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text:
From the Westside with Love II is the debut studio album by American rapper Dom Kennedy. The album was released on June 28, 2011. The album features guest appearances from Asher Roth, Mikey Rocks, Polyester, Big K.R.I.T., Casey Veggies and Schoolboy Q.

Track listing

Charts

References

2011 debut albums
Albums produced by Scoop DeVille
Albums produced by DJ Mustard
Sequel albums
West Coast hip hop albums
Dom Kennedy albums
Albums produced by Cardo
Albums produced by Chuck Inglish

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Dan Mitchell: People are right to be concerned. If the President's plan is approved, the already-grim fiscal outlook for United States will get even worse.
The Economics of Tax-Financed Spending vs. Debt-Financed Spending
Regarding fiscal policy, almost everyone's attention is focused on Biden's growth-sapping plan to increase the burden of taxes and spending.
People are right to be concerned. If the President's plan is approved, the already-grim fiscal outlook for United States will get even worse.
This battle will be decided in next 12 months, hopefully with a defeat for Biden's dependency agenda.
Regardless of how that fight is resolved, though, we're eventually going to get to a point where sensible people are back in charge. And when that happens, we'll have to figure out how to restore the nation's finances.
That requires figuring out the appropriate goal. Here are two options:
Keeping taxes low.
Controlling debt.
These are both worthy objectives.
But, as a logic teacher might say, they are necessary but not sufficient conditions.
Here's a chart showing how a policy of low taxes (the orange line) presumably enables faster growth, but also creates the risk of an eventual economic crisis if nothing is done to control spending and debt climbs too high (think Greece).
By contrast, the chart also shows that it's theoretically possible to avoid an economic crisis with higher taxes (the blue line), but it means less growth on a year-to-year basis.
The moral of the story is that the economy winds up in the same place with either tax-financed spending or debt-financed spending.
Which is why we should consider a third goal.
Limiting spending.
The economic benefits of this approach are illustrated in this second chart. We enjoy faster year-to-year growth. And, because spending restraint is the best way of controlling debt, the risk of a Greek-style economic crisis is averted.
Now for some caveats.
I made a handful of assumptions in the above charts.
The economy grows 2.0 percent annually for the next 31 years with tax-financed spending
The economy grows 2.5 percent annually with debt-financed spending, but suffers a 10 percent decline in Year 31.
The economy grows 3.0 percent annually for the next 31 years with smaller government (thus enabling low taxes and less debt).
Anyone can create their own spreadsheet and make different assumptions.
That being said, there's a lot of evidence that higher tax burdens hinder growth, that ever-rising debt burdens can lead to crisis, and that less government spending produces stronger growth.
So feel free to make your own assumptions about the strength of these effects, but let's never lose sight of the fact that spending restraint should be the main goal for post-Biden fiscal policy.
Biden Wants the U.S. to Be #1…in a Bad Way
The good news is that President Biden wants the United States to be at the top. The bad news is that he wants America to be at the top in bad ways. My
The highest corporate income tax rate.
The highest capital gains tax rate.
The highest level of double taxation.
We can now add another category, based on the latest iteration of his budget plan.
According to the Tax Foundation, the United States would havethe develop world's most punitive personal income tax.
Worse than France and worse than Greece. How embarrassing.
In their report, Alex Durante and William McBride explain how the new plan will raise tax rates in a convoluted fashion.
High-income taxpayers would face a surcharge on modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), defined as adjusted gross income less investment interest expense. The surcharge would equal 5 percent on MAGI in excess of $10 million plus 3 percent on MAGI above $25 million, for a total surcharge of 8 percent. The plan would also redefine the tax base to which the 3.8 percent net investment income tax (NIIT) appliesto include the "active" part of pass-through income—all taxable income above $400,000 (single filer) or $500,000 (joint filer) would be subject to tax of 3.8 percent due to the combination of NIIT and Medicare taxes. Under current law, the top marginal tax rate on ordinary income is scheduled to increase from 37 percent to 39.6 percent starting in 2026. Overall, the top marginal tax rate on personal income at the federal level would rise to 51.4 percent. In addition to the top federal rate, individuals face taxes on personal income in most U.S. states. Considering the average top marginal state-local tax rate of 6.0 percent, the combined top tax rate on personal income would be 57.4 percent—higher than currently levied in any developed country.
Needless to say, this will make the tax code more complex.
Lawyers and accountants will win and the economy will lose.
I'm not sure why Biden and his big-spender allies have picked a complicated way to increase tax rates, but that doesn't change that factthat people will have less incentive to engage in productive behavior.
What matters is the marginal tax rate on people who are thinking about earning more income.
And they'll definitely choose to earn less if tax rates increase, particularly since well-to-do taxpayers have considerable controlover the timing, level, and composition of their income.
P.S. Based on what happened in the 1980s, we can safely assume that Biden's class-warfare plan won't raise much money.
Biden Pick Becerra's Indecent, Indefensible Legal Assault on Nuns, Human Life
Sean Spicer / @seanspicer / October 26, 2021
COMMENTARY BY
Sean Spicer@seanspicer
Sean Spicer, who served as press secretary in the Trump White House, is the host of "Spicer & Co." on Newsmax TV.
The following is excerpted from Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer's new book "Radical Nation: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's Dangerous Plan for America." It is available here and elsewhere.
Founded in France in 1839, the Little Sisters of the Poor is a Catholic order of nuns who operate 29 care homes across the United States. The nuns take vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, and hospitality, and they serve Christ by serving the elderly poor.
When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka ACA or "Obamacare") was enacted in March 2010, it required employers to offer health insurance plans that included contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilizations—all of which violate the precepts of the Catholic Church.
Though the ACA exempted churches, it did not exempt faith-based ministries such as the Little Sisters of the Poor. These ministries were subject to fines if they did not comply—and the Little Sisters refused to comply.
St. Paul once wrote that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. The Obama administration was determined to make good on that biblical promise and proceeded to persecute the Little Sisters all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2016, the Supreme Court directed the Obama administration to compromise with the Little Sisters and "arrive at an approach going forward" to end the standoff. The Obama administration failed to achieve that goal before leaving office.
In 2017, the Trump administration took over and structured an accommodation that resolved the Little Sisters' problems with the ACA mandate. In October of that year, the Department of Health and Human Services issued an updated religious-exemption rule that protected religious nonprofit organizations such as the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Case closed, right? Wrong.
The next month, November 2017, attorneys general from several states, including Pennsylvania and California, ramped up the persecution of the Little Sisters. They went to court and obtained a nationwide injunction against the new HHS rule. Pennsylvania and California sued the federal government, asking the judges to force the Little Sisters to comply with the Obamacare mandate or face millions of dollars in penalties.
In July 2019, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Little Sisters in the Pennsylvania case. In October 2019, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Little Sisters in the California case. At that point, the Little Sisters asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a definitive ruling.
On July 8, 2020, the Supreme Court delivered a decisive 7 to 2 ruling in favor of the Little Sisters of the Poor. The court affirmed the religious liberty exemptions for faith-based organizations. The Little Sisters of the Poor would not have to pay for abortions under the Obamacare mandates. After spending over a decade fighting federal and state governments in the courts, the Little Sisters could finally get back to serving the poor in peace.
The Little Sisters set an example for us all, refusing to back down in the face of government pressure. They were determined to serve the elderly poor without lending support or endorsement to abortion. They correctly understood that the assault on their freedom was an assault on the sanctity of human life.
Is this really why government exists? To harass and intimidate nuns who are simply living out their faith and serving the poor? It's hard to believe, but there are people in government who get up in the morning and say, "I'm going to punish a Catholic ministry today! I'm going to scare nuns and force them to pay for abortions!"
I mean, such a person would have to be a mustache-twirling villain of the Snidely Whiplash variety, right?
Well, meet one of the persecutors of the Little Sisters of the Poor—namely, President Joe Biden's secretary of health and human services, Xavier Becerra. In November 2017, after the Little Sisters had already prevailed once in the Supreme Court, it was Becerra [then the state attorney general] who made the decision for California to sue again in federal court to take away the nuns' religious exemption. He lost that case in 2020—but the following year, Biden tapped Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the very agency he had unsuccessfully sued in 2017.
In February, Becerra was in a Senate confirmation hearing for the Biden Cabinet post, trying to explain away his relentless pursuit of the Little Sisters of the Poor. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said to him, "It does seem like, as attorney general, you spent an inordinate amount of time and effort suing pro-life organizations, like Little Sisters of the Poor, or trying to ease restrictions or expand abortion."
Apparently realizing how bad his pursuit of the Little Sisters looked, Becerra replied, "I have never sued the nuns, any nuns. I've never sued any affiliation of nuns, and my actions have always been directed at the federal agencies."
It's a flimsy alibi. Becerra did, in fact, sue to force a religious order of nuns to pay for Obamacare's contraceptive and abortifacient mandates. Moreover, the case is named State of California v. Little Sisters of the Poor. It doesn't get any plainer than that. Had Becerra won his case, the Little Sisters would have lost millions of dollars, along with their First Amendment rights. Becerra pursued the nuns in court for three years.
Despite his evasive testimony, Becerra did sue nuns, an act of cold-hearted villainy that would have done Snidely Whiplash proud. As Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., tweeted on Feb. 24, "Xavier Becerra is now claiming he didn't sue nuns because he wants to get confirmed. But Becerra did sue nuns. He repeatedly harassed the Little Sisters of the Poor. That's why he should be rejected by the Senate."
In selecting Becerra to head HHS, Biden signaled his intention to move America to the extreme edge of pro-abortion policy. No American politician has ever demonstrated more enthusiasm for unrestricted abortion than Becerra.
I am a proud member of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers and I attended the convention in Dallas in July and we have officially launched a nationwide push against abortion rights.
The article below notes:
At its first annual policy conference last weekend, group members voted to make a controversial new Texas law, the "Texas Heartbeat Bill," the organization's first piece of model legislation, meaning that similar bills may soon pop up in state capitols across the country.
Also I am excited to report that the WASHINGTON POST wrote in September 3, 2021:
Announcing he planned to introduce a copycat bill, Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert (R), the founder and president of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, shared a template of legislation lawmakers in other states could fill in the blanks on and reproduce.
At the July 17th session of THE CHRISTIAN LAWMAKERS meeting in Dallas, I really got a lot out of the expert panel moderated by Texas State Senator Bryan Hughes entitled ABOLISHING ABORTION IN AMERICA. Here below is what Wikipedia says about Senator Hughes:
On March 11, 2021, Hughes introduced a fetal heartbeat bill entitled the Texas Heartbeat Bill (SB8) into the Texas Senate and state representative Shelby Slawson of Stephenville, Texas introduced a companion bill (HB1515) into the state house.[22]The bill allows private citizens to sue abortion providers after a fetal heartbeat has been detected.[22] The SB8 version of the bill passed both chambers and was signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott on May 19, 2021.[22] It took effect on September 1, 2021.[22]
Whatever Happened To The Human Race? | Episode 1 | Abortion of the Human…
Tucker: Democrats have abandoned their 'my body, my choice' argument
These Christian lawmakers are on the offensive against abortion
That National Association of Christian legislators has made the so-called 'Texas Heartbeat Bill' the basis for its first piece of model legislation
on July 20, 2021 1:00 pm
Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert presides over a Senate committee at the state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark. in this March 14, 2018, file photo. Rapert's National Association of Christian Lawmakers met recently to talk model legislation and pass resolutions. Kelly P. Kissel, Associated Press
The National Association of Christian Lawmakers has officially launched a nationwide push against abortion rights.
The model legislation, called the Heartbeat Model Act, was accepted unanimously by the executive committee during a Saturday meeting.
The Texas bill it is based upon, Senate Bill 8, bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The legislation also allows for any state resident to bring a civil suit against a doctor who performs an abortion after a heartbeat is detectable. Under the law, a woman who has an abortion would be liable to civil suits, as would anyone who supported her in the act — from family members to the receptionist who checks her in at a clinic.
Not only is the doctor liable, but anyone found aiding and abetting," said Texas legislator Bryan Hughes, the bill's author, during the Saturday meeting, which was led by the organization's founder and president, Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert. Texas state Rep. Bryan Hughes speaks during the opening session of the 2015 legislative session on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015, in Austin, Texas. Eric Gay, Associated Press
Speaking to the Deseret News on Monday, Rapert said the provision allowing residents to bring civil suits against anyone involved in an abortion is like "putting a SCUD missile on that heartbeat bill — they can't stop it."
Rapert was the author of a similar 2013 bill in Arkansas, portions of which were later struck down by a federal judge. At least a dozen states have implemented a variety of abortion restrictions in recent years, leading numerous observers to say that the landmark 1973 Supreme Court abortion ruling, Roe v. Wade, is under threat.
Critics of the legislation have likened the Texas law to putting "a bounty on the head" of anyone involved in an abortion; they have also called it "unconstitutional." Last week, a group of providers filed a federal lawsuit in an attempt to derail the law, which is supposed to go into effect in September.
Speaking Saturday to the Christian legislators gathered in Dallas, Hughes reminded the legislators that the Heartbeat Model Act is just a starting point and that the legislation will have to be tailored to work within each state's laws. A anti-abortion supporter argues with those who attended a press conference and rally held by the Planned Parenthood Action Council of Utah outside of the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Aug. 25, 2015. Stacie Scott, Deseret News
The National Association of Christian Lawmakers formed last year with three key goals: to offer conservative, Christian legislators networking opportunities,; to help lawmakers share bills that have been successful in their states so that legislators elsewhere might push through similar legislation; and to support Christians running for local, state or national office.
At the policy conference last week, the organization worked toward meeting these goals in various ways, including by approving the Heartbeat Model Act. The executive committee also passed a resolution supporting Israel's "right to defend itself from terror attacks" and creating a standing American-Israeli Committee.
Speaking to the executive committee, Rabbi Leonid Feldman, who was born in the Soviet Union and was imprisoned there for his pro-Israel activities, remarked that the Jewish people "remember our friends."
This conference and this organization will be remembered by the Jewish people," he said.
The organization also approved a resolution in support of "election integrity."
