text:
“Imagine This” Acts 17:16-34

“Imagine This” Acts 17:16-34

Rev. Peggy O’Connor
Date: May 28, 2017

Today we wind up our May sermon series on the empty cross and what it means to believe in an invisible God. I think you will all agree that faith in God the Creator became easier when Jesus was alive. He taught people about God and what a faith filled life looks like. I can only imagine what it must have been like to hear Jesus speak…to see his patience and caring…to watch as he helped all manner of people heal and be reunited into the community. But then he was crucified. Without him, his followers almost disbanded. To their great relief he returned, risen from the dead. It was a miracle. They rejoiced and he told them to spread the good news and to bring people into closer relationship with God. Then, promising to return some day, he disappeared. Two thousand years later we have to figure out how to believe and follow our invisible God without Jesus’ presence. Thankfully today’s passage gives us some clues about how to do this.

As you have just heard, Paul was in Athens. He was waiting for his friends Silas and Timothy and had some free time on his hands so he took a tour of the religious shrines and statues of Athens…of which there were scores. As he walked through the city, ancient even then, he was distressed by the number of statues of gods and goddesses, which people worshipped with food offerings, clothing and other items that they believed they needed and wanted. So Paul did what he always did…he headed to the synagogue to speak with the Jews of Athens. No doubt they too shook their heads in agreement as Paul spoke about statues. How they reacted to his teaching about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus we do not know, but most assuredly he told them.

We do know that after speaking in the synagogue, Paul went to the market place and spoke to anyone who would listen about God the Creator and the resurrection of Jesus. Some who heard him said he was a “babbler” or in Greek a ‘spermologos’ meaning a person who, like a bird gathering seeds haphazardly, collects ideas indiscriminately. Their words are a babble of concepts that make no sense. But others, especially the philosophers, were intrigued. Greece and especially Athens was the home of, arguably, the greatest collection of philosophers. They loved to spend their days debating ideas. So they invited Paul to the Areopagus…where the most ancient of Greek courts had met and was still used to hear important cases. The Philosophers used it to debate philosophical, religious and metaphysical ideas.

The Areopagus is an impressively large outcropping of rock that stands some 600 feet above the Athens. Here, with sweeping views of the city, Paul was asked about this new teaching which, they said, “sound rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.”

Paul began by congratulating the people of Athens for being deeply religious. He told them how he had toured Athens, examining the objects of their worship. He noted that they even had an altar to “an unknown god.”
I imagine his audience felt proud of their city as they listened. Records show that there were many temples and statues of the gods throughout the city and that people visited the temples and shrines often. So, I imagine that the people listening to Paul were happy with his report of what he found.

Then Paul said: What you worship as unknown, I declare is the God who made the world and everything in it. This was a new concept to the people. This was a god they had never heard of or imagined. Even the philosophers were stunned.

Paul went on, asking them to imagine this God. He tells them that the God of creation does not live in shrines and is not served by their offerings of food and clothing. In fact, says Paul, this God needs nothing from us. For this God is the creator of life…human and every other form of life as well.

Imagine this says Paul…God created all nations…from one ancestor…for a purpose…to inhabit all of creation. And God allotted each one a time and place…hoping that they would search for God… grope for God… and maybe even to find God. For this Creator God is not absent or distant This God…THE God…is concerned and caring and wants to have a relationship with each of us.

Imagine says Paul…God is not far from us…for as you know, “in God we live and move and have our being…which is a quote from an ancient Greek philosopher. How cleaver of Paul, to quote one of their own to prove his point. For good measure he added another quote, this time from a 3rd Century BCE poet, “For we too are God’s offspring.”

Having set up an argument that is supported not just by his ideas but those of their own philosophers and poets, Paul proceeds to tell the crowd what it all means. Since God made us and all of creation, God cannot be a gold, silver, wooded or stone statue made by human hands. In other words, the God who created the universe and everything in it is not one of your gods. But don’t worry, says Paul, God has forgiven your error. However, God is now calling you to account. The day approaches when the world will be judged by God’s appointed one…Jesus, who was crucified and then raised from the dead.

Some scoffed at the idea of the resurrection…they could not imagine it. Others were intrigued and said they would come back to hear more. A few followed Paul as he left the Areopagus because what they had imagined called to them as nothing ever had and they wanted to embrace it.

This my friends is how we follow an unseen God. We allow ourselves to imagine the pure love of God…the timeless patience of God… the deeply rooted compassion of God…the overflowing joy of God…the breath taking kindness of God…the never ending generosity of God…the unnecessary beauty and diversity of everything God creates…and the blinding hope that God offers. In imagining we are swept up in the dream of the kingdom of God…a vision that takes our breath away and makes our hearts ache with longing. This is a vision…that ignites our imagination, which fuels our desire to follow…to become a part of the Way to truth and light.

This is what keeps us coming back to church. We want to remember the vision…we want to have our imaginations recharged…we need to have our imaginations recharged because the world we live in is so very different. We teach our children to share…we teach them the gold rule…we teach them to love their neighbors as themselves…then we send them out into a world that eschews one for all and all for one and embraces every man for themselves and our heart aches for them. All too often we feel defeated by the world. But here…we can reconnect to the hope and the dream that feeds our souls and fuels our recommitment every week to live our lives in ways that bear testament to our faith and our vision of the beloved community of love and inclusion and peace.

As I wrote this sermon the image of Professor Harold Hill, from the 1957 musical, The Music Man came to me repeatedly. I worried that my theme of imaging and my positing that imagining is the key to accepting faith, would sound like his “think system” for learning to play an instrument. It was a scam that promised that you could learn to play an instrument without learning to read music…you just had to think the melody. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that in fact, Harold Hill’s method, while originally conceived of as a scam, did almost exactly what he said it would do…it changed people for the better. It changed Hill, who fell in love and decided to give up his life of lies and deceit. It changed the librarian who like a butterfly emerged from her lonely cocoon and allowed herself to love. It change the children of the town who became more self-assured and well behaved. And it did all these things by simply asking people to imagine what they could become.

Faith starts with our being captured by a dream of an alternative way of life. It pulls us in because we can imagine it and we can imagine ourselves as a part of it. It ignites within us the desire to pursue it. Yes, over time we need to study it and learn more about it…we need to grapple with its inconsistencies and contradictions…we need to question it…doubt it…and then be won over by it again and again…but first…and formost…to follow the God of Creation…we must imagine and allow our imaginations to be ignited by what seems impossible…impossible to be realized and impossible to not pursue.

No Comments

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

%d bloggers like this:


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
Center Innovation and Development

Center Innovation and Development

The Center Innovation and development (CID) at the University of Economics – Varna was established in 2013 by a decision of the Academic Council. CID is intended to maintain and develop the relationship business-training in the latest development areas of knowledge for achieving the strategic objective – University of Economics – Varna be an innovative, high-technological and competitive university.

The activities of CID include systematic interdisciplinary research, analyzes, consultancies and other project-based activities for business structures and processes in the primary, secondary and tertiary sector in Bulgaria. Every year CID organizes and holds an international student competition for creative projects Brand Idea ( The team of CID works in cooperation with the Center of informational technologies CTI in Sao Paolo, Brazil on the outgoing project GESITI (

Currently, CID actively supports the implementation of the project BG051PO001-3.1.07-0058 "Business Modelling of Curricula in the Professional Field 3.8 Economics at the University of Economics – Varna".

Planned Projects Business Simulator

Communications and Business Development
Markets And Technological Innovations

Head of Center Innovation and Development

Assoc. Prof. Bistra Vasileva, PhD

Кабинет Office: 66

Mobile +359 882164720

University of Economics – Varna
Center Innovation and Development
77, Kniaz Boris I Blvd.
9002 Varna

Official website UE-Varna:
Official website Center Innovation and Development:

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-34
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2018
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-165-88-201.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
Don’t forget to register for the 5th UIC Asia-Pacific Control-Command, Signalling & Telecoms Workshop from 3 – 4 May 2018 in Sydney, Australia

UIC is pleased to invite you to the 5th UIC Asia-Pacific Workshop on Control Command Signalling and Telecoms (CCS&Tlc) which will take place in Sydney (Australia), hosted by Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW), from 3 – 4 May 2018.

Since 2007, the UIC Asia Regional Assembly has focused on CCS and Telecommunications Development Technologies, integrated into the broader UIC strategy to achieve a harmonised Traffic Management and Control-Command and Signalling system.

The workshop aims to provide both an understanding of leading technologies and a base for core system requirements for railways worldwide.

The event will be organised around the six following technical sessions:

  • Signalling Session 1: Optimal modelling and safety assessment of Signalling Systems, via standardised methods and languages
  • Signalling Session 2: Cybersecurity
  • Signalling Session 3: Train Control and future trends
  • Telecom Session 1: The regulatory contexts and migration strategies toward future technologies
  • Telecom Session 2: The Future Railway Mobile Communication System and other main radio development projects
  • Telecom Session 3: The suppliers’ view on products and applications for safety and security

We look forward to welcoming you in Sydney!

Also, please note that the workshop will follow the even bigger CORE Conference 2018 in which Mr Loubinoux, UIC Director General, will be present as keynote speaker. You can find more by clicking here:

For any further information, please contact Mrs Béatrice Ségéral, Senior Advisor
Institutional Relations & Asia-Pacific Region:


text:
June 28, 2018 / 5:11 AM / 2 months ago

Swiss stocks - Factors to watch on June 28

ZURICH, June 28 (Reuters) - The Swiss blue-chip SMI was seen opening 0.3 percent lower at 8,478 points on Thursday, according to premarket indications by bank Julius Baer .

Here are some of the main factors that may affect Swiss stocks:

The Swiss industrial group is launching an IPO for its Graziano and Fairfield transmissions unit, saying the price range is from 48 francs to 62 francs per share, implying a market capitalisation of up to 620 million Swiss francs ($622.12 million).

* Baloise said Standard & Poor’s has raised its credit rating from ‘A’ with a positive outlook to ‘A+’ with a stable outlook

* Temenos said Coventry Building Society, the UK’s second-largest building society, has chosen Temenos T24 Core Banking platform for its future savings and mortgages servicing.

* Cosmo Pharmaceuticals NV: Methylene Blue MMX regulatory update: type a meeting request filed to FDA; submitted a type a meeting request and briefing document to discuss complete response letter dated May 21

* SFS Group said Iso Raunjak, now head of central logistics, will take over as head of distribution and logistics from Josef Zuend on Jan. 1, 2020. Zuend is retiring after 49 years at SFS.

* Carlo Gavazzi said its net profit fell by more than a third to 8.4 million francs, while sales rose 8.5 percent to 146.9 million francs.

* Novartis said a study shows that 60 percent of employed people with severe migraine miss, on average, a week of work per month.

* Leclanche said it is launching a joint venture with India’s Exide Industries to produce lithium ion batteries and storage solutions for the electrical vehicle industry.

* Feintool International said it is buying Germany’s Stanz- und LaserTechnik GmbH to expand in the market for electrical motor components, in addition to fineblanking and forming, as it pushes into e-mobility.

* Glarner Kantonalbank said it expanded its mortgage portfolio with the purchase of mortgage claims from an insurer.

* Ypsomed said Paul Fonteyne was elected as a new member of the board. Fonteyne is chairman of Boerhinger Ingelheim USA and replaces Norbert Thom, who resigned at the 2018 annual general meeting.

* Also Holding said it is buying French network and security specialist DistriWan, which has sales of around 24 million euros.

ECONOMY ($1 = 0.9966 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Zurich newsroom)

0 : 0
  • narrow-browser-and-phone
  • medium-browser-and-portrait-tablet
  • landscape-tablet
  • medium-wide-browser
  • wide-browser-and-larger
  • medium-browser-and-landscape-tablet
  • medium-wide-browser-and-larger
  • above-phone
  • portrait-tablet-and-above
  • above-portrait-tablet
  • landscape-tablet-and-above
  • landscape-tablet-and-medium-wide-browser
  • portrait-tablet-and-below
  • landscape-tablet-and-below


text:
July 26, 2018 / 3:26 AM / 20 days ago

Laos scrambles for food, medicines, coffins three days after dam burst

KHOKONG, Laos (Reuters) - Troops searched for survivors in the remote southern tip of Laos on Thursday, three days after the collapse of a hydropower dam sent a torrent of water charging across paddy fields and through villages, as rescuers rushed aid to thousands of homeless.

The scale of the disaster was still unclear, in part because of the inaccessibility of the area but also because reports from the communist country’s state media have been scant and sketchy.

For graphic on map locating the collapsed dam in Laos click tmsnrt.rs/2JLQY4F

The official Laos News Agency said that 27 people were confirmed dead and 131 were missing following the failure of the dam on Monday, a subsidiary structure under construction as part of a hydroelectric project in the province of Attapeu.

Earlier reports had suggested the death toll would be much higher, and on Wednesday the Vientiane Times had said more than 3,000 people were waiting to be rescued from swirling floodwaters, many of them on trees and the rooftops of submerged houses.

In the village of Khokong, a sea of mud oozed around the stilt houses that were still standing and dead animals floated in the water.

“Seven villages were hit, two very badly. There were 200 houses and only about 10 are left standing,” said a medical official, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

“We retrieved one body today. I suspect there will be more as the water goes down and the road becomes easier to access.”

He said villagers were warned about three to four hours before the dam burst, but few had expected the water to rise as high as it did.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said roads and bridges were damaged, and boat and helicopter were the only means of transport in the worst-affected areas.

Schools in safe areas were being used as evacuation centres, and about 1,300 families needed tents for shelter, it said.

On a road to the small town of Sanamxai, Reuters saw trucks carrying aid, including fresh water and blankets, for those made homeless. The government put their number at 3,060.

Phra Ajan Thanakorn, a Buddhist monk returning from Sanamxai, said he had delivered food and medicine in four pick-up trucks that had come from Vientiane, the capital some 800 km (500 miles) to the north, and he was heading back there to load up with more.

Parents carry their children as they leave their home during the flood after the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed in Attapeu province, Laos July 26, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

“The situation is really bad,” he told Reuters. “All the relief efforts are at Sanamxai. There are volunteers distributing food and medicine for survivors every day there. They are still lacking food, medicine, and coffins.”

Rescue and relief teams from around Asia have headed into Attapeu, a largely agricultural province that borders Vietnam to the east and Cambodia to the south.

Laos, one of Asia’s poorest countries, has ambitions to become the “battery of Asia” through the construction of multiple dams.

Its government depends almost entirely on outside developers to build the dams under commercial concessions that involve the export of electricity to more developed neighbours, including power-hungry Thailand.

Laos has finished building 11 dams, says Thai non-government group TERRA, with 11 more under construction and dozens planned.

Rights groups have repeatedly warned against the human and environmental cost of the dam drive, including damage to the already fragile ecosystem of the region’s rivers.

The dam that collapsed was part of the $1.2 billion (£0.91 billion) Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy power project, which involves Laotian, Thai and South Korean firms. Known as “Saddle Dam D”, it was part of a network of two main dams and five subsidiary dams.

The project’s main partner, South Korea’s SK Engineering & Construction, said part of a small supply dam was washed away and the company was cooperating with the Laos government to help rescue villagers.

The firm blamed the collapse on heavy rain. Laos and its neighbours are in the middle of the monsoon season that brings tropical storms and heavy downpours.

In Cambodia’s northern Strung Treng province, nearly 1,300 families that were also affected by the flooding from the dam in Laos were moved to higher ground.

“These people will be affected for about seven to 10 days and once all the water flows into the Mekong, we will be fine,” said Keo Vy, a spokesman for the National Centre for Disaster Management.

An official at SK Engineering & Construction said fractures were discovered on the dam on Sunday and the company ordered the evacuation of 12 villages as soon as the danger became clear.

Laotian Minister of Energy and Mines Khammany Inthirath told a news conference in the capital that the company could not deny responsibility for the destruction of livelihoods and property. The Vientiane Times cited him as saying that all compensation would be “borne by the project developer 100 percent”.

Slideshow (14 Images)

Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Nick Macfie

0 : 0
  • narrow-browser-and-phone
  • medium-browser-and-portrait-tablet
  • landscape-tablet
  • medium-wide-browser
  • wide-browser-and-larger
  • medium-browser-and-landscape-tablet
  • medium-wide-browser-and-larger
  • above-phone
  • portrait-tablet-and-above
  • above-portrait-tablet
  • landscape-tablet-and-above
  • landscape-tablet-and-medium-wide-browser
  • portrait-tablet-and-below
  • landscape-tablet-and-below


text:
Ultimate Fit Leggings

Availability: In stock

- Smooth and soft 82% Polyester, 18% Spandex body
- Fully colored 360° artistic sublimation design
- Flat wide waistband with stretch drawcord
- Approx. 29" inseam
- Made in the USA

* Required Fields

Brush a few wild strokes and add a dash of color for the Ultimate Fit leggings, designed for the body and mind that embraces the confidence in you.

Designed for style, made for comfort.

Proudly made in the USA.

Additional Information

Additional Information

Printing Method N/A
Image Gallery N/A
Type Leggings


text:
Wedding Dresses - Experience the Bridal Boutique Difference!

