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The personal blog of Matt Guerin, a Toronto-based writer, filmmaker, media manager and political commentator...
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Toronto Sun cartoon makes fun of brutal violence depicted against Kathleen Wynne
How exactly are we to interpret this distasteful cartoon by Donato? Clearly the glasses make it clear the cartoonist and paper are depicting the aftermath of some kind of physical attack on Kathleen Wynne. It's clearly a brutal attack as her bloody teeth are visible.
It's been two days since the debate. If this was meant to depict Wynne having been "clobbered" during that debate by her opponents, shouldn't it have been printed in Wednesday's paper? Putting it in the June 6th edition, so Friday's paper, makes you wonder really what the Toronto Sun is trying to say here.
Is this supposed to be funny? Donato's cartoons are usually supposed to be funny. So beating the shit out of Kathleen Wynne until her teeth are knocked out and her glasses are busted up is funny?
This from the despicable paper that still runs ONLY Sunshine Girls every day, and hasn't published those tiny black & white shots of mostly clothed Sunshine Boys back on page 100 for years and years.
Robin Sears on TVO on Tuesday night used the word "clobbered" to criticize Wynne's performance, before Sears went on to criticize the clothes that Wynne was wearing during the debate. Perhaps that denigration was the inspiration behind this cartoon? Who knows?
Toronto Sun writers like Lorrie Goldstein and Christina Blizzard have been campaigning hard through their writings in favour of Tim Hudak this election. Any pretense for fairness and objectivity went out the window as soon as the election was called. Will this cartoon give them both a chuckle? I'm sure they'll defend this disgusting piece of cartooning and dismiss any criticism.
On all levels, this cartoon is gross. Shame on Donato and the Sun for publishing it.
10 comments:
- doconnor said...
Political cartoonists have long used physical attacks as a metaphor for rhetorical attacks.
This cartoon is just saying Wynne lost the debate badly.
- June 5, 2014 at 2:41 PM
- Matt Guerin said...
Want to put your full name to that, Unknown? How do you know it refers specifically to the debate?
- June 5, 2014 at 3:06 PM
- doconnor said...
Not that my name is relevant to the quality of my arguments, but I have updated the profile setting for this Google account.
I guessed it was about the debate, if not then it would be about the campaign in general.
- June 5, 2014 at 3:12 PM
- Matt Guerin said...
Glad you stand behind your comments.
She's winning in the campaign in general, according to a poll aggregate.
It's subjective to say it was about the debate. I think it was just a chance for the Sun to revel and make light of an image depicting Wynne (a left-leaning lesbian) being literally beaten to a pulp because they like that sort of thing over there. I'm sure it'll get chuckles with those who also like that sort of thing.
- June 5, 2014 at 3:21 PM
- WILLY said...
A similar cartoon was used (I think it was Donato"s) to report Lennon's assassination.
So this appears over the top and I agree violent in this case
- June 5, 2014 at 3:59 PM
- Unknown said...
Forget punches! This weirdo commie bitch should be shot and pissed on!
- February 24, 2016 at 12:55 PM
- Matt Guerin said...
Wow, Gary, your comments are borderline criminal! Advocating murder against a politician, or anyone. Why do right-wingers have no decency online nor any sense that advocating murder against their political opponents is not fascist and pure evil.
The only person who deserves to be pissed on is you, you fucking jerk!
- February 24, 2016 at 1:24 PM
- Unknown said...
Fucking faggots always trying to push their agenda. Your pariah is going to die, this isn't internet tough guy talk, this is the real deal. Not only will that Orville Redenbaucher look alike get what's coming to her, all queers are on our list. Tru-dope siding with the muzzies, ugly ass dykes stealing from taxpayers, this country has turned into a sesspool of filth and disease. The only cure is a bullet in their face. That's where we come in. The time for change is now. I'm sick of turning on the television and seeing some asshole parent on a talks how with her four year old son wearing a dress saying he's gender challenged. That's the gay communitys' handiwork. Death to all Liberal scum.
- December 7, 2016 at 1:05 PM
- Unknown said...
I don't care if you publish my comment, as it won't stop me from doing what needs to be done. Polite society will be eternally grateful.
- December 7, 2016 at 1:14 PM
- Matt Guerin said...
John Samson, hiding behind your information-light Google profile, you're a fucking Nazi pig. And guess what, you've committed crimes with your posts, threatening people with death and violence. I should call the police on your criminal ass! In fact, I think I will initiate a criminal investigation.
Consequences for one's actions apply to everyone, dumb ass, not just people you hate, you bigot!
- December 7, 2016 at 1:34 PM

subset: commoncrawl


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Calling all artists, musicians, craft-makers, dancers, writers and more!
Inspired by an overwhelming lack of creative support outside of formal institutions, we have decided to provide a support network for anyone who thinks that they could benefit.
Anyone craving this creative support is welcome to share their work with a group of interested people in a friendly and informal environment. You can bring along a physical work, share a video, give a photo presentation, or perform live.
There will be very little formal structure, but whatever happens, we hope that everyone involved will walk away feeling reassured and validated, having been reminded that there are others who care about our shared creative endeavours!
Tea/coffee/biscuits will be provided because sharing truly is caring xo


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With respect to Kyowa Hakko Kirin group's business performance and financial position, the major risks that may significantly affect investors' assessments include, but are not limited to, those described below. The group recognizes that these risk events may occur, and the group uses a risk management system to prevent the occurrence of those risk events that can be controlled by the group. At the same time, the group will do its utmost to respond in the event of the occurrence of a risk event.
*Items in this section dealing with future events reflect the assessment of the group as of December 31, 2018.
(1) Risks Associated with R&D Investment
In ethical drug operations, the development of new drugs requires long periods of time and substantial R&D expenditures. In the long-term development of new drugs, there may be cases where the expected efficacy or safety is not confirmed. This may result in the abandonment of plans to continue with R&D.
In addition, in the bio-chemicals business, the Group invests R&D resources into the development of new products and new technologies to differentiate itself from its competitors. However, as with R&D for pharmaceuticals business, there is no guarantee that these investments will produce results.
Moreover, as with the above, in cases where the expected R&D results are not realized, the Group's future growth and profitability may decline and our business performance and financial position may also be adversely affected.
(2) Risks Related to Intellectual Property Assets
The Group strictly manages its intellectual property assets and closely monitors infringement by third parties. Nevertheless, in cases where the Group's intellectual property rights are infringed upon, sales revenue of the Group's products or licensing revenue could decline earlier than forecast and the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected.
Furthermore, while the Group pays particular attention not to violate the intellectual property rights of others, in cases where the Group is subject to litigation based on allegations of infringement of intellectual property rights, the Group may be required to cease such activities, and pay compensation and/or settlement, and our business activities, business performance and financial position may be adversely affected.
(3) Risks of Side Effects
Pharmaceutical products undergo strict safety assessments at the development stage and are approved following reviews by the relevant national regulatory authorities. However, following launch, there have been cases whereby previously unknown side effects based on the accumulated results of users become apparent. In such cases where unexpected side effects are discovered following launch, the Group's business performance and financial position, etc., could be adversely affected.
(4) Risks Related to Pharmaceutical Regulations
The pharmaceuticals business, the Group's core business, operates under the pharmaceutical regulatory authorities of the countries in which we operate. In Japan, the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected by trends in the reform of Japan's healthcare system, such as the promotion of generic drugs usage, in addition to price reductions under the public pharmaceutical price system.
As for overseas pressure to suppress medical cost is becoming higher, and in cases where a price reduction cannot be compensated for by an increase in volumes, the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected.
(5) Legal Regulation Risks
In the course of carrying out its operations in Japan and overseas, the Group must strictly comply with legal regulations.
The Group emphasizes compliance to try to ensure that it does not violate the laws to which it is subject, and the Group is working to bolster internal control functions through such means as administrative oversight. However, there is no guarantee that the Group will be able to completely eliminate the possibility of committing a violation of these legal regulations. If, because we are unable to observe these legal regulations, new product development is delayed or stopped, or manufacturing or sales activities are restricted, the Group's credibility could be damaged. In such cases, the Group's business performance and financial position could be negatively impacted.
Furthermore, in the future, if laws and regulations that must be observed in Japan and overseas change, the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected.
(6) Risks of Fluctuations to Foreign Exchange Rate
The Group conducts transactions denominated in foreign currencies such as receiving income from overseas sales, licensing-out of technologies overseas, and acquiring raw materials overseas. Therefore, any sudden change in exchange rates could adversely affect the Group's financial position and business performance. Fluctuations to the exchange rate could also affect our ability to be price competitive on products sold in markets shared with overseas competitors.
In addition, the gains and losses, and assets and liabilities of overseas-consolidated subsidiaries converted in local currencies are translated into yen for the preparation of the consolidated financial report. The exchange rate at the time of conversion could have an effect on values following currency conversion.
(7) Disaster-related and Accident-related Risks
Earthquakes, fires, pandemics such as influenza, large-scale electrical blackouts, and other events potentially occurring in different locations could result in the suspension of business activities at the Group's headquarters, plants, research facilities or offices. The Group handles substances that are subject to various legal regulations and guidelines, and as a result of natural disasters, etc., these substances could enter the external environment and cause damage to the surrounding area.
Although the Group maintains a disaster prevention system and has prepared a business continuity plan, should a major event or accident occur it might result in significant damage and negatively impact the Group's position of trust in society. Additionally, the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected.
(8) Litigation-related Risks
A lawsuit filed against the Group concerning our business activities (e.g., side effects of pharmaceutical products, product liability, labor-related problems, fair trade), could have a negative impact on the Group's operating results, financial condition, etc.
(9) Security and Information Management Risks
As the Group utilizes a variety of information systems, system malfunctions, computer viruses, etc., may impede our business. We handle large amounts of information including personal information, and in the case that these information are divulged outside the company, the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected.
(10) Environmental Risks
The Group ensures thorough compliance with environment-related laws and regulations regarding air, water quality, noise, vibrations, offensive odors, soil contamination, ground subsidence, waste, etc. However, in the event that environmental-preservation problems such as pollution arise, or if a revision in the relevant laws occurs, leading to costs incurred in having to provide compensation to the surrounding areas, fix the environmental damages, or invest in new facilities the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected.
(11) Risks Related to Alliances with Other Companies
The Group enters into an alliance with other companies in the form of joint development, joint marketing, technology partnership or joint venture establishment and/or outsources operations such as production, logistics and marketing to other companies. However, if problems arise and/or the Group fails to achieve results from such alliances or operations outsourcing for any reason, or experiences a contract alteration or alliance termination, the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected.
(12) Risks Related to Securing and Training Personnel
The Group employs a diverse array of individuals who demonstrate their abilities and engage in business activities in Japan and overseas. However, if the Group is unable to secure personnel with highly specialized skills in each country or sufficiently train employees to perform specific jobs, the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected.
(13) Risks Related to Stable Supply
The Group is expanding its businesses worldwide and is ensuring the creation of a secure supply system. However, if technical or legal issues arise in manufacturing or logistical facilities, or stoppages arise in the supply of raw material and fuel, leading to the supply of our products being stopped, delayed, or being insufficient to meet a greater-than-expected growth in demand the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected.
(14) Risks Related to Competition and Patent Expiration
In the event that revenue declines as a result of competition between the Group's and other companies' products and/or the entry of generic products following the expiry of the Group's patents, the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected.
(15) Risks Related to Overseas Business Expansion
The Group is expanding its businesses globally, but there are risks of political instability caused by terrorism or conflicts, uncertain economic conditions, and difficulties resulting from differences in culture and/or customs. If the Group is unable to avoid such risks, the Group's business performance and financial position could be adversely affected.
(16) Other Risks
In addition to the above, there are other risks that could adversely affect the Group's business performance and financial position, and they include poor market penetration of products, changes to share prices and interest rates, impairment of fixed assets, etc.


