text:
Find a Priest
Better Together Pastoral Planning Process
Worship and Prayer
Monthly Prayer
Discalced Carmelites
Helping our neighbors: Disaster relief
Bishop McKnight
Monthly Prayer Intention
Ten counties: a path forward
Video Masses
The Catholic Missourian
Monday Morning Memo
Official Appointments
Planned Giving Stories
Misas en Español
MISAS ONLINE
Intención Mensual del Obispo
Eventos Diocesanos
Planificación Familiar Natural
Consecrated Religious
Statement for Dr. Martin Luther King Day
Closing benediction
Bishop McKnight welcomes new church law
Catholic Missourian
Diocesan School Advisory Board
Parish Website Admins
Women's Ministry Upcoming Presentations
UPDATED: Liturgical Protocols for Public Health Safety
March 13, 2020 | Public Health Concerns
UPDATED APRIL 1, 2020: These protocols have been replaced by a new decree of Bishop McKnight's. Read more here.
UPDATE: recommendations for funeral Masses and services have been added. In addition, this article has been revised to reflect updates from the president of the United States, who suggest limiting public events to no more than ten people in attendance.
Churches will remain open for personal and household prayer, devotions, and confessions. If the parish has the practice of Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, this practice may continue, be restricted, or be suspended altogether according to the judgment of the pastor. Under no circumstances is the exposed Blessed Sacrament to be left unattended. If necessary, the Blessed Sacrament may be reposed in the tabernacle and adorers should be encouraged to maintain their prayer schedules as much as possible.
The following measures will take immediate effect for the Diocese of Jefferson City until further notice is given:
The suspension of all public Masses. This includes the extension of the dispensation by the Bishop for all the faithful from the obligation to participate at Mass on Sunday.
The celebration of Mass by the priest should include the assistance of at least one other minister who is asymptomatic, but no more than four.
Priests are encouraged to solicit assistance from the laity to live-stream Masses celebrated in the parish, using social media. This can be done with a smartphone with access to the internet. If not, the Mass could be recorded (again on a smartphone) and then later uploaded to the parish website or posted for viewing online. Parishioners, of course, could be encouraged to watch Mass on the internet or television, but the preference should be given to virtual participation in the Mass celebrated in their home parish. Our Communication Office can assist in the technical aspects of providing live streaming or posting a video file. If you need assistance please contact communication@diojeffcity.org.
Funeral Masses and services may still be celebrated, but with the requirement to keep attendance to no more than 10 asymptomatic immediate family members, in accord with the president's recommendation and the CDC guidelines. One option is to have the burial first with a memorial Mass to be celebrated at a later date.
Baptisms may still be celebrated, but with the requirement to keep attendance to asymptomatic immediate family and godparents, The total number of witnesses including the celebrant should be 10 or less, in accord with the president's recommendation and the CDC guidelines.
The sacrament of confession should still be offered, but penance services are to be canceled. When celebrated individually, proper social distancing should be observed as much as possible. This would seem to favor anonymous confession through the screen. For face-to-face confessions, consideration should be given to moving the chair for the penitent approximately six feet from the confessor, even if this would necessitate using a different room than normally used for confession.
Holy Communion may still be administered by clergy and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, and anointing of the sick may still be administered by priests to those seriously ill or in danger of death, but always following the proper protocols for handwashing and use of masks by those infected.
Confirmation Masses with the bishop will be rescheduled.
The celebration of First Communion in the parish is to be delayed until the feast of Corpus Christi or after.
Public weddings should be rescheduled. Simple weddings and validations may be celebrated, but only with the minister, official witnesses and asymptomatic immediate family members. Again, the total number of witnesses including the celebrant should be 10 or less, in accord with the president's recommendation and the CDC guidelines.
If they are not already doing so, parishioners should be encouraged to consider contributing to the parish by electronic giving. They may also mail their weekly contributions. Those who handle the mail should follow hygiene practices recommended by the CDC.
Public celebrations of the Liturgy of the Hours, Stations of the Cross, in-person Bible study groups (or other devotional gatherings) are suspended until the public celebration of Mass resumes.
The second and third scrutinies are dispensed by Bishop McKnight.
If the suspension of public Masses continue through Holy Week, the liturgies could be celebrated with the priest and at least one minister but no more than four, and recorded as described above. If possible, an organist, keyboardist or other musician who sings, or a musician and cantor could be present to assist in order to provide some music for these most sacred celebrations. The total number witnesses, including celebrants, should number 10 or less, in accord with the president's recommendation and the CDC guidelines.
At the discretion of the pastor for those parishes with catechumens and/or candidates, the Easter Vigil could be celebrated with the catechumens and/or candidates with only asymptomatic individuals who are sponsors, RCIA team members and immediate family, or their baptism/reception may be postponed until a later time (e.g., the Vigil of Pentecost on May 30).
These petitions can be added to the prayers of the faithful:
For those who are suffering in the current outbreak of sickness, that they might be healed, and for the happy repose of all who have died from this sickness in recent weeks; let us pray to the Lord
For scientists, health professionals, public officials, and all who are serving the common good in this difficult and uncertain time, that they will be filled with wisdom and understanding; let us pray to the Lord
That in times of illness, our merciful and loving Father will strengthen our faith and trust in His goodness and divine providence; let us pray to the Lord
That our compassionate Father would touch all affected by the current outbreak with healing and peace; let us pray to the Lord
← 9 March 2020
Respondiendo en misericordia a la pandemia de COVID-19 →
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Before Pesach last year, I wrote about how to best build the seder around an aging loved one. In retrospect, this was perhaps an overly child-centric approach. In my defense, most things for the seder were intentionally designed to be exactly that way –to engage the younger generation in this important story of our tribe. And while I meant to write for everyone, I think I might have unintentionally sidelined the matriarchs and patriarchs of our families.
This year, in an attempt to learn from the past, I wrote this piece, geared to the elderly, in the second person: here is how you personally can make Pesach a bit easier on yourself. In other words: less maror, more haroset.
Banish hametz the simple way: Many of us treat cleaning for Passover as our own personal penance and the sole path to freedom. But it doesn't have to be that way. Rabbi Yossi Laufer, of Chabad of West Bay, advocates for simple yet sufficient solutions to kashering your kitchen, like setting the oven to self-clean with the racks inside.
"The manufacturer will tell you to take them out to avoid tarnishing, but they won't be damaged at all," Laufer said.
He also said that there's no need to cover all surfaces in your fridge – you can just clean it well, or, for an extra measure, lay down dish towels; a much easier alternative than fighting with contact paper or aluminum foil.
Laufer often cites an article at Chabad.org, "Preparing the Kitchen" (bit.ly/2UdzS8V), as his go-to resource for those looking for no-nonsense tips for getting rid of hametz. He also makes house calls for many seniors in the Warwick area to help them kasher. For questions or help, call 401-884-7888.
Recline – don't host: This may seem preposterous if you've been hosting seders for most of your life. Some of my clients find it really hard to let go of the proverbial afikoman. Others are relieved to pass the torch. But such is the very core of the Passover story: handing the tradition to the next generation to carry on.
Adler, who is passionate about her work, reiterated: "As long as we know there is one Jewish resident who needs a seder, we will go there." Call 401-621-5374 to see if she's running a seder at a nursing home/assisted living facility near you, or if you know someone who is aging at home who needs a seder invitation.
On April 12, all are welcome to join a seder at 11 a.m. at Temple Sinai, in Cranston. RSVP is encouraged; call 401-942-8350.
Adler also reminded me that for the non-seder days of Pesach, Kosher Meals on Wheels will be Kosher for Passover, and the Senior Kosher Cafe at the Alliance's Dwares Jewish Community Center, in Providence, will run Monday-Thursday that week.
Avoid the plague of constipation: If your body can't handle regular matzah, Rabbi Laufer notes that there's actually a special rabbinic allowance for egg matzah for those with digestive issues. It even says so on the box, with a shout-out to seniors! Laufer also said that whole-wheat matzah is gentler on the stomach, but advised to try to find it early since supermarkets often sell out.
(Paper) cups: We know you have gorgeous Passover China, but washing it is a slavery all its own. Ever the pragmatist, Rabbi Laufer says to go to Dollar Tree and stock up on paper goods – which definitely cost less than two zuzim.
Staff up: And no, we don't mean the kind Moses used to hit that rock. Hire a cleaning service to scrub away those crumbs, or ask your in-home care provider if help is an add-on option. If you're hosting and money is a concern, skip the expensive brisket in favor of chicken so you can hire help to serve and/or clean up.
Finally, if you have difficulty driving at night, Uber to and from the seders. And if you need more support, ask a service like ours how it can help.
NAOMI FINK COTRONE runs the Right at Home of Rhode Island agency, which provides care to elderly and disabled adults throughout the state.


(SNO) — Police have confirmed that a suspected drowning occurred at Anse Baison in Vieux Fort on Sunday, April 14.
The deceased been identified by police as 18-year-old Augustina Lionel.
According to law enforcement and civilian reports, Lionel was among a group of persons who allegedly fell off a kayak.
The body, which was clad in a "black bra and a black bottom", has been recovered, police said.


Influence is not popularity and popularity is not influence. Influence is the ability to effect action. In social media, influence is our quest, as it can steer desirable outcomes.
We, the people, demanded recognition. We gained access to the tools and platforms that are putting the customer back into the spotlight. Our feedback now incites a more value-added circle of overall communications and product evolution. We have emerged influential and consequential to the bottom lines of businesses all over the world.
As consumers and publishers, we stormed these new platforms and staged a social revolution that forced the attention of those who so readily dismissed us—silence was no longer golden.
Social networks and platforms have expanded the roles of customers and peers from consumer to authorities, advocates, and critics. Those who master their domains are developing consequential communities around their areas of expertise, interests, and passions and now possess the authority to direct, instruct, and steer decision makers and actions.
We must now become much more than communicators, marketers, publishers, or service professionals. We too are consumers and this perspective must permeate our company culture. But when it's time to reach our peers and colleagues, we seem to regress. In short, we lose sight of how what we represent truly affects those whom we're trying to reach.


