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Chou keeps the title in the family, wins 98th Iowa Women's Amateur
iowagolfJuly 28, 20220 commentsChampionships, Iowa Women's Amateur
The final round of the 98th Iowa Women's Amateur Championship concluded Wednesday afternoon at Cedar Rapids Country Club. Ruby Chou (right) tapped in for her par on the final hole and joined her sister, Joy Chou, as an Iowa Women's Amateur Champion.
"I'm super excited to have my name right next to Joy on the trophy now," Ruby said. "I know we both work hard every day to get to where we want to be, but golf is hard sometimes. I can't believe I made it, and I can't wait to show it to Joy and my parents."
After each round, Joy gave Ruby pep talks over the phone to help keep her stay focused.
"Joy and I talked about what happened and she kept telling me to do my best and don't think too much on the course," Ruby said. "She told me to go out there and have fun playing the tournament."
Joy mentioned to Ruby that she would be busy and wouldn't be able to make it to the final round, but Ruby still had hope she might.
"She told me she was not going to be there," Ruby said. "I had feeling that she would show up. I told myself to keep it up so that I could show her that I won the tournament."
As the flag stick went back into the 18th hole, Ruby looked up to see her sister standing over the green.
Going into the final round, Ruby had a four-shot lead over fellow Iowa State Cyclone, Warda Amira Rawof. After the front nine, Chou was two-over and was holding on to a two-shot lead.
"I was two-over on the front nine, but I knew all of my bogeys were from three-putts," Ruby said. "I just needed to calm down and play smart."
After Chou made a double on 12 and a bogey on hole 13, the two teammates were tied.
"On the back nine I made double and then a bogey, which put me in a tie with Warda," Ruby said. "I told myself it was going to be okay, and I needed to stay positive."
Positivity was key for Chou. After sticking a wedge from 86 yards out, Chou tapped in her birdie and got back on track.
"After my birdie on 14, I told myself, 'You got this' and I finished strong," Ruby said.
That she did. Chou parred the final four holes to close out the tournament and win by two-shots.
Eden Lohrbach pushed herself back into contention with the lowest final round score. Lohrbach fired a 72 to move back into third place and put the pressure on Rawof and Chou. Lohrbach has now finished inside the top-three in back-to-back Iowa Women's Amateur Championships.
Amber Henson and Hannah Bermel tied for fourth place with 226, 54-hole tallies. Henson carded the second-lowest round of the day with a 73, and Bermel's 76 secured a spot inside the top-five.
Rose Kubesheski won the Open Division in dominating fashion, as she earns her third victory of the season. With a final round 73, Kubesheski increased her two-shot lead into a 10-shot win over fellow U.S. Senior Women's Amateur Championship qualifiers, Michelle Klein and Laura Leszczynski (all pictured above).
Klein and Leszczynski tied for second with 240 tallies. Klein carded rounds of 78 and back-to-back 81's and Leszczynski kept it consistent with three-straight rounds of 80. It was a strong week for these ladies as they head to the Senior Women's Amateur Championship in two weeks.
Defending Open Division champion, Kelly Nelson, finished in fourth place with a 249 total. Nelson was two shots ahead of Kelly Grimes who posted the second-lowest final round total with a 75, to round out the top-five.
Next on the Iowa Golf Association's schedule is the 57th Iowa Senior Women's Amateur Championship at Lake Panorama Golf Course in Panora. Follow to see if Leszczynski will defend her title or will someone else hoist the trophy this year.
Championship Division
1. Ruby Chou +3 71-72-76=219
2. Warda Amira Rawof +5 71-76-74=221
3. Eden Lohrbach +8 72-80-72=224
T4. Hannah Bermel +10 75-75-76=226
T4. Amber Henson +10 72-81-73=226
1. Rose Kubesheski +14 76-81-73=230
2. Michelle Klein +24 78-81-81=240
3. Laura Leszczynski +24 80-80-80=240
4. Kelly Nelson +33 82-84-83=249
5. Kelly Grimes +35 88-88-75=251
Chou takes lead into final round of 98th Iowa Women's Amateur
Ruby Chou (above) broke out of the first-place tie on Tuesday and leads the 98th Iowa Women's Amateur Championship, held at Cedar Rapids Country Club. The Iowa State Cyclone carded an even round of 72 to give herself a four-shot advantage over fellow Cyclone, Warda Amira Rawof.
"I made smarter decisions today," Chou said. "I had quite a few birdies, which is pretty good. There are quite a few holes where I only have nine-irons left, which is pretty easy for me, but I didn't hit it well, so I am going to keep working on it after today."
Elite ball-striking is key at a Top-100 course in the nation. Chou has been sticking to hitting fairways and making smart decisions on the greens.
"Putting the ball in the fairways first is important and having good speed for my putting is important too," Chou said. "Some of the holes have some greens that have a lot of slope."
The two Cyclones will be paired together in the final round, as they sit in the top-two positions. Rawof, who posted a 76 Tuesday afternoon, will look to get it going again tomorrow and make a run at her teammate.
Coming into the clubhouse with the low round of the day, Tatum Depuydt raced up the leaderboard into third place. The 2021 Iowa Junior Girl's Amateur Champion fired a one-under round of 71 to get back into contention.
Hannah Bermel and the current IGA Junior Girl's Player of the Year leader, Bella Pettersen, round out the top-five in a tie for fourth place. Pettersen recorded three birdies en route to a 74 on the day. Bermel joins Pettersen with three birdies and posted a 75 to stay in contention.
Three U.S. Senior Women's Amateur Championship qualifiers are on top in the Open Division after two days. Rose Kubesheski remains the leader by two with Michelle Klein and Laura Leszczynski right behind.
Kubesheski tied Klein with the second lowest round in the Open Division today. The two competitors were bested by Leszczynski by one shot today after posting an 80 in the second round.
Kim Fensterman and defending Open Division champion, Kelly Nelson, are tied for fourth place going into the final round. Nelson carded an 84 during her round today, and Fensterman posted 87 for her round two total.
The final round of the 98th Iowa Women's Amateur Championship begins Wednesday morning. Follow the live scoring feature to see who will walk away with the Championship Division and Open Division titles.
1. Ruby Chou -1 71-72=143
2. Warda Amira Rawof +3 71-76=147
3. Tatum Depuydt +4 77-71=148
T4. Hannah Bermel +6 75-75=150
T4. Bella Pettersen +6 76-74=150
1. Rose Kubesheski +13 76-81=157
2. Michelle Klein +15 78-81=159
3. Laura Leszczynski +16 80-80=160
T4. Kim Fensterman +22 79-87=166|
T4. Kelly Nelson +22 82-84=166
Three advance to U.S. Amateur from Davenport CC qualifier
iowagolfJuly 26, 20220 commentsUSGA, USGA Qualifiers
Dennis Bull (above right) did it again. Bull, a 2021 U.S. Amateur qualifier, repeated the same success this year at Davenport Country Club, a Golf Digest Top-100 course. Now heading to The Ridgewood Country Club and Arcola Country Club (New Jersey), Bull reflected on his rare accomplishment.
"Qualifying two-times in a row is awesome," Bull said. "I'm old, I looked at Gary (Ellis) on the range today and said, 'Is everyone getting younger or are we getting older'. It feels good, and I love this golf course."
The former Iowa Amateur Champion fired a five-under 65 in round one and followed it up with a one-under 69 to conclude his day with a one-shot victory. Bull earned his 2020 Iowa Amateur title at this very course. Having many successful days in Davenport, Bull shares how he has managed to play this course at such a high level.
"Today was soft and gettable if you were in control of your ball," Bull said. "You have to be precise when hitting the greens. I think it is a golf course that kind of separates good ball strikers. Ironically, I shot 65 and a 69 in the first two rounds during that Iowa Am."
There are many emotions that you feel during a 36-hole day, and Notre Dame's, Angelo Marcon (above middle) battled through them. The San Francisco native grabbed the second qualifier spot with a five-under tally.
"I wasn't really feeling the same during that second round," Marcon said. "I was a little off and kind of rushing things a little bit. Pops was on the bag, and he did everything he could to calm me down and say, 'Hey you are still in this'."
His father's advice worked. The duo made birdie on 18 to get back into the race and proceeded to card a three-under back-nine to earn the second qualifying spot. The first-time USGA Championship qualifier had the 2022 U.S. Amateur Championship marked on his calendar.
"I knew I would be there, I just had to prove it first," Marcon said.
Gunnar Broin (above left) will be joining Bull and Marcon in New Jersey after taking the third and final spot out of Davenport. Broin made a clutch birdie on his final hole to break out of a tie and earn the final spot alone.
Jack Dudeck was our first alternate with a three-under total. Dudek posted rounds of 68 and 69 to give himself a chance. Aksel Moe was our second alternate after winning the four-player playoff.
The 2022 U.S. Amateur Championship will be held at The Ridgewood Country Club and Arcola Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey. The championship will take place August 15th through the 21st and will be available on Peacock and Golf Channel.
Check out the standings after the first round of the 98th Iowa Women's Amateur Championship, held at Cedar Rapids Country Club. The race is close after round one, follow the rest of the championship on Tuesday and Wednesday using our live scoring feature.
