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Tuesday, July 10, 2007
3.09 "Deaths-Head Revisited"
Written by: Rod Serling
Directed by: Don Milford
Wrathful and plaintive, vicious and humanistic, Deaths-Head Revisited (the title is a rather dark and coarse play on the title of Evelyn Waugh's famous comic novel), is, specifically, a pointed and poetic assessment of Nazi barbarism during World War Two, but also an examination of war in general, using the Holocaust symbolically as simply the most egregious example of modern warfare; that is, the episode's sympathy for the victims of war does not stop at European Jews. Porcine, in stature and in character, and gleeful, erstwhile Nazi officer Captain Lutze (Oscar Beregi), alias Herr Schmidt, takes a trip to das Vaterland from his safe South American hideout, a nostalgic vacation down memory lane; he visits, specifically, Dachau, the quaintly, charmingly scenic town now synonymous with human cruelty, where he was once stationed in his days as a merciless officer. (The episode is notable not least for its set design, a recreation of a concentration camp that, for low-budget television, is surprisingly palpable.) Feeling no shame, guilt or remorse, he wanders the grounds, enthusiastically re-envisioning the horrors he inflicted there; hallucinated corpses appear, for a moment, hanging from dusty gallows, and Lutze shows hints of a satisfied grin. Ah, the good old days.
Soon, however, the flashbacks take on a tactile nature; Lutze's memories are anthropomorphized in the form of a former inmate, Becker (Joseph Schildkraut), who appears to the erstwhile captain in ghost-form. Lutze mistakes him for the grounds' living caretaker; in a way, Becker acknowledges, he is—minus the "living" part. Becker proceeds to berate Lutze with effusive, accusatory speeches that in the hands of a lesser actor would've descended into pretentious speechifying; here, they sting, and director Don Milford knows how to keep the nightmare afloat: without spatial consistency, as in the logic of a (bad) dream, Lutze is transported around the camp and into the old barracks where he is confronted by a ghostly pack of former inmates. Seen in large groups and in canted angles, dressed in white against black backgrounds, they pose an awfully frightening image, even for me and I had nothing to do, personally, with National Socialism or the Final Solution. For Lutze it proves to be unbearable; he is driven mad by the overwhelming guilt, both personal and legal, handed-down to him by his spectral victims/judges, who, following the "fair trial" they have the decency to give him (while he is unconscious), cosmically sentence him to insanity. Though it claims otherwise—"this is not hatred," Becker explains, "it is retribution. This is not revenge, it is justice"—Serling's script is vicious and vengeance-minded, though not unduly so.
Broadcast during the Adolph Eichmann trial, Deaths-Head Revisited offers a scoffingly sharp rebuke of the "Nuremberg" defense that was Eichmann's mode of exculpatory apologia, as it was for many of the captured and tried post-war Nazis. "I was a soldier," Lutze declares in passionate defense. "You were a sadist," Becker counters as the howls of Lutze's victims bellow in the background. The ghosts of war's victims can never be put to rest, placated and sent away; they are a permanent fixture on the cultural and psychological landscape of the world we've wrought with constant combat. Deaths-Head Revisited works well on a very specific and literal level, but it also hints at a commentary on the essential nature of soldierhood, that war never has the benefit of moral clarity or justifiability, and soldiers rarely have the opportunity to exercise the power of their consciences.
When Becker levels charges at Lutze for killing and torturing not only men but women, children and infants, it evokes, in my modern mind, thoughts of Vietnam's My Lai massacre, and though that atrocity succeeded Deaths-Head... by eight years, the horrific violence of the War in Southeast Asia couldn't have been far from Serling's mind, as the Vietnam War is a frequently recurring subtext in The Twilight Zone. Serling closes-out the episode with one of his most moving final narrations, which explicitly, and uncharacteristically, announces the episode's moral in relation to the real world:
"...All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes—all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twilight Zone but wherever men walk God's Earth."
Of course men turning the earth into a graveyard has hardly stopped in the decades since the Second World War, nor was it particularly new to the Nazis, and Deaths-Head Revisited is all the more effective, and devastating, for its apparent timelessness.
For Netflix purposes:
On Vol. 6 of Image Entertainment's Twilight Zone DVD Collection.
4 comments:
I truly think that Captain Lutze was not driven mad by "overwhelming guilt". He was incapable of feeling any kind of guilt, and was mad with rage at being treated so unfairly! Serling in driving his point, created his bad guy evil to the bone. Captain Lutze, being completely devoid of conscience could therefore never experience any feelings of guilt.
You are certainly right about Serling's epilogue. It is both profound and chilling.
"All the Dachaus must remain standing… - all of them."
I feel the same way about the World Trade Center. The only thing that should be erected on that sight is a memorial which will also serve as "a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the earth into a graveyard."
- July 16, 2007 at 1:49 PM
- H. Stewart said...
Thanks for the comment! Nice connection to the World Trade Center, I feel the same way and Serling's epilogue is a great summation of the point of view. But of course, graveyards don't make money.
Anyway, back to the episode, you might be right about Lutze's inability to feel guilt, but that's not the way I felt watching the episode; his sentence of "insanity" I thought was the inmates' way of forcing him to realize the pain he inflicted, to confront it head on and, as such, feel guilty about it. The arc of his character, if you will, was of a carefree Nazi being forced to come to terms with what he'd done, and the realization leading to madness. Guilt's all wrapped-up in there, for me!
- July 17, 2007 at 7:23 AM
Lutze was forced to experience the tortures he so gladly inflicted upon his victims —feeling psychosomatically the agonies of the hangings, the shootings, the beatings, the inhumane experiments. That was what drove him mad. Agony he could not endure and he would suffer it for the rest of his life.
- December 23, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Every time I watch this episode, I find myself substituting Captain Lutze with Benjamin Netanyahu, Avidgor Lieberman or whoever is in charge in Israel at the time and picturing the Palestinians as the prisoners. That depection doesn't get any more accurate than what is happening there right now! How the abused has turned into the abuser, the victim into the bully. How very sad!
- January 2, 2010 at 1:04 PM


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Interesting, Angel Pagan is hitting third tonight behind Jose Reyes and Luis Castillo. Presumably, that's because weak-hitting catcher Henry Blanco is in the line-up batting eighth.
Here's the batting order:
Jose Reyes, SS
Luis Castillo, 2B
Angel Pagan, RF
David Wright, 3B
Carlos Beltran, CF
Ike Davis, 1B
Jason Bay, LF
Henry Blanco, C
Johan Santana, LP

subset: commoncrawl


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LAKE REGION - At the Pocono Lake Region, Chamber of Commerce's dinner, April 25, a range of the area's business representatives were present to enjoy an evening of fine food and making new connections as business cards were readily exchanged.
Gianni Iona, a 14 year old student at Wallenpaupack Area High School, was presented with a certificate of acknowledgment, for being the organization's youngest business owner in its 87 year existence. Iona started his first business, selling animal balloons when he was nine. Today, he has established Gianni Boy Enterprises where he provides entertainment services, computer assistance and photography.
On a more serious note though, following Iona's recognition, April Loposky spoke of what changed her family's life on a July night in 2009, where her five year old daughter was brutally attacked in her room. After the attack, Loposky noticed that only one thing was helping her child heal. Through interaction with horses, her daughter started to come alive again. Because of the support Loposky received and how inspired she was by the affect that the animals had on her daughter, with the help and support from family and friends, Loposky founded Marley's Mission. To date, the organization has helped over 200 children since it started four years ago through the inclusion of horses in the healing process for children who have experienced any form of trauma.
The former Assistant District Attorney of Lackawanna County, and a prosecutor for over 20 years, Gene Talerico is the president of Marley's Mission and he said through Marley's Mission, he has gotten, "a better understanding of the reality of hope."
Prior to the attack, Loposky said she lived in a "bubble gum world," where her kids and family were all that mattered. Today, she said, her daughter keeps everyone motived and "everything hoping at the mission." The kids who visit Marley's Mission, do so, free of charge, Loposky said because of the generosity from others who helped her family through their challenging time. But at the dinner, Loposky and Talerico were there not only to educate people about Marley's Mission, but to also acknowledge that the organization survives on a limited amount of grants, fundraisers and the support from the general population. Children at Marley's Mission receive, 100 percent, solution based therapy where they don't ride the horses, but rather, partake in play therapy. Loposky explained that, the kids learn real life solutions so when they go into the real world they will be armed, with tools that will help them overcome whatever goes on in their lives.
With plans to expand Marley's Mission, 32 acres in Newton Township has been purchased. Dirt will start to fly soon, and construction is planned to begin May 4. Loposky said 18 people will work 15 hour shifts, so the new facility will be opened by July 5 because that is the organization's third anniversary. Talerico said he is, "immensely proud of the mission of the mission," along with Loposky and her continuous ideas. He said, that Loposky's generosity and giving of herself, by telling her story so others can understand is special.
Acknowledging what Loposky and Talerico are doing, the president of the chamber, Jim Shook said he is a, "true believer, that we're all put on this earth for a reason." He explained that, sometimes people find their goals and professions by accident or through traumatic experiences, which is the case for Loposky.
For information about Marley's Mission, visit
http://www.marleysmission.com/or call (570)937-9399.The membership dinner was held at Ehrhardt's Waterfront Banquet Center.
For information on the Pocono Lake Region Chamber of Commerce visit online at lakeregioncc.com or call (570)226-3191.


