text:
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Technology News
Trusted, Accurate, and Validated
Home / Funding  / Venture

The Open Prairie Rural Opportunities Fund, a growth-stage private equity

Email Security Platform GreatHorn Raises $13 Million

GreatHorn, a provider of an email security platform designed to

Commercial RISC-V processor IP and silicon solutions provider SiFive, Inc., raised $65.4 million in a Series D round led by existing investors Sutter Hill

icometrix, a global expert in brain imaging artificial intelligence solutions, acquired $18 million in a funding round led by Forestay Capital, Optum Ventures, and

On-demand manufacturing marketplace Xometry raised $50 million in an equity funding round led by Greenspring Associates. Dell Technologies Capital also participated in the round,

EverlyWell acquired $50 million in a financing round led by long-time investors Goodwater Capital and Highland Capital Partners. Next Coast Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners,

Bev, a female-centric beverage company, completed a $7 million seed round led by tech venture capital firm Founders Fund. As a voice in an

Customer experience optimization solution Squelch, Inc., announced an additional $12 million in funding from current backers Shasta Ventures and Correlation Ventures, alongside new investor

Software-defined edge computing company Pixeom, Inc., secured $15 million in capital funding led by Intel Capital and National Grid Partners. Previous investors include Samsung


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
Nigerian Actress, Lillian Bach Celebrates 49th Birthday With Lovely African Themed Photos

Veteran Nollywood Actress, Lilian Bach is celebrating a New Year today, Saturday November 8, 2019…..

Lilian who was born in Lagos Island to a Yoruba mother and a Polish father took to her Instagram page to share some stunning photos to mark her birthday.

ALSO READ  So Adorable: Veteran Nigerian Actress, Lola Idije Flaunts Her Cute Daughter (Photos)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.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

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-45
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for October 2020
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-128.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.17 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


text:
Osinbajo Lauds New 12,500 Jobs Created Through Lagos Employment Trust Fund

Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has commended the Lagos State Government for establishing the Employment Trust Fund (ETF) through which loans are granted to small scale businesses and people with business ideas, saying that it was particularly laudable that over 12,500 new jobs were created within the first six months of the scheme.

The ETF is an initiative of the State Government established by the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode through which a total of N25billion is earmarked to be disbursed within four years to empower business owners with capital to revive moribund ventures, boost trade and as well help to start new ventures.

Speaking while delivering a keynote address at the Special Parliamentary Session to mark the third anniversary of the 8th Assembly of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Osinbajo said the ETF, which was created in 2016, was an excellent example of how State Governments could intervene in creating opportunities for small businesses.

“At this point, I want to mention that the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund which was established in 2016 is an excellent example of State intervention in creating opportunities for small businesses.

“As of May 2018, 7000 loans totaling about N5billion have already been given out and 12,500 jobs were created even within the first six months of its operation.

“This is a very important initiative of the State Government and we think that it is important because it understands and addresses the concern of an important segment of our society – the young bright minds that require some capital to multiply their thoughts and trade,” Osinbajo said.

He said as part of measures to address poverty in the country, the Federal Government was already working on a scheme relating to the ETF through which loans would be given to small traders, adding that the initiative would commence in July.

“In the area of job creation, our party – the All Progressives Congress (APC) realized that we simply have to adopt a bottom-up economic model one where government directly intervenes by massive social investment programme in matters of poverty and this sort of programme addresses youth, especially graduate employment and credit to small businesses but especially credit to the smallest businesses like the one-table trader, the bread or plantain seller and so on. This is the largest segment of our working population.

“The smallest traders or petty traders, their inventory is usually not more than between N5000 and N10,000 but they are an important part of the value chain of goods that they sell. They are the ones who sell the single sachet of soap, sugar, spices and so on for the largest numbers of our people but they are forgotten and ignored in the economic plans and budget and they are considered too unhealthy or too risky for micro credit loans,” the Vice Preside said.

While alluding to Nigeria’s high poverty index, Osinbajo said the neglect of the smallest traders had contributed to the figures, but that the Federal Government was set to take care of people in such category by expanding the micro credit scheme to them.

“One of the reasons why our poverty figures are high is because of our large informal sector consisting of the petty traders whose income does not fit into the extreme poverty bracket but they are counted in a number because there is no way of tracking them up and right now, the plan of the Federal Government is to expand our micro credit programme to give smaller credit to this group.

“Eventually, they will open bank accounts under what we call Government Savings Account (GSA) and by giving credit to them, they can replenish and increase their inventories and give them a stronger chance to earn more while they also service the value chain that they are part of, and more importantly is that we bring them into the formal sector where they have access to government and private credit and we thereby lift more people permanently out of poverty.

“This is an important part of the Economic Growth Plan and we believe that by next month July, we should begin the disbursement of smallest micro credit – giving micro credit to the bottom of the pyramid,” Osinbajo said, adding that government was already working with major banks, telecommunication firms and payment companies.

In the area of youth employment, the Vice President said aside from the 200,000 graduates that have been engaged through the N-Power scheme, another 300,000 would be engaged by July, making the initiative the largest post-tertiary job programme in Africa.

Earlier in his remarks, Governor Ambode said it was gratifying that the three arms of government in Lagos have always worked together to show good example of promoting the tenets of democracy and what growth and development should be.

“The three arms of government in Lagos State have continually strived to ensure that we uphold the tenets of democracy and also create a clear example of what development and growth should be.

“We stand today as the shining example of what democracy should be and what actually development and growth should be and we are excited that in that collaboration we would take Lagos and also Nigeria to the rightful place it belongs,” Governor Ambode said.

Leave a Reply

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

%d bloggers like this:


text:
Sell your best ideas

It’s no good having a brilliant idea if you can’t get anyone to listen. These techniques are all about presentation and storytelling – about selling your best ideas to the people who matter.

  1. 3 steps to avoid bad writing
  2. Ethos, pathos and logos
  3. Make it real
  4. Make it original
  5. Make it simple
  6. Thinking in threes
  7. Omission
  8. Reframing
  9. Go viral
  10. Story arc
  11. What kind of mentor are you?
  12. Pixar six-step storyboard
  13. TRIME test
  14. Hand over the spark
  15. 6 questions every pitch should answer
  16. Factual Storytelling
  17. Cheats and Rebels

There’s a short film here on how to prepare, write and deliver better presentations.


text:
How I Became An Expert on Designs

A Guide to Making Logos Online

Making online logos can be used in many great ways. Making business logos hustles time are over. This method of online logo creation has been used by entrepreneurs, small businesses and freelancers. To make online logos there are software that have been designed for this purpose. Choosing your business name is the first thing that your need to do. This helps out in the name that will come out in the logo. Many logos are available and the next thing will be choosing a template.

Many free logos are available in the designing of the software. You can also customize a logo. Your best colors, fonts and shapes can be used in this customization. Your high resolution version can therefore be easily downloaded. This can then be used in various platforms to brand your product.

Your brands face is actually the logo. An image that can be easily recognized makes your brand very unique. What it helps to create is a way to convey your organization personality. You can thus easily place that logo on your website and on your email for advertising purposes. Part of brand identification is online logos. Determination of the quality is made by the graphics that are used. To make an impact to the potential customer you have a very little moment through the logo.

Its very advantageous to have an online logo. You don’t need special skills to make your company logo. Using of the software becomes very easy. Many trials can be made before getting the design that you are looking for realized. Making of these trials can be easily done without charging any cost. A lot of convenience is what it has. There will no need for the many calls to your designer. Also not required will be the checking and returning of the initial logo. All that will be required is simply the changing of the design attributes and you will have the program running again.

The process of free online logo making is very time saving. If you urgently need a logo you will also need a software that will help you to make one easily. The normal process would require you to visit your designer. A few days would then be taken since they also have a schedule. Beating the competition is made possible by the fact that it is free. Saving of money will thus be done. The use of this money can be in the development as well as business growth.

For any company the branding efforts offers the biggest startup cost. To have a great design however isn’t cheap. The design duties are therefore relieved off the small business. The design software can therefore remove the great need of having to hire an expensive design firm.

Discovering The Truth About Tips

If You Think You Get Designs, Then Read This


text:
222 East 44th Street

YIMBY Scopes Views and Interiors of Summit, at 222 East 44th Street in Turtle Bay

YIMBY recently visited the newly-completed 43-story residential building dubbed Summit, at 222 East 44th Street, in the Midtown neighborhood of Turtle Bay. The tower was designed by Handel Architects and developed by BLDG Management. Leasing and marketing for the 429 residences, which range from studios to three-bedroom units, is being led by Douglas Elliman Development Marketing. Escobar Design by Lemay is behind the interiors.

Read More

222 East 44th Street Nearing Completion As Outdoor Plaza Takes Shape in Turtle Bay, Manhattan

Progress at 222 East 44th Street , aka the Summit, is quickly wrapping up. The landscaped courtyard and main entrance are both underway, with the finishing touches of stone materials and accompanying landscaping steadily being installed. The all-glass structure rises 556 feet above the Midtown neighborhood of Turtle Bay, totaling 43 floors. Handel Architects designed the building while Escobar Design is handling the interiors. BLDG Management is the developer and Douglas Elliman is in charge of leasing and marketing for the 355,600 square foot tower.

Read More

212 East 44th Street

42-Story, 429-Unit Mixed-Use Building Rises To Seventh Floor At 212 East 44th Street, Midtown East

Construction is now seven stories above street level on the 42-story, 429-unit mixed-use building under development at 212 East 44th Street (a.k.a. 222 East 44th Street), in Midtown East. The structure can be seen thanks to photos posted to the YIMBY Forums by Tectonic. The latest building permits indicate the project will measure 361,354 square feet and rise 556 feet above street level.

Fetching more...


text:
consider, that you commit error. Write..

Search Posts

Category: Classic Rock

Part 1 - In Camera (2) - Open Air (CD, Album)

Category: Classic Rock

8 comments on Part 1 - In Camera (2) - Open Air (CD, Album)

  1. Vinyl and CD Discography; 6 Releases 6 Albums 1 Appearances In Camera (2) Open Air (Album) 4 versions: Robot Records: US: Sell This Version: 4 versions: In Camera (2) Frampton Comes Alive 2.
  2. neyverheysamounvetalpwerwietropomtrat.xyzinfo The Sky -Julie Fowlis neyverheysamounvetalpwerwietropomtrat.xyzinfo The Open Air -Julie Fowlis 3. Learn Me Right -Birdy Song Of Mor'du -Billy Connolly and Cast Noble Maiden Fair (A Mhaighdean Bhan Uasal) -Emma Thompson and Peigi Barker 『トイ・ストーリー』の名曲「君はともだち」や、『モンスターズ・インク』のラスト /5().
  3. Part one premieres on the Arts Brandeis page on Facebook on Friday, May 1, 6 p.m. Part two premieres on Saturday, May 2, 6 p.m. After they air, all segments will be available on the Arts Brandeis page on Facebook under VIDEOS. Content advisory: References to murder, incarceration, and the death penalty, mentions of violence against a child.
  4. Psychedelic Trance / Mix part 1[Female Fitness Motivation] (Open Air Festivals) by Branko Stojanovski Indigo Generation [Full Album] by Psychedelic Universe.
  5. In Camera discography and songs: Music profile for In Camera, formed Genres: Ambient, Drone. Albums include Open Air, Frampton Comes Alive, and Rumours.
  6. Click Here: https://cinemamvxyz/ - Anthrax Wacken Open Air Full Movie streaming [DOWNLOAD] Related search: Riviera Full Movie streaming [DOWNLOAD] Yennai .

Leave a Reply

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


text:
class of...

The final year of high school is full of many "last firsts", milestones, and memories. Senior pictures are a right of passage and signal the transformation into adulthood. All sessions are customized to your personality including locations, outfits, accessories and poses. A simple questionnaire helps me learn who you are, your likes/dislikes, and how to showcase your inner voice. We can travel to your favorite destinations, or I will use locations that match your needs.

inquire WITH US

Contact me today and let me know what you're looking for. You'll receive full collection and pricing details to choose from, and answers to any questions you may have. This is your opportunity to set up a free consult and see if I'm the right fit for you. We can discuss some preliminary ideas to accomplish your vision, and offer some suggestions on outfits and locations.

schedule with Us

Scheduling your session officially gets the ball rolling! I have weekday and weekend options available, and offer flexibility to work around your commitments. Once the reservation fee has been paid, and the date selected we can finalize the plans for your session. You'll also receive a questionnaire to complete that provides more detail about yourself and interests. This is vital to creating a unique experience and lasting images. Sessions are available year round, and many collections offer multiple seasons.

create magic with us

You'll receive reminders and preparation tips leading up to your session. Once the date is here it's go time! We'll use all our planning to create stunning images and lifelong memories. Within 2 days after your session, you'll be sent a personal app with the first sneak of your pictures. The full gallery will be uploaded into an online gallery within 2-3 weeks and available for you to view and share. We can work together to select prints and products that you can share with your friends and family.

class representatives

brooklyn hengesbach

pewamo westphalia High school

Starting at $400

Sessions can be customized to fit exactly what you need! Our most popular collection includes multiple outfits and locations during a 3 hour block, complete with a 20 page album. Every session receives an online gallery and personal app for easy viewing and sharing, as well as a print release. Collections range from $400 to $1500.

Want more Info?

contact us

We are so glad you ended up here! We would love to find out more about you. First, select a contact form below and we'll go from there!

For the Student

I'll be in touch soon!Error submitting form, please try again.

For the Parent

I'll be in touch soon!Error submitting form, please try again.

Based in Mid-michigan


text:
Flu 2020

Influenza (flu) is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses and can cause mild to severe illness. The best way to prevent the flu is by getting vaccinated each year. As we begin to enter flu season amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is important for everyone to get their flu shot to help protect yourself, your families, and Niner Nation.

This year, UNC Charlotte is requiring all employees and students to attest that they have received a flu shot or qualify for an applicable exception by Monday, Nov 16.

On Wednesday, Oct. 14, all employees and students began receiving the attestation in their University email (subject line: Flu Vaccine Attestation).

We will send weekly reminders to non-responders until Nov. 16. As Chancellor Sharon L. Gaber announced in her Sept. 22 message, beginning Tuesday, Nov. 17, anyone who hasn’t completed the form will be locked out of their NinerNet account until they do.

Please note: There is no separate exemption form for the flu shot. You will complete the attestation form stating you did not receive the shot and indicating the accepted reason why.

How you can get your flu shot

Employees and students may access a flu shot at any provider they choose — doctor’s office, pharmacy, care clinic, our on-campus flu clinics, etc.

In partnership with Publix, the University will offer on-campus flu clinics for employees and students. No appointments will be necessary, and there is no cost with appropriate insurance cards. Publix will also provide a $10 gift card to participants. Upcoming clinics include:

  • Thursday, Oct. 22 (10 a.m. - 4 p.m.): Student Union, Room 340
  • Monday, Oct. 26 (10 a.m. - 4 p.m.): Lucas Room - Cone Center

Email emergency@uncc.edu.


text:
49ers sign center Daniel Kilgore to 3-year extension

Daniel Kilgore wanted to return to the team that drafted him. The starting center got his wish before hitting the free agent market next month, signing a three-year contract through the 2020 season, the 49ers announced Wednesday.

“We are really happy to come to an agreement on a contract extension with Dan before free agency,” general manager John Lynch said in a statement. “He is very much a leader of this team, and his hard work and commitment to our success provide a great example for our young team. When you come across players who love the game like Dan you do your best to keep them in your building.”

Kilgore, 30, was selected in the fifth round of the 2011 NFL draft out of Appalachian State. He began his career as a reserve interior lineman before taking over the starting center position in 2014.

Kilgore in 2017 won the Bobb McKittrick Award, given to the team’s offensive lineman who, “best represents the courage, intensity and sacrifice displayed by the longtime offensive line coach.”

Kilgore is the third pending free agent to get a new contract from San Francisco this offseason joining quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and pass rusher Cassius Marsh.

More to come.

More Stories

Brooks Koepka owes George Kittle some golf clubs

49ers tight end George Kittle calls himself an average golfer, but one of the world's best players owes him a set of clubs.

Kittle on Tuesday joined the Candlestick Chronicles podcast and explained why professional golfer Brooks Koepka is one set of clubs in debt to the 49ers tight end.
“I’m still upset. Brooks Koepka still owes me a set of golf clubs," Kittle said. "He told me he was gonna send them to me in March and I think we’re a little bit past that. But I’m gonna still talk (expletive) to him.”
So how...

Read the full article

From The Web Ads by Zergnet

8 good things from an 8-point win

The 49ers knocked off the Rams 24-16 to push their record back to 3-3 and keep alive any realistic possibility of returning to the postseason. Coming off two rough losses to the Eagles and Dolphins, a San Francisco win Sunday kept them from potentially plummeting into the clutches of NFL mediocrity early in the 2020 season.

Before turning the page to Week 7, here's a look back at eight good things that happened for the 49ers in their 8-point victory over the Rams:

Read the full article

49ers inch up NFL Wire power rankings after win over Rams

The 49ers in Week 6 took their first step toward re-entering the postseason picture with a victory over the Los Angeles Rams. Their win also inched them up one spot in the NFL Wire power rankings from No. 20 to No. 19.

What matters for San Francisco now is continuing to string together good weeks. They got a win over the 4-1 Rams to move to 3-3 and help exorcise some of the demons that haunted them in consecutive home losses to the Eagles and Dolphins.

Most notably, the offensive line produced at a high level against...

Read the full article


text:
Diffuser No. 1 Lily/ White tea/ Lemon zest

Sold Out

Envelop your senses with a fresh balance of lily, white tea and lemon zest. Niven Morgan's No.1 Diffuser is light and airy. Add this refreshing fragrance to any room. The perfect compliment to our No 1 hand soap and hand lotion.

  • 8 oz
  • 10 black diffuser reeds

Hello You!

Join our mailing list


text:
crest hollow country club wedding

If you’re looking to hire a wedding photographer, do yourself a favor and start way in advance of your wedding day. Book your photographer to shoot your wedding engagement pictures first. That gives you two advantages: 1) you get to know him or her, which will increase your comfort level during your wedding day, and 2) it’ll let you know if you want to trust (and pay) them to do your wedding, or if you need to keep looking for a photographer.

This couple wisely booked their engagement photos a year out, giving them the time to research their choices, book their vendors, and get some killer engagement portraits in Central Park for their wedding announcement. Once the wedding day arrived, since we already had a working relationship with each other, the day went as smoothly as a wedding can. We coordinated a “first look”, took family portraits, documented the signing of the ketubah, said our “I dos” (I am including myself in this because I almost always fall in love with my couples and take their marriage seriously. It’s probably one of the reasons I try so hard to get the most amazing images possible.), and then enjoyed a fun-filled reception at the Crest Hollow Country Club.

To book me to shoot your wedding engagement photos, visit NJohnston Weddings.

Thanks for commenting! Check out more weddings, portraits and photos on my website NJohnston Photography.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s


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

text:
God FulFilled A Prophecy On Christmas Morning
download this mp3
Right-click on the link above and choose "Save Link As"
to download this audio.
Delivered By
Pastor DeWayne F. Davis Sr.
Delivered On
December 15, 2019 at 8:00 AM
Central Passage
Isaiah 9:6
Contents © 2020 New Morning Star M. B. Church • Church Website Builder by mychurchwebsite.netPrivacy Policy


text:
ADULTERY-1/(2017) Where and When was Eden Form?

© 2017 by Rabbi Dr Zvi Aviner

ADULTERY-1: Where and when was Eden Formed?

Know your CREATOR, know yourself and know the difference

1: Two Signatures: Of Noah and Moses

Today we move in our study from the First Commandment of Noah, IDOLATRY, to the Second, ADULTERY. As we’ll see, whereas Genesis Chapter One introduces G-d, His Names and Deeds as well as the option  of IDOLATRY (when He spoke in plural voice)  Chapter two and the story of Eden introduces ADULTERY in details.

That  order is not incidental. While IDOLATRY deals with our faith, believes and  fascinations, ADULTERY comes only second in significance since it is based on our sex life,  Eden Story and the ADULTERY Commandment  touches the burning questions of our society such as the meaning of marriage,the role of  modesty, and the forbidden sexual contacts.

Think of it this way: In Genesis Chapter One  ELKM said “Let Us Make an Adam in our Form and Our Image.” By  speaking in plural, He laid down the foundation of the IDOLATRY TRIAL, as we’ve Adam is made to be fascinated by whoever ELKM consulted with to make us. .Each of these entities is a potential idol.

Then ELKM blessed Adam “be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth.”  By this blessing, He planted in Adam not only the ability to procreate and proliferate,  but also the DESIRE to do so,  much stronger than seen in other creatures. No wonder that our sex life dominates our days and drives us to achieve things, as Sigmund Freud has discovered. This Heavenly Blessing explains  why the ADULTERY trial comes next to the IDOLATRY trial.

But then ELKM continued to bless us saying “and rule over…” By these words He planted in Adam a powerful drive and desire to “rule over,” gain fame and power. To tame these desires ELKM gave Adam the rest of the Commandments such as  BLOODSHED, THEFT and JUSTICE. .

.  .

So where was the ADULTERY Commandment first given to Mankind? As we’ve said, Adam received in Eden the ‘primordial’ Six Commandments:

(VII)  The seventh Commandment,  added by Noah after the Flood, prohibits the consumption of blood and limbs torn from a living animal (meaning: no cruelty!)

Natural Code of Morality

Saying that the Six Commandments were given in Eden implies that they are inherent in our psyche, as if they are “natural code of morality.”   Indeed, many societies and civilizations have adapted them in order so simply survive. Without these Commandments society would decay in chaos.

Relationship to Sinai

Hence ADULTERY was first told to Adam, then repeated to by Moses to Israel in the Ten Commandments, saying:

: “Thou shall not commit ADULTERY” (Exodus 20:13)

As the (Talmudic) Rule of thumb says, by repeating a Commandment to Israel, Moses made it applicable to both gentiles and Israel.

This rule that says

“Every commandment given to Noah and repeated by Moses to Israel, applies to both

And every commandment given only to Israel, is applicable only to Israel

And a commandment given first to Adam (and Noah’s Children) and NOT repeated to Israel (such as Circumcision and the Sciatic nerve prohibition) applies only to Israel…”  Remember: Abraham Isaac and Jacob were “Children of Noah,” not yet Israel.

It sound like this:  The whole world listens to Moses. But he, Moses, the  modest of all men, tells the nations NOT TO FOLLOW HIM ALONE BUT ALSO FOLLOW Noah.  A commandment that applies to the Childen of Noah (all gentiles) must carry the signatures of both Noah and Moses to be valid.  Since the Circumcision Commandment of Abraham and the Sciatic Never prohibitions do not carry Noah’s signature (they lived after Noah) they do not apply to non-Jews.

Learn ADULTERY from Eden
In the Ten Commandments, Moses forbids ADULTERY to Israel yet without much elaboration. In fact he assumes that the ‘reader’ is already familiar with it from  the Story of Eden. Again, there is another rule of thumb that says that wherever the |Torah presents a concept at the first time, there you can find its meaning.   .

The first Commandment, IDOLATRY, is first presented and elaborated by the the story of Genesis.

The second, ADULTERY, is first presented and explained by the story of Eden.  : :

The Third Commandment, BLOODSHED, is introduced via  Cain and Abel.
The Fourth, THEFT, is introduced through  Abraham and his stories
The Fifth, JUSTICE, is introduced through Jacob and his life stories
The Sixth, BLASPHEMY, is introduced through the selling of Joseph.

Questions to be answered:
As we begin our study of the Garden of Eden, let’s keep those questions on our mind:
(1) What is the Primordial Sin, exactly? Was it SEX or ADULTERY?
(2) What causes them to become ashamed of their nakedness? Isn’t nakedness natural?
(3) Is Marriage a convenient social contract, or a sacred union?
(4) How many sexual prohibitions are included in ADULTERY?
(5) Where exactly is Eden?
(6) What is the Tree of Life? Is it lost?
(7) What was the new knowledge of good and evil they acquired by eating the forbidden fruit? What could they GAIN by sinning?

These and other points will be elucidated as we read and study the text:

2: The text of Eden’s trial

The story of Eden begins, as might be expected,  by describing WHO created Eden, WHEN and WHERE.  As it says:

(Introduction to the story of Eden)
“These are the histories of the Heavens and the Earth (how many histories there were?)
when they were re-created (what does this mean?)
on the Day that YHVH ELoKiM (why the Attributes appear together?)
Made Earth and Heavens…” (Genesis 2: 4)
(why the order is in reverse, first Earth then Heavens?)

(When was Eden formed?)
“And there was no shrub of the field was yet on Earth ‘
And the grass of the field had not yet grown
For YHVH ELoKiM had not yet showered rain on Earth (what Day could this be?)
And there was no Adam to till the ground but there went up a mist from the ground
and watered the whole face of the Earth”

(Forming Adam in Eden)
”And YHVH ELoKiM  formed the Adam from the dust of the ground, (why ‘formed’; and not created or made?)
and He blew in his nostrils a breath of life, Neshama,
and Adam became a Nefesh Chayah, a living soul…” (Genesis 2: 7)

(Forming the Garden of Eden)
“ And YHVH ELoKiM planted a garden east of Eden
And He placed in there the Adam whom He had formed
And out of the ground YHVH ELoKiM made to grow
Every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food
And the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden
And the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil…”
(Genesis 2:9)

(Adam’s task in Eden)
“And YHVH ELoKiM took the Adam,
and He placed him in the Garden of Eden
To till it and to keep it…”(Genesis 2:15)

(Giving Adam the Six Commandments)
“And YHVH ELoKiM Commanded on the Adam, saying,
of every tree of the Garden you may freely eat
But of the ‘Tree of Knowledge Good and Evil’ you shall not eat of it (what sort of knowledge is this?)
For on the Day that you eat of it you shall surely die….” (could he die in Eden?) ((Genesis 2:16-17)

You know the story of Eden. It is one of the most famous stories ever told. The CREATOR ‘formed’ a Garden, called Eden, then ‘formed’ an Adam and placed him there.  The CREATOR then warned Adam that he may eat from all the trees in the Garden, yet from “the Tree Of Knowledge of Good and Evil” he should not eat, since “the day you eat of it you shall die.”

Adam proved to be very smart, a Homo Sapience, capable of naming all the creature with the “right names.

Seeing that Adam was lonely, the CREATOR ‘formed’ a woman from Adam’s SIDE (not rib) to be a “help against him.” But there was in Eden a creature called The Serpent, which could walk and talk like humans and was sexually attractive to ‘the woman’ (she is not yet called Eve). Being a “beast of the filed” it went naked and unashamed of it. In fact, the humans too at that point were also naked and unashamed of it.

The ‘cunning’ Serpent then enticed ‘the woman’  to eat from the forbidden fruit. Not only she did so but also gave of it to her husband  Adam (they were married.)  Tradition holds that she cohabited  sexually with the Serpent, which makes her adulteress. Hence  they violated both IDOLATRY (by violating the CREATOR words) and ADULTERY.  Eating the forbidden fruit then ‘opened their eyes’ so that they became aware of their nakedness and ashamed of it, the first time ever.

But instead of chasing them out right away, the CREATOR gave then a chance to confess and repent their sin, which they did not. The CREATOR kept calling “Adam, where are you?” but they hide behind the bush . Finally Adam blamed his wife, and she the Serpent. Having failed to repent they were driven out of Eden to live on Earth. Here they would encounter HARDSHIP, DEATH and EVIL the first time. Here they would KNOW what evil is.

What is exactly the moral message given by the story? Does it have any implication to our life?

3: Who exactly formed Eden?

Again, the introductory verse informs us that:

“These are the histories of the Heavens and the Earth    (how many histories there were?)
When they were re-created,    (what does it mean?)
on the Day that YHVH ELoKiM    (why the two Names Side by Side?)
Made Earth and Heavens      (why the order in reverse?)
And there was no shrub of the field was yet on Earth    (what Day was it?)
And the grass of the field had not yet grown
For YHVH ELoKiM  had not yet showered rain on Earth
And there was no Adam to till the ground….
And YHVH ELKM formed the Adam from the ground…”(why ‘formed’?) (Genesis 2:5)

The Story of Eden Continues Chapter One
Most non-Jewish commentaries regard the story of Eden as an independent, self-standing story. The critics see it as a myth, no different from other Bronze Age myths of Moses’ time. But we’ve already established the uniqueness of Moses’ Genesis compared to other ancient myths. We’ve already seen how credible Moses words are, how they fit well our scientific narrative. If so, the story of Eden must also be credible. it musty have been written to send us a particular moral message.

Tradition sees the story of Eden as a continuation of the story of Genesis in Chapter One. In other words, Chapter two begin where chapter one ends (is this a surprise?)   .

The first thing noticeable in the story of Eden is the change in the Attributes’ appearance.
Whereas earlier, in Chapter One, ELoKiM appears alone 35 times (32 in six Days plus 3 in the Sabbath)
and YHVH appears alone only once, and only as a hidden, modest acronym seen by LEARNED EYE at the end of the chapter (indeed, MERCY is not seen in the open in Nature)
Here in the story of Eden the two Attributes appear together ‘side by side’ in the open as YHVH ELKM. Moreover, they appear like that, glued together, throughout the entire story.  You never see here ELKM alone or YHVH alone.

How exceptional this presentation is! “YHVH ELKM” would never appear so close to each other for the rest of the Torah.  They appear “glued together” ONLY in the story of Eden. never again.  (In the rest of the Torah they come as “YHVH our ELKM” with a separation between them).

In other words, here in Eden YHVH and ELKM appear close to each other like two loving Cherubs holding Wing against  Wing,the way Moses depicted them over the Holy Ark Moses’ Cherubs had a face of a boy and a girl looking at each other with Heavenly Love (Talmud).  .

How many times does YHVH ELoKiM appear in the story of Eden? Exactly 20 times, twice the number that ELKM said “let it be” in chapter One. Hence YHVH ELKM doubles the impact of ELKM.

Let’s recall what we’ve learned in Chapter One. We’ve seen how at the end of the Sixth Day, before making \Adam, the Merciful Attribute YHVH ‘answered’ the invitation of ELKM , so to speak, and came into our world to consolidate it and rule over it together. A new Heavenly Court of YHVH ELKM was established. The word was consolidated so that it would no falter (as the Levite Psalm for the Six Day says.)  The story of Eden continues that phase.  The Shy, Modest “BRIDE” YHVH had entered the world, the ‘GROOM’ ELKM’s Home, and She Dwells there not alone but rather SIDE BY SIDE with Him, as “YHVH ELKM.”  .Only when the child Adam would be made She might appear alone without the GROOM by her side.

And they appear glued together to ‘form’ their child Adam in their Oneness and Love.

Note that the Hebrew word ‘eden’ or edna refers to delicate, SEXUAL pleasure and love.

For instance: when Sarah, at the age of 90, was impregnated with Isaac, she said in wonder: “Behold! I’m old, and yet I’ve had an edna,” sexual pleasure, (Genesis 8: 12) .

What a beautiful introduction it is to the topic of MARRIAGE and ADULTERY!

Here is the list of the 20 times the name YHVH ELKM appear in the story of Eden:

(1) On the Day thatYHVH ELoKiMmade Earth and Heavens (Genesis 2: 4)
(2) ForYHVH ELoKiMhas not sent yet rain upon the Earth (Genesis 2: 5)
(3) AndYHVH ELoKiMformed the Adam, dust from the ground (Genesis 2: 7)
(4) AndYHVH ELoKiMplanted a garden in Eden, at the east (Genesis 2: 8)
(5) AndYHVH ELoKiMcaused to sprout from the ground every (Genesis 2: 9)
(6)YHVH ELoKiMtook the Adam and placed him in the Garden (Genesis 2: 15)
(7) AndYHVH ELoKiMcommanded on the Adam saying (Genesis2: 16)
(8)YHVH ELoKiMsaid it is not good for the Adam to be alone (Genesis 2: 18)
(9) AndYHVH ELoKiMformed from the ground every beast (Genesis 2: 19)
(10) AndYHVH ELoKiMcast a deep sleep on the Adam (Genesis 2: 21)
(11)YHVH ELoKiMbuilt the side that He had taken from Adam (Genesis 2: 22)
(12) The Serpent was cunning…thatYHVH ELoKiMhad made (Genesis 3: 2)
(13)They head the voice ofYHVH ELoKiMwalking in the Garden (Genesis 3: 8)
(14) Adam and his wife hid fromYHVH ELoKiMamong the trees (Genesis 3: 8)
(15) AndYHVH ELoKiMcalled the Adam saying where are you (Genesis 3: 9)
(16) AndYHVH ELoKiMtold the woman what have you done (Genesis 3: 13)
(17) YHVH ELoKiM told the serpent because you have done this (Genesis 3: 14)
(18) AndYHVH ELoKiMmade to Adam and his wife garments (Genesis 3: 21)
(19) AndYHVH ELoKiMsaid behold, Adam has become like (Genesis 3: 22)
(20) AndYHVH ELoKiMsent him out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3: 23)
</font size>

In all these sites the the Attributes appear SIDE BY SIDE, never alone.:

4: When and where was Eden formed?

To see that, let’s look at the introductory verses: :

“These are the histories of the Heavens and the Earth
When they were re-created,
On the Day thatYHVH ELoKiM
Made Earth and Heavens
And there was no shrub of the field was yet on Earth,
not even rain….”
(Genesis 2: 4-5)

How many histories the World has?
“These are the histories…” Hence the world has at least two histories. How?
The answer is given by the verse. It says that YHVH ELKM “re-created” “Earth and Heavens,” in reverse order to Chapter One. .
Whereas Chapter One says that ELoKiM created ‘The Heavens and the Earth’ in that order,
Chapter Two says that YHVH ELoKiM ‘re-created’ ‘Earth and Heavens,’ in reverse direction.

Hence the World indeed has two ‘histories’:
One ‘forwards’ from ‘Heavens to Earth,’ created by ELoKiM
The second ‘backwards,’ from ‘Earth to Heavens’  ‘re-created’ by YHVH ELoKiM.
What exactly happened?

5: YHVH ELoKiM Consolidated the World

They flew backwards
There is only one way to reconcile these verses.
At first the world was created by ELKM, awesomely alone as described in Chapter One

Then, as stated at the end of Chapter One, YHVH entered our world to join ELKM in creating Adam.
Then, holding Wing against Wing like two Cherubs in Love,YHVH ELKM ‘flew backwards’ over the entire CREATION, from the Sixth to the Beginning consolidating it by their Love and Oneness. Henceforth it would not falter.

Thus they flew
From the Sixth to the Fifth,
From the Fifth to the Fourth,
From the Fourth to the Third,
From the Third to the Second and the First Day
Re-creating and consolidating the entire World in their Oneness, so that it “would not falter.”

We would say: CREATION rewind!
YHVH is like  lighthouse. With Her Light in it, our world would ‘sail’ safely to the shores of the Eternal Sabbath. It won’t wobble,  as long YHVH Dwells in it. YHVH is also the encore that ties our Universe to the Sabbath.
If we, Mankind, won’t keep YHVH in our heart She’d  fly away from the heavenly Court, leaving us in the hands of ELKM alone, the Prosecutor. .Who would defend us if She has gone?

This story is told in the Psalm that the Levite Choir used to chant in the Holy Temple on every sixth day of the week.
As you may know, on each day the week, the choir choose a ‘Psalm for the day’ that describes the events that happened on that day in Genesis.
The Psalm selected for the “sixth day of the week” says:
“YHVH will have reigned, He will have donned grandeur.
He will have donned might and girded Himself,
Even the world was CONSOLIDATED so that it should not falter…”
(Psalm 93)</font size>

In this Psalm, King David praises YHVH for coming to ‘reign over the world’ and ‘consolidate’ it, so that ‘it would not falter.’ Since this had happened at the junction between our Sixth Day and the Sabbath, there is no wonder that the Levite Choir chose to chant it on the Sixth day of the week.

We also repeat it on each Friday evening at the last moment before the entering of our Sabbath.

6: On what Day was Eden formed?

Having re-created the World and consolidating it, the Attributes YHVH ELoKiM ‘formed’ the Garden of Eden.
When did this happen? The verse defines this in details.

The Garden of Eden was ‘formed,’ the verse says, on a Day when there was no grass, no shrub, no tree and not even rain on Earth (see the text above). What Day could it be? The THIRD Day, after the separation of Dry Land from the Sea, before there was any seed of life on Earth, not even shrub or tree (says rabbi Yohanan, the Talmud.)

Imagine – the Garden of Eden, full of beautiful Trees and fruits, was FORMED before there was any grass, shrub or tree on Earth, not even rain!

Thus, on one hand, Chapter One says that Adam was MADE by ELKM on the Sixth Day.
On the other hand, Chapter Two says that Adam was FORMED by YHVH ELKM on the Third Day.

There is no contradiction here . It is one story. As the two Attributes YHVH ELKM flew over CREATION and recreated it backwards from the Sixth  to the First, they ‘parked’ on the THIRD Day and FORMED in it the Garden of Eden. This happened BEFORE THERE WAS ANY SEED OF LIFE ON EARTH.  .

Thus the Eden trial took place BEFORE there was any life on real Earth. it was conducted to determined whether or not would Adam appear later on Earth. .

7: Forming Vs Making and Creating

You can’t understand this unless you are tuned to the Hebrew worlds.  There is a distinction between create,’  ‘form’ and ‘make’.
While Chapter One is written with the term ‘create,’  the story of Eden uses the term ‘to form.’  Later the story of Cain and Abel would use   the term ‘to make.’

Thus the story of Eden says:

”And YHVH ELoKiM FORMED the Adam from the dust of the ground…” (Genesis 2: 7.)
And YHVH ELoKiM planted a garden east of Eden,

and He placed in there the Adam whom He had FORMED….” (Genesis 2:15)

The difference between these terms is:
(1) To CREATE, Beriah, is to conceive an idea in general terms
(2) To FORM, Yezirah, is to plan how to implement it in details
(3) To MAKE, Assiah, is to materialize the idea in the real world

For example: When I build a house I would follow these three phases:

(1) I’d first ‘conceive’ the general idea of the house on my mind: Would it be residential or commercial? Small or large? What style? Here I’ve entertain the house in the”world of creating,’ ‘Beriah.’

(2) Next I‘d engage an architect who’d draw a master plan for the house in details. The house is now in the “World of Forming,”  Yetzirah.

(3) Next I’d engage a contractor who would build the house ground. The house is now in the “World of  Making, Assiah.”

Every human endeavor passes through these three stages.

A Virtual Garden and a virtual Adam
Hence when the text says that the  Garden of Eden was FORMED on the THIRD Day it means that it was formed only in the World of Planning, Yezirah. It was on a “blue print”, a virtual World, such as on a computer’s screen. Adam and his wife were formed and placed there for their trial. They were at that stage virtual.

Had they won, they would have stayed in Eden forever, never exposed to the evil on Earth.

But since they lost their trial in Eden, Adam and his wife  ethey were driven out to appear later on the Sixth Day on Earth.  after loosing their trial on the THIRD Day, ELKM seeded life on Earth, made grass, shrubs, trees and then all the other  animals (as described by Moses and verified by Science) so that finally Adam would appear on real Earth. .  .

Eden’s Gates
Tradition describes the Garden of Eden as  a ‘bubble’ hovering the Holy Land” (Rabienu Bahyee) “. It opens into the world through  two GATES:

One Gate opens to Mt. Moriah, the site of the Holy of Holy Chamber, the space between the Cherub’s Wings.  would later stand.
The second Gate opens into the Cave of the Patriarchs in the city of Hebron; where Adam and Eve and the patriarchs Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Lea are buried.

So do not seek Eden in the lost sands of Mesopotamia or in southern Iraq. Look for Eden, rather, in the space above the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The virtual trees in  Eden
Eden had many (virtual) trees in it, among them the “Tree of Life” that renders eternal life to whoever lives under its protection.  The Tree blocks the Angel of Death from entering Eden.

8: The trial of Eden

What  was the purpose of life in Eden? The verse says:

“And YHVH ELoKiM took the Adam
and He placed him in the Garden of Eden
To till it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15)

Adam had to do something in Eden: “till it and keep it.”  Since it was a virtual Garden where everything grew miraculously, Adam didn’t have to do any physical work to keep it.  The verse infers rather to spiritual work that Adam had to do: withstanding a trial.

As free as life was in Eden, ELKM demanded something in return FOR A TRIAL, ELKM the JUDGE would never give without demanding something back in return in absolute justice.  he pays, after all, measure for measure.   Thus the rabbis said that “to till the Garden” means “to do something” or a positive commandment, while “to preserve it” means  to avoid doing something, a negative commandment.

What were these  positive and negative commandments in Eden? We’ll soon learn in details. .  .

But all agree that the Eden Trial was ‘easy’ to win: only One Commandment (Rashi): the prohibition to eat from the forbidden fruit.  With ADULTERY, they had to observe two Commandments.  It was a trial easy to win, but also easy to lose.  The stakes were high: loosing the trial would cost them to loose  the right to live there.

9: Why was Eden Formed?

Why did YHVH ELKM place Adam and his wife in Eden?  Why not directly on real Earth?

You can say that Eden was a sort of a ‘virtual Heavenly Womb’ where Adam and “The Woman”  were formed prior to living on real Earth. But why?
The answer is obvious: Eden was formed on the THIRD Day, offering Adam (and wife) the option to stay there until the arrival of the Eternal Sabbath,  without ever been exposed to real Earth. .

Eden was formed under YHVH ELKM.   Had ELKM not consulted YHVH before making Adam, Eden would have not been formed at all.  In fact, without the advent of YHVH in the new Heavenly Court, ELKM would have FINISHED our Universe with no MERCY (says Rashi.). He had done that to numerous other Universes before.

But with the advent of YHVH in the Heavenly Court, Eden was formed as a concession to Her. The Merciful YHVH didn’t wish to make Her child Adam on Earth right away, placing him  under the reign of the Angel of Death.  She preferred to offer Adam a safe place called Eden, where he could have stayed forever.

Had it been up to YHVH alone, Eden would have had no trial in it.  In Her  sole Domain, the Eternal Sabbath YHVH rules alone with no trial and no tribulation.  But Eden is still a place in ELKM’s World, though a virtual place. As such it must have at least a minimal trial. ELKM made His concession by offering Adam an easy trial, just two Commandments to be observed in Eden (IDOLATRY and ADULTERY)

Hence Eden is a concession of the Attributes to each other.  The BRIDE YHVH made Her concession by agreeing to any trial in Eden, and the GROOM ELKM made His concession by offering Adam and easy trial.

Both agreed to spare  Adam the tough life on Earth where he would face the real Evil. How then did Adam and his wife lose that unbelievable chance? .


text:
Israeli Missile Defense Tests Ongoing

Israel has begun testing it’s new “Iron Dome” missile defense system, this was selected instead of the joint US-Israel Nautilus system which was mothballed after doubts arose. Carl at Israel Matzav has his doubts as well about Iron Dome, preferring an active offense to passive defense.

I’m in favor of both because it never hurts to extend missile defense technology. The problem of short, low trajectory Katushya and Kassam missiles is horrible for the people of Sderot, but also an ever-present challenge to all military forces. Short range missile and mortar snapshots are one of the most common terror threats wherever terrorists are actively engaged (Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Pakistan.) As the War on Terror winds down these types of attacks will become the most common, where the terrorists do what’s known as a “shoot and scoot”.

The challenge is to extend not only missile defense, but also automated counterbattery fire well beyond the abilities it has now. Defense + Counterbattery also addresses Carl’s highly valid point that an active defense or shield does nothing to take out terrorists.

Our targetting capabilities have extended greatly the past two decades, couple that with sensor technology and you have a potential formula for stopping one of our most frequent terror threats. Whether terrorists are firing at the green zone in Baghdad or from Gaza at Sderot we need to be able to put metal on target within single-digit seconds of fire as well as take out the incoming missile or mortar.

This of course also beggars the question as to whether Iron Dome plus Nautilus plus automated counterbattery in combination isn’t the answer to 100 percent defense effect plus the ability to take out the attackers.


text:
Pitchero ad

Watson Couldn’t Turn Down Gateshead Job

Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr +
The new Gateshead boss Steve Watson says taking over at the North-East club was an easy decision writes Tom Feaheny.

Watson who was previously with Vanarama National League leaders Macclesfield Town, takes this as his first managerial role.

“Belief is going to be key for this group, I want people to come here, we know we have to entertain and get positive results, it is a winning cycle, I think I can bring,” said Watson.

“I am proud to be in this position,the North-East of England is somewhere that I have a massive affinity with, I saw the opportunity to take this and I am delighted to be given this role.”

“I have spoken to the chairman who has the aim of being in the Football League, I like that ambition.”

Watson said leaving Macclesfield the way he has made the decision easier.

“I am ambitious in wanting to take on a managers job but I leave Macclesfield knowing I did a good job, they are top of the league and have John there who will continue to do well.”

????LATEST NEWS: We are delighted to announce ex #NUFC player Steve Watson as the new Gateshead manager.

➡ https://t.co/jg97mfKObe https://t.co/eESuA81Qba

About Author

I work as a freelance journalist for The Non-League Paper, Yorkshire Evening Post, Yorkshire Post, North-West Evening Mail and others, based in Yorkshire, I am always at a game on a Tuesday and Saturday when the season is on, I started following non-league at the age of 10 and have been hooked ever since.

Comments are closed.


text:
Land Use Permits: What are they for, and when do I need one?

A central purpose of a planning department is to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the North Ogden citizens. The North Ogden City Planning Department employees act with this purpose in mind. The planning department works also with citizens to help them exercise their rights as landowners. While doing this, members of the planning department staff must ensure that the rights of all the residents are not unreasonably infringed upon as contemplated in the North Ogden City Code.

One way the planning department protects the rights of North Ogden City residents is by helping them understand city standards for contemplated improvements on their property through the land use permit application process. Land Use Permits ensure that a property owner who would like to build a fence, install or build a shed, or add concrete to their lot are able to do so, within the requirements of the North Ogden City Zoning Code. This ensures that the property owner’s interests, and the interests of their neighbors are considered.

An example of a common project that would require a Land Use Permit is adding a concrete patio or RV parking pad. Increasing the amount of concrete or other hard surface on a lot reduces the amount of land that can absorb rain or runoff water. Since the storm water is not usually retained on site, it enters the storm sewer system. This creates an impact on the storm sewer system, leading to increased service needs. If too much stormwater enters the storm sewer system, it can cause problems such as overwhelming detention basins. To reduce the demand on the storm sewer infrastructure, the city has created a minimum vegetative area requirement for all zones across the city. This ensures that much of the storm water is absorbed on site by the soil and does not enter the storm sewer system. The North Ogden City Zoning Code exists, in part, to prevent this and similar problems.

Once a Land Use Permit application has been received, a member of the planning department examines the request for compliance with the city zoning code, the property’s dedication plat, and known special restrictions, e.g., utility easements or geologic hazards. If the project is compliant with City Code, the Land Use Permit will be approved, and the applicant will be notified of the decision.

If a proposed project does not meet the Zoning Code or there is a special restriction on the lot, a member of staff will contact the applicant to inform them of the restrictions or any needed changes. In these instances, if the project can work with modifications, city staff works with the applicant to provide options to that will allow the applicant to modify the proposed project so that it will conform to City Code before work begins.

If you have a have any questions regarding land use permits, zoning, or planning, please contact a member of the North Ogden City Planning Department staff at 801-782-2215.

· An accessory building up to 200 square feet in size. (Any accessory building 200 sq. ft. or larger requires a building permit.)

· Adding any impermeable surface such as concrete or asphalt.

· When adding any fence.

· Decks require a building permit (not a land use permit).

· A simply drawn plan that shows square footage of the lot to be built upon, the size and location of existing buildings or structures. (We don’t accept photos, aerial photos, Google Map, etc.)

· The square footage of existing concrete/asphalt on the lot.

· The square footage of proposed concrete/asphalt.

· The square footage of the existing building footprint.

· Plans and dimensions for any proposed structure, including height.

· A site plan showing the dimensions of the proposed project and distances from property lines.

· Any other site specific information.

Leave a Reply


text:
North Shore Jeeps
Time to get the Jeep dirty! Register or log in to join the fun. If you don't, it's really your loss. There are good, knowledgeable people here. Some odd ones too, but most are o.k....
North Shore Jeeps
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

Winter 2013 Newsletter

Go down

Winter 2013 Newsletter Empty Winter 2013 Newsletter

Post  Ryan McKee on 1/30/2013, 11:53 am

Winter 2013 Newsletter 01-2013Trimmed

Ryan, NSJ Club President - 781.632.3864
Built '99 TJ on 35s - My JeepForum Build Thread

All liability at North Shore Jeeps events is your own. You are attending/driving/observing at your own risk. You are solely responsible for yourself, your passengers, and your vehicle.
Ryan McKee
Ryan McKee

Posts : 1242
Join date : 2011-12-09
Location : Reading, MA

Back to top Go down

Back to top

- Similar topics

Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum


text:
Nav action against false medical certificates

NAV disability taxNAV logo. Photo Norway Today Media

Nav has inspected 21 Oslo doctors who were suspected of writing false medical certificates. Three have lost the right to issue medical certificates and one has been reported to the police. Only ten have been completely excluded from the case.

Based on suspicions of complicity in insurance fraud, Nav began checks last year and an extensive investigation of 21 selected Oslo doctors, writes Dagens Næringsliv. During one year  1,000 sick notes have been checked.

– For us it is important to put a stop to false information being given to obtain incorrect benefits, says Sverre Lindahl at Nav Control.
The activities of three of the doctors were considered so grave that Nav has used its strictest sanctions possible: to revoke the right to issue medical certificates and doctor’s statements, which form the basis for social security payments. Without this right, it is difficult to practice as a general practitioner.

One of the 21 inspected doctors was also reported to the police for forgery and fraud. Around ten of the doctors that  Nav Control examined,  10 have been eliminated from the case, whilst the remaining are still being investigated.
It was in connection with the Lime case that Nav Control began checking a large number of sick leaves. Lindahl emphasizes that the doctors now sanctioned cannot be linked to the Lime Network.


text:
Microlending primer

Microlending through web sites such as Prosper is growing, though not without some risks. Wired has Top 10 Lessons From a Microlending Pioneer which was a sidebard to an article Got Cash? You Can Money Like a Big-Time Banker

Borrowers have been attracted to Prosper because its auction model offers the possibility of getting lower fixed rates, particularly as part of a group of borrowers, and loans can be funded quickly — sometimes just days after you’ve applied. Also, Prosper makes it easier to get loans for certain kinds of businesses, like eBay storefronts, that are difficult to fund through traditional bank loans.

But …

(T)he number of loans that have gone bad is higher than what was initially predicted. Because of this, Bequette, Boon and Hoenig are holding off investing fresh money.

Bequette, who expected an 18-percent return, is now concerned he won’t beat the 11 percent he had with his mutual funds. His guess is that as a new market, Prosper has attracted people who couldn’t find loans anywhere else, thus driving up the default rate and hurting overall returns.

Hoenig says Prosper’s interest-rate caps of 30 percent aren’t high enough to compensate for the dangers of lending to high-risk borrowers.

Comments are closed.


text:
Officer Hofer Led With A Servant’s Heart

.jpg photo of Policeman and fiancee
Euless Police Officer David Hofer and his fiancee

Euless police officer moved to Texas for safety,
public support, friends say

EULESS, TX  –  Senior police officer David Hofer’s Facebook page is filled with photos of his fiancee, Marta Danylyk, showing the young couple’s excitement at a promising future.

Those dreams ended in gunfire Tuesday afternoon at J.A. Carr Park in Euless.

On Wednesday, several Euless officers wiped away tears as they talked with fellow officers in the department parking lot about their slain comrade, who had been with the department about two years.

“David truly enjoyed helping people and led with a servant’s heart,” Lt. Wayne Pavlik said in an email.  Pavlik commands the patrol division where Hofer, 29, worked in Euless.

“If you had the fortunate opportunity to meet him, you would have found him to be a very warm and cheerful individual who would go out of his way to help anyone,” Pavlik wrote.

Hofer was a New York City officer from 2009 to 2014 in Manhattan’s 9th Precinct.

“Amongst all this sadness, something I think, is that if he had to go, this is how he would have wanted it to happen — honorably.”
David Hofer’s friend Jesse Barocas

A friend who had known him since the fourth grade said Hofer’s police beat included Union Square, where he dealt with dicey situations.

Jesse Barocas, 28, of Brooklyn, N.Y., said Hofer told him he didn’t think the people in New York respected their police officers as much as the people in Texas did.

“He felt it was safer in Texas,” Barocas said by phone Wednesday night.  “He felt the community rallied around police officers more.”

So Hofer moved to Texas with his girlfriend, Danylyk, to whom he had recently proposed.  They had just finished building a house in Plano and were encouraging his New York friends to visit.

Hofer was fatally shot Tuesday afternoon by a man who was then gunned down by other Euless officers.

“He felt it was safer in Texas. He felt the community rallied around police officers more.”
Jesse Barocas

“He was a wonderful child, a wonderful police officer,” his mother, Sofija Hofer, told the New York Post Tuesday.  Hofer moved to Texas to be an officer in a safer place, she said.

Sofija Hofer told a Star-Telegram reporter that she was in “no shape to give interviews or talk” Wednesday evening.

Hofer’s Facebook page, still up on Wednesday, has a photo of the officer on one knee, proposing to Danylyk in January 2015.  Another photo shows him enjoying food at a festival with Danylyk in June 2014.

Pavlik called Hofer an exceptional police officer, person and friend to everyone in the Police Department and the community.

He had received eight commendation letters as a patrol officer.

“David had outstanding investigative and people skills, was extremely intuitive, and was an officer who exemplified our profession,” the lieutenant said.

His mother told the Post that Hofer had wanted to be a police officer since he was a boy.  “He was so brave,” his mother told the Post, saying he wanted to write a book about his NYPD experience.

“Amongst all this sadness, something I think, is that if he had to go, this is how he would have wanted it to happen — honorably,” Barocas said.  “He understood the risk, he signed up for it, he lived it, he owned it and he believed in it.

“In a time where there is so much tension between the police and the public — this was a good one.  He lived and breathed the brothers in blue.”

Hofer was the son of European immigrants, graduated from St. Ann’s High School in Brooklyn and earned a bachelor’s degree from New York University in 2008.

Another friend, Mark Baker, 35, an electrician in Brooklyn, said he never expected to hear that Hofer had been killed in Texas.

“To hear this happened in Texas,” Baker said with a sigh over the phone Wednesday night.  “That’s something I would have expected to hear happened here” in New York.

Within hours of Hofer’s death, officers from New York’s 9th Precinct had sent condolences via Twitter.

Officers killed in Tarrant County in line of duty since 2001

March 1, 2016: Euless officer David Hofer, 29, was fatally shot during a gunfight in a neighborhood park.

Dec. 28, 2010: Arlington officer Jillian Michelle Smith was shot in the head after arriving at an apartment to take a domestic dispute report.

Jan. 13, 2010: Arlington officer Craig Gordon Story died after his motorcycle crashed into a school bus on South Cooper Street while he was attempting to pull over a speeding motorist.

Dec. 17, 2006: Fort Worth officer Dwayne Freeto’s patrol car was rear-ended and burst into flames on Interstate 35W.

Dec. 1, 2005: Fort Worth officer Henry “Hank” Nava died two days after he was shot while searching for a fugitive.

July 29, 2004: River Oaks officer Nathan Laurie was killed in a collision while chasing a stolen pickup truck.

June 18, 2004: Grand Prairie officer Gregory Hunter was killed and officer Bruce Seix was wounded by a man in a parked van during a standoff in a Grand Prairie Wal-Mart parking lot.

June 12, 2004: Grapevine officer Darren Medlin was hit and killed by a car at the scene of a traffic stop on Texas 121.

April 24, 2002: White Settlement police Capt. George Scott Monier, 37, was shot and killed when he responded to a domestic disturbance call involving a gun.

June 7, 2001: Arlington police Cpl. Joseph Cushman, 27, was accidentally shot and killed during training.

Compiled by news researcher Cathy Belcher from the Officer Down Memorial Page, and the Star-Telegram archives

Total Cost: 1 Role Model and 1 No-Class Thug

.jpg photo of statue at Euless Texas Police Headquarters
A teddy bear was placed on the statue in front of the Euless Police Headquarters

Honor, Truth, Respect, Duty, and RESPONSIBILITY For One’s Own Actions

I heard my name called, and I knew the voice very well.  I dropped what I was doing and as I stepped into the room, I said “Yes Sir”.

My Step-Father said “you are going to want to see this”.  As I almost fell into my recliner, my heart hit the floor before I made contact with the soft cushion,

Another Law Enforcement Officer Ambushed, and in Euless Texas no less.  That was only about 25 miles away.

Right here is where I tell you that you have the right to take offense to this, just as I have the right to say my piece….  FINALLY.

This no-class, gutless , disrespectful, piece of crap never had any HONOR, much less CLASS.  His whole Family was scared of this wimp.  I don’t even want to know what all they had put up with.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, I found myself wondering if he was affiliated with anyone, because if he was, his actions  were very damaging to the group.

This “gangsta” mindset is so typical among the young people now.  They see adults all around them with no thought ever of taking responsibility for their actions, instead, criminal activity is ignored along with no respect for law and order, while sniveling about racism is common-place.

There is  no disparity in education, you have to WANT to learn, just like you have to WANT to do a job right, the very best you can.  It has never been a secret that the top 3 people with the highest grades in their field gets their pick of the best jobs when they come out of college.  At least until Affirmative Action started, and this Disparity In Education is just more of it

In fact, this heart-breaking case is proof of what I am saying:
Officer David Hofer not only cared deeply about his fellow-man, but everything he did, he put forth his BEST EFFORT, as  is seen here.

“David truly enjoyed helping people and led with a servant’s heart…”

“If you had the fortunate opportunity to meet him, you would have found him to be a very warm and cheerful individual who would go out of his way to help anyone…”

But just as the mass of nay sayers, this 22-year-old man can’t even complete his job without having a meth smoke-break, at which time Officer Hofer drives right to the park.

Why couldn’t this young man just accept responsibility for his actions.

Our Children are the future of this world, and they all deserve the chance to make this world a better place;  but they have to be taught from birth the basic qualities it takes to become a future citizen.

Please remember one very important thing, LOVE can not be taught.


text:
Tag Archives: Tainted Numbers

.jpg photo of CPS Director
Elizabeth Middleton, the SVSS director

Day after day, I’m forced to endure out-and-out lies and ignorance, and I am talking about the statistics for Child Maltreatment.

Even when the truth comes shining through, the INDIFFERENCE of WE THE PEOPLE shine even brighter.

I have shown documented proof of CPS and DHHS faulty and intentionally altered stats time after time.

Children’s Advocacy Institute Report

How can there be just 686,000 reports of  Child Maltreatment when there are about 3,000,000 calls reported.  However, when you recall that less than 25% are ever reported, which translates to 12,000,000 most probable instances of Child Maltreatment.

So, in all reality, we aren’t even near 5 Child Deaths daily, the number is somewhere between 8 to 11.

It’s bad enough with Child Maltreatment files found in the dumpster, Child Maltreatment visits not being made, and even answering machines with Child Maltreatment calls are mysteriously erasing themselves;  but when CPS is caught red-handed breaking OUR LAWS, they are given a get-out-of-jail-FREE, time after time!!!!

Don’t quiet believe it????  Well My Friend, be sure and catch my next post….


text:
Rock Creek Free Press available in COS

The Rock Creek Free Press is available online, but if you want it in print, the DC monthly is available in Colorado Springs at the Bookman, 3163 W. Colorado. The September issue features a speech given by legendary Australian journalist John Pilger on July 4th in San Francisco.

Here’s the RCFP transcript:

Two years ago I spoke at “Socialism in Chicago” about an invisible government which is a term used by Edward Bernays, one the founders of modern propaganda. It was Bernays, who in the 1920s invented public relations as a euphemism for propaganda. And it was Bernays, deploying the ideas of his uncle Sigmund Freud, who campaigned on behalf of the tobacco industry for women to take up smoking as an act of feminist liberation calling cigarettes “tortures of freedom”. At the same time he was involved in the disinformation which was critical in overthrowing the Arbenz government in Guatemala. So you have the association of cigarettes and regime change. The invisible government that Bernays had in mind brought together all media: PR, the press, broadcasting, advertising and their power of branding and image making. In other words, disinformation.

And I suppose I would like to talk today about this invisible government’s most recent achievement, the rise of Barrack Obama and the silencing of much of the left. But all of this has a history, of course and I’d like to go back, take you back some forty years to a sultry and, for me, very memorable day in Viet Nam.

I was a young war correspondent who had just arrived in a village in the Central Highlands called Tuylon. My assignment was to write about a unit of US Marines who had been sent to the village to win hearts and minds. “My orders,” said the Marine Sergeant, “are to sell the American way of liberty, as stated in the Pacification Handbook, this is designed to win the hearts and minds of folks as stated on page 86.” Now, page 86 was headed in capital letters: WHAM (winning hearts and minds). The Marine Unit was a combined action company which explained the Sergeant, meant, “We attack these folks on Mondays and we win their hearts and minds on Tuesdays.” He was joking, of course, but not quite.

The Sergeant, who didn’t speak Vietnamese, had arrived in the village, stood up on a Jeep and said through a bullhorn: “Come on out everybody we’ve got rice and candies and toothbrushes to give you.” This was greeted by silence. “Now listen, either you gooks come on out or we’re going to come right in there and get you!” Now the people of Tuylon finally came out and they stood in line to receive packets of Uncle Ben’s Miracle Rice, Hershey Bars, party balloons, and several thousand toothbrushes. Three portable, battery operated, yellow, flush lavatories were held back for the arrival of the colonel.

And when the colonel arrived that evening, the district chief was summoned and the yellow, flush lavatories unveiled. The colonel cleared his throat and took out a handwritten speech,

“Mr. District Chief and all you nice people,” said the colonel, “what these gifts represent is more than the sum of their parts, they carry the spirit of America. Ladies and gentlemen there’s no place on Earth like America, it’s the land where miracles happen, it’s a guiding light for me and for you. In America, you see, we count ourselves as real lucky as having the greatest democracy the world has ever known and we want you nice people to share in our good fortune.”

Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, even John Winthrope sitting upon a hill got a mention. All that was missing was the Star Bangled Banner playing softly in the background. Of course the villagers had no idea what the colonel was talking about, but when the Marines clapped, they clapped. And when the colonel waved, the children waved. And when he departed the colonel shook the Sergeant’s hand and said: “We’ve got plenty of hearts and minds here, carry on Sergeant.” “Yes Sir.” In Viet Nam I witnessed many scenes like that.

I’d grown up in faraway Australia on a cinematic diet of John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Walt Disney, and Ronald Reagan. The American way of liberty they portrayed might well have been lifted from the WHAM handbook. I’d learned that the United States had won World War II on its own and now led the free world as the chosen society. It was only later when I read Walter Lippmann’s book, Public Opinion, a manual of the invisible government, that I began to understand the power of emotions attached to false ideas and bad histories on a grand scale.

Now, historians call this exceptionalism, the notion that the United States has a divine right to bring what it calls “liberty” to the rest of humanity. Of course this is a very old refrain. The French and British created and celebrated their own civilizing missions while imposing colonial regimes that denied basic civil liberties. However, the power of the American message was, and remains, different. Whereas the Europeans were proud imperialists, Americans are trained to deny their imperialism. As Mexico was conquered and the Marines sent to Nicaragua, American textbooks referred to an Age of Innocence. American motives were always well meaning, moral, exceptional, as the colonel said, “There was no ideology” and that’s still the case.

Americanism is an ideology that is unique because its main feature is its denial that it is an ideology. It’s both conservative and it’s liberal. And it’s right and it’s left. And Barack Obama is its embodiment. Since Obama was elected leading liberals have talked about America returning to its true status as, “a nation of moral ideals”. Those are the words of Paul Krugman, the liberal columnist of The New York Times. In the San Francisco Chronicle, columnist Mark Morford wrote,

“Spiritually advanced people regard the new president as a light worker who can help usher in a new way of being on the planet.”

Tell that to an Afghan child whose family has been blown away by Obama’s bombs. Or a Pakistani child whose house has been visited by one of Obama’s drones. Or a Palestinian child surveying the carnage in Gaza caused by American “smart” weapons, which, disclosed Seymour Hersh, were re-supplied to Israel for use in the slaughter, and I quote; “Only after the Obama team let if be known, it would not object.” The man who stayed silent on Gaza is the man who now condemns Iran.

In a sense, Obama is the myth that is America’s last taboo. His most consistent theme was never “change”, it was power. “The United States,” he said, “leads the world in battling immediate evils and promoting the ultimate good. We must lead by building a 21st century military to ensure the security of our people and advance the security of all people.” And there is this remarkable statement, “At moments of great peril in the past century our leaders ensured that America, by deed and by example, led and lifted the world; that we stood and fought for the freedoms sought by billions of people beyond our borders.” Words like these remind me of the colonel in the village in Viet Nam, as he spun much the same nonsense.

Since 1945, by deed and by example, to use Obama’s words, America has overthrown 50 governments, including democracies, and crushed some 30 liberation movements and bombed countless men, women, and children to death. I’m grateful to Bill Blum for his cataloging of that. And yet, here is the 45th (sic) president of the United States having stacked his government with war mongers and corporate fraudsters and polluters from the Bush and Clinton eras, promising, not only more of the same, but a whole new war in Pakistan. Justified by the murderous clichés of Hilary Clinton, clichés like, “high value targets”. Within three days of his inauguration, Obama was ordering the death of people in faraway countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan. And yet, the peace movement, it seems, is prepared to look the other way and believe that the cool Obama will restore, as Krugman wrote, “the nation of moral ideals.”

Not long ago, I visited the American Museum of History in the celebrated Smithsonian Institute in Washington. One of the most popular exhibitions was called “The Price of Freedom: Americans at War”. It was holiday time and lines of happy people, including many children, shuffled through a Santa’s grotto of war and conquest. When messages about their nation’s great mission were lit up; these included tributes to the; “…exceptional Americans who saved a million lives…” in Viet Nam; where they were, “…determined to stop Communist expansion.” In Iraq other brave Americans, “employed air-strikes of unprecedented precision.” What was shocking was not so much the revisionism of two of the epic crimes of modern times, but the shear scale of omission.

Like all US presidents, Bush and Obama have very much in common. The wars of both presidents and the wars of Clinton and Reagan, Carter and Ford, Nixon and Kennedy are justified by the enduring myth of exceptional America. A myth the late Harold Pinter described as, “a brilliant, witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.”

The clever young man who recently made it to the White House is a very fine hypnotist; partly because it is indeed extraordinary to see an African American at the pinnacle of power in the land of slavery. However, this is the 21st century and race together with gender, and even class, can be very seductive tools of propaganda. For what is so often overlooked and what matters, I believe above all, is the class one serves. George Bush’s inner circle from the State Department to the Supreme Court was perhaps the most multi-racial in presidential history. It was PC par excellence. Think Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell. It was also the most reactionary. Obama’s very presence in the White House appears to reaffirm the moral nation. He’s a marketing dream. But like Calvin Klein or Benetton, he’s a brand that promises something special, something exciting, almost risqué. As if he might be radical. As if he might enact change. He makes people feel good; he’s a post-modern man with no political baggage. And all that’s fake.

In his book, Dreams From My Father, Obama refers to the job he took after he graduated from Columbia in 1983; he describes his employer as, “…a consulting house to multi-national corporations.” For some reason he doesn’t say who his employer was or what he did there. The employer was Business International Corporation; which has a long history of providing cover for the CIA with covert action and infiltrating unions from the left. I know this because it was especially active in my own country, Australia. Obama doesn’t say what he did at Business International and they may be absolutely nothing sinister. But it seems worthy of inquiry, and debate, as a clue to, perhaps, who the man is.

During his brief period in the senate, Obama voted to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He voted for the Patriot Act. He refused to support a bill for single payer health care. He supported the death penalty. As a presidential candidate he received more corporate backing than John McCain. He promised to close Guantanamo as a priority, but instead he has excused torture, reinstated military commissions, kept the Bush gulag intact, and opposed habeas corpus.

Daniel Ellsberg, the great whistleblower, was right, I believe, when he said, that under Bush a military coup had taken place in the United States giving the Pentagon unprecedented powers. These powers have been reinforced by the presence of Robert Gates – a Bush family crony and George W. Bush’s powerful Secretary of Defense. And by all the Bush Pentagon officials and generals who have kept their jobs under Obama.

In the middle of a recession, with millions of Americans losing their jobs and homes, Obama has increased the military budget. In Colombia he is planning to spend 46 million dollars on a new military base that will support a regime backed by death squads and further the tragic history of Washington’s intervention in that region.

In a pseudo-event in Prague, Obama promised a world without nuclear weapons to a global audience, mostly unaware that America is building new tactical nuclear weapons designed to blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional war. Like George Bush, he used the absurdity of Europe threatened by Iran to justify building a missile system aimed at Russia and China. In another pseudo-event, at the Annapolis Naval Academy, decked with flags and uniforms, Obama lied that America had gone to Iraq to bring freedom to that country. He announced that the troops were coming home. This was another deception. The head of the army, General George Casey says, with some authority, that America will be in Iraq for up to a decade. Other generals say fifteen years.

Chris Hedges, the very fine author of Empire of Illusion, puts it very well; “President Obama,” he wrote, “does one thing and brand Obama gets you to believe another.” This is the essence of successful advertising. You buy or do what the advertiser wants because of how they make you feel. And so you are kept in a perpetual state of childishness. He calls this “junk politics”.

But I think the real tragedy is that Obama, the brand, appears to have crippled or absorbed much of the anti-war movement – the peace movement. Out of 256 Democrats in Congress; 30, just 30, are willing to stand up against Obama’s and Nancy Pelosi’s war party. On June the 16th they voted for 106 billion dollars for more war.

The “Out of Iraq” caucus is out of action. Its member can’t even come up with a form of words of why they are silent. On March the 21st, a demonstration at the Pentagon by the once mighty United for Peace and Justice drew only a few thousand. The out-going president of UFPJ, Lesley Kagen, says her people aren’t turning up because, “It’s enough for many of them that Obama has a plan to end the war and that things are moving in the right direction.” And where is the mighty Move On, these days? Where is its campaign against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? And what, exactly, was said when Move On’s executive director, Jason Ruben, met Barack Obama at the White House in February?

Yes, a lot of good people mobilized for Obama. But what did they demand of him? Working to elect the Democratic presidential candidate may seem like activism, but it isn’t. Activism doesn’t give up. Activism doesn’t fall silent. Activism doesn’t rely on the opiate of hope. Woody Allen once said, “I felt a lot better when I gave up hope.” Real activism has little time for identity politics which like exceptionalism, can be fake. These are distractions that confuse and sucker good people. And not only in the United States, I can assure you.

I write for the Italian socialist newspaper, Il Manifesto, or rather I used to write for it. In February I sent the editor an article which raised questions about Obama as a progressive force. The article was rejected. Why, I asked? “For the moment,” wrote the editor, “we prefer to maintain a more positive approach to the novelty presented by Obama. We will take on specific issues, but we would not like to say that he will make no difference.” In other words, an American president drafted to promote the most rapacious system in history, is ordained and depoliticized by important sections of the left. It’s a remarkable situation. Remarkable, because those on the, so called, Radical Left have never been more aware, more conscious of the inequities of power. The Green Movement, for example, has raised the consciousness of millions, so that almost every child knows something about global warming. And yet, there seems to be a resistance, within the Green Movement, to the notion of power as a military force, a military project. And perhaps similar observations can also be made about sections of the Feminist Movement and the Gay Movement and certainly the Union Movement.

One of my favorite quotations is from Milan Kundera,

“The struggle of people against power is [the] struggle of memory against forgetting.”

We should never forget that the primary goal of great power is to distract and limit our natural desire for social justice and equity and real democracy.

Long ago Edward Bernays’ invisible government of propaganda elevated big business from its unpopular status as a kind of mafia to that of a patriotic driving force. The “American way of life” began as an advertising slogan. The modern image of Santa Claus was an invention of Coca Cola.

Today we are presented with an extraordinary opportunity. Thanks to the crash of Wall Street and the revelation, for many ordinary people, that the free market has nothing to do with freedom. The opportunity, within our grasp, is to recognize that something is stirring in America that is unfamiliar, perhaps, to many of us on the left, but is related to a great popular movement that’s growing all over the world. Look down at Latin America, less than twenty years ago there was the usual despair, the usual divisions of poverty and freedom, the usual thugs in uniforms running unspeakable regimes. Today for the first time perhaps in 500 years there’s a people’s movement based on the revival of indigenous cultures and language, a genuine populism. The recent amazing achievements in Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, El Salvador, Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay represent a struggle for community and political rights that is truly historic, with implications for all of us. The successes in Latin America are expressed perversely in the recent overthrow of the government of Honduras, because the smaller the country, the greater is the threat of a good example that the disease of emancipation will spread.

Indeed, right across the world social movements and grass roots organization have emerged to fight free market dogma. They’ve educated governments in the south that food for export is a problem, rather than a solution to global poverty. They’ve politicized ordinary people to stand up for their rights, as in the Philippines and South Africa. Look at the remarkable boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign, BDS, for short, aimed at Israel that’s sweeping the world. Israeli ships have been turned away from South Africa and Western Australia. A French company has been forced to abandon plans to build a railway connecting Jerusalem with illegal Israeli settlements. Israeli sporting bodies find themselves isolated. Universities in the United Kingdom have begun to sever ties with Israel. This is how apartheid South Africa was defeated. And this is how the great wind of the 1960s began to blow. And this is how every gain has been won: the end of slavery, universal suffrage, workers rights, civil rights, environmental protection, the list goes on and on.

And that brings us back, here, to the United States, because I believe something is stirring in this country. Are we aware, that in the last eight months millions of angry e-mails, sent by ordinary Americans, have flooded Washington. And I mean millions. People are outright outraged that their lives are attacked; they bear no resemblance to the passive mass presented by the media. Look at the polls; more than 2/3 of Americans say the government should care for those who cannot care for themselves, sixty-four percent would pay higher taxes to guarantee health care for everyone, sixty percent are favorable towards Unions, seventy percent want nuclear disarmament, seventy-two percent want the US completely out of Iraq and so on and so on. But where is much of the left? Where is the social justice movement? Where is the peace movement? Where is the civil rights movement? Ordinary Americans, for too long, have been misrepresented by stereotypes that are contemptuous. James Madison referred to his compatriots in the public as ignorant and meddlesome outsiders. And this contempt is probably as strong today, among the elite, as it was back then. That’s why the progressive attitudes of the public are seldom reported in the media, because they’re not ignorant, they’re subversive, they’re informed and they’re even anti-American. I once asked a friend, the great American war correspondent and humanitarian, Martha Gellhorn, to explain the term “anti-American” to me. “I’ll tell you what anti-American is,” she said in her forceful way, “its what governments and their vested interests call those who honor America by objecting to war and the theft of resources and believing in all of humanity. There are millions of these anti-Americans in the United States, they are ordinary people who belong to no elite and who judge their government in moral terms though they would call it common decency. They are not vain; they are the people with a waitful conscience, the best of America’s citizens. Sure, they disappear from view now and then, but they are like seeds beneath the snow. I would say they are truly exceptional.” Truly exceptional, I like that.

My own guess is that a populism is growing, once again in America evoking a powerful force beneath the surface which has a proud history. From such authentic grass roots Americanism came women suffrage, the eight hour day, graduated income tax, public ownership of railways and communications, the breaking of the power of corporate lobbyists and much more. In other words, real democracy. The American populists were far from perfect, but they often spoke for ordinary people and they were betrayed by leaders who urged them to compromise and merge with the Democratic Party. That was long ago, but how familiar it sounds. My guess is that something is coming again. The signs are there. Noam Chomsky is right when he says that, “Mere sparks can ignite a popular movement that may seem dormant.” No one predicted 1968, no one predicted the fall of apartheid, or the Berlin Wall, or the civil rights movement, or the great Latino rising of a few years ago.

I suggest that we take Woody Allen’s advice and give up on hope and listen, instead, to voices from below. What Obama and the bankers and the generals and the IMF and the CIA and CNN and BBC fear, is ordinary people coming together and acting together. It’s a fear as old as democracy, a fear that suddenly people convert their anger to action as they’ve done so often throughout history.

“At a time of universal deceit,” wrote George Orwell, “telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Thank you.

4 thoughts on “Rock Creek Free Press available in COS

  1. Avatarpcm

    Bookman is the best bookstore in Colorado Springs, bar none. They also have awesome brownies and 2 great cats. Of course, I am prejudiced. See it for yourself.

  2. AvatarMichael Slivka

    DISCLAIMER: Bookman is the bookstore owned and operated by your intrepid editor and blogmaster, none other than Eric Verlo himself!

    No harm in a bit of capitalist advertising on one’s own website, unless, of course, one is an avowed enemy of capitalism.

    And Bookman still doesn’t have any copies of “The Anarchist Cookbook”.

  3. EricEric

    Actually Michael, I no longer own the Bookman. But I still wish it the best. It wasn’t until I had to resume shopping at other bookstores that I realized what a great collection Bookman had. And now Arthur and Kelly have already improved it.

    By the way, we did sell The Anarchist Cookbook, but were horrified by the age of the people who sought it out. In many cases we lied and told them we were all out. The same buyers inquired about Loompanic Press’s How to Build a Meth Lab.

  4. AvatarMichael Slivka

    I am sorry about the confusion, Eric. I didn’t know that you had sold it, and also had sold Toons, your other business. Are you involved in any other counterculture enterprises now, or are you blissfully retired?

    I wish you all the best……

Leave a Reply

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