In my columns during the past couple of months, I have tried to provide potential new comics retailers with tips on how to survive in the new Internet-driven comics market. In nearly every paragraph of those columns, however, I have gone out of my way to try and caution those considering becoming comics retailers about the risks of jumping into this savagely competitive market. Not only are the rates of failure for new comics dealers astoundingly high (90%+ in the first five years), but even those who "succeed" frequently earn very little in the way of compensation. Becoming a full time comics dealers is definitely not an easy path to riches. Nor is a career in comics retailing a way to garner much in the way of social standing. Simply put, you have to not only be extremely clever and hardworking to survive as a comics retailer, but you also have to be willing to accept substandard wages, and be willing to suffer frequent dubiousness, scorn, and derision from friends and neighbors who have not the slightest idea of what you actually do for a living.
All of the above having been said, I'm sure you're asking yourself why I, and thousands of others like me, have chosen comics retailing as a career. The glib response would be (of course...) that we all suffer the slings and arrows of an ungrateful world solely because we fervently believe in the cause of sequential storytelling as an art form, and that we're all determined to gain public acceptance for comics on an equal plane with paintings, sculpture, film, dance, phototgraphy, music, and all other forms of artistic expression. Practice saying it long enough, and that idealistic phraseology can roll off of your tongue like butter. The fact that many of us really are committed to sustaining the future of comics and graphic storytelling helps us a lot when trying to sound convincingly genuine when articulating this primary motiviation. In reality, however, the motives of most comics dealers are far less altruisitic, and frequently are vastly more self-serving. While that may sound like a negative statement, I actually mean it quite positively. Said slightly differently, there are some very definite personal reward elements to being a comics dealer that might not be immediately obvious, but which are clearly attractive enough to have motivated tens of thousands of people to try and join our world. I'm going to elaborate on some of those non-cash benefits for you in my column today as an offset to all the cautions and caveats that I expressed in my earlier discussions of your potentially becoming a comics dealer. Once you've see both sides of the equation, then I think you're in the best postion to make a reasonable judgement.
If someone were to ask me (which they never do) why I became a comics dealer, I think that they would be very surprised at the answer. You see, the general assumption was that I started selling comics intending to make gobs of money. Hah! I voluntarily gave up a full ROTC scholarship to the University of Colorado, with a subsequent guarantee of a reasonably well paying job as an Army officer, to instead live in the back of a 1963 Chevy because I thought I was going to get rich? Nothing could possibly be further from the truth. The realities were two-fold. First, the monthly living stipend of $100 that I was receiving from ROTC was too little for me to survive, even at 1977 prices. I was having to sell comics while I was going to CU to supplement my monthly budget, because I just didn't have enough left after paying my $75 room rent to buy food. Had economics been my only consideration, however, I'm sure that I could have figured out a way to sell some comics on the side, and still have finished my degree.
That very evening that I cut my hair, I had an experience which changed the course of my life. Simply put, I woke up in the darkest part of the night sobbing without control. While I had made the concious (and theoretically rational) decision to follow the Army path during the previous day, I simply could not escape my doubts and fears during that dreadful night. Following a pattern that I now adhere to without fail, I listened to what my subconcious was telling me. I returned to the ROTC offices the following morning, and announced that I needed a leave-of-absence from the program. That led to my ultimately resigning from ROTC, and taking on the incredible risk of becoming a full-time comics dealer.
What's important about the story that I just related for you is not the whole ROTC scenario, but rather my rejection of any constraints upon my personal freedom. While the risks were incredibly high going the comics route, and the financial rewards were pitiful, I was reasonably sure that I could generate enough income to at least survive living in the old Chevy. Given the alternative of living well in a highly structured organization with minimal personal freedoms, or struggling to get by in an arena where I had complete and total personal freedom, my subconcious chose freedom over security. Aside from proposing marriage to my wonderful wife, Nanette, I consider that decision to have been the best one that I ever made in my life. The fact that it ultimately led to my owning a large corporation, and generating nearly $100,000,000 in comics sales over the past 35 years, never even entered my mind. All I wanted at the time was to be living a life where absolutely no one could tell me what to do.
In a nutshell, complete personal freedom is the hidden reward of being a comics dealer or any other kind of collectibles dealer, for that matter. Once you've taken the dreadfully scary step of giving up the security of whatever establishment that has been nuturing you in exchange for your enslavement, you may find yourself experiencing giddy excitement at the realization that you're completely on your own. Taken it its extreme, think of flying or driving into a city where you know absolutely no one and have no support mechanisms available, with only your wits and inventory as assets with which to generate income. Early in my career I frequently found myself in that position, and I can guarantee you that it definitely causes several very powerful physical reactions, with "butterflies" being the only one that I can describe in mixed company. Once you get past your fears, however, and start to achieve some measure of success completely on your own, freedom becomes a drug that overwhelms your entire psyche. After that last dreadful haircut in 1974, I have never again cut my hair. It certainly gets in my way sometimes, but I wear my 3' long braid not only as a personal fashion statement, but also as a clear evidence that I have never in my adult life had to cut my hair or shine my shoes because someone else demanded it. How many people in America can make that same claim? I would hazard not too many. But if you're a comics dealer, you have that freedom, as well as the freedom to speak as you will, act as you will, and take on whatever risks you personally choose to take. You may have customers, bankers, or landlords who decided not to do business with you because they take offense at some part of your persoanl persona, but that's a cost you can decide to absorb, if you so wish. My experience has been that while you lose out on some great opportunities by abandoning the status quo of American ecomonic society, you also don't wake up sobbing in the middle of the night because you never gave yourself a chance to excel on your own.
In closing out this column, I'm now going to make a trite play on words. You see, those of you considering becoming comics dealers these days have it far easier than us "Old Coots," because we had to all play the game without a "net." From 1969-1996, if you took the huge risk of becoming a full-time comics dealer, you had to either succeed in whatever geograpic area in which you were located, travel to shows around the country, or publish a mail order catalog. Each of those three options involved a great deal of risk that you would lose all of your working capital, and thus be forced to take on the dreaded "day job" in the "real world." Since 1997, however, the Internet has broadened everyone's reach immensely, creating a single worldwide pool of customers. This has led to the creation of tens of thousands of home-based businesses in all manner of fields, including comics. I personally welcomed the Internet not only for its wonderful marketing and communication potentialities, but also because I saw it as a mechanism by which millions of people could achieve the same personal freedoms that I have been blessed to have through my life. That's why my past couple of columns have so strongly emphasized the Internet element of comics retailing as being critical. The odds of becoming rich as a comics dealer are very slim, but isn't getting by good enough if you're also free to live your life as you will? Put your hands on your computer brothers and sisters, and set yourselves free!


The Organic Trade Association (OTA) was hit with accusations of corruption last week in a short documentary released by an anonymous group calling themselves Organic Spies. The OTA has responded to specific parts of the allegations, especially around their stance on labelling of GE foods in North America.
What the OTA hasn't responded to is the broader issue of conflict-of-interest on it's board. Organic Spies and others are suggesting is that it's impossible for representatives of multi-national food companies to be free from conflict sitting as OTA board members while their parent companies earn a vast majority of their revenue from GE and conventional products. Organic Spies suggests a solution.
Small farmers and product companies must be on the OTA board with business executives that are committed to improving the abysmal health of this country and not just sell organic food that is highly processed with excess cane sugar and salt. The rank and file staff at the OTA and the organic movement deserve better than these board members. Our goal is to ensure that the OTA finds new board members, so the OTA staff will be more successful and not worry about competing conflict of interests when implementing policy that board members do not support. A continuation of the same policy and strategy on the GE crisis is no longer acceptable.
The idea of replacing the board with members that better represent the ethic of organic food and agriculture is not solely held by Organic Spies. Jason Freeman, from Farmer Direct Co-Operative Ltd in Regina wrote a letter to the OTA back in February expressing concerns over corporate representation on the OTA board. Unsatisfied with the response he also believes that it's time for a shift in direction for the OTA board.
It's clear that the only viable solution to bring organic integrity back to OTA is to seize the democratic initiative and vote in candidates that work for 100% organic companies and organizations. Luckily a number of 100% Organic companies and organizations will be fielding candidates for the upcoming OTA election. There is a real opportunity to take back the board and fulfill a true agenda of protecting and promoting organics. But this only happens if we get the vote out. Only 20% of OTA members voted in the last OTA board elections, yet 60% of OTA members are from small organic businesses. So the vote to bring back organic integrity to OTA is well within our reach.
Freeman says that the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), not to be confused with the OTA will be posting a list of what he calls "100%ers" in the coming days. This list is intended to act as a guide to individuals that the OCA believes will bring the trade organization back to its roots and benefit all consumers and businesses with an organic philosophy.
Strong leaders welcome investigations, new information, disclosure and their own annual evaluation to produce victories and accept responsibility for failure, so others join in and support. The Organic Spies join in support to reform the OTA and help the organic movement chart a successful course towards GE Labeling that cannot be accomplished without the OTA.


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Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to:

Science and technology
 Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines
 Chevron (anatomy), a bone
 Eulithis testata, a moth
 Chevron (geology), a fold in rock layers
 Chevron (land form), a sediment deposit across the earth's surface
 Chevron nail, a rare transient fingernail ridge pattern seen in children
 Chevron plot, a way of representing data

Organisations
 The Chevron, former newspaper at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
 Chevron Corporation, an American multinational energy corporation
 Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984), a United States Supreme Court case dealing with administrative law
 Chevron Cars Ltd, a British racing car constructor
 Chevron Engineering Ltd, a New Zealand car maker

People
 Philip Chevron (1957–2013), Irish singer/songwriter
 The Chevrons, an American pop group

Places
 Chevron, Wallonia, a district of the municipality of Stoumont
 Chevron, Kansas, an unincorporated community, United States
 Chevron, or Hebron, a city in the West Bank
 Chevron Island, a neighbourhood in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
 Château de Chevron, in France
 Chevron Mountain
 Chevron Reef, artificial reef constructed in 2000 in Santa Monica Bay
 Chevron Rocks
 Chevron Science Center, academic building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
 Estadio Chevron, a professional baseball stadium located in Tijuana, Baja California, in Mexico

Symbols
 Chevron (insignia), a heraldic symbol
 Guillemet, a type of quotation mark that looks like a pair of small chevrons
 Angle brackets, another pair of punctuation marks sometimes called chevrons
 Trill (music), a wavy line indicating a trill
 Chevron, a symbol used in reticles in firearm scopes like the ACOG
 Rank insignia in many armed forces
 Chevron (flag), a flag pattern
 Circumflex, a chevron-shaped diacritical mark
 Caron/haček, a diacritical mark known as "inverted chevron"

Other uses
 Chevron, a type of moustache
 Chevron, part of a stargate in the Stargate fictional universe
 "Chevron" (song), from the 2016 album Mariner
 Chevron bead, special glass beads

See also

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Is the Washington Agreement a Fraud? - by Ed Steer
Archimedes was a famous mathematician whose theorems and philosophies became world-known. In his own time he gained a reputation few other mathematicians of this period achieved. He is considered by most historians of mathematics as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He discovered pi.
Insight Magazine - 'Strong Dollar' Hides Weak Policy
By Kelly Patricia O Meara
Royalty bows and curtsies, nations tremble and financial institutions begin to stammer when threatened by three words: "strong-dollar policy." For a phrase that has risen from the swamps of the dismal science only within the last decade, it nonetheless has taken on a kind of Godzilla status in the global economic community. And while the worlds of pundits, technocrats and economic seers have held their breath awaiting official support for such a "policy" by each successive administration, there are many who believe the phrase is nothing more than the federal equivalent of "Gesundheit!"
Quote Magazine, The Netherlands - GOLD! How a Bank conspiracy ruins the world economy!
The time to buy gold is when blood is in the streets, Nathan Rotchild once said. With crashing equity markets, the WTC changed into Ground Zero and an army crossing the desert, those words seems to have a certain prophecy value. For the first time in 20 years, the price of gold increased by 35%. But gold investors (so called Gold bugs) aren't satisfied yet. The WTC disaster and the Iraq war is only background noise. The price of gold should have been much higher already years ago they say, with or without war !
More Proof - by James Turk
by James Turk, April 21st, 2003
© 2003 by The Freemarket Gold & Money Report.
One of the statistics complied by the International Monetary Fund is the quantity of gold owned by the world's central banks. That weight is reported to be 32,291 tonnes of gold. Most people accept this number at face value and without questioning its accuracy. However, central banks actually own less gold.
In reality central banks own 32,291 tonnes of gold AND gold receivables. This distinction is important. From both a legal and an accounting point of view, gold in the vault is clearly very different from gold owed to you. The reason is that gold in the vault is much less risky than someone's promise to pay you gold.
Rebels Vs. the Tory Establishment by Nelson Hultberg
America is earth's Eldorado. She came to be such because of ambitious men and women of drive and ability that knew no such word as fail, visionaries who were willing to gamble precious years of their lives today on a dream for tomorrow.
Throughout my life, I have encountered many of these men and women in America. They are always salient standouts from the bland establishment crowd, whether their field of endeavor is academics, business, the arts, law, or science. They think for themselves. They make truth their authority, while others make authority their truth. In their eyes, life is not meant for comfort and security. It is a crucible. It is meant for the pursuit of something noble, something enduring. Truth and its exposition are the goals that transcend all else. At the risk of simplification, this is what drives all change and progress throughout history -- this drive for the truth. It moves the entrepreneurs, the rebels, the contrarians of humankind.
Al-Hayat, London - "A Gold Cartel Aims at Destroying the Economies of Developing Countries."
There is a storm in the money markets caused by the distribution of a report prepared by Mr. John Embry, a senior analyst with the Royal Bank of Canada, the largest bank in Canada. The storm, which spread rapidly, south to the US, and as far as China, stemmed from the fact that Mr. Embry, in his report, supported the basic assumptions that have been promoted by a group known as GATA, short for Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee. In essence, GATA has been promoting the notion that there exists an international conspiracy to suppress the price of gold through dumping it in large quantities on world markets, and that this conspiracy is managed by a number of central and commercial banks.
Insight Magazine - Panic is Near if 'The Gold is Gone'
Gold. It's been called a barbarous relic, and those who focus on its historic role as a standard of value frequently are labeled "lunatic fringe." Given the recent highs in the gold market, it looks like the crazies have been having a hell of a year. With the stock market taking its third yearly loss, gold returned nearly 30 percent to investors, moving from $255 an ounce to six-year highs of $380.
Money in Court: Paving the Road to Ruin - Reg Howe
[Note: Presentation on Thursday, May 23, 2002, to a seminar at the Grocers Hall, London, organized by the Association of Mining Analysts and sponsored by Durban Roodepoort Deep on Prospects for Gold - A new era or more toil ahead?]
As indicated on the program, your chairman, Michael Coulson, has asked me to address: "The gold anti-trust action - the Boston court judgement and the road ahead." While I will speak to the assigned topic, my own title for this talk is Money in Court: Paving the Road to Ruin, and I will speak from the perspective of the American Constitution.
An Examination of Evidence Indicating Exchange Stabilization and Federal Reserve Gold Market Activity - Andrew Hepburn
The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) believes that the Exchange Stabilization Fund, under the authority of the President and Treasury Secretary has been used to surreptitiously manipulate the price of gold. The following report is an examination of pertinent evidence against the ESF, as well as information implicating the Federal Reserve in a scheme to artificially depress bullion prices. Accounting regulations devised by the International Monetary Fund are also scrutinized. The report draws mainly from government documents, previous GATA commentaries and other publicly available material. The only reasonable conclusion is that U.S. government denials of gold market activity are false.
GATA Urges Congressional Support for Monetary Reform and Accountability Act on Gold
Submitted by Administrator on Mon, 2002-07-08 07:00. Section: Press Releases
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 8, 2002--The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) urges House Representatives on the Financial Services Committee to join Congressmen Ron Paul (R-Texas) and John Larson (D-Conn.) as co-sponsors of the Monetary Reform and Accountability Act (H.R. 3732).
The bill simply requires the president and Treasury secretary to get the approval of Congress before intervening in the gold market.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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City to conduct train horn demo, seeks community input
A train horn demonstration will be held on Dec. 1.
Nov. 29, 2021 10:59 AM PT
The City of Encinitas is considering the addition of two new east-west at-grade crossings within the North Leucadia coastal rail corridor to make it easier and safer to cross the tracks between La Costa Avenue and Leucadia Boulevard.
For any proposed at-grade rail crossing location, a number of safety measures are required to be implemented including train horns, gates, and lighting systems.
In an effort to let residents know what the new train horn pattern would sound like, the city and North County Transit District (NCTD) will be conducting a train horn demonstration on Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 4:25 and 4:35 p.m.
City staff will be available at Leucadia Oaks Park from 3:30 to 5 p.m. to answer any questions related to the new train horn pattern and the at-grade crossing plans.
The community can provide input at the park or through an online survey that will be available after the demonstration.
All input will be taken into consideration as the city moves forward with pre-planning for construction of the at-grade crossings at Hillcrest Drive and Glaucus Street.
Shake Shack opens in Carlsbad
New sushi spot, Temaki Bar, to open in Encinitas
Experience car free, open streets at Encinitas Cyclovia on Jan. 9
The San Dieguito Riders spread holiday cheer


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Лаура (Лаурин) Эвелине Виллемсе (в замужестве — Галес) (, 26 марта 1962, Харлем, Нидерланды) — нидерландская хоккеистка (хоккей на траве), защитник. Олимпийская чемпионка 1984 года, бронзовый призёр летних Олимпийских игр 1988 года, чемпионка Европы 1987 года.

