One of my favorite hobbies is making BBQ and smoking meats. I just love it, my family has a tradition of it (even a BBQ restaurant back in MO) so you could say it is in my blood.
Last month, I decided it was time to make an investment in my BBQ and I purchased a $2K grill called a pellet smoker. Since then I have had it up and working just about every weekend. I love it.
However, when I purchased that grill, I knew I was creating a taxable event. That purchasing this grill was going to raise my income taxes.
You might be saying "What? How does spending money raise my taxes?" and I would agree that on the face it might not seem like a tax issue, but let me explain what I mean.
Each month I have at least 1 or 2 clients that call me up or send me an email asking me why their taxes are so high.
Usually they have a time in their life (when they were just starting their business or worked as a W-2 employee) when their taxes were next to nothing or they even got a refund.
And I know why that is: refunds are easy when you are an employee (the govt holds more of your money than they need) or when they were just starting out (the business didn't make any money) and now that their business is becoming more and more successful, taxes are a problem.
That is never very satisfying for my client, but I want to lead them down a road so they understand how this works. And in the future, maybe their tax bill will not be high.
Tax returns are basically a scorecard. At the top we put what people paid you, and at the bottom we put what you paid other people.
The difference between those 2 amounts, as you know, is profit and the closer to 0 your profit is, the less tax you will pay.
In reality this is much more complicated than it sounds, because business owners have fixed expenses in their personal life AND variable expenses.
Fixed expenses are your house payments, car payments, loans, etc. You have to pay those every month in the same amount.
Discretionary and Non-discretionary: That is just fancy for stuff you have to pay, and stuff you just want. Discretionary is like your utility bill and cable bill at the house. Non-discretionary is like the BBQ grill.
All of these fixed and variable expenses are a problem for your tax return. Because you are pulling money out of the business that is not a business expense. When you do that, the scales of money in vs. money out tips toward profit.
And that is where the TaxMan always gets his pound of flesh. You HAVE to pull money out of the business to live, and thus in 99% of businesses- it is almost impossible to avoid taxes.
But, in some cases you could.
Your house payment, car payments- those can be deductible in certain instances (like mortgage interest, etc.).
Also your health insurance can be deductible, some meals and entertainment too.
But then we are back to the BBQ grill.
This purchase, as cool as it is, will never be tax deductible. By getting it, I was saying that $2K cannot be deducted on a tax return. That means I am going to pay tax on the money, indirectly, but I will.
All your personal spending means your taxes are going up.
From now on, when you think about how much tax you have to pay, I want you to add up all the money you pulled out of your business for yourself. In most cases, that is very close to what your taxable income is going to be.
Good tax planning means you need to always keep in mind how money flows in and out of your business.
Tools like Tax Planner Pro can help you do that.
The good side: it means you are making money. As much as you think someone else is getting away with paying nothing, I promise they don't do it forever. It just means they don't make much money right now.


The immensely popular content management system WordPress has dramatically shifted the landscape of the web world and has opened new career opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people. There are many stories of those who entered the world of web development although they had never had anything to do with it before. And all that thanks to WordPress.
They can also combine some or all of those areas.
But who is actually a WordPress developer? A WordPress developer is someone who is well-versed in the PHP programming language, who has a deep understanding of the WordPress core functionality, library, and who implements the best practices in order to deliver the top-of-the-line solutions based on the WordPress platform. It is a real art to be able to create advanced WordPress plugins and themes, and ensure their correct operation on all possible environments.
There are lots of WordPress developer jobs offered at many IT-companies all over the world. For instance, there are numerous WordPress developer jobs in London, one of the largest technological hubs on the planet. Many big companies are increasingly moving to WordPress because of its easily customizable plugins and themes. As a result, the number of WordPress developers who can make plugins to extend the core functionality of WordPress has also gone up. Some successful WordPress development companies can make up to $500 thousand per year.
Our company Web Peppers specializes in WordPress development, too. We can offer WordPress web developer jobs to all talented professionals who can prove they have the right skills and enough experience to join us. Web Peppers is committed to delivering only the top-quality solutions to our valued clients at the most competitive prices on the market.


text:
Q: Emacs adds something on the top of every file When I open files with emacs it adds 12;rgb:1c1c/1c1c/1c1c on the top. How can I prevent this?
I have installed emacs on a clean reinstalled debian system.
Emacs: GNU Emacs 24.4.1
Terminal Emulator: MobaXterm Personal Edition v7.7
System (local): Windows 7 Ultimate
System (remote): Debian 8.0 "jessie" stable

A: As noted, "MobaXterm" is not "xterm".  According to its webpage it is

Based on PuTTY/MinTTY with antialiased fonts and macro support

Lacking a detailed change history, and the problem reported by the OP, it seems that MobaXterm is based on PuTTY from a while back, and does not implement all of the control sequences which PuTTY does, much less those of xterm.
The particular sequence which is not recognized (referring to XTerm Control Sequences) may be this:
OSC Ps ; Pt ST
OSC Ps ; Pt BEL
...
    Ps = 1 2  -> Change text cursor color to Pt.

That is part of a group of controls predating ANSI color support in xterm, referred to as dynamic colors.
Based on comments in other places, it seems that the problem could lie within the OP's Emacs configuration, by using scripts which do an ad hoc test of TERM to decide if it can do colors, rather than inspecting the terminal capabilities.  See Terminal emacs colors only work with TERM=xterm-256color where someone worked around this problem by modifying their init.el to add special cases for rxvt and xterm.
Emacs of course is capable of doing colors in different terminals.  See emacs colors based on $TERM environment variable for comments. And TERM=xterm on Debian has provided color for quite a while.  So in a typical configuration, color should "just work".
However, there are different ways to configure Emacs.  Attempting to reuse some 256-color script can fall into the hole dug by developers who assume that every terminal is just like the one in front of them.  See the Emacs wiki page X Term Colors for an example.

A: !! SOLVED IN MOBAXTERM VERSION 8.2 !!

A: Looks like your terminal settings are out of sync. The settings of your terminal need to agree with the termcap/terminfo settings on the server. Try to set the TERM variable in the shell on the server to a value which better matches the terminal emulation capabilities of your terminal (common values are xterm, xterm-color, vt520, and vt102) or correspondingly change the settings of the terminal to match the current TERM value. (If the terminal is buggy, you may need some trial and error to find a mode which works well for you.)