The executive committee also approved a second piece of model legislation: the National Motto Display Model Act. Based on bills passed in Arkansas in 2017 and this year in Texas, the legislation requires public schools to display the national motto "In God We Trust" when printed versions of the motto are donated to schools or copies of the national motto are bought with funds from private donors.
"As the Texas House sponsor of the Motto Act, I am proud to see a model put out by the NACL so that legislators from every other state can have a mechanism to ensure our citizens — especially our school-age children — are reminded of our nation's motto," said Tom Oliverson, a state representative from Texas and chairman of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers' national legislative council.
During the executive committee's meeting on Saturday, Rapert said Hobby Lobby would make frames available for a reduced price if they'll be used for national motto displays.
Asked Monday what other pieces of legislation the organization might adopt as model legislation in the future, Rapert told the Deseret News that the National Association of Christian Lawmakers is already weighing some options.
Since religious freedom is central to the organization, it could end up adopting model legislation similar to bills promoted in Texas this year by Oliverson. He supported three measures designed to make it harder for the government to force church closures during public emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and a bill that would ensure homeowners' associations can't infringe on homeowners' rights to display religious symbols.
Supreme Court votes 5-4 to leave Texas abortion law in place
Chief Justice John Roberts dissented along with the court's three liberal justices
WASHINGTON — A deeply divided Supreme Court is allowing a Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in force, for now stripping most women of the right to an abortion in the nation's second-largest state.
The court voted 5-4 to deny an emergency appeal from abortion providers and others that sought to block enforcement of the law that went into effect Wednesday. But the justices also suggested that their order likely isn't the last word on whether the law can stand because other challenges to it can still be brought.
The Texas law, signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May, prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks and before many women know they're pregnant.
It is the strictest law against abortion rights in the United States since the high court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 and part of a broader push by Republicans nationwide to impose new restrictions on abortion. At least 12 other states have enacted bans early in pregnancy, but all have been blocked from going into effect.
The high court's order declining to halt the Texas law came just before midnight Wednesday. The majority said those bringing the case had not met the high burden required for a stay of the law.
"The Court's order is emphatic in making clear that it cannot be understood as sustaining the constitutionality of the law at issue."— Chief Justice John Roberts
Chief Justice John Roberts (Supreme Court)
"In reaching this conclusion, we stress that we do not purport to resolve definitively any jurisdictional or substantive claim in the applicants' lawsuit. In particular, this order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas's law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law, including in Texas state courts," the unsigned order said.
Chief Justice John Roberts dissented along with the court's three liberal justices. Each of the four dissenting justices wrote separate statements expressing their disagreement with the majority.
Roberts noted that while the majority denied the request for emergency relief "the Court's order is emphatic in making clear that it cannot be understood as sustaining the constitutionality of the law at issue."
The vote in the case underscores the impact of the death of the liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last year and then-president Donald Trump's replacement of her with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Had Ginsburg remained on the court there would have been five votes to halt the Texas law.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor called her conservative colleagues' decision "stunning." "Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand," she wrote.
"A majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand."— Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Justice Sonia Sotomayor (Supreme Court)
Texas lawmakers wrote the law to evade federal court review by allowing private citizens to bring civil lawsuits in state court against anyone involved in an abortion, other than the patient. Other abortion laws are enforced by state and local officials, with criminal sanctions possible.
In contrast, Texas' law allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone involved in facilitating abortions. Among other situations, that would include anyone who drives a woman to a clinic to get an abortion. Under the law, anyone who successfully sues another person would be entitled to at least $10,000.
In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan called the law "patently unconstitutional," saying it allows "private parties to carry out unconstitutional restrictions on the State's behalf." And Justice Stephen Breyer said a "woman has a federal constitutional right to obtain an abortion during" the first stage of pregnancy.
After a federal appeals court refused to allow a prompt review of the law before it took effect, the measure's opponents sought Supreme Court review.
In a statement early Thursday after the high court's action, Nancy Northup, the head of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents abortion providers challenging the law, vowed to "keep fighting this ban until abortion access is restored in Texas."
"We are devastated that the Supreme Court has refused to block a law that blatantly violates Roe v. Wade. Right now, people seeking abortion across Texas are panicking — they have no idea where or when they will be able to get an abortion, if ever. Texas politicians have succeeded for the moment in making a mockery of the rule of law, upending abortion care in Texas, and forcing patients to leave the state — if they have the means — to get constitutionally protected healthcare. This should send chills down the spine of everyone in this country who cares about the constitution," she said.
Texas has long had some of the nation's toughest abortion restrictions, including a sweeping law passed in 2013. The Supreme Court eventually struck down that law, but not before more than half of the state's 40-plus clinics closed.
Even before the Texas case arrived at the high court the justices had planned to tackle the issue of abortion rights in a major case after the court begins hearing arguments again in the fall. That case involves the state of Mississippi, which is asking to be allowed to enforce an abortion ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
President Biden c/o The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500
I wanted to reach out to you because of some of the troubling moral issues coming out of your administration.
Over and over on my blog I have written about your efforts as Vice President and President to attack legally the rights of our unborn babies in the USA. These views of yours are due to your allegiance to the humanist worldview which Francis Schaeffer and Tim LaHaye exposed in their books. Your vast support from humanist groups in the 2020 election proves my point. No wonder we have seen criminals let go and an effort by Democrats (namely VP Harris) to defund the police. The Bible recognizes the sinful nature of humans and calls for the authorities to have the power of the sword in Romans 13! However, there have been times when the IRS has been used against freedom of expression such as the past persecution of the Tea Party. The Founding Fathers did NOT think the King was above the law! Unfortunately many lawmakers today don't care about the law very much it seems which is a result of loss of a Christian Consensus influence in our society!
I recently read this article below:
The Archbishop Who Fears for Joe Biden's Soul
America's second-ever Catholic president supports abortion rights, leaving the bishops unsure about how to move forward.By Emma Green
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, at a Mass held on the eve of the 2020 March for Life in Washington, D.C.Gregory A. Shemitz
Archbishop Joseph Naumann is anxious about President Joe Biden's soul. The two men are in some ways similar: cradle Catholics born in the 1940s who witnessed John F. Kennedy become America's first Catholic president. Both found a natural home in the Democratic Party—in Naumann's midwestern family, asking Catholics if they were Democrats was a redundancy. Naumann became a priest and Biden became a politician, but their paths really diverged over the issue of abortion. Now in his 70s, Naumann watched Biden—America's second Catholic president—transform into a vocal supporter of abortion rights while competing for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Naumann runs the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and also leads what the Catholic bishops describe as their pro-life activities. He has suggested that Biden should no longer call himself a devout Catholic. At the very least, Naumann says, Biden should stop receiving Communion, a holy sacrament in Catholic life.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently convened a working group to discuss how the bishops should interact with Biden, and how they should deal with the challenge of having a visibly Catholic president who defies Church teachings on a central issue. Naumann was part of that group. Conflicts have already arisen: Naumann recently co-authored a statement expressing moral concerns about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was developed and tested using cell lines from aborted fetal tissue. He also joined a statement from a group of the country's top bishops celebrating the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act, but called it "unconscionable that Congress has passed the bill without critical protections needed to ensure that billions of taxpayer dollars are used for life-affirming health care and not for abortion."
John MacArthur gave a sermon in June of 2021 entitled "When Government Rewards Evil and Punishes Good" and in that sermon he makes the following points:
INTRODUCTION AND DISCUSSION OF ROMANS 13
GOVERNMENT CAN FORFEIT ITS AUTHORITY
THE WORLD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GOSPEL
ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY IS PROGRESSING TOWARD A GLOBAL KINGDOM UNDER THE POWER OF SATAN
ONE FALSE WORLD RELIGION IS FINAL PLAY BY SATAN
REAL PERSECUTION CAN ONLY BE DONE BY GOVERNMENT
PERSECUTION IN BOOK OF DANIEL
THE LAW IS KING AND NOT THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA
GOVERNMENT HAS BECOME PURVEYOR OF WICKEDNESS
THERE IS A PLACE FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
DOES GOVERNMENT WIN?
Let me just share a portion of that sermon with you and you can watch it on You Tube:
One New Testament writer says that Romans 13 has "caused more unhappiness and misery . . . than any other . . . verses in the New Testament by the license they have given to tyrants . . . used to justify a host of horrendous abuses of individual human rights." Hitler's Holocaust, racism in the apartheid of South Africa, Cantrell says, "Both the Jews in Germany and blacks in South Africa were viewed as a threat to public health and national security. . . . "'Trust us,' said government . . . 'we truly have your best interests at heart. All we want to do is help . . . keep you safe.'"
Government has already become the purveyor of wickedness. Government is a murderer, slaughtering millions of infants in abortion; elevating the LGBTQ agenda, the bizarre transgender deception. The culture has become anti-truth, we all know that. The truth is the biggest threat to lies. William Pitt, well-known name in English history, said this: "Necessity (i.e., public health, common good) is the plea [of] every infringement of human freedom: it is the argument of tyrants. "Get people afraid, and they'll do whatever you want. A fearful society will always comply; panicking people will believe anything" [(Cantrell)].
"During the gruesome and bloody days of the French Revolution, when 40,000 innocent [people] lost their heads," you would be interested to know who was operating the guillotine: the Committee for Public Safety [(Cantrell)]. One writer says, "Governments now get voted into power by promising to oversee housing, education, medicine, the economy, [the] currency, a minimum income, food, water, land, and the list goes on. The government become a parent, and the citizens are dependents. The government in this role becomes a monstrous juggernaut of bureaucracy, devouring taxes and trying to regulate every detail of life." And they definitely want to regulate the church and silence its proclamation.
In his book The Glorious Body of Christ, Kuiper wrote, "Our age is one of ecclesiastical passivism. . . . When a church ceases to be militant it also ceases to be a church of Jesus Christ. . . . A truly militant church stands opposed to the world both without its walls and within. . . . Time and again in its history the church has found it necessary to assert its sovereignty over against usurpations by the state." And Kuiper gave some biblical examples, like when King Saul or King Uzziah usurped the priesthood, stating, "In both cases a representative of the state was severely punished for encroaching [on] the sovereignty of the church."
"Lord Macaulay of England summed up the Puritan reputation this way" [(Cantrell)]. He said of the Puritans, "He bowed himself in the dust before his Maker; [as] he set his foot on the neck of his king." Kuiper says, "Ours is an age of state totalitarianism. All over the world statism is [rising] . . . . In consequence, in many lands the church finds itself utterly at the mercy of the state whose mercy often proves cruelty, while in others the notion is rapidly gaining ground that the church exists and operates by the state's permission." We do not operate by the state's permission; we operate by the Lord's command.
Francis Schaeffer discusses this more in his fine book CHRISTIAN MANIFESTO:
CHAPTER 3 THE DESTRUCTION OF FAITH AND FREEDOM
And now it is all gone!
In most law schools today almost no one studies William Blackstone unless he or she is taking a course in the history of law. We live in a secularized society and in secularized, sociological law. By sociological law we mean law that has no fixed base but law in which a group of people decides what is sociologically good for society at the given moment; and wha they arbitrarily decide becomes law. Oliver Wendall Holmes (1841-1935) made totally clear that this was his position. Frederick Moore Vinson (1890-1953), former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, said, "Nothing is more certain in modern society than the principle that there are no absolutes." Those who hold this position themselves call it sociological law.
As the new sociological law has moved away from the original base of the Creator giving the "inalienable rights," etc., it has been natural that this sociological law has then also moved away from the Constitution. William Bentley Ball, in his paper entitled "Religious Liberty: The Constitutional Frontier," says:
i propose that secularism militates against religious liberty, and indeed against personal freedoms generally, for two reasons: first, the familiar fact that secularism does not recognize the existence of the "higher law"; second, because, that being so, secularism tends toward decisions based on the pragmatic public policy of the moment and inevitably tends to resist the submitting of those policies to the "higher" criteria of a constitution.
This moving away from the Constitution is not only by court rulings, for example the First Amendment rulings, which are the very reversal of the original purpose of the First Amendment (see pp. 433, 434), but in other ways as well. Quoting again from the same paper by William Bentley Ball:
Our problem consists also, as perhaps this paper has well enough indicated, of more general constitutional delegation of legislative power and ultra vires. The first is where the legislature hands over its powers to agents through the conferral of regulatory power unaccompanied by strict standards. The second is where the agents make up powers on their own–assume powers not given them by the legislature. Under the first, the government of laws largely disappears and the government of men largely replaces it. Under the second, agents' personal "home-made law replaces the law of the elected representatives of the people.
Naturally, this shift from the Judeo-Christian basis for law and the shift away from the restraints of the Constitution automatically militates against religious liberty. Mr. Ball closes his paper:
Fundamentally, in relation to personal liberty, the Constitution was aimed at restraint of the State. Today, in case after case relating to religious liberty, we encounter the bizarre presumption that it is the other way around; that the State is justified in whatever actions, and that religion bears a great burden of proof to overcome that presumption.
It is our job, as Christian lawyers, to destroy that presumption at every turn.
As lawyers discuss the changes in law in the United States, often they speak of the influence of the laws involved in the reentrance of the southern states into the national government after the Civil War. These indeed must be considered. But they were not the reason for the drastic change in law in our country. This reason was the takeover by the totally other world view which never have given the form and freedom in government we have had in Northern Europe (including the United States). That is the central factor in the change.
It is parallel to the difference between modern science beginning with Copernicus and Galileo and the materialistic science which took over the last century. Materialistic thought would never have produced modern science. Modern science was produced on the Christian base. That is, because an intelligent Creator had created the universe we can in some measure understand the universe and there is, therefore, a reason for observation and experimentation to be pursued.