The point of a Jeremy Corbyn speech is chiefly just to be Jeremy Corbyn. He doesn't really do the big economic ideas – that's more John McDonnell's thing – and there isn't always much of a grand argument connecting the various promises. But that's not why people come. They come to be inspired and lifted up, reminded of why they were drawn to the energy of this movement in the first place – perhaps especially after a conference that has exposed some serious divisions, on Brexit and on deselections. And so that's what they got.
Corbyn's performances are infinitely slicker now; better jokes, an altogether more prime ministerial demeanour. But he hasn't lost the passion of the core material, from promising instant recognition for a Palestinian state to hammering the human consequences of mental health cuts or the "hostile environment" Corbyn said welfare policy had created for disabled people (although there were still no detailed commitments on how to dismantle it). Add in a juicy free childcare promise, and the manifesto for a possibly imminent general election is taking shape.
But there's still a big Brexit-shaped hole in the middle. Corbyn reiterated that Labour will almost certainly vote against whatever plan Theresa May produces, but oppose leaving with no deal; instead it would demand a general election. But failing that, "all options are on the table". The words were muttered, almost as if he didn't really want to say them, and that was that. Nothing ruled in, or out, should the Tories decline to help Labour out by calling an election they would expect to lose.
After five days of shadow ministers furiously contradicting each other, we are no clearer on what Labour's preferred Brexit solution would be, so presumably that's exactly how Corbyn wants it: the strategy is to offer a blank slate, on to which both leavers and remainers can project whatever they want to believe. If the aim is to reassure supporters unhappy with the Brexit position by reminding them of everything they do like about Corbynism, it got him through conference. Let's see how it survives the turbulent weeks to come.
Labour has spent the past few months wrapped up in knots, under relentless siege, leaving the party demoralised from the grassroots to the very top. A barrage of attack drowned out a coherent radical message forged by last year's general election campaign. It badly needed a reset button, and it got one. A conference featuring little disunity and an agenda-setting speech on workers' ownership by John McDonnell climaxed with Corbyn's best address to date. Three years ago, a relatively obscure backbencher, condemned to the fringes of politics for several decades, had been catapulted to the frontline, and it showed in a stumbling speech. This year, a mostly hostile press pack muttered reluctant praise: he looks the part of a prime minister-in-waiting.
As Margaret Thatcher once used the podium to condemn the postwar consensus and sketch out a new order, Corbyn delivered a speech that was an unapologetic onslaught on a crumbling neoliberal ideology. Old-style, top-down nationalisation was junked: instead, there would be democratic ownership by workers and consumers. After a decade of austerity, which the latest polling shows the public is thoroughly fed up with, investment was championed as a means to modernise Britain. Climate change was identified as the greatest crisis facing humanity – but he made it a bread-and-butter issue, pledging to commit hundreds of thousands of "green" new jobs.
It is the antisemitism crisis that has tortured Labour for the past few months, and Corbyn showed necessary empathy towards Britain's Jews over the horrors visited upon them for centuries and the hurt caused by antisemitism, and he pledged to be an ally against racism. He was right, too, not to take any lessons from a Tory party responsible for the Windrush scandal, a "hostile environment" for immigrants and championing Viktor Orbán's antisemitic far-right regime.
But one of the most critical elements of the speech was a direct appeal to older people, "who built modern Britain", and a commitment to repay their efforts and sacrifice by protecting the triple lock and a national care system. Labour has catastrophically low levels of support among older people, and the party has failed to build on the Tories' attempt to abandon the triple lock in last year's fateful election. If an all-out charm offensive among pensioners is successful, then Corbyn will be assured of becoming the next prime minister – and Britain's leftwing answer to Thatcher.
Brexit may have dominated Labour conference this week, but not so Corbyn's speech. He couldn't even bring himself to mention the second referendum that's now Labour's official Brexit policy.
The meat of the speech was on much more comfortable territory. MPs in leave areas have been complaining the party's policy offer has too much of a cosmopolitan feel, and not enough that speaks to their communities. The once-flagship policy to scrap tuition fees didn't even get a mention. It was packed instead with announcements to appeal to those May once called the "just-about managing", with a big pledge on free childcare for two-year-olds and rebalancing the economy towards workers a strong theme.
"Join us in the new political mainstream," Corbyn invited Jim O'Neill, a former Tory Treasury minister and chief economist of Goldman Sachs, who wrote that Labour has "stepped into the vacuum left by the government". Although one had the sense he would relish a more full-blooded challenge from business. The muted nature of its opposition to Corbynomics – not to mention the absence of internal dissenters – shows just how much the ground has shifted.
But there were gaps. Why didn't Corbyn pledge to extend the "pure socialism" of the NHS to social care, telling people that if they are unlucky enough to get dementia they'll get free care, as they do with cancer? Where was the offer for the predominantly working-class young people who don't go to university? Where was the massive reskilling programme for people who lose their jobs to automation? And Corbyn went no further than he has done in the past in acknowledging the nature of left antisemitism, leaving questions hanging about his leadership qualities.
But the subliminal message couldn't have been clearer: Labour won't be actively campaigning for a referendum any time soon. And no number of workers on boards will be able to fix things if Labour gets the keys to No 10 in the wake of a messy, no-deal Brexit.
Last year's conference was always going to be tough to follow. In 2017, Corbyn was riding high on the unexpected general election result; this year, his summer has been defined by accusations of antisemitism and Brexit disagreements. Popular policy announcements on the environment, childcare and housing in Liverpool this week depicted a party preparing for government. Corbyn's task today was to prove he was, too.
There was a marked improvement in Corbyn's delivery. After a string of uncomfortable TV interviews, there was an air of confidence today from the leader. The jokes landed, as did the moments of high emotion. There was also a nod to the personal: Corbyn offered an emotional thank you message in Spanish to his wife. It showed a side he prefers to keep hidden.
On antisemitism, the tone had already been set: yesterday, during her conference address, Emily Thornberry's vocal support for the Palestinian people received rapturous applause. So too did her ultimatum to the few antisemites on the fringes of Labour. Today, Corbyn's acknowledgement of the pain British Jews are in was met with his first standing ovation. Chuka Umunna's assertion that Labour is institutionally racist? Again, disproved.
In fact, "I" and "we" were used repeatedly on antisemitism – again, the personal – and a hand was reached out to the Jewish community: "I hope we can work together to draw a line." Yes, it could have gone further: another apology for the hurt, for instance. But that's a conversation Corbyn needs to have with Jewish people directly.
Labour's detractors, both inside and out, wanted this conference to be defined by internal warfare – but thresholds, trigger ballots and party splits got no mention. The Farm's All Together Now played as Corbyn entered – there were no signs of division in the packed-out hall. Instead, this speech was an outward-looking message to the nation: an hour of policy, and plans to deliver them.
A look to the Liberal Democrats or to the Tories would suggest that neither of their leaders would have enough material to do the same. And that should worry May, because on ideas Labour is winning the argument. Corbyn's performance today suggests that on leadership Labour can win as well.
Thus begins the general election campaign, and the battle lines are clear. Corbyn will join battle as the Great Repairman, answering a decade-old call to rebuild a fair economic structure upon the wreckage of the 2008 crash and to address the "social vandalism" of subsequent Tory policy.
This will resonate, and the Conservatives need to brace themselves for what they will doubtless regard as the unmerited popularity of Corbyn's economic populism. Like so many party leaders before him, he pledged a green revolution, "the biggest home-building programme in half a century", free childcare, and the transformation of employees into company stakeholders.
How he will accomplish this, afford it, and prevail where others have failed, he did not say. But that's the essence of populism: the promise of straightforward solutions to complex problems. It's the formula that got Donald Trump into the Oval Office.
Like Trump, Corbyn has also carefully selected his enemies. The section on press freedom was properly sinister, especially delivered, as it was, by a past contributor to Press TV and Russia Today. His benign portrayal of Labour as a "broad church", committed to "listening and learning", will have baffled those centre-ground MPs who are now at a much higher risk of deselection thanks to reforms at this week's conference.
His pledge to Jewish people that "we are your allies" also sounded less like an apology than the voice of a leader impatient to move on from the headline-grabbing crisis of trust that consumed Labour's summer.
And Brexit? Keir Starmer had bounced him into leaving "all options on the table" – including, by implication, a people's vote, with "remain" included on the ballot paper. But it is clear enough that Corbyn wants out of the EU so he can build socialism in one country.
Will he get the chance? To my ears, this was the speech of a veteran campaigner rather than a prime-minister-in-waiting. I still don't believe he has what it takes. But the game is certainly on.


I'm just curious if anyone out there has owned an older Redwood like 2014 and older and then bought a new Redwood and what your thoughts are.
We have a 2014 and went to go and trade for a 2017 or 2018 - I can't remember which one it was we were looking at. But my point is we were So disappointed in the quality of the newer models. They are being made so cheap now. The cabinets are nothing compared to our 2014.
The dealership we buy from quit selling them for this same reason. We are just so disappointed in Redwood.
My cabinets are solid wood. What are yours?
We had a 2015 Montana before purchasing a Redwood 2018 3901WB and there have been the usual issues but nothing out of the ordinary. Crossroads has been excellent at repairing anything that has needed repair under warranty. I have been happy with our unit.
You are correct....general fit and finish is better in older RW's....I looked at quite a few before we purchased our 2015....for me it looked like when we looked at 2017 and newer...I was unimpressed....I am a cabinet maker by trade...so looking at all RV's...I need a "chill pill"...and the new high gloss finish on the millwork on the new units shows every flaw....One big dealer in our area is having trouble with sales of his new RW inventory....and rumor has it they may stop stocking the RW line as sales are not good....The 2019 I saw at the dealers show room had stuff just falling off the interior....I asked the sale person if they had done the PDI on the unit yet...he said "NO"...we only do that after the unit is sold...sounds crazy to me...we always did the PDI as the units came in at our dealership....then the unit was ready to sell....and it showed well to perspective buyers..
I think there are improvements on the new units...they are putting 8K axles on as standard and other suspension upgrades....but the fit and finish is starting to show signs of the "assembly line"..
I didn't buy an RV to have it in for warranty repairs. If their QC was better, there shouldn't be any need for many of the issues people are having.
I have to agree with the original poster. We've had our 2013 36RL (built September 2012) since new. Some issues, but not many, and all fixed by Redwood. Like almost everyone else with early Redwoods, we had some suspension issues. I think we were one of the first, just after Michele, to say "this is BS" and go to MorRyde and do the IS and Kodiak Discs. Tried for years to convince Redwood to offer it as an option - they never would.
We still own it and are now fulltime in it for the last two plus years. We too, have looked at the new ones at shows and are not impressed at all. They've definitely cheapened the coach.
I've told t least six people who were actively looking for a Redwood to find an early production 2015 or earlier, budget in getting rid of the suspension unless its already been done, get a good aftermarket warranty and cruise away happy.
If we replace the Redwood, it will probably be with a 2012-2014 DRV built before David sold the company. If new, either a Luxe or if the $$$ permitted a New Horizons which now has a line that competes with DRV and the other upper end coaches besides their custom built ones.
I don't think that any RV manufactured in the current economic climate will be trouble free. It is way to hard for employers through out the US to find quality help. So I would agree that if you have a unit that you are happy with or find a used one that you know has the bugs worked out of it then do not by a new model from any manufacturer. We just went to a McDonald's yesterday that was closed at 2:00 pm because they couldn't get enough employees. All I can speak to is that in my experience Crossroads has been very good at backing their product under warranty. The DEALER you buy from makes all the difference as they are the ones that check the unit out before you receive it and repair it if it breaks. I have never been without any of my fifth wheels for more than a couple of days, which I find totally except-able when dealing with a box on wheels. You can pay a lot more for a supposedly better model but you will only be more upset when it requires repairs because they are all built by the same unskilled hands using similar parts.
From what I see owners of older units have mostly had only minor bugs to work out. We've had many. We brought our 38Gk in on Tues. March 26 for it's annual inspection which was supposed to happen that day. When we got to our dealer my husband noticed that our RW wasn't setting straight. He found another leaf spring was broken so we had to leave it. This is the 3rd time we've had a broken leaf spring. The 1st time was in Nov 2017 all were replaced. The 2nd time was in Feb of this year. Our dealer is no longer carrying Redwoods. Don't know who quite who. We've looked at new Redwoods at RV shows. The fit and finish looks to be better than most. But haven't seen a model that we like as much as ours.


text:
Reid spokesman won't deny pederast accusations
Is refusal to answer a question about allegations against you (or the individual you represent) an admission of guilt? If so, then, there may well be more to the allegations of Harry Reid's pederasty. Note, the conditional here. We still don't know that it's true. We're far from certain about this. But now the Senate Democratic Leader's office won't address the allegations. How does that look?
"As you know by now," writes Drew M. at Ace of Spades, "when baseless but serious charges are laid against a powerful political figure, it is the responsibility of the maligned individual to prove their innocence." And when that blogger "requested comment from Harry Reid's office on the swirling charges that someone said they heard from someone that Harry Reid is pederast," he received this terse response which he characterizes as "chilling":
Drew asks us to "note the non-denial. Based on the rumors we've all heard, we can only conclude that at best questions of Reid's abuse remains an open question."
Filed Under: Blogging, Congress (112th), Congress (general), Mean-spirited leftists
CynthiaSpeaks says
To me this is a conundrum. Reid made baseless accusations against Mitt Romney and the headlines have been saying for days that Romney is demanding an apology. In my mind it's almost as if "he doth protest too much."
I don't think silence is necessarily an admission of guilt; rather, it is showing that such a comment isn't even worth a second thought, much less a protestation.
That all said, your post makes for interesting observation, and certainly Reid had better be careful what he spouts out lest it be turned back on him.
August 4, 2012 at 1:35 pm - August 4, 2012
I am glad I am on the right where our shenanigans are cheeky and fun, and not on the left, where shenanigans are tragic and cruel.
I suppose the back story on this is that Harry Reid has ferreted out information through illegal activities at the IRS that Romney's taxes "zeroed" out for the last ten years and it can be said that he "paid no taxes" in the sense that it can be said that Warren Buffet's secretary pays more taxes than does Buffet.
There is undoubtedly a strategy to force Romney into having to take on the burden of being in the "one per cent" and defend himself from the pitch forks and torches crowd who want to pry his greedy pockets open.
The slime squad can get whatever it wants from the executive branch since it is in the hands of the "in" party. Reid can not reveal his source any more than Nixon could have revealed the White House Plumbers Unit.
But, this is a game of political chicken and the Democrats and their paid lapdog media will push the innuendo as second best to succeeding in having Romney release his taxes returns.
There are a multitude of laws that supposedly keep government records sacrosanct, but, then, the parliament of whores who control the watchers can do tricks wherever they wish.
I swear, I'm going to pistol whip the next guy who says "shenanigans".

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Tag Archives: Mark Anderson
President's column: The vanishing depth chart
President's Column • Tags: FWAA, Mark Anderson
This is starting to get ridiculous.
2016 FWAA President Mark Anderson
It was one thing when Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh didn't have a flip card with a Wolverine two-deep roster on it in the press box before the home opener against Hawaii. Now, he's making it a habit for every home game.
But this isn't just about Harbaugh.
It's about the danger of a trend taking place when other coaches begin to believe it's a good idea to never release a depth chart. That's why it's important to stand up to what's happening in Ann Arbor and make sure it doesn't spread nationwide.
And coaches need to release accurate depth charts, unlike the one Kansas distributed for its opener against Rhode Island. Eight players started despite not being listed on the first team, according to a story in the Lawrence Journal-World.
One or two is understandable. Coaches make late changes all the time based on a variety of factors, including injuries and tweaks to the game plan.
Not eight.
If a coach doesn't want to release a depth chart during the week (hello, Jim Mora), we in the media won't be happy about it, but that can at least be explained away as not wanting to give information to the opponent. But no credible reason can be given to not have a depth chart available shortly before kickoff on a flip card when there is no competitive advantage to be gained. The players already know their roles for that day.
The potential lack of flip cards in the press box also should be a concern for professional scouts and video crews _ not to mention the media, including the broadcasters for radio and television networks which pay millions in rights fees.
So what can be done?
Harbaugh has so much power that no one on Michigan's campus is going to force him to have one.
We need outside help to make sure not only depth charts are released before kickoff, but that the information is genuine.
So we need the Division I Football Oversight Committee to not only implement rules to provide such depth charts, but to put real teeth in those rules. And while committee members are at it, establish some rules against coaches changing players' numbers on a weekly basis. Confusion can reign.
A third area of concern is enforcing a rule already in place about the contrast between numbers and the color backgrounds of uniforms. The numbers in some of these combinations are increasingly difficult to identify.
Colorado visits Michigan this weekend, and the Buffaloes released their own tongue-in-cheek two-deep of celebrities and fictional characters. I do wonder about the decision to go with Bernie Sanders over Vladimir Lenin at free safety.
But even though you have to give Colorado credit for making light of the situation, the Buffs won't release a two-deep because Michigan won't do it. It's a perfectly reasonable stance for Colorado to take.
One, however, the Buffs shouldn't be forced to take.
President's column: Membership directory is in the mail
Welcome to the beginning of the FWAA's next 75 years.
We have a lot to live up to given all that's happened during the organization's first 75 years. That birthday we celebrated in 2015 is in our rear-view mirror. But with a membership that is strong and talented, there is little reason to think the future can't be at least as bright.
The information-packed FWAA 2016-17 Membership Directory will be in your hands soon, if not already. Coming to a mailbox near you is one reason your membership is so valuable. You have access — cell numbers, emails and twitter handles — of contacts that your non-FWAA member friends don't possess.
And that's only part of what the guide offers: informative team pages on all FBS schools; bowl, award, conference and media contacts, as well as individual listings for FCS schools. I-30 East's Ted Gangi, Executive Director Steve Richardson, the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic's Charlie Fiss and staff deserve a big thank you for the work they put into the guide, which alone is worth the price of FWAA membership.
Between now and the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Jan. 9 in Tampa, we have a lot of ground to cover.
On Sept. 6 the first regular-season FWAA-National Football Foundation Super 16 Poll will be released. Please write about it and talk about it every week. The FWAA-NFF already has conducted a pre-season poll by its 40-plus member panel, composed of FWAA members and College Football Hall of Famers.
We are already beginning to send out information for player nominations for the Armed Forces Merit Award, sponsored by the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth. We will have flyers at many of the early-season big games that explain the award. Those nominees should be sent to Tim Simmons at bfishinc@aol.com
In the next two weeks, we will have exciting news, officially announcing a sponsor for our FWAA Freshman All-America Team
Once we get into the season, we will announce a Team of the Week each Monday, our Bronko Nagurski Defensive Player of the Week on Tuesday and our FWAA/Orange Bowl Courage Award Nominee on Wednesdays, starting a little later than the other two weekly awards. Please send any nominees for the Courage Award to ESPN's Matt Fortuna at matt.fortuna@gmail.com.
And later …
FWAA members will receive their offensive line and defensive All-America ballots on Nov. 7 and offensive skill and special team ballots a week later. During our All-America Team selection conference calls, we look carefully at how the membership votes. The 26-man 2016 FWAA All-America team will be announced in mid-December.
We also will be busy with announcements of the Bronko Nagurski (Best Defensive Player) and Outland Trophy (Best Interior Lineman) Award winners in early December. A highlight in early January will be the honoring of our 60th Annual Coach of the Year with the Eddie Robinson bust presentation on Jan. 7 in Tampa. The legendary Robinson has been the namesake of our award since 1997.
During the FWAA's Annual Awards Breakfast on Jan. 9 in Tampa, we will hand out, among other in-house awards, the "Steve Ellis Beat Writer of the Year Award." His widow, Karen, will present it, a year after the FWAA Board decided to name the award after her late husband. Steve was a former colleague of mine at the Tallahassee Democrat and the best reporter I've ever been around. He once filed a story on his honeymoon. I don't recommend that, by the way.
It's sure to be a memorable year.
President's column: Beat Writer award to be named for Steve Ellis 1
Awards, Beat Writer of the Year, President's Column • Tags: FWAA, Mark Anderson, President's Column, Steve Ellis
By Mark Anderson, FWAA President
A friend and I were traveling through the West with Steve Ellis back in the early 1990s. We all woke up in Provo, Utah, one morning ready to hit the road. But first we had to wait for Steve to file a Florida State football notebook.
In July. On his vacation.
That was Steve. From him, I learned the value of great reporting. No one could ever outwork Steve. The trips with Steve also gave me a love for this region of the country and an appreciation for the beauty of the West. I eventually made my way from the Tallahassee Democrat to the Reno Gazette-Journal and then to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Having worked with and having known Steve, I think it is truly appropriate that we name our FWAA Beat Writer of the Year Award after him. I have to credit FWAA Board Member Malcolm Moran, a long-time friend of Steve's, with the idea. We both wish Steve could be here to enjoy the recognition.
Steve, sad to say, died on Nov. 19, 2009 after suffering a heart attack nine days earlier. His widow, Karen, will attend the FWAA's Annual Awards Breakfast on Jan. 9, 2017 in Tampa and present the award in his name.
Karen shared her thoughts with the FWAA:
When I found out the Football Writers Association of America planned to name its Beat Writer of the Year Award after Steve, I was completely overwhelmed with emotion. I know Steve was an outstanding writer and a special man, but to be recognized by his peers is just amazing. I watched Steve work 24/7 to make sure he didn't miss a story and to ensure all the facts were correct. The other writers on the Florida State beat always said they had to work harder just to keep up with Steve. He truly loved what he did and knew at an early age he wanted to be a writer.
When we first started dating Steve was working on a story about a freshman football player and was worried about a quote he thought could give people the wrong impression about the young man. He called the player's position coach and was up until 2 a.m. waiting for a quote from the coach that would help give credibility to the player with fans. More…
President's column: Mark Anderson invites you to 'Expand the Brand'
Member Benefits, Member News, President's Column • Tags: FWAA, Mark Anderson
As the seemingly unending UNLV basketball coaching search draws to a close (the regents still have to vote on the deal), I can finally come out of my Las Vegas bunker and think about other things.
And, as the temperatures start approaching 90 degrees, thoughts naturally turn to college football.
And yours should, too. The FWAA has just begun our membership drive, and the slogan is "Expand the Brand," meaning we want to go from about 1,300 members to 1,500.
If you're reading this column, chances are you already have a good idea of why the $50 ($25 for students and 2016 graduates) is money well spent on a membership. It is even better spent if your company picks it up. But if not, you can write it off on your taxes because of the FWAA's non-profit status.
Find those who aren't members, be it reporters or SIDs, and let them know the benefits. The more members, the louder our collective voices, and there are plenty of reasons to scream about becoming a member.
The directory, which is available in print form and online, is alone worth the cash. Hear about a player transferring from Illinois but you live in the Pacific Northwest? Look up cell numbers to beat writers in the directory and start calling (begin with those in bold because they are members and should be rewarded with information sharing). More…
Mark Anderson is FWAA's 2016 president
News, President's Column • Tags: FWAA, Mark Anderson
(Ed. Note: Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review-Journal became the FWAA's 2016 President in early January in Scottsdale, Ariz. Below is speech that he gave accepting the position during the FWAA Awards Breakfast at the media hotel. Mark, who covered UNLV football for a number of years, has moved to the basketball beat but will still report football periodically during the fall while serving as the FWAA President.)
"Thank you all for this incredible honor. I am humbled to be so warmly welcomed by you not only the past few days, but the past two years after Tiger put me on the board. I remember how surprised I was at his invitation to eventually rise to president. Not only did I cover a team that wasn't from a power conference, but I covered arguably the worst program in that league. Kirk Bohls (2014 FWAA President) later enlightened me on the importance of having diverse representation. Little did Tiger know, however, that I'm an SEC grad (from the University of Florida).
"This is a big day in many ways. It's also my 17th anniversary at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and this has been a time for milestones. My wife and I each turned 50 in the fall, and our son — I mean, our straight-A student son — entered middle school. My paper was sold — twice. You might have heard about the second purchase. My 15th wedding anniversary is later this year.
"One of my colleagues, Ed Graney, takes over as President next year of the United States Basketball Writers Association. Another co-worker, Steve Carp, is a former USBWA President. To say I am proud of where I work would be an understatement.
"I'm honored to become the second Tallahassean to become President of the FWAA. The other one, Bill McGrotha (1990 FWAA President), was the long-time columnist of the Tallahassee Democrat, and I not only worked with Bill, I was his driver for Florida State football games. You knew you were walking with a celebrity when going through the Doak Campbell Stadium parking lot with Bill. He was almost as popular as Bobby Bowden.
"We all are a reflection of our upbringing, and I want to take a moment to talk about two great influences on my life and career.
"My dad is 96, and the past few months have been difficult with him going in and out of hospitals. But he's the same fighter who survived pneumonia at the age of 12 or 13 after a doctor said he wouldn't make it through the night. My dad also watched his parents lose all their savings in the Depression, and he never was able to get a college degree he so badly wanted. But my dad went on to become one of the world's top civil engineers, overseeing the construction of dams all over the globe and giving my family the opportunity to experience so many cultures that most Americans miss out on.
"But the main influence on my career was my mom. She and I had season tickets for years to Florida State games before I later came to my senses and went to Florida. If the Seminoles happened to pull off a big victory, my mom would go downtown and buy the state papers. If she liked a particular passage — Hubert Mizell of the St. Petersburg Times was a particular favorite — she would read it aloud. I sometimes hear her voice when I write.
"We all know how important it is to have an understanding family with our crazy deadlines and constant travel, and I certainly have a wife and son who love and support me. Without them, it would be much more difficult to live out this crazy dream of writing about sports for a living.
"Thank you again for this privilege. I am excited about the challenges over the next year and about the opportunity to represent this great organization. You will get nothing but my best."
Photo gallery: FWAA Awards Breakfast
2015 Best Writing Contest, Annual Meeting, Armed Forces Merit Award, Awards, Awards Breakfast, Bert McGrane Award, Best Writing Contest, Photo Galleries • Tags: Armed Forces Merit Award, Bret Robertson, FWAA, Irv Moss, Ivan Maisel, Lee Barfknecht, Mark Anderson, Pete Thamel, Ted Miller
These photos were taken at the FWAA's annual Awards Breakfast on Jan. 11 in Scottsdale, Ariz. Winners of the 2015 Best Writing Contest as well as the Bert McGrane Award winner were honored, among others.
The FWAA's annual Awards Breakfast took place at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Jan. 11, 2016. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
2015 FWAA President Lee Barfknecht greets member Steve Wieberg, who serves on the CFP Selection Committee, at the FWAA's annual Awards Breakfast on Jan. 11 in Scottsdale, Ariz. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
2016 FWAA President Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (left) has a few moments with Irv Moss of the Denver Post, the winner of the FWAA's Lifetime Achievement Award. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
The Armed Forces Merit Award was among the honors distributed at the FWAA's annual Awards Breakfast on Jan. 11, 2016, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Former FWAA President Ivan Maisel (right), winner of the Bert McGrane Award, chatted with friends and family during the FWAA's annual Awards Breakfast on Jan. 11, 2016. Photo by Melissa Macatee. FWAA
Chris Dufresne, who recently retired from the Los Angeles Times, received this commemorative football as the 2015 FWAA Beat Writer of the Year. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Chris Dufresne, who recently retired from The Los Angeles Times, speaks to FWAA members after being honored as the 2015 FWAA Beat Writer of the Year. Dufresne served as president of the FWAA in 2013. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated received this commemorative football in recognition of his first-place in the features category of the FWAA's 2015 Best Writing Contest. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated accepts his first-place award for the feature category in the FWAA's 2015 Best Writing Contest. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Irv Moss of the Denver Post received this commemorative football in recognition of his Lifetime Achievement Award. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Irv Moss of the Denver Post, who was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the FWAA. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Past President Tony Barnhart introduced Bert McGrane Award winner Ivan Maisel, another past president. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com, winner of the Bert McGrane Award, sits with his mother at the FWAA's annual Awards Breakfast on Jan. 11, 2016. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Tony Barnhart (left) and 2015 FWAA President Lee Barfknecht present the Bert McGrane Award to Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com at the FWAA's annual Awards Breakfast on Jan. 11, 2016. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com holds his Bert McGrane Award. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com addresses the membership after receiving the FWAA's Bert McGrane Award on Jan. 11, 2016. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Ivan Maisel, winner of the Bert McGrane Award, is joined at the FWAA Awards Breakfast by his wife, mother, other family members and friends. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
2015 FWAA President Lee Barfknecht takes the podium one final time as president during the annual Awards Breakfast. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Lee Barfknecht accepts the Outgoing President's Plaque at the FWAA's annual Awards Breakfast no Jan. 11, 2016, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Mark Anderson accepts the job as the 2016 FWAA President. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Ted Miller of ESPN.com accepted a commemorative football and certificate for first place in the column category of the FWAA's 2015 Best Writing Contest. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
The Armed Forces Merit Award was among the honors handed out at the FWAA's annual Awards Breakfast on Jan. 11, 2016, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl Executive Director Brant Ringler presents the Armed Forces Merit Award to Bret Robertson, an Army veteran who plays safety for Westminster College in Missouri. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
FWAA member Tim Simmons speaks at the annual Awards Breakfast. Photo by Melissa Macatee. FWAA
2015 FWAA President Lee Barfknecht and his wife, Sara, pose with the CFP national championship trophy at the FWAA's annual Awards Breakfast on Jan. 11, 2016, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Photo by Melissa Macatee.
Josh Krulewitz (left) of ESPN, annual sponsor of the FWAA Awards Breakfast, and FWAA member Herb Gould. Photo by Melissa Macatee.


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Top tickets in high school sports
The 30th Bass Pro Tournament of Champions reaches the semifinals today at JQH Arena, with games beginning at 5 p.m. a...
Top tickets in high school sports The 30th Bass Pro Tournament of Champions reaches the semifinals today at JQH Arena, with games beginning at 5 p.m. a... Check out this story on news-leader.com: http://sgfnow.co/1jakroW
Published 11:00 p.m. CT Jan. 16, 2014
The 30th Bass Pro Tournament of Champions reaches the semifinals today at JQH Arena, with games beginning at 5 p.m. and semifinals starting at 8 p.m. Note that St. Louis Cardinals pitchers Shelby Miller and Joe Kelly, along with second baseman Kolten Wong, will sign autographs from 7:45 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.
Outside the city, the Ozark boys are at Rogersville in a matchup of two top 15-ranked teams in the News-Leader poll. Both reached the semifinals of the 68th Greenwood Blue and Gold Tournament over the holidays.
Republic High School is hosting a wrestling tournament, which marks the one-month-out marker from the state tournament.
With all eyes today on the Bass Pro Tournament of Champions — the championship game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. — one game you might consider is Waynesville at Glendale.
It's scheduled to start at roughly 2:30 p.m., and Waynesville features big-time recruit Juwan Morgan, a 6-foot-8 junior center/forward.
It could be an intense but enjoyable night in girls basketball as Ozark and Parkview meet in Springfield, while Walnut Grove travels to Crane. Ozark features Alabama signee Hannah Cook while Parkview is led by Lady Bears commit Aubrey Buckley. Meanwhile, it's a battle of defending state champions as Class 1 Walnut Grove and the Harman kin take on Crane, which won Class 2 last March. Both games are expected to start about 7:30 p.m.
Longtime Rogersville coach Rod Gorman and former Central Bible College coach Kirk Hanson try to match Xs and Os for a second time in less than a month as Rogersville plays host to Branson in a 7:30 p.m. tipoff. The teams met in a Blue and Gold quarterfinal, in which Rogersville won 56-51.
In Springfield the same night, Hillcrest plays host to Marshfield, which hasn't been full strength for weeks as senior Blayne Armstrong nurses a leg issue. Both games should start about 7:30 p.m.
– Kary Booher
Read or Share this story: http://sgfnow.co/1jakroW


Do I need to align the take-in and take-up reels?
Yes, you need to align the reels to avoid registration, banding, and paper feed issues. You'll only need to do this once during setup, unless the printer is moved or the system becomes misaligned. We recommend that you keep the alignment paper for future use.


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Posted inAvery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, McDowell, Mitchell, Politics & Government, Watauga
At the NCGA, a tide of bills regarding annexation, school calendars, ERA
by Kirk Ross March 9, 2015 July 7, 2020
Move to Amend's Tom Coulson speaks Wednesday at a press conference at the N.C. General Assembly announcing legislation calling for a constitutional convention to overturn the Supreme Court's ruling on Citizens United. Kirk Ross/Carolina Public Press
RALEIGH — Last week's rapid thaw loosened more than the just the chunks of ice remaining on the sidewalks in Raleigh. With both of North Carolina's state government chambers on a more-or-less regular schedule, legislation started to move again.
Many of the new bills are local acts, which have a fast-approaching deadline for introduction. Local bills must be introduced in the House by April 1 and the Senate by March 11.
Sen. Jim Davis, R-Macon
Sen. Jim Davis, R-Macon, who, as chairman of the Senate's State and Local Government Committee, is one of the chief gatekeepers of local bills, led by example, introducing three local acts last week.
They include legislation aimed a settling a long-running annexation issue in Haywood County. Senate Bill 141 would put a referendum on Nov. 3 ballot on the annexation of the 1,200 acre Lake Junaluska area into the town of Waynesville. The annexation would take effect on June 30, 2016, if approved by a majority of voters from both the town and the area under consideration.
Davis also introduced legislation that allows the town of Sylva to start adopting and enforcing parking ordinances and grants the town of Lake Santeetlah approval to start levying an occupancy tax of up to 3 percent and set up a tourist development authority to utilize the funds collected.
On the House side, Rep. Josh Dobson, R-McDowell, introduced a bill granting flexibility in setting school calendars to the school boards in Avery, McDowell and Mitchell counties. The change would start with the 2015-2016 school year.
The flurry of bills could be an indication that, after a slow start, the legislature is on a somewhat faster track. Another sign: Recent legislation by Senate Rules chair Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Henderson, that dialed back the Senate's crossover deadline, the date bills must have passed one chamber in order to remain viable for the rest of the session.
Apodaca's bill, which passed the Senate unanimously last week, requires that all bills that have cleared the House — other than those related to redistricting and the budget — be sent to the Senate no later than April 30, a week earlier than originally scheduled.
Group calls for end to Citizens United
Western North Carolina was well represented at a recent press conference announcing legislation calling for a constitutional convention to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United.
Buncombe County legislators Rep. Susan Fisher, Rep. John Ager and Sen. Terry Van Duyn and Haywood County Rep. Joe Sam Queen, all Democrats, were on hand to show their support for the bill and rail against the ruling, which allowed the greater flow of so-called "dark money" into political races.
Tom Coulson of the Buncombe County chapter of Move to Amend, a nationwide group pushing the amendment, said he is concerned that the country is turning away from the ideals he fought for as a young man in World War II.
"It never came to me that, all these years later, they would be in greater jeopardy — and this time from within," he said, "and [that] those ideals would be in retreat on many fronts and our constitution interpreted in ways that erode our democracy."
The amendment, in short, states that corporations are not "people" under the law and that campaign contributions are not constitutionally protected free speech.
Fisher and Queen are sponsoring a House resolution (H125) on the amendment.
Bills of interest to WNC
Buncombe County Democrats Van Duyn and Fisher have filed legislation in their respective chambers aimed at reviving the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. (Van Duyn has filed two bills: S147 and S184; Fisher has filed H166.)
The amendment, introduced in 1972 has been ratified by 35 states, but fell three short of the 38 required for adoption.
North Carolina was one of the 15 states that failed to ratify the amendment which states that "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."
Other bills introduced last week include:
S197 — Apodaca and Sen. Ralph Hise, R-McDowell, introduced a bill that would allow would allow pharmacists to substitute generic medications when filling prescriptions.
H155 — Dobson was one of four members sponsoring legislation to create a High Achieving Tuition Scholarship, which would set aside $3.5 million annually to cover college tuition for students maintaining a grade point average of 3.5 or higher.
H133 — Rep. Jonathan Jordan, R-Watauga, is one of three sponsors of a bill to increase the reimbursements to students with disabilities from $3,000 to $4,000 per semester for tuition and expenses.
H159 — Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, was one of a handful of main sponsors of a bipartisan bill to regulate commercial dog breeders and to transfer authority over commercial breeding operations from the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to the N.C. Department of Public Safety. The bill sets up new regulatory authority for enforcement of violations and mandates stricter reporting requirements for breeders.
H162 — McGrady also co-sponsored a bill to improve emergency procedures for student athletes. The bill calls for stepped up training and awareness to prevent sudden cardiac arrest and concussion injuries.
Proposed legislation targets Asheville's powers
Raleigh Report: WNC senators gain key NCGA leadership jobs
House-Senate showdown expected over reorganization bill
Tagged: grid, slider


We are only a five minute walk from the beach, and with some of the most idyllic beaches in the world and beautiful, warm aquamarine sea available all around this small island, our accomodation makes for an ideal place to stay if your are looking for a relaxing break in the sun. There are numerous restaurants, excellent tourist shopping and fabulous sporting and hotel facilities (including the world famous - Atlantis) all within a few miles to take advantage of. Our appartment has kitchen/dining/lounge (open plan), Master bedroom (King size bed) with Cable TV and Video, Spare bedroom which is set up as a double study (computer/internet access available) - but can be set up with two single beds if required - and a small garden/yard area.
A friendly maid comes to clean once a week, and our neighbours are very caring and reliable. Nassau is a direct 9 hour flight from the UK, and only an hour away from Miami and Orlando for those wishing to go on to Disney World!


There will be four Porsche 911 GT3 R at the starting line of the FIA GT World Cup in Macau (China) from 15 to 18 November. The Manthey-Racing team will be using two of the vehicles – each with around 500 hp – driven by Earl Bamber (New Zealand) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium).
Two-time Le Mans winner Bamber will be joining the race in a car that has been given a particularly special look: an eye-catching red and gold design that's inspired by the Chinese year of the dog.
"It's going to be a lot of fun," commented Bamber. "I can hardly wait to finally drive in Macau again – it's one of my absolute favourite races. Two years ago we had a car there with perfect set-up, and I hope that we will be very competitive again.
Two more cars will be prepared by customer team Craft Bamboo Racing, for Porsche Young Professional Mathieu Jaminet (France) and Chinese local hero Darryl O'Young.
The Guia Circuit, 6,115 km long and located in the former Portuguese colony of Macau, is considered one of the most difficult street circuits in the world. Located in Asia's gambling paradise, this track's long straights, fast bends, and spectacular sections such as the Lisboa Bend are renowned far beyond China's borders. And the course has another extraordinary feature too: in all training sessions and races, there's a strict ban on overtaking in the "Melco Hairpin". Car and motorbike races have been held on the streets of Macau – some of which are just seven metres wide – since 1954, and the FIA GT World Cup has been a fixed item on the agenda of the Macau Grand Prix weekend since 2015.
Factory driver Laurens Vanthoor is aiming for his second victory at the GT World Cup in the car with starting number 911. The Belgian won the 2016 race in spectacular fashion. Shortly before the finish line, Vanthoor slid into the crash barrier as he battled Earl Bamber – now his colleague – flipped the car, and then crossed the line on its roof, taking first place.
These two Macau specialists were the key players during that weekend of racing two years ago. Bamber will drive the car with starting number 912 in 2018, with Porsche Young Professional Mathieu Jaminet taking to the start line for the first time. The Frenchman will be driving in the Porsche 911 GT3 R with starting number 991. In the sister car (number 55), Hong Kong Chinese driver Darryl O'Young is celebrating a home game, just 65 km from where he lives.


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Q: Include XML Layout I have the following working xml layout for a ListView

<TextView
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:id="@+id/text01"/>

<RelativeLayout
        android:id="@+id/rel01"
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        android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <ImageView
    android:id="@+id/widget01"
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    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:src="@drawable/logo"
    />

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    />
</RelativeLayout>

    <ListView
        android:id="@+id/android:list"
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        />
</LinearLayout>

I want to move text01 and all RelativeLayout in another file (it is the header for all my activities) and include it in this xml. I am trying but I am not able to do this, can sameone help me?

A: You should put the things you want to reuse into extra files. Then you can use the parts like:
<!-- my_header.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<TextView
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:id="@+id/text01"/>

In another file include it with:
<include layout="@layout/my_header" />
<!-- your other stuff -->

A: First : create a new file layout xml : header.xml ; which will contain the TextView and all the RelativeLayout
Second : you can include it where ever you want  with the following code :
<include android:id="@+id/myHeader"
     layout="@layout/header" />

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Self description: I am calm and open-minded person. I love to laugh and to make people to smile. I think that life is easier when you have a good sense of humor. I am a very funny person with a good sense of humor. I am a loving and caring mother of two wonderful boys. We love to travel by car and to explore new places.
Hobbies and interests:I like active rest very much and go in for sports. Travelling is one of my favorite hobbies. I enjoy outdoor walks and I cannot imagine my life without music.


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Covid-19 Crisis: Crime, Poverty and the need to evolve Social Security
By Hassanal Noor Rashid
Global inequality and injustice have been heated topics and of deep social concern throughout human history.
In January 2020, OXFAM (Oxford Committee for Famine Relief), a reputable confederation of charitable organisations, declared in a widely circulated report "2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 percent of the planet's population".
Debates about the statistical tools utilized by OXFAM has been widely discussed and circulated, but many of these are moot when faced with the considerable truth and challenge that there is a widening gap and disconnect between the rich, the middle class, and the poor
The globally shared struggle against the Covid-19 crisis is a humbling reminder to everyone that the challenges we face in the 21st century, affect these groups in strikingly different ways, and at different levels of severity.
THE HOMELESS AND THE POOR
While the Movement Control Order (MCO) and city-wide lockdown have been issued in numerous countries, many on social media have been quick to denounce and openly criticize those who have not adhered to this order.
In various instances this has been well justified, with people going out of their localities with poor reasons to do so, further endangering the health of the general public for what can only be described as selfish and inconsiderate reasons, and apathys towards the severe impact of the crisis at large.
But what of those who do not feel they have a choice on the matter?
While the order to stay home and lounge about within the comforts of one's abode seems like a non-issue for many, the sobering reality is the unsustainable ability to stay at home for an extended period of time without earning an income. This is an unsupportable luxury for the majority, a problem more acute the poorer the economy.
The most obvious group affected are those whose households are living hand to mouth, where their income is measured on a daily workload basis. This is a reality for many low wage earners in various countries now caught in a hard situation where they cannot go out to earn for their household, which must impact adversely on the well-being of their family later down the line.
On this matter, Malaysia's government has pledged a significant sum of money to help these affected groups. However, in order to assure that everything is coordinated effectively in a just manner, politicking and posturing need to be put aside in the interest of ensuring the aid provided will alleviate the crisis. To do otherwise is not only disingenuous, but will further erode trust between the people and the government, a guaranteed powder keg that will inevitably result in chaotic civil disobedience.
It also must be noted in light of recent cases, that it is of no help to anyone when even the Civil Society Organizations are facing difficulties exercising their duties and mission to aid the poor and homeless due to the MCO.
Order must be maintained through trust.
Another group that has been equally disenfranchised are the many small and medium enterprises (SME) and their owners who are also seeking more financial assistance to lift them from the dire circumstances that have befallen them.
Wider impacts on the economy aside, as many have already eloquently pointed out ad nauseum, many business owners and the wage earners are tied together in a relationship that is adversely impacted by the pandemic.
Should business owners find themselves unable to keep their businesses afloat, then the employees will not only be facing unemployment , but they may face the difficult prospect of seeking employment again post-pandemic. Failed businesses are not easily redeemed.
CRIME AND THE VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE
What is an equally disconcerting topic is how the present Covid-19 crisis has purportedly marked an increase in various crimes including violent ones.
Domestic abuse has especially seen a marked increase ever since the MCO was announced.
As an example, in Malaysia, as of 26 March 2020, the Talian Kasih, a hotline which was introduced to provide counselling and assistance for women and children experiencing abuse and mental health problems saw a drastic mark up of over 1,800 calls to the helpline, recorded since the MCO began. This is a whopping 57 percent increase.
This problem was especially noted after the fact that the Women and Family Development Ministry (KPWKM) had been criticized by various NGO groups, for initially suspending the hotline during the Movement Control Order.
In the United Kingdom, similar instances in the surging of domestic abuse cases have also been recorded, with many groups appealing to the government for a "separate emergency fund for local authorities to ensure they are able to adequately house survivors of domestic abuse in appropriate locations".
Some have speculated that there might actually be a higher number of unreported cases as many would probably be far too fearful to reach out for help, as their abusers are now forced to stay within the household in close proximity to their victims.
This is a particular concern for watchdogs who are disturbed that many children are also in vulnerable circumstances during the period of the MCO
In Australia, for example, Julia Inman Grant, Australia's e-Safety Commissioner, stated that there were 13,000 reports investigated last year alone and that she had already seen a significant spike in the past two weeks.
It is to the commendable credit of individuals, organizations, and law enforcement officials who constantly monitor and respond as best they can to these issues when they do arise, but as it stands many resources have been spread thin to cover the crisis in various areas.
THE NEED TO EVOLVE SOCIAL SECURITY
Each of the previously highlighted issues showcase some serious faults in the safety nets of our social security structures, out of the many other numerous issues.
But what more can we do immediately to help those under duress in this crisis?
To be frank, nothing truly meaningful.
Many of the challenges we are now recognizing are done so on hindsight and the MCO has effectively impaired many from extending a helping hand. Well-meaning intentions cannot effectively be actualized, because we need to adhere to the present order to combat the infection rates of Covid-19.
All of these unintended consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic may only be truly exposed later on, but they do offer a valuable insight to the many gaps that society needs to fix so that we may be better prepared for when another crisis hits, whether it be in the near or distant future.
We should emphasize on focusing nation-building towards securing more social systems that benefit the poor and marginalised communities, with protocols and procedures that ensure they are not only given the assistance to overcome the problem but to also lift them from poverty to further cushion the impact when another crisis hits.
Businesses, especially SMEs which function as the backbone of developing nations will need to be given a larger degree of protection in order to ensure the survival of the wider economy, and also protect every person whose proverbial rice bowl is dependent on such economic activities as well.
More funding should also be given and allocated towards civil-society groups and organizations that also provide various aspects of social security, especially those who directly deal with cases of domestic abuse and children's welfare.
For this to come to fruition, we must build a society and a governance system that recognize our many social security failings as arguably traceable back to two factors : :public apathy and corruption.
This has long plagued the upper echelons of leadership in our political and social sectors and we are now seeing that the ineffectiveness of our present social security systems is due to these ailments.
We must focus on building and strengthening our shared social security for the sake of our communities, and if we put more effort into strengthening it, we will be more able to weather the next crisis that befalls us, with nobody left in the lurch.
And, with that, further heights of prosperity may be possible for everyone.
Mr. Hassanal Noor Rashid
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Christmas in the Highlands 2018 would not be possible with out our sponsors. I will attempt to list everyone should I miss someone do not think you are less important to us; you are a blessing to Christmas in the Highlands. Many of you gave cash donations and wish to remain anonymous.
Central Security & Electronics, Inc.


Upgrade your party to the ultimate package hire. The package includes the glossy 12x15 low height interactive castle, interactive ballpool, animal hoppers, softplay shapes, scooters, beanbag shapes, tunnels and various interactive toys and finally a powerful Sony beat box speaker. Connect your device via Bluetooth to play your favourite tunes.
All you need to do is provide your venue.
From time to time bounce buddies may amend or slightly change/adapt the package due to spoilt/broken equipment and that we at bounce buddies will replace where ever we can a suitable alternative product.


text:
// Licensed to the .NET Foundation under one or more agreements.
// The .NET Foundation licenses this file to you under the MIT license.
// See the LICENSE file in the project root for more information.

namespace System.ServiceModel.Channels
{
    using System.Threading;
    using System.Globalization;
    using System.ServiceModel;

    internal class UriGenerator
    {
        private long _id;
        private string _prefix;

        public UriGenerator()
            : this("uuid")
        {
        }

        public UriGenerator(string scheme)
            : this(scheme, ";")
        {
        }

        public UriGenerator(string scheme, string delimiter)
        {
            if (scheme == null)
                throw new ArgumentException("scheme");
            //throw DiagnosticUtility.ExceptionUtility.ThrowHelperError(new ArgumentNullException("scheme"));

            if (scheme.Length == 0)
                throw new ArgumentException(string.Format(SR.UriGeneratorSchemeMustNotBeEmpty, "scheme"));

            _prefix = string.Concat(scheme, ":", Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), delimiter, "id=");
        }

        public string Next()
        {
            long nextId = Interlocked.Increment(ref _id);
            return _prefix + nextId.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Fire crews were called to deal with a fuel leak after a two-car crash near Stamford early this morning.
Emergency services attended the crash on Water Lane which was reported to Lincolnshire Police at 5.22am on Friday, January 26.
The road begins at the junction with the A606 west of Stamford, before heading over the A1 into the village of Great Casterton.
Damage was caused to the cars but there were no injuries.


Parents at a north Canterbury school have ignored a warning to keep their unvaccinated children at home.
Rangiora Borough School had one confirmed case of measles out of the 25 confirmed so far in the wider Christchurch area.
Its principal asked parents with children who had not had their shots, about 28 in total, to keep them home or get them vaccinated, but on Tuesday about half decided to send them to school anyway.
RNZ asked parents outside the school if they were worried these children might infect their own children.
Rachael Ching supported the school's call for parents to keep their unvaccinated children home and hoped most parents would do the same.
"I can't control anyone else's parenting, just my own."
If her own children were unvaccinated she would take them straight to the doctor and wait until they had their shots.
She was nervous and worried about the fate of children too young to receive the vaccine.
Ayla Ryan had an autoimmune disease and couldn't have the vaccination making her extra vulnerable.
She was taking all the precautions she could to prevent its spread.
"It's mainly spreading [that I'm worried about]. I have friends with small babies. It's just about keeping it contained, so if we can do that by stopping going to public places then we will.
"I won't send my daughter to pre-school until all of the children have had their vaccines so I know I'm not going to pass it on to any child that's there."
She had one daughter at the school but said it was up to individual parents whether they sent their unvaccinated children there.
"They don't need to miss out on education but we need to keep our children safe as well. It's each to their own and I think you can't make people do what you want. We just have to wait until it goes through and hope that we are all ok."
Rachel Knowles didn't think her children had anything to fear from those who had not been immunised.
"My daughter also had the measles at 12 months before she had her MMR injections and she got through that quite fine."
Despite the school's directive, the Canterbury District Health Board said it would not be urging unvaccinated children to stay away from school.
Meanwhile, GPs were largely out of stock of the vaccine and awaiting delivery of a further 18,000 doses.
Pharmac said extra supplies of it would reach the region about midday on Wednesday.
Anyone believing they have been exposed to measles or exhibiting symptoms, should not go to the ED or after hours' clinic or general practitioner. Instead, call the GP first.
An outbreak of measles in Canterbury has prompted huge demand for vaccinations, but what is the disease and how serious is it really?
New Zealand's health ministry is reminding travellers in the region to make sure they are immunised against measles after a spate of recent outbreaks.


India defies the widely held view that poor societies are unlikely to remain democratic. What explains the resilience of India's democracy in the face of long odds? The answer lies in the ways the country has responded to the varied challenges of the past decade.


text:
Anthony Kalik (ur. 5 listopada 1997 w St Leonards) – australijski piłkarz chorwackiego pochodzenia, występujący na pozycji środkowego pomocnika w chorwackim klubie HNK Gorica.

Linki zewnętrzne

Urodzeni w 1997
Australijscy piłkarze
Piłkarze Central Coast Mariners FC
Piłkarze Hajduka Split
Piłkarze Sydney FC
Piłkarze NK Rudeš
Piłkarze HNK Gorica

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
The Moments That Make Us Who We Are
Life provides turning points of many kinds, but the most powerful of all may be character-revealing moments. They go right to the heart of who we are.
By Hara Estroff Marano, Anna Yusim M.D., published July 2, 2018 - last reviewed on June 3, 2019
Photo by Peter Hapak
In the middle of a date, her first with Martin, Deirdre* received an urgent phone call. Could she please do an immediate on-air radio interview? She had, after all, just written a well-received book about politics, and there had been big political news breaking all that week. Caught completely off guard, she agreed. She signaled to Martin that she had to take the call and moved to an empty corner of the restaurant to speak.
Fifteen minutes later she looked up and saw that Martin was standing nearby, as if guarding the space. Had he been there all along? Had he heard the whole thing? Before an embarrassed Deirdre could muster an apology for the professional intrusion on what she had hoped would be a romantic interlude—it had taken them two weeks of chitchatting to find an unhurried afternoon to meet face to face—Martin spoke up. "Look," he said, "I heard only your half of the conversation, but I thought you were terrific." "I'm so sorry to have inflicted this on you," she stammered. "No worry," he shot back. "I expect great things of the people I hang around with."
Picking up the phone in the middle of a date or any other meeting was not part of Deirdre's usual repertoire, and in retrospect she isn't even sure why she chose to take the call. But the incident was revelatory, and more than 10 years into their relationship it still shines in her memory. In a totally unforeseeable moment, she got a dazzling glimpse of what Martin was made of. And what Martin was made of, besides quiet confidence, was an abundance of class, compassion, and kindness—in a word, character.
There are moments so packed with meaning that they shimmer through time. Some inspire awe by exposing the splendor of nature. Some deliver a flash of insight to solve what seems like an intractable problem. They are inherently transformative; they instantaneously expand awareness and alter one's sense of self. Psychologist Abraham Maslow coined the term peak experiences to suggest the inner magnificence of such rare and distinctive events.
But there are also moments of great meaning that are more social in nature, that arise spontaneously in the space between people. Such moments can shed an illuminating light on the deepest dimensions of a person's being. Arriving unheralded, they may accurately reveal a person's strengths, expose vulnerabilities, unveil core convictions, divulge life values. They beget a profound state of knowing with searing speed.
In an instant, Deirdre apprehended that Martin was trustworthy—on her side, already a teammate, looking out for her, protecting her interests. Instead of taking offense that Deirdre's work intruded on their personal time or feeling intimidated by her professional stature, he acted with generosity and took it upon himself to put her at ease. And she knew the information revealed was completely authentic: It came totally unscripted. Martin stepped into an opportunity that would never have existed had he not summoned the courage and kindness to carve it out.
Such moments carry credibility precisely because they are not anticipated or prescribed. They are, however, transformative. With their mix of insight and intensity, they give life new direction, forever altering the connection people have with each other and, often enough, with themselves. Of the various kinds of turning points life presents, the most powerful of all may be character-defining moments. They go to the heart of who we are.
Character has not been having an especially good run lately. In short supply on the national political stage, it has long been out of favor in the very field of knowledge dedicated to delineating human nature. Overshadowed by flashier parts of personality, character has, to a large degree, been left to philosophers and theologians.
"Character is a subset of personality traits, but there's been a longstanding neglect of character in personality psychology," says Geoffrey Goodwin, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. "That's been changing with the development of a new model of personality."
For decades, psychologists have subscribed to a five-factor model of personality, a product of research in which myriad personal characteristics seem to naturally cluster into five broad traits—openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, or the tendency to experience negative emotions and react poorly to stress. But in the early 2000s, Canadian psychologists Kibeom Lee and Michael Ashton identified a sixth major trait. They call it the H factor, for honesty-humility—two qualities that, their research shows, travel together.
The H factor, say Lee and Ashton in their 2012 book, The H Factor of Personality: Why Some People Are Manipulative, Self-Entitled, Materialistic, and Exploitive—And Why It Matters for Everyone, underlies people's "approaches to money, power, and sex. It governs their inclination to commit crimes or obey the law. It orients them toward certain attitudes about society, politics, and religion. It influences their choice of friends and spouse." In short, it captures something fundamental about a person's adaptation to a shared world: The H factor sums up a person's willingness to exploit others. Or not.
Notably, Lee and Aston report, "your level of H doesn't depend just on your genes and on your childhood—it also depends on your own free will." While their work has made character scientifically admissible, it has also opened the door to consideration of personal responsibility—at least for some aspects of human behavior—a concept de facto discredited by decades of biologic determinism. Until now, says Goodwin, "studying moral aspects of personality was deemed too subjective and value-laden." So alien was the topic that psychologists long considered morally relevant behavior strictly a response to situations, not a quality arising from anything within, certainly not from something as stable as a personality trait. Research now suggests it's the confluence of both.
Like other traits, character is seen as a disposition that drives a person to behave in consistent ways, but its specific mission is to allow us to evaluate the world and other people, to judge them. Character has an inherently moral cast. There are some fuzzy borders between moral attributes and the personality traits of conscientiousness and agreeableness, but moral features extend beyond self-interests to interpersonal and societal interests.
According to Penn's Goodwin, character is king in social cognition: It is the first and the most important thing people actually perceive in others. They are rapidly gathering information about a person's kindness, fairness, honesty, trustworthiness, and loyalty.
How could it be that no one was onto such prominent psychic players before? That's because, in the world of psych research, many of the components of character were discounted as features of situations, not people. And others were hidden behind theories of warmth and outgoing behavior.
Contemporary psychology holds that the impressions we form of others are snapped together from quick estimations of two features—their warmth and their competence. But warmth is a nebulous notion, Goodwin says. And when he analyzed just what characteristics people identify behind warmth—he asked subjects to think of individuals they knew close up and those they knew from afar, such as George W. Bush and Barack Obama—he found kindness, humility, compassion, fairness, gratitude, and empathy. They were the traits that most powerfully predicted the overall impressions subjects had of individuals. "We can mistake social skills for character," observes Goodwin. "We mistake the social for the prosocial."
Despite having been discounted as products of specific situations, honesty, trustworthiness, loyalty, justness, and courage contributed most of all to the impressions subjects formed of others. "Moral character is indeed the predominant determinant of global impressions," Goodwin concludes from his studies. It actually "drives how impressions are formed."
What's more, character traits are negatively dominant: A negative or immoral trait outweighs the presence of a positive moral trait on the impressions we form. One failure to recognize an injustice overshadows any number of good deeds. When it comes to moral character, says Goodwin, "people are judged by their weakest link." And a transgression in the moral domain may be less subject to forgiveness than slip-ups in other realms.
Of all the elements of moral character he studied, the ones that carry the most weight are the "pure" moral traits—honesty, justness, fairness, trustworthiness, courage—which have nothing to do with warmth. In our judgment of others, honesty outranks even kindness, a moral trait that canoodles with warmth. Absent honesty, no information about a person can be trusted.
What makes character the dominant factor in social cognition, swiftly shaping the impression we form of others in our daily lives? Character reveals a person's deepest intentions toward you: Will a person be helpful or inflict harm? "Knowing someone's character provides important information about how that person is likely to treat you—including in situations in which you are unable to monitor the person's behavior," says Goodwin. Trustworthiness, for example, influences the likelihood someone will cooperate with you—as essential to business relationships as to romantic ones, in which personal vulnerability is the gateway to intimacy.
Goodwin and his colleagues asked subjects to provide their impressions of people engaged in a dozen different social roles—the surgeon about to operate on you, your daughter's fiancé, a judge, a parent, a teacher, a romantic partner, and more—while the researchers varied the traits assigned to the people. The more subjects valued a social role, the greater the weight they gave to moral character traits in forming their impression of a person in that role. Moral character traits proved critically important in assessing romantic partners—because so much is at stake. "Especially in romantic situations," Goodwin says, "we're on the lookout for people who might harm us" in any way.
"The strength of a person's character also determines how well he or she will follow through on plans, goals, commitments, and values," Goodwin reports—which may explain why his team found that obituaries are especially rich in information about character. When it comes to summing up a life, character counts most of all. It not only shapes a lifetime's worth of behavior, it's what we seek as others' legacy, why we even bother to read about them.
Goodwin argues for a three-dimensional model of impression formation. We care about the warmth a person generates and quickly absorb information about it. We care about the individual's competence. But above all we want to know about moral character. It is our best guarantee of safety on the social axis on which we spin.
"Character is so fundamental because we interact with people all the time," says psychologist Taya Cohen, an associate professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon University. "Our moral character helps us balance our own interests with those of others. Morality, by definition, is about regulating social relationships."
One set of her studies spotlights an element of moral character known as guilt proneness—the degree to which a person takes others' perspectives into account and feels responsibility for not harming them. It endows people with concern for the impact of their actions: They consider the behavioral consequences of what they do on others' welfare. Guilt-proneness, Cohen finds, steers people away from relationships in which they might get a free ride and into more equitable relationships.
The importance of character, however, is not limited to social life; it also matters intrapsychically. Character information is crucial to a person's identity and sense of self-worth; those who are highest in moral character regard it as important to be and be seen as moral.
And yet, moral people may not even know they're acting in a manner deemed moral. In studies Cohen has conducted of character in the workplace, coworkers rate the behavior of moral individuals more highly than do the moral persons themselves! It's simply the water they swim in—and likely a source of humility. "If you know a person's morality," says Goodwin, "you not only know how they will act toward you but who that person is. You know something about their core identity."
Looking at moral character from the inside, Cohen sees two additional components besides one's identity as a good or not-so-good person. There's a motivational element—the desire to do good and avoid doing harm, which does the heavy lifting in treating others fairly. It's required not only for regulating close relationships but also for sustaining living in any size group.
Having the desire to do good is necessary, but it is not sufficient. One must also have the capacity to do good and avoid doing harm. Here's where the cognitive capacity to consider future consequences, as in guilt-proneness, comes into play. It's a sine qua non for self-regulation, inhibiting impulses for immediate gratification and overriding temptations. Should internal mechanisms fall short of the challenge, there are informal cultural mechanisms to shore up self-control—the primary function of gossip. The court of last resort is formal mechanisms—namely, laws.
People high in the H factor actually see the world differently from those who lack it. They look through what Cohen calls "a moral lens." Most notably in her studies of whistleblowers, she finds that the lens "shines a cognitive spotlight on the moral implications of the choices" people face when making decisions. In life's typically ambiguous reality, the lens fixes on the human consequences of actions—whether there will be harm to others.
The lens allows those who have it to remain steadfast in their moral awareness. For everyone else, moral considerations disappear from view—what's called ethical fading. Other concerns—financial or strategic, for instance—loom larger, says Cohen.
The problem with character, though, is that it can be hard to discern. As much as it matters in first impressions, it's usually hard to gauge in such situations. Character typically takes time to reveal itself. Self-reports of character, of course, are thoroughly unreliable, prone to self-enhancement.
Character can be inferred only from behavior. The situations that draw it forth from people— ones that pitch values into sharp competition—tend to be reasonably rare in daily life. Moral character shows itself only when some kind of choice is required. Most everyday circumstances do not present a test of loyalty, for example. Or offer an opening for a display of courage. On the other hand, there may be far more everyday opportunities for showing kindness and compassion.
And highly public displays of moral behavior are subject to scheming, arising less from selfless motives than a concern with buffing one's reputation. Since moral behavior is judged by its weakest performance, it takes exposure to a variety of situations to get a full picture of someone's character.
Here's where it gets interesting. Moral character is not a passive trait. Character actually steers people into some situations, out of others, Cohen finds. Those with high moral character especially avoid environments that could lead to others being harmed. But they do more: They even shape situations. Martin might be Exhibit A. Instead of brooding about a date gone off track, he saw an opportunity to facilitate Deirdre's various goals and allay her concerns about disappointing him.
When the unforeseen erupted in Deirdre's and Martin's date, Martin saw an array of choices nobody else might have even noticed. That there were so many of them, and that she was the beneficiary of them all and all at once, ultimately made their meeting highly memorable for her. First off: Engage or disengage? Had Martin focused on feeling marginalized or minimized by the interview interruption, he could have reacted with annoyance and cut his losses quickly. But, overriding any immediate discomfort, he was able to hold onto his interest in a long-term relationship and see possibility in Deirdre.
Tend to his needs or hers? See the interview as an opportunity to gather information about Deirdre or as dead time? Recognize her discomfort or not? Remedy it or ignore it? Help or stay uninvolved? Speak up or say nothing? Offer support, encouragement, even admiration, or let the moment pass?
Everything that unfolded inspired Deirdre's trust in Martin. Instantly, he placed himself squarely on her team—he was already acting as a partner—and was looking after her interests when there was no certain payoff for doing so. Trust has to be well-placed, invested only in those who are trustworthy, not someone who might exploit one's confidences. That's why, Cohen finds, we are most likely to place our trust in those who show competence, benevolence, and integrity. Trust, researchers know, is what creates the willingness to be vulnerable in social interactions. It is the single most important ingredient in rewarding and healthy relationships.
Transformational moments sit somewhere on the boundary between logic and emotion. Research on psychotherapy shows that insight alone, no matter how brilliant, rarely leads to profound and sustainable behavioral change if it is not accompanied by some level of emotional understanding.
For Deirdre, the experience was loaded with emotionality even before Martin arrived. Weeks of correspondence and banter had raised her hopes that she was about to meet a person worthy of her desires. The phone interruption, however, pitched everything into high emotional relief: the sudden anxiety about which opportunity to pursue, the professional or the romantic? The call's end brought a flash flood of embarrassment about its effect—until Martin acted. His behavior was totally spontaneous, not preordained, but the ground was prepared for its high impact.
Like other peak moments, those that illuminate character admit no game plan. Surprise is part of their power; it also guarantees that they are untainted by egoistic concerns. The disequilibrium such moments create leaves the self undefended. They are memorable not just for the insights they deliver with great impact but also for their psychic purity.
Rare openings in time, character-defining moments are transformative because they guide us into the future. They distill the complexities of life, and the crystalline reliability of the information revealed allows us to make strong inferences about what we can expect ahead from the people in our lives.
*name has been changed
Facebook image: serdjophoto/Shutterstock
How to Build Character
Who Cares About Character?
Carl Rogers' "Techniques" for Daily Life
Developing Positive Traits