U.S. Amateur Qualifier
Dennis Bull -6 65-69=134 *Medalist*
Angelo Marcon -5 65-70=135 *Qualifier*
Gunnar Broin -4 65-71=136 *Qualifier*
Jack Dudeck -3 68-69=137 *1st Alternate*
Aksel Moe -2 68-70=138 *2nd Alternate*
Two tied for lead at 98th Iowa Women's Amateur
Two teammates lead the way after round one of the 98th Iowa Women's Amateur Championship. Warda Amira Rawof and Iowa State University teammate, Ruby Chou, carded one-under rounds to begin their title run at the top-notch Cedar Rapids Country Club (shown above).
Rawof had the recently crowned Western Women's Amateur Champion, Taglao Jeeravivitaporn, on the bag today as her caddie. The duo teamed up to record three birdies to only two bogeys and will look to break out of the tie with Chou.
Chou knocked in five birdies during her round today. Going into the last five-hole stretch on her front nine, Chou was two-over par and looking up at Rawof on the leaderboard. Chou fought back and went three-under on those holes.
"After that double, I told myself to calm down because this course has lots of birdie chances that we can get," Chou said. "Those next five holes to finish my front nine, I didn't think too much, and I just played them."
The 2022 IGA Women's Match Play Champion, Anna Jensen is in a three-way tie with Eden Lohrbach and Amber Henson for third place. The three competitors sit one shot back of Rawof and Chou after even-par rounds.
Rose Kubesheski continued her dominate play this season after a four-over round of 76 to begin her week in the Open Division. Kubesheski leads by two shots over Jesup's Michelle Klein, who posted six-over 78.
Kim Fensterman took third place with a 79 on the day. The Cedar Rapids native is in home field territory and will look to push the leaders all week. The 2021 IGA Senior Women's Player of the Year, Laura Leszczynski, is not far behind after an eight-over round 80.
Defending Open Division champion, Kelly Nelson, will head into round two in a tie for fifth place alongside Kim Kieckhaefer. The two competitors carded 10-over rounds of 82 and round out the top-five in the Open Division.
The second round of the 98th Iowa Women's Amateur Championship will take place Tuesday morning.
T1. Warda Amira Rawof -1 71
T1. Ruby Chou -1 71
T3. Anna Jensen E 72
T3. Eden Lohrbach E 72
T3. Amber Henson E 72
1. Rose Kubesheski +4 76
2. Michelle Klein +6 78
3. Kim Fensterman +7 79
4. Laura Leszczynski +8 80
T5. Kelly Nelson +10 82
T5. Kim Kieckhaefer +10 82
McCoy wins 120th Iowa Amateur, continues incredible 2022 season
iowagolfJuly 21, 20220 commentsChampionships, Iowa Amateur
Nate McCoy's historic season continued at Crow Valley Golf Club. McCoy (above) was crowned king of the valley after his impressive final round performance to win the 120th Iowa Amateur Championship. McCoy fired an inspiring 68 to break out of the tie and claim the title by seven shots.
"I went into the tournament today, focused on myself," McCoy said. "I knew I had to hit fairways and greens and with the wind being as tough as a it was, I just controlled what I had to control."
Going into the final round, McCoy shared the lead with Nate Vance, a fellow Iowa State Cyclone. Knowing the skills Vance had, McCoy stuck to his game and let his confidence build on a course he could get after.
"I think this course fit me well," McCoy said. "I focused on hitting fairways, which after looking back I believe I only missed seven. Having a lot of wedge opportunities led to a lot of birdies looks."
McCoy's race to the finish began with an early birdie on hole two. That birdie lit a fire under the 2021 IGA Player of the Year. Making the turn with a five-shot lead after carding a 33 on his opening nine, McCoy knew he couldn't let off the gas.
"I didn't want to hold back and protect the lead; I wanted to continue to make birdies," McCoy said. "I assumed the other guys in the field were making a run and I used that to fuel me to keep making pars and birdies."
And that's what he did. McCoy tacked on two more birdies on his back nine to seal the deal and claim one of the most prestigious amateur trophies in the nation.
For the third time this year, McCoy has etched his name on a trophy his father, Mike McCoy, previously claimed.
"It is special," McCoy said. "I have always known what he has accomplished, and it has always been in the back of my mind. I compare myself to his accomplishments and it is nice to make gradual steps towards what he has done in his career."
McCoy is now the first player to win the IGA Mid-Amateur Championship, the IGA Match Play Championship and now the Iowa Amateur Championship in a single season.
"I'm not sure if it has set in yet. I didn't even know that was a record that had to be broken," McCoy said. "I assumed other people may have done it. I am grateful to be the first. Down the road I hope someone else will do it in the future."
The 2020 Iowa Amateur Champion, Dennis Bull tied with the 2021 IGA Junior Boys' Player of the Year, Cale Leonard, for third place at two-under par. Bull and Leonard put together an impressive performance on the course this week.
After a first round 73, Bull was able to fight back into a tie for fourth place going into the final round. With two birdies and two bogeys, the former champion posted an even par round and finished eight back of McCoy.
Currently in second place in the 2022 IGA Junior Boys' Player of the Year Race, Leonard had his name near the top of the leaderboard all week. Posting a first round 69 placed him in a tie for nineth. Following his 69, Leonard carded back-to-back rounds of 71 to earn his highest finish in the Iowa Amateur.
Samuel Storey takes the fifth-place position at one under par for the week. Storey began his tournament run with back-to-back rounds of 70 and finished with a final round 72 to round out the top-five.
As the Iowa Golf Association wraps up the Iowa Amateur, the next event on the schedule is the 98th Iowa Women's Amateur. Starting Monday, July 25, you can follow the competitors as they make their way around Cedar Rapids Country Club.
1. Nate McCoy 67-68-68=203
2. Nate Vance 68-67-75=210
T3. Dennis Bull 73-67-71=211
T3. Cale Leonard 69-71-71=211
5. Samuel Storey 70-70-72=212
6. Kelly Brown 68-73-73=214
T7. Matthew Garside 74-73-68=215
T7. Willis Gaer 69-75-71=215
T9. Dylan Ellis 73-75-68=216
T9. Dusty Drenth 74-69-73=216
McCoy, Vance share lead at 120th Iowa Amateur, several give chase
One day remains at the 120th Iowa Amateur Championship. Nate McCoy (above) remains atop the leaderboard after round two at Crow Valley Golf Club, but once again, he is not alone.
Marshalltown's, Nate Vance strung together five birdies to tie the lowest round of the day. The redshirt-senior out of Iowa State University compiled a four-under round to place him alongside McCoy at seven-under par for the week.
"My goal has been to hit the greens, and I am hitting the ball well," Vance said. "I am not playing aggressive, and I am focusing on keeping it in the fairway."
Hitting fairways is the key to great success and posting low rounds at Crow Valley Golf Club. McCoy, who is known for his consistent play off the tee, has had a similar feeling to Vance.
"I'm playing well and feel like I am in control of my golf ball," McCoy said.
With both players in control of their game, the stage is set for an exciting ending to a historic championship. Vance knows that taking on the 2021 IGA Player of the Year will not be easy, but he has embraced the challenge.
"Tomorrow will be fun. Nate (McCoy) is a great player, but I don't go down easy," Vance said.
Levi Slings, first-round co-leader with McCoy, put together another impressive round. With winds swirling in all directions, the afternoon played difficult. Slings managed a one-over 72 and remains just four back of Vance and McCoy.
The 2020 Iowa Amateur Championship, Dennis Bull, punched a ticket back into contention by tying Vance for the lowest round of the day. Bull recorded five birdies to his one bogey on hole three and finds himself in a three-way tie for fourth place.
Cale Leonard and Samuel Storey round out the top-five with Bull at two-under par for the tournament. You cannot count out these competitors as they can pile up birdies in a hurry. Leonard, Storey and Bull will look to make a late push for the title.
The final round of the 120th Iowa Amateur Championship begins Wednesday morning with the first group teeing off at 7:00 a.m. Tune into the action to find out which Nate will bring home the title, or if another competitor races up to steal the show.
T1. Nate Vance 68-67=135
T1. Nate McCoy 67-68=135
3. Levi Slings 67-72=139
T4. Cale Leonard 69-71=140
T4. Dennis Bull 73-67=140
T4. Samuel Storey 70-70=140
7. Kelly Brown 68-73=141
8. Ethan Mechling 71-71=142
T9. Dusty Drenth 74-69=143
T9. Jonny Douglas 68-75=143
T9. Trent Lindenman 73-70=143
McCoy, Slings lead at 120th Iowa Amateur Championship
Levi Slings, of Ankeny, fired a statement round at the 120th Iowa Amateur Championship at Crow Valley Golf Club in Davenport. During the Ankeny natives impressive first round showing, he carded a four-under 67 to tie for first place heading into round two.
Slings put himself in a position to chase one of the most sought-after amateur trophies in the nation. After the conclusion of his round, Slings gave credit to one of his good friends, Curtis Holck, who he recently caddied for at the U.S. Senior Amateur Qualifier at Hyperion Field Club in Johnston.
"I caddied for Curtis Holck in the U.S. Senior Amateur Qualifier last week and watching him work his way around the course was the model I tried to copy.," Slings said. "I hit the ball well and made most of the putts I should have. It was a fun day with a fun group."
Holck went on to win the qualifier and earn a spot in the 2022 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship.
Another name sits alongside Slings at the top of the leaderboard in this prestigious championship, as Nate McCoy posted a four-under round of 67 to hold a similar lead to the one Slings built during the early wave.
With six birdies on the card, McCoy has his eyes set on his fifth win of the season. Already holding a commanding lead in the 2022 IGA Player of the Year race, McCoy's work remains unfinished.
North Liberty's, Coby Thompson, joins five other competitors in a six-way tie for third place. Thompson carded a bogey-free round of 68 to stay in contention going into the second round.
Right there with Thompson is Marshalltown's, Nate Vance, the current Iowa State Cyclone. Vance got off to a slow start but birdied five of his last seven holes to sneak into that six-way tie for third place.
A rival of Vance and current Iowa Hawkeye, Garrett Tighe, was able to match Thompson and Vance at three-under par. Tighe put together a 68 that included six birdies to keep him in striking distance.
Logan Barnes, Jonathan Douglas and Kelly Brown round out the last three spots of the six-way tie for third place. Barnes made the turn at one-over par and caught fire on the back-nine, recording five birdies in his final nine holes.
Douglas posted five birdies and Brown tacked on four to his first day. Willis Gaer, Cale Leonard and the three-time Iowa Amateur Champion, Nate Dunn, rounded out the top-ten after the conclusion of the first round of the 120th Iowa Amateur Championship.
Round two of the 120th Iowa Amateur Championship will start Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m., with the first two groups going off holes one and 10. Follow the competitors as they make a charge at Slings and McCoy on moving day by using our live scoring feature.
Congratulations to Collin Rutherford (above) on making a hole-in-one on the par-three 11th during the first round of the Iowa Amateur Championship at Crow Valley Golf Club. Rutherford used a nine-iron from 178 yards out for his third career hole-in-one.
T1. Levi Slings -4 67
T1. Nate McCoy -4 67
T3. Coby Thompson -3 68
T3. Nate Vance -3 68
T3. Garrett Tighe -3 68
T3. Logan Barnes -3 68
T3. Jonathan Douglas -3 68
T3. Kelly Brown -3 68
T9. Willis Gaer -2 69
T9. Cale Leonard -2 69
T9. Nate Dunn -2 69
T9. Samuel Storey -2 69
Moody wins 2022 Waterloo Open Amateur Division, Dickson takes pro title
iowagolfJuly 18, 20220 commentsChampionships, News
With an impressive victory in the Amateur Division, Jack Moody earned the 2022 Waterloo Open Championship title. Moody carded a 73 in the first round but followed it up by firing back-to-back rounds of 67 in rounds two and three.
Down one shot going into the back nine of the final round, Moody answered with a low five-under 30 to win the championship. Moody finished the tournament at nine-over par and four shots ahead of the second-place finishers, Tyler Sansgaard and J.D. Pollard.
In a four-way tie for fourth place, Dylan Ellis, Luke Meyer, Grant Greazel and Trent Lindenman posted four-under tallies. Ellis fired the low-round of the day with a 66 that included six birdies and an eagle on the fifth hole.
Brian Verduyn and Doug Schweinefus tied for the top-spot in the Senior Division. Verduyn held a one-shot lead over Schweinefus going into the final round, but after recording a four-under 68 the two competitors remained tied.
Eric Losen and Bruce Westemeier took the third and the fourth-place positions. Losen was one shot out of the tie for first place after carding rounds of 72, 69 and 70. Westemeier finished at even par for the tournament. Joe Bates and Randy Naumann rounded out the top-five at one-over par.
In the Super Senior Division, Dan Dalziel fired a two-over three-round total to finish at the top of the leaderboard. Jeff Ott was the runner-up with a five-over tally and Richard Gorbell placed third at seven-over par.
Will Dickson claimed the pro division with an impressive 189 three-round tally. With rounds of 65, 63 and 61, Dickson was able to grab ahold of a seven-shot lead over Wesley Hunter, Beau Breault and Carson Schaake. Will Cannon and Jonathan Yoshihiro rounded out the top-five at 19-under par for the championship.
The Iowa Golf Association is hosting the first round of the 120th Iowa Amateur Championship today. Follow the action and find out who will be crowned champion at Crow Valley Golf Club.
Pro Division
1. Will Dickson 65-63-61=189
T2. Wesley Hunter 69-63-64=196
T2. Carson Schaake 68-64-64=196
T2. Beau Breault 67-64-65=196
T5. Will Cannon 65-67-65=197
T5. Jonathan Yoshihirro 66-64-67=197
1. Jack Moody 73-67-67=207
2. Tyler Sansgaard 70-73-68=211
3. J.D. Pollard 68-72-71=211
T4. Luke Meyer 76-70-66=212
T4. Grant Greazel 69-74-69=212
T4. Trent Lindenman 71-71-70=212
T1. Doug Schweinefus 69-73-68=210
3. Eric Losen 72-69-70=211
4. Bruce Westemeier 70-75-71=216
5. Joe Bates 73-71-73=217
1. Dan Dalziel 73-73-72=218
2. Jeff Ott 71-78-72=221
3. Richard Gorbell 72-72-79=223
4. Paul Rieks 73-79-78=230
5. Bernard Cooper 77-75-84=236
Imsland/Burry take home IGA Women's Mid-Am Series win
Christi Imsland and Lindsay Burry (left) took home the IGA Women's Mid-Am Series Event #2 at Honey Creek Golf Course in Boone. Imsland and Burry went low Saturday, with five birdies and two eagles on the card. The duo carded a seven-under round of 64 as they topped Fiona Watson and Tish Booth by one shot.
The side of Watson and Boothe finished in second with a six-under round of 65. Watson, who is currently leading the 2022 IGA Women's Player of the Year race, carded five birdies during her round. Boothe made 14 pars, along with a lone birdie on the 10th hole.
Recent U.S. Senior Women's Amateur qualifier, Laura Leszczysnki, and Kathy Fortune took third place with a one-under round of 70. Janece Schwartzkopf and Carroll Dethrow tied with Jan Sewright and Leighann Larocca at even par to round out the top-five.
Ardrae Parmenter and Soni Hansen (right) won the Net Division with a 14-under round. Parmenter and Hansen finished four shots ahead of Jan Sewright and Leighann Larocca, who finished in second. Imsland and Burry tied with Marie Jeanblanc and Rebecca Schroeder for fourth place and Schwartzkopf and Dethrow placed fifth.
Starting on Monday, July 18, the IGA will be hosting the 120th Iowa Amateur Championship at Crow Valley in Davenport. The field is stacked with some of the top amateurs from across the state.
1. Christi Imsland + Lindsay Burry -7 64
2. Fiona Watson + Tish Boothe -6 65
3. Laura Leszczynski + Kathy Fortune -1 70
T4. Janece Schwartzkopf + Carroll Dethrow E 71
T4. Jan Sewright + Leighann Larocca E 71
1. Ardrae Parmenter + Soni Hansen -14 57
2. Jan Sewright + Leighann Larocca -10 61
T3. Christi Imsland + Lindsay Burry -9 62
T3. Marie Jeanblanc + Rebecca Schroeder -9 62
5. Janece Schwartzkopf + Carroll Dethrow -8 63
Holck punches ticket to 2022 U.S. Senior Amateur, Three advance to U.S. Women's Senior Amateur
Curtis Holck (above) will travel to The Kittansett Club in Marion, Massachusetts for the 2022 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship. Holck fired a three-under round of 69 to earn medalist honors at the U.S. Senior Amateur Qualifier at Hyperion Field Club in Johnston.
Totaling five birdies gave Holck the advantage over the field. Allen Peake, of Macon, Georgia, was close behind, but after a clutch birdie on the 17th, Holck only needed a bogey to win the qualifier.
"I didn't know exactly where I stood, but Levi (Slings – caddie) told me that a birdie would be good," Holck said. "I was hot in the middle of my round and got it to four-under. Levi was a big help because he plays out here and he knows the greens. I trusted him."
Peake carded a two-under round to earn the first alternate spot. He was able to get into contention with an eagle on 15 and a birdie on the final hole. Peake's last-minute effort fell short of Holck's impressive performance.
A playoff between Sam Billmeyer and Dave Gaer was needed to decide the second alternate position. After defeating Billmeyer in a playoff, Gaer earned the second alternate spot into the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship.
Laura Leszczynski (above middle) and Rose Kubesheski (above right) share co-medalist honors at the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur Qualifier held at Hyperion Field Club in Johnston. Leszczynski repeated the success she had during last year's qualifier.
"It feels good – It feels really good," Leszczynski said. "To go to my second U.S. Senior Women's Amateur in a row is a great accomplishment."
Kubesheski is headed to her fifth USGA Championship. This was her second time qualifying for the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur Championship since 2017, and she couldn't be happier.
"I am not sure how many more opportunities I will have to qualify for a USGA Championship, so this one means a lot," Kubesheski said.
Robin Webb (above left) earned the third qualifying position with a 12-over round. Webb will join Kubesheski and Leszczynski on a trip to Alaska for the 2022 U.S. Senior Women's Amateur Championship, held at Anchorage Golf Course. Michelle Klein was the first alternate and Olivia Iturbe earned second alternate.
