevant comparison Dr. Dean Edell's encyclopedic knowledge of the medical issues that callers to his now-defunct national radio program posed.
Today that tax knowledge comes in handy since, through tax-loss harvesting and the use of margin, Antman is able to save some clients as much as $100,000 a year through the effective tax management of their investment accounts.
Of course, such high savings imply large accounts, and indeed, the founder of financial planning and asset management firm SimplyRich counts several decamillionaires among his high-net-worth clientele.
But he also serves, as a favor to friends and family, some middle-class clients as well, and thus can offer perspective as to what advisors need to know and don't need to know about taxes.
By and large, and perhaps to the relief of many, "except for advisors who work with high-net-worth clients or those who are dealing with stock options; [advisors] don't really need to know much of anything about taxes," he tells ThinkAdvisor in a phone interview.
Moreover, Antman adds that "a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing" and discourages a tax focus for advisors to the middle class.
The reason: "Most people lose more money trying to reduce taxes than they save in taxes," he says. "This is why they end up going into annuities or municipal bonds or maintaining concentrated positions that are dangerous rather than diversifying and paying taxes."
The taxation expert says that advisors must "realize that they don't actually understand the tax code. Nobody does," he modestly offers. "And if they get to the point that they understand it, they're just going to change it again," he jokes.
With those caveats in mind, here are four ways advisors can truly help their clients — from the superwealthy to the middle class — with taxes. Sometimes, it's what you don't overdo that helps clients most.
1. Beware the Bypass Trust
That propensity to make tax-driven bad decisions leads to Antman's first key practical takeaway for investment advisors: They should ask their clients if they have a bypass trust (also known as a credit shelter trust), then advise them to discuss with their estate planning attorney whether to get rid of it.
"I know several people who designed bypass trusts in order to minimize estate taxes in the '90s back when the lifetime exclusion was around $600,000 per person," he says.
"Now it's over $5 million per person, and a lot of people who carefully planned their bypass trust have lost the stepped-up basis on the death of the second spouse because they have assets in the bypass trust that won't be exposed to estate taxes but [now also] won't get the reset tax basis because they're in that trust."
In other words, few wealthy couples expected just a little over a decade ago that they'd be able to pass $10 million to their heirs free of federal estate taxes after the death of the surviving spouse based on an altogether new "portability" rule.
Portability allows the surviving spouse to transfer the unused portion of the deceased spouse's exemption, and then upon the surviving spouse's death, the heirs get a stepped-up basis shielding them from tax up to today's generous exemption.
In short, "a bypass trust now often causes tax harm," Antman says. He does note that there are other reasons bypass trusts are used that may still be relevant, such as protecting the children from a first marriage, and reminds advisors to merely suggest that clients discuss the matter with their estate attorney. Although many bypass trusts will, in fact, raise taxes on a client's heirs unnecessarily, not all bypass trusts are useless.
2. Don't Rebalance Too Much
A second key takeaway that applies to most advisors:
"Keep tax planning simple," Antman says.
"In taxable accounts, maximize equities to take advantage of deferral of unrealized gains and favorable rates when gains are realized, and use index funds or funds that minimize the turnover of profitable positions. ETFs are particularly tax-friendly because sales are often executed through nontaxable transfers of positions with other ETFs or large institutional investors. As far as possible, keep real estate investment trusts, interest-bearing investments and high-turnover funds sheltered. When rebalancing, first change the investments in sheltered accounts or by recommending the client change their 401(k) allocations, and only rebalance in taxable accounts with new money or the proceeds of dividend distributions."
Rebalancing is generally portrayed as some sort of best practice, but it has tax consequences that could be harmful. In fact, Antman elects not to have dividends automatically reinvested in taxable client accounts, though that's also somehow thought of as a best practice.
"I always have it paid in cash so I can do some rebalancing without further tax consequences," he says.
Antman offers other simple, but this time also uncontroversial guidelines for advisors:
"In high earnings years, they should maximize tax-deductible retirement contributions; in low earnings years, they should maximize Roth contributions; in no earnings years they should maximize Roth conversions," he says.
Another key point now that clients have taxes on their minds: Advisors should advise them to plan on providing their tax returns on Nov. 1 for tax planning meetings in November and December. That's when tax planning is done, he says, noting that the only really big things that can be done now for 2013 taxes are to open a SEP IRA if the client doesn't have one or to do a Roth recharacterization if the client converted too much in 2013.
3. Don't Get Hung Up on Tax-Loss Harvesting
One other area — and a topic du jour — that advisors have less to worry about than they might think is tax-loss harvesting.
This is currently a hot topic given robo-advisor Wealthfront's claim to save its clients more than 1% a year through its automated tax-loss harvesting.
"Traditional tax harvesting is less useful than it appears, and truly effective tax harvesting is harder than it looks," the tax-savvy advisor says, citing approvingly Michael Kitces' recent takedown of Wealthfront's tax alpha claims.
"The truth is tax harvesting is of very limited value to [Wealthfront's] client; it works in the first major bear market after the client has put money in the market but almost never thereafter," he says. "There's a big bear market in one of the funds you own, you sell the position, buy it back or something similar without violating the wash sale rule, and now have a new position with a tax basis so low you are unlikely to ever be able to harvest that position again. And then rebalancing or the need to sell for spending money brings bigger gains onto your tax return later. Much ado about very little."
Advisors to middle-class investors should simply invest assets in globally diversified index funds or ETFs and not worry about taxes until the client is independently wealthy.
For those who have achieved that comfortable status, an advisor can save on taxes through a process of investing in individual stocks — making sure the portfolio is adequately diversified — and using margin, with caution, to extend the period of harvesting benefits indefinitely into the future, using the equity created from bull markets to buy new positions that may generate additional tax losses.
"Needless to say, this takes a lot of special attention, to ensure the individual stock portfolio is well-diversified, to obtain favorable margin rates (easy for wealthy clients but not for the middle class), and to be alert to the impact of bear markets on leveraged positions.
"I've saved one client over $1 million so far by harvesting $3 million in tax-loss deductions to use against his enormously profitable holding in one company, and we aren't done. But before we began harvesting I demanded he sell enough stock, paying the full tax freight, to be independently wealthy. We didn't start worrying about taxes until he could afford the risk of holding his remaining stock in the company long enough to generate the benefits," he says.
It's complicated stuff, and Antman says advisors should not feel an inferiority complex if they don't understand it.
"Unless you have a stable of multimillionaire clients (Antman's average account size is $3 million), learning how to do this will be as useful to your clients as learning how to speak Klingon. In the meantime, there are millions of people you can help dramatically just by being an ethical advisor who puts them into a well-diversified portfolio, makes sure they don't change it during every fad or crisis, and keeps them from trying stupid things in the name of saving taxes."
4. Optimize Social Security Timing
Antman did close with one more tax thought for the middle-class client, though, where he believes an advisor might help: Social Security. Antman says delaying taking benefits can have significant tax advantages, apart from the increased benefits that delay affords.
"People can lose $100,000 or more in lifetime benefits from a bad choice, and one of the worst is starting the payments early. So it is useful if you can add a tax reason for them to delay."
Most advisors should avail themselves of one of the many Social Security analyzers available on the web, while retirement specialists should purchase software, Antman says. They are quite inexpensive and will almost always encourage at least one spouse to delay the start of benefits. Then add a kicker.
"You can take advantage of a low-income year to do Roth conversions and convert income that would have been taxed at 25% or higher to 15% or lower," he advises.
"I sometimes encourage clients who are between jobs to see if they can take some advantage of short-term unemployment by cutting their long-term tax bill significantly. But since up to 85% of Social Security is taxable when there is significant other income, you'll also be able to do much more converting at low tax rates in the early years of retirement if you haven't started Social Security yet.
"The analyzers, which will usually be encouraging delay, typically don't even take this benefit into account, and you may just add $10,000 to a middle-class client's net worth with one simple suggestion," he says, "which is a bigger benefit than they've probably gotten from all the tax schemes they've tried in their entire life."
More from 21 Days of Tax Planning Advice on ThinkAdvisor:


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They keep others from it and avoid
it themselves. They are only destroying themselves but they are not
aware of it.
(Surat al-An'am: 26)
In previous sections of this book we stated that the true
leader of people who resist religion is Satan. In the following sections
we will speak of the orders given by Satan to the deniers and how these
orders distance them from the Qur'an. However, first it is necessary to
emphasize that Satan only influences his own followers.