Then there was a shift into materialistic science based on a philosophic change to the materialistic concept of final reality. This shift was based on no addition to the facts known. It was a choice, in faith, to see things that way. No clearer expression of this could be given than Carl Sagan's arrogant statement on public television–made without any scientific proof for the statement–to 140 million viewers: "The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever was or ever will be." He opened the series, COSMOS, with this essentially creedal declaration and went on to build every subsequent conclusion upon it.
There is exactly the same parallel in law. The materialistic-energy, chance concept of final reality never would have produced the form and freedom in government we have in this country and in other Reformation countries. But now it has arbitrarily and arrogantly supplanted the historic Judeo-Christian Consensus that provided the base for form and freedom in government. The Judeo-Christian consensus gave greater freedoms than the world has ever known, but it also contained the freedoms so that they did not pound society to pieces. The materialistic concept of reality would not have produced the form-freedom balance, and now that it has taken over it cannot maintain the balance. It has destroyed it.
Will Durant and his wife Ariel together wrote The Story of Civilization. The Durants received the 1976 Humanist Pioneer Award. In The Humanist magazine of February 1977, Will Durant summed up the humanist problem with regard to personal ethics and social order: "Moreover, we shall find it no easy task to mold a natural ethic strong enough to maintain moral restraint and social order without the support of supernatural consolations, hopes, and fears."
Poor Will Durant! It is not just difficult, it is impossible. He should have remembered the quotation he and Ariel Durant gave from the agnostic Renan in their book The Lessons of History. According to the Durants, Renan said in 1866: "If Rationalism wishes to govern the world without regard to the religious needs of the soul, the experience of the French Revolution is there to teach us the consequences of such a blunder." And the Durants themselves say in the same context: "There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion."
Along with the decline of the Judie-Christian consensus we have come to a new definition and connotation of "pluralism." Until recently it meant that the Christianity flowing from the Reformation is not now as dominant in the country and in society as it was in the early days of the nation. After about 1848 the great viewpoints not shaped by Reformation Christianity. This, of course, is the situation which exists today. Thus as we stand for religious freedom today, we need to realize that this must include a general religious freedom from the control of the state for all religion. It will not mean just freedom for those who are Christians. It is then up to Christians to show that Christianityis the Truth of total reality in the open marketplace of freedom.
This greater mixture in the United States, however, is now used as an excuse for the new meaning and connotation of pluralism. It now is used to mean that all types of situations are spread out before us, and that it really is up to each individual to grab one or the other on the way past, according to the whim of personal preference. What you take is only a matter of personal choice, with one choice as valid as another. Pluralism has come to mean that everything is acceptable. This new concept of pluralism suddenly is everywhere. There is no right or wrong; it is just a matter of your personal preference. On a recent SIXTY MINUTES program on television, for example, the questions of euthanasia of the old and the growing of marijuana as California's largest paying crop were presented this way. One choice is as valid as another. It is just a matter of personal preference. This new definition and connotation of pluralism is presented in many forms, not only in personal ethics, but in society's ethics and in the choices concerning law,
Now I have a question. In these shifts that have come in law, where have the Christian lawyers been? I really ask you that. The shift has come gradually, but it has only come to its peak in the last 40 or 50 years. Where have the Christian lawyers been? Surely the Christian lawyers should have been the ones to have sounded the trumpet clear and loud, not just in bits and pieces but looking at the totality of what was occurring. Now, a nonlawyer like myself believes I have a right to feel let down because the Christian lawyers did not blow the trumpets clearly between, let us say, 1940 and 1970.
When I wrote HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE? From 1974 to 1976 I worked out of a knowledge of secular philosophy. I moved from the results in secular philosophy, to the results in liberal theology, to the results in the arts, and then I turned to the courts, and especially the Supreme Court. I read Oliver Wendell Holmes and others, and I must say, I was totally appalled by what I read. It was an exact parallel to what i had already known so well from my years of study in philosophy, theology, and the other disciplines.
In the book and film series HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE? I used the Supreme Court abortion case as the clearest illustration of arbitrary sociiological law. But it was only the clearest illustration. The law is shot through with this kind of ruling. It is similar to choosing Fletcher's situational ethics and point to it as the clearest illustration of how our society now functions with no fixed ethics. This is only the clearest illustration because in many ways our society functions on unfixed, situational ethics. The abortion case in law is exactly the same. It is only the clearest case. Law in this country has become situational law, using the term Fletcher used for his ethics. That is, a small group of people decide arbitrarily what, from their viewpoint, is for the good of society at that precise moment and they make it law, binding the whole society by their personal arbitrary decisions.
But of course! What would we expect? These things are the natural, inevitable results of the material-energy, humanistic concept of the final basic reality. From the material-energy, chance concept of final reality, final reality is, and must be b it nature, silent as to values, principles, or any basis for law. There is no way to ascertain "the ought:" from "the is." Not only should we have known what this would have produced, but on the basis of this viewpoint of reality, we should have recognized that there are no other conclusions that this view could produce. It is a natural result of really believing that the basic reality of all things is merely material-energy, shaped into its present form by impersonal chance.
No, we must say that the Christians in the legal profession did not ring the bell, and we are indeed very, very far down the road toward a totally humanistic culture. At this moment we are in a humanistic culture, but we are happily not in a totally humanistic culture. But what we must realize is that the drift has been all in this direction. if it is not turned around we will move very rapidly into a totally humanistic culture.
The law, and especially the courts, is the vehicle to force this total humanistic way of thinking upon the entire population.This is what has happened. The abortion law is a perfect example. The Supreme Court abortion ruling invalidated abortion lawsin all fifty states, even though it seems clear that in 1973 the majority of Americans were against abortion. It did not matter. The Supreme Court arbitrarily ruled that abortion was legal, and overnight they overthrew the state laws and forced their will on the majority, even though their ruling was arbitrary both legally and medically. Thus law and the courts became the vehicle for forcing a totally secular concept on the population.
Thank you so much for your time. I know how valuable it is. I also appreciate the fine family that you have and your commitment as a father and a husband. I also respect you for putting your faith in Christ for your eternal life. I am pleading to you on the basis of the Bible to please review your religious views concerning abortion. It was the Bible that caused the abolition movement of the 1800's and it also was the basis for Martin Luther King's movement for civil rights and it also is the basis for recognizing the unborn children. I wanted to encourage you to investigate the work of Dr. Bernard Nathanson who like you used to be pro-abortion. I also want you to watch the You Tube series WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE? by Francis Schaeffer and Dr. C. Everett Koop. Also it makes me wonder what our the moral climate Of our nation is when we concentrate more on potential mistakes of the police and we let criminals back on the street so fast! Our national was founded of LEX REX and not REX LEX!
Everette Hatcher III, 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002, ph 501-920-5733,
PS: In this series of letters John MacArthur covers several points. In the first letter, he quotes you saying that the greatest threat to America—he said on one occasion—is systemic racism, which doesn't exist; he said white supremacy, which doesn't exist with any power; and then he said global warming, which doesn't exist either, and if it does, God's in charge of it.
In reality the greatest threat to this nation is the government, the government. And I want to show you how we are to understand that. Turn to Romans 13
In the 2nd letter, Dr. MacArthur noted When government turns the divine design on its head and protects those who do evil and makes those who do good afraid, it forfeits its divine purpose
In the 3rd letter Dr. MacArthur noted The world is the enemy of the gospel. The world is the enemy of the church. I pointed out that this manifests itself today in the form of HUMANISM.
In the 4th letter Dr. MacArthur points out how much today the devil is having his way in our society and that the Bible predicts that these will get worse!
In the 5th letter Francis Schaeffer points out "The HUMANIST MANIFESTOS not only say that humanism is a religion, but the Supreme Court has declared it to be a religion. The 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins specifically defines secular humanism as a religion equivalent to theistic and other non theistic religions."
In the 6th letter Dr. MacArthur noted God has given government the sword, the power; and when they prostitute that power and they begin to punish those who do good and protect those who do evil, they wield that power against the people of God.
In the 7th letter Dr. MacArthur asserted, Throughout history, even in the Western world, people lived under what was called the divine right of kings. Kings were believed to have had a divine right. This was absolute monarchy. What broke that was basically the Reformers. The Reformers—a little phrase was "the law is king," not the man.
In the 8th letter Dr. MacArthur noted that today the United States "Government has already become the purveyor of wickedness. Government is a murderer, slaughtering millions of infants in abortion."
In the 9th letter the article
Judge gives preliminary OK to $3.5M settlement of IRS case is discussed about the 2013 lawsuit during the Barack Obama administration over treatment of conservative groups who said they were singled out for extra IRS scrutiny on tax-exempt status applications. Then Dr. MacArthur talks about persecution in the Book of Daniel.
"These are groups of law-abiding citizens who should have never had their First Amendment rights infringed upon by the IRS," Jenny Beth Martin, president of the Tea Party Patriots umbrella group, said Wednesday. "These are groups that want the government to be accountable."
The government has been used to persecuting people they don't like for centuries! Let me just share a portion of that sermon by John MacArthur with you and you can watch it on You Tube:
In the 10th letter Dr. MacArthur noted:
Francis Schaeffer, who died in 1984, says, "If [there's] no final place for civil disobedience, then the government has been made autonomous, and as such, it has been put in the place of the living God." And that point is exactly when the early Christians performed their acts of civil disobedience, even when it cost them their lives. "Acts of State which contradict God's [Laws] are illegitimate and acts of tyranny. Tyranny is ruling without the sanction of God. To resist tyranny is to honour God. . . . The bottom line is that at a certain point there is not only the right, but the duty to disobey the State."
Whatever Happened To The Human Race? | Episode 4 | The Basis for Human Dignity
Sunday Night Prime – Dr. Bernard Nathanson – Fr Groeschel, CFR with Fr …
Francis Schaeffer pictured above
Larry King had John MacArthur as a guest on his CNN program several times.
https://youtu.be/Tfq-maVMxiM
When Government Rewards Evil and Punishes Good
Al Mohler on Kermit Gosnell's abortion practice
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Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part U "Do men have a say in the abortion debate?" (includes the film SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS and editorial cartoon)
I have gone back and forth and back and forth with many liberals on the Arkansas Times Blog on many issues such as abortion, human rights, welfare, poverty, gun control and issues dealing with popular culture. Here is another exchange I had with them a while back. My username at the Ark Times Blog is Saline […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Francis Schaeffer, Prolife | Edit | Comments (0)
Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part T "Abortion is a dirty business" (includes video "Truth and History" and editorial cartoon)
"Sanctity of Life Saturday" Abortion supporters lying in order to further their clause? Window to the Womb (includes video ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE)
It is truly sad to me that liberals will lie in order to attack good Christian people like state senator Jason Rapert of Conway, Arkansas because he headed a group of pro-life senators that got a pro-life bill through the Arkansas State Senate the last week of January in 2013. I have gone back and […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Arkansas Times, Francis Schaeffer, Max Brantley, Prolife | Edit | Comments (0)
Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part D "If you can't afford a child can you abort?"Francis Schaeffer Quotes part 4 includes the film ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE) (editorial cartoon)
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SANCTITY OF LIFE SATURDAY "AngryOldWoman" blogger argues that she has no regrets about past abortion
March 30, 2013 – 1:29 am
Sometimes you can see evidences in someone's life of how content they really are. I saw something like that on 2-8-13 when I confronted a blogger that goes by the name "AngryOldWoman" on the Arkansas Times Blog. See below. Leadership Crisis in America Published on Jul 11, 2012 Picture of Adrian Rogers above from 1970′s […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Adrian Rogers, Arkansas Times, Prolife | Edit | Comments (0)
"Sanctity of Life Saturday" The Church Awakens: Whatever Happened to the Human Race? (includes the video ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE)
March 9, 2013 – 9:35 am
In the film series "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN RACE?" the arguments are presented against abortion (Episode 1), infanticide (Episode 2), euthenasia (Episode 3), and then there is a discussion of the Christian versus Humanist worldview concerning the issue of "the basis for human dignity" in Episode 4 and then in the last episode a close […]By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Francis Schaeffer, Prolife | Edit | Comments (0)
Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part H "Are humans special?" includes film ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE) Reagan: " To diminish the value of one category of human life is to diminish us all"
Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part G "How do moral nonabsolutists come up with what is right?" includes the film "ABORTION OF THE HUMAN RACE")
Taking on Ark Times Bloggers on various issues Part E "Moral absolutes and abortion" Francis Schaeffer Quotes part 5(includes the film SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS) (editorial cartoon)
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Francis Schaeffer's "How should we then live?" Video and outline of episode 8 "The Age of Fragmentation" (Schaeffer Sundays)
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Francis Schaeffer's "How should we then live?" Video and outline of episode 7 "The Age of Non-Reason" (Schaeffer Sundays)
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Francis Schaeffer's "How should we then live?" Video and outline of episode 6 "The Scientific Age" (Schaeffer Sundays)
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Francis Schaeffer's "How should we then live?" Video and outline of episode 5 "The Revolutionary Age" (Schaeffer Sundays)
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Francis Schaeffer's "How should we then live?" Video and outline of episode 2 "The Middle Ages" (Schaeffer Sundays)
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« "MUSIC MONDAY" THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN: The theme tune was performed by Lulu, composed by John Barry – returning to the series after a one film absence (George Martin had scored the preceding film Live and Let Die)!
RESPONDING TO HARRY KROTO'S BRILLIANT RENOWNED ACADEMICS!! Part 165 B Sir Bertrand Russell The 'Insufficient Evidence' objection can be traced back to Bertrand Russell. Asked what he would say if he found himself standing before God on the judgement day being asked, 'Why didn't you believe in me?,' Russell replied: 'I'd say, "Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence!" »

