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SAN FRANCISCO — October 6, 2022— Pangaea Data today announced it has joined NVIDIA Inception, a program that nurtures startups revolutionizing industries with technology advancements.
Pangaea Data provides a novel AI-driven product to characterize patients by unlocking and summarizing insights from their data in a scalable and federated privacy-preserving manner. This is helping clinicians at healthcare and pharmaceutical companies to discover new clinically actionable insights, and map patient journeys and disease trajectories. For example, oncologists applied this capability to discover 6x more cancer patients with cachexia, which helped them reduce the cost of treatment by 50% and potentially save £1 billion annually. Clinicians at pharmaceutical companies have benefitted from these capabilities by finding more suitable patients and improving screening success rates for new therapies and clinical trials.
NVIDIA Inception will allow Pangaea to further accelerate its development and scale its work, assisting its team by providing access to cutting-edge technology, support, and training. The program will also offer Pangaea the opportunity to collaborate with industry-leading experts and other AI-driven organizations.
“We launched Pangaea to help patients and clinicians across the global pharmaceutical and healthcare industry by discovering new clinically valid knowledge from health data in a privacy-preserving manner. Joining NVIDIA Inception will help Pangaea to further accelerate this work and our development,” said Dr. Vibhor Gupta, Pangaea’s CEO. “We look forward to collaborating with NVIDIA and its scientific and technical experts to address some of the toughest challenges in life sciences and healthcare today.”
NVIDIA Inception helps startups during critical stages of product development, prototyping, and deployment. Every NVIDIA Inception member gets a custom set of ongoing benefits, such as NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute credits, marketing support, and technology assistance, which provides startups with the fundamental tools to help them grow.
Pangaea Data is a South San Francisco and London-based provider of novel AI-driven product to characterize patients by mapping their journey and disease trajectories based on extraction and summarization of intelligence from patients records in a scalable and privacy-preserving manner. The founders (Dr. Vibhor Gupta and Prof. Yike Guo) have attracted more than $200 million through their research. The company is advised by leading authorities from life sciences and healthcare and has published its work in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals, and conferences, which is also available at www.pangaeadata.ai/insights/.
Originally posted here
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Pangaea Data appoints new CFO and three pharmaceutical experts as advisors
Go to Pangaea Data appoints new CFO and three pharmaceutical experts as advisors
January 28, 2021
Pangaea Data raises further funding to accelerate deployment of its breakthrough AI with pharmaceutical companies and ...
Go to Pangaea Data raises further funding to accelerate deployment of its breakthrough AI with pharmaceutical companies and hospitals
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At some point, every business owner will need to think about selling his or her business. This means you’ll need to be ready to overcome a range of obstacles, as the process of selling a business can be both confusing and time-consuming. This is especially true for those who have not gone through the process before. Let’s turn our attention to some of the key reasons why deals can fall apart.
Buyers, like sellers, enter the process with a variety of preconceived notions about how the process should work, as well as what they consider to be “a great deal.” The psychological factors involved in selling a business shouldn’t be overlooked.
Sellers need to understand the specific wants and desires of the buyer as well as their own psychology.
Even serious buyers may have highly unrealistic expectations regarding various aspects of a business, ranging from its price to its opportunities for future growth. In some cases, they may stall due to the fact they are not quite ready to buy a business and see no urgency in the matter.
Buyers can also be influenced by outside parties, whether advisors or friends and family. In short, sellers may discover that, for all practical purposes, buyers may actually be several people who are forming a collective opinion on issues regarding the business.
A seller’s own psychology can play a huge role in whether or not a business is successfully sold. Many sellers enter into the process without a full understanding of what is involved. This factor, of course, underscores the tremendous importance of working with professionals months, if not years, before you actually place your business on the market. These professionals should include an M&A Advisor or Business Broker.
Another major obstacle is that many sellers have unrealistic expectations about both price and the time frame in which their business can be sold. Sellers should enter the selling process with their eyes open and realistic expectations in place. Be sure to establish a fair price. It’s also important to understand that it may take a year or longer before a buyer is found.
Acts of Fate
Sellers should remember that there are many “acts of fate” that can disrupt a deal. A deal may seem like everything is moving along without problems, only to discover at the last minute that the buyer isn’t able to secure the needed funds as expected.
It is important for all parties involved to realize that until a deal is finalized, problems can still arise. In fact, they can arise from unexpected directions. But it is difficult to anticipate and spot every potential disruption. The complexity of selling a business is one of the main reasons why so many business owners opt to work with a brokerage professional.
The post Disruptive Factors in Selling Your Business appeared first on Deal Studio – Automate, accelerate and elevate your deal making.
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At KFIT, we are a one-of-a-kind wellness studio with the goal of bridging the gaps between fitness, nutrition, mindset, and whole-body wellness. We’re creating a one-of-a-kind space for women to sweat, connect, and grow! A community to feel seen, supported, and encouraged by; a hive of like-minded women on the same mission.
We believe fit looks different on everyBODY.
We believe movement is not a one-size-fits-all model.
We believe our bodies deserve to be nourished, not punished.
We believe that training our thoughts is as important as training our bodies.
We believe in positively impacting our communities.
We believe in setting an example for the younger generation; showing them how to show up fearlessly in a world that tells them to play it small.
Whether you’re just getting started or ready to expand beyond the limits you’ve been setting, KFIT has something to offer everyone. We’re here to guide you on the journey to the best version of YOU.
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As I carry him up the last set of stairs, he slides off my shoulder again. My arms wrap around his thighs and catch him, stop him from a nasty fall down the stairwell. After another push from my legs, my quads burn and his weight centers. His breath still reeks like paint thinner.
Now at the top landing, I stagger and lean over the railing to cough. Then check my cracked watch.
One floor below, my wife climbs the stairs with her head down and back hunched. She wears a backpack and carries a folded lawn chair. Her heavy breaths bounce off the block walls. She looks up through the shaft and says between gasps, “What time is it? Are we late?”
Sweat drips down the tip of my nose and falls past her face, disappears before it can splat. The last time I took the stairs to a dorm’s rooftop, I was the same age as this sack of shit draped over my shoulder. During Hell Week, our frat president made my pledge class swear a vow of obedience and secrecy. On the last night, we gathered on a dorm’s main floor and he told us it was time for our reckoning. The big brothers handed each of us a chipped cinder block, a spool of fishing line, and a rusty three-pronged hook. They pointed to the stairwell and told us to climb to our destiny.
My wife catches up and we push through the last door. Together, we step out onto the rooftop and into the night. The glow from the moon above and the campus lights below gives us enough to see.
The windows in the other dorms stay pitch black. The silhouettes of these tall buildings create a dark skyline that looms above the silent college grounds. The adjacent dorm’s rooftop stays empty, so I check my cracked watch.
My wife unfolds the lawn chair. She puts it on the nearest ledge with its back towards the vast empty air. I bend down and place the guilty boy onto the chair’s nylon webbing.
From her backpack, my wife pulls out her favorite red rope and black leather straps. She ties the guilty boy’s arms to the plastic armrests. Binds his legs to the aluminum legs. She straps my first ball gag around his head and pries open his mouth, stuffs the rubber sphere behind his teeth. The thing tastes like the bottom of a sneaker and stains your tongue black for days.
After all this, his head still droops. Still knocked out. My wife smacks the back of my head and in the same tough voice she uses to scold our dog, she says, “I told you we used too much ether!”
From her backpack, she pulls out some expired smelling salts and breaks them open. The ammonia reeks in the wind before she stuffs them up his nostrils. She pulls out a wooden paddle with etched Greek letters and hands it to me. With a tight grip, I use it to tap each side of the guilty boy’s face, over and over. His cheeks turn red before his head lifts and eyes pop open.
He looks at us, then all around. Eyes go wide. The gag muffles his scream as he wiggles his arms and legs against the knots and buckles. He jerks and makes the chair slide. Its legs scratch against the ground. I shake my head and point behind him with the paddle.
A strong breeze blows up from over the edge as he twists his head around to peek. At this height and angle, he can’t see the ground. The gag muffles his screams again. His whole body shakes. Drool oozes down from the sides of his mouth. With each exhale, bubbles spew. A dark stain appears in his crotch and spreads down his sweatpants.
From the back pocket of her mom jeans, my wife pulls out her phone and holds it under his chin. The screen lights up his pale face. Covered in pimples and sweat.
He looks at the screen to see a portrait of a teenage boy. A spitting image of a younger me. The perfect boy wears his favorite button-up and shows off his new straight teeth. He folds his arms so you can see his watch. His high school graduation gift.
My wife leans closer. Stares straight at the guilty boy. In the same harsh voice she used when our son broke a rule, she asks, “Do you know who this is?”
He looks back down at the screen and his eyes go cross. She swipes the screen again and again to show more portraits of other good boys. All the same age. Each one smiles for the camera and poses in a field or against a brick wall. Each one wears a collared shirt tucked into nice pants. One was my son’s new best friend. Another, his roommate.
Every time she swipes, the guilty boy just shakes his head. And my grip on the paddle tightens. After the last portrait, my wife’s makeup runs down her face. In the same stern voice she used when our son didn’t listen, she says, “Well, you should. You really should.”
After my pledge class lined up along the dorm’s rooftop ledge, the frat president called us minnows and asked if we were hungry. He told us to tie one end of our fishing line to our cinder block and the other to our hook. He told us to place our hook on the tip of our tongue and close our mouth.
My wife swipes the screen of her phone again. It shows a picture of a bunch of random teens in mid-stride on a rooftop, all of them headed towards an edge. It shows everyone on the front row with one foot on the ledge and the other stepping out into the vast empty air. On the top of the picture, it reads in all caps: DO THE LEMMING CHALLENGE!!
My wife tilts her head and squints. In the same disappointed voice she used when our son got caught in a lie, she asks the guilty boy, “Did you create this?”
He shakes his head so hard that spit flies off. The smelling salts slide out his nose.
He looks up at her, then me. The gag turns his words into various hums.
My wife looks at her phone and taps on it again. She shoves it back under his face and it acts as a spotlight. Using the same voice as before, she says, “But you shared it, didn’t you?”
The screen shows the same image in a social media feed. It sits between pictures of the guilty boy doing keg stands and undie runs.
My wife turns to me. In the same soft voice she uses when blindfolded, she whispers, “What time did the coroner say he died again?”
The gag still muffles his plea. He can’t tell us if he really meant for kids to do it or if he just thought it was all a joke. Another fucking prank meme way better than those other hoax challenges like swallowing Tide Pods or lighting rubbing alcohol on your skin. Because it’s all fun and games until someone gets killed.
When the frat president yelled at our big brothers to do it, they waved at us and kicked our cinder blocks over the ledge. We watched the blocks fall through the vast empty air, as if sinking in water. We wanted to scream, but they taped our mouths. We wanted to grab the lines, but they tied our hands behind our backs. So we just squeezed our eyes shut. Ready for our cheeks and lips to get speared and ripped apart from the inside. Choke to death on our own blood.
At that age, you never think for yourself or question someone else. To fit in, you do what others do. To stand out, you do what others won’t.
The blocks hit the ground but our mouths weren’t hooked. The line had enough slack to not pull, longer in length than the building stood tall. The president and all the big brothers busted out in laughter. They hugged us and handed us our paddles.
That next semester, a pledge died in a car trunk while playing drown the maggot. Nationals closed our chapter. The university got sued. And then it all stopped, until it evolved into something that can’t be stopped.
Before our son’s funeral, the local news article about the challenge went viral. The deceased weren’t referred to as “victims” and the writer refused to correct it. The most-liked comment said our son and his squad were the epitome of natural selection.
We went to the other victims’ funerals. Wore the same black outfit day after day. After the last one, we signed up for grief counseling with the other parents. As a group, we shared our feelings and prayed together and all that other stupid shit they say will help you move on.
One night, my wife stood up and said that we could sit here and cry, or we could actually do something. Stop this from ever happening again. Another ex-mom spoke up and said we can’t stop kids from being kids. My wife nodded and said, yeah, but we can stop murderers from being murderers.
She told the group that she didn’t understand how any of this happened until she looked at the walls of our home. There, framed and matted, hung pictures of her confirmation and my bar mitzvah, but nothing like that for our son. Cause all he ever had was stuff on his phone. Like selfie videos of Slurpee brain freezes and video game dance moves.
The guilty boy stares at us with his eyebrows scrunched. He watches my foot rest on the chair, between his legs. Another cool breeze blows around us. A bell tolls from the tower in the middle of the college grounds. It dongs and dongs, over and over. I check my cracked watch.
From the other side of campus, a deep scream echoes off the buildings and ends with a solid thud. In the dark distance, another yell erupts and then stops after a wet crunch. Out of the corner of my eye, a shadow shrieks and falls off the adjacent dorm. A sound as thick as a watermelon busting comes from below. We stand still and listen to our heartbeats.
The cold wind blows back my wife’s hair. She strokes the guilty boy’s cheek. Smears his sweat and tears. Then, in the same sweet voice she used when she tucked our son into bed, she coos into his ear, “I’m sorry for your mother.”
After a last look at my cracked watch, I nod. My wife unbuckles the gag and yanks out its slobbered ball. I wave at the guilty boy and kick the chair.
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Dan Frazier is a freelance entertainment journalist who has contributed to Playboy, NYLON, and BlackBook among others. His fiction has appeared in Abstract Jam.
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European bonds cut yesterday’s gains and yields are up 2-6bp. The dollar is mixed. Among the major currencies, the yen, New Zealand dollar and Norwegian krone are firm, while the Australian and Canadian dollars, Swedish krona and euro are slightly lower. Emerging market currencies are also mixed. The Turkish lira and the South African rand are the weakest, while the Russian ruble, Thai baht and Indian rupee lead. The JP Morgan Emerging Markets Currency Index is slightly heavier after falling around 0.3% yesterday. Gold is faltering after yesterday’s rally but remains in Tuesday’s range (~ $ 1,782 – $ 1,808). Plans to resume talks between Iran and Europe and a larger-than-expected increase in US crude inventories saw December’s WTI initially extend yesterday’s losses, but new buys have emerged as they approach. 20-day moving average (~ $ 80.70). It hasn’t closed below that moving average for two months. After losing around 3% in the past two sessions, copper has rebounded more than 1% today. Iron ore and aluminum are softer.
As expected, the Bank of Japan left its policy in abeyance. It has shaved the growth and inflation forecasts for this year. The economy is now expected to grow 3.4% instead of 3.8%, while the CPI forecast drops from 0.6% to zero. While the growth projection for the next fiscal year has been raised from 2.7% to 2.9%, it is not enough to offset this year’s reduction. Growth in fiscal years 23-24 was unchanged at 1.3%. The CPI forecast for the next two years has not been revised to 0.9% and 1.0%, respectively. Separately, September retail sales rose 2.7%, nearly double the 1.5% forecast by the Bloomberg survey median. As a result, the year-over-year decline narrowed to -0.6% from -4.0%.
The Reserve Bank of Australia did not defend its target on the April 2024 bond, although the yield was well above the level seen last Friday when it intervened (A $ 1 billion) for the first time. times since mid-February. Its three-year yield jumped 19 bps (to 1.12%, its highest level in two years). This follows a nearly 16bp jump yesterday based on the underlying CPI above 2%. There is still a window of possibility that he will show his hand tomorrow. Yet today’s absence is fueling speculation that at next week’s central bank meeting the RBA may abandon its policy of controlling the yield curve.
The dollar is trading in a range of around 20 ticks on either side of 113.70 JPY. There are $ 1.7 billion in options in the JPY113.70-JPY113.75 area expiring today. The greenback has not traded above 114.00 JPY since yesterday’s Asian session. Support in the JPY113.40-JPY113.50 area looks strong. The Australian dollar slipped to a three-day low at near $ 0.7480 before rising to near $ 0.7525 before stagnating. There are options for just over A $ 1 billion at $ 0.7475 which expire today. The neighboring cap is in the area of $ 0.7530 to $ 0.7550. The greenback traded above CNY 6.40 for the first time this week, but was not held. The PBOC set the dollar benchmark rate at CNY 6.3957 compared to expectations (Bloomberg survey) of CNY 6.3949. Against the CFETS basket, the yuan is trading at its best for five years. Some of the demand for dollars by large public banks appears to be related to month-end adjustments.
The main focus today is the ECB meeting, although no further action is envisaged. ECB President Lagarde should stick to the idea that price pressures will be transitory. Earlier today, Spain announced that its harmonized EU inflation measure fell from 4.0% in September to 5.5% in October. The median forecast (Bloomberg survey) was 4.6%. The German states communicate their October figures, and around the Lagarde press conference, the national figure will be communicated. German inflation is expected to climb to 4.5% from 4.1%. Tomorrow, aggregate figures for the euro area will be released. The base rate is expected to remain stable at 1.9%, while the risk is that the overall rate year over year will exceed the median forecast by 3.7% (vs. 3.4%). The ECB was expanding its balance sheet before the pandemic and will do so after the end of emergency purchases (March). What is debated are the “modalities” of this facility. No decision is expected before December.
Rising energy prices are a major source of price pressure in Europe. Reports indicate that Russian President Putin late yesterday indicated that Gazprom would start increasing Europe’s gas supply after November 8. It was the day after Gazprom finished restocking its stocks. In addition, press accounts indicate that gas flows from Norway are increasing.
Sunak’s budget implication for debt issuance was lapped by the bond market, and the 10-year Gilt yield fell 12.5bp to below 1% for the first time this month. . It is down to around 0.98%, where it is now. The market was already moving in that direction, and the yield had fallen over the previous three sessions by almost nine basis points. The Debt Management Office forecasts a reduction of almost £ 58 billion in emissions. Most projections predicted a reduction of around £ 33 billion. We suspect this caused the biggest backlash in the market, though, of course, pub stocks love the fact that Sunak has canceled the impending alcohol tax hike.
The 50% cut for one year for hospitality, leisure and retail companies seemed welcome, but most UK stock indices fell. The FTSE 250 made a slight gain (0.05%), but this is mainly due to two sectors, utilities and real estate, which seem more a function of the fall in long rates than of the other content of the budget. . . In total, tax cuts, cancellations and spending increases amounted to around £ 75 billion. After the budget, the market raised the odds of a Bank of England rate hike as early as next week. The implied yield on the December sterling futures contract rose 4.5bp to 0.465%. This was the first increase in half a dozen sessions, in which performance fell 13 bps. The yield is still up 6.5bp today. The pound sterling underperformed. It was one of the two major currencies that failed to assert itself against the greenback (the other being the Norwegian krone, for which Norway is more likely to hike rates next week).
The euro slipped to a new marginal low for the week around $ 1.1580. Below, attention will turn to the low of the year set on October 12 at near $ 1.1525. The euro was capped at nearly $ 1.1625 and there are 1.57 billion euros of options entered in the $ 1.1600 to $ 1.1610 area expiring today. Given the speculation on more aggressive central banks and the ECB’s lagging stance, we believe the risk is on the downside. The $ 1.1490 area is a retracement (50%) of the euro rally from last March to January 6 (ironically) The next retracement (61.8%) is a little below $ 1.13. The British Pound is trading quietly in yesterday’s range (~ $ 1.3710 – $ 1.3780). It hasn’t been able to resurface above $ 1.38 since the shooting star candlestick on Tuesday. A breakout of $ 1.3685 would be technically significant.
The Bank of Canada has been more hawkish than expected. It ended its bond buying program, which had been cut to C $ 2 billion per week. It will buy C $ 4 billion to C $ 5 billion in bonds per month by reinvesting maturing issues. Governor Macklem also acknowledged that a rate hike may be warranted sooner than previously thought. Due to supply constraints, the output gap could be closed in the middle of quarters next year rather than in the second half of the year. Still, the updated economic forecast is a bit incongruous. Consider that this year’s GDP has been reduced from 6.0% to 5.1%, and next year’s GDP has been reduced from 4.3% to 4.6%. Next year’s CPI forecast has been revised to 2.1% from 2.2%. The US dollar, which started local session at its best in two weeks around CAD 1.2425, reversed lower to test the CAD 1.2300 area. Last week’s low was slightly below CAD1.2290. The two-year Canadian yield jumped 20bps to exceed 1% for the first time since the start of March last year. Macklem confirmed the direction the market was heading. Rather than simply advancing the rate hike, the market is anticipating further hikes. The swap market is forecasting five rises over the next 12 months.
While the first weekly jobless claims are what comes closest to a live reading of the labor market, the first estimate of third-quarter GDP, which is subject to potentially statistically significant revisions, will draw attention. headlines today. The Atlanta Fed’s final GDPNow valuation is 0.2% (annualized), up from 0.5% previously. The Bloomberg survey’s median forecast is 2.6% after rising 6.7% in the second quarter. The decline in consumption (~ 70% of the economy) seems to have been the critical brake. It may have gone from an annualized rate of 12% to less than 1%. Despite the slowdown in consumption, the merchandise trade deficit hit a record $ 271.3 billion in the third quarter. Another measure of inflation is the GDP deflator. Although some economists believe it is a better measure of prices than the CPI or PCE deflator, it is still underestimated. Still, the GDP deflator and the quarterly personal consumption expenditure deflator are expected to have declined from the second quarter readings.
After a dramatic swing yesterday, the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Canadian dollar is moderate today. It is in a range of around 30 ticks (~ 1.2355 CAD-CAD1.2385). The inability of the Canadian dollar to reach new highs yesterday after the Bank of Canada announcements warns of the risk of further consolidation in the near term. Recall that the greenback recorded a high yesterday before the central bank meeting slightly above CAD1.2430. A breakout of this zone could stimulate a rally towards CAD 1.2475 which we believe would coincide with a pullback in stocks. The US dollar approached the upper end of its recent range against the Mexican peso (~ 20.35 MXN) yesterday. A move above there could signal a move to MXN20.42 and then MXN20.50. Yesterday, Brazil’s central bank hiked the Selic rate by 150bp (to 7.75%) and promised another similar move next month. The two-month trendline is approaching BRL 5.5050 today. A break could target mid-month BRL5.4350 low.
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ESNZ has chosen to adopt the attached Drug and Alcohol policy, after a consultation and approval process within our members and stakeholders, legal advisors and the FEI. All members – riders, officials and staff – will be bound by this new policy while at ESNZ-run events and activities.
Recreational Drug and Alcohol Policy
This Recreational Drug and Alcohol policy has had input from our legal advisors Gibson Sheat, the FEI (Athletes Services & Human Anti-Doping department), both of whom have provided valuable input into it along with New Zealand’s premiere drug and alcohol risk assessment agency.
The programme will be funded by ESNZ with event testing chosen (randomly) by ESNZ and contracted agencies initially used for testing – similar to how the national equine testing programme works. The ESNZ Recreational Drug and Alcohol policy and programme will be run independently from Drug Free Sport NZ’s programme, however, the two may also run alongside from time to time.
Because we can’t test at every event, OCs may wish to have their event tested, using an approved agency, at their own cost, if it is not already part of the programme. Any OC wishing to do this should contact the National Sport Administrator in the first instance for advice and for access to approved drug detection agencies.
We recommend that you familiarise yourself with how Drug and Alcohol testing is carried out, in the event that you may get tested.
What are the consequences of a positive drug test?
Can I refuse to give a sample/be tested?
Download a copy of our process document which maps out what happens in the event of a positive drug test and also if a drug test is refused.
Results for ESNZ Recreational Drug and Alcohol Testing
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does ESNZ need a Drug and Alcohol policy?
ESNZ is committed to ensuring the health and safety of all people associated with its operations and to providing a safe environment. ESNZ and its members, including area groups, clubs and organising committees, also have a legal duty to take reasonable care of participants in Events.
ESNZ recognises that the use of drugs and alcohol can adversely affect an individual’s performance and can be a contributing factor towards making the sport unsafe, increasing the likelihood that injuries and damage to property and equipment will or could occur.
How is drug testing done?
Drug testing is carried out by contractors by analysis of urine or saliva.
What drugs are tested for?
Initially screening will be for Amphetamine (AMP), Benzodiazepine, Cannabinoid (THC), Cocaine (COC), Methamphetamine (MET) and Opiate but further prohibited substances can be screened for also, as required.
How does random drug testing work?
Testing may be conducted upon any person to whom the Policy applies to detect the presence of alcohol or a Prohibited Substance. When testing is random participants will be selected by printing the entry list, and grouping entries in groups of class.
The testing person may develop and implement an operationally appropriate selection process which must meet the satisfaction of the Event Ground Jury.
Who decides what events will be tested by ESNZ?
This is decided upon by head office, in consultation with discipline sport managers and board chairs to ensure a cross section of events will have testing, that will cover all levels of the sport.
What do I do if I suspect someone is under the influence?
If you have a strong suspicion that someone (a rider/official/volunteer) is under the influence and could potentially be putting themselves and others at risk, you should report this immediately to either a Ground Jury member, Steward or OC member. It is the Ground Jury or Steward’s responsibility to act on this information.
Is synthetic cannabis covered by the policy?
Synthetic cannabinoids are illegal, addictive and dangerous. Saliva testing does pick up the presence of any synthetic cannabis.
What is the difference between saliva testing and urine testing?
The main difference is drug detection times.
Urine drug testing picks up a much longer window of detection. This is especially useful for pre-employment.
Saliva testing shows a much shorter detection time on drugs, particularly cannabis. Depending on drug usage, saliva may only detect drug use within the past 2-4 hours.
Saliva drug testing is most useful for picking up recent use and impairment.
What if I am taking over-the-counter or prescription medication?
Many medications contain substances which are therefore prohibited in sport so athletes need to be careful about what they take.
Athletes are encouraged to:
advise medical professionals that they could be drug tested
insist that medical professionals check whether the prescribed medicine is permitted in sport
check medications themselves to see whether they are permitted in sport – https://drugfreesport.org.nz/medication-check/
understand and follow the Therapeutic Use Exemption process if they need to take a medication that contains a prohibited substance.
I am worried that my result will be positive because I sat in a room where people were smoking marijuana.
The cut-off level for cannabis is set to exclude any levels that may come about through passive inhalation of cannabis smoke.
The results of all Tests will be kept confidential to the organisation conducting the Test, the Event
Organiser, any relevant GJ, and ESNZ. Results will be recorded on the ESNZ database, but not made public.
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This proposal was created specifically for a new co-op farm in southeast Austin, TX. Seven groups in our Construction class proposed designs, and my group’s Sunflower Chapel design shown here was chosen by the clients and our professor to be built during the remainder of the semester.
The sunflower chapel is named partly for the field of sunflowers in front and partly because sunflowers are happy, inviting, and open to the sky—all traits with which we wanted to infuse our chapel. We created an exterior that is welcoming and looks like an icon. Within, we created a space that shelters and embraces its visitors and also provides a peaceful gardening space.
Since Agua Dolce Farm wanted a chapel that would fit in with their community and include their neighbors, we wanted our design to express that idea but also to gather and embrace whoever visits. From this, we decided to tilt our chain link walls backwards and extend them upwards so it looks as though they are outstretched to embrace the community. This mimics the behavior of the sunflowers that will be planted right outside and face the bright sky. We also extended the walls forward to embrace people walking up to the chapel and encourage them to come inside. The front and back walls will be made out of wood to provide a contrast to the lightness of the winged chain link walls.
Once inside, we didn’t want people to feel exposed and vulnerable, especially since Agua Dolce Farm made the point that the neighborhood is still a bit rough and things need to be locked down. On the inside, the roof is lowered directly over the door and gradually rises, pulling you in and creating a natural gathering space in the center that feels protected but is also filled with light and doesn’t feel confined. The roof isn’t solid, but is made of strips of chain link panels that are hung flat and only overlap a little bit so that when the panels are overgrown with vines, the openings will act like clerestory windows and let in more light. The interior is meant to be different from the exterior, surprising people when they enter for the first time since there’s no indication of the lowered roof from the front.
We saw the interior as needing space for a large group to gather, a secondary smaller space for flexible use as storage or personal reflection, and plenty of room for growing herbs and plants. We imagined the main group would gather together in the center, surrounded by tables of herbs, sitting inside a beautiful garden and the heart of the farm. Using the natural gentle slope of the site already, we decided it best to level off the ground into three separate levels with only a 6″ height difference, each level for a different use, but all levels also including space for growing herbs. Since the grade changes are so shallow, the interior is organized and flexible so that the layout can be changed as needed.
The exterior walls are double-lined for the full height of the interior, letting the wings that reach upwards look more delicate and ethereal. Along the interior, a swath of chain link panels through the center of the chapel from front to back will be double-lined to shade the central gathering space. We wanted to create a couple of different zones of dappled light to create peaceful areas for gathering and reflection, and brighter areas for growth.
October 2015–present
M. Arch I
August 2015
Currently working on obtaining my architecture license. Worked in book publishing as editor, designer, and project manager for 4 years with Hartnett Inc and The Writings of Mary Baker Eddy.
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During the summer of 2012, I travelled with a colleague to South America for 6 weeks to develop my own architectural theory on the ground in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The project culminated in a 120-page book we published tracing the projection of Western architectural theory since Palladio, and including our own manifestos.
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Time is often represented internally with the metaphor of a line. We literally see a time stretching out into the future, along which we place the events of our life. The line may be straight or curved. It may be one, two or three-dimensional.
Is time is money a metaphor?
Time is money. This metaphor is the idea that time has a value associated with it. When I give you my time I am providing you with value, when I do something I “spend” my time, I can “waste” my time.
What is a good example for metaphor?
Examples of dead metaphors include: “raining cats and dogs,” “throw the baby out with the bathwater,” and “heart of gold.” With a good, living metaphor, you get that fun moment of thinking about what it would look like if Elvis were actually singing to a hound dog (for example).
What is a metaphor for bored?
Boredom is a brick wall. Boredom is a city bus. Boredom is a painted nail.
The apple of one’s eye describes a thing or person which someone loves above all others, someone’s favorite person or thing, a person or thing that he is proud of. It wasn’t long before the apple of one’s eye became a metaphor for something precious.
How do you use a metaphor in an adverb?
When metaphor is used in adverbs, additional meaning is placed upon the verbs being supported. The adverb may well contain the metaphor to the standard verb being used. The verb may also contain the main metaphor, in which case the adverb acts in support or jarring contrast.
What is an adverbial of time?
An adverbial of time is a phrase that functions in the same way as an adverb of time. It gives more information about the verb. Some examples are: I lived in France for a year. I have lived in London since 2001. How do we use them? 1. Sentence position Adverbs of time usually occur at the end of a clause. They appear after the main verb. e.g.
What are adverbials used with the simple past?
Adverbials used with the simple past. When we make a sentence in the simple past we often use an adverbial to say when the event happened: Sentence. Adverbial. I went to Madrid. yesterday.
Which adverbs are used to fix events in time?
These adverbs fix events in time. They include adverbs such as tonight and tomorrow. They allow the speaker to give specific information about when something happened. They may include adverb phrases, such as: the day before yesterday. 4.
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A lot of people have been getting all worked up about Paul Krugman’s acerbic takedown of Robert Barro for suggesting in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in 2011 that increased government spending would not stimulate the economy. Barro’s target was a claim by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that every additional dollar spent on food stamps would actually result in a net increase of $1.84 in total spending. This statement so annoyed Barro that, in a fit of pique, he wrote the following.
Keynesian economics argues that incentives and other forces in regular economics are overwhelmed, at least in recessions, by effects involving “aggregate demand.” Recipients of food stamps use their transfers to consume more. Compared to this urge, the negative effects on consumption and investment by taxpayers are viewed as weaker in magnitude, particularly when the transfers are deficit-financed.
Thus, the aggregate demand for goods rises, and businesses respond by selling more goods and then by raising production and employment. The additional wage and profit income leads to further expansions of demand and, hence, to more production and employment. As per Mr. Vilsack, the administration believes that the cumulative effect is a multiplier around two.
If valid, this result would be truly miraculous. The recipients of food stamps get, say, $1 billion but they are not the only ones who benefit. Another $1 billion appears that can make the rest of society better off. Unlike the trade-off in regular economics, that extra $1 billion is the ultimate free lunch.
How can it be right? Where was the market failure that allowed the government to improve things just by borrowing money and giving it to people? Keynes, in his “General Theory” (1936), was not so good at explaining why this worked, and subsequent generations of Keynesian economists (including my own youthful efforts) have not been more successful.
Sorry to brag, but it was actually none other than moi that (via Mark Thoma) brought this little gem to Krugman’s attention. In what is still my third most visited blog post, I expressed incredulity that Barro could ask where Is the market failure about a situation in which unemployment suddenly rises to more than double its pre-recession level. I also pointed out that Barro had himself previously acknowledged in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that monetary expansion could alleviate a cyclical increase in unemployment. If monetary policy (printing money on worthless pieces of paper) can miraculously reduce unemployment, why is out of the question that government spending could also reduce unemployment, especially when it is possible to view government spending as a means of transferring cash from people with unlimited demand for money to those unwilling to increase their holdings of cash? So, given Barro’s own explicit statement that monetary policy could be stimulative, it seemed odd for him to suggest, without clarification, that it would be a miracle if fiscal policy were effective.
Apparently, Krugman felt compelled to revisit this argument of Barro’s because of the recent controversy about extending unemployment insurance, an issue to which Barro made only passing reference in his 2011 piece. Krugman again ridiculed the idea that just because regular economics says that a policy will have adverse effects under “normal” conditions, the policy must be wrongheaded even in a recession.
But if you follow right-wing talk — by which I mean not Rush Limbaugh but the Wall Street Journal and famous economists like Robert Barro — you see the notion that aid to the unemployed can create jobs dismissed as self-evidently absurd. You think that you can reduce unemployment by paying people not to work? Hahahaha!
Quite aside from the fact that this ridicule is dead wrong, and has had a malign effect on policy, think about what it represents: it amounts to casually trashing one of the most important discoveries economists have ever made, one of my profession’s main claims to be useful to humanity.
Krugman was subsequently accused of bad faith in making this argument because he, like other Keynesians, has acknowledged that unemployment insurance tends to increase the unemployment rate. Therefore, his critics argue, it was hypocritical of Krugman to criticize Barro and the Wall Street Journal for making precisely the same argument that he himself has made. Well, you can perhaps accuse Krugman of being a bit artful in his argument by not acknowledging explicitly that a full policy assessment might in fact legitimately place some limit on UI benefits, but Krugman’s main point is obviously not to assert that “regular economics” is necessarily wrong, just that Barro and the Wall Street Journal are refusing to acknowledge that countercyclical policy of some type could ever, under any circumstances, be effective. Or, to put it another way, Krugman could (and did) easily agree that increasing UI will increases the natural rate of unemployment, but, in a recession, actual unemployment is above the natural rate, and UI can cause the actual rate to fall even as it causes the natural rate to rise.
Now Barro might respond that all he was really saying in his 2011 piece was that the existence of a government spending multiplier significantly greater than zero is not supported by the empirical evidenc. But there are two problems with that response. First, it would still not resolve the theoretical inconsistency in Barro’s argument that monetary policy does have magical properties in a recession with his position that fiscal policy has no such magical powers. Second, and perhaps less obviously, the empirical evidence on which Barro relies does not necessarily distinguish between periods of severe recession or depression and periods when the economy is close to full employment. If so, the empirical estimates of government spending multipliers are subject to the Lucas critique. Parameter estimates may not be stable over time, because those parameters may change depending on the cyclical phase of the economy. The multiplier at the trough of a deep business cycle may be much greater than the multiplier at close to full employment. The empirical estimates for the multiplier cited by Barro make no real allowance for different cyclical phases in estimating the multiplier.
PS Scott Sumner also comes away from reading Barro’s 2011 piece perplexed by what Barro is really saying and why, and does an excellent job of trying in vain to find some coherent conceptual framework within which to understand Barro. The problem is that there is none. That’s why Barro deserves the rough treatment he got from Krugman.
The FOMC issued an opaque statement yesterday observing that the economy is continuing to expand at “a moderate pace,” though unemployment remains too high while inflation is falling. The statement attributes the weakness of the recovery, at least in part, to fiscal tightening, perhaps suggesting that the Fed would not, under these circumstances, tighten monetary policy if fiscal policy were eased.
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in March suggests that economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace. Labor market conditions have shown some improvement in recent months, on balance, but the unemployment rate remains elevated. Household spending and business fixed investment advanced, and the housing sector has strengthened further, but fiscal policy is restraining economic growth. Inflation has been running somewhat below the Committee’s longer-run objective, apart from temporary variations that largely reflect fluctuations in energy prices. Longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.
Notice despite the neutral, matter-of-fact tone of the statement, there are two factually inaccurate, or at least misleading, assertions about inflation. First, while the assertion “inflation has been running somewhat below the Committee’s longer-run objective,” is not objectively false, the assertion ignores the steady downward trend in inflation for the past year, while sewing confusion with a gratuitous diversionary reference to “temporary variations that largely reflect fluctuations in energy prices.” By almost any measure, inflation is now running closer to 1% than to the Fed’s own 2% target.
Second, the statement asserts that longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable. Oh really? If we take the 10-year TIPS spread as a proxy for long-term inflation expectations, inflation expectations have been falling steadily since the mid-January to mid-March time frame, when the breakeven rate fluctuated in a narrow range between 2.5% and 2.6%, to a spread of 2.3% yesterday, the lowest since early September of last year.
The FOMC continues:
Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The Committee expects that, with appropriate policy accommodation, economic growth will proceed at a moderate pace and the unemployment rate will gradually decline toward levels the Committee judges consistent with its dual mandate. The Committee continues to see downside risks to the economic outlook. The Committee also anticipates that inflation over the medium term likely will run at or below its 2% objective.
Well, here is my question. If the FOMC “seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability,” and the FOMC itself anticipates that inflation over the medium term will likely be less than 2%, why, under the FOMC’s own definition of price stability as 2% inflation, is the FOMC proposing to do nothing — not a single wretched thing — to hit its own inflation target?
Under both elements of its dual mandate, the FOMC is unambiguously obligated to increase the rate of monetary accommodation now being provided. The FOMC asserts that unemployment is elevated; it also asserts, notwithstanding a pathetic attempt to disguise that obvious fact, that inflation is below its target. Both conditions require increased monetary expansion. There is now no trade-off between inflation and unemployment, and no conflict between the Fed’s two mandates. So why can’t the Fed do what it is plainly obligated to do by current legislation? Pointing a finger at the President and Congress cannot absolve the Fed of its own legal obligation not to tolerate an inflation rate below that consistent with price stability when unemployment is elevated. Is there no one capable of extracting from the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board an explanation of this dereliction of duty?
Interestingly enough, I happened to catch a piece (“Should we bring inflation back from the dead?”) on American Public Radio’s “Marketplace” last evening. After asking David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College and Kevin Jacques of Baldwin Wallace University about the potential benefits of moderate inflation in the current environment, reporter David Gura turned to Marvin Goodfriend, formerly of the Richmond Fed, and now at Carnegie-Mellon, for a contrary view. Here is how Goodfriend explained why more inflation would not be a good thing.
Of course, resurrecting inflation is not risk-free. Economist Marvin Goodfriend says this kind of thinking could lead the economy to overheat: “If a little inflation is good, maybe a little more inflation is better.” It is something that is hard to control.
Goodfriend tells his students at Carnegie Mellon University to remember something.
“Inflation doesn’t die,” he says. “It’s like a vampire.”
You can vanquish it with “determined policy,” Goodfriend explains. Inflation will creep back into its coffin. And then, when you least expect it, it can come back with a vengeance.
Whew! Talk about sophisticated economic analysis. But then again, Goodfriend’s students at Carnegie-Mellon are super bright, aren’t they? Could this be what Bernanke and his colleagues are thinking? The vampire theory of inflation? Say it ain’t so, Ben.
They Come not to Praise Market Monetarism, but to Bury It
For some reason – maybe he is still annoyed with Scott Sumner – Paul Krugman decided to channel a post by Mike Konczal purporting to show that Market Monetarism has been refuted by the preliminary first quarter GDP numbers showing NGDP increasing at a 3.7% rate and real GDP increasing at a 2.5% rate in Q1. To Konczal and Krugman (hereinafter K&K) this shows that fiscal policy, not monetary policy, is what matters most for macroeconomic performance. Why is that? Because the Fed, since embarking on its latest splurge of bond purchasing last September, has failed to stimulate economic activity in the face of the increasingly contractionary stance of fiscal policy since them (the fiscal 2013 budget deficit recently being projected to be $775 billion, a mere 4.8% of GDP).
So can we get this straight? GDP is now rising at about the same rate it has been rising since the start of the “recovery” from the 2007-09 downturn. Since September monetary policy has become easier and fiscal policy tighter. And that proves what? Sorry, I still don’t get it. But then again, I was always a little slow on the uptake.
Marcus Nunes, the Economist, Scott Sumner, and David Beckworth all weigh in on the not very devastating K&K onslaught. (Also see this post by Evan Soltas written before the fact.) But let me try to cool things down a bit.
If we posit that we are still in something akin to a zero-lower-bound situation, there are perfectly respectable theoretical grounds on which to recommend both fiscal and monetary stimulus. It is true that monetary policy, in principle, could stimulate a recovery even without fiscal stimulus — and even in the face of fiscal contraction — but for monetary policy to be able to be that effective, it would have to operate through the expectations channel, raising price-level expectations sufficiently to induce private spending. However, for good or ill, monetary policy is not aiming at more than a marginal change in inflation expectations. In that kind of policy environment, the potential effect of monetary policy is sharply constrained. Hence, the monetary theoretical case for fiscal stimulus. This is classic Hawtreyan credit deadlock (see here and here).
If monetary policy can’t do all the work by itself, then the question is whether fiscal policy can help. In principle it could if the Fed is willing to monetize the added debt generated by the fiscal stimulus. But there’s the rub. If the Fed has to monetize the added debt created by the fiscal stimulus — which, for argument’s sake, let us assume is more stimulative than equivalent monetary expansion without the fiscal stimulus — what are we supposed to assume will happen to inflation and inflation expectations?
Here is the internal contradiction – the Sumner critique, if you will – implicit in the Keynesian fiscal-policy prescription. Can fiscal policy work without increasing the rate of inflation or inflation expectations? If monetary policy alone cannot work, because it cannot break through the inflation targeting regime that traps us at the 2 percent inflation ceiling, how is fiscal policy supposed to work its way around the 2% inflation ceiling, except by absolving monetary policy of the obligation to keep inflation at or below the ceiling? But if we can allow the ceiling to be pierced by fiscal policy, why can’t we allow it to be pierced by monetary policy?
Perhaps K&K can explain that one to us.
My recent post on Hawtrey and the Treasury View occasioned an exchange of emails with David Laidler about Hawtrey, the Treasury View. and the gold standard. As usual, David made some important points that I thought would be worth sharing. I will try to come back to some of his points in future posts, but for now I will just refer to his comments about Hawtrey and the Treasury View.
David drew my attention to his own discussion of Hawtrey and the Treasury View in his excellent book Fabricating the Keynesian Revolution (especially pp. 112-28). Here are some excerpts.
It is well known that Hawtrey was a firm advocate of using the central bank’s discount rate – bank rate, as it is called in British terminology – as the principal instrument of monetary policy, and this might at first sight seem to place him in the tradition of Walter Bagehot. However, Hawtrey’s conception of the appropriate target for policy was very different from Bagehot’s, and he was well aware of the this difference. Bagehot had regarded the maintenance of gold convertibility as the sine qua non of monetary policy, and as Hawtrey told reader of his Art of Central Banking, “a central bank working the gold standard must rectify an outflow of gold by a restriction of credit and an inflow of gold by a relaxation of credit. Under Hawtrey’s preferred scheme, on the other hand,
substantially the plan embodied in the currency resolution adopted at the Genoa Conference of 1922, . . . the contral banks of the world [would[ regulated credit with a view to preventing undue fluctuations in the purchasing power of gold.
More generally he saw the task of central banking as being to mitigate that inherent instability of credit which was the driving force of economic fluctuations, by ensuring, as far as possible, that cumulative expansions and contractions of bank deposits were eliminated, or, failing that, when faced by depression, to bring about whatever degree of monetary expansion might be required to restore economic activity to a satisfactory level. (pp. 122-23)
Laidler links Hawtrey’s position about the efficacy of central bank policy in moderating economic fluctuations to Hawtrey’s 1925 paper on public-works spending and employment, the classic statement of the Treasury View.
Unlike the majority of his English . . . contemporaries, Hawtrey thus had few doubts about the ultimate powers of conventional monetary policy to stimulate the economy, even in the most depressed circumstances. In parallel with that belief . . . he was skeptical about the powers of government-expenditure programs to have any aggregate effects on income and employment, except to the extent that they were financed by money creation. Hawtrey was, in fact, the originator of the particular version of “the Treasury view” of those matters that Hicks . . . characterized in terms of a vertical-LM-curve version of the IS-LM framework.
Hawtrey had presented at least the bare bones of that doctrine in Good and Bad Trade (1913), but his definitive exposition is to be found in his 1925 Economica paper. . . . [T]hat exposition was cast in terms of a system in which, given the levels of money wages and prices, the levels of output and employment were determined by the aggregate rate of low of expenditure on public works can be shown to imply an increase in the overall level of effective demand, the consequences must be an equal reduction in the expenditure of some other sector. . . .
That argument by Hawtrey deserves more respect than it is usually given. His conclusions do indeed follow from the money-growth-driven income-expenditure system with which he analysed the cycle. They follow from an IS-LM model when the economy is operating where the interest sensitivity of the demand for money in negligible, so that what Hicks would later call “the classical theory” is relevant. If, with the benefit of hindsight, Hawtrey might be convicted of over-generalizing from a special case, his analysis nevertheless made a significant contribution in demonstrating the dangers inherent in Pigou’s practice of going “behind the distorting veil of money” in order to deal with such matters. Hawtrey’s view, that the influence of public-works expenditures on the economy’s overall rate of flow of money expenditures was crucial to their effects on employment was surely valid. (pp.125-26)
Laidler then observes that no one else writing at the time had identified the interest-sensitivity of the demand for money as the relevant factor in judging whether public-works expenditure could increase employment.
It is true that the idea of a systematic interest sensitivity of the demand for money had been worked out by Lavington in the early 1920s, but it is also true that none of Hawtrey’s critics . . . saw its critical relevance to this matter during that decade and into the next. Indeed, Hawtrey himself came as close as any of them did before 1936 to developing a more general, not to say correct, argument about thte influence of the monetary system on the efficacy of public-works expenditure. . . . And he argued that once an expansion got under way, increased velocity would indeed accompany it. However, and crucially, he also insisted that “if no expansion of credit at all is allowed, the conditions which produce increased rapidity of circulation cannot begin to develop.”
Hindsight, illuminated by an IS-LM diagram with an upward-sloping LM curve, shows that the last step of his argument was erroneous, but Hawtrey was not alone in holding such a position. The fact is that in the 1920s and early 1930s, many advocates of public-works expenditures were careful to note that their success would be contingent upon their being accommodated by appropriate monetary measures. For example, when Richard Kahn addressed that issue in his classic article on the employment multiplier, he argued as follows:
It is, however, important to realize that the intelligent co-operation of the banking system is being taken for granted. . . . If the increased circulation of notes and the increased demand for working capital that may result from increased employment are made the occasion for a restriction of credit, then any attempt to increase employment . . . may be rendered nugatory. (pp. 126-27)
Thus, Laidler shows that Hawtrey’s position on the conditions in which public-works spending could increase employment was practically indistinguishable from Richard Kahn’s position on the same question in 1931. And I would emphasize once again that, inasmuch as Hawtrey’s 1925 position was taken when the Bank of England policy was setting its lending rate at the historically high level of 5% to encourage an inflow of gold and allow England to restore the gold standard at the prewar parity, Hawtrey was correct, notwithstanding any tendency of public-works spending to increase velocity, to dismiss public-works spending as a remedy for unemployment as long as bank rate was not reduced.
Hawtrey v. Keynes on the Rate of Interest that Matters
Published March 31, 2013 expectations , fiscal policy , Hawtrey , J. R. Hicks , Keynes , monetary policy , monetary theory 7 Comments
Tags: Austrian Business-Cycle Theory, business cycles, rational expectations
In my previous post, I quoted Keynes’s remark about the “stimulus and useful suggestion” he had received from Hawtrey and the “fundamental sympathy and agreement” that he felt with Hawtrey even though he nearly always disagreed with Hawtrey in detail. One important instance of such simultaneous agreement about principle and disagreement about detail involves their conflicting views about whether it is the short-run rate of interest (bank rate) or the long-run rate of interest (bond rate) that is mainly responsible for the fluctuations in investment that characterize business cycles, the fluctuations that monetary policy should therefore attempt to control.
Already in 1913 in his first work on monetary theory, Good and Bad Trade, Hawtrey had identified the short-term interest rate as the key causal variable in the business cycle, inasmuch as the holdings of inventories that traders want to hold are highly sensitive to the short-term interest rates at which traders borrow to finance those holdings. Increases in the desired inventories induce output increases by manufacturers, thereby generating increased incomes for workers and increased spending by consumers, further increasing the desired holding of stocks by traders. Reduced short-term interest rates, according to Hawtrey, initiated a cumulative process leading to a permanently higher level of nominal income and output. But Keynes disputed whether adjustments in the desired stocks held by traders were of sufficient size to account for the observed fluctuations in income and employment. Instead, Keynes argued, it was fluctuations in fixed-capital investment that accounted for the fluctuations in income and employment characteristic of business cycles. In his retrospective (1969) on the differences between Hawtrey and Keynes, J. R. Hicks observed that “there are large parts of the Treatise [on Money] which are a reply to Currency and Credit Hawtrey’s 1919 book on monetary theory and business cycles. But despite their differences, Hicks emphasized that Hawtrey and Keynes
started from common ground, not only on the need for policy, but in agreement that the instrument of policy was the rate of interest, or “terms of credit,” to be determined, directly or indirectly, by a Central Bank. But what rate of interest? It was Hawtrey’s doctrine that the terms of bank lending had a direct eSect on the activity of trade and industry; traders, having more to pay for credit, would seek to reduce their stocks, being therefore less willing to buy and more willing to sell. Keynes, from the start (or at least from the time of the Treatise 1930) rejected this in his opinion too simple view. He substituted for it (or began by substituting for it) an alternative mechanism through the long rate of interest. A change in the terms of bank lending affected the long rate of interest, the terms on which business could raise long-term capital; only in this roundabout way would a change in the terms of bank lending affect the activity of industry.
I think we can now see, after all that has happened, and has been said, since 1930, that the trouble with both of these views (as they were presented, or at least as they were got over) was that the forces they purported to identify were not strong enough to bear the weight that was put upon them. This is what Keynes said about Hawtrey (I quote from the Treatise):
The whole emphasis is placed on one particular kind of investment, namely, investment by dealers and middlemen in liquid goods-to which a degree of sensitivity to changes in Bank Rate is attributed which certainly does not exist in fact…. [Hawtrey] relies exclusively on the increased costs of business resulting from dearer money. [He] admits that these additional costs will be too small materially to affect the manufacturer, but assumes without investigation that they do materially affect the trader…. Yet probably the question whether he is paying S or 6 per cent for the accommodation he receives from his banker influences the mind of the dealer very little more than it influences the mind of the manufacturer as compared with the current and prospective rate of take-off for the goods he deals in and his expectations as to their prospective price-movements. [Treatise on Money, v. I, pp. 193-95.]
Although Hicks did not do so, it is worth quoting the rest of Keynes’s criticism of Hawtrey
The classical refutation of Hawtrey was given by Tooke in his examination of an argument very similar to Hawtrey’s, put forward nearly a hundred years ago by Joseph Hume. Before the crisis of 1836-37 the partisans of the “currency theory” . . . considered the influence of the Bank of England on the price level only operated through the amount of its circulation; but in 1839 the new-fangled notion was invented that Bank-rate also had an independent influence through its effect on “speculation.”
Keynes then quoted the following passage from Tooke:
There are, doubtless, persons, who, upon imperfect information, and upon insufficient grounds, or with too sanguine a view of contingencies in their favour, speculate improvidently; but their motive or inducement so to speculate is the opinion which, whether well or ill-founded, or whether upon their own view or upon the authority or example of other persons, they entertain the probability of an advance of price. It is not the mere facility of borrowing, or the difference between borrowing at 3 or at 6 percent that supplies the motive for purchasing, or even for selling. Few persons of the description here mentioned ever speculate but upon the confident expectation of an advance of price of at least 10 percent.
In his review of the Treatise, published in The Art of Central Banking, Hawtrey took note of this passage and Keynes’s invocation of Tooke’s comment on Joseph Hume.
This quotation from Tooke is entirely beside the point. My argument relates not to speculators . . . but to regular dealers or merchants. And as to these there is no evidence, in the following passage, that Tooke’s view of the effects of a rise in the rate of interest did not differ very widely from that which I have advocated. In volume v. of his History of Prices (p. 584) he wrote:
Inasmuch as a higher than ordinary rate of interest supposes a contraction of credit, such goods as are held by means of a large proportion of borrowed capital may be forced for sale by a difficulty in obtaining banking accommodation, the measure of which difficulty is in the rate of discount and perhaps in the insufficiency of security. In this view, and in this view only, a rate of interest higher than ordinary may be said to have an influence in depressing prices.
Tooke here concentrates on the effect of a high rate of interest in hastening sales. I should lay more emphasis on delaying purchases. But at any rate he clearly recognizes the susceptibility to credit conditions of the regular dealers in commodities.
And Hicks, after quoting Keynes’s criticism of Hawtrey’s focus on the short-term interest, followed up with following observation about Keynes:
Granted, but could not very much the same be said of Keynes’s own alternative mechanism? One has a feeling that in the years when he was designing the General Theory he was still clinging to it, for it is deeply embedded in the structure of his theory; yet one suspects that before the book left his hands it was already beginning to pass out. It has left a deep mark on the teaching of Keynesian economics, but a much less deep mark upon its practical influence. In the fight that ensued after the publication of the General Theory, it was quite clearly a casualty.
In other words, although Keynes in the Treatise believed that variation in the long-term interest rate could moderate business-cycle fluctuations by increasing or decreasing the amount of capital expenditure by business firms, Keynes in the General Theory was already advocating the direct control of spending through fiscal policy and minimizing the likely effectiveness of trying to control spending via the effect of monetary policy on the long-term interest rate. Hicks then goes on to observe that the most effective response to Keynes’s view that monetary policy operates by way of its effect on the long-term rate of interest came from none other than Hawtrey.
It had taken him some time to mount his attack on Keynes’s “modus operandi of Bank Rate” but when it came it was formidable. The empirical data which Keynes had used to support his thesis were derived from a short period only-the 1920’s; and Hawtrey was able to show that it was only in the first half of that decade (when, in the immediate aftermath of the War, the long rate in England was for that time unusually volatile) that an effect of monetary policy on the long rate, sufficient to give substantial support yo Keynes’s case, was at all readily detectable. Hawtrey took a much longer period. In A Century of Bank Rate which, in spite of the narrowness of its subject, seems to me to be one of his best books, he ploughed through the whole of the British experience from 1844 to the date of writing; and of any effect of Bank Rate (or of any short rate) upon the long rate of interest, sufficient to carry the weight of Keynes’s argument, he found little trace.
On the whole I think that we may infer that Bank Rate and measures of credit restriction taken together rarely, if ever, affected the price of Consols by more than two or three points; whereas a variation of }4 percent in the long-term rate of interest would correspond to about four points in the price of a 3 percent stock.
Now a variation of even less than 1/8 per cent in the long-term rate of interest ought, theoretically and in the long run, to have a definite effect for what it is worth on the volume of capital outlay…. But there is in reality no close adjustment of prospective yield to the rate of interest. Most of the industrial projects offered for exploitation at any time promise yields ever so far above the rate of interest…. [They will not be adopted until] promoters are satisfied that the projects they take up will yield a commensurate profit, and the rate of interest calculated on money raised will probably be no more than a very moderate deduction from this profit. [A Century of Bank Rate pp. 170-71]
Hicks concludes that, as regards the effect of the rate of interest on investment and aggregate spending, Keynes and Hawtrey cancelled each other out, thereby clearing the path for fiscal policy to take over as the key policy instrument for macroeconomic stabilization, a conclusion that Hawtrey never accepted. But Hicks adds an interesting and very modern-sounding (even 40 years on) twist to his argument.
When I reviewed the General Theory, the explicit introduction of expectations was one of the things which I praised; but I have since come to feel that what Keynes gave with one hand, he took away with the other. Expectations do appear in the General Theory, but (in the main) they appear as data; as autonomous influences that come in from outside, not as elements that are moulded in the course of the process that is being analysed. . . .
I would maintain that in this respect Hawtrey is distinctly superior. In his analysis of the “psychological effect” of Bank Rate — it is not just a vague indication, it is analysis — he identifies an element which ought to come into any monetary theory, whether the mechanism with which it is concerned is Hawtrey’s, or any other. . . .
What is essential, on Hawtrey’s analysis, is that it should be possible (and should look as if it were possible) for the Central Bank to take decisive action. There is a world of difference . . . between action which is determinedly directed to imposing restraint, so that it gives the impression that if not effective in itself, it will be followed by further doses of the same medicine; and identically the same action which does not engender the same expectations. Identically the same action may be indecisive, if it appears to be no more than an adjustment to existing market conditions; or if the impression is given that it is the most that is politically possible. If conditions are such that gentle pressure can be exerted in a decisive manner, no more than gentle pressure will, as a rule, be required. But as soon as there is doubt about decisiveness, gentle pressure is useless; even what would otherwise be regarded as violent action may then be ineffective. [p. 313]
There is a term which was invented, and then spoiled, by Pigou . . . on which I am itching to get my hand; it is the term announcement effect. . . . I want to use the announcement effect of an act of policy to mean the change which takes place in people’s minds, the change in the prospect which they think to be before them, before there is any change which expresses itself in transactions of any kind. It is the same as what Hawtrey calls “psychological effect”; but that is a bad term, for it suggests something irrational, and this is entirely rational. Expectations of the future (entirely rational expectations) [note Hicks’s use of the term “rational expectations before Lucas or Sargent] are based upon the data that are available in the present. An act of policy (if it is what I have called a decisive action) is a significant addition to the data that are available; it should result, and should almost immediately result, in a shift in expectations. This is what I mean by an announcement effect.
What I learn from Hawtrey’s analysis is that the “classical” Bank Rate system was strong, or could be strong, in its announcement effects. Fiscal policy, at least as so far practised, gets from this point of view much worse marks. It is not simply that it is slow, being subject to all sorts of parliamentary and administrative delays; made indecisive, merely because the gap between announcement and effective operation is liable to be so long. This is by no means its only defect. Its announcement effect is poor, for the very reason which is often claimed to be one of its merits its selectivity; for selectivity implies complexity and an instrument which is to have a strong announcement effect should, above all, be simple. [p. 315]
Just to conclude this rather long and perhaps rambling selection of quotes with a tangentially related observation, I will note that Hawtrey’s criticism of Keynes’s identification of the long-term interest rate as the key causal and policy variable for the analysis of business cycles applies with equal force to Austrian business-cycle theory, which, as far as I can tell, rarely, if ever, distinguishes between the effects of changes in short-term and long-term rates caused by monetary policy.
Responding to this recent post of mine, Robert Waldmann wrote a post of his own with a title alluding to an earlier post of mine responding to a previous post of his. Just to recapitulate briefly, the point of the post which seems to have provoked Professor Waldmann was to refute the allegation that the Fed and the Bank of Japan are starting a currency war by following a policy of monetary ease in which they are raising (at least temporarily) their inflation target. I focused my attention on a piece written by Irwin Stelzer for the Weekly Standard, entitled not so coincidentally, “Currency Wars.” I also went on to point out that Stelzer, in warning of the supposedly dire consequences of starting a currency war, very misleadingly suggested that Hitler’s rise to power was the result of an inflationary policy followed by Germany in the 1930s.
I do not find any reference to the zero lower bound in this post. Your analysis of monetary expansion does not distinguish between the cases when the ZLB holds and when it doesn’t. You assume that the effect of an expansion of the money supply on domestic demand can be analyzed ignoring that detail. I think it is clear that the association between the money supply and domestic demand has been different in the USA since oh September 2008 than it was before. This doesn’t seem to me to be a detail which can be entirely overlooked in any discussion of current policy.
Actually, I don’t think that, in principle, I disagree with any of this. I agree that the zero lower bound is relevant to the analysis of the current situation. I prefer to couch the analysis in terms of the Fisher equation making use of the equilibrium condition that the nominal rate of interest must equal the real rate plus expected inflation. If the expected rate of deflation is greater than the real rate, equilibrium is impossible and the result is a crash of asset prices, which is what happened in 2008. But as long as the real rate of interest is negative (presumably because of pessimistic entrepreneurial expectations), the rate of inflation has to be sufficiently above real rate of interest for nominal rates to be comfortably above zero. As long as nominal rates are close to zero and real rates are negative, the economy cannot be operating in the neighborhood of full-employment equilibrium. I developed the basic theory in my paper “The Fisher Effect Under Deflationary Expectations” available on SSRN, and provided some empirical evidence (which I am hoping to update soon) that asset prices (as reflected in the S&P 500) since 2008 have been strongly correlated with expected inflation (as approximated by the TIPS spread) even though there is no strong theoretical reason for asset prices to be correlated with expected inflation, and no evidence of correlation before 2008. Although I think that this is a better way than the Keynesian model to think about why the US economy has been underperforming so badly since 2008, I don’t think that the models are contradictory or inconsistent, so I don’t deny that fiscal policy could have some stimulative effect. But apparently that is not good enough for Professor Waldmann.
Also, I note that prior to his [Stelzer’s] “jejune dismissal of monetary policy,” Stelzer jenunely dismissed fiscal policy. You don’t mention this at all. Your omission is striking, since the evidence that Stelzer is wrong to dismiss fiscal policy is overwhelming (not overwhelming enough to overwhelm John Taylor but then mere evidence couldn’t do that). In contrast, the dismissal of monetary policy when an economy is in a liquidity trap is consistent with the available evidence.
It seems to me that Waldmann is being a tad oversensitive. Stelzer’s line was “stimulus packages don’t work very well, and monetary policy produces lots of fiat money but not very many jobs.” What was jejune was not the conclusion that fiscal policy and monetary policy aren’t effective; it was his formulation that monetary expansion produces lots of fiat money but not many jobs, a formulation which, I believe, was intended to be clever, but struck me as being not clever, but, well, jejune. So I did not mean to deny that fiscal policy could be effective at the zero lower bound, but I disagree that the available evidence is consistent with the proposition that monetary policy is ineffective in a liquidity trap. In 1933, for example, monetary policy triggered the fastest economic expansion in US history, when FDR devalued the dollar shortly after taking office, an expansion unfortunately prematurely terminated by the enactment of FDR’s misguided National Industrial Recovery Act. The strong correlation between inflation expectations and stock prices since 2008, it seems to me, also qualifies as evidence that monetary policy is not ineffective at the zero lower bound. But if Professor Waldmann has a different interpretation of the significance of that correlation, I would be very interested in hearing about it.
Instead of looking at the relationship between inflation expectations and stock prices, Waldmann wants to look at the relationship between job growth and monetary policy:
I hereby challenge you to show data on US “growth” meaning (I agree with your guess) mostly employment growth since 2007 to someone unfamiliar with the debate and ask that person to find the dates of shifts in monetary policy. I am willing to bet actual money (not much I don’t have much) that the person will not pick out QEIII or operation twist. I also guess that this person will not detect forward guidance looking at day to day changes in asset prices.
I claim that the null that nothing special happened the day QEIV was announced or any of the 4 plausible dates of announcement of QE2 (starting with a FOMC meeting, then Bernanke’s Jackson Hole speech then 2 more) can’t be rejected by the data. This is based on analysis by two SF FED economists who look at the sum of changes over three of the days (not including the Jackson Hole day when the sign was wrong) and get a change (of the sign they want) whose square is less than 6 times the variance of daily changes (of the 10 year rate IIRC). IIRC 4.5 times. Cherry picking and not rejecting the null one wants to reject is a sign that one’s favored (alternative) hypothesis is not strongly supported by the data.
I think that the way to pick out changes in monetary policy is to look at changes in inflation expectations, and I think that you can find some correlation between changes in monetary policy, so identified, and employment, though it is probably not nearly as striking as the relationship between asset prices and inflation expectations. I also don’t think that operation twist had any positive effect, but QE3 does seem to have had some. I am not familiar with the study by the San Francisco Fed economists, but I will try to find it and see what I can make out of it. In the meantime, even if Waldmann is correct about the relationship between monetary policy and employment since 2008, there are all kinds of good reasons for not rushing to reject a null hypothesis on the basis of a handful of ambiguous observations. That wouldn’t necessarily be the calm and reasonable thing to do.
Negotiating the Fiscal Cliff
Last week I did a post based on a chart that I saw in an article in the New York Review of Books by Paul Krugman. Relying on an earlier paper by Robert Hall on the empirical evidence about the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus, Krugman used the chart to illustrate the efficacy of government spending as a stimulus to economic recovery. While Krugman evidently thought his chart was a pretty compelling visual aid in showing that fiscal stimulus really works, I didn’t find his chart that impressive, because there were relatively few years in which changes in government spending were clearly associated with large changes in growth, and a lot of years with large changes in growth, but little or no change in government spending.
In particular, the years in which government spending seemed to make a big difference were during and immediately after World War II. The 1930s, however, were associated with huge swings in GDP, but with comparatively minimal changes in government spending. Instead, changes in GDP in the 1930s were associated with big changes in the price level. The big increases in GDP in the early 1940s were also associated with big increases in the price level, the rapid rise in the price level slowing down only in 1943 after price controls were imposed in 1942. When controls were gradually lifted in 1946 and 1947, inflation increased sharply notwithstanding a sharp economic contraction, creating a spurious (in my view) negative correlation between (measured) inflation and the change in GDP. From 1943 to mid-1945, properly measured inflation was increasing much faster than official indices that made no adjustment for the shortages and quality degradation caused by the price controls. Similarly, the measured inflation from late 1945 through 1947, when price controls were being gradually relaxed and dismantled, overstated actual inflation, because increases in official prices were associated with the elimination of shortages and improving quality.
So in my previous post, I tried to do a quantitative analysis of the data underlying Krugman’s chart. Unfortunately, I only came up with a very rough approximation of his data. Using my rough approximation (constructing a chart resembling, but clearly different from, Krugman’s), I ran a regression estimating the statistical relationship between yearly changes in military spending (Krugman’s statistical instrument for fiscal stimulus) as a percentage of GDP and yearly changes in real GDP from 1929 to 1962. I then compared that statistical relationship to the one between annual changes in the price level and annual changes in real GDP over the same time period. After controlling for the mismeasurement of inflation in 1946 and 1947, I found that changes in the rate of inflation were more closely correlated to changes in real GDP over the 1929-1962 time period than were changes in military spending and changes in real GDP. Unfortunately, I also claimed (mistakenly) that that regressing changes in real GDP on both changes in military spending and inflation (again controlling for mismeasurement of inflation in 1946-47) did not improve the statistical fit of the regression, and did not show a statistically significant coefficient for the military-spending term. That claim was based on looking at the wrong regression estimates. Sorry, I blew that one.
Over the weekend, Mark Sadowski kindly explained to me how Krugman did the calculations underlying his chart, even generating the data for me, thereby allowing me to reconstruct Krugman’s chart and to redo my earlier regressions using the exact data. Here are the old and the new results.
NEW: dGDP = 3.26 + .51dG, r-squared = .433
So, according to the correct data set, the relationship between changes in government spending and changes in GDP is closer than the approximated data set that I used previously. However, the newly estimated coefficient on the government spending term is almost 30% smaller than the coefficient previously estimated using the approximated data set. In other words a one dollar increase in government spending generates an increase in GDP of only 50 cents. Increasing government spending reduces private spending by about half.
The estimated regression for changes in real GDP on inflation changed only slightly:
The estimated regression for changes in real GDP on inflation (controlled for mismeasurement of inflation in 1946 and 1947) also showed only a slight change:
OLD: dGDP = 2.76 + 1.28dP – 23.29PCON, r-squared = .621
NEW: dGDP = 3.02 + 1.25dP – 23.13PCON, r-squared = .613
Here are my old and new regressions for changes in real GDP on government spending as well as on inflation (controlled for mismeasurement of inflation in 1946-47). As you can see, the statistical fit of the regression improves by including both inflation and the change in government spending as variables (the adjusted r-squared is .648) and the coefficient on the government-spending term is positive and significant (t = 2.37). When I re-estimated the regression on Krugman’s data set, the statistical fit improved, and the coefficient on the government-spending variable remained positive and statistically significant (t = 3.45), but was about a third smaller than the coefficient estimated from the approximated data set.
OLD: dGDP = 2.27 + .49dG + 1.15dP – 13.36PCON, r-squared = .681
NEW: dGDP = 2.56 + .33dG + 1.00dP – 13.14PCON, r-squared = .728
So even if we allow for the effect of inflation on changes in output, and contrary to what I suggested in my previous post, changes in government spending were indeed positively and significantly correlated with changes in real GDP, implying that government spending may have some stimulative effect even apart from the effect of monetary policy on inflation. Moreover, insofar as government spending affects inflation, attributing price-level changes exclusively to monetary policy may underestimate the stimulative effect of government spending. However, if one wants to administer stimulus to the private sector rather than increase the size of the public sector at the expense of the private sector (the implication of a coefficient less than one on the government-spending term in the regression), there is reason to prefer monetary policy as a method of providing stimulus.
The above, aside from the acknowledment of Mark Sadowski’s assistance and the mea culpa for negligence in reporting my earlier results, is all by way of introduction to a comment on a recent post by my internet buddy Lars Christensen on his Market Moneterist blog in which he welcomes the looming fiscal cliff. Here’s how Lars puts it:
The point is that the US government is running clearly excessive public deficits and the public debt has grown far too large so isn’t fiscal tightening exactly what you need? I think it and the fiscal cliff ensures that. Yes, I agree tax hikes are unfortunate from a supply side perspective, but cool down a bit – it is going to have only a marginally negative impact on long-term US growth perspective that the Bush tax cuts experiences. But more importantly the fiscal cliff would mean cuts in US defense spending. The US is spending more on military hardware than any other country in the world. It seems to me like US policy makers have not realized that the Cold War is over. You don’t need to spend 5% of GDP on bombs. In fact I believe that if the entire 4-5% fiscal consolidation was done as cuts to US defence spending the world would probably be a better place. But that is not my choice – and it is the peace loving libertarian rather than the economist speaking (here is a humorous take on the sad story of war). What I am saying is that the world is not coming to an end if the US defense budget is cut marginally. Paradoxically the US conservatives this time around are against budget consolidation. Sad, but true.
I am not going to take the bait and argue with Lars about the size of the US defense budget. The only issue that I want to consider is what would happen as a result of the combination of a large cut in defense (and in other categories of) spending and an increase in taxes? It might not be catastrophic, but there seems to me to be a non-negligible risk that such an outcome would have a significant contractionary effect on aggregate demand at a time when the recovery is still anemic and requires as much stimulus as it can get. Lars argues that any contractionary effect caused by reduced government spending and increased taxes could be offset by sufficient monetary easing. I agree in theory, but in practice there are just too many uncertainties associated with how massive fiscal tightening would be received by public and private decision makers to rely on the theoretical ability of monetary policy in one direction to counteract fiscal policy in the opposite direction. This would be the case even if we knew that Bernanke and the FOMC would do the right thing. But, despite encouraging statements by Bernanke and other Fed officials since September, it seems more than a bit risky at this time and this place to just assume that the Fed will become the stimulator of last resort.
So, Lars, my advice to you is: be careful what you wish for.
PS Noah Smith has an excellent post about inflation today.
Published January 3, 2012 fiscal policy , John Cochrane , Keynes , monetary policy , monetary theory 4 Comments
In my post yesterday, I explained why if one believes, as do Robert Lucas and Robert Barro, that monetary policy can stimulate an economy in an economic downturn, it is easy to construct an argument that fiscal policy would do so as well. I hope that my post won’t cause anyone to conclude that real-business-cycle theory must be right that monetary policy is no more effective than fiscal policy. I suppose that there is that risk, but I can’t worry about every weird idea floating around in the blogosphere. Instead, I want to think out loud a bit about fiscal multipliers and Ricardian equivalence.
I am inspired to do so by something that John Cochrane wrote on his blog defending Robert Lucas from Paul Krugman’s charge that Lucas didn’t understand Ricardian equivalence. Here’s what Cochrane, explaining what Ricardian equivalence means, had to say:
So, according to Paul [Krugman], “Ricardian Equivalence,” which is the theorem that stimulus does not work in a well-functioning economy, fails, because it predicts that a family who takes out a mortgage to buy a $100,000 house would reduce consumption by $100,000 in that very year.
Cochrane was a little careless in defining Ricardian equivalance as a theorem about stimulus, when it’s really a theorem about the equivalence of the effects of present and future taxes on spending. But that’s just a minor slip. What I found striking about Cochrane’s statement was something else: that little qualifying phrase “in a well-functioning economy,” which Cochrane seems to have inserted as a kind of throat-clearing remark, the sort of aside that people are just supposed to hear but not really pay much attention to, that sometimes can be quite revealing, usually unintentionally, in its own way.
What is so striking about those five little words “in a well-functioning economy?” Well, just this. Why, in a well-functioning economy, would anyone care whether a stimulus works or not? A well-functioning economy doesn’t need any stimulus, so why would you even care whether it works or not, much less prove a theorem to show that it doesn’t? (I apologize for the implicit Philistinism of that rhetorical question, I’m just engaging in a little rhetorical excess to make my point a little bit more colorfully.)
So if a well-functioning economy doesn’t require any stimulus, and if a stimulus wouldn’t work in a well-functioning economy, what does that tell us about whether a stimulus works (or would work) in an economy that is not functioning well? Not a whole lot. Thus, the bread and butter models that economists use, models of how an economy functions when there are no frictions, expectations are rational, and markets clear, are guaranteed to imply that there are no multipliers and that Ricardian equivalence holds. This is the world of a single, unique, and stable equilibrium. If you exogenously change any variable in the system, the system will snap back to a new equilibrium in which all variables have optimally adjusted to whatever exogenous change you have subjected the system to. All conventional economic analysis, comparative statics or dynamic adjustment, are built on the assumption of a unique and stable equilibrium to which all economic variables inevitably return when subjected to any exogenous shock. This is the indispensable core of economic theory, but it is not the whole of economic theory.
Keynes had a vision of what could go wrong with an economy: entrepreneurial pessimism — a dampening of animal spirits — would cause investment to flag; the rate of interest would not (or could not) fall enough to revive investment; people would try to shift out of assets into cash, causing a cumulative contraction of income, expenditure and output. In such circumstances, spending by government could replace the investment spending no longer being undertaken by discouraged entrepreneurs, at least until entrepreneurial expectations recovered. This is a vision not of a well-functioning economy, but of a dysfunctional one, but Keynes was able to describe it in terms of a simplified model, essentially what has come down to us as the Keynesian cross. In this little model, you can easily calculate a multiplier as the reciprocal of the marginal propensity to save out of disposable income.
But packaging Keynes’s larger vision into the four corners of the Keynesian cross diagram, or even the slightly more realistic IS-LM diagram, misses the essence of Keynes’s vision — the volatility of entrepreneurial expectations and their susceptibility to unpredictable mood swings that overwhelm any conceivable equilibrating movements in interest rates. A numerical calculation of the multiplier in the simplified Keynesian models is not particularly relevant, because the real goal is not to reach an equilibrium within a system of depressed entrepreneurial expectations, but to create conditions in which entrepreneurial expectations bounce back from their depressed state. As I like to say, expectations are fundamental.
Unlike a well-functioning economy with a unique equilibrium, a not-so-well functioning economy may have multiple equilibria corresponding to different sets of expectations. The point of increased government spending is then not to increase the size of government, but to restore entrepreneurial confidence by providing assurance that if they increase production, they will have customers willing and able to buy the output at prices sufficient to cover their costs.
Ricardian equivalence assumes that expectations of future income are independent of tax and spending decisions in the present, because, in a well-functioning economy, there is but one equilibrium path for future output and income. But if, because the economy not functioning well, expectations of future income, and therefore actual future income, may depend on current decisions about spending and taxation. No matter what Ricardian equivalence says, a stimulus may work by shifting the economy to a different higher path of future output and income than the one it now happens to be on, in which case present taxes may not be equivalent to future taxes, after all.
Lucas and Sargent on Optimization and Equilibrium in Macroeconomics
Supply Shocks and the Summer of our Inflation Discontent
I am an economist in the Washington DC area. My research and writing has been mostly on monetary economics and policy and the history of economics. In my book Free Banking and Monetary Reform, I argued for a non-Monetarist non-Keynesian approach to monetary policy, based on a theory of a competitive supply of money. Over the years, I have become increasingly impressed by the similarities between my approach and that of R. G. Hawtrey and hope to bring Hawtrey’s unduly neglected contributions to the attention of a wider audience.
My new book Studies in the History of Monetary Theory: Controversies and Clarifications has been published by Palgrave Macmillan
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Unlike installment loans issued for cars, homes, and other major purchases, credit cards operate under revolving terms. Installment loans establish principal balances to be paid back over many years, with regular periodic payments toward principal and interest. The loans are amortized, or spread out, to reduce risk for lenders and allow borrowers to budget for repayment. Amortization schedules are provided at the beginning of repayment, outlining each borrower's responsibilities over the course of the loan's life. As a result, payments are made like clockwork, with no surprises for borrowers.
Revolving credit, on the other hand, provides for ongoing purchases and flexible use over time. Under the terms of most revolving credit cards, purchases are subject to grace periods, during which interest does not accumulate. By paying the entire purchase balance before the rollover date, interest charges are avoided entirely. Unpaid balances, on the other hand, roll into subsequent billing periods accumulating interest along the way.
As credit card balances grow, each periodic billing statement requests monthly minimum payments, which satisfy creditors' requirements. Minimum payment calculator puts repayment under a microscope to illustrate the long-term impact of sticking to minimum payment levels. While keeping pace with minimums keeps creditors at bay, it does not erase debt quickly, and sometimes leads credit card holders to make ill-advised spending decisions.
In addition to excess interest charges incurred by sticking to minimum credit card payment levels, the calculator accounts for lost revenue borrowers sacrifice over time. Interest saved by paying ahead on cards, for example, might be invested elsewhere, providing a return of its own. The calculator helps establish what you are leaving on the table by only paying minimums.
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MORE men are being prescribed Viagra in Barnsley than almost anywhere else in England, the Chronicle can reveal.
New statistics from the Open Prescribing Service show 28,616 prescriptions for erectile dysfunction drugs were handed out in the former Barnsley CCG area in the year to June.
It’s slightly up from 28,560 the year before, and more than a three per cent increase on figures from 2017/18 - the year records began - when 27,591 drugs were prescribed.
It shows there was the equivalent of 30 prescriptions for erectile dysfunction in Barnsley per 100 men aged 18 and over last year - one of the highest rates in the entirety of the country.
The national average was just 20 per 100 men, with Blackpool picking up the accolade of the highest rate of 36, and North West London having a rate of just 14.
The figures are for the number of times the medication has appeared on prescriptions, but do not show the quantity of medication handed out - and multiple prescriptions can be given to the same patient.
Across the country, the drugs appeared on more than 4.3 million prescriptions, as figures continue to rise year-on-year.
The majority of these prescriptions are for a drug named sildenafil - which patients can get on the NHS if they suffer from erectile dysfunction.
If you buy sildenafil outside of the NHS, it can also be known as Viagra, Aronix, Liberize and Nipatra.
The Royal College of GPs said increased awareness and less stigma around the issue, may have contributed to a rise in the number of prescriptions handed out across the borough.
Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the group, added there are likely a number of reasons why prescriptions for the drug continue to rise.
He said: “It may indicate lessening stigma around ED and increasing awareness of its treatments, as well as patients feeling more comfortable to come forward for treatment.
“One of the most well-known drugs sildenafil, which is widely known as Viagra, also came ‘off licence’ in recent years, making it cheaper.”
The cost to the NHS of the drugs nationally fell from £42.6m in the year to June 2018, to just £16.1m in the last year.
In Barnsley, it fell from £244,000 to £95,300 in the same time period.
Professor Marshall said GPs follow ‘strict guidelines’ when prescribing sildenafil and will only issue an NHS prescription should they meet certain criteria.
He added: “Erectile dysfunction can be a disturbing condition for many men which can impact on patients’ mental health and limit their ability to have healthy sexual relationships.”
The figures were released just months after it was revealed more than 10,000 people in the town are suffering with long Covid.
Long Covid could be one of the major ‘legacy’ effects of the pandemic, health leaders have warned.
It is not common knowledge, but there are more than 200 symptoms of long Covid, affecting ten of the body’s organ systems.
Some of the most common include fatigue, ‘brain fog’ and a high temperature, all of which are made worse after exercise, mental exertion or stress.
Among the hundreds of symptoms of long Covid are a shrinking penis and testicles, whilst a recent study found links between Covid-19 infection and erectile dysfunction.
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Macroeconomic forces and geopolitics combine to create a negative backdrop for small and medium sized businesses. Despite these significant headwinds, there are some reasons to be comparatively more optimistic for the restaurant industry.
Large bellwether companies continue to experience and forecast significant macroeconomic challenges. FedEx’s CEO, for example, now expects a global recession. A host of related forces contribute to this prediction, including softening consumer spending; higher interest rates; currency exchange rates that make US exports more expensive; negative wealth effects as assets (e.g., stocks) decline; and shifts in business investment Hence, regardless of whether we are in (or will enter) a technical recession, economic growth has and will slow relative to trend.
The restaurant industry was especially hard-hit by Covid. However, the industry has made progress recovering: Total restaurant sales increased from $66.3 billion in January 2021 to $86.2 billion in August 2022 (adjusting for inflation). Anecdotes of hard to get reservations at certain restaurants abound. Furthermore, despite significant macroeconomic clouds, there are countervailing forces that may moderate the impact of a recession on restaurants by affording alternative sources of demand. These include: Workers are increasingly returning to their offices, which should increase demand for restaurants, coffee shops, and bars that cater to office workers; Increases in domestic and international tourists who, for the time being, evidence a heightened appetite to travel; and Employment in the restaurant industry remains substantially below the pre-pandemic trendline. This suggests that modest shocks to demand that might arise in a macroeconomic contraction should have a comparatively lesser impact on “lean” or short-staffed operations such as restaurants
Recession? Inflation? Stagflation? Competing narratives and evidence make it hard to understand where small and medium-sized restaurants and their workers stand. To help reconcile competing claims, we analyzed employment data from hundreds of thousands of employees working at more than fifty thousand restaurants. Homebase also conducted pulse surveys in mid-September and mid-July of more than one hundred restaurant owners to understand how they are doing in light of current events.
The number of hours worked by restaurant employees in September 2022 is down relative to September of 2021, as well as September 2020, after a relatively robust spring and early summer
Hours worked
(Rolling 7-day average; relative to Jan. of 2020 (i.e., pre Covid))
1. Some significant dips due to major U.S. holidays. Pronounced dip in mid-February 2021 coincides with the period including the Texas power crisis and severe weather in the Midwest. Source: Homebase data.
The percentage of restaurant employees working in September 2022 is down approximately six percentage points relative to the same period in 20211
Employees working
(Rolling 7-day average; relative to Jan. of 2020 (i.e., pre Covid))
1. Some significant dips due to major U.S. holidays. Pronounced dip in mid-February 2021 coincides with the period including the Texas power crisis and severe weather in the Midwest. Source: Homebase data.
Restaurant owners are evenly split about whether they intend to open a new location of their current businesses in the next one to two years
As of mid-September, approximately 39% of restaurant owners intend to expand their businesses by opening a new location in the next one to two years. This figure is up nearly four percentage points from July 2022. The percentage of owners who do not plan to open a new location of a current business decreased by more than four percentage points in the corresponding period. For both July and September, restaurant owners were significantly more likely than owners in other industries to have expansion plans. In September, for example, the overall percentage of owners who planned to open a new location in 12-24 months was nine percentage points lower than the figure for restaurant owners.
Survey question: Do you intend to open a new location of your current business in the next 12-14 months?
Source: Homebase Owner Pulse Survey. Ns >100 in mid-July and mid-September
Owners’ hiring intentions for the next one to two years were adjusted upwards in September
Approximately 95% of restaurant owners anticipate hiring at least one additional worker in the next one to two years. As of mid-September, restaurant owners intend to increase their employment rolls by more than 56% in the next one to two years. This contrasts with an intended increase of 44% in July of 2022. These figures are consistent with owners’ increasing intentions to properly staff their operations and open new locations of their existing businesses.
Although owners now intend to hire more employees in the next one to two years than they did in July, they also expect it to be more difficult to hire employees
Most restaurant owners intend to hire new employees in the next one to two years, as indicated in the previous slide. However, when compared with July 2022, restaurant owners now believe that hiring employees is going to be more difficult. Indeed, 27% of owners now believe it will be harder to hire workers in the next one to two years, which is up from 22% of restaurant owners who expressed the same sentiment in July of 2022.
Survey question: Do you think it will be easier, the same, or harder for your organization or business to hire workers 12 months from now compared to today?
Source: Homebase Owner Pulse Survey.
Given how hard it is to hire, we asked restaurant owners which are the best ways to find good employees (hint: referrals)
Turnover in the restaurant industry is comparatively high. Finding good workers in the best of times is difficult. In a tight labor market, it can be daunting. The Homebase September Pulse Survey reveals that owners view referrals as particularly effective as they represent three of the top five search channels owners use to hire good employees.. Online job search sites, as well as direct job post links on a company website, round out the top five.
Survey question: Based on your experience, which of the following is the best way to find good employees?
Source: Homebase Owner Pulse Survey.
Hiring and employee management continue to be some of the most challenging aspects of running a restaurant
Hiring employees (37%), managing employees (12%) and related employment costs (9%) were amongst the top five cited challenges restaurant owners must contend with. Intermediate supply costs (15%) and to a lesser degree economic uncertainty (6%) round out the top five challenges owners face today.
Survey question: What are the most challenging aspects of running a business today?
Source: Homebase Owner Pulse Survey.
To retain and manage their employees, restaurant owners are using a variety of strategies
Hiring and retaining good workers is challenging in the current environment. Consequently, we asked restaurant owners what strategies they are using to retain workers. Of those owners who are using any retention strategy, the most frequently cited strategy was the use of achievement awards (29%). Twenty-two percent of owners cited the implementation of new tip policies. Approximately nineteen percent of owners are offering employees their preferred shifts. Rounding out the top five were offering more pay (12%) or gift cards or gas cards (10%).
Survey question: Are you implementing any of the following strategies to retain workers (select all that apply)?
Source: Homebase Owner Pulse Survey.
With leaner workforces and an increase in sales, restaurant owners report a (nominal) increase in worker productivity
More than a third of restaurant owners report that their employees are more productive this year compared to last year and more than 10% of owners report that their employees are significantly more productive than they were at this time last year.
When asked what accounts for this increase, several owners indicated improvements in managerial processes and technology:
“Clearer expectations communicated, step by step processes made available, clear punitive action”
“Keeping morale high. Communication. Treat employees with respect and understand that without them you cannot run a business.”
Economic and staffing challenges have impacted employee camaraderie in surprising ways
More than 45% of restaurant owners believe their employees are either more (or significantly more) productive this year versus last year. With leaner operations, 67% of owners believe that the current economic environment has created more camaraderie amongst their teams.
The primary way this greater camaraderie is evident is in employees’ willingness to jump in to pick up their teammates’ shifts (50%). Employee communication has also increased (16%) with better processes and tools. Owners also observed a more general willingness amongst their employees to help one another (14%) as they spend more personal time together (12%).
Survey question: How, if at all, has the current economic climate created more camaraderie amongst your team?
Source: Homebase Owner Pulse Survey.
California recently passed landmark legislation protecting fast food workers. Restaurant owners in the state have some concerns
The State of California recently passed landmark legislation (AB 257) that included the establishment of a Fast Food Council to set a minimum standard for wages, hours, and working conditions for restaurant workers. Our Owner Pulse Survey included fifty-three restaurant owners in the State of California. These restaurant owners expressed concerns about the unintended consequences of the bill, including driving up costs to consumers (51%), heightened competition for labor (40%), and the need to cut labor costs (32%) that might provoke a move towards more automated operations (21%). Given the recency of the legislation, only one owner has communicated with his/her/their employees about the legislation and only one owner has been asked about the bill from an employee.
Survey question: [Summary of AB 257]: Given this bill, do you have any of the following concerns (select all that apply)?
Source: Homebase Owner Pulse Survey.
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Script Consultant Andrew Ellard has credits including shows such as The IT Crowd, Chewing Gum, Red Dwarf and Detectorists. He’s also a writer with various scripts in development and feature film AfterDeath under his belt.
1) What first inspired you to begin your career in this industry, and can you share with us how your first ‘break in’ the industry came to be?
I don’t believe in the term ‘breaking in’, since it’s a process of getting job after job. You don’t break into the catering industry with a job in McDonalds, but everyone starts somewhere. You might start as a runner, but did you then impress people enough to get the next job, and the next?
I was determined to be a soap writer after university, when I went to work for Grant Naylor Productions, who make Red Dwarf. I’d impressed them with my (voluntary) work on the Fan Club magazine and they hired me out of university to write content for their new website.
While there I made myself useful, producing and directing content for the Red Dwarf DVDs - cheaper than hiring someone else to do it! And I gave notes - just cos I was asked for my opinion and couldn’t shut up - on the Red Dwarf feature film that was being developed…which basically changed my career entirely.
The reaction to those notes was so good that I’ve been Red Dwarf’s script editor ever since. And that led me to a gig for ITV Comedy consulting on all their new shows.
Back then I also posted reviews online of The IT Crowd. When Graham Linehan saw those, he hired me on the fourth series. A chance to get the reviews early.
Even now I do ‘tweetnotes’ on movies and TV shows on my Twitter feed. My notes, reviews and tweetnotes all follow the same basically philosophy: what are they trying to make and does it work? You take the side of the author. My job is to get you to the best version of what you’re trying to write; my hobby is seeing if what a movie was trying to do succeeded. Rather than say “they should have done something else”.
In all cases you remove your ego - and, in a way, even your taste - from the equation and aim to see the author intention.
2) From your own experiences, can you share your top 4 tips that you feel are essential for becoming a professional and successful Writer/Script Editor?
Make sure the writer knows - and believes! - that you’re on their side. You want the same thing: the very best script that comes from them. Understand that “how you would write this” isn’t part of the equation; it’s all about their style, their tone.
One thing I see a lot is stories started very late. 20 pages of meeting everyone, 10 of plot. Generally you feel the drag there. And the solution, almost always, is to get the big story started and then meet the other characters while your main character is trying to achieve their goals.
Don’t send scripts out with an email that talks about how it’s your “dream” to be a writer. No producer is interested in making your dream come true, they’re interested in finding great writing. This isn’t X-Factor, where an emotional backstory affects the public voting. The best way to obtain that dream is to rewrite a script until it’s amazing. And then do the same with 20 more scripts, since the chances people want that first one are slim!
Oh, and finish your drafts! Just get to the bloody end. That’s a hard thing in itself, but you can’t rewrite - which often means getting to the end and then realising to make that end work you need to change the first two acts entirely - until you’ve written.
(And if your first rewrite is a tweak here and there, there’s a good chance you’re not solving the deeper problems. Maybe start a new document, write the script again - you can always paste old bits in. But like the ‘we went on holiday and the hotel wasn’t built’ stories from real life, things get better in the retelling. You unconsciously streamline the tale, dump useless details, add ones that will enhance the punchlines.)
3) What would you consider to be the most important elements of a script when reading through it for the first time? Can you elaborate on the importance of these elements?
It’s hard to becompelling because everyone’s seen movies and TV shows. They know a cough means a character’s going to get sick, they know a dead body you don’t see is probably not really dead. Genre is a huge thing, and as soon as you write something in a genre, people know how to predict it.
So you need characters that are endlessly fascinating and relatable, situations that are compelling in their stakes and surprises. You need to make the world we see interesting.
I have bugbears - I loathe the ‘flashforward’ opener for example, where you cheat a lack of early intrigue by showing something from near the end of the story. But even then, once in a while, a show like Breaking Bad will use those in such a way as it adds real tension to the rest of the narrative. So even cheats, even annoying tropes, can work if you make them work hard for you.
4) What advice do you have for other filmmakers and writers when It comes to networking and building professional relationships in the industry?
Be useful to people! That’s why you get a second job, and a third and a fourth. When you work with someone be memorable for all the right reasons.
Social media’s good, too. I’m terribly uncomfortable at gatherings, which is a difficult problem for this industry. Twitter has been a joy for me because it’s helped me make industry contacts without embarrassing myself in front of people. The tweetnotes work as almost a ’showroom floor’ for what I can do feedback-wise - much better than me eating a sandwich awkwardly in front of you.
I do think writers often aim their scripts at the wrong people. They want the praise of other writers, people they admire, but generally the people you should be looking to impress are producers. I get emails year round asking “I have a script, who should I send it to?” People who want scripts! Look at the films and shows that are in the same area as what you’ve written - chances are the producer of those is looking for more brilliant scripts.
5) What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given for working in this industry, and would you mind sharing with us?
A producer once gave me a great tip - if you have to write character bios (and sometimes it’s unavoidable), have your characters write each other’s bios.
Instead of a dry document of facts you get a real sense of how they appear to someone else. It’s a great way to road test the relationships. It’ll highlight the ways the character are different, and difference is how you get to drama and comedy. (Difference, after all, is what leads to conflict!)
If you try it and the bio still comes out flat, you’ve probably discovered that the characters need work. Either they’re not rich enough, or not different enough to be in a show together.
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One of the reasons I like writing Swamp Notes is that I almost always enjoy the resulting interaction with our subscribers (I’m sure you agree Rana).
As readers go, you are unusually polite, thoughtful and engaging. Where you disagree, which does occasionally happen (I didn’t say you were perfect), most of you are constructive in how you do so and I usually learn from your criticisms. This leads me to believe that very few of you are active on Twitter. I have no data to back this up. But inveterate tweeters possess a certain mien that most of you seem to lack. Call it a tendency to be hypercaffeinated and a readiness to shoot first and follow-up tweet later. Long may Swampians inhabit a culture seemingly apart from Twitter.
But — you knew this conjunction was coming — you ignore Twitter at your peril. To paraphrase Trotsky, you may not be interested in Twitter but Twitter is interested in you. While you are walking the dog, doing your day job, or reading an actual physical newspaper, Twitter is where much of today’s conventional wisdom is being formed. That is particularly true for the elite media. It is also why so many journalists are in a frenzy about Elon Musk’s hostile bid for the platform. Some of them are even promising to quit the site if Musk’s $43bn bid succeeds. (I’m sceptical anyone would actually do so but the thought did also occur to me.)
So please be patient while I share my profound ambivalence about this site. On the plus side, Twitter is full of interesting people with ideas to share and links to journalistic or academic pieces that I probably would not otherwise have found. Used properly, it is a tool of intellectual enrichment and a source of diverse thinking. The problem is that it is very hard to use wisely. That requires discipline, which is difficult to sustain when there’s an endless vista of doomscrolling to wade through, not to mention annoying people to contradict. Or indeed your own pieces to promote (I plead guilty).
Moreover, like all social media, Twitter is clearly addictive. Perhaps the best metric is the frequency with which people tweet, which you can easily calculate by dividing their tweets by the date they joined. Some people, who I will not name, have tweeted several hundred thousand times. If they joined a decade ago and tweeted 300,000 times that would mean they are tweeting an average of 82 times a day, or one every 17 minutes, which understates the pathology since presumably they also sleep. This is not mentally healthy. Compulsive tweeting also seems to obliterate irony. I once saw a well-known journalist tweet a picture with the caption: “Enjoying a private moment with the kids.” It is only a small step to live-streaming from the proctologist.
From a journalistic point of view, it is also harmful. Someone who spends all day tweeting is not wearing down their shoe leather, which is the surest mark of a good reporter. Nor will academics have much time for deep reading. The more someone tweets, the less attention I pay to them. It is not my calling to help them fill that void in their life. But my biggest objection is that Twitter users, particularly of the liberal persuasion, police consensus by rewarding those who echo it and shaming those who don’t. A site that ought to showcase the flinty virtues of individual thinking too often morphs into flocks of timid sheep echoing the prescribed line. The site is often driven more by emotion than thought. I’m all for putting Vladimir Putin on trial for war crimes, for example, but I get impatient with people who know the realities of the world better than that yet still choose to morally grandstand all day. Among the prominent culprits are senior academics and former diplomats. Their goal is clearly maximum retweets and new followers, not serious debate. Yet their shallowness is rewarded.
What has all this got to do with Musk? Well, there is a reasonable chance that the world’s richest man (net worth approaching $300bn) is about to become the sole owner of arguably the world’s second most influential platform for politics (Facebook still takes first place). If successful, Musk says he will take Twitter private. This would concentrate an extraordinary degree of influence in the hands of one very maverick plutocrat.
Musk once described Twitter with some truth as “a clown show crashing into a gold mine.” I don’t imagine his business plan would improve the site’s tone or calibre. Yet for all my misgivings about Musk I wouldn’t feel moved to fight for this platform with much conviction. If Twitter holds a mirror to elite opinion, it is a pretty ugly sight. Rana, you tweet less than me (my average is about one every seven hours), which is a sign of impeccable instincts. On the other hand, I know you’re no fan of Musk. Which way would you land?
Don’t miss Edward Luce and Rana Foroohar on May 7 at our inaugural US edition of the FTWeekend Festival, featuring leading luminaries including Henry Kissinger, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, William J Burns, Tina Brown, and Jennifer Egan. Claim 50 per cent off your pass using our exclusive newsletter discount code FTNewslettersxFTWF22.
Recommended reading
My column this week looks at the Democratic party’s bleak electoral prospects for the midterms and beyond. Barring a radical change in the political weather, they are facing a world of electoral pain.
Talking of social media, do read this powerful Jonathan Haidt essay on how America (and most of the rest of us) has become more stupid over the past decade. We know why. Haidt, who is one of the most thoughtful chroniclers of the breakdown in social trust that has so damaged our democracies, spells it out very convincingly.
My colleague Robin Harding wrote a strong column on the impact of the Orwellian Covid lockdown imposed on Shanghai and other Chinese cities. His unsettling conclusion is that Xi Jinping is not planning to let up any time soon.
Finally, do read the unfailingly thought-provoking Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express on why Putinism will outlast Putin. “The outbreak of sympathy for Putin among India’s elites is as stunning as it is nauseating,” he writes. “Putinism is useful for rallying nationalist sentiment, raw assertion of ethnic privilege, and masculine revenge of humiliation.”
Ed, I joined Twitter in January of 2012, which is around the time I started doing television regularly. The public relations team at the publication I worked for at the time told me that both were required to raise my media profile. Television has paid off, literally. I am compensated by CNN for minimal work as their global economic correspondent (I go on air roughly 3-4 times a week and share thoughts on the economy, markets and geopolitics). It’s also helped me sell books at various times.
Twitter, on the other hand, has done very little for me. It doesn’t compensate me — that’s the whole point of surveillance capitalism; our tweets are free raw inputs for Twitter — and the fact that I have 32.4K followers seems to have no bearing on my book sales. I’ve tweeted a total of 6,674 times (which works out to roughly 11 times a week). Almost all of these tweets are simply links to the original content I create: my columns and my contributions to Swamp Notes.
The rest are mostly retweets of nice things people have said about me or my work, or retweets of my public appearances. I guess you could say that’s either lazy or narcissistic, but frankly, it’s all I can bear, emotionally (for the reasons you cite — there’s just too much toxicity on the platform), or physically (I’m currently nursing tendinitis just from answering hundreds of emails every week).
I use Twitter basically as a news feed to make sure that people who care to get their content that way, get mine. As for how I get my own news, I read three papers cover to cover each day (FT, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, in print, in that order) as well as numerous journals, reports, and articles that smart sources I trust send me via email. I almost always print them out. I never read by scrolling, but prefer to take two or three serious reading periods a day and sit with the material in a comfortable spot, away from my desk (usually my big leather reading chair or the couch in my home office — which mercifully has a door that shuts). Doing so allows my mind more freedom to make connections and imprint what’s useful more deeply.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually come across anything unique or useful for my own reporting on Twitter, or any other platform (with the occasional exception of LinkedIn). I never troll Twitter for news and the only time I look at research on it is if someone emails it to me. About two to three times a year, when I notice that someone I don’t think much of in our field has many more followers, I flirt with trying to do more with Twitter. Then, I realise that one of the reasons I have the job that I do is that I’m creative, unique, and contrarian. Those things are all helped by being off Twitter. So, regardless of what Musk does, I’ll continue doing as little as I can on the platform (unless, of course, he decides to pay me for my tweets). Giving it away for free in journalism was never a good idea.
“I tend to agree with Kevin Rudd and Rana Foroohar that ‘regionalisation is the future’ — but with some qualifications. For example, the recent (interim) trade deal between India and Australia cuts across the re-configuring of the world into three blocs: the ‘west’, neutrals and China/Russia (with assorted autocratic hangers-on). And India is already a member of the ‘Quad’, along with the US, Japan and Australia).
In the light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which seems to be driving that reconfiguration, the purpose behind President Biden’s ‘Summit for Democracy’ seems clear-sighted now.
One wonders whether there is an emerging need for a Nato+, consolidating within it the Quad, Aukus and whichever of the participants in the Summit for Democracy wished to join. It could even assume some of the functions of the UN, given that Russia’s and China’s permanent presence and voting record on the Security Council might be seen at least partly to discredit that body.
If such a body developed a trading arm — not illogically, given the role of trade sanctions in current ‘hybrid’ warfare — this would also cut across geographical regionalisation.” — Richard Lawes, Norwich, England
This article was originally published by Www.ft.com. Read the original article here.
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Industry Not selected Banks and finance Business and partnership Creative economy IT Power engineering
Service Not selected Contracts and deals Deals involving state and municipal property Labor disputes and consulting Protection in criminal cases Starting a business abroad Starting, reorganizing and closing a business Tax consulting and disputes
Publication July 17, 2019 81
Ukrainian healthcare is turning into a competitive market
Changes in healthcare are probably the most successful of the announced reforms in Ukraine yet. Its authors from the very beginning had clear goals and a strategy for achieving them as well as professional advocacy of the reform by lawyers among doctors as well society as a whole.
Publication July 17, 2019 94
Corporate management in Ukraine is getting more flexible
In 2018, the Law “On Companies with Additional and Limited Liability” (LLC law) came into force in Ukraine. It cleared up the legal status of most companies in the country (those registered in this form) and made relations between members more flexible.
News July 2, 2019 64
How to buy an IT company. ILF lawyers talk scenarios and risks of such deals
Mergers and acquisitions in the Ukrainian IT sector are rarely public. Because of this, it may seem to many that the market is dead and that you can only buy or sell a company abroad. This is not the case: although it’s not particularly frequent, companies are still bought and sold in Ukraine. You can go about such a deal in several ways.
Publication June 21, 2019 86
Who to contact when buying real estate - a realtor or a lawyer?
Real estate (buildings, facilities, land) in Ukraine remains one of the most popular assets for investment. There are several reasons for this: volatility of the hryvnia, low confidence in banks and pension programs, underdeveloped stock market, etc.
Publication June 18, 2019 86
How to get dividends and what to do if you haven’t received them for a while
When investing in a business, we expect it to yield profits in the form of dividends. However, sometimes it seems that a company is commercially successful and is turning a profit, yet you can’t feel that success and receive no dividends as a participant in a limited liability company (using LLC as the most popular and flexible form of business in Ukraine as an example).
News May 17, 2019 71
ILF is legal partner of the National Biennale of Young Art
In September-October of this year Kharkiv will be hosting the second national Biennale of Young Art. Over one and a half months, exhibitions, discussions and lectures will be organized at more than ten locations, many of which have never before hosted contemporary art projects.
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This semester I’ll be co-chairing our President’s “Life-Transformative Education” task force, a signature initiative to rethink undergraduate education at UConn. Part of a coalition of similar efforts at other universities across the country, the basic idea of LTE is that an undergraduate education should change (or at least actively reconfirm) the worldview and life trajectory of each and every student at UConn. Our work involves a top-to-bottom rethinking of everything from student advising to internship opportunities to capstone experiences for graduating seniors.
Closely tied to our practical efforts at reforming pedagogy and student care at the University is a broader rethinking of the real value of an undergraduate education and the way that value proposition is communicated to students, parents, alums, and in the case of a state institution like UConn, to the taxpayers and legislature of the State of Connecticut. It seems to me that part of that work entails rethinking how value itself is calculated.
Somewhere along the way, universities, like so many other institutions in our culture, began to measure their impact in strictly economic terms. In making our case to stakeholders (especially purse-string holders) we talk about the economic impact of sponsored research, work force training, and other direct benefits to business. Likewise, at the level of the individual student, there is a strong tendency to assess the value of a college degree in terms of a “wage premium,” or the amount of money a college graduate can expect to make versus a non-graduate (the cover story in this week’s The Economist is case in point.) By this way of thinking, the “return on investment” or ROI of a college education is a simple matter of subtracting tuition costs from the wage premium a student can expect upon graduation.
This is a crude measure of the value of a college degree. Life-Transformative Education suggests that the real value of undergraduate education lies in its capacity to change lives, financially for sure, but in other ways too. Thus Life-Transformative Education demands an accounting beyond the wage premium to determine the true ROI of college.
Trends in macro-economics may provide a guide. Even fairly conservative economists are realizing that simple measures of overall economic growth don’t provide a very useful picture of the success of the overall economy, especially in the face of rising inequality. These economists are moving “Beyond GDP” to count things like people’s health, a clean environment, and unpaid labor like elder care and child rearing, in addition to growth, as a more accurate measure of economic health. New Zealand, for example, now uses a “happiness index,” created from a basket of metrics, to make some policy decisions instead of GDP.
So what should a “Beyond the Wage Premium” calculation of college ROI include? What else should we count? I have a few suggestions, including:
the likelihood of finding a job that includes health benefits
the likelihood of finding a job that includes parental-leave and childcare benefits
future ability to change jobs
mental health outcomes
domestic abuse rates
What else? I’m sure there’s plenty (on both sides of the ledger) that I’ve left out. Please let me know in comments, and if you’re an economist and would like to work on this, let’s talk.
August 9, 2020 at 5:59 pm
Likelihood of having a job that enables autonomous decision making. Lots of studies, search on the role of autonomy in job satisfaction.
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When a youth is being bullied online, you must understand how to address the potential legal issues, where to report the bullying, and how they are impacted.
Cyberbullying
In schools, counselors spend time speaking with children who report being “bullied.” They look at each scenario and help youth understand the difference between being rude, mean, and bullying. Not every unkind thing said is considered bullying, and the same holds for cyberbullying.
If you want to learn more about how to determine the difference between being rude, mean or bullying, take a minute and read this article on Psychology Today that helps pull apart the differences. It’s a must-read if you have a middle school aged child or work with middle school aged children.
There are many cyberbullying resources and articles online; however, it can be easy to get lost or overwhelmed. That’s why we provide you with excellent resources to navigate bullying and cyberbullying issues.
Explore these online resources to learn all you need to know about cyberbullying and how to resolve cyberbullying issues. We share cyberbullying tips, research-based articles, blog posts, studies, and more.
Cyberbullying Research Center
The Cyberbullying Research center is your go-to resource for all things cyberbullying. They share resources for educators, victims, parents, and students about handling cyberbullying, where to report it online, how to help victims, and more.
StopBullying.gov’s mission is to “provide information from various government agencies on what bullying is, what cyberbullying is, who is at risk, and how you can prevent and respond to bullying.” They also share helpful cyberbullying prevention and resource pages.
State Cyberbullying Laws
The Cyberbullying Research Center shared the cyberbullying bills and laws across the United States. Search the map to see what the laws and bills are for your state, such as if there are criminal and/or school sanctions for cyberbullying.
LGBTQ+ youth are at an increased risk of being bullied. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, high school students who reported being lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) are cyberbullied 26.6% more than straight students. According to the source, this also increases the risk for depression, suicidal ideation, misuse of drugs, and more.
The Trevor Project: Bullying and Suicide Risk Among LGBTQ Youth
“Negative treatment by others, such as bullying, is a strong and consistent risk factor for youth suicide (Koyanagi et al., 2019), and LGBTQ youth experience bullying at significantly greater rates than their straight and cisgender peers (Reisner et al., 2015; Webb et al., 2021)”
The Trevor Project is an excellent resource for LGBTQ+ youth struggling with bullying. The organization shares resources to help individuals come out and build healthy relationships. They also have a 24/7 immediate support chat, call, and text line for crisis counseling.
This all-encompassing guide provides information to parents, educators, and youth about LGBTQ+ cyberbullying. Connect Safely shares information regarding online lifelines, what parents and family members can do to help, how to create a positive school environment, and more.
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“Okay, if you 2 keep facing each other like this, I’m afraid that something will go wrong. My Lisa will be jealous.” The old man Tetenis spoke. For some reason, the old man was fond of Skye’s wife and Aldas’ sister, Lisa, who had a bold personality. He recognized them as his daughters.
“Eve and Alian are still here, what are you dirty old grandpa talking about?!” Lisa said resentfully as she poured another glass of wine to the old man.
“Why should mother be jealous? What will happen to Sir Aguile and father?” Alian asked curiously.
Eve shook her head. She was also a little confused.
But Ms. Sasa opened her mouth wide, “I see, this is the kind of ‘gay friends’ who like men in Alice’s book? No wonder Alice said that Sir Aguile is disgusting…”
“Shut up!” The old goblin was startled, and he immediately knocked his daughter’s head. Ms. Sasa held her head and looked at his father with a dejected expression.
Chen Rui’s face behind the mask was a little green. It seems that the poison of the little loli is everywhere.
“Sir Aguile is a good person. Alice still wants us to come up with an idea to deal with sir, but my sister and I didn’t agree.” Alian said, and Eve nodded quickly.
The little loli’s resentment for “Aguile”? Chen Rui smiled bitterly and shook his head. He took the good person card from Alian. At this time, Tetenis had already drunk the wine that Lisa poured, and he said, “You’re here to find me, right? Come with me.”
The old man drank a lot of wine today. His nose was red. He pulled Chen Rui toward the laboratory unsteadily.
After walking into the laboratory, Chen Rui brought a chair for the old man to sit down. The old man hiccuped and said, “This time I really foresee it wrongly. You can actually bring down the entire empire. This is an amazing miracle. You’re right. Things are impermanent and everything is possible. But you boy, I know, it’s impossible that you come here to study at this time. Don’t hide anything, you know that I don’t like to go around in circles. But it’s impossible to get me to come out to the public like Skye. My gambling agreement with Saman has only 1 year left. I just want to hurry up and teach you as well as Aldas all that I know, understand?”
“Understood.” Chen Rui was touched. The old man’s mind was just to pass on his knowledge before his death. He was really good to his apprentices. When the Dark Moon started the war, he wanted to forcibly take Chen Rui away from the war, but with him, the knowledge could be passed on. However, whether it was endless was still unknown.
“I came to see teacher today for 2 matters. Has teacher heard of the 2 materials, Dragon Power Essence and Siren’s Heart?”
“Dragon Power Essence is the essence of dragons’ souls that did not dissipate after death. It contains the dragon demeanor and part of the soul power of the dragons. This kind of material is extremely rare in the Demon Realm, but there is a lot of it in a place. But that place is a dead end even for the peak stage of the Demon Overlord. That’s the Dragon Island.”
“Dragon Island?” This is not the first time Chen Rui heard of this term. Dragon Island was a gathering place for grouped dragons, and it was not just an island. In fact, Krobelus came from a branch of Dragon Island. Dragon Island was equivalent to a family model. In contrast, Paglio and Zola were equivalent to stragglers without a group background.
Tetenis had a solemn expression, “I don’t know how many giant dragons there are on Dragon Island. Although the fertility rate of dragons is extremely low, no one knows how many giant dragons there are on Dragon Island. It is only reported that even Demi-God powerhouses didn’t dare to forcibly enter Dragon Island. The strength is evident.”
When Chen Rui initially understood from the literal “Dragon Power Essence”, he still wanted to go to Paglio and the others to find a way, but he didn’t expect it to be the soul essence after death. As for Dragon Island, there would still be future troubles after what happened on the last battlefield. Chen Rui wasn’t crazy enough to think about going there.
“Siren is the sea creature family of the Dead Sea. They are good at incorporating spirit power into singing to create powerful illusions. The so-called Siren’s Heart does not refer to their hearts. It is the vital crystal on their forehead. After losing it, their vitality will be greatly injured. It will take many years before they can recover. Siren’s temperament is very unyielding. If you don’t get their consent, you won’t get the Siren’s Heart even if you kill them.
Chen Rui frowned. This way, the idea of asking Earth Elemental King for help can also be dispelled. Guradam’s advancement is indeed not a simple matter, “Thank you for the answer, teacher. The second thing is that when I went out this time, Uh… under the guidance of the grand master’s inheritance, I got some relics of ancient civilizations. Please go through them first, teacher.”
With that said, Chen Rui took out the expired black potions from the ancient alchemy civilization site. When Tetenis heard the words “grand master’s inheritance” and “ancient civilization”, he was already very high-spirited, and he carefully took over the abandoned potions. He unplugged the stopper, smelled it with the tip of his nose, and he was suddenly sober, “Dead river flower, purple thought grass, deer tooth vine…Unexpectedly, after this bottle of Eternal Power expires, I can identify also a few of the ingredients! It’s just that dead sea flower and purple thought grass have always been incompatible. When used together, they will have a very violent effect. They are generally used to induce poison. How can they appear at the same time in black potions with a mild temperament and no side effects?”
“When the usage is different, the function is different. If we add the black feather root with a water-soluble method and acid-leaching method, the original explosive attribute can produce a kind of resonance power. I once consumed a full set of Eternal series potions. Besides the individual eternal buff attribute, after drinking the whole set, strange resonance fluctuations appeared in my body. My overall attribute has buffed again just like consuming the black potions again. Then, we can infer that dead sea flower, purple thought grass and black feather root should be the basic material of every Eternal series potion. Water-soluble method and acid-leaching method are the necessary secret methods for preparation.”
“Right!” Tetenis showed ecstasy as he jumped from his chair.
The black potions had been lost for so many years. Most of the prescriptions and secret methods were incomplete. Pharmaceutics was broad and profound. A small difference could change the attribute of the entire potion. Now that they confirmed part of the formula and secret method, combined with the inherited knowledge, there must be a certain breakthrough especially for Tetenis, the remarkable quasi-grand master.
The old man suddenly reacted. His eyes with red veins glared round, “How did you know that adding black feather root with the water-soluble method and acid-leaching method can have this effect? I have not taught you this combination method. Furthermore, there is no such method in my thousands of years of inheritance. Where did you learn it?”
Chen Rui also recovered his senses and pointed to his brain, “I don’t know why, I just know. It should be the result of the inheritance I got. Unfortunately, it’s only part of the grand master’s consciousness which is incomplete.”
“Ancient alchemy civilization! Your grand master must be from an ancient alchemy civilization!” The old man grabbed Chen Rui’s shoulder excitedly and shook for a while. If it weren’t for Chen Rui who had now reached the same level of strength as the old man, perhaps his bones would be shattered from the shake.
The secret recipe Chen Rui knew was actually obtained from memory fragments that he devoured in the trial of alchemy civilization. He just didn’t expect that the old man actually knew about the ancient alchemy civilization.
After a long time, the old man recovered his calmness. He realized that he exerted too much force in the clutch. He patted his apprentice on the shoulder embarrassedly. He told Chen Rui about some ancient records that were not seen in the history of the Demon Realm.
The present 7 great royal families and the other families of the Demon Realm were not the first to exist in the Demon Realm. Before that, there were countless civilizations or forces. These civilizations were only recorded in some fragments of ancient scrolls.
It was said that ancient alchemy civilization was the origin of alchemy. The scope of coverage was not limited to mechanics and potion. Alchemy covered every corner of life such as lighting. The current magic lamp of the Demon Realm was invented by the mechanic grand master, Martini, 70,000 years ago. The real value was comparable to any kind of artifact or even surpassed them. However, in the alchemy civilization, the magic lamp appeared long ago, but the original principle was different. It was made of a kind of light-gathering insect that had gone extinct in the Demon Realm. The insects were constantly dying and multiplying in the special environment of the lamp body, looping endlessly. This was equivalent to a kind of power that was close to eternity which was beyond the reach of the current magic lamp.
It was just that the alchemy civilization was annihilated for some reason in the vast history like many civilizations. Only part of the knowledge of mechanics and potion was passed down, and it had evolved into the current 2 major alchemy academic schools.
Chen Rui asked tentatively, “Does teacher know the Abyss Family?”
Tetenis was stunned and seemed thoughtful, “I haven’t heard of it, but the word ‘Abyss’ means ‘taboo’ in the ancient language. I don’t know what is the specific meaning… By the way, where did you get these abandoned black potions? Is there something else?”
When the old man talked about this, his eyes flashed with green light which gave Chen Rui goosebumps, but Chen Rui knew that what the old man valued was knowledge instead of property. Tetenis was similar to an expert professor who had devoted his life to academic research, a true scholar and researcher, rather than the “calling beast” (Chinese pronunciation similar to professor) Nate who chased fame and deceived the world.
“That is a place in the White Feather Estate. It should be a site of ancient alchemy civilization. Only some of the lamp spirits are still alive…”
“The lamp spirits?” Tetenis said excitedly, “I remember that there are ancient records that the lamp spirits are concubines and magicians in the alchemy civilization. You actually found the lamp spirits alive?”
“Not only the lamp spirits, but also some assemble puppets, crystal beasts, and so on, but unfortunately they are no longer usable.” Chen Rui thought, “It’s just that no one but me can enter the place. I did not have time to take away more things and only brought back these abandoned black potions as I was rushing back to the Dark Moon this time.”
“I’ve heard about the assemble puppet. What is a crystal beast?” The more unknown the thing, the more it aroused the interest of the old man. His face was full of enthusiasm, and he incoherently said, “Why did you rush back in a hurry! Why not more bring more of it out!”
Chen Rui rolled his eyes. The Dark Moon will be over if I don’t rush back. And I’m afraid that you have already run away with your foster daughter and family by now. However, he also knew the importance of the knowledge of alchemy civilization to Tetenis. It was not only a fanatical pursuit of knowledge, but also a deeper insight from the remnants of the alchemy civilization. Then, the fatal showdown 1 year later would not necessarily be a sure-lose game.
Chen Rui also wanted to use Tetenis’s ability to restore the combat power of those assemble puppets and crystal beasts. If the powerful troops left by the alchemy civilization could be restored, or even mass-produced into legions, then they wouldn’t be afraid of fighting against the Dark Shadow Empire or the Bloody Empire.
The giant crystal beast was an existence that could directly compete with a Demon Overlord. The assemble puppet, crystal beast and the lamp spirits also had very powerful combat power.
“I’ve decided!” The old man slammed his chair loudly,”If you are going to the capital, take me along. There is only 1 condition which is to get the things of alchemy civilization out for me to research!
This was really a desirable decision.
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Dave Tull is a perfectionist. As evidence, consider the reason his recent album was nearly 10 years in the making.
He really wanted to get it right.
“It takes me forever to write something,” says the musician, who has been playing drums since he was 10 years old and added singing to his repertoire when he discovered that the coordination required of both was oddly seamless. “When I deal with other people’s writing, sometimes I wonder if they were thrown off course. I wonder if they took another half hour, if they could have come up with another, much better line. I don’t call something finished until the song is absolutely what it needs to be. When an idea or a chord progression comes to me, it’s very organic. But hopefully there is honesty there, legitimacy and a certain amount of quality. That’s why I take such a long time.”
