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On the fourth Thursday of November, lots of people sit down and, well, pig out with too much turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a veggie or two until they feel like their stomachs are going to burst.
Wow. Sounds like fun, huh?
It's so important that it's a holiday. You get a day off, with pay. It's an excuse to see family. You travel by car, you travel by plane, or maybe there's enough family in your house already! Or, maybe they're coming to see you.
That first Thanksgiving. Pilgrims. Religion. Turkey wasn't even the star of the meal! Certainly, this special day has evolved into something else. And, amazingly enough, those pesky marketers have barely begun to take advantage of it, choosing to exploit the "Ho Ho Ho" of Jolly Saint Nick instead. Whatever happened to the Turkey Trot?
In October, the stores were all aglow touting everything orange and black; yes, and some green and purple items too. Costumes, pumpkins, lighting, fog machines. Yeah; we've got to have it all!
In the meantime, some stores were already hawking the red and the green; ready to spring into full action. And, the day after Halloween, the leftovers are shoved into a corner and reduced for quick sale. And now it's time. Suddenly, the red and the green seems to multiply faster than bunny rabbits. The amount of floor space it creeps into is considerable in a cheery effort to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
And you do. Who doesn't like pretty lights and elegant trees?
Oh! Wait a minute. What happened to Thanksgiving? Ah, there it is. There's a couple of different sizes of paper turkeys and some resin varieties too. Well, dear marketers, this is the last frontier; why have you been holding out on us? Those paper plates would look perfect with a scoop of mashed potatoes on them.
Colors of maize, butternut, and pumpkin with a little red thrown in. A turkey that's not named Tom, nor is a butterball, that doesn't wind up on someone's table. The first Thanksgiving had seafood and other fowl besides turkey. Why hasn't someone created cartoon characters and a whole new tradition with an annual TV special? Oh, if this has been done, pardon me!
C'mon marketing powers that be: Get those thinking caps on. Oh! The opportunity! Dancing clams and lobsters! Thanksgiving swans! The possibilities are endless.
Wait! Maybe there is a light at the end of tunnel after all, and its name is Walmart! Walmart has boldly stepped where other stores have feared to go; for your consideration and to avoid having you trampled on by over-excited sale seekers they are opening at 8PM on Thanksgiving! Jolly good, now we can walk off those calories and belch our way through the aisles of bargains and buy Christmas stuff! Should we be thanking them for this extraordinary opportunity?
Brace yourselves, folks. The holiday season is almost here. And for me? I'm still basking in the orange glow of Halloween! There are still a few light sets left to take in from outside. Eh, I'll put them inside my home after Thanksgiving!
We're not talking turkey! Visit the website, Facebook page, Google+ page or tweet with us.


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Modesty 2011
Steel 27"x14"
The back is a vulnerable part of the body, you cannot see what or who is approaching. "Modesty" is a body extension to deter people from touching my body, lower back, and upper back. In particular, where pants and bras cut into flesh. Working in the restaurant industry, it is common for co-workers and customers to feel comfortable touching these areas. The sociological issue is the lack of respect, and the lower rank that blue collar jobs are associated with.

subset: commoncrawl


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Safer Routes to School
Keeping our children safe is extremely important. But keeping them safe and putting a smile on their faces at the same time is even more rewarding.
We are the Safer Routes to School Group and our aim is to give our children the opportunity to socialise, feel more independent, confident, happier and healthier while teaching them how to be safe on the road.
Go for Gold, Bikeability, Footsteps Training, Travel Tracker and Crocodile Walks are just a few of our on-going initiatives.
We also organise road safety campaigns, with the help of The Parish Council, Police and Fire Brigade, to help parents and children understand how important it is to avoid driving or parking on or near the school premises and have been successful in securing funding to purchase cones, signage and CCTV to improve road safety around the school entrance. This has resulted in a significant decrease in traffic around the school entrance over the last year.
No unauthorised cars are allowed to enter the school premises at pickup and collection times, and for the safety of all our children, we specifically request that drivers 'Stay away from Faulkner Way!' Please do not drive into and park in Faulkner Way.
We have arranged that cars can park in the Co-Op car park or Cross Court car park and children who live further away can walk to school from there. If for reasons of disability you need to use the school car park, you must request permission from the School office.
We're having our slice of fun too with our Coffee Mornings (with yummy cakes and hot drinks), bake sales and a stall at the Christmas and Summer Fayres.
To make all these happen, we need YOU. What we are doing needs constant support, attention and participation.
If you decide to be a part of our small, but very enthusiastic team, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Please contact the School Office if you are interested in joining the Group or would like to find out more.
Thank you very much!
The Safer Routes to School Group
Please click below to see our Safety Campaign newsletter, our The Downley School Travel Plan, and a video we made:


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No. 13 - The Lupine
Designed as a Washington coast summer beach cottage with a broad sun deck, The Lupine is the first single story house plan added to the free catalog. It also features above code insulation details making the house an excellent choice for a small, single story full-time house or even a four season guest cottage. Other foundation options are available for this house via our drafting service. Download the free pillars plan to help you develop your own trim ideas!
- Bedrooms: 2
- Bathrooms: 1
- Floors: 1
- Ceilings: 9' 0"
- Conditioned space: 856 sq. ft.
- Overall dimensions including porch: 22' wide x 38' (plus porches & decks)
- Foundation type: ventilated crawl space w/slab.
- Print size: 24" x 36"
- Immediate PDF download with license
- Design criteria: 2015 IRC, WA State Energy Code
For accurate cost estimating try BUILDING-COST.NET, a *FREE* online tool. Material costs can be obtained by visiting a local building supply center with your plans and requesting a free "take off" for your project.
Notes & features: single floor living, attic, porch, sun deck, opt. superinsulation details, and more.


text: At Cycles Galleria, we supply bicycle parts to fix any issues that your bike may have. We offer parts including grips and tape, pedals, power meters, saddles, suspension, tools, tyres, wheels, tubes and cleaner. Rest easy knowing that your bike is in good hands when paired with bicycles parts from Cycles Galleria. Browse our range in store or online today!


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Congratulations to Dylan for completing his PADI Open Water Diver course with Roatan Divers!
Dylan is here in Roatan for the first time visiting with his girlfriend and her family who are also divers. He decided he was ready to join in on the diving fun by getting his open water certification. Dylan was a great student from classroom work to confined water he was dedicated and eager to learn the ropes. From the start in confined water Dylan mastered all the essential skills he needed to know before we went diving. When it came to going diving for his Open Water dives, he was a superstar. Dylan had great buoyancy and control for such a new diver. He was so motivated during his course, since he was excited to go diving with his friends who were also certified divers.
We enjoyed watching his confidence grow with each dive. For his last dive, he was able to join with his girlfriend Autumn and her father Doug fun diving. They saw so much beautiful activity on the reef and just had a lovely time underwater.
Kudos Dylan!


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Service Design in Government Conference 2017
We had the pleasure to present the work we are doing in Greece, trying to promote and apply service design in the public sector. Here is a summary of what we learned during the conference.
This is the 4th year of the conference and things are getting real for some countries...
UK, Denmark, Finland and others have already experienced the benefits of using a design-led approach in Government and public sector. The UK Government has already hired 3.300 (service, graphic, content, interaction) designers while Denmark has created the MindLab, a cross-governmental innovation unit using design thinking to address the needs of citizens.
But this is just the beginning. The real challenge now is to manage to sustain the design capacity within organizations and gradually scale it while overcoming the various barriers that keep appearing.
... For others they are just starting!
We presented a case study and talked about the barriers of introducing and applying service design in an amateur market during a period of crisis and how can we enhance collaboration between public organizations and designers.
But we were not alone in this! Spain, Trinidad & Tobago and many other countries are still struggling to apply service design in the public sector. The differences between us and UK etc. may seem big, but in reality we all face the same problems. And this is good because it means that we can learn from each other.
A perpetual beta mode
One thing was clear this year. "There will never be the done!" as Louise Downe wisely said in her opening talk. This means that "transformation" (of services, organizations) is not a one-off thing! Sounds scary but it's true. And design is a great methodology that can help organizations embrace change, find ways to learn from mistakes and manage to quickly embed new new needs and challenges in the system.
Service design is organizational design
Transforming services means transforming organizations and the way people interact with them. We need to take into consideration politics, organizational culture, people and how they will experience change when (re)designing public services. This is important to understand both designers and public institutions. We have to think both the service and the system (organization) if we want to achieve any kind of impact and create services that can actually be useful to both citizens and public servants. This makes service design for government hard but also magical in a way!
Digital transformation is just ... transformation
We should stop considering digitization as a panacea. But we should also stop avoiding digitization of services due to accessibility reasons. It's time to come into piece with that and move forward. Service design is all about putting people first and starting from their needs. It is easy to forget the person when going from physical to digital. Data is important, helping us built the right things and make right decisions. However, it is not just about numbers. Behind each number there is always a person with a story. Try to understand people's stories. It's those stories that give meaning to data and why your service must exist.
(Service) Design is all about doing ... So let's do it!
We don't need another service design toolkit as Esko Reinikainen boldly said during his keynote speech! Let's focus on doing service design instead of just talking about it and trying to convince people and institutions about its value. Let's focus on creating real impact! But this is not that easy. We know from our experience that it requires great courage and leadership skills from public managers. And as designers we should be able to support you in this leap of faith and create an environment where you will feel safe. After all this is why we work in a collaborative way with both clients and end-users.
Being open means moving forward, quicker and together
Being open is not just using open software or providing access to data. Being open is about sharing what you've done and most importantly how you did it. If we want service design to make a difference we have to share more about how all these tools and methods are applied in practice. This is what matters. Sharing is also about accepting; accepting that you are not perfect, that you did mistakes. But this is important for everyone to know otherwise we will all keep doing the same mistakes and re-inventing the wheel. But be careful, there is no "one its all solution". Let's learn and be inspired from others and then redesign our own services according to local needs. As Mike Press from Open Change says "Think Global, Act Local!"
It's all about building capacity
Real openness cannot exist while withholding service design knowledge and methods from those people that really need it; the policy makers, the managers, the front-line staff. We have a moral obligation as designers. To open our design toolkit, make it accessible to everyone and try to create internal design capacity in organizations. We are all working after all for something bigger. There is no time for being selfish here. We need to work towards creating platforms for people to collaborate effectively. We need to "put our professional tools in the hands of people".
Here's to a great future!
Curious to see what happened during the conference? Follow #SDinGov on Twitter
Our presentation at #SDinGov


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After 8 years, I decided to close up shop on Snip-It Pro. Was a nice little run, but I haven't had time to update it or market it in several years and have no plans on taking it back up.
The views expressed on this weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, Perficient.


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Tuesday, September 25, 2007
POST #8: Theodicy, Standard Christian Arguments
In this post, we will briefly examine four typical theodicies which have been offered by believers, and we will test them against a set of defined criteria. We will ask, "do they work? have they the compelling force to satisfy the mind of the skeptic? do they give peace to the believer willing to ask the hardest of questions?
Evil is generally divided into two categories. 1. MORAL EVIL consisting of sin, and all the direct consequences of sin. Moral evil is caused by free moral agents. And, 2. NATURAL EVIL consisting of bad things that happen seemingly outside the causation of man: hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, famines, diseases, genetic disorders, etc. Natural evils, it could be argued, all find their origination in entropy, and are thus the result of the very way in which the Creator fashioned the cosmos. Some might find in these categories some cross-over. Certain diseases, for example, may be caused by or exacerbated by the choices of free moral agents. But it is not our intention to draw a sharp line of distinction. Rather, we wish to identify these two kinds of evil as separate categories for the following purpose: a theodicy that "works" must account for both kinds of evil. This is the first criterion for testing theodicies.
For a theodicy to accomplish its own goal, it must uphold the character of God. A theodicy which leaves us troubling about the honor and consistency of God is no theodicy at all. The Greek philosopher Epicurus laid down the gauntlet some 300 years before Christ when he asked, "Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?" A working theodicy must result in an omnipotent, compassionate God with his honor and integrity firmly intact in the face of a cosmos brimming with evil. This is the second criterion for testing theodicies. Examine with me the standard Christian theodicies in light of these criteria, and judge for yourself.
1) "Evil is created for God's glory." For many who subscribe to Reformed Theology (or Calvinism), it is enough to say that all evil exists for the glory of God. God created evil (Isaiah 45:7), they say, for his own ultimate glory. He created a cosmos in which evil was not only possible, but assured, right down to the finest detail. This view suggests that the Holocaust itself originated in the mind of the Creator, and was his intended plan written into the blueprint of the cosmos. Though it is beyond our understanding (I can certainly agree with that!), evil somehow maximizes the glory of God. Certainly not all those in the Reformed camp subscribe to this form of rigid determinism. But many do. This theodicy makes God out to be the author of all sin and natural evil. It further suggests that when God created Satan, he specifically engineered him to rebel just as he did. His fall was written into his design specifications. While this may provide a rational, satisfying answer to some followers of Calvin, I find that it fails to satisfy our second criterion. Epicurus would not be placated. No atheist will be compelled to abandon his skepticism by this argument. And few believers will find the God of this argument consistent with the God they have come to love and trust.
2) "Evil does not exist." Others will insist that evil, in fact, does not exist as an entity, or as a reality apart from goodness. The argument goes like this: just as darkness is merely the absence of light (we cannot "fill a room with darkness"), and is instantly dispelled by the introduction of light, so evil is merely the absence of goodness. Augustine first introduced this concept. He said that all being is good. Evil is the lack of being, the lack of goodness. From this argument, Augustine moved on to #3 below, stating that evil as we know it originated in the rebellion of mankind, and the rejection of the goodness which God intended to permeate the cosmos. The problem with the idea of evil's non-existence is that it simply fails to live up to our experience. Particularly in the face of the 20th century horrors, most people find it completely irrational to argue that evil has no independent existence. There is an energy and driving force, a "life" we might say, of evil that goes beyond the mere absence of goodness. This argument fails the tests of reason and experience. But it also fails to account for natural evil, for reasons we will apply to #3, below.
3) "Evil is caused by Man." Augustine declared, "All evil is either sin or the punishment for sin." This view suggests that all moral evil is the direct result of the Fall, and the sin that it perpetuates; and that all natural evil is the indirect result of the Fall, a consequence of the curses of Genesis 3:14-19. While this argument might have worked in Augustine's day, we now understand that it cannot account for all natural evil. The earth is filled with mountains of evidence that the pre-Adamic world included natural disasters of every description: diseases, death, meteorites and thousands of species extinctions. If chronology has any bearing upon causation, we simply can no longer lay the responsibility for evil at the feet of fallen man.
Thus, each of these first three lines of reasoning fail to meet our criteria for a working theodicy. But it is the fourth theodicy argument to which most Christians today subscribe. For many thoughtful believers, it is the only option that holds out the hope of resolving evil's riddle. Does it pass the test?
4) "Evil is necessary for Free Will to have meaning." (This theodicy has numerous variations, including the more thoughtful "free-process theology" version espoused by John Polkinghorne and others, for which I feel some affinity. Some may wish to present a cogent and convincing case for the more sophisticated versions of this theodicy, and I welcome them to do so in the comments for this post. For the sake of brevity, I will state this argument in its simplest terms.) The typical line of reasoning goes something like this. In order to have a world in which free moral agents would have a clear choice, and thus be truly free, they must be given a viable alternative to God and goodness; hence, evil. A presupposition is that God considered it desirable to create moral agents who would freely choose him. And while he may bring some influence to bear upon his creatures, he does not use coercion. I have read and heard this line of theodicy reasoning all my life. I must say that it has always left me cold! It describes a God so desirous of creatures who choose him that if the cost is unimaginable innocent human suffering, well, so be it. This sort of ends-justify-the-means rationale leaves us with a monstrous God willing to sacrifice Jewish babies on the altars of Nazi bonfires—they are just the collateral damage—for the gratification of his desire that people have a genuine choice.
Has there ever been a single atheist or agnostic "won over" by any of these standard Christian theodicy arguments? Has a single skeptic ever abandoned his problem-of-evil objection to theism after being confronted with one of these lines of reasoning? I've never heard of one. Neither have I read any Christian apologist who is satisfied with his own theodicy argument. Whether its C.S. Lewis, Os Guinness, or John Polkinghorne, each writer closes his argument by confessing his own lack of satisfaction. In his own way, each one declares that we do not have an adequate answer to this riddle. Could it be that we have been looking at evil through the wrong lens? In my next post, I want to suggest an approach to evil's riddle that does meet the criteria, for me at least, and perhaps, for you as well.
16 comments:
- Stephen (aka Q) said...
I won't defend any of the arguments you summarize, although I will state that #3 (evil is a consequence of the Fall) has the most force for me. It isn't a complete explanation, but it is surely part of the explanation for Christians. However, I take your point about evil predating Adam and the first sin.
May I suggest an additional argument, implied by St. Paul?
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2Co. 4:16-18)
I call attention to two points. First, that evil does not speak the last word; whatever evil we experience in this life will be superseded by an "eternal weight of glory" at the eschaton. Second, that our present afflictions are "light and momentary" by comparison to that glory.
Not light and momentary when we're passing through them — I don't mean to belittle the brutal horrors that some people tragically live through. But St. Paul anticipates something in the consummation of history that will vastly outweigh even the worst of our experiences in space/time.
My argument #5 isn't a full and final answer, either. But like Augustine's argument, it is surely part of the answer. It is the source of Christian hope at those times when otherwise we would utterly despair.
- September 25, 2007 at 1:35 PM
- Cliff Martin said...
Stephen, Yes! Your answer, and Augustine's each give us a piece of the full picture, I believe. I agree with Augustine in that we bear much responsibility for evil's continuance, but for different reasons than those Augustine appeals to. And the perspective that your suggestions bring to the problem are right on. And, as you shall see, they play into my view significantly. Thanks for your comment!
- September 25, 2007 at 2:01 PM
- Steve Martin said...
Hi Cliff,
I eagerly await your option #5, but here is my response to the four options outlined:
#1: Definitely out. I really, really, really don't get how anyone can accept this. Of all the options, I think this is the only one that is almost certainly 100% dead-wrong.
#2: Yes this is pretty tough to defend as well. Although, I would say this argument is much less difficult than #1.
#3: I guess you could say that Evil is enhanced when conscious agents (ie. humanity), that should know better, deliberately choose to go against God. But that is about it.
#4: I believe Polkinghorne's version is "free process theodicy", not "process theology". Process theology is something he rejects – saying that "the God of Process Theology is not the God of the Bible" because "The God of Process Theology is an impotent spectator". As I've noted before, I find Polkinghorne's ideas attractive – or at least the most attractive I have seen so far. And no, they are not completely satisfactory. I'm not going to even try to provide a "a cogent and convincing case for more sophisticated versions of this theodicy".
One additional comment. You said that there is a presupposition that God considered it desirable to create moral agents who would freely choose him. I think that is partly true. However, I like the statement (again Polkinghorne?) that creation was "God withdrawing himself and allowing the 'other' to be". This has a lot of resonance with the kenotic view of divine action – a parent / child model. This allowance "to be" and "to choose" and "to relate" is just as much a benefit to the creation as to the creator. And yes, there are events (eg. The Holocaust) that lead us to think that "non-being" has to be better than "this being". But for me, the answer (as Stephen implies) starts with the resurrection - a theodicy that works (I think) has to have at its core the resurrection.
- September 26, 2007 at 5:36 PM
- Cliff Martin said...
• #1: Definitely out. I really, really, really don't get how anyone can accept this. Of all the options, I think this is the only one that is almost certainly 100% dead-wrong. The trouble is, a lot of people (including many young people) are flocking to John Piper. There was an interesting discussion of the problem of evil over on Pen and Parchment a couple of days ago. Read comments #6, #8, #11, and my responses in comments #17 and #18.
• #4: I believe Polkinghorne's version is "free process theodicy", not "process theology". I stand corrected. I had recently read Polkinghorne's chapter on Evil in Exploring Reality and was working from memory. I should know better than to trust that! In that chapter, Polkinghorne essentially says this his view and the standard free will argument are just two sides of the same coin. But, as I indicated, I did find his view more palatable. But even Polkinghorne, in the end, expresses dissatisfaction with all theodocies, including his own.
- September 26, 2007 at 6:31 PM
- Stephen (aka Q) said...
If it's true that young people are flocking to option #1, there's only one way to account for it: they've had no direct, personal experience of evil yet. I don't think I've experienced much evil myself, although I have had to deal with several untimely deaths in my immediate family. I guess I've suffered enough to be able to empathize with the suffering of others, even if I only read about it.
The only prooftexts I can think of both come from John's Gospel. In John 9, the disciples ask, "Why was this man born blind — did it result from his sin or his parents' sin?" To which Jesus responds, "Neither; he was born blind that the works of God might be displayed in him.". The account of Lazarus's illness is even more explicit: "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
Piper's theology therefore has a biblical basis. I think it's true that John is attempting to provide a theological account for the apparently random evil that people experience.
But I have never found John's answer satisfactory. In fact, I think it ducks the hard question. It's easy to point to Jesus performing a couple of miracles that glorified God; but that doesn't go very far toward accounting for all the manifold evils of human history!
- September 30, 2007 at 2:43 PM
- Cliff Martin said...
Interesting coincidence, Stephen. I was just over at emergingfrombabel.blogspot.com reading your post on historiography (very interesting, btw) when I received the email that you had just commented here.
You make an excellent point. Of course Piper's theology has a biblical base. But a strong case can also be built from the Scriptures that God does not pull all the strings. Piper must dance around my texts. I must dance around his. Here is my dance ...
God is so remarkably adept at redeeming circumstances that an observer could conclude about many unfortunate happenings that he had planned the whole affair. So Joseph can say to his brothers, "You meant it for evil, God meant it for good." (The word actually can mean that God considered it for good) Every time evil strikes, this marvelous potential exists. God doesn't have to arrange the evils ... they happen quite apart from his plans or intentions. But so skilled is he at the art of redemption that, when given the opportunity through our faithful obedience, he makes the most pernicious evil turn into the something of exquisite beauty.
In that sense, Jesus can speak of an unfortunate genetic twist, or an untimely death as nothing other than an opportunity for God to display his work, and show his glory.
So Piper would say that God actually willed, and arranged the genetic twist that resulted in blindness at birth for his glory. I would say that God would never do such a thing. Rather, he responds to evil with his creative redemptive touch (which might involve a miracle of healing, or might involve something equally remarkable ... e.g. Helen Keller) and thus reveals his glory. Which God gets the greater glory? The God who plans and arranges for Joseph to be sold into slavery, plans and arranges for Lazarus to die young, plans and arranges a child born blind so that he can come along later and fix the mess he himself made? Or the God who picks up the pieces that evil leaves in its wake and creatively redeems them? I am even more jazzed if all this occurs in the context of an open future (I'm not convinced of open theism, but I keep coming back to the possibility) in which God did not know in advance that Joseph would be sold into slavery, but creatively redeemed the whole sorry event anyway.
- September 30, 2007 at 3:26 PM
- Steve Martin said...
Hi Cliff,
You have probably seen the "free-will / God is in control" metaphor of the Chess master & the 8-year old kid learning chess - even though the kid has free-will, the chess master will inevitably win. I've always hated this metaphor - maybe more so since I used to play a lot of chess. Chess is a game of imposing one's will on another; of crushing one opponent no matter how creatively or brilliantly they play. I don't think this analogy is much better that hyper-calvinism. However, in reading your comments, it struck me that a much better analogy is one of God dancing with his creation. First letting it have space on the dance floor (creation), allowing it to take its first stumbling steps (general revelation), inviting it to dance (special revelation), covering for & participating in its falls (redemption), and finally bringing into the fullness of the dance (resurrection & new creation). Ok, this analogy has lots of limitations as well, but I like it a lot better then the chess analogy.
- October 1, 2007 at 6:00 AM
I've tormented with the question you state:
"Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?"
There are more questions than answers. Did Adam and Eve go to hell? Did God condemn his perfect creation? How could Adam and Eve know that not doing what God told them was a sin, if they had not eaten from the tree of knowledge first?
If God was to cleanse the world of sin with Noah's flood, why didn't it work? Noah got off the boat, got drunk, fell down naked and caused his son to sin in such an egregious manner that he was condemned the rest of his days. If the flood was to rid the world of evil then why didn't he get rid of Satan and all the fallen angels too?
If God's creation was perfect, why would we have end the slightest desire to sin? In a perfect world, I would not covet my neighbor's wife, because my creation is perfect.
(The sound you hear is my head spinning)
- October 1, 2007 at 9:14 AM
- Cliff Martin said...
Steve, thank you for your comments. I have been engaged in a discussion of Calvinism at http://www.sfpulpit.com/2007/09/28/gods-absolute-sovereignty/. I am somewhat amazed, at times, at the number of young thinkers who are drawn to Reformed theology. I think that there is a clear logic in Calvinism that appeals to analytical minds. It certainly did appeal to me in my college days. But later. I could not make is square with many Scriptures, many more, in fact, than those cited by Calvinists to support TULIP. I love your dance analogy. As you will learn if I can get around to writing my next post, I see something much more encompassing as a possibility. Still, the dance analogy fits in, too.
Elbogz, welcome! These are great, insightful questions you are asking. In my experience, I find that most Christians shy away from even asking them. But they are important. Let me ask you some questions:
1) Why you believe that God's creation was "perfect"? He declared only that it was "good". Is it possible that his creation was "good" for its intended purpose, but not "perfect"?
2) Why do you believe that God's purpose in the Flood was to cleanse the world of sin? His express purpose was to destroy everything and everyone. He reconsidered when he thought about Noah. It seems that Noah, while not perfect and sinless, was comparatively less sinful, and was a man of faith who walked with God. (Of course this entire narrative may only portray how Moses, and those who passed along the oral tradition to him, thought God was thinking. I consider a literal reading of God's hemming and hawing here not in keeping with his nature.)
Your question about why God didn't (or doesn't) simply stamp out evil presumes that he could do so. I will be calling that presumption to question in my next post. (Do I still here that spinning sound?)
- October 1, 2007 at 10:13 AM
One of the difficulties I have with your evaluation of the different theodices is understanding "the character of God". I agree that a theodicy "must uphold the character of God", yet I question what you mean by "compassionate". Consider Exodus 11:4-6 "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.'" God willing sacrificed the innocent children of the Egyptians (by his own hand no less, not via a natural disaster, not via Nazis, but by his own hand!) because why? Pharaoh was stubborn? God's chosen people were enslaved? Because the Egyptian parents didn't believe Moses when he told them to mark their doorposts so their firstborn sons would be spared? Who wiped out the innocent children of Sodom and Gomorrah? Who drowned the innocent children in the flood? Is this a God who is compassionate?
By society's definition of compassionate, many would consider the God of Exodus 11 and other Old Testament passages to be no different than your baby killing Nazi.
If you reject the Free Will / Free Process theodicy because you think it makes God out to be "monstrous" by allowing his creatures to willing choose to do evil, how do you reconcile the direct actions of God as recorded in the Bible when He kills innocent children? Are those the actions of a compassionate God?
- October 1, 2007 at 10:42 AM
- Cliff Martin said...
You raise some very difficult questions from some troubling O.T. passages. I believe they are difficulties for anyone who believes in the God that Jesus spent his short career introducing to us. I have some ideas, but they are better saved for later in my series of posts. I'm not avoiding your questions, just postponing my response. They are more easily dealt with after I have laid more foundational thoughts in this series. Suffice it to say that I believe in a God who is profoundly compassionate, and who is deeply moved and saddened by the effects of evil and sin upon his children.
You ask "If you reject the Free Will / Free Process theodicy because you think it makes God out to be "monstrous" by allowing his creatures to willing choose to do evil, how do you reconcile the direct actions of God as recorded in the Bible when He kills innocent children? Are those the actions of a compassionate God?". I think you missed my point. I do not think God is monstrous for allowing his creatures to choose evil. I think it is monstrous of a god to desire people to freely choose him so badly that he is willing to allow all the evil we see just to get his prize. Clearly, God does allow humans to choose evil. That does not make him monstrous in my view. But the suggestion that he does this just so some will choose him while having an alternative ... this I find monstrous.
- October 1, 2007 at 11:17 AM
Ok Cliff. Your blog. Your schedule. Your rules. Your original post invited the reader to "test them (theodicies) against a set of defined criteria". I'm simply asking for a clearer explanation of why you require the criteria of a "profoundly compassionate God" when the Bible is filled with examples that show God can act in ways that do not appear to be compassionate at all, and by most moral standards, seem "monstrous".
You require a theodicy to "uphold the character of God". The point of my post was that the Free Will / Free Process theodicy, though it seems "monstrous", is consistent with the character of God as demonstrated by His actions against the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, of the children in Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the people, animals, and plants that were destroyed in the flood – actions which all seem "monstrous". Basically, God does things that to us seem to defy what we understand to be consistent with His nature. If we are willing to accept that the God of those "troubling passages" had a perfect reason for doing what He did, how can we not apply the same criteria to a theodicy?
As CS Lewis put it, "If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will--that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings--then we may take it it is worth paying."
(If you deem it more appropriate to explain this later, you can expect further comments from me at that time. Until then, I'll wait patiently.)
- October 2, 2007 at 5:43 AM
- Cliff Martin said...
You make a very strong point. And thank you for the Lewis quote. I read The Problem of Pain probably 30 years ago. In the meantime, I've lost my copy. I will need to pick it up and review his whole viewpoint. Of course, I have the upmost respect for Lewis.
If we begin with your premise, that the Old Testament (particularly the oldest portions of the Old Testament) accurately portrays a God who acts in such monstrous ways, then there really is no need for theodicy at all, is there. When the skeptic asks, "How can evil exist if God is good, and God is omnipotent," we simply reply, "Well, your premise is faulty. Evil exists because God is not good, at least not as you or I might define goodness."
I think you will agree that such a response amounts to no response at all. We skirt the problem of evil by confessing that God does not fit into our understanding of moral goodness. It is our understandings about goodness that are skewed.
But is our concept of goodness (which can be taken, I think, right of the pages of the Bible, the teachings of Jesus, thousands of years of human history, etc.) that far off? We are made in the image of God, which surely includes our rational mind. The theodicy problem is a very real rational problem. Are you suggesting that we not try to find a better answer, one that might actually work for the skeptic? one that is in keeping with the goodness of God which is so clearly set forth in the life and teachings of Jesus? Is it your view that we ought to just shrug our shoulders and say to Ivan in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamozov, "Well, God is just like that. God appears monstrous because, by all human standards, he is monstrous" ... is this your theodicy?
- October 2, 2007 at 6:57 AM
Thanks for accommodating me in your blog. I am looking forward to how others respond to this and other similar questions prompted by those troubling passages in the OT. I think a variety of responses are needed since a single response will not satisfy everyone. Steve Martin agrees with you that this should be tackled last rather than first, but I think if we are to evaluate different theodicies using the character of God as one of the criteria, we need to have at least some agreement on what is and isn't true to the character of God. (And if we can't agree completely, at least we can understand each other better.)
You hit the nail on the head when you said "It is our understandings about goodness that are skewed." I would expand that to include our understanding of evil, suffering, and death. While we may bear God's image and share many of His attributes, we definitely lack His knowledge and understanding and perspective. Our natural (perhaps only) reaction/ability is to evaluate God's actions from our own point of view. This causes us to be greatly troubled when we read passages in the OT that show God taking action against His creation that appears to be so contrary to the actions of a God who created us, sustains us, and loves us. And while we (people of faith) find this troubling and struggle with it, it can become an insurmountable barrier to the skeptic.
I agree that our concept of goodness isn't that far off, but we need to keep in mind that "God knows best". And when we can't figure something out, we need to accept it in faith and move on. That being said, if you don't have faith, it can be impossible to move on so we do need to have some explanation for it, if not for us at least for the skeptic. So we must continue to try to find a better answer. I agree with the concept of progressive revelation – we definitely understand God better now that we did before. (My own participation in this discussion demonstrates my yearning to know God better by examining what others have found.) But when we come to a point where it isn't clear what is or isn't true to God's character, we need to be open enough to say we are moving into more speculative ground and not rule things out completely. Based on those troubling passages in the OT, I don't think we can rule out the Free Will theodicy by saying it doesn't fit with the character of God (since the price of it appears too high). Otherwise, we may be tempted (as Steve pointed out) like the early church and wish to toss out the Old Testament. I don't want to stop examining other theodicies in hopes of finding something better. I am truly interested in learning more about your thoughts on the "universe was created for the ultimate destruction of evil" (for lack of a better description). I think we will find we share some common ground there and I may find it equal to or better than the Free Will explanation.
What works for me (which I know doesn't work for many others) is an expansion of my quote from CS Lewis. God must have very good (perfect) reasons for doing things that appear to me to be contrary to what I expect of Him. One day, all will be revealed to me and I shall slap myself in the forehead and say, "Of course, that makes perfect sense!" Until that day, I will continue to struggle with understanding some things, never abandoning the struggle itself, and also never becoming obsessed with the struggle to the point it distracts me from my mission. God must have had perfect reasons for killing the first born sons of the Egyptians, for destroying everyone (young and old) in Sodom and Gomorrah, and for causing the great flood that wiped out so many living things. In a similar train of thought, God must have perfect reasons for permitting evil to exist, and giving us the freedom to choose to do evil. I am left with unanswered questions (often posed by my pre-teen kids) like - Why didn't God just kill Pharaoh if he wouldn't listen? Why didn't God just kill off the adults in Sodom and Gomorrah? Why did all the animals have to die in the flood too? I must accept that God had perfect reasons for doing these things, even if I can't fathom why.
The comedy "Bruce Almighty" has the character Bruce temporarily bestowed with God's power, but not His wisdom. Bruce used the power to do things that he felt were right, but absolute chaos ensued. I think the same thing would happen if God were to act only in the ways we expect Him to.
My CS Lewis quote was from Mere Christianity, Chapter 8 which can be found on-line at http://www.philosophyforlife.com/mctoc.htm Another section of that book deals with Time. Reading that section helped me accept some of those tough questions I mentioned before. Being omnipotent as well as omniscient and omnipresent, without the limitation of what we perceive as time, God knows what is best and takes the appropriate action (or allows something to happen) when needed. Sometimes, (not often in my opinion) God does things I wouldn't expect. I have to trust they are the right things.
One thing that Steve keeps reminding us of is the redemption. This needs to enter the discussion and I think it helps with our perspective. All the questionable acts of God in the OT need to be viewed through the act of redemption. And I don't mean that God makes up for His evil acts by doing something incredibly good. But what happens to us and the rest of creation takes on a different meaning because of the redemption. I'm thinking Steve might have more thoughts on this than I do, so I hope he can add something to this. One specific example is suffering, and how several passages of the New Testament put suffering in a new light when the redemption is taken into account. Without the redemption, suffering is not something that we could "rejoice" in.
That's it for today. I'll try to add some more later when others have posted their comments.
Thanks again for the temporary side trip on your blog.
- October 4, 2007 at 9:20 AM
- Cliff Martin said...
Thank you for this comment, which helps me a lot to understand where you are coming from. You are right on so many levels. One example is that some of the views I wish to express on this blog are, at least in part, speculative (a fact which I would do well to frequently remind my readers). When they all come together, they form a whole in which I find a lot of personal satisfaction. But I often say, "It may not be exactly like this. But if it is not, the true total reality picture will make even more sense when we finally see it." --a lot like Lewis's slap to the forehead.
I do have Mere Christianity and will review the chapters you mentioned, if for no other reason than to be more on the same page as you. I think I will enjoy interacting with you.
I like your Bruce Almighty obsertavation. I know we must exercise caution in using our intellect and our value systems to analyze God. But I also believe he made us rational beings with purpose. And that we ought to use our minds in our pursuit of him. (I think you would agree.)
- October 4, 2007 at 10:02 AM
- Timothy said...
I'm not sure how the following thoughts affect a theodicy, but they do reflect my personal views on the some of what is being discussed. When we look at historical accounts from the old testament scripture, it would seem to me that we are watching a God who is some how engaged in the affairs of man on a different level then we have experienced in the last couple thousand years of recorded history. We observe a God who is dealing with Man/Creation on a much more proactive level, It would seem that He is motivated to contain or diminish evil on earth. We see him warning of pending judgment, (in the Exidous story there is record of God attempting to issue some kind of warning, at least that has always been my chosen understanding of the events, we don't know the whole story of what lengths God went to warn of judgment in the days of Noah, or Sodom) we see him choosing a race/nation as "his own" to guide and protect, we see him bending the laws of nature over and over, we see him interacting with man in a dialog over some of the very issues we discuss here (Abraham; " will you save the city if there are 10 good") In short I would have to say that there is a whole different paradigm in the whole way God's Goodness is played out. I guess when you change that many "rules" about how God operates in the affairs of man, compared with today, it is hard to understand, but some how I don't see that we are comparing apples to apples, am I out to lunch?
When we look at the great evils of our day both natural and moral, It is hard to see where people are given a fair shake, no warning, no opportunity to change, no dialogue, just… boom, now pick up the pieces. In some ways I wish that God would speak to us and say for example " America you need to change your ways. Because you are making poor choices I am going to issue a last warning, please stop ignoring my laws, if you fail to do so I will wipe out New Orleans one month from now" but that isn't the way it works, I guess. It seems that we are left on our own to make the connection?
How will Man responds when evil is dumped in his lap, that is the true test of humanity, how do we deal with the good the bad and the ugly, on a personal level. Some how I see God using this pattern as he deals with His creation today. Just some rather random thoughts, not trying to make any strong point really.
- October 4, 2007 at 6:22 PM