Kenneth Winston

Pure sophistication and elegance.  The finest laces, embellishments and beading. Romance, refinement and just a touch of sexy.  Priced from $1300 - $2000.  To see the whole line click here.

Allure Bridal

Always fresh and totally alluring.  Current, modern and on-trend.  Styles across the spectrum of looks today's brides want.  Priced from $1100 - $1700.  To see the complete line click here.

Stella York

Our most requested line.  Rustic and vintage inspired is the wedding dress description that says it all. Amazing fit and fabulous style for any bride.  Priced in our bridal boutique from $999 - $1500.  To see the whole line click here.

Madison James

Fresh.  Current.  Alive with style.  A wide variety of fabrics, silhouettes and design elements. Never ordinary, always evolving.  Priced at $999 - $1500.  To see the complete line click here.

Allure Romance

Dreamy, soft, whimsical and romantic.  Dreams of a fairytale wedding come true.  Clouds of tulle, swirls of flowing chiffon or curve hugging soft laces.  Prices from $999 - $1300.  To see the complete line click here.

Christina Wu

Fashion forward, trend setting, glitz and glamour.  Statement making, never boring, bold and beautiful.  Priced from $799 - $1500.  To see the complete line click here.

Martin Thornburg

The ultimate in femininity. The finest fabrics.  Attention to every detail in every gown.  Classic and elegant.  Priced from $1400 - $1900.  To see the complete line click here

Enchanting by Mon Cheri

Designed with the free spirit, bohemian bride in mind.  Wedding dresses perfect for that beach wedding, backyard BBQ or casual wedding with friends. Priced from $600.00 - $1200.00. To see the complete line click here.

Casablanca Bridal

What makes Casablanca different?  The fact that they will customize any wedding dress to fit exactly what you want your dress to be.  Custom changes are no problem with Casablanca.  Priced from $1300 - $1600.  To see the complete line, click here

Plus Size Wedding Dresses

Femme by Kenneth Winston, Every Body/Every Bride by Stella York and Christina Wu Love.  All fabulous designs made just for fuller figures.  We have a nice selection of Plus Size Samples.  Priced from $950- $1350

Sample Sale Room

Because we have new styles arriving every week we also have older styles that are moved to the sale room.  These are very gently tried on gowns in very good condition that are discounted from 20-40%. Sometimes even more!  Priced from $400-$1100.

Come See Us!

Do you want to be a Unique Boutique and Bridal Bride?  We would LOVE to work with you!  Fill out the form on our Home Page, call us at 317-586-8061 or message us on Facebook - @UniqueBoutiqueandBridal.  You deserve the bridal experience of a lifetime!

Contact Us

Drop us a line!

Unique Boutique and Bridal

33 N. Washington Street, Knightstown, IN 46148, US

(317) 586-8061

Monday - 10:00 - 5:00

Tuesday - Closed

Wednesday - 10:00 - 5:00

Thursday - 10:00 - 5:00

Friday - 10:00 - 5:00

Saturday: 9:00 - 5:30 By appointment

Sunday: Closed


text:
In Which I Give My Less Biased Opinion on Tonight’s Game

I’ve had a lot of fun here in the last 12 hours or so writing about being biased and all that stuff. But it’s time to get back to business. There is some great hockey that’s going to be played today in Buffalo and based on the content I’ve had prior to the past 24 hours, I think its time to get back to why many of you come to this blog.

There are so many different things to talk about when we take a look at these two teams.

Both teams have great speed and skill. Both play a physical game and battle throughout.

Again, all of this makes for an exciting game with a lot to keep an eye on.  So let’s get to it, shall we?

The U.S. National Junior Team earned a bye to the semifinals. The added rest and recuperation came in handy, as we found out today, thanks to James Duthie of TSN, both Jason Zucker and Jeremy Morin will be in the lineup. Team USA has a full boat. Getting those two back is huge. We still don’t know how much they will play, but to have them on the bench is a boost. Both are returnees from last year’s team, leaders on and off the ice and just good guys to have around.

I already covered the goaltending situation. Jack Campbell is built for games like these and American fans hope he continues his trend of winning.

Keith Allain was on the bench the last time Team USA had a bye to the semifinals, where it met a tough Canadian team in the Czech Republic. Team USA lost that game 4-1 and couldn’t pull it together in the bronze medal game either. Allain told Harry Thompson of USA Hockey this:

“We were tight in that semifinal game and lost to Canada and really didn’t battle against them, and we weren’t really good at all in that game against Russia,” Allain said.

“So I want to make sure we’re loose and confident when we play the game tomorrow.”

Expect the U.S. to try and assert itself early. The first few shifts for both teams will likely be a little bit of a flexing of muscles. There should be some of the best contact of the game in the first five minutes. The key is not going to be who establishes contact, but who handles it better. This is a game where each player knows he’s going to get hit. So being able to accept that quickly is important. As the sign in the locker room states, “Earned, Not Given.”

Nothing will be given to either team tonight. There won’t be a square inch of ice that isn’t hotly contested.

So we know there will be contact, but will there be goals?

Yes. Probably. Canada leads the WJC with 32 goals for, while the U.S. has “only” scored 15 (good for eighth(!) in the tournament). Only is in quotes because I don’t think there is any doubt that the U.S. squad faced stingy defensive teams and two of the best goaltenders in the tournament not named Jack Campbell: Joni Ortio of Finland and Benjamin Conz of Switzerland. They certainly got a lot of rubber to the net. So there were chances.

The fear coming into the game for Team USA, for those on the outside like me, is the ability to score goals against a team that won’t give much in front of the net. Team USA has to establish a net-front presence in the face of constant assault from Canadian defensemen. I think Chris Brown and Nick Bjugstad have done that wonderfully in the tournament and it will have to continue. It won’t get any tougher than it will be tonight.

I expect to see the Chris Kreider-Charlie Coyle-Kyle Palmieri line to get a lot of burn tonight as well. They’ve been generating chances at an alarming pace and as a line have led Team USA offensively. Not knowing how much Morin and Zucker will be used, this line has got to continue their play.

The U.S. also has to be extremely strong in transition, as well. I think the American speed is going to be unlike any else the Canadian blue line has dealt with. The Swedes are fairly close, but I think there’s more on Team USA. Every line seems to have a guy that can just wheel. Canada has a very skilled group of defenseman and very good size back there, but speed can often beat size.

We already talked about the fact that Canada does not boast strength in net. Firing pucks early and often will be the order of the day. No shot is a bad shot, as long as its taken without a Canadian defender right in front of it. Which may be tough. So, when Team USA has a look at the goal, that puck has to get to the net.

Team Canada’s forwards are very good. Brayden Schenn has been the tournament’s best forward, production-wise. His 16 points (7-9) in five games are nuts, regardless of competition. Team USA needs to get to him early. I don’t think he’s the type of player that can get knocked off his game, but I’m sure there are a few American defensemen that would love to try. There are a lot of other weapons for Canada that I can talk breathlessly about, but I think its all well enough documented.

There will be more pressure than ever before on an American defense that has been pretty darn good throughout the tournament. I thought we’d see more offense from this group, but I had no idea their defense would be so suffocating. The U.S. has allowed just 92 shots on goal during the tournament, and an average of 0.99 goals-per game. I’d rather see that than a blueliner with 10 points.

I think the fact that the U.S. has such great skaters on the back end is a huge advantage. This is certainly as mobile a group of defenseman as you’ll find. That will come in handy against some of Canada’s speedier players.

This defensive corps will also have to be prepared for battle in front of Jack Campbell. The crease has got to be a no-fly zone for much of the game. Canada does such a good job of creating traffic, getting pucks to the net and picking up rebounds. The big bodies for Team USA will have to be as tough as ever, but smart.

I think special teams are going to be huge in this game, as they often are in these tight match-ups. I don’t know how the game will be called by the refs, but I’d guess fairly tight. There will be power-play opportunities for both teams.

Throughout the tournament, both squads have been deadly with the man advantage. Canada boasts a 45% success rate, while USA has been successful 38 % of the time on the PP.

On the PK, Team USA has yet to allow a power-play goal all tournament, while Canada has yielded only three. It helps that the U.S. has only taken seven penalties against, with just five power-plays against. That’s discipline. Still, against Canada, I just don’t see either team able to completely stay out of the box.

Lastly, I am sure that this will be a mainly pro-Canadian crowd out there in Buffalo tonight. That really doesn’t bother me at all. The waving flags and the red-clad army probably won’t phase the U.S., I don’t think. I can only hope that the Americans that did get out there are loud and proud tonight. I’m sure many of us wish we could see this thing in person, so if you are headed to the game tonight, cheer for us.