A: VT220 works fine; Edit Session / Terminal Settings / Type: vt220

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: JPopupMenu.show shows popupmenu with strange behaviour (sometimes appears as grey box) I have a JFrame containing a JTabbedPane containing a JPanel in a Tab.
In this JPanel, I want a JPopupMenu to show at Mouse Position when clicking the right mouse button.
To do this, I use the show(invoker, x, y) method.
My Problem: The JPopupMenu has a very strange behaviour; sometimes it displays without containing everything (just a grey box) and sometimes it displays in the top left corner of the Panel, behaving completely as expected.
Code:
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JTabbedPane;

class Testframe extends JFrame {
    public static JFrame frame;

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    public Testframe(String string) {
        setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setTitle(string);
        setSize(200,200);
        setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        frame = new Testframe("Title");
        JTabbedPane tabpane = new JTabbedPane(JTabbedPane.TOP);
        tabpane.addTab("title", new TestPanel());
        frame.add(tabpane);
        tabpane.setVisible(true);
    }
}

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.awt.event.MouseListener;

import javax.swing.JMenuItem;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JPopupMenu;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class TestPanel extends JPanel implements MouseListener {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    JPopupMenu activeDropdown;

    TestPanel() {
        setBackground(Color.GREEN);
        setVisible(true);
        addMouseListener(this);
    }

    private void dropdown(MouseEvent e) {
        activeDropdown = new JPopupMenu();
        JMenuItem item = new JMenuItem("Eintrag 0");
        activeDropdown.add(item);
        activeDropdown.show(Testframe.frame, e.getX(), e.getY());
        this.add(activeDropdown);
    }

    @Override
    public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {

        if(SwingUtilities.isRightMouseButton(e)) {
            if (activeDropdown != null)
                this.remove(activeDropdown);
            dropdown(e);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent e) {}

    @Override
    public void mouseExited(MouseEvent e) {}

    @Override
    public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {}

    @Override
    public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {}

}

If I try to put the JTabbedPane into a separate Class, the JPopupMenu appears anywhere (seems to be a fixed position) on the screen, completely independent from the window position.

A: Change your dropdown method as below. That should work as expected.
 private void dropdown(MouseEvent e) {
    activeDropdown = new JPopupMenu();
    JMenuItem item = new JMenuItem("Eintrag 0");
    activeDropdown.add(item);

    this.add(activeDropdown);
    activeDropdown.show(this, e.getX(), e.getY());
 }

However, I don't understand why you are removing the existing JPopMenu and adding a new one on every right-mouse click.

A: You can simply use JComponent.setComponentPopupMenu to handle righ-click popup-menus. This is much simpler and will handle all the wiring code for you.
Small example with your code:
import java.awt.Color;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JMenuItem;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JPopupMenu;
import javax.swing.JTabbedPane;
import javax.swing.SwingUtilities;

public class TestPanel extends JPanel {
    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

    JPopupMenu activeDropdown;

    TestPanel() {
        setBackground(Color.GREEN);
        activeDropdown = new JPopupMenu();
        JMenuItem item = new JMenuItem("Eintrag 0");
        activeDropdown.add(item);
        setComponentPopupMenu(activeDropdown);
    }

    protected void initUI() {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("Title");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        JTabbedPane tabpane = new JTabbedPane(JTabbedPane.TOP);
        tabpane.addTab("title", this);
        frame.add(tabpane);
        frame.setSize(200, 200);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                new TestPanel().initUI();
            }
        });
    }
}

NB: Avoid using static variables!


"Innovation is a natural and desirable outcome of human interaction, yet it is systematically stopped in organizations, often by the very people who say they want it and who stand to benefit from it."
Innovation is as aggressively called for as it is conspired against. Often it is invariably stopped dead in its tracks. Addressing this central, universal contradiction, Creative People Must Be Stopped, adds a vital and missing step to the traditional innovation process to address this paradox.
After years of study, teaching, consulting and practical experience as a CEO of a large consumer electronics firm, Professor David Owens brings a ground-level earthiness to the study of innovation by focusing on its context to the real world – the rich, messy backdrop of human nature, organizational behavior, and tricky big-picture situations. His experiences have uncovered common problems and themes that regularly appear to challenge a new idea and the innovator promoting it. To meet it squarely head on, Owens created a "constraints analysis" methodology that can help chart out a more favorable path to increase the chances of success for the proposed innovation.
"This book organizes these innovation killers into a conceptual framework that demystifies what innovation is, how it happens, and how we stop it without even trying."
Drawing on lessons learned from human nature, team dynamics, organizational culture and past innovation successes and failures, many of the natural roadblocks and systematic stoppages of innovation have been isolated by Owens. As he states, there is a certain "regularity to the kinds of questions that will come up". Because of this, Owens feels there is no reason or excuse to put yourself and your innovation in a position to be unaware of oncoming torpedoes. He provides a "kind of vision correction that will enable us to see in advance the vital factors that determine our chances for success when we embark on an innovation. This is what the constraints framework is designed to provide".
"Being successful at innovation means identifying and negotiating your way through multiple levels of constraints."
So much is said about thinking "outside the box" that we totally forget to factor in the box that we are trying to break away from. Akin to a Greek tragedy, this can become the fatal flaw inherent in most innovation efforts.
Owens believes the central question to focus on is: What are the biggest challenges we face in the innovations we are trying to build? Innovation efforts, he feels, can be made more strategic – ensuring better success rates – by identifying, understanding, and overcoming the particular constraints they face and building responses to them into our innovation plans.
Throughout the process, make sure to go through a checklist of questions that review potential innovation killer constraints at each of the 6 levels: individual, group, organizational, industry, societal, technological – they represent the box you are working to escape.
"Without an explicit plan for your team, you have to rely on members' intuitive ideas about how the process of innovation should work."
Innovation is about "the new" and "the future". While we cannot know anything with any certainty at the beginning of the innovation process, Owens still recommends creating a "product plan" in the form of a rolling schedule: mapping out, in advance, the kinds of general activities, time increments needed to be set aside and potential resources that can be used. You "don't need to know exactly what we'll be doing, just that we'll be doing it". Adjustments can be made along the way.
This plan accomplishes a number of things: reduces some of the needless uncertainty for the team, makes your action plan more easily visible opening up to team input and debate, and allows you to map out your management steps and see them in context to the larger firm operating schedules and resources available, lessening any corporate conflicts. This plan should also enforce committed, vigorous and critical thinking up front, spending significant time and resources in the early stages when investment is low and when the possibility for implementing valuable changes based on new insights is high.
The product plan should be initiated by having all team members enter into a team contract, drafted by the team and signed by all members, that outline goals for the innovation project, how they will make decisions, resolve disagreements and outline what constitutes respectful behavior. Teams having these contracts in place tend to successfully resolve conflicts themselves as all members understand expectations from the start.
Creative People Must Be Stopped does a great job in answering the age-old question of 'Why is Innovation So Hard?' with essentially a simple answer: because we don't anticipate in advance the inherent constraints of coming up with new ideas. Owens posits that innovation failure is "bound to happen when we rely on our vague intuitions and don't have a clear idea of what innovation is or how it really works". His book becomes a practical guide to a more thorough way of thinking about innovation – one that acknowledges the real world environment in which it operates before applying valuable resources of time, money and effort. It will replace frustration with a cool, practical approach.
What are the two largest constraints you face in trying to introduce a new idea?