Satan has no power whatsoever over people who scrupulously
direct themselves towards Allah with all their hearts, who conform to
His instructions and advice, who sincerely engage in good deeds to earn
the pleasure of Allah and who are aware that they will be rewarded in
the hereafter for everything they do. Satan has influence upon those people
that reject Allah. All Satan's efforts to divert them from the true path,
his whispered flatteries and his deceptive words have no effect on the
faithful. In the verses of the Qur'an, Allah tells us:
He (Satan) has no authority over those who believe
and put their trust in their Lord. He only has authority over those who
take him as a friend and associate others with Allah. (Surat an-Nahl:
Satan's situation is also described in another verse:
But as for My servants, you will not have any authority
over them. Your Lord suffices as a guardian. (Surat al-Isra': 65)
For this reason Allah invited believers in the Qur'an as
follows:"It was only Satan frightening
you through his friends. But do not fear them-fear Me if you are believers."
(Surah Al 'Imran: 175) Satan may, perhaps,
cause people to fall into momentary errors with a variety of stratagems,
but when a Muslim falls into any error he notices this immediately, repents
and takes refuge in Allah. Surat al-A'raf instructs the faithful like
If an evil impulse from Satan provokes you, seek
refuge in Allah. He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. As for those who perform
their duty, when they are bothered by visitors from Satan, they remember
and immediately see clearly. (Surat al-A'raf: 200-201)
However, if a person turns again to Satan, they have made
him their guardian. He places his yoke upon them with fear, threats, all
kinds of deceptions concerning the life of the world, blandishments and
promises, and they reach a point of listening to his every word. Every
one of Satan's words becomes an order for them. The only thing they need
to do is to obey his orders.
As the Qur'an tells us by saying, "They are like Satan
when he says to a human being, 'Disbelieve'
" (Surat al-Hashr: 16)
Satan first instructs people to deny the existence of Allah. Later they
follow his other orders: Don't Think! Don't Learn! Be Proud! Don't Listen!
Stay Away from Believers! Don't Read! Mock the Believers! Conform to My
Way of Life!
Satan's Command: "Don't Think!"
The ability to think is one of the greatest blessings
granted to people because only by thinking can people be aware of Allah's
boundless power and the beauty of the universe He created. Only a thinking
person realizes that the world has been created by divine wisdom in every
detail, that death is near, and that there are certain obligations that
are required to be met in this life. We are told in a large number of
Qur'anic verses that only thinking people can heed advice and that they
alone are capable of seeing the proofs of Allah's existence. Indeed, the
very purpose of the revelation of the Qur'an is for people to think carefully
about its verses, as is stated here: "It is a Book We have sent down to
you, full of blessing, so let people of intelligence ponder its Signs
and take heed." (Surah Sad: 29)
However, a large proportion of humanity regards thinking
as a hardship. These people even believe that thinking is damaging to
their lives and their set ways. According to this opinion, "the greatest
damage" lies in reminding people of their responsibilities in this life
and taking them out of the slumbering, empty minded state of heedlessness
in which they find themselves. Like a kind of magic spell, this sleep
makes people forget why they exist, that there is a purpose in life, and
that one day they will die. Another form of this sleep is to be inundated
by the daily routines. Perhaps these people feel they spend a great deal
of time thinking, making decisions and finding answers, but in fact what
they think about does not go beyond the details of their day-to-day needs
and impulses. Their thoughts are not related to the purpose of human creation,
how the world came into being or the fact that one day every living thing
will be buried in the ground. Actions, statements and behaviour learned
by rote, taught, and become accustomed to, have such a hold on these people
that they do not even feel a need to think about more fundamental realities.
Just as they evade thought, so too do these people escape
hastily from warnings given by others; they turn their faces from belief
in Allah, thinking about the verses of the Qur'an, and living by His guidance.
But nothing and nobody has been put on the face of the earth
for an empty purpose. Allah created every detail in the universe for people
to think about. In fact in the Qur'an, Allah announces that he created
death and life to test which of you is best in action
" (Surat al-Mulk:
2) In this fleeting life, one is put
to the test by all his or her deeds. A person has a great responsibility
towards Allah Who created him and will resurrect him after death and call
for an accounting for his deeds. Reading the Qur'an, taking heed of it,
thinking about the verses and comprehending and applying them are amongst
every person's principal responsibilities. Allah draws attention to this
truth with the verse which reads,"Do
they not ponder these words? Has anything come to them that did not come
to their ancestors the previous peoples?" (Surat al-Mu'minun: 68)
Thinking people will conclude that such fine detail in the
universe and its examples of flawless design mean that it cannot have
come into being by accident and that there exists a Creator of all things.
By thinking deeply about the miracles created around them and other proofs
of Allah's existence, and observing the divine wisdom in the details which
He has created, they will give themselves over to Him and live solely
for the purpose of earning His approval. Aware of this truth, Satan wants
them to live their lives in heedlessness, keep away from Allah's verses
and hence to refrain from thought. Allah describes this purpose of Satan's
in a verse of the Qur'an:
[Satan said], "
I will lie in ambush for them on your
straight path. Then I will come at them, from in front of them and behind
them, from their right and from their left... (Surat al-A'raf: 16-17)
In order to achieve this ultimate aim, Satan prepares very
special situations to sink people into a state of heedlessness. For this
purpose, he makes plans using people's weaker aspects, and attempts to
make evil deeds attractive to people's egos. Unlike the faithful, people
distanced from religious morality can end up in a state of spiritual heedlessness
by forgetting Allah and not thinking about their purpose in life.
For example, Satan can easily waylay people in places of
entertainment, because such places are conducive to wasting time and not
thinking about anything. In these places what assumes the most importance
are the clothes and accessories people wear, the money they spend, and
the people around them. With the music so loud that people cannot hear
one another, the air so full of smoke they cannot see one another, exploding
flashbulbs, loud conversation and yelling, an environment is formed in
which people who have no fear of Allah certainly cannot concentrate their
attention or think.
Of course it is a great blessing for people to enjoy themselves
and come together with others they enjoy talking to. But these days places
of entertainment are not those where the name of Allah is mentioned and
where people recall their purpose in life. The purpose of creation is
entirely forgotten. People who feel no fear of Allah in their hearts and
spend their time in such places experience an atmosphere of heedlessness
and are left in no condition to consider or understand warnings. In fact,
one of the reasons why such people prefer these places is to forget everything
and avoid thought, and they often say so. While a person who comes to
such a place to, as he expresses it, escape from the troubles of the world,
may have been behaving sensibly ten minutes earlier, now he starts to
regard any excess as normal. In the name of enjoying themselves, these
people see immorality of all kinds as reasonable and become insensitive
to what is happening around them. In fact, in environments of this type,
breaking plates, overturning tables, throwing napkins, attacks on others
with obscene language, and fights reflect only a small part of the kind
of heedlessness and immorality into which people can sink.
Concert arenas, football stadiums and other places where
large crowds gather only magnify this effect of heedlessness. A large
number of people go to such places not to enjoy themselves or to watch
an entertaining game or to listen to a beautiful voice but to shout, to
fight and to cause trouble, in short to display ugly behaviour of every
kind. In such environments, it is utterly impossible for people with no
fear of Allah to extract from their minds a single useful thought. It
only remains to be said that people in such an uncontrolled environment
that encourages violence and immorality, are wide open to the whisperings
of Satan so that the obedience of people to Satan's "Don't think!" order
is ensured. Allah draws attention to this method of Satan's with this
verse: "Stir up any of them you can with your voice and rally against
them your cavalry and your infantry and share with them in their children
and their wealth and make them promises!.." (Surat al-'Isra: 64)
People whose lives are filled with work and going out to
such places of entertainment, where heedlessness reigns, forget that one
day they will meet the angel of death. And when they do, it is too late,
because this person has passed his worldly life in pursuit of empty practices
and has fled from consideration of the verses of the Qur'an. For a person
who thinks about death, the transitory nature of life and his responsibilities
towards Allah, it is impossible ever to accept such a heedless state.
A person who knows that Allah can take his life at any moment and that
there will be a reckoning for his every word, thought and action never
lets these realities slip his mind in any environment whatsoever and does
not surrender to heedlessness.
For a person to continue a life of heedlessness resembles
his seeing a truck with brake failure hurtling towards him and failing
to get out of the way-even though this is possible-while being fully aware
that it is going to hit and crush him. During his life, a person can indulge
in excess hundreds or thousands of times, can even spend his entire life
in this way, but when death takes him, everything he has experienced is
left behind. If a person has passed his time in heedlessness of the existence
of Allah, he will realize on the day of his death that this way of life,
described in ignorant societies as "making the best of life," has brought
him nothing but loss. He will feel regret for all the excesses he indulged
in because he forgot Allah and the Day of Judgement. But heedless people
ignore Allah's warnings:
Mankind's Reckoning has drawn very close to them,
yet they heedlessly turn away. No fresh reminder comes to them from their
Lord without their listening to it as if it was a game. Their hearts are
distracted... (Surat al-Anbiya': 1-3)
The "Thinking Harms People" Deception
In ignorant societies the superstitious belief that thinking
harms people is prevalent. This great deception is another tactic employed
by Satan to prevent people from thinking about Allah's verses. Because
of his idea, the work of Satan, that thinking will place them in difficulties,
they remain distant from the Qur'an. In ignorant societies it is even
believed that too much thinking drives people mad. This belief is one
more deception, like Satan's other games. On the contrary, people experience
far more problems when they do not think, than when they do.