Without further ado, here are tonight’s keys to victory:

– Use speed and physicality to dictate the pace of the game

– Win the net-front battles on both ends of the ice

Shoot to thrill, play to kill.

What’s left to say, folks? USA-Canada. Should be a good one.

Follow me on Twitter for more updates throughout the day and the game.

About Chris Peters

Editor of The United States of Hockey. Contributor to, USA Hockey Magazine and more. Former USA Hockey PR guy. Current Iowan.
This entry was posted in 2011 WJC, Junior Hockey, U.S. National Teams. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to In Which I Give My Less Biased Opinion on Tonight’s Game

  1. PotvinRocks says:

    I wasn’t feeling very confident in this squad winning, because they have struggled to score this whole tournament. But then you reminded me that Canada’s goalies have been so so and we have Jack Campbell and now I feel so much better.
    I wish I was a Star’s fan, because then I would have Jack Campbell.
    Schenn is not a flashy high skilled center. He is a work horse and that’s how he gets it done. Who’s line goes against Schenn? Brock Nelson or Bjurstad’s line. Bjurstad is a big body but Nelson seems like a better defensive center. Or do you go strength against strength, Schenn v Coyle? So many questions. But one thing is for sure, I’m looking forward to it.

Comments are closed.


text:
Diamond eye Award for Unity Hospital

Diamond eye Award for Quality Commitment and Excellence

Unity Hospital has been honoured with 'Diamond eye Award for Quality Commitment and Excellence and total quality management accreditation for high quality performance and best customer satisfaction'. This was awarded to Dr. C.P. Habeeb Rahman, Chairman, Unity Care and Health Services Pvt. Ltd. on 28th of November 2011 at Geneva in Switzerland by the President, Mr. Charbel S. Tabet of Otherways Management and Consulting.

The selection is done by voting process carried by Internet and the information collected through media, Chamber of Commerce, embassies of different countries, and on-line macro polls that will decide the final award. More than 65 companies were awarded in over 100 countries and Unity Hospital was the only Hospital in the awarded list.

Dr. C.P. Habeeb Rahman responded to the award by highlighting the role of healthcare services in the society and the emerging role of Indian Health tourism. He said India is the best medical fraternity working in different parts of the world and quality health services is the emphasis through hospitals in India now.


text:
0 Items / $0.00
The Guests at the Marriage Feast
Home /
The Guests at the Marriage Feast
The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. -- Matthew 22:1-14

The king gave a marriage feast for his son. This requires no particular explanation; it is normal for a father to give a marriage feast for his son (the modern American custom of the bride’s family giving the wedding reception is relatively recent). But, when the quests were notified to come, they did not. Even today this would be a shocking insult; no polite person accepts a dinner invitation, even for a less formal occasion than a married feast, and then refuses to attend. And no prudent person would insult the king, of all people, so outrageously.

The king gave the guests a second chance, and sent more servants to tell the guests all the preparations he had made for wonderful feast. Some of the guests offered frivolous excuses; others actually killed the king’s servants! Verse seven does not surprise us: the king responded, since his patience was exhausted, by sending in the army to kill the offenders and burn their city – “scorched earth”, as you might say.

This, however, has only set the stage for the interesting part of the parable. There is still the marriage feast, awaiting participants. So, the king sends more servants to go out in the streets and invite everyone whom they could find, “both bad and good,” and fill the wedding hall with guests.

In these words we may find some hope for ourselves. The king did not make moralistic requirments for this second round of invitation; everybody was welcome! In the same way, even you and I are welcome to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb of God, to the Kingdom of Heaven. We cannot “earn” the invitation, and we certainly cannot claim to be “worthy” of the invitation; that is part of the lesson which Our Lord is offering us in this parable. The invitation is God’s free gift of grace; we are welcome. God loves us and welcomes us, even though we may not be doing so well at loving God, and welcoming God into our own lives.

Then, however, there is this affair of the guest who was not wearing a wedding garment. On first hearing these verses, we can be excused for thinking that either this is ridiculous – the king had just sent his servants to drag in anybody from the streets to come to the marriage feast, so how could he possibly have expected these people to have put on their formal clothes such as we would wear to attend an elaborate wedding reception?

The king could expect the guests, even the last-minute guests, to be properly dressed because at that time and in that culture, it was the duty of the king to provide suitable clothes for each of his guests (being a king was an expensive business). And he certainly had these clothes ready for his guests, because he would have prepared them for the original batch of guests, who never showed up.

As each guest was brought into the palace for the marriage feasts the servants would usher the guest into an anteroom and offer the guest the special wedding garments. These would then be given to the guest; he would be permitted to wear them during the ceremony and the banquet and then to keep them as a memento of the wedding feast. It was of course a great honor to have such garments as a gift from the king.

Naturally, then, the king was disagreeably surprised to find one of his guests not wearing these special clothes. Evidently the guest did not think it was worth the bother to put on the garments which the king’s servants had offered him – in other words, he wanted to eat and drink but did not want to show any respect for his host. (In our modern times, one is always shocked by the number of people who cannot be bothered to attend a wedding ceremony but turn up for the reception to eat and drink the food and wines. They resemble this disrespectful guest in the Gospel.) So, the king had the servants put this offending guest out.

What does this have to do with us? The invitation to the feast is God’s free gift of His grace, His love, to us. We must in turn put on the festive wedding garment which God offers us. That wedding garment is not a piece of cloth; that wedding garment is Jesus Christ Himself, Whom we “put on” in Holy Baptism. To abide in the Kingdom of God, at the marriage feast, we must live “in Christ”, so that we may say with Saint Paul “it is no longer I who live; it is Christ Who lives in me!”

We can enter the Kingdom of Heaven only by being clothed in Christ; we enter the Kingdom of Heaven because Christ enters the Kingdom of Heaven. We have received this wedding garment in Baptism, when we were immersed in the water and plunged into Christ’s death and emerged again into Christ’s resurrection. As a sign of this, we received a new white garment from the hands of the priest, but the white garment that matters is Christ Himself. It is up to us to keep ourselves clothed in Christ, so that we should not only be called, be invited, but that the King should recognize us, that we should be chosen.

May the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of us!

His Eminence Archbishop Vsevolod

His Eminence is Eparchial Bishop of the Western Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA

Strategic Plan

Prayer Books
Prayer Books
Prayer Book
Prayer Book
Share This:

< PreviousNext >
You might also like:

Mailing Address
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA
P.O. Box 495
South Bound Brook, NJ 08880

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA
Metropolia Center
135 Davidson Avenue
Somerset, NJ 08873


text:
What started as a rumor in 2006 has now spread like wildfire after The Wall Street Journal shed some new light on the matter. Claims of an affair with Donald Trump and the Adult Film Star, Stephanie Clifford, otherwise known as Stormy Daniels [VIDEO], have become a matter of intense debate stretching across political lines and the media.

Stephanie tells her story

In July 2006, Donald Trump was at Lake Tahoe resort, attending a golf tournament, when he had his first encounter with Stephanie Clifford. According to the adult film star, the future president took her on a ride around the lakefront course in his Escalade golf cart.

In an interview with InTouch magazine, Stephanie detailed her night with Donald Trump saying, she went to his hotel room and found him in pajamas watching television. The two had dinner in the room which led to unprotected sex. Stephanie also spoke of Trump’s phobia of sharks and how he wished they would become extinct, “he was like, I donate to all these charities and I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks.”

The adult film actor also talked about how Trump compared her to his daughter saying she was, “someone to be reckoned with, beautiful and smart.” Trump also asked her to autograph a copy of her adult movie "3 Wishes." Her affair with the future president continued after their night at the Tahoe resort. The two stayed in contact, and later met in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel where she found him watching Shark Week on Discovery Channel.

Cohen denies making any payment

InTouch magazine had previously published pieces of the interview which received scant attention but after the recent report from The Wall Street Journal detailing Michael Cohen’s payment to Clifford. In the report, Michael Cohen, one of Trump organization's attorneys, paid Stephanie $130, 000 so that she would stay silent regarding her encounter with the president. Michael later denied overseeing any payment to Clifford and produced an email which showed the adult film star denying she had any contact with Donald Trump or that she received any payment.

Jacob Weisberg, Chairman, and editor in chief of the Slate Group said that Stephanie’s interview, published in InTouch magazine, matched with what she had told Slate in their interviews. Weisberg later published an article detailing his conversation with Stephanie. He wrote of how Stephanie had worked out an agreement that would ensure Donald Trump would pay her a six-figure amount for her silence. Clifford also sent the two-page unsigned document to Weisberg showing details of the settlement. Slate published the document which shields the names of other parties involved in the agreement.