Trainee and working student positions as well as a possibility of writing final thesis under our supervision in different company locations.
Gain your first work experience!
During an internship at Wacker Neuson Group, you can obtain your first practical experiences and valuable insights in the business processes of the company. Future students wishing to proceed their education in technical fields of study receive an opportunity to complete a preliminary internship at our production locations in Reichertshofen (near Ingolstadt), Pfullendorf (near Bodensee), Diemelsee-Flechtdorf / Korbach (near Kassel) or Hörsching (Austria). Applications should be received four months prior to the desired starting date by our personal department.
You can find a short description of all internship offers at different company locations in our job market. There you can directly send an application for the internship position of your interest. In exceptional cases, there also exists a possibility to send a postal application to one of our recruiting offices.
At some of the Wacker Neuson locations, a working student position offers you an opportunity to assist a team of one of the company's departments in their daily business activities. An attractive and fair payment depends on the art of your activities and fields of your responsibility as well as on spheres of your existing experience. It can provide you with financial support for your studies and a chance to gain practical experience at the same time. Together with members of your department team, you can arrange a flexible working schedule, providing a perfect opportunity for the convenient combination of your work and studies.
We are searching for the students who are interested in the long-term working student position in our company. Full-time positions are offered for working students during the semester vacation, but also part-time work during regular study times is always welcomed at Wacker Neuson Group.
You can find a short description of all open working student positions at different company locations in our job market. There you can directly send an application for the position of your interest. In exceptional cases, there also exists a possibility to send a postal application to one of our recruiting offices.
Our company is offering students who are planning to finish their studies in the near future a perfect opportunity to write the final thesis under the supervision and constant professional support of our specialists from different departments. An attractive payment and a high possibility for the future full-time career placement at Wacker Neuson Group will also be among your advantages. Many of the students who have joined our company for writing their final paper have received a direct job offer at our Group after finishing their studies.
Final thesis should be completed within approximately 6 months.
If you are planning to work on social science and technically oriented topic in frames of your doctoral studies, which can also have a valuable meaning and/or implications for our company, we are always ready to support also doctoral initiatives of proactive students. Sending us your application containing the topic and approximate timeframe would be the first step on the way of building up a connection for the future cooperation. All further proceedings will be set up individually for each candidate. Promotion possibilities for the topics connected with other fields of study will also be considered individually.