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TWIN FALLS, Idaho — The dangers of pesticides are exaggerated by the media and special-interest groups, an expert says, but the truth is they are an essential tool in production agriculture, are heavily regulated and pose an insignificant risk to food safety.
One of the claims against pesticides is that they "kill things." That's true, they kill pests — such as insects, weeds and fungi — that harm crops, said Sherman Takatori, program manager for pesticide applicator licensing and training with Idaho State Department of Agriculture.
When synthetic pesticides first came on the scene in the 1940s and '50s, the ag industry would have been a lot better off to call them "plant medicines," he said during an educational workshop at Agri-Action in Twin Falls on Thursday.
Despite all the hype about agricultural pesticides, use in commercial agriculture is only about 12 percent of total U.S. pesticide use. The largest use by far — at over 50 percent — is for water treatment, followed by wood preservatives at about 20 percent, he said.
Yet agricultural pesticides, particularly pesticide residues in food, garner a huge amount of unwarranted, negative attention, he said.
A 1996 Environmental Protection Agency review of pesticide residues on produce in California found 63 percent had no residue, 36 percent were within tolerance levels and only 1 percent was at violative levels — 60 percent of which involved pesticides not registered for use on the crop, he said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ranking of food dangers puts food-borne diseases, nutrition imbalances and malnutrition at No. 1. Environmental hazards, such as lead, mercury and arsenic, come in second but at 1,000 times less than the danger of food-borne illness. Pesticide residue and additives come in third but at 100,000 times less than food-borne diseases, Takatori said.
"In reality, it (pesticide residue) is not really a concern," he said.
In addition, toxins occur naturally in foods. It's the plant's natural defense to protect itself. For example, potatoes, eggplants and tomatoes all contain glycoalalkaloids to protect against insects and fungi. Plant stress from infection, insects and bruising increases glycoalalkaloid levels. Pesticides to protect the plant decreases stress and those levels of naturally occurring toxins, he said.
Pesticide residue standards are set much lower than toxic levels that cause disease and in most cases, residues in food are insignificant compared with naturally occurring toxins in food, he said.
"The dose makes the poison. Pesticide residues cannot even be construed as a significant safety issue," he said.
Negative hype about pesticides has fueled the organic food market, but no commercial food is 100 percent pesticide-free. Consumers might be able to find a limited amount of pesticide-free produce locally, but if an organic grower is going to ship produce to commercial outlets, he's going to wash it with something that takes off pathogens and inhibits the growth of bacteria and fungus, he said.
Groups and individuals discouraging consumption of commercial produce are doing a disservice to consumers who will lose out on the health benefits of fresh fruits and vegetables, he said.
Pesticides are an essential tool in high-yield, high-production agriculture, and an abundant supply of safe, wholesome food would not be possible without it, he added.


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embryonic cell stem research | MOST RECENT | POPULAR | BUZZ |
Opinion: Issues
Sarah Palin blasts Obama's radical abortion policies
Posted byon 10.14.08 |
If you want to extract information from suspected terrorists, force them to listen to an endless loop of Sarah Palin speeches. I guarantee it would work. (Fortunately, John McCain is against torture.) Yet despite her grating voice and her muddled syntax, Palin managed on Saturday to pull off an effective pro-life speech that artfully strung… READ MORE >
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It's official: TripActions has raised $51M in Series B funding ➤ https://t.co/qFure9t04K3:07 PM - 7 Mar 18
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December 11, 2012
Contents of this issue:
- Right-to-work legislation moving quickly
- College takes proposals for requested public charter school
- Alcona residents question district boundaries
- American Federation of Teachers calls for teacher 'bar exam'
- Michigan Senate approves school tax revenues for Red Wings
Right-to-Work Legislation Moving Quickly
LANSING, Mich. – Michigan legislators in the House and Senate passed right-to-work bills on Thursday, the Detroit Free Press reports.
According to the Free Press, the legislation would make it illegal for workers to be required to pay dues or fees to a union as a condition of employment. The bills would cover public- and private-sector workers, the Free Press reported, but would not cover police officers and firefighters
The House bill includes a $1 million appropriation, according to the Free Press, which means that if the bill is passed, it would be ineligible for repeal through ballot initiative.
SOURCE: The Detroit Free Press, "Michigan lawmakers fast-track right-to-work legislation during chaotic day at the Capitol," Dec. 6, 2012
FURTHER READING: Michigan Capitol Confidential, "The Human Side of Right-to-Work Legislation" Dec. 7, 2012
College Takes Proposals for Requested Public Charter School
JACKSON, Mich. – A month after a parent group requested that Jackson Community College authorize an early college public charter school, the college is accepting proposals, MLive reports.
In addition to outside groups, the community college is also submitting a proposal to run the early college school, according to MLive.
The tuition-free school, MLive reports, would include grades six through 12, with an additional 13th grade added. Students could earn both a high school diploma and an associate degree at the school, according to MLive.
MLive reports that the parent group, called 100 Families, requested the public charter school because of concerns that area schools are providing a low-quality education.
SOURCE: MLive, "Jackson Community College seeking groups interested in running an early college charter school on its campus," Dec. 5, 2012
FURTHER READING: Michigan Education Report, "Early college high schools helping at-risk teens in Ohio," March 7, 2006
Alcona Residents Question District Boundaries
LINCOLN, Mich. – Residents of Alcona County are questioning the boundaries of the Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational School District over a proposed millage, according to The Alpena News.
More than a third of Alcona County's area is contained within Fairview Area Schools or Oscoda Area Schools, the Alpena News reports, and those districts are not part of the AMA district.
However, the AMA ESD allows Schools of Choice, AMA Superintendent Brian Wilmot told The News, which allows parents to freely send their children to their preferred school.
The AMA ESD has a proposed millage up for vote in February 2013. Alcona School District Superintendent Shawn Thornton told The News that only AMA homestead residents will be able to vote on the millage — Oscoda or Fairview residents will not be able to vote.
"There is the situation…where someone across the street from their neighbor attends a different school district, because there has to be a line somewhere," Wilmot told the Alpena News. "…[T]hat's been decided by people many, many years ago as to what their school district boundaries would be."
SOURCE: The Alpena News, "School district boundaries bring questions," Dec. 6, 2012
FURTHER READING: Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "A Michigan School Money Primer," May 30, 2007
American Federation of Teachers Calls for Teacher 'Bar Exam'
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Federation of Teachers union is calling for an additional, required test for incoming teachers, Fox News reports.
The proposal would mimic state-level bar exams, like those given to aspiring lawyers, by requiring incoming teachers to pass a standardized test administered by state-level unions, according to Fox News.
The proposal, according to Fox News, does not address poor-performing tenured teachers already in the classroom.
"What we're focusing on in is preparing new teachers," AFT President Randi Weingarten told Fox News.
SOURCE: Fox News, "Education union pitches 'bar exam' for incoming teachers," Dec. 3, 2012
FURTHER READING: Michigan Capitol Confidential, "Less Than 1 Percent of Michigan Teachers Rated 'Ineffective,'" Dec. 1, 2012
Michigan Senate Approves School Tax Revenues for Red Wings
LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan Senate passed legislation that would redirect school tax revenues to a private development project, including a new arena for the Detroit Red Wings, CBC Sports reports.
According to CBC Sports, the tax revenues amount to about $12.8 million per year, and had been previously going to paying down Detroit's Downtown Development Authority bonds.
Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch told CBC Sports that the development will cost $650 million. Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville told CBC Sports that the project will add $1.9 million to the Detroit economy, and create 8,300 construction jobs.
SOURCE: CBC Sports, "Michigan Senate OKs new Red Wings arena funded by tax money," Dec. 5, 2012
FURTHER READING: Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "LaFaive: Put Subsidies for Detroit Red Wings on Ice," Dec. 5, 2012


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On Benghazi, Shaheen gets a participation ribbon
January 29. 2013 1:55PM
In response to our http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130124/OPINION01/130129624/-1/opinion01 editorial from last Thursday criticizing her performance during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen wrote an op-ed http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130129/OPINION02/130129068 column, which we published today.
We critizied Shaheen for sticking to the Democratic Party's talking points about Benghazi (suggesting that the real issue is about future security funding, not the security failures that led to the deaths of four Americans) instead of questioning Clinton about how our personnel were left so vulnerable in such a dangerous place. Shaheen responded by saying, essentially, that she is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Her column is full of phrases like these:
- "I joined my colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a bipartisan Sept. 27 effort demanding the State Department provide an accurate and full accounting of the events that took place before, during and after the attack, as well as an assessment of the state of security of other diplomatic missions around the globe."
- "I participated in the Foreign Relations Committee's investigation of the matter and have attended six formal hearings and classified briefings on this issue. I have spent hours listening to testimony of administration officials. At two public hearings on the Benghazi attack, I raised the concern about having too few military assets in the region to respond to such an attack."
- "I had the opportunity to view classified video which showed real-time footage of the attack in Benghazi and question intelligence officials on the events."
- "I have also read the Accountability Review Board's (ARB) well-documented report on what went wrong in Benghazi and attended a briefing on the report by the two independent co-chairs."
So she has established that she was a junior member of an important Senate Committee and participated in the committee's proceedings. In other words, she gets a participation ribbon.
Only once did she note what questions she actually asked of anyone in State. "I asked how we identify and prioritize 'high risk' posts like Benghazi and pressed the administration to assess the cooperation between the Pentagon and State in the lead-up and aftermath of the attack."
That is weak tea, as the saying goes. Shaheen cannot point to any independent action in which she took a lead in trying to discover what actually happened that day. The inescapable conclusion is that her performance last week was a continuation of her passive order-following from party HQ. As the editorial rightly stated, it was an opportunity wasted.