The affair remains a matter of debate as The Wall Street Journal is yet to prove the $130, 000 payment to Stephanie.


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/rss+xml

text: User Feedback News: eringilliam: brand-differentiator Recent bookmarks posted to User Feedback News Wed, 15 Aug 2018 17:11:33 +0200 Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:15:48 +0200 60 Want Better Customer Experience? Combine CRM And Customer Feedback If you are not focused on receiving and using customer feedback, you are missing out on an amazing growth tool. Gathering customer feedback throughout the entire customer journey is of great importance to the buyer life cycle, marketing campaigns and the entire customer experience. As focuses shift to improving this experience, continuous feedback will be required. According to a recent study, 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience. And by 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. How do you get the best experience? By listening to the customer, of course. eringilliam Fri, 13 Apr 2018 06:15:48 +0000 customer-experience user-feedback crm brand-differentiator


text:
US Materials Handling Corp
Ph:315-437-2978 | F:315-543-0808
Item Added to Cart
Share Print Page Recently Viewed

You have not viewed any products recently.

Alternative Views
  • There are no alternate images available for this product.

Tool Balancers

Series TB/TBL. Hand-windable spring tension adjustment knob is flush with the housing. Push-button tension release simplifies decrease of spring tension. Adjustment screw adds drag to spool for fine tuning of tension. Oversized cable opening with direct in-line pull to reduce cable wear. Adjustable cable stop and lower safety hook. Matte Black finish. Series TB are constant tension. Series TBL have a rachet lock. FOB Shipping Point.

Steel surcharge may apply.

Top 5 Benefits:

1. Balances the weight of assembly tools making them nearly weightless.

2. Reduces operator fatigue.

3. Improves safety and ergonomics.

4. Increases productivity, keeps tools positioned for immediate use with minimal operator motion.

5. Reduces tool damage, prevents tools from being accidentally dropped.

Product No. HTBL-15
Type Heavy Duty
W x H x L
3-3/8 x 13-7/8 to 90 x 8-3/4"
Load Cap.
Min.-Max. (lbs.)
Cable Length 8'
Wt. (lbs.) 88

Price Ea.: $319.00
Quality Value
Have Questions


text:
Bar 10 Ranch Guides & Outfitters

Bar 10 Ranch offers a diverse selection of western ranch activities and tours, all within site of the magnificent Grand Canyon.

View Website
(435) 359-2716
P.O. Box 910088
St. George, UT 84791

Leave behind the cars, the long lines, and the onslaught of rushing people. Bar 10 Ranch has been hosting Grand Canyon visitors for several decades. They are the perfect beginning and ending point for many river rafting experiences on the Colorado River and they are an excellent spot for country hospitality and adventure on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

ATV Rides
Tours vary in length from 1 ½ hours to full day tours and take you to some of the most astounding sites on earth.

Horseback Riding
Enjoy short trail rides near the lodge, or experience extended trail rides which take you to secluded, remote, rarely visited areas. Lengths vary from 30 minutes to half day rides, and you can stay multiple days at the ranch.

See the Grand Canyon from the top, or hike into the Canyon and experience it from the bottom looking up.

River Rafting
One-stop-shopping for an adventure of a lifetime through the Grandest Canyon of the Colorado River.

Skeet Shooting
Skeet shooting at the Bar 10 Ranch is an exhilarating event for the novice and experienced shooter.

Helicopter Tours
Helicopter tours during the river season provide a singular opportunity for a bird's-eye view of this remote desert area including awesome tributaries of the Grand Canyon. Available during the summer months.

Evening Entertainment
Evening entertainment varies from casual camaraderie around a campfire to a boot-stompin' country program with singing, dancing, and much more starring the Bar 10 guys and gals.

Nature Center
Get the close-up view of some of the less approachable desert fauna such as spiders, snakes, lizards, scorpions, squirrels, and many other critters indigenous to the rugged area.

Click here for more information regarding activity packages and rates.

Use Ctrl + scroll to zoom the map
Back To Top


text:
Manulife, Sun Life profits rise but caution looms amid cost-cutting, trade uncertainty

Two of Canada’s biggest financial services firms saw an earnings uptick in the latest quarter but signs of caution loom.

A man is seen outside the Manulife Financial head office in Toronto after their Annual General Meeting on Thursday May 3, 2012. Aaron Vincent Elkaim / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Share Adjust Comment Print

TORONTO — Two of Canada’s biggest financial services firms saw an earnings uptick in the latest quarter but signs of caution loom.

Sun Life Financial Inc. said Thursday its investor clients are cautious amid trade uncertainty, while Manulife Financial Corp. is cutting back the firm’s physical footprint and workforce.

Sun Life CEO Dean Connor says clients of its MFS investment management arm were “derisking,” and net outflows for the latest quarter were “outsized” at US$11.5 billion.

“The trade backdrop has clearly got people cautious, sitting on their hands a little bit,” he told analysts on a conference call on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Manulife gave more details Thursday on the aggressive cost-cutting initiative it announced at its investor day in June, aimed at generating savings of $300-million per year.

Manulife’s chief financial officer Philip Witherington told analysts that the company intends to combine its head office footprints in the U.S. and Canada to a single building in each market, consolidate its legacy IT systems in the U.S., in addition to a previously-announced cut of 700 jobs.

“Execution of those actions will be completed over the next 12 to 18 months,” Witherington told analysts.

Both companies recorded an increase in profit during their fiscal second quarter, with adjusted earnings beating analyst expectations, as the industry players invest in technology to stay competitive and the broader macroeconomic outlook is clouded by concerns over trade tensions between Canada and the U.S.

Manulife recorded a second quarter profit of $1.26 billion, slightly higher than during the same period ended June 30 a year ago.

Sun Life’s net income during the quarter was $729 million, up six per cent from the same period a year earlier.

Both Manulife and Sun Life benefited from their international presence.

Despite softness in its MFS results, Sun Life’s U.S. and Asia businesses saw a 24 per cent increase and 18 per cent increase to underlying net income, respectively, compared to a year ago.

Manulife’s core earnings from its U.S. and Asia businesses rose 16 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, during the quarter compared to a year earlier.

    This Week's Flyers

    We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.


text:
You will be redirected back to your article in seconds

Caroline Schneider

TV Land Original Productions, TV Land VP, Marketing
Data provided by:

Want to contact Caroline Schneider directly? Get phone numbers, email addresses, org charts and more for virtually everyone working in entertainment!

Visit Variety Insight

More From Our Brands

Access exclusive content


text:
VDARE.com Has A Dream Too—An Immigration Moratorium! Help Us Realize It!!
August 29, 2013, 05:37 AM
Print Friendly and PDF

Peter Brimelow, Editor, VDARE.com

By Peter Brimelow, Editor, VDARE.com

**VDARE.com has NOT changed to a pay site!! Please scroll down and read the explanation at the bottom!!!!

**As of Thursday evening, August 28, VDARE.com’s Summer Fundraising Appeal has reached about $14, 000—47% of our $30K goal! From now on, we’ll be updating the number daily.

**Our new Appeal software is working, although there are teething problems—contact office@vdare.com if you run into one. Critically, it enables us to continue posting rather than blocking the website during our appeals, which was very bad for our blood pressure, especially at this critical time.

**Remember, aside from a tax-deductible $100 to get a VIP Summer Pass, donations (tax-deductible) of ANY SIZE will get us to our goal faster, enabling us to open VDARE.com soon! And you can now buy individual articles for one dollar each!!

You’ve probably absolutely certainly heard that today was the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech.

I think it’s fair to say that at VDARE.com, we don’t quite take the standard, utterly uncritical view of the “Civil Rights Revolution” that is now an imperative career necessity throughout America’s Main Stream Media.

  • We don’t think it has solved, or can solve, what the Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal called the “American Dilemma”—and that the attempt to pretend otherwise is a major cause of the repressive Political Correctness that now cripples public debate.
  • We think it came with very real costs that are also now unmentionable—for example anti-white quotas (“Affirmative Action”), inescapable crime and the devastation of once-great American cities, Detroit being only the most notorious example.
  •  Above all, we think the emotional spasm of which today’s ceremonies were an echo was exploited to pass the disastrous 1965 Immigration Act—which, combined with a simultaneous collapse in immigration law enforcement, is set to reduce the historic American nation into a minority in the country that their ancestors built well within the lifetimes of children now alive.

Treason Lobby propagandists are still trying to work this trick—see Immigration reform activists seize on `moral tone` of civil rights movement, by Carrie Dann, NBC News, Aug 27, 2013.

Fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic call for racial equality in the March on Washington, immigration reform activists are seizing on his "moral tone" in their fight for laws easing a pathway to citizenship.

 “At the core, we are talking about the same thing,” says Clarissa Martinez de Castro, the director of immigration policy for Hispanic civil rights organization National Council of La Raza. “This is a conversation about the value of a person. It was the core of the conversation then, and it is the core of the conversation now.

Of course, this term “immigration reform” is just Treason Lobby-speak for the pending legislation aimed at amnestying illegal aliens—and simultaneously, unmentioned in the NBC article and in virtually all other MSM accounts, massively increasing legal immigration.

This will be a huge electoral windfall for the American Left, and a huge financial windfall for post-American plutocrats.

But, ironically on this anniversary, it will further immiserate American blacks, disproportionately lower skilled, whose continuing economic problems over the last five decades have been greatly exacerbated by job market competition from illegal and legal immigrants.

The single best thing that public policy could do for American blacks right now—and for that matter for American workers of all colors—would be to impose an immigration moratorium, a time-out with zero net immigration until the labor market tightens, unemployment falls, and wages rise.

But the option of an immigration moratorium is never even mentioned in public discourse. Instead, the political class, Liberal and “Conservative”, is trying to impose exactly the opposite on a muzzled and mugged American nation.

It’s almost as if they don’t really care about black Americans (and all American workers).

Only VDARE.com is exploring the immigration moratorium option.

That’s not unusual.

  • For years, we have been the only publication pointing to the importance of the white (formerly known, until the 1965 Immigration Act, as American,) vote—which finally entered MSM debate early this year.
  • We said impeachment was the only answer to Obama’s Administrative Amnesty back in 2011—and now the idea of impeaching Obama is ablaze among the grassroots and attracting repeated pre-emptive strikes from the worried Liberal MSM.
  • We have been estimating immigrant displacement of American workers since 2004: the federal government began releasing hard data in 2009; a couple of Washington D.C. think tanks have recently alluded to it; soon it will enter the MSM unemployment-reporting template.  A moratorium debate will—finally—follow

All of which is why I must ask you to help us (tax-deductibly!) now.

Remember, 2013 is also the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. I think about Lincoln’s speech more, because I really believe that, in a humble way, we at VDARE.com are also “testing” a “proposition”—whether journalism can survive with only voluntary reader support, outside of the corporate world.

Forty years in the MSM have left me convinced that it’s the only hope for true originality—and for the cause of patriotic immigration reform, which is ultimately the cause of America.

Please help us now. All of us at VDARE.com will be most grateful.

Peter Brimelow

  • It took time but we listened! You know longer have to be blocked from viewing VDARE.com while we are running our appeals. Now, if you make a donation of $100 or more using the VIP link below you will be able to create a username and password that will allow you to view the entire site for the duration of the current appeal!

Click here to purchase your VIP Summer Pass

  • You can also donate any amount using the regular donation page (here). When we reach our target of $30,000 we`ll re-open!
  • If you can’t commit to a VIP Summer Pass, you can close the appeal (use that little x in the upper right hand corner) and you will be able to see the site, purchase any single article for a (tax-deductible) donation of one dollar to view individual articles.


text:
Canada: Pan Am Games Diversity Standards Denigrate Regular Business Folks
October 07, 2013, 01:16 AM
Print Friendly and PDF

Canada, with its official policy of multiculturalism, has been half a step ahead of America in terms of the bad craziness attached to believing extreme diversity to be a positive value. However, the faith of the citizens may be drifting away. For example, the quadruple honor killing of four women in the Shafia Afghan immigrant family aroused concerns among the public that perhaps misogynous Muslim culture may not be an appropriate fit with western societies.

But today’s topic is the Pan Am Games taking place in Toronto, which requires all vendors to submit information about their gender, LGBT orientation, aboriginal background and/or disabilities. Many find the questions to be intrusive and insulting, as did the owner of Scooters Catering food service company described in the Toronto Sun article linked below.

Apparently there is a “diversity certification” that businesses can get and an organization to print out the official credentials. There are many opportunities in the diversity field, no doubt about it.

SunTV’s Brian Lilly and columnist John Robson had a discussion about the absurdity of diversity quotas and how the ideology negates basic fairness:

It’s whacky stuff, this Canadian obsession with the trendy god diversity, but the affliction is widespread in liberal communities. For example, the University of California Berkeley has an office for inclusion with a staff of 150 and a budget of $17 million.

So the problem is not just Canada, but the confusion of liberals everywhere who wrongly think that all diversity is equal. It isn’t. The lesser status of women around the world shows the inequality of diversity clearly enough.

Pan Am Games diversity push raises questions, Toronto Sun, October 3, 2013

TORONTO - Scott Anders, of Scooters Catering, had hoped to be able to sell his hot dogs, gently smoked pulled pork and St. Louis style ribs at some of the venues during the 2015 Pan Am Games.

Anders thought himself a perfect fit.

After all, events like this are bread and butter for his Milton-based company. When I spoke to him earlier this week, he was just winding down from a busy summer operating his food trailer at the Honda Indy, the Live Nation tour at Ontario Place, as well as a variety of weekend festivals.

But when he went online to the Pan Am website in the spring to register as a supplier with the games’ database, he was shocked to see that he had to declare whether his is a diverse business.

That meant reporting whether it is 51% owned and operated by females, visible minorities, Aboriginals, disabled people or by people who identify as LGBT.

He also had to indicate whether his business actually has a “diversity certification.”

Anders told me he’d never seen anything like it and that the most he’s ever been asked in an application is to send a picture of his booth.

“They never ask what colour you are or whether you are owned by a woman,” he said, noting he’s been in the business for 18 years. “What does this have to do with being a food vendor … I just want to sell hot dogs.”

He decided not to continue with his application figuring his company “would never ever have a chance” of being selected.

Another gentleman, who did not want to his name or company used, went to a presentation early this year which included a talk by someone from the TO2015 organization.

He heard the presenter say that when two companies are competing for a particular contract, they will lean towards companies with Aboriginal, LGBT and other minority employees.

“It drives up costs and it makes people frustrated where they won’t bid,” he said. “I’ve never seen these social biases put into a purchasing requirement … it made me feel sick.”

Anders and our unnamed gentlemen felt strongly that this was a case of reverse discrimination.

What they didn’t realize is that they are victims who have run into CEO Ian Troop’s vow to make “multiculturalism” to the TO2015 games what “green” was to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

These were to be the People’s Games.

Announced with great fanfare in March 2011, Troop pledged to “adopt diversity as a standard practice” in their day-to-day business to apparently harness the economic impact of the games for those segments of the population that have been under-represented up to now in these kinds of massive projects.

“All of our procedures and decision-making criteria will embrace diversity from how we purchase goods and services to how we hire employees and recruit volunteers,” he said at the time.

And we don’t yet know whether taxpayers are getting value for their money in this initiative.

The Diversity Business Network News quoted CFO Barb Anderson saying in March 2012 that $350 million in procurements were up for grabs and that diversity communities will be “given priority” in the selection process.

But 2015 spokesman Teddy Katz told me Thursday Anderson was misquoted and that they must always ensure they are “receiving value for money” through a competitive procurement process. He added that 90% of the rated criteria during the evaluation of any tender is based on value for money.

According to figures posted on their own website, the TO2015 team reports that about 19% of the nearly $4.5 million of the third-party supplier contracts awarded to date — out of a total of $23.8 million — were to firms owned by minorities.

Even large companies engaged in construction of venues like the athletes village and other large infrastructure projects will have to demonstrate a willingness to “include diversity candidates” on their teams and will be expected to regularly report the progress of such initiatives during the construction process, Troop also insisted when he made his 2011 announcement.

In addition to endeavouring to flood the supplier pool with visible and other minorities, the TO2015 team boasted by November of last year and continue to boast that 25% of their workforce are visible minorities, 7% are gay, 3% are those with disabilities and 49% are women.

Asked whether diverse companies and employees have been hired, Tourism Minister Michael Chan listed the same figures provided by the Pan Am brass, adding that they are working to ensure these games are the “People’s Games.”

But two years after Troop’s announcement, we don’t know how many have benefited from this lofty, likely overambitious attempt by the Pan Am brass to make diversity the theme of the 2015 games.

It seems the execution has been a problem. People on both sides of the equation don’t seem to be happy. Firms owned by white men like Anders are giving up in disgust and diverse firms are not getting much more than a limited number of jobs. Monitoring of large infrastructure projects has been sketchy at best.

Diversity Business Network founder and lawyer Courtney Betty was one of the “catalysts” in the development of the original diversity policy — based on what the London 2012 Olympics did with its multicultural communities.

But somewhere along the line “that got lost,” Betty told me Thursday.

“I don’t think there was a real commitment for this to happen … it was great publicity,” said Betty, who stepped back in disgust nearly a year ago.

PC MPP and Pan Am critic Rod Jackson said it is important that games tenders be as “inclusive as possible” to all populations.

“To have a policy that excludes people based on their race … whether white males or any other group … is appalling to me,” he said. “It’s actually reverse discrimination … we should getting the best people to do the best work.”

Jackson said he’s already “skeptical” about whether the Pan Am folk are getting the best value for the projects underway and this just adds to the suspicion that all but a select few are getting the work.

“I would really be curious to see if they’re (the successful suppliers) just in the Liberals’ pockets,” he said. “Is this just another case of patronage … are they taking care of each other?”


text:
Sun Tzu And The Art Of Amnesty
November 17, 2014, 05:10 PM
Print Friendly and PDF
51mqPxF6SnL[1]In his classic The Art of War, ancient Chinese martial sage Sun Tzu said that
... to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. (The Art of War, Attack by Stratagem)
The Obama Administration, with the support of the Mainstream Media, controls the upper ground. Despite the fact that his party just lost a congressional election, Obama feels supremely confident that he can pass this unilateral amnesty with no significant consequences. Obama may well be right, if the Republicans do not resist him. Really, considering that the the head of the opposition in the House is John Boehner, how much confidence can you have?

After all, look what Obama has already done in permitting, even encouraging and rewarding, illegal immigration. Where was the resistance?

Of course, there is opposition among the grassroots, and among a few in Congress. Senator Jeff Sessions has repeatedly spoken out.

But the national leadership of the GOP is worse than useless on this issue. The national leadership is part of the problem.

Why? Do they fail to understand what demographics is doing to the GOP? Have they been paid off by Sheldon Adelson and other wealthy cheap labor profiteers? Have they been cowed into submission by multiculturalist propaganda? Do they look down on the historic American nation? Probably all these factors and others are at play, to varying degrees among various leaders. But the result is a party that won't fight.

It reminds me of a blog post by the late Lawrence Auster, written a month before his death in 2013. Auster's characteristic subtle title for the post was "Maggots In The Sun Pretending To Be A Political Party". Referring to a pro-amnesty article by Michael Reagan, Auster wrote that

His [Michael Reagan's] article is not the result of a thinking process or even a cowardly political calculation: it is deliquescence; it is dead organic material rotting and turning to liquid in the sun. That’s all that’s left of the Republican Party, or at least of the Republican Party establishment. They now replicate Britain’s Conservative Party as it has been since David Cameron took it over six years ago.
I hope the Republicans prove me wrong. But a truly patriotic party would never have never let it go this far.


text:
Tag: marble

Hooray! Veganz Private Label Launch

Hooray! Today we’re introducing our new vegan(z) product line in our stores. With colorful designs and a unique presentation, we’re building out our own brand, little by little.

Cookie Preference

Please select an option. You can find more information about the consequences of your choice at Help.

Select an option to continue

Your selection was saved!

To continue, you must make a cookie selection. Below is an explanation of the different options and their meaning.

  • Accept all cookies:
    All cookies such as tracking and analytics cookies.
  • Accept first-party cookies only:
    Only cookies from this website.
  • Reject all cookies:
    No cookies except for those necessary for technical reasons are set.

You can change your cookie setting here anytime: Datenschutzerklärung. Impressum


text:
Is This a Good Time to Take an ARM Mortgage?

September 25, 2017

Are you considering taking an ARM mortgage in this interest rate environment? There are times and situations where an ARM mortgage makes sense. Is that true in this market?

Security vs. a Lower Interest Rate

The 30-year fixed rate mortgage represents the ultimate tool in home financing security. Both your interest rate and your monthly payment are locked for the term of the loan. That means that you will absolutely know what your house payment will be for the next 30 years.

This is not true with an ARM mortgage. The only thing that you know for certain is what the interest rate and payment will be during the fixed term of the loan. If it’s a five-year ARM, that means that you will only know what the payment will be for the first five years. After that, your payment will rise and fall based on changes in market interest rates.

Considering that the rate on the 5/1 ARM is only about a half a point lower than the 30-year fixed rate, that hardly seems like enough advantage to give up the security of the fixed rate mortgage.

If the spread between the two loan types was something like 2% or more, then the risk involved in the ARM mortgage might be justified. But at half a point, it hardly seems worth it.

Mortgage Rates are Near Historic Lows

With interest rates hovering just above their historic lows, it makes sense to lock in your rate for the longest term possible. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage accomplishes this task. Should rates begin to rise, back to their historic normal range of 6% to 7%, you would be fully protected with a fixed rate mortgage. That’s because the rate on your loan won’t increase, no matter what happens with market interest rates.

The situation is the exact opposite when it comes to an ARM. The interest rate that you pay is only protected during the fixed rate term of the loan. If you have signed up for a 5/1 ARM, that means that you will have your original interest rate only for the first five years.

After that, your loan becomes a one-year adjustable, subject to change annually. If rates are higher at the end of the fixed term, then your interest rate will increase – generally as much as two percentage points over the original rate. And should rates continue to rise, you will pay a higher interest rate each year.

You Win With a Fixed Rate Mortgage, Even if Rates Drop

Probably the single biggest advantage to a fixed rate mortgage is the fact that no matter what happens with interest rates in the future, you can win.

Should rates increase, you can simply keep the loan that you have, and continue paying the original low interest rate. But should rates fall, you always have the option to refinance and take advantage of the new lower rates.

In theory, at least, you can refinance each time rates fall sufficiently to justify the cost of the refinance. While it’s certainly not recommended, some homeowners have refinanced their original mortgages several times during the term of the loan. That’s always an option when rates stair-step lower.

You can do the same thing with an ARM loan, refinancing each time rates fall. But should they increase, you will be stuck paying the new, higher rate.

The Case For Taking an ARM Mortgage

Despite all the advantages with the 30-year fixed rate mortgage, there are times and circumstances where an ARM mortgage makes sense.

You believe mortgage rates will fall. If there is a reasonable basis to believe that mortgage rates will continue to fall, an ARM mortgage will make sense. That’s because it will put you in a position to take advantage of the lower rates, without the need to go through a refinance. Your rate will automatically adjust downward, without any effort on your part.

You’re 100% certain you’ll sell within five years. This could be due to a pending job change, or the fact that you expect your earnings to rise significantly in the future. But if you are reasonably certain that you will not be in the home for longer than the fixed term of the ARM, then taking such a mortgage can make sense.

You have the money to pay off the ARM even if you can’t sell the home. If you have the funds to pay off the mortgage in the event of a rate spike, then the risk of an ARM mortgage is virtually nonexistent. You can keep the mortgage outstanding only so long as it makes sense to pay the rate. But if it gets uncomfortable, you can simply pay the loan off.

That said, it’s never wise to assume that you’ll be selling the home within the fixed term. That may be your intention, but you can never know for certain if you’ll be in a position to do it when the time comes.

In the current low-interest rate environment, locking in your rate for the longest term possible makes the most sense. But if you fit into one of the exceptions above, then an ARM mortgage is certainly worth a look.

Real live rates, real low fees. Talk to a Velocity Expert and get approved today!

Send this to a friend


text:
Latin America Responds to Venezuela’s Deepening Political Crisis

To some commentators, it was no coincidence that the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice’s (TSJ) decision to sideline the National Assembly was announced less than 24 hours after the March 28 OAS Permanent Council session. Seeming to come as a direct response to what the Venezuelan government depicted as an illegal intervention in its internal affairs by the Permanent Council, the TSJ’s move was taken as evidence of the futility of pressure from Latin American countries to play a role in resolving Venezuela’s crisis. However, the government’s backtracking from the Court’s two controversial decisions issued on March 29 challenges this argument. Although the reversal is incomplete and still allows President Maduro to make decisions about mixed enterprises and hydrocarbons without legislative approval, it suggests that regional pressure can indeed influence the Venezuelan government’s actions—particularly when combined with domestic resistance, like Attorney General Luisa Ortega’s firm and vocal opposition to the TSJ decisions.

A Round-Up of Latin America’s Diplomatic Response

For this reason, it’s worth taking a look at the strong regional outcry that emerged last week in Latin America. These responses seemed to catch the government by surprise, and may have emboldened critics within the Venezuelan government to speak out as well.

Moving forward, it looks as though Venezuela’s backpedaling on the TSJ’s latest decisions regarding the National Assembly isn’t satisfying the Latin American governments that have spoken out. Shortly after the TSJ’s April 1 revision of the decisions, the full member states of the Mercosur trading bloc—Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay—issued a joint statement pointing to a “break in the democratic order in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” and calling for the establishment of a timeline for elections, the liberation of political prisoners, and the reestablishment of the separation of powers.

At a joint press conference with her counterparts following the statement’s publication, Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra made clear that, despite the reversal, from the point of view of her government, the separation of powers “is not functioning” in Venezuela. Malcorra also told reporters that Mercosur was issuing the statement under the auspices of its “democracy clause,” even as she clarified that expelling Venezuela (which is already suspended from Mercosur for failing to adopt membership standards) would be a last resort.

Meanwhile, the stage is set for yet another extraordinary session of the OAS Permanent Council this afternoon (April 3). At the March 28 session, 20 countries supported moving forward with a regional discussion of Venezuela’s crisis; the April 3 session may provide a sense of what those countries have in mind. As of April 1, the rotating presidency of the Permanent Council is occupied by Bolivia, not Belize, which could have implications for how the session unfolds. According to OAS bylaws, the president of the Permanent Council is tasked with calling meetings, directing the discussion, recognizing speakers in the order in which they request the floor, and deciding on points of order (though such decisions can be appealed by a vote). Considering the Bolivian OAS ambassador’s vocal opposition to discussing the situation in Venezuela, some observers have expressed concern that he could seek to minimize such debate today, or even seek to delay this or future Permanent Council sessions. However, as EFE reports, it is unlikely that he could prevent them altogether.


text:
Mostly Reviews

City Of Secrets (Stravaganza #4) by Mary Hoffman July 3, 2011

First I have to say that I love Italy, so when I first got my hands on the first Stravaganza book I was really excited and it was great.
This one is the 4th one of the series and it travels us to a 16th century Padua of another world.
Matt is sad in his 21st century London life, with dyslexia and self-confidence problems, when he finds a book that travels him to Padova in Talia. There he meets a professor in a uni that tells him he is a Stravagante and he can travel with his talisman between the two worlds.
He also meets another stravagante Luciano, who is actually a dead boy from his school and lives his life in Talia. In his world he comes across all the Stravaganti from all the previous books and together they help him adjust in his new life.
Everything seems great, a new life in a world where Matt can read, new friends and a new city, until the di Chimici decide to trace Luciano and make him pay for killing a member of their family. All magic becomes forbidden in Padua and the adventure begins!
The book is simple writen, enjoyble and full of magic scenes. I loved it! And I can’t wait to get my hands on the next one!


text:
US Veterans

Veterans Helping Veterans, US Vets Infromation and Benefits,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

US Veterans © 2018 Frontier Theme
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!


text:
Stories Organisations Projects About Login

mincing machine

From the Collection of Churchill Island Heritage Farm 1 Samuel Amess Drive Newhaven Victoria

Hand operated mincing machine, larger than usual, with multi small holed attachment in place. Tin plating worn off top edge of bell. Plan wooden handle. Stamped with name, number, etc.
overall height with holding screw out 32.5 cm; mouth bell 12.5 cm across. length of barrell: 24.5 cm
Object Registration
Inscriptions & Markings
HUSQVARNA 10 one side; also on attachment holder. RELIANCE/MADE IN SWEDEN + five pointed star on other side. "H" stamped on crank inside.
Last updated
3 Mar 2017 at 10:13AM


text:
Como fiz a minha carta de intenção para estudar no Canadá – leia a carta na íntegra

Um dos meus primeiros posts no blog foi como escrever a carta de intenção para estudar no Canadá. Por isso, decidi publicar na íntegra a minha carta para ajudar melhor quem está nessa etapa do processo.

Como vocês vão notar, eu forcei a barra em alguns momentos, puxei saco da Capilano também, o que faz parte, mesmo sabendo (agora que já estou aqui), que nada que eu escrevi sobre a faculdade é verdade, rs.

Segue a carta em inglês.

I am writing to inform you of my interest in the North American Business Management Applied Post Baccalaureate with specialization in Marketing. I currently hold my Bachelor’s of Social Communication with emphasis in Journalism from Centro Universitário de Belo Horizonte (UNIBH), having graduated with a GPA of 88,94 in august 2015.

I developed an interest in marketing in 2014, when I was hired for an internship at Encontro Magazine, one of the most important in my city. At that time I had to work with the marketing department of the company during a gastronomic festival sponsored by Encontro. I participated in the marketing meetings to develop online and off-line strategies to make the festival a success. Still at Encontro I became responsible for the digital marketing part of the company and also got involved in the women running festival promoted twice a year by Encontro. Even though I worked most of the time with digital marketing and journalism, I kept in touch with the marketing department in order to participate and learn more about its universe.

Also, in the last semestre of university I had the opportunity to study marketing in an online platform developed by UNIBH. The contente was interesting and more related to business administration, which enriched my knowledge in the area but the plataforma was poor, with many technical issues, making the experience a little bit frustrating. Despite the problems, taking this course increased my willingness in studying even more on a different level.

The idea of studying in Canada happened because, in 2012, I lived in Vancouver to study English for five months at ILAC. It was one of the best experiences of my live and it brought to my attention that the “Canadian way of life” is deeply connected to the quality of its education and it reflects in the way Canadians do business in their working environment.

With that in mind, I found the NABU course of Capilano University and, by browsing throughout its website, many things stand out. First, the required and elective courses match exactly to what I expect to learn from a marketing course. Second of all, the 3 week pre-sessional Business Essentials course is also something that excites me because great part of my family Works in the business área and it is a subject that I have always wanted to get to know more in order to participate in my family business.

I am also very curious about the work practicum that the course will allow me to do because I know how demanding the Canadian market can be. I believe I will create the networking I need to get my first job and to build a consistente career in the near future.

Another fact that makes my expectations even higher is the promise of studying with qualified professor who are references in the area. From my past experience in the university, theory and practicum sometimes had no relation to each other. In another words, the theory taught was too romanticized while the practicum activities demanded different approaches. I believe that this happened because all of my professors had already stopped working in the field for a long time, teaching something that not always was close to the new reality.

When I realized that Capilano focus on providing small classes to make the learning environment better for its students, I also found that it fits in to what I desire in order to enjoy every single moment of the theory classes. The reason for that is because I had some tough moments in my Brazilian university when I had classes with 50, 60 and, sometimes, more than 70 people in the same class room. That is why I am expecting to have a more organized experience that I know that a credible Canadian institution can give me.

Even though I am very young and a I haven’t had many work practicum after graduating because the Brazilian Market is facing a crisis, which affects deeply specially newly graduated students, I believe that my background in journalism and social communication will be extremely important while taking this new step in my life and career. In order to get even more acquainted to business and marketing, I have been studying own my own, taking online courses to get ready to the future.

Having the chance to study abroad in a country that I love and respect means a lot to me, specially because it is an expensive project that all my family and I are putting effort to make it happen. I am sure of what I am looking for and I am ready to become a student at Capilano University as a chance to develop new skills and to become a better person as well.

Best regards,

Bruna Reis.

2 comentários sobre “Como fiz a minha carta de intenção para estudar no Canadá – leia a carta na íntegra

    1. Oi, Jéssica! Realmente, morar sozinho em outro país não é fácil e confesso que estou sentindo mais esse peso nos últimos meses. Porém, parte de morar fora é ter a consciência de que altos e baixos fazem parte da jornada.
      Boa sorte para você!

Deixe um comentário

Preencha os seus dados abaixo ou clique em um ícone para log in:

Logotipo do

Você está comentando utilizando sua conta Sair /  Alterar )

Foto do Google+

Você está comentando utilizando sua conta Google+. Sair /  Alterar )

Imagem do Twitter

Você está comentando utilizando sua conta Twitter. Sair /  Alterar )

Foto do Facebook

Você está comentando utilizando sua conta Facebook. Sair /  Alterar )

Conectando a %s


text:
Yakuza 0’s Lowest Graphic Settings Get Weird | Potato Mode

Ben takes Joey on a Yakuza 0 tour, showing him the hottest attractions, all while showing off the worst graphics the game has to offer. Watch more Potato Mode! Get an official Potato Mode shirt! Potato Mode T-Shirt – (Other Colors Available) Subscribe to GameSpot!…

Best Upcoming PS4 Games – Trailer (2018-2019) – YouTube

Best Upcoming PS4 Games – Trailer ”Coming Attractions | PS4” video from Playstation Europe. Get partnered with Empire Collective (like me): http://www.empirecollective.la SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/14hihfM Like my page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mathchief/ My email for business inquiries: [email protected] My twitter: https://twitter.com/MathChief11