Today [Tuesday] the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (Class) launches a new policy paper, "Duty to care: In defence of universal health care".
England is not alone in its assault on universal health care - across Europe countries are cutting health budgets to deal with debts created by the banking crisis. But those who argue against tax-financed health care and say that it is a privilege we can no longer afford, are unable to explain why universal health care was instituted when the world's economy was very much smaller than it is today.
Renowned health policy experts Prof Allyson Pollock and David Price, from the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health at Queen Mary, University of London argue that of the recent reforms forced on the NHS under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, the abolishment of the Secretary of State's duty to secure and provide a comprehensive health service is the one that strikes at the very heart of health provision in this country.
This paper shows that abolition of the duty makes it easier to transform the English NHS from a nationally-mandated public service into a number of fragmented and competing services. Evidence is presented showing that due to the abolition of the duty a range of fundamental services will no longer be required, by law, to be provided free of charge - including services and facilities for pregnant women and ambulance services. Pollock and Price argue that the principle is not, as the Coalition repeatedly claimed, increased patient choice - but increased choice of patient.
Work areas: Welfare State, Health, Inequality. Tags: beveridge, class, equality, giant evils, health, inequality, nhs, politics, social state, universalism.


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Tipping Point: Could the USA win the Rugby World Cup before Ireland do?
Rugby has always had core support in the US, what it lacked was the focus of a pro league
The USA side applaud the crowd following their defeat to England in the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Photograph: Craig Mercer/Inpho
A hundred years ago the USA were Olympic champions in rugby. Admittedly only two countries entered but the other one was France. Four years later the Americans again got the gold. Then 15-a-side rugby at the Olympics stopped. So technically the US is still Olympic champion at a sport perceived to be as American as bacon and cabbage.
There's more. At least three former US presidents played rugby in their college days. JFK played for Harvard. Bill Clinton can recall scoring a 'touchdown' for Oxford. 'Slick Willy' was mostly there to fill space. However the former Yale full-back 'Dubya' Bush could properly play a bit. So there's more Apple Pie to rugby in America than might be imagined.
All that's worth pointing out because the US is rugby's great untapped frontier. Apparently a hundred years ago it briefly rivalled American football for public affection. That kind of status belongs to history. But news that the former England captain Chris Robshaw will play in Major League Rugby next year is evidence of the game's growing appeal across the pond.
It's even got a claim on that always helpfully vague category of being the country's fastest growing sport. The US women's side is ranked higher than Ireland. The US men's team beat Scotland in 2018. Rugby returned to the Olympics in Rio in the 'sevens' format and the American men's side were medal contenders for Tokyo until it got cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Covid-19 emergency has also halted Major League Rugby for this year. That's a reverse for an organisation only three-year- old and perhaps the best hope for the game's progress in America. Signings such as Robshaw indicate ambition to replicate the success of Major League Soccer in percolating rugby into the consciousness of the American sporting public.
It will be a long process and sceptics will argue Robshaw is simply picking up a last lucrative contract, just as the MLS was viewed as a pension scheme for veteran footballers on their last legs. Over time that perception has changed, as has soccer's overall public appeal in the US. It doesn't threaten the big three sports for profile. But the scale of numbers in America mean it doesn't have to.
Crucial to rugby's future in the US is a domestic professional league. One businessman's disastrous attempt to set one up in 2015 produced more court cases than teams. The strength of MLR is that it is rooted in individual ownership groups so it's not all or nothing. It's expansion in just three years has been notable. In 2021 it will have a 14 teams, one of them in Canada.
Doubters will scoff and dismiss it in faddish terms. It's certainly true that MLR is starting from a narrow base. But rugby has always had core support in the States. What it lacked was the focus of a professional league. Establishing one and putting it on a sustainable footing is a mammoth task. Signings such as Robshaw and the former All Black Ma'a Nonu are a signal of intent.
Paying more attention than most will be World Rugby, the game's governing body. It has always looked at America as a supreme opportunity for the game's expansion. It's why the US is in the running to host the 2031 World Cup. Expansion plans previously owed more to flowery statements of ambition than substantive action. Crucially the MLR promises slow but sustainable growth.
If it can get it right then the sky could be the limit in the long term.
It risks flirting with stereotypes but in simple terms Americans and rugby look a good fit. Rugby's cocktail of aggression and athleticism underpins the gridiron game too. Rugby mightn't be as static but neither is it such a leap for anyone brought up through playing American football as say soccer is. The skill set required for both are hardly poles apart.
Nate Ebner is proof of that. The New York Giants player, and three-time Super Bowl winner with the New England Patriots, was a hugely promising rugby player until opting to concentrate on football in college. The transition proved seamless then, just as it did in reverse when Ebner switched codes for a brief busman's holiday playing for the US sevens side at the 2016 Olympics.
Ebner is rare in having played the game as a kid. Many American players come to rugby late, transferring the skills and athleticism learned in other sports to what is still a niche pursuit there. They can bring immense enthusiasm and athletic ability but haven't the grounding in basic skills of the game that is taken for granted elsewhere.
The prospect of having a professional league to aim at is a crucial foundation stone in changing that. Without it there's little hope of implementing the sort of culture change that can have significant numbers of kids playing the game. Manage that and the potential for the US to become a first world rugby power is manifest.
The progress of the Japanese national team is evidence of how far the momentum that comes with a little success can take a country that isn't one of the traditional powers.
It isn't that long since the bulk of the US 'Eagles' national side were amateurs. Irish rugby was transformed by professionalism and from a comparatively small playing base. Rugby in America wouldn't have to come anywhere near baseball, basketball or football in terms of profile and still have a playing pick to dwarf Ireland's.
As of now it's all very much in the realm of potential. Average MLR attendances are at League of Ireland soccer levels. Momentum has been stalled by the Covid pandemic. So much depends on sponsorship and media platforms to increase coverage. But what is there is vast promise for the future.
In fact it might be the ultimate long term bet: the US to win any rugby World Cup before Ireland does
Posted by NC Sports on Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Labels: nate ebner, NC Sports Athletes in the News
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Today in hella tight news, Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age comedy won the New York Film Critics Circle's Best Picture award, capping off weeks of glowing press that have included a great box-office expansion and a Rotten Tomatoes record for the film's sustained perfect score. If everybody likes Lady Bird, could it be closer to stealing Best Picture than we think? It's a funnier, more intimate film than the Academy usually rewards with its top prize, but voters use a preferential ballot and you've got to think Lady Bird will show up on almost everybody's.
Here's the tricky thing about The Shape of Water, which comes out this weekend. It's getting warm reviews, it has a passionate pitchman in director Guillermo del Toro, and it has the sort of lavish look and accessible romantic bombast that could ultimately make it one of the higher-grossing Oscar contenders. And yet the film's awards-season buzz has dissipated since it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in September, a trophy that had some predicting strong showings in Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress. Since then, critics' groups haven't been nominating The Shape of Water, and it was blanked by the Indie Spirits, too. A big box-office haul could goose its chances, and it's important to remember that the Academy tends to reward more emotional films than critics do, but something feels amiss.
Peele has now taken two awards for Best First Feature in the last week, earning that laurel from both the Gothams and the NYFCC. His chances will improve further if he can win a significant Best Director award outright, and not just the one given to newcomers. Could the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which votes this Sunday, provide Peele with that boost?
Baker got a shot in the arm today from the NYFCC, which gave him their Best Director trophy. I think he's got a shot at penetrating this Oscar category, but it will depend on the directors' branch tilting a little more auteur than they have since 2013, when Michael Haneke and Benh Zeitlin made it in over Ben Affleck. Still, all of this is very encouraging for Baker and his chihuahuas!
A big week for Lil' Timmy Tim! Call Me by Your Name is coming off of this year's biggest per-screen bow in limited release, and Chalamet picked up a Breakthrough Actor award on Monday at the Gothams (where Call Me by Your Name won Best Feature), using his time onstage to give the night's most endearing speech. Today, the NYFCC went one better and honored Chalamet in the lead-actor category. With the field now coming into clarity, Chalamet is emerging as the passion-pick rival to Darkest Hour's Gary Oldman, and one more likely to earn love from critics' groups, too.
Would the Academy really reward Franco after his famously lazy hosting stint? I think they will, especially because Franco has been playing his PR cards right on his press tour for The Disaster Artist, admitting that he used to spread himself too thin and underlining the new film, which he directed and stars in, as a significant step in the right direction. "You actually put care and time into something, and you [reap] a different kind of results," he told HuffPost. I think voters will appreciate the penitent part of his comeback.
Ronan won her last Best Actress award just two years ago from the NYFCC for Brooklyn, in a year where most groups flipped for eventual Oscar winner Brie Larson in Room. Today, Ronan made it a twofer, honored by the NYFCC for Lady Bird. Can she become the Oscar front-runner? If you've ever read this column before, you may already be murmuring, "Oscar loves an ingenue," and Ronan has already been nominated twice before, lending her campaign more oomph. It may also help that she has little ingenue competition besides I, Tonya star Margot Robbie, since this category will almost certainly include veteran Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Frances McDormand. Still, I'm not ready to call it. The caliber of contenders this year is just too high.
The new Woody Allen film was not well-received in its New York Film Festival bow a month and a half ago, and reviews haven't gotten any better in advance of its release this Friday. Even when Winslet herself is praised — as she is in both the Los Angeles Times and New York Times — the film is brutalized. In this year's super-tough Best Actress category, good reviews in a bad movie just won't cut it.
Dafoe picked up a very necessary Best Supporting Actor award from the NYFCC, and I think he'll need more in the weeks to come to create the impression that it's his time to win. His is not the juiciest role in this category — what's fun about it is that Dafoe is playing against type as a you-can-count-on-me normal person — so a narrative that positions his potential Oscar as one given for career achievement will almost certainly be the way to go.
It's really happening! That madman Ridley Scott has already rushed out new ads for his fact-based thriller that feature Plummer, despite the fact that Scott is still in the middle of shooting Plummer's scenes, since he was such a last-minute fill-in to replace Kevin Spacey. It's hard to tell what kind of performance Plummer is (still!) giving, though it looks a little more muted than the makeup-addled scenery-chewing we saw from Spacey in the original trailer. I'm curious how this one shakes out.
The NYFCC went hard for Haddish's breakout role in Girls Trip, and I'm happy that she and Best Actor winner Timothée Chalamet will be able to swap fruit-pleasuring tips from the stage. Can the critics continue to sustain her buzz even if Universal doesn't seem to be throwing a big enough for-your-consideration campaign for her?
Rather ridiculously, I'm still embargoed from discussing the new Paul Thomas Anderson film for another week, even though plenty of non-journalists have seen it and have raved about it on social media. I'll simply note that many of those reactions are very favorable to Manville and she's here in this column for a reason, wouldn't you think? Perhaps I can discuss the matter further next week, when the embargo lifts.


A recent increase of filed federal civil environmental lawsuits is stemming from new decisions and settlements made related to the Deepwater Horizon lawsuit in Louisiana, according to a report released Wednesday.
During the last quarter, which ended in January, 745 civil environmental lawsuits were filed in federal court, a big jump from the 198 suits filed the previous quarter, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
That data shows an overall 276 percent increase in civil environmental lawsuits filed in the four-month period. In January of this year alone, 172 cases were filed, according to the study.
The majority of the cases in the past quarter were driven by litigation in the Eastern District of Louisiana following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the study found.
The 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers on the rig, which was leased to oil and gas giant BP at the time, and ultimately released 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean over an 87-day period. The catastrophe has cost BP more than $60 billion.
While the disaster occurred nearly a decade ago, the litigation process has been slow. Funds from BP's 2016 settlement first became available last April to states affected by the spill. So far this year, the court has released orders on a number of medical benefits settlements and damages claims.
The report also found that nearly half of all of the federal civil environmental litigation filed either between companies, against the government or by the government between 2014 and end of January 2018 were filed in the same district in Louisiana.
"Clearly rulings and setting deadlines to do things generates activity," said TRAC's director, Susan Long, of the Deepwater Horizon new court settlements. "It's not hard because this is a multi-district litigation. There are lots of parties here. It's just huge litigation — as you can see you can really drive the numbers. Initially we said, 'Oh wow [lawsuits are] up,' and then we looked to see what accounted for it."
The report found that when taking out the environmental litigation stemming from the Louisiana gulf spill, federal civil environmental suits filed have actually steadily dropped overall from their height in the October 2016 quarter.


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LIFE | Kathimerini English Edition Ethnarhou Makariou Avenue & 2, Falireos Street
London event to explore the timeless allure of the Minoans
TAGS: Special Event, Fashion, Visual Arts
The enduring influence of the Minoan civilization on fashion, food, music and art is the subject of a high-level event at the Museum of London on Tuesday, November 5, which has been dedicated to Sophia Kokosalaki, the 47-year-old fashion designer of Cretan heritage who died earlier this month.
Featuring distinguished academics and designers, the event seeks to showcase how one of Europe's earliest and most advanced civilizations inspired the likes of Sergei Diaghilev, Ted Shaw, William Blake and his "Minotaur," Pablo Picasso's Labyrinth series, Mariano Fortuny's celebrated Κnossos scarf, Karl Lagerfeld and Kokosalaki, among many others.
"Contemporary Minoans: Cretan Culture, Source of Inspiration" is an initiative of the cultural organization Branding Heritage (BH), and was put together with the support of the Regional Authority of Crete and the Greek National Tourism Organization's UK and Ireland Office. Branding Heritage aims to explore how Greek culture inspires contemporary creativity and drives business. The nonprofit organization is the brainchild of journalist Katerina Frentzos.
In London, Harriet Quick, a journalist and Vogue UK contributing editor, and Sarah Mower, chief critic of Vogue Runway and British Fashion Council ambassador for emerging talent, will pay tribute to Kokosalaki's creative genius and exceptional personality.
Athens-born, London-based designer Mary Katrantzou, who recently presented a Greece-inspired collection at the Temple of Poseidon on Cape Sounion and has created a collection featuring Minoan motifs, will be a guest speaker.
Panel session speakers at the Museum of London also include professor of Aegean studies, Classics and ancient history at the University of Bristol Nicoletta Momigliano, Maze designer Adrian Fisher, lecturer in Aegean prehistory at Ca' Foscari University of Venice Ilaria Caloi, honorary research fellow at the University of Birmingham Diana Wardle, archaeologist and founder of Minoan Tastes Dr Jerolyn Morisson, ceramicist Lilah Clarke, Rainbowwave founder Maria Lemos, fashion designer Marios Schwab, archaeologist and jewelry designer Dr Polina Ellis, and Stephen J. Payne and Nikos Ziarkas of the Balothizer music ensemble.
The event will be addressed by Regional Governor of Crete Stavros Arnaoutakis, the Greek National Tourism Organization's president, Angela Gerekou, and secretary-general, Dimitris Fragakis, Greece's ambassador in London, Dimitris Caramitsos-Tziras, and journalist and founder of Branding Heritage Katerina Frentzou.
A special message will be sent by the head of the Picasso Administration, Claude Picasso, and the closing address will be delivered by Yiannis Politis, known for his restoration work at the Palace of Knossos on Crete. There will also be an exhibition of art with Minoan references by European artists, including Greece's Alekos Fassianos, as well as workshops in the reproduction of ancient weaving techniques.
Museum of London, 150 London Wall. Starts at 12.30 p.m.
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Thomas Perez embodies ethnic identity radicalism. Whether the U.S. Senate has the courage to challenge him is yet unknown. President Obama yesterday nominated Perez for Secretary of Labor. As the Department of Justice's assistant attorney general for civil rights since October 2009, Perez has promoted a hard-charging egalitarianism that goes even beyond that of first-term Obama Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who resigned in January. His "Third World First, America Last" worldview comes with hefty baggage. He's persuaded the Justice Department to dismiss its case against Black Panther members accused of menacing white voters and poll watchers in Philadelphia on Election Day 2008. He's led shakedowns of banks based on spurious claims of discrimination. And well before assuming his DOJ post, Perez headed a Maryland group that promotes illegal immigration.
Like so many Americans, Tom knows what it's like to climb the ladder of opportunity. He is the son of Dominican immigrants. He helped pay his way through college as a garbage collector and working at a warehouse. He went on to become the first lawyer in family. So his story reminds us of this country's promise, that if you're willing to work hard, it doesn't matter where you come from, what your last name is – you can make it if you try.
None of this, of course, has anything to do with Perez's qualifications to become labor secretary. Narratives and platitudes, noble or otherwise, moreover, can't disguise Perez's far-Left sensibility, something National Legal and Policy Center discussed at length, in 2010 and again last year, albeit in the context of a separate issue. Given the current context, his background and views require a far more detailed dissection. For Perez, contrary to what some might think, is not a conventional liberal – far from it. He is instead a zealot for the radical politics of ethnic grievance that travels under such terms as "civil rights," "multiculturalism" and "diversity." Indeed, that's a major reason why he's managed to climb the ladder of which the president spoke. Perez sees America as a nation rife with racism, ethnocentrism, sexism, and homophobia. One can be certain that as labor secretary he would be unrelenting in bringing employers, especially nonunion ones, to heel. And his Hispanic identity, like that of Solis, is utterly central to his sense of mission. Perez, in other words, isn't just an affirmation action hire; he's an affirmative action warrior.
Even before it became official, the selection of Thomas Perez as secretary of labor invited widespread and justifiable opprobrium. It's not as if he lacks credentials or life experiences. A longtime resident of Takoma Park, Md., Perez, now 51, was born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y. to Dominican immigrants – his late father was an Army and a VA doctor – who had fled the brutal regime of Rafael ("El Jefe") Trujillo. "The United States gave them opportunities even though this was their adopted homeland," he recalls. "They would tell me how much they loved this country and how it was important for me to be involved." This idea of America as a global sanctuary, not just a nation, is his unifying theme, personally and politically; it is little coincidence that his home of Takoma Park in 1985 became the nation's first 'sanctuary city' for illegal immigrants. Perez attended Brown University, receiving a B.A. in political science in 1983, and then went on to Harvard, where in 1987 he would earn both a law degree and a master's in public policy.
Perez's career has been primarily geared toward government service. He spent all of 1989-2001 in the executive or the legislative branch of the federal government. He initially served as a prosecutor during the George H.W. Bush administration in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, the same division he's headed for the past three and a half years. Then, from 1995 to 1998, he served as the main adviser on civil rights and criminal justice issues to Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. After that stretch, Perez returned to the Justice Department at a higher rank – as deputy assistant attorney general under Attorney General Janet Reno. After serving for a couple years, he closed out the Clinton era as head of the civil rights office at the Department of Health and Human Services. During the administration of George W. Bush, Perez cut his teeth in academia and Maryland politics. He joined the faculty at the University of Maryland law school where he remained until 2007. Later that year he became a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health, where he since has remained. In the meantime, he served as a member of the Montgomery County Council during 2002-06 and then as Secretary of Labor, Licensing and Regulation for the State of Maryland under current Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley during 2007-09.
Well-credentialed and workaholic, Perez appears exceptionally qualified to serve as U.S. Secretary of Labor. Yet he is anything but. Explaining why requires a hard look beneath the surface. In essence, there are three reasons why Perez's nomination should raise red flags.
First, his nomination would signify that the Obama administration remains committed to the principle of affirmative action, or to use the more benign term, "diversity." With the departure of Hilda Solis as labor secretary and Ken Salazar as interior secretary, President Obama, himself an affirmative action beneficiary, had faced the prospect of having no Hispanics in his second administration, a prospect of which Hispanic pressure groups and their allies frequently reminded him. Granted, secretary of labor since the late Eighties has been a de facto diversity slot. Of the last seven persons to serve, six have been women and/or "ethnic" nonwhites. (The lone white male, Robert Reich, who served during President Clinton's first term, could be considered an affirmative-action disability hire on the basis of his 4'11" height). By naming Perez as the new DOL secretary, President Obama has mollified his critics from the Left. Hispanic advocacy groups have taken notice. Last Monday, New York State Senator Adriano Espaillat, D-Washington Heights, leader of the U.S. League of Dominican-American Elected Officials, had this to say: "Thomas Perez is a true American success story, and an inspiration to the nearly 1.5 million people of Dominican heritage living in our country…Perez is already a role model for children of Dominican heritage, but his confirmation as U.S. Secretary of Labor will be nothing short of a milestone for our community." Apparently, professional qualifications are of passing concern.
Second, Perez's public pronouncements define him as a radical of the most clichéd, unctuous and ludicrous sort. He speaks of illegal immigrants "living in the shadows"; "our Muslim-American brothers and sisters subject to post-9/11 backlash"; "communities of color disproportionately affected by the subprime meltdown"; and "LGBT (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) brothers and sisters…forced to confront discrimination." He believes that bankers who reject credit applications by members of racial minority groups are like Klansmen, the only difference being that bankers discriminate with "a smile" and "fine print." Otherwise, they are "every bit as destructive as the cross burned in the neighborhood." It would seem to Perez that everyone in America, save for white males, are persecuted victims awaiting their full measure of justice. And he brings an inquisitional enthusiasm to his work. "We have a very broad, a very ambitious vision," he remarked in 2010 with respect to his role as the Justice Department's chief civil rights enforcer. "It's a very exciting vision, and I wake up every morning with a hop in my step." As secretary of labor, Perez no doubt would make employers hop with fear if he suspected "discrimination" on their part.
Third, and most importantly, Thomas Perez doesn't just 'talk the talk,' he 'walks the walk.' He repeatedly has put his radical egalitarianism into action. Here are some of the more prominent examples.
Voting Rights Act. Assistant Attorney General Perez has led the Justice Department's opposition to proposed Census-based redistricting in Alabama, Florida, Texas and elsewhere pursuant to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The state-drawn maps, he insists, are intended to disenfranchise minorities. That the redistricting is intended to prevent election fraud apparently means little. Perez is going to the mat to ensure that the "preclearance" requirements related to Section 5 of the Act remain intact. These requirements stipulate that certain U.S. jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination – most or all in the South – can't modify their voting laws without special permission from either the Justice Department or a three-judge panel in the District of Columbia. Congress in 2006 extended Section 5 for another 25 years. Attorney General Eric Holder and his civil-rights chieftain Thomas Perez last year made the most of the opportunity to block various redistricting plans.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Last May, Perez and DOJ Civil Rights Division prosecutors filed racial profiling charges against Joe Arpaio, the Republican sheriff of Maricopa County (metropolitan Phoenix), Ariz. The suit followed a three-year investigation into whether the county had violated the civil rights of Hispanics. Mass-immigration enthusiasts have put a target on Sheriff Arpaio's back since he was first elected in 1992. They've despised him even more since 2005, when he instituted certain get-tough approaches to stem the explosive growth in illegal immigration and accompanying crime, almost all of it coming from Mexico. Thomas Perez and his boss, Eric Holder, have spared no expense in trying to get the goods on Arpaio. While the colorful Arpaio has pulled some highly questionable publicity stunts during his tenure, that in and of itself doesn't justify the DOJ 'racial profiling' crackdown. According to Arpaio's office, all persons arrested for using stolen IDs in 57 separate raids as of March 2012, were illegal immigrants.
Aside from the urgency of the issue is the fact that Sheriff Arpaio is supplementing, not supplanting, federal law. According to federal law, any law enforcement officer in the country – federal, state or local – has the authority to stop a person based on a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the country illegally and ask that individual to show proof of citizenship or legal residence. What typically is called 'ethnic profiling' is little more than the application of common sense. So why do most cops avoid asking suspects about their citizenship? There are two main reasons: 1) 'sanctuary' ordinances enacted by many U.S. cities make it virtually impossible to apprehend, let alone deport, a suspected illegal immigrant in those jurisdictions; and 2) cops fear bad publicity and lawsuits of the sort befalling Sheriff Arpaio. The "controversial" Arizona and Alabama laws authorizing stopping suspected illegal immigrants about their residential status merely add state penalties to what already is a federal offense, and for that matter, an offense in other countries as well. Thomas Perez, however, sees only injustice. Of Alabama's law, he wrote last year: "(The law has) diminished access to and quality of education for many of Alabama's Hispanic children, resulted in missed days, chilled or prevented the participation of parents in their children's education, and transformed the climates of some schools into less safe and welcoming spaces for Hispanic children." Upholding the law would appear to be of little or no concern if it conflicts with advancing Hispanic interests.
St. Paul, Minn. lawsuit. Thomas Perez's enthusiasm for punishing actions having a 'disparate impact' on racial minorities extends to local government. Last September, as NLPC reported, the City of St. Paul. Minn. unexpectedly withdrew its appeal of a February 2012 federal circuit court decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case, known as Magner v. Gallagher, grew out of an allegation that St. Paul's aggressive enforcement of its housing code had a disparate impact against minorities. A group of local landlords, led by Thomas Gallagher, invoked the Fair Housing Act to invalidate the enforcement procedure, though not the code itself. City officials, led by Vacant Property Manager Steve Magner, moved to have the case dismissed. A district court granted the motion, arguing, sensibly, that the code enforcement was not discriminatory. Gallagher appealed, and a circuit court sided with him and denied Magner's request for a rehearing. Magner and other city officials, in response, filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, which in turn granted the plaintiffs certiorari. But the city, mysteriously, pulled out.
The mystery was traceable to the U.S. Department of Justice. A group of ranking members of Congress, based on available information, sent Attorney General Holder a letter in September stating: "Mr. (Thomas) Perez fretted that a decision in the city's favor would dry up the massive mortgage lending settlements his division was obtaining by suing banks for housing discrimination based on disparate effects rather than any proof of intent to discriminate." The letter accused the department of making a quid pro quo deal: The City of St. Paul would drop its appeal and the Justice Department would refrain from intervening in a separate $180 million whistle-blower lawsuit against the City that invoked the False Claims Act. In other words, Thomas Perez helped put the squeeze on the City so the Justice Department could exert more leverage in shaking down mortgage lenders across the country.
Bank shakedowns. Perez has been unrelenting in his desire to use the doctrine of 'disparate impact' to punish major banks for allegedly engaging in discrimination against racial/ethnic minorities in mortgage lending. As NLPC had argued last July, he and his band of prosecutors have coerced consent decrees from Bank of America, SunTrust and Wells Fargo for lending practices which, though not racial in intent, had the effect of creating racial disparities. Under 'disparate impact,' a doctrine established by the Supreme Court in 1971 in Griggs v. Duke Power Co., the Justice Department merely has to show that statistical differences in outcomes between what is and what should be are normatively unacceptable. The Obama administration fully supports this view of the law. Lenders typically settle out of court because they fear the consequences of losing in court and being forced to pay outsized jury awards. These "settlements" amount to race-based credit allocation all but in name.
Last summer's settlement between Perez's prosecutors and Wells Fargo & Co. was an especially egregious example. The San Francisco-based bank, though not formally admitting wrongdoing, agreed to fork over $175 million to mortgage borrowers — $125 million in damages for overcharges and $50 million in future down payment assistance for loans in "underserved" areas. That doesn't even include the $3 million and $432.5 million that Wells Fargo agreed to pay, respectively, to the City of Baltimore and the City of Memphis/County of Shelby, Tenn. to resolve separate lawsuits. Raiding companies with deep pockets to promote equality of outcomes is Perez's style. It's going to continue at the Department of Labor if he gets to run it.
Casa de Maryland. Subsidizing housing, education and social services for persons who have no business being in this country might not seem in the spirit of consensus-building. But Thomas Perez believes it's a good idea. In fact, he's done a lot more than simply believe. During his stint in the Clinton Justice Department, Perez established a "Worker Exploitation Task Force" to enhance working conditions for workers illegally in the U.S. On the side, he did volunteer work at a nonprofit, Casa de Maryland, founded in 1985 to facilitate Takoma Park's role as an illegal immigration sanctuary. During the last decade he rose to become the group's president, tirelessly fighting for subsidizing a wide range of benefits for illegal immigrants, rarely, if ever, hesitating to file lawsuits. Among other things, benefits have meant in-state college tuition discounts, driver's licenses, and subsidies for day labor centers. Casa de Maryland has gone the extra mile to block enforcement of deportation orders and prevent coordination of post-9/11 federal, state and local databases. It played a central role, in fact, in persuading President Obama last June to announce the indefinite suspension of deportations of some 800,000 persons who would be eligible to remain here under the never-enacted DREAM Act, thus bypassing congressional approval. And it's a lead player in the push for amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.
Casa de Maryland, which nearly three years ago moved from its original headquarters in Takoma Park to its more spacious digs in Langley Park, Md., gets substantial funds from government. In 2010 alone, state and local governments in Maryland provided $5 million. And that's not including money from churches and philanthropies, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the United Way, and multibillionaire George Soros' Open Society Institute. In 2008, the group received a whopping $1.5 million payment from CITGO, which for years has operated as an arm of the Venezuelan government whose own "Jefe," Hugo Chavez, recently passed away. Maryland Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley, for one, is a huge fan of Casa de Maryland. He remarked at the Langley Park opening: "In our Maryland, there's no such thing as a spare American." For the record, he was present at yesterday's White House nomination ceremony for Thomas Perez.
Black Panther voter intimidation in Philadelphia. Of all "projects" of Thomas Perez, this one arguably ranks as the most egregious. On November 4, 2008, Election Day, video footage was released to various news outlets clearly showing members of a paramilitary group, the New Black Panther Party (NBPP), standing in front of the entrance to a local polling station in north Philadelphia in semi-military uniforms menacingly accosting white people likely to enter the premises. The NBPP claimed their members were there to provide "security." Yet according to one eyewitness, one of the party members, King Samir Shabazz, carried a billy club and pointed it at white voters as he and another man shouted epithets such as "white devil" and "You're about to be ruled by the black man, cracker." On January 6, 2009, with President Obama's inauguration less than two weeks away, Justice Department prosecutors filed a civil suit against the party itself and three leading members, Malik Zulu Shabazz, King Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson. Yet despite the apparently damning footage and testimony, Obama Attorney General Eric Holder in May 2009, with a minimum of publicity, narrowed the charges against King Shabazz and dropped them entirely against Jackson and NBPP.
As it turned out, Thomas Perez, who assumed his post in October 2009, had more than a little to do with the cover-up after the case was dropped. Back in June, after the Justice Department had abandoned its case, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights launched an inquiry into the department's decision. But the department, from Holder on down, proved highly uncooperative. In December 2009, with Perez now in office, the commission subpoenaed J. Christian Adams and Christopher Coates, respectively, the trial attorney and lead attorney in the prosecution, to testify as to why the case had been dismissed. Suddenly, the Justice Department intervened, telling Adams and Coates not to testify. The department rationalized that the authority to prosecute lay with the department, and not with the Civil Rights Commission. Each stepped down. Perez transferred Coates to the U.S. Attorney's Office in South Carolina and disallowed him from testifying before the commission. His reason: Coates' presence in South Carolina rendered him an inappropriate witness to testify. Does the term "self-fulfilling prophecy" come to mind?
Adams, at least, did get to testify. He stated, bluntly: "I was told by voting section management that cases are not going to be brought against black defendants on [behalf] of white victims." He also stated that lawyers who recommended narrowing the case had not even read the applicable documents and that his own supervisors had instructed him and other lawyers in the voting section not to bring cases against minority offenders. Rebutting the claim that the Philadelphia incident was "isolated," Adams said: "To the contrary, the Black Panthers in October 2008 announced a nationwide deployment for the election. We had indications that polling-place thugs were deployed elsewhere, not only in November 2008, but also during the Democratic primaries, where they targeted white Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters." Astonishingly, Perez stated there was insufficient evidence to warrant further investigation. In effect, Perez used his office as cover for club-wielding black street thugs in the service of vote suppression. A lengthy report (see pdf) released this month by the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General reveals just how demoralizing and polarizing an influence Perez and his allies have been on the department's voting rights section.
Any one of these cases point to Thomas Perez as unfit to become the nation's next labor secretary. His vision is deeply anti-American, and though a lawyer, he has shown a predilection, time and again, to ignore rule of law, if not to break the law outright. The case against him is more than convincing; it is overwhelming. Organized labor, not unexpectedly, supports him. "The AFL-CIO believes Perez would bring the skills and passion working people need to an important agency," said Jeff Hauser, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based labor federation. If that's so, then it's a highly misguided set of skills and passions. Far from being a "consensus builder," as President Obama rhapsodized today, he's an anti-white ethnic politician of an extreme sort. His interest in labor law and policy appears to extend no further than compensating the uncountable "victims" of white America.
Secretary of Labor is a position that normally doesn't invite controversy during the confirmation stage or beyond. Even Hilda Solis, despite her own obvious leanings as a Hispanic ethnic politician, wasn't so polarizing. Neither is current Acting Secretary Seth Harris, Hilda Solis' chief deputy. But Thomas Perez invites not so much scrutiny as outright alarm. Indeed, his track record can be called disgraceful on every level, both in his views and his approach to enforcing the law. Three and a half years ago the U.S. Senate approved his nomination for his current Justice Department position by a 72-22 margin. That was an uncomfortably wide margin. Hopefully, this time around the opposition to his Labor Department nomination will be large and mobilized enough to defeat it.
Could a NC Law Put EPA Doctor-Researchers in Jail?


Traveling to Vienna in spring is a double treat – the weather is balmy, the city is gorgeous (well, it always is), and white asparagus is in season.
From modernist masterpieces of Otto Wagner, Kolo Moser, Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele to contemporary studios and workshops, Vienna holds immense treasures of art and design. New arrivals incorporate effortlessly into the creatively opulent ambience of the Imperial City, and can be seen everywhere.


Cancerous cells can rapidly grow in any part of the body, and with Kaposi's Sarcoma, cancer begins in the blood vessels or lymph nodes. It becomes visible in the form of skin tumors or mucus-containing areas, and can also grow in the digestive tract and lungs. When you come into contact with Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpes virus (KSHV), your endothelial cells become infected. While the herpes virus is the primary cause for Kaposi's sarcoma, there are risk factors associated with the virus, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a weakened immune system, gender, and other at-risk groups.
Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpes virus resides in the same family as the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), which is the virus that leads to mononucleosis. KSHV is primarily transmitted through saliva, blood transfusions, and organ transplants. KSHV accounts for all the forms of Kaposi's sarcoma, of which there are four types (classic Kaposi's sarcoma, endemic Kaposi's sarcoma, immunosuppression-associated Kaposi's sarcoma, and AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma). This virus causes cells to divide too frequently and have elongated lifespans because it introduces genes into these cells. Some of these genes have been known to create new blood vessels in endothelial cells and result in inflammation and the development into cancerous cells.
Continue for the next cause and risk factor on this list.


point client in the direction of their goals.
full measurement and body fat analysis.
A little something about me! I used to be over-weight and I constantly struggled with my diet. I didn't know what to eat or how much exercise I should get. I never knew what to do! Finally I decided to gain knowledge about what was happening to me and my education process began. I attended school, read books and started talking to people about what worked for them. With a lot of hard work and determination, I achieved the ultimate goal! I lost 30 pounds and I learned the importance of eating properly. Since 1994 I have been constantly challenging myself and overcoming my weight gain fears, which has allowed me to have the greatest gift of all...the gift of success, without failure!
Well, let's start with NATURAL; food that is readily available from nature. Due to society's ecological carelessness, we now need to specialize in "organic" produce. This has become important as natural foods focus on avoiding additives, prefabricated and refined foods, chemical sprays, and food without extra sugars, salts, and flavorings. Keep in mind that we need to be the caretakers of our Earth and only then are we able to receive the best possible diet, by living harmoniously and productively with the land. Examples of natural foods would be: fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grain breads, fresh meats and fish. Examples of un-natural foods: processed breads, TV dinners, breaded frozen meats and fish. Next we have ALIVE; food that has a positive energy force. Studies have shown the comparisons of energy fields of foods that have been grown with/without chemicals sprays or hormones; farmers that truly do or don't care for their crops; and organic vs. non-organic meats and vegetables have shown amazing results.
The alive, "organic" foods had a higher electric charge within them vs. the foods that didn't. That's why many people are choosing to eat "raw" alive foods because not only are our depleted soils ruining our crops, along with the environment but our cooking processes are drawing the vitamins and minerals out of our foods and destroying the structure of the foods we eat. Examples of alive foods would be: raw vegetables, fresh fruits, sprouted whole grain breads and raw meats.
Our last one is GOOD; food that is not depleted and helps maintain balance and variety in our bodies. Food is what keeps us going but if it is not rich we will actually be depleting our bodies of what it needs. Eating "unrefined" foods that contain no additives and preservatives and are not stripped of their fiber and nutrients helps increase our chances of not having health problems. By choosing food that is rich in vitamins and minerals; that has been cared and nurtured for by rich, healthy land and loved for by a farmer named "Jed", we have chosen all those things for us and everything that is "good". Examples of good food would be: organic "alive" food that has not been sprayed with pesticides or injected with artificial growth hormones and food that has been grown positively.
After reading this brochure, I hope that you can begin to recognize the importance in making the right food choices. These are choices that I have made in my life to support my body in living a long and healthy life. Now it is your turn to make the same choice and I can help you to succeed, just as I did. After completing this "NAG" process, we make it possible for our bodies to work at their utmost, attainable level. There are few things in life that we can control but eating is one of them!


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Coronavirus – Are We in For Historic Construction Delay Claims?
Business Operations & ContractsCoronavirus Response TeamPublications
C. Michael Shull, III
What if a general contractor's completion of its work is delayed due to COVID-19 (coronavirus)? Is the contractor in breach? Or, is the delay in performance due to the virus excused? Does the contractor get additional time to complete work or additional compensation for the delay to its work schedule?
There are many ways that coronavirus can cause delays to a project. The supply chain can be disrupted in many ways. While lumber, steel, concrete and other materials are sourced more locally, others come from overseas, such as marble from Italy and fixtures from China. Currently, Italy and China are two of the nations most affected by the pandemic. Local agency closures may delay the issuance of permits, approvals or inspections necessary for a certificate of occupancy required for substantial completion. And, of course, workers and crews may either become ill or wish to stay home to avoid infection. Who bears this risk of delay?
When in Doubt, Read the Contract
Most construction contracts break delays down into three categories: those caused by the project owner or its design team, those caused by the contractor, and a third category where the delay arises due to neither the actions of the owner nor contractor, but from circumstances beyond either party's control. Whether the general contractor is entitled to an extension of its agreed-upon time for performance (contract time) or an increase in compensation (contract price) in connection with the delay often depends upon the cause of delay's category. Typically, those delays attributable to the contractor's failures warrant neither an increase in the contract time or the contract price. Those delays caused by the owner or its team usually warrant an increase to both. Those delays caused by neither the owner nor the contractor – often referred to as force majeure events – will typically warrant an increase in the contract time and therefore relief from any liquidated damages. Still, entitlement to an increase in the contract price varies greatly from contract to contract.
Common Contractual Language Regarding Delays
Contract forms typically used in the construction industry address the issue of force majeure damages a bit differently. The ConsensusDocs Form 200, for example, drafted for use between an owner and a contractor, lists within Article 6.3 four categories where the delay is essentially due to an owner's action or inaction, and provides both an increase in the contract time and contract price if they occur. For delays caused by force majeure events, an adjustment to the contract time is to be provided, but the provision (6.3.3) neither expressly prohibits nor requires an increase in the contract price. Is the coronavirus such a force majeure event? In fact, the ConsensusDocs 200 specifically mentions "epidemics" as a delay for which the contract time will be equitably adjusted. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that coronavirus was a pandemic. WHO defines a pandemic as "an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people."
If the coronavirus itself did not fall within the force majeure definitions of a particular contract, and "pandemic" or "epidemic" are not specifically mentioned, then possibly one of its consequences does. For example, force majeure situations under the ConsensusDocs 200 also include "transportation delays not reasonably foreseeable," "adverse governmental actions," and a catch-all "unavoidable accidents or circumstances."
Another popular industry form, the AIA A201 (2017), at Article 8.3.1 offers a contractor an extension of the contract time for delays due to "labor disputes, fire, unusual delay in deliveries, unavoidable casualties . . . or other causes beyond the Contractor's control", as well as "other causes that the Contractor asserts, and the Architect determines, justify delay."
The A201 does not provide for an automatic increase in the contract price for these force majeure delays (or even for delays caused by the owner). Instead, it simply says that damages for delay by either party are not precluded.
Frequently the standard terms of both the ConsensusDocs 200 and AIA A201 are revised in favor of one of the parties' interests. For example, an owner may revise them to provide for no damages due to delay under any circumstance, even those beyond the contractor's control. But some states have passed legislation declaring void any contract which provides no damages for delay in the event that the owner is the cause of the delay, but leaves open the issue of damages in the case of force majeure events. Even if the contract form does provide for additional time or compensation in such circumstances, however, the contractor will still need to prove that the delay was in fact occasioned by the pandemic, and likely the exact amount of time that the pandemic affected the project's critical path, as well as the lack of available mitigation measures and the provision of notice as required by the contract.
Federal Government Contracts
Some public contract provisions, such as federal government contracts, have their terms as to delay claims determined by statute and regulation. For example, for federal government construction projects the Federal Acquisition Regulations at 48 CFR §52.249-14 "Excusable Delays" (for insertion in cost-reimbursement construction contracts among others) provide that:
. . . the Contractor shall not be in default because of any failure to perform its contract under its terms (within the Contact Time) if the failure arises from causes beyond the control and without the fault or negligence of, the Contractor.
Examples of these causes are (1) acts of God or of the public enemy, (2) acts of the Government in either its sovereign or contractual capacity, . . . (5) epidemics, (6) quarantine restrictions . . . (8) freight embargoes.
If the contractor's failure is because one of its subcontractor's performance is delayed by such causes, a failure to timely perform likewise will not constitute a default. 52.249-14(c) provides that upon request of the contractor of a schedule extension, the contracting officer will determine whether the contractor's failure to meet the required schedule does, in fact, flow from one of the enumerated causes, and if so the delivery schedule shall be revised. Additional compensation to the contractor is however, not provided in such instances. The Federal Acquistion Rregulation (FAR) provision applicable to fixed-price construction contracts, 48 CFR §52.249-10, likewise provides for an extension of time for completing the work shall be provided, upon adequate proof by the contractor, that the delay in completion is due these same causes.
Relief via a claim of excusable delay due to analogous situations, such an influenza epidemic, however, has not been as easily obtained in the past as one might think. Several claims of excusable delay due to an influenza epidemic have been denied where the contractor has failed to show that the epidemic was the sole cause, not merely a contributing cause, of the performance delay. The contractor must also establish the actual extent of the delay caused by the epidemic. See e.g. Ace Electronics Associates, Inc., ASBCA Nos. 11496, 11781, 67-2 BCA ¶ 6456 (July 18, 1967) Additionally, a contractor will find difficulty alleging that its performance is excused simply because one or more key personnel were affected by an epidemic. Asa L. Shipman's Sons, Ltd., GPOBCA No. 06-95, 1995 WL 818784 (August 29, 1995).
One should also take care to remember that if a delay is otherwise excusable, the failure of a contractor to establish reasons for not obtaining the requisite material(s) from another source can result in a denial of excusable delay and an extension of the time of performance. Cryer & Parker Elecs., Inc. ASBCA 15150, 71-2 BCA ¶ 8943.
The world "analogous" is used above hesitantly. Whether the coronavirus pandemic is analogous to anything seen before is surely debatable. Each day brings a fresh set of developments that suggest our current situation is unlike any faced in modern times. Returning to the FAR clauses above, the recitation of epidemics, quarantines, the sovereign action of the government, embargoes, and other circumstances beyond the control of a contractor were likely not listed with the anticipation that they might occur simultaneously.
For Contractors: Remember to provide notice. Contractors whose performance is affected by COVID-19 should provide notice as required under their contract, both in the format and within the time required. Suggest a meeting with the owner to discuss this possibility before it even occurs, if possible. Yes, the owner is no doubt aware of the pandemic in general but not yet as to your specific challenges. If a solution to the delay is possible with the owner and the architect's approval, propose it. Owners will be keen to get the project completed as soon as possible. If the pandemic causes a full or partial shutdown of the work, remember to protect it and all materials as best as possible. If such protection requires atypical measures, discuss those with the owner to find a solution and protect materials onsite from the elements.
For Owners: If your contractor puts you on notice of a delay due to the pandemic, schedule a meeting. Identify with the contractor whether the delay is due to workforce or supply chain issues, and determine whether their effects might be mitigated by switching to materials from a different source (i.e., local rather than overseas). If the contractor on your project is already severely behind schedule here at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, make sure to document the status of the project now in order to avoid the pandemic and its effects being used (or attempted) to excuse performance failures, and perhaps liquidated damages which have already accrued.
For Everyone: Communication on projects will be more important than ever before, because whether due to the virus' effect on the workforce or the government's reaction to it, all participants on a project will need to be flexible and responsive. If you are about to enter into a construction contract, go ahead and address the pandemic and possible ramifications now if you can.
We really are all in this together. Owners are anxious to get their projects completed without delays and additional costs. Contractors are worried about completing their current projects as well and maintaining the safety of their workforce. It is best to try and work mutually towards a solution as each challenge arises.
To provide guidance and support to clients as this global public-health crisis unfolds, Frost Brown Todd has created a Coronavirus Response Team. Our attorneys are on hand to answer your questions and provide guidance on how to proactively prepare for and manage any coronavirus-related threats to your business operations and workforce.
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Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.
Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It's the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white hot enjoyment of God's glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. "The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!" (Psalm 97:1). "Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!" (Psalm 67:3-4).
But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can't commend what you don't cherish. Missionaries will never call out, "Let the nations be glad!", who cannot say from the heart, "I rejoice in the Lord...I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High" (Psalm 104:34; 9:2). Missions begins and ends in worship.
If the pursuit of God's glory is not ordered above the pursuit of man's good in the affections of the heart and the priorities of the church, man will not be well served and God will not be duly honored. I am not pleading for a diminishing of missions but for a magnifying of God. When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God's true worth, the light of missions will shine to the most remote peoples on earth. And I long for that day to come!
Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to "declare his glory among the nations" (Psalm 96:3). Even outsiders feel the disparity between the boldness of our claims upon the nations and the blandness of our engagement with God.
For example, Charles Misner, a scientific specialist in general relativity theory, expressed Albert Einstein's skepticism over the church with words that should waken us to the shallowness of our experience with God in worship.
"The design of the universe...is very magnificent and shouldn't be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as a basically very religious man. He must have looked at what the preacher said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had every imagined, and they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt that religions he'd run across did not have proper respect...for the author of the universe."
The charge of blasphemy is loaded. The point is to pack a wallop behind the charge that in our worship services God simply doesn't come through for who he is. He is unwittingly belittled. For those who are stunned by the indescribable magnitude of what God has made, not to mention the infinite greatness of the One who made it, the steady diet on Sunday morning of practical "how to's" and psychological soothing and relational therapy and tactical planning seem dramatically out of touch with Reality--the God of overwhelming greatness.
It is possible to be distracted from God in trying to serve God. Martha-like , we neglect the one thing needful, and soon begin to present God as busy and fretful. A.W. Tozer warned us about this: "We commonly represent God as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world. ... Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God."
Scientists know that light travels at the speed of 5.87 trillion miles in a year. They also know that the galaxy of which our solar system is a part is about 100,000 light-years in diameter--about five hundred eighty seven thousand trillion miles. It is one of about a million such galaxies in the optical range of our most powerful telescopes. In our galaxy there are about 100 billion stars. The sun is one of them, a modest star burning at about 6,000 degrees Centigrade on the surface, and traveling in an orbit at 155 miles per second, which means it will take about 200 million years to complete a revolution around the galaxy.
Scientists know these things and are awed by them. And they say, "If there is a personal God, as the Christians say, who spoke this universe into being, then there is a certain respect and reverence and wonder and dread that would have to come through when we talk about him and when we worship him."
Every one of the billions of stars in the universe is there by God's specific appointment. He knows their number. And, most astonishing of all, he knows them by name. They do his bidding as his personal agents. When we feel the weight of this grandeur in the heavens, we have only touched the hem of his garment. "Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways! And how small a whisper do we hear of him" (Job 26-14). That is why we cry 'Be exalted, O God, Above the heavens!' (Psalm 57:5). God is the absolute reality that everyone in the universe must come to terms with. Everything depends utterly on his will. All other realities compare to him like a raindrop compares to the ocean, or like an anthill compares to Mt. Everest. To ignore him or belittle him is unintelligible and suicidal folly. How shall one ever be the emissary of this great God who has not trembled before him with joyful wonder?
"When I left England, my hope of India's conversion was very strong; but amongst so many obstacles, it would die, unless upheld by God. Well, I have God, and His Word is true. Though the superstitions of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse; though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on the sure Word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God's cause will triumph."
Carey and thousands like him have been moved by the vision of a great and triumphant God. That vision must come first. Savoring it in worship precedes spreading it in missions. All of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and his Son among all the peoples of the earth. Missions is not that goal. It is the means. And for that reason it is the second greatest human activity in the world.
One of the things God uses to make this truth take hold of a person and a church is the stunning realization that it is also true for God himself. Missions is not God's ultimate goal, worship is. And when this sinks into a person's heart everything changes. The world is often turned on its head. And everything looks different--including the missionary enterprise.
The ultimate foundation for our passion to see God glorified is his own passion to be glorified. God is central and supreme in his own affections. There are no rivals for the supremacy of God's glory in his own heart. God is not an idolater. He does not disobey the first and great commandment. With all his heart and soul and strength and mind he delights in the glory of his manifold perfections. The most passionate heart for God in all the universe is God's heart.
This truth, more than any other I know, seals the conviction that worship is the fuel and goal of missions. The deepest reason why our passion for God should fuel missions is that God's passion for God fuels missions. Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God's delight in being God. And the deepest reason why worship is the goal in missions is that worship is God's goal. We are confirmed in this goal by the Biblical record of God's relentless pursuit of praise among the nations. "Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!" (Psalm 117:1). If it is God's goal it must be our goal.
All my years of preaching and teaching on the supremacy of God in the heart of God have proved that this truth hits most people like a truck laden with unknown fruit. If they survive the impact, they discover that it is the most luscious fruit on the planet. I have unpacked this truth with lengthy arguments in other places. So here I will just give a brief overview of the Biblical basis. What I am claiming is that the answer to the first question of the Westminster Catechism is the same when asked concerning God as it is when asked concerning man. Question: "What is the chief end of man?" Answer: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever." Question: "What is the chief end of God?" Answer: "The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself for ever."
Another way to say it is simply, God is righteous. The opposite of righteousness is to value and enjoy what is not truly valuable or rewarding. This is why people are called unrighteous in Romans 1:18. They suppress the truth of God's value and exchange God for created things. So they belittle God and discredit his worth. Righteousness is the opposite. It means recognizing true value for what it is and esteeming it and enjoying it in proportion to its true worth. The unrighteous in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 perish because they refuse to love the truth. The righteous, then, are those who welcome a love for the truth. Righteousness is recognizing and welcoming and loving and upholding what is truly valuable. God is righteous. This means that he recognizes, welcomes, loves and upholds with infinite jealousy and energy what is infinitely valuable, namely, the worth of God. God's righteousness passion and delight is to display and uphold his infinitely valuable glory. This is not a vague theological conjecture. It flows inevitably from dozens of Biblical texts that show God in the relentless pursuit of praise and honor from creation to consummation.
"For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another."
For my name's sake! For the sake of my praise! For my own sake! For my own sake! How should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another!
What this text hammers home to us is the centrality of God in his own affections. The most passionate heart for the glorification of God is God's heart. God's ultimate goal is to uphold and display the glory of his name.
Paul makes crystal clear in Romans 1:5 that his mission and calling are for the name of Christ among all the nations: "We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations."
The apostle John described the motive of early Christian missionaries in the same way. He wrote to tell one of his churches that they should send out Christian brothers in a manner "worthy of God." And the reason he gives is that "they have gone out for the sake of his name, taking nothing from the Gentiles." ( 3 John 6-7).
John Stott comments on these two texts (Romans 1:5; 3 John 7): "They knew that God had superexalted Jesus, enthroning him at his right hand and bestowing upon him the highest rank, in order that every tongue should confess his lordship. They longed that Jesus should receive the honor due his name." This longing is not a dream but a certainty. at the bottom of all our hope, when everything else has given way, we stand on this great reality: the everlasting, all- sufficient God is infinitely, unwaveringly, and eternally committed to the glory of his great and holy name. For the sake of his fame among the nations he will act. His name will not be profaned forever. The mission of the church will be victorious. He will vindicate his people and his cause in all the earth.
"As we seek to find out why, with such millions of Christians, the real army of God that is fighting the hosts of darkness is so small, the only answer is--lack of heart. The enthusiasm of the kingdom is missing. And that is because there is so little enthusiasm for the King."
The zeal of the church for the glory of her King will not rise until pastors and mission leaders and seminary teachers make much more of the King. When the glory of God himself saturates our preaching and teaching and conversation and writings, and when he predominates above our talk of methods and strategies and psychological buzz words and cultural trends, then the people might begin to feel that he is the central reality of their lives and that the spread of his glory is more important than all their possessions and all their plans.
God is calling us above all else to be the kind of people whose theme and passion is the supremacy of God in all of life. No one will be able to rise to the magnificence of the missionary cause who does not feel the magnificence of Christ. There will be no big world vision without a big God. There will be no passion to draw others into our worship where there is no passion for worship.
God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of his name among the nations. Therefore let us bring our affections into line with his, and, for the sake of his name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts, and join his global purpose. If we do this, God's omnipotent commitment to his name will be over us like a banner, and we will not lose, in spite of many tribulations (Acts 9:16; Romans 8:35-39). Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. The Great Commission is first to delight yourself in the Lord (Psalm 37:4) . And then to declare, "Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!" (Psalm 67:4). In this way God will be glorified from beginning to end and worship will empower the missionary enterprise till the coming of the Lord.


I think you need to be looking lower, below TV Ch 37. There was some discussion about using guard bands but I don't recall the legality of using vacant blocks in the 600mHz band.
Thanks Tim - I'll check. This is just a stopgap measure for me as things are coming at us quickly.
It will not be legal (sans an STA) to use vacant blocks after the transition period concludes in July 2020, just as it's not legal to use fallow 700MHz channels.
Nor will it be legal to use the two 1MHz guard bands (616-617 MHz and 652-653 MHz).
614-616 Unlicensed wireless mic operations only.
653-657 Part 74 licensed operation only (part of the duplex gap).
657-663 Shared unlicensed mics and TVBD/WSD (part of the duplex gap).
Henry, do you have an FCC source for this information? The "layman's page" on the FCC website seems to indicate the guard bands and duplex gap will be available for wireless microphone use indefinitely.
"Spectrum will continue to be available for wireless microphone use on the other TV channels 2-36 (TV band frequencies that fall below 608 MHz), on portions of the 600 MHz guard band (the 614-616 MHz frequencies) and the 600 MHz duplex gap (the 653-663 MHz frequencies), and in various other spectrum bands outside of the TV bands."


Anomalocaris lived 500 million years ago (Cambrian era). It was about a metre long. Like some weird cross between a nautilus, prawn, octopus and fever dream. It was a predator also. Makes your toes curl up a bit. Anomaly -> anomalocaris.
I like to imagine it somehow surviving and discovering someday while swimming, and hopefully surviving the subsequent heart attack, that like the coelacanth, it'll be found. But the coelacanth was only considered extinct for 35 million years.
Instead I think of a recent Tramore Bay during which I encountered more marine life than I've ever seen in a single swim. The water was rich with the underwater storm of the thread and tadpole shapes of miniature organisms. This in turn were supplying the multiple shoals, two of them huge, of sprats I swam through, with food. Given the sprats and the line anglers, there must have been mackerel around, but I never seem to see them in Tramore, (only in Sandycove), and maybe bass also. There were the Moon jellies as usual and some Compass jellies have started to appear also. The shape I saw and chased a few weeks ago, turned out to be another jelly, that was only around for a week or so, mostly only 4 to 8 cms long (yesterday's seemed like 18 to 20 cm), like a hollow transparent cucumber, with 4 lines of light dots down it sides, and white at one end. Some of them were tiny, so it's obviously a bloom happening. It didn't sting as I handled one.
There was another jelly, that looked slightly like the Moon jelly, but was flatter, with what seemed like scalloped sections around the edge of the bell, and short tentacles. This one I didn't handle (other than touching the top of the bell), the tentacles were short but prominent. Neither are on the Jelly ID charts. And in fact I've seen a third species I don't recognise since. I think need research on the subject. Emails to Ecojel have gone completely unanswered.
In the reefs and sandy bottom beneath Doneraile Head were the first crabs I'd seen in Tramore this year, (since that's the only place you can see the bottom) but no sign of the dogfish until swimming in Sandycove yesterday, which also was teeming with pink crabs on the first corner rocks.
Why would you swim in cold water?
Swimming for beginning open water swimmers and triathletes is like planting a tree. Twenty common beginner triathlete questions answered.


Your friend is getting married and you have no clue what to wear or what to buy? Fret not, Banarasee has you covered with their fairly priced gorgeous lehenga's and sari's.
The folks at Banarasee strive hard to put forth the art of Varanasi to the global market. Their pastel shades, bright and deeps red make the fabric stand out. Since a Banarasee sari is on everyone's wardrobe checklist, you should definitely check these designs and styles out.
Apart from sari's and lehengas they also have a variety of beautiful dupatta's. Their cushion cover and bed covers also have an authentic, etnic touch, and can make your space look lovely.
Their price for sari's, lehengas and bed covers start from INR 5,000 and their cushion covers and dupatta's start from INR 800 & INR 999 respectively.
The next time you're wedding shopping and are on a budget, visit their Facebook page and check out some authentic Banarasee clothing and bed linen.


Thesis (M.S., Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences) -- University of Idaho, 2015 | The United States is highly dependent on fossil fuel, which has heightened interest in producing biofuel from vegetable oils. Brassicaceae oilseed crops have potential as rotational crops with small grain cereals that predominate in the Pacific Northwest. However, few studies have determined productivity of these crops in side-by-side comparisons. This study examines adaptability, seed yield and oil content of three fall planted and six spring planted Brassicaceae species to assess their biofuel feedstock potential, grown in rotations with winter wheat. Results showed the highest fuel feedstock potential was from winter B. napus, spring B. napus, and B. juncea (1,800, 795, and 636 l ha-1, respectively). There were no difference in subsequent wheat yield or quality after any of the oilseed crops. To produce Brassicaceae biofuel feedstock crops, the recommendation is to produce winter B. napus in the crop-fallow regions, and spring B. napus or B. juncea in continuous cropping systems.


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Review: Static X – Shadow Zone
Post author By Zack Macomber
2 Comments on Review: Static X – Shadow Zone
This aint no in-depth review, just a quickie on what I think of the new album.
Well, first thing I noticed is it's short. I don't care as much anymore though cuz A) so many albums are short nowadays it aint worth bitchin' about and B) as long as what's on offer is good who gives a fuck?
Second thing I noticed is that… it's different. Very. In fact if someone had played pretty much any song off the album without tellin me who it was I woulda had a hard time figuring out who it was. Well, maybe not, because I'm gifted when it comes to music 'n stuff but the general sound, ESPECIALLY the vocals, are completely different to what I've come to expect from the X.
Which is a good thing, frankly. Linkin Park take note. Limp Bizkit… uh… don't ever pull that soft shit on the masses again. Bastards.
What was I on about? Oh yeah, vocals. I am VERY impressed. I never really thought ol' Wayne had it in him but he has, in fact, got a great SINGING voice. Thankfully though he still screams his little heart out and gets all gruff 'n shit, which is what The RKanester likes.
"Destroy All" is the perfect opener, short and to the point. Kicks off with a distorted riff, then breaks into a relentless barrage of nuttiness with the crunching guitars and Wayne's throaty vocals.
Fortunately things remain distinctly uphill, with "Control It" and title track "Shadow Zone" showing off Static's new (though not so new as to dignify a reinvention) sound nicely, with "New Pain" slotted nicely in-between, sounding like grade-A single material.
"Dead World", "Monster" and "The Only" follow, each track keeping up the pace and overall "feel" of the album. It's about this time you begin to appreciate the direction Static-X have taken, because they COULD have just churned out another Wisconsin Death Trip and made everyone happy but no, they've obviously taken things back to the drawing board, kept all the elements that made them such a success and thrown in enough changes in the process to allow them to come out with something genuinely "new", all the while retaining the core elements of hard, often fast-paced accessible industrial metal. I can imagine some Static fans are gonna be a tad taken aback by this album but that's a good thing. It won't just be "another" Static-X album in their collection; it'll be "that" Static-X album.
We're reminded of the old Static-X though with "Kill Your Idols", which I'll admit is my fave track on the album. I'm just a sucker for the more slow-burning malevolent tracks cuz, like, I'm evil. Plus it's just a bad-ass song.
"All In Wait" and "Otsegolectric" keep up the pace and then, in a move that caught me totally off-guard… we get the soft song.
Well, it's as close to a ballad as we're gonna get from these guys anywayz. "So" is a totally radio-friendly track but not in a way so as to offend the Static-X zealots. It's a different song for a different album, simple as, and it seems only fitting.
Then we get the little intermissionary (t'is a word, honest) track in "Transmission", which leads us straight into closing track "Invincible". Again, COMPLETELY different from what you'd expect. Not particularly heavy, though not as mellow as "December" off the Wisconsin Death Trip LP. In any case it winds you down nicely after having your ears assaulted for the past 30 minutes, give or take.
So yeah, overall it's a great album. I won't lie and pretend that the shortness of the album (it comes in at around 35 minutes total I think) doesn't bother me but I can deal with that. What's on offer is great and nothing really stands out as being bad, and I'd definitely say that "Kill Your Idols", "All In Wait" and "New Pain" are the stand-out tracks, at least for me.
Is this Static-X's best album? Depends on who you ask. For me? No. Though it's a great album I still have a soft spot for the rawness and anthemic feel to the majority of Wisconsin Death Trip's tracks.
I suppose I better hand out a rating so here goes…
OVERALL: 4 out of 5.
A very fair rating methinks. Definitely one of the better releases this year from a major name.
← Wasted Words 2 → The Gut: week off
2 replies on "Review: Static X – Shadow Zone"
Aaron Rhoadessays:
Great review Richard. I've got their last album, Machine, but I only really liked a few songs from it. Most notably, Cold. I might have to give this new album a listen.
MYCOALsays:
Very nice over-view…this is an EXCELLENT album!


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Where cybersecurity and fraud collide
July 26, 2016 | 45:59
Many of us have been the victim of a fraud attack. Often multiple times in one year. Unfortunately our growing dependence on social media. mobile devices, connected devices and technology in general has seemingly opened up new vulnerabilities for criminals to exploit. Cybersecurity breaches and fraud attacks are now stitched into the threads of our life as the norm. How do we minimize and counter fraud attacks and security breaches? Do we fight the cyberthreats to win the fraud battle or vice verse? Experts discussed this on our last episode of Cyber Beat Live.
Here are some of the questions discussed:
What are the main cyber security challenges plaguing the financial services industry?
Pundits say that the most common way hackers break into a network is to steal valid log-in credentials. Are the increased cyber-security gaps promoting more fraudulent acts? Explain.
How do we minimize the possibility of insiders deliberately or willfully sharing their credentials with would be hackers?
Are millennials more likely to cause cybersecurity and fraud risks?
At what point should the fraud prevention planning team involve the cybersecurity team? Why?
How should financial institutions address the implications of greater internet and mobile usage by customers?
What are some best practices that we can employ to mitigate cyber security risks and counter fraud?
Bob Stasio is a senior product manager of cyber analysis with IBM i2 Safer Planet. Stasio brings nearly 14 years of expertise fighting top-tier malicious actors in the intelligence community, the US military, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the commercial sector. Stasio also served on the initial staff of US Cyber Command. During the troop surge of 2007, his intelligence unit supported the detainment of more than 450 high-value targets.
Scott N. Schober is a cybersecurity expert and president and CEO of Berkeley Varitronics Systems, Inc., a 40-year-old provider of advanced wireless radio frequency (RF) test and security solutions. Schober has overseen the development of numerous cell phone detection tools used to enforce "no cell phones" policies in corporate, correctional, law enforcement, military, secured government and university facilities. He regularly appears on Arise TV, Bloomberg TV, Canadian TV News and as a cybersecurity expert with numerous appearances on Al Jazeera America, CCTV America, CNBC, CNN, Fox Business Channel, Fox News, Inside Edition, MSNBC, One America News (OAN), PIX11, TheBlaze and more. Schober has also presented as a subject-matter expert (SME) discussing cybersecurity and corporate espionage at numerous conferences worldwide.
Scott Dueweke formed Zebryx Consulting in 2015 to provide public and private sector clients an understanding of identities and alternative payment systems, both risks and rewards. Dueweke is an expert on identity and anonymous payments on the Internet, and he regularly advises senior leadership within financial institutions and the US government. Dueweke previously provided similar services for Agilex and, from 2006–2014, with Booz Allen Hamilton.
Morgan Wright is an internationally recognized expert on cybersecurity strategy, cyber terrorism, identity theft and privacy whose landmark congressional testimony about Healthcare.gov changed how the government collected personally identifiable information. He has spoken on cybersecurity to audiences around the world in hundreds of appearances on national news programs and radio broadcasts, as well as in print and online.
"Hackers Steal Millions from ATMs Without Using a Card," CNN Money, July 2016.
"Almost a Third of Consumers Victimized by Card Fraud," CreditUnionTimes, July 2016.
"SWIFT to Banks: Who You Gonna Call?" InfoRiskToday, July 2016.
"Extending Cybersecurity to Fraud Analytics," GCN, June 2016.
"Analytics Brief: Thwarting Cyber Crime on Banks, IBM Big Data & Analytics Hub, May 2016.
Follow @IBMAnalytics


Deep venous thrombosis (DVT), also known as a blood clot, and pulmonary embolism (PE) are two possible complications that can occur within 30 days after spine surgery.
A study in the upcoming issue of Spine examined data from over 27,000 patients who underwent lumbar or cervical spine surgery. Of these patients, 170 (0.6%) experienced a DVT, 77 (0.3%) experienced a PE, and 36 (0.1%) experienced both.
The results of the study showed that patients age 80 and older, males, and those with BMI>40 were at a higher risk of developing at DVT or PE after spine surgery. Patients who underwent posterior lumbar fusion (PLIF/PLF) or a posterior cervical fusion also had a higher risk of developing a DVT or PE.
As the patient, if you have one or more of the risk factors mentioned above, ask your surgeon what each of you can do to avoid experiencing a DVT or PE after surgery. In addition, be sure to educate yourself on the "warning signs" for a DVT or PE so that you can seek treatment as quickly as possible in the event you do experience these complications.
Schoenfed AJ, Herzog JP, Dunn JC, et al. Patient-based and surgical characteristics associated with the acute development of deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism following spine surgery. Spine (Phila Pa 1976) Publish Ahead of Print June 17, 2013.


List ten things for which you are thankful.
Take a walk and appreciate the beauty around you.
Fill your home with upbeat music.
Sip a cup of herbal tea while reading a good book.
Open the drapes and let sunshine flood your home.
Watch a funny movie with someone.
Pick up an old hobby or start a new one.
Allow yourself to be imperfect and forgive yourself.
Apologize to someone you know you mistreated.
Connect with someone bigger than you... Pray.


Missing a connecting flight is one of the most stressful and frustrating things that can happen to you when flying. If you want to avoid it, you need to give yourself ample time between flights, and do a little homework before you fly.
Ever had to sprint through an airport terminal to catch your next plane? There's a simple reason why. When listing ticket configurations online, airlines use what are called "minimum connecting times," or MCT, to determine which flights line up with your requested itinerary. It's an automatic formula that's designed to get you to your destination as quickly as possible, but can also lead to some very tight connections. You might have as little as 30 minutes to get from one plane to the next, and if there are any delays with the first flight, you're practically guaranteed to miss your next flight.
So what's a flyer to do? For starters, pay close attention to your layover times when you're booking your flights. A 35-minute layover may sound like you have time to use the bathroom and grab a quick bite, but it's probably barely enough time to make it to your next plane. Most people will tell you to give yourself at least an hour layover time for domestic flights, and two hours for international flights. But if you can manage to add an extra hour on to each of those, even better. With two hours for domestic flights and three hours for international flights, you should never have any issues. That gives some wiggle room for delays, using restrooms, and eating some slightly-less-terrible-than-airplane-food.
It also allows you time for something I forget about all the time: finding your next gate. Unless you're pretty familiar with the airport you're flying into, you'll need a little extra time to get your bearings. After all, you'll need to disembark the plane (which always takes longer than you expect it to), find a flight status board, look for your flight listing, then actually make your way to the designated gate. And that's not even taking into account all the other obstacles airports can throw your way.
Does the airport have construction going on? Is your next flight on a different airline? Do you have to go through extra security? Do you have to go through customs? Do you need to change terminals? Do you need to take a shuttle or train in order to change terminals? Is your connecting flight the last flight of the day for that airport? Catherine Hamm at the Los Angeles Times says these are all questions you should ask yourself and try to answer before you book those tickets. You also need to take into account your ability to read signage and navigate large buildings, and consider your level of fitness. If you have a bad sense of direction, or know you can't hustle from gate to gate, give yourself even more time.


Find Physics tutors in Romford with Home Tutors Directory. We also list a range of tutoring agencies and tuition centres who can provide Physics teachers in Romford for primary, GCSE, A-Level and University courses. It is free to contact the tutors on this page who are offering Physics lessons in Romford.
Can't find private tuition in Romford for your subject? You may wish to view our online tuition page. Alternatively use the navigation links to find tutoring in other areas of Essex.


SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Skybox® Security, a global leader in cybersecurity management, has released the results of a global survey conducted by Osterman Research, Understanding Security Processes and the Need to Automate. The survey, which includes responses from 465 senior security leaders at large enterprises in the U.S., EMEA and APAC,* reveals trends in the use of security automation, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Survey questions focused on workflows in firewall and security policy management and vulnerability management.