Биография
Лаурин Виллемсе родилась 26 марта 1962 года в нидерландском городе Харлем.

Играла в хоккей на траве за «Неймегсе» из Неймегена и ХГК из Вассенара.

В 1984 году вошла в состав женской сборной Нидерландов по хоккею на траве на летних Олимпийских играх в Лос-Анджелесе и завоевала золотую медаль. Играла на позиции защитника, провела 4 марта, забила 1 мяч в ворота сборной Канады.

В 1987 году выиграла золотые медали чемпионата Европы в Лондоне и Трофея чемпионов в Амстелвене.

В 1988 году вошла в состав женской сборной Нидерландов по хоккею на траве на летних Олимпийских играх в Сеуле и завоевала бронзовую медаль. Играла на позиции защитника, провела 5 матчей, мячей не забивала.

После Олимпиады завершила игровую карьеру.

В 1981—1988 годах провела за сборную Нидерландов 83 матча, забила 11 мячей.

Примечания

Хоккеисты на траве Нидерландов
Олимпийские чемпионы по хоккею на траве
Олимпийские чемпионы от Нидерландов
Чемпионы летних Олимпийских игр 1984 года
Хоккеисты на траве на летних Олимпийских играх 1984 года
Бронзовые призёры летних Олимпийских игр 1988 года
Хоккеисты на траве на летних Олимпийских играх 1988 года


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Political Philosophers
9/11 Truth, JFK assassination, Holocaust revision & ISIS interactive spreadsheet
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Carl Scmitt, Gary Scmitt - PNAC
Alternative Right Blog ... Returning to the Saturnine aspect of the Jews, it is interesting that the Jewish feminist Susan Sontag, infamous for declaring "the white race is the cancer of human history,"
Chechar Carl Schmitt ... Judeo-Christian universalism, practiced in America with its various multicultural and secular offshoots, set the stage for the rise of postmodern egalitarian aberrations and the complete promiscuity of all values. That Americanism can also be a fanatical and intolerant system "without God," is quite obvious. This system, nonetheless, is the inheritor of a Christian thought in the sense in which Carl Schmitt demonstrated that the majority of modern political principles are secularized theological principles
EIR Carl Schmitt, Catholic parents ... was Hitler's "crown jurist," who provided the theoretical underpinnings for the Nazi seizure of emergency powers in 1933; he was also the post-war éminence grise of the Conservative Revolution, with his pre-war protégé Leo Strauss, the neo-cons at Strauss's Chicago University,
EuroCanadian Fabian Society .…The Ideology, Objective, and Strategy of Fabian Socialism Even though they were not overtly Marxist in their style of socialism, as they were also influenced by Spiritual, Scientific and Utopian Socialists and thinkers such as Plato, Auguste Comte, Charles Darwin, J.S. Mill, Robert Owen, Henry George, and, in particular, John Ruskin, they were still influenced by (and utilised) the revolutionary socialist works of Engels and Marx and had the same ultimate objectives. A major distinction between Marxist socialism and Fabian socialism is in their strategy to change society. Long before the proletariat revolution (prescribed by Marx) failed, as signified by the failure of the working classes to unite in the face of World War
ITogoOnline Heidegger and the Nazis
NewVoices ... It's against the law for a Palestinian to marry a Jew in Israel.. accomplished by the Millet or confessional community system... a religious authority.
SemiticControversies Thomas Hobbes on Jews ... his theological comments, is distinctly anti-jewish. ... Hobbes' attitude towards the jews in his 'Preface to the Reader' in his 'De Cive', which points out that Hobbes views the jews as being the superseded people of God when tell us that God made a covenant with the jews and that the symbol of that covenant was circumcision, which made God the absolute ruler of the jews (i.e. supersessionism in Christian theology). However; as Hobbes notes, God has now rejected the jews and made Christians his chosen people.
Political philosophers and intellectuals: Leo Strauss, Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Freiderich Hegel, Martin Heidegger, Carl Schmitt, Robert Hutchins, Franz Neumann, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Otto Kirchheimer, Theodor Adorno, Franz Boas, Gary Schmitt, Antonio Gramsci, Bertrand Russell, Aldoux Huxley, Martin Heidegger, Alexandre Kojeve, Noam Chomsky,
Schiller Institute ... Carl Schmitt, the author and philosopher of the Nazis' legal system, and Martin Heidegger, one of its most influential philosophers, became protected intellectual assets. Schmitt arranged with the Rockefeller Foundation for the emigration of his admirer, Leo Strauss, to London and the United States. Strauss was a devotee of Schmitt, Heidegger, and Alexandre Kojève, who preached the doctrine of "purgative violence
Wikipedia paraphrased ... Kojeve, Alexandre ... Russian born French philospher, integrated Hegel into Continental philosophy, instrumental in creation of EU, lifelong friend of Leo Strauss, believed US was right-Hegelianism and Soviet Union was left-Hegelianism, interpreted Hegel through the lens of Marx and Heidegger, Alan Bloom one of his best students, was a Soviet spy, psychopath.
Millenium Report ... Allen Dulles, the director of the CIA when that agency began MK-Ultra, was the OSS station chief in Berne, Switzerland throughout the early Sandoz research. One of his OSS assistants was James Warburg, of the same Warburg family, who was instrumental in the 1963 founding of the Institute for Policy Studies, and worked with both Huxley and Robert Hutchins."
Hidden Histories of of War Crimes Trials The OSS investigation was led by Franz Leopold Neumann, a German intellectual and who had fled to New York in the 1930s with other Frankfurt School members Otto Kirchheimer and Herbert Marcuse. His 1944 book Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism served as the blueprint for the US leadership's understanding of the Nazi 'apparatus'.
DailyNous Greatest Philosophers: Plato (428-348 BCE) Aristotle (384-322 BCE) Kant (1724-1804) Hume (1711-1776) Descartes (1596-1650) Socrates (469-399 BCE) Wittgenstein (1889-1951) Locke (1632-1704) Frege (1848-1925) Aquinas (1225-1274)
Greatest Political Philosophers: Thomas Hobbes, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, Thomas Jefferson, Michel Foucault, Cicero, Hannah Arendt, Friedrich Engels, Bertrand Russell, Jurgen Habermas, Henry David Thoreau, Albert Camus, Murray Rothbard, Slavoj Zizek, Mikhail Bakunin, Noam Chomsky, Guy Debord, Max Weber, Michael J. Sandel, Antonio Negri, Richard Rorty, Frantz Fanon, Michael Hardt, Will Kymlicka, Cornel West, Carl Schmidt ...
Scibd - Martin Heidegger ...Heidegger was an opponent of communism and liberalism. His attitude toward fascism was nevertheless very special. He rejected some crucial points of Nazi ideology: racism, materialism, modernism and technology ( Machenschaft ). So, we can deduce from his writings an implicit political ideology, a kind of meta-political draft that could be developed (which Heidegger himself did not do) into a sort of Fourth Political Theory.
TraditionalRight William Lind on Carl Schmitt ... Lind'sideas about changing forms of warfare may have been influenced by the German political-legal theorist Carl Schmitt, who wrote on partisan warfare after the Second World War. His novel is written under the nom de plume "Thomas Hobbes," so even in this he reveals his connection to Schmitt, as the German jurist profoundly admired the seventeenth-century Englishman who wrote about the rise of the state [The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes, by Carl Schmitt] (I wrote an intellectual biography of Schmitt and also deeply respect the philosopher who wished to protect us against "the war of all against all.")
Heller / Simspon ... Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials by .... The OSS investigation was led by Franz Leopold Neumann, a German intellectual and who had fled to New York in the 1930s with other Frankfurt School members Otto Kirchheimer and Herbert Marcuse. His 1944 book Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism served as the blueprint for the US leadership's understanding of the Nazi 'apparatus'.
TogoOnline Heidegger and the Nazis
Wikipedia Strauss ... was a German-American political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated from Germany to the United States. He spent most of his career as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of students and published fifteen books. Originally trained in the neo-Kantian tradition with Ernst Cassirer and immersed in the work of the phenomenologists Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, Strauss later focused his research on the Greek texts of Plato and Aristotle, retracing their interpretation through medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophy and encouraging the application of those ideas to contemporary political theory.
Wikipedia Carl Schmitt ... Catholic parents (German: [ʃmɪt]; 11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist and political theorist. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. His work has been a major influence on subsequent political theory, legal theory, continental philosophy and political theology. Schmitt's work has attracted the attention of numerous philosophers and political theorists, including Walter Benjamin, Leo Strauss, Jürgen Habermas, Friedrich Hayek,[2] Jacques Derrida, Hannah Arendt, Susan Buck-Morss, Giorgio Agamben, Jaime Guzmán, Antonio Negri, Slavoj Žižek and Avital Ronell among many others. Some have argued that neoconservativism has been influenced by Schmitt. Most notably the legal opinions offered by Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo et al. by invoking the unitary executive theory to justify highly controversial policies in the war on terror—such as introducing unlawful combatant status which purportedly would eliminate protection by the Geneva Conventions, torture, NSA electronic surveillance program
Wikipedia ... Alexandre Kojève 1902-68... was a Russian-born French philosopher and statesman whose philosophical seminars had an immense influence on 20th-century French philosophy, particularly via his integration of Hegelian concepts into twentieth century Continental philosophy. As a statesman in the French government, he was instrumental in the creation of the European Union. Kojève was a close friend of, and was in lifelong philosophical dialogue with, Leo Strauss.
DemocraticIndividuality ... Now Gary Schmitt (PNAC) is a Straussian, trained at the University of Chicago, and one of the leading proponents of the idea of tyrannical "executive power" in a "state of the exception" as Carl Schmitt named it. He distinguishes "nice" torture, the American sort, from Hitler, "nice authoritarianism"
1923 Bibleoteca Pleyades Bohemian Grove ... complete member list ... "One of my most energetic American friends and patrons was the president of the Columbia University, Nicholas Murray Butler, the president of the Carnegie Endowment at the same time. He wrote the foreword to the American edition of Paneuropa." Kalergi's Paneuropa movement was set up and funded by Max Warburg and Louis Rothschild in 1923. Paul and Felix Warburg were promoting the movement in the United States and Rothschild-ally Leopold S. Amery was a major supporter from the United Kingdom. Stephen P. Duggan, the CFR director and co-founder of the Institute for International Education, became the president of the American Cooperative Committee of the Pan-European Union In 1927 Butler assisted the U.S. State Department in developing the Kellogg-Briand Pact. President of the Pilgrims Society 1928-1946. Visitor of the Bohemian Grove and an honorary member by 1929. .... These people were supporters of Georg Hegel, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, and Max Weber. Among these people was Herbert Marcuse, a Jewish Marxist Hegelian, who became the 'father of the New Left' in the 1960s.
1923 McDonald - Culture of Critique Chap 6 The wider Jewish community provided economic support for psychoanalysis as the preferred form of psychotherapy among Jews (Glazer & Moynihan 1963); it also provided philanthropic support for institutes of psychoanalysis. Jews also provided the great majority of the financial support of the University of Frankfurt as a haven for German-Jewish intellectuals beginning in the Wilhelmine period (see W. E. Mosse 1989, 318ff), and the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt was established by a Jewish millionaire, Felix Weil, with a specific intellectual-political mission that eventually developed into Critical Theory (Wiggershaus 1994). In the United States, foundations such as the Stern Family Fund, the Rabinowitz Fund, and the Rubin Foundation provided money for radical underground publications during the 1960s (Sachar 1992, 804). Much earlier, American Jewish capitalists like Jacob Schiff financed Russian radical movements directed at overthrowing the Czar and may well have had considerable impact (Goldstein 1990, 26–27; Szajkowski 1967).
1923 Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy ... in the 1960s the University of Frankfurt, (Institute of Social Research) to which the institute was attached, would receive the epithet "Karl Marx University". The initial idea of an independently founded institute was conceived to provide for studies on the labor movement and the origins of anti-Semitism, which at the time were being ignored in German intellectual and academic life Not long after its inception, the Institute for Social Research was formally recognized by the Ministry of Education as an entity attached to Frankfurt University.
1923 Wikipedia Felix Weil, ... was a Jewish German-Argentine Marxist, who provided the funds to found the Institute for Social Research (Frankfurt School) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Schiller Institute ... In pursuing a separate peace with the Nazis, Allen Dulles, John J. McCloy, and William Draper conducted what is perhaps history's ultimate cover-up. Under their operation, leading Nazis were never prosecuted, but were assimilated, instead, into the post-War "Gladio" networks of NATO, into Anglo-American intelligence, and into their controlled intelligentsia. Carl Schmitt, the author and philosopher of the Nazis' legal system, and Martin Heidegger, one of its most influential philosophers, became protected intellectual assets. Schmitt arranged with the Rockefeller Foundation for the emigration of his admirer, Leo Strauss, to London and the United States. Strauss was a devotee of Schmitt, Heidegger, and Alexandre Kojève, who preached the doctrine of "purgative violence" as a necessary state in the evolution of individuals. Using a perverse methodology, Strauss created a neoconservative cult consisting of selected students of his at the University of Chicago, a cult largely responsible for the Iraq War
1950s -60s ... History Commons ...The BBC airs (in 2004) a three-part documentary entitled "The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear." It is directed by Adam Curtis, who the Guardian calls "perhaps the most acclaimed maker of serious television programs in Britain." The documentary argues that much of what we have been told about the threat of international terrorism "is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media." The documentary begins by focusing on Sayyid Qutb in Egypt and Leo Strauss in the US. Both developed theories in the 1950's and 1960's that liberalism and individualism was weakening the moral certainties of their societies. ...Strauss meanwhile has a strong effect on neoconservatives such as Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and Paul Wolfowitz, who all eventually gain prominent positions in George W. Bush's administration. The documentary follows the rise of Islamic radicals and compares and contrasts this with the rise of the neoconservatives. Curtis argues that both groups have greatly benefited from 9/11, because both have been able to use fear of terrorism to gain widespread popular support. Curtis claims that al-Qaeda is not the highly centralized, widespread, and powerful organization that it is frequently depicted to be. Rather, it is more of a concept and loose alliance of groups with coinciding interests. He says, "Almost no one questions this myth about al-Qaeda because so many people have got an interest in keeping it alive."
1968 Wikipedia ... Alexandre Kojève 1902-68... was a Russian-born French philosopher and statesman whose philosophical seminars had an immense influence on 20th-century French philosophy, particularly via his integration of Hegelian concepts into twentieth century Continental philosophy. As a statesman in the French government, he was instrumental in the creation of the European Union. Kojève was a close friend of, and was in lifelong philosophical dialogue with, Leo Strauss. ... believed that the capitalist United States represented Right-Hegelianism while the state-socialist Soviet Union represented Left-Hegelianism; victory by either side, he posited, would result in what Lilla describes as "a rationally organized bureaucracy without class distinctions." ... Though not an orthodox Marxist, Kojeve was known as an influential and idiosyncratic interpreter of Hegel, reading him through the lens of both Marx and Heidegger. ... Strauss would send his best students to Paris to finish their education under Kojève's personal guidance. Among these were Allan Bloom ... French intelligence document showed that Kojève had spied for the Soviets for over thirty years ... Though Kojève often claimed to be a Stalinist, he largely regarded the Soviet Union with contempt, calling its social policies disastrous ... Francis Fukuyama stated his belief that Kojeve was a dangerous psychopath....
comment: I've been reading about the Frankfurt School in the OSS and behind-the-scenes at Nuremburg. ... I'm aware that the American Jewish Committee's Patterns in Prejudice was the publisher of Adorno's The Authoritarian Personality. I'm excited Atwill and Irwin on the Holocaust...pysops rather than Auschwitz physical minutia...for "black propaganda" units within the British and American intelligence services beginning with the classified wartime work of Victor Cavendish-Bentinck, C.D. Jackson, William S. Paley, and Bruce Lockhart. I know that the U.S. Dept of Psychological Warfare SHAEF was laising with a "black propaganda" unit within the PWE (Political Warfare Executive) because I inadvertantly found Paley's and Jackson's names on the letterheads of some official corresponcdence of Sir Bruce Lockhart at the National Archives at Kew Gardens. Aside from Frankfurt Schoolers running the East Europe OSS desk, and Franz Neumann's The Behemoth being the text used to brief the U.S. military on National Socialism, the OSS had a "Jewish desk" run by Charles Dwork who has been forgotten to history. Do you think Dwork might have been pursuaded by any persons or groups within the constellation of US Jewish self-interest organizations out to have Germany dismantled to slip some atrocity whoppers and Nuremburg trial false evidence into the water supply? Two weeks before CODOH founder/figurehead Bradley Smith passed away I got an email from him saying he'd never heard of "The Ritchie Boys." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritchie_Boys
1948 Wikedia In 1948 Franz Leopold Neumann (1900 – 1954) was a German-Jewish left-wing political activist, Marxist theorist and labor lawyer, who became a political scientist in exile and is best known for his theoretical analyses of National Socialism. ... Together with Ernst Fraenkel and Arnold Bergstraesser, Neumann is considered to be among the founders of modern political science in the Federal Republic of Germany.Neumann became a professor of Political Science at Columbia University and helped establish the Free University of Berlin. Neumann was highly regarded at Columbia and played a prominent part in attempts by the Rockefeller Foundation to strengthen political theory as a component of political science in American universities.
1944 JStor ...The Fr ankfurt School at War, William E. Scheuerman... Secret reports on Nazi Germany: the Frankfurt School Contribution to the War Effort ... OSS William Donovan tapped Franz Neumann to help US understand the Nazi's. Neumann wrote: Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, which depicted Nazism as a combo of pathological, monopolistic capitalism and brutal totalitarianism...placed him in charge of the Research and Analysis branch of the OSS, joined my Kirchheimer and Marcuse to study Central Europe Nazism...they produced reports on anti Semitism and Nazi political economy ... and the impact of air raids on civilian morale and the best way to prosecute war criminals ... they weighed aspects of capitalism and socialism effects... criticized Henry Morgenthau's plan to dismantle German industry... noted the fiasco of denazification... compared their actions to 1918 ... Versailles... argued that the Nazi Party should be banned and leaders put on trial... concluded that modern capitalism constituted a root cause of Nazism...wanted to nationalize heavy industry... wanted a Democratic Socialist German government... it was discovered that Neumann passed US secrets to the Soviets. ...
Reject NeoNazis and the use of the swastika. It reinforces the Holocaust lie whose central theme is to blame the German people for an event that never occured and lay an interminable guilt upon them in order to extract hundreds of millions in reparations. ... No Jews died in gas chambers in Auschwitz. Hundreds of thousands of Jews did die from typhus, starvation and disease due to the chaos of war and Allied terror bombing of Germany. 60 million people died due to the Jewish Bolshevik Revoltution, Holodomor ... Zionists are trying to rub out this historical fact by endless Holocaust propaganda. The real story is how Zionists and Nazis conspired to enable mass emigration to Palestine to create Israel, the ultimate aim of Zionists...MORE
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The 2017 NFL Draft has reached its conclusion. The rosters are getting closer to being set for the start of 2017-18 season. So here are my early predictions for how all 32 teams will fare in the upcoming season. Enjoy!
32 Los Angeles Rams (2-14): What do you get when you mix the 5th worst team in the league with an absence in the first round of the draft? You get a premier bottom-feeder the following year. The Rams used the Titans' first overall pick last year to draft Jared Goff (yikes). In return, the Titans got the Rams top pick in this year's draft. Unlike other bad teams who understand the importance of getting a first rounder, the Rams sat the first round out and failed to improve. It's going to be a long year for LA.
31 Chicago Bears (3-13): Maybe I'm just overreacting to the Bears' traumatic draft this year. I don't think I am. Chicago did land Prince Amukamara in free agency, but that was their best addition. If you think Kendall Wright will even remotely help to replace Alshon Jeffery, you're out of your mind. I hope Mitch Trubisky ends up being great for Chicago's fans' sake.
30 New York Jets (3-13): The additions of Morris Claiborne and Jamal Adams makes the Jets' secondary lethal. But Brandon Marshall left for the rival Giants and their quarterback situation is still in question. I'm sure they'll end up bouncing back-and-forth between Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg, but that will make it difficult for the offense to find consistency.
29 Cleveland Browns (3-13): After I almost correctly predicted the Browns to go 0-16 last year, they actually had a great offseason and will show some decent improvement this season. I know they lost Terrelle Pryor, but the addition of Kenny Britt will soften that blow a little. They also made tremendous strides by improving the offensive line. The QB situation is still bad, but if they can get their hands on a good one next year, the Browns will really be on their way up the standings.
28 San Francisco 49ers (4-12): The Niners had a great draft and added Pierre Garcon in the offseason. Again though, the lack of a decent quarterback will keep them from showing drastic improvement the year after finishing with the league's 2nd worst record. Despite only winning 4 games, the season will showcase a lot of young talent San Francisco fans can get excited about.
27 Jacksonville Jaguars (5-11): Leonard Fournette's presence alone will make Jacksonville's offense much better. They also made 2 huge free agent splashes for the defense by adding Calais Campbell and AJ Bouye. They also landed Barry Church at strong safety to slightly upgrade from Johnathan Cyprien. The Jags could get up to around 8-8, but I'm hesitant to project that after I placed them at 9-7 before last season. We all saw how that went.
26 Cincinnati Bengals (5-11): When your 2 best offensive lineman leave you for the Browns and Rams, you know you had a rough offseason. Cincy is going down the tubes, and they were unable to make logical selections in the draft to pad their fall. John Ross will be a solid player for the Bengals, but he's a deep-threat like AJ Green. Good luck finding time to throw the ball deep with your new and not-so-improved O-line.
25 Washington Redskins (6-10): The additions of Terrelle Pryor and Zach Brown were completely negated by the losses of DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garcon, and Chris Baker. Washington will have to play in the league's toughest division, and they took several steps backwards from where they were last year. They might be decent outside of division play, but I see the Skins going 2-4 against Dallas, Philly, and New York at best.
24 Buffalo Bills (6-10): Buffalo lost Stephon Gilmore and Zach Brown. The only notable free agent they brought in was Micah Hyde. I have Buffalo at 6-10 for now, but as the offseason continues, I'm sure they will fall completely out of favor in my eyes. Tyrod Taylor can play, but they were unable to get him more options at wide receiver.
23 Detroit Lions (7-9): Detroit had a quiet draft, and they swapped Riley Reiff and Larry Warford for TJ Lang and Ricky Wagner in free agency. So no real improvement was made on the offensive line, and no other key players were acquired. Matt Stafford is solid enough to get the Lions close to .500 though.
22 Arizona Cardinals (7-9): The Cardinals were better than their record suggested last year, ranking 7th in points differential last year. However, the defense took some huge hits in free agency by losing Calais Campbell, Tony Jefferson, and Kevin Minter. That will keep them at around 6 or 7 wins next season as Carson Palmer continues to age.
21 Houston Texans (7-9): This may come as a surprise since Houston may have just found stability at QB with Deshaun Watson, but the Texans made zero progress in free agency while watching AJ Bouye and John Simon walk to divisional rivals. The improvement of the other teams in the division will keep Houston out of the playoffs, and they will have the 12th pick in next year's draft.
20 Los Angeles Chargers (7-9): The Chargers made some long overdue moves by bringing in Russell Okung to help protect Philip Rivers while also drafting Mike Williams to give him another solid wide receiver. Joey Bosa will continue to be a force on defense, and the Chargers will almost win half of their games in their first year in LA.
19 New Orleans Saints (7-9): The Saints will get a lot of hype after landing Adrian Peterson, but let's keep a few things in mind. The Saints were 7-9 last year despite ranking 2nd in points per game. So while adding Peterson sounds nice, it doesn't fix the real problem. New Orleans' defense is one of the worst in the league, and while drafting Marshon Lattimore was a good start, they did not bring in any defensive help in free agency. I only sense small improvement from the Saints.
18 Carolina Panthers (8-8): Carolina had a productive draft and found slight improvement in free agency. They underachieved last year despite having almost the exact same roster as the team that went 15-1 and won the NFC the previous year. The Panthers are better than their 8-8 record will suggest, but the NFC South will be very tough this year.
17 Minnesota Vikings (8-8): The Vikings made some solid improvements in free agency and had a decent draft, but their biggest improvement will come from having Teddy Bridgewater back. Minnesota will once again be competing for the NFC North title, but they still aren't quite talented enough to top Green Bay.
16 Tennessee Titans (8-8): Tennessee showed a lot of promise last year, and they will be a little bit better based on their young guys improving. Houston's decline will open the door for the Titans to slip into the playoffs, but they were out-worked in the offseason by Indy.
15 Baltimore Ravens (8-8): The Ravens kept their roster comparable to last year and their division is basically the same. They could fluctuate up or down a win, but they'll hang around .500 because they are a pretty average team. If they don't make some big improvements in the next year or 2, they'll need to blow it up and start fresh.
14 Indianapolis Colts (8-8): The Colts will win the tiebreaker over the Titans and take the 4-seed in the AFC playoffs. Indy made some decent improvements in the offseason, but will basically only get into the postseason due to Houston's regression and a whole lot of Andrew Luck. I wouldn't be shocked to see the Colts on the outside looking in, but I feel that they are slightly better than the Titans and Texans right now.
13 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-7): Tampa made a lot of improvements in the offseason, but they will still win 9 games this season and miss out on the playoffs. Why? Because they were 23rd in the league in point differential last year, so they really should've been down at 7 wins. They won a lot of close games and they overachieved. But they will deserve 9 wins this year due to the improvements they made in the draft and free agency.
12 Miami Dolphins (10-6): The Dolphins will barely miss out on an AFC wild card spot despite having another good season. The additions of TJ McDonald and Lawrence Timmons will help out the defense that struggled last year, but the offense will not improve, leaving Miami around 10 wins.
11 Denver Broncos (10-6): Denver had an uneventful draft and they did not make any progress in free agency. However, I believe they'll slip into the playoffs based on Trevor Siemian's improvement alone. He looked good early on last year before struggling the rest of the way. This year he should be more comfortable with the Broncos' system and will lead them into the postseason.
10 Green Bay Packers (10-6): The Packers had the worst offseason in the entire league. They didn't pick in the first round, and they lost TJ Lang, Micah Hyde, Eddie Lacy, Jared Cook, Julius Peppers, Datone Jones, and JC Tretter in free agency. They did add Martellus Bennett, which still gives Aaron Rodgers enough targets to work his magic. But the Pack won't be able to survive another offseason like this one, and they're one injury away from missing the playoffs.
9 New York Giants (10-6): The Giants managed to avoid losing any major players to free agency while adding Brandon Marshall in free agency and Evan Engram in the draft. Along with Odell Beckham, New York's receiving core is looking lethal, and they won't have to face a single tough defense in the NFC East. However, their defense isn't anything to lean on, so they should hang around 10 wins and get the last wild card spot in the NFC.
8 Oakland Raiders (11-5): I'm not convinced that Marshawn Lynch will provide a huge spark for the Raiders, and their offense was already elite. Defensively, they'll still have problems. They did draft Gareon Conley in the first round, but they did not get any notable defenders in free agency. As long as Derek Carr stays healthy, however, Oakland is a lock to make the playoffs and will even challenge the Chiefs for the division title.
7 Kansas City Chiefs (11-5): The addition of Bennie Logan makes the Chiefs' defense that much scarier. The offense is still covered with question marks, though, which will limit them again this season. They are slightly better than last year's team, but I believe they overachieved at 12 wins, so 11 is a good fit for this year's squad.
6 Dallas Cowboys (11-5): The losses of Barry Church and Morris Claiborne will hurt an already questionable defense. The young guns on offense will improve even more, making the Cowboys an extreme one-way team, much like the Falcons last year. Unfortunately for Dallas, their offense and defense are still worse than Atlanta's from a year ago, so the result will not likely be a Super Bowl appearance.
5 Philadelphia Eagles (11-5): The Eagles had the best offseason in the league, addressing big needs with big-time players. They could've had Jonathan Allen as well, but that's another story. Nonetheless, the Eagles have a chance to win the tough NFC East and even make a run at a first-round bye. The addition of Alshon Jeffery will only make Carson Wentz's growth that much faster.
4 Atlanta Falcons (12-4): Atlanta had a very neutral offseason. No real improvement or regression. They will be one of the favorites to make it back to the Super Bowl and maybe even win this time. Everyone in their division improved, however, so it won't be the cake walk that it was last season. I expect the defense to be slightly improved because of how young and inexperienced they were last season.
3 Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4): Pittsburgh lost Lawrence Timmons to free agency and didn't bring anyone notable in. They did have a solid draft, but not many of those guys will get a lot of playing time on a veteran team. They'll still be one of the favorites to win it all entering the season, and they should have an especially easy regular season now that Cincinnati is falling off.
2 Seattle Seahawks (13-3): The Seahawks were able to keep their core together for one more run at a Super Bowl. The rest of their division is weak, so they'll ease their way into the NFC's top spot. Injuries were a big issue a year ago, but if they can stay healthy, Seattle is a huge threat.
1 New England Patriots (14-2): The Patriots did not have the great offseason that everyone cracked it up to be. They did lose Martellus Bennett, Logan Ryan, and Jabaal Sheard. But they landed another big corner in Stephon Gilmore and managed to trade for Brandin Cooks. It's tough to imagine anyone taking home-field away from the Patriots.
Who's the Most Average NBA Player?


On May 16, 2011, Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) will be introducing the second phase of its block fee pilot. Block fees are fixed fees or rates that LAO pays lawyers instead of an hourly tariff for the appropriate resolution for some of the most common criminal charges. Last May, after much consultation with the Criminal Lawyers' Association (CLA), LAO launched the first phase of the pilot for standard criminal cases. The second phase, also developed with the CLA, expands the number of charges and establishes a comprehensive payment scheme that determines if a matter is paid as a block fee or under the hourly tariff.
For staff and stakeholders to understand the block fee program better, LAO will be posting a series of tutorials over the next several weeks. The first two will be available in audio, video and PDF format on LAO's internal and external websites starting April 15, 2011. LAO will be notifying all stakeholders and staff as each tutorial becomes available. Please stay tuned for more information.
Block fees is part of the January 2010 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU between LAO, the CLA and the Ministry of Attorney General. Other enhancements that arose from the MOU include the tariff rates increase over five years, the increase to rates paid to experts and the complex case rate.
Legal Aid Ontario offers a variety of resources to help familiarize lawyers with the block fees billing process.


This striking 2019 engagement calendar presents fifty-six works of art depicting parks, grounds, and gardens from around the world, ranging from the 16th to the 20th century. Included are vivid Japanese woodblock prints, delicate glasswork with floral motifs, and paintings by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists. An identifying caption and a brief descriptive historical text accompany each work.
Pages alternate between glossy paper for art pages and matte paper for calendar pages for ease of writing. This edition is paperback with a spiral binding, packaged in a gift box.


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AZK9 (Lost Paws) began in August 2010 with a simple goal in mind: to save the bully breed. They are the number one euthanized breed in Arizona, and Maricopa County is the second highest in the country behind LA county, with the largest number of unwanted pets filling our shelters. The plight of the bully breed is something we are passionate about and believe strongly in restoring the reputation that they once had as America's breed. We started this rescue with the mindset that every life is a life worth saving, and when we see an animal that has been sick, abused, neglected, starved and left for dead and then be saved, fed, loved, nurtured and finally in the arms of their forever family, it is proof that our work, while exhausting at times, is all worth it!


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Swiss Catholic laywoman investigated for "concelebrating" Eucharist
The Catholic bishop of Chur has opened a canonical investigation into the case of a woman who allegedly concelebrated the Mass to mark her retirement as a pastoral worker
The inside view of the parish Church of St. Martin in Illnau-Effretikon, Switzerland. (Photo by CC / WIKIMEDIA/ CHARLIE BERNASCONI)
By Christophe Henning | Switzerland
A laywoman of the Catholic Diocese of Chur in German-speaking Switzerland has come under investigation for concelebrating the Eucharist at a liturgy to mark her retirement as a pastoral worker.
Monika Schmid, who has been de facto administrator at a parish in the diocese for many years, "presided" at the August 28 farewell Mass, preached the homily and concelebrated the Eucharist.
"As diocesan bishop, I have a duty to react to the events of these last few weeks (...) in the parish of St. Martin in Illnau-Effretikon," said Bishop Joseph Bonnemain, the Ordinary of Chur, on September 2.
Concelebration
At the head of the procession, with a staff in hand as a symbol of the community's shepherd, Schmid was surrounded by two priests, a deacon, and a theologian.
At the moment of the Eucharistic prayer -- the text of which had been extensively revised -- the group stood around the altar.
It was Schmid who occupied the central place at the moment of the consecration and who recited the Eucharistic prayer, although she took the precaution of having a priest hold the host and the cup.
A few minutes earlier, the homily that the pastoral agent provided was on the Gospel reading of the day: "For everyone who raises himself up will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be raised up" (Lk 14,1.7-14).
The video of the celebration is circulating on social media. An obvious joy marked the Mass, as evidenced by the radiant face of the celebrant.
At the end of the farewell ceremony, the parish leader passed on her pastor's staff to one of the two priests present, to whom she entrusted "her" parish.
All of these gestures prompted Bishop Bonnemain, whom Pope Francis appointed to lead Chur just last February, to open a preliminary canonical investigation.
"Because of the scope of these events, I deliberately chose not to act immediately. In such a situation, it is important to carefully evaluate an appropriate procedure," said the 74-year-old bishop, who is a member of Opus Dei.
"The complexity of the liturgical abuses that have taken place necessitates a preliminary canonical investigation," he said.
Celebrating baptisms
The incident comes at a time when a conference on "Sacramentality and the Church", organized by the Swiss Bishops' Conference and the Swiss League of Catholic Women, was being held on Tuesday at the University of Fribourg.
The theological and pastoral reflection at the heart of this meeting raised the question of "the dispensation of sacraments by non-consecrated pastoral agents", primarily women.
A long work had already begun in 2020, reflecting more particularly on "new forms of sacramental missions for lay pastoral agents, men and women, for example the celebration of baptisms or the anointing of the sick".
The Code of Canon Law is unambiguous on who can preside at Mass.
"In the Eucharistic celebration deacons and lay persons are not permitted to offer prayers, especially the Eucharistic prayer, or to perform actions which are proper to the celebrating priest," says canon 907.
There is a question of whether the presence of "concelebrating" ordained priests validates the Eucharistic when a lay person is also involved in reading the prayers.
The preliminary canonical investigation could also place the responsibility for the transgression on the ordained ministers.
"The results of this first investigation will form the basis for possible further measures. They will also show whether these are offenses that should be dealt with by the dicastery for the doctrine of the faith and should therefore be reported to it," said Bishop Bonnemain in a statement.
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Home » Analysis » Four towers of Kremlin propaganda: Russia, Ukraine, South, West
Four towers of Kremlin propaganda: Russia, Ukraine, South, West
Credit: Institute of Mass Information
2023/01/06 - 02:21 • Analysis
Article by: Anton Shekhovtsov
Russia tells Ukraine that it can be successful only with Russia, the West — that it has a right to Ukraine as its sphere of influence, and the Global South — that the West is driven by anti-Russian racism. Here is how Russia propaganda tailors its strategic and tactical narratives to drive up support for its war against Ukraine worldwide.
Although Russia started its unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine as early as late February 2014, when the Russian troops covertly invaded Crimea, the year 2022 became a watershed in the history of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as it turned truly genocidal. Today, because of these seismic changes in the nature of Russian aggression, more than ever do we need better conceptual tools for analyzing Russian propaganda and disinformation.
In this article, I offer to consider two conceptual tools that can contribute to more efficient identification, categorization, and, ultimately, dealing with messages of Russian propaganda and disinformation.
Differentiate between Russian strategic and tactical narratives
First, when talking about Russia's propaganda and disinformation about the war against Ukraine, I suggest differentiating between strategic and tactical narratives of Russian psychological warfare.
What are strategic narratives?
Strategic narratives reflect the long-term vision of Russian political and kinetic warfare. More often than not, they reflect genuine, deep-seated beliefs of the Russian leadership linked to Ukraine or the broader context of the aggression. Even if directed at different audiences, strategic narratives demonstrate some internal logic and are generally coherent. However, the mere fact that they may be logically coherent does not imply that they are right or correct – it just means that they may be well-structured and elaborate.
What are tactical narratives?
Tactical narratives serve as individual steps that aim to strengthen the validity of strategic narratives. Unlike strategic narratives, however, tactical narratives are less coherent, because they are extremely manipulative and usually appeal to emotions. But for the Kremlin and its propaganda machine, it does not matter if tactical narratives are illogical or contradict each other – as long as they contribute to the force of strategic narratives. And because tactical narratives are often irrational and inconsistent, their lifespan may be quite short or sporadic – they may emerge, disappear, and then re-emerge again.
Differentiate between audiences of Russian messaging
The distinction between strategic and tactical narratives is not the only distinction relevant to our discussion. Moscow directs strategic and tactical narratives at different audiences, and I identify four major audiences of Russian information warfare linked to the aggression against Ukraine.
The Russian domestic audience;
The audience in Ukraine that Russia targets to destroy or undermine Ukraine's will to resist the Russian genocidal invasion;
The audience of the collective West where Russia aims to undermine support for Ukraine;
The audience of the so-called Global South.
The distinction between different audiences helps us understand why some messages of Russian Ukraine-related psychological warfare may work well in one region but be considered strange or even outright ridiculous in another part of the world, as the examples below demonstrate.
This said, the Russian propaganda machine may use one and the same narrative to target not only one but two or three different audiences because it is deemed efficient more or less universally. For example, some narratives are persuasive for the Global South in general and, at the same time, for the regressive Left in the West. Or a particular narrative may be appealing in Russia and among the far-right circles in Europe. And of course, there are sub-sets of the four identified major audiences. For instance, one can distinguish between China and India in the category of the Global South, or between France and Lithuania in the category of the West.
Here, however, in order to show how the two suggested conceptual tools may be used to identify and analyze messages of Russian war-related propaganda and disinformation, I will focus only on strategic and tactical narratives that Russia uses to target the four major audiences mentioned above: Russian population, Ukraine, the West, and the Global South.
Russian propaganda narratives for the domestic audience in Russia
The Kremlin and the Russian media directly or indirectly controlled by the Putin regime, target the domestic Russian audience with three main strategic narratives:
"The Ukrainian nation does not exist, while so-called 'Ukrainians' are simply confused or manipulated Russians"
"As a country, Ukraine was granted existence by Russia"
"Sovereign Ukraine is a project of 'anti-Russia'"
But there are many more tactical narratives that the Russian leadership uses to support their strategic narratives:
"Russia's war against Ukraine is not a war but a 'special military operation'" (SMO)
"Those Ukrainians who oppose Russian rule are Nazis" ("de-Nazification") of Ukraine as an objective of the SMO
"NATO uses Ukraine to attack Russia," or "Russia fights NATO not Ukraine"
"Russia never lost wars: 'we will necessarily win'"
"Ukraine commits genocide of ethnic Russians in the Donbas and elsewhere in Ukraine"
"Ukraine's territory belongs to Russia: 'we do not occupy Ukrainian lands – we return to Russia what is rightfully ours'"
"Ukraine's leaders are Satanists"
How ordinary Russians were turned into murderers and rapists through TV and smartphones
As can be assumed, some of these narratives can be found outside of Russia too.
For example, by calling Ukrainians "Nazis," Russia tries to dehumanize Ukrainians so Russian invaders are able to carry out their genocide of Ukrainians with less psychological distress. But the same message about Nazis is used in the West to trigger anti-right-wing sentiments and decrease support for Ukraine.
However, some messages will only work in Russia.
For example, perhaps the most peculiar of these, that Ukraine's leaders are Satanists, is not only a tactical message with a short lifespan but was also tailored for the Russian audience only. It was created after an incident in Russia involving Muslim recruits killing several Russian soldiers after their commander allegedly insulted their Muslim faith. Moscow needed to avoid interreligious conflicts among the invaders, so it came up with this strange idea that would present Ukrainians as enemies of all believers, no matter what religion they adhere to.
Some of the tactical messages remarkably reveal the pervasive superiority/inferiority complex of many Russians. As they consider the Ukrainians inferior to them, they fail to cope with the military successes of the Ukrainian army on the battlefield, so their defense mechanism is to imagine that they are fighting with mighty NATO rather than with Ukrainians.
Russian propaganda narratives for the Ukrainian audience
With the Ukrainian audience, the main strategic narratives are as follows:
"Russians and Ukrainians are brotherly nations"
"Ukraine is part of the Russian civilization"
"Ukraine can only be successful together with Russia"
And then there are tactical narratives targeting Ukraine:
"Ukraine's leadership betrays the interests of the ordinary Ukrainian people"
"The West will fight Russia 'to the last Ukrainian'"
"Gayropa: The West is degenerate and Ukraine should not join it"
One can easily notice that strategic and tactical narratives targeting the Ukrainian audience are less aggressive towards Ukraine in comparison to those directed as the Russian domestic audience. This can be explained by the different objectives that the Kremlin has in its own country and in Ukraine. In Russia, the Kremlin tries to justify its anti-Ukrainian genocidal intentions and occupation plans, while, in Ukraine, it aims not only to break the fighting spirit of the Ukrainian society but also to pacify the Ukrainian population on the territories occupied by the Russian invaders.
Russian propaganda narratives targeting the West
For the Western audience, Russia has the following major strategic narratives:
"Russia is a global power that has a right to have its own sphere of influence, and Ukraine belongs there"
"Ukraine as part of the West poses an existential threat to Russia"
"The West is using NATO to encircle Russia"
And many more tactical narratives:
"The West attacks Russia because of inherent Western 'Russophobia'"
"Ukraine is run by Nazis or, at the very least, has an immense Nazi problem"
"Western sanctions are damaging for European businesses and households"
"Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world – it cannot be part of the West"
"Russians and Ukrainians are one people"
"Russia is interested in peace negotiations but Ukraine and the West are not interested in peace"
"European support for Ukraine will result in the geopolitical decline of Europe"
"The US uses the Ukraine war to cement its position as the dominant power"
"Western weapons given to Ukraine will end up with international terrorists"
"Nuclear threat: the West should not oppose Russia because it has nuclear weapons; or is making a 'dirty bomb'"
Especially with these tactical messages, one can see how the Kremlin and the Russian-controlled media aim to exploit sensitivities and anxieties of Western nations related to right-wing ideologies, nuclear non-proliferation, West European anti-American sentiments, and American self-hatred, international terrorism, corruption, and other phenomena.
Russian propaganda targeting the Global South
Finally, the Kremlin is pushing three strategic narratives for the Global South:
"Russia is the leader of the global anti-imperialist and anti-colonial front"
"The West is using the Ukraine war to reclaim global domination"
"Ukraine is part of the Russian legitimate sphere of influence"
It is not very difficult to imagine that the second and third strategic messages directed at the Global South may well work with some left-wing and right-wing isolationists, populists, and anti-globalists in the West. The first strategic narrative, however, the one about Russia as the leader of the anti-imperialist front, is likely to work only with some authoritarian leftists, also known as "tankies."
Russian tactical narratives targeting the Global South are curious in that they are focusing predominantly on the West, rather than Ukraine, because for many in the Global South, especially in Africa, Latin America, and Southern and Western Asia, there is little difference in perceptions of Russia and Ukraine. In the Kremlin's messaging for the Global South, Ukraine is bad not because it is presumably anti-Russian, but because of its ties to the often-demonised Western world:
"Western support for Ukraine is driven by anti-Russian racism"
"Ukraine, with Western support, endangers global food security"
"Ukraine is developing biological weapons in secret US-funded biolabs"
Again, the best way to target particular regional audiences is to exploit their major sensitivities and anxieties. For the Global South, these are racial inequality, food security, and pandemics. In the West, in Ukraine, we may find some of these narratives surreal or even ridiculous, such as, for example, the claim that the US has trained an army of migratory birds to carry biological weapons developed by the Ukrainian army. However, narratives such as this one are simply not directed at us; they are targeting the Global South, where conspiracy theories about Western plots to cull certain populations are especially widespread. But it is perhaps not surprising that conspiracy theories about secret American biolabs in Ukraine are also popular with QAnon followers and other far-right online and offline activists in the West and, especially, in the US with its rich conspiracy theory culture.
Assessing the Kremlin's success from a personal perspective
This will perhaps be an understatement to say that it is extremely difficult to assess the efficiency of Russia's strategic and tactical narratives related to its aggression against Ukraine among different audiences. Nevertheless, in conclusion, I invite readers to look at this issue through the lens of their personal experiences.
If you – before reading this article – had heard all or most of the narratives discussed above and directed at the audience you belong to, then it is fair to say that Russia was successful in delivering these messages to you personally. Directly, if you knowingly or unknowingly consumed Kremlin-sponsored propaganda and disinformation products. Or indirectly, if you heard these narratives from a friend or any other of your contacts.
But this is only one-third of the Kremlin's success. Yet another one-third is if you consider any of these narratives as a legitimate point of view on the developments in and around Ukraine. And the Kremlin's particular psychological operation is a complete success if you have been convinced that a specific narrative is not only a legitimate take on the Russian aggression against Ukraine, but is actually true or correct.
Watch a video version of this article here:
A guide to Russian propaganda
How state propaganda is driving Russia's genocide of Ukraine
Russian propaganda in war: fake "fact-checkers," far-right conspiracies, and distracted progressives
A guide to Russian propaganda. Part 5: Reflexive Control
Part 6: Spetspropaganda, the secret Soviet art of brainwashing
Tags: Russian propaganda
Anton Shekhovtsov
Dr. Anton Shekhovtsov is Director of the Centre for Democratic Integrity (Austria), Senior Fellow at the Free Russia Foundation (USA), and an expert at the European Platform for Democratic Elections (Germany). Follow him on Twitter: @A_SHEKH0VTS0V
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East Franklin doctor guilty in $13 million 'fountain of youth' health fraud scheme | TribLIVE.com
Valley News Dispatch
East Franklin doctor guilty in $13 million 'fountain of youth' health fraud scheme
Natasha Lindstrom
Fri., June 14, 2019 7:44 p.m. | Friday, June 14, 2019 7:44 p.m.
A former East Franklin doctor is guilty of plotting to defraud patients and insurers out of more than $13 million in a so-called "fountain of youth" medical treatment scheme, a jury found Friday.
Dr. Samirkumar J. Shah, 56, a cardiologist who also has ties to Kittanning and Fox Chapel, was convicted on two counts of federal health care fraud, U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady said.
Jurors deliberated for nearly two hours following an eight-day trial at the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh.
Brady said their guilty verdict should send a message: "If you commit health care fraud, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
"Doctors and medical professionals like Dr. Shah, who issue false diagnoses, order unnecessary testing and fraudulently bill Medicare and Medicaid, in effect steal from the most vulnerable in our community," Brady said in a statement.
How the scheme worked
Between 2008 and 2013, Shah submitted fraudulent insurance claims to Medicare, Medicaid, UPMC, Highmark and Gateway health plans for an outpatient treatment called External Counter Pulsation, or ECP, federal prosecutors said.
The therapy involved a specialized bed equipped with pressure cuffs typically used to treat disabling angina — a chest pain or discomfort caused by the heart muscle not getting enough oxygen-rich blood, prosecutors said. The cuffs exert pressure upon patients' lower extremities as a means to increase blood flow.
Shah bought 25 such beds and offered the treatment at more than 18 locations in Western Pennsylvania as well as in Ohio, New York and Florida.
Shah claimed that his ECP treatments could make patients "younger and smarter" and cure a range of ailments, including obesity, migraines, high and low blood pressure, diabetes and erectile dysfunction. He also claimed the process could boost energy and stamina and enhance weight loss.
The doctor promoted the treatment method in advertisements and waived deductibles and co-pays to encourage people to sign up for the therapy, prosecutors said.
Doctor's offenses
Not only did Shah have patients undergo treatments that were "not medically necessary," but he double-billed insurers and failed to supervise patients receiving the treatments, prosecutors said. In one case, a patient experienced an adverse effect during treatment and had to be taken by ambulance to a hospital.
"In certain instances, Shah never met patients for whom he billed for ECP treatments," prosecutors said.
Shah required patients to undergo diagnostic ultrasounds as a precautionary measure, but he did not actually review the ultrasound images before approving new patients, prosecutors said.
Shah further fabricated patient files and made false statements about his practice, patients, compliance and record-keeping, prosecutors said. He instructed employees to indicate on billing forms that every patient had disabling angina even when they did not.
Over five years, Shah submitted fraudulent claims totaling more than $13 million and received more than $3.5 million in reimbursements.
FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Jones said, "Dr. Shah's disregard for safe patient care goes against the medical ethics he was to uphold."
Based on the conviction, Shah faces a maximum possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000, Brady said.
U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone scheduled a sentencing for Nov. 6.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric G. Olshan and Nicole Vasquez Schmitt prosecuted the case with help from Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip O'Connor.
The FBI, Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office and Medicaid Fraud Control Unit assisted in the investigation.
Natasha Lindstrom is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Natasha at 412-380-8514, [email protected] or via Twitter .
Categories: Local | Valley News Dispatch | Top Stories
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Teens Give Back is a coed nonprofit organization founded in 2014 by a group of teens in San Antonio, Texas. The desire to serve neighbors and the community while enjoying camaraderie with other service minded teens and their parents was the driving force behind these high school students. Through the organization, teens wanted the opportunity to acquire leadership skills by holding board positions and simultaneously find motivation through guest speakers who would lecture at monthly membership meetings.
In it's inaugural year, 66 teens joined Teens Give Back. The organization provided more than 2,200 volunteer hours to 11 different charities throughout San Antonio.


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package org.mindtrails.domain.tango;

import lombok.Data;

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import java.util.Date;
import java.util.List;

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    public static final String US_DOLLARS = "USD";

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            return amount;
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                return round(amount * rate.baseFx, 2);
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        }
        throw new RuntimeException("Currency not found:" + currency);
    }

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    }
}

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class ExchangeRate {
    Date lastModifiedDate;
    String rewardCurrency;
    String baseCurrency;
    double baseFx;
}


Sometimes people wonder, "when is the best time for newborn photographs?" and generally I would answer that with, "As soon as possible".
This champion mumma had me over in just a few days after she gave birth to her beautiful little Rose (well, Rosie). It truly was a privilege to be one of the first few people to meet Rosie and be able to capture her in her tiniest stage.
Rosie slept through most of the photoshoot but her older sister Katie's first reaction to seeing me was a loud cry and huge tears rolling down her cheeks. I was so shocked, I barely knew what to do with myself. I dropped down to my knees, trying to talk to her in a soft nice voice and eventually she calmed down and realised she was actually very excited to show me her new little baby sister.
I later learnt that nobody had told Katie I was coming over. I think there is a lesson to learn there; children need a bit of preparation.
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHER IN WIMBLEDON?
If you're looking for someone who will treat you like you're the most important person of the day (because hello you are!) and who values connection over perfection – you've got your girl right here! Let's grab a coffee and talk about your dream wedding.


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Q: Moving quadwords to xmm I just want to know the code to use to move a 64-bit register with number in it to a xmm register. My thought was:
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But I keep getting a segmentation fault: 11.
I am using NASM x86 on Mac OS-X.
Someone please help.

A: movsd xmm1, [r14] attempts to load a double from the address stored in r14.  That's not what you want.  Instead, use:
movq xmm1, r14

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Q: I can't change the value of line_count at the right of pipe , why? I occured a problem and I can't find why does it run.
The follow codes is both used to count the line of file 'file.in' , but the first can't change the value of $line_count
The first code is :
#!/bin/bash
line_count=0
cat file.in | while read line; do
    let ++line_count
done
echo $line_count

the second code is :
#!/bin/bash
line_count=0

while read line; do
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done < file.in

echo $line_count

A: Due to use of pipe your first code sample is executing while loop in a sub-shell hence changes made in line_count variable get lost after sub shell exits.


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