Actually, not thinking about death and the Day of Judgement
is an illusion that deceives people into believing they will not be accountable
for their deeds. Whether a person thinks about them or not, responsibilities
are neither reduced nor altered, because Allah holds everybody responsible
for having faith and living according to Qur'anic morality. Everybody
is tested in this life and sooner or later will face previously ignored
Another result of the failure to think is that people do
not draw lessons from events occurring around them or from their own personal
experiences. The events that Allah creates to make people think and amend
their behaviour have no effect on these people at all. By convincing themselves
that all events occurring in the world are accidental, they fail to appreciate
the reason for events that might teach them a lesson. Allah refers to
such behaviour like this:
Do they not see that they are tried once or twice
in every year? But still they do not turn back. They do not pay heed.
(Surat at-Tawba: 126)
In truth, major disasters, serious problems, and this-worldly
troubles are extremely important occurrences that direct people towards
thought, but rejecters of the faith have made these events the subject
of argument. They begin by claiming that events are accidental and so
evade thinking about them. They say, as Allah says in the Qur'an, "
Our forefathers too underwent both hardship and ease..." (Surat al-A'raf:
95) and continue their heedless lives. They feign ignorance about
disasters which happen to them by saying, "It's just accidental," "a major
natural disaster," "this was only to be expected," "such things happen
in any society," and "a great misfortune." With such words, they provide
themselves with their own explanation. They are incapable of saying, "This
is a warning Allah sent to us," and are even afraid of expressing the
possibility of such a thing. This is another tactic of Satan's.
All disasters, misfortunes, problems and events which befall
people and remind them of the pain of hell are opportunities Allah provided
for them as a kindness. Allah sends people difficulties so they can learn
from them and so correct their behaviour. In a verse of the Qur'an, Allah
explains the reason behind worldly troubles:
We will give them a taste of lesser punishment
before the greater punishment, so that hopefully they will turn back.
Who could do greater wrong than someone who is reminded of the Signs of
his Lord and then turns away from them?... (Surah as- Sajda: 21-22)
Here Allah is reminding people that they are close to death,
that a person is responsible for his or her every action, and that they
therefore need to conform to His orders and prohibitions. But because
of their extreme arrogance, the deniers turn all reminders into a laughing
matter and increase their resistance still further. Indeed, they respond
defiantly to prophets who warn them to conform to Allah's verses by saying,
When will this promise come about if you are telling the truth?"
(Surat al-Mulk: 25) or exhibit an ugly courage by using expressions
such as, "We and our forefathers were promised this before. This is
nothing but the myths of previous peoples!" (Surat al-Mu'minun: 83)
In Verse 95 of Surat al-A'raf, Allah responds to this taunt by saying
We seized them suddenly when they were not expecting it," and of their
deserving great torment. In Surah Al 'Imran, He invites people to consider
what their spiritual state will be on the Day of Judgment:
On the Day that each self finds the good it did,
and the evil it did, present there in front of it, it will wish there
were an age between it and then. Allah advises you to beware of Him. Allah
is Ever-Gentle with His servants. (Surah Al 'Imran: 30)
Satan's Command: "Ignore the Signs of Creation"
The universe and the systems of nature are flawless, down
to the last detail, and are magnificently ordered. When we examine any
part of the universe, from the smallest to the largest, we see that each
one sets forth proof of a deliberate creation. Within an unchanging order,
there are thousands of details which we cannot categorize in full, from
the heavenly bodies moving in their orbits, to the balance of gases in
the atmosphere which is necessary for life to continue, from the human
body specially designed to allow people to live, to the smallest elements
such as cells, protein, DNA and atoms-all of which require a different
design expertise. All of these were created in the most wonderful way
and continue their existence faultlessly.
However, those who resist the faith ignore countless proofs
of Allah's existence and oneness, and try to explain the creation of living
things in terms of uncontrolled coincidences. They connect the faultless
design of the human body, the miracles of creation in the bodies of living
things, the taste of cherries, strawberries and oranges, the smell of
violets and honeysuckle and their splendid appearance and the unique characteristics
of the stars, the sun and the moon in the heavens, to blind chance and
resort to every method to reject the fact of creation. The basic claim
of these people is that every detail in the universe is the end product
of a series of mere coincidences lasting millions of years and occurred
through the unconscious mingling of atoms. The chief proponents of this
are the evolutionist scientists, who blindly defend the theory of evolution,
while overlooking that the universe is filled with millions of proofs
of creation.
This theory, propounded in the nineteenth century by Charles
Darwin, an amateur biologist who was not even aware of the structure of
the cell, has suffered a great defeat at the hands of contemporary scientific
developments. However, the most important aspect of this theory is that
it prepares quasi-scientific grounds for supporting materialist ideologies
which reject religion. For this reason-despite its defeat by scientific
knowledge-materialist scientists seek to keep the theory of evolution
alive. These scientists ignore scientific facts in order to reject the
truth of creation and refuse to recognize its proofs. What makes them
most uncomfortable is reference to signs of creation and the scientific
exposure of difficulties, deficiencies and errors in the theory of evolution.
The attachment of evolutionist scientists to this theory has gone beyond
being a scientific approach and has become an obsession and a blind devotion.
Persistence in their refusal to believe despite all proofs
to the contrary is a common characteristic of deniers. In the Qur'an,
people who continued their resistance to the faith even when signs of
Allah's existence were presented to them because of their attachment to
their ancestors' religion are held up as examples. Allah draws attention
to this aspect of their behaviour in a number of verses of the Qur'an:
We destroyed generations before you when they did
wrong. Their Messengers brought them the Clear Signs, but they were never
going to believe. (Surah Yunus: 13)
At the present time, deniers of creation persist in their
belief, just as did the previous generations referred to in the above
verse. In spite of the clearest scientific signs, these people can still
claim that the universe and all living things resulted from a series of
coincidences. They further claim that, since this world is a product of
coincidence, people have no responsibility towards anyone, and so they
set their faces against the Qur'an. While the number of those who marvel
at the magnificence in Allah's creation grows rapidly by the day, these
materialists remain so blind that they cannot see the evidence. Undoubtedly
this is a result of their distancing themselves from Allah's holy book,
and blinkering their consciences.
The secret reason behind people's ignoring the truth is Satan,
who makes great efforts to persuade them to resist. As the Qur'an states,
Satan diverts people from the true path: "If someone shuts his eyes
to the remembrance of the All-Merciful, We assign him a satan who becomes
his bosom friend-they debar them from the path, yet they still think they
are guided." (Surat az-Zukhruf: 36-37) While Allah's faultless planning
and design encompass everything, Satan distances the deniers from the
truth and causes them to overlook the proofs of this by diverting them
with worldly preoccupations.
People Satan has captured in this way violently oppose others
who tell them the truth. This situation causes them to become angry with
believers and feel hatred and loathing of them. Allah describes the discomfort
felt by the deniers when proofs of His existence are shown and explained
to them:
Their Messengers came to them with Clear Signs,
but they put their hands to their mouths, saying, "We reject what you
have been sent with"
(Surah Ibrahim: 9)
Moreover, there is a group of deniers that is deliberately
ignoring the truth-that there are signs of Allah's existence and that
the Qur'an is a holy book. Such people knowingly deny these truths and
do not want to think about them. As Allah puts it in this Qur'anic verse,
a group of them heard Allah's Word and then, after grasping it,
knowingly distorted it" (Surat al-Baqara: 75) they recognize the truth
of creation, then refuse to accept it, even though it does not require
long hours of thought or research to see the matchless artistry of Allah.
If a person expends a little care with a pure heart while listening to
the voice of his conscience and thinks for a few seconds, it is impossible
to deny the truth of creation. The only thing necessary is to lend an
ear to the voice of conscience and beware of the methods of Satan.
Satan's Command: "Be Proud"
Another of the common characteristics of those who have no
faith in Allah's verses and do not obey His orders and prohibitions is
conceit and admiration of their own intelligence. By giving people a sense
of pride, Satan diverts them from submitting themselves to Allah and heeding
the verses of the Qur'an.
People turn their faces from the scriptures because of arrogance,
as Allah tells us in this verse: "When Our Signs are recited to such
a person, he turns away arrogantly as if he had not heard, as if there
was a great weight in his ears. So give him news of a painful punishment."
(Surah Luqman: 7)
By giving people a powerful sense of pride, Satan makes
them believe that everything they think they know is correct and complete.
Because of this such people are closed to warnings, advice and criticism
from those around them and give pompous and haughty answers. They will
not even abandon things that they see are wrong because of stubborn determination
not to give up their beliefs. Their personality prevents them from being
persuaded on any matter, and they are obstinate, fixed in their own ideas
and their own rules. If they felt even a little doubt about certain deficiencies
and mistaken aspects of their thinking, they might even be able to see
the truth.
For this reason they do not evaluate invitations made to
them with sincerity; they misunderstand them and are misled into thinking
that the faithful are trying to attain superiority over them by this means.
They absolutely do not want to believe that the faithful explain Qur'anic
morality to people solely to earn the pleasure of Allah, expecting no
other reward. On this general attitude of the deniers, a verse of the
Qur'an concerning the leaders of a past people is striking:
The ruling circle of those of his [Nuh's] people
who were disbelievers said, "This is nothing but a human being like yourselves
who simply wants to gain ascendancy over you. If Allah had wanted He would
have sent angels down. We never heard of anything like this among our
ancestors, the earlier peoples." (Surat al-Mu'minun: 24)
However, it must not be forgotten that arrogant and proud
people will suffer great losses. Those deniers who carry on their meaningless
war against the faith are losing a vital opportunity to distinguish truth
from falsehood and turn back from the mistakes they are making and to
reform themselves. Since they do not accept that it is possible for them
ever to make a mistake, they have no opportunity of overcoming their deficiencies
and developing themselves because they slam the door on any invitation
right away. They do not even think about evaluating whether advice given
them is beneficial or not. They are so certain of the correctness of their
own ideas, thinking and beliefs that they do not even grant the possibility
that somebody else may be more intelligent than they are. In short they
do not recognize the authority of anybody other than themselves over their
own ideas, attitudes and behaviour. That pride can drive a person to sin
is referred to in this verse:
When he is told to have fear of Allah, he is seized
by pride which drives him to wrongdoing
(Surat al-Baqara: 206)
Also in the past, Pharaoh was unable to overcome his pride
in the face of the honourable station of Musa (peace be upon him) and
his inviting him to submit to Allah. He thought himself much worthier
of such an honorable post in terms of both power and financial resources.
In empty pride he opposed Allah and did not listen to what he was told
and because of his arrogance he set his face against Allah's verses. As
we mentioned above, he also compelled his people to ignore the Prophet
Musa. As Allah describes in the Qur'an:
Pharaoh said, "Do you believe in him before I have
authorised you? He is your chief, the one who taught you magic. I will
cut off your hands and feet alternately and have you crucified on palm
trunks. Then you will know for certain which of us has the harsher and
longer lasting punishment." (Surah Ta Ha: 71)
Pharaoh, remembered for the bullying and cruelty
that arose from his arrogance and pride, was in this sense a man who came
fully under the influence of Satan and carried out Satan's orders to the
letter. In a verse of the Qur'an Allah describes Pharaoh's character like
this: "
he was haughty, one of the profligate." (Surat ad-Dukhan: 31)
Satan is the one who directs people towards this arrogant
behaviour, but he is not satisfied by their obeying his command that they
should "Be proud!". He desires his advocates to struggle against Allah
alongside him. In this verse, Allah informs us of Satan's real purpose:
He said, "My Lord, because You misled me, I will
make things on the earth seem good to them and I will mislead them all,
every one of them." (Surat al-Hijr: 39)
Certainly in order to achieve this aim, Satan tries to make
denial attractive in the eyes of the unbelievers. Because of this the
deniers demonstrate extremely refractory behaviour towards the faithful
who call on them to conform to Allah's instructions and prohibitions,
and they do not accept the possibility that their own ideas may be flawed.
In the Qur'an, Allah describes the Pharaoh's conceit-filled reply to the
call of Musa (peace be upon him) like this:
Then he [Musa] showed him the Great Sign. But he
denied it and disobeyed, and then he hastily backed away. But then he
rallied and called out, saying, "I am your Lord Most High!" (Surat az-Nazi'at:
In short the deniers want to believe that the most superior
people in every respect are themselves. As we can see in the example of
Pharaoh, their pride prevents them from accepting that they are impotent
servants of Allah. A sense of pride, which they cannot abandon, pushes
them into disobedience. Indeed, as can be seen in the verse, "When
Our Signs came to them in all their clarity, they said, 'This is downright
magic,' and they repudiated them wrongly and haughtily, in spite of their
own certainty about them
" (Surat an-Naml: 13-14), proud people, even
if they see the signs of Allah's existence, under Satan's influence, continue
to reject it. Those who rebel against Allah and follow Satan's orders
will, on the Day of Judgment fall into degradation and be forced to give
an accounting for their behaviour.
But as for those who reject Our Signs and are arrogant
regarding them, they are the Companions of the Fire, remaining in it timelessly,
for ever. Who could do greater wrong than someone who invents lies against
Allah or denies His Signs?... (Surat al-A'raf: 36-37)
Satan's Command: "Don't Listen"
Satan is never in favour of people hearing the true and the
good, because by following the voice of his conscience, a person who hears
and heeds the Qur'an, may cross to the side of righteousness and may begin
to apply, live and encourage what is right. So, Satan's priority is to
keep his followers away from the Qur'an, and also from Muslims who expound
the Qur'an. While Allah invites people to live their lives in a blessed
state by earning His favour, most people obey Satan's orders and do everything
in their power to avoid hearing what Allah tells them. With the verse,
"Those who do not believe say, 'Do not listen to this Qur'an. Drown
it out so that hopefully you will gain the upper hand' " (Surah Fussilat:
26), Allah warns of the approach adopted by such people.
The deniers of the faith resort to various demagogic methods
so that the Qur'an may not be heard: they argue against it with loud voices
and try to shut others down, change the subject and aggressively prevent
the reading of the verses. If these methods do not work, then they may
resort to violence, threats and various pressure tactics to silence the
faithful. The reason for their acting in this way is that they are afraid
that the truths they hear will affect them, that their consciences will
be brought into play and that they will realize how wrong some of their
ideas are. It is possible to observe these fears right away from their
facial expressions and their behaviour, and also to understand that they
are suddenly filled with panic when the verses of the Qur'an are read
and the truth of creation explained.
Two of several Qur'anic verses which tell us that although
the Qur'an is a mercy and a blessing for people and contains all the information
needed to ensure their salvation in this world and the next, the deniers
still turn away from the truth are the following:
A Book whose verses have been demarcated for people
who know as an Arabic Qur'an, bringing good news and giving warning; but
most of them have turned away and do not hear. (Surah Fussilat: 3-4)
They are told, "Heed what lies before you and behind
you so that hopefully you will have mercy shown to you." Not one of your
Lord's Signs comes to them without their turning away from it. (Surah
Ya Sin: 45-46)
The people of the Prophet Nuh are cited as examples of this
in the Qur'an. As did all prophets who tried to make Allah their only
God and advised a fine moral life, the Prophet Nuh encountered resistance
from his people:
He said, "My Lord, I have called my people night
and day but my calling has only made them more evasive. Indeed, every
time I called them to Your forgiveness, they put their fingers in their
ears, wrapped themselves up in their clothes and were overweeningly arrogant."
(Surah Nuh: 5-7)
This verse shows that the Prophet Nuh invited his people
to faith in Allah in various ways but the people tried everything to avoid
listening to him. It is important to emphasize that those who turn away
from these invitations of the prophets and stop up their ears to avoid
hearing the word of Allah do so because of prejudices and the powerful
whisperings of Satan. The deniers immediately reject what they are being
told, without even listening to a single word. In the 101st verse of Surat
al-Kahf, Allah tells us of those "
whose ears were unable to hear." Because
these people are conditioned not to abandon their lack of faith, they
say "Even if I listen, I won't abandon it," and turn their faces away
right from the beginning.
In fact, in such a situation the rational thing to do is
to listen to the invitation made, obtain detailed information about what
is explained and read Allah's holy book carefully. But the deniers follow
Satan's "Don't listen!" order and turn their backs on it from the outset.
Satan knows very well that if people listen to the Qur'an with a sincere
heart, the state of heedlessness in which they find themselves will be
removed and with an open mind they will come to realize the truths the
Qur'an contains.
Those who fall into this trap and close their ears to the
Qur'an should know that on the Day of Judgment they will feel very great
regret. On that day all that Satan's factions will want will be for death
to be the end of everything:
But as for him who is given his Book in his left
hand, he will say, "If only I had not been given my Book and had not known
about my Reckoning! If only death had really been the end! My wealth has
been of no use to me. My power has vanished." [Allah will say] "Seize
him and truss him up. Then roast him in the Blazing Fire. Then bind him
in a chain which is seventy cubits long. He used not to believe in Allah
the Magnificent, nor did he urge the feeding of the poor. Therefore here
today he has no friend nor any food except exuding pus which no one will
eat except those who were in error." (Surat al-Haqqa: 25-37)
Satan's Command: "Do Not Approach the Faithful, Stay
Another order given by Satan for the purpose of preventing
people from reading the truths contained in the Qur'an is, "Do not approach
the faithful, stay away." He tries to keep those who serve him separate
from anybody who reads the Qur'an, speaks about it, lives by its rules
and invites others to follow it. He believes that being in their company
will have, from his point of view, a very negative effect on his faction,
because due to their submission to Allah they remind others of Him with
their every act and their every word, positively affecting those around
them with their steadfast morality. People who are in the company of the
faithful are affected positively, whether they want to be or not, and
their hearts warm towards Islam. This is exactly what Satan does not want.
Because of this, he orders those who reject faith to stay away from believers
and have no relationship with them. On the contrary, he wants them to
display antagonistic, aggressive and mocking behaviour towards the faithful
because this reduces the possibility of a positive relationship developing
between them.
Those who resist faith because of this powerful satanic influence
take care to stay away from people who believe in Allah. A person's faith
and awareness of living for Allah is sufficient to distance the deniers
from him or make them feel malice against him because the faithful, due
to their pointing out the truth, represent a spiritual danger to the deniers
whose lives are far removed from moral living. In the Qur'an, the behaviour
of deniers towards the faithful who invoke the name of Allah or remind
others of Allah is described in this way:
Those who do not believe all but strike you down
with their evil looks when they hear the Reminder and say, "He is quite
mad." But it is nothing less than a Reminder to all the worlds. (Surat
al-Qalam: 51-52)
When Our Signs are recited to them-Clear Signs-you
can detect denial in the faces of those who do not believe. They all but
assault those who recite Our Signs to them!.. (Surat al-Hajj: 72)
These verses describe how the sole reason prompting mockery
and violent enmity from deniers toward the faithful is reciting Allah's
One of the principle aims of those who defy faith is to keep
other people away from a moral life and to divert them from the true path.
They do their utmost to keep apart anyone who may feel sympathy for the
faithful and want to talk with them and listen to their ideas. In this
way they prevent people from entering into the circles of those who remind
others about Allah and His signs, who think about the proximity of death
and who exercise their consciences. They prefer everybody to be like them
and shy away from the verses of the Qur'an, living their lives without
thinking about the purpose of their creation.
One of the examples of this given by the Qur'an is that
of the Companions of the Cave. The Companions of the Cave, who are a group
of young believers, are forced by extreme pressure from deniers to take
refuge in a cave. Surat al-Kahf tells us:
We fortified their hearts when they stood up and
said, "Our Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth and We will not
call on any god apart from Him. We would in that case have uttered an
abomination. These people of ours have taken gods apart from Him. Why
do they not produce a clear authority concerning them? Who could do greater
wrong than someone who invents a lie against Allah?" [The youths said
to one another:] "When you have separated yourselves from them and everything
they worship except Allah, take refuge in the cave and your Lord will
unfold His mercy to you and open the way to the best for you in your situation."
(Surat al-Kahf: 14-16)
Those who would prevent the prophets from receiving support
from the community have, throughout history, employed various calumnies
and pressures. The sole reason for these slanders is to ensure that people
shun the prophets and distance themselves from them. But the deniers-just
like the people of the Prophet Nuh-are only destroying their own souls
by doing this:
They keep others from it and avoid it themselves.
They are only destroying themselves but they are not aware of it. (Surat
al-An'am: 26)
Satan's Command: "Do Not Read Books Explaining
Qur'anic Morality Or Let Others Read Them"
One of the principal stratagems used throughout history by
those who want to keep others away from religion is to prevent them from
reading books or other materials that teach religion and good morality.
In fact, countless books have been burned and destroyed for this purpose,
or their printing and distribution have been prevented. In modern times,
in particular, communist and materialist regimes have tried to prevent
the reading and teaching of books that point to the signs of the existence
of Allah and Qur'anic morality.
They attack books which deal with the fact of creation, and
the truths of the Qur'an, as harmful and unscientific, and try to damage
the respect in which people who invite others to believe in Allah are
held within the community.
All these are the efforts of Satan to prepare fertile ground
in which to sow the seeds of the denial of Allah. His tools are a group
of irreligious people, who try to prevent others from reading and learning
and being aware of the truth. While these operations have been carried
out openly in communist countries such as Russia and China, they are also
encouraged by governments that have a materialist concept of life. One
of the reasons lying behind communist Russia's changing of the alphabet
and later taking control of all book publication in the Muslim Turkic
Republics was to prevent people from learning about their own religion
and hence to ensure that they lost their identity. In the same way, the
Chinese government has prohibited reading the Qur'an and books commentating
on the Qur'an in order for the Muslim people of Eastern Turkestan to lose
their Islamic identity.
Not only do these irreligious people prevent others from
reading books about creation, so too do they avoid them themselves, because
they are afraid that when they read works explaining Allah and His religion,
they will start to doubt their own philosophy and lose the belief in the
ideas they propound. For this reason the communist leader Lenin's warnings,
made years earlier, to the effect that "if people are not to surrender
themselves to religion, they must stay away from it" were so effective,
that those deniers who came after him applied his ideas scrupulously,
handing on the legacy one to another. Their nightmare is to see the destruction
of the atheist philosophy on which they have based their lives. Because
of this, just like others before them, they flee from submitting to Allah
and do not make use of the holy book Allah has sent them as a blessing.
But this flight produces nothing but loss.
Satan's Command: "Mock"
Mockery is one of the most frequent methods resorted to by
those who resist faith. In the Qur'an, Allah tells us this moral defect
is handed down from one person to another:
Not one of their Lord's Signs comes to them without
their turning away from it. They deny the truth each time it comes to
them but news of what they were mocking will certainly reach them. (Surat
al-An'am: 4-5)
This is also described in another verse:
But when he came to them with Our Signs, they merely
laughed at them. (Surat az-Zukhruf: 47)
Their mockery conceals the fact that they do not want to
listen to what they are told, because they are afraid that their consciences
will heed the reminder of the Day of Judgment, death and their responsibilities
in this life. So, they draw cartoons on the subject, write humorous articles
and try to find comedy in it, with the evil intention of mocking Allah's
The deniers' sarcastic attitude brings them great respect
from others in Satan's faction. They regard mockery as a virtue, so they
respect those who practice it and try to imitate them. But their greatest
mistake is to think that the believers will suffer harm and loss of morale
from their actions. Since they see mockery as an indicator of wittiness
and superiority, they certainly cannot comprehend the believers' point
of view on this. The truth is that mockery is the sign of impotence and
weakness. Mockery is a method used by people who have no evidence they
can produce to contradict the idea with which they are confronted, and
in order to cover up their own weaknesses and complexes. Because Allah
calls special attention to this subject in the Qur'an, aware that mockery
is a method employed by unbelievers against believers, Muslims counter
this behaviour with the enjoyment of worship. But because a person who
engages in mockery does not know this, he thinks what he has done is very
effective. Since he has persuaded himself with his mockery, he thinks
he has succeeded in persuading others.
Nowadays, making religion the subject of jokes and anecdotes,
and by mocking the Qur'an and the faithful, the deniers are trying to
provide their denial with an air of superiority and justify their denial.
As Allah has pointed out with the verse, "But Allah is mocking them,
and drawing them on, as they wander blindly in their excessive insolence"
(Surat al-Baqara: 15), those who try to justify their denial through
mockery will only be able to continue doing so for a short time for when
they come up against death"
what they used to mock at will engulf
them." (Surat az-Zumar: 48)
In the Qur'an, Allah describes the situation in the face
of the torment of hell of those who used to mock His verses in this way:
No wonder you are surprised as they laugh with
scorn! When they are reminded they do not pay heed. When they see a Sign
they only laugh with scorn. They say, "This is just downright magic. When
we are dead and turned to dust and bones will we then be raised up again
alive? And our earlier ancestors as well?" Say: "Yes, and you will be
in a despicable state." There will be but one Great Blast and then their
eyes will open. They will say, "Alas for us! This is the Day of Reckoning!"
This is the Day of Decision you used to deny. (Surat as-Saffat: 12-21)
Satan's Command: "Conform To The Majority"
One of the main reasons that people are ignorant of the Qur'anic
truths and for resisting Allah's verses is that Satan deceives them with
the claim that the deniers are in the majority. This is a wonderful excuse
for someone who wants to avoid Allah and His commandments for a religious
way of life. He resorts to pat answers such as, "Everybody does it that
way, they reject the faith too, I have seen them behave this way also!"
Because of this mindset, independent, free thinking becomes impossible.
Because they drift with the flow of life without thinking,
living out what they have learned by heart, such people never ask themselves
questions like, "Why am I doing these things? Why am I with these people?
Why do I imitate this person? Why do I act without thinking?" Without
feeling any need to consult their minds and consciences, they accept both
what is right and what is wrong from their community and live their lives
accordingly. The sole excuse they can produce for their beliefs is that
they are generally accepted by the communities in which they live.
Rejecting Allah's verses and adopting their own flawed logic
and thinking deceives them into belief in "the power of the masses." A
natural result of this deception is that the bigger the community in which
the individual lives, the higher the power of sanction the masses over
him. Acting in unison with a mass community makes independent thinking
and decision making difficult. Because of the "conform to the majority"
philosophy, even if they know what is right and true, they hold back from
expressing it, and conceal their sincere opinions.
One of the most prominent examples of this is materialist
scientists who promote the theory of evolution on a worldwide scale. Believers
in evolution think that it is true because it has been expounded for many
years. They proceed from the idea that if everybody believes in it, they
must believe in it too and arrive at the conclusion that if everybody
ignores scientific facts, then so should they. Thus collectively they
take on the duty of defending the theory of evolution blindly and in spite
of everything. To carry out a scientific struggle against this worldwide
organized lie is to grapple with millions of people.
Many people may be planning to try and hide behind the excuse,
"They were rejecting religion and I thought it was hardly possible for
everybody to be wrong at once," but by declaring in the 116th verse of
Surat al-An'am "If you obeyed most of those on earth, they would misguide
you from Allah's Way. They follow nothing but conjecture. They are only
guessing," Allah informs us that a person who conforms to the majority
may fall into error. Therefore the fact that an idea is supported by a
large number of people does not mean that it is definitely correct.
For this reason a person should listen to his conscience
and give up acting according to the pre-judgments of the majority, otherwise
the twisted logic will emerge that anybody who bands together a large
number of people is on the right path and a misguided majority view will
be accepted, instead of objective evidence.
Believing crowd psychology to be a strength, when he met
the Prophet Musa, the Pharaoh also used the same method in a different
way. When Musa (peace be upon him) arrived to present the clear proofs
of the existence of Allah, the Pharaoh gathered all the people together
and turned them into a mob.
In doing so, his primary purpose was his belief that he would
be able to take pride in winning victory in front of a large crowd and
that he would have a positive effect on the people. Secondly, he was deluded
by the false belief that the strength of the mob would have a negative
effect on the faithful. The same is true of the Prophet Ibrahim's tribe
of idolaters. The leaders of the tribe gathered all the people together
when the Prophet Ibrahim was about to speak. In the Qur'an, this incident
is related in this way:
They said, "Who has done this to our gods? He is
definitely one of the wrongdoers!" They said, "We heard a young man mentioning
them. They call him Ibrahim." They said, "Bring him before the people's
eyes so they can be witnesses." (Surat a-Anbiya': 59-61)
It is common practice for those who resist faith to prefer
each other's company and to avoid being alone with a believer: they draw
their strength from the unbelieving crowds, and are uncomfortable being
alone with believers.
But the faithful, who accept Allah as their friend and guardian,
are resigned to providence, and their faith remains unshaken at all times
and under all circumstances. Allah tells us how the faithful proceed on
the basis of the power of faith when they are greatly outnumbered by those
opposing them:
Those to whom people said, "The people have gathered
against you, so fear them." But that merely increased their Faith and
they said, "Allah is enough for us and the Best of Guardians." (Surah
Al 'Imran: 173)
Without any doubt the faithful are those who find their salvation
in surrendering themselves thus to Allah. On the Day of Judgment, those
who have adopted Satan and accepted him as their friend, are filled with
regret and say that they have been left utterly alone. This shows the
false path they followed.
The Kingdom that Day will belong in truth to the
All-Merciful. It will be a hard Day for the disbelievers, the Day when
a wrongdoer will bite his hands and say, "Alas for me! If only I had gone
the way of the Messenger! Alas for me! If only I had not taken so-and-so
for a friend! He led me astray from the Reminder after it came to me."
Satan always leaves man in the lurch. The Messenger says, "My Lord, my
people treat this Qur'an as something to be ignored." (Surat al-Furqan:
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text:
Difference between revisions of "Mouse acceleration"
|Line 15:
|Line 15:
The current acceleration/threshold settings can be checked using:
The current acceleration/threshold settings can be checked using:
xset q | grep -A 1
xset q | grep -A 1 Pointer
==Making changes permanent==
==Making changes permanent==
Revision as of 14:34, 28 February 2009
Mouse acceleration settings typically can be configured using tools provided by your desktop environment. Alternatively, Xorg supplies similar methods more directly, using the xset command. Along with sensitivity, your mouse speed is controlled by acceleration and threshold levels. The command synopsis is
xset m acceleration threshold.
For example:
xset m 4 1
Acceleration defines how many times faster the cursor will move than the default speed, when the cursor moves more than threshold pixels in a short time. Acceleration can be a fraction, so if you want to slow down the mouse you can use 1/2, and if 3 is slightly too fast, but 2 is too slow, you can use 5/2. You effectively disable the threshold by setting it to 1, that way the cursor will always move the same speed. To get the default settings back, type
xset m default.
Disabling mouse acceleration
Mouse acceleration can be disabled using:
xset m 0 0
Query currently used settings
The current acceleration/threshold settings can be checked using:
xset q | grep -A 1 Pointer
Making changes permanent
You can add the xset command to your ~/.xinitrc to get the desired mouse speed every time X starts.
For more info see
man xset.


text:
STEPHENVILLE, Texas - The North Texas man accused of killing former Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle and another man has been arraigned on two counts of capital murder.
Eddie Ray Routh (rowth) made a brief court appearance Tuesday in Erath (EE'-rath) County. The 25-year-old Routh is an Iraqi War veteran charged with killing Kyle and Chad Littlefield in February at a gun range. After the shooting, Routh fled in Kyle's pickup. He was captured a few hours later at his sister's home in Lancaster.
Routh was indicted in July. His trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 21 and he remains jailed in lieu of $3 million bail.
Kyle is considered to be the deadliest sniper in American history. His account of life during and after war, "American Sniper," was a best-seller.


text:
Signature Cable Titanium Cufflinks-340770
- 340770
- Style
Edward Mirell Signature Cable EMC103 Cufflinks
The Signature Cable Collection highlights the use of the Black Titanium Memory Cable, where the 74 strands of Titanium wire are used to create the cable, offering a durable and contemporary feel. The EMC103 presents an open-design formation of highly polished, gray titanium and black memory cable along the face. Measures approximately 12 mm in width and 12 grams in weight. The Titanium is a very lightweight metal and provides approximately seven times more strength than platinum.
Edward Mirell is the founder and global leader of contemporary metals jewelry, blending a passion for design with the latest technology to create unique jewelry accessories. The line specializes in award-winning titanium pieces, implementing patented technology to create unique designs, colors and styles.
All Edward Mirell products are designed, engineered and manufactured in the USA at its South Florida facility.
- Type
- Cuff Links
- Designer
- Edward Mirell


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Ithaca College invites community residents to enroll on an nondegree (extramural) basis in undergraduate and graduate courses. Whatever your circumstances or educational goal, extramural study at Ithaca College can be an important step forward into a new future.
You are a nondegree student if...
you enroll on a course-by-course basis without being admitted (matriculated) into a degree program at Ithaca College.
As an nondegree student you may be...
- someone who never started college or who wants to return to college
- an area resident who wants to take a course or two for professional development or personal interest
- a college graduate who wants to continue his or her education at either the undergraduate or graduate level
- a student at another college or university who wants to enroll and transfer the credit
- an international student who wants to study for a semester or two at a U.S. college
- a qualified high school student who wishes to get a head start in college-level study
- an Ithaca College employee who enrolls in courses that enhance work performance, promote self-improvement, or provide qualifications for higher job classifications
Courses Available to Nondegree Students
As an nondegree student you may take any of the many courses Ithaca College offers, provided you meet the necessary program and course prerequisites and space is available after Ithaca College degree students have registered. This means that for fall and spring semesters, extramural registration is not processed until the first day of the semester. Some programs have additional restrictions.
- If you have graduated from high school or hold a GED, you may register for undergraduate courses.
- If you hold at least a baccalaureate degree, you may register for either undergraduate or graduate courses.
- Enrollment in graduate courses requires permission from the graduate chair.
- Nondegree (extramural) students are generally ineligible for enrollment in independent studies and internships.
- Physical Activity, Leisure & Safety (PALS) courses are not available to extramural students.
- Graduate courses in physical therapy and occupational therapy are not available to extramural students.
- Active high school students need to provide a letter from their high school guidance counselor which gives permission for the student to enroll in Ithaca College courses.
Fall, spring, and summer course lists are available in HomerConnect before the semester starts. Classes are held throughout the day, and over 100 courses are offered after 4:00 p.m. With this wide selection you should be able to arrange a schedule to accommodate your needs. In the summer, registration in classroom courses is open to all on a first-come, first -served basis.
International Students
International students are welcome to register for courses at Ithaca College. If your native language is not English, you should take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and score satisfactorily to demonstrate a command of English. Additional information is available from the Office of International Programs, Job Hall 202, 607-274-3306.