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
GUI applications need a way for the user to interact with them. In this lesson we'll show how to allow user input with TextField, and to launch an action with a Button.
Adding User Interaction
Adding the Output and a Button
Button Actions
There's a Lot Wrong with this code
It's Getting Busy
There's Way Too Much Coupling
What is Coupling, and Why is it Bad?
Where's the Coupling Here?
Fixing the Coupling and Holding to the Single Responsibility Principle
StringProperty???
createContents() Now Just Sets Up the Main VBox
All of the various Nodes Now Have Generic Names
All of the Builder Methods Have Meaningful Names
All of the Builder Methods Return Node or Region
The EventHandler in the Button is Just a Trigger to call setGreeting()
How to use the Button class.
Some principles of good programming
The Single Responsibility Principle
Avoiding excess coupling
How to organize your layout code to make it easy to understand
Two of the most common tools for user interaction and input are TextFields and Buttons. We're going to add both of these two our application to make it actually do something.
Now we are going to add some interaction to the application. We'll add a Button and put the output Label back on the screen. We'll set up the Button so that when it's clicked, it loads "Hello " plus the name into the output Label.
The code now looks like this:
TextField inputTextField = new TextField("");
HBox inputRow = new HBox(new Label("Name:"), inputTextField);
inputRow.setSpacing(6);
inputRow.setAlignment(Pos.CENTER);
Label outputLabel = new Label("");
Button actionButton = new Button("Hello");
actionButton.setOnAction(evt -> outputLabel.setText("Hello " + inputTextField.getText()));
VBox results = new VBox(20, inputRow, outputLabel, actionButton);
results.setAlignment(Pos.CENTER);
I've wrapped the entire content in a VBox, which presents the contained Nodes vertically stacked on the screen. Then I've added the Label for the output (called outputLabel), and the Button to trigger the work (called actionButton). An EventHandler was added to the actionButton to take an ActionEvent which will trigger an update on the contents of the outputLabel.
And the output looks almost like this:
I've put a green border around the outer VBox and the red border remains around the HBox.
There's something new in this code:
What's this all about?
It's best to think of a Button as a nothing more than a trigger for an action. You can do other things with them, but for now let's just stick to this simplest use.
Most of the JavaFX classes can trigger "Events". Events are a way for these classes to signal that something significant has happened to them. Maybe they've changed some kind of state, or received user input - these are things that cause Events to be fired. For every Event that can be triggered, you can define an EventHandler, which is a piece of code that will be executed when that Event is fired.
There are lots and lots of Events that are constantly fired in JavaFX and the vast majority of them have no associated EventHandler and won't cause anything to happen.
When you think of a Button as a trigger, then there is one type of Event that is supremely important, the "OnAction" Event. OnAction is fired when the user clicks and releases the mouse over the Button, or when the user hits the "Enter" key when the Button is "default" or has focus. In other words, when the Button is activated.
The way to set up an EventHandler for the OnAction event is to call Button.setOnAction(). The single parameter for this method is an EventHandler.
EventHandler is a functional interface that has a single method called handle(Event event). Since it's a functional interface, we can define it using a lambda function, which is what we've done in our code so far.
If you are treating a Button as nothing more than a trigger for an action, then you probably won't ever reference the Event that was fired in your EventHandler. But we still need to pass it in, as handle() expects it.
In this case, we're simply going to update the text in outputLabel, with a String that's built up of some static text and the name from our TextField.
It's important that you learn how to write clean, clear layout code or your applications will become very difficult to understand and maintain. Even with the smallest of applications, it's a good idea to get into the habit of making your layout code as clean as possible.
Let's take a look at the problems with the code we've written so far:
This code no longer follows the "Single Responsibility Principle". It does the following:
Populates the input row and configures its layout
Creates the output Label
Creates the Button
Defines the code which updates the output Label
It's often very easy to come up with a definition of your code that describes something that seems to be a "single responsibility", yet isn't really. In this case we have createContent(), which does one thing - creates the content. Except it actually does a lot of stuff, doesn't it?
"Single Responsibility" really refers to a direct responsibility. A method can "do" a lot of things by delegating them to other methods. Then its single responsibility is to bring them all together.
The trick is to break your code down into pieces which do one thing that can't be broken down any further, or where breaking down further would make the code less clear. Then you're following the "Single Responsibility Principle".
This is a big problem with our code, and something that we need to fix right away, before it gets out of hand.
Coupling is when components of your application rely on the implementations of other components of your application. This results in a situation where two or more components are dependent on the structure of each other, making it difficult to modify one component without needing to modify another component. And, if that second, dependent, component has other components that are dependent on it… You see where this goes.
Coupling is the thing that you need to fight every step of the way when you're building an application because it sneaks in almost every time you stop looking for it. So get into the habit of looking for coupling and avoiding it constantly.
actionButton calls inputTextField.getText()
This is a big problem. These two elements are now totally coupled. Let's say that inputTextField is changed to some other type of Node that doesn't have a getText() method. Maybe the application is intended to be used in a situation where there are a limited number of users, and the name is picked using a ComboBox, which doesn't have a getText() method. Then you'll need to update the Button as well.
actionButton calls outputLabel.setText()
This is the same type of coupling as above.
actionButton needs to access both outputLabel and inputTextField
These elements are coupled in the code. Any attempt to move the instantiation of either of these two Nodes into another method is going to cause trouble with actionButton.
The update of outputLabel happens inside the EventHandler definition.
The logic about updating the contents of the Label are now encapsulated inside the EventHandler. It's not the worst example of coupling, but it can be problematic.
All of the code is in the same scope
This is a direct result of violating the Single Responsibility Principle. Everything is in the same scope and references between elements of the screen are inter-related.
Let's look at some code that will do this:
private final StringProperty greeting = new SimpleStringProperty("");
private final StringProperty name = new SimpleStringProperty("");
VBox results = new VBox(20, createInputRow(), createOutputLabel(), createGreetingButton());
private Node createGreetingButton() {
Button results = new Button("Hello");
results.setOnAction(evt -> setGreeting());
private Node createInputRow() {
TextField textField = new TextField("");
textField.textProperty().bindBidirectional(name);
HBox hBox = new HBox(6, new Label("Name:"), textField);
hBox.setAlignment(Pos.CENTER);
return hBox;
private Node createOutputLabel() {
Label results = new Label("");
results.textProperty().bind(greeting);
private void setGreeting() {
greeting.set("Hello " + name.get());
The first thing you'll notice is that we've added two StringProperty's fields to the class. Together these two Properties are going to act as our "State" for the application. One of them, the name will hold whatever the user types into the TextField and the other will hold the greeting that will display in the output Label.
Putting these two Properties into the class allows all of the other coupling to be removed.
At a glance, you can now see that createContents() is going to create a VBox with 3 things centred in it: a place for input, a place for output and a Button.
This method still "creates the contents" for the screen, but it delegates the creation of the components to builder methods. You can see that the "Single Responsibility Principle" really refers to direct responsibility, and bringing together the results of several delegated responsibilities is, in fact, a single responsibility.
Since the layout of the screen has now been split into tiny, clearly named methods, there's no value in having meaningful variable names for the individual Nodes. The scope of each of these variables is so small now that there's no added clarity in having complicated names for them, and simple names like hBox should indicate to any reader that these have a limited scope.
On the other hand, the builder methods now have names like createInputBox() and createOutputLabel(). It's clear what they do, and makes it easy to find the method that you're interested in if you're reading, enhancing or modifying this code.
This is a very important concept to understand. If your builder method needs to return a very specific type of Node, then you're probably doing it wrong.
Let's take createOutputLabel() as an example. As the code stands, you could return a Label instead of a Node and it would work. But if you do that, then it's possible to something very Label specific, like set the font, inside of createContents(). That's a potential issue, and certainly a "code smell", because the configuration of the Label really belongs inside createOutputLabel().
Now let's say that you wanted to do something to the return value of createOutputLabel(). Perhaps you want to have the "Hello" in a different font from the name. The best way to do that might be to split the text between two Labels, and put them into an HBox and return the HBox.
Now you have a problem since createContents() is expecting a Label so that it can mess with its font. But you want to return an HBox instead. This means you have to refactor createContents() in order to change things that should just be the responsibility of createOutputLabel().
Even though the code in setGreeting() is just one line, now the action in the EventHandler has a name, "Set Greeting" which makes it easier to read the intent of the EventHandler at a glance.


One of the most well-known and well-loved duos in country music history, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton released 13 albums together over the course of 13 years. Making their debut as an act in 1967 after Wagoner invited Parton to be part of his popular weekly TV show, The Porter Wagoner Show, as well as his his traveling show, the country icons released dozens of beloved singles, ranging from upbeat love songs to heartbreaking ballads.
Although Parton and Wagoner parted ways in 1974 amidst strife and fighting, the two made peace and reunited later in life. And even though they didn't sing it together, one of Parton's most famous singles, "I Will Always Love You" was written about her longtime friendship and partnership with Wagoner.
Keep scrolling to check out The Boot's picks for Wagoner and Parton's Top 5 duets.
Originally recorded by Tom Paxton, "The Last Thing on My Mind" was the very first duet that Wagoner and Parton released together. Put out as a single in 1967, it gave the pair their first Top 10 song; the song hit No. 6 on the charts and established what would become one of country music's most beloved duos.
Released on Parton and Wagoner's album of the same name, "Say Forever You'll Be Mine" gave the pair a Top 5 country hit when it was released in 1975. Lyrics including "Troubled clouds may fill our skies / It might even rain awhile / But the rain will go away / There's always a brighter day" make for a sweet love song about sticking together through thick and thin.
"Just Someone I Used to Know"
Written by Jack Clement, "Just Someone I Used to Know" appears on Parton and Wagoner's 1970 album Porter Wayne and Dolly Rebecca. It was the fourth release from duo who had, by then, become a household name, but lyrics such as "When they ask who's in the picture, I say, 'Just someone I used to know,'" served as sad foreshadowing when, in 1974, Wagoner and Parton parted ways acrimoniously. Don't worry, though: They made peace and reunited before Wagoner's death; Parton even visited his bedside on the day he died.
"Making Plans" appears on Wagoner and Parton's final album of duets, Porter & Dolly, which was released in August of 1980. The simple yet stunning track illustrates the heartache of breaking up so beautifully that it's no surprise "Making Plans" gave Wagoner and Parton one of their biggest hits. The song reached No. 2 on the country charts, and Parton went on to re-record the song with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris for their award-winning 1987 album Trio.
In 1974, "Please Don't Stop Loving Me" gave Wagoner and Parton their only No. 1 hit as a duet with its upbeat melody and honest lyrics. "You're my inspiration, my purpose in life / When things go all wrong, you make them all right," sings Wagoner in one verse. "I would be useless if you ever leave / So please, oh please don't stop loving me." Desperate love has never sounded so good!
Which of Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton's Duets Is Your Favorite?
Share your pick for Parton and Wagoner's very best collaboration in the comments section!


I consider the developmental process of creating successful book illustrations as interdisciplinary. I was reading this article by Hana Hladikova about the process of successful children book illustration and I have found it to be an interesting process. First of all, when you're creating text and illustrations you have to be attuned to the age of your audience and what vocabulary/visuals they can comprehend. Therefore, maybe the illustrator will have to do research or talk with teachers that are around children of that age range daily. Then the illustrator will have a better insight on what those children can understand. Picture books can also entertain people who can't read, their power to inspire is vast!
Multidisciplinary work is also important in this process because in some situations, there is a writer and an illustrator working together to create a picture book. They have to collaborate on what picture would go best with the text or maybe even the other way around. Successful children's books have the ability to help children learn new vocabulary and important lessons, as well as contributing to children's imaginations. Honestly, with all the new technology and electronic reading devices, I believe that children's books are a valuable thing to have. I know as a kid I have learned a lot through reading and looking at pictures. One of my favorite book illustrators as a kid was Jan Brett (this is a Pinterest page of some of her unique illustrations).
The cover design of a children's book is one of the most important marketing tools that publishing industries use to gain business. The market is very competitive. This process is interdisciplinary because the illustrator has to collaborate with an art directors. This is very important because art directors can provide an educated opinion on the artwork. Art directors are useful because they have a different set of experience when it comes to viewing art and they look at it from a different perspective than the illustrator.
Creating a children's picture book is a long process that involves many people in different fields working together as a team. Lots of children's picture books are highly successful and children learn many valuable things from them.
Great example, and close to my heart– my first job was in the children's room at a public library, and I just adore children's books so much. This is a nice write-up of some of the facets and fields that go into the production of a book, and it was a smart choice for your success story! Plus who doesn't love the very hungry caterpillar??!
I love this post! Never before have I thought about the behind the scenes work that goes on in creating a children's book. You're ability to describe both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary components in this process is very sound. I think children and even adults that read to children, are blind to the depth a book like 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' holds. It's more than just a silly story and I'm so glad you uncovered that to remind people like me!
I would have never thought of illustration as interdisciplinary until I read this post. I also like how you included that an illustrator and a writer working together is multidisciplinary, great connection. The conclusion really summed up your post and ended it well.


text:
News Sports Lifestyle Opinion Hollogram Obituaries E-Edition Legals
Juárez officials ready to receive Pope Francis
Luis Carlos Lopez, María Cortés González and Lorena Figueroa
El Paso Times
EL PASO - It's finally official: Pope Francis will visit Juárez on Feb. 17.
The announcement Saturday morning was coordinated by officials in the Juárez and El Paso dioceses, as well as the Vatican.
"Our diocese of Ciudad Juárez is showing great joy for the coming visit of his holiness Pope Francis, who will be with us on Feb. 17, 2016," Juárez Bishop José Guadalupe Torres Campos said in Spanish during a news conference at the Seminario Conciliar de Ciudad Juárez. "It's a great occurrence, one that was impossible to image in the past and one that today becomes a reality."
The bishop said he has spoken with officials from the El Paso and Las Cruces dioceses and is expecting visitors from the neighboring cities.
During a news conference at the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, Bishop Mark J. Seitz said, "He's due to arrive at the (Juárez) airport at 10:30 a.m. and will have about 5,000 people there. There will be a small welcoming committee and I am very honored that the Bishop José Guadalupe Torres Campos has invited me and Bishop Oscar Cantú from Las Cruces to a be a part of it," he said.
"It shows how close we are with the Diocese of Juárez and the new bishop," he added.
The official announcement was made in Juárez on a day special to Mexico, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas.
Officials in Juárez said the pope was expected to arrive in the city at 10 a.m. When he arrives, the pope will be greeted by diocese officials, altar boys and children from the diocese. He will be at the airport for about 20 minutes, then travel to Cereso Estatal No. 3 prison, where he is scheduled to spend 90 minutes visiting with inmates, their families and the religious leaders who serve the prison.
The itinerary says he will meet a group of inmates in the prison yard and prison staff in the prison chapel.
State prison director Gonzalo Díaz Rojero said the prison has vetted 700 security personnel ahead of the pope's visit
"We are ready with the logistics and can guarantee the safety of the pope and all guests," he said.
From the prison, the pope will travel to Colegio de Bachilleres Gymnasium, where he will meet with about 3,600 employees and business leaders from the maquiladora industry. The noon meeting is scheduled to last an hour and 15 minutes.
The pope will then have a private lunch with officials from the Seminario Conciliar de Ciudad Juárez. The pope is set to be at the seminary for an hour and 40 minutes.
The pope is scheduled to celebrate a two-hour Mass at approximately 4 p.m. at the old fairgrounds next to Estadio Olimpico Benito Juárez.
About 220,000 people are expected to attend the Mass, and the Juárez Diocese will be in charge of distributing the free tickets to it.
The distribution date is pending, diocese officials said.
"I've heard that they debated on whether to find a place on the outskirts of Juárez where as many as would come would gather, but the pope wanted to celebrate a Mass at the border, close to the fence," Seitz said.
Seitz said the Diocese of El Paso is working to have a gathering at the time of the Mass on the El Paso side of the Border Freeway, but those details are still being developed.
Thousands of the faithful who don't make it to the Mass will still have the opportunity to see the pope during his visit.
"He will be traveling the streets of Juárez in his popemobile. We've heard various numbers in terms of the kilometers he will be actually passing — anywhere from 20 kilometers to 50, maybe 20 is one way — I haven't been able to confirm. But we know that he'll be on the streets a great deal in the region of Juárez and many will have the opportunity to see him," Seitz said.
The pope's longest route will be from the Mass at the old fairgrounds to Abraham González International Airport, during which the popemobile will travel approximately 12 miles.
At approximately 8 p.m. the pope is scheduled for a head of state send-off at the airport, where he will be greeted by religious leaders and Mexican officials, including President Enrique Peña Nieto.
During the news conference, the Juárez Diocese also unveiled the logo, theme song and the official social media page and website that have been established for the pope's visit. The website is at franciscoenjuarez.mx.
According to the website, the best way for people to catch a glimpse of the pope is by lining up along the pope's route, which will run mostly through Calle Panamericana, also known as Avenida Tecnológica.
Juárez Diocese officials said 100,000 volunteers are expected to help during the visit.
Diocese officials also established an account where people can donate to raise funds for the historic visit. They can donate to Bancomer account 0103042626. The account has been named "Visita Santo Padre," or "Holy Father's Visit."
Mexican government and health officials in Juárez said they are ready to help the Juárez Diocese.
"We are prepared to immediately begin working with the church," said Juárez Projects executive Carlos Castañeda, who is the local government's coordinator for the pope's visit.
He said the Juárez police, public works, street lighting and civil protection departments will be creating commissions and developing logistic plans to provide security for the pope and spectators, as well as to accommodate them at each stop of the pontiff's itinerary.
Chihuahua Attorney General Jorge Enrique González Nicolás said there will be at least 400 law enforcement officers from the three levels of government guarding the pope.
He said that staff from the Estado Mayor Presidencial, or the presidential guard, which is the institution charged with protecting and safeguarding the Mexican president, is already working in the city.
Last month, the presidential guard, along with the Juárez traffic department and other law enforcement officials, reviewed major streets in Juárez as part of the logistics for Francis' visit.
Also, a Vatican representative who coordinates pontifical trips toured Juárez in early November to assess any security and logistical issues, as well as to identify sites for the visit.
Francis is scheduled to visit Juárez five days after he arrives in Mexico.
Castañeda said the Juárez government cleaned up the 22-acre Mass area — both the former fairgrounds and the stadium's parking lot. The wall that divided the two already has been demolished.
Health officials also are developing a plan to provide health and emergency services to those attending the event.
The director of the Juárez Health Department, Hugo Staines, declined to provide specifics of the plan until after the official announcement.
But in a recent meeting with local and state health officials, Manuel Hidalgo Barraza, the head doctor of the Estado Mayor Presidencial, said that the area where Francis is set to celebrate Mass will be divided into 54 modules with as many as 5,000 people each.
In each of the modules, there will be two paramedics and two nurses to provide emergency services. Also, there will be a minihospital, shelters and intensive care units at each of the pope's stops, as well as biological, chemical and nuclear bunkers, he said.
He said that before the pope's visit to Juárez, there would be 45 ambulances available — two short from what the city currently has — to cover all of the pontiff's stops.
"Because of the emergency or complexity of the medial events that might happen, we should consider the support from Chihuahua, El Paso and other cities, because in an event of this characteristic we have to calculate always the worst scenario possible," Hidalgo Barraza said in the meeting, according to Norte newspaper.
Castañeda said the Juárez government team that is coordinating the visit will take into special consideration the recommendations of Chihuahua City's officials because of their experience with Pope John Paul II's visit in 1990.
He added that the Juárez team will share information with El Paso officials — if they ask — about the logistics plan in the city.
Although Francis' visit will be a massive one — possibly attracting as many as 2 million people — officials said they are not worried.
"We will have thousands of volunteers," Castañeda said.
The volunteers will come from the secular and religious communities in the region, which have already begun helping.
Groups of children met Monday at the Paso Del Norte in north Juárez to record a song that is expected to be played when Francis arrives in Juárez.
Welcoming messages to the pontiff with his photo also began appearing in late November on walls and billboards along the route of his motorcade.
Luis Carlos Lopez may be reached at 546-6381; lclopez@elpasotimes.com; @lclopez4 on Twitter.
María Cortés González may be reached at 546-6150; mgonzalez@elpasotimes.com; @EPTMaria on Twitter.
Lorena Figueroa may be reached at 546-6129; lfigueroa@elpasotimes.com; @LFigueroaEPT on Twitter
© 2021 www.alamogordonews.com. All rights reserved.