text:
Where to Pick Up the Sun
Courts & Cops
Lake Style
Council approves downtown historic district
Box out of papers?
Reserve your spot in the 2021 Wedding Guide
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St. Joseph Church in Laconia is part of the city's new downtown historic district. (The Laconia Daily Sun file photo)
By RICK GREEN, The Laconia Daily Sun
Dec 11, 2019 Updated Aug 21, 2020
LACONIA — A downtown historic district, including St. Joseph's Catholic Church, the John W. Busiel House, the railroad station, and the library, was approved by the City Council on Monday.
Councilors decided not to include a church school building in the district.
The Busiel House, which served as the church rectory, is a mansion built for a textile mill owner in 1865. The Laconia passenger station was built in 1892. The Gale Memorial Library was built in 1903. All three are on the National Register of Historic Places. St. Joseph's Church dates to 1929.
City property records indicate that Holy Trinity School was built adjacent to the church in 1972. It doesn't have the historic value of the other structures, but Jane Whitehead, chairwoman of the Heritage Commission, said it was important to include the school in the district.
"The historic district is not just about the buildings, it is about the fabric," she said. "It's maintaining the character of the area. Yes, that school is part of the character of that area.
"A buyer can renovate it and use it, but I think what we want to prevent is a Dollar General or a car wash, something that is out of character with the historic center of Laconia."
The Diocese of Manchester is subdividing the property into three parcels, one for the church, one for the Busiel House, and one for the school.
After applying for a demolition permit for the church, there was a public outcry and the diocese indicated a desire to preserve the church while potentially selling the other parcels.
Mayor Ed Engler said the diocese could have greater flexibility to do such a sale if the school building was not in a historic district.
"I think an argument can be made that the diocese doesn't want to keep that building," Engler said. "They want to sell it, and restrictions that you put on that building in terms of looks, one could argue, will greatly restrict what a potential new owner can do with that building."
Since it applied for the permit before the historic district formed, the diocese is not bound by district regulations. Also, because the city owns the library, it is not subject to the regulations.
If the buildings are sold, any future owners would be bound by the regulations.
Under the ordinance approved by the City Council, the council will appoint a commission to supervise the district. The commission will review applications for zoning amendments, variances, conditional uses, and other approvals affecting property within the district.
For buildings covered under the district, approval from the commission will be required for modifications to exterior architectural appearance of structures, erection of new structures, and demolition.
Planning Board gives initial OK to historic district
LACONIA — A new downtown historic district including the St. Joseph's Catholic Church complex, the railroad station, Veterans Park and the lib…
St. Joseph sale called off, diocese to work with city
Plans for historic district move forward
Historic district proposal may be fast tracked
Talk of arrows in the air at church meeting
City to consider historic district
Downtown Antique Center to close for winter
Historic Busiel Mill building going up for sale
Gale School settles into new home
Group sends Father Drouin letter urging lifting of church demolition permit
Preservation of St. Joseph Church is goal of subdividing property
John W. Busiel House
Jane Whitehead
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Two Gilford men arrested on child pornography charges
Apartment proposal raises the question: Is city's zoning up to date?
Clock is now ticking on effort to save historic house in Weirs
Student's idea to help homeless becomes a reality in Laconia
William H. Atkinson, 94
Those 65 and over can register for COVID shots in a week
William Fillion Sr., 57
Despite COVID-19 changes, skiers just happy to hit slopes
Craig C. Miles, 64
John 'Jackie or Jack' P. Irwin, 90
Meredith's Tim Carter gets eyeful on momentous day in DC (7)
Steven Hepburn: Whitewashing of Johnson's actions will not fly (3)
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text:
The original story can be found at http://www.bpnews.net/50221/3rd-virgin-islands-crusade-to-continue-imparting-hope
3rd Virgin Islands crusade to continue imparting hope
by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, January 19, 2018 (one year ago)
Tags: Florida Baptist Conventiondisaster reliefU.S. Virgin IslandsHurricane MariaHurricane Irma
ST CROIX, U.S. Virgin Islands (BP) -- Devastation and suffering among Hurricane Irma and Maria survivors in the U.S. Virgin Islands were palpable to Florida Baptist Jeffery Singletary, who led a mission trip to the islands months before the storms.
Leaders at an evening worship service of the "Feeding the Five Thousand" crusade in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands included (from left) Lennox Zamore; Jeffery Singletary; Maekiaphan Phillips from the Opi'a Taino relief organization of St. Thomas; Ken Weathersby, and Julian Jackson Sr.
Photo from Feeding the Five Thousand
His heart's response was a series of "Feeding the Five Thousand" crusades that reaped 620 decisions for Christ and fed thousands both spiritually and physically, Singletary, a regional catalyst with the Florida Baptist Convention, told Baptist Press. A crusade on St. Croix Jan. 28 -30 will be his third.
"I knew they had four great needs -- food, clothing, shelter and hope," Singletary said. "Red Cross could help provide food and clothing. FEMA could help provide shelter. But only the church of Jesus Christ can provide real hope."
Singletary led crusades on St. Thomas Nov. 19-21 and on St. John Dec. 21–22, supported by a host of Southern Baptists from the Florida Baptist Convention, the North American Mission Board, Calvary Baptist Church of Clearwater, Fla., Christ Fellowship of Miami, and disaster relief ministries from both the Kentucky and Alabama Baptist conventions.
Ken Weathersby, Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee vice president for convention advancement, was among preachers at the St. Thomas crusade, where 575 hurricane survivors professed decisions to accept salvation in Christ.
The "Feeding the Five Thousand" crusade in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, led to 575 salvation decisions as thousands received food and spiritual bread.
Weathersby offered survivors the hope Jesus proclaimed in Revelation 3:20: "Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have dinner with him, and he with Me."
"So many of those attending the crusade felt alone," Weathersby told BP, who preached on "the hope of Jesus in the midst of their darkness. I offered a fellowship that lives through eternity."
Volunteers including pastors and church members served 3,000 meals and distributed groceries to 26,000 individuals on St. Thomas, Singletary said, and provided groceries for 7,200 survivors during the St. John crusade, where Singletary noted 45 decisions to accept Christ.
Southern Baptist pastor Lennox Zamore was among the volunteers. Zamore, senior pastor of Exciting Central Tampa Baptist Church since October 2017, was pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in St. Thomas when the storms struck.
"We're so grateful for all the volunteers and how we're going to make a tremendous impact in the lives of our community," Zamore said on Facebook while participating in the St. Thomas crusade. "We want to thank everybody for coming and being a part of this great venture."
U.S. Virgin Islands native and former world champion boxer Julian Jackson Sr. gave an emotional testimony at the "Feeding the Five Thousand" crusade to help St. Thomas recover from hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Singletary plans to provide 15,000 meals to survivors on St. Croix and hopes to draw hundreds to Christ, he told BP. Speakers will include Mark Croston, LifeWay Christian Resources national director of black church partnerships; Dennis Mitchell, executive director of the National African American Fellowship of the SBC; and Super Bowl XXXVII Most Valuable Player Dexter Jackson.
The many speakers and worship leaders at the St. Thomas and St. John crusades included Willie Rice, senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church; Adron Robinson, senior pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Chicago; recording artist Niya Cotton, worship leader at Trinity Church in Cedar Hill, Texas; and former world champion boxer Julian Jackson Sr. and his son Olympic boxer Julian Jackson Jr., both from the Virgin Islands.
The events have encouraged island residents and made them feel more connected to the 50 states, Singletary said, based on letters, emails and other messages he has received.
Lennox Zamore was among Southern Baptist pastors and volunteers packing bags of groceries to distribute to hurricane survivors in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
"It has given the people of USVI renewed hope that someone truly cares about their plight and condition beyond their islands," Singletary said. "Relationships have been created and strengthened cross-culturally and denominationally. The crusades have served to foster relationships with pastors and community leaders that did not exist previously. We have made a Kingdom impact."
He encouraged Southern Baptists to do more to engage Southern Baptists in the Caribbean in ministry.
"They need us and we need them. Together we are better and the Kingdom is stronger," Singletary said. "What a great sending force they can be to the world with resources. In the past we have seen the Caribbean as a mission field. Now it's time to see them as a mission force."
Diana Chandler is Baptist Press' general assignment writer/editor. BP reports on missions, ministry and witness advanced through the Cooperative Program and on news related to Southern Baptists' concerns nationally and globally.
Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP).
Florida Baptists display unity, embrace diversity
Floyd: Florida Baptists generous in giving, Gospel sending
Fla. Baptists grieve, respond to damage in Bahamas
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Fla. Hispanic gatherings highlight 'Gospel Above All'
'Out of the ashes': Fla. church recovering after fire


text:
Texas Leftist
Tag Archives: republicans
After Heinous Russian Attack, UK Action Finally Drags Truth Out Of Trump White House
March 16, 2018 L. Wayne Ashley	1 Comment
In an era filled with constant streams of misinformation, a coordinated response from the United States government is becoming a rare, precious commodity. Americans can barely keep with who is on the the Trump Administration payroll, much less any definitive policy stances.
But due to a tragic event overseas, the White House has finally seems to have gotten some of the message on Russia's malicious actions. As Alex Ward with Vox reports, Britain's clear messages are shining a light that even Donald Trump's Administration cannot run from…
Donald Trump is one of the most Russia-friendly presidents in modern history. But in less than an hour on Thursday, he rebuked Russia harder than he has throughout his entire time in the White House.
On March 4, Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found on an outside bench in Salisbury, England. It turned out they had been poisoned with a highly toxic nerve agent.
Eight days later, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the attack on the Skripals. When asked about the event later that day, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to directly blame Russia but said that "we offer the fullest condemnation" of the attack.
But on Thursday, the White House issued a joint statement with allies to support Britain's claim, which said: "The United Kingdom thoroughly briefed its allies that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack. We share the United Kingdom's assessment that there is no plausible alternative explanation."
Moscow, however, denies it had any hand in the attack.
The sanctions that the US Treasury Department issued on Thursday have a bit more of a backstory. It all goes back to the January 2017 US intelligence community assessment that Russia did meddle in the election, and did so to help Trump win the White House.
So there you have it. After months of stalling, dragging their feet on Congressionally-mandated sanctions, and even defending Vladimir Putin, the Trump Administration has finally, officially admitted to some of the misdeeds that American Intelligence officials mentioned all along.
After thousands of documents, and hours of testimony from United States intelligence agencies coming under attack from the Trump Administration, they suddenly turn tail and stand in full solidarity with Theresa May and British Intelligence?
Where is the outrage among Trump supporters? Why does it take the actions of a foreign government to finally convince this White House that Russia is a threat?? This is exhibit A that they (and Fox News, Breitbart, the whole Right Wing média vortex) have been LYING to the American People. Any Trump supporters that have the audacity to be honest with themselves should have cause for concern. Instead of working for the American People, it seems more and more like the Trump Administration, is only working for itself.
Now that we all finally live in a "yes Russia did it" world, let's sincerely hope that people take into account how many of their politicians have lied to them to protect these misdeeds. They are on record, including the House Intelligence Committee members that decided to just DROP their investigation the day before news of this UK attack broke. In light of the news from the UK, this makes House Republicans look at best like fools incapable of running the country. At worst?? Accomplices to Trump's misdeeds. And yes… these are the same Republicans that have crowed for DECADES about the importance of National Security and a robust Military Defense, are leaving Americans and our National Security vulnerable to attack because they refuse to discover what methods of attack were used previously.
Whatever daily distractions and news cycle crises occur between now and November, let's all hope that voters pay attention to important developments like these, and use them to VOTE accordingly.
Washington is in dire need of some watchdogs. Here's hoping that Democrats are up for the job.
democratsHouse RepublicansrepublicansRussia InvestigationTrumpVladimir PutinVoxWashington Needs A Watchdog
Coalition EXPOSED: Post Cliff, The House GOP's new reality
January 2, 2013 L. Wayne Ashley	Leave a comment
Well, now we know. Thanks to tireless work on behalf of Vice President Biden, President Obama, and Congressional leaders, the big bad Fiscal Cliff was officially averted. After a rousing show of Senate Bi-Partisanship, the 'Fiscal Deal' was also approved by the House 257-167.
Most pundits today are talking about the deal, and about how "disappointed" they are, or about how "terrible it was for the country. But I'm actually very VERY happy about last night's House vote. It may have been the best gift ever delivered to the Obama administration, and to the country. Here's why…
All but 16 Democrats voted for the bill, and that's as expected because Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has a great relationship with her caucus. We all knew that Speaker John Boehner's caucus was split, with a majority of them oppsing him at every turn. But what we didn't know until last night, was exactly where those fault lines lie.
Now we do.
Boehner's decision to cave and bring the bill to a clean vote was a total game-changer for the White House and for Democrats. Of the 257 yes votes, 85 of them were Republicans. This is it!! This is the group of people that actually listen to the Speaker, and most importantly, are willing to listen to others and put country before party. The official roll call tells this tale like the best of political novels. For the first time since the "Hastert rule" was enacted, a party caucus was knowingly split up by its leadership. As a result, we now see the House GOP for what it really is… a two-party coalition in which John Boehner is actually part of the minority. On one side, you've got roughly 150 members that grab all of the attention, and on the other side you have 85 members that want to WORK. 85 members that are (at least briefly) capable of putting the interests of the country above the sanctity of their party.
Many of those members are what you'd expect… blue state Republicans like New Hampshire's Charlie Bass, or those that have their eye on future offices like Illinois' Aaron Schock, knowing that bipartisanship is a necessary step were he to run for Governor or Senator of a bifurcated state. And some of them were just people that actually respect Speaker Boehner's leadership and trust the decision of the caucus… the "old school" politicians. After 3 years of the Tea Partiers hogging the spotlight, we were suddenly reminded that the GOP isn't completely over-taken… at least not yet.
Now sure, out of those 85 some of them would never do this again. They would never join up with Democrats to help the President. But there's likely a good 40 to 50 of them that the public can now target to get our government in the right direction again. And as long as Boehner keeps his Speakership in the 113th, Congress will be able to pass important things like Immigration reform and simplification to the tax code.
Republicans and Democrats will always have differences, but we shouldn't be so far apart that we would allow our country to go to ruins. Sadly, that faction is alive and well within the GOP… some of them care nothing more for the well-being of the United States as long as their narrow viewpoint is advanced. But what we learned on the first night of 2013? That's not all of them. There are still reasonable, hard-working, SANE people in Congress that want this country to succeed, and are willing to compromise even if they don't always agree with the views of others. There's still people in the House of Represenatatives that want to legislate, and not just waste people's time.
In normal voting procedure, the Speaker of the House does not actually cast a vote. But sometimes, when they think it's needed (like then Speaker Nancy Pelosi casting a vote for the Affordable Care Act), they will vote. Last night, Speaker Boehner cast a vote, eventhough he knew that enough of the other members of the caucus would join Democrats. He knew the bill would pass, but he voted anyway. Why would the Speaker do that?
If I were a betting man, I'd say that Boehner's vote was a signal. He's communicating to the President and Senate that he's one of the "good guys". Or at least that he'd like to be.
But in order to be a truly good guy, Mr. Boehner needs one other thing… COURAGE. One vote is simply not enough to save the reputation of the 112th Congress. And letting bills like the Violence Against Women Act and vital aid for Hurricane Sandy victims die in the House is not courageous. It's wrong. I hope the Speaker finds more courage in the 113th Congress, and FAST.
Aaron SchockCharlie BassDebt CeilingdemocratsFiscal cliff voteHouse GOPJohn BoehnerObamarepublicansSpeaker of the House
GOP shows no gratitude to Mitt Romney
November 21, 2012 L. Wayne Ashley	Leave a comment
Nobody likes to lose. But one thing that Americans themselves despise more than losing? A sore loser. And after November 6th, it's clear that we have very sore losers in both Mitt Romney and the GOP.
Granted, Mr. Romney's recent comments about Obama giving "gifts" to his electorate in exchange for their vote is nothing short of offensive. Now that he's finally untethered from the whims of his party, Mitt's true character has been revealed for the world to see. But here's the big "secret" that's right in front of everyone's face… This is THE Mitt Romney that the GOP elected!! Remember how he said "I'm not concerned about the very poor"? That was back in late January. And the infamous "47 percent" comment? He said that in May, but it wasn't really on the national consciousness until September. But still the GOP rallied around him… the crowned him the leader of the party, and accepted him WITH ALL OF HIS FLAWS. Long story short, they bought in, and then sold him to the American people. One may be frustrated with Romney for being a sore loser, but folks, we knew he would be all along. You get what you vote for, right?
For the greater Republican Party on the other hand… the blazing speed with which they have turned to disown Mitt Romney is quite astonishing. Some are trying to quickly act like November 6th never happened and that he was never the nominee. They have disowned Romney at every public opportunity. Does that mean that they also want to disown their vote too? Did they forget that this guy was one night away from the Presidency a couple of weeks ago?
Here's the greater problem… turning Mitt Romney into the new "Republican enemy number one" does nothing to solve systemic issues within the party. Romney was simply a symptom, he was not a cause for the GOP's long history of problems. After living in a vast bubble of denial, the GOP finally must look in the mirror at a party that was built on malice and falsehoods. This party nearly tore apart between fringe religious fundamentalists and the well-funded but shrinking establishment. And in 2012, Mr. Romney stepped up to the plate and chose to lead them to an humbling defeat. In so many ways, they really should be thanking him saving a more critical member of the party agony and public embarassment of a 2012 loss. No matter what he says days after election, the party should be standing up for him, and finding a way to move forward with their own political aspirations.
47 percentGOPMitt RomneyMItt Romney giftsrepublicans
Operation Think Swing Texas
July 21, 2012 L. Wayne Ashley	Leave a comment
As Emily Cadik noted in a recent Burnt Orange Report article, Texas doesn't vote. For the 2010 mid-term elections, the state of Texas had voter turnout of 36.1 percent… dead last in the nation. 2008 was better at 56.1 percent (as is expected for a Presidential election), but that still only ranked at 45th out of 50 in the US.
This isn't exclusively a "big state" problem. Voter turnout in California is soaring, while New York in 2010 was one of the states lower than Texas. All three states also had Gubernatorial elections at the same time.
This also isn't exclusively a "red state" problem. Some reliably Conservative states like Mississippi have consistently higher turnout than Texas, though it's still below the national average.
Voter turnout is a Texas problem. Our voters are disengaged, and misinformed. As long as state campaigns and interest groups practice "uncertainty politics" it will continue to be this way. Besides voter apathy, Texans are plagued by signs that misdirect people to false voting locations, and incorrect times and dates of where to vote. And yes the current legal brawl over voter suppression makes the confusion this year higher than ever.
But just imagine if those voters were more informed and more engaged? Texas would easily be a swing state the like of which the US hasn't seen. As Nathan Pippenger states in his recent article from The New Republic, Texas isn't on the radar as a swing state. But Democrats, with all of their challenges can make this happen in 2012. Here's my plan of how to turn Texas into a swing state.
–Go micro.
Texas is huge, but when it comes to elections, it's not as big as you think. 8 million Texans voted in the 2008 election, representing all 254 of the state's counties. But as of the 2010 census, over half of all Texans live in just 13 of these counties, concentrated around the major urban areas. 12 of the 13 were "in play" for Democrats in 2008.
–Prioritize.
2008 also saw a huge sea change in the state. Some counties went so heavily for Obama that they can now be considered "reliably Democrat-leaning"… El Paso, Travis (Austin), Dallas, Webb, Hidalgo and Cameron… along with other portions of the Rio Grande Valley. Let's consider these counties as Tier 1 targets for Texas Democrats. Gains made in the 2008 election should be kept and defended. We should be making sure democratic candidates are well-represented in the local media markets, signs and volunteers. It's critical that these counties remain in the blue category not only for 2012, but to strengthen current networking for future elections.
Tier 2 we'll consider these "swing" counties. These flipped to vote for Obama by a smaller margin such as Harris (Houston), Jefferson (Beaumont) or Bexar (San Antonio). But you can also consider other counties that held for McCain, but by a rapidly decreasing margin… Hays, Fort Bend, Williamson and Nueces (Corpus Christi). Texas Democrats should work hard to keep Harris county in the blue and try to flip Hays, Williamson or Fort Bend. If one of those were to flip in 2012, it would mark the first time a substantial suburban county went blue. The impact of this could not be understated because it would show that Texas follows the same model as any other swing state… The cities become heavily Democratic, rural areas lean Republican, and the election battle is fought and won in the suburban counties.
So now we've taken the vast 254, and narrowed it down to just 12 counties. These also happen to be the state's most populous areas. If Texas Democrats ever win all 12 of these counties, we are swing state, and possibly a BLUE state.
–Turnout, turnout, turnout.
This is the really super hard part, but it can be done. The one thing we also know from 2008… Democrats like to vote early. If voters are well informed of the early and absentee voting practices of each county, they'll be more likely to vote, and Democrats will have higher turnout. Here's where the confusion and misinformation part becomes crucial. Certain political forces are hard at work in the state to make sure that lies persist about voting practices. Democrats should be waging all-scale war on these phonies, and getting into neighborhoods to correct and inform. If we push and publicize early voting, it gives people more options and better ability to get to the poles. Keep in mind that early voting is a relatively recent practice… elderly citizens may not understand what it is. They see the one election day, and think that's the only time they can vote. We have to change this.
Rankings don't lie. The non-voting population in Texas is staggering…
Fort Bend county… 300,403 registered; 205,931 voted; 94,472 didn't vote
Travis county… 609,230 registered, 402,832 voted, 206,398 didn't vote
Dallas county… 1,206,797 registered, 742,980 voted, 463,817 didn't vote
Harris county… 1,892,656 registered; 1,188,731 voted; 703,925 didn't vote
Seriously, the main game is moving to these 12 counties. In the 4 largest listed above, we know that 1.4 million people didn't vote. Obama lost Texas by 940,000 votes. If Democrats focus on registration and information, this problem can be solved, and we can eradicate GOP majorities in these counties. As red as the state may look on paper, the real population and political power centers around the major urban areas. If we can maximize voter turnout in the 12 target counties, Democrats will win the state.
So fellow Leftists… who's ready to Think SWING?
2012 Electionblue red texasblue statesdemocratsred statesrepublicansTexas politics 2012Texas swing stateTexas urban countiesthink swing Texasturn texas bluevoter turnout
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text:
12m jobs: Garba Shehu fights back as NBS Boss denies claims on 'misleading' unemployment data
Garba Shehu, special assistant to the president on media and publicity, and Yemi Kale, the statistician-general of the federation, have disagreed over methods of tracking job creation and unemployment numbers in Nigeria.
Speaking on Channels TV Sunrise Daily, Shehu said Yemi Kale, who doubles as the CEO of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), told the Federal Executive Council that the NBS only takes white collar jobs into consideration when preparing its jobs report.
"The NBS chief had addressed the federal cabinet and he made the admission that they had concentrated analysis over time on white collar jobs that they had not taken cognisance of job creation in areas of agriculture," Shehu said.
"The rice farmers association of Nigeria made the open claim and nobody has challenged them up to the time that we speak that they had created 12m new jobs.
"When he finished addressing the federal cabinet last week, the government asked the DG of the NBS, go out there and tell Nigerian public, you are just telling us now that Kebbi and Ebonyi are reporting the lowest unemployment rate in the country on account of agriculture."
SHEHU: NBS DATA MISLEADING
"So, I think the data collected on the bases of which some of the judgement has been passed that is misleading," Shehu added.
"The data has been unfair to the agriculture, they had ignored job creation in the area of agriculture. If you are talking about job losses, no, we have created at least 12m new jobs in the area of agriculture."
When the claims were brought to the attention of the NBS chief on Twitter, he said he made no such submissions to anybody at any time.
"Assuming what you claim was said was actually said then I make it very clear that neither the statistician-general nor NBS ever made any such admission at any time to anybody," Kale said.
"The unemployment computations does take into account all sectors, age groups, and both rural and urban areas."
SHEHU FIGHTS BACK
To clear the air after Kale's denial, Shehu said he spoke of a very bright jobs creation by the Muhammadu Buhari administration, adding that he said nothing wrong.
"There is nothing wrong with what I said on sunrisedailynow, this morning. I spoke about the very bright picture of jobs creation by the Buhari administration Mr Yemi Kale gave last week.
"That impressive report on jobs created in agriculture showed that rice-growing states like Jigawa, Ebonyi and Kebbi had the lowest unemployment.
"Mr. President, who had complained many times about employment figures reflecting mostly white collar jobs and therefore unfairly underplaying the millions of jobs his administration has created in the farms must have felt a sense of vindication.
"The response by the government was, go and put this out, address a world press conference to correct the wrong impression for all to know how well we are doing in creating jobs. We hope there will soon be a date for that press conference."
The NBS has not released any unemployment report in 2018, following the failure of the federal government to release funds for conducting the surveys for the final report.


The Mazzarello Campus is structured around supporting the transition from childhood to adulthood. The campus curriculum is delivered by a core group of teachers, with an emphasis on connectedness between ideas and concepts across disciplines.
Deep engagement with opportunities for higher order and critical thinking are encouraged and learning is integrated as much as possible. Project Based Learning is used to design authentic, rich assessment tasks to deliver an engaging, collaborative and flexible learning experience.
A key focus of the Mazzarello Campus is to guide students in developing a better awareness of themselves and their community and to provide opportunities to develop tolerance, empathy and an appreciation of others.
Our Challenge program, with its focus on physical activity and active learning, is designed to develop students' resilience, team work skills and confidence in pushing beyond their perceived limits. A highlight of the program is a five day adventure camp where students are encouraged to become self-sufficient and build stronger relationships with their peers.


Ever wonder how to take good photos without a dSLR?
All you need is a decent digital camera, and be creative with your angles.
This is the outcome. No photoshop, serious.
Damn nice right? I like her camera...!
Her Ixus can actually isolate certain colors in the creative mode!
So nice! No need to photoshop!
credits to Jenny for the super nice pix!


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Posts Tagged 'Leonidas Donskis'
Home » Leonidas Donskis
The aphorisms of Leonidas Donskis (1962-2016): a few words that go a long way
From silence and pauses…
Friends at World Literature Today pointed me to one of the smaller and lesser-known works of philosopher and political theorist Leonidas Donskis, one of Europe's leading intellectuals, who died unexpectedly last week at 54: his short, 114-page A Small Map of Experience: Reflections and Aphorisms (Guernica Editions, 2013; translated from the Lithuanian by Karla Gruodis). I bought a copy tout de suite and got it in the mail over the weekend.
"Aphorisms cannot be conceived theoretically, and one cannot learn how to write them from a manual," he writes in his foreword. "They rise up out of authentic experience—from silence and pauses, from stopping oneself so that a thought is not drowned by the flood of words and pretentious expressions." But they're not complete, in a sense, until they have a reader: "An aphorism is also a space for dialogue: it is an open and unfinished thought, which always requires that we, as readers, go back and attempt to develop the ellipses and silences which the author has left for us like an invitation."
The Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, Donskis's co-author for Moral Blindness: The Loss of Sensitivity in Liquid Modernity (Cambridge, 2013), noted, "A successful aphorism, true to its mission, allows a small step to go a long, perhaps an infinitely long, way." He thinks A Small Map fits the bill: "a perfect match to the vertiginous pace of our life, and bringing that art up to the gravity and grandiosity of the challenge we confront."
My love of aphorisms is known to Book Haven readers (see here and here), so this was just the ticket. I quickly found with my very unsystematic reading that the book was littered with my little book was littered with sticky flags.
A sampling from the pages:
"Academics are paid for what they say. Politicians and diplomats – for what they do not say."
"Provincialism is the lack of language and criteria for evaluating yourself and your environment. It is an inability to assess your own worth – a desperate plea for others to identify and assess you."
"Great art dissolves our illusions about the importance and truth of the present."
"Two solitudes do not beget a wholeness."
"Love is the refusal to see oneself as the only reality, and the transcendence of fear and hatred."
"Hatred is an unbearable dichotomy in which we imagine another's demise while secretly hoping that he or she will survive to deliver us from meaninglessness."
"Conscience is an intuition – that wherever two meet, a third is always present."
There's a reason his title includes "reflections" in addition to "aphorisms." Aphorisms are defined by their brevity, but some push the envelope. A few of his reflections, then:
"According to the logic of the twentieth century, wars were historically won by those who were left standing. The wars of the future will be different. No one will really win them or have the goal of winning them. They will be needed primarily to test and improve the military industrial machine, to undermine rising foreign economies, and to shape public opinion. War will become a vehicle for maintaining the balance of economic and political forces; the boundaries between it and peace will likely be erased."
"The twentieth century media universe profoundly transformed the public figure. In the eighteenth century, public intellectuals lived their societies' concerns, raising them to the level of philosophical and political discourse. But, while they saw private problems in public terms and engaged private persons with public concerns and interests, they themselves avoided the social noice of public life. It was once considered a sign of good taste and correct attitude to avoid the press. A Victorian Englishwoman was expected to appear in it only three times in her life: on the very special occasions of birth, marriage, and death. In our era, to appear in the media a mere three times would be the equivalent to not having existed at all."
"Non-Jews usually don't possess the sensitivity or language to speak about Jews, just as most men can't legitimately speak about women. This leads to extremes: either Jews are so admired that they are barely considered a normal people (one that includes the wise as well as the villainous), or they are blamed for the lack of security in the Western world and for all of the sins of humanity. Is this thesis valid if we substitute Gentiles and Jews with men and women? In a sense. Seeking rights and recognition, women had to gain access to a world of culture and politics created by men, just as Jews had to find niches in a world dominated by Gentiles. In both cases only one side conformed and adapted – hence the asymmetry of sensibilities."
And here's one for Donskis himself: "We love only those things whose fragile and temporary nature we are acutely aware of." Au revoir, sir. From the overwhelming number of hits on my modest obituary attracted a few days ago, it's evident you are already much missed.
Tags: Karla Gruodis, Leonidas Donskis, Zygmunt Bauman
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The aphorisms of Leonidas Donskis (1962-2016): a few words that go a long way
Farewell to one of Europe's leading thinkers, Leonidas Donskis (1962-2016)
Thursday, September 22nd, 2016
"Erudite, ambitious, and prolific as an ethicist."
Leonidas Donskis died yesterday from an apparent heart attack. He was 54. The Lithuanian Jewish philosopher and public intellectual – he was a political theorist, historian of ideas, social analyst, political commentator, and professor –was little known in the West, but is a major figure in Eastern European thought. He was also a member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014.
One of Europe's leading poets, Tomas Venclova (his correspondence with Donskis was published last year), wrote to the Book Haven: "Leonidas Donskis was the only one Lithuanian philosopher (mainly historian of ideas) who merited the title. I would say he was on a par with, say, Konrad, Krastev, or even Havel. His sudden and untimely death is a terrible loss." Tomas Venclova and Donskis were both born in Klaipėda, and both attended the University of Vilnius.
Donskis recently coauthored a book with a man he considered of the greatest thinkers of our times, Zygmunt Bauman. The book Moral Blindness: The Loss of Sensitivity in Liquid Modernity (Cambridge, 2013) was "a high point of my life," Donskis had said. "Such an opportunity can occur only once in a lifetime."
Correspondent Venclova
At a discussion at the Central European Form in Bratislava last November, he spoke on the role of the intellectual in today's world: "The sociologist Zygmunt Bauman said that if you want to be a star in your society you need to invent yourself either as celebrity or as victim. But I think there is also a third way out for the intellectuals, who way too often become fear-mongers. This is in my opinion their sin against societies. At the same time, we still have many sober voices resisting this temptation. The principle of intellectual or journalistic work is not to scare or paralyze people. The best thing to do now is to encourage audiences to live their lives without fear, in dignity."
"The great paradox of modernity is that everything is very close to its polarity, to its own antidote. For instance, in terms of political existence, I am afraid Europe will become even more securitized and surveilled. But the crucial thing is to defend the humanistic legacy of Europe. First and foremost, our task is not to become paranoid or fear-ridden. The challenge for the 21st century is to protect democratic Europe with respect to our humanistic sensibilities, and respect to human rights and civic liberties. This will be quite difficult, but we must stand together for it, especially given the rise of violent political extremism."
A few words on Donskis from some important voices on my Facebook feed:
Marci Shore, author of The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe and Caviar and Ashes: A Warsaw Generation's Life and Death in Marxism, 1918-1968: I'm writing from Belgrade, in shock at the news of the death of our friend Leonidas Donskis. I had just seen Leonidas in Krasnogruda, at Fundacja Pogranicze on the Polish-Lithuanian border, at our seminar "Second reading: Tony Judt on Arendt, Camus, Miłosz, Kołakowski." In Krasnogruda, he spoke about Bulgakov's Master and Margarita as a novel about the devil as superfluous in modern politics: we are in the age of do-it-yourself. He spoke about the death of the Left in Lithuania and about "ontological junk food" – quick, ready-made theories for easy consumption here and now. "I'm afraid there is just a void," Leonidas said. But he never stopped trying to fill the void with a passionate insistence on truth and ethics. We were meant to meet in Vienna two weeks from now at this year's Leszek Kołakowski symposium devoted to the topic "Paradises Lost: Entzauberung, Utopia, and their Afterlives." I never imagined "afterlives" taking on this additional meaning. Now of all times our world could not afford to lose Leonidas.
Timothy Snyder, author of Black Earth:The Holocaust as History and Warning and Bloodlands: Between Hitler and Stalin: Erudite, ambitious, and prolific as an ethicist; liberal in his politics, generosity and individuality; trilingual in Lithuanian, Russian, and English. A rapid wanderer in our best traditions, a loyal companion with expansive ideas of friendship; a European link to much of what was admirable his Soviet generation and the ones that came before; an eager interlocutor who wanted to bring out the best in those he admired (such as Zygmunt Bauman and Tomas Venclova with whom he wrote books); a patient teacher whom I last saw among grateful students, filling my notebook with the connections I never would have seen without him.
Mikhail Iossel, author of Every Hunter Wants to Know: A Leningrad Life and contributor to The New Yorker: I am absolutely devastated. I loved him dearly. He was one of the most brilliant, altogether remarkable people I have ever met, one of Europe's leading public intellectuals, one of world's most interesting philosophers and social thinkers, an enormously erudite and prolific scholar and a passionate patriot of his country, son of Holocaust survivors and member of the European Parliament – and also one of the kindest, gentlest, and most decent and honest people I've ever known. In point of fact, I have never known anyone quite like him, in all of my long life: he was absolutely unique, unrepeatable and, to my mind, a perfect human being. I cherished each and every one of our conversations: in Lithuania, in New York, and, most frequently, online – about politics, Europe, Lithuania, Jewish history, Russia, art… It is impossible to believe he is gone. The world was so much better with him in it. There are no words….
Postscript on 9/23: We received this message from Beatriz Miranda in Mexico City, and thought we'd share it (it's also in the combox below): "With great sadness we have received the news about the death of our beloved friend, Leonidas. I met him in Amsterdam. The University of Amsterdam asked me to invite Prof. Bauman to present their book Moral Blindness in Amsterdam. The invitation was accepted by Prof. Bauman with a condition: to bring Leonidas too. It was the beginning of real friendship. Later on, he came to Mexico invited by the 17, Institute of Critical Studies and helped us to think critically about the role of universities and academics. I will never forget the way he conducted himself, with humility and sweetness. He even travelled with me around Mexico City by metro. He ate at the Coyoacan Market and enjoyed visiting the pyramids of Teotihuacan. During that visit and taken by his passion for jazz he proposed to the Institute to give the doctorate Honoris Causa to the great jazz musician Vyacheslav Ganelin. We did it last January but unfortunately, Leonidas could not come. We will keep his words alive in our Institute. This is important especially in this violent time. Leonida's call for peace and understanding will be missed but kept immortal through his work and publications. 17, Institute will keep the promise to translate some of his work into Spanish. Gracias querido, Amigo Leonidas! You will be missed."
Postscript on 9/26: Read a few of his reflections and aphorisms here.
Tags: Leonidas Donskis, Marci Shore, Mikhail Iossel, Timothy Snyder, Tomas Venclova