text:
In praise of a secular society 3
Pat Condell speaks for us again.
Posted under Commentary, Islam, Muslims, Race, Videos by Jillian Becker on Monday, March 31, 2014
Tagged with Pat Condell, racism
An encomium for us 7
We have been strongly complimented by a comment on our Facebook page by Fidd Chewley.
(Visit his website Atheist Nexus, "The World's Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities" here.*)
We like it so much that we are reproducing it here on the front page of our website.
Where's the button I click to automatically "like" all your future posts?
I follow a handful of conservative atheist pages, and you stand out from the rest as one who posts much more often about the conservative viewpoint than general atheism. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the posts others make regarding atheism, they don't do much to distinguish themselves from each other. I also enjoy your no-BS, condensed presentation, cutting to the chase, unapologetic, and always sharp. Your posts always hit hard without resorting to cheap kookery. There are no "glancing blows", and your precision and consistency are metronomic. A+, 10/10!!
This is the type of page that could foster the recognition of atheism into the greater conservative movement, which has been ostensively claimed by theists. There is a great potential for synergy between politically-like theists and atheists demonstrated here that could actually help end the notion that belief in a god is a staple of American patriotism. This is the cutting-edge of the future of the movement in an increasingly atheistic America.
Thank you, Fidd!
*We would point out – perhaps unnecessarily – that we do not share Fidd's opinions on all issues, but we're in full agreement with him that we're doing a good job.
Posted under Atheism, Commentary, Conservatism by Jillian Becker on Sunday, March 30, 2014
Tagged with Fidd Chewley, TAC complimented
Obama's tyrants, their hokum, and their corruption 4
Fifteen of EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee members have received $180.8 million in EPA grants since 2000. One CASAC panelist (Ed Avol of USC) received $51.7 million!
Repeat: $51.7 million dollars. Whatever did the man do to deserve that much tax-payers' money? What unique skill has he acquired and uses to the enormous benefit of America or all mankind?
Read on to find out.
This is from Townhall, by Paul Driessen:
The Obama Environmental Protection Agency recently slashed the maximum allowable sulfur content in gasoline from 30 parts per million to 10 ppm. The agency claims its new "Tier 3" rule will bring $7 billion to $19 billion in annual health benefits by 2030. "These standards are a win for public health, a win for our environment and a win for our pocketbooks," EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy insists.
Note that name. She is one of the most dangerous sub-tyrants in the Obama administration.
It's all hokum. Like almost everything else emanating from EPA these days, the gasoline regulations are a case study in how America's economy, jobs, living standards, health and welfare are being pummeled by secretive, deceptive, and indeed fraudulent and corrupt government practices.
Since the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, America's cars have eliminated some 99% of pollutants that once came out of tailpipes, notes air quality expert Joel Schwartz. Since 2004, under Tier 2 rules, refiners have reduced sulfur in gasoline from an average of 300 ppm to 30 ppm – a 90% drop, on top of pre-2004 reductions. In addition, because newer cars start out cleaner and stay cleaner throughout their lives, fleet turnover is reducing emissions by 8 to10 percent per year, steadily improving air quality.
The net result, says a 2012 Environ International study, is that ground-level ozone concentrations will fall even more dramatically by 2022. Volatile organic pollutants will plummet by 62%, carbon monoxide by 51% and nitrous oxides by 80% – beyond reductions already achieved between 1970 and 2004.
EPA (which once promised to be ultra-transparent) claims its rules will add less than a penny per gallon to gasoline prices; but it won't say how it arrived at that estimate. Industry sources say the Tier 3 rules will require $10 billion in upfront capital expenditures, an additional $2.4 billion in annual compliance expenses, significant increases in refinery energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, an extra 5-9 cents per gallon in manufacturing costs, which will certainly hit consumers at the pump.
But regardless of their ultimate cost, the rules will reduce monthly ozone levels by just 1.2 parts per billion during rush hour, says Environ. That's equivalent to 12 cents out of $100 million or 1.2 seconds out of 32,000 years. These minuscule improvements could not even have been measured by equipment existing a couple decades ago.
Their contribution to improved human health will be essentially zero.
Not so, say the EPA, Sierra Club and American Lung Association (ALA). The rules will reduce asthma in "the children," they insist. However, asthma incidences have been increasing, while air pollution has declined – demonstrating that the pollution-asthma connection is a red herring. The disease is caused by allergies, a failure to expose young children to sufficient allergens to cause their immune systems to build resistance to airborne allergens, and lack of sufficient exercise to keep lungs robust. Not surprisingly, a Southern California study found no association between asthma hospitalizations and air pollution levels.
Moreover, EPA paid the ALA $20 million between 2001 and 2010. No wonder it echoes agency claims about air quality and lung problems. The payments continue today, while EPA also funnels millions to various environmentalist pressure groups – and even to "independent" EPA scientific review panels – that likewise rubber stamp too many EPA pollution claims, studies and regulatory actions.
As Ron Arnold recently reported in The Washington Examiner, 15 of EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee members have received $180.8 million in EPA grants since 2000. One CASAC panelist (Ed Avol of USC) received $51.7 million!
The seven CASAC executive committee members pocketed $80.2 million. Imagine Big Oil paying that kind of cash to an advisory group, and calling it "independent." The news media, government and environmentalists would have a field day with that one.
The Clean Air Act, Information Quality Act, Executive Order 12866 and other laws require that agencies assess both the costs and benefits of proposed regulations, adopt them only if their benefits justify their costs, and even determine whether a regulation is worth implementing at all. However, EPA and other agencies systematically violate these rules, routinely inflate the alleged benefits of their rules, and habitually minimize or even ignore their energy, economic, health and social costs.
Reporting on a hearing held by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, Arnold noted that CASAC members say they weren't even aware that they are obligated to advise EPA on both benefits and costs. Former EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Jeff Holmstead testified, "As far as I know, CASAC never fulfilled this requirement as it relates to the ozone standard or any other" rule.
Former CASAC chairman Dr. Roger McClellan told Rep. Smith he did not think the panel "ever advised EPA to take account of the role of socioeconomic factors, unemployment or other risk factors" adversely affecting people's health. Another former CASAC member testified that the advisory committee was not even "allowed to discuss any of the adverse consequences" associated with new rulemakings.
EPA regulations impose countless billions of dollars in annual impacts on the US economy, according to studies by the Heritage Foundation, Competitive Enterprise Institute and Government Accountability Office. Estimates of total compliance costs for all federal regulations range to nearly $2 trillion per year. Some may bring benefits, but many or most also inflict significant harm on human health.
They mean millions of layoffs, far fewer jobs created, and steadily declining quality of life for millions of Americans, who cannot heat and cool their homes properly, pay the rent and mortgage, or save for retirement. …
In another example, EPA justifies its onerous carbon dioxide regulations by asserting that Earth's climate is highly sensitive to C02, hypothesizing every conceivable carbon cost, and imputing huge monetized damages from hydrocarbon use and CO2 emissions ($36/ton of CO2 emitted). It completely ignores even the most obvious and enormous job, health and welfare benefits of using fossil fuels; even the benefits of higher carbon dioxide levels for food crops, forests and grasslands; and even the harmful effects that these regulations are having on energy prices and reliability, and thus people's jobs, health and welfare.
The EPA, ALA and CASAC likewise insist that new Mercury and Air Toxic Standards for coal-fired power plants will bring huge health benefits. However, the mercury risks were hugely overblown, the proclaimed dangers from fine particulates were contradicted by EPA's own illegal experiments on human subjects – and the agency never assessed the health and welfare damage that the MATS rules will impose by causing the loss of 200,000 jobs and 23,000 megawatts of reliable, affordable electricity by 2015.
So who is Ed Avol, and what did he do to earn $51.7 million of your money?
He is Professor of Clinical Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, specializing in "respiratory health, air pollution and the public health impacts of traffic".
Here he is.
And what did he do?
He rubber-stamped the tyrannous rulings of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Citoyons – is this not cause, and is it not time, to rebel?
Posted under Climate, Commentary, corruption, Environmentalism, Ethics, government, Health, Industry, News, Progressivism, Socialism, Technology, tyranny, United States by Jillian Becker on Sunday, March 30, 2014
Tagged with American Lung Association (ALA), Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC), Competitive Enterprise Institute, Dr. Roger McClellan, Environ International, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Heritage Foundation, Paul Driessen, Professor Ed Avol, Rep. Lamar Smith, Ron Arnold, Sierra Club, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
A man, a senator – and president to boot? 42
We think Senator Ted Cruz would be the best GOP candidate for the 2016 presidential election. We like what he says, what he stands for. He is strong, brilliant, confident – and right. And he has the presence, the personality, the manner a president should have. In fact we like everything about him – except of course his religiousness, but that doesn't seem to be having any adverse effect on his political thinking. Here he is making his principles plain in an interview with Genevieve Wood of The Foundry (part of the Heritage network). The principles he states are ours too.
We know that not all our regular readers agree with our opinion of Senator Cruz.
We hope those who do not agree will tell us why.
Posted under Commentary, Conservatism, government, liberty, United States, Videos by Jillian Becker on Saturday, March 29, 2014
Tagged with Genevieve Wood, Presidential election 2016, Ted Cruz, The Foundry, The Heritage Foundation
This post has 42 comments.
Russia sniffing under the door 1
Ukraine is a far away country of which we know nothing, and Democrats and libertarians can see no reason why Americans should care if Russia swallows it.
But Americans need to take notice that Russia is also sniffing under the door of their homeland.
This is from Front Page by Joseph Klein.
Russia is also on the march far from its immediate neighborhood and much closer to the United States. According to Gen. James Kelly, commander of U.S. Southern Command, who discussed his concerns regarding the increased presence of Russia in Latin America at a Senate hearing earlier this month, there has been a "noticeable uptick in Russian power projection and security force personnel. It has been over three decades since we last saw this type of high-profile Russian military presence."
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced last month plans to build military bases in .. Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua …
Russia is already a major arms supplier to Venezuela, whose navy has conducted joint maneuvers with Russian ships. At least four Russian Navy ships visited Venezuela last August …
"Two Russian Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers flew last October from an airbase in southwestern Russia and landed in Venezuela in routine exercise," Russia's Defense Ministry announced … "The nuclear-capable bombers, which took off from the Engels airbase in the Volga region, flew over the Caribbean, the eastern Pacific and along the southwestern coast of the North American continent, and landed at Maiquetia airfield in Venezuela."
Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela, is so enamored of Putin that he expressed support last year for the Russian president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. During a visit to Moscow by Maduro last summer, Maduro and Putin reaffirmed, in Putin's words, "their wish for continuing their course towards strategic cooperation in all sectors".
Putin was the first Russian president to visit Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Pravda quoted Putin as declaring in 2012 that Russia gained the consent of the Cuban leadership to place "the latest mobile strategic nuclear missiles 'Oak' on the island", supposedly as a brush back against U.S. actions to create a buffer zone near Russia.
Last month, according to a report by Fox News Latino, "the intelligence-gathering ship Viktor Leonov docked in Havana's harbor without warning". It was reportedly armed with 30mm guns and anti-aircraft missiles.
Left-wing Argentinian President Cristina Fernández is intent on forging closer relations with Russia, inviting Russia to invest in fuel projects. In return for Russia's support of Argentina's quest to annex the Falkland Islands, Fernández supported Putin's grab of Crimea. Crimea "has always belonged to Russia," she said, just as the Falkland Islands have "always belonged to Argentina". …
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa praised Russia as a "great nation" during a visit to Moscow last October after Putin pledged to invest up to $1.5 billion into new domestic energy projects in Ecuador. Correa said Ecuador was also interested in buying Russian military equipment.
Brazil is planning to purchase short-to-medium-range surface-to-air Pantsir S1 missile batteries and Igla-S shoulder-held missiles from Russia. It has already bought 12 Mi-35 attack helicopters. This is all part of what Brazil views as a growing strategic relationship with Russia, as Brazil leads efforts to counter U.S. electronic surveillance that included alleged spying on Brazilian citizens. …
After Daniel Ortega, the leader of the Sandinista revolution, returned to power in Nicaragua in 2007, Russia and Nicaragua have moved in the direction of a strategic economic and military relationship. In October 2013, for example, Nicaragua and Russia signed a memorandum of international security cooperation. Russia's Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev noted during his visit to Nicaragua that "Nicaragua is an important partner and friend of Russia in Latin America," pointing to the coincidence of views of the two countries' authorities "on many issues". For his part, Ortega said: "We are very grateful and very much appreciate the Russian people's support of our country." Ortega welcomed the arrival of two Russian strategic bombers Tupolev Tu-160. …
Nicaragua's parliament has ratified a cabinet resolution allowing Russian military divisions, ships and aircraft to visit the republic during the first half of 2014 for experience sharing and training of military personnel … Furthermore, the parliament has approved the participation of Russian military personnel in joint patrols of the republic's territorial waters in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean from January 1 through June 30, 2015.
Russia is also forging a closer relationship with El Salvador, which has been led by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) that arose out of a left-wing guerrilla movement from the country's 1979-1992 civil war. Leftist ex-guerrilla Sanchez Ceren has just won the presidential election. He can be expected to build on the Federal Law On Ratification of the Agreement on the Foundations of Relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of El Salvador, signed by Vladimir Putin in November 2012. It was the first interstate agreement between the two countries since they established diplomatic relations in 1992. In fact, given Ceren's background – one of five top guerrilla commanders during the civil war that left 76,000 dead and over 12,000 missing – we can expect a more avowedly anti-U.S. government that will welcome Russia's outstretched arms. After all, the FMLN leadership during the civil war described its own ideology as "Marxism-Leninism".
Has Putin ever renounced the Marxist-Leninist ideology of the KGB, in which he served? He thinks the fall of the Soviet Union was a great tragedy, so the answer is "probably not". But we guess that his main reason for regretting the passing of the USSR is that it was, or seemed to be for the greater part of some 70 years, a mighty power, and he is more concerned with extending Russian power again, recreating a Russian empire, than with the old failed Bolshevik ideology. South American leftist leaders may want to cozy up to Putin because they enjoy the Gemütlichkeit of a shared love of Communism, and he is obviously happy to have them hug him for any reason, but his motive in exploiting their sentimental friendship is to achieve imperial ends. He probably hates the fact that the West won the Cold War. He surely cannot hope to reverse that outcome. It would be an insane dream – if the US were not under the presidency of Barack Obama. Putin – and Iran, and China – can do a lot of damage to the world and the US in the three years left of Obama's feeble leadership.
Posted under Commentary, Cuba, Russia, South America, Soviet Union, United States, Venezuela, War by Jillian Becker on Friday, March 28, 2014
Tagged with Argentinian President Cristina Fernández, Crimea, Daniel Ortega, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front ("FMLN"), Gen. James Kelly, Joseph Klein, President Nicolas Maduro of Venzuela, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Russia's military ties with South American states, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Ukraine
This post has 1 comment.
What do you know? 8
The students in this video from CNS News are all apparently over 18 so they have the vote. One of them says she is taking a course in politics. None of them knows who the first president of the United States was. Two of them cannot divide 100 by 50 – or do not know (like the president) that there are 50 states in the Union. They're all being put through the expensive travesty called a university education.
(Hat-tip Robert Kantor)
Posted under Commentary, education, United States, Videos by Jillian Becker on Thursday, March 27, 2014
Tagged with The ignorance of college students
How will it be? 23
Contrary to Marxian dogma, no historical development is inevitable. And all actions have unintended consequences. So prophecy is a risky enterprise.
But we have to calculate the probable outcomes of what we do.
Daniel Greenfield has prophesied – plausibly, we think – what will happen when America ceases to be the predominant power in the world.
International organizations will be good for little except sucking up the last drops of wealth and prestige of the United States. It will be a chaotic place with everyone out for themselves. …
There will be three post-ideological powers, no longer global in scope, and one worldwide ideological alliance.
The United States, Russia and China are post-ideological states. Russia and China have abandoned Communism. The United States is even abandoning nationalism; to say nothing of capitalism, democracy or freedom. Its rulers cling to scraps of global leftist ideology that isolate them from their own people.
Russia and China are run by powerful corrupt elites who emerged from the old Communist order to build economic oligarchies enforced by the ruthless use of force. The United States is increasingly run by an oligarchy of ideological bureaucrats, corrupt technocrats and leftist academics that has a distant resemblance to the USSR and the PRC; but its long march through the institutions hasn't turned fully totalitarian yet. That may be less than a generation away.
Russia, China and the United States are all demographically unstable. Russia and the United States are both on track to become majority-minority countries. China's demographic disaster will be the outcome of its one child policies, gender abortion and its war on the countryside. The United States will probably weather its demographic problems better than Russia or China, because the former faces a fatal Muslim demographic takeover and the latter a conflict that will tear its society apart, but like Russia and China, the demographic crisis in the United States will be exacerbated by the lack of common bonds to see it through a period of social stress.
Russia and China will fall back into their own history, collapse and isolationism for China, barbarian rule for Russia. The United States has no such history to fall back on and its elites have abandoned any meaningful national identity that doesn't rely on pop culture and liberal pieties.
There is little to unify Russia or China … The KGB oligarchs of Russia and the Communist princes of China are as globalist as any Eurocrat. They have few national commitments. Their goals are wealth and power for their families and associates.
Unfortunately there is even less to unify the United States after the left embraced multiculturalism at the expense of exceptionalism. The erosion of everything from free speech to the free market has reduced the American Dream from individual opportunity to vulgar exhibitionism. Uncontrolled immigration has imported masses of hostile populations everywhere from Nashville to Minneapolis radically changing quintessentially American cultures and replacing them with balkanized minority coalitions who have little in common except a mutual hostility against the United States.
In contrast to the cultural vulnerabilities of the three powers, Islam, the defining global ideological alliance, lacks a superstate as the center of its empire, though it has many state bases, but enjoys the allegiance of a worldwide population larger than any of the three powers. Demographic projections continue to favor the growth of Islam over China, Russia and the United States.
It would be a mistake however to think that China, Russia and the United States are in a conflict with Islam. While Islam is in a conflict with them, each of the three powers divides Muslims into three groups; those Muslims that are within the "empire", part of China, Russia's Eurasian Union or the United States, those that are outside the "empire" but allied to it, e.g. Syria for Russia, Saudi Arabia for the United States and Pakistan for China, and those that are its separatist or terrorist enemies.
Instead of coming to terms with a global struggle with Islam, each power largely concentrates on fighting Muslim separatist or terrorist groups that destabilize its sphere of influence while arming, funding and supporting those Muslim separatist and terrorist groups that destabilize rival powers.
It is therefore simplistic to act as if America, Russia and China have a common interest in fighting Islam. While that may be true, that is not how the leaders of the three powers see it. Putin fights some Islamists while incorporating others into his allied clergy and helping still others go nuclear. The United States bombs the Taliban, but would never consider bombing their paymasters in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.
Muslim terrorists operate in all three powers, but are dismissed as unrepresentative aberrations. That is wishful thinking, but empires are shaped to fight their own kind. Islam, like Communism, is something different. It is an ideology and post-ideological powers … are poorly adapted to fighting it. Instead many of their elites secretly admire its dedication. …
Like a hyena trotting after prey, Islam is a cultural carrion eater consuming the skills and knowledge of superior civilizations to sustain its warlordism …
The collapse of the Pax Americana under Obama has freed up Russia and China to begin their campaigns of territorial expansionism. Obama's failure to deter Russia in Ukraine will encourage China to use force as a solution to territorial disputes in the South China Sea. These events will wake the world from the dream of the Pax Americana in which American power kept the peace in much of the developed world.
The end of the Pax Americana also means the end of international law. Instead of a post-American world ushering in a stable multilateral order … no single power will predominate, but … any country or militia that can seize a piece of land or a natural resource will go ahead and do so. …
The First World may wake up to discover that it is once again living under Third World rules.
Those most immediately affected by the decline of the United States will be the Asian and European countries that outsourced their defense to the United States after WW2. Japan has a limited time in which to turn around its economy, demographics and military to be able to face down China.
Europe was able to turn inward without having to make the hard choices and its elites were even able to drag the United States into implementing their vision internationally. But that is coming to an end. …
The European Union may implode in the coming years, but whether it does or does not, Western Europe will continue to be defined by the quarrels between the UK, France and Germany. The various other players have never been anything other than places to put factories, launder money or import cheap labor from. …
Europe, unlike the United States, has not been known for its altruism, and its nations face a crippling combination of problems. Europe suffers from Japanese birth rates, Russian demographics, Chinese corruption and American economics (though it would be more accurate to say that America suffers from EU economics.) Despite its size and population, Europe does not have an optimistic future. …
Russia will not stop with Ukraine and NATO will dissolve, officially or unofficially. It may stay around and limit itself to providing humanitarian aid internationally while expelling Poland and any countries that Russia is likely to want to add to its collection. …
The budding Russian empire will find that fighting a new wave of Muslim insurgencies in formerly peaceful republics will consume too much of its time and energy. The soldiers who will march on the scattered pieces of the old red empire will be Muslims and the Eurasian Union will become a Muslim empire with a handful of churches. Like Rome, its fall will come at the hands of its own barbarians.
Iraq and Afghanistan will not prove to be as psychologically devastating to Americans as Vietnam, but they will help discourage further deployments overseas. Severe military budget cuts and a campaign against the warrior culture will leave the military in no shape for anything except peacekeeping missions.
The United States will face escalating domestic unrest, less from militias than from gangs, terrorism and the economic collapse of entire cities. It will no longer be in a position to act abroad.
None of this has to happen, but it will if the same bad decisions continue to be made.
If eight years of Obama are topped by eight years of Hillary, this is where we will end up.
The writer points out that if the civilized world fails to resolve its "economic, demographic and military crises … the civilization in which we have grown up and which we have known all our lives will die and a long interregnum of darkness will follow in its wake".
Yes, that's all too probable, and profoundly horrible.
But it may be that an entirely different kind of civilization will emerge. That technologies – already in the womb of time – will set the individual freer than he could ever possibly have been before. That governments will lose power. That social elites without technological skills will lose credibility. That law-making will be done by new procedures, and the nature of law and the manner of its enforcement will change to fit new ideas of how liberty may be protected. That religion – so outworn and squalid a thing, a mere relic of an ignorant past – will wither away, perceived at last to be worse than useless.
There now, we ourselves have ventured beyond speculation and touched on prophecy. And because prophecy cannot be accurate, we are not likely to be right. But by the same token, we may not be entirely wrong.
Posted under Britain, Capitalism, China, Commentary, communism, corruption, Defense, Demography, Eastern Europe, Europe, France, Germany, History, immigration, Islam, jihad, liberty, Marxism, NATO, Philosophy, Progressivism, Race, Russia, Soviet Union, Terrorism, tyranny, United Kingdom, United States, War by Jillian Becker on Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Tagged with Daniel Greenfield, The post-Pax Americana world
Britain – a pussy nation? 4
"Conscience does make cowards of us all,"
– says Hamlet.
Is it conscience – deriving from the wrong belief that Britain was bad for the nations it ruled under its imperium until the middle of the twentieth century – that has transformed the British bulldog into a pussycat?
These days British officials are so afraid of being called nasty names, they would rather destroy themselves and their country than risk provoking some name-calling by their enemies. (As a result their friends have cause to call them such names as cowards, fools, pussycats.)
British authorities enforcing political correctness have allowed Muslim paedophile gangs to sexually abuse children with impunity for more than two decades, according to a comprehensive new study that examines the harrowing epidemic of child grooming in towns and cities across Britain.
The meticulously documented report, entitled, Easy Meat: Multiculturalism, Islam and Child Sex Slavery, shows how officials in England and Wales were aware of rampant child grooming — the process by which sexual predators befriend and build trust with children in order to prepare them for abuse — by Muslim gangs since at least 1988.
Rather than taking steps to protect British children, however, police, social workers, teachers, neighbors, politicians and the media deliberately downplayed the severity of the crimes perpetrated by the grooming gangs in order to avoid being accused of "Islamophobia" or racism.
The conspiracy of silence was not broken until November 2010, when it was leaked that police in Derbyshire had carried out an undercover investigation — dubbed Operation Retriever — and arrested 13 members of a Muslim gang for grooming up to 100 underage girls for sex.
So there are still strong Britons who know right from wrong. Something happened in Derbyshire, among the police, that could restore an iota of national pride.
Some journalists on the Times were inspired (perhaps) by the Derbyshire police to do their job of reporting what was happening in their country.
Shortly thereafter, the Times of London published the results of a groundbreaking investigation into the sexual exploitation and internal trafficking of girls in the Midlands and the north of England. In January 2011, the newspaper reported that in 17 court cases since 1997 in which groups of men were prosecuted for grooming 11 to 16 year old girls, 3 of the 56 men found guilty were Asian, 50 of them Muslim, and three were white.
In September 2012, the Times published another exposé that revealed the hidden truth about the sale and extensive use of British children for sex.
The article showed that organized groups of Muslim men were able to groom, pimp and traffic girls across the country with virtual impunity. Although offenders were identified to police, they were not prosecuted. A child welfare expert interviewed by the newspaper said the government's reluctance to tackle such street grooming networks represented "the biggest child protection scandal of our time."
So Soeren Kern reports and comments at Gatestone. We are quoting him, and his quotations, at length.
But the latest study — which avoids sensational details and confines itself to exposing where officialdom has failed — demonstrates that even the coverage in the Times has understated the scale of the problem:
There is far more to this story than has come out so far. The population are already outraged by what they have learned in the last year or two, but know only a fraction of the scandal … This massive over-representation of Muslim men in this crime spree has been borne out by the prosecutions of the last three to four years, but it is clear that it must have been known long ago and should have been made public.
Because the predators were Muslims, the agencies responsible for child-protection have almost entirely failed in their job to protect vulnerable children. From a fear of being called 'racist,' police forces across the country have buried the evidence.
On the rare occasion when the phenomenon [of child grooming] would be discussed in more than the briefest details, political activists and the authorities would come together to stop the public from knowing more. Political correctness would be used to make sure that people did not speak about this phenomenon, enabling the perpetrators free rein to sexually abuse schoolgirls for decades.Yes, decades. We know that in an age where parents are not allowed to smack their children, this sounds unbelievable.
The report shows that even documents that supposedly address the problem of child grooming have gone out of their way to avoid discussing why some "ethnic groups" are massively over-represented as perpetrators—the study calculates that Muslims are 154 times more likely to be perpetrators of these crimes than non-Muslims—while the schoolgirl victims are overwhelmingly of a different ethnic group.
The perpetrators have been overwhelmingly men from Muslim communities, and the victims have been overwhelmingly girls from non-Muslim communities (Sikhs, Christians and Atheists). Yet the professionals never deemed it important to declare this, or even denied the pattern existed.
Atheists ? With a capital A? Atheist girl prostitutes? Intellectual, thinking girl prostitutes? We appreciate the article, but we suggest that Soeren Kern is wrong here and simply means "non-religious".
Now comes a quoted piece of uproariously stupid, cowardly, official claptrap à la mode:
Despite government agencies in Rotherham knowing about (and privately discussing) the Muslim grooming gangs from 1996, a 2010 document by Rotherham Safeguarding Children Board stated that "great care will be taken in drafting … this report to ensure that its findings embrace Rotherham's qualities of diversity. It is imperative that suggestions of a wider cultural phenomenon are avoided".
Rotherham's "qualities of diversity"! Of which it is proud. "Diversity": the euphemisim for "not being racist".
Full translation: "We Rotherhamites don't look down on people just because they're child sex-slavers and pimps and criminals – not anyway if they're Muslim – because we want to prove that we don't think of ourselves as superior. We're sorry that we used to think of ourselves like that. But now, to achieve your forgiveness, O Muslims, watch us sacrifice our values, our law, our pride, and grovel in the dirt before you like good Socialists (and Christians)."
One of the defining features of child grooming is the ethnic/cultural homogeneity of the gang members, and the refusal of other members of their community to speak out about them or to condemn their behavior. According to the report, the gangs are often made up of brothers and members of their extended family, many from Pakistan, who take part in the grooming and/or rape of the schoolgirls.
The report states that grooming gangs target young girls, aged between 11 and 16, because the gang members want virgins and girls who are free of sexual diseases. "Most of the men buying sex with the girls have Muslim wives and they don't want to risk infection," the report states. "The younger you look, the more saleable you are."
The schoolgirls they target are overwhelmingly non-Muslim, while the gangs are overwhelmingly Muslim. The girls are often lured into the clutches of the gang using a young Muslim man who befriends/seduces the girl. None of this is accidental; here we are not talking about cross-cultural romantic relationships. What is so unusual about this disparity in ethnicity, is that most Muslims in Britain have little or no interaction with the indigenous population.
Yes, well – isn't that how multiculturalism is supposed to work?
The scale of the problem is truly horrifying. According to Parents against Child Sexual Exploitation (PACE), a national charity focused on working with the victims of child grooming and their families, at least 10,000 British children are in the clutches of the gangs at any one time, and at least 1,000 new girls are being groomed by gangs each year.
But this is "just the tip of the iceberg," according to a document published by the House of Commons, which estimates that at least 20,000 British children are at risk of sexual exploitation by grooming gangs.
Meanwhile, prosecutions are few and far between. …
Finally, the authors of the report examine the links between Islamic culture and doctrine and the crime of child grooming. They note:
The notion that Islam could be the basis for this criminality is always ruled out of the question, with no investigation of Islamic theology, the history of Islam, or the rulings of Sharia law.
The authors then provide a thorough examination of Islamic sacred texts, and conclude, inter alia, that: Muslim men are taught in mosques that women are little more than chattels or possessions over whom they have absolute authority; Islam instructs Muslim men that they can have sex with their slaves, are permitted legally and morally to rape them, and may turn a slave girl into a prostitute; and Islam looks down on non-Muslims.
At the same time, British judges are increasingly using Islamic Sharia law to justify light sentences for Muslims who rape underage girls:
As late as May 2013, the media were reporting that a Muslim man in Nottingham who had raped an underage girl, was spared a prison term after the judge heard that the naïve 18-year-old attended an Islamic faith school where he was taught that women are worthless. Rashid told psychologists he had no idea that having sex with a willing 13-year-old was against the law; besides, his education had taught him to believe that "women are no more worthy than a lollipop that has been dropped on the ground".
And that belief of his was enough to get him an acquittal? There was a time when ignorance of the law was no excuse for breaking it, and British law declared that raping a child was a crime. But sharia sees it differently, and tolerance requires the descendants of imperialists to concede superiority to Third World ideas conceived in the dark ages.
The report is emphatic in blaming the doctrine of multiculturalism for Britain's lack of resolve in confronting the grooming gangs:
Multiculturalism is a fundamentally incoherent doctrine, invented to conceal the serious conflicts which have arisen when peoples from vastly different cultures, with different values, are forced to live together. Political correctness and the doctrine of multiculturalism meant that the professionals whose job it was to help the vulnerable were consciously commanding that these diverse cultural values could not be discussed. Multiculturalism came about in order to deny that there is any significance to cultures having different values and to conceal that there will be conflict when these incompatible values come together. Political correctness is the means by which such denial is enforced.
Those who propound and defend multiculturalism say that people from different cultural backgrounds have different values, and that we must all accept these values as being of equal validity. But when it comes to examining what those different values are, multiculturalists suddenly lose interest in the details of these differences and lose interest in the consequences that follow from these different values. …
Islamic society is a totalitarian society, all other values are to be subordinated to Islamic values. But if anyone in Britain dares to criticize Islam, they will be denounced and told they live in a multicultural society, and must accept these totalitarian values.
Finally the report, written by brave, sensible Britons, reminds the cowards that the Muslim population of Britain is doubling with each generation.
All too soon the non-Muslims will be the minority and lose the power their democratic system allows them – and of which the undemocratic Muslims will take full advantage – to make and enforce their own laws.
Other European countries should take note of that reminder too.
To adapt an expression that probably began with Muslims: The camel's nose of sharia is in the tent. And your rulers let it get there rather than risk being called "intolerant", "racist" "imperialist", "colonialist", "Islamophobic".
If that's what contemporary European civilization has become, it will be no great loss when the Muslims destroy it. Only it will be replaced by something far worse – the barbarism of Islam.
Posted under Britain, Commentary, corruption, Ethics, government, immigration, Islam, Muslims, Sex, Slavery, United Kingdom by Jillian Becker on Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Tagged with Child "grooming" for prostitution, Multiculturalism a disaster, Muslims pimp British sex-slaves, Political correctness in Britain
Dot offensive 2
Congress could prevent Obama from giving "an international body" control of the Internet as he plans to do.
(Why has he the power to do this anyway?)
L. Gordon Crovitz writes at the Wall Street Journal:
Authoritarian governments led by Russia and China long ago found ways to block access to the Internet for their citizens.
Under the new Obama plan, these regimes could also block access to the Internet for Americans.
There is recent precedent: Authoritarian governments tried to block new Internet top-level domains beyond the familiar .com and .org and .net. Saudi Arabia sought to veto the addition of .gay as being "offensive". It also tried to block .bible, .islam and .wine. Under US control, the Saudis were denied their wishes. With some new post-US system of governance, will .gay websites be removed from the Internet?
The plan announced on March 14 would have the US give up control of the "root zone file" of the Internet and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. This root of the Internet stores all the names and addresses for websites world-wide, while ICANN controls Web addresses and domains. The US has used this control to ensure that websites operate without political interference from any country and that anyone can start a website, organize on Facebook … or post on Twitter … without asking permission.
It's easy to imagine a new Internet oversight body operating like the United Nations, with repressive governments taking turns silencing critics. China could get its wish to remove FreeTibet.org from the Internet as an affront to its sovereignty. Russia could force Twitter to remove posts by Ukrainian-Americans criticizing Vladimir Putin. …
Contacted by this columnist last week, a spokesman for the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration said the agency reviewed this legal issue and concluded the administration can act without Congress but refused to share a copy of the legal analysis. Congress should ask for a copy and do its own analysis.
Congress also could tell the Commerce Department not to carry out its plan.
In 2012, both the Senate and House passed a unanimous resolution to keep the Internet "free from government control". That happened as the Obama administration was being outfoxed by Russia and China, which hijacked the UN's International Telecommunication Union to legitimize control over the Internet in their countries. Protecting the Internet may be the most bipartisan issue in Congress.
Will Congress act? Is it still alive?
Posted under China, Commentary, Defense, government, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Nations, United States by Jillian Becker on Monday, March 24, 2014
Tagged with Control of the Internet, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), National Telecommunications and Information Administration
Neo … what? 19
We had supposed that Neoconservatives were persons who had been on the Left, seen the light, and so become conservatives.
We thought they charmingly but mistakenly considered it possible to spread democracy, love of liberty and Austrian School economics round the world.
But it seems we were largely wrong.
Jack Kerwick explains, at Townhall, what Neoconservatism is all about:
In spite of the ease with which the word "conservatism" is thrown about these days, most people who associate with the "conservative" movement are not really conservative at all. In reality, the so-called "conservative" movement is a predominantly (though not exclusively) neoconservative movement.
Contrary to what some neoconservatives would have us think, "neoconservatism" is not an insult, much less an "anti-Semitic" slur. The word, rather, refers to a distinct intellectual tradition — a point for which some neoconservatives, like its famed "godfather", Irving Kristol, have argued at length.
To start with then, neoconservatism is not entirely neo; it refers to a tradition. Though not a conservative tradition –
In The Neoconservative Persuasion, Kristol argues for another claim: neoconservatism and traditional or classical conservatism are very different from one another. "Neocons," he states, "feel at home in today's America to a degree that more traditional conservatives do not." Unlike conservatism, neoconservatism is "in the American grain". And this is because it is "hopeful, not lugubrious; forward-looking, not nostalgic; and its general tone is cheerful, not grim or dyspeptic".
Furthermore: "Its twentieth-century heroes tend to be TR [Teddy Roosevelt], FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt], and Ronald Reagan," while "Republican and conservative worthies" like "Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, and Barry Goldwater are politely overlooked."
FDR a hero of American conservatism! Coolidge and Goldwater overlooked!
Neocons view the United States as "a creedal nation" with a "'civilizing mission'" to promote "American values" throughout the world, to see to it "that other governments respect our conception of individual rights as the foundation of a just regime and a good society".
But what creed would that be? What American values? And what individual rights did FDR nurture, protect, and promote?
Kristol is unambiguous in his profession of the American faith: the United States, given its status as a "great power" and its "ideological" nature, does indeed have a responsibility "in those places and at those times where conditions permit it to flourish", to "'make the world safe for democracy".
Democracy, eh? In its "civilizing mission". So there we go. We weren't wrong in all our suppositions.
Here, Kristol articulates the foreign policy vision — "Democratic Realism" is what Charles Krauthammer calls it — for which neoconservatism is known. Yet to Kristol's great credit, he readily concedes what most neoconservatives readily deny: Big Government abroad is, ultimately, inseparable from Big Government right here at home.
Kristol is refreshingly, almost shockingly honest: Neoconservatism, he informs us, endorses "the welfare state". Its adherents support "social security, unemployment insurance, some form of national health insurance, some kind of family assistance plan, etc." and will not hesitate "to interfere with the market for overriding social purposes" — even if this requires "'rigging'" it instead of imposing upon it "direct bureaucratic controls".
And this is "really conservatism", and it "predominates in the conservative movement"?
As Kristol says, neoconservatives are "always interested in proposing alternate reforms, alternate legislation (to the Great Society), that would achieve the desired aims"—the eradication of poverty — "more securely, and without the downside effects". Neoconservatives don't want to "destroy the welfare state, but … rather reconstruct it along more economical and humane lines".
In vain will we search the air waves of "conservative" talk radio, Fox News,National Review, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, or any other number of mainstream "conservative" publications for a negative syllable regarding Irving Kristol. Though Kristol, like his son, Bill, is commonly referred to as a "conservative", he himself not only explicitly embraced neoconservatism as his "persuasion" of choice; Kristol happily embraced the distinction of being "the godfather" of this persuasion.
In other words, if anyone can be said to be the intellectual standard bearer of neoconservatism, it is Irving Kristol.
And yet here he is unabashedly conceding what some of us have long noted and for which we've been ridiculed: neoconservatism is every bit as wedded to Big Government as other species of leftism — even if its proponents want to use it in other ways and for other purposes.
Because Obamacare is woefully unpopular, neoconservative Republicans, both in politics and the "conservative" media, have nothing to lose and everything to gain from trashing it. But at this time leading up to the midterm elections, more traditional conservatives would be well served to bear in mind that, in principle, neoconservatives do not object to "some form of national health insurance", as Kristol tells us.
So now we know. Neocons are socialists.
Posted under Collectivism, Commentary, Conservatism, Socialism, United States by Jillian Becker on Sunday, March 23, 2014
Tagged with Barry Goldwater, Bill Kristol, Calvin Coolidge, Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Irving Kristol, Jack Kerwick, neoconservatism, Neoconservatism endorses the welfare state, Neoconservatives would rig the market, Ronald Reagan, Teddy Roosevelt


Dianne McGill wanted two at-risk siblings to have successful futures. So, she advocated for an adoption plan that turned their temporary foster home into a permanent and loving one.
Dianne achieved the feat as a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) on behalf of a 10-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister, who had been abused and neglected by their biological parents.
Like many adoptions, the road to this one had plenty of twists and turns, ones that Dianne took the lead to navigate before the court finally approved it.
Stakeholders included the Prince George's County courts and Department of Social Services (DSS), the children's school and teachers, the foster mom and dad who were becoming the adoptive parents, the brother and sister, and their respective attorneys.
CASAs are routinely involved in the adoption of foster children, one of the goals in helping foster child achieve permanence. Adopted children are far more apt to graduate high school, get a job and avoid homelessness than those who remain in foster care until they age out as young adults, often with little, if any, support.
Dianne saw that once her CASA children were placed in the foster home they had support. "They quickly fell in love with their new foster parents, and the foster mom and foster dad fell in love with the them," she said.
Both sides wanted adoption. But the foster parents backed off after the children began to show behavioral problems. "The girl would have crying fits, and the boy would exhibit inappropriate behavior towards other children," Dianne said.
At one point, DSS appeared ready to remove the children from the home after a therapist witnessed what she perceived as an inappropriate response from the foster mom in presence of the girl.
At an emergency meeting, Dianne advocated for the foster mom. She pointed out that the mom's response was at a time of extreme frustration over the need for timely support.
"Rather than take the kids from home, I said 'give the family the resources that they need' in the form of intense trauma-based therapy to help the kids," Dianne said.
Afterward, all agreed that the children would remain in the home.With additional support, problems began to ease, and the foster family was back on track toward adoption.
In court, Dianne made the case for adoption, saying it would create a loving and permanent family that which would give the brother and sister a needed foundation.


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text:
1,400 New Domain Names Are Coming. What Does It Mean For You?
What will the arrival of 1,400 new domain names mean for the internet, search, and the way in which we trust websites? We interviewed Brian Cute from Public Internet Registry to find out.
As we prepare for the release of 1,400 new domain extensions such as .book, .music to .sport, the Public Internet Registry (PIR) is also focusing on specific domains for the charity and non-profit sector that will see a whole new type of classification online with the domain extensions .ngo and .ong (which has its roots in Latin languages).
As the internet diversifies, the need for a new domain system is becoming more and more evident. We"ve seen slight shifts with the introduction of country specific extensions, but we are about to see the biggest overhaul of the domain name system in the history of the internet. The new system began rolling out on April 23 this year and by the end there will be a 6,300% increase in web domain names.
What are the implications of a whole new domain extension system and what does it mean for how we use the internet to search and find trusted information? I spoke to the CEO of PIR, Brian Cute, about this topic. PIR, who operate the .org domain name, is currently accepting requests for registration of .ngo and .ong domain extensions and Brian had some interesting perspectives on what the new domain system represents in the wider context of online communication.
User Trust
As information online increases, there is a growing demand for a verification system to notify us of sites that we can trust. This is especially needed in the charity sector, where many smaller organisations rely on online donations, but how do we know who we can trust? A recent survey conducted on behalf of PIR found that two thirds of respondents would be more likely to donate to a charitable website with a validated domain name.
In addition. 80% of respondents felt that .ngo or .ong would be an acceptable domain for the community. For this to prove successful, it needs to be monitored by a third party who can manually approve requests. Just as Twitter relies on human authentication to grant profiles "verified" status, we are about to enter a new phase that will see a similar process in action across the internet, one that will be tailored specifically for NGOs.
As Brian explained, where an organisation doesn"t already have NGO status, PIR will enter into a manual verification process to decide if the domain should be awarded. The impact this has on our online behaviour is significant. With 1,400 new categories launching, we will approach websites differently and will have to develop an understanding of how the categories function (to an extent) to get the information we want.
We will need to judge the difference between domains like .co.uk or .london to decide which is the right one for us. Brian asserted that even though organisations have a diversified presence online - which can include social profiles and apps as well as a website - it is still the website that people ultimately trust. He explained that:
"...the humble website remains one of the best ways to completely control the environment around your brand and we think they will remain a primary home on the web for years to come."
The Role Of Search
This will have a huge knock-on effect for search engines, which will need to develop a new system of categorising websites. Right now, we"ve a relatively simple system where just a few domain variations need to be categorised.
We risk seeing multiple results for a product name that could have multiple domain name variants. with a need to support category domains to filter information, how we search in the future will be drastically different to how we search now.
This could even mean domain specific search engines if you only want to search within .sport for example. Suddenly, we have semantic search made possible by the domain name itself. Speaking about the impact on search, Brian said:
"This is yet another indicator of how drastic these changes will be and why organizations and the Internet community must begin to prepare now."
Below is the interview in full with Brian Cute.
Lauren Fisher (LF): Right now domain names are fairly standardised, and so are easy for people to remember and use. Do you think the release of up to 1,400 additional domain names could over-complicate this?
Brian Cute (BC): At first, all these new names may be confusing to most consumers. While .co.uk, .com and .org are the norm today, they will be joined by new web addresses such as .book or .music, and .eco or .sport.
However, as you breakdown the categories of the new domain extensions, you'll find that more than half of them belong to trademarked holders while the rest are spread into categories including generic names, geographic locations and community-centric domains. Most consumers will gravitate to certain categories, and we think there is great potential in the domains that offer community identification and bring groups together under a shared passion or interest.
LF: Do you believe the domain name is still important, with the move to mobile and a heavier reliance on apps?
BC: The increase in domain names combined with the growth of social media platforms and apps does make for a cluttered content landscape. Yet the humble website remains one of the best ways to completely control the environment around your brand and we think they will remain a primary home on the web for years to come.
A recent survey conducted by the Public Interest Registry confirmed that 82% of people still think an organization's website is the most trustworthy place to get information on a charity or social cause compared to other online resources such as social media sites. While not every new web address will have staying power, we think a community-centric and verified domain will be a strong draw for people.
LF:What are the criteria for an .ngo/ong domain to be granted?
BC: Knowing there is some diversity across the NGO community, the Public Interest Registry has identified six global commonalities to help determine who qualifies for the .ngo/ong domain which will encompass both traditional NGOs and also nonprofits.
We spent three years travelling the globe to speak with non-profits and NGOs to understand their challenges and opportunities. With the new domain, our goal is to create a unique space for the broader NGO community, and also to empower them with new tools such as a global NGO directory to make them more easily found by prospective donors around the world. The six criteria to qualify for an .ngo/ong domain are:
1. Not-for-profit: Non-commercial focus, members not exclusively benefiting.
2. Purposeful: Actively pursuing its mission.
3. Benevolent: Broad-based focus on the good of humankind, not political.
4. Independence: Have degrees of influence to operate - participation is voluntary.
5. Structured/Organized: Function in a defined manner.
6. Lawful: Operates with integrity in the bounds of the law.
Validation will be automated or manual as needed. The automated verification will happen instantly if those organizations have already been identified as NGOs, based on existing valid databases and lists.
If an NGO isn't on an existing and credible list, we also have a manual validation process whereby organizations can submit required documents for review. Qualifying organizations will be eligible to receive both the .ngo and the .ong extensions (a linguistic variation of the NGO term in Latin-rooted languages).
LF: How will these new domain names impact search?
BC: Just as users and website owners will adapt to new domains, so must search engines. The changes may result in a single organization operating on multiple domain names – either pointing visitors to one flagship site or taking advantage of different domains to specific target audiences and purposes.
This is yet another indicator of how drastic these changes will be and why organizations and the Internet community must begin to prepare now.
LF: Could you expand on the recent survey carried out, where two thirds of respondents claimed they would be more likely to donate to a site with a validated domain name?
BC: The survey, regarding domain names for social causes and non-profits, queried 200 marketing and technology professionals in the UK and was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Public Interest Registry. Respondents included 150 nonprofit leaders and 50 business leaders.
In addition to discovering that a majority of respondents are more likely to donate to a validated domain name, the survey also found that 80% felt that .ngo/ong would be a welcome domain and serve a recognized community.
LF: Do we have a need for these new domain names because the original system is only sustainable to a point, or because our behaviour is changing?
BC: The Internet's addressing system has undergone several expansions in the past 27 years. Over this span of time, we have added country codes, such as .uk, .de, .fr, and a host of other generic terms. Of course, there has never been an expansion quite like this, in terms of scale and size.
However, it is an evolving landscape both to increase consumer choice and to encourage technology innovation. Consumer consumption is helping drive the appetite for a new domain ecosystem, which we see as very positive.
LF: How big is the market for .ngo domains?
BC: Public Interest Registry spent the last two years meeting with NGOs around the globe to better understand the market and the needs of NGOs. Under our definition of NGO – which includes all valid non-profits – we believe there is upward of ten million organizations that can join the new domain and help build a robust NGO community and online directory.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Alessandra Ambrosio Walks the Runway 5 Months Pregnant for Colcci
First of all, can we just talk about how the woman on the left (Alessandra Ambrosio) is five months pregnant? I know, unfair. Now we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about the clothes: I have to admit that since all anyone could talk about in regards to Colcci was that Ashton Kutcher was definitely/probably going to be there, and that Alessandra was going to walk, I didn't have high expectations in terms of fashion. No one bothered to tell me that, in addition, to star presence, the clothes would actually be cute. But cute they were. In fact, this was one of our favorite collections so far. There were cool patchwork denim, mod minis and awesome knitwear. In short: There was lots to love.
Hayley Phelan
SAO PAULO--First of all, can we just talk about how the woman on the left (Alessandra Ambrosio) is five months pregnant? I know, unfair.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about the clothes: I have to admit that since all anyone could talk about in regards to Colcci was that Ashton Kutcher was definitely/probably going to be there, and that Alessandra was going to walk, I didn't have high expectations in terms of fashion. No one bothered to tell me that, in addition to star presence, the clothes would actually be cute. But they were. In fact, this was one of our favorite collections so far. There were cool patchwork denim, mod minis and awesome knitwear. In short: There was lots to love.
The one snag was that contrary to popular belief Ashton Kutcher did not walk the runway this year. Instead, he sat front row, but most people in the audience didn't get a glimpse of him--a huge bummer to the crowds of Brazilians that had queued up for an hour to watch Ashton strut his stuff. In our minds, however, the adorable Alessandra, who closed the show rubbing her belly and blowing kisses to the audience, more than made up for it.
Photos: Zé Takahashi / Ag. Fotosite
alessandra ambrosioReviewsAshton Kutcher
Fall 2012 Sao Paulo
Report: Alessandra Ambrosio Will Walk the Runway Five Months Pregnant at Sao Paulo Fashion Week
We're here in Brazil for Sao Paulo fashion week (and by we, I mean, Hayley), and word is that Alessandra Ambrosio and Ashton Kutcher will walk the r
Ashton Kutcher Returns to Modeling, Walks Half the Runway for Colcci at Sao Paulo Fashion Week
SAO PAULO--If you blinked, you might have missed it. Ashton Kutcher walked the runway for Brazilian label Colcci last night at Sao Paulo Fashion Week. And he didn't seem too thrilled about it either, despite the hefty paycheck he undoubtedly received for making the brief appearance. Perhaps he was sad to be without his wife, who accompanied him to last season's show when he walked for the label for the first time. Kutcher, who got his start has a model, opened the show alongside Alessandra Ambrosio wearing a mariniere with the sleeves casually pushed up, cuffed jeans and white oxfords. Ambrosio wore far less--a bright orange swimsuit with a cropped puffer coat (makes total sense, right?). Kutcher and Ambrosio also star in the label's print campaign. Kutcher looked good if a bit lackluster and scratched his back as he walked down the runway next to a smiling Ambrosio.
Ashton Kutcher and Alessandra Ambrosio Get Into Bed Together for New Colcci Campaign
Alessandra Ambrosio and Ashton Kutcher have had a relationship with Brazilian label Colcci for several seasons running now. We attended the Colcci s
Alessandra Ambrosio Didn't Tell Anyone at Victoria's Secret She Was Pregnant When She Walked in the Show
It's now old news that Alessandra Ambrosio is four months pregnant (and was two months along when she walked the Victoria's Secret show), but she's started dropping details about the experience to the press. A woman's body goes through a lot of changes even in the early weeks of pregnancy, so it had to be nerve wracking to contemplate being half naked with zillion people watching you. In an interview with US Weekly she revealed that she was worried she wouldn't be able to walk the show and told the mag how she dealt with some early weight gain.


text:
Q: openbsd file permissions for new user I'm trying to learn the basics of OpenBSD coming from CentOS ...
so I've created a new certificate for my domain.tld with certbot and a new user - newuser
I've added newuser to wheel group and even chmod -R 777 /etc/letsencrypt/live/domain.tld/ but still can't ls that directory.
bsd0# doas -u newuser ls -hasl /etc/letsencrypt/live
doas (root@bsd0.my.domain) password:
ls: .: Permission denied
ls: ..: Permission denied
ls: README: Permission denied
ls: domain.tld: Permission denied
total 0

Obviously, I'm missing something, but can't figure out what.
Can you help ?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Meet Our Leading Team
Genomic testing cooperative team
Maher Albitar, M.D.
Lawrence M. Eck
CLS, MT (ASCP)
Jennifer Varca
Vice President,
Wanlong Ma
Babak Shahbaba, PhD
Biostatistics & AI
Arie Shen
Megan Martin
Facilities Management & HR
Jeff Owen
Vice President, Marketing
Maher Albitar M.D.
of the Board
Andre Goy
Andrew Pecora M.D.
Chris Wicker
Paul Henley
Ken H. Young, MD PhD
of the Hematopathology Division
Maher Albitar, M.D. - Chief Executive Officer, Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Albitar has extensive experience in anatomic/clinical pathology, hematopathology, and molecular pathology. He also has extensive business and administrative experience as an executive leader of large laboratories, Board member, and director of large scientific and genomic diagnostic studies. Until recently, Dr. Albitar was the Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Director of Research and Development at NeoGenomics.
He is credit of transforming the NeoGenomics Laboratories from FISH testing company to a company offering the most sophisticated molecular testing. Prior to NeoGenomics, Dr. Albitar served as the Medical Director for Hematopathology and Oncology, Nichols Institute, Quest Diagnostics, and Chief R&D for Hematopathology and Oncology for Quest Diagnostics from 2003 to 2010. From 1991 to 2003, Dr. Albitar held various faculty positions at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, including Section Chief of Leukemia Section in Laboratory Medicine and Pathology Department, Director of the molecular laboratory and Director of Hematopathology Fellowship program.
Dr. Albitar was a tenured full professor in Pathology and Leukemia at the time of leaving MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Albitar is certified AP/CP pathologist with fellowship training in Hematopathology and molecular pathology. After his training in Hematopathology, Dr. Albitar spent 4 years in Physician/Scientist training program at the University of Pennsylvania/Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Department of Genetics. Dr. Albitar has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, and review articles. He is the lead inventor on more than 50 different patents and patent applications.
Dr. Maher Albitar is the founder and CEO of Genomic Testing Cooperative, LCA.
Lawrence M. Eck, CLS, MT (ASCP) - Chief Operations Officer
Lawrence has over 30 years of experience in clinical laboratory operations, testing, accreditation and management. From 2012 until 2018, Lawrence was at NeoGenomics Director of the California Operations and Director of Molecular Operations. From 2003 to 2012 he was at Nichols Institute, Quest Diagnostic as a manager of Biochemical Genetics and the Hematology/Oncology Laboratory.
Prior to that, he worked in leadership positions at multiple clinical laboratories including Group Health Cooperative, US Laboratories and SmithKline Beecham Laboratories. Lawrence has a bachelor of science degree in biology from California State University, Northridge.
Paul Henley - Director / Board Member
Paul has extensive experience in helping organisations grow revenue, profitability, and value, honed over a thirty-year career in Management Consulting. As well as leading the development of high growth practices in Coopers & Lybrand, PWC and Deloitte Consulting, Paul has been continuously engaged in leading high impact Strategic, Operational, and M&A assignments for leading organisations in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. He has led a number of Global Change and Transformation Programmes for organisations in the Healthcare space as well as working with a number of Innovative organisations on navigating the journey from 'start – up' to value realisation and brings his extensive experience to helping GTC optimise outcomes as it grows its existing business and brings its new and exciting innovations to market.
Jennifer Varca - Vice President, Business Development
Jennifer Varca is responsible for the company's business development activities, strategy, recruiting Co-Op members, and joint ventures. Jennifer brings years of commercial leadership experience in the diagnostics and home healthcare industries to GTC. She previously led sales within the Health Systems Division for Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute with a focus on advanced diagnostics. While there, she served as a vital influencer of the region's strategic growth and development.
Prior to her experience with Quest, she spent more than 10 years as a Senior Executive for Maxim Healthcare Services where she was responsible for business development and the continuum of care for skilled nursing and home health services.
Jennifer earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo, where she was a four-year member of the Women's Division I Soccer team.
Wanlong Ma - Director, Research & Development
Wanlong Ma has extensive experience in molecular testing, next-generation sequencing and developing clinical tests. She obtained her MS degree from the University of Southern California in 1991. She also has a master's degree in Pharmaceutical Science from the University of Shen-Yang, P.R. China. She is CA certified Clinical Genetic Molecular Biology Scientist and ASCP certified. She was responsible for test development at NeoGenomics from 2012 to 2018.
Prior to that from 1994 to 2011 she was at the Nichols Institute, Quest Diagnostics as a lead/Sr R&D Scientist and R&D manager. She developed and validated most of the molecular tests for the Hematology/Oncology Department. Ms. Ma co-authored more than 40 papers and was the first author in several papers.
Babak Shahbaba, PhD - Director, Biostatistics & AI
Babak Shahbaba is a Professor of Statistics. His independent research focuses on Bayesian methods and their applications in large-scale biological sciences. His research experience spans a broad spectrum of novel and high-impact areas that includes statistical methodologies (Bayesian nonparametrics and hierarchical Bayesian models), computational methods (efficient sampling algorithms), and a wide range of applied and collaborative projects.
Arie Shen - Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Information Officer
Software creation and implementation, Executive Sales and Business Development, Branding and Marketing, Technology Project Management, Entrepreneur and Investor.
For more than two decades, Shen managed and lead software projects, software creation and Implementations, and ran P&L operations with sales responsibility for publicly traded software vendors. Subsequently, Shen has enjoyed a diverse and successful consulting career growing companies and leveraging business opportunities. With his broad international background, experience and training, he has successfully guided a wide range of companies, including B2B, B2C and non-profit organizations. In addition to technology project management, Shen is expert in creating and implementing management strategy: developing and executing market penetration, defining strategies for growth and allocating resources to achieve them, and selecting and negotiating joint venture opportunities.
Megan Martin - Vice President, Facilities Management & HR
Megan Martin has more than 10 years of experience in Laboratory Management, Human Resources and Executive Administrative Management. As a senior Human Resource (HR) Generalist at GTC, she acts as liaison between employees and management to answer questions or concerns regarding company policies, practices and regulations and collect and analyze human resources data, and made recommendations for changes to management procedures. Prior to GTC she was the Facility Manager and leader of human resources at NeoGenomics Laboratories in Irvine, CA. Her duties included facilitating daily operations, assisting with audits, record keeping of medical instruments, coordinating and monitoring lab modifications, and supervised construction projects. Additionally, she was responsible for maintaining the regulatory and waste profile streams.
She has received multiple certifications in Computer Information Systems, and Project Construction Management and started a career at Northrop Grumman in El Segundo, CA where she maintains a DOD (Department of Defense) clearance and a confidential level clearance working on military contracts and facilities infrastructure. She assisted in blueprint metrics, tooling and supplies for F18 super Hornets & F35 Lockheed Martin aircrafts and facilitate daily process for over 350 employees. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Science with an emphasis in Health Administration.
Ken H. Young, MD PhD - Professor and Director of the Hematopathology Division
Dr. Young is an outstanding hematopathologist and a nationally known investigator in the field of blood cancer. He has extensive experience in the diagnosis of hematologic cancers, has lectured nationally and internationally on various hematology topics particularly in lymphoma and myeloma. He has published 256 original peer-reviewed articles and 52 review articles, many in high impact journals (Nature Clin Onc Rev, JCO, Blood, JHO, CCR, Leukemia and Haematologica). His contributions to the hematology field include the novel biomarker discoveries, development of diagnostic tools, molecular and genetic algorithms for the classification of blood cancer and lymphoid neoplasms. His hematopathologic and blood cancer research program is strongly supported by various resource.
Ken H. Young leads a clinical and diagnostic Hematopathology Division and provides diagnostic services and specialized testing for patients with all types of leukemia, myeloid neoplasm, lymphoma, myeloma and benign hematologic disorders. He is specialized in the diagnosis of a range of hematological disorders, including acute and chronic leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, myeloproliferative disorders, anemias and cytopenia, benign bone marrow and lymph node disorders, B-cell lymphomas and T-cell lymphomas and cutaneous lymphomas. Ken H. Young provides consultation, laboratory testing and diagnosis, and coordinates specialized laboratories for molecular diagnostics, flow cytometry, cytogenetic and FISH analysis and specialized bone marrow testing.
Dr. Ken H. Young, MD, PhD, Professor and Director, Division of Hematopathology, Department of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center and Cancer Institute, Durham, NC 27710. Office phone: 1-919-668-7568; Fax: 1-919-684-1856 and Email: ken.young@duke.edu


This is one of my very favourite short 3D fractal journeys. It starts with recognizably geometric shapes but soon visits bonelike, spongelike, and shell like structures. The sea urchin journey is particularly impressive.
I found it on the Fractal Forums website, created by a well known fractal artist Jeremie Brunet.
Created for a TEDx talk by Bryan Alvarez from UC Berkeley, about the Human Atlas project, to illustrate his initial dream about the beauty of living systems. This is a hybrid Julia fractal where many parameters are being animated: the fractal paramaters themselves, the Julia seed, the colors, and of course the camera position. For more details about 3D fractals and to download the Mandelbulb3D software, visit fractalforums.com.


text:
<?php

defined('_JEXEC') or die;

jimport( 'joomla.application.component.view' );

/**
 * View to edit a category
 *
 *
 **/

 class jdownloadsViewcategory extends JViewLegacy
{
    protected $state;
    protected $item;
    protected $form;
    protected $canDo;

    /**
     * Display the view
     *
     *
     */
    public function display($tpl = null)
    {

        $this->state       = $this->get('State');
        $this->item        = $this->get('Item');
        $this->form        = $this->get('Form');

        // What Access Permissions does this user have? What can (s)he do?
        $this->canDo = jdownloadsHelper::getActions();

        // Check for errors.
        if (count($errors = $this->get('Errors'))) {
            JError::raiseError(500, implode("\n", $errors));
            return false;
        }

        $this->addToolbar();
        parent::display($tpl);
    }

    /**
     * Add the page title and toolbar.
     *
     *
     */
    protected function addToolbar()
    {
        require_once JPATH_COMPONENT.'/helpers/jdownloadshelper.php';

        global $jlistConfig;

        JRequest::setVar('hidemainmenu', true);

        $user        = JFactory::getUser();
        $isNew       = ($this->item->id == 0);
        $checkedOut  = !($this->item->checked_out == 0 || $this->item->checked_out == $user->get('id'));
        $canDo       = JDownloadsHelper::getActions($this->item->id, 'category');

        $document = JFactory::getDocument();
        $document->addStyleSheet('components/com_jdownloads/assets/css/style.css');

        $title = ($isNew) ? JText::_('COM_JDOWNLOADS_EDIT_CAT_ADD') : JText::_('COM_JDOWNLOADS_EDIT_CAT_EDIT');
        JToolBarHelper::title(JText::_('COM_JDOWNLOADS').': '.$title, 'jdcategories');

        // If not checked out, can save the item.
        if (!$checkedOut && ($canDo->get('core.edit')|| $canDo->get('core.create')))
        {
            JToolBarHelper::apply('category.apply');
            JToolBarHelper::save('category.save');
        }
        if (!$checkedOut && $canDo->get('core.create')){
            JToolBarHelper::save2new('category.save2new');
        }
        // If an existing item, can save to a copy.
        if (!$isNew && $canDo->get('core.create')) {
            JToolBarHelper::save2copy('category.save2copy');
        }
        if (empty($this->item->id)) {
            JToolBarHelper::cancel('category.cancel');
        }
        else {
            JToolBarHelper::cancel('category.cancel', 'COM_JDOWNLOADS_TOOLBAR_CLOSE');
        }
        JToolBarHelper::divider();
        JToolBarHelper::help('help.category', true);
    }

}
?>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


We have been loving the spring-like weather that mother nature has thrown at us here in Seattle. The perennials are starting to sprout up, trees are starting to bud, and by golly, we've even seen sunshine! I'm not sure what that's all about, but I am always in favor of seeing the sun.
Last week I got out on a few mid-week walks and Alex had a couple of great bike rides. It's so nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather while it's here. We just decided to cancel our gym membership for a number of reasons. We just got some home workout equipment, so we've been doing weights and strength-training at home. Alex is training for his 202 mile bike ride from Seattle to Portland that takes place mid-July, so he has been riding his bike a lot more anyway, and I have commissioned myself to start running again. We'll see how that goes. When we get our new puppy (late spring??) we know that will wreak havoc on our schedule, plus when the pup starts going for longer walks and eventually runs we are anticipating walking or running at least 3-5 miles daily, as was the case with Aspen. We never went to the gym when we had Aspen because we went on three walks with her each day.
Last week we had a lot going on. Wednesday evening we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with our friends Ali and Tyler and their sweet baby, Vivian. I made some crazy chocolate brownie cookies with salted caramel filling, as well as white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. We have loved spending more time with the Furtwanglers and it's been so fun watching Vivi grow and develop into such a darling 12 week old bundle of adorableness. Alex spent the evening at Quinn's in Capitol Hill on Thursday to celebrate his friend Jamie's new job.
Friday night Alex and I had our weekly date night. We went to dinner at Redmond's Bar & Grill then saw Cirque du Soleil.
The show was incredible. Neither of us had ever seen a Cirque du Soleil performance, but had a good understanding of what the show would entail. It was really fun to watch the acrobatics.
It had been nearly a month since we'd been up to Crystal Mountain with our trips to Whistler and Portland and last weekend's visitor, so we were itching to get up into the mountains again. For Alex and me, being in the mountains is rejuvenating and almost detoxifying. No matter what the ski conditions are like we thrive so much on the fresh mountain air, the spirit and mood of everyone around us and simply being in nature with no cell service. We are so lucky to live so close to the mountains!
This entry was posted in Food, Friends, Fun, Skiing and tagged bluebird day, friends, Gratitude, mountains, skiing, weekend on March 10, 2013 by Alison Allen.


text:
Caley McGinty, Team England
Caley McGinty will represent Team England at the 2021 Spirit International. Caley, a Junior at Oklahoma State University, is from Bristol England. During Caley's Sophomore season (at Kent State), she was named to the WGCA All-America Second Team and earned WGCA All-American Scholar honors. She finished her season with a 72.26 scoring average over 27 rounds, ranking 29th in the NCAA. The Spirit Golf Association is thrilled to welcome Caley McGinty to this year's event. Read more about Caley in our Player Q&A.
The Spirit: How long have you represented England in amateur golf?
McGinty: I have represented England in amateur golf since 2019.
The Spirit: You finished your freshman season at Kent State with a 72.26 scoring average, which was the sixth-lowest in program history. How were you able to formulate that type of consistency while only a freshman?
McGinty: I had great coaches who helped me understand my game so that I could constantly work on the right things to get better every day.
The Spirit: It is incredibly rare to win Freshman of the Year and Golfer of the Year in the same season. You were able to do this in the MAC conference during your freshman season. How gratifying was it to see that you could compete with the best collegiate golfers in the country?
McGinty: It was huge for my confidence, going in as a freshman, my only goal for the fall season was to make the lineup. It made me realize that with hard work you can achieve what you put your mind to.
The Spirit: Why did you make the decision to transfer to Oklahoma State after two years at Kent State?
McGinty: I wouldn't change my first two years at Kent State for the world. It was exactly where I was supposed to be for my first two years of college. It's a great place with great people. I just needed a new, different environment in order to grow as a person and a player, and I felt Oklahoma state could help me do that the most.
The Spirit: You were selected to represent GB&I in the 41st Curtis Cup this past year. Was that a lifelong dream of yours?
McGinty: The Curtis Cup was a goal of mine since I was 10 years old. A girl from my home golf course back home played in it in 2010. I looked up to her so much and I knew that's what I wanted to do one day too.
The Spirit: What was it like to receive the call that you would represent England in the 2021 Spirit International Amateur Golf Championship?
McGinty: I was so excited. It's always a privilege to represent your country and to do it at such a fun, prestigious event is a huge honor.
The Spirit: Who is someone that has influenced your golf career the most from your home country?
McGinty: Probably Georgia Hall. She is from the southwest of England like me, and to see her win major championships is very motivating and inspiring.
The Spirit: Do you have aspirations of playing professional golf?
McGinty: My plan is to play professional golf after I graduate.


Someone called the Kalispell Police Department after their home had been entered by an unknown person who trashed it and stole items. The caller claimed to have been gone from the residence for less than one-half hour, but hadn't locked the door.
A person called 911 when his stepdad had choked on food. But he got it out and was fine.
The Columbia Falls Police Department received a phone call from a man who said he was a New York City prosecutor. He said he was investigating a crime in the Big Apple and thought the man he was looking for may have been in the area. A records check showed the man had bought a fishing license in 2018.
A 13-year-old girl said her ex-boyfriend was posting videos on her Instagram page and changing her passwords without her permission.
A man who lost his credit card, identification and driver's license called to see if any of the documents had been turned in to the department.


text:
Why the Daily Mail's defence of private schools doesn't add up
Removing charitable status from private schools won't lose Labour money – or voters.
By Sam Freedman
Photo by Graeme Robertson/Getty Images
In a fit of what can only be described as frenzied desperation the Daily Mail has run two front pages in succession on a five-year-old Labour policy to remove charitable status from private schools and levy VAT on fees. It's unclear why they've picked now to declare there is "fury" about "Keir Starmer's class war". I don't recall the same fury when the radical socialist Michael Gove made the same suggestion in 2017. Presumably the paper has run out of other things to say.
Nevertheless it's worth examining its claims given this confected rage will no doubt be reproduced ad nauseam in the run-up to the next election campaign. There are two parts to the Labour policy, which are often conflated. The first, to remove charitable status, would mean private schools losing out on around £150m a year in business rates relief. In practice I suspect Labour would end up just removing the tax exemption rather than charitable status, given it's a lot simpler legally and achieves the same goal. This is not a substantial sum for the private schools sector – around 1.5 per cent of fee income – and even their lobby groups don't try to pretend it would be unaffordable.
The more significant policy is VAT on fees. This could bring in around £1.5bn, taking account of the VAT schools would be able to reclaim if they were charging it to parents. Labour wants to spend this on various policies to support the state sector. The Mail claims it would actually cost the government £400m because so many pupils would be "forced" (poor dears) into the state sector.
This figure is taken from a 2018 report commissioned by the umbrella body for private schools, the Independent Schools Council (ISC), and produced by Baines Cutler, a business that provides financial advice and consultancy to private schools.
Is the EU plan to counter US green subsidies "Marx on steroids"?
HS2 station debacle is a symptom of our terminal decline
The methodology involved asking 21 schools, which had contributed to Baines Cutler work before, how much of the cost of VAT on fees they would pass on to parents. Then the consultants take parent earnings data and make an assumption about how many couldn't afford the fees any more. It's hard to tell what was taken into account because none of this data is published, but what about the fact that many parents have assets and financial support from family that goes beyond their immediate earnings? Or indeed could increase their earnings.
[See also: Stop acting like private school pupils "own" Oxbridge places]
Anyway, all of these assumptions are layered together to produce an assertion that it is "virtually certain" that the parents of 17.1 per cent pupils (90,800) would not be able to afford the fees anymore. Unfortunately for Baines Cutler and the ISC, even then the policy would still net around £600 million a year. So they then make a bunch of other assumptions, including that schools would stop offering as many fee concessions even though most of these are a small percentage of the fees and removing them would be financially self-defeating. They then assume that 26,500 pupils would stop going even though their parents could afford it because their schools would close or have to reduce their offering enough to be unappealing. How Baines Cutler decided on that specific number is unclear. And then on top of that they assume more state schools would need to be built even though, due to birth rates falling, the overall drop in pupil numbers over the next few years will be higher than the total privately educated population. Only by adding in all of these additional assumptions do they manage to produce the claim that the policy would cost £400m a year.
This analysis makes too many assumptions to be useful. In reality most private schools, whose average fees are two and half times the cost of a state sector place, would surely cut their cloth based on what parents could afford, which is what they always do. If they needed to absorb the VAT increase they could simply bring their teacher-pupil ratio (9:1) marginally closer to the state school average (18:1). If some really couldn't afford to stay open they could apply to become state funded academies, as long as they drop their fees and academic selection. That would be win/win – the schools stay open and the state gets free assets.
The one group of schools that would find themselves in genuine difficulty as a result of the policy are not ISC members but small, mostly very religious, private schools whose offering is very different to Eton and Harrow. This affects a very small number of children. Likewise there are some specialist private schools for serious special needs, though as their places are mostly state funded anyway the policy shouldn't make a difference to viability.
Overall the policy is an entirely reasonable one. There is no justification for private schools, or parents, to get tax breaks given their primary role in society is to allow undue privilege to be passed on to the next generation. There would almost certainly be a substantial net revenue boost that could be used to fund policies that helped children who need additional support. There's no political danger for Labour either, it's a popular policy with only 10 per cent of people agreeing with the status quo and 47 per cent saying private schools should lose their tax exemptions. Even the Mail's "fury" is not really about the issue at all, but its editors' inability to find any good attack lines on Labour.
[See also: "I miss memories": how Covid-19 shook Britain's children]
Topics in this article : Class , Education , Keir Starmer , Michael Gove , pwfree , schools
Sam Freedman
@Samfr
Sam Freedman is a former senior adviser on schools at the Department for Education.
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Liz Truss's Oxbridge plan is truly baffling
Why on Earth does Boris Johnson want to scrap the civil service fast-stream?


Solo il meglio anti aging and anti-wrinkle ingredients in our face serum work to create a healthy environment for beautiful skin.
Not only will it help to restore elasticity and firmness to skin, our Anti-Wrinkle Serum has been thoughtfully crafted with time-tested ingredients that work from the inside out.
It's perfect for anyone looking to combattere i segni dell'invecchiamento by riducendo e prevenendo l'aspetto rughe, linee sottili e linee del sorriso.


New ProMax Stocks Due 25/10/2015.
The Airfreight supplies of the SatKing ProMax are due in on the 25/10/2015 .
A second batch of airfreight is due on the 2/11/2015 with sea freight supplies expected on the 25/11/2015.


Indian Magic Crabapple | Malus Indian Magic at High Ridge in NJ.
Short Desc Bright red elongated fruit is of unusual shape and makes this tree in beautiful in fall. Has dark green foliage with deep pink flowers, and orange red fruit.


My work began by looking out on to the water where the boats lay. I photographed the boats and soon began to look more closely at their intricate surfaces. I observed their rough weathered textures and crumbling layers and attempted to incorporate these into my work. I also sought to convey the effect time has had on these boats: stripping and corroding their physical stature. As I progressed my paintings became more abstract; less about the boats as physical vessels and more about the detrimental effect time and weather have had on them.
Research Three studies from the Temeraire and the boats depicted by Cy Twombly, from both an art-historical and a social history perspective.
Compare Leandros Pandoulis's and Twombly's approaches to depicting boats. What has each artist chosen to focus on? Discuss whether they been successful in achieving their aims.


Visit our new hospital newsroom.
Easily pay your clinic or hospital bill online.
Our mission is to provide patient-centered, quality healthcare with compassion and respect.
Founded in 1948, Lake Chelan Community Hospital & Clinics (LCCHC) is a licensed 25-bed Critical Access Hospital with supporting clinics in Chelan, Washington. We offer a 24-hour emergency room, surgical center and inpatient services, as well as family medicine and specialist care at Lake Chelan Clinic in downtown Chelan.
Lake Chelan Community Hospital & Clinics is a vital component in your health care network that extends throughout the state and beyond. Our family physicians, surgeons and care team regularly partner with larger facilities to ensure a full range of quality medical services close to home. It is also our priority to work with Lake Chelan neighbors and partners to keep our community healthy.


The largest ophthalmology organization in the midwest, Cincinnati Eye Institute (CEI) has embarked on a new partnership that has the potential to grow one of the nation's leading eye care organizations to new heights.
CEI's management team will continue to lead under the newly formed management services organization, CEI Vision Partners (CVP), which was made possible through a capital investment by Revelstoke Capital Partners, a Denver-based private equity firm. The organization's mission to "enhance the quality of patients' lives by providing the highest level of eye care in the region" will remain the major goal of the new parent company.
CEI patients and business partners will experience little change in how they receive services from CVP, but the organization expects the new investment to open greater access to care through the expansion. "We see tremendous growth opportunities by recruiting top providers, opening new clinical and surgical facilities, expanding our patient care and business support services, and aligning with market-leading provider groups," says Daniel Miller, M.D., Ph.D., and chief medical officer at CEI.
Much of the expected growth will happen through the acquisition of other eye care practices. The larger infrastructure will allow CVP to offer services to other eye care practices that can benefit from CVP organizational growth.
CVP is one of the largest regional ophthalmology organizations in the U.S., boasting more than 60 ophthalmologists and optometrists, 14 clinical centers, and three ambulatory surgical centers.
CVP has office locations throughout the Cincinnati area, including Northern Kentucky and Indiana. For more information, visit www.ceivp.com.