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December's monthly processing begins on Friday, December 6, 2013 and will include data submitted to SAIS through 5pm on Thursday, Dec. 5. For those LEAs whose schools have all reached 40th day by December 5, 2013, 40th day ADM will be calculated and available by December 18, 2013. Please check the IT Bulletin Board for updates stating the data has completed processing. Only at that time can you check your ADMS, SPED and ELL 75-1 reports and expect to see complete ADM results.
For charter schools, once 40th day ADM is calculated for your LEA, the next monthly disbursement of state aid will be based on the 40th day ADM and will no longer be based on estimated counts. For example, if all schools have reached 40th day by Thursday, December 5, 2013, 40th day ADM will be calculated by mid-December and your January 2, 2014 disbursement will be based on that newly calculated 40th day ADM .
Please keep in mind that, as reported previously, the date in which your LEA is eligible for your 40th day and 100th day ADM to be calculated has changed this year. It is now on the day in which all of the schools within the LEA have reached the 40th day of school and is subject to the aggregation processing schedule. Please see this HOT TOPICS posting for more information.
Questions? Your account analyst will be happy to answer them
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BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil (AP) Brazil did it once without Pele, and just about everyone in the country is waiting and hoping to do it again without Neymar.
The Brazilians advanced to the semifinals of the World Cup last week, but they lost their best player in doing so. Neymar, the national team's star attraction with the same yellow No. 10 shirt that Pele made world famous, broke a vertebra after being kneed in the back and will miss the rest of the tournament.
That means Brazil will have to do without Neymar's quick moves and sharp shooting when the team plays Germany in the semifinals on Tuesday at Mineirao Stadium. And for the final, if they make it that far.
''It will be difficult, but we can win it without Neymar,'' said Matheus Christoff, a 22-year-old chemical engineering student from Belo Horizonte. ''In 1962, we won without Pele, so we can win without Neymar.''
Pele became a global star when he was only 17, scoring two goals in the 1958 final to give Brazil its first World Cup title. Four years later in Chile, he was injured in the opening round and was forced to sit and watch as his teammates won again.
But win they did, with Garrincha stepping up to carry the load.
This time around, there is no obvious goal-scoring replacement for Neymar, who cuts his hair in a fauxhawk and has become the face of the World Cup, at least on billboards and in TV commercials all over Brazil.
Or, instead of one person stepping up to provide the goals, maybe there is more than one.
''They have another 22 players,'' said Patricia Mendes, a 35-year-old consultant in Belo Horizonte. ''If they wear the yellow jersey, they can score.''
Neymar did most of the damage himself in the first round, scoring four goals in the opening three matches to put Brazil at the top of Group A. The two strikers playing alongside him, Fred and Hulk, have combined to score only one goal, while defender David Luiz has provided the offense by scoring two in the last two matches.
A slumbering attack, now without its most important component, is going to make it hard against the Germans, who seem to have put their defense back together after a substandard performance in the second round. And the loss of Brazil captain Thiago Silva, who is suspended for the match after foolishly picking up a yellow card in the quarterfinal win over Colombia, is going to make things even tougher.
''I really don't think we can win without Neymar and Thiago Silva,'' said 23-year-old Rafael Seixas, who works at his family's convenience store in Belo Horizonte. ''They are the best players in the team, and Germany is really good.''
The thought of losing to Germany, however odious that may be for most Brazilians, is still better than considering one other possibility of this year's World Cup - an ultimate victory for Argentina on Sunday at the Maracana Stadium.
''That,'' Seixas said, ''would be the worst possible scenario for the World Cup in Brazil.''


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Pa. man steals Salem police cruiser during two-state pursuitBy JAMES A. KIMBLE
Union Leader Correspondent
June 21. 2014 11:15AM
SALEM -- A Pennsylvania man allegedly led police on a pursuit through Massachusetts where he charged at a Salem police officer and stole his marked cruiser before being arrested on a rail trail near South Broadway, police said.
The pursuit began around 12:40 a.m. Saturday when Salem Officer Adam Pearson stopped a car on Main Street near Centerville Drive. Pearson was attempting to arrest the driver, Robert Zygarowski, 52, of Ellwood City, Pa., according to police. He was one of three people in the car.
Zygarowski allegedly struggled with Pearson, who deployed his Taser to regain control of the situation, police said.
Zygarowski ripped off the Taser prongs he was struck with and knocked the Taser from Pearson's hands, police said. He allegedly jumped back into his car and fled.
Pearson followed the vehicle along Main Street into Haverhill, Mass., while more Salem police officers joined the pursuit, according to police.
Zygarowski turned onto Interstate 495 south and drove into Lawrence, Mass., taking the exit for Route 114 West with Pearson still behind him, police said.
The left rear tire blew out on Zygarowski's car while driving through downtown Lawrence, police said.
Zygarowski exited his car on Essex Street, police said. Pearson -- without backup -- ordered Zygarowski to stop.
The other three occupants of the car exited the vehicle, but Zygarowski charged at Pearson, gained control of his police cruiser and drove off, according to police.
Pearson detained the other two passengers as police officers from Lawrence, Mass., Salem and the Massachusetts State Police arrived at the scene. Officers found the cruiser a few blocks away on Merrimack View Court in Lawrence.
Police said the cruiser was not damaged and nothing was missing from it.
A widespread search by area police was underway when a gas station worker about three and a half miles away called police about a man inside Ted's Mobil on Route 28 in Methuen, Mass.
The man, who matched Zygarowski's description, allegedly told the clerk that he had weapons and was going to shoot at the police.
Officers from Methuen, Salem, the Essex County Sheriff's Office along with Massachusetts State Police and New Hampshire State Police converged on the area.
As the officers arrived, they received a report that Zygarowski was seen walking through the kitchen of a nearby IHOP just over the state line back in Salem. The officers and troopers set up a perimeter and searched the area with K-9s.
Salem police Officer Steve MacPherson spotted a man, matching Zygarowski's description, walking along the rail trail in the area of 265 South Broadway, police said.
Officers approached the man and ordered him to the ground, but he refused.
Officers struggled with the man before taking him into custody and identifying him as Zygarowski, police said.
Police said Zygarowski is facing two counts of simple assault, two counts of resisting arrest, along with charges of reckless operation, disobeying a police officer and criminal restraint.
He is being held at the Rockingham County jail in Brentwood pending his arraignment Monday in 10th Circuit Court, Salem Division.
Zygarowski is also expected to face theft charges in Massachusetts for stealing the Salem police cruiser.
Additional charges are expected and the investigation is ongoing, police said. The two passengers cooperated with the investigation and were not charged. One passenger stated that he repeatedly asked to be let out of the car, police said.


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It's being touted as new must-have technology, but so far Blu-ray DVD has failed to catch on. This Christmas though, manufacturers of these new super high-quality DVD players and discs expect big things as prices fall.
Misleading title.Blu-ray is only going up & up.
REPORT: European and Japanese Consumers Find xBox 360's DVD Drive and Console A Turn-Off!!! ;)
4 disagree's? lol i guess 4 people didn't read the article..
Almost as big of flop as UMD discs, LOL.
Downloadable Media will kick blurays little butt. Microsoft has already proven this by adding the EXTREMELY popular NETFLIX service exclusive to Xbox 360 owners. Sorry PStards.. have fun with your $30 movies while I can download mine in the same quality for $7 a month. LOL, I WIN.
LOL! i forgot how many idiots plague the open zone.
Why do you have your childrens picture in the avatar?
"same quality"
Oh my, did you just say downloaded movies from Netflix are equivalent to Blu-ray in terms of quality? lol You need to either upgrade from your 19" Walmart-special TV or get better glasses.
Yeah great!
720P movies for $7 and last for 24 hours before they are auto-deleted.
I got to say I liked the bit where MS proved how everyone on the planet downloads their movies off the netflixs only on a 360.
The sad thing is 99.9% of the total population wouldn't even have a 360 in the first place.
I take it you run around and actually tell people this BS too... don't you?
And they walk away thinking your a d**khead.
credit crunch is to blame.
imo Bluray is a child. come back in 2 years
people are afraid to spend any money right now. Hoepfully next year, consumers confidence will be back.
Which is why Blu Ray already has a 12% market share...not to mention it's selling much faster than DVD at the same time in it's cycle...
and that's why they have already shipped 1 million Dark knight Blu Ray DVD's to retailers...
the release of DVD format : 1997
DVD becoming a mass market format: 2002-2003
They advertise Black Friday and when you get there the prices are exactly the same. I mentioned this to one of the sales guys and he started to explain while practically running away. Then I mentioned Future Shop had a lower price and another sales guy said they would match it. We went on the internet and once he saw the lower price, the TV was sold out.
This story is out of the U.K. and I'm Not entirely sure its accurate.
In the rest of Europe Blu-Ray sales are doing very well.
In The United States Blu-Ray Is doing very well with very large gains in sales of players and disk this year, doing better than dvd in its first couple of years on the market.
In Japan it is doing very well also, even better than in the United States.
So the sales of Blu-Ray are on track to eventually replace the DVD format as the prefured Disk format and will be around for a long time to come.
Consumers find Blu-ray a turn off eh? I guess that explains why BDs are enjoying the best sales in the last 2 years, because they turn people off.
If Blu-Ray sales are low in the UK the poor selection of HD TV channels on Sky and Freesat is partly to blame. Once more people are watching Coronation Street in HD without thinking about it they'll of course choose to watch Blockbuster films in the same quality.
I don't know about anyone else but I as out in force with my brother black Friday and every electronic store i went too I saw a lot of people carrying around Bluray players. I saw Sony and Samsung Bluray players at $199. I think this holiday will be big for The format! Also tons, I mean tons of people bought hd tvs also so eventually Bluray players to follow.
These articles need to stop spelling doom in such an early stage. The market and economy needs time to adjust, it doesn't happen over night, however it will happen as the market is very efficient.
ppl aint spending too much as of this year only because of recession. honestly only ignorant ppl like you call BD a child. i personally have 2 BD player which one is the infamous PS3 with another from Pioneer. after enjoying my movies on a BD player. i never want to watch DVD again. take your logic else where
The title of this article is an attempt to get hits. Nowhere do they source this claim that consumers find BD a turn off.
I'd like some actual facts, not speculation resulting from a glance at sales trends.
It's the equivalent of saying "Consumers find Farraris a Turn Off" Because they aren't outselling the Ford Focus.
Yeah, because SkyNews is one of those fly-by-night blogs that needs N4G for revenue.
Even if it's not just for hits, the rest of what I stated is true.
It's STILL a baseless claim.
is failing miserably compared to DVD. DVD, you must remember was MUCH MUCH more expensive in its early stages(or maybe you dont cause youre prolly just a kid). Not to mention it, the PS2/XBOX wasn't around for a while. So for DVD to have as much success as it did EVEN BEFORE PS2 and XBOX was awesome, after PS2 though--it was game over for VHS. Bluray starts off at a decent price(especially if youre getting a PS3), and now the players alone are a lot cheaper than a PS3. So naturally this should be flying off the shelves and selling ALOT faster than it is now, to compare it to DVD. Im sorry, but its behind. I give it a 2 years before its ditched altogether. I mean yeah, they still make CD's, but when was the last time YOU bought one, Para? You know there used to be an HD Audio war right? SACD & HDCD. Who won? MP3--a digital download format. Their little war last about...oh i dont know...a couple years, maybe. History will always repeat itself for those who do not learn from it. We have progressed past 1080p in A/V technology, 1920p is the "new" standard(and it uses a "red" laser, and it will be cheaper than CURRENT UPSCALING DVD PLAYERS. And you know what? Still wont matter, b/c digital downloads will rock that sh*t to.
So this is why bluray isnt so hott---its not selling nearly as well as it should be(especially with the prices being their lowest ever). Get off your White Sony Pony, and get a life.
Yeah DVD, was a crazy epic [email protected]$$
@ FISHY AGAIN: Sorry buddy. Hit me up if you need an Ipod or something bud.
@Callahan: Im ashamed I called fishy a [email protected]$$. *slaps himself*
@OnslaughtX: you can buy a terabyte of external storage for less than 150 bucks now(less than 100 on deal days). I think 500gb would do as a standard though. and most settop boxes have usb ports and will play your content from the drive. Its closer than you think man. Like I said, 2 years. And ALOT happen in 2 years. I like you. Your arguments are somewhat supportive in a way. Like CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Not like these other brats. You got an Ipod? I bet you could use some kick ass speakers for it. hit me up.
@DAVEY BOY: Hey buddy, do me a favor, please? STFU. The adults are talking.
@ Captain Tuttle:
The article's actual title is Blu-Ray Fails to Catch On. It was Omega4, who contributed this article to N4G, that changed the title to Consumers Find Blu-Ray A Turn-Off. It's a misleading title, it's not the title of the sourced article, and the claim made in this fabricated title is NOT made in the actual article. Omega4 has made up this title for the following reason:
Because he wants to elicit a reaction from N4G'ers so that his submission gets a lot of hits, thereby increasing the degrees of his story so he gets more contributor points.
@ Gerard Way:
Uhh, Fishy was being sarcastic. Also, DVD players first hit the consumer market in 1997, and it was easy to find a player for 100 dollars or less by the year 2000, 3 years later. It's been 2 and a half years since Blu-Ray disc players were launched for consumer retail, and it's still very hard to find one for less than 200 dollars. Also, remember that the DVD player had no competition in increasing its market share. It was only competing against the age-old VHS format. Blu-Ray was, until just 10 months ago, competing against DVD as well as HD-DVD, which should have made it grow at a slower rate than DVD, but it has actually grown at a larger rate (and in a more volatile consumer market at that). Nice try attempting to downplay the successes of the Blu-Ray format, but it just isn't a viable argument.
LOL Gerard.
So the format with superior quality that owns 12% of the market will fail to digital downloads, the format that is missing special features among other things, and has less than 1% of the market?
Nice logic. Sure, DD will take over, all we need is...
- People to ditch wanting physical formats
- Cheap, 1 terabyte + storage that can conveniently be taken from home to home
- Improved methods of downloading said movies
- Better internet infrastructures and speeds across the country
- Web access for people who have no internet access
- More lax DRM features
- Special features akin to those on DVD and BD
But once all that happens... sure.
shut up yourself dude...the new standard like you call it wont affect anything, its too late now people are not all tech geek, they just want to watch movies in hi def, and it is just starting, theres a lot of people without hd tv yet, it takes time to introduce something new but if theres something consumers dont want is confusion.
And about digital distribution its still far away, years away and a lot of people will still prefer a physic copy over this, its gonna be way tougher to introduce than you think
@ Gerard...
I try to be only a semi ass when I see a silly argument. ;-) In all seriousness, I just don't think movies will catch on as downloadable content in the same manner as music because of differences in size, quality, and special features. Also, the fear of having all your movies stolen or wiped out due to one drive failure is a big one, and with services being sticklers for things like that (one DL then you're done!) I just think there are many obstacles in the way of it taking over. I think BD, DVD, and Downloads will co-exist for a while. I'm not going to call out a pure winner or loser, because the market doesn't necessarily have to work that way, and things can change fast.
All I know is, BD is way above the "HD" content offered on Netflix and other services, and I'm glad I started picking up movies in that format. Now I just want them to drop the price a bit for players and movies... and get Lord of the Rings EE out!
Garard Way you are seriously miss informed and don't have a clue as to what you are talking about.
I'm pretty sure that Fishy was being sarcastic. Then again, you seem to be taking this thing way too seriously, and your seemingly intense hatred for all things Sony related shows through in your post.
BTW, Digital Downloads have a LONG way to go before they can come close to matching the fidelity of Disc-Based media, not to mention that you end up with compression artifacts and blocking in fast moving scenes. Also, with the current trend of ISP's imposing bandwidth limits on their customers, how do you think direct-view HD services will fare?
Most people don't want to sit and download a 50GB movie. And those 7-8 GB compressed Blu-Ray rips don't count, because you know that's a monumental PQ loss.
Gerard, please don't call me "parabrat", I'm no child, I'm 28. It's obvious who is the kid here. Your argument is so poorly constructed I don't think you yourself understand what you are trying to say.
You DEFINATELY don't belong in the Gamer Zone, heck you'd be lucky to be in Open Zone, you are childish and insulting and absolutely un-informed on the subject of distribution methods for audio and video.
You said, and I quote:
"(Blu-Ray)is failing miserably compared to DVD. DVD, you must remember was MUCH MUCH more expensive in its early stages(or maybe you dont cause youre prolly just a kid). Not to mention it, the PS2/XBOX wasn't around for a while. So for DVD to have as much success as it did EVEN BEFORE PS2 and XBOX was awesome,"
So by your logic, The 360 is a failure, because:
1. PS3, you must remember, is MUCH MUCH more expensive in it's early stages
2. The PS3 (or Blu-Ray itself) wasn't around for a while
3. So, for PS3 to have as much seccess as it did EVEN BEFORE price-drops was awesome.
I was just about to buy a PS3, but then the salesperson told me it had bluray and I was completely turned off, so I decided to get a 360. LOL!!
You're an idiot for stating BS without backing it up. Especially when it isn't true. For your info Bluray adoption is better than DVD adoption. Get your fact straight. Regarding digital downloads? I don't know what world you live in but in my world it takes forever to download an hd movie so take your bs somewhere else.
LOL oh look! It's an Omega4 post! how pathetic >_>
Blu-ray has a better adoption rate than DVD. Ha, and what an epic fail DVD was huh....
Blu Ray discs are not expensive , the difference in quality over a dvd its a lot.
But well, the mayority of people don't have a HD screen so that could be the answer.
agree the rpice rise is about the same to rember dvds costing this much when they were out some places are more then blu ray if you dont go to places like target etc
Oh,it's an Omega4 post.No wonder it's complete B.S
By the way.
This just proves what a revolting liar of a troll omega4 is.
Blu-ray is doing better then ever.
it took a few years for dvd to catch on, bluray is no different, bluray is still very young and has many years ahead
Did you see good PS3 news coming down the line?
I just bought my second Blu-Ray player (a Samsung BD-P1500), but you just have to take a look at the AVS Forum thread about this model to see why Blu-Ray's not quite ready for "the mass market" yet. People need to update their firmware to play certain titles (usually for reasons related to the "dynamic" copy protection system), a workaround is necessary to hide the "BonusView" overlay window, some people find they need to leave a USB thumbdrive plugged in at all times or turn off the Internet access features to play certain titles, and other such nonsense. Thankfully the PS3 doesn't seem to suffer from any of this nonsense.
wow what a fail article blu ray and dvds are not even in the same league
bu bu bu bu bu teh celll
le le le le learn to spe spe spe spell.
good lord it is amazing how dumb people are, what the hell does the cell have to do with blu-ray
bu bu bu bu bu teh pill
is what your mum said the day she found out she was pregnant.
credit crunch. doesn't bother me wether it catches on or not, i got blu-ray, and it's a thousand times better than standar dvd.
and they end up mentioning alot of positive things for BRD in that article
hmm. i'm thinking about Mini Disc and Betamax
Minidisc was an audio storage device, so not sure how you connected the dots there. You also forgot to mention UMD, VCD, and DIVX (not to be confused with DivX).
love my blu-ray...but the last thing he said is true
Blu-ray is a confusing format for most people because ultimately, it looks the same as a DVD. It's a disc that you put in a machine and it plays a film for you.
"It just offers a better quality and that's a difficult thing to sell compared to DVD over VHS."
They need to emphasize the scratch resistant coating; that's a big deal for a lot of people.
If an upconverted DVD looks the same to you as a Bluray disc, it's time to upgrade that 17" CRT you are watching it on
rawd, he's not talking about the image quality, he means it's still a 12cm CD that goes into a disc drive.
VHS to DVD was a clear difference in the shape, size and type of media, DVD to Blu-ray is less clear.
I got freaked out 'cause it was transparent. But yeah, that's about the only difference between that and DVD in terms of physicality.
I never bought my first Blu-ray movie... Sony sent me Casino Royale free for signing up for PSN... got me hooked on the damn things.
they sold out on every bd player that had sales.
Consumers Find Bs3 A Turn-Off its basically the same thing a cheap BR player
And THAT is the ONLY reason the PS3 has sold as many as it has. You better thank the stars Best Buy and the like pushed the PS3 as a cheap BR player.
Then what the hell is the 360? A cheap, no, expensive DVD player?
The Xbox 360 is the gaming console where consumers enjoy fine addiction of AAA games where consumers are also given the option to use it as a multimedia system
"Best Buy and the like pushed the PS3 as a cheap BR player"
indeed because retailers knows selling bs3 as a BR player is the only way to empty the bs3 stock that is piling up even then retailers have hard time selling BS3's EG: Consumers Find Blu-Ray A Turn-Off
Huh? You're trying to explain the ps3 is selling as much as it is because Best Buy and such are promoting it as a cheap BR player?
A cheap BR player that is more expensive than a machine that has its fanbase addicted to HAHAHA games and also acts as a multi-media center at the same time?
Read your comments again, then look at this year's sales figure of the cheap BR player and the cheaper (supposedly) multi-media/gaming behemoth that overheats sometimes.
If this is the case, it doesn't seem BR fails at all, isn't it?


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The trouble with atheists is not that they can't be good. Many of these people have done wonders for Science & technological development, education, medicine, architecture, etc....The problem with atheists is that they follow THEIR will, not God's. Satanism is a religion of self worship, atheism in its truest form. When one only follows his/her will or does what he/she wants they are the rulers of their own lives.Anton Levey (co founder of the church of Satan) and Aleister Crowley said "Do what thy wilt shall be the whole of the law". SO even if your actions are good, you are doing them for yourself, rather than submitting to the will of God and - "Thy will be done" - Yeshua in the Lord's prayer. So yes, good works for submitting your will to God, makes you NOT in charge of your life, but following what God wants. Good works done for yourself to be nice, or just kind to somebody else, may appear fine and seem good, but it's your will over God's. It's about submission and throwing out your life & will and following God's.
GiC, you know perfectly well that "good" has an ethical meaning. People do not simply use good in the aesthetic sense; one doesn't merely talk about "good lunch" but also about "good behavior". The community, not the individual, determines the meanings of words. You don't get to redefine the common meanings of words in order to win your argument.But let us leave that aside. Let us accept your artificial restriction of "good" to the aesthetic realm. So, "success is the only good" reflects your personal, unaccountable taste. You prefer success to failure; success gives you more pleasure or enjoyment. That is very nice, to be sure, but hardly concerns anyone other than yourself. It is a completely worthless statement for the purposes of this discussion, which is to determine whether one can be "good" without God. It seems rather you should have challenged the presupposition of the statement, that there is such a thing as ethical good (the obvious meaning of the word in this context). Trying to assert that good does not mean good in the sense which the context demands involves digging yourself into a proverbial hole.
In getting back to the point rather than devolving into primitive practices and their attitudes towards them, here are the following problems that Christians must overcome if we accept that morality is an evolutionary trait:1) God cannot hold us accountable for wrong doing as such wrong doing in some could simply be a result of their biology and/or genes
2) What does it mean to be in the image of God? If God is immutable then how is it that His image must evolve?
3) If morals evolve then how are they in any way universal?
4) How do we deal with the implications of this theory, namely that God becomes the cause of evil (the evolution of morality would require immoral acts to occur, thus if such a tract was sanctioned by God then He directly becomes the cause of evil, which is a heresy)?
5) How could we say that humans fell from grace when they were never truly in a state of grace?
So, theologically speaking, there are massive problems in accepting the evolution of morality. Philosophically and scientifically there are even bigger problems, but we'll leave those at bay because, honestly, the theological aspects are far more important.
I don't quite follow this. Are you saying that an evolved conscience entails that conscience does not exist, perhaps because it is entirely determined by physical forces? To me this is simply a reformulation of the old theological disputes between Pelagians and Anti-Pelagians, and boils down to the paradox that God created beings with free will, and yet God's providence remains completely sovereign. Rather than insist that evolved sense of morality undermines the very notion of morality, we can simply accept that there is a paradox we are not able to fully understand.We have always known that our ability to choose freely is subject to all sorts of other forces, otherwise known as our passions. Exercising free will rightly involves struggle, and ultimately we are told that we are in fact unable to win this struggle without supernatural help. To me this implies that without the grace of God we are in fact, as you suggest, the slaves of our biology. Only by divine intervention are we able to free ourselves from this slavery.
Do the Fathers say that the image of God rests only in the soul or mind? I ask because you are prepared to accept the evolution of the body, but balk at the evolution of the soul. It's probably worth remembering here that some of the Fathers believed we inherited our souls from our parents, i.e. souls were not merely created specially for each individual person. If we can be said to inherit our souls, it would follow that we should be able to accept the evolution of souls as well as bodies.
I think we need to distinguish between morals and conscience. Evolutionary psychologists in effect say that our consciences are evolved, but notwithstanding some of their attempts to use this as an argument against absolute morality, the question of the existence of morality in the abstract is a philosophical one, logically independent of the biological question of the evolution of our conscience. As an analogy, the question of whether or not there is objective truth is logically independent of the idea that our ability to discern the truth in the world around us is part of our evolved psychology.
This problem has already been raised: how can God be the author of death, which is what some people infer from the idea of our evolving from other species through natural selection? I would say that this falls under the same problem mentioned above, i.e. the fact that God is completely sovereign, and has the power to stop any evil that occurs in the world, and yet chooses not to. But we don't deduce from this that God is evil, because we also hold that rational creatures have free will and are responsible for their own evil deeds. God made us subject to passions, and He also offers us His grace in order to overcome these passions. It is up to us to accept His offer of help.
Good question. On our evolution thread I raised the possibility that the causal connection between sin and death may not require we believe sin preceded death in real time, and apparently I am not the first one to come up with this idea. I certainly wouldn't insist on this interpretation as the dogmatic truth, but it's a helpful way for me to reconcile the teachings of the Fathers with scientific facts.How is this related to your question? I would say that the state of grace can be understood as the situation of the innocent rational creature. Wherever and whenever our ancestors first became capable of reason, and thus of accepting supernatural help in overcoming their enslavement to physical forces, they were in a state of grace so long as they accepted this help. Whenever they first denied this supernatural help and tried to rely on themselves alone, they fell from that state of grace. I can't be more specific since we don't know the fine details of how humans first evolved, though science certainly holds that it must have been gradual.
In general, I think it's unwise to stake the truth of our dogmas on the truth or falsehood of scientific theories. What will you do if evidence continues to accumulate for evolved psychology, including morality? Are you going to end up like Protestant creationists (or myself at one point) and resort to ever more distorted interpretations of the facts in order to preserve what you think is dogma?
Yeah, Bill Dembski offers up that argument in The End of Christianity. The book kind of goes off on a tangent, but his original essay was eye-opening for me. And I do accept the premise of his theory that God prepared the world for the Fall, knowing what Adam and Eve would do.
Quote from: theo philosopher on August 11, 2011, 05:39:02 PMYeah, Bill Dembski offers up that argument in The End of Christianity. The book kind of goes off on a tangent, but his original essay was eye-opening for me. And I do accept the premise of his theory that God prepared the world for the Fall, knowing what Adam and Eve would do.Doesn't that negate free-will?
If our consciousness (and be proxy, our consciences) evolved then we've moved beyond paradox and into the realm of contradictions. An evolved conscious cannot, by definition, have free will because it was formulated via process of cause and effect. Likewise, via evolution, the conscious must be purely material and cannot be immaterial. A material conscious cannot be free because it's not only influenced by external forces, it's determined by external forces. Hence the difficulty of a Christian accepting the evolution of conscious (and conscience) if the Christian desires to remain consistent with Orthodox teachings. So no, it's not a paradox, but a contradiction. To label it a paradox is simply playing a trump card when one isn't present. I would contend that a paradox only exists when we don't truly understand one aspect, such as the Incarnation. We cannot comprehend the nature of God (should we use such a carnal term to describe God), therefore the Incarnation ends up being a paradox. In the case of conscience, we have a good idea what the conscience is and an even better idea of what evolution is; therefore, we cannot create a paradox between the two and say we have free will when evolution would not allow for free will.
Which fathers indicate that we inherit our souls in an evolutionary sense? In looking to St. Gregory of Nyssa as well as St. John of Damascus my understanding is that our souls are immaterial, meaning they can't be subject to evolution (as evolution only deals with natural forces). Whether or not we inherit our souls is irrelevant - if our souls are immaterial then they're not subjected to evolution, which is a natural (physical) force.
I think you're avoiding the question . The argument put forth is whether or not morals are a product of evolution. You're bringing up the epistemic aspect whereas I'm talking about the ontological aspect of morality; apples and oranges. If morals are a product of evolution then perhaps we could say there is no ontology to morals, that it's purely epistemic, which would of course make morality subjective to our conscience. But of course, if this is true then we have to ask what God's part in all of this is and how He could command us to do certain things when we've yet to evolve to the point where we can do those things. Rather, Christians have always had the sense that morals come from God's nature, thus morality is mind-independent. So the issue isn't epistemic, but ontological. In this case, evolution must account for ontological morals without first appealing to our noetic environment, which it can't do. That's well beyond the scope of natural selection. So we're left with a very simple question - do morals come from God? If so, then they're not a product of evolution. If not, then how is God moral? In dealing with our understanding of morality, perhaps you would wish to make the argument that while morals come from God, our consciences must evolve to handle such morality (which I think that might be what you're trying to say). But this is inherently problematic because it removes our responsibility for any wrongdoing! Can we get angry at a man with no legs for not running a 10k marathon? Of course not, because he lacks the necessary "equipment" to get the job done, through no fault of his own. Likewise, if our consciences are evolved, then none of us can truly be "immoral" because we're simply following a line of cause and effect; God may want us to do x, but if our minds haven't evolved to accomplish x, then there's no way He can hold that against us and still claim to be just.
That sounds incredibly Calvinistic...The above aside, what you're arguing doesn't work. We can say that God allows evil and death because of our free choices. We choose to go against what is right. But that explanation simply doesn't apply to the question I asked. I asked: 4) How do we deal with the implications of this theory, namely that God becomes the cause of evil (the evolution of morality would require immoral acts to occur, thus if such a tract was sanctioned by God then He directly becomes the cause of evil, which is a heresy)?The evolution of morality wouldn't be an act of free will, but something God would have to guide pre-humans along through. This would make God the author of irresponsible and evil choices as such creatures wouldn't have free will (remember, if the conscious is a product of evolution then it must be material, meaning it cannot have free will).
Yeah, Bill Dembski offers up that argument in The End of Christianity. The book kind of goes off on a tangent, but his original essay was eye-opening for me. And I do accept the premise of his theory that God prepared the world for the Fall, knowing what Adam and Eve would do. I also do think that this grants you a strong avenue in this discussion to proving that our morals could evolve (though I still think you have to explain how a non-physical aspect of humanity is subject to a purely physical law). The problem with what you're saying, however, is that it's just not tenable. We're assuming that our ancestors killed, destroyed things, and then one day discovered such actions were wrong? At what point did this happen? Furthermore, and more problematic, if evolution brought us to that point, why did we divert from it? Again, natural selection relies on cause and effect, so if we reached a moral apex then there's no way we could have chosen to go against that apex.
If they can prove that our consciousness is physical and determined then I would abandon Christianity or at least become a Calvinist. If evidence arises against a core aspect of Christianity then we don't, then we have to doubt our faith. But as it is, I would contend there's absolutely no evidence that our consciousness has evolved. I've read the articles and it's more philosophical than it is scientific. They take evidence and then interpret it through a philosophical lens (as do I), but this merely proves that the evidence isn't conclusive at all, nor is it compelling, nor can it properly be called evidence. The problem with Protestant creationists is they argue against the actual science. I'm not arguing against the science. I'm arguing against the philosophy of naturalism, which states that everything can be explained via nature. The arguments you're bringing up aren't actually scientific, but come from a naturalist philosophy. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish the two, but never think scientists aren't subject to philosophical biases.
I'm enjoying this discussion, but sadly don't have time right now to get into a deep discussion (I should later today I hope). For now, in reading through it could be possible that we are both right. It seems that I border too much along the line of putting a strict divide between our physical nature and our immaterial nature. I would contend that you're committing the opposite error of almost removing any distinction between the two. Perhaps there is a middle ground we haven't considered (one that I think you have come closer to than myself in your last post) wherein some aspect of our morals and consciousness can be explained via evolution, but not the entirety. I'll post more later.
I think that some people are raising some very interesting existentialist points in here. If there is no God, everything is permissible. Sartre knew that well, along with other existentialists. Why truth? Why not untruth? Why do "good"? Why not do evil? If one begins with the premise of atheism, then the logical conclusion is nihilism. Of course, a person need not take atheism to its logical conclusions, as there can be very good atheists. But they are not consistent atheists.
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NASCAR drivers should curb language
NASCAR fans love to see the sport's top drivers show some raw emotion.
Whether it's ripping another driver for being an "idiot" on the track, wrecking someone in retaliation, tossing a helmet at an offending car or watching two drivers go at it in the garage or on pit road, such emotion is part of what drives the sport's popularity.
And if the fans love it, so do NASCAR officials – who declared open season on such outbursts last year with its "boys, have at it" decree – as do its TV partners, the media and, in some cases, even sponsors.
In essence, raw emotion sells. It sells in most sports, but particularly in NASCAR, where danger and aggression are part of the game.
But when does that raw emotion become a bit too raw?
When does it cross the line between genuine, competition-fueled emotion and x-rated displays of outrage not fit for prime time?
It might have started inching toward that line Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway.
Nowhere is raw emotion more prevalent than in radio communications between a driver and his crew.
It's common to hear drivers lose their cool and deliver some offensive diatribes toward other drivers or their own crew during the heat of battle.
And it's not uncommon for some of those tirades to include language that would make a sailor blush.
When you're beating and banging at 200 mph inside the sweltering heat of an oven-hot stock car, with the pressure of getting to the front and producing a good finish mounting and with danger all around, tempers flare and it causes drivers to say and do things they otherwise might not.
Lambasting another driver when he rams the rear of your car or sends you spinning into the wall is understandable.
Berating your crew when it just cost you 10 spots on pit road is expected and even a bit acceptable.
Some drivers have been known to bark at their team owner or even NASCAR officials.
But the language some drivers are using is getting close to crossing the line – especially when the whole NASCAR world is listening.
Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. both delivered tongue-lashings to their crews at Richmond that made you hope your mother wasn't listening or that your children weren't following the race on Twitter.
After a slow pit stop and a parts failure on his car, Truex screamed, "You're all (expletive) fired. Every (expletive) one of you."
Few drivers have had worse luck this year than Truex. He and his Michael Waltrip Racing team have run well all season only to have something go wrong almost every week. When it happened again at Richmond, Truex lashed out.
But Truex's outburst was tame compared to Busch's profanity-laced abuse.
After several sarcastic rants toward his team, Busch dropped more F-bombs than a B-1 bomber.
"We look like a monkey (expletive) a football. The (expletive) Penske (cars) are a (expletive) joke. (Expletive) everybody," he yelled.
Busch is not the only driver – and certainly not the only athlete – to use such language during moments of frustration in the heat of battle.
Some of NASCAR's worst offenders are normally mild-mannered drivers you would never expect to react with such venom or use such language. (Truex fits that category, which demonstrates just how much he lost it Saturday night.)
But when the competitive juices are flowing and the fire of intense competition reaches a fever pitch, athletes do and say things they normally wouldn't. That fire and desire – and the baggage that may come with it – is what makes them world-class athletes.
But it's also what stirs up the demons that sometimes bring out the worst in people and make them cross the line of acceptable behavior.
Busch was once parked during a 2005 race at Darlington for crudely cussing NASCAR officials and throwing a water bottle at one of them. His brother, Kyle, was penalized last year for flipping off NASCAR officials on pit road.
Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick and others are particularly cruel and abusive to their crews when things go wrong.
But their behavior and language is by no means rare in the sports world.
We would be shocked and outraged at some of the things that are said on NFL playing fields or inside MLB dugouts. The language used when some major league managers or players are arguing with baseball umpires is so crude it has become legendary.
But there's a big difference in those fits and the ones NASCAR drivers have during races – NASCAR's tirades are not private.
They are broadcast over radio frequencies that are available to anybody at the track with a scanner or the radio or Internet technology that allows them to listen in.
And, as a result, those radio transmissions are often rebroadcast by the television networks covering the race and widely reported on Twitter and other websites following the action.
Right or wrong, drivers aren't just talking to their crews when they go on a profanity-laced rant. They are talking to the whole NASCAR world, and the exchange is then spread far and wide through numerous other media sources.
That raises the question: Should NASCAR continue to allow fans to listen in on those radio transmissions?
Or should it consider censoring those conversations and cut off access because of the potentially offensive nature?
It's a complex issue, one likely to spark great debate among a wide range of fans, competitors, media and sponsors.
The bottom line, though, is that NASCAR officials shouldn't even have to consider such a decision.
Drivers should be professional enough to police themselves and refrain from using such offensive language, even in the heat of battle. They should be conscious of the fact that fans and others are listening and choose their words and rants more carefully.
They wouldn't use such language during a television interview. Unfortunately, they have to use the same caution during "private" conversations they know are being aired publicly.
Access to drivers and competitors is one of NASCAR's biggest attractions and greatest assets.
Listening to conversations between the drivers and their crews during a race – and having access to their strategy and emotions – is one of the best parts about being a NASCAR fan or covering the sport.
It makes NASCAR unique, giving its fans and media insight that is not available in other sports.
Fans are not allowed inside NFL or MLB locker rooms or on the sidelines during games; they are not privy to conversations that go on inside NFL huddles or inside MLB dugouts. They can't listen in on conversations between players and coaches on the sidelines or around the pitchers mound.
In NASCAR, they can. They have access to practically every conversation between a driver and his spotter, crew chief or team owner. They can even listen to NASCAR officials make decisions and issue rulings.
And, as part of that, they also are privy to the arguments and rants and abuse that often take place among competitors.
NASCAR should not have to step in and restrict or prohibit that access because some drivers can't control their emotions.
NASCAR, in fact, should continue to allow fans to hear the good, the bad and the ugly that comes out of the mouths of its competitors.
But those competitors need to be more aware of the ramifications of such outbursts and learn to control their emotions – or at least their language – a bit more.


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What are we welcoming with open wallets?
Technology has done it again. The miniaturization of computerrelated high-tech toys is nothing short of amazing. Every day, Silicon Valley seems to leap further into the future with higher tech.
The new iPhone4 from Apple and its competitor from Verizon perform tasks that were unheard of except in the most sophisticated computers a decade ago. The most recent models make videophones a reality.
Users with the same technology can see the person with whom they are conversing through a video camera mounted on the front of the new phones. The click of a button switches the camera from the front of the phone to a camera on the back. If you're the person on the other end, you can see what the other person sees.
If you are enjoying commanding views of the Grand Canyon while you are on vacation, you can call a friend on the other side of the world with like technology and enjoy the scenery together.
Cool, huh?
In addition to the videophone, these cell phones can communicate with home computers. With the right configuration, users can utilize applications that were not available on cell phones before now. They can send the data to their home or office, and remotely revise or create files.
The new cell phones are sophisticated computers that offer highquality video and digital technology, and are small enough to hold in one hand.
All the advantages are great. Unfortunately, there is a downside.
From overprotective parents to the long arm of governments seeking greater powers, this technology can be used to relieve people of their privacy and control their behavior.
Technology made "Big Brother" a reality long before 1984 or the invention of the iPhone4. I find it interesting that he emerged with the advent of another visual breakthrough — television.
The TV programs of the 1950s – featuring the utopian families like "Father Knows Best," "Ozzie and Harriet" and "Leave it to Beaver" – dictated the standard for family behavior.
Grammar was flawless, the father was the undisputed "head" of the family and he always wore a tie. The moms were dressed and made up as if they were expecting royalty for dinner, and the children were germ free and perfect. No reality shows there.
Now, big bro is such a dominant factor in our lives that we take him for granted. Some even think the idea of "Big Brother" is a good thing.
Those are the people who say, "Well, what have you got to hide?"
To which I reply — "Plenty!" The events in our lives that we want to keep to ourselves are not available for public knowledge for one reason — because we want it that way. It is our right. We have fought wars to defend that right and I do not want to see that right compromised even the teensiest bit.
Preserving the right to privacy has nothing to do with being free to break the law or commit indiscretions. It has everything to do with the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Teenagers, if your parents give you one of these phones, beware. If they are overzealous control freaks, do not be surprised if the gift comes with a caveat.
That caveat will be: "Answer the phone whenever I call, and make sure the camera is on. I want to know where you are and whom you are with at all times. Otherwise — you're grounded."
The control that can be applied with a videophone is one step removed from a convict wearing an ankle bracelet while on home confi nement.
During my formative years, children and teenagers had one job — to learn. Part of that process involved discovery and exploration. Occasionally, we made mistakes. Growing up is not a perfect science. But we did learn, and without a 24-hour watchdog.
Today, children's lives are so scheduled that they have no time to themselves. The learning process is programmed into them. We're turning out a generation of robots with free will. Unfortunately, they are rarely afforded the opportunity to exercise the latter.
I'm not saying that children should be unsupervised. They should be taught the rules of acceptable behavior when they are young. If they learn properly, they deserve to be trusted. Otherwise, they will become robots who do as they are told.
That is frightening.
Don't be fooled by Big Brother. He's here, living with us in a system we can't understand.


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Style # 219062
Show some skin this weekend in this super-glam bebe cutout dress, featuring metallic geometric trim and a flirty asymmetric neckline that showcases your shoulders. Elevate the look with a pair of strappy sandals and a chainmail clutch.
- 79% rayon, 15% nylon, 6% spandex
- Center back to hem: 32" (81 cm)
- Quicksilver lining
- Dry clean only
- Imported
- Model is 5'9" and is wearing a US size S
Asymmetrical Keyhole Dress is rated out of 5 by 3.
Rated 5 out of 5 by SinCityFab from SexCUp Not sure what kind of build Ms. Ecuador has..but this dress fits me like a glove! I'm 5'1, 130 athletic build...no bunching, no panty line and no bra needed (thanks Dr. Pino)! LuvLuvLuv this dress! BeBe Never disappoints me! Will be wearing very very soon!
Date published: 2014-04-21
Rated 1 out of 5 by axbebe from Awful!! Cero stars. On my case this dress does not fit well. The way it clenches in the wrong parts is awful!!! I do not have a gut, but this dress makes me look as if I did, iy clenches so much, it is possible to see the lines of the underwear I am weraing and the shade of my bellybutton. Besides showing as if I had a puch in my lower tummy. Just terrible!!!!
Date published: 2014-04-18
Rated 1 out of 5 by BebeGal from Hate the material! The material isn't for a cocktail dress. It fits well but I feel like I am in a suit. The material is horrible! Regret buying it. Can't return final sale!
Date published: 2014-04-12


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Thousands of students around the country have been protesting US sweatshop practices in recent years. Such efforts, duly noted by mainstream media, serve to call public attention to long-neglected labor issues. But we hear far less about the tireless, courageous organizing and action by the sweatshop workers themselves, the vast majority of them women.
Sweatshop Warriors corrects our ignorance with a beautifully written account of their lives, struggles, lessons learned and lessons for all of us. The message is profound: A mass antisweatshop movement needs to be built from the bottom up, led by the workers themselves. That effort has a key role to play in the overall anti-corporate globalization movement today.
Miriam Louie's book is an in-depth study, packed with information, rich in social, political and economic analysis. She sees the sweatshop warriors in the context of recent US history, including the steady decline of unionization, longstanding racism within unions, the effects of deindustrialization and capitalist restructuring. At the same time, Sweatshop Warriors is totally alive, thanks to her drawing on hundreds of personal interviews for this book. The call to "Let the women themselves speak!" rings out in every chapter.
We can also thank Louie's own history as granddaughter and daughter of immigrant Asian workers (Chinese and Korean) as well as her thirty years in student, labor, women of color, Asian community and Third World solidarity organizations. That activism includes twelve years of service with Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA) in the Bay Area, plus media work for Latina workers, laid off by Levi's in San Antonio, who formed Fuerza Unida (United Force).
The book focuses on Chinese, Korean, Thai and Mexican women active in community-based workers' centers located in New York, El Paso, San Antonio, Oakland and Los Angeles. When noticed at all, these workers are usually seen as victims, not as the trailblazers they have become. "Tucked inside their weathered work jeans, double-knit pants, cleaning uniforms, cooking aprons and serving caps are continents and worlds of experience," Louie tells us. They live firsthand the globalization of sweatshop production, part of the process of global economic restructuring and its IMF/World Bank neoliberal mandates. This has made them whistleblowers on what she calls the sweatshop pyramid of exploitation. (The effects of globalization at what we might call "ground zero" can also be found in Disposable Domestics: Immigrant Women Workers in the Global Economy, by Grace Chang, and Doméstica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadow of Affluence, by Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo.)
The workers have, for example, put a glaring spotlight on how subcontracting operates and how it can be that for a dress retailing at $100, only $1.72 ends up going to the sewer ($15 to the contractor). In fighting this system, AIWA waged a long, intense campaign to make fancy-dress manufacturer Jessica McClintock accept responsibility for meeting workers' payment demands when the subcontractor did not. Subcontracting has been especially brutal in the garment industry, but it operates in industries and services across the board. These include globalized industries like electronics, toys, shoes, plastics and auto parts, along with locally based sectors like healthcare, restaurants, construction, food processing and clerical work.


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Monarchs edged in overtime in playoff openerStaff Report
April 27. 2013 11:06PM
The Monarchs came up just short.
They scored with less than nine minutes to play to take No. 2 seed Springfield to overtime, but Cody Bass got a goal at the 10:36 mark of the extra session to lift the Falcons to a 2-1 win in the opener of the AHL Eastern Conference playoff series on Saturday night at Springfield, Mass.
David Savard kept the puck in the Manchester zone at the right point to start the decisive play. He passed to Ryan Russell against the boards on the right. Russell relayed to Bass at the top of the crease and he was able to tip the puck off his backhand and past Monarchs goalie Martin Jones.
Jones had 33 saves in the game, including five in overtime as the Falcons took the play to the Monarchs. Curtis McElhinney had 28 saves for the win.
The Monarchs, the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference, and the Falcons go at it again in Springfield this afternoon at 4 in Game 2 of the best-of-five series. The series moves to Manchester and the Verizon Wireless Arena for Game 3 on Thursday night. Game 4, if necessary, is on Saturday night at the Verizon. A Game 5 would be back in Springfield on Sunday at 4, if needed.
The Falcons had a 6-1 edge in shots in overtime.
Defenseman Blake Parlett scored on a penalty shot midway through the game to put the Falcons up 1-0. He got it with 9:35 left in the second period.
Parlett was given the penalty shot after he came out of the penalty box and took a long pass and headed to the Manchester net alone. A Monarch defender got to him and Parlett got a shot off, but was awarded the penalty shot. McElhinney and the Falcons made the lead stand until less than nine minutes remained in the game.
Brian O'Neill tied it for the Monarchs with 8:49 to play. Defenseman Nick Deslauriers took a shot from out front and the puck deflected off O'Neill's skate and in. Andy Andreoff also assisted.
Jones made 10 saves and McElhinney nine through a scoreless first period. At the end of regulation, McElhinney had 28 saves and Jones 25.
Both teams were 0-for-4 on the power play in the game.
- - - - - - -
It didn't take long to get an upset in the AHL playoffs. Hershey, the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, knocked off No. 1 Providence, 5-2, on Friday night. The Bears scored their first three goals on power plays and were three-for-six on the man-advantage for the night. Hershey squeezed its way into the playoffs on the final day of the regular season.


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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a new trial for five former New Orleans police officers convicted of civil rights violations stemming from deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina, concluding the case had been tainted by "grotesque prosecutorial misconduct."
In a 129-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt said at least three government attorneys posted anonymous comments on a New Orleans newspaper's website, creating a "carnival atmosphere" that perverted justice in the case.
"The public must have absolute trust and confidence in this process," he wrote. "Re-trying this case is a very small price to pay in order to protect the validity of the verdict in this case, the institutional integrity of this court, and the criminal justice system as a whole."
Less than a week after Katrina's 2005 landfall, police shot and killed two unarmed people and wounded four others on the Danziger Bridge. Five former officers cooperated with a Justice Department investigation and pleaded guilty to engaging in a cover-up to make the shootings appear justified.
After a jury convicted five other former officers in 2011, their attorneys argued that prosecutors' online comments and leaks to news organizations were part of a "secret public relations campaign" that deprived their clients of a fair trial.
Engelhardt granted their request for a new trial, though he called it a "bitter pill to swallow."
"The government's actions, and initial lack of candor and credibility thereafter, is like scar tissue that will long evidence infidelity to the principles of ethics, professionalism, and basic fairness and common sense necessary to every criminal prosecution, wherever it should occur in this country," he wrote.
Former police Sgts. Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius and former officers Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon had been convicted of charges related to the shooting and cover-up. Retired Sgt. Arthur "Archie" Kaufman, who was assigned by the Police Department to investigate the case, wasn't charged in the shootings but was convicted of orchestrating the cover-up. Engelhardt sentenced them to prison terms that ranged from six to 65 years. All five are serving those sentences.
Villavaso's attorney, Tim Meche, said he hopes the Justice Department re-evaluates whether the case should be retried. "The judge's opinion validates our belief that this case was a perversion of justice," Meche said.
Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said prosecutors were disappointed.
"We are reviewing the decision and considering our options," she said in a statement.
Prosecutors said Faulcon fatally shot 40-year-old Ronald Madison, a mentally disabled man, in the back on the west side of the bridge as he and his brother ran from gunfire on the bridge's east side, where 17-year-old James Brissette had been shot and killed by police.
Romell Madison, one of Ronald's brothers, said the family is "extremely disappointed" and urged the Justice Department to appeal the ruling.
"This decision re-opens this terrible wound not only for our family but our entire community," he said in a statement. "From the beginning of this ordeal our family has sought justice, not just for ourselves, but for all the victims and families."
Former U.S. Attorney Jim Letten resigned in December 2012 after two of his top deputies — Sal Perricone and Jan Mann — acknowledgeded they had posted anonymous comments on nola.com, The Times-Picayune's companion website, about cases their office had handled, including the bridge investigation.
Mann, who was Letten's top deputy, told Justice Department investigators she told Letten about her posts shortly after Perricone's activities were exposed in March 2012. Mann said Letten "didn't have a big reaction" to her confession, according to the judge's ruling.
At a hearing in June 2012, Engelhardt said it appeared federal prosecutors didn't conduct a "full-blown investigation" after The Associated Press and The Times-Picayune published articles about former officer Michael Lohman's guilty plea while his case was under seal. Lohman pleaded guilty to participating in a cover-up of the shootings.
The Justice Department appointed John Horn, a veteran federal prosecutor from Georgia, to conduct a new probe of the allegations.
Horn's investigation revealed Karla Dobinski, a Washington-based attorney in the Justice Department's civil rights division, posted anonymous comments on nola.com during the last week of the trial. Dobinski wasn't part of the government's trial team but testified at an April 2011 pretrial hearing.
Engelhardt said he was shocked by the revelation and cited it as a key factor in deciding to order a new trial.
Horn also had asked that the two news organizations to disclose their sources of information about Lohman's anticipated guilty plea, but both have refused.
In a footnote to his ruling, Engelhardt said the news organizations "perpetuate the viability" of the officers' bid for a new trial "and support its merit by implication" by refusing to identify their sources.
The AP's outside counsel in the case said the news organization stands by its position.
"Judge Engelhardt may be frustrated by the Justice Department's respect for the reporters' privilege in this case, but that privilege exists to promote the flow of important information to the public. A refusal to recognize the privilege would surely cause significant sources of information to dry up, to the great detriment of all of us," said David Schulz of the firm Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz.
"The AP's consistent position seeks to ensure the public has the information it needs for our democracy to function," Schulz said.
Engelhardt instructed attorneys in the case to confer within 30 days to "determine scheduling needs" before asking him to schedule a status conference.
Late Tuesday, the U.S. Senate confirmed New Orleans attorney Kenneth Polite as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The office had been run by veteran federal prosecutor Dana Boente since Letten's resignation.
Associated Press writers Kevin McGill and Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans contributed to this report.


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$3048 – average Bay Area mortgage
DQNews – Most Recent Press Release
The median price paid for a Bay Area home rose to a record $628,000 last month. That was up 1.0 percent from March's $622,000, and up 7.2 percent from $586,000 for April a year ago. Last month's year-over-year increase was the lowest since August 2003 when the $447,000 median was also up 7.2 percent.
DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.
The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $3,048 in April. That was up from $2,958 in March, and up from $2,659 for April a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, mortgage payments are 20 percent higher than they were at the peak of the prior cycle sixteen years ago.
So you know those Capital One credit commercials where end asking "What's in your wallet?"
For the Bay Area, I guess that'd be "NOTHING."
(Thanks to http://sonomahousingbubble.blogspot.com/ for the find)


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You can obtain status and/or reserve this item by contacting us. We can also be reached by calling toll free 1-866-326-9377 (Dialing from outside the US +01 314 772 3566) between 10AM and 6PM CST (-6 GMT).
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