Jennifer Wofford, Director of Extended Studies, firstname.lastname@example.com
Campus location:
Office of International and Extended Studies
Job Hall 208
Fax: 866-924-6272
Mailing address:
Ithaca College - Office of Extended Studies
953 Danby Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
For questions about tuition and fees, payment deadlines, payment options, or your bill contact:
Student Financial Services
Peggy Ryan Williams Center - 2nd Floor
Office Phone: (800) 429-4275 or (607) 274-3131


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These trolling lures have the unique ability to be loaded with bait and come complete
with a bait stick to easily add or remove bait.
Water intakes at the front allow water to pass over the bait inside leaving a trail
of the bait's scent directly behind the lure which means predatory fish will
not only see the lure but smell and taste what's inside.
Also included are light sticks for night time fishing which insert into the hook
lock at the back of the bait chamber. The hook lock allows you to fix your hooks
in a locked position.
The Scent Blazer lure's bait chamber can also be loaded with other fish attractants,
lights, weights, rattles and sinkers allowing you to control the lure's scent,
look and swimming action.
This lure comes in a
rigged version as well as unrigged in clamshell packaging.
Lures are rigged
with game fishing
trolling hooks made from sharpened stainless steel and high quality shock
absorbing stretchable monofilament leader.
A Scent Blazer
rigging sleeve is colour matched to the trolling lure skirt pattern, the hook is set upright in the hook lock and the lure
is weighted accordingly.
Your trolling
lure will be
rigged to the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) rules for fishing
in saltwater, accepted by sports fishers worldwide.


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18 August 2011
What Can One Person Do To Change The World?
From acts of kindness to working towards a common goal - such as eradicating hunger - we all have the power to change the world for the better. In honor of the third World Humanitarian Day (August 19), let's contribute our time, energy and funds to feeding 11 million in desperate need of emergency food aid in the Horn of Africa. Join the World Food Programme and learn about the 10 ways you can help fight hunger in the Horn of Africa.


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The good news is Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed 2013-14 budget will increase spending by 2.4 percent, Monroe County social services officials were told Wednesday.
The good news is Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed 2013-14 budget will increase spending by 2.4 percent, Monroe County social services officials were told Wednesday.
The bad news is that this doesn't begin to restore cuts of the previous two fiscal years — funding that has to be made up locally to fight increasing poverty, local social services providers said.
"We can't go back to the well over and over again and ask for more (local) money," said Faith Waters of Family Promise of Monroe County, which provides housing for the homeless. "Because we're getting a tremendous amount from our community."
Waters was one of three officials from nonprofit agencies who talked about program challenges during a forum at Shawnee Inn, sponsored by United Way. Their discussion followed a budget presentation by Pete Tartline, deputy secretary of the state Budget Office.
Waters talked about continuing difficulties in finding housing for an elderly homeless man who lives under a truck cab, under a bridge. Family Promise helped the man sign up for Social Security to qualify for housing assistance. Then they succeeded last week in moving the man to the top of a waiting list for public housing, only to learn he still has a six-to-eight-month wait before a place opens up.
"I started to cry because I thought I was giving him hope," Waters said.
There are 300 housing units available, but 2,400 low-income residents on the waiting list, she said.
Waters talked about another homeless man who is intellectually disabled. They are trying to get the man needed dental care, she said, but first they had to obtain a birth certificate. For that he needed a credit card. Then he needed an identification card.
"We have to ask other members of the homeless community to watch over him," Waters said.
Budget cuts have a cascading negative impact, said Pocono Alliance Executive Michael Tukeva. Reduced subsidies for daycare threaten the ability of the working poor to keep a job.
"We're getting less money and we're getting more people with more need as a result of it," Tukeva said. "They want to propel themselves, have a future."
Some 62 percent of low-income residents who completed Bridges Out of Poverty, a five-month Pocono Alliance program to train people to better help themselves, have enrolled in higher education, he said.
"You've got to protect those safety net areas," Maj. James Gingrich of The Salvation Army said. Otherwise, "you're going to spend money in other areas like prisons and the criminal justice system."
Senior citizens now account for more than half those who take part in local Salvation Army food programs, Gingrich said. Overall food costs are up 48 percent since 2009 and heating costs are up 64 percent, but Social Security payments have remained static, he said.
About 69 percent of agencies that receive United Way funding statewide sustained funding cuts this year, Pennsylvania United Way President Tony Ross said, and 76 percent report increased demand for services.


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Latitudinal Gradient Project
Project Description
The Latitudinal Gradient Project (LGP, http://www.lgp.aq/) is aimed at increasing our understanding of the complex marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems that exist along the Victoria Land coast of the Ross Sea region, and using this understanding to determine the effects of environmental change on these ecosystems. Five sites have been chosen for study. Sites studied to date are:Cape Hallett, northern Victoria Land (2003-2006); Terra Nova Bay (2006-2008); Darwin Glacier region (2006-2009). Future proposed sites ar Granite Harbour and the Beardmore Glacier region. This is a multidisciplinary project involving New Zealand, U.S. and Italian research groups.


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Today I delivered this presentation at eTail Europe conference here in London, UK.
The title is "The future of SEO. Moving to a holistic inbound marketing strategy" with an earned media case-study thrown in for good measure.
I genuinely believe that in the future, earning peoples attention will be the norm, rather than just pushing your way in front of them. By being, innovative, creative and "remarkable" then you will get more attention and loyalty than you could afford to buy.
In this presentation I try to lay out some history and context to the evolution of SEO and the changing search-scape. I introduce the new world of "inbound marketing" aka "earned media" or "content based marketing".
Delivering this kind of campaign needs a lot of different skills. So, formulating a plan, organising "all of your brains" may need to organisational shift. This stuff can be so much fun and hit multiple teams traditional objectives. SEO for links and social citations. For Social Media for Likes, RTs, shares, follows, subscribes. For branding, for PR, to build loyalty and affinity with your brand. And many others.
The case study refers to My Destination's Biggest Baddest Bucket list. This is a campaign that SeSoMe delivered as an internal agency. Working with so many throughout the wider business and the franchise network. The 2nd half of the campaign starts in July when the winners travel for a full 6 months living like a local and ticking off their bucket list.
If you want to talk about this presentation or SeSoMe, just let me know.
Thanks to Joao for taking this picture from the audience.


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It's a balmy night beside the Caribbean and thousands of people are gathered on a well-worn cricket pitch, not to watch men in white take wickets, but to dig the cool tunes of the annual Plymouth Jazz Festival. In the three years since its birth, Plymouth has become Tobago's biggest outdoor party and cultural outpouring. Jazz is but a small part of a heady blend that includes all sorts of roots music—reggae, calypso, soca, funk and blues—a melodious stew that attracts music fans from all around the West Indies and (if the number of private jets parked on the tarmac at Crown Point Airport is any indication) an increasing number of high-fliers from overseas.
Flush with funds from the oil and gas fields of sister island Trinidad, the festival's private and public sponsors attract A-list entertainers to their tropical island paradise, not just golden oldies like Stevie Wonder, Sting and Al Green, but hot young upstarts like Sean Paul, who swept away the 2007 festival crowd with his unabashedly sexy Jamaican dance hall hits.
A mellow mood prevails as people down dark rum and Carib beer, munch "bake & shark" and other island food from stalls around the edge of the cricket pitch, and groove until well past midnight beneath a warm star-filled sky. Days are set aside for snoozing, snorkeling and sunning on the island's fabulous white-sand strands... often in close proximity to the very people you were swooning over the previous evening. Because one of the advantages of a big-league music fest on such a tiny island is the small-town atmosphere that permeates throughout. Yep, that's Sean Paul and his gal (one of the back-up dancers) sleeping in the room right beside yours... and yes, that is Diana Ross staying in the villa across the street ... and Richard Branson—did you meet him at the after-party last night? So down-to-earth for a billionaire.
Plymouth is but one example of a growing global phenomenon. Music festivals are breaking out all over as a means to attract fans to places they might otherwise never go, a way for people far beyond the Sunset Strip and London's West End to express their musicality, and a chance for smaller genres to grab the limelight, if only for a few days or weeks. "Festivals bring people together, help invigorate young people's interest in local culture, help the artists themselves to meet and learn from each other, and promote a new kind of culturally conscious tourism," event director Yusuf Mahmoud told the visiting press during this year's Sauti za Busara Swahili Music Festival in Zanzibar.
"I think the boom in festivals around the world has been a combination of things," says Joe Fletcher, who books talent for musical events all around the world. "First, music fans love live music and enjoy the chance to get together with other fans of their favorite artists. Secondly, as record sales decline and global superstars are rarer, the idea of letting music lovers hear a variety of acts is very attractive. In England alone there are now hundreds of festivals, big and small. "
Woodstock tends to get all the credit, but the granddaddy of them all was Monterey Pop two year prior (1967). The event was the first to raise musical festivals to the status of cultural watersheds, and it proved what could be accomplished when you combined cash and creativity (and perhaps just a wee bit of acid). Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Simon & Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin are just a few of the 32 acts that performed over the three days of Monterey.
Nowadays there are festivals on every continent (save Antarctica) and nearly every country. And ambience has traveled well beyond Yasgur's Farm to festivals perched on the edge of the Sahara Desert, on the shores of the Indian Ocean, in the streets of Buenos Aires and the cobblestone streets of Europe. Festival amenities have changed drastically, too. Gone are the days when a roll in the mud and impromptu head shop were all you could find away from the music, replaced in many cases by gourmet food tents, designer apparel stalls, air-conditioned restrooms and even mini-spas.
Varga notes that the current formula consists of a half-dozen big names each day as well as dozens of smaller acts that reflect regional music and generally lesser well-known. "Big acts draw the crowds, who are then exposed to all of this great music they wouldn't otherwise hear."
"If fans are planning to attend a festival, I would recommend finding out as much as you can about it [beforehand]," says Fletcher. "Have a designated spot to meet up with friends in case you get separated, be prepared for some delays—no need to get stressed out if traffic is a little slow. Dress in layers as weather may go from very hot in the day to cool in the evenings, bring sunscreen and for God's sake, wear comfortable shoes!"
Varga has his own advice for getting the most out of a music festival: "Be open to music you don't know. Follow your ears and experience the thrill of discovering something completely new or different. And when you're at a festival with multiple stages and performers, relax and don't try to see it all. Think small, mark down a few things you really want to hear, and leave time for wandering around."
We've scoured the globe to uncover ten of today's coolest yearly music festivals, plus some of the best places to stay and insider tips on tickets and transportation. Enjoy.


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Are taxes a form of charitable donation?
Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney seemed to suggest that he might think so last week, when he responded to questions about how much he pays in taxes by suggesting that people should take into account his total contributions to the government and charities.
The comment was a quick one — a by-golly insistence that despite paying a relatively low tax rate on his vast income, the millions he has given to charity show that he's not a greedy guy.
But experts who research public attitudes on philanthropy on both sides of the political spectrum said it was an inadvertently revealing moment, a brief window into the deep philosophical differences between how liberals and conservatives view government and society.
"Taxes are a form a of charity," said Michael Tanner, a scholar at the Cato Institute who has studied philanthropy, explaining the conservative viewpoint. "If we think of the point of taxes, it's not to be punitive. We tax people because there's some use, some public good, for which they're needed."
He added that one reason a conservative such as Romney aims to push tax rates down is a fundamental belief that individuals make better choices about what society needs than government does: "A conservative might say, 'I know of something in my local community where my dollars might serve a better purpose.' "
The flip side of the argument, the liberal side, is that the point of government is to provide a way for citizens to decide together what society needs and to get those things done.
"This is really the fundamental disagreement," said Garrett Gruener, the founder of Ask.com, who advocates higher taxes for himself and other ultra-wealthy individuals as part of the group Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength.
"Democracy is not a charity. It's an enterprise of all Americans to accomplish things that we democratically decide are important," he said. "Charity is something I do on my own, and I don't expect others to have the same priorities I do."
Romney is one of the wealthiest Americans ever to represent a major party in a presidential race, and his personal finances have been under a political microscope. Democrats argue that his effective tax rate — 13.9 percent in 2010 — is an illustration of federal policies that favor the wealthy, making breaks available to those who can pay accountants to find them and taxing investment income at a lower rate than wages.
He has also been under pressure from Democrats to release more information about his taxes. So far, he has released only his return from 2010, and he said he will make public his 2011 return.
During a news conference Thursday, he insisted that in the past 10 years, he has not paid a federal income tax rate of less than 13 percent. He made the statement after Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he had been told that Romney had managed to avoid paying federal income taxes for 10 years.
"I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that," Romney said.
Then he continued: "If you add in, in addition, the amount that goes to charity, why the number gets well above 20 percent."
It wasn't the first time that Romney had appeared to suggest that it was appropriate to look at his tax and charity payments in total.
"I'm proud of the taxes I pay. My taxes, plus my charitable contributions, this year, 2011, will be about 40 percent," he said in January during a debate among Republican presidential candidates in Florida.
On their 2010 tax return, Romney and his wife, Ann, reported giving nearly $3 million to charity, 13.8 percent of their total $21.7 million income. According to the Romney campaign, the couple gave more than $7 million in 2010 and 2011.
"The Romneys take to heart 'to whom much is given, of him shall much be required,' " according to a statement on a campaign Web site page devoted to the tax issue. "Accordingly, they have been extraordinarily generous in their charitable giving . . . donating even more to charity than they paid in taxes."
That level of giving is far beyond the contributions of most Americans. According to research by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and the Giving USA Foundation, Americans gave about 1.9 percent of disposable personal income to charity in each of the past three years.
It is also more than given by many leading political figures.
According to their 2011 tax return, President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama paid an effective tax rate of 20.5 percent and gave to charity 22 percent of their adjusted gross income of $789,674. But their rate of giving has varied significantly, as has their income. Their 2005 return, for instance, showed them giving 4.6 percent of $1.66 million. In 2003, they gave 1.4 percent of $238,00; in 2004, they contributed 1.2 percent of $207,000.
Vice President Biden and his wife, Jill, gave 1.4 percent of their adjusted income to charity in 2010 and 1.5 percent in 2011. According to tax returns released Friday, the newly chosen Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and his wife, Janna, gave 1.2 percent of their gross adjusted income to charity in 2010, a figure that jumped to 4 percent in 2011.
But the Romneys, who have estimated in financial disclosure forms that they are worth between $190 million and $250 million, are vastly more wealthy than most people, and the moral obligation of the super-wealthy is the subject of considerable discussion in ethics circles.
According to a calculator developed by Peter Singer, a professor at Princeton University's Center for Human Values, Romney should have given at least $6 million of his income in 2010. Singer — who says Americans at all income levels should forgo more luxuries to help the global poor — termed Romney's contributions "not all that impressive, given how much he has."
Still, Romney's contributions seem substantial to many.
"He's a very generous guy," said Leslie Lenkowsky, who is a professor at the Indiana University philanthropy center and who worked with Romney's father, George, in support of the creation of AmeriCorps. "His family has a very good and positive history of charitable work."
Lenkowsky, who was chief executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service under President George W. Bush, said many Republicans have long seen charity and government as interchangeable. They believe that government's role should shrink and that charities should help the needy instead.
He said that point of view is embedded in the tax code, which extends a deduction for charitable donations on the theory that nonprofit groups save the government money through their work.
But Lenkowsky noted that people receive tax deductions for contributions to groups that would never receive government dollars. He cited the real example of an organization that sends red clown noses to troops in conflict zones to improve morale.
Another example is provided by religious organizations, which the government is constitutionally prohibited from funding. And a large percentage of the Romneys charitable giving goes to the Mormon Church; at more than $1.5 million, it represented half of their contributions in 2010.
"I wish he hadn't tried to mix these things together," Lenkowsky said. "It makes him look defensive. . . . He's mixing apples and oranges. And he ends up with a fruit cocktail."


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Another dramatic week, punctuated with a playoff finish, on the PGA Tour. This time, Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson went toe-to-toe for extra holes to determine the winner of the Zurich Classic outside of New Orleans.
Many people are going to remember the bad luck Simpson encountered on the 15th green when he started to tap in for a par when his ball, after he had addressed it with his putter, moved just a little bit. The rules of golf call for a one-stroke penalty, and to his credit, Simpson called over a rules official, explained what happened and assesed the stroke on his scorecard.
But it was something that happened earlier on the hole that I thought I thought could have the most application to your game. And it was actually something that Simpson did that I'm going to suggest that you NOT try.
Did you see his second shot on that 15th hole? His tee shot was pulled and he ended up in an awkward lie in the rough, right next to a bunker. In fact, in order to make a full swing, he had to have one foot in that bunker! And as you'd might expect, he pulled off an incredible shot. My first thought was, "Wow, what a great shot." My second thought was, "I hope my students don't try that."
Remember that Simpson is a professional tour player who not only has an immense amount of talent, but works diligently on his game every single day. For those of us who may not be Tour caliber, it's important to limit the damage in tough situations. For 99 percent of amateur players, the proper play in such a case would be to pitch the ball to a comfortable distance, try to hit an approach that will still allow for a makeable putt at par.
The worst case scenario will hopefully be a bogey. Remember, you can recover from a bogey. One birdie will do it. Double-bogeys and "others", those are the ones that can really wreck your score.
As it turned out, Webb Simpson did make a bogey on the hole, but it had nothing to do with his decision to take a tough shot on his second shot on the hole. That said, for many players who may have tried that same shot, you may be looking at bogey or worse if you tried that too. Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor. And your score will be better served when you play within your means.
For more on Christopher Hawins, click here: