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Returning Candidate?

Manager-Operations Group/Rapid Results

Manager-Operations Group/Rapid Results

Job ID
US-NY-New York
Business Unit
Private Equity Performance Improvement

More information about this job:

Alvarez & Marsal Private Equity Performance Improvement

Manager: Operations—Rapid Results

Alvarez & Marsal, a leading independent global professional services firm, specializing in providing turnaround management, performance improvement and corporate advisory services, is seeking to expand its Private Equity Performance Improvement (PEPI) – Rapid Results team in various locations throughout the U.S. With more than 2,400 professionals based in 40 locations across North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, our firm excels in problem solving and value creation.  Drawing on a strong operational heritage and hands-on-approach, our professionals work closely with organizations and stakeholders to help tackle complex business issues and maximize value.

 A&M’s Private Equity Performance Improvement Services (PEPI) practice, with offices throughout the US, focuses on serving middle market and large cap private equity firms who have engaged A&M to help improve operating results at their portfolio companies.

Our professionals are aligned with a PEPI service line to promote the development of deep functional skills & experiences and to maximize our ability to tailor solutions to solve our clients' business issues.

Our PEPI services include:

Rapid Results

Interim Management

Merger Integration & Carve-outs

Leveraged Sourcing

Supply Chain

The Rapid Results Program is a holistic, cross-functional approach that focuses on quickly identifying high impact opportunities for EBITDA and cash flow improvements across the entire organization.  Rapid Results is a growing business targeting high growth in the next 2-4 years. We offer excellent opportunities for career advancement and building leadership skills. The Rapid Results leadership team is focused on providing career development, training and exposure to international business assignments.

 Professional experience:

  • Working with team members through a time-sensitive project by structuring a work plan and managing the process through to completion
  • Synthesizing meaningful insights from data, opinions, or facts
  • Developing findings and making strategic recommendations
  • Working with clients directly to implement strategic and operational recommendations
  • Hands on experience through consulting projects or engagement in several of the following areas
    • Direct and indirect cost transparency
    • Margin Management, pricing, product rationalization
    • Sales & Marketing effectiveness, processes, incentives
    • Sales and operations planning
    • Sourcing and global supply chain
    • Operations management, productivity
    • Organizational structure and effectiveness
    • Process improvement
    • SG&A cost reduction
    • Working capital and cash management

Professional skills:

  • Strong written, oral and analytical skills
  • Strong Excel and PowerPoint skills
  • Structured project management (time, team and work-stream’s management)
  • Initiative and drive
  • Critical thinking skills
  • Ability to deliver time-pressured project on-time and on-quality
  • Flexible and creative thinking
  • Client relationship building

  • 5-7 relevant years of  work experience and previous professional consulting experience with a recognized consulting firm
  • Recent project leadership experiences
  • Flexibility to travel up to 80% of the time
  • Depth in a particular vertical a PLUS(e.g., energy, healthcare, CPG)

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Bruce M.

Bruce Bettigole has more than 30 years’ experience as a securities enforcement lawyer and litigator, including 13 years in senior positions on the government/regulatory side. He has been lead trial counsel for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel, Chief Counsel for NASD, now known as FINRA, Chief Counsel of NASD’s Criminal Prosecution Assistance Group, and Special Assistant United States Attorney for several U.S. Attorney’s offices. Bruce relies on his deep experience and insider’s knowledge of those agencies to represent clients involved in FINRA, SEC, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), state securities commissions, and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations and litigation, as well as in FINRA arbitrations and private securities class actions.

Bruce provides counsel across a broad spectrum of securities enforcement matters, including allegations of misrepresentations, omissions, accounting fraud, stock manipulation, insider trading, deficient policies and procedures, sales practices, supervision and other key issues. His clients include broker-dealers, investment advisors and their associated persons; major public corporations and their officers, directors and key management personnel; and audit partners at “Big Four” public accounting firms.

Bruce served as Director and Chief Counsel in NASD’s Enforcement Department from 2003 to 2004, where he supervised investigations and litigation. He was Chief Counsel of NASD’s Criminal Prosecution Assistance Group from its inception in 1998 until 2003, supervising the unit and assisting federal, state, and local prosecutors nationwide in criminal securities-related investigations and prosecutions. From 1991 to 1998, Bruce was Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel with the SEC. He also served as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in New York, Florida, and Nevada, and was lead trial counsel for numerous securities fraud prosecutions.

Awards and Rankings

Named to The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of administrative/regulatory law, securities regulation and litigation – securities law (2007-2017)

Selected for inclusion in Washington, DC, Super Lawyers® (2013-2016)

President's Award - NASD (2002)

Professional Activities

Member, American Bar Association
Member, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Compliance and Legal Society

  • J.D., Columbia Law School, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
  • B.A., cum laude, Yale University
Bar Admissions
  • District of Columbia
  • New Jersey

Our Story

Eversheds Sutherland is an international law firm helping the Fortune 100, industry leaders, sector innovators and business entrepreneurs solve their biggest challenges and reach their business goals. Dedicated to unfaltering excellence in client service, we are known for our business savvy and industry intelligence, providing creative and custom solutions for each of our clients. Industry and business experience makes the difference for our clients.

click to watch Videocast: Eversheds Sutherland SALT Scoreboard – 2016 Year in Review
Videocast: Eversheds Sutherland SALT Scoreboard – 2016 Year in Review
Washington, DC
Washington, DC
© 2017 Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP
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J. Michelle Abuda

Year in School:  Freshman

Major:  Business Administration (Entrepreneurship) and MIS

Graduation Date:  May 2015

Externship Company/Organization Name: Wright IMC

Dates/Times of Externship: Spring Break 2012

J. Michelle Abuda job shadowed with Wright IMC, an organization that provides marketing services to clients, utilizing web design, social media, television, and search engine optimization projects. J. Michelle got to work with other externs on a real marketing project where they came up with a way to market the company’s internship program.

The experience brought her academics into a new light. “Externing at WrightIMC made me realize that I wanted to focus on technology in businesses, rather than just entrepreneurialism in general. It made adding on my MIS double major that much more significant.” It also demonstrated the value of her educational path. “The externship helped me realize the importance of technology and social media on businesses, and how influential these tools are going to be in the future.”

She encourages other students to take full advantage of the networking opportunity an externship provides, and to utilize social media to connect with professionals they meet. “Collect as many business cards as you can, and as soon as you get home at the end of the week, add everyone on LinkedIn so you can build your network!”

View additional extern spotlights

Career Center on LinkedIn Career Center on Facebook Career Center on Twitter Career Center on Wordpress Career Center on Pinterest Career Center on YouTube


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Year In Review

Bill Evick, Founder & CEO
18 January 2017

First off, I want to personally thank all of our clients that have partnered with us over the last five years. Aptexx has experienced exceptional growth since we processed our first rent payment in March of 2012. We couldn’t have done it without you!

In less than 5 years, Aptexx is now processing over $2 Billion in rent payments annually. In addition, we’ve introduced some very disruptive technology to the property management industry. Aptexx isn’t just a payments company anymore…we’re now adding value to every stage of the Resident Lifecycle and doing it with the mobile resident in mind. From 2-way messaging, to micro-surveys ,to service requests… Aptexx has transformed itself into one of the leading Software-as-a-Service (Saas) providers in the property management industry.

Now let’s take a look back at some of our key accomplishments in 2016…

Our new Executive Dashboard makes resident lifecycle

Aptexx 2.0

We completely rewrote our entire offering using the most advanced technology available. This wasn’t an easy decision to make, but we felt it was necessary to support our rapid growth and prepare us for future success.

Aptexx Conversations™ was our most disruptive feature of 2016.

Aptexx Conversations™

Our move to Aptexx 2.0 is what allowed us to build a truly disruptive, conversational messaging into Resident Anywhere™ . It’s a perfect example of what you can expect from us in 2017.

..and More.

Here’s just a quick summary of just a few of the features we added in 2016.

  • Aptexx Learn
    Our clients’ home for learning how to use Aptexx with step-by-step video micro-tutorials.
  • The Aptexx API
    We completely overhauled our API, making it easier than ever for industry partners to utilize our payment processing capabilities.
  • New Support Button
    Our new support button makes it even easier for our users to get the help they need.
  • Mobile Phone Number Validation
    We now validate every phone number to identify whether or not it is SMS enabled.
  • The Aptexx Index
    Now users have the option to compare their survey results across every Aptexx powered community.
  • New Sorting Capabilities for Surveys
    When using our Survey Comparison tool, users now have more options for sorting their report results.
  • Recipient Balance for Messaging
    When reviewing messaging recipients, we now include their current balance in the right-most column.
  •  Guest Payment Messaging
    Property Manager Users can now customize the message being sent to persons making guest payments.
  •  International SMS Texting
    We now support international sms messaging.
  •  Added Building ID to Maintenance Emails
    We now include Building Identification in maintenance request generation emails where supported by integrations.
  • Commercial Implementation
    We are now integrated with the Commercial Property Management module for both Yardi and MRI.
  •  Manually Send Surveys
    Property Manager Users can now manually send one of our existing surveys types to a selected list of residents they choose.
  •  Emojis Added to Aptexx Conversations™
    We added emoji support to Aptexx Conversations!
  •  Aptexx Conversations™ Notifications Enhancements
    The ‘Conversations’ Icon in the upper-right corner of the page will animate when new messages come in!
  •  MMS Support for Aptexx Conversations™
    Now you can send AND receive MMS messages containing pictures and even GIFs!
  •  Revamped Sidebar Styles and Behavior
    We updated the Aptexx 2 navigation to make it even easier to use.
  •  Resident Portal Messaging
    Residents can now send messages directly from the resident portal.
  • Emoji Support added to Templated Messaging
    Now you can include emojis in your template emails!
  • Aptexx Conversations Dashboard Widget
    See a pie-chart summary of how many open and un-replied conversations you have at your community or portfolio!
  •  Quick Messaging Added to All Resident Lists
    Now you can send individual residents payment links via SMS.
  •  List Filtering Enhancements
    We made our filters MUCH easier to use! Now, instead of a giant list, you can click to show only the filters you want to use.
  •  Money Order Filter
    Property manager users can now filter their scanned checks by check type: money order or standard check.
  • Email Address Submission
    Residents who have not submitted email addresses will now have the opportunity to do so after making a payment.

“Aptexx has transformed itself into one of the leading Software-as-a-Service (Saas) providers in the property management industry.”

On a final note, it’s always good to look back at your accomplishments, but I feel it’s even more important to look ahead. In the not too distant future, Aptexx will be introducing several disruptive product offerings that will reinvent the status quo. Be on the lookout for the following…

  • Prospect Anywhere™
    We’re going to completely reinvent online Rental Applications in the property management industry.
  • Parcel Tracking
    Managing packages shouldn’t be another chore. We’re going to make it easier.
  • Leasing Anywhere™
    Mobile-focused leasing is the future. Imagine all of your leasing activity managed in a simple to use interface.

Again, I want to personally than clients for partnering with us. If you would like to see a demo of our suite of services or discuss our future offerings, please email us at [email protected].


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Archive | February 2012

Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Hosts Colombian Delegation

VAHCC & Colombian Officials at the VA Capitol

(Richmond, Va.) On February 7th, 2012, the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce hosted a delegation of nearly 40 Colombian business and local government leaders from the Amazon and Amaroquia regions of Colombia.  They were interested in learning more about what Virginia has to offer companies looking to invest in Virginia as well as opportunities in the Virginia marketplace. Read More | View More Photos

Forward Adelante & community leaders will welcome VAHCC President Michel Zajur tonight in Charslotteville

VAHCC President Michel Zajur

VAHCC President Michel Zajur will be keynote speaker tonight at Forward/Adelante's reception!

Visit now for registration and more

Chapter 6 Networking (C6N) presents DIVERSITY 2012: MARKETING TO LATINOS An Evening of Networking, Fundraising and Food with Keynote Speaker Michel Zajur, President of the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

10% of net proceeds benefit 2 local not-for-profits:
HOPE Community Center & Community Investment Collaborative.

We are bringing together a diverse group of today’s influential leaders in business and social causes. Our keynote will be presented by Michel Zajur, President of the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Our guest speaker for the evening, Toan Nguyen, will introduce the board members of Community Investment Collaborative (CIC), a new non-profit organization based in Charlottesville.

Date: Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Time: 5:30pm-7:30pm
Venue: Commonwealth Restaurant & Sky Bar in Downtown Mall at 422 East Main St., C’ville.
Presented by: Forward/Adelante
Food: Complimentary steak and cassava skewers and grilled corn or spinach empanadas.
Beverages: Discounted red or white wine! Regular cash bar for all other drinks.
Cost: $20 at door ($16 for current F/A advertisers). $16 advance online purchase.
Registration: You must register to attend.

About the Keynote Speaker: Michel Zajur, is the President of the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and will present a keynote based on Central Virginia’s latest trends and information on the topic of Marketing to Latinos. Today, Zajur stands at the epicenter of Latino professionals and businesses that are engaging in and profiting inside Virginia’s very robust commerce matrix.

Free B4B Bilingual Networking Group Thursday: Learn Google Tools to Run Your Business Online

This Thursday in Northern Virginia, our monthly B4B Bilingual Networking Group will have a special focus on teaching attendees how Google tools can help run their business online. Completely free!

Simply register here and be there in Tysons Corner, this Thursday from 5pm until 7pm! ¡Ahí nos vemos!

New VA Legislation Provides Scholarships for Low-Income Students & Students with Disabilities

From Governor McDonnell’s Facebook page:

This legislation will increase the ability of nonprofit organizations to provide education improvement scholarships so low-income students or students with disabilities can attend the non-public school of their choice.

Read the official legislation here

Free Educational Workshop, Sat. Mar. 10th at the Science Museum of Virginia

The Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Passport to Education initiative has partnered with the Science Museum of Virginia for a Family Cultural Saturday on March 10th, 11:30a.m-5:00 p.m. celebrating diversity through food in conjunction with The exhibit ‘RACE’:  Are we so different?  The educational goal of the Race project is to help individuals of all ages better understand the origins and manifestations of Race and racism in everyday life by investigating Race and human variation through the framework of science.  This cultural event will provide an excellent opportunity to bring educational resources to the Hispanic community, and also celebrates cultural heritage through food.

12:00pm-1:00pm State Council for Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) on “Kindergarten to College” in the Discovery Room.

1:00pm-2:00pm Great Aspirations Scholarship program (GRASP) in the Discovery Room.

2:00pm-2:45pm Elizabeth Williamson, Educational Specialist for the U.S. Department of Education.

3:00pm-4:00pm Demonstrations by two Colombian scientists from Dupont, who will demonstrate materials that Dupont makes on the Live Science Stage.

At the  Science Museum of Virginia, 2500 West Broad Street  Richmond, Va.  23220


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Unfettered Religious Freedom Means Freedom to Do Harm

Indiana RFRAFreedom to discriminate with impunity?  It’s worse than that.
Almost universally, the religious freedom claims pursued in the U.S. over the last two decades seek the freedom to do harm, most often the freedom to harm queers, women, children or religious outsiders, or America’s secular government institutions.

It’s Not Just About Bigotry and Homophobia

In recent years, religious believers have sought and largely won a cascading array of rights, privileges, and exemptions from laws that otherwise apply to all.

  • The right to discriminate in public accommodations and hiring practices
  • The right to interfere with a religious outsider’s family formation, sexual intimacy, and childbearing decisions
  • The right to interfere in a religious outsider’s dying process
  • The right to use public funds and other assets to propagate the values and priorities of the religion itself
  • The right to freeload on shared infrastructure without contributing to the same
  • The right to refuse medical care to women and children
  • The right to engage in religiously motivated child abuse (psychological abuse, physical abuse, neglect, or medical neglect) with impunity
  • The right to exemption from labor practice standards
  • The right to exemption from humane animal slaughter regulations

For a more detailed list and links, see “Conscience Creep: How ‘Religious Freedom’ Spiraled Out of Control.”

Belief, Assembly and Worship Already Protected

Ironically, one reason that modern religious freedom claims so often seek the right to do harm is that other kinds of religious belief and practice are so well established. For over 200 years, core religious freedoms have been protected by law in the United States. America’s founders carefully secured the right of men to believe, think, and assemble for worship as they chose—or to publically deny that they belonged to the religious majority without being excluded from the power and privilege of public office.

An American citizen or resident can hold a spiritual worldview that is shared by a community or deeply idiosyncratic. We are free to adhere to all manner of wild and wacky superstitions, and we do. Alternately, we can use a dozen or more labels to identify ourselves as non-religious. We are free legally to renounce our childhood religion and try a new one. We can teach our beliefs to our children and recruit converts on street corners. We can do all of this without fear of imprisonment, lashings, torture or execution.

In contrast to people living in Muslim majority countries today or in Christian Europe during past centuries, Americans take these rights for granted, so much so that we forget that these freedoms were precious and new to many who immigrated here to escape religious persecution.

By contrast with enduring protections for religious belief and assembly; religiously motivated behavior historically has been constrained by U.S. law for compelling reasons including the following:

  1. To establish civil society. To create a civil society, one that can in any measure live up to the words that have been America’s motto since 1795, E Pluribus Unum, the rule of law must trump the rule of religion. The Supreme Court long defended this position. Law trumping religion is not just the only way to build a functioning pluralistic society, it is the only way to create a government that can protect the religious freedom of citizens.
  2. To promote the general welfare. American civic agreements when functioning as intended, aim to promote the general welfare and avert harms. To this end our civil and criminal codes set limits on religiously motivated behavior and establish civic duties and responsibilities that apply to citizens regardless of religious status.
  3. To prevent dictatorial theocracy. To prevent theocracy akin to that which many early immigrants fled in Europe, religious institutions and practitioners are blocked from leveraging the apparatus of the state to fund and promote religion itself.

It is these restrictions that are now being challenged by religious adherents, and the second of these makes it clear why so many religious freedom claims seek the freedom for a religious individual or organization to cause harm with impunity.

By definition, since civic agreements are an attempt to promote the general welfare, the exemptions sought by religious individuals and institutions generally do the opposite, meaning they allow those who are exempted to violate legal agreements intended to promote broad wellbeing. Secondarily, those claiming religious freedom often seek to coopt the power of the state for religious ends so that civic agreements can be modified to reflect religious theology. One might say that the goal is to use the tool of government to promote the general religion rather than promote the general welfare.

Bible Texts Bind Believers to Harmful Priorities

In an ideal world, the general welfare and the general religion might be aligned, and even in our imperfect world religion often promotes generosity, kindness, service, and conscience-driven behavior. But the world’s major religions all have ancient roots, and thanks to the rise of literacy during the Iron Age, they all have sacred texts that anchor believers to an Iron Age set of social scripts and moral priorities including some truly horrific ideas.

The Christian Bible endorses slavery, racism, tribal warfare, torture, the concept of women and children as chattel, and the death penalty for over 30 offenses. It offers an exclusive alternative to eternal damnation, driving believers to seek converts when and where they can. It teaches that infidels have no moral core and fosters suspicion of religious outsiders. It elevates sexual purity to the level of moral purity. It makes a virtue out of certitude. Small wonder, then, that sincere believers seeking to do the will of God sometimes end up seeking the right to do harm.

Civic Safeguards vs. Religious Persistence

During most of American history, boundaries around religious freedom generally were upheld by the courts so long as the rules applied equally to all. Jefferson’s “wall of separation” worked to insulate government from control by a church hierarchy. But a successful religion, like rain on the roof, seeks any crack through which it can penetrate into our public structures and private homes.

In 1993, the misnamed Religious Freedom ‘Restoration’ Act, subtly changed a long time standard, allowing religious practitioners to violate laws that otherwise apply to all; and a cavernous crack appeared. In the words of Justice Anthony Kennedy,

[RFRA’s] sweeping coverage ensures its intrusion at every level of government, displacing laws and prohibiting official actions of almost every description and regardless of subject matter. . . . Any law is subject to challenge at any time by any individual who claims a substantial burden on his or her free exercise of religion. Such a claim will often be difficult to contest….All told, RFRA is a considerable congressional intrusion into the States’ traditional prerogatives and general authority to regulate for the health and welfare of their citizens.

Although RFRA was ruled unconstitutional as it applies to the states in 1997, it continues to be applied to federal statutes, and modified versions of the bill have been introduced in most states. Since 1993, religious authorities have been doing all in their power to pry the crack wider, using tools including federal and state legislative processes, courts, control of public accommodations like hospitals, and investments in sophisticated legal advocacy infrastructure.

The Threat to Civil Society

Much has been made of the fact that Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act pushes beyond the bounds set by the federal law of the same name. It explicitly grants religious personhood to for-profit businesses. In addition, immunity for religiously motivated behavior applies to disputes between private individuals in which the government has no part. This combination should make it difficult for individuals that are harmed by discrimination or denial of care or other religious intrusions to obtain redress in civil court.

While it is true that Indiana law pushes the bounds of Religious Freedom farther than earlier statutes, conscience creep has been incremental, and in over half of U.S. states, some imitative form of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act has either been enacted or proposed. Despite protests and boycotts against Indiana, the Arkansas legislature approved similar legislation within days. Indiana’s law, in other words, is simply one tooth in a ratchet that raises religion above civil society, and it is neither the first nor the last tooth in that ratchet.

It Really is About Religious Freedom

Religious Freedom Indiana RFRALiberal people of faith who don’t share the dominionist goals or moral priorities of fundamentalists often are appalled by these objectives and many insist that laws like the one recently passed in Indiana aren’t about religious freedom but rather bigotry itself, or misogyny, or some other morally tainted mindset. They are both right and wrong.

Yes, these laws do condone bigotry, and misogyny, and other ugly prejudices. But, the photo of those present at the signing of Indiana’s bill–its major proponents—is telling. It mixes white male politicians in suits with a proud array of nuns in habits, monks in cassocks and orthodox Jew in a top hat.  Like many of those advocating segregation during the Civil Rights Movement, the advocates of this bill were motivated by devout religious beliefs.

That is because bigotry and misogyny, like racism, are written into the Bible (and Quran and other Axial Age texts), where they express and encode the Iron Age worldview of the writers. In the absence of some external standard, fundamentalists have as much right as anyone to claim that theirs are religious values, and the Supreme Court has said as much.

In the Hobby Lobby case, the Catholic majority ruled that “sincerely held” belief was sufficient to merit protection under the umbrella of religious freedom, even if the sincerely held belief in question was factually inaccurate and not mainstream or required by the person’s sect. Religious belief, in other words, is whatever the believer says it is, and until we repair the gaping crack in our secular democracy, it confers a powerful set of privileges, which means that the limits of credible belief are bound to be tested.

Christianity Offers Little Basis for Dismissing Bogus Claims

Some Eastern religions teach an overarching principle against which religious conscience claims might be weighed. In Tibetan Buddhism, for example, this principle is compassion. In the Jain religion, it is ahimsa, meaning non-harm.

Christianity, on the other hand, has always been torn between those who insist that the overarching principle is love, as articulated in the Great Commandment, and those who insist it is right belief, as expressed in the “Sinner’s Prayer.” Many Evangelicals feel a non-negotiable responsibility to seek converts, as instructed in the Great Commission, which advises followers of Jesus to “make disciples of every creature.” Some perceive a God-given mandate to seize the reins of power, ruling according to biblical principles, a view called dominionism.

Christians are divided also, in their view of the Bible. Some understand the Bible as a human document, one that records the struggle of our ancestors as they sought to grasp timeless truths through a lens darkened by fallibility and culture. Others see it as the literally perfect Word of God, essentially dictated by God to the authors.

The Bible’s contradictory prescriptions, together with differences in how Christians understand biblical authority mean that almost anything can be claimed as a religiously motivated behavior. But even if Christianity’s more than 30,000 denominations could reach consensus about how to assess the merit of religious conscience claims—which they can’t–the problem would remain. The U.S. is home to people of all faiths and none at all, each of whom has his or her own deeply held values and a constitutional right to whatever spiritual worldview he or she may hold.

Time for an Honest Conversation

Around the world, through most of human history, societies have so feared offending supernatural powers that they forbade and punished religious deviance, even by death, lest divine wrath befall the community as a whole. By contrast, in the United States constitution was a product of the Enlightenment, created by a coalition of nontheists, deists, and Christians. While it is true that some populations such as pagans and Native Americans have suffered shameful persecution and oppression at the hands of the Christian majority, in principle, religious freedom has long been broadly protected by law in the U.S. except where it infringes human wellbeing or harms civil society itself.

But some religiously motivated behavior does harm human wellbeing or civil society. Some forms of belief obligate adherents to infringe the rights or wellbeing of others. They are fundamentally incompatible with the radical idea that each person is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Religious conservatives aren’t simply inventing their appeal to religious conscience—unfettered religious freedom really does mean the right to discriminate, the right to deny medical care, the right to interfere in an outsider’s dying process, the right to beat children, and more.

We may want to believe it is possible to grant boundless freedom of religion to some without impinging the corresponding freedom of others, but this simply isn’t the case. Those who love this country, and those who lead, have some tough choices to make.

Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington. She is the author of Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light and Deas and Other Imaginings, and the founder of www.WisdomCommons.org.  Her articles about religion, reproductive health, and the role of women in society have been featured at sites including AlterNet, Salon, the Huffington Post, Grist, and Jezebel.  Subscribe at ValerieTarico.com.

Conscience Creep: How “Religious Freedom” Spiraled Out of Control

Religious “Freedom” Laws Still Kicking in Missouri, Ohio, Washington and More
Contraceptive Exemptions: Where Christian Privilege Meets Corporate Personhood
Will the Catholic Bishops Decide How You Die?
Do Religious Restrictions Force Doctors to Commit Malpractice?

About Valerie Tarico

Seattle psychologist and writer. Author - Trusting Doubt and Deas and Other Imaginings. Founder - www.WisdomCommons.org.
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31 Responses to Unfettered Religious Freedom Means Freedom to Do Harm

  1. Mary Kay Barbieri says:

    The Federal RFRA was not found totally unconstitutional. It was only found unconstitutional when applied to the states. The federal government is still bound by RFRA as are states that passed a state version.

  2. tildeb says:

    Another highly educational post. Thank you, VT.

  3. Sha'Tara says:

    Isn’t it amazing how the wheel never stops turning, and thus “re” turning? Ground is gained, then it is lost again. Endless war, and endless battles being fought over devastated territories. One could easily compare the “religious” battles to gain and regain ground to World War I. Same pattern, and “the war to end all wars” gave way only because it promised endless war to those in control. So, who’s in control of these religious wars? Who erects the windmills for the theists which non-theists tilt at? America “land of the free and home of the brave” is into full reversion (failure to maintain a higher state) and one can’t help but wonder how far down it will slide before it legally re-institutes slavery? Indeed, with unfettered religious freedom and a book to back the concept of slavery, how far can that be? And who will stop it when those in power can benefit financially and socially from it and it is “they” who manipulate the conscience of the nation? Just thinking out loud.

    • Katatonic says:

      Who will stop them?

      The next generation. The Nones.

      Once older generations die off and/or depart the public political arena, I think we’ll see more freedoms for all, more inclusion, more progress as a society. Granted, there are plenty of ardent believers among the young but they grow fewer all the time. I’m only in my 50s and have seen radical changes in the past couple decades that I NEVER imagined could happen like same-sex marriage and legalization of marijuana (coming soon to a state near you!).

      The scary bit is how many dyed-in-the-wool, corporate-backed, staunchly regressive ORWGs are solidly entrenched in our government and especially on SCOTUS. That’ll take a lot longer to overcome.

      *ORWG = old rich white guy

      • Sha'Tara says:

        Hello K – I had a comment started and it disappeared… quote from you: “Who will stop them? The next generation. The Nones.” First, there are no “Nones” except those who knowingly act in self-empowerment. A real “none” would be someone who puts no trust whatsoever in any aspect of any System. That’s a tall order. That being said, history clearly shows that no “next generation” has ever substantially changed anything, and a blatant example is the sudden rise of communism in Europe and eventually in China. We all know how well that has worked. Nothing wrong with the idea, the problem, as always is intractable human nature. Let’s briefly look at what this supposed “next generation” (another label which describes absolutely nothing: there are no “next generation” except in the minds of statisticians who insist on lumping people in groups, is being challenged with: collapse of the global “economy” or fake money; climate change; food allocation and famine, potable water shrinkage, a technology out of control and increasingly anti-human; conflict due to shortages of natural resources, dwindling space from over-population and of course the utterly immoral rise of a small elite that claims for itself what’s left of earth’s valuable natural and human resources. But their biggest problem is that they will be looking backward at what previous generations had, and they’re going to want it, even knowing the planet can no longer supply it. Who is here, now, to teach them what they need to know: that the only way mankind will survive what’s coming is by becoming compassionate to a fault; to eschew all forms of greed, even regarding self-preservation in favor of serving others? That’s the self-empowered leap they must make. I see no other options open to man at this late stage of his earth tenure. The writing is on the wall and the message is unambiguous.

  4. as usual a well written article. When we study the Inquistion” it becomes apparent that of one even contradiccited ones accusers one was liable to face charges of heresy punishable by death. However Valerie , i cannot agree with this statement: “And since the time of America’s founding, religious freedom has been broadly protected by law except where it infringes human wellbeing or harms civil society itself.” I think its imperative to remember any founding father allowances for religious freedoms were NOT granted to Native Americans.In fact many religious practices were not only condemned but were outlawed and prosecuted. Its difficult for me to read a statement like this …because i begin to think “how quickly people forget”.

  5. sorry for the spelling mistakes!
    “after studying the Inquisition it becomes apparent that if one even contradicted ones accusers……….”

  6. archaeopteryx1 says:

    This is exactly how Presidents, like G.W. “I trust God speaks through me” Bush can continue to set National policy, long after their terms have ended, by appointing Supreme Court justices who have tenure for life, to continue to uphold those policies.

  7. Regarding discrimination, an idea floated on the Libertarians Concerned Facebook page is to allow any private business (provided it gets no tax subsidies or has competition suppressed by government through things such as licensing laws) to discriminate against any group they want, on condition that they prominently display the groups they won’t service in advertising and on entrances to their establishments.

    That way, their property rights and freedom of association are protected, but potential customers won’t waste time or money or be embarrassed by unexpectedly being denied service. Also, this makes it easy for people offended by bigotry to boycott them.

    It’s a reasonable assumption that if a business bills itself as “open to the public,” it means *all the public.* Currently, bigots impose the cost on others. An example is the gay couple turned away from a Bed and Breakfast for being gay, even though their charge card had already been debited. They had to spend time finding last-minute accommodations at higher prices.

    What this idea does is assign costs to bigots, rather than the targets of their animus. They retain liberty to be bigoted, provided they’re willing to pay the price. I’m willing to bet virtually no one will jump on that bandwagon when costs become clear.

    • archaeopteryx1 says:

      I know I haven’t been to Hobby Lobby since they came out, and as an amateure artist, I used to go there a lot.

  8. sheila hollender says:

    What a great, thoughtful article. Thank you,

    Sheila Hollender

    Follow me on twitter @sheilahollender

  9. Steven says:

    “Indiana’s recent ‘Religious Freedom Restoration Act’ … bars individuals that are harmed by discrimination or denial of care or other religious intrusions from seeking redress in court. Immunity for religiously motivated behavior applies not only to disputes between individuals and government entities but also disputes between private individuals in which the government has no part.”

    In no way am I in support of Indiana’s new law, but that does not mean I enjoin the dissemination of half-truths regarding the law, or sit idly by when I witness such.

    There is nothing in the law that “bars individuals that are harmed by discrimination or denial of care or other religious intrusions from seeking redress in court,” that I can find. Too, the law ONLY applies to burdens placed, by government, upon the exercise of religion. Yes, the new law can be invoked as a defense in private disputes but only as it applies to a burden placed by government, and at that point the government has an unconditional right to intervene in order to respond to the person’s invocation.

    Perhaps someone will point out what I’m missing when I read the new law?

    • Thank you. Would the words “makes it more difficult” rather than “bars” be accurate to your mind?

      • Steven says:

        Again, perhaps I’m missing it. I would greatly appreciate someone pointing that out if I am.

        I do not see where the law bars someone from seeking, nor makes it more difficult to seek, redress in court. What it MAY make more difficult is prevailing in such a case if the other party invokes this law, but we’ll need some actual rulings to determine if that is a fact.

        “The two sides are essentially yelling past one another about a non-issue when they should be working on enacting protections based on sexual orientation in Indiana”
        “If there’s a license to discriminate in Indiana, it’s the fact there’s an absence of a statewide law that makes a promise to the LGBT community,”
        “RFRA is about minoritarian religion against government, by and large.”
        ~Robin Fretwell Wilson, professor and director of the family law and policy program at the University of Illinois College of Law.

  10. Valerie, you make some important points. Then you say, “By contrast, in the United States constitution was a product of the Enlightenment, created by a coalition of nontheists, deists, and Christians.”

    I agree that deists and Christians (none like the fundamentalists of today) created the constitution. But don’t remember any nontheists being involved. Who did you have in mind?

    Also, I agree that Christianity’s influence on human history has been mixed, some of it horrific.

    That is one reason I finally left Christianity.

    Unfortunately, other options aren’t encouraging either. I am deeply troubled, for instance, by nontheists such as Sam Harris, Anthony Cashmore, etc. who not only deny humans have any choice, but also describe humans with demeaning terms such as “tumors all the way down,” “puppet,” “bags of chemicals, “meat puppet,” etc.

    • I’m thinking specifically of Thomas Paine. That said, he self-described as a deist, so while the term anti-theist might apply, perhaps the term nontheists actually doesn’t.

    • Speaking as a meat puppet, from the omniscient perspective, choice must be impossible (assuming — as I do — laws of physics have no exceptions). Since the only perspective actually available to us, however, is our limited-knowledge personal one, that is irrelevant and choice is rampant.

      I’ll expand on this after first using bags of chemicals to address a deep tumor.

  11. For sure, he was an adamant anti-Christian.
    Thanks for responding. (I am actually fairly well read when it comes to Thomas Paine’s writings and used to teach him to students. He is actually one of my heroes, especially because of his early strong stance against slavery. But like many human leaders, he sometimes could be a real gadfly:-) toward nearly everybody.

  12. archaeopteryx1 says:

    FYI, there’s a petition afoot to repeal the RFRA —

    Liked by 1 person

  13. This is one of the best blogs on religion that I have ever read. Written from a unique perspective, as a social scientist who escaped from the cult of Christianity. I appreciate your words, thoughts, and takedowns of the “faith”.

    My first experience with Christian bigotry happened years ago when my partner’s uber-devout grandmother turned to me at dinner one day and said, without a shred of shame, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

    I asked her “Ashamed of myself? Whatever are you talking about?”

    She said “Well, you SHOULD be ashamed that God made you black!”

    It took all my self control to refrain from gouging out her eyes right there and then.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Wow. Just wow. I remember my devout grandmother referring to the guy my sister was dating as “that darkie.”

      • Did the degree to which that dating relationship was wrong hinge on how dark how dark his skin was? If he was a lighter-skinned darkie, would that have been more acceptable?

        I assume your sister knew how your grandmother felt. That must have strained their relationship.

        Liked by 1 person

    • archaeopteryx1 says:

      I wish I had been there – we’d have had an anthropological discussion regarding the fact that Humanity originated in Africa – whether one chooses to believe the species was created or evolved, it happened in Africa – and all of Humanity was black. It was only in the recent hundred thousand years or so that segments of the race – the Human Race – migrated to Europe, Asia, and eventually, the Americas, where skin tones began to evolve to the ones displayed today, as a result of the average amount of skin that was exposed to the sun, and how direct those sun rays were.

      But from your comment, I take it that you were a guest at dinner in their home, and that the lady’s age, compared to your own, was considerable, and so at least two social mandates were in play at the time, but I would find it hard to sit there and merely tolerate such a remark. I can’t help wondering what your partner had to say in your defense – after all, the host at such a dinner has a mandate as well, to be civil to a guest.

      Liked by 1 person

      • If she’s into religion that deeply, isn’t it likely she believes the Earth is 6000 years old? Your argument is compelling only to those of us of the rational persuasion.

    • I would have acknowledged (with as straight a face and sounding as sincere as possible) that I was terribly ashamed to have been born black, but express relief that I had not been born a bigot.

      Did she know, or even suspect, her grandchild was your partner or did she think you were just a friend? If you and your partner share the same gender, and she suspected a physical relationship, that would go a long way to explain her over-the-top comment, since you would be dragging her offspring to an eternity in Hell.

      Also, you don’t say whether or not the grandmother is black. I assume she’s white, because you characterized the encounter as “Christian bigotry” rather than self-hatred.

      I understand the urge to “gouge her eyes out,” but imagine how terrible it is to go through life with that attitude. Look what it’s cost her. Would you change places with her if you could?

  14. Perry Bulwer says:

    “… so many religious freedom claims seek the freedom for a religious individual or organization to cause harm with impunity”

    I think one of the most egregious examples of that is the claim that a parent’s religious rights trump their child’s religious rights, which include the right to be free from religion. The consequence of that parental claim can be very tragic for children subjected to religiously motivated physical, psychological, spiritual and intellectual abuse, medical neglect, and other harms hypocritically inflicted “for their own good”.

    Liked by 2 people

  15. Pingback: Churches are using creepy facial recognition technology to track congregants — here’s why | digger666

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Friday, November 05, 2010

Wallpaper the Whole House I Would

Marriage is a wonderful thing AND it seriously cuts into my love of wallpaper! I'd have every wall covered with the stuff. And it's not like I've even proposed it, but I feel that men think of one thing when they think of wallpaper: removing it. As husby gets older, however, his defenses must only be weakening when it comes to who makes the decorating decisions. I gain ground every year!

Feast your eyes on these amazing wallpapers...

Here's Mr. Morris himself probably dreaming up some new pattern
to make us gasp with delight!

1 comment:

  1. Whew. I thought that last one was a wallpaper, and I was trying to imagine him up on my wall. Mr. Morris, no offense intended.

    I love the first one!! That's my fave.

    My mom loved to tell the story about her and my dad wallpapering the bathroom and how it almost led to their divorce. She swore spouses should never wallpaper together! Don't tell the hubs.

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text:
Leg cramps also known as a “charley horse”, although short lived can be quite painful.  The leg cramps occur when the muscle spasms or tightens in the legs suddenly.  There’s no exact reason as to why night cramps occur.  Experts cannot pin point the exact reason but have established many treatments that can assist sufferers in minimizing or treating the leg cramps when they do occur.

Various leg cramps sufferers have reported that their leg cramps occur because they have exhausted their muscles while exercising.  Actually when a muscle has been sitting in the same position for a long time or over used or stretched for a long period of time, the leg cramps can also occur.  Lacking various elements such as Calcium and Potassium can be a contributor to this nightly sleep disturbance.  It has also been reported that not having enough H2O intake can dehydrate the body causing muscles to spasm and cramp up.

Many nightly leg cramps sufferers unfortunately have to try various methods of treating this painful condition before they can rely on one that truly works for their particular situation.  From stretching to warm baths and vitamins in between, one must try some if not all methods to relieve the agonizing pain that accompanies a nightly leg cramp attack.

Although many of these treatments can help in the long run many of them do not provide immediate relief which is most needed during a leg cramp or muscle spasm attack.  Some nighttime leg cramp sufferers have turned to medications that calm the nerves in order to find relief.  Unfortunately many of the nerve calming medications don’t just calm the nerves in the legs but can also have side effects that are unwelcomed.  A natural muscle cramp remedy was desperately needed by the public.

One East Coast pharmacist named Keith Delprete, a long time leg cramp sufferer and a well educated professional in the field of medicine dedicated his career to developing a natural formula that is a fast acting topical product without any side effects, his product has swept the nation quickly.  This product is a topical application that is applied directly on the cramped site and relaxes the muscles in seconds.  His instant muscle spasm relief product started selling at small pharmacies on the East Coast and has grown to nationwide distribution quickly with large carriers such as Walmart, Walgreens, Rite Aid and many other major drug stores throughout the United States.

The popularity of this immediate muscle spasm relief product gives us a good indication that we are not alone in this Leg Cramp world, there’s many others that suffer right along with us.  It’s important for all leg cramp sufferers to follow a well balanced regiment of drinking enough liquid to keep the body hydrated, stretching regularly when we wake up and at bed time.  This natural topical solution for leg cramps and muscle spasms can help along the way by providing immediate relief for the nightly leg cramps, after all a good night’s rest may also relieve some of the stress we apply to our muscles that is causing the leg cramps in the first place.


text:
Moving on…

Hey guys! I’m moving on from wordpress. Follow my blog MyVisualStimulations on blogspot. I will still be featuring artists, photographers, architecture (and the like) that catch my attention but will also be incorporating facets of my daily life into the blog. I’m trying to be more OPEN with my readers. Plus I just find it a whole lot easier to write and add pictures on blogspot. See you there!

Again, please follow my new blog here.

Ocean City, NJ Travel Diary

I’ve promised to make this blog a little bit more personal, so here’s my start! Since traveling has been a huge part of my life from a very young age, I’ve decided to add “travel diary” to the list of blog categories. Sooo, without further adoooo…I recently embarked on a much needed mini-sabbatical to Ocean City, NJ (I found a great deal on Living Social). Have you ever felt like you just needed to…get away? I’ve been working tirelessly over the past year and needed some alone time with not only myself but with Lord as well (my #1 relationship). I caught up on some  biblical reading, praising, worshipping and sat back to appreciate the Master’s scenic artisty. I’m slightly embarrassed (that it took me so long) but elated to finally finished the Gospel of John and….wow! All I can say is Einstein (who was a Jew, by the way) said it best in an interview for The Saturday Evening Post in 1929: “No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”

I think every human being on the planet owes it to themselves to read the Gospel of John, whether  you’re a believer or not. Anywho, here are a few pics I snapped on the nikon.

A bean burrito meal I enjoyed from a vegan friendly restaurant on the boardwalked called Bashful Banana.

Mmmmmm sorbeto!!!! I think the flavor was “very berry,” and it was dairy free!

Absolutely the most average tasting fries I’ve ever had. What they really should be marketing is that lemonade which was spectacular!

More pics of the bed and breakfast I stayed at to be posted soon-ish (y’all know how I do).

Have a blessed one!

For the Renaissance Movement

A little bit of what I’ve been up to lately. I’ve been helping my boyfriend out by making posters for his blog to promote a few of his quotes that really stand out to me. We  framed a couple of them and they look amazing! Available for purchase by request right now, just let me know what size and email me at

All quotes by Keenan D. Wilson of All photography and editing by moi

Girl with the Black Panther Tattoo

Spotted this lovely lady at an outdoor festival I went to yesterday. I was trying to take the pics “incognito-style” but she spotted me (check the last pic). She was actually modeling the body jewelry for one of the vendors (and I cannot for the life of me find the business card she gave me!). I hope she sees this post so I can update it with the information! Come on universe!

Photography by: Vanessa


text:
Gum… You like to chew it, We like to make art with it!

This past month there was a gum art program for teens at Eva Perry. Each person received two sheets of white card stock, one of which was for “Gum Holding” and the other was our “Canvas”. Lindsey told us that we should chew the gum for 15 minutes before it was pliable enough to be spread on our canvases. Most of us chewed until we were ready for the next piece, everything went faster that way, and chewing multiple pieces of different colors made for some interesting flavors!

We also learned about the Italian artist Maurizio Savini. He makes gum art and some sell for over 55,000 dollars. Here is one of his sculptures-

Now I’m not saying that some of our gum pictures weren’t GREAT, but if any of us made anything this amazing I would be VERY surprised. Here is a gum picture of flowers that I thought was amazing:

And of course some of our less amazing pictures, of Jellyfish Princesses (for example-Mine)

As you can see there were different levels of gumtastic ability, but no matter, we made it into the newspaper, not front page news, BUT….

And if you plan on going next year, Make sure your ready for the post-soreness of your jaw, we chewed ALOT of gum…Who knows?  Maybe you could do this for a living.

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Units (Grade Option) 0.5-1.00; Class Hours: Minimum of 16-32 lab/8-16 by arrangement lab hours/semester; Basic Skills Level: Open Curriculum; Prerequisite(s): None.

Description: Increase quality of life by adopting and maintaining daily physical activity. Apply motivational and behavior modification techniques that aid in the adherence to a lifetime fitness and wellness program. Students assess health-related components of fitness, then set personal fitness/wellness goals and monitor progression. Special emphasis is paid to the design and execution of a personalized exercise prescription. Successful completion enables students and athletes to work independently in a fitness environment. May be repeated for credit up to 3 times. Transfer: CSU: E2, UC*.

Cañada College MAP                          Department: Kinesiology                          Number of Units: 1

Textbook: View textbook in Bookstore

CSU:   E2-Lifelong (PE) - Canada

Section Information as of Wednesday, March 22nd 2017 - 05:13:51 pm
Instructor Meeting Date Meeting Time Days Building Room Section Session
Garcia,M 01/15-05/23 7:10pm-8:25pm Tuesday Thursday 01 0138 LCX Laboratory/Studio/Activity

Critical Dates for this Course
Last day to add class: 28-JAN-2013
Last day to drop with a refund: 28-JAN-2013
Last day to drop without a "W": 03-FEB-2013
Last day to drop with a "W": 25-APR-2013

View all sections for FITN 117 - Fitn. Assess./Strenght Cond.


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Traxxas Steel constant-velocity driveshafts

Brand: Traxxas

Part Number: TRX-7051X

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Portlandia Season 6 release date - January 21, 2016 on IFC

  TV show status
Max Pogorelyi
Date: 2015-09-07

The fate of the sixth season of the immensely popular comedy show Portlandia was a big question for the army of fans of this amazing series. Tons of rumors about the project renewal or cancelling stuffed the world net, but until now there was no official confirmation of either of versions. Now, we can feel relieved as IFC has again doubled its popular project and has officially announced they intend to release two seasons (6 and 7) of Portlandia at once. The release date is yet to be set.

Portlandia season 6 cancelled or renewed? When Portlandia season 6 be released? Will Portlandia season 6 be final?

The original name: Portlandia season 6
Duration: 22 min.
Actors: Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein
Country: USA
TV channel: IFC
Original release:

When does Portlandia season 6 return on IFC? We have the new information on the status of Portlandia season 6. Release date to be confirmed at the show's IFC channel. Thank you for having taken part in the voting for Portlandia season 6.

About TV show Portlandia Season 6

Popular with immense audience all over the globe, Portlandia, the project of IFC, is produced in a style of a satirical sketch. The first episode of this funny series kicked off yet in winter 2011. Since then its popularity just kept increasing, attracting more and more excited viewers in many world countries.

Despite the fact Portlandia has its prewritten script, its episodes are heavily improvised as well. The series can boast to be several times nominee for the honorable Primetime Emmy Award. It also features a Peaboy Award among its achievements.

The reviews for Portlandia episodes have been mainly very positive. Jerry Seinfeld, a popular comedian has said that the show was the best of the comedies then and of all times in general.

Subscribe to receive last news and updates status TV show Portlandia season 6. You will receive an automatic email when the Portlandia season 6 renewed or cancelled.

What can you learn about the TV series: Portlandia season 6?

We have description, trailer and wallpapers (photos from the set) series. If there is no any information about the show, please contact us by mail or leave a review. What don`t we have? We don`t have enough high-quality reviews. Dear friends, we are waiting for you to help, send us your reviews, we will post them. We can not see all the TV shows, but we know most of them.

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Grandmother Arrives via Parcel Post

One of my family ghost story, one that I actually witnessed as a child…  Happy Allhallows Eve!

I was a kid when my
grandmother on my mom’s side passed away.
We were out camping at the time, so word didn’t get to us until we
returned from the trip.  My mom was
devastated.  Her mother had choked on a
chicken bone during a midnight
snack, and Grandpa didn’t find her until the following morning.

Years passed and the tragedy
faded.  We moved from Arizona
to California,
ending up in the heart of California’s
central valley.  I remember this part
clearly, because we were living in a duplex.
At least three, probably four, years had passed since my grandmother had
passed away.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, my
dead grandmother arrives via parcel post.

I don’t remember a whole lot
about this grandmother.  She’s only a
vague image in my memory, because she passed away while I was so young.  Being that she was only 14 years older than
my mom, she didn’t feel she was old enough to be called “Grandma” so
I was instructed to call her “Nana.”

Nana and her husband, my mom’s
stepfather who they all called “Spud,” were only occasional
visitors.  I mainly remember them from
Christmas mornings.  Grandpa Spud is
especially vivid in my memory because of the year he dressed up as Santa and
scared the holy hell out of me.

So, years later, Nana shows up
at our duplex in California
in a white box.  She’d been cremated and
these were her ashes.  Obviously they
didn’t wait this long to cremate her, but I’m at a loss for why it took so long
for the ashes to reach us.  I’d hate to
think they’d been lost in the mail all that time.

The ashes arrived addressed to
my father, because Nana’s will stipulated that she wanted to be cremated and
have her ashes spread via airplane over a specific forest in Oregon.
My father, being a pilot with his own airplane, was the logical
choice.  They had all lived in the same
area up in Oregon
in the 1950’s, back when my dad was in the lumber business.  I guess this forest was someplace dear to
Nana; perhaps that’s where Spud had proposed to her.  My father was familiar with the place.  The idea of flying up there and taking care
of Nana’s last wish wasn’t a problem.
However, it wasn’t a priority either.
After all, she was already years dead, and my father was a busy man.

Nana’s ashes, still securely
sealed in the white cardboard box, sat around the house for a while.  It would spend some time on the dining room
table, or the coffee table in the living room.
Or I’d occasionally see it sitting on the kitchen counter.  Finally during a frenzy of housecleaning, Dad
took the box and put it on a shelf in the garage.  There it sat for quite some time.

It was after Dad put the white
box in the garage that Mom started noticing weird things going on.  She’d be cooking dinner, and have the oven
set to a specific temperature.  She’d turn
away and take care of some other detail, and turn back to see the oven temperature
knob was not where she’d set it.
Puzzled, she’d set the knob back to the proper temperature, then later
discovered someone moved it again.  This
was unsettling, especially since she was the only one in the kitchen the entire

Then Mom noticed that someone
kept changing the temperature on the air conditioner.  This also was odd because it was happening
while my dad was at work and I was at school
There was no one else in the house.

These things had been going on
for a while before Mom finally mentioned it.
She didn’t seem frightened; she seemed bemused, almost comforted.  It was familiar to her, because it was
exactly the kind of things that would happen when Nana was around.  Mom and Nana always argued about what
temperature to set the stove or oven, and Nana always wanted it colder or
warmer in the house than Mom did.

This talk of Nana’s ghost
being in the house scared me, but I didn’t see any of these inconsistencies of
temperature settings with my own eyes.  I
was 10 or 11 years old at the time.  My
toys weren’t moving around, and I wasn’t seeing anything strange.  Nana wasn’t appearing to me in a doorway or
anything like that.  So I didn’t really
believe it.  It still gave me chills but
it was fun to go along with it.  Mom had
always believed in ghosts.  Ghosts were
fun.  Being scared was fun.

This changed when our little
dog, Taffy, started getting involved.
Taffy was a long-haired Chihuahua
that my dad used to call “Ten pounds of love in a five pound
package.”  She was a tiny little
thing, but she thought she was a ferocious attack dog.  Taffy had no fear, and she was on guard at
all times to protect her family.  She’d
bark at the mailman, at other dogs and cats, and especially at visitors that
she didn’t recognize.

Suddenly Taffy had begun to
bark frantically at things that no one could see.  Especially in the late evening, she’d
suddenly start growling and barking for all she was worth at a corner in the
dining room, or at a spot in the hallway.
It didn’t seem to be that she was barking at something she heard or
smelled, because she had her eyes fixed on a specific point and all her
attention was right there, right in front of her.  She was barking and snapping at thin air.

This is something I witnessed
personally.  It was very freaky.  I remember that it even disturbed my
Dad.  “Taffy!” he’d say.  “What the hell are you barking at?  Taffy!
Stop!”  He’d have to bend
down and pick her up, and carry her away from whatever had her so upset.

Finally, there was the time
when my dad was gone on an extended business trip, and my mom and I were up
late and watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  We were sitting together on the couch, with
Taffy at our feet, and Taffy started growling.
By this time she’d gotten a lot less frantic about the whole thing,
having become more familiar with whatever it was that upset her.  She’d just stare and give a low warning

On this night, she did more
than just stare at a spot in front of her.
Very slowly her head turned as she was growling, as if she were watching
something cross the room from left to right.
It was weird.  I remember sliding
over closer to my Mom.  Taffy suddenly
stood up, still tracking something with her eyes.  She was pointing toward Dad’s rocking chair.

As we watched, and as Taffy
continued to growl, the chair moved slightly.
Just a little bit forward, and just a little bit back, like something
was trying to rock in it.  I remember the
look on Mom’s face.  She turned toward me
to make sure I was seeing the same thing she was seeing.

I didn’t have to convince her
to let me sleep in her and Dad’s bed that night.  We slept with the lights on.  As soon as my dad got home from the business
trip, Mom told him that he needed to get Nana’s ashes spread over that Oregon forest.  He needed to do it now.

Dad agreed.  He took me along as copilot.  Back then he had a single-prop Cessna 192 and
it took a while to fly all the way up to Oregon,
but he navigated us via familiar landmarks to where we needed to be and then
had me open the white box.  Inside was a
thick plastic bag.  I’d expected the
ashes to be white and powdery, like the ones in the fireplace, but they
weren’t.  They were strange flat chips
colored black and gray.  After all those
years, there was Nana — and now, as I’m writing this, when I think about Nana
this is all I can see.  Not her face or
her voice, but these strange looking ashes.

In an airplane, you can’t just
crank down a window and toss something out.
The only part of the window that opened was this little five-inch hatch,
and when Dad reached across and flopped it open, the wind made an unbelievable
wail and it was like a tornado had been let loose inside the cockpit.  I had a hole cut in the plastic bag, and I
shoved it up against the open window hatch as my dad dipped one wing low and
circled.  Most of Nana’s ashes made it
out the window, but a good percentage of it swirled around us in the
cockpit.  I even got some in my mouth.  My dad was yelling and the airplane bucked
and jumped.  The ashes stung my eyes.

There was a sudden THWAK, and
the window sucked the last of the ashes out along with the plastic bag.  I shut the little hatch, and continued
spitting out ashes.  Dad leveled the
airplane, and after a few moments began laughing.  We turned south and headed back home.

After that day, Taffy no
longer barked at invisible things, and the air conditioner and oven ceased
changing the settings on their own.  That
cinched it for Mom.  For her there was
absolutely no other explanation than it being the ghost of Nana haunting the
duplex, waiting for us to fulfill her final wishes.  I think my father was convinced, too.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

True Or False?

“I really don’t understand,” she whispered to him.  “How can information be alive?”

“You, yourself, are made up of information,” he whispered back, “and you’re alive.”

“My body is alive.”

“Your body is made of information.”

Marla shook her head.  “I don’t get it.”  She strained her eyes, searching in both direction.  “It looks clear,” she finally whispered.

They quickly walked across the red brick paved street, over the tracks and under the electric wire.  “Do you believe in a God?” he asked.

“Yes, and yes you told me three times now that God’s thoughts are all around us.”  She pointed.  “Even in the trash.”

“Thoughts are made of information, right?  God’s thoughts manifest themselves as information all around us.  Therefore, don’t you think they would be living information?”

“True or false,” Marla said.  “Theology is not one of my strong points.”

Do you believe that information itself can be alive?

Why Didn’t I Listen To My Own Damn Self?

I got caught up in the moment, I guess.  I participated in the chili cook-off madness.  My favorite chili of the day turned out to be an all-natural organic vegan chili.  It had curry in it.  Very different and delicious.

Within an hour I was sick.  Things began happening to my body that reminded me of Dr. Banner turning into a big green monster.

I now know exactly what it’s like to be a cross between the Hindenburg and a skunk.

On the bright side, I won a door prize.  A Fellows™ “Bulldog” shredder.  Last night I hooked it up and terrorized every piece of paper that had ever caused me grief.  “Aha!  YOU!  YOU GAVE ME A PAPER CUT!  Mwahahahaha!  Into the shredder with you!  INTO ZEE SHREDDER!  Mwa-hahahahahahaha!”

Knock on the door.  Instant silence in my room.  “Dad, are you being an evil mad scientist again?” comes a little voice.

“Oh, okay.  Just making sure.”

My eyes roam around the room for another doomed piece of paper…

Only In Texas

I’m not a native Texan, but I live there.

Tomorrow at work is the Big Chili Cookoff.  I love good chili, but not the kind that melts your teeth or gives you food poison.  Those seem to be the two varieties that pop up every year.  It’s like a theme.

The day after is usually the company’s official Noxious Outgassing Day.

Should I just call in sick?

Friends Lock Engaged Again

Because of the legal battle my love LadySavina is once again entering, I’ve locked down this site again for the duration.

Those of you who are not on my friends list, but subscribed to me, will continue to receive my posts but from what I understand won’t be able to comment.

If you find yourself in that situation simply let me know, and we’ll be “Xanga Friends.”

Neverland For Milady

Touch the dark air
Spread your arms wide
Lift bare feet onto soft nothing
And rise

Soft breeze
Caress your hair
Leafs waver as you rise
The ground drops away underneath

Can’t stop smiling
Thinking your happy thoughts
Aim for the moonlit clouds above

My love
I point the way
Second star to the right
And then it’s straight on ’till morning
Let’s go

New home
Our very own
Blue and luscious green
A place where our hearts never age

Industrial Poetry

This is the kind of “poetry” I write at work every day:

  • Avoid sharp hazards when handling materials.
  • Always make sure your clothing cannot become caught in rotating equipment.
  • Use safety goggles when using power tools.
  • Install safety barriers at both ends of the unit starting with the entry end.
  • Never allow anyone to ride equipment while work is being performed.

Are you asleep yet?  This stuff works better than Lunesta. I have to drink pots of coffee to stay awake long enough to write it.

Who says only teenagers get angst?

Blue pre-dawn light
Garbage truck slams and bangs
Staring up at five wooden blades

Her voice
It haunts in dreams
Would rather lie awake
Than be taunted by what is lost

Red eyes
Scrape through the day
Concentrate on breathing
Trying not to think that life sucks
Be strong

She was
She was everything
Everything everything

Don’t worry, all is well.  This was written a few weeks ago when I hit a low.  I’m riding a high right now.


text:
Faith Can Move Mountains... But Dynamite Works Better

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Revenge Of The Easter Bunny

"Answer the question, damn it. Where are the Easter eggs?"

"Look, Doc, you've got it all wrong. I'm not the Easter Bunny. I'm Bugs Bunny. You know, eater of carrots, annoyer of Elmer and Yosemite Sam, beloved by millions? I don't spend my time delivering Easter eggs. You're looking for some other rabbit. Now why don't you just let me go and we'll forget this ever happened?"

"Shut up and answer the question!"

"How am I supposed to answer a question when you're telling me to shut up? I knew I should have taken a left turn at Kansas City."

"What's this about Kansas City? Is that where the eggs are hidden? Tell me! Tell me!!!"

"Doc, you've gotta calm down. Really, you're going to give yourself a heart attack."

"I've had forty seven of those already."

"You remind me of Elmer. Anger management issues, bald... though you don't have a speech impediment."

"Stop distracting me with complete asides! Where are the Easter eggs, or do I start getting nasty?"

"You weren't already being nasty? What a maroon."

"Maroon? What's that? Codeword for destroying the country? Not on my watch!"

"Doc, you seriously need help. I mean padded walls, sedation, and therapists around the clock help."

~ taken from transcripts of an interrogation between Bugs Bunny and Dick Cheney, 2006

Yes, I know. I'm silly.

Well, it's that time of year again. Easter weekend is here, and of course I couldn't let it pass without comment. When you're through here, have a look at our joint blog, where our alter egos carry out more tomfoolery related to the day. We really couldn't resist getting a bit carried away with ourselves, by the way.

I thought I'd mark the occasion here with pics, editorial cartoons, and various nonsense (it's me, what did you expect?). Enjoy, and have a great Easter!

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Old Man Winter Likes It Here, And Wants To Stay

"You have willingly and maliciously deceived millions of people with your vicious lies about the proper return of spring. Across the land, people are screaming for your blood. While you went and predicted an early spring in February, that early spring never came. Instead we were getting blizzards, ice storms, cold fronts. Does that sound like spring weather to you? Well, you've given us no choice, Phil. For your reckless disregard for the feelings of millions of people who wanted winter to end, and despite the wishes of a few lunatics out there who for some reason love winter, I find you guilty of fraud, and hereby sentence you to ten thousand years imprisonment on Skull Island until you learn your manners. No, that is not excessive, Phil. You should have tried to get a judge who didn't despise the word snow."  ~ transcripts of verdict and sentencing of Punxsutawney Phil by Justice Clayton "Hangman" Maddox, June 2013

My maternal grandparents had a farm for years before retirement, in a snowbelt area of southern Ontario. The nearest sizeable town was a place called Hanover, and the farm was part of a large area that in winter gets hammered by snow, influenced by Lake Huron and the high winds spreading out across the various tracts of farmland. My mother has said that if you went up there for a visit in the winter, you packed enough clothes for three or four days in case you got stuck. When my grandparents first started living there, the farmhouse was surrounded by rows of evergreen trees, which shaded the place. My father suggested cutting some of them down to let in some light. My grandfather had decided to wait and see, thinking they were there for a good reason.

And indeed they were, as they found out that first winter. The trees provided a solid wall of insulation for the house against the winds, blocking the snowdrifts that built up across the fields. Without those trees, things might have gotten a tad bit cold, even in a well heated farmhouse. While they were living there, one year towards the end of his life, my grandmother's father came over for a visit in the winter. He was used to winter ending in late February in the Netherlands-at least what passed for winter in the mild lowlands of the Dutch. One day in early April, with a snowstorm howling outside, my great-grandfather shook his head and asked, "Does the winter ever end in this country?"

We're now officially a week into spring, though it doesn't quite feel like it. We've had snow on both sides of the border, a nice trick by Mother Nature to tweak our noses (it's quite welcome to me personally, but I'm silly that way). Here in the Ottawa Valley, the first day of spring had snow, and we're still mostly buried by it. We've had blizzard conditions in the Canadian Prairies, where a passenger train was stopped for a day because of snowdrifts a few days ago, and where conditions in one area caused a pileup traffic nightmare. In the United States, the last storm resulted in snow warnings in fifteen states across a wide area. Even overseas, Great Britain is still getting snow; I've seen the pictures on a couple of British blogs I follow. And in a gag lawsuit, the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil is being sued by an attorney for his incorrect prognostications of an early spring.

Many people find themselves wondering where spring is. I'd like to say that spring and summer have been scared off by Old Man Winter, who's decided he'll just stick around the neighbourhood for a good long while. After all, there's nothing wrong with some nice, lovely snow. It's good for you. Cold air in the lungs, the crunch of fresh powder under your boots. Lovely. Lovely!

Yes, I know I'm in the minority.

And so I give you a collection of pics for your enjoyment. Herein you'll find editorial cartoons and assorted tomfoolery with spring, winter, and this peculiar inability of the spring to manifest itself. Oh, rest assured, spring will be here. Eventually. Someday. Maybe.

Assuming it didn't get stranded somewhere along the way in a snowdrift.

Monday, March 25, 2013

A Day In The Life Of A Cat

Before getting started today, a bit of business to see to in the form of two links. Over at her blog today, my partner in crime Norma is asking the question about what happened to the spring. Second, at our joint blog, our alter egos Scarlett and James talk about an entirely different use for certain classic adult pleasure toys. Obviously we do get naughty! Check them both out, comment, and let us know what you think!

Now, on with the mischief at hand....

8:05 AM. The staff decides it's perfectly acceptable to get up out of bed before I am prepared to get up. She shifts from underneath me and rises to her feet. Staff, I was perfectly comfortable lying on your stomach and the covers, and you dare alter that?

Staff? Staff? Hey, don't you walk into that bathroom when I'm glaring at you.

8:10 AM. Downstairs. Looking out window. Dismayed by amount of snow outside. I was under the impression this was supposed to be the spring, and yet here we are, still buried in snow. Note to self: have the weather people beaten up. They are the most ineffective staff there is in the world.

8:25 AM. The staff finally comes downstairs. Don't think I haven't forgotten what you did, staff. Getting up before I'm ready to get up is a serious mark against you as a staff. Now, breakfast time, since I'm awake. Get moving, staff. No time for yawning.

8:30 AM. Once again the staff gives me field rations. How many times have I told you, staff, I am deserving of much better cuisine than this?

8:32 AM. With much reluctance, I eat some of the field rations. After glaring at the staff.

8:56 AM. Looking out window at endless snow. Hearing the muffled barking of a dog. Recognize it as that idiot dog from that farm. Always wanting to make friends. Why doesn't he understand I don't like him? I wonder if he's barking at something or just his usual barking at everything he sees like a lunatic?

9:35 AM. The barking continues somewhere in the distance. Wherever he is, he's in one place, implying he's chased something up a tree. Fortunately mutts, being a lower species, cannot climb trees.

10:15 AM. The barking seems to have stopped. Maybe the dog gave up. Meanwhile, the staff is disrupting my home yet again. Putting up egg and rabbit cutouts on windows, placing the same sort of motif in decorations around the house. I must investigate this. Besides, she's just put down a baby chick figurine on the table, and we can't have that in my house, can we?

10:20 AM. Consulting calendar. Ah, that explains it. Easter is turning up in a few days. The combination of religious holiday and chocolate egg and chocolate rabbit eating binge that humans seem to celebrate. Humans are a strange species. The staff looks puzzled to see me staring at the calendar. What?

10:55 AM. Staff displeased with my swatting the baby chick figurine on the table. Staff, if you weren't putting down inviting targets on my table for me to swat, what reason would you have put them there in the first place?

11:05 AM. Staff has put figurines behind glass cases. Out of my reach. Oh, for opposable thumbs....

1:10 PM. Awake from nap. Even more decorations strewn up all over the place. Staff, you did not clear this with me. I am most dismayed.

1:17 PM. Squirrel on outside windowsill staring in at me. It's that annoying little bastard I hate so much. Pouncing on windowsill. Growling and hissing. Staff! I demand you let me out this instant!

1:20 PM. Staff opens back door. Unlike my usual tendencies to carefully check for cold weather and hesitate to step out, I am in full sprint mode.

1:21 PM. There he is! That annoying little bastard! Beginning all out pursuit. I have you now!!!!

1:22 PM. Squirrel has made it to a tree. Fortunately, I can climb trees. Say your prayers, squirrel....

1:23 PM. Oh, rats. He's out on a branch that's too thin for my weight. Just staring back at me and sneering. I hate you, you do realize that, you annoying little bastard?

1:25 PM. Blast! Foiled again! The annoying little bastard has leapt to another branch and scrambled down the tree. Growling and hissing at him. And um... I think I'm stuck.

1:45 PM. Still stuck in tree. To quote a member of the Fantastic Four... what a revoltin' development this is.

2:25 PM. Okay, look. The staff has no idea I'm up here. If she did, she'd have called the fire department already. She does tend to do that from time to time when I get stuck somewhere. I suspect it has more to do with her eye for what she calls hunky firemen. I don't really see the attraction, but then as I've said before, humans are a strange species.

It can't be that hard to get out of this tree, right?

2:30 PM. Somewhere that annoying little bastard is laughing at me. I just know he is. Keep laughing, nuts for brains. Someday, you'll be cornered where you can't escape. Then you'll be all mine.

3:10 PM. Carefully backing my way down the tree. This of course will not be dignified. Have to hope no one's photographing this.

3:15 PM. Back inside. Staff asks where I've been. Well, staff, if you'd looked outside, you would have had a chance to call the fire department and get a chance to spend some time with a bunch of guys you seem to find irresistable. Must be the abs.

6:10 PM. Waking up from nap. Staff making dinner. Nice smells. I do believe lamb is somehow involved.

6:12 PM. Staring at staff while she's preparing dinner. Staff, I have had a most unpleasant day, and it would speak well of you to spoil me rotten. Do I have to resort to the rubbing my head against your leg trick while purring? I know that gets you to do just about everything I want....

6:15 PM. Have resorted to the purring and head rub against the staff's legs trick. Works everytime. The staff gives me a plate of meat and some milk. Most enjoyable, staff. The lamb tastes exquisite. Makes up for the field rations this morning, not to mention your getting up out of bed before I was ready.

10:55 PM. Staff yawning. Time for bed soon, no doubt. Weather channel predicts more snow. And this is supposed to be spring?

Maybe that annoying little bastard will get buried by an avalanch. It would serve him right.


text:
mind snatchers

Back home now, taking up teaching again – and with this the “major challenge” we face – nolens volens E.P. Thompson wrote in an article in 1970: Collectively, all of us – all we liberal academics – were struck with a paralysis of will as the system not only grew round us, but built us into its … Continua a leggere

academics making life difficult ?

Making life difficult by complicated, complex thoughts …! – This is the image academics have the bear with quite often – the absent-minded professor is the common proposition. So the scene: Imagine there is a train station, you receive a mail message on the phone and it is important enough to receive immediate attention: you … Continua a leggere

impressions ….

Too often in today’s life and academic thinking we are (following what we are required to do:) jumping from one to the next stepping stone, barely being allowed to think about building bridges, let alone building them.

Social management – brief overview and introduction

A brief look at social management is given in a lecture to students at Plekanov university and can be accessed on my YouTube channel. Preparing the presentation was interesting, as actually on the Internet the search for social management does not show any results anymore …. – only issues around social media are schowing up. So, in this light the … Continua a leggere

truth, genuinely …

“The Superior Man is aware of Righteousness, the inferior man is aware of advantage.” (Confucius) Today to be added?! The genius of our times of mendacities is well aware of the ways and means to present him/herself as being righteous, doing so in a charismatically “Catholicist” way and does so in favour of own advantage, while … Continua a leggere

suicides, murders … and no gravediggers???

Or: the Loneliness of the Scientist, While Trying to Escape the Murderers It is remarkable I think – especially as it is one of these issues we all know, and state repeatedly. It is about the political animal – explored in Aristotle’s Politics -, and the not less important aspect, highlighted by Marx in The Grundrisse, … Continua a leggere

The power of love – the love of power … The need for genuine truth

I am sure many of you know it: What Did I Do Is For Your Own Good – apparently “one of these videos”, going viral … (sorry, it is youtube but you may manage – or look for “What Did I Do Is For Your Own Good」 – Shanghai Rainbow Chamber Singers” Can make somebody … Continua a leggere

A strange competition ….

It seems at least that underlying the main topics of public debates – growth, competitiveness, sustainability, ratio (as in rationality), digitalisation and globalisation, of course – we find some matter that may be called by the apparent misnomer “competition in self-degrading”. It does not really sound better than the more appropriate “nomer” which then should … Continua a leggere

The Three Wise Monkeys of our Age

Indeed, stunning and beautiful, Harbin Ice And Snow Sculpture Festival but perhaps also showing some danger of our times … of celebrating the cold … … leaving us without words, forgetting the warmth of words and pushing us into the standards of the new world, mentioned by Lewis Mumford, talking in his book an The Myth … Continua a leggere

Call for submissions: Joerg-Huffschmid Award 2017

*** sorry for crossposting – please distribute widely *** Dear Colleagues, a special “New Years Wish” – please find attached the call for applications for the JÖRG-HUFFSCHMID-PREIS 2017 Below as well the call in English language. Where applicable, we encourage you to hand in your work and/or pass the call on to colleagues of whom … Continua a leggere


text:
Blackberry Flavor Concentrate by FA (1oz)

Product Code: FL030-FA-BLACKBERRY-30ML

Availability: In Stock

Price: $4.79

Concentrated Blackberry flavoring by Flavour Art.
Blackberry concentrated flavoring is produced from ingredients approved in food industry for beverages and products for human consumption.

Ingredients: Natural and Artifical Flavors, PG

All flavorings are undiluted, full strength flavor concentrates direct from the manufacturer.
Except where noted (*) in the product description, all flavorings are manufactured from FDA approved ingredients and are not known to contain diacetyl, acetoin, or acetyl propionyl.
Please read the entire description for the product before purchase to determine if the flavoring is suitable for your intended use.
Specific questions regarding flavoring ingredients or chemicals should be directed to the individual manufacturer.
Due to subjective tastes, our recommended usage is to test any new flavoring at a low percentage of 2-5% flavoring in your recipe, and adjust to taste.

Description from the manufacturer's website:

Blackberry Flavor
Water soluble. Musk and fruity.

As with all flavorings, individual tastes are subjective and will vary from one person to another. Because of the nature of individual tastes and preferences, Wizard Labs cannot offer refunds based on individual likes or dislikes of a manufacturer's particular flavoring, and all flavoring sales are final. We highly suggest trying an 8ml sample size of any new flavoring before committing to a larger purchase.

For Best Storage Conditions:
Store in a tightly closed container, away from heat and direct sunlight.


text:
The World SF Blog

Speculative Fiction from Around the World

Short Fiction Summaries, 2009: Analog

Prompted by a conversation with Jeff Ford, we thought we’d take a look at what stories have been published in 2009 from people who could be termed world SF writers. And next up: Analog Magazine.

Well, that was fun!

November 24, 2009 - Posted by | Uncategorized | ,

  1. I think you should try looking at the semi-pro magazines like Crossed Genres.

    Comment by Joyce | November 24, 2009

    • It’s not really semi-pro, though… it pays, what, $10 a story? There are several small publications with more of a focus on international SF – Expanded Horizons is another good one – but the problem is, there are literally hundreds of small publications and only a handful of professional ones.

      However if anyone wants to write a summary for the blog of some of these, I’d be happy to post it…

      Comment by lavietidhar | November 25, 2009

      • Yep, it pays $10 per story.

        Crossed Genres is also a young magazine but it has good intentions.

        So, for sf/f writers, the real big break is to get published in the Big Brothers Of SF/F (Asimov, Analog etc)? For sf/f writers who get published in small publications, they are not considered as real sf/f writers? I think there seems to be this distinction here and it’s something that turns a lot of people away from sf/f.

        Comment by Joyce | November 27, 2009

  2. And a summary for the blogs of some of these small publications would be good. 🙂

    Comment by Joyce | November 27, 2009

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

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text:
Alienated Youth Part Deux

Without revealing myself as an utter snob, I will say simply I did not see kids I wanted to hang out with as I surveyed the parking lot of Nanaimo District Secondary School, chock full of beat up trucks and muscle cars. Clusters of levi-ed boys were gathered around cars with doors flung open and one feathered haired guy leaned back and hooted, “MDA Weekend.” His use of an unfamiliar acronym (later i found out MDA is a drug akin to ecstacy) terrified me. I’d always counted on knowing the language, if nothing else.

But my own snobbery was not unrivaled. No one particularly wanted to be friends with me either. A boy named Larry in my drama class, looked me up and down one day and asked in a loud voice, “Do you even own a pair of jeans?” It so happened I was wearing the aforementioned tweed skirt from Montreal that day. I must have actually muttered the word “Montreal” in my defense. “Montreal?” he said, his voice full of mockery. “Puh-lease!”

This comment was deeply connected to a class divide that it would take me the whole year to catch onto. I had no I idea that an electric fence ran along the line between labor and management and that every kid I encountered was a union member’s son or daughter and that everyone knew my unusual last name as the name of one of the new managers at the mill. Outsider, sent from the city to boot. Interest in anything from Quebec, anything French, was for high talking city folk like myself. Why didn’t I know any of this?

So, you can sort of survive high school without friends except for one thing: Lunch. During classes, you’re supposed to be listening to the bad-accented teacher recite Le Petit Prince; you’re not supposed to be hanging out with friends. But lunch, I dreaded. I mostly circled the halls as if I was headed somewhere or if I had my dad’s (French, and therefore suspect) car, I’d go home.

But, then one day everything changed. It was kind of a downtime in drama class and these two girls came up to me and the one girl, Tanya–was she Latina?– said, “You’re like us. You don’t fit in here. Come sit with us.” I stumbled to my feet and crossed the room to where Shirley and Tanya always sat.

Tanya leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial tone, “So this is the deal. My mom’s white. My dad’s from India, but he lives in the city and no one’s ever seen him and so no one is sure what I am, and Shirley here is Chinese. Her parents own Wong’s Diner downtown, you’ve probably seen it. What do you think of that?”

What did I think of that? I was being asked. “It’s cool,” I said, hoping that would work.

“So you sit with us from now on, okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

“Because,” Tanya added with a steady confidence of a person twice her age, “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

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