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Region 8 Case Study
The Case Study Area of the web site has been designed using frames to allow users to look at the Case Study questions at the same time as querying the databases.
When you open the Case Study Area, a new browser window will be created. When you have finished with that area of the site, closing the window will return you to this page from which you can continue navigating through the site without frames.
Click here to Open the Case Study Area.


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Search Go Fish
If you have any questions please get in touch
The Fish4Flies Team
T:Free call-back service
Between days out fishing, Roger likes to do things that are less relaxing..
Not bad for a 73 year old who has already had a heart attack! Which is probably why he is also a popular after-dinner speaker!
Fish4Flies Ltd
Registered in the UK: 5656895
Card Clearance through PayPal
The Nomad Dawson's Olive is a very versatile stillwater pulling lure, which brings fish to the net with great regularity. It can be fished on all kinds of fly lines, being particularly effective on an Intermediate Line.It is a favourite of fly fishermen in the north of England.
Country of origin for this trout flies fly: England
This trout flies fly is designed to be fished on Dams & Reservoirs
Currently there are no comments about the Nomad Dawson's Olive fly pattern from other fly fishermen yet.
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This guest post is written by Grant Hensel
Guest blogging is quite literally taking the world by storm. The model makes perfect sense: the host gets free content and the guest gets exposure.
If you already knew that, congratulations! You've mastered Guest Posting 1.0…and it's time to take your game to a whole new level.
The following 5 guest posting strategies have been implemented successfully by some of the best bloggers in the industry. Each approach by itself will make your guest posts far more successful, but used together they can provide a quantum leap in effectiveness.
Strategy 1: Multiple Objectives
The first major mistake many bloggers make when guest posting is focusing only on generating traffic or links or attention. A good post will give you all of those benefits, so why not maximize overall effectiveness?
Guest posts can provide all of the following:
- Traffic
- Subscribers
- Credibility
- Backlinks
- Social shares
Create an excel spreadsheet to track the above metrics for each of your posts. Add another column describing everything you did to promote your post. Try to attach a dollar value to each metric – how much is a visitor or a subscriber or a link worth to you? After you've collected some data, determine which combination of topic, host blog and promotion produces the greatest overall return.
Strategy 2: The Guest Posting Blitz
Want to turn yourself into an instant celebrity? Go on a guest posting blitz.
Danny Iny used an all-out guest post barrage to catapult his Firepole Marketing website into the spotlight. The same strategy worked wonders for Josh Hanagarne, and earned him a chance to share his story on Copyblogger.
Here's how to launch a guest posting blitz of your own:
- Build a list of 20-30 blogs you would like to post on. BloggersPassion has a great list of blogs that accept guest posts.
- Browse each blog and develop headlines for potential posts. Try to have 2-3 post ideas for each blog. Make sure your topics are those relevant for the host blogger's audience, but are ones which haven't already been covered.
- Send email pitches to the first few bloggers on your list. Start with a personal introduction to demonstrate you know who the blogger is and what they write about. Conclude with a request to publish a guest post, proposing the headlines that you developed in the previous step. Include links to samples of your past work if you have them.
- Research and write like crazy! Once bloggers start accepting your requests, get to work! These posts are your first contact with the host blogger and his or her audience, and you only have one chance to make a good first impression.
Strategy 3: Join the A-List Conversation
This tactic works amazingly well in conjunction with the strategy that we just discussed. As Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz and the Blog Tyrant will tell you, use your guest posts to join the conversation!
Presumably all of the bloggers on your list for the Blitz strategy above are in the same niche. If you used their blogs to research your guest posts, give them the credit they are due and reference their work with a link. This demonstrates your industry knowledge and shows that you have something to add to the conversation.
After your post is published, send a quick email to the owner of each blog you referenced. If your original post was successful, you can even propose writing something for them on a related topic. This strategy allows you to leverage each of your posts to gain access to increasingly prestigious blogs. It also allows you to build your skills as you go, so that when someone like Chris Brogan finally accepts your pitch you're ready to knock his audience's socks off!
Strategy 4: Jaw Dropping Value on A-List Blogs
This is my favorite strategy because the potential return is absolutely astounding.
Despite its power, this approach is theoretically quite simple:
- Write an amazing, jaw dropping post
- Pitch your post to bloggers at the very top of the food chain
As an example of what I mean by 'jaw-dropping value,' check out this post on Chris Brogan's blog, which was shared over 100,000 times. It's a mammoth of a post, the topic is general enough to appeal to all audiences and the quality of the content is mind-blowing. In a follow-up post on Income Diary, Tommy explains how he managed to write this masterpiece.
What's the takeaway here? Sometimes one amazing post on a huge blog is more effective than hundreds of guest posts on smaller websites.
Strategy 5: Give Your Readers Something Special
Here's a secret: Maneesh Sethi was the first person to truly convince me of the power of guest posting. Maneesh wrote a great post on Scott H Young's blog and gave away enormously valuable information at the end, exclusively for Scott's followers.
This strategy not only built Maneesh's email list but provided his readers with an incredibly valuable eBook as a special thank-you present. This is a great way to add a personal touch to your posts while building your business at the same time.
My Special Gift for WritersinCharge Readers
This approach made such an impression on me that I've decided to give 1,000 copies of my new eBook, "One Question that will Transform your Struggling Blog into a Titan" completely free. Skip the sales page on my blog by using this backdoor link, which will let you pick up the eBook for free. Get your copy before they run out!
Don't just read and move on, it's time for you to put these five strategies to work! What can you do right now to optimize your guest posts for multiple goals, go on a posting blitz, reference A-list bloggers, create posts of amazing value and give your readers special benefits?
Implement these strategies and I promise your blog will never be the same. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the free eBook!
About the Author: Grant Hensel is the CEO of Viibrant.com a startup that allows experts in any field to create and sell online courses. You can read more of his work or contact him through the Viibrant Expert Blog.
P.S. Grant has also been deeply moved and inspired by Bamidele's work ethic and success – congratulations on finding his amazing blog!


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March, 2017
Photo credit: Flickr CC by 2.0
No one needs to tell a new mother that human childbirth can be challenging, to say the least. While monkeys and apes (our closest evolutionary relatives) spend about two hours laboring during birth, human mothers spend closer to nine hours. And human childbirth is dangerous. In some impoverished areas, for every 100 live births, one mother dies in childbirth and four infants die in the first few days of life. However, access to resources and modern medical interventions, such as C-sections, saves many of those lives. Doctors estimate that 10-20% of births require a C-section for mothers and babies to have the optimal health outcomes. In the United States, one in three babies is born via C-section. Worldwide, C-sections are performed more frequently than any other surgery. C-sections have become so common in some populations that biologists have begun to wonder if the procedure, as it saves lives, could be shaping the course of human evolution...
To understand how C-sections could influence our evolutionary future, we need to dive deep into humanity's evolutionary past. Around five million years ago, through the action of natural selection over many generations, our African ancestors began to walk on just two legs. This major evolutionary transformation involved a host of skeletal and anatomical changes, resulting in the ability to walk upright and, as a by-product, narrow hips and a narrow birth canal. Then, about 2 million years ago, natural selection began favoring individuals with larger brains, and hence, larger heads. And thus began the evolutionary tug of war. After birth, individuals with large heads, large brains, and large bodies were better able to survive and pass on their genes to the next generation. However, babies whose heads were too large would have been caught in the birth canal and died.
This evolutionary process, in which individuals with extreme values of traits (in this case small or very large heads) are selected against, is called balancing selection. As in an evenly matched tug of war, balancing selection results in an equilibrium of sorts — in this case, an equilibrium where the value of a trait remains fairly constant over generations. Balancing selection also keeps genetic variation for the trait in the population. Since genetic variation is the raw material of evolution, balancing selection leaves a trait poised to evolve readily in the future if the environment changes and selection begins acting in a different way.
Of course, in the case of human head size, one might wonder why the human lineage did not evolve wider hips and birth canals, which would have allowed larger-headed babies to thrive. After all, it certainly seems as though these trait would have been favored by natural selection. Researchers have investigated this question, but so far, it is still a mystery. For whatever reason, these traits did not evolve. The human birth canal remained narrow, and the evolutionary tug of war continued, favoring babies with genes for large heads, but not too large.
Then in the 20th century, C-sections became safer and, in some populations, common. C-sections have the potential to resolve this tug of war in favor of very large-headed babies by removing much of the disadvantage these individuals face during the birth process. After all, if more large-headed babies survive birth, these individuals are likely to grow up to have similarly proportioned babies themselves. This could change the evolutionary scenario from one of balancing selection, to one of directional selection, leading to larger- and larger-headed babies over the course of many generations.
Playing out this scenario focusing on maternal survival also leads to an interesting conclusion. In our past, one might imagine, very narrow-hipped women had a survival disadvantage since they were more likely to die during childbirth. If C-sections save many of these women's (and their babies') lives, more genes that lead to narrow hips should remain in the human population. If C-sections are influencing human evolution in these ways, more large-headed babies and more narrow-hipped moms could lead to even more C-sections in a self-reinforcing cycle!
So is this evolutionary change actually happening in human populations? It's far too soon to tell. Recent research suggests that, over time, even weak selection favoring large-headed babies has the potential to cause evolution when C-sections remove much of the risk that these babies and their mothers face during childbirth; however, C-sections have been common for only a few generations and data supporting this conclusion have not yet been teased out. While the rate of C-sections has increased in many societies (as one might expect if head size were evolving), there are a wide variety of known causes for this uptick; we can't necessarily ascribe any portion of the increase to evolutionary change in head sizes and birth canals. Nevertheless, it's an intriguing possibility that scientists will continue to investigate. Since key elements of all evolutionary processes are birth and death, anytime that large numbers of lives are saved or lost, we should consider whether this process might be contributing to evolutionary change. By saving lives, modern medicine may shape the human lineage's evolutionary future in a wide variety of ways that we are just beginning to understand.
Primary literature:
Understanding Evolution resources:
Discussion and extension questions
Read how others have recognized the Understanding Evolution website.


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The vegetation within the urban system provides sheltering and food provisions to birds, influencing their nesting options. This study analyses for the first time in the Mediterranean area how different socio-ecological factors related with public urban green management can influence the nesting of the passerine bird order. It uses a case study in the city of Valls (Catalonia, Spain). First, the public urban green was quantitatively and qualitatively characterised; then the nests from the passerine birds were collected and identified, and finally, potential associations between nests and urban green-related socio-ecological factors such as vegetation type (tree, shrub, herb, liana), plant species, neighbourhood type, pruning type, fruit and seed production, and presence of insect plague were analysed. A total of 300 nests were identified and belonged, mostly, to the family of Fringillidae and Sylviidae, all from Mediterranean agroforestry areas. Passerine birds show preference for the historic centre, being this area the one with highest biodiversity of vegetation in the city, in detriment of surrounding neighbourhoods, which in turn are less biodiverse. Passerine birds do not consider four tree species (Celtis australis, Laurus nobilis, Robinia pseudoacacia and Pinus pinea) suitable for nesting whereas showing preference for two tree species of medium height and size (Hibiscus syriacus and Melia azederach). Also, passerine birds seem to preferably nest in trees that have been pruned intensively. These results suggest that, to strengthen the passerine bird diversity in cities, urban green management should promote certain species of trees of medium size and intensive pruning while supporting the overall biodiversity of the urban green. All these results contribute to inform effective urban planning and management strategies for passerine birds conservation that aim to reconcile urban development and urban biodiversity protection.
ICTA Authors
Jaume Marlès Magre, Martí Boada Juncà, Albert Bach Pagés, Roser Maneja Zaragoza, Sonia Sánchez Mateo, Carlos Alfredo Barriocanal Lozano
Digital Object Identifier - DOI
Colloque international: "Ce que l'Amérique latine fait à l'écologie politique. Bilan d'étape d'un courant ascendant des sciences sociales"
ICTA UAB | ICTA-ICP Building Z Campus UAB 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola) · Barcelona, Spain
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Petra One Day Tour From Amman
$295 per person
$295/ person for 2 people, $70 discount for kids below 12 years
Tour Description: One day to Petra from Amman, hotels or Dead Sea area and hotels, delivery any where after the trip
Tour Rate includes:
Transportation in air conditioned vehicles
Lunch (Open buffet at 3 stars restaurant)
Entrance fees to Petra
Guided tour in Petra (English speaking)
Rate excludes:
All kinds of drinks
Any other expenses not mentioned here
3.5% for credit card payments
Physical Rate: easy, long drive from Amman to Petra
One Day Tour
IncludedEntrance fees to PetraGuided tour in Petra (English speaking)LunchTransportation in air conditioned vehicles
Not IncludedBreakfast
At 7:30 am - 8:30 am
- it's not recommended to leave Amman after 9:00 am because it take 3 hours driving to Petra from Amman. You will be picked up anywhere from Amman at 7:30 am or from any of any of the Dead Sea hotels, driving to Petra for three hours, you will have a stop in some rest house where you can have coffee and use bathrooms mid - way before you arrive to Petra
Around 10:30 am - 11:30 am
you leave the bus at Petra visitors center where you start your guided tour, you will explore the old city center with the guide until the Royal tombs for 3 km's. visiting the Siq, the treasury, the facades street, the theater with the guide and you will have some free time to explore the royal tombs little pleasant climb, then you walk back the same way to the bus, the round trip distance is 6 kilometers (with an opportunity to have carriage ride from the visitors center to the treasury and back from the treasury to the visitors center)
Around 3:30 pm
upon returning back to the bus you drive for few minutes to a lovely restaurant with open buffet, have lunch there (lunch might be before Petra visit depending on your arrival time)
At 4:30 pm
after lunch you might be delivered anywhere in Jordan; driving back to Amman, Aqaba or Dead Sea (as arranged with us)


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For the Troy Daily News
Teams come in all shapes and sizes.
Christy Shell, owner of Zeal Coaching, 3 E. Water St., Troy, knows how to help people learn team building, career focus, transitional decision-making and other related topics they need to find their vision and preferred work future. She shared some of her insights with Troy Rotarians during their weekly meeting Sept. 8.
Shell has been in the executive coaching business since receiving her master's degree in education from Xavier University. After making Troy home in 2014, she opened Zeal Coaching and now focuses on career and life coaching for teens and adults. Her first love is working with students, both high school and college, who are unsure of the field of study in which they'd like to concentrate. Shell coaches leadership, performance improvement, and management of job and life transitions, through the use of techniques such as positive psychology. Another technique she uses frequently is outdoor team building exercises, which build trust, productive conflict, communications, accountability and, ultimately, results. To learn more about Zeal Coaching, visit www.zealcoach.com or Facebook.com/ZealCoaching.
Troy Rotary Club members are always looking for new topics to share at weekly meetings. If you are interested in presenting your business or organization, please visit the Troy Rotary Web site at www.troyohiorotary.org and submit your information in the "Contact Us" section. Troy Rotary is a member-involved, goal-oriented service club focused on socio/economic issues that have an impact both locally and internationally. You can follow their activities on Facebook at Troy Rotary Club.


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If you've got a hankering for some delicious Chipotle Corn Salsa, you'll love this Easy Corn Salsa Recipe that makes for a fun copycat version you can make at home!
Do you LOVE the Corn Salsa served at Chipotle? Why not make some at home? This easy Corn Salsa Recipe tastes just like the real thing!
My family loves to eat at Chipotle. It's a healthy option that can actually satisfy a teenage boy… and I have two of those!
Have your favorite Corn Salsa anytime you want with this easy to make Chipotle Corn Salsa! Ready for the recipe?
- How you can get Free Grocery Gift Cards
- How To Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half {16 easy tips}
Corn Salsa Recipe
Corn Salsa Recipe
- 12 oz. Frozen Yellow Corn thawed and drained
- ¾ cup chopped Red Onion
- 3 Tbsp finely chopped and seeded Jalapeno pepper
- 3 Tbsp finely chopped and seeded Poblano chili pepper
- 2 Tbsp chopped Cilantro
- 2 Tbsp fresh squeezed Lime Juice
- ½ tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Sugar
- Throw it all in a bowl, stir, and get ready for instant household celebrity status!
- Serve with tacos, fajitas, burritos or tortilla chips. Enjoy!
What You'll Need for This Recipe:
Mixing Bowls
Ready for even more delicious Easy Salsa Recipes and fun party dips?? Here are more ideas I know you'll love…
Blender Salsa Recipe
Making your own homemade salsa is so easy and flavor packed!
Easy Mango Pineapple Salsa Recipe
Add a splash of tropical fruity deliciousness to your salsa!
Easy Pico de Gallo Recipe
Get some really fresh salsa served up with this fresh and delicious Pico de Gallo Salsa!
Easy Cowboy Caviar Recipe {Black Bean Dip}
Craving the ultimate black bean chip dip? This delicious Cowboy Caviar Recipe is bursting with fresh flavor!
Copycat Chipotle Cilantro Lime Rice
Make your own Chipotle copycat rice with these easy Cilantro Lime Rice Recipe!
How to Keep Cilantro Fresh
Keeping Cilantro Fresh really couldn't be easier, and it's the only way I store it. This little kitchen trick works like a charm!
45+ Easy Mexican Dinner Recipes
Get inspired for dinner deliciousness with this BIG List of Easy Mexican Dinner Recipes!
Grocery Money Saving Tips:
How To Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half
Don't miss out! Find more Fun Recipe and Frugal Tip Inspiration with The Frugal Girls here:


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Human Design offers tools for well-being through Strategy and Authority. But what about when it comes to sustaining financial health?
Having the necessary resources is crucial to a healthy lifestyle, and everyone is meant to attract what they need on the material plane. By looking at your BodyGraph as a roadmap to financial well-being, you can discover where the potential for attracting money is based on your "Profit Centers", and Gate activations.
This course provides both a thorough description of the 64 paths to money, as well as a guided tour of the BodyGraph's Nine Profit Centers.
The 64 Material Ways includes 8 hours and 30 minutes of Ra Uru Hu exploring Human Design's view of the material world, focusing on each Center and Gate's potential for attracting money. This one of a kind course is a comprehensive look at how we are designed to fulfill our financial needs in ways we can trust.
As with all our products, this purchase comes with an unconditional ten-day money-back guarantee. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase for any reason, please let us know and we'll issue a full refund.
Our goal is to guide you in your journey. We're always available to answer questions about Human Design and point you in the right direction—toward products, articles, or free content in our media library that you may find helpful in your exploration of Human Design.
Please review our return policy terms and conditions for more information, or contact us by writing to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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A journal on what it's really like living in a house that is over a hundred years old and surviving the remodel of a kitchen with too many doorways, and it's plywood floor - someday I'll have real flooring I really will I promise. And having a vegetable garden that is 80% in heavy shade!
Monday, May 26, 2008
So yesterday dh weeded my rhubarb and we decided that we'd make some rhubarb jam this morning. Well that didn't pan out as someone had made off with about half of my rhubarb plants, I'm still pissed off about this. There have been a LOT of things disappearing out of our lawn of late, pots, flowers, grapevines and now my rhubarb.
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("If you could thank anyone for helping you in your journey as a friar, who would it be?" That's the question we asked this year's Jubilarians. Here's what they had to say.)
65 Years Priesthood
We had no tradition with nuns or priests in our close family, but Dad and Mom both encouraged me strongly. At the time I was discerning I became very close to Fr. Juvenal Berens, a distant cousin, and he was very helpful in my adolescence and ignorance and knowledge of God.
When I went to Rome as Finance Officer of the Order [1963-1967], I was very unsure of myself, too young for that job. [General Minister] Agostino Sepinski, a great man, became a Dutch uncle to me.
60 Years Profession
I'm grateful for Benno Heidlage for getting me through the Novitiate and believing in me, Leander Blumlein for showing me how to read and enjoy great writing, Damien Isabell for choosing me to be on the initial team of guides for the Assisi Study Pilgrimage, and Jeremy Harrington for asking me to write the book that became Francis: The Journey and the Dream.
60 Years Priesthood
Dad and Mom because they were so supportive of me becoming a friar; Ignatius Brady for being a great teacher; Noel William for being a great pastor.
50 Years Profession
I was thinking of Fr. Floribert Blank and his devotion to the Blessed Mother and prayer whenever we would take our hike to the Holy Family Shrine in Oldenberg. He said, "Everything begins with prayer." He's the one who supported me when I first entered.
Fr. Bernie Gerbus was retired at St. Francis Center and really put into perspective for me the idea of community and fraternity. He would say, "Don't take life too seriously", and, "This, too, will pass."
Fr. Gregg Petri and his devotion to his ministry of taking care of the poor and the Spanish community; he got me in touch with the whole idea of working at the soup kitchen and also the people in the 12 Step program. He put death and dying in perspective.
60 Years Priesthood
Attending Mass with my father or mother influenced my listening to God's call. I believe the prayers and encouragement of the "old ladies" of the parish had something to do with it. The School Sisters of St. Francis, who taught me, most likely had a hand in it, too It was like a "community" influence.
My parents were members of the Third Order Franciscans here at the friary in Pittsburgh. I got to know the friars and would often spend time visiting and helping out. Their personalities plus the missionary work they were doing among the Slovak people in the States influenced my wanting to join them.
65 Years Profession, 60 Years Priesthood
(Norbert Bertram spoke to Ted, who has difficulty communicating, and gave us this response.)
When I talked to Ted about being a friar he was all smiles, very joyful. He said he felt supported by his two sisters: "I am very grateful for that." They were always there for him and prayed for him and encouraged him.
As far as friars, without hesitation, he mentioned that the person who supported him the most was Jeremy Harrington.
65 Years Profession
My oldest sister, Ethelyn, was a very big influence, especially in the line of art or music. She was so talented, she wasn't afraid to tackle anything. She seemed to like what I painted and had it hanging throughout her house after she got married. She always encouraged me to go on. That was a big boost for me.
50 Years Profession
I'm grateful to Joe Rayes for his support and encouragement. He had more confidence in me along the way than I had in myself.
50 Years Profession
I'm dead serious when I say I was stumped [when asked that question]. There are so many people who were very important with respect to that kind of support, that I couldn't come up with just one name.
50 Years Profession
I would have to mention Fr. Bernard Rank along with the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters as one of the most influential people in my life. Father was the only pastor I knew growing up and the Sisters taught in our grade school. While Father was a diocesan priest, he was the epitome of a 1950s priest who was very supportive of my vocation and helped our family in whatever way he could. Likewise, the Sisters were extremely supportive even though they would have preferred I became a Dominican. Fr. Rank never took credit for the inspiration he was for me, but I assured him more than once that he was my model of both consecrated life, even though he was a diocesan priest, and priesthood.
(OLG Province)
60 Years Profession
Frs. Brian and Leonard at minor seminary; Fr. Leander Bloomlein at Duns Scotus. I guess I started thinking about the seminary when Fr. Paul Scales talked to us in the 8th grade. Also, two of my sisters went to the convent before me, which probably influenced me.
60 Years Profession
I once asked the saintly Fr. Bill Faber what was the secret of his conversion. He told me that one day he was reading a book on spirituality. On one side of the open book was a picture of a circle with the word "me" in the center. On the other side of the book there was a circle with the word "Jesus" in the center. Those pictures made him realize that his whole life was self-centered. That realization moved him to change completely and became Christ-centered. He seemed to live his life in a self-forgetful way, as though without an ego. Eventually God gives this Christ-centered gift, I believe, to whom he gave the burning desire for it.
50 Years Priesthood
In 1969 I didn't have the faintest idea of how to get an advanced degree in liturgy and Larry Landini suggested I contact Rev. Gerard Austin, OP, Chair of the Theology Department at The Catholic University of America. Jerry graciously responded to my letter with detailed instructions on how to enroll at the Institute Catholique in Paris and how to contact the Paris Franciscan community. I never met Jerry until he appeared quite by coincidence at the defense of my thesis! Over the years we have roomed together at the meetings of the North American Academy of Liturgy and Jerry has been my mentor, guiding me through difficult times and continually supplying me with books and articles that keep me on the cutting edge of theological development. I thank God for sending me Jerry Austin, OP.
65 Years Profession
Leonard Foley: We were both from the same parish in Lafayette, Ind. He was my teacher at St. Francis Seminary and my lifelong inspiration, friend and mentor. He recruited me to work at St. Anthony Messenger. He had the vision.
Andrew Fox was my guardian at St. Leonard when I was a deacon and in the pastoral year, my principal when I taught at Roger Bacon, publisher at St. Anthony Messenger Press, Provincial. He was a strong, caring leader.
Conrad Rebmann, my contemporary, is and always was a humble, quiet, zealous friar in whatever obedience he was given– tailor, vocation director, outreach director at Roger Bacon. He inspires me.
65 Years Profession
It really wasn't one person that influenced me but seven, four uncles and three brothers. I saw what they were doing and they seemed to like it and were happy so I followed in their footsteps. So away I went and here I am, 65 years later.
65 Years Profession
The person I have in mind is Mark Sandford; he's a first cousin of mine [as well as the Schneiders] and my godfather. I always enjoyed having him around for his laugh, a deep, deep laugh. He was a Franciscan priest and that's how I got the idea of doing the same thing.
60 Years Priesthood
I have to thank Fr. Urban Freundt, OFM, as the most important person in my Franciscan, priestly vocation.
He was the one who first encouraged me to come to the seminary. I met him while visiting one of the Notre Dame Sisters there. He did so because he learned I was eligible to attend Covington Latin School after the 6th grade. Four years later when I graduated from the Seminary, Fr. Max Gartner, the Disciplinarian, encouraged me to discontinue. Not sure of what to do I approached Fr. Urban, the Rector, and told him of the situation: "Fr. Max told me to quit, but I don't really want to." In his somewhat regal manner Fr. Urban answered, "Well, I'm the Rector, and I think you should continue and go to the novitiate." The rest is history. Time will tell if Fr. Urban or Fr. Max was right.
Had it not been for Fr. Urban, I would not be a Franciscan priest today.
Schneider family friars and diocesan priests gathered August 1965 in Louisville for Madian Schneider's priesthood silver jubilee. Standing are Mark Sandford, Christopher Schneider, Bernardin Schneider, Aquinas Schneider, Clarence Lindauer; seated are Herman Lammers, Hilary Schneider, Theodoric Schneider, Madian Schneider and Sigfrid Schneider.
These pendants will be given at the Procession and on the 150th anniversary.
(An open letter to Murray Bodo upon reading his latest book, Gathering Shards: A Franciscan Life.)
Dear Murray,
I have just completed reading your latest work, Gathering Shards: A Franciscan Life, and as your brother in Francis, I just want to say a simple word of thanks. As you gathered the various shards of your own life, you did the same for me.
Thanks for the memories.Aubert GrieserJeff, top center, and Murray in seminary daysJoe RayesEd OverbergRoy EfflerAubert GrieserAldric HeidlageKenan HozieLeander BlumleinRoy EfflerBenno HeidlageJoe Rayes
Though not an only child or from the Southwest, I took a geographically shorter but similar journey to Franciscan life. Like you, I was baptized by a friar (Ed Overberg), mentored by the friars at St. George in Cincinnati, served early morning Masses, played priest with Necco wafers, played Cowboys and Indians and with red fire trucks. Like most everyone I would guess, I, too, had to move from piety to spirituality, to come to a more mature appreciation and integration of the gift of sexuality, and my relationship with my father and mother. From my year in the province at Jemez Pueblo, N.M., I can appreciate some of your love for the beauty of the desert, the mountains, and the culture of Native Americans. I was in Jemez during my last year of temporary profession, and, as I was pondering solemn profession, I can still remember reading in the chapel there a line from one of your books: "No vow to God is ever one-sided," and it gave me courage to take the risk. As I read, I gathered my own shards.
Though not as constant a visitor to Assisi as you, I too, know its power and peace. I remember coming to a deeper relationship with Francis and Clare by going on pilgrimage, visiting the sacred places, walking where they walked, praying where they prayed. I can remember the geraniums, the gates, the olive trees, the plaza, and of course the gelato. Assisi feels like home to every Franciscan. As I read, I gathered my own shards.
I have attempted once or twice to write poetry, but that is not my gift. But I have come to appreciate the beauty and power of words. I experience some of what you wrote about the creative processing and encountering the Word through words that emerge in writing and preaching. As I read, I gathered my own shards.
Thank you for introducing me to your parents, to Denise Levertov, Bertie Lomas, Fr. Francis Halpin and the other guides of your life. Thank you for introducing me to Francis and Clare and for sharing this journey and dream as brothers. Your insights have given a generation of Franciscans a way to understand and talk about our Francis calling. You have opened up the mystery of the Advent and Christmas of the Soul, and by gathering the shards, to prepare a dwelling place for God who will overflow and bring forth Christ in our lives. Thank you for helping me find my own way into this mystery of God's great mercy.
– Fr. Jeff Scheeler, OFM
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Drinks of Walkerville Walking Tour
Saturday, June 13, 11:30 am to 4:00 pm
Cost: $85
Event Website
Walkerville, Wyandotte St
Event Website
A true showcase of Whiskytown, Canada! Named an Ontario Signature Experience, the Drinks of Walkerville Walking Tour celebrates what is unique and exceptional about Canada's southernmost city, including a tour inside of North America's largest distillery.
Highlights of the Drinks of Walkerville tour include:
- An hands-on tour of the largest distillery in North America – Hiram Walker & Sons – home to J.P. Wiser's Canadian Whisky
- A guided tasting of four Canadian whiskies inside the J.P. Wiser's Brand Centre
- Stop at the private members club, The Windsor Club, for a cocktail and snack to sample and a unique view of the "Whisky Palace", the original Canadian Club headquarters
- Stroll through Hiram Walker's historic company town, Walkerville, and learn about the history, the architecture and the folklore associated with Whiskytown, Canada
- Learn about the graffiti art that is throughout Walkerville
- Sip on a flight of four craft beers at the award winning Walkerville Brewery before grabbing 12oz beer of your choice to tour the facility with
All event dates and times are updated to the best of our ability. Please contact the event organizer directly for accurate hours and event status.
Venue: Walkerville
Walkerville, Wyandotte St
Windsor, ON Canada


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Well we are getting closer to completing the fabrication aspect of our ship. We are down to our last few sheets of plywood, and our stock of timber is almost exhausted. Every piece is accounted for. Looks like we will be able to compete the project without purchasing additional timber, which is a good thing, … Continue reading Cockpit commenced
Tag: Plywood
Turret roof underway
OK, so this post is may not be of interest to all our readers. Firstly it's written by Pete on a cold and windy Saturday afternoon, needing something to distract him from the weather forecast he downloaded that morning: Secondly, its more technical, as its goes into detail about the turret construction. I have found this … Continue reading Turret roof underway
Decking begins
After two months of sanding and painting, its been good to get back to fabrication. Our focus is the deck, followed by the turret & targa bar. Before we could begin installing the fore-decks we needed to complete the fore-beam. We realised that finishing the forebeam in its installed position would be extremely difficult in … Continue reading Decking begins
Internal fit out #2
Now that we have returned from Alice we are focusing on completing the internal fit out in preparation for painting. First cab off the rank, was the bridge-deck storage space. This will be accessed from an overhead deck hatch. Two levels of shelving were filleted in place, which also served to stiffen the partition with … Continue reading Internal fit out #2
Things we do on a rainy day
Well Selah has survived yet another wild nor'easter since our last post. She certainly has had a baptism of fire in her short life. If nothing else, it has reinforced in us the necessity of building strength into every joint. On the eve of the storm I had considered pulling down the big tarp from the … Continue reading Things we do on a rainy day
A lofty business
After the big day yesterday, we woke to a dull and drizzly morning. While the rain is much needed, as Tassy is in the grip of a water shortage, it was a bit chilly for our un acclimatised Northern Territory bones. Deb decided to stay home to sort out our rego and licence transfers, and … Continue reading A lofty business
Materials arrive
Today was a good day... One of the challenges when embarking on a major build project the size of Selah is researching and sourcing the materials, and then managing the vast amounts of it, when it arrives. Surprisingly we were unable find willing suppliers locally, despite Tassy being a wood and timber state. Even after … Continue reading Materials arrive


text: Government incentives and market incentives are quite different. This explains a lot. CLICK BELOW for a high resolution version of this image: By: CS Admin "No Boots on the Ground" Ignore Those Pesky Extremists! Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment Name * Email * Website + = Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.


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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Conversation Hearts
As a child, I remember getting Conversation Hearts for Valentine's Day. They were a fun part of my childhood Valentine experience, but for Bennett, they aren't so much fun. He has food allergies and sensitivities to artificial dyes. So, I … Continue reading
Reading Nook
Reading is not something that was emphasized during my childhood. I actually hated to read, mostly because of comprehension issues that I had. I read whatever I had to for school and that was it. I didn't read for … Continue reading
Homemade Valentines
Bennett really enjoys making crafts, and as he gets older there are more that he can do by himself. This makes him infinitely happy. I came across a fun way to use a toilet paper roll at Prudent Baby. The … Continue reading
Sashiko Rabbit
I've started making a quilt for baby Etienne. I made a quilt for our son and finished it for his first Christmas, but since Etienne's first Christmas just passed, I'm going to aim for his first Birthday. So I have … Continue reading
Getting Settled
After much frustration with my old blog, I've taken the plunge and am making WordPress my new blog home. I've had all my posts from Blogger imported, but the links are different and it will take some time to fix … Continue reading
Tag Along Tuesday
Tagging Along with Twee Poppets Tag Along Tuesday! Wheee! I hope everyone is having a lovely week!


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Biblical Gender Roles, Feminism, and Jerkhood
November 20, 2018 § 2 Comments
Our Creator gets to tell us exactly who we are. On the first page of the Bible, Genesis 1:27 declares two truths about who we are.
"So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them."
"The image of God" tells us how we are all the same. All human beings are of equal value. "Male and female" tells us how we are different. Half of us are gendered male and the other half female. We need both truths in order to think rightly, and act rightly, about gender today.
Gender and sex used to mean basically the same thing, and some languages still only have one word for both. Ontologically, as most dictionaries will affirm, there is no critical difference between gender and sex ("the state of being male and female") except as posited by those whose obsession with autonomy mandates a critical difference. The immutable and binary truth on this topic hasn't been seriously challenged until recent history in an effort to separate gender (social and cultural roles and self-identity with respect to the state of being male and female) and sex (objective physical traits with respect to the state of being male and female). One of the contemporary challengers, representing a sexual libertarian worldview, is the New York Times, calling gender a "creative playing field."(1) A biblical worldview says that gender/sex was God's creative playing field, and His work in the department is complete. If we understand this, we honor God, stay true to ourselves, and do a lot less harm to our neighbor.
Suppose a teacher asks her 4th grade class, "Aside from anatomy, what's the difference between boys and girls?" (I saw this in a YouTube video meant to challenge gender stereotypes, but for the life of me I can't find it now). The students, too young to have had a comprehensive biology course, give the teacher the answer she's looking for by shrugging: "I guess nothing, really." The conclusion: Anatomy doesn't really matter. Maybe there's really no significant difference between males and females after all.
But there's glaring problem with the original question. Anatomy is too big of a thing to set aside. If we asked, "Aside from oceans, where do whales live?" we would come to find that without oceans there would be no whales, except for a handful at SeaWorld and the dead ones on beaches. Likewise, without anatomy, we don't actually have a human being. Anatomy encompasses all that we are physically, and even those who consider human beings more than physical entities have to admit that we are not human without our bodies. In our anatomy, we see obvious differences beyond the basic reproductive differences we learn about in sex ed.
The human anatomy includes about 37 trillion cells, each encoded with information that denotes male or female. Female DNA have one pair of identical X chromosomes, whereas males have an X and a Y chromosome. You could say our anatomy declares what sex we are 37 trillion times.
Even our brains are binary. According to Stanford Medicine, we find "distinct anatomical differences in neural structures and accompanying physiological differences in function" in the brains of men and women(2).
Maybe the most obvious physical difference is overall size and strength. I will concede that there are women out there who can arm-wrestle me to ruin or completely lose me running the mile. But the exceptions prove the rule that the strongest man in the Olympics is stronger than the strongest female, and the fastest man at the Drake Relays will best the fastest woman.
So clearly, anatomy does matter in determining what is a boy and what is a girl. But what are the reasons for these physical differences between the sexes?
According to the Bible, male and female humans are designed to fulfill certain God-given roles. These roles are numerous, but I've chosen a handful that Jill Nelson explores in her "Your Word Is Truth" curriculum published by Truth:78(3). Men are uniquely designed to be servant-leaders, providers, and protectors. Women are uniquely designed to be helpers, submissive (yikes!) and nurturers.
In reading Genesis 2, we find that man was created first (vs. 5-7), that Adam's first job was a gardener, and that God gave him a warning to not eat the forbidden fruit in order to protect him (vs. 15-17). In verses 19-21, we see that the first woman was not made the exact same way as man (Adam was formed from the dust of the earth, and woman was formed from man), and that the man named the woman (vs. 23).
So far, so what? There is a particular ordering in God's creation here, but we only begin to see the significance of it after sin comes into the picture in Genesis 3. Eve was deceived by Satan and ate the forbidden fruit first, but then Adam followed. In verse 9, "the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?'" God didn't forget about Eve, but God went straight to Adam because the man did not fulfill his God-given roles to lead, protect, and provide for his wife.
Romans 5:12 says that "sin entered the world through one man…" Eve did not escape sin's consequences, but Adam's role as the head of his wife meant that he bore a greater responsibility for rebelling against God. We can see how this works in other human relationships where authority is ordered. Young children get into trouble by their parents for stealing something at a store or borrowing the family car, but the law ultimately puts the responsibility for the crime on their parents. Soldiers who violate orders get reprimanded by their sergeant, but the sergeant will also answer to his superiors for the actions of his unit.
What does it mean for a man to be a leader?––Or better yet, a servant-leader? Scripture provides two specific arenas where men are to take the lead, but also be willing to serve. These two contexts are the church and their marriages.
In the church, "an overseer" (or pastor or elder), "manages God's household." Titus 1:7-8 requires men who lead in the church "be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined." The lead pastor at our church, who also serves as one of the elders, meets these qualifications. He leads, he pastors, and is also at times spotted taking the trash out after potlucks. Such tasks are not menial to a servant-leader.
In marriage, according to Ephesians 5, "the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." The command for men: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." (vs. 23-25) The "head of the wife" should also serve his wife and family as Jesus did, willingly making sacrifices of himself.
Neither of these passages describe men who are oppressive, mean bruisers who lord over women. Neither do they describe wimps who live and serve passively. Can women be leaders? Of course, and many are. Can women make independent decisions in a marriage? Yes, please. Men, however, are uniquely gifted by God to fulfill the role of servant-leader.
What does it mean for a man to be a provider? "Deadbeat dads" are fathers who are expected to provide for their family but choose not to. Deadbeat moms also exist, but because there is a greater expectation on men to provide for their families, men are in the spotlight when they don't.
Many studies exist about depression and anxiety in unemployed men(4), but we really don't hear about this problem among unemployed women. That's not to say that women who lose their jobs are thrilled about it, but there is a higher expectation of men, and by men, for men to be able to provide for their families. The inability to fulfill that God-given role can tear a man apart (whether they realize it's a God-given role or not, because bearing God's likeness means we can't help being like Him).
Can women provide for their families by themselves? Yes! Many do as single moms, either because they want to or because they are forced to, and they do it well. But men are uniquely gifted by God to be providers.
What does it mean for a man to be a protector? When there's a crash downstairs in the middle of the night, who is expected to be the first one to determine if it's a cat burglar or just the cat knocking around Christmas ornaments? We expect the husband to grab the baseball bat or 9 mil and investigate. When sister is being picked on, should brother stand idly by? The expectation is that he will rise to sister's defense. Unless the husband is disabled or absent, or the brother is much younger, it's hard to imagine those roles reversed.
Let's be clear, women can be protectors too. Poke the mama bear and you'll see. Women serve in military and police forces, put out fires, and save lives in medical emergencies. But men protecting women as a primary role screams at us in certain situations. Take the recent shooting in Thousand Oaks, CA at Borderline Bar & Grill. Where 12 people were killed by one bad man, this tragedy revealed many good men instinctively being protectors. Men piled on top of women to shield them from bullets, men broke windows to provide a way of escape, and men used their own shirts for tourniquets to save the wounded. One man pulled his son outside and then lamented that he couldn't go back into the building to help others. As Glen Stanton wrote in The Federalist, "This is the very opposite of misogyny, and dramatically so."(5) Nobody had time to question the political-correctness of guys using their strength to protect nearby women, and no woman complained about "toxic masculinity" after the fact. These were men intuitively doing what God designed them to do.
Does any of this mean that men are more important than women? Not at all. Men are generally larger and physically stronger, which helps in fulfilling the above roles. But Genesis 1:27 tells us men and women are spiritual equals because we are all image-bearers and deemed worthy of God's love and redemption. God, in His infinite wisdom, gave equally-valued males and females different roles. Godly men should embrace their unique roles and lead confidently, provide faithfully, and protect intuitively, with love and respect for women, and without the need to dominate them.
Eight times throughout the creation account in Genesis 1, God makes a point to call what He had made "good" or "very good." Then in Genesis 2:18 we learn it was "not good for the man to be alone." And God said, "I will make a helper suitable for him." Enter Eve, the suitable "helper."
What does it mean for a woman to be a helper? Eve helped Adam garden, but the scope of her help to him was no doubt life-size. In this intentionally complimentary relationship between the first man and woman, Eve helped Adam become complete. Men need women.
But the term "helper" in our day-to-day seems like an inferior or subservient position in relation to the one being helped. This is not a biblical position, however. The Hebrew term for "helper" (`ezer) is used in scripture some twenty times referring to God Himself (i.e. Psalm 121:1-2: "I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help (`ezer) come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.") God is not inferior or subservient to us, so we shouldn't think that woman is considered, biblically, to be inferior or subservient to man(6).
What does it mean for a woman to be submissive to man? This is a contentious issue today to say the least. "To be subject to their husbands" (Titus 2:5) is not a role that every woman is completely at ease with. Why is this so?
I will suggest that the reason we don't like the idea of submission is not due to a problem with the idea of submission, but, we have a problem with the idea of submitting to men who are jerks. Would there be any reason a woman would not willingly yield to another's authority or leadership if those charged to lead did so justly, honorably, courageously, respectfully, and in an understanding way (1 Peter 3:7)—the way men are called to lead? Husbands can be less than perfect in this regard and wives are still called to submit, but it's harder to do. Men should demonstrate to women everywhere that they can be trusted. Men, stop being jerks.
What does it mean for a women to be a nurturer? To nurture means to nourish, care for, encourage, comfort, teach and train. Seventy-six percent of teachers are female(7), perhaps because the best teachers are ones particularly gifted to nurture students into knowledge rather than simply presenting information. In a family, nobody nurtures like mom. In and out of the home, men can also nourish, care for, encourage, comfort, teach and train, but women are uniquely designed for this. The role of nurturer lines up and compliments man's role as protector in the family. Children do best with a mother and father, in part because children do best when they are both nurtured and protected.
Even as a conservative Christian, I've often thought that there are some redeeming qualities to feminism, at least in its origins. I think the reason some women became feminists was because there was a legitimate problem in society. We have feminism largely because we have misogyny and sexism. Historically, and today, too many men have abused, sexually harassed, unfairly discriminated and oppressed women. Instead of being faithful to their God-given roles as servant-leaders, providers, and protectors, men in positions of power over women have abused that authority. Men who are physically stronger than women have over-powered them and treated them as objects of conquest, and this is despicable. As previously noted, we have been jerks.
For all its good intentions to address the problem, however, postmodern feminism in general is an over-correction. It's me, whenever I'm playing a video game where I'm racing a car; I hit one wall, then oversteer to the other side of the track and hit the other wall. I can't keep the car on the road. Feminism sees men nefariously taking advantage of differences between men and women and then jerks the wheel to the other extreme, pretending there are no significant differences between men and women. That's not right either.
Gender has been in crisis for some time. Getting back on the road means getting back to the blueprint of God's word. I see the bulk of responsibility resting on men to take the lead in fixing things. If men lived out their roles as servant-leaders, providers and protectors, we would not have misogyny and sexism, and we would not need feminism, which would make it a lot easier for women to commit to their roles as submissive helpers and nurturers.
God is our designer and definer, and His plan is always the best. As human beings who bear God's image, we are all equal in value and as recipients of His salvation through Christ Jesus, joint heirs in the gracious gift of life(8). As for our wonderful and God-honoring distinctions, women being feminine (instead of feminists) and men being masculine (instead of jerks) means living according to our God-given roles together. Clearly, we need each other, and we need God's word to know who we are.
1) Hoffman, Jan (2009, Nov. 6). Can a Boy Wear a Skirt to School? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/fashion/08cross.html
2) Goldman, Bruce (Spring 2017). Two Minds: The Cognitive Differences Between Men and Women. Retrieved from https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2017spring/how-mens-and-womens-brains-are-different.html
3) Nelson, Jill (2010). Your Word is Truth: A Study for Youth Seeing All of Life Through the Truth of Scripture. Retrieved from http://www.childrendesiringgod.org/curriculum/curricula.php?id=23&curriculaId=8
4) Eales, MJ (1988, Nov.). Depression and Anxiety in Unemployed Men. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3270836
5) Stanton, Glenn T. (2018, No. 12). In Thousand Oaks, Scores Of Heroic Men Rescued Others From One Evil Man. Retrieved from https://thefederalist.com/2018/11/12/thousand-oaks-scores-heroic-men-rescued-others-one-evil-man
6) Eldredge, Stasi (2017, Dec. 19). God is Our Ezer. Retrieved from https://www.ransomedheart.com/daily-reading/god-our-ezer
7) National Center for Education Statistics (2018) NCES Fast Facts: Teacher Trends. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=28
8) 1 Peter 3:7 NIV
Another Slow Fade: The Brick By Brick Dismantling of Marriage
March 19, 2013 § Leave a comment
Perhaps the most effective offense against a fortress is a long-term series of smaller, quieter assaults that covertly destroy one brick at a time. That must be Satan's strategy against humanity's most fundamental unit, the institution of marriage. The gay marriage debate has our attention now, but that's really one piece of crumbling structure that's been under attack for many decades, and actually much longer. Marriage was given by God and designed to be a permanent, covenantal relationship between a man and a woman (Genesis 2:24). Here's a historical look at what has laid siege against marriage as it was originally designed.
Divorce dates back to the days of Moses, when certificates of divorce were granted to the Israelites. In Matthew 19, we find out that God permitted divorce as a concession, but "it was not this way from the beginning" (19:8). Numerous times in Scripture, God gave people over to their own sinful desires and allowed certain conditions to exist, and this was one of those. Despite hating divorce (Malachi 2:16), God, knowing the persistent nature of man's hardened and sinful heart, regulated it by adding grounds for and a process to divorce to keep a bad situation from getting worse (Deuteronomy 24).
Various methods of birth control existed from ancient times, the first being coitus interruptus, found in Genesis 38. Following various birth control experiments throughout the 1800s in the US, the early 20th century brought the coining of the term "birth control" by activist Margaret Sanger. Sanger was later instrumental in the development of the first birth control pill approved for contraceptive use in 1960, which was legalized in all US states within 5 years and available to all women regardless of reason for use by 1972.
Birth control that is non-abortive and exercised with wise motives is not sinful. But the same goes with alcohol or any other drug—it's sinful when it's abused. What's abuse? There's a distinction between birth control and birth prevention because often married couples use the pill or some other method to delay pregnancy, sometimes indefinitely, and for selfish reasons. The desire for becoming well-established in a career or enjoying personal freedom can become an idol. I fell into this trap myself, and birth control made it a lot easier for my wife and I to push parenthood back. There are justifiable reasons to delay having children related to illness, economics and other life circumstances. Today's trends show that married couples are in better health and financial situations now than in previous decades, yet the average age for child-bearing has moved from early to the late twenties. In fact, the majority of first children are now born outside of the stability of marriage.(1)
How does delaying children impact marriage? Considering one of the chief purposes of marriage is procreation, by delaying kids or in some case deciding never to "be fruitful and multiply" means a load-bearing beam has been knocked out of the structure. Part of marriage should be family planning, rather than planning to not have a family.
The intentional termination of a pregnancy dates back to ancient times as well, and has been historically banned or restricted in countries around the world. While having the same effect as deciding not to have children, abortion is not preventing a child, but murdering a child. In the mid- to late-20th century, many countries passed laws legalizing abortion on various levels, beginning here in the US with the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision.(2)
In addition to reducing births (approximately 42 million children are aborted annually, worldwide), abortion philosophy diminishes the value of human life, and the guilt and regret following an abortion can devastate a marriage. One wife's take, from the Elliot Institute's Post-Abortion Review: "Marriage vows are based on the idea of loving, honoring, cherishing and respecting each other. After an abortion, love can turn to hate, honor to dishonor, respect to disrespect, and cherishing to yesterdays newspaper."(3) The body of evidence that conditions such as Post-Abortion Syndrome have a negative effect on marriages is vast. Effects include the resentment of spousal pressure to abort, reinforcement of defective problem solving, disillusionment and emotional disengagement, questions about identity—all of which can strike at the core of a marriage.(4)
Protofeminist (precursors to feminism) movements began to surface in a few ancient cultures, but began to really move in the US in the 19th to early 20th centuries, mainly in the context of suffrage, working conditions and educational rights for women and girls. It wasn't until the 1960s, however, that Feminism moved from the realm of fighting moral injustice in a sinful society to sinfully redefining the God-given role of women in marriage. Feminism is rooted in arrogance and has an agenda to destroy any distinctions between men and women. Christians understand that men and women have equal access to blessings in Christ (Galatians 3:28) and are created to fulfill different roles in the world, and women are not inferior in virtue or importance. Feminist Gloria Steinem popularized the phrase "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"—although she eventually married a man. Feminist attitudes undermine marriage, which require both men and women to fulfill God-given gender-specific roles that don't function well under such an oppressive ideology.
It's hard to know how to briefly summarize the 60s and the explosion of "free love," when marriage began to show up as the cumbersome alternative to cohabitation. From communes to condos, the lifestyle caught on, and it's pretty easy to see that legalized abortion, the sexual revolution, the rise of feminism, the advent of the pill were linked to a false hope of freedom and even fueled each other. The rise of sexual liberation outside the arena of marriage has devastated marriage over the last half century probably more than any other "progressive" movement.
Along with the sexual revolution's degraded view of marriage came the need for an easier way to get out of marriage. No-fault divorce laws(5) began sweeping across the US in 1970 with the state of California. Since 1985, all 50 states and D.C. allowed married couples to divorce without any accusations of adultery, abandonment, felony, or any other legal or moral cause. From 1960 to 1980, the divorce rate more than doubled in the US.(6) No-fault divorce was already law in Russia in 1918, and other countries adopted similar laws more recently, including Canada, Sweden and Australia.
One of the most compelling very recent essays I've seen on the case against gay marriage was written by a gay man. Doug Mainwaring writes in The Public Discourse (I'm Gay and I Oppose Same-Sex Marriage, March 8, 2013) that he opposes gay marriage not on grounds of religion or tradition, but logic and experience. His own story tells of his discovery of purpose and deep fulfillment as a father and a husband to one wife, while deriding the marriage liberalism's preoccupation with superficial eros sexuality and it's obvious inadequacies to give children what they desparately need, a dad and a mom. "Genderless marriage is not marriage at all. It is something else entirely. … denying children parents of both genders at home is an objective evil. Kids need and yearn for both." Not a professing Christian, Doug probably doesn't realize that he finds fulfillment in heterosexual marriage and fatherhood because he was made to do this, despite his confusion over his basic sexuality. And although he believes he was born gay, Doug resisted sex with other men, and "denial didn't diminish or impoverish my life. It made my life experience richer."(7)
A side note on the importance of stable marriages for the sake of children: Most of the kids we minister to in our youth group are from broken families. Not all children of divorced families carry such burdens, but the kids we give rides to rarely want to go home Wednesday nights after our youth meetings. Each one asks to be dropped off last, and they would all prefer to run an errand to get milk with me, something I'd normally do after taking them home. Drugs, sex, violence and theft are often coping mechanisms for normal life for them at home. My experience is that kids truly suffer from families that are not balanced with an involved father and mother in their lives.
As Ryan T. Anderson outlines in The Leadership Foundation's backgrounder, Marriage: What It Is, Why It Matters, and the Consequences of Redefining It, reveals that gay marriage would undermine the benefits that marriage brings on society in ways no other relationship does, and further distance marriage from the needs of children. Men and women are complimentary, and simple biology shows that the survival of the human race depends on heterosexual unions.(8)
In recent days, former president Bill Clinton, who signed the bipartisan Defense of Marriage Act into law just 7 years ago, now says it's unconstitutional. Republican Senator of Ohio Rob Portman recently came out in support of gay marriage after his son came out as gay, and Portman attempted to use the Bible to justify his support for homosexuality.
Gay marriage is indeed a fresh new idea, but the arguments used to advance it can be also used to advance really any type of imaginable union. Since the beginning of history, marriage has always been between a man and a woman, until the year 2000, when gay marriage laws began to enter civil societies around the world.
But this type of assault on marriage is anything but new, and in fact those embroiled in the debate over gay marriage can be myopic in their view of history. It is incredibly short-sighted to think that we have just recently discovered the truth that the right for gays to marry is a basic human right. Clearly it isn't. It's also short-sighted for the rest of us to think that this is the biggest brick in the foundation of marriage. Clearly it isn't.
What an incredible and incredibly sneaky arsenal that has been launched. The assault that has chipped away at marriage over the millennia has come in waves, but each wave of attack has amassed slowly, almost unnoticed, until it's powerful enough to take out another block from the foundation.
There is another threat to marriage that is perhaps the most well-camouflaged of all, and it typically comes from within. A friend recently preached about a dangerous "slow fade" that happens in marriages, and is a pretty accurate picture of what's happened to marriage as a whole. Slow Fade is also the title of a song by Casting Crowns,(9) written about a typical fall from grace. Lead vocalist Mark Hall describes this: "Nobody falls, it's just a slow fade. It's a series of minor compromises until you're in a place you never thought you'd be, doing things you never thought you'd do and rationalizing all of it." In the context of individual marriages, the slow fade invades in the course of life, slowly driving couples apart. Divorce may result, or a couple may resign to a life of misery together, feeling stuck, ineffective as "what God has joined together" to raise Godly children and serve His purposes in the kingdom. People don't crumble in a day. This is a slow fade.
Destroying marriage would be an enormous victory for Satan. What's the best defense against the slow fade, or any other incoming attack? I think we need to recognize how small the offenses are once they start to advance. We may be looking for giants on the horizon and overlooking the trolls digging under the wall. Guarding our marriage means guarding our hearts against not just the obvious external dangers, but the small compromises we make inside the walls.
"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." (Proverbs 4:23)
I've become aware of some of the little assaults that may be creeping into my own marriage, and the possibilities are many: laziness, complacency, bitterness, laziness, sexual temptation, idolatry, shadows from the past. Any number of seemingly small compromises will grow if undetected.
Man's will substituted for God's will is still the secret of the world's unrest. When we are not anchored in God's Word and a church community, we are trading God's will for our own and are left without the the clear vision and discernment to detect a camouflaged enemy. God's Word provides us with an unwavering, uncompromising stronghold of truth that defines marriage (Genesis 1:27-28; 2:18, 24, Matthew 19:6). When we deviate from the divine plan, anything goes. We have no real plan of defense against the Father of Lies, who is waiting to deceive and accuse and kill us slowly. The body—and bride (Ephesians 5:22-23)—of Christ known as the church is an incredible force in supporting and strengthening our marriages, IF we let it be that. It's encouraging to see sermon series at my church dedicated to that, and couples young and old seeking counsel and prayer to keep their marriages alive and strong.
Stopping the offensive and rebuilding the damage begins with an awareness of the problem and a broad view of history that shows us how the enemy has made its attack all along—a quiet, concentrated, brick-by-brick assault on a slowly fading marriage institution. "It was not this way from the beginning." At the beginning of that history is the Creator's foundation of marriage. That's what we must protect and our blueprint for rebuilding what's been destroyed. Seeing the big picture of marriage history shows us the assault it has endured, but keeping a watchful eye on the big picture of the purpose of marriage reminds us that it is a sacred covenant. The love and commitment of God with His chosen people, of Christ and His church, of the relationship His creation was made to have with the Creator comes into view. That is so much bigger and more important than any idea of marriage as a human social convention, and this view can save marriage. It starts with your own.


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Conservation: Texas Water Documentary, 1
This is Passport to Texas
I had a chance to sit down with Lee Smith last month. He produces the water documentaries for Parks and Wildlife.
06—The next water documentary is going to be on the Gulf of Mexico. That's kind of like saying "the universe" in many ways.
This is the fifth water documentary in the series; and as Smith says telling this story is no small feat.
15—It's probably the largest scope for a water documentary that we've attempted so far—which is one of the things I'm grappling with. We're going to try and describe what makes it so unique and so valuable to protect.
Nearly a year and a half into his planning and filming, the British Petroleum oil spill dominated the news and gulf ecosystem.
18—I'm not going to try to retell the story of the oil spill. And in many ways, what it does is it affords us an opportunity to discuss in a much more relevant way the kind of contention between the ecology and the economy.
We'll have more on the upcoming documentary tomorrow.
The Gulf of Mexico water documentary airs early next year on PBS stations across Texas. At the time we produced our show, the exact date was unavailable.
We receive support from the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program…working to educate Texans about conserving water for humans and wildlife…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I'm Cecilia Nasti.