U.S. Senior Amateur Qualifier
Curtis Holck -3 69 (Medalist)
Allen Peake -2 70 (1st Alternate)
Dave Gaer -1 71 (2nd Alternate)
U.S. Senior Women's Amateur Qualifier
Laura Leszczynski +7 79 (Co-Medalist)
Rose Kubesheski +7 79 (Co-Medalist)
Robin Webb +12 84 (Qualifier)
Michelle Klein +15 87 (1st Alternate)
Olivia Iturbe +16 88 (2nd Alternate)


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Providence Medical Group is an organization of employed physicians, with more than 90 clinics across the state of Oregon. Its 1,500+ providers possess a wide range of clinical expertise, including Family and Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease, Dermatology and Occupational Medicine. At Providence Medical Group, patients enjoy close-to-home access to dedicated providers in primary, specialty or urgent care clinics, with clinical and operational support from centralized Providence programs.
Where You'll Live
Hillsboro is a suburb about 20 miles west of Portland (20 miles closer to the beach!). Portland has a metro population over two million, but maintains strong local neighborhoods and a close connection to nature. Consequently, the city consistently ranks high in national "livability" contests. Popular Science magazine named Portland the greenest city in America. No city of comparable size offers residents cleaner air and water and an all-around healthy environment, according to Earth Day Network. Portland has been named the most bicycle- and dog-friendly big city as well. With high urban culture and easy access to vast evergreen forests, the Pacific Ocean and sun-drenched central Oregon, it's easy to see why Portland is so popular.
Who You'll Work For
Providence is a nationally recognized, comprehensive health care organization spanning seven states with a universal mission - to provide compassionate care to all who need its services, especially the poor and vulnerable. Its 119,000-plus caregivers/employees serve in 51 hospitals, more than 800 clinics and a comprehensive range of health and social services. Providence: one name, one family, one extraordinary health system.
Equal Opportunity Employer including disability/veteran
Job ID Number: 12206
About Providence
Tell us your why, we'll find your where.Provider Solutions & Development is a community of experts founded within Providence, a purpose-driven, 51-hospital health system, over 20 years ago out of a clear need to change recruitment. We're not focused on quotas, and we don't work on commission. We support and serve physicians and advanced practice clinicians with heart, from residency to retirement, so you can do the same for your patients. With exclusive access to hundreds of positions across the nation, we offer holistic, personal career coaching that puts your needs first. We don't just fill positions, we fulfill individuals by taking the time to help you find where you're meant to be at every step of your journey. Reach out today by emailing LetsTalk@psdrecruit.org, calling (844) 874-7742 or navigating to www.psdrecruit.org
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Anthropology: Spiritualist Ethnographies, Supernatural Signs, and the Subjectivity of Experience
Anthropological research often questions the difference between what people think they experience, and reality. We can potentially learn more from subjective interpretations of the world, as understandings shift rapidly in our world. Once unquestioned doctrines may become unbelievable, many of these revolving around death and spiritualism. Cultural understandings of the afterlife and the impermeability of existence are extremely diverse, and teach a lot about cultural values and norms. In many cultures, people who are responsible for connecting us to possible other realities are often respected and rank highly in social strata. The way we view the world is not often as straightforward and objective as we think, and physical senses and memory are often socially shaped. Discounting things that appear to be untrue can be considered to be ethnocentric in some circumstances, and ignores the underlying factors that encourage these beliefs (Bowie).
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Mediums are significant individuals in many cultures. They are responsible for mediating between different understandings of experiences, and relaying messages either to or from them. They may hold many titles, and may be viewed as being legitimately connected to other realms, or viewed as fakes by others. The role of a medium can be witnessed in most global religions, as well as in smaller contexts like a local psychic. Whether or not they are believed, these individuals often fascinate us. Many people pay to experience contact with mediums, or invest their time into religious activities to seek the advice of spiritually-minded individuals. They also are commonly portrayed in various mediatory forms, such as through television, novels, or on the internet. Mediumship often fulfills purposes of healing, guidance, and even entertainment.
Physical Mediumship
One of the most well known forms of mediumship in western society is physical mediumship. This practice dates back to the early 1800s, when spiritualism became popular. This movement was controversial, as it sought non-religious answers to questions that would previously be answered in churches. Many original periodicals about spiritualism are still available today through online preservation (IAPSOP). These mediums use various physical objects, which may be described as props, to perform their rites. They often involve the presence of physical substances like ectoplasm, as well as spirit trumpets and other devices that were believed to channel spirit voices. While the legitimacy of occurrences during these gatherings is often questioned, the cultural dimension is often ignored. The interest for these events was in the supernatural nature, but also tied to bereavement and loss. The perceived ability to communicate with the dead provides many comforts related to mortality. This positive factor likely explains the prominence of these beliefs across cultures. Not all people who attend these events believe in it as a religious experience however, like other forms of communication with the deceased (Bowie).
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Spiritualist movement
The spiritualist movement was originally popularized during the 1800s during the Victorian period in England. It likely originated due to changes in social organization. This occurred as society became more secular during the industrial revolution and early capitalism. During this period, appeals to other realms became popular means of expressing grief, and were a popular form of entertainment. The spiritualist movement was largest during this era, after which skepticism increased. However, globally churches and groups exist dedicated to spiritualism today. These modern variations incorporate traditional religious and other spiritual influences. Anthropologists like Meintel have studied these modern groups through participant observation. These groups can be extremely diverse and reflect globalized urban environments. The core purposes of spiritualism still remain however. Groups tend to be organized around beliefs in mediumship and spirits. They also use these functions to negotiate grief and fear during everyday life (Meintel). While many individuals hold some curiosity about the existence of other realities and afterlives, these practices are often taboo. Pervasive scientific discourses often shape how we express superstitions in modern life. This skepticism can often downplay these fascinating parts of culture by primarily questioning their legitimacy.
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Seances and scrutiny
Many aspects of seances that are performed by physical mediums have been subject to criticism and questioning. While many would consider all supernatural reports to be hoaxes, research attempts have occurred that have raised interesting findings. Dating back to the 1800s, research institutions like the American Society for Psychical Research have attempted, with varying success, physics. Famous medium Leonora Piper was known to produce results that at the time were unable to be explained by scientific observation. Since, attempts to disprove groups like the Felix Experimental Group have also proved difficult. In this cases, mediums seemed to bring up information they could not have known otherwise, and produced physical effects while being restrained and monitored. While this may sound like science fiction, and it is not objectively proven that what was recorded was genuine, results like this baffle social scientists seeking to make the world seem less foreign. Similar inexplicable experiences have been witnessed with mediums from other cultures by anthropologists (Bowie). Difficult subjects like this are best suited to the understandings of anthropology, as the cultural immersion and ethnographic field methods of the discipline assist in understanding subjective experience. This is not to say that all truth and objectivity should be discarded, but that one should question the taken for granted in society. In anthropology, such questioning is essential to gathering a full understanding.
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Skepticism, Modernization, and Social Research
Skepticism can at times be useful to challenge out of date ways of existing. Social change is inevitable, and many believe that these changes are generally for the better. In recent years, non-inclusive ways of living for example have been challenged greatly. This has helped improve many issues perceived in various institutions. This skepticism and pursuit of societal progression can have negative effects as well. Often, the pursuit of modernity alternatively disadvantages individuals in periphery nations, who may be considered un-modern. Individuals in nations across the world still practice beliefs that would be rejected due to empiricist discourse. However, these beliefs are not always "backwards", despite their juxtaposition with modern expectations. Ritual practices, for example, are now taboo in many cultures, and their positive effects are often disregarded due to a perceived lack of legitimacy. In anthropology, many researchers actively counter-act such a viewpoint. Often, these actions perform beneficial purposes. While religious doctrines may be associated now by many with a lack of inclusion and the past, they also provide genuine good for adherents. For example, they cement solidarity within religious communities and assist with grief. While some flaws exist that exclude individuals who defy social norms, these forms of cultural expression should not be disregarded altogether. Other forms of spiritual understandings and modernized institutions fulfill these same historical purposes still while improving traditional flaws. Spiritualist groups are one example of a taboo line of thought that is more widespread in modern society than it appears. The process of agnostic social science can help us understand these subcultural groups. Agnostic social sciences aims to reduce pre-established conclusions to understand social activity through its participant's understanding. Some activities that appear irrational hold very rational purposes after all, as described.
Epistemology and the Occult
Enlightenment era ideals can often make social sciences like anthropology attempt to preserve a sense of factuality, when often this is not the most important thing. The impacts of occult phenomena through cultural and social influences matter more than whether or not they are actually occurring. Interpretive anthropology is a school of thought that can be used with topics like this. Interpretive theorists view cultural activities as symbols or texts that can teach us about the people who value them. Allowing a slight sense of belief of these possibilities can allow the observer to understand these activities as an insider would. This process is called the emic perspective in anthropology, as it attempts to understand the local's view. As anthropology has grown as a discipline, it has attempted to become more emic, incorporating relativism and reflexivity into the field's methods. Writing off the unfamiliar, the improbable or the strange limits one's understandings, and should be avoided in anthropology. In anthropological fieldwork, there have been reports by numerous anthropologists that they experienced inexplicable phenomena. These experiences widened their understandings of culture, cosmology and related social formation of truth (Bowie).
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Unexplained Phenomena and their Resonances
Susan Lepselter is an anthropologist who focuses on the study of contemporary folklore and legends, and the communities that surround them. Some of her most significant research centered around those who felt they had been abducted by aliens. This subculture was largely based in Nevada, near Area 51, where tales of aliens dominated local discourse. While many would write these individuals off for their inexplicable beliefs, Lepselter aimed to understand common themes amongst their narratives, to understand what actually mattered. Most individuals in society would likely write these stories off, potentially using analogies of tin-foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists. These forms of supernatural narratives are often stigmatized more than other "irrational" worldviews. However, the veracity of these claims should be the prime focus. Instead, interpretive anthropologists analyze how the past and lived experiences of these individuals shape these tales. Lepselter observed that many of these individuals had struggled due to socioeconomic class issues, and that others had experienced abuse and difficult upbringings. She describes the resonances of these supernatural stories as relating to the collective losses and pains of these storytellers (Lepselter). These resonances of cultural fears and struggles tend to be latent in most supernatural tales and cosmologies.
The Social Impacts of Spiritualism
The study of supernatural and spiritual realms is an essential aspect of understanding cultures. Across the world, almost all cultures at various points have understood the world through these terms. Concepts like spirit possession have popped up in hundreds of cultures (Hunter). This is often through beliefs in mediumship, the afterlife, and the influence of positive and negative forces. Due to the ubiquity of these beliefs in human history, they clearly serve important roles. Philosophical questions of mortality have frequently consumed public fascination throughout the span of recorded history. The presence of rituals and shamanistic figures in most cultures is tied to these fears likely. As humans regularly experience grief and death, these function as healthy ways to approach mortality. Death will always remain an element of embodied human experiences.
Significance to Anthropology: Understanding Lived Experiences
Whether or not there is an afterlife, and if mediums are legitimate is generally inconsequential. The true meaning comes through how our subjective understandings interpret these diverse phenomena. As socially constructed behaviours, they are real in their impacts on lived experiences. If a medium does not truly hold a tie to the afterlife, the illusion of such would still help with grieving and closure. It is unnecessary generally to diminish these beliefs of individuals that do not fit into our worldviews and cosmologies. A true anthropological approach involves encountering what is unfamiliar and strange, and seeking to make it approachable. Despite spiritualism being largely taboo in many modern societies, the dismissal of its adherents is unproductive. There is clearly a reason that these beliefs have persisted, and their legitimacy is largely unrelated to such a discussion. Beneath these narratives, there may be truth of spiritual phenomena, and this has been studied in depth. The causes for humans wanting to believe in these faith-based potentialities can be equally enlightening. Underneath these practices hide cultural fears that make up what it means to be a human, and what it means to experience the uncertainty of loss.
December 28, 2022 December 28, 2022 anthropology, death, epistemology, folklore, ghosts, interpretive anthropology, spirits, spiritualism, truth
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Graydon Smith
Graydon Smith is a graduate of Trent University with an undergraduate in Anthropology who is now pursuing a MA in Anthropology at the University of Victoria, where he plans to study tourism. View all posts by Graydon Smith
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International Law and the armed resistance in Indian Occupied Kashmir
February 19, 2022 by Madiha Shakil Khan Leave a Comment
Kashmir is under the prolonged Military occupation of India for seven decades. To undo this military occupation, Kashmiris are resisting through different means and methods one among them is armed resistance by the indigenous armed groups in occupied territory.
The United Nations Security Council in 1948 while discussing the 'Question of Kashmir' held that the disputed territory of Kashmir shall be given the right to decide their future through a free and impartial plebiscite in the region. But India has not fulfilled its promise and has forcibly occupied the territory by deputing more than 700,000 occupying armies in Kashmir. The situation in IOJK is the same as of Israel occupying Palestine.
Now the moot question arises whether the armed struggle against occupying army to achieve the right to self-determination is legitimate under international law?
The norm is settled under international law that resistance and even armed struggle against a colonial occupation force are not just recognized law but specifically endorsed. To support the argument in 1974, resolution 3314 of the UNGA prohibited states from "any military occupation, however temporary. The resolution went on to affirm the right "to self-determination, freedom, and independence of peoples forcibly deprived of that right, particularly peoples under colonial and racist regimes or other forms of alien domination". It also noted the right of the occupied to "struggle … and to seek and receive support" in that effort.
The term "armedstruggle" was impliedly included, though without a precise definition in that resolution as also in many earlier ones that upheld the right of indigenous persons to evict an occupier. This imprecision was to change on December 3, 1982 when the UNGeneral Assembly's resolution 37/43 removed any doubt or debate over the lawful entitlement of occupied people to resist occupying forces by any and all lawful means. The resolution in question reaffirmed "the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle".
The India's forcible military presence in Kashmir is of terminal colonial situation. The expression 'terminal' is justified because this colonial situation goes on for more than 7 decades which hostile state violence and unabated war crimes and crime against humanity to civilian population.
It goes without saying that India is faced with a terminal colonial situation in the parts of Kashmir it occupies. The expression 'terminal' is justified because this colonial situation goes on for last 70 years and has brought suffering and violence on an unspeakable and indescribable scale to the tiny population of Kashmir.
The consequence of military occupation has doubled the crimes which meet the legal definition of war crimes and crimes against humanity as evident from the multiple Human right report publish by OHCHR and Human Right Watch.
There is evidence of massive human rights abuses by Indian forces – abuses which meet the legal definition of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Indian occupied Kashmir remains one of the most highly militarized regions in the world where nearly a million soldiers are stationed to watch the local population.
The Kashmiris have been living under shadows of guns for decades, where each day is characterized by fear and threat to life, property and honour. They have not been in control of their lives; rather they are left to the mercy of occupiers.
The brutal tactics of the Indian military — forced disappearances, mass shootings, extrajudicial killings, torture, blinding, maiming, arson, rape — which started just after the partition of the sub-continent, are so pervasive they have touched almost every family in the Valley.
The Indian forces have been using indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force through banned weapons against men, women, children and the elderly aiming to kill, maim or blind them. The total number killed, maimed, and otherwise harmed are in tens of thousands. Yet no Indian soldier has ever been punished for crimes in Kashmir. Indians laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) guarantee impunity to personnel of Indian Armed Forces and police.
In the right earnest, Jammu and Kashmir should not be seen merely as a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. Rather, it is a question of the Military occupation where population is fighting for right of self-determination. Violence, silent genocide and economic exploitation, continuous deprivation, marginalization, powerlessness, statelessness, loss of identity, and cultural imperialism of India.
The hostile environment between India and Pakistan has prolonged this conflict despite UN mediated ceasefire and establishment of UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) to resolve this conflict according to the wishes of the people.
Kashmir remains one of the most highly militarized regions in the world with the highest number of military bases and the theatre for four wars between India and Pakistan over the sovereign status of the former princely State of Jammu and Kashmir.
A series of bilateral talks between India and Pakistan failed to resolve the issue. A United Nations-brokered ceasefire and the existence of a UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) have not helped to address the people's concerns and to enfranchise them.
In a situation where even right to protest peacefully has been criminalized and met with brute force, Kashmiris are left with no other option than resorted to armed struggle in self-defense and achieving the Right of self determination .
International law recognizes the fundamental rights to self-determination, freedom and independence for the occupied. In Kashmir, that includes the right to armed struggle, if necessary. Long ago, the famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass, himself a former slave, wrote of struggle. And his words still resonate today, in Kashmir as they did some 150 years ago in the heart of the Antebellum South in the United States. He said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
India is involved in attempting to militarily obliterate the people demanding self-determination and to try to reduce these conflicts to "terrorism". The defenders of self-determination are in a very vulnerable position. The supporters of the groups fighting for the realization of national liberation are also being labelled or unduly burdened by laws against terrorism at the extremely serious expense of not only human rights but rights under the Geneva Conventions, other treaties and customary laws of armed conflict.
India controls the State machinery including the administration, the judiciary and the police, as well as modern means of communication and modern army equipped with powerful and sophisticated weapons. The other is composed of less than one hundred irregular combatants whose only asset is their high motivation and strong faith in the justice of their cause, reflecting popular aspirations which cannot be freely and democratically expressed and pursued .
In these condition Kashmir's liberation movement has no choice but to carry on by resorting to non-conventional or guerrilla warfare.
Madiha Shakil Khan
Madiha Shakil Khan hails from AJ&K, Pakistan and is a student of international affairs. She can be mailed at madiha42356@yahoo.com.
How Sheikh Abdullah carved a Sheikhdom for himself?
From the personal diary of Mannan Wani
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To develop competent and committed skilled craftsmen to match industry needs.


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Medalskäret är en ö i Finland.   Den ligger i den ekonomiska regionen  Vasa  och landskapet Österbotten, i den västra delen av landet,  km nordväst om huvudstaden Helsingfors. Arean är  kvadratkilometer.

Terrängen på Medalskäret är mycket platt. Den sträcker sig 1,0 kilometer i nord-sydlig riktning, och 0,7 kilometer i öst-västlig riktning.

Inlandsklimat råder i trakten. Årsmedeltemperaturen i trakten är  °C. Den varmaste månaden är juli, då medeltemperaturen är  °C, och den kallaste är januari, med  °C.

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Who What Where
Back on Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton
I once again had the pleasure of being interviewed by Scott Horton on Antiwar Radio about some of my recent articles about Iran, namely those dealing with the "Iranian weapons in Iraq" propaganda, the manufactured nuclear threat, and the escalating rhetoric about an Israeli attack on Iran.
During our 25-minute discussion, Scott and I addressed "the summer surge of 'blame Iran' talking points – the marketing strategy to sell Obama's seventh war to Americans; how Iran's nonchalant response to threats of an Israeli solo attack ruffles feathers in Washington and Tel Aviv; and how the US justifies an extended Iraq stay by pointing to increased Iranian influence (without acknowledging that the US destroyed Saddam's Sunni government and helped install the current pro-Iran Shia regime)."
The full audio of our conversation is below. Enjoy.
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Nightmare in Norway
This pretty much sums it up.
MacLeod Cartoons
This Time on "What White People Think About Iran"...!
Iran Nuclear Scare Timeline Update XLVIII
During Bloggingheads' latest installment of "What Do White, Jewish Zionist Think-Tankers in Washington D.C. Think the U.S. Should Do About Iran?" [*], former AIPAC operative Josh Block, now a fellow at the bizarrely-named Progressive Policy Institute (given its penchant for espousing hawkish foreign policy views, especially on Iran), gave a veritable tutorial on how to cram every long-debunked fear-mongering talking point about the Islamic Republic into a mere 50-minute conversation. Block, who is a proud protégé of the reptilian Lanny Davis, also made it perfectly clear how much he loves the sound of his own voice. (Unsurprisingly, in the above picture, Block is the one on the right.)
In the course of his discussion with Joel Rubin, Director of Policy and Government Affairs at the Ploughshares Fund, Block repeated (among other things) the false claim that Obama "exposed" a secret Iranian nuclear enrichment at Fordow in September 2009, insisted that Iran seeks hegemony over the Middle East and is violently involved in Iraq, advocated forcefully for regime change (though he called it "democratic change", and was oh so sincere about it), was adamant about Iran's headlong pursuit of nuclear weapons (any other perspective, like one based on evidence for example, was "nonsense"), said that the IAEA itself has said Iran has a nuclear weapons program (literally not true, as evidenced by IAEA head Yukiya Amano's statement to Der Spiegel in January: "Despite all unanswered questions, we cannot say that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program."), and even added a new mathematical assessment of Iran's nuclear progress. He said that Iran's mere capacity to enrich uranium up to 20% is "90%, if not more, of the ability to get to the fuel you need for a nuclear weapon." This kind of algebra would make even Muhammad Al-Khowârizmi blush (but then again, he was Persian and therefore, in Block's expert estimation, is most likely a terrorist and liar).
Fleitz of Fancy & A New Diehl on Iran:
Iran Nuclear Scare Timeline Update XLVII
Alarmist editorializing about Iran, its regional influence, and its nuclear energy program have picked up considerably in the past few weeks. Despite the latest IAEA report this past Spring which revealed no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, a hefty Sy Hersh article confirming that all 16 American intelligence agencies still stand by their 2007 assessment that Iran has no nuclear weapons program, and the potential for a large-scale U.S. withdrawal from Iraq at the end of the year, career fear-mongers have been hard at work trying to raise the Iranian threat level from mild khaki to frantic crimson.
An opinion piece published last night in the Wall Street Journal is a perfect example of the heightened hysteria. The article, entitled "America's Intelligence Denial on Iran", was written by former CIA agent Fred Fleitz, a neoconservative Bomb Iran-er who served as John Bolton's State Department chief of staff and is currently a columnist for the right-wing outlet Newsmax.
Fleitz is intent on discrediting the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which has repeatedly found that Iran's nuclear program is, at best, totally benign and, at worst, not an imminent threat to anyone. He leads with this:
Mounting evidence over the last few years has convinced most experts that Iran has an active program to develop and construct nuclear weapons. Amazingly, however, these experts do not include the leaders of the U.S. intelligence community. They are unwilling to conduct a proper assessment of the Iranian nuclear issue - and so they remain at variance with the Obama White House, U.S. allies, and even the United Nations.
Fleitz writes that, "according to the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control," Iran currently has enough "low-enriched uranium" for "four nuclear weapons if enriched to weapons grade" and repeats the propaganda line about "an item recently posted to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps website [which] mused about the day after an Iranian nuclear test (saying, in a kind of taunt, that it would be a 'normal day')." Fleitz claims that the "message marked the first time any official Iranian comment suggested the country's nuclear program is not entirely peaceful."
Beyond demonstrating a severe lack of understanding about what the IAEA has actually reported and his willful omission of the huge difference between low-enriched uranium and weapons grade material, Fleitz tips his hand by relying on the over-hyped "Nuclear Test" post on the Iranian Gerdab website last month for his nuclear scare propaganda.
Fleitz writes that the latest NIE assessment is just as "politicized" and "poorly written" as its 2007 predecessor and similarly downplays the "true account of the Iranian threat" due to what Fleitz claims is the U.S. intelligence community's apparent aversion to providing "provocative analytic conclusions, and any analysis that could be used to justify military action against rogue states like Iran [sic]." He accuses the 2011 NIE of "poorly structured arguments and cavalier manipulation of intelligence", all the while boasting of his own objections, which he says were routinely ignored and rebuffed by the report's supervisors. He lays blame on what he determines is the NIE's reliance on "former senior intelligence officers, liberal professors and scholars from liberal think tanks."
It is unacceptable that Iran is on the brink of testing a nuclear weapon while our intelligence analysts continue to deny that an Iranian nuclear weapons program exists. One can't underestimate the dangers posed to our country by a U.S. intelligence community that is unable to provide timely and objective analysis of such major threats to U.S. national security - or to make appropriate adjustments when it is proven wrong.
If U.S. intelligence agencies cannot or will not get this one right, what else are they missing?
Reading this, one might be forgiven for wondering why, rather than merely attacking the credentials of NIE sources, Fleitz doesn't introduce any evidence for his declaration that "Iran is on the brink of testing a nuclear weapon." Oh right, never mind.
This sort of "analysis" from Fleitz is far from unexpected. Back in August 2006, Fleitz - then a House Intelligence Committee staffer - was the primary author of a Congressional report entitled, "Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States", which served as a veritable catalog of false assertions about Iran's nuclear program and, just like his Wall Street Journal piece, assailed the U.S. intelligence community for not sufficiently fear-mongering about the so-called Iranian threat. Among other exaggerations and outright lies, the report accused Iran of "enriching uranium to weapons grade" and stated that the IAEA had removed a senior safeguards inspector from Iran for "allegedly raising concerns about Iranian deception regarding its nuclear program and concluding that the purposed of Iran's nuclear programme is to construct weapons" and for "not having adhered to an unstated IAEA policy baring IAEA officials from telling the whole truth about the Iranian nuclear program."
The report contained so many misrepresentations and false allegations regarding the Iranian nuclear program, in fact, that the IAEA's Director of External Relations and Policy Coordination Vilmos Cserveny wrote a letter to the Chairman of House Committee, Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), challenging the report's "incorrect" assertions and criticizing it for promoting "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information."
Additionally, Cserveny described Fleitz's accusations about the safeguards inspector as "outrageous and dishonest" and noted that "Iran has accepted the designation of more than 200 Agency safeguards inspectors, which number is similar to that accepted by the majority of non-nuclear-weapon States that have concluded safeguards agreements pursuant to the NPT."
It appears that, five years later, Fleitz still chooses fantasy over facts.
Herman Cain, Israel, Iran, and the "Clinton Doctrine"
The Washington Times has reported that pizza magnate, raging Islamophobe, blithering know-nothing, and Republican presidential aspirant Herman Cain has declared "he would attack Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons or to respond to aggression against Israel."
Responding to a question posed by the paper about whether he agreed with perennial push-broom soup-strainer and Bomb Iran enthusiast John Bolton's ever-urgent warnings about attacking Iran before it theoretically acquired a nuclear weapon to hypothetically destroy Israel, "Cain said that, as commander-in-chief, he would 'make it crystal clear [that] if you mess with Israel, you're messing with the United States of America,' but stressed that his 'Cain Doctrine' would not be a 'blank check' for Israeli military action." The report continued:
"There will be a set of conditions and circumstances that I will work with Israel on for them to understand that they cannot abuse that doctrine," said Mr. Cain, a former CEO of Godfather's Pizza.
However, if Israel is ever attacked first by Iran, he said he is "not going to sit back and get a vote from the United Nations as to what we ought to do."
"If they [Iran] start lobbing rockets and stuff over at Israel, then we're going to shoot back with Israel," he said.
Mr. Cain dismissed the notion that an attack on Iran is unrealistic: "First of all, we have the most capable military power in the world," he said. "Air, ground — although we won't have to use ground for this — submarines, ships, that would be strategically placed in that part of the world."
While this caught the attention of some in the progressive blogosphere as yet one more example of aggressive Republican warmongering and militarism, it should be remembered that, in fact, threatening Iran is non-partisan. That Cain's comments have gained any traction (and apparent condemnation) is fascinating considering that the current U.S. Secretary of State said essentially the exact same thing when she was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
While on the campaign trail in April 2008, Hillary Clinton was asked about a potential response to a hypothetical Iranian first-strike on Israel (hilarious in itself considering Iran has never threatened as much, whereas nuclear-armed Israel has repeatedly threatened Iran with an attack, conducted war games planning for such an operation, and has often boasted of its ability to carry out such an attack), and she replied:
"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran [if it attacks Israel]…In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them." (emphasis added)
Clearly realizing how truly demented such a statement was, she continued, "That's a terrible thing to say but those people who run Iran need to understand that because that perhaps will deter them from doing something that would be reckless, foolish and tragic."
Not the kind of recklessless or foolishness it would take or tragedy it would be to, oh, I don't know, totally obliterate an entire country of over 70 million people.
A couple of weeks later, when Clinton was asked by ABC's George Stephanopoulos whether she regretted making that statement, she doubled down:
"Why would I have any regrets? I am asked a question about what I would do if Iran attacked our ally, a country that many of us have a great deal of, you know, connection with and feeling for.
"I think we have to be very clear about what we would do. I don't think it is time to equivocate about what we would do. I sure want to make it abundantly clear to them that they would face a tremendous cost if they did such a thing."
So, should there really be any fuss over the idiocy of the "Cain Doctrine", when we've known about the genocidal "Clinton Doctrine" for over three years now?
Jeffrey Goldberg vs. The Truth
Former IDF prison guard Jeffrey Goldberg has an updated post on supporting the boycott of Netanyahu here in the US. It includes this tidbit:
"...all I can say is this: Since 1948, Israel has been a besieged state that nevertheless has, with rare exceptions, defended the right of people to say whatever they have wanted to say. This is why Israel has the freest press in the world[*], and why Arab members of Knesset can scream down the prime minister and not get shot. Israel's defense of freedom of speech, even in wartime, is one of the many reasons to be proud of it. (emphasis added)
Okay, beyond the weirdness of the sentiment (an elected government official not getting shot in a country's parliament for opposing occupation, ethnic cleansing, and discrimination is cause for celebration?!...calling all strawmen!), is this inconvenient fact, from Ha'aretz today:
Israeli Arab MK Hanin Zuabi will be stripped of her right to address the Knesset and to participate in committee votes until the end of this parliamentary season, the Knesset Ethics Committee ruled on Monday.
The decision to penalize Zuabi, a lawmaker from the Balad party, comes in the wake of her participation in the Gaza-bound flotilla last year. Zuabi, who sailed on the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, had already had certain parliamentary rights revoked by Knesset last July.
The rights previously revoked are "her diplomatic passport, entitlement to financial assistance for legal assistance and the right to visit countries with which Israel does not have diplomatic ties."
Last week, "Zuabi was being ushered out of the parliamentary session after interrupting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech and after being called to order three times by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin."
It's true that "being ushered out" is not the same as not getting shot. But it's also true that physically preventing a Knesset member from voicing her views is certainly not an example of what Goldberg describes as Israel's defense of "the right of people to say whatever they have wanted to say". Apparently, for Goldberg, anything short of murdering a Palestinian in cold-blood is grounds for lauding Israel's democratic character...unless, of course, you count Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Golan, or the past.
It should also be pointed out that, while Goldberg writes that "Israel has the freest press in the world," the largest press freedom organization in the world, Reporters Without Borders (RSF - Reporters sans frontieres) disagrees. It ranks Israel as having the 86th freest press in the world, nestled snugly between Serbia and the United Arab Emirates.
This is unsurprising considering how much power the Israel's "Chief Military Censor" wields. During Israel's devastation of Lebanon in 2006, the censor, Col. Sima Vaknin, speaking with the Associated Press, boasted, "I can, for example, publish an order that no material can be published. I can close a newspaper or shut down a station. I can do almost anything."
Now read Goldberg again: "Israel's defense of freedom of speech, even in wartime, is one of the many reasons to be proud of it."
The "Iranian Weapons in Iraq" Carousel:
Around and Around It Goes
The official Status of Forces Agreement, agreed to by the United States and Iraq in 2008, states, "All U.S. forces are to withdraw from all Iraqi territory, water and airspace no later than the 31st of December of 2011." Now, as the withdrawal deadline looms on the horizon, U.S. allegations of Iranian-sponsored Iraqi resistance to the eight-year occupation have resurfaced.
In her latest IPS report, Barbara Slavin addresses the recent "chorus of U.S. officials [accusing] Iran of providing lethal weapons to Iraqi Shiite militias that have targeted U.S. soldiers and caused a spike in U.S. death tolls," noting that, "[s]imilar charges have been made against Iran in the past."
These allegations are often reported verbatim in the mainstream press, as I noted last month in a post entitled "The Uncritical Stenography of Beltway Reportage".
Slavin points out that both the former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his recent replacement Leon Panetta, along with other officials, have repeated these accusations of late. Earlier this month, General Lloyd Austin told reporters that new weapons "are coming in from Iran, we're certain of that." Later the same day, The Washington Post reported that U.S. ambassador to Iraq James F. Jeffrey said that "fresh forensic testing on weapons used in the latest deadly attacks in the country bolsters assertions by U.S. officials that Iran is supporting Iraqi insurgents with new weapons and training." In an interview with the Post Jeffrey said, "We're not talking about a smoking pistol. There is no doubt this is Iranian," adding, "We're seeing more lethal weapons, more accurate weapons, more longer-range weapons. And we're seeing more sophisticated mobile and other deployment options, and we're seeing better-trained people."
During a Washington briefing on July 8, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated, "Iran is very directly supporting extremist troops which are killing our troops."
Responding directly to Mullen's statement, the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Danaeifar, told Iranian press outlets, "These comments are repetitious and display the United States' trouble in earning the attention of the Iraqi parliament and government for extending its presence in Iraq," continuing, "These remarks are a lie and aim to put the blame on the other countries."
"I believe the Americans are trying to make excuses, create Iranophobia, and cause doubt and anxiety among Iraqi officials and society. The Americans are trying to suggest that if they leave Iraq, Iraq will be threatened by Iran," he added.
This is Imperial Privilege
Operation Phantom Fury.
Fallujah, November 8 - December 23, 2004.
At least 2,000 Iraqis killed by the U.S. military, including hundreds of women and children; thousands injured; 300,000 displaced.
Operation Cast Lead.
Gaza, December 27, 2008- January 18, 2009.
At least 1,385 - 1,417 Palestinians, including hundreds of women and children, killed by Israeli forces; 5,500 injured; more than 50,896 displaced.
Independence Day.
New York City, July 4, 2011.
2 teenage American boys killed in fireworks-related accidents; approximately 1,900 injured countrywide.
Glory, glory, hallelujah.
The "Deplorable" Acts: The 'Quartet' Comments on Gaza
Provided always, That if any goods, wares or merchandise, shall be laden or put off from, or discharged or landed upon, any other place than the quays, wharfs, or places, so to be appointed, the same, together with the ships, boats, and other vessels employed therein, and the horses, or other cattle and carriages used to convey the same, and the person or persons concerned or assisting therein, or to whose hands the same shall knowingly come, shall suffer all the forfeitures and penalties imposed by this or any other Act on the illegal shipping or landing of goods.
- Boston Port Act of 1774 (14 Geo. III. c. 19)
On March 30, 1774, in response to the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament enacted the Boston Port Act, effectively shutting down all commerce and travel in and out of Massachusetts colony. The law, known as one of the Intolerable Acts, was enforced by a British naval blockade of Boston harbor. These punitive acts, which collectively punished an entire colony for the acts of resistance and frustration of a few, served to unite the disparate colonies in their fight for self-determination, sovereignty, and natural and constitutional rights. Colonies as far away as South Carolina sent relief supplies to their compatriots in Massachusetts. As a result of British imperial overreach, the First Continental Congress was convened on September 5, 1774. The Congress, in turn, established the Continental Association, a solidarity pact among the colonies to boycott all British goods and, in the event of continued British aggression, to stand as one in their fight for independence.
237 years later...
The so-called "Middle East Quartet" - that is, the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia - has issued a "Statement on the Situation in Gaza" today.
It is a brief and unsurprising document. No mention of a "siege" or "blockade," of course. While it states that the "conditions facing the civilian population in Gaza" are "unsustainable," it provides absolutely no indication of the extent of the humanitarian crisis (i.e. 80% aid dependency, 95% of water is undrinkable, a mere 20% is food secure, 36% unemployment - 47% among Gaza's youth - and 38% living below the poverty line).
The statement ignores all of this. Instead, it "notes that efforts have improved conditions over the last year, including a marked increase in the range and scope of goods and materials moving into Gaza, an increase in international project activity, and the facilitation of some exports."
Yet, these "improved conditions" are illusory. For instance, a recent report found that while, since June 2010, there has been "improved access to formerly restricted goods, including some raw materials, the increased imports of construction materials (cement, gravel and steel bar) through the tunnels from Egypt, and the improved volume of imports of construction materials for PA-approved projects implemented by international and UN organizations helped reactivate the local economy in Gaza," this "[e]conomic growth has not translated into poverty reduction."
More importantly, "Israeli restrictions on access to markets (imports on a range of raw materials and exports) and access to natural resources (land and water), as well as the increasing transport costs due the closure of Karni crossing" make it virtually impossible for real economic sustainability - through private sector growth - to occur. Furthermore,
The recent decrease in unemployment in the Gaza Strip is mainly linked to the construction and agricultural sectors which have some of the lowest wages and employ mainly unskilled/casual laborers. The new access regime allowed for an increasing number of construction projects under the UN or international umbrella, but failed to trickle down the benefits to the private sector. The latter is still relying on tunnels for the supply of construction materials. The agricultural sector is seasonal and more than half of the labor force is composed of unpaid family members.
Ongoing restrictions on the movement of goods and artificially-inflated food prices and transport costs continue to impact the economy even after the new access regime, and thereby the June 2010 decision failed to impact the viability of the tunnel economy.
The new access regime did not translate into a tangible relaxation of exports despite the 8 December 2010 cabinet decision by the GoI [Government of Israel], and the consecutive agreement with the Quartet Representative in February 2011. The blockade is still in place. Apart from a very low rate of cash crops exported, no other goods have been exported out of the Gaza Strip under the new access regime. The unpredictability of the crossing, frequent power cuts, as well as increased transportation costs do not ensure sustained exports of agricultural goods. Moreover, the exports are cut from their market of origin.
Nevertheless, the Quartet Statement commends Israel for the recent approval of $100 million in construction material to be allowed into Gaza and used to build 18 schools and 1,200 houses. Distraction accomplished.
But then things get even more ridiculous.
Nima Shirazi is an editor at Muftah, a digital foreign affairs magazine, and co-host of the media criticism podcast,
Citations Needed.
His political analysis and commentary has appeared in Salon, Truthout, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, Al Jazeera English, and elsewhere.
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10.03.17 - Boot On The Ground: Shameless War Hawk Feels the Burns on Vietnam While Calling on Trump to Attack Iran
09.03.17 - Alan Dershowitz Invented a Scary Quote to Fear-Monger About Iran
08.08.17 - No, LA Times, That's Not What Nuclear 'Breakout Time' Means
08.04.17 - The Return of the Media's Zombie Narrative About Iran's Nuclear Program
07.11.17 - MSNBC's Joy Reid Fails History and Geography
07.10.17 - Regime Change Redux: Empowered Hawks Renew Sights on Iran
06.03.17 - The New York Times Whitewashes CIA's History in Iran
05.31.17 - Dumbstruck: A Deafening Silence in Defense of American Hypocrisy
01.23.17 - Coup, Illustrated: Iran, Oil, and the CIA Overthrow of 1953
08.06.17 - UPDATE on The Return of the Media's Zombie Narrative About Iran's Nuclear Program
07.16.16 - UPDATE on More Misleading Reporting on the Iran Deal and 'Heavy Water'
05.07.16 - UPDATE on The Washington Post Repeats Its Nuclear Error
04.11.16 - UPDATE on Revisiting 'Argo', Hollywood's CIA-Supported Propaganda Fable
01.08.16 - UPDATE on Netanyahu's "3-5 Years" Prediction of Iranian Nukes Happened in 1995, Not 1992
The Phantom Menace: Fantasies, Falsehoods, and Fear-Mongering about Iran's Nuclear Program
Oscar Prints the Legend: Argo's Upcoming Academy Award and the Failure of Truth
Does Iran Really Need Nuclear Power?
Forever Threat: The Imminent Attack on Iran That Will Never Happen
Panic, Predictions and Propaganda: Endless Empty Estimates on Iran's Nuclear Program
Prognostications, Predictions & Prophecies: Another Year of Alarmism About Iran's Nuclear Program
Defending Apartheid: Then in South Africa, Now in Palestine
The Crying of Flight 655: The Washington Post and the Whitewashing of a War Crime
Iran's Ever-Ticking Nuclear Clock: Countdown to Nothing
Time Warped: Repeated Rhetoric of Urgency from Israel to Iran
Ignoring Decades of Iranian Statements on Nuclear Weapons
The Thin Green Line
The Ironic Lady: Margaret Thatcher and Her Dictator Friends
Another Civilian Massacre and the Savagery of Our Soldiers
The Invisible Dead and "The Last Word": Lawrence O'Donnell 'Rewrites' the Occupation of Afghanistan
The Rotten Orchard
This Time on "What White People Think About Iran"....
Fleitz of Fancy & A New Diehl on Iran:Iran Nuclear...
Herman Cain, Israel, Iran, and the "Clinton Doctri...
The "Iranian Weapons in Iraq" Carousel:Around and ...
The "Deplorable" Acts: The 'Quartet' Comments on G...
Words of the Wiser
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
- Mark Twain
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."
- Howard Zinn
"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole."
- Malcolm X
"The roots of violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principles."
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
"When we revolt it's not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe."
- Frantz Fanon
"When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."
"Whatever fosters the growth of civilization works at the same time against war."
- Sigmund Freud
"We must join with the tens of millions all over the world who see in peace our most sacred responsibility.
- Paul Robeson
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
"Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice."
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
"Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being."
"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."
- Ida B. Wells
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
- Abraham Lincoln
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive...those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
- C.S. Lewis
"Fascism is capitalism plus murder."
- Upton Sinclair
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
- Frederick Douglass
"If I sit silently, I have sinned."
- Mohammad Mossadegh
"One must always try to be as radical as reality itself."
- Vladimir Lenin
"They must find it difficult, those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority."
- Gerald Massey
"Social equality is the only basis of human happiness."
"I don't want them to believe me, I just want them to think."
- Marshall McLuhan
"Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended from abroad."
- James Madison
"If you can't eliminate injustice, at least tell everyone about it."
- Ali Shariati
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rock fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty."
"The problem is not changing people's consciousness but the political, economic, institutional regime of the production of truth."
- Michel Foucault
"There can be no peace until the forces of oppression are overthrown."
- Albert Luthuli
"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization."
- Eugene V. Debs
"The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded. It is a doctrine of the oldest and of the newest philosophy, that man is one, and that you cannot injure any member, without a sympathetic injury to all members."
"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
"There's no hope, but I may be wrong."
- Pete Seeger
"I'm witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I'm really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop."
- Rachel Corrie
"Fear can only prevail when victims are ignorant of the facts."
"To protest in the name of morality against 'excesses' or 'abuses' is an error which hints at active complicity. There are no 'abuses' or 'excesses' here, simply an all-pervasive system."
- Simone de Beauvoir
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
- Arthur Schopenhauer
"Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it."
- Blaise Pascal
"No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of freedom versus tyranny."
- Hannah Arendt
"A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism."
- Simón Bolívar
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
"People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster."
- James Baldwin
"You have to understand that people have to pay the price for peace. If you dare to struggle, you dare to win. If you dare not to struggle then god damn it, you don't deserve to win. Let me say peace to you, if you're willing to fight for it."
- Fred Hampton
"The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."
- Milan Kundera
"All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it."
- Alexis de Tocqueville
"Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges; hence the conclusion of such a narration is apt to be less finished than an architectural finial."
- Herman Melville
"Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made."
- Franz Kafka
"Few of us can easily surrender our belief that society must somehow make sense. The thought that the state has lost its mind and is punishing so many innocent people is intolerable. And so the evidence has to be internally denied."
- Arthur Miller
"Everyone gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country."
- Michel de Montaigne
"Fascism itself can only be turned away if all those who are outraged by it show a commitment to social justice that equals the intensity of their indignation."
- Arundhati Roy
"Those who do not move, do not notice their chains."
- Rosa Luxemburg
"The basic principle, rarely violated, is that what conflicts with the requirements of power and privilege does not exist."
- Noam Chomsky
"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right."
- H.L. Mencken
"The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human."
- Aldous Huxley
"Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do."
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
- Desmond Tutu
"Every empire...tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate."
- Edward Said
"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."
- Dante Alighieri
"When fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
- Sinclair Lewis
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious."
- Smedley Butler
"The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few and the unscrupulous who represent or control capital... This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations.
- Rutherford B. Hayes
"Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk."
- John Milton
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
- Max Planck
"With the establishment of a relationship of oppression, violence has already begun. Never in history has violence been initiated by the oppressed. How could they be the initiators, if they themselves are the result of violence? How could they be the sponsors of something objective whose objective inauguration called forth their existence as oppressed? There would be no oppressed had there been no prior of violence to establish their subjugation."
- Paulo Freire
"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment."
- Robert M. Hutchins
"I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another. I see that the keenest brains of the world invent weapons and words to make it yet more refined and enduring."
- Erich Maria Remarque
"The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding."
"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
- Thomas Paine
"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men."
- Edward R. Murrow
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."
- Emma Goldman
"Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors."
- Lewis H. Lapham
"We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off."
- Gloria Steinem
"Activism is my rent for living on this planet."
- Alice Walker
"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."
- Woody Allen
"My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music."
is paved with
unbought stuffed dogs
The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.
- Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities)
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After many months of time, effort and love, I have finally launched my online course based upon my book, The Heart of Esthetics: Creating Loyal Clients & Achieving Financial Success. What a passion project this was for me! And now that the course is out there in the esthetics universe, I think it might be time I started blogging again.
As with almost everything I have done as a consultant, speaker, author and mentor, the online course was born out of frustration. And as always, that frustration is related to all of the bad info being presented to estheticians who are out there doing their best to find information that will help them be the best esthetician they can be. These wonderful estheticians are doing the right thing by looking for information, yet they don't realize that more often than not, it's the struggling (or failing) estheticians who are the most vocal on social media, or it's the ones who crave attention but don't have the credentials to back up their information and advice.
There is a reason a potential client chooses one esthetician over another. And there's an even bigger reason a potential client becomes a loyal long-term client. It's not solely about the products, the facial services, the equipment, etc. It is about the esthetician. It is about the Heart of Esthetics. Yet in this extremely personal and intimate business of esthetics, estheticians are still being advised to send emails and snag "likes" on Facebook to build their business. As if that is going to create loyal, long term clients? It just doesn't work that way. Maybe it did a decade or more ago, but not anymore.
We are a very personal and intimate business. We ask (mainly) women to remove almost all of their clothing. Then we ask them to get into something that looks a lot like a bed. And to make it even worse, we remove their makeup and stare at them with a very bright magnifying lamp in order to point out things that may be "wrong" with their skin. And we are to believe that we can lure these women into this experience with an email? I don't think so.