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Like most progressives, Bill de Blasio is a champion of public financing for political campaigns. And with good reason.
For all his railing against the evil of big money in politics, he's been quick to take advantage of big fat donations to fuel his agenda — provided they come in a way that doesn't require him to leave his fingerprints on them.
Take the Campaign for One New York.
This is an organization that grew out of de Blasio's campaign for mayor, is run by his former campaign associates and now lobbies only for his policies. Yet he insists it's independent.
Recently, the organization disclosed that it has accepted donations from people or groups who do business with the city.
Donors include businessmen from real-estate developer Donald Capoccia to Google founder Eric Schmidt. But the really big bucks came from — you guessed it — public-sector unions. The largest came from the American Federation of Teachers, parent organization of the United Federation of Teachers. The $350,000 contribution came just before the city came to terms with the UFT on generous teachers contract.
The next largest came from 1199 SEIU, which donated $250,000 and also represents many government workers.
When asked if he is comfortable with this, Mayor Bill went straight to the legalities. His personal campaign and Campaign for One New York are, he said, "very different realities." He also noted that while campaign-finance laws generally impose limits on contributions to the campaigns of individual candidates, "when you're talking about an issue-oriented organization, it's a different approach."
He's right about that. The Campaign for One New York is a 501(c)4, which is devoted to issues and not individuals.
In principle, we have no problem with these groups. But there sure seems to be a double standard. Back when the 501(c)4s in question were conservative, we had Democrats such as Sen. Chuck Schumer demanding investigations and the IRS targeting them for special treatment.
But when the leaders of public-sector unions have their parent organizations make six-figure deposits into a Democratic mayor's pet lobbying group, even while they are negotiating with him over their own salaries and benefits, suddenly it's no longer a problem.


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Technologies has changed much of the globe, but the effects are hardly ever more pronounced than in the location of company. It has changed the company business track due to the fact personal computer revolution was becoming introduced. If you haven't gotten involved in the technology that is accessible right now, it is a superior time to start out. It is tricky to envision living with out the presence of technologies that most of person are relishing now a days. In addition, most of the business enterprise now requires location sitting on desk in front of computer systems, hard perform is carried out by the machines and robots, so it also affects the health of folks, since physical function has decreased.
Compact business owners may possibly contemplate outsourcing function if they do not have the proper facilities or offered manpower. It does not imply I am against the usage of technologies in small business but there should be a limit. Businesses have become reliant on the availability of technology that the absences of it even in a second will ultimately make the small business world endure and struggle to the deepest.
Years and years passed by, the world of business enterprise is more dependent on its existence, locating it really hard for the two to be inseparable. The only companies that don't use some sort of technology are very smaller businesses. Smaller companies can boost their employees' productivity via the use of technologies. And yes, technology also has superior effect in business enterprise as mentioned by Allen in the above comment. Do not overlook to share your thoughts on the impact and importance of tech in small business in the comments box below. Credit card machines make points substantially simpler for the buyer and the enterprise.


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Directory of CPR and First-aid Courses in Northern California
If you are looking to get your American Heart Association certification card, we offer the following classes throughout Northern California:
- BLS – Basic Life Support for the Healthcare Provider CPR
- ACLS – Advanced Cardiac Life Support
- PALS – Pediatric Advanced Life Support
- Heartsaver CPR AED
- Heartsaver First-aid
- Heartsaver First-aid CPR AED
- Pediatric First-aid CPR (EMSA approved for childcare centers)
Where are these BLS and CPR courses offered:
- San Jose
- Rancho Cordova
- Concord
- Redwood City
- Novato
- San Francisco
- Berkeley
- Dublin
- & Manteca
Even though these cities are not close to the Central Valley, sometimes people need their certification right away for work. We offer the BLS CPR class about 70 times per month in Northern California. Click below to view all classes:
Directory of AHA Classes in Northern California


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What is family law?
Family law includes all matters related to the rights of spouses, parents and children. Our firm handles the following family law matters: divorce, division of property, legal separation, nullity, parentage actions, child custody and timeshare, child support, spousal support, domestic violence, and pre-marital and post-nuptial agreements. We handle complex property issues including division of businesses, stock options, and pensions.
What is a certified specialist?
A certified specialist is an attorney that has successfully satisfied the requirements of the California Board of Legal Specialization. To become a certified specialist in family law, the lawyer must have practiced family law for the required number of years and represented clients in a broad range of family law proceedings. The lawyer must pass an extensive written examination administered by the State Bar of California that is focused on family law issues. The lawyer is required to fulfill stringent continuing legal education requirements. Each lawyer also has to re-certify every few years and keep their practice focused in their particular field of expertise. For more information about family law certified specialists, please visit www.californiaspecialist.org"
What is mediation?
Donna Gibbs offers mediation services to those clients who want to work together to structure their divorce settlement. Individuals who choose mediation agree to work with their spouses in a cooperative, non-adversarial way to resolve their disputed issues. The mediator is a neutral, third party, that assists the spouses. This process relies on the parties to be the principal negotiators, with the mediator helping to keep the process structured and focused on interests and solutions that work for both parties. The mediator does not act as an advocate for either party. The ultimate resolution may look like the probable outcome in law, but the process offers the parties the most freedom to find solutions that may work best for them.
How much will it cost for me to get a divorce?
It is impossible to estimate the cost of a divorce. The ultimate cost depends on many factors such as the complexity of the issues involved, the degree of cooperation between the parties and attorneys, whether the matter proceeds to trial or settles through negotiation.
Will I automatically be divorced after being separated for six months?
California law requires that parties wait a period of six months between the time they file and serve the petition requesting the divorce and the time that their divorce becomes final. After the six month time period has passed, the parties can request that the court finalize their divorce. The divorce does not automatically become final after six months.
Should I rely on information I read on the internet?
No. The internet can be a good source of information but you should not rely on the internet for legal advice. Many of the divorce sites on the internet are not specific to California, and although the information may be accurate for some states it may not apply here.
What books can I read to familiarize myself with the dissolution process?
Many of our clients have found the following books helpful when going through this process:
1. How to Avoid the Divorce from Hell (And Still Dance Together At Your Daughter's Wedding) by Sue Talia.
2. Divorce and Family Law in California, A Guide for the General Public, by Bob Pickus
3. Good Parenting Through Your Divorce, by Mary Ellen Hannibal
4. For Better or for Worse, Divorce Reconsidered, by E. Mavis Hetherington and John Kelly
5. Helping Your Kids Cope with Divorce, the Sandcastles Way, by M. Gary Neuman, L.M.H.C.


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Here are the Review-Journal's Fall Preps Athletes of the Year
A look at the Review-Journal's Athletes of the Year from the fall season.
A look at the athletes of the year for the fall sports season.
Boys Cross Country
William Fallini-Haas, Spring Creek High School
The senior won the Class 3A state title with a time of 16:39 for 3.1-miles. He also won the Northern Region title, the Elko Invitational, the Lowry Invitational and the Murray (Utah) Invitational. He had the fastest time from any class at the state meet.
Girls Cross Country
Alexis Melendrez, Spanish Springs High School
The senior won the Class 4A state meet with a time of 19:41 for 3.1 miles. She was second at the Northern Region meet, and won four races. She finished in the top seven of every race she entered.
Palaie Gaoteote, Bishop Gorman High School
The senior had 80 tackles, including 20 tackles for loss and three sacks in leading the Gaels to a ninth consecutive state title. He has committed to Southern California.
Girls Golf
Lani Potter, Boulder City High School
The senior, who is committed to South Dakota State, won all eight of her matches this season, including the 3A state title at Mountain Falls by eight strokes, and led Boulder City to its first team title since 2010. It was Potter's second consecutive individual state title.
Boys Soccer
John Lynam, Coronado High School
The senior led Southern Nevada with 55 goals and helped the Cougars win their first Class 4A state championship. He was named the Southeast League Offensive Player of the Year.
Girls Soccer
Olivia Packer, Palo Verde High School
The Pepperdine-bound senior scored 30 goals and was named the Northwest League Offensive Player of the Year. She scored four times in a 4-3 road victory on Sept. 7 against eventual state champion Bishop Gorman.
Boys Tennis
Axel Botticelli, Palo Verde High School
The sophomore won the Class 4A state singles championship and helped Palo Verde defeat Clark to win the Class 4A team state championship.
Girls Tennis
Audrey Boch-Collins, Clark High School
The sophomore won her second consecutive Class 4A state singles championship and did not lose a set for the second straight year.
Girls Volleyball
Whittnee Nihipali, Shadow Ridge High School
The 6-2 senior outside hitter finished with 463 kills, 61 aces, 48 blocks and 410 digs to lead the Mustangs to their first state title in program history. Nihipali, who has signed to Arizona, accounted for eight of her team's 15 points in the decisive fifth set of the state final to rally Shadow Ridge past Bishop Gorman.
More preps: Follow all of our Nevada Preps coverage online at nevadapreps.com and @NevadaPreps on Twitter.


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Certainly Not Reductive: Madonna Replaces Gaga in New Versace Campaign
Age is but a number, especially when you're an icon like Madonna. The legendary pop star has been named the face of Versace's SS15 campaign. That means Lady Gaga is out, and we all remember the famous feud that erupted when Madonna dissed the younger Gaga for her Madonna-inspired "Born this Way" song. Madonna called Gaga's music, reductive. This will mark Madonna's fourth Versace campaign. Designer Donatella is excited to have the singer showcase her new collection, says the British DailyMail.com. Designer Donatella added: "Madonna is one of the true icons of Versace. I am thrilled to have my friend and the most powerful and directional artist as the face …..Read Article


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The Room
The Room is a project I've been working on with a bunch of very talented programmers, musicians, artists and hackers as part of the Hack the Room evenings at The Edge Digital Culture Centre. The premise for the project is pretty simple: create something interactive and engaging with a box of Arduinos, Microsoft Kinects, Macbooks and fuelled with pizza. After five weeks of workshops we built an interactive room that challenges audiences to achieve a zen state by working together.
"The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there". Robert M. Pirsig
Andrew who created the sounds for the project said, "As a metaphor for a life full of shallow distractions, visitors will be encouraged to approach and engage various cause and effect installations around the room. The overarching theme of these distractions would be style over substance; the idea being more tantalising than the reality, the anticipation followed by a sense of subtle disappointment or emptiness."
The room builds on the work from the Synapse dubstep Kinect project, by extending the Openframeworks code and passing custom OSC messages to Max/MSP and Quartz Composer. Instead of tracking individual body parts the installation tracks individual users, monitoring their speed and in kind the space reacts to this speed. Moving faster creates a chaotic cacophony of noise, matched by even stranger visuals, while slow movements or complete stillness reward visitors with ethereal sounds. A single Kinect mounted inside the space allows six people to be tracked and interact with the space at one time.
The Room is an ongoing project at The Edge, and this is the first iteration. Some of us have already started reworking the code, moving away from the Synapse core and building on the ofxOpenNI library.


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The military camps in Eastleigh, Nanyuki and Embakasi were seized on the 31st July 1982, when the coup instigators were aware of the optimal timing and found it easy to take siege of these camps without any or minimal resistance. They then positioned themselves strategically to ambush and take control of all movements without any questions or queries. Anybody coming to the camps after the beginning of the coup were taken captive and used as decoys to wake up those airmen still sleeping in the billets. Then the Sirens went off, signifying external aggression to all those soldiers who were close by. Airmen then immediately dressed up to respond to the aggression, and to defend their beloved country. All airmen moved to the Armory, but little did they know that they were actually arming themselves without knowing that a coup had begun.
From the armory, the airmen were ushered into vehicles which took them to various points in the city centre to set up points of defense against what was thought then to be an external threat. Those who were away from the camps heard of what was happening on the Nairobi-based Voice of Kenya (VOK) Radio broadcast at 6:00 am the following morning and immediately returned to base. Thus, a coup was rolled out without all the airmen knowing what was happening, yet at gun point, they were forced to be part of a plot bigger than they could fathom.
General Mohammed, the then Kenya Army Commander and his selected group then went to VOK, surprising the unsuspecting airmen who had been left there without any instructions. General Mohammed was a well-respected Army General and he had the state power and force to decimate and destroy the coup, including those found at VOK and anyone suspected of being part of the coup attempt. The General ordered the airmen to be arrested and they were subsequently taken to Lang'ata Barracks where they were tortured mercilessly-not knowing exactly why they were being arrested. They were beaten with crude weapons, and left bleeding and traumatized by Kenya Army soldiers who believed that their comrades in the Air force had turned traitors. The airmen were then placed in the guard-room until evening when they were dispatched to Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in Nairobi.
In order to capture every airman, the army used the radio broadcast to pass the message, so those who were away from the camps were getting this information over the VOK radio, announcing the Coup. Not knowing which side of the divide to fall to, the airmen moved to the camps, only to be branded as rebels once they arrived. Then all airmen were rounded up, stripped naked and beaten, tortured and imprisoned without any proper legal process.
The whole country was in turmoil, as those calling themselves loyal forces started a very brutal exercise to decimate those wearing the blue Air force uniforms. Fortunately word went round very fast that there was a plot to wipe out all airmen, using the coup as an excuse. The airmen decided to remove all their uniforms and wear civilian clothing because nobody understood what was really going on.
Ambush centers were set all over Nairobi city to strike at the celebrating mobs without warning. Once shot at, if you survived, they would arrest you, strip you naked and torture you without taking the wounded for medical attention. That afternoon, the onslaught continued on all fronts including the camps, using even attack helicopters loaded with rockets to destroy as much as possible anywhere the airmen were thought to be.
Army brigades were then assigned to carry out assault on the three camps. At Eastleigh, on finding a near empty camp, they moved to the Sergeants' mess and rounded up all who had gathered there under a white flag, stripping them naked and locking them up in a small office to the point of suffocation, finally ferrying them to Kamiti Maximum Prison naked. They then moved to the married quarters and robbed family members of all valuables and harassed those they found there.
The arrests
The arrests were conducted in a very haphazard manner and many were shot and injured in the process. Those injured were never given medical attention and were instead arrested and beaten. The only hospital (Forces Memorial) specializing in treating soldiers with gunshot wounds, refused to treat the airmen and the airmen indicated that they were victims of torture while at the hospital. Many suffered in the hands of medical personnel, but all this was kept hidden by the regime.
The hospital decided to operate on some without anesthesia and removed seriously injured people from their care in hospital to the Prisons to be cared for by fellow inmates. Others were taken to Department of Defense Headquarters, Lang'ata or Kahawa army barracks to be dealt with physically without medical attention.
Airmen were never told why they had been arrested and were stripped naked, tortured to the extent of causing excessive bleeding. They were then transported to Kamiti Maximum Prison, without clothes or identification papers.
The aftermath of 1982 coup d' etat
From 9:00 am the day after the coup attempt started, the Kenya Army soldiers sought out Airmen with a brief to subdue, kill, maim, arrest and torture as needed. Within a few hours many were dead through ambushes set all over the city of Nairobi and its environs. The instructions, seemed to have been to arrest all airmen, no matter where they were coming from. Anyone seen as a sympathizer was branded a collaborator and was condemned to arrest, torture and prolonged incarceration.
Those arrested were placed into Maximum security prisons and police cells with the Prisons Act and Police Act being ignored completely. Anybody reporting to Eastleigh camp became an immediate suspect and they were stripped naked, beaten and tortured. They were then sent to civilian jaila naked where it was explained interrogations would be carried out after which they would resume duty.
The next step was to remove all airmen and all forces in Kenya agreed to work together to subdue them. The prisons were opened to be used by the Kenya Army to lockup and torture all arrested airmen. No matter where an Airman reported, he was pronounced guilty and arrested immediately.
Interrogation: 1, 2 and 3
Artist impressions of the torture
- The drawing to the left shows an airman placed in a waterlogged cell and succumbs after several days because of fatigue in the knee high filthy and water.
- The drawing showing an interrogator using a mallet to subdue possibly destroy this victim's nerve ending completely.
- The drawing showing the brutality with which the arrests were carried out, irrespective of where the airman reported to.
The interrogation sessions utilized torture such as beating, stress positions, use of extreme light, and placement in water-logged cells for days with no food or water. These interrogations by Kenya Army Officers; who were the arresting officers, were designed to replace what was expected to be a validly constituted Board of Inquiry, for such a serious issue.
Torture cells were established in Naivasha Maximum Security prison to obtain confessions to be used to convict the unsuspecting airmen, jailing them for long years resulting in them losing their places in the service. The Army devised a method of jailing all those promising young men who stood in the way of the occupying forces (a selected group in Kenya Army designated to replace the already condemned Kenya Air Force Personnel). It was not easy to obtain any convictions using the law as established. So they picked on Mutiny, instead of Coup. Then they literally forced all unsuspecting airmen, through coercion, torture, threats of instant extra-judicial execution and deception to sign a confession of culpability in the name of cooperating with the Government.
Nobody thought that a Government would operate in this way, so they confessed from desperation, fatigue and the desire to stay alive. Others signed as they were made to choose between going to jail and execution. Immediately after signing the confession, they were rushed to Lang'ata Army Barracks where the Court Martial was sitting and they were immediately sentenced without any legal counsel or advocate.
A simple mistake changed the fortunes of some, however. One man happened to see the headline of a Newspaper coverage of the Court martial where one of the airmen was jailed for 25 years. The torturers, however, had stated that this person had confessed and then gone back to duty. Many held in detention then refused to sign the confession opting to die rather than go to jail for many years. This resistance grew until there was none to be taken to the Court martial.
By December 1982, it was not possible to continue and by January 1083, airmen were being released from detentions in Prisons and being dismissed from the Service without following due process. A good number were sent home without anything and airmen were forced to find their way to their village, irrespective of whether they had bus fare or not, whether they had clothing or not.
After life in Prisons, all those who tried to get employment found out that it was not easy, as they had been branded rebels and were thought to be unemployable. In the meantime, all those children who were alive during the coup were growing up rapidly and asking very hard questions about what was going on in their lives and families. This started wearing down the victims, to the extent of acute depression and other mental health issues.
Fatigue on the spouses was very telling, and children were lacking school fees, meals, house rents and general upkeep, as the government kept on the campaign to isolate all former airmen. It is not clear who was gaining in all the troubles these gallant men were pushed through, to remain sick and untreated to the verge of death, to see their children suffer to the verge of rebellion, without a single helping hand, forcing these men to resign to fate and PTSD took centre stage. This trauma had reached appoint of devouring the victims completely. So as the children witnessed the suffering of their parents, it was being transferred to the children who were now grown up and to their children, since nobody had any clue, thus becoming trans-generational in nature.
So they were merely made to suffer, lack, go hungry, lose their families, as the whole world was treated to high level official deception that their parents were rebels in Kenya. Seeking for justice was also extremely challenging as one of the cases filed in 1995 by 25 airmen, but were later enjoined by 260 others in 2005, took 22 years to be concluded. The conclusion of it happened on April 15th 2016.
The Issues raised included the following; The legality of the body that was tasked by the Government to replace Kenya Air Force and carry out the exercise of ostracizing all members of the Kenya Air Force, illegal imprisonment, Torture, withheld salaries, loss of employment, removal of personal property, medical claims, etc. This unfortunately, dragged on for far too long dampening any hopes of justice, until all hope went, and depression and PTSD settled in.


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Next up in the "My 5 Favorite" series: My 5 Favorite Meals Around the World!
I'll be honest, I don't know what I was thinking when I promised to write about my favorite meals around the world. It's not easy picking only five meals you have decided are better than every other meal you've EVER EATEN. You tell me if that sounds easy. Trust me, it's not. Especially if you love trying different foods like I do. So, with that said, there are a few caveats: 1. These are my five favorite meals around the world that I can remember. My memory can sometimes be faulty so for all I know I could have had an amazing, out-of-this-world meal 10 years ago and completely forgotten about it. 2. My favorite meals change as I continue to eat out and try new things, so don't hold me to this list forever. Perhaps a more apt title would be "My 5 Favorite Meals Around the World, For Now." 3. In picking my favorite meals, much of my decision making has to do with the element of surprise. Almost everything on this list surprised and exceeded my expectations (which are often high) in some way. I have a lot of good meals, but these were great because the overall experience was more than I anticipated. With that said, here is my list of favorite meals, in no particular order:
The Meal: Lobster, fried fish, festival and bammy.
Why I Love It: I'm taking it back to my roots with this meal. My family is from Jamaica and so I grew up visiting the island more times than I can count. Every time my family is in Kingston, one thing we must do is visit Hellshire Beach to enjoy some lobster, fried fish, festival (a cornmeal fritter with a slightly sweet taste) and bammy (cassava flatbread). There is a lot of frying involved but it's never greasy or heavy, and though there are a ton of options to choose from at Hellshire Beach, Aunt May's is my favorite. The food here is always flavorful and a great value. Then there's the atmosphere: ocean, sand, picnic tables, music and a bunch of people enjoying their food just as much as you are.
Why It's Worth It: There's nothing like enjoying freshly cooked seafood on the beach. It's delicious and there's a good view to go along with it. Just make sure you bring your sunglasses and prepare for the sand, which can sometimes find its way to your table.
ROCKAWAY TACO, QUEENS, NEW YORK (Update: Unfortunately, Rockaway Taco has closed! BUT, you can still get this same great food at the nearby Tacoway Beach)
The Meal: Fish tacos with guacamole and tortilla chips
Why I Love It: I like to refer to myself as an unofficial taco judge who is waiting to one day be made an official taco judge by some sort of taco organization, so it's no surprise that tacos are on my list. I LOVE tacos. Love, love, love tacos. And I'm not talking about that hard shell, Taco Bell stuff. My favorite tacos come from the food trucks and hole-in-the-wall places where prices are cheap, corn tortillas are in abundance and the flavor is crazy good. Rockaway Taco is one of these spots. The fish tacos are what dreams are made of: warm crunchy fish with red cabbage, warm corn tortillas, cilantro, radish, lime and a spicy mayo that brings it all together beautifully, topped with some guac and a side of tortilla chips.
Why It's Worth It: It's like a taste of California and Mexico in Queens, NY. You can grab a spot in the tiny but cute Rockaway Taco eating area or you can take your meal to go and snag a beachfront seat several feet from the water (my preference). Either way, get ready for one of the most memorable fish tacos ever.
The Meal: Too many dishes to list, but highlights include the beetroot risotto, brussels sprouts, scallop, celery root pastrami, winter apple sundae, cinnamon toast crunch ice cream and chocolate rye cake with hazelnut ice cream.
Why I Love It: So this is a very recent addition to my list, as in I ate here just a few weeks ago, but man was I impressed. I honestly was only mildly excited to go here, but by the end I felt like telling random strangers to eat at Little Park. The food was so well done — from the perfectly executed beetroot risotto, which I compared to a warm blanket on a cold, winter night — to the chocolate rye cake, which was perhaps the biggest surprise. I love chocolate cake but it often tastes the same, no matter the restaurant. As the waitress so correctly desribed it, this dessert forced us to taste the rye, but in a good way! Throw in the winter apple sundae and cinnamon toast crunch ice cream, and I was floating on cloud nine.
Why It's Worth It: It just is. Trust me. I've eaten at a few of chef Andrew Carmellini's restaurants and have found them to be good but not amazing, until now. Anyone who can make vegetables so damn tasty deserves my vote.
The Meal: Sushi, grilled calamari, butter fish, langoustines, prawns, sautéed vegetables, rice and french fries
Why I Love It: By now you may have guessed that I really love seafood, even more than I love pork, which I unashamedly really love. So it's no surprise that when I was in Cape Town, I was on the hunt for good seafood. My family and I had just spent days eating red meat and, quite frankly, my digestive system was pretty miffed. But then we arrived in Cape Town and the seafood started flowing. Of all the meals we enjoyed, The Codfather was our favorite. First of all, how fun is the name of this place? Second of all, this restaurant has THE BEST calamari you will EVER eat in your LIFE (all of those caps were completely necessary). Not to mention amazing sushi and even great French fries — crispy, hot and just the right amount of salt.
Why It's Worth It: Besides life-changing calamari, the concept of this place is pretty cool. You pick out the seafood you want and the quantity. They'll then weigh it and give you an estimate of how much it will cost. It's pretty reasonably priced and the restaurant is located not too far from the main Camps Bay strip, where you can grab a sunset cocktail before dinner.
The Meal: Leek risotto with a poached egg, roasted lamb and roasted potatoes
Why I Love It: The above mentioned meal was actually one of two great meals I've enjoyed at Cheri Bibi. Recommended by a Parisian friend, this bohemian chic restaurant is on a somewhat questionable street in Montmartre. Sketchiness aside, the food here is great. So flavorful and well done with an atmosphere that just makes you feel a little bit cooler for being there. They only offer a prix-fixe and the menu is always changing, but the quality is consistently great.
Why It's Worth It: Though I'm not sure if Parisians consider this a hidden gem, it feels like it to me. The place isn't huge and it isn't listed in any Paris guide book that I've seen, but it has a cool vibe with food to match.
Oh man, I have so many honorable mentions. I won't go into detail about these, but I feel it's worth mentioning my love for Taverna Kyclades (fresh Greek seafood in Queens, NY), Kappacasein (creator of the best grilled cheese sandwich in London and the entire planet, basically), Sripraphai (great Thai food in Queens — try the coconut rice!) Gomo Gomo Game Lodge (home of some amazing boma dinners and a cauliflower and cheese soup that doesn't sound like it would be amazing but it was!) and my mom's cooking (had to do it).
Next up: my five favorite beaches around the world!


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Is there a way to measure a box in a photo
Say i put a circle on a frame on the wall
This circle is 6 inches in diameter
I take a picture of this frame
Find someway to move a...
Greetings !
I'm a high-school student and for my project i have decided to make a game. I want to make a 2D game that's played from bird's eye view. It would be kinda a survival game where player...
I just got the same error. It is not bug but c++ syntax. Compilator thinks that QNetworkRequest netRequest(QUrl(URL)); is a function declaration. Yes we can make a declaration in another function. In...just_usr 14th September 2019, 18:43
Why don't you read the documentation for QQmlEngine and find the answer?d_stranz 14th September 2019, 00:39
What a great idea! You are right, it is much better when the app saves your progress automatically If it crashes. Thank you for reminding me of this!INeedADollar 13th September 2019, 19:23
Qt Centre is a community site devoted to programming in C++ using the Qt framework developed at Digia.
If you have any problems with Qt or its usage, you can get help from the members of Qt community on our forum.
Don't forget to check out our links section for more Qt resources.
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GOTY 2014 - Top Ten - #4
Here it is: our list of the top ten games of 2014. The result of dozens of hours of preparation, discussion and debate, this list represents our consensus on the ten best and most-significant games of the year. Don't miss out on any of our Game of the Year coverage. Check out our full schedule here, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for instant updates.
Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U
Nintendo | October 3, 2014 (3DS); November 21, 2014 (Wii U) | Nintendo 3DS, Wii U
Like so many other people, I've spent time playing Super Smash Bros. Whether the Nintendo 64 original, the legendary GameCube follow-up, or the flawed but solid Wii iteration, a Super Smash Bros. game will always produce great combat and a fun party atmosphere.
Little wonder that this year's newest entries in the Smash series, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, were two of the most anticipated games of 2014. In a year where Nintendo needed breakout hits, Smash lived up to the expectations — and exceeded them.
That in and of itself was no mean feat. With a fiercely vocal fanbase, Smash had many strong spotlights cast upon it. But instead of crumbling, Smash became a great beacon of hope for Nintendo fans in the West who were hoping for a strong, proactive game. That starts with the gameplay, which handled closer to the beloved GameCube iteration and is as fun as expected. Whether you play with all the items and stage effects or switch those off and focus on "Final Destination"-style levels, the action is as fast and frenetic as ever. A wide swath of characters join the fray (including a large contingent from the Fire Emblem games), and the added option to make a Mii fighter with custom outfits, moves and statistics provides yet more depth.
Most important, though, is that it all works. Smash for 3DS doesn't feel like a half-baked portable offshoot, but instead a Smash game in miniature. Smash's multiplayer action is great, whether over distance or in the same living room. It's easy to setup and responsive to play. And Smash Wii U features so many ways to play the game — the much-ballyhooed (and hard to find) controller adapters, the newly re-introduced GameCube controllers for Wii U, or even with a 3DS and copy of Smash 3DS — that it will be easy to assemble the eight players who can fit into one match.
And whether you're playing on 3DS or Wii U, it's a chaotic multiplayer game soaked in Nintendo juices. It's approachable for beginners but maintains the depth Smash fans have come to love, and in many ways is a perfect addition to the series. More of the same, but building on what works and subtracting what doesn't.
– Doug Bonham


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From the February 2015 edition of the Glover Park Gazette:
The gym formerly known as Roam Fitness has rebranded as Urban Athletic Club, according to owner Graham King. The club, located inside the Savoy Suites Hotel (2505 Wisconsin Ave.), made a splash in 2013 when it opened with outdoor fitness classes, but it also features a fully equipped indoor studio and classes. "While 'Roam' was a good name, it confused some people, as they didn't know that we had an indoor facility that offered personal training and group classes," King tells us. For information, visit urbanathleticclub.com.


text: hidell brooks is so thrilled to see the march issue of lonny magazine featuring charlotte based interior designer charlotte lucas in 6 faces to watch. collages by gallery artist selena beaudry are featured in the spread. we have had the pleasure of working with charlotte over the years helping her clients with their art collections. her unique approach to interiors is out of the box but based in traditional with no fear when it comes to taking risks! we are never disappointed.


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I've been wanting to do a post on this for awhile now and being only 5'5" I have a lot stored up inside me that I just need to unleash. So, I'm sorry? You're welcome? You can decide at the end. I'm just going to vomit what I've learned all over this site because it's mine, mwahaha.
I get asked a lot about how I deal with negative messages/comments/people and it's time I just spill out a fair answer. There's only so many words you can say when responding to emails and Tumblr messages from your phone while you're out and about to really feel like you've comforted someone, but I always try my best. Dealing with negativity is more of an art form; something that takes time and you need to train your brain. No, I did not mean for that to come out like Dr. Seuss, this is awkward. Unfortunately negative people will always exist, there's nothing anyone can do about that. They are here to challenge us, people.
One thing I have learned in the social media world is that outwardly responding and publicly posting negative messages can be a good OR bad thing. It's all about selection. For example: Sometimes I will receive a "hate mail" message that is frankly too funny and too inaccurate not to post because let's be honest, ignorant people are hilarious, liiiike "You think you own the rights to having an undercut, you didn't invent it!" God damnit they obviously figured me out... But if I receive a message that is literally straight up "You suck", "I don't like you", "I think you're fake", why on earth would I give you air time on MY blog? Nah, man. Delete.
I feel like the people who shell out negative comments are 1) looking for attention, obviously not caring if it's positive OR negative and 2) are struggling with something that's deeper than they want to admit, whether it has to do with you personally or not. For whatever reason, putting someone down makes them feel better. Which I will never understand, but that's beside the point.
It's all about how you respond, which more often than not means not responding at all. They want you to post these messages, they want to get a rise out of you and they like to see you squirm. If you don't respond, they have no fuel to their fire to send you another. That's just my logic. Especially if it's coming from someone who knows you personally because no matter how you respond, pleasant or not pleasant, they're clearly not in the right state of mind to accept anything you have to say with the right heart. You learn over time to pick and choose your battles, what to post and what not to post and what is considered constructive criticism and what is straight up "that sounds like a fucking personal problem, dude."
You were not put on this earth to please everybody. You cannot change how people feel about you but you do have total control on how you handle it and how you don't stoop to their level. People can poke the bear all they want but don't ever give them the satisfaction that they made any sort of impact on your life - they don't deserve it. You betta' than that, man. I think you're stellar.
With love,
P.S. Please send all hate mail to the following address (and write this out carefully):
666 What Am I Doing With My Life
I Should Re-Evaluate, CA 69420


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[Posted by Shard on December 8th, 2013, 6:32 pm]
Yes, there will be 12 days of this nonsense.
No, it won't be the same panels over and over again.
I'm not that mean.
[Posted by Advertisement on September 15th, 2019, 3:10 pm]
[Posted by MecanicalCH on December 8th, 2013, 7:08 pm]
FLUFFY!!!!! :)....but it should be 12 big fluffy Tails! the song goes from 12 to one! XD
[Posted by Shard on December 8th, 2013, 7:19 pm]
@MecanicalCH- Have you ever listened to the song? It goes day 1, day 2, day 3, etc.
[Posted by Princess_Eevee9 on December 8th, 2013, 9:11 pm]
@MecanicalCH: Do you even know the song? Ever rendition is obviously Day 1-Day 12.
[Posted by Majin Tobias on December 9th, 2013, 12:44 am]
Is Shard wearing glasses?
[Posted by MecanicalCH on December 9th, 2013, 1:24 am]
@Shard & Princess_Eevee9:
apparently a different version...since the one i know...and sang... was from 12 to 1...wonder why?
[Posted by Kurona on December 9th, 2013, 2:16 am]
Probably just how it was translated to your language.
The thing I'm confused about is why she's starting this now rather than when it IS 12 days to Christmas.
Meh, whatever, I'm enjoying this already.
[Posted by Salimus on December 9th, 2013, 7:42 am]
*Walks off, chuckling to self for some reason.*
[Posted by MecanicalCH on December 9th, 2013, 11:08 am]
@Kurona: maybe...weird thought...
[Posted by Koren on December 9th, 2013, 12:00 pm]
This is gonna be AWESOME.
Leave A Comment »


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Well, Oliver is officially a four year old. Crazy, right?
This year, it snuck up on me with all the other many things going on at this point, but we were able to pull it off and give him a fun little party...even if it was a week after.
Since Oliver is so obsessed with anything Superhero (which I secretly love), we threw him an Avengers party.
Now I'm not much of a Baker these days, so it was cake from a box and frosting from a can for O. Luckily I found these awesome Avengers cupcake liners and toppers at William Sonoma.
We threw in some Hulk Punch too.
We played a few superhero games like Throw-Thors-Hammer-in-the-loop-thing.
And a good old fashioned tug-a-war which was so funny to watch.
My favorite was the pinata. The night before (because I procrastinate like that), My mom, sisters and I got together after our family dinner and transformed This Elvis Pinata...
Into this Loki pinata. Thanks to the great skills and minds of the women in my family, we were able to transform him in no time. Oliver loved it so much that he even kissed him on the lips when it was completed.
Now it wouldn't be an Avengers party without some violence, right? So the kids put on the Hulk hands and Hulk face to take their shot at beating Loki up. Again, so funny to watch them.
Presents were next and Oliver's cousins (Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles), were so generous. Just about everything he got was Superhero related and he LOVED it. Thank you all! Isn't it funny how much the other kids love this part? In the bottom right picture, all the cousins crowded in to see what he got. They would get closer and closer until you couldn't see Oliver anymore.
Next up: the singing of "Happy Birthday"...Baker style.
He was a little worried about this part because He did not want everyone to chant "take a bite!" afterwards or get cake smashed in his face.
So he blew out his candles and bolted out of there.
We had cake and ice cream and hung out around the fire.
And there you have it. Oliver's party was a success and our house is just about busting out the bricks with Superhero paraphernalia.


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Stranded in a foreign land, Barbara the Impenetrable has been isolated from her army. It is two days until the invasion and she must return to Aisengall to lead a defense against The Swarm. However, there is a price on her head and she is nowhere near the border of her country.
Directed and animated by: Krystal Downs & Alex Krokus
Sound by: James Deangelis