Fill out the form below to send your prayer concerns to the leaders of our church. You can also use this space to insert praises for an answered prayer.
Our church has a prayer list for those who have issues, sorrows, or life concerns for which there is a need felt for ongoing prayers on their behalf or for others over an extended period of time. The person's name or the family name is added to the list without any additional information. Members of the congregation pray for those on the list during each week that they remain on the list. If you would like to add yourself, or someone, or a family to the list please indicate that on your prayer request. If you have an anticipated duration for the need for prayer please let us know.
As we move forward along our Great Awakening Vitality journey you may be a prayerful resource if you remember our church in your prayers.
We strongly believe in the power and blessing of prayer.


Dermatology Associates offers a free consultation with our laser nurse to determine whether or not a patient is a good candidate for microdermabrasion. Microdermabrasion has been performed in Dermatology for many years. It is still one of the most popular procedures in cosmetic dermatology. At your consultation our nurse will explain the procedure benefits and help you decide if microdermabrasion will achieve your desired results. This procedure can improve many skin surface conditions by stripping old dead skin cells and stimulating new cells. By stimulating collagen production, microdermabrasion can gradually improve the appearance of skin texture with virtually no recovery period.
The microdermabrasion unit is a device that directs micronized crystals onto the skin. In the hands of an experienced technician, this stream of crystals can be used to abrade the outermost skin cells. A small vacuum removes the crystals along with the outermost layer of skin. It is the combination of the exfoliating and suctioning processes that produces the desired effect.
Patients who repeat the procedure not only benefit from an immediate refreshing of the skin but will gradually see additional textural improvement with each treatment. The procedure takes 15-20 minutes and produces a slight scratching sensation. Many patients describe the vacuuming sensation as a facial massage.
Microdermabrasion is a "no downtime" procedure. In fact, patients love how their skin feels and looks immediately after the procedure. There are no restrictions after the procedure except to use good sun protection. The nurse can review your current skin regimen products and decide if you should temporarily refrain from using them. Make-up can be applied immediately after this procedure.


Welcome to week #28! If this is your first time here…welcome! If you're a returning visitor, welcome back! As I mentioned last week, we're almost at the end of the 2011 calendar year. If you're still looking for ideas for a musician's Christmas (or other holiday) gift, then Targeting: Improvisation With Purpose would be an affordable and practical gift! The E-book version works great on mobile devices and the printed version is sturdy and sits nicely on a music stand. For more information, you can click on the link to the right or you can go to Jason Klobnak Music.
Last week we looked at how we can use minor lines over dominant chords/harmony. This week, we're going to look at how we can use some of our major lines over minor chords/harmony. Due to the structure of how most major licks or lines are built, they fit nicely over minor chords (especially over dorian minor). The 1, 3, 5 & 7 of the major line become the b7, 9th, 11th and 13th over the minor chord. This approach works nicely when you play your "major" line a whole step below the minor chord. For example, playing a C-major line over a Dmin7 chord.
Below are three examples of taking a typical major line that I might play over a Dmin7 chord. Notice how the lines still have the targeting principles mentioned in past week posts (but the targeting employed is targeting the Dmin7 harmony and not necessarily the implied major).
Try experimenting with some of your favorite major licks/lines and putting them over minor chords/harmony. This is not something that will work 100% of the time and you need to use your ears to decide if it fits or not. If it doesn't fit, ask yourself why and see if you can alter the line slightly to make it work over the changes.
I hope you've enjoyed this week's tip! Please share this tip (& blog) with your friends and colleagues on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, or any other site you're a contributor. For your convenience, there are links below that will allow you to quickly share. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back as the last couple of tips of the year are one's you wont want to miss!


Thailand has lifted a five-month ban on the video-sharing Web site YouTube after it agreed to block any video clips deemed offensive to the nation's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Information and Communications Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom this week instructed the Web site ban be lifted after YouTube owner Google installed filters to stop Thais from accessing clips insulting the 79-year-old monarch, a ministry official said.
Insulting royalty is a serious offence in Thailand.
YouTube said in May it had decided, after an agreement with the Thai government, to block some offending clips but it took several months to implement it.
Thailand then sent YouTube's management a list of 12 video clips it deemed offensive. Six of the clips were removed by their creators or because they violated YouTube's "code of service", YouTube said in a statement.
The first king-bashing clip appeared a few days after a 57-year-old Swiss man received a 10-year jail sentence for spraying graffiti on pictures of the king on his birthday in December -- a rare conviction of a foreigner.
Bhumibol, the world's longest-reigning monarch who has been on the throne for more than 60 years, has since granted a pardon and the Swiss man has been deported.
YouTube's response to Thailand's request spurred debates about freedom of expression on the Internet.
The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) said in an e-mail message that YouTube's move to deny Thais access to offending clips raised implications of its collusion with the country to censor a popular global platform.
"Any such collusion could potentially be open for abuse, and thereby only exacerbate concerns over free speech over the Internet," SEAPA said.
"The cooperation between Google/YouTube and the Thai government could conceivably become a template sought by other governments that have had run-ins with sensitive content on the video-sharing site," it said.


D.H. Pinnette & Sons, Inc. Maine Roofing Service is a seasoned, well-established company providing quality roofing services throughout the State of Maine and beyond. Daniel H. Pinnette founded this company in 1976 stemming from his experience and knowledge of diverse roof types. Since its inception, D.H. Pinnette & Sons, Inc., formerly known as Maine Roofing Service, has installed well over one million lineal feet of metal roofing on residential and commercial buildings throughout Maine and Northern New England.


text:
using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Windows.Data;

namespace Com.Ericmas001.Windows.Converters
{
    public class EnumMatchToBooleanConverter : IValueConverter
    {
        public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
        {
            if (value == null || parameter == null)
                return false;
            return value.ToString().Equals(parameter.ToString(), StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase);
        }

        public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
        {
            if (value == null || parameter == null)
                return null;
            return (bool)value ? Enum.Parse(targetType, parameter.ToString()) : null;
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub