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Steve Jobs – The Legacy of a Great Innovator

Although I have never met or even came close to Steve Jobs and therefore should not have felt any emotions about his death other than feeling sorry for his family, in a weird way, I felt some type of a loss. It maybe because in some ways, he did have an influence on my life, if not personal, definitely professionally.  I learned about his death via twitter on my iphone. It seems only fitting that I learned of his death with one of the devices he created.  I am writing this post just as a personal reminder of this day and what I think about Steve Jobs.

For the last few months, as part of my job, I have been doing some research on how social media, cloud and mobile can be integrated into our business processes. Yesterday, I attended a webinar on “Social Media and the Enterprise” and today, I will be attending a webinar on “iPad: IT Support Considerations”. I think Steve Jobs played a significant part in shaping the culture of consumer technologies we enjoy today. Mark Zuckerberg of facebook considers Steve Jobs as his mentor and Zuckerberg’s seemingly cavalier attitude towards shaping social media and how focused they are in shaping and implementing their visions is consistent with that of Steve Jobs. Imagine social media without mobile devices? While Apple does not have the monopoly on mobile devices,Steve Jobs, through iPhone and iPad provided the path for other mobile companies by making this market cool and desirable for consumers.

Just a few weeks ago, I came across Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford University and I had read this book on “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs” and what came across was that just like other great leaders I admire like UCSB Vice Chancellor or Student Affairs Michael Young, Steve Jobs is a story teller. He is able to tell stories that connect with his audience. In my mind, this is one of the many things that make Steve Jobs very unique.

In some ways, as I watched tv programs last night and as I read the comments on various social media sites, I was inspired by his view on life and his work.  What he shared at his commencement address really resonates with me:

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”


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I keep having this strange sense of the hallucinatory as I follow the Boston Marathon story.

And then to follow or attempt to track the public response to the entire city of Boston being under martial law. The docility with which this was accepted is pretty alarming. The public response though cannot be separated from the public’s consumption of Hollywood film, and/or TV and corporate news. The story of the Tsarnaev brothers increasingly resembles a film script. And people increasingly “watch” it as they watch a movie.

But when I say movie, I suppose it’s important to differentiate between corporate product and not corporate –OR–maybe it’s not.

The landscape portrayed in media, against which the bomb attacks took place, is a created simulacra— it is Anytown Kansas by way of Oz. What is missing, is already missing because of Hollywood film. The audience has internalized certain structures and codes. The disappearing reality of the poor and the working poor, the anxiety that infects daily life, the increasingly autistic single minded focus on ‘productive’ labor, on the job. The sense of disconnect, and this increasing resentment, is all invisible. I think now there is something like a supermarket of manufactured realities for the public. People can pick and choose the one to which they wish to subscribe. But it’s more than that; it is the ownership of this selection. And it happens on an individual and a group level. I think the public forms groups based on the selection of manufactured reality they want to believe in. Group solidarity based on which fan club you belong to.

There is a sense of the artificial world beginning to take precedence over direct experience, and this is the effect of electronic media, social media, and movies, and corporate news. They all overlap.

One can see certain fantasy worlds created in Hollywood film and TV. This is sort of obvious, really. Besides the worship of the military and state, themes of patriotism, and the like, there are the secondary tropes of family, of the codes that assign places for gender, race, and the structures as well as dreams of ‘your’ group. Just as an example, if you watch the CBS cop franchise “Blue Bloods”, with Tom Selleck, you see the reactionary white male fantasy world (Bruce Willis films do this almost exactly, as well). A white Catholic male as the benign patriarch of a family of cops. What could be more perfect. There are no drunken fights, no domestic abuse, no rape, no corruption — only a specific brand of male privilege and authority. There is, and this is quite true in any Willis film too, a nostalgia for those simpler times (which never really existed) when white men weren’t so threatened by minorities, by women, by leftists or liberals, and especially by lax morals. In the latest Die Hard installment, this reaches almost surreal levels of anachronism and cognitive dissonance. In the midst of a mass conflagration on the highways of Moscow, Bruce is upset his son isn’t showing proper respect to his father. It is interestingly both ironic and not ironic. It is delivered with a nudge nudge wink wink, at the same time it is completely in earnest.

father & son, Good Day to Die Hard

father & son, Good Day to Die Hard

When one looks at the realities of the U.S., among the worlds not on offer, are those Paul Street writes about:

“The fiscal tightening in Washington – primarily the automatic budget cuts imposed by Congress…and the increase in Social Security taxes this year.” Small business is “dead in water” (so says the head of the National Federation of Independent Businesses), generating a bleak mood that “remains stuck near recession levels.”

On the other hand, corporate “earnings” are at record levels. Profits for the largest 100 companies in the Standards & Poor 500 stock index are expected to increase by 6.6% this quarter. Fully 22% of the S&P 500’s profits will come from the nation’s largest 10 publicly traded companies, up from 18% in 2010.[1]

Schwartz could have added that after-tax U.S. corporate profits last year were $1.75 trillion, a more-than-50% increase over the previous record of $1.125 trillion in 2006. He might have noted that, as Joel Geier recently observed in the International Socialist Review, those “profits were the highest percentage of GDP on record, with wages the lowest percentage historically.”

Ok, as a digression….among many…..because one of the things I keep seeing is the intense bullying of anyone (and there ARE a lot) who are having trouble believing the cover story for Boston bombings.

It seems that that a time lag occurs after big catastrophic events….say ten years, usually twenty or thirty, for the facts to emerge. This is because, partly, that by the time these facts emerge, nobody much cares anymore. There are new stories to be distracted by and new events to have covered up. But it is useful to go back and remember…
Operation Gladio (

and then WACO, (

The list of course could on and on and on. Yellow Cake from Niger, or this

or this

There are of course many more covert CIA ops (Air America, with Tony Pope et al) or

or Iran Contra, or Hill & Knowlton with their babies torn from incubator stories, or to return to a more direct connection to domestic terror, one has to return to Tim McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing. Or, I suppose to James Earl Ray or Lee Harvey Oswald. I would suggest Richard Raznikov be read on the subject of the JFK assassination. And there are countless sources for the facts behind the MLK assassination. The point is, we know the state operates all the time in covert and secret ways. But, one of the prevailing memes in-play today is the one that labels questioning “conspiracy theory” and immediately links it to the fringe kooks who imagine invisible helicopters bombing your houses with gamma rays (it has often occurred to me that Alex Jones was psy ops of some sort, and put there to discredit investigative journalism).

Private security at Boston Marathon.

Private security at Boston Marathon.

So since these facts are all available, and I only scratched the surface, really, why is it, as a general rule, labeled “not believable” when, for example, someone posts photos of privitized security men, with back packs, at the site of the explosions in Boston? Now, I have no idea what happened, and have no idea why they were there. But its worth a look I think. But this leads me to what is, I think anyway, my main point. *Believability*.

In a landscape of increased economic polarization, and insecurity, there seems an ever more desperate clinging to establishment narrative by those who are not suffering directly (yet anyway). I think if you canvassed the lowest economic rungs of the U.S. about Boston, you would find a good deal of incredulity about the official version. If you canvas elite upper class neighborhoods I suspect far fewer questions about this version would exist, and much more attention would be devoted to the detailed stories and background analysis of the Tsarnaev brothers. I think what you see when you superimpose these two points of view is the breakdown of cognitive process in the U.S. The self fragemented, compartmentalizing of attention. And this in turn leads to the reliance on these branded codes — whether Tom Selleck or Aaron Sorkin.

Cast of Blue Bloods

Cast of Blue Bloods

The official *elite* version of the story (the educated classes version) goes like this:

I wont bother linking any of the many pretty loopy sites (so called conspiracy theory sites) out there, but they defy all logic and often, actually, make no sense. However, they do serve the purpose of expressing something of the discontent many people feel. They are irrational, but then so are Astrology columns, and both link in interesting ways to that desire for an unknown, an unsolvable mystery, which in turn is the desire for the spiritual. This is not to say there isn’t terrific ivestigative journalism happening, because it is. But there is a danger, a restraint often, for fear of being called a conspiracy nut.

However, the Remnick version in the New Yorker mystifies every bit as much as Alex Jones, only primarily by omission. The Craft Security guys don’t play a part in this narrative. The echos of Waco or Ruby Ridge or the Murrah Building are left out. There is a tacit backdrop of the rational state.

pipilottitrussardi01 red

These partial uncritical perspectives extend, obviously, to the sense of politics.
Paul Street again:

“The powerful and highly class-conscious political and policy actors in the corporate and financial “1%” know all this very well. They do not rely on the market alone to bring about record-setting profits while millions struggle with the merely “human recession” that festers beneath the “statistical recovery.” Behind their “anti-government” and “free market” rhetoric, they pull plutocratic strings to ensure that government works on behalf of big capital and the upward distribution of wealth. Thanks in no small part to their pressure, for example, the White House and Congress imposed the lion’s share of last year’s last-minute tax increase on the working and middle classes – not the so well-to-do who sit atop a class structure that is now so savagely unequal that the six Walton (Wal-Mart) heirs have as much total net worth as the bottom 41.5% of Americans. The majority of the whittled-down Obama tax hike – $125 billion of the $212 billion increase – came from increasing the payroll tax by 2%. This amounted to a 2% wage reduction for all Americans making less than $113,000 a year. Thanks to elite money influence, it remains unthinkable that policymakers would exhibit a serious commitment to deficit reduction and to the reasonable funding of Social Security by getting rid of the blatantly regressive cap on payroll taxation beyond $113,000.”

These are things all but invisible to corporate product. The ruthless conscious policies of brutality and predatory ethics make no appearance in the world of “entertainment”. And if they do, formally speaking, they do in a very particular manner that encloses any idea of dissent — in other words the problem is resolved. Which leads me to ‘believabilty’. I never know what people mean when they say something wasn’t “believable”. It’s as slippery an idea as *fun*. It is one of those notions that can’t be pinned down. Was “Zero Dark Thirty” believable? Was “Argo” believable? There is a blurring that goes on here, between naturalistic behavior, based on accepted notions of motivation, and the macro-meaning which asks the audience place this narrative in an historic context, or at least one in which the nature of human behavior and identity is interrogated. A director like Bruno Dumont, or better, Audiard, (to choose among the currently working), or Pasolini and Fassbinder, or Bresson — one is rarely going to even think about ‘is this believable’. Why is that?

Marriage of Maria Braun, Dr. Fassbinder, 1979

Marriage of Maria Braun, Dr. Fassbinder, 1979

The New Yorker article on the Chechen brothers who allegedly planted the bombs in Boston appeals to the educated informed readers of glossy mags who can feel as if, well, they understand a bit more about why such tragedies happen, and will now be able to add another small digit of imperialist prejudice to their perspective on the Caucuses, and Islam. This is branded thinking at work. These are all style codes and memes that serve as short hand for actual real thinking. For actual questioning. Perhaps everything Remnick wrote is exactly correct. It still doesn’t mean that article is not branding. Because in the end, the underclass is excised in the most paternalistic manner. If you uncritically take cops at their word, you have lost credibility.

In the same week the attack in Boston happens, CIA efforts to destabilize Venezuela are ramping up. Super hypocrite John Kerry asks for a recount. The fascist opposition means to move on Maduro, and Morales, too, for that matter. This has been what the U.S. government has done for sixty years.

*Believabilty*: well, here….Chris Kyle is the guy who runs Craft Security. Self branded “worlds deadliest sniper”.

All the Craft guys, by the way, at the Marathon were vets of Operation Enduring Freedom. Make of that what you will. But one might reasonably ask why they were hired to work security. I thought that’s what the Boston police deartment gets all that money for?

Believabilty. Here is a little footnote from the Craft web page (you too can get a Skull T shirt)….

Hollywood is going to make the Chris Kyle movie. Hollywood alread made a film about Air America — a comedy!! With Mel Gibson. Because, you know, what’s funnier than secret wars and heroin smuggling.
AIRAMERICA The questions are always there. After every tragedy, every attack, there are questions. Most go unanswered, but almost always there is an official version. It’s comforting. And it has to be *believable*. But it IS believable, because its official.

I wrote last posting that almost all studio product is set against the backdrop of white patriarchal privilege. Almost all of it is misogynist and almost all of it is racist. How can it not be? And included under the umbrella of this privileged narrative is an extensive militarism and worship of authority. The Pentagon might as well officially list itself as part time studio, such is the inter-relationship between Hollywood and the military. There is also another theme running under all this. This is the sense of empowerment an ever more desperate white masculinity feels, and the acute desire for legitimation of this masculinity through force. Jock culture is a strange parody of the military. What they both share is a violence toward women. In fact, toward anything not exactly like they are. Black jocks usually have just appropriated white jock culture. Not all, and the exceptions are worth a whole posting all by themselves.

Nice piece here by Dave Zirin..

demand tunnell

So, it is believable to have an Irish Catholic family of cops, but not, say, a poor Kurdish immigrant family of laborers, or maybe workers in the service sector. Why is that? Well, it is literally not believable to a large swath of the public because what that Kurdish, or Polish, or Albanian or Syrian or Moroccan or Belarussian family would feel and say is not part of the canon of accepted codes. If Hollywood attempted such a show — lets pretend an executive took a lot of LSD25 and somehow gave this show the green light there would of necessity be dialogue based on accepted white codes, which would read as *not believable* in the mouths of foreigners, OR it would be an honest dialogue, taken from the real material world of the working class, and THAT dialogue wouldn’t and couldn’t be heard. The working class in film usually must speak “working class”. It’s all very well defined. The working class must be seen in the accepted context, as well. There are exceptions, but I think you would be hard pressed to find many.

So, a Kurdish worker literally would not be heard. You might as well film the show IN Kurdish, or Polish, or whatever. For Polish is no more alien to most Americans than is the language of the underclass. The sensibility of those punished every day for poverty, for the abuse they endure, is usually radicalized in some sense — it has learned not to trust. It has learned subterfuge as well.

This is the same sense one gets arguing with people who say, oh, those inner city kids really need to pull up their pants. The dial always is turned back to one’s own privilege, assuming one is white. The dial is always set to conformity. (Why can’t they dress like I do, as I find acceptable?).

Today, the events in Boston play out over the electronic media much as a film would on a continuous loop. The audience looks for familiar characters, familiar events. And because the police are so familiar, this audience projects familiar plot points onto their actions. Ex NAVY seals are familiar too (didnt Costner play a Seal? or..what that Steven Segal? Hell, it seems maybe every young actor in Hollywood has) they are projected in mimetic readings, occupying the familiar roles this audience has seen thousands of times. One of the interesting things about how the CIA is depicted in Hollywood film, is that Langley is always the most appealing work place in America. Smiling and very cute secretaries, brusk but avuncular senior management, and hunky young recruits. How many thousands of times has this been seen? What is happening is a total break down of cognition I believe. Was Boston a movie? Was the guy in the wheel chair an actor? Thought there would be more blood…oh, well, the producers know what they’re doing. Is Wolf Blitzer playing himself?

muerte card

The state has a budget for deception. Black ops. What does one think they do with that budget?

The state has been responsible for most atrocities, not all, over the last hundreds of years. The U.S. has lied constantly, they have lied so much they no longer know what is true. It has no meaning. Rumsfeld, Hillary, Bill, and Obama, or Kerry or Hagel or Wolfowitz, or Cheney or Biden or Petreus, or Wes Clark, or Poindexter, or Ollie North, or Allen Dulles or LBJ or Jerry Ford — or any of those who wander the corridors of power, they are above truth/false dichotomies; for they are in their own movies, too.

They are making the story and you are the audience. I have no idea what happened with the Tsarnaev brothers. I have no idea if the cover story is real. I can’t know. But I think that is what is real is the city of Boston was put on martial law status, locked down, and complied obediently. Perhaps there is a strange current of sado-masochism at work in this (beat me, make me write bad checks, put my city under martial law)…whatever it is, the society has as a whole has stopped thinking there is anything to question. After all, Matt Damon or Bradley Cooper will take care of everything.

  1. The chase, the shoot out….
    “lockdown”. People have suddenly become comfortable with this term meaning everyone in their cells in prisonn right? It’s not curfew, ti’s not martial law, it’s “lockdown” – Americans have accepted the world is a prison controlled by the US executive and its soldiers. They agreed to stay in their cells, to lock themselves down. Really a movie in that suddenly this is the onl violence, and means violence – for’get the highway accidents and cop shootings in “the homeland” let alone the drones and death squads elsewhere. This is the violence that’s intolerable. Everything must be paused until they are stopped. And the drones? The bombed wedding parties? The industrial accidents deaths? The rape torture murders of the paramilitaries in Syria? The fascist violence in Venezuela? The forced feedings of the tortured in Guatanamo? Oh well the world is a rough neighborhood, This isn’t a perfect world and those motherfuckers shouldn’t be allowed to get away with that.

  2. Maybe not coincidentally, I read Saramago’s Blindness this week while all this has been unfolding. There have been unsettling parallels, most notably, the state’s rush to quarantine the blind as soon as they discover the few instances of the “white sickness” and the internees willingness to be confined.

    But to your point – believability, I’ve felt a sense of incredulity and disconnect between image and narrative. It does feel hallucinatory. This flood of information, all of it the same series of unsubstantiated “facts” or details, whether I’m watching TV or reading my Facebook feed – who was run over by the car? 200 rounds of ammunition were “exchanged”? What about the man who was forced to strip naked and hauled off in the police car? Did that really happen? I had friends in Boston sending happy pictures of their time in lockdown. Yesterday, I saw a picture of a cop in kevlar bringing two gallons of milk to a family who’d run out. No picture of the family “in need “- nice yard though, white fence, so probably not desperate and distrusting of the cops. Cop as milkman – isn’t that nostalgic.

    I had concern for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev yesterday and it’s difficult to talk about it with most people I know because of a “believability” gap. When I worry that Tsarnaev won’t be read his rights, friends misunderstand – they think I’m concerned that he won’t get convicted if the cops don’t follow the rules. When I explain that Miranda rights don’t resemble the TV trope, they don’t believe me. When I talk about what this means in terms of the rest of us, they laugh or get defensive and talk about what they “believe.” The conversation resembles the conversation I had a few weeks ago about the distance between “the graphic scenes of torture” depicted in Zero Dark Thirty and what anyone could actually read about or see in documentaries or learn from first hand accounts. Are we all hallucinating now? Maybe so…

  3. – right- the worry that something will stop the annihilation of this obvious guilty villain…

    John I’m sure you have an opinion abou Emily Mann who runs the McCarter theatre at Princeton. it’s a nice theatre. She’s won awards. When I was uni I saw her first play, she workshopped it – Execution of Justice. Based on the Dan White trial “‘the twinkie defence”. it was such a reactionary shocking thing to me then; it was this ersatz left critical piece, targeted to wind up people with good affects and instincts (people upset about the murder of Harvey Milk) against defendant”‘s rights. It was a play designed to enrage people about” technicalities” so that the progressives whom it manipulated emotionally would be calling for star chamber. The longing for a divine justice dealing out divine judgements and infallibly detecting and exterminating Evil was sown by this pseudo progressive culture work of the reagan era. And under cover of this – this frenzy of outrage and misdirected demands after the red meat of simple anecdotal injustice is tossed to formerly rational progressives (it sdidn’t work on the majority then actually – the audience complained about the manipulation and the sensationalism – now it would work, and be celebrated widely by pseudo left pseudo critics)- the real mysteries of Dan White and the killing of the progressive mayor Mosconi who was blocking the real estate developers interests in SF and checking gentrification, are buried and speculation about them becomes “conspiracy theory” while “mature” ^politics is normalized as this idiotic childish gossip and anecdote, this false culturalist contextualizing. Worst deepest effect seen here is the slipping away of the specatcle from any critical awareness at all – now it is very rare for anyone to question the assumption that an act of spectacular violence (terrorist bombing) or a spectacular simulated violence (Rihann’s “Man Down”, say) is the natural way of expressing political arguments (against imperialism, against rape) – this provision of entertainments to sing along to or “debate” fades from view and just seems natural…though it is really odd and inexplicable.

  4. John Steppling says:

    I want to respond to all three of these comments in a short while here….but @elizabeth….

  5. I posted the link to Greenwald yesterday. I got the Facebook equivalent of “you kids get off my lawn” ie. stop posting this negative stuff or I’m going to unfriend you – to which I reply, go right ahead, by all means, but I don’t think you understand how FB works. They have the idea that their newsfeed is their “private” space, but apparently mine is also theirs.

  6. and here we go…hoopy dee doo..preparing with run throughs for major attacks on US cities…just like the TV shows and movies

  7. John Steppling says:

    This lockdown, or martial law, or whatever it was — its actually unlike anything I know… clearly the precursor for further policing tactics domestically. The militarizing of domestic police departments is a whole paradigm shift in how civil liberties are to be treated and that quaint old bill of rights. THere was small opposition to NDAA, and here we have a public happy to comply with orders to go inside and stay inside. All notions of a commons, of individual rights have been tossed out the window — the normalizing of mass police action was first seen after Katrina I think. So, the idea of enemy combatants is cover for all dissent.. Its astounding. But such is the ramping up of these ersatz threats that people seem happy to accept “protection”.

  8. John Steppling says:

    yeah emily mann. This is institutional theatre in the U.S. Its largely a factory for kitsch. But see, what you describe is fueled in part by these feelings, however buried they may be, of impotence and this dislocation of affect — I think these *common sense* appeals to what are really fascistic principles (Zizek again) means that what is being offered for selection from the supermarket of ideas, are pre fabricated faux empowerments….micro empowerments….that have no real importance except as psychological salves for this sense of being cut adrift from all processes of decision making. I suspect soon elections will be suspended and nobody will really care because they will be replaced by some reality TV show that is closer to shirley jackson than anything else.

  9. Yeah that last comment – exactly, these commonsense appeals to fascism: this is helped along by the dismantling of narrative and the bombardment of the clerk class with these idiotic cartoons and cartoonish entertainments. Really the infanitilization is indispensible for foisting on people, and it goes along with Doug Henwood and Jacobin crowd these days saying oh democracy is just too much trouble, we don’t want to be in meetings all day. Because we’re watching teevee! Adulthood is too much. The kind of participatory democracy that adults practiced time out of mind, as in the Haudenosaunee Longhouse, is othered and eradicated – our idiot entertainments make it primitive or dangerous (shirley jackson) and female – KKK, PTA – as a technocratic absolute monarchy is naturalized.

  10. The Judge and The Historian – by Carlo Ginzburg:

    The relations between history and law have always been extremely close: this has been the case since, two and a half thousand years ago, the literary genre that we call ‘history’ emerged in Greece. If the word ‘history’ (historia) derives from the language of medicine, the argumentative capacity it implies perhaps derives from the juridical tradition. History as a particular intellectual activity is constituted ( as Arnaldo Momigliano reminded us a few years ago) at the crossroads of medicine and rhetoric: it examines cases and situations, seeking the natural causes according to the example of the first and following the rules to the second – an art of persuasion born in tribunals.

    In the classical tradition, to historical exposition ( as, elsewhere, to poetry) one brings, in the first place, a quality the Greeks called enargheia, and the Latins called evidentia in narratione: the capacity to represent persons and situations vividly. Like a lawyer, an historian is obliged to convince with the use of a efficacious argument involving to a point the creation of an illusion of reality and less with the production of proof or the evaluation of proof produced by others. These latter are the proper activities of antiquarians and scholars, but until the second half of the 18th century, history and antiquarianism constituted intellectual environments entirely independent of one another, populated by a different set of individuals. At the time when a scholar like the Jesuit Henri Griffet, in his Traité des differentes sortes de preuves qui servent à établir la verité de l’histoire (1769), equated the historian with a judge who evaluates various bits of evidence and testimony, there was already manifest a requirement then unsatisfied, albeit remarked upon by few intellectuals. This was to be realized a few years later with Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the first work to successfully combine history and antiquarian scholarship.

    The analogy between the historian and the judge was destined for a great career. In the famous remark, first uttered by Schiller, Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht, Hegel condensed, in the duplicate sense of Weltgericht (‘world tribunal’ and ‘universal justice’), the essence of his own Philosophy of History: the secularization of the Christian vision of Universal History (Weltgeschichte.) The accent here falls on the verdict (with all the ambiguity with which it is pronounced): but it falls to the historian to judge people and events on the basis of a principle – the overriding interests of the State – tendentiously estranged as they may be either from law or from morality; In Griffet, on the other hand, the accent falls on that which precedes the verdict, that is on the impartial evaluation of proofs and testimony on the part of the judge. At the end of the century, Lord Acton, in his address spoken on the occasion of his nomination to the position of Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge (1895), insisted on both one and the other: historiography, when it is based upon documents; has to erect atop them a structure and become ‘a recognized tribunal, before which all are equal.’

    For many historians, the notion of proof is out of fashion, as with the notion of truth, to which it is tied by a strong link historically (although not a necessary link). The reasons for this devaluation are various, not all of an intellectual order. One reason is certainly the hypertrophic status on both sides of the Atlantic, in France and in the United States, achieved by the term ‘representation.’ Given the use made of this, it ends in creating in many cases an insurmountable wall around history.

    We know very well that every testimony is constructed according to a determined code: to attain to historical reality (or to reality) in a direct way is by definition impossible. But to infer from this an ultimate unknowability of reality is the result of a radically lazy scepticism which is at once unsustainable from an existential point of view and contradictory from a logical one: as such, the fundamental choice of the skeptic is not placed beneath the methodical doubt that he declares himself committed to.

    For me, as for many others, the notions of ‘proof’ and of ‘truth’ are in contrast constitutive of my method as an historian. This does not imply, obviously, that non-existent phenomena or false documents are irrelevant historically: Bloch and Lefebvre taught us the contrary. But the analysis of representations must not be permitted to obscure the principle of reality. The non-existence of the band of brigands [ of the French revolutionary period, which Lefebvre studied in La grande peur] renders yet more significant (because more profound and revealing) the fear in the French countryside in the summer of 1789. An historian has the duty and the right to remark a problem there where a judge would have to dismiss the case for lack of evidence.

  11. John Steppling says:

    yes, that was the primary impetus for starting this blog in a sense… start to analyse the way narrative was being dismantled…exactly. And infantilized…..the constant constant repetition of the same simplistic narratives, the same characters (which barely meet the criteria to be called characters) placed in the same frame, over and over and over and over and over and over and over. And idolizing war and abstractions like patriotism…freedom…democracy….etc. The destruction of words such as democracy, which now means nothing. So, eventually this breakdown of thought occurs. Autism….this vapor lock on the engine of cognition. Frozen. Paralysed. And the worship of a fantasy technology — this manufactured dream of technical omniscience…..when in fact its quite deeply flawed. But real technical achievement is suppressed to large degree, and most is in the service of weaponizing everything…..for the military. The police have always been there to protect property. But now, that is even secondary, because the military and the police are merging, and the goal is simply control. Occupation. A vast gulag of american prisons, militarized police departments, and an utterly secret clandestine justice department. Anyone can be arrested for anything — thats the message. Say anything and you are a whistle blower, a dissident….an enemy combatant…..and forget niceties like the Miranda rights, or hell, due process….habeas corpus….thats all gone. Once NDAA passed, and nobody could tear themselves away from season two of Breaking Bad….the game was lost. These childish cover stories are just consumed in the EXACT same way TV shows are consumed. Exactly. Oh, I thought the casting for those brothers was over the top, but I loved the guy in the cowboy hat…..great performance. Its surreal. And a large city of millions is told to go inside. And they do.

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Bud Light NFL
The Fanalyzer
Gameday superstitions are totally real, and we finally have the data to prove it. Through facebook connect, The Bud Light FANALYZER matched the days an NFL team played their best (and worst) with what a Fan was doing on those days. For example, if Will ate pizza on Sept 3, the day the Patriots scored 6TDs, then eating pizza is a good superstition. When Will eats pizza, the Patriots have a better chance of scoring 6 TDs. The opposite applies for when a team has a really bad game. If Randy was wearing a certain shirt the day the Broncos' quarterback got sacked 12 times, Randy knows never to wear that shirt again.


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“Bad Check” Charges – California Penal Code 476 PC

February 22, 2016

In California, knowingly passing a check with insufficient funds with the specific intent to defraud the recipient (“Check Fraud”) is charged under Penal Code 476. If the check amount is for $950 or less, then the prosecution will charge you with a misdemeanor violation of this offense. If the check amount exceeds $950, the offense becomes a wobbler where the prosecutors holds discretion when electing to charge you with either a felony or misdemeanor.

In the event you’re being investigated for check fraud, give no statement to the bank or law enforcement as you’re liable to say something that will be used against you in court. Contact a Check Fraud Lawyer the moment you suspect an investigation is occurring. It’s very difficult for the government to prove your state of mind for this offense without you giving a statement to police.

This article will address 8 important things you should know about Check Fraud charges.

1. What Must the Prosecutor Prove for Writing a Bad Check?

According to the California Jury Instructions, before you can be found guilty of writing a bad check under PC 476, the prosecutor must prove each of the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt:

1. You wrote a check or passed a check with insufficient funds;
2. You had knowledge of the insufficient funds;
3. You harbored the intent to defraud the recipient.

2. What is the Punishment for Writing a Bad Check PC 476?

The legal consequences will depend on whether you were convicted of a felony or misdemeanor. A misdemeanor conviction carries up to 1 year in the county jail and a fine amount not exceeding $1,000. A felony conviction carries a sentencing range of 16 months, 2, or 3 years in the county jail.

If the court grants probation, the judge will impose a three year probation period and community service. A conviction will also require you to pay back restitution to the victim.

3. What are the Defenses to Writing a Bad Check?

I. Lack of Knowledge

You did not knowingly pass a check with insufficient funds. Instead, you reasonably believed the check would clear the bank or perhaps you innocently forgot to transfer funds into the account you wrote the check out of. Additionally, you could have believed that your account was setup with overdraft protection. If you did not know of the accounts insufficient funds, then you are not guilty of this crime.

II. Lack of Intent

You did not have the intent to defraud the recipient of the check. This charge requires you harbor the specific intent to defraud the recipient, therefore, if you did not mean, and perhaps accidently passed the check, and had full intentions of having the check clear, then you are not guilty of this crime.

III. Miranda Violation

The incriminating statements you gave to the police were a violation of your Miranda rights under the U.S. Constitution. This evidence may be what the government is using to prove you harbored the specific intent to defraud or that you had knowledge that the account balance was not sufficient to cover the check amount.

IV. Illegal Search & Seizure

Law enforcement committed an unreasonable search & seizure of your belongings and discovered incriminating physical evidence in violation of your Fourth Amendment right. Violations occur in the context of defective search warrants, lack of a warrant altogether, or unlawful traffic stop.

4. Early Mitigation Package

If you’re cited or arrested for this offense, the police will forward the evidence to the prosecuting agency for review to determine whether formal charges should be brought against you. The Law Offices of John D. Rogers can put together a mitigation package to submit to the filing prosecutor in an effort that they reject the case completely. The package may include, character letters, additional evidence, your lack of criminal history, and perhaps your side of the story. If the prosecutor elects to reject the case, then there will be no criminal filing and thus the case is finished without ever having to go to court.

5. What are Examples of Writing a Bad Check?

• Writing a check to someone knowing that the account has been closed.

• Tendering a check from an account you know has insufficient funds available.

• Manufacturing a false check and tendering it to the grocery store to buy goods.

• Deliberately putting a stop on a check with the intent to steal goods, items, or services.

6. Felony Reduction to a Misdemeanor

If the amount exceeds $950, the offense then becomes a wobbler. As mentioned above, the prosecutor holds discretion when electing to charge you with a felony or misdemeanor. Thus, if you’ve been convicted of a felony, and you were placed on probation, then you may be eligible to reduce your conviction to a misdemeanor under PC 17(b).

Obtaining reduction under PC 17(b) carries a full restoration of your rights, including your right to own and possess a firearm. The judge is given wide discretion and factors the court will consider are:

• Your prior criminal history

• How many victims were there in your case

• The planning and sophistication of your offense

• Whether you suffered any probation violations

• How long ago your offense occurred

• The amount of money taken

• Your reason for seeking reduction – e.g., state licensing, military, employment, etc.

7. Writing a Bad Check Expungement

If you were convicted of this offense, then you may be eligible to expunge your record after successful completion of your probation. To obtain an expungement, a specific petition under PC 1203.4 is required and served on the prosecuting agency. A hearing will be held and if the judge grants your petition, the court will withdraw its finding of guilt, enter a not guilty plea, and dismiss the case. After which, you will be released from all penalties and disability resulting from this conviction carrying considerable benefits when applying for jobs in the private employment sector. For more information about obtaining an expungement for check fraud, contact the Law Offices of John D. Rogers.

8. Free Criminal Defense Consultation

If you’re being investigated or have been charged with check fraud under PC 476, contact Check Fraud Attorney John Rogers at the Law Offices of John Rogers for a free confidential consultation concerning your rights and defenses.

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Jennifer Doggett. Cutting waste and costs in health.

Feb 5, 2014

Cut expensive and low-value services: Health funding is not allocated to areas which deliver maximum output. We spend too much on expensive low-value services and not enough on preventive, high –value care.  Recent research shows that a number of routine tests performed in the Australian health system do not improve clinical outcomes. These include x-rays for lower back pain, liver function tests for people on statin therapy and routine glucose tolerance tests for pregnant women.

Structural reform: There is significant duplication of functions, gaps and poor coordination across areas of Commonwealth and State/Territory responsibility.  There needs to be a single funder and/or single point of accountability for all health care (as recommended by the NHHRC)

Reform the funding system:  Funding arrangements for health services often do not reflect their value. We need a funding system which ties subsidies to value and which steers consumers towards the more cost-effective treatment option. For example, where physiotherapy is a more efficient treatment for a soft tissue sporting injury than conventional medical treatment it should be subsidised at a higher rate.

Remove interest groups: Powerful vested industry groups, such as the pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession, influence policy and funding decisions resulting in anti-competitive and rent seeking practices that disadvantage consumers.

Move away from fee-for-service: A (largely) fee-for-service payment system does not support doctors to provide comprehensive, preventive and multi-disciplinary care for people with complex and chronic health problems.  At least for these people we should investigate alternative payment systems, such as a capitation model.

Workforce reform: Doctors in Australia undertake many tasks which in other countries are safely and efficiently done by nurses.  Breaking down professional barriers should allow for the lowest cost person to provide the care, where they can do so safely and effectively.

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Zippo Brushed Solid Brass Engraved Lighter

  • Sale
  • $54.00
  • Regular price $70.00
Tax included. Shipping calculated at checkout.

  • Classic Zippo lighter with a brushed brass finish
  • 'Solid Brass' engraving on front of lighter
  • Packaged in a gift box
  • Perfect for engraving
  • All metal construction; windproof design works virtually anywhere
  • Refillable for a lifetime of use; flints are replaceable
  • Made in the USA
  • Lifetime warranty

The Zippo High Polish Lighter is a Zippo classic. Zippo lighters are above all, reliable and built to last. They are windproof, sturdy, durable and an American Classic. They are the perfect emergency or outdoor lighter since the Zippo lights through thick and thin and wet and wind. Easy to use, refill and maintain, your Zippo will last a lifetime and always work when you need a light. All Zippo lighters are sold without fuel. For fuel and other accessories to compliment your Zippo, check out our range of Zippo Accessories


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Category: Ministry

Ready or not…2011

As I begin 2011, I am struck with the reminder that January 1, 2011 was scheduled to be the due date for my third son, Jackson Cole, to be born.  In His providence, God chose to usher our little boy directly into His presence on...

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Breach & Incident Response

A data breach or incident response plan is a course of action intended to reduce the risk of unauthorized data access and to mitigate the damage caused if a breach does occur.

Here are 10 crucial steps I will follow to assist with data breach response planning:

  1. Use resources such as business impact analysis (BIA) and disaster recovery (DR) methods to identify your organization’s most sensitive data and implement actions to protect data based on the severity of the impact a breach would have.
  2. Perform a high-level risk assessment of your IT environment and identify vulnerable areas.
  3. Implement measures to reduce the likelihood of breaches caused by human error.antivirus
  4. Address security on multiple levels: Educate employees on social engineering tactics; ensure that data is encrypted. Make sure that processes involved are as streamlined and automatic as possible to maximize compliance.
  5. Learn the specifics of current federal and state data breach legislation.
  6. Ensure that the breach response team has authorization to take necessary steps immediately when a breach occurs so that crucial time isn’t lost obtaining permission for action.
  7. Test your response plan frequently and address any weak areas as soon as they are discovered.
  8. Find contact information for forensic companies, law enforcement agencies and legal and public relations firms that you will deal with in the event of a breach and establish relationships now.
  9. Provide training for respondents on evidence collection. Ensure that any required certifications are in place.
  10. Create a plan for how a breach will be disclosed so that the news will be communicated swiftly, transparently and effectively. Include your solution to the problem and a way for those affected to contact you.

Click here to contact me and discuss your breach response management plan.


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Sit Down Comedy … March 6th, 2020

Jonathots Daily Blog

Sit Down Comedy

What statement would best typify the attitude of the average American citizen?

“Freedom and justice for all?”

“Land of the free and home of the brave?”

“All men are created equal?”

These are terrific thoughts. Can I offer a fourth possibility?

“Don’t tell me what to do!”

Yes—this one seems to have universal appeal.

The adult American maintains fragments of adolescent rebellion through most of his or her life.

I focus on Americans because other countries are so embroiled in wars, survival, calamities and tyrants that expressing “don’t tell me what to do” could quickly put you in the position of having the muzzle of a gun thrust in your face.

It’s a luxury we Americans enjoy—to object at will.

After all, a speed limit of seventy-miles-per-hour is not a rule. In our minds, it’s more like a recitation of suggested daily specials offered by a waiter when we arrive at a restaurant.

A “no parking” sign is the only sure way to guarantee that all the parking spots will be filled.

And if you put a button on a wall beneath a sign which reads, “Do Not Touch,” statistics show that at least seventy-two percent of people will look to their right and to their left, and sheepishly walk over and push it.

This in itself would be a great subject for an article—but let us add an additional question.

Do we feel any different about being told what to do when it’s a woman instead of a man?

An amazing thing happens to the male of the species with the arrival of testosterone in his early teens. He begins to play team sports or joins the military—settings in which he is often ridiculed, yelled at or even kicked around by coaches or drill sergeants.

A woman, on the other hand, often has little opportunity for team sports, and unless she purposely tries to find a combat position, will usually never experience such radical treatment.

Because of this, none of us are accustomed to being challenged, questioned or ordered around by a female.

And if a woman does gain authority, the characterization is quite different:

  • Men are assertive. Women are bitchy.
  • Men are resolute. Women are stubborn.
  • Men know how to command a situation. Women are bossy.

Just consider the three people presently running for President of the United States.

What if Donald Trump was Donna Trump? She would be dismissed as a dirty old lady.

What if Bernie Sanders was Beatrice Sanders? She would be a nasty-tongued wench.

And how about Joe Biden as June Biden? A little bit slow—perhaps senile.

But because they’re men, they are assigned integrity for their positions and are taken seriously—simply because they have prostates.

Does this mean that all Americans are misogynistic or anti-female?

No, but the average American has little experience with women being in control—not since they were little kids listening to their mothers nag about the laundry and dirty shoes next to the door.

Harken to this:

We had a whole caravan of females running for President this year. What we need to ask ourselves is, if any one of them had been male, based upon her credentials, her platform, her debate skills, her energy and her patriotism, would she still be alive in the contest?

I believe certainly one of them would have survived.

But each one was eliminated because eventually a tear came into her voice at the wrong time, which made her sound weak, even though when Joe Biden does it, it’s called empathy.

Or in the midst of making a point, her speech became more of a shout than a proclamation—although Bernie Sanders makes his living ranting at everybody.

Or she was a little too off-the-cuff or maybe not quite lady-like—although we refer to Donald Trump’s comments as “spontaneous” and “just his way.”

You will never know if you are free of misogyny until you can listen to a woman disagree with you, or even be your superior, without thinking you are back at home being criticized by “Mommy Dearest.”

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Home>Specials>Business>BSP’s term deposit facility rates drop

BSP’s term deposit facility rates drop

The rates of the Bangko Sentral term deposit facility declined amid oversubscription ahead of the holidays.

Data released by the BSP showed that the rate of the seven-day facility declined to 1.7292 percent and the rate of the 14-day facility to 1.7261 percent.

These were at 1.7479 percent and 1.7326 percent for the seven- and 14-day TDF during the auction last November 25.

The BSP offered the shortest tenor TDF for P180 billion and tenders amounted to P208.985 billion.

The bid coverage ratio rose to 1.1610 from last week’s 1.1384 after the P170 billion offer in the previous auction was met with P193.53 billion worth of tenders.

Makati City Pabakuna

Tenders for the 14-day facility reached P399.431 billion, higher than the P300 billion offer.

The bid coverage ratio slipped to 1.3314 from last week’s 1.4086 when this facility was offered for P290 billion and bids amounted to P408.5 billion.

BSP Deputy Gov. Francisco Dakila Jr., in a statement, said results of this week’s TDF auction “indicate increased preference among market participants for the shorter tenor, possible in view of the holiday season”.

“The BSP’s monetary operations will continue to be guided by its assessment of market developments and liquidity conditions going forward,” he added.


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Will Neville-Rehbehn

Director, Talent Brand & Marketing • Prudential Financial
New York City, NY

Will Sutton

Professional in Residence, Journalism • Loyola University New Orleans
New Orleans, LA

William Owen

Founder and Strategy Director • Made By Many

William Uricchio

Professor of Comparative Media Studies, Principal Investigator of the MIT Open Documentary Lab • MIT

Willian Avila

Digital News Producer • NBC4 Southern California

Willow Bay

Director of the Annenberg School of Journalism • University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA


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Author: Franica Pulis

Celebrating Pentecost: 7 experiences of Catholic faith

To celebrate this year’s Pentecost, the Pastoral Formation Institute was inspired by the ecclesial renewal document One Church, One Journey to showcase the beautiful tapestry that is the Catholic Church in Malta. In a series of 7 testimonies, we will meet persons from different countries, cultures, and languages, expressing their Catholic faith and their experience of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  A video will be published every day during the week leading to Pentecost.

Our aim is to show the richness and diversity of the Catholic Church in Malta, and what better feast to highlight this than the great feast of Pentecost!

This project presented us with a unique opportunity to meet 11 wonderful individuals who shared with us their experience of living in Malta, on living their vocation in their daily life, and their thoughts on the Holy Spirit. Each person also recites a prayer in their own language.

Join us on this journey to discover how, although we have different languages and rites, we are all One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Watch these experiences below

Meet Ana Maria Quintero López, from Colombia. In 2017 Ana Maria came to Malta to learn English and ended up finding her now husband. Now she calls Malta her new home. Click here to find out more about Ana Maria.

Meet Alessandro and Valentina Scafidi who decided to take a leap of faith and move to Malta in hopes to find a new place to call home. Watch this couples’ testimonial on how they feel God’s presence in their everyday life. Click here to find out more about Alessandro and Valentina.

Meet Sam Thomas Alex, from India. He was very excited when he had an opportunity to work in Malta, the land where St Paul was shipwrecked. Now working as a registered nurse at St Martin’s College and leading the Msida branch of the St Thomas Syro-Malabar community in Malta, he is still fascinated by the churches found at every corner on the island.

Meet Joseph Keleta from Eritrea and Deborah Keleta from Malta. A newlywed couple who shared their experience of strength in faith in facing life’s challenges.

Meet Pappàs Martin Zammit, from Valletta. He is married with two kids and a grandfather of three. P Martin lectures Arabic and Semitic languages at the University of Malta and he is the parish priest of the Greek-Catholic Parish of Malta.

Meet Robert Farrugia. “The human being thirsts for love in a universal manner. We all wish to feel loved. In love we find healing, peace and rest. This love is experienced in different experiences, be it romantic, friendship but most of all interior. It is there that we experience a different kind of relationship, a true treasure, the proper source of spiritual love.”

Meet Sr Mimosa (Albania), Sr Maria (Spain) & Sr Luigina (Italy) who came to Malta in hope to create a family atmosphere, where youth of different backgrounds meet & flourish in Catholic values.

‘Read Think Speak’ by MCYN

Read Think Speak is a series of meetings which forms part of the process of listening which the Church in Malta is doing in line with the document One Church, One Journey. As an entity of the Archdiocese, the Malta Catholic Youth Network (MCYN) felt it needed to really practice being a ‘Church that listens’. So, the main aim of these meetings is to listen to what young people, youth leaders and parish priests have to say. Although these meetings are being held online due to the restrictions imposed because of the pandemic, they are also an opportunity for different youth groups to get to know each other.

Read Think Speak is an ongoing project which started in February 2021. Each month, MCYN meets two different youth groups for an informal meeting where the team, youth leaders and young people share experiences of encounter with Christ, which has been especially fruitful. The meeting also include discussions about themes from the process One Church, One Journey.

Each meeting involves between ten and twenty people from different parishes and lay communities. Since August 2021, MCYN met a total of 123 people, and looks forward to meeting many more! These meetings would not be a possibility without the cooperation and dedication of various youth leaders who help make Read Think Speak happen.

With over a 100 different youth groups all over Malta, we’ve got a long way to go. However, the feedback we’ve received so far has been extremely affirming. Attendees have expressed their gratitude to be given the space to share and listen to the experiences of peers from different groups. Through their sharing, young people and youth groups have come to see the similarities and differences between them, both as individuals and as groups. Many times, an acknowledgement of these differences were seen to make the Church all the more richer.


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Women’s brains are four years younger than men’s, study finds | Science

Women’s brains are nearly four years younger than men’s, at least in how they burn fuel, according to scans performed by US researchers.

Scientists found that healthy women have a “metabolic brain age” that is persistently younger than men’s of the same chronological age. The difference is apparent from early adulthood and remains into old age.

The finding suggests that changes in how the brain uses energy over a person’s lifetime proceed more gradually in women than they do in men. While researchers are unsure of the medical consequences, it may help explain why women tend to stay mentally sharp for longer.

“Brain metabolism changes with age but what we noticed is that a good deal of the variation we see is down to sex differences,” said Marcus Raichle, a neurobiologist at Washington University school of medicine in St Louis. “If you look at how brain metabolism predicts a person’s age, women come out looking about four years younger than they are.”

The scientists used a brain scanning technique called positron emission tomography to measure the flow of oxygen and glucose in the brains of 121 women and 84 men aged 20 to 82. The scans revealed how sugar was being turned into energy in different parts of the volunteers’ brains.

In babies and young children, a process called aerobic glycolysis is increased to grow and mature the developing brain. It is scaled down in adolescents and young adults, then drops steadily in older people until it reaches a very low level by the time people reach their 60s.

To see how brain metabolism differed between the sexes, the researchers used a computer algorithm to predict people’s ages based on brain metabolism as measured by the scans. First, the scientists taught it to predict men’s ages from metabolism data gleaned from the male brain scans.

The striking result came when the scientists fed metabolism data from the women into the same program. While the program estimated male ages accurately, it judged the women’s brains to be, on average, 3.8 years younger than their real ages.

The scientists then flipped the analysis around. They trained the algorithm to predict women’s ages from data garnered from their brain scans. This time, when they fed metabolism data from the men into the computer, it estimated them to be 2.4 years older than they were. The way male brains burned sugar made them seem older than female ones of the same age.

“The great mystery is why,” said Raichle. The researchers suspect something other than hormonal differences are at work because the difference in metabolism stays the same when women enter the menopause.

“I refer to things like this as the curve balls of Mother Nature,” said Raichle. “Maybe women start off with this difference and it’s perpetuated throughout life.”

It is not clear what the difference means. The scientists are keen to investigate whether people with low glucose metabolism in particular parts of the brain are more prone to memory loss, learning problems and neurodegenerative diseases as they age.

“Is lower metabolism in such and such an area predictive of a particular event down the road? We don’t know,” said Raichle. “But if aerobic glycolysis is protective in some way, and the brain loses some element of it, that could be a problem.” Details of the study are reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mani Goyal at the university’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and first author on the paper, said men’s brains were not ageing faster than women’s. “They start adulthood about three years older than women and that persists throughout life,” he said. “What we don’t know is what it means. I think this could mean that the reason women don’t experience as much cognitive decline in later years is because their brains are effectively younger.”

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Current Inspire Me Fridays link-up HERE!

August 23, 2012

Inspire Me Fridays -73 Anything Goes!

Welcome to Inspire Me Fridays!

There is SO much inspiration here each week!  Thank you all for sharing!!  Personally my 'to-do' list & my 'must try it' list has grown leaps & bounds since I first started this...I hope your lists have grown too!

Let's look at our featured bloggers this week!

crayon wreath @ Scrap My Way!
beautifully done Claire!!

birthday card @ Creating My Peace!
love the sunburst design Tameko!

seashell mini panel @ Maria's blog!
beautifully done Maria!!

FREEbie word art @ Create with TLC!
so many wonderful free digis, thank you Paulette!!

beach LO @ Live for Scrappin'!
fun & fabulous Heidi!

Congratulations everyone, be sure to grab your featured button and display it proudly!!

Now onto party #73

Link up suggestions-
  • Cards, scrappy layouts,  any paper craft,  sewing projects,  needle crafts,  home decor,  recipes,  DIY projects,  remodeling photos,  Cricut projects,  Garden projects, etc.

The small print...
If you would like to be featured...
please make sure to link back to my blog or post my button on your blog.  By linking up, you're giving me permission to post your photo as a featured project.

Dr Sonia S V said...

Maria loved the crayon wreath you have featured. Have linked up a noncrafty project this time-- felt it may help crafty blogs..hope its ok

Nana said...

Congrat ladies.

Hugs Nana
♥ My Crafting Channel ♥
Email Me

KarinsArtScrap said...

what a fabulous crayonwreath Maria that is gorgeous, it's so colorful.

greetings karin

Zoechaos said...

WOW the crayon wreath is fantastic, going to ask the designer if i can add it to my pinterest boards.

Always a treat to visit on Friday's and see who you have highlighted and have discovered some amazing people here. XOXO Zoe

Laura said...

Wow at the crayon wreath - another to add to my to do list!

Migdalia said...

Congrats ladies!!

Unknown said...

THank you for hosting Maria, have a blessed weekend :)

Unknown said...

Such a fun link party, thanks so much for hosting and have a great weekend!

Tameko said...

Congrats ladies, and thanks for featuring my card Maria! Have a blessed weekend.

Dixie n Dottie said...

Thanks so much for the link up! Happy weekend! :)

Unknown said...

New to your blog and linky party. Thanks for providing such great inspiration here.

Andrea W said...

I just found you through another crafter. Thanks for a great place to share creativity!

malia said...

Hi Maria, Thank you for hosting! Hope you are enjoying the end of summer! xo

Diana Lynn Martin said...

Thanks for another super fun challenge!

Diana :)
Leelee Card Designs

Claire Spielman said...

Hi Maria,
Sincerest thanks for featuring my crayon wreath...I am honored! Love your blog and will be a loyal follower so I too can pick up lots of new ideas to inspire my day.By the way, the teacher LOVED the wreath! Congrats to the other great crafters!
I'm off to post your special "Inspire Me" button on my blog.
Creative Wishes,
Claire S.

Leigh S-B - The Sharpie Domino Queen said...

Thanks for another fun challenge to share my art in! So many wonderful entries!


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    That is an indication that the crowd loved the band.

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    Many many thanks and hope to see you again!"

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  • "Your band was AWESOME!!! We had countless friends and family inquiring about the "fantastic band."

    My favorite comment was 'I mean WHO can do Michael Jackson, Andrea Boccelli, Neil Diamond, Bruno Mars, Frank Sinatra, Etta James and the O' Jays and sound just like all of them!!!!'

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  • "John, Thank you for doing such a wonderful job!!

    We are so pleased with our entire experience of working with you and your band from start to finish.

    Everyone LOVED the music and the performance.  I can't tell you how many people came up to me at the end of the night to tell me how great the band was.

    We can not thank you enough! Best of luck!"

    -Maureen Snavely

  • We absolutely loved your band and our agents had a great time.

    We will look forward to having you at our function again next year!

    Thank you, John!

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  • “We used John Parker Band for our wedding and they were absolutely amazing!!

    John made us feel at ease by talking through the timeline leading up to the wedding and did a perfect job as MC — fun, professional, and classy.

    He gave us some very helpful recommendations along the way while listening to what we wanted. They played the music we liked, read the crowd well to keep everyone dancing, and had everyone having fun the whole night!

    We continue to get compliments from our guests. We couldn’t be happier that we booked John Parker Band...we HIGHLY recommend booking them!”

    -- Ted & Leslie Hanks

  • “thanks for the FANTASTIC job you did..

    I am still receiving countless texts, calls, & comments from guests about how much they enjoyed the wedding and that your band was so personable, professional, and AWESOME!

    Our photographer told us at the end of the night that you were absolutely the best band she has ever heard and she wants to put you at the top of her preferred vendor list.”

    Thank you for sharing your incredible talent with us.. Having you as our band turned our wedding into the best! -- Marcia McGinley

  • "..John always makes our weddings unforgettable.

    All of our guests still rave about the music and John. Everything was perfect.

    Thank you again for making our wedding so personable and amazing."

    --Kim Stephens

  • "Thank you, as always, the music was fantastic and everyone had a fabulous time at the event.

    We always have so many folks rave about how much fun you and band are at the event.

    It wouldn’t be Mardi Gras without you."

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  • "I have never seen our group so excited with lots of our guests staying at the party to the very end ... Begging you to play more.

    You and your band were absolutely wonderful. The range of different songs you are able to play is amazing. You really helped make our final formal evening a huge success!!!

    I really hope we are able to have you return. Hopefully, we will be able to hear you again before our next conference.. Thank you so much!"

    -- Nancy Greenleaf - Greenleaf Corporation

  • " kept the room rocking, and I am still getting compliments about how great you were.

    My sister-in-law originally was hoping for a DJ because she thinks that they are always better (in her mind). But AFTER the wedding, she was sold on a live band — as long as it is YOU! We could not have been happier!

    Thank you for doing a great job and helping to make the wedding so much fun!.."

    Barbara Eichenlaub

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text:
There Are Times When…

I hear someone pouring out her heart about a wrenching upset,
something burdening her whole being,
something precious to her,
it may be as simple as a slight,
or an all out attack on her honor.

Or she may be troubled about something like a relationship struggle,
or a time when someone treated her rudely,
or she stubbed her toe and it brought out all of her frustrations.

And I catch my breath.
Because it strikes me to my core
in that moment,
that I have to push past the old programming
shoved at me perpetually, daily, hourly
stating that nothing matters save giving up
yourself and your concerns to Christ’s love.
There’s no need to overflow, to spill,
to let it show because it can all just rest at the cross.

I remember this in a flash, a moment when my heart
instantly feels deeply with and for another
all while the program’s smashing attempts to haunt,
to strip, to devalue value itself clashes
with the natural flow.

We are not our own, see, we belong to Jesus.
As long as you can bring it all to him,
corral it into submission to how he has solved everything
(though good folks die and honorable names are smeared),
then you can rest knowing all is well even if it doesn’t look well,
or feel swell, or even feel at all.

It hits me in the solar plexus.

Oh how that program shatters the value,
the soul, the heart of what it is
to. be. human.

And I am achingly grateful to feel,
to be moved by the biggest and the smallest
concerns of those who are changed by what life is.

Think of what it might be like to have that cut off,
to be only allowed to feel deeply into what someone else supposedly did for you,
something that negates any reason to grieve, cutting short,
masectomizing, castrating the heart of being human.

I sit with the realization and allow it to flood
any lingering hardened fields,
places where I smashed my humanity flat,
suffocating breath and pulse.
I sit and watch the water work its way in
and past the resistance to being flesh and blood real.

I am beyond grateful to know the depths,
the feelings from the stubbed toes to the unspeakable losses,
to the quiet joys and splashy promises bearing hope
and to know that I can treasure them all until time to pass them along,
sacrificing nothing but the lie that we are not truly beautifully whole
as we let go of our crutches and learn to walk our stories
amongst ancient witnesses who have learned there is love,
there is divinely radical grace in losing the Jesus no one should know.

j. ruth kelly, all rights reserved, 2020

For A Reason?

My social media trail for the morning led me to a cool Facebook page, Live Intentionally, an encouraging oasis in the vast world of social outpourings. The trail I turned down to get me to this point right here involved the question: “Do you believe everything happens for a reason?” I committed to answering the question so, of course, I went after it thoroughly. Somewhat.

But what of it? This statement, “Everything happens for a reason,” teeters on the brink of sheer stupidity and well, brilliance. It just depends on how willing you are to explore what it proposes. For one, most things happen for a reason. Apples fall from trees because gravity and ripeness play with each other to the point of inevitability. Forces we can’t see are at work all the time and this idea, that “forces” are at work, creates an almost magical or Divine notion of God at work or the Universe doing something for our good. And there are times when life slams us with signs, with songs, with phrases and “happenstance” designed to get our attention. Truly.

What is my answer to “does everything happen for a reason?” Yes. And. No. Yes because cause and effect are what they are, dancing with each other ’til the collapse into the next song. The next song of cause and effect. Yes, because, when we’re not consciously working towards certain outcomes, we’re still usually causing things to happen on levels we’re unaware of. The mighty unconscious, the ice under the tip of the iceberg. Etc. etc. And yes, everything happens for a reason, because I personally believe love is always at work for our best. Always. This “yes” addresses the underlying spirit in the statement from some who believe “all things work together for good.” All things might work together for good if you get yourself moving in the direction of your best efforts without fear and hopefully with the best of timing! Not too soon, not too late. Go to a garden with tomatoes growing, maybe you want one now. Maybe you see one now and maybe you’re color blind. You might not have a good time with the tomato you pick. We need the eyes to see and the experience to know when a situation or a person is at that point of readiness for whatever is needed or wanted. And back to the garden and love working always for our good. How do we make sure that when “everything happens for a reason” we’re able to get the most and best out of the happenings? By avoiding cynicism, by keeping the earth of our hearts fertile, breaking up the hardness and allowing life to break us open as we’re able. By knowing that we can lose precious irretrievable things, situations and people.

So, yes, everything happens for a reason. And yet. No. No to several of the toxic layers of the oft-present SPIRIT of this question. Those toxic layers?

1. The underlying desire to tag everything I can’t currently change as “events bigger than me”  What makes this toxic? Powerlessness as an attitude when all avenues of possibility have not been exhausted is sometimes tragic. For example, when you ignore your valid anger in a situation because you can’t see the way out of it or because you don’t want to bother with “bigger” people who are being destructive. Or when you assume the doctor has all the answers and, as it turns out, the doctor is not even slightly diligent or caring beyond the greedy bottom line. But, powerlessness is also sometimes the only answer or solution (even if only temporarily) in a  situation. But knowing the difference between when to act, dig, insist, employ relentless scrutiny and effort and when to let go requires maturity, humility, and self-awareness. I’ve discovered that particular trinity of character can be rare in many lives and requires a level of diligence to cultivate on my own part in my own life that is sometimes just downright annoying. But it’s so worthwhile.

2. The inevitable “surrender” posing as the inner wise man who just knows God is up to something or the Universe is so very wise when you just don’t wanna look at the dirt on your clothes. This one is not dissimilar to the first toxic layer. But it’s also potentially a mock surrender to a God who may or may not exist, may or may not want you to give up and may or may not want this situation in your life…supposing these possibilities matter to you. It presumes much. What if this God you believe in exists and this happened because you or someone else didn’t give due diligence to something critical and now God’s sitting by steaming with frustration because you’ve taken the “This happened for a reason beyond my comprehension” approach as a pious, “wise” stance that really means you want to avoid the truth? And God/Universe sure ain’t gonna infringe on your free will. Is it possible that many people really mean, when they say “everything happens for a reason,” “I can’t deal with this. I don’t want to even think about why that happened because I have a feeling it will hurt when I realize the truth.” And “I don’t. really care, next?” Or do they mean “Don’t bother me with anything, I only want to deal with my world and my wants.” Apathy, fear and powerlessness. Sometimes it’s all we have, actually. Sometimes it’s the best stance until we’re ready. If you can’t care, you can’t care. But it’s not where I want to reside on any regular basis if, and only if, I can help it. It tends to cause things to happen for reasons of apathy, fear and powerlessness. Ugh. To borrow from the brilliance of LIVING INTENTIONALLY, where’s the intention of love in apathy?

3. The refusal to actually dig into why things are happening because “everything happens for a reason” often means “God did this. Not me, not you, not my big sister or brother.” Again, not too different from 1 and 2 but it includes the avoidance of others’ power and actually prevents a process of deeper love and awareness. How so? By shutting down the capacity to see clearly and love anyway. This happened because he didn’t face something (gee, I can so relate to not having it to face some things! Enter: Empathy; Exit: Judgemental Nonsense.) and the result is less than pleasant (I would so like this to be better! Go ahead! Give your energy to the truth so good intentions can grow!) and could’ve been prevented (How can this go differently next time around?!). But damn if I don’t still love him and understand his humanity even more now and want to be there for him. (Deeper, fuller, more honesty. Gee, this happened so I could love more? I don’t know…) But, also, it challenges you to decide if you want to continue with people who keep accidentally hurting you through their inability to grow. And sometimes, we do decide we’d rather put up with so much else than lose that one person. Count the cost. Be aware. Make your choices alive with a conscious and fully present spirit, not a mock surrender to a God who’d rather you face yourself and the people you love.

Everything happens for a reason…and things happen because they happen. But I bet we just don’t know why yet…

Freewill Pedals Fast…

My youngest son kept me up last night past midnight, expressing his feelings and pouring out his heart about life and particularly about the question of life after death. I knew we were coming ’round to a place of renewed peace and joy when the emotions had been spent thoroughly and these words came out of his mouth and the sun rose a smile as he spoke: “When I ride my bike, it’s like I’m not me, I’m the bike. I’m one with the bike…” We’d discussed the failure of language and how it suggests reality as only what the mind can conjure through words. And how inadequate the comprehension of life itself when relying on concepts created by minds not our own. Actually, he’d brought that little factoid up himself. Wow, what a scramble for “reality” and totems and “truth.” He knows what his mom believes about life and the divine. In the process of sifting through the turmoil, I endeavored to open his mind to now, to letting go of fear while cherishing the fleeting and yet precious reality of life. This is a boy who can poke holes in every belief system out there and yet he wants something to believe in. I aksed him: When you were in the womb, did you stop and ask and wonder about the beyond? Did you fret about losing the rhythmic sound of heart and world around you? Did you even “know?” For some reason, this particular line of gentle questioning kept bringing him to peace. The sense of being released into all the best rest and humor finally came flooding into our dialogue. He wouldn’t stop gabbing on and on about life, about connection, about nature, about the earth and how it is we don’t fall off of it as it turns and. And, I suggested he study physics. The will had quickly, resiliently found comfort and was off on that bike flying down the hill fast with a smooth grace. The will…so vital…

Healing The Will

The heart of every human holds
The feelings and the dreams
Of deepest aspirations,
Freewill’s creative esteem.
The urge toward higher purpose,
The drive to create from grace,
Unlimited power of expression,
The potential of the human race.
Yet, the side roads are many,
Blighted by denial and fear,
Refusal to express the feelings,
Until numbness blocks our tears.
Lost in our machinations,
Yet craving release from pain,
Surrender may not come sweetly,
But the
will can be regained.
The sacredness of being lies
In feeling
all that appears,
Without applying judgments
To the joys or to the fears.
Trusting every emotion as
Something we created to feel,
Then expressing every feeling,
Allows the will to heal.

Jamie Sams – Earth Medicine, Ancestors’ Ways of Harmony for Many Moons, pg. 224

So…it was a long day and it had begun with my focus on writing about the will and particularly about healing the will as a foundational work of personal growth. My 8 year old son’s post bedtime struggles highlighted the importance of expression in safeguarding true will, of working through the turmoil we all face when questioning life, when trying to give freewill the freedom needful to infuse our lives with vibrance. So often belief systems and programs are tossed at us in honest endeavors to provide comfort but how much ownership of truly personal peace is possible when this occurs? Then again, how much of that future ownership of personal peace is inspired by those very attempts to bring comfort? It’s sometimes a tightrope walk across a divide we cannot truly fathom. But we are drawn to it regardless. If we can find peace in what life is, in what life can be, we can find something no lack of proof can shake or otherwise unhinge. But we don’t get there by running away from the expressions of doubt, of fear, of appreciation for how fleeting life truly is. And this is what had sparked my son’s turmoil, his own sudden comprehension of the transitory nature of the moment itself. And up to that point, it had been a feast.

We, as children and as adults, need a place from which we can reach into the beyond, a place of security where we can say “I don’t know how to believe that when…” … where we can express our doubts and still find sure footing. Stability. I kept wanting to tell my son, “It’s ok. Trust me. There’s a God. We’ll all be together after life. I promise.” But it struck me as a violation of his will, an abortion of his own processes of comprehension and growth. He was too focused on the fact that there’s no proof. And I admitted that I cannot know what will be or if there is a beyond. But neither could I deny a sense of the mother and father heart of God or all the possible projections that very sense may be. And yet, it still is and I can live with it in appreciation of the wealth it provides but not in denial of all that is truly uncontrollable in life, the vast unknown. I can still sense and know that within is a depth of the divine untapped and eternal.

We discussed different attitudes about life after death, some philosophies and religion. He had suggested that to call a tree a tree is to lose or even just shut out what that particular expression of creation is. I grinned at the Tao of his articulation.  Where did he finally land? With a question… “how do we know we aren’t God?”

The will needs to run free, to live with the courage to say what is rumbling in the heart, to fly with intention beyond the programs that give us ideas and the words that seek to grasp what could never be fully grasped.  On and into life being lived and becoming one with what we can never truly name, pedalling fast free, knowing self as feeling in motion, feltness supreme.

As the Acorn Conveys an Oak…

“The whole purpose of the symbol and the mythos, which is the system of symbols, is to lead us to God himself, just as the purpose of language is to convey meaning and not mere words. God–Meaning alike of the universe and the mythos–is alive; like wind, like moving waters, like fire, he cannot be grasped in some rigid form. Thus the symbolic form conveys the life of God as the acorn conveys an oak. In time, if the acorn is alive, its shell will burst; the living tree will grow out of it, and refuse to be enclosed in a shell any more. Likewise, God gives his life to men in symbols and sacraments, but if that life is to be truly lively, it will not stay confined in those forms or in any others. It will use forms; it will express itself in forms; but it will not be held in forms.”

Alan Watts – Behold the Spirit

The beauty of this truth expressed here lies in the reality of dynamic possibility. Each person can take from what s/he feels of, thinks of and experiences of God or even simply hopes to experience and from those rich layers gestate a relationship with the Divine.

The work of weeding out the toxic threads provided by misguided spiritual leaders is paramount to a truly authentic walk with Spirit. And at some point the idea of “with” fades as the life as separate from God becomes more and more inconceivable. A steady path to that point is one of consistent effort, and of awareness of self, recognition of cultural influences and gender-focused obstructions.

Some of us have to run in the direction of the devil for a season in order to get a feel for where we stand in our hearts and minds, where we stand with “god” and without “god” and in order to determine what of previously held beliefs have dismantled vital soulful being. An example of the many possible considerations poses itself in this question: How did a masculine god-view damage your sense of the empowered woman?

The truth is: we are not and never have been separate from the Divine or from love and after a while we recognize there is no distinction between those two.

jruthkelly © 2008, 2009


text:
My Will Power VS my Won’t Power

I admit it –  My will power is puny.  The more I try to eat healthy foods the more I scarf down sugar laden carbs.  About 3-4 days is my limit for exerting will power.  Finally!  Research has confirmed I’m normal (sort of).

It turns out that everyone has will power, but only a limited amount to use each day.

Research shows that just the act of resisting temptation wears out will power and we are more likely to lose the ability to discipline ourselves later. This includes not only stopping oneself from dong something unhealthy or unhelpful, but also depletes the ability to concentrate on doing something you want to do.

Rather than depend on will power, it is easier to put ourselves in situations where little or no will power is needed: Easier not to buy ice cream, than to have it at home and not eat it;   Easier to put a loud alarm clock far from bed so you have to get up than to have the snooze button next to the bed that you can tap (over and over) with your eyes shut and your head on the pillow.

Reference:  Switch, How to change Things When Change is Hard Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Maui’s “Mini-Tail” of Will Power

Scratch by Peggy

There it sat, in the middle of Maui’s path, taunting him with texture. Maui knew his human would be upset if he scratched this BIG, TEMPTING scratching post called couch.

” Don’t scratch the couch.  Don’t scratch the couch.  Don’t scratch the couch”

He had lost count of how many times he heard this.  But every time he passed by that couch, his brain remembered how great the rough fabric felt and directed his claws to come out, longing for a manicure.

Did Maui scratch?  Yup.  Just like humans, the stress of resisting continual temptation wore out his will power.  I can’t blame him.  Maui can’t remove the couch, he can’t go outside where he would be free to scratch whatever and where ever he wanted . . .

. . . unlike me who could throw out all the junk food and not buy anymore . . . if I had the will power . . .

Originally posted on Max Your Mind

5 comments on “My Will Power VS my Won’t Power

  1. Ahhh this was interesting for me. JUST yesterday I resisted the sour dough bread at brunch and was oh so proud of myself, and then what did I do?? I succumbed to the foccacia from the bakery for breakfast. Arggghhhhh……

    Yup the trick for me is to not have the things that will tempt me anywhere in the house and to turn the other way when we pass the bakery and then yes to occasionally indulge as the desire otherwise just keeps growing and thats when I really slip off the bandwagon of healthy eating and go for something like a pizza instead of something healthier.

  2. You wrote this one for me, didn’t you? Well, me and Maui. I say it all the time – don’t buy that because you will eat it. And then – I do – both. Ugh!

    I’m going for a walk now – at least I can do this if I get going – right?

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text:
Inspired by James Joyce’s Connemara on the wild peninsula of Galway, ‘Exposed’ is Julia’s window into a wilderness. With their windswept terrain, the Atlantic islands of Arun have a timeless beauty: a barren land of ancient forts, stone monuments and isolated cottages. Julia sets out to capture and respond to this exposed, brutal landscape. Set against a horizon of heavy rain and dense clouds, this is a poetic land with a harsh sense of space, surface and time.

Creative Commons License © Julia Dennis

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