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Cultivating a Culture of Gardening™

Monday, November 7, 2011

The Growing Zone - Day 7

I'm back at work at Open Space 59. (See Day 1)
In the photo above, you'll see super heros Norberto, Isidro, Luis, and Ciro helping me paint this pond park a little green.

First of all, don't you think these corporate folks could come up with some cute little name for these new park-like areas that would inspire more inspiration than "Open Space 59"? Don't you think the installation crew would be more motivated in their work if they knew they were working on THE GRAND PARK or HERITAGE POND PARK?
Second of all,

shoot, there is no second of all cause it's been too long a day and I'm too tired to think.

At November 8, 2011 at 5:47 AM , Anonymous Darla said...

I agree a different name just might make you invision the area differently.

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Two Washington players make boy's birthday great during chance encounter

A chance encounter with two men who turned out to be Washington running backs led to a boy having a tremendous birthday.

Joey Snapp, who judging by his Twitter feed is a fan of the rival Dallas Cowboys, posted a story on his Facebook page on Tuesday about an interaction he saw at a Gamestop store near his home, and presumably near Washington’s training facility in Ashburn, Va.

Nicely done: Washington RB Rob Kelley and teammate Keith Marshall performed a random act of kindness this week. (AP)

[Join the free NFL Yahoo Cup. Over $100K in total prizes with weekly winners]

We’ll let Snapp tell the story:

“Today I witnessed one of the most amazing acts of kindness I’ve ever witnessed. I was in Gamestop and a child walked in around 11 years old talking about how his birthday was coming up and he’s wanted an Xbox One for a few years, but his parents couldn’t afford it. Another customer overheard this and walked up and asked the child what the issue was. The child explained again that he wanted an Xbox for the last few years for his birthday and his parents couldn’t afford it. These two gentlemen told the kid they wanted to buy him an Xbox for his birthday and to go out and get his mom and make sure it was ok. The kid, in shock, went and told his mother and this mother came into the store wondering who wanted to buy their kid an Xbox. The mom walks in and the one guy says:

“Ma’am, my name is Keith Marshall and this is Rob Kelley and we play for the Washington Redskins and we would love to buy your son an Xbox One for his birthday.”

My jaw hit the floor watching this. So they buy him the Xbox and a game and they take pictures with the child and go on about their day. I didn’t even know what to say. It was such a good moment from 2 guys who I will forever be a fan of from this day on.”

Marshall, a seventh-round draft pick in 2016, is on injured reserve with a torn patellar tendon; Kelley, also a rookie in 2016, is part of Washington’s running back rotation, with 108 yards in two games this season.

Nice job, gentlemen.

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‘Baywatch’ Breakout Ilfenesh Hadera ‘Didn’t Want to Be Skinny’ for the Role

Ilfenesh Hadera (Photo: Getty Images)

While most casting announcements happen in the trades, news of Ilfenesh Hadera’s biggest role to date was broken on Instagram when Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson wrote a post saying she’d be playing his love interest in Baywatch. “Smart and tougher than new rope..just the way we like ’em,” he shared with his 87 million followers. The significance wasn’t lost on Hadera — but the meaning was, at first.

“Tough as new rope: I had to sit for a split second and figure out exactly what that meant. Oh, new rope. Nothing’s cutting through that. He’s calling me super tough. It felt great. I don’t know that it’s entirely true. I have my moments of weakness,” the actress tells Yahoo Style.

Lack of willpower isn’t one of them. Hadera, a born-and-bred New Yorker, has a major soft spot for pizza and bagels — had two months to prep for wearing that signature red swimsuit. “I worked at it,” she says. “I always went to the gym and ate pretty healthy, but I started working out with a trainer. I went to Chelsea Piers to feel my most comfortable in water. I watched the food, watched the alcohol.” And folks, she feels your pain about cutting back on the libations. “It’s not the easiest thing to cut out, but it’s the easiest way to cut your calories,” Hadera explains.

For the red one-piece suit, she flew to Savanna, Ga., for a fitting, as it was custom-made for her. “I felt good,” she says. “It was after I’d already been working out for two months, so I felt strong.”

Hadera felt the same way throughout the movie shoot. Never having set out to be a waif in a bikini, she says she “didn’t want to be skinny for the role.” Rather, she says, “I wanted to look like a woman who was capable of hauling a grown man out of the water. I wanted to look strong.”

Hadera not only brings a different body ideal to the rebooted Baywatch as Stephanie Holden, but diversity as well; her character was originally played by Alexandra Paul, who is white. And the film isn’t your usual all-white summer offering with a token person of color cast as the kooky best friend. South Asian superstar Priyanka Chopra is the drug-dealing villain — in a role originally written for a man. Other key roles went to Hannibal Buress and Amin Joseph.

To Hadera, none of it feels forced. “It’s such a wonderfully diverse cast, and doesn’t need to be,” she says. “I was just excited to be one of the leads in the movie, period.” Hadera was raised in a diverse community and is the daughter of an Ethiopian man and white woman. “I don’t feel necessarily that I’ve been excluded because of what I look like from roles. Maybe that’s naïve of me. I’m working, and I’ve been working,” says Hadera. “I don’t feel like I’ve suffered in terms of jobs. I feel fine.”

True that — she’s starring in the mid-season ABC FBI crime procedural Deception, appeared on Showtime’s financial series Billions, and has a recurring role on Spike Lee’s series She’s Gotta Have It. . “I can buy another Chloe bag and not feel like I have to worry about paying rent for a few months,” she says.

Right now though, she’s excited about Baywatch, which she calls a perfect escapist summer flick for these corrosive political times, regardless how you voted. As for her personal politics, just because Hadera wears a swimsuit in the movie that doesn’t mean she’s a pushover. Yes, she says, you can reconcile showing skin with being a strong female.

“Why not? Why do the two have to be mutually exclusive? You’re a feminist, or you wear a bathing suit. Pick one,” she says. “I am a strong woman, and it’s my body and I am allowed to do this. Because this is my body and I have the right to do with [it] what I please, doesn’t that make me a stronger woman?”

Read more from Yahoo Beauty + Style:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.


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‘Nashville’ Gets a Makeover

Ken Tucker
Critic-at-Large, Yahoo Entertainment
Photo: CMT

Nashville is back for the second half of its fifth season, and the first thing you may notice when you tune into CMT on Thursday night is … everyone got a haircut! Makeovers all around! Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere) is sporting a sculpted ’do that looks as though her hair was left overnight in a salmon mold. Gunnar’s ears are flapping in the breeze, since someone (maybe his romantic rival Damien?) took a razor and shaved away the hair framing his ears. Scarlett (Clare Bowen), the neurasthenic Emily Dickinson of Nashville, has thrown off her Emmylou Harris-style shawls and now sports the close-cropped Claudette Colbert-in-It-Happened-One-Night look. All the women have upped their lipstick application; most of the dudes’ hair makes their heads look pointy.

Really, the only regular who hasn’t been redesigned by new-ish Nashville showrunners Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick is Deacon (Charles Esten), who I assume was sobbing too uncontrollably to be able to hold still in the barber chair. Chip Esten is one of the all-time-champion criers on television, and heaven knows his character has a right to be sad, given the loss of his true love, Rayna (Connie Britton waves hi-di-ho from Los Angeles, y’all!). But it’s gotten so Deacon can’t even ask 13-year-old Daphne (Maisy Stella) why she’s so blue without getting choked up and turning on the waterworks.

Daphne’s post-Mom depression is a key plotline in the new half-season, as is the pregnancy of Scarlett, whose who’s-the-daddy suspense is straight out of a daytime soap opera. Then there’s Juliette’s ongoing, culturally-tone-deaf romancing of an entire black Baptist choir during the making of her new album, an enterprise so culturally tone-deaf that tonight’s episode includes a scene in which a music reviewer is quoted as describing her new music as “culturally tone-deaf.”

One thing you notice about the new Nashville is that Herskovitz and Zwick have decided that the show is foremost a women’s drama and have accordingly redirected almost every plot-point to focus on the gals — and this is even before two new female cast members, Rachel Bilson (The O.C., Heart of Dixie) and Kaitlin Doubleday (Empire), make an appearance. The sole exception is the blossoming romance between crooner Will (Chris Carmack) and tech billionaire Zach (Cameron Scoggins), one of the few momentarily happy relationships on Nashville.

The action pauses at regular intervals to show us glimpses of the stars performing, and these too have been drastically overhauled for maximum new audience-building. Gone are the cozy scenes of guitar-pulls at the Bluebird Café, in favor of big concert-hall blowouts. Erased from Nashville is the down-home honky-tonking that music directors T Bone Burnett and Buddy Miller established earlier in the series. In its place is a huge, bombastic pop sound that frames each act — whether it’s the Scarlett and Gunnar duo, or Avery (Jonathan Jackson), or Will, or Juliette — identically onstage: with flashing pinpoint lighting, in front of cameras beaming gigantic images of the singers as they perform before a multitude of cheering, screaming fans.

It’s a clever repositioning of Nashville, but between the makeovers and the soap opera, it’s not the Nashville I put in to commit to five years ago. Indeed, if this was the first time I experienced the show, I doubt I’d set a season pass for it. As it is, however, I am in this thing for the long haul. Which means I will try to summon up interest in Zach’s plan to “disrupt the music industry” or whether Maddie (Lennon Stella) is going to opt for the power-ballad production on her new single. And periodically, I’ll go over to a corner and have a quiet little sob with Deacon over what Nashville used to be.

Nashville airs Thursday nights at 9 p.m. on CMT.

Update: Now that it’s aired…

Read more from Yahoo TV:


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Concord Academy

05) Setting permissions for pages

When creating a page in CA Connect, it is important to identify who can view the page, who can edit the page, and who can find the page.

You have a great deal of granular control

When you first build a page, it will inherit the edit, view, and find permissions of the page above it. You can override these settings by clicking on the Restrict access link under the Page options button on the Mindtouch toolbar.

This document explains how to control the ability a user or group has to view or edit content on your CA Connect pages. It also describes the different roles a user or group can have and explains how to assign those roles. These restrictions and permissions can be applied to individual pages as well as hierarchies.

This article provides details about modifying the permissions for an individual page or for a group of pages.

MindTouch permissions are extremely flexible and provide you with user, role, and group management.

Content within MindTouch can be restricted to be Public, Semi-Public, Semi-Private, or Private.

This table outlines the 4 levels of access and their corresponding restrictions:

Who Can View the Page

Who Can Edit the Page

All Pro Members

Selected Pro Members
Authors, Editors, Administrators

Everybody, but only via the URL

Selected Pro Members
Authors, Editors, Administrators

Selected Users

Selected Pro Members
Authors, Editors, Administrators

You can add any number of users, groups, or roles as exceptions to a restriction. You can also apply restrictions to an individual page or to a page and all its subpages.

The entirety of CA Connect is not private from the world, only specific pages are private to CA. Anonymous users are able to view CA Connect, but you can still choose to restrict them from certain pages.

Restricting Access to a Page

Use the following steps to change the access settings of your page(s):

  1. Click on the Page options button.
  2. Select Restrict Access from the menu that appears.

  3. Select the restriction level that you want to apply to the page(s).
    If you select Semi-Public, Semi-Private, or Private, the following screen appears:

  4. Type a username or group name in the User or group field to add a user or group to the Permission list.
    If the username or group name exists in the system, it will be recommended.

  5. Select a role for the user/group from the Has role dropdown. The role specifies the rights that the user/group has for the page(s).
    Valid values include:

    • None - Provides no permissions on the page. User/group will not be able to access the page.
    • Viewer - Allows the user/group to view, comment, and rate the page(s).
    • Author - Allows the user/group to edit the page, along with all of the privileges of the Community Member.
    • Editor - Provides all of the privileges of the Community Member and the Author, along with the ability to Delete the page and apply permission changes (NOTE: You need to be an Editor to access the Restrict Access dialog).
    • Admin - Provides all of the privileges of Community Member, Author, and Editor, along with allowing UnsafeContent to add scripts that would usually be stripped out.
  6. Click the Add to list button.

    User/group appears on the Permission list:

  7. (Optional) Check the Apply permission settings to all subpages box.

    If you check the Apply permission settings to all subpages box, you need to choose one of the following options that appear:

    • Keep existing permissions on subpages and add the difference of changes (safer) - This will add the changes you have made with the permissions to the subpages but will keep the current privileges if it differs from what you have configured on the parent page. Example: If you have a subpage that added JohnF to the privileges and he isn't added on the parent page privileges, then John will be kept on the page.
    • Overwrite all existing permissions on subpages to the ones set on this page - This will override all of the permissions on the subpages to use the permissions you have set and discard any differences.
  8. Click Save Permission Settings.


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Café Libre

February 14, 2009

Café Libre. Valentine’s Day Special.

Filed under: Cafe Libre, Cafe News, Promotions — Shoot @ 1:05 am

If you are in the Taman Desa area today, and fancy somewhere quiet, cozy and relaxing for you and a significant other, here is today’s Special. 🙂

February 4, 2008

Site very overdue for an update!

Filed under: Cafe Libre, Cafe News, Special News — Shoot @ 7:00 pm

Thanks to Suanie, for her gracious comments on our Cafe, of which we are justifiably proud. And, yes, Yasmin rules the roost here most definitely, as I, Grant, spend more time helping out with logistics at the local gym and training to be a Certified Fatness Fitness Instructor.

The menu now is much expanded and offers much more variety, we cater for special occasions both at the Cafe and for private functions (quite a few under our belt now – all a great success), do special English Sunday Roasts (on Sundays!) and therefore I must get this site up to date and more informative, with some decent pictures and revisions.

It was a pleasure having the Happy crew visit and visibly enjoy themselves so much at their gathering, and the blogging community spirit will hopefully give me the impetus to revise this blog/site so that it reflects what Yasmin & I, and our dedicated team genuinely feel to be the best continental style cafe in the area, with undoubtedly the best coffee – we have had visitors from far and wide, home and abroad, say our coffee is the best in KL!

So stay tuned, updates will emerge as time permits. 🙂

September 7, 2007

Cafe Libre – Food menu

Filed under: Cafe News — cafelibre @ 8:23 pm

“What do mean you ordered scrambled. instead of sunny side up, Dimitri?”

All Day Breakfast – Eggs fried or scrambled, tomato, mushrooms, chicken sausages, baked beans & toast with Tea or Americano 14.90

Set Lunch (available 11am to 3pm daily)– Any Pasta (excl. Mexican Bolognese) or Rice dish with Tea or Americano & Ice Cream 14.90

English Muffin with butter & jam or honey ( plain or wholemeal ) 2.50

Speciality Toast / Bagel with butter & jam or honey 3.90

Bagel with Cream Cheese 5.50

Fried or Scrambled Eggs on Muffin or Toast 5.30

Extra 1.00 each for cheese,Turkey Ham or Beef Salami or 1.50 for Chicken Sausages

Speciality Jalapeño Scrambled Eggs on Muffin 6.90 Salmon Scrambled Eggs on Muffin 12.90

Cheese & Tomato Toasties ( white or wholemeal bread ) 6.00

Cheese , Tomato & Turkey Ham or Beef Salami Toasties ( white or wholemeal bread ) 6.50

Sandwiches on Speciality Breads

Choice of –

Bagel : Seeded Plain or Onion

Sun-dried Tomato : Wheat sour dough bread with sun dried tomatoes,paprika,dried onions,herbs & spices

Veggie : Wheat flour bread with veggie mix of sun dried tomato,onion,celery,carrot,peppers & seeded crust

Seven Grain : Made with rye flour,oats,barley,corn,millet,linseed & sesame seeds

Cheese & Tomato 7.50 Turkey Ham or Beef Salami & Tomato 8.50

Turkey Ham or Beef Salami, Cheese & Tomato 9.50

Corned Beef & Branston Pickle 7.50 Cheese & Branston Pickle 10.90

Corned Beef, Cheese & Branston Pickle 11.50 Lemon Chicken Mayo 8.90 Mexican Tuna 9.90

Special Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese Bagel 14.90

Jacket Potato with butter & Baked Beans 6.75 Jacket Potato with butter & Cheese 7.90

Jacket Potato with butter, Baked Beans & Cheese 8.50

Jacket Potato with Lemon Chicken Mayo 8.90 Jacket Potato with Mexican Tuna 9.90

Jacket Potato with Mexican Chilli ( Chicken or Beef ) 12.90

Jacket Potato with Vegetarian Mexican Chilli 10.90

Home-cooked Nasi Lemak with Chicken or OZ Chuck Tender Beef Rendang 10.90

Home-cooked Nasi Minyak with OZ Shoulder-cut Lamb or Chicken Curry 10.90

Spaghetti Bolognese ( Chicken or Beef ) 10.90 Mexican Bolognese ( Chicken or Beef ) 12.90

Vegetarian Bolognese 8.90 Vegetarian Mexican Bolognese 10.90

House Speciality – Spicy Seafood Spaghetti 10.90

Chicken or Beef Stew with Mashed Potatoes 10.90

Steak Sandwich with Salad 15.90

Fish & Chips 14.90

Soup of The Day, served with french bread slices 6.50

Mixed Salad ,with Italian or Caesar dressing; as a side 5.00 or as a main 9.50

Feta Cheese Salad 12.50

Caesar Salad served with Roast Chicken or Anchovies 12.50

** All items subject to availability, as our food is freshly prepared daily **

Cafe Libre – Drinks menu.

Filed under: Cafe News — cafelibre @ 1:27 pm

“I can no longer sit back and allow the international Neo-Con conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”

Americano 4.50 Espresso Solo 5.00 Espresso Doppio 6.50

Espresso Macchiato 6.50 Espresso Con Panna 6.50

Cappuccino 7.00 Café Latte 7.00 Café Mocha 8.00

Iced Americano 5.00 Iced Latte 7.50 Iced Mocha 8.50

Add extra flavour to any of our coffees with a dash of Monin syrup @ 2.00 per shot.

Our flavours include Almond, Caramel, Cinnamon, Hazelnut & Vanilla

Or add an extra shot of Espresso to any of our coffees for that extra “kick” @ 1.50 per shot.

Luxury Hot Chocolate, topped off with whipped cream 8.00

Cappuccino / Mocha / Chocolate Chunk Frappé 9.50

Ice-blended coffee confections – cool and refreshing

Premier’s Tea 6.00 per pot

English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Earl Grey, or try our range of naturally flavoured teas: Peach, Passion Fruit, Lemon, Mint, Caramel, Apple, Strawberry, Cherry, & Celebration.

Premier’s Iced Tea 6.50 per glass.

Any of our teas can be offered as an iced drink – try some of the more unusual flavours!

Premier’s Iced Lemon Tea, served with fresh lemon slice 6.50 per glass

Premier’s Herbal Infusion – Camomile or Peppermint & Ginger 7.00 per pot

Premier’s Mint Tea, with Honey and fresh mint leaves 6.50 per glass

Mineral Water 3.00 Soft Drinks ( Coca Cola / Coke Light / 7 Up / 100 Plus / Soda ) 3.50

Esprit ( Lemon & Lime, Passion fruit, Raspberry, Orange Tangerine ) / Perrier 7.00

Thomas Kemper Soda ( Root Beer / Vanilla Cream / Ginger Ale) 7.00

Monin Flavoured Syrup Sodas 5.00

Our flavours include Green Apple, Passion Fruit, Blueberry, Blackberry, Strawberry, Kiwi, Lime & Peach.

Or add a scoop of Ice Cream, to create a flavoured Soda Float 6.50

Monin Flavoured syrup ice blended 6.00

Ice blended fruit smoothie 9.50 (You must try these! OMG – delicious!!111)

Our flavours include Black currant, Kiwi, Mango, Lime, Passion Fruit, Peppermint, Sour Sop, Strawberry,Orange, Grape, Lychee & Pineapple

Freshly squeezed Juices – Apple / Orange / Carrot / Apple & Carrot 8.00

Apple & Pear / Kiwi & Watermelon 9.50

Large glass of iced or warm water 0.50

Blog at


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Saturday, August 03, 2013

England Calls and a Recipe for Blackberry Syllabub

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"Tells me England calls, whatever she's done wrong
Always calls, this is where you belong
I'm lonesome for a place I know
Yes, I'm lonesome for a place I know"

~Everything But the Girl~

Of all the countries I've traveled to, England is the one place that I always come back to time and again. Most of my time is spent in Dorset, a maritime county which fronts the English Channel and offers breathtaking views of chalk cliffs nearly 1000 feet high. My camera is with me at all times and there's never a lull in snapping images. Beautiful sandy beaches beckon to the sun-loving English who have the picnic down to a fine art. Each time we visit, we nearly always walk one of the many coastal or woodland paths, sometimes stopping at a local pub for lunch.

Famous for its food, Dorset farms not only produce many fine meat products, but superior cheeses such as the Dorset Blue Vinny,  the only cheese in Dorset to be awarded the Geographical Protected Status, a wealth of fish and shellfish, creamy luscious ice cream (Purbeck Ice Cream), baked goods (Dorset Apple cake) and even chilies. The Dorset Naga Chilli, one of the hottest chiles in the world are in season from August to November and celebrates the harvest with a food festival. Food festivals abound in Dorset showcasing all the delicious food produced in the area.

I have vivid memories of picking wild juicy blackberries abundant on the hedgerows lining the narrow roads leading to picturesque villages. While living in England, we would take our bike, a bucket hanging on handlebars, and pick blackberries to freeze for the winter hoping we would not eat our bounty before we got home. In the winter,  these frozen blackberries make a mouth-watering Hedgerow and Orchard Crumble, a recipe from my dear English friend, Jacqui. But for this post on England celebrating the European Community Culinary ABC,  I chose an easy blackberry syllabub, a perfect summer dessert.  Food4Thought is host for our continuing journey with the classic jacket potatoes.

Blackberry Syllabub
Recipe From Flavours of Dorset

300g/10 oz blackberries
75g/3 oz superfine sugar
300ml/10 fluid oz heavy cream
Finely grated zest and juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons dry white wine, optional

Wash and pick over blackberries. Reserve 6 best for decoration, then using a potato masher, crush the remaining berries with the lemon zest and 50g/2oz of the sugar, until completely mashed. In a separate bowl, whip together the cream, the lemon juice and the remaining sugar, gradually adding in the wine, if using. Continuing whipping until the mixture begins to thicken and soft peaks form. The mixture should be thick and light, but not stiff. Gently fold the mixture into the mashed blackberries, using a spoon to create a rippled effect.

Divide the syllabub among 6 glass dessert dishes and top each with a reserved blackberry. Serve immediately or cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Best enjoyed the same day made. Serves 6.

England called me a few weeks ago for a short five days, but now I'm back home, she continues her pull. Looking forward to next time! I hope you have enjoyed my tour of Dorset and the photos from my trips.

European Community Culinary ABC was created by Trattoria MuVara.

Please do not use images or text without my permission.

scotbrit said...

Excellent post!! The syllabub looks delicious. The photographs are stupendous...England does call.

Simona said...

Indeed, gorgeous photographs!1

Chiara Giglio said...

a delicious dessert! Have a nice week Lynne...

Lynne Daley said...

Scotbrit-it definitely does call-thanks
Simona, thanks, a few of my faves
Chiara-thanks, hope you have a great weekend, too.

Elise Green said...

I'm definitely going to try this recipe - it looks wonderful :)

Just a quick note: I think the "300ml/10 fluid oz" in your ingredient list refers to cream, but it isn't specified.

Have a lovely weekend!

Gadget by The Blog Doctor.


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Handgun open carry law unconstitutional?

January 4, 2012

A California resident filed a lawsuit arguing that a law prohibiting the open carrying of an unloaded handgun is unconstitutional. [CaliforniaWatch]

Charles Nichols filed the lawsuit in federal court against the state seeking to overturn restrictions on where he can display a loaded or unloaded handgun.

Earlier this week, AB 144 went into effect. It expands California’s firearm regulations that previously prohibited publicly carrying a loaded handgun to also make it illegal to openly carry an unloaded handgun.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down strict gun regulations in Washington, D.C. because they were unconstitutional. Nichols argues in his lawsuit that California’s carry laws should meet with a similar fate.

“By banning fully functional, loaded handguns from being openly carried for the purpose of self-defense, (California’s statute) is a more restrictive ban than the law struck down in (Washington) as unconstitutional,” the lawsuit says.

Proponents of the law contend it allows for gun owners to hunt and protect their homes and that it is not necessary to carry a weapon when shopping or eating out.

  1. ds_gray says:

    “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” – Original language, Adopted 1791.

    The very purpose of this amendment has been argued and distorted for so long, that most people don’t realize that having an armed citizenry was to prevent tyranny in the government, not so that people could go out and pop off a few rounds (in private, secured in a locked container, secured with trigger locks, ammunition stored in a separate locked container, after waiting 15 days for the permit to buy, etc. etc.)

    You wanna know why this is such a touchy subject? Because people are tired of watching their rights being whittled away, year after year, only to see that they have no rights at all.

    Here’s another one – try and see if you can detect what the authors are trying to convey;

    “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

    BTW: That one is called the First Amendment.

    See how far removed the ‘press’ part is from the rest? Sort of an add-on to the religion part, which the authors really didn’t want anybody messing with. But yet here we are, exercising that right, the press part, openly, without contest. Yet we allow the government to chew away at the 2nd amendment, and parts of the 1st amendment by parsing them in all sorts of ridiculous ways to make it ‘reasonable’.

    “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin 1775. Those of you who fear private gun ownership because you’re concerned about your safety need to memorize this one.

    There is no ‘give and take’, marginalization or ‘reasonable-ness’ with the Constitution. It is what it is, and must be followed to the letter, unless we the governed choose to change it.

    California’s elected officio-crats have been stomping on our rights and need to stop. Now.

    (46) 48 Total Votes - 47 up - 1 down
    • Side_Show_Bob says:

      Finally, something truly worth reading!

      Well said, thank you!

      (15) 17 Total Votes - 16 up - 1 down
    • bobfromsanluis says:

      “There is no ‘give and take’, marginalization or ‘reasonable-ness’ with the Constitution. It is what it is, and must be followed to the letter, unless we the governed choose to change it.”

      It sounds (or looks) like you are in the camp of “strict Constitutionalist”, meaning, someone who reads the Constitution as it was written, to be interpreted “strictly” as it was apparently intended. Fine, that is your opinion; if you also read some of the writings of the founding fathers you will see that the intention of the Constitution was to be a “living” document, with the intention that the document could grow, or evolve as our country matured and as society changed over the years. As a “strict Constitutionalist” do you believe that it is a mistake to allow for other items to be added to our Bill of Rights over the years? Surely you would believe that if your view of the Constitution is correct, all of the amendments after the original ten are somehow “not in accordance” with the intention of the founding fathers?
      If you read my original comment that I posted on this subject, I never ever suggested that our Constitutional right to possess firearms be removed; what I suggested is that there should be a “reasonableness” attached to the ownership of firearms; I see that you disagree with my premise, which is exactly the point of my follow up comment. There is no “reason” that a convicted felon should be lawfully allowed to own a firearm, there is no “reason” that an individual should be allowed to possess a fully automatic firearm (Mac-10, machine gun, Uzi, whatever), there is no “reason” that an individual should be able to own a rocket launcher or should fired SAM missile launcher. You will most likely attempt to argue that your ability to own such weapons is in accordance with the 2nd Amendment since in your view, the primary reason for the 2nd Amendment is to prevent “tyranny” by the government; you do notice that within the 2nd Amendment it mentions “a well regulated militia”? It would seem that the intention was to have a citizen army available to defend our country, more than attempt to violently overthrow our own government. Any person who thinks that any number of firearms they may own, no matter how large a caliber they may have, no matter if they illegally own fully automatic weapons, if anyone thinks that they are going to fight governmental “tyranny” with their own armory is delusional at best.
      Own, possess, keep as many shotguns, rifles and handguns as you wish, I do not want to deny you that ability; my request is to try to abide by the laws of the land, lawfully register your weapons and if you carry loaded handguns on your person, put it away before you go into a court of law or go into a airport, and make sure that if you keep any in your vehicle to keep your car locked. If you want the laws to change to make it easier to conceal carry legally, come up with some good “reasons” and you could make some progress in getting laws passed that you want.

      (-24) 28 Total Votes - 2 up - 26 down
      • The Gimlet Eye says:

        I disagree. I don’t think we should have to register our weapons at all. Period. The gd gubmint can’t keep track of our money. What makes you think they can keep track of our weapons? And what the hell are they going to do with all those mountains of informations on weapons, anyway???

        (20) 26 Total Votes - 23 up - 3 down
        • bobfromsanluis says:

          “And what the hell are they going to do with all those mountains of informations on weapons, anyway???”
          Track the ownership of a firearm used in the commission of a felony? Track down the current owner of said firearm used in that felony?

          (-6) 12 Total Votes - 3 up - 9 down
          • ds_gray says:

            Easy to answer that one – when the government finally convinces the populace that the 2nd amendment is about the right to own a hunting rifle and nothing else, they’ll be compiling lists of gun owners, serving search warrants for ‘illegal’ weapons, and confiscating them. Then they’ll destroy them before you can file any redress in court to get them back.

            This has already happened in this state, in the cities of Oakland, Berkeley and Sacramento.

            (20) 22 Total Votes - 21 up - 1 down
            • Crusader says:

              If that ever happens there is going to be a terrible accident while on one of my ocean-shoot adventures. ALL my firearms (including those which were formally legal) will be lost at sea. That’s MY “redress”, and probably that of thousands of others…

              (6) 6 Total Votes - 6 up - 0 down
          • The Gimlet Eye says:

            It’s fine to punish a felony. But why do they have so damned much trouble punishing OTHER types of felonies? Why so much concentration on OUR guns?

            Why did Donald Rumsfeld announce that $2.3 TRILLION was missing from the DOD 1 DAY BEFORE 9/11? Surely there were some felonies involved? Why wasn’t anybody arrested? Why wasn’t there an investigation which would have yielded some results that made sense?

            Why did it take the SEC 10 YEARS and their arms twisted out of their sockets to get Bernard Madoff?

            How about all the MISSING MONEY (google it)?

            Your concern for punishing “felonies” is fine, but the gd gubmint is mighty SELECTIVE about which felonies it deigns to prosecute!

            Why is that?

            Anyway, “tracking down” a weapon used in the commission of a crime does not a conviction of a criminal necessarily make. As I said, the gd gubmint CAN’T keep track of all the things that it purports to. That’s just not possible.

            (3) 3 Total Votes - 3 up - 0 down
      • ds_gray says:

        A great Empire, like a great Cake, is most easily diminished at the Edges. – Benjamin Franklin 1773.

        As I wrote in my original post, until We change the constitution, it stands, as written, to be followed, both by the People AND the government. As far as the document being ‘living’ or alive or in some other form of animation of its own, the process was created to amend it as needed. Otherwise, what’s the point? Why have a document that’s up for interpretation at the whims of any political group, left, right or any point in-between?

        We are a constitutional republic, and this document is the foundation of our law and defines our freedoms and sets limits on THE GOVERNMENT. If that foundation is in flux and constantly changing – or ‘living’, anything built above will be unstable to be sure.

        I did not write anything about being unwilling to see the constitution change. But until we as free people do change it, by following the laws that govern the change, STOP TRYING TO MARGINALIZE IT.

        BTW The Bill of Rights is basically the first round of changes to ‘the living document’ and was drawn up and ratified. It is the very model of how to do it. So if you want to see the restrictions you have mentioned in your post above added to the constitution, you know the steps – get to work! Until then, get off my liberty! Its not up to you to decide who can and should or what size or type of arms we are allowed to possess. What part of ‘shall not be infringed’ do you wish to marginalize?

        (12) 14 Total Votes - 13 up - 1 down

Comments are closed.


text:
A Deeper Look Within…

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word “beauty”. When I think of beauty, I automatically think of nature. I think of the original state of a forest or the ocean. It just is and we find it beautiful. It made me think about how that relates to us. We also have an “original state of beauty”. An eternal form which is essentially beautiful. It exists deep within. Under the skin, before the make up, the masks, the clothes and the jewelry. It’s much deeper. You can see its shimmer sometimes through the eyes, the windows of the soul. You can see it sometimes in a smile. You can feel it in an embrace. I wrote this poem to help you remember. Remember how beautiful you are.

Look at you.

Just look at you.

You’ve made sadness an artist and gave your face away as a canvas and he has done a masterpiece with it.

The thing is… you’ve forgotten who you are and now you believe you are his work of art.

But sweetheart, I am here to tell you that you are not.

Take your pieces back. Reclaim yourself.

I see through it… all that bullshit you call real.

I see the raw, fierce beauty that lives underneath all that paint.

I see it wanting to be seen.

I see it.

I see you.

And you are fucking exquisite.

How you manage to will yourself asleep to play the part of the devil’s muse everyday I will never know.

Without speaking, you’re asking if it’s okay for you to fall.

Down, all the way.

Knees melting from the impact, flesh meeting earth, to revert back to your chemical composition.

Oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium. You’re all there and there is nothing more than this.

Nothing else.

You’re tired of trying to convince yourself that there is.

You can’t take a second more of pretending, of trying, of smiling, of nodding, gossiping and comparing.

You want out of the contract you signed with blood the minute you were born.

You want to be at peace. You need to be at peace.

I respect and worship the power in your grit.

Do you know your worth, love?

Do you know your truth, love?

Because it knows you.

And it is waiting, just waiting for you.

There, in the silence, in the tender moments.
When you get tired of carrying all that weight,
When you think no one is watching and you let it go.
You take it off and slip into the subtle version of you.
That being of truth that knows your vastness,
Your expansiveness, your reach.

You are the answer to every question you’ve ever had.

Why are you living so shallow?

What keeps you so scared?

Why is it so easy to be so little when you have everything coursing through you?

Tell me. Talk to me. Spill your secrets.

I want to love you.

All that means is that I want to be who I am around you.

I want you to meet me here.

To stand firmly on honest ground.

To say who you are out loud.

I am Love.
I am Joy.
I am Bliss.
I am Beauty.

Say each one out loud and soak into it.

You know it’s true.

I feel it in you.

Don’t look away for validation.

You don’t even need to believe me,

All you have to do is remember.

You beautiful goddess creature, just remember where you came from.

Dim the lights and close your eyes and let yourself fly.

Go wherever you want to go, away from the drama, from the roles.

Away from the mundane, from the everyday.

In the silence, let the truth speak.

Let your heart tell you what you came here to do.

You crave to be something the world has never seen.

So ask yourself honestly…

What’s stopping you?


text:
Image Search Abstraction Layer

A freeCodeCamp Project

User Stories

1) I can get the image URLs, alt text and page urls for a set of images relating to a given search string.

2) I can paginate through the responses by adding a ?offset=2 parameter to the URL.

3) I can get a list of the most recently submitted search strings.


text:
Oslo – A Village on Steroids

Oslo is a village on steroids and I’m looking forward to the rage roid…

Except for the panorama, all of these are shot from Ekebergåsen – a place where you have a nice view over the city. From here you can see Holmenkollen, The Barcode Area, the Opera House, the harbour, the city center and most of what Oslo has to offer.

Check out other places in Jo’s Monday Walk: http://restlessjo.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/jos-monday-walk-whitby-in-winter/

36 thoughts on “Oslo – A Village on Steroids

  1. There is something very dramatic about the photos, and it is not just the sky. Probably the busyness of the city is also a big part of that. Needless to say these are impressive shots!

    • Interesting question. It should have been like a pressure cooker, but Norwegians (Scandinavians) are too coward to stand up for themselves (or perhaps it is that they just don’t care…?). The situation is much worse in Sweden. There the fire department has asked for Kevlar equipment in order to perform their duties in the “no-go zones” (areas with a lot of immigrants).
      For now the welfare system in Norway is paying the immigrants enough to keep them quiet.
      For example in Alta, the social welfare budget for a single Norwegian is 13500, while for a single foreigner the same budget is 25000. For couples the same rates are 18000 vs 30000.
      How come an immigrant gets nearly double the amount? And why do Norwegians put up with it? After all, we’re financing this insanity.

        • Yes. The largest groups come from Poland & Sweden. They usually live here temporarily for work purposes, before they move back to their own countries. Then there’s large groups of muslims: Somali, Pakistani and Iraqi.

  2. Lovely shots. I love the way the alignment buildings leads the eye through the shot of the Barcode Area and Nordenga Bru. And thanks for introducing me (virtually) to Jo’s Monday Walks.

  3. Hello CG,

    Stunning shots, once again.
    If you’ve been to Finland can you give me your interpretation of Norway and Finland?
    The culture, environment, and economy.

    I’ve never been to either countries but somehow find them similar. Both are port based cities, I believe.
    What do you think?

    • I’ve never been to Finland, but it’s well-known that they enjoy alcohol – even more so than the Norwegians and Swedes. They are famous for their drinking!
      Their environment is similar to the Norwegian, but while we have a lot of fjords, they have a lot of lakes. Culturally their language is from another language group, but I beleive we have a lot in common on the cultural levels and also the structure of our societies (which is similar in all the Scandinavian/Nordic countries). Their capial, Helsinki, is by the sea, so you’re right that both Oslo and Helsinki are port based cities.

      • Thank you. That’s a perfect summary of both countries. Interestingly, I thought the language would be pretty much the same so as if to understand each other. Finnish infamous for their drinking?! I would think it’s a past time for most Europeans! I was married to a German, luckily his drinking was primarily social.

  4. Pingback: Jo’s Monday walk : Roker pier | restlessjo

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May Institute

Returning Candidate?

Assistant Program Coordinator

Assistant Program Coordinator

Job ID
Job Location
Regular Full-Time

More information about this job

May Center for Adult Services is looking for an Assistant Program Coordinator to assist in overseeing the administrative and clinical functions of a residential group home in Tewksbury, MA serving adults with developmental disabilities.

  • Help ensure the quality of the program when the Program Coordinator is not available by coordinating the daily activities and programs for all the consumers
  • Provide the consumers with an intensively therapeutic program designed to enhance community acceptability and increase independence
  • Provide individualized treatment procedures by assessing the consumer’s skills
  • Develop and implement annual goals for each consumer
  • Assist consumers in the day to-day maintenance of their environment
  • Assist the Program Coordinator with individual medical and healthcare provider appointments

  • Bachelor's degree in a related field and/or 3 years of experience preferred
  • Previous supervisory experience in human services
  • Med certification strongly preferred
  • Valid driver’s license
  • Ability to lift 50 lbs


text:
06 May 2016

Ichthyosis Awareness Month: Rethinking Kindness - a guest post by Ainsley Kyder-Gould. (Plus download True Blue Hand.)

I first met Ainsley and her husband in January 2015. Her little girl has Ichthyosis. We chatted for hours - exchanging anecdotes and advice. I finally met her beautiful daughter just before our wedding. Oh my the cuteness! The week before our wedding, Ainsley sent me a video of her daughter blowing me kisses for the big day - just beautiful.

Ainsley has written an eBook called True Blue Hand that you can download for free. It's a great resource to explain appearance diversity to children. The link is below.

Today, Ainsley has written a beautiful piece about kindness. I nodded when I read this line: "the approach of others is the biggest negative of having Ichthyosis."

Here's her story.

Rethinking Kindness by Ainsley Kyder-Gould

"The nurse ushers me to the chair to have the first of three needles to check if my gestational diabetes has calmed post pregnancy. As a first time mother, I proudly sit next to my precious and most beautiful new born daughter, who is content and sleeping soundly in her capsule under the blush pink muslin – that like so many other things we bought in excited anticipation of her arrival. I am so happy.

The nurse starts to chat with me as she is preparing the needles.

"May I take a peak?" the nurse asks referring to our little sleeping princess.

"Sure" I say with the tone of a proud first time mother.

I love that people love babies and I love that I am now a part of that world.

The nurse gently lifts the muslin, as to not wake her. Un-expectantly she recoils, dropping the muslin and stepping back. "What is wrong with her?" she exclaims in reaction.

"Nothing" I reply.

"But she is all red, is she sunburnt?!" the nurse quickly responds.

"She has a skin condition but there is nothing wrong with her" I say calmly.

"Oh, that is sad. Think of how she is going to be bullied at school, it’ll be horrible!" continues the nurse in a surprised tone, believing that her response was in some way sympathetic to me.

I kept calm because I confidently did not share her vision.

My reply to her was simple, "We choose not to see it that way".

I left the appointment deeply thoughtful and hurt by the apparent unkindness. However, this was the first of many incidences with adults and children alike. Fuelled by the distress of the world my daughter would grow-up in, it opened up many questions that occupied my mind for several months. There clearly was a disconnect in how I saw my daughter, who just happened to have a rare skin condition, and how other people saw her, our situation, and how they responded.

Why do people respond in this way? Have I also, through some misguided belief ever responded in the wrong way? The truth was yes. While I have never been as tactless and would consider myself a kind person, I had to admit that prior to my own personal experience with my daughter I would approach these delicate situations behind a polite façade. Really what I was thinking was "you poor thing" and my heart would break for them.

This self-reflection led to better questions; why don’t people know how to deal with appearance diversity? Why do we wait until we arrive in these situations to only struggle through them? We often offer some form of pity and seriousness like it is relevant or even appropriate. Knowing now, as a mother of a perfectly unique and most beautiful child who just happens to have Ichthyosis, the approach of others is the biggest negative of having Ichthyosis.

The truth is, without Ichthyosis we wouldn’t have our little girl. It’s not who she is but it is a piece of her. So naturally we choose to embrace Ichthyosis. We must take the road less travelled and most people who have some form of uniqueness do too. Although we wouldn’t have chosen it for our daughter – many good things come from a crisis. We can often think "I would never do that…" but until I truly reflected only then did realise I honestly didn’t have the right mindset. I now approach any kind of uniqueness with a smile and an open mind, focussing wholly on the person not the diversity.

Meeting or interacting with someone with diversity of appearance may be a one or two time experience for you or your child but for that person it is every day that they are dealing with the unkindness. I think it is fair to expect we can all live our lives focussed on who we are and not what we look like, and with this in mind we may all benefit from a little preparation to ensure we put our best foot forward.

I can never fix my daughter's condition, but I believe I can change how the world deals with diversity of appearance. This was my impetus to create True Blue Hand. True Blue Hand is the tale of a little girl name True who happened to be born with a blue hand. The book is an excellent way to begin dialogues with your children about how to approach people with uniqueness in a curiously kind way. The book is available for free download from www.truebluehand.com and we have started a kickstarter campaign that you can contribute towards to raise funds so that we can print and give away copies of the book to schools, libraries and hospitals in the community. Follow True Blue Hand on Facebook to get updates.

Read more Ichthyosis Awareness Month posts here.

  1. I wouuld have been more concerned if the nurse didn't react.

  2. It's how she responded. An o.k. response: "does your daughter have a skin condition?" A bad response: "how horrible!" "I'm so sorry for you/her". People do not want pity, disapproval or contempt for differences they were born with.

  3. Thank you Carly and Ainsley, we never stop learning and evolving and this honest and candid article reminds us of the power of our words and actions.

  4. Thank you Carly and especially Ainsley for your honest and candid article . We are all evolving and one would hope improving . This article certainly highlights the power of our words and actions .

Thank you for reading my blog. I love receiving comments :)
I really appreciate the time you've taken to write to me, and to share something about yourself.

Related Posts with Thumbnails


text:
The Librarian’s Cellar: Harvesting by Lisa Harding

Lisa Harding’s debut novel Harvesting, tracks the lives of two young girls, Sammy, a troubled fifteen year-old from Dublin, and Nico from Moldova, only twelve, and as innocent as all children her age ought to be allowed to be – that innocence taken from her by her own father, who sells her into marriage – and her brutal nightmare begins. This novel is tough but worthy reading, told between two compelling narratives that carry the reader on the treacherous and heartbreaking journeys of these two young characters. Harding has lifted a particularly shocking lid on the reality of sex trafficking in Ireland, of crimes against young children, writing an accomplished fictional account of a hidden world with meticulous research and respect for the very real, and often invisible victims of the sex trade. I highly recommend this book.

Harvesting by Lisa Harding is published by NEW ISLAND BOOKS

Caroline E. Farrell is the author of the novel, LADY BETH, and is screenwriter of the short films, IN RIBBONS and ADAM.


text:
Article in the Romanian press

The article in the Romanian national daily "Puterea" about my activity as a historic property consultant.

The Romanian national daily newspaper “Puterea”, which has recently been launched in Bucharest by the former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, has published an article-interview in its 17 May 2010 issue, where I speak about my activity as a historic property consultant specialised on the Romanian market. The journalist has correctly noted that I am the only expert in this market sector active in the country. The translation of the article’s title is “The new land grab – the demolition of Bucharest’s historic houses” (click the link to access the article- written in Romanian language); it is authored by Dana Fodor Mateescu.

I translated bellow a couple of paragraphs for your information:

“Valentin Mandache is an expert in historic houses, the only such specialist in the country offering consultancy services in the field of period property ( historical appraisal, market analysis, property finding, advice regarding the renovation and restoration of a historic property). He confirms the truth felt by many among Bucharest’s citizens: that a majority of this city’s historic properties are in a real danger of obliteration in the foreseeable future. […] My activity epitomises a less common gathering of qualifications and work experiences for Romania’s professional landscape; it is a combination of skills pertaining to the fields of history of architecture and property market analysis, developed throughout 20 years of activity and specialist training in the United Kingdom, other European countries and the United States.

According to Valentin Mandache, the period property market is a very specialised market segment, mostly ignored or unprofessionally approached by virtually all Romanian property consultants. It requires a lengthy training and experience in the field of history of architecture, marketing and analysis focused on this more unusual market sector. […] “When I encounter a historic house, I become extremely curious to find out details about its history and of the previous generations that had lived there” confesses Valentin Mandache. I just want to unravel in minute detail the intricacies of its venerable architecture and unearth the old mysteries that might be buried in documents, personal stories or the structure of that house. I believe that I am in a position to save a historic house when a client has a tangible benefit from my consultancy services, advising him or her how to buy that property, efficiently restore or renovate it, how to chose the best architectural details, decorative themes and conservation methods. I can also help that individual or organisation to properly market their property as an asset endowed with a distinct historic and architectural value. This is my contribution to the conservation and rescue of the cultural heritage of this country.”

“Puterea”, 17 May 2010

2 thoughts on “Article in the Romanian press

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Need to sell your house?  We have options.

Do you want to sell your house fast? Do you need cash quickly? Listing your house with a realtor can take months to sell, and can COST YOU thousands of dollars… there IS a BETTER option!

We’re a local company that can buy your house in ANY condition, regardless of what you OWE or if you’re behind on payments…We can sincerely HELP!

Here’s What We Can Do For You:

No matter what your situation might be, we can present you with offer(s) to buy your house…NOW! Our goal is to come up with an offer that will meet your needs and we will work with you to create a solution that is beneficial to everyone.


text:
Following on from my participation in the BYOD4L Collaborative Open Online Course earlier this year delivered by the excellent @chrissinerantzi and @suebecks and their team of facilitators from @MELSIG and elsewhere, I am delighted to be facilitating the delivery of the course across Northern Ireland, this summer.
The 1 week intensive course provides a bite size introduction to using mobile technology in the classroom to enhance and transform learning. It will provide the opportunity to reflect on your own practice, and share ideas and practice with colleagues across the FE/ HE sector in Northern Ireland.
It will also be an opportunity to experience a cMOOC first hand! The time commitment is a matter of individual choice, and can be as little as a 30 minute ‘dip’ into online discussions, or more extensive engagement.
Please complete the form to express your interest in participating.

January Blog Post
The following paragraph from January, 2014, provides a brief insight into my reflections when participating:

This week I took part in the Bring Your Own Device 4 Learning MOOC. This intensive MOOC took MOOCers through 5 key concepts of BYOD:

  1. Connecting
  2. Communicating
  3. Curating
  4. Collaborating
  5. Creating

 over 5 nights this week. As you can imagine it was pretty intense. The BYOD tab takes you to reflections on each of these themes, and how I am trying to implement them. I have also put together an infographic, (which is very much a work in progress)  identifying the questions I am trying to answer.

One thought on “BYOD4L

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Bible Readings For Your Wedding

Celebrating a church wedding? If you getting married in a Catholic church, you’ll be asked to select up to three Scripture readings for the liturgy. One from the Old Testament, and two from the New. Of those two, one will always be from one of the four gospels, and the other from one of the other books of the NT.

Presented here in easy-to-reference format, are the choices for wedding readings. They include a basic commentary geared more to the couple and less to advanced Scripture study. I hope that will be helpful.

If you have questions, you can discuss in the comboxes or e-mail me for a more direct answer. If you choose the latter, I recommend contacting me at my church office, where I keep more resources on hand to assist.

Old Testament readings (choose one):

Psalm (choose one):

New Testament (choose one non-Gospel reading):

Gospel readings (choose one):

32 Responses to Bible Readings For Your Wedding

  1. Pingback: Funeral Lectionary: John 14:1-6 « Catholic Sensibility

  2. Jamie says:

    Thanks for all the great ideas I could sure use some, as my wedding draws near. :)

    A great wedding graphic just came through my twitter feed. It’s a wedding photography guide for brides and thought it would be something that you would like to post for your visitors.

    Hope you like it, and find it helpful, I know I did (as a soon to be bride).

  3. Pingback: First Post for ICCMA « ICCMA: Iowa Catholic Campus Ministers

  4. SimonAlexander says:

    I’m the owner of a wedding website at Im trying to find quality links to other wedding resources on the internet that my users would find useful. I came across your site while doing some research and feel that it would fit perfectly into these links.

    My resources page has a page rank of 3 and can be found at

    Would you be interested in a link exchange?

    If you would rather do an article exchange i also have a pr3 wedding blog where i could place an article linking to your website.

    Best regards

  5. Bonnie Caumo says:

    my neice is getting married oct 27 not in the catholic church .can you rec.a prayer or a reading that I could do without offending some of the wedding party ?

    • Todd says:

      Without knowing family or religion issues, it’s hard to predict what might be offensive. 1 Cor 13 is read for a lot of weddings. Jesus’ teaching the Beatitudes, Matthew 5. And for the Old Testament, perhaps Genesis 2. The royal wedding in England used Romans 12–that’s become popular since Prince William and Princess Kate chose it.

  6. Pingback: Top Ten 2013 Visits | Catholic Sensibility

  7. Helen says:

    Any readings particularly suitable for a wedding to be held just after Christmas (29th December)? Thanks :)

  8. Vita says:

    I plan to marry Dec. 27, 2014. We feel the story of Rebekah and Isaac suits my grooms situation of grieving for his mother. Would this be appropriate.

  9. Him says:

    I’ve been wondering: are these the *only* acceptable choices? I’ve had a number of couples interested in using Ps. 118, for instance, because of its particularly joyful refrain.

    • Todd says:

      I have played the two Easter psalms, 118 and 66, for weddings. I think they are acceptable. The only sticking point might be a music director or pastor who insists on going “by the book.” I think a few other psalms outside of the Seven would be agreeable. Perhaps even the Magnificat.

  10. Jessica says:

    I am getting married on a saturday during lent, while i know that alleluia can’t be said, are there other no-no’s I should be aware of? I am leaning towards Tobit 8, psalm 145, 1 john 4, and john 2. Am I ok?

  11. Nanu Onajite says:

    My wedding is coming up in February 2016. I will like to have suggestions on the readings to pick for that day. It’s Feb 6th 2016

    • Todd says:

      Nanu, I would read through the possibilities with your beloved and see what readings move the two of you in a religious sense. And consult with your clergy.

  12. Justin Brodersen says:

    Can i give the first and 2nd reading if i am not Catholic?

  13. Sarah says:

    I am getting married in October 2016, and I was wondering if these would be acceptable.

    A reading from the Book of Ruth;
    Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or quit following you! Where you go, I will go. Where you live, I will live. Your people will become my people and your God my God.”

    This is the word of the Lord.

    All: Thanks be to God.

    A Reading from St. Paul to the Corinthians
    Love is always patient and kind:
    It is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins, but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end. In a word, there are three things which last forever, faith, hope and love- the greatest of these is love.

    This is the word of the Lord.
    All: Thanks be to God.

    Priest: The Lord be with you.

    All: And also with you.

    Priest: A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John.

    All: Glory to you, Lord.

    Jesus said to his disciples: `As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete. This is my commandment: love one another, as I loved you.’
    This is the Gospel of the Lord.

    • Todd says:

      Hi Sarah, and congratulations on your wedding.

      You might check with the priest and parish where you are getting married. The reading from Ruth is not in the official Lectionary, and a few places are sticklers on that point. Also, the statement for the reader no longer has “This is,” it is just “The Word of the Lord. The response for the Gospel is “And with you spirit.”

      You are planning ahead: my wife would say that’s a good sign.

  14. Pingback: Amoris Laetitia 5: Aiming To Virtues | Catholic Sensibility

  15. Pingback: catholic wedding readingsWedding World | Wedding World

  16. Pingback: wedding bible readingsWedding World | Wedding World

  17. Cin says:

    Hi there,

    Just a question, do the readings have to be in this order? Can a new testament reading come before an old testament reading?

    • Todd says:

      The order of readings is pretty traditional across almost every Christian tradition: Old Testament first, New next, and Jesus in the Gospel last (and presumably, saving the best for last).

  18. Mariola Martins says:

    Dear Sir, Pl can you suggest a suitable 1st reading from the old testament for a marriage between a Catholic girl n Hindu boy.

    • Todd says:

      Hi Mariola. Good question. I think the best choice is what the couple will decide after they read together a few possibilities. If I were you, I would start with Tobit 8, Genesis 2, and Ruth 1 and see what the girl and boy feel in their heart after each one.

  19. Webster Kashimike says:

    My wedding is on Sunday, April 30th, third Sunday of Easter…. Guide me on the suitable readings..

  20. Jezel says:

    Good day!
    My wedding will be this coming June 11, 2017, Sunday. would like to check what would be the appropriate verses of the Bible should be tackled during the mass.
    Hoping for your kind assistance.

    • Hi Jezel. That date is Sunday, observed as the feast of the Holy Trinity. Depending on your country, your choice of readings may be limited to the Sunday Mass readings. Your clergy may permit a choice of the New Testament reading. And there, your options includes readings about love, or about God’s love for us. Not knowing you personally, and not being in your parish, I would hesitate to make any single suggestion. If your priest gives you a choice, just sit with your beloved, read 2 or 3 options out loud together, and come to an agreement based on what you hear.

  21. Michael Fernandes says:

    Good morning,

    We are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary on 12th September 2017. Can we have two reading for the a mass if yes than we need your help in choosing us the litrugy for the mass.

    • Todd says:

      It’s a Tuesday in ordinary time. The most significant person to speak with would be your parish pastor. For a 25th anniversary, there are significant insertions or substitutions for the Mass that can be made. But your priest is the person with whom you can discuss these. Substituting readings for a special anniversary is permitted by the Roman Missal.

      As for which ones to suggest to the clergy, you and your wife can review all the possibilities and offer one or two of the readings to the priest for his consideration. I hesitate to make suggestions for people I don’t know personally. Your choice from these Bible readings will always be better than mine.

  22. Do you have any Prayers of the Faithful or Universal Prayers for Weddings?

    • Todd says:

      I do. If you send me an e-mail with your beloved’s first name, I’ll send them to you in a reply. Check my sidebar for the address to contact me.

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In the beginning, let’s break the myth that going DIY, when it comes to removals, is the best way to go. Yes, it really is way cheaper than hiring professional removals, but at what cost? Next time you are about to undergo a removal, bear in mind that affordable moving company have the following advantages:
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   -Ask Dr. Kit.

      The risk of outing yourself on your home computer

    It happened again. A husband and wife in my office, she is weeping and he is looking miserable. She found photographs of him cross-dressed on his phone. Why was she looking on his phone? Why was he caring around these photos? Now the marriage is in a shambles and they have come to therapy. And they are the lucky ones. Because after such discovery many wives and girlfriends are not willing to do the cooperative work of therapy; they just give up on the relationship.

More and more of the break-ups and divorces I encounter begin with a wife or girlfriend discovering some form of sexual activity or gender expression that her husband or boyfriend had kept secret. And she does not discover this from an earring left in the bed or some other movie-version of how people find out. She always discovers it on his computer or phone. It may be a search history, and email, text or a photograph. Today I am writing this column with one point only. If you are a closeted cross-dresser and have photos or film of yourself cross-dressed they will be found and found by exactly the person or people you hope will never see them. I have also worked with people who have lost their jobs after such photos were discovered by co-workers. Of course this is not right or fair or even legal, but it can happen and it has happened.

What are these photos and why do people hold onto them? Most cross-dressers live conventional lives and spend very little time cross-dressed. When they do have an opportunity to express their female aspect, that experience is precious. The urge to take photos of one’s self takes many forms. For many cross-dressing is motivated by the desire to see one’s self as a woman. Looking in the mirror when dressed can be exciting and affirming, comforting, and uplifting. A photo can preserve that moment and allow the person to see themselves en femme even when they are in drab. Looking into their eyes in the cross-dressed photo, people may feel that they see their true self in a way that they don’t when they look in the mirror in their daily life. It is indisputable evidence of a core truth about the self. If the photo was taken in a social context with supportive people it may also be treasured as a memento of a time when the person was were free to be his/her self with people who understood. Photos may also be a common part of socializing on-line or meeting people through dating sites.

Whatever the reason that the photo is valued, the reality is that many people who are otherwise very discrete flirt with danger when they generate and hold on to this explicit evidence of their activity. People rationalize it in all kinds of ways. Some think that they are unrecognizable in the photo, which I can only say underestimates the imagination of those who know them well. To think that no one can find the photo is to underestimate people, particularly a suspicious partner, a curious child, and the cross-dresser’s ability to be careless in what you leave up on your phone or computer. I believe that any reason one can have for thinking that the photos are safe is a form of denial. There may be some cases in which the person has a desire to get caught. Discovery would eliminate the need to hide, force the conversation with their partner, and open up the possibility that the discovering person will see the cross-dresser in their entirety and love them. I am not going to say that most people are motivated to get caught. I really think that they believe they will never get caught. But if this describes you, I urge you to think again.

Dr. Katherine Rachlin is a clinical psychologist, gender specialist, and sex therapist in private practice in New York City.   Her website is You can also reach her at or (212) 206-3636

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Home > Elections 2008 > It Can’t Happen Here

It Can’t Happen Here

Ron Paul Source: Ron Paul

December 20, 2004

In 2002 I asked my House colleagues a rhetorical question with regard to the onslaught of government growth in the post-September 11th era: Is America becoming a police state?

The question is no longer rhetorical. We are not yet living in a total police state, but it is fast approaching. The seeds of future tyranny have been sown, and many of our basic protections against government have been undermined. The atmosphere since 2001 has permitted Congress to create whole new departments and agencies that purport to make us safer- always at the expense of our liberty. But security and liberty go hand-in-hand. Members of Congress, like too many Americans, don’t understand that a society with no constraints on its government cannot be secure. History proves that societies crumble when their governments become more powerful than the people and private institutions.

Unfortunately, the new intelligence bill passed by Congress two weeks ago moves us closer to an encroaching police state by imposing the precursor to a full-fledged national ID card. Within two years, every American will need a “conforming” ID to deal with any federal agency– including TSA at the airport.

Undoubtedly many Americans and members of Congress don’t believe America is becoming a police state, which is reasonable enough. They associate the phrase with highly visible symbols of authoritarianism like military patrols, martial law, and summary executions. But we ought to be concerned that we have laid the foundation for tyranny by making the public more docile, more accustomed to government bullying, and more accepting of arbitrary authority- all in the name of security. Our love for liberty above all has been so diminished that we tolerate intrusions into our privacy that would have been abhorred just a few years ago. We tolerate inconveniences and infringements upon our liberties in a manner that reflects poorly on our great national character of rugged individualism. American history, at least in part, is a history of people who don’t like being told what to do. Yet we are increasingly empowering the federal government and its agents to run our lives.

Terror, fear, and crises like 9-11 are used to achieve complacency and obedience, especially when citizens are deluded into believing they are still a free people. The loss of liberty, we are assured, will be minimal, short-lived, and necessary. Many citizens believe that once the war on terror is over, restrictions on their liberties will be reversed. But this war is undeclared and open-ended, with no precise enemy and no expressly stated final goal. Terrorism will never be eradicated completely; does this mean future presidents will assert extraordinary war powers indefinitely?

Washington DC provides a vivid illustration of what our future might look like. Visitors to Capitol Hill encounter police barricades, metal detectors, paramilitary officers carrying fully automatic rifles, police dogs, ID checks, and vehicle stops. The people are totally disarmed; only the police and criminals have guns. Surveillance cameras are everywhere, monitoring street activity, subway travel, parks, and federal buildings. There’s not much evidence of an open society in Washington, DC, yet most folks do not complain– anything goes if it’s for government-provided safety and security.

After all, proponents argue, the government is doing all this to catch the bad guys. If you don’t have anything to hide, they ask, what are you so afraid of? The answer is that I’m afraid of losing the last vestiges of privacy that a free society should hold dear. I’m afraid of creating a society where the burden is on citizens to prove their innocence, rather than on government to prove wrongdoing. Most of all, I’m afraid of living in a society where a subservient populace surrenders its liberties to an all-powerful government.

It may be true that average Americans do not feel intimidated by the encroachment of the police state. Americans remain tolerant of what they see as mere nuisances because they have been deluded into believing total government supervision is necessary and helpful, and because they still enjoy a high level of material comfort. That tolerance may wane, however, as our standard of living falls due to spiraling debt, endless deficit spending at home and abroad, a declining fiat dollar, inflation, higher interest rates, and failing entitlement programs. At that point attitudes toward omnipotent government may change, but the trend toward authoritarianism will be difficult to reverse.

Those who believe a police state can’t happen here are poor students of history. Every government, democratic or not, is capable of tyranny. We must understand this if we hope to remain a free people.

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  1. D Wint
    08/31/2007 at 6:44 pm

    Vote for Ron Paul!

  2. davevontexas
    08/31/2007 at 6:55 pm

    Well, duh.

    Still, it’s hard to be sympathetic. In a participatory democracy, people get the politics they deserve.

    I guess we must have wanted a gerrymandered Texas, gay prostitutes in the White House press corps, a moronically bungled invasion of a foreign country, and endless debt. After all, that’s what we voted for.

    And when people start ending up in Guantanamo to be tortured, maimed or psychologically broken down — not just for being the wrong nationality (like now), but for what they check out of the library or who they are seen with in public — I’ll be in a different country somewhere, voting that we don’t accept any more American refugees.

  3. 08/31/2007 at 6:59 pm

    Couldn’t agree more. And of course the government thinks its ‘necessary’ to do the things it does..

    Remember.. the ENDS do not justify the MEANS..

    This kind of thing is exactly why that saying exists.

  4. Rebecca
    08/31/2007 at 7:07 pm

    Ron Paul, you are our only hope out of this mess. Please help us!

    To anyone here who may not have heard of Ron Paul, check him out!
    He’s the only anti-war, non interventionist candidate!

    Put aside the democrat/republican nonsense and use logic!
    Ron Paul is the only chance we have.

    Rock on!

  5. 08/31/2007 at 7:08 pm

    Way to go Ron,you keep their toes to the fire.Thanks for fighting for freedom. I’ll vote for you for president,even if you don’t win the nomination.

  6. 08/31/2007 at 7:27 pm

    you did it to yourselves! where were you in 1987 when I exposed the NAZI party rise in San Diego and Dick Silverman ring leader and head fundraiser for Jerry Brown ended up in jail? So just remember your to little to late there coming for you in the middle of the nigtht! Quick hide under the bed!

  7. Angela
    08/31/2007 at 7:35 pm

    I can’t believe that it is taking people so long to see the truth. Since the end of the Soviet Union, America has been rushing headlong to replace it. As things become more open and less oppressed there, we here are fast loosing our liberty. 911 aside even our small personal liberties are being lost. Certain groups of people are making rules and decisions for all. What we watch on TV, games, when and where we smoke and how much we pay for it, what we do with our bodies. Small narrowminded people can .judge and control the actions of others because they have money and power. I no longer live in the land of the free and the brave. And people are so gullible that they are easily diverted by the same tactics that Hitler used. Make a group or groups of people scapegoats and throw attention off of what you are doing.

  8. 08/31/2007 at 7:44 pm

    If you want to know what may happen next, just look to the UK. We’ve got more CCTV cameras and speed cameras than most other countries, and legislation for a national identity card might have already been passed.

  9. Sean S
    08/31/2007 at 7:58 pm

    good article, you are right. we are losing more of our rights every single day. this government is going to shit.

  10. Josh
    08/31/2007 at 7:58 pm

    Wow! Just Wow!
    Would that I were so eloquent in saying exactly that. I’ve been trying to explain to people why this is so horrible. Why losing our liberty is a big deal -God I hope we can get this man into office and take America back.

  11. FascistUSA
    08/31/2007 at 8:06 pm

    The Police State is ALREADY here. ZEITGEISTmovie.com. Our Country is run for The American/Israeli Elite. We The People are just SLAVES. 9/11 part 2 is going to happen this month. Then, we invade Iran. American Concentration Camps are already set up here in the States. Martial Law, Baby. Get ready to DIE.

  12. Shaun
    08/31/2007 at 8:14 pm

    Ron, having worked previously in Washington DC and for the goverment I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments. I was not able to accept the culture and I lett for private sector work. Unfortunately, the military industrial complex is a self-perpetuating system because the good people leave.

  13. 08/31/2007 at 8:25 pm

    All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

    USA is busy “doing nothing” Complacency and apathy will make it another blip in history, unless USA wakes up.

  14. daniel
    08/31/2007 at 9:16 pm

    Nice, my thoughts exactly. People look at the war as a way for the industrial-military complex to rape the americans of our money; but they refuse to see that the fear it has generated was so to rape us of our freedoms as well. The government can read your email for no reason…. that is flat out, 100% against the constitution; no ifs, ands, or buts. Nobody talks about it, I’m glad you did.

  15. garypatrickgarry
    08/31/2007 at 9:58 pm

    Somehow I have some faith in enough of the people coming together when they see what is happening.

  16. vistasucks
    08/31/2007 at 10:05 pm

    Many Germans knew that Hitler was evil. But couldn’t do a thing about it. It took an outside source. Let’s hope Britian returns the favor from WWII and saves America from America.

  17. 08/31/2007 at 10:12 pm

    I as a Canadian – watch dumbfounded by people who can’t see that Ron Paul is not the only the last hope for America, but the last hope of the whole world. With all the Presidential Directives Bush has passed, it’s only a matter of time, before he or some other NeoCon President says

    “I don’t think those Canadians are up to snuff at protecting the resources which are imperative the US national security – the oil and the water. So I have decided to send our boys in to help out! I just want Canadians to understand were just being good neighors and we are gonna help ya!”

    God bless the real America and not this evil scum currently running things!

  18. 08/31/2007 at 10:22 pm

    It is beginning to get far too scary living in this country. Although I want to believe it can change, I’m really not that optimistic. This country is far too divided to be able to come together and make positive change. It’s such a shame. What would our fore-fathers say?

  19. bueller
    08/31/2007 at 10:31 pm

    i hate politics….lets overthrow the government…..of jamaica, and steal all of their weed and bring it back and hot box the white house in the name of bob marley.

    oh and one more thing……hoooray beer!

  20. largemouth
    08/31/2007 at 10:37 pm

    we are bovine in nature–a weak populous. our poor received a 1% pay cut over the last 40 years while the rich received a 81% increase. we have done nothing and will continue to do so because we are a pathetic weakling race (humans) who prefer familiarity to comfort to familiarity. Look! The Jews did not fight the Holocaust on any large level because they are human mass and human mass cannot agree on a strategy unless it is dictated to them by some authority. In a nutshell–I’m screamin all the way to the grave, but we’re screwed anyhow because collectively, we’re stoopid.

  21. freeman
    08/31/2007 at 10:55 pm

    Your right!…I see it as you do! I will not end up in no FEMA Camp because I will die first!! To all of you who don’t own a gun, GET ONE!…FIGHT FOR YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR FREEDOMS when the time comes because it is very near!!!

  22. 08/31/2007 at 11:51 pm

    I was delighted to read this article, which led me to believe that -at last- something good is happening in America.

    Putting aside all the prejudices, all the petty anti-americanism to which we (Europeans) have often been exposed, the situation reminds me of a Greek proverb “rotting fish starts smelling in its head’.

    I think that the world, quire generally, is tired of all this; also tired of the ubiquitous persistence of “two-party systems” in many countries, which seem inadequate to deal with the emerging “Long Tail” phenomena, the positive side-effects of the information revolution.

    It may be that our species will be forced to change its attitude towards the planet, too, in order to survive. But -first and foremost- the exact opposite process of the one denounced by Mr. Ron Pail, the “Long Tail” process of people asserting their rights and preferences “bottom-up”, must be seen and recognised as the only viable long-term antidote to our senescent political and social systems.

    The one-party system failed about two decades ago. Perhaps the two-party system is also beginning to crumble. The world is far too complicated for effective centralised control, of one form or the other. It requires armies of specialists, scientists, experts, engineers, advisors, etc. etc. so that the only remaining useful role for “strong men of government” is marketing their social personas (and the prestige of hidden guys who support them).

    Pyramids are perhaps only meaningful as ancient relics, not as effective systems of modern democracy.

    Greetings from a (probably equally angered with 2-party authoritarianism) small southern European country. Googlemaps can help you find it! ;-)

  23. Hank Chinaski
    09/01/2007 at 12:06 am

    Folks – Remember how the future can change in the blink of an eye. This has just as much possibility to happen faster than you might think.
    All it takes is one event…

  24. ericsomething
    09/01/2007 at 12:16 am

    While our nation was wallowing in the post-9/11 phase and our leaders were coming up with new and improved ways to dispense with the Constitution, I sat down and reread Sinclair Lewis’ old chestnut from the 1930s, “It Can’t Happen Here.” And, oh hell yes it can happen here. The novel may have been held up as a what-if back then, a nutty prophecy when it was first published, but somewhere in the past five years it became truth. If you can find that novel somewhere, grab it, read it, and get educated.

    We Americans like our conveniences. We like our peace and safety. We like these things enough that we’d gladly trade our natural rights to insure these. And somewhere along the line, we always end up screwing ourselves on the deal. And that’s what we’re seeing now.

  25. the profit
    09/01/2007 at 2:36 am

    I see where the world is going, it dont look pretty, we either have to unite as a race (all humans on this planet) or we are doomed, we must do this before it is too late and have to learn the hard way, which we have done every time in history so far

  26. 09/01/2007 at 7:26 am

    Thank you for this piece, you are 100% correct when it comes to our civil rights and liberties being sacrificed for security and, at times, a false sense of security. But being a democrat, it is hard for me to support a one time libertarian. Sorry, man.

  27. 09/01/2007 at 7:31 am

    I am glad to finally find someone else that sees the shape of our country today and God Forbid tomorrow. However, the problem is, the ones that are reading blogs such as these are the ones that already know what’s coming. The question is how do we warn the rest of the world? I am continually shocked that a rebellion has not risen up to protest. Is my generation really that apathetic? I think though, that America is best summed up in the words of my friend..”As long as we have our computers, our tv’s, our jobs and our cars we don’t care what else is happening.”

  28. 09/01/2007 at 7:55 am

    It wont happen in the Philippines again.

  29. guebukanmonyet
    09/01/2007 at 8:45 am
  30. maliha11
    09/01/2007 at 12:08 pm

    being safe is not wrong but being paranoid is… anyways Capital hill should be the safest place in the US so, if there intelligence tell them they need these extreme measures then they might do:)
    no harm in being safe, but let them just keep it pretty and kind, i hope they just have a positive behavior and not being aggressive :)

  31. maliha11
    09/01/2007 at 12:09 pm

    your freedom stops when your stepping on some one else’s freedom they should keep that in mind at all times.

  32. 09/01/2007 at 12:55 pm

    Excellent article! We here in the UK share your concerns about western totalitarianism. We are rooting for you!

  33. kashifalvi
    09/01/2007 at 12:58 pm

    We’re heading towards World War III. Will the world will end in the name of terrorism? If we do, it’s because of America and their leaders.

  34. 09/01/2007 at 3:35 pm

    That is the reason to vote Libertarian.

  35. Bobby
    09/01/2007 at 4:47 pm

    I live in Belgium, and it is not exactly pretty. The government here is VERY socialist. Every resident is required to have a “Belgian ID Card,” which, if the police stop us, we are required to show. If we don’t have it (or a passport), then we have to pay a ridiculous fine.

    The red tape here is IMMENSE! My parents, when we moved here, had to prove they were married (I’m canadian), and they wanted a statement from the government saying that they were married, but all they had was the church record, which was not good for the government. So we got the church record. The real point of this story, is that people do not know HOW inconvenienced you are by a police-type state. YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW BAD IT IS UNTIL YOU EXPERIENCE IT! (NOTE: I am in no-way calling belgium a police state, just meerly very socialistic and a bit inconvenient.)

  36. Universal
    09/03/2007 at 5:34 am

    I’m voting for Ron Paul in ’08….well I would if I was American ;).

    One of the biggest problems with America is that instead of voting on issues and for the common good, you are focused on the Republic/Democrat dichotomy. Democracy can’t live when people will always vote Republic or always Democrat come hell, come high water. They are not looking at the issues objectively they are locked into an almost opiate-like trust of one party, or a similarly entrenched distrust of the other, or both.

    Another problem is that your media has such strong ideological prisms it filters all the news through that your country would need very very strong lenses to correct that distorted vision!

    Yet another problem is that your country is so large that politics is so disjointed from the people. How many Americans will get to meet and discuss issues with your Senators let alone your President? It’s very easy for Ivory Towers to form, and the colour of your President’s residence is rather ironic in that regard.

    And this isn’t even covering the incredibly low voter turn out, the political distortions by powerful special interest groups and the fact the the manipulation of county borders by political powers to ensure that they win their elections…

    I do not suppose to say that America is the only democracy to hold these types of problems but because of your size and prominence you make a particularly good example.

  1. 08/31/2007 at 6:46 pm
  2. 08/31/2007 at 6:58 pm
  3. 08/31/2007 at 7:25 pm
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2017 Contest Winners

Alcohol Awareness Contest

Young people receive mixed messages about drinking alcohol from movies, television, music, their peers and other sources. Because of this, many do not understand how dangerous alcohol use by underage youth can be. The Sussex County Coalition for Healthy and Safe Communities, a program of the Center for Prevention and Counseling, sponsored a public service announcement contest for April, which is Alcohol Awareness Month.

The students who took this opportunity to share their positive message with the community represent the majority of county youth who choose not to drink alcohol!  We commend the more than 100 entrants for making healthy choices and being positive role models. Eight posters were chosen that encourage youth to make healthy choices and abstain from underage drinking. The message clearly shared by all winning entries was "Free to Be Me…Alcohol-Free"

2017 Poster Winners:

The 8 poster winners will be featured in the NJ Herald.

Radio PSA Winners:

The 3 Radio PSA winners were taped at Clear Channel Radio and will be featured in April each day for alcohol awareness month. Please let the teacher at your school know and congratulate the students for their wonderful entry and message.

Video PSA Winner!

Kate Schelle (Sparta High School, grade 9, Mrs. Willie