There’s no question that each track on the recently released “Texting and Driving,” checks all the boxes on that list.
Growing up in Berkeley, Calif., Tull’s journey as a jazz musician began on a well-trodden path.
“I was lucky I was given a lot of great influences, not the least of which were in my household,” he says. “I was paired with great teachers and there were all the right influences along the way to keep me energized. The big band thing came naturally growing as a drummer. The Bay area was a great place to grow up for jazz. I kept taking that next step.”
Before and after his time training at California State Northridge, Tull clocked hours upon hours listening to standards and memorizing solos.
“I would listen to jazz records, sometimes a hundred times. If you have a favorite record, you start memorizing solos and lyrics. It was so natural to me to sing and make up my own solos. I found I was walking down the street and had chord changes in my head. I was making up choruses and melodies,” Tull says.
Still, the drummer was more focused on his chosen instrument and never intended to showcase any vocal talent to actual audiences.
“The singing kind of developed on its own, but never like I would do it in public. It was just an outlet for me playing a non-pitched instrument,” he says. “By the time I wanted to sing tunes in clubs, I was doing gigs. The foundations of drumming were so solidly in place, it wasn’t that hard to add singing on top of it.”
Although he has a stacked resume as a sideman, including contributions on numerous Michael Bublé albums and touring with Barbara Streisand, Tull discovered that he was a natural bandleader. In addition to his keen ear, sense of harmony and uncanny ability to keep beats while creating compositions, Tull realized he possessed a handful of additional traits not always prominent in traditionally trained jazz artists.
“I think there’s a lot more humor in jazz than people realize and I like to find it,” he says. “Sometimes we as jazz musicians take ourselves too seriously. I’ll write any song that occurs to me. It’s not necessarily funny. Sometimes it’s a story song. Sometimes it’s a sad song. I bring the people in with a range of emotion.”
Even traditionalists who have approached Tull’s originals as naysayers have soon been converted.
“I’m a crusader against that attitude we sometimes find in jazz audiences that they don’t want to hear anything new,” he says. “I try to write so they’ll be drawn into the story, or the humor in some cases. If it is well written, they’ll go, ‘I normally don’t like original tunes, but I like this one.’”
Also, let’s not forget that Tull loves the standards as much as the next guy.
“I’m with those people who say ‘they used to do it so good.’ But I don’t see how someone can’t write them how they used to, structure the melody so it builds to that stop with such power,” he says. “I believe the older school audience will embrace my songs as soon as they hear they’re good like the classics. When I perform for a younger audience used to simpler tunes who say, ‘I don’t like jazz, jazz is too much,’ I love winning them over, too.”
The 2018 Vail Jazz Winter Series returns to Ludwig’s Terrace in The Sonnenalp on March 14 with Dave Tull’s CD release party “Texting and Driving.” The evening features two 75-minute performances with Dave Tull, Jeff Jenkins and Ken Walker. Doors open at 5:30 and the first performance launches at 6 p.m. The second seating takes place at 8:30 p.m. (doors at 8 p.m.) Tickets to each performance are $40. Seating is jazz club style around small tables. Dinner service featuring favorites from the Bully Ranch and a full bar will be available at both seatings.
Click here for tickets to the 6 p.m. seating.
Click here for tickets to the 8:30 p.m. seating.
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Vail Daily – Vail Jazz Workshop Alumnus Ryan Porter- Aug 31, 2022 October 17, 2022
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In the southern part of the Russian region of remote, frigid and untamed cold known as Siberia lies a lake unlike any other on Earth. Lying nestled within the rugged Siberian wilderness is the enormous Lake Baikal, the deepest and most ancient lake on the planet, and so renowned for its beauty that it is sometimes referred to as “The Pearl of Russia.” It is a majestic place not only remarkable for its deep water, but also for its deep mysteries, for Lake Baikal has long been the epicenter for a wide variety of weird happenings and high strangeness.
Lake Baikal is a rift lake, meaning it was formed within a deep rift created by tectonic movement along fault lines, and lies in the Russian region of Siberia, between the Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast. At 5,387 feet (1,642 meters) deep and with a surface area of 12,248 square miles (31,722 square kilometers) it is the deepest lake in the world and the seventh largest by surface area. The lake is so large and so deep that it is estimated to hold 20% of the world’s unfrozen fresh water. At an estimated 25 million years old, Lake Baikal is also considered to be the oldest existing lake in the world as well. The lake is known for not only its size, but also its remarkably crystal clear water and biodiversity. Lake Baikal is home to a large variety of species found nowhere else on earth and this rich ecology and biodiversity has earned it the nickname “The Galapagos of Russia,” and helped it to be designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
Considering its remote and wild locale, its enormity, and how ancient it is, it is perhaps no surprise that Lake Baikal has a long history of bizarre events, strange occurrences, legends, myths, and folklore. Some of the earliest stories stretch far back into history to its very creation, with local legend saying that the lake was formed by the impact of a gigantic rock falling from the sky. From there, the lake’s weird history began. Ghengis Khan was said to have been born on the lake’s Olkhon Island, which is the third largest island lake in the world, and there is a legend that Jesus Christ once visited here. Jesus allegedly proclaimed the land north of the lake to be blessed and the land south of it to be of no worth, which is why to this day local folklore says that corn will not grow in these cursed lands south of the lake.
There is a myriad of mysteries to be found at Lake Baikal. One of these is the alleged presence of a mysterious lake monster long feared by locals. The native Buryat people of the region call the creature Lusud-Khan or Usan-Lobson Khan, which translate to “Water Dragon Master,” and it is said to resemble some kind of giant sturgeon, with a prominent snout and armored plating along the back. In modern times, there are occasional reports from fishermen of the elusive creatures breaking the surface or of seeing huge black shapes soaring through the crystal clear water below, but accounts of strange beasts in the lake go back hundreds of years. Early Chinese explorers of the lake, which they called the North Sea, also reported seeing these beasts, which they referred to as “gods of the lake” and “dragon fishes.”
The alleged monsters of Lake Baikal are also represented in ancient petroglyphs found along the Baikal cliffs. There is aditionally a large stone stele, a carved stone slab erected as a monument, located on the bank of the Yenisei river near the village Askiz which is estimated to date to between the 3rd and 9th century BC and depicts some sort of mysterious water monster. The image carved into the stone shows a large, lizard-like creature with a forked tongue, wicked claws, and plate-like armor along its back. The bizarre creature is depicted standing upright submerged in water, indicated by the image of a fish hovering nearby. It is unclear what connection this mysterious carving has, if any, to the giant fish-like monsters said to lurk in the lake. The lake is home to many unique species of fish and other animals, including the rare freshwater seal known as the Baikal seal (Pusa sibirica), but there is no known species of creature known to be present here that matches the size of what is reported for the Lake Baikal monster.
Large mysterious lake monsters are not the only things said to haunt Lake Baikal. The area has long been known for its UFO related weirdness as well. There have long been numerous reports of strange lights and alleged alien spacecraft over the lake, but perhaps the most interesting stories come from declassified Soviet era documents compiled on unexplainable incidents by the Russian navy under the command of deputy Navy commander Admiral Nikolay Smirnov. Although the documents are not completely focused on UFOS or even Lake Baikal in particular, the two make regular appearances and the documents mention numerous UFO related incidents and sightings around Lake Baikal nevertheless.
One such account describes how in 1958, a Russian TU-154 plane crashed into the lake’s frigid waters after allegedly being pursued by a UFO. Other reports come from various fishermen, who have seen strange lights hovering over the lake, cruising underwater or even spectacularly erupting from below the waves to shoot into the sky above. People have also reported UFOs rapidly descending from the heavens only to gently alight upon the surface of the lake and float like a boat. One of the most bizarre accounts related to aliens and UFOs at Lake Baikal allegedly happened in 1982, when navy divers in the lake reported encountering humanoid creatures that were dressed in silvery suits about 164 feet (50 meters) underwater. The report claims that three of the divers were killed when they tried to pursue the creatures and four divers were seriously injured. The Russian government denies that any of the accounts in their documents stem from otherworldly sources and maintains that everything described must have some natural explanation.
The reports of lights and humanoid creatures in Lake Baikal’s depths have, perhaps not surprisingly, led to theories that aliens could have underwater bases here, and there are other bizarre reports of strangeness in the lake that seem to somewhat support this far out notion. In 1977, a deep water submersible called Paysis was involved in scientific research operating at a depth of 1,200 meters in the dark, frigid water. At one point, the vehicle’s spotlight turned off and it was in complete darkness until a sudden bright beam shone upon it from an outside source. The blinding light reportedly remained fixed on the submersible for several seconds before flickering out and once more leaving the sub in cold blackness. It has never been satisfactorily explained what the source of the light was.
There is also an unexplained and powerful magnetic anomaly occurring within a deep part of the lake’s rift, where the tectonic plates pull apart. The anomaly has not been explained and has reportedly suddenly and inexplicably grown in size twice in the past 50 years. Other weird phenomena coming from the depths are reported sudden surges or eruptions of water inexplicably shooting upwards and strange, inexplicable mass fish die offs. These are usually explained as being caused by trapped gasses belching up from the bottom, but the source remains unknown.
Another phenomenon on Lake Baikal that may or may not have anything to do with sea monsters, UFOs, or aliens is the reports of various vessels mysteriously vanishing in its waters. The lake holds many anomalous zones that are particularly known for the disappearance of ships, such as an area on the western shore known as Cape Ryty, an area with so many reported vanishings that the locals consider it to be cursed and to bring sure death upon who ever goes there. The island of Great Ushkan'i, near Cape Sun, as well as the huge island of Olkhon are other cursed zones known for swallowing vessels. Olkhon is known for a place called “The Devil’s Crater,” from where one of the most recent and well known disappearances of a vessel comes.
On June 16, 2011, the pleasure boat Yamaha departed from a village in the Kabansk area of Buryatia with an experienced crew of four to test out a new motor and never returned. It was reported that the crew were all seasoned sailors, yet contact with the vessel was lost shortly after their departure when a sudden fog rolled in. When the fog burned off, the Yamaha was gone. Although the boat was well in range of cellular service, none of the cell phones of the crew could be reached, as if they were completely out of the network. In addition, other than the fog bank, conditions on the lake were said to be placid and perfectly safe for boating at the time, so what happened to the Yamaha and its crew? Nobody knows.
Several extensive search and rescue operations were launched to try and locate the Yamaha, but they turned up no wreckage and not one clue as to the vessel’s fate. It was as if the Yamaha was swallowed by the lake itself. Locals think they know the answer, as it is believed that the area in question occasionally produces horrific sudden whirlpools that appear like a crater upon the surface, hence the name “Devil’s Crater,” and suck in anything unfortunate to be nearby. Local legend says that these mysterious chasms in the water are gateways to hell, through which the souls of sinners pass. Perhaps these whirlpools hold the key to the many missing ships on the lake, but they would not explain the other, more bizarre accounts of ships disappearing for long periods of time only to reappear with crews that claim they have been only gone for a few hours.
Perhaps just as bizarre as the disappearance of vessels is the sudden and inexplicable appearance of various objects upon Lake Baikal. Locals have claimed to see ships and even things that have no business being on the water such as trains and castles suddenly materializing on the lake and often blinking out of existence just as quickly. Scientists believe that this may be the result of potent mirages formed by the unique properties of Lake Baikal. In the summer, warm air flows over the frigid water and in the winter there are extreme cold and clear conditions, all of which combine to create layers of air with differing densities that refract, distort, and reflect upon the lake’s calm, transparent surface to create highly vivid and realistic mirages. It is thought that such mirages could be at least partly to blame for missing ships such as the Yamaha, as they could lead them astray or cause them to crash into the rocky shoreline. There are even reports that such mirages are sometimes accompanied by anomalous magnetic disturbances, which could theoretically confound a ship’s navigational equipment. Are these mirages merely the result of conspiring natural forces or do they represent some other, more supernatural occurrence? As with many of the lake’s other mysteries, no one really knows.
Lake Baikal has its share of natural mysteries as well as all of the spooky, bizarre stuff. It has an incredibly high amount of biodiversity for such a cold lake that is frozen for most of the year, and most of its species are endemic. The freshwater Baikal seal has long confounded biologists as no one can really figure out how it got here. The Baikal seal is most closely related to the Arctic seal or ringed seal, (Pusa hispida), and yet Lake Baikal is completely isolated and located hundreds of kilometers from the nearest sea. There are many theories on how this happened, with perhaps the most prevailing idea being that they arrived through a sea passage that once linked the lake to the Arctic Ocean and the seals subsequently adapted to a freshwater environment. The lake currently harbors an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 of the enigmatic freshwater seals and they are not considered to be threatened.
Lake Baikal has also shown itself to be rich in resources not typical for a freshwater lake. From 2008 to 2010, two Russian submersibles known as the Mir made a remarkable discovery 1637 meters under the surface. Researchers operating the Mirs found a special type of ice high in concentrations of natural gas, called “gas hydrates,” which are in fact found elsewhere, particularly on the deep ocean floor, but never in freshwater environments. This unusual finding could mean that the ice-laden lake potentially holds vast reserves of an important, untapped fuel source although extraction methods for gas hydrates have not been perfected as of yet. It is still not totally understood why gas hydrates should be found in this freshwater lake and not in others. The two Mir submersibles also collected data on a good number of previously unknown species lurking in the dark, icy depths of the lake.
Another baffling natural phenomenon on the lake occurred in 2009, when strange, huge circles with diameters of up to 2.7 miles (4.4 km) started to appear in the lake’s ice during particularly cold months. The bizarre circular ice formations were first spotted by astronauts aboard the International Space Station and their discovery immediately ignited speculation as to their cause. Of course there was the inevitable theory that the circles were the result of alien activity, but in the end scientists came to a more rational, yet possibly more worrying explanation. It is currently believed that the ice circles are the result of methane gasses gurgling up from the bottom and resulting in swirling warm water currents that then formed the circular formations on the lake ice. The reason this is worrying is that it could indicate that Lake Baikal’s spring ice has been diminishing more rapidly in recent years. When coupled with global warming, this could have disastrous consequences for the lake’s ecosystem and biodiversity, which rely heavily on the lake’s cycles of ice.
Lake Baikal is truly one of the world's most beautiful, remote, and amazing lakes. Full of mysteries both natural and perhaps supernatural, it is a vast, deep, yawning chasm of majestic beauty. What are the answers to the enigmas that are here lurking within the crystal clear depths and just beyond our understanding? Is this a place flung far from the familiar world of our current knowledge? Is this a place that sits on some mysterious divide between the realms of what we know, what we think we know, and what we will never know? How deep does the rabbit hole go here at the world's deepest lake deep in the wilderness of Siberia? Ancient, awe inspiring, mysterious, beautiful, all of these words fit Russia's Lake Baikal perfectly. Full of deep waters and deep mysteries, Lake Baikal is certainly like no other place on Earth.
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Brent Swancer
Brent Swancer is an author and crypto expert living in Japan. Biology, nature, and cryptozoology still remain Brent Swancer’s first intellectual loves. He's written articles for MU and Daily Grail and has been a guest on Coast to Coast AM and Binnal of America.
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just some questions about things I’m confused about most I think are small enough to be answered though ha few I’m expecting not being able to be answered due to unable to confirm. I’m avoiding lore or story based questions.
its a lot I know but if I don’t ask then ill never know if they can be answered.
will each faction have their own unique set of classes with the same basic ones with different abilities or just the same basic soldiers with and some unique soldiers?
will map size be varied or is the backer build map be the largest they can get?
will the players get boss like machines apart from transport vehicles? recon raider showed a 3d model of a new Jericho mech, I was wondering if the player can get something like that or even steal a mech walker.
so with the damage per bullet essentially it possible to have so much armor to negate any damage until some gets shredded?
will all the aliens have a basic body to start that can be mutated or will every variation be mutated with random variation to begin with?
will you need to pick and choose what you take back after a mission or can you just take everything back to base with no Biggy on inventory management of the ship?
with the release data pushed back can the floating base be part of the base game from release not needing to wait for a flc after words?
can we get a number of how many basic aliens will be in the game?
when you say 16 is the max squad do you mean that I can control 16 soldiers in one turn or will some be weighting off map for some to die and then appear?
I feel like this has already been confirmed but can you have a three way battle on a mission? for example you invade a haven while it is being attacked by aliens so your fighting both aliens and the original inhabitance of the haven.
will behemoth be able to destroy the phoenix point bases? I know they can destroy havens but if they can destroy phoenix point bases this adds a whole new almost unavoidable threat unless you try and take it down.
can we get a number on how many vehicles are going to be in game?
when you say 7 classes do you mean the basic classes and 3 unique or are the seven classes all unique not counting the basic?
can the mist mutate soldiers during a mission?
I heard that the larva produced by the crab queen will turn into a full fledged enemy after so many turns is this true?
is it possible to now have underwater missions if enough funding is available with the now pushed back release date?
is it possible to completely stealth a mission, like have a team of infiltrators that’s sole purpose is to slip into a haven steal tech and supplies and then slip out with no combat?
will there be multiple types of behemoths or only one type?
will soldiers have different animations for dying instead of just getting shot or stabbed? like their face gets eaten by acid and such.
will there be a set amount of boss monsters per game? so like if there’s ten and I kill one with there only be nine left for the entire game or will they keep reappearing.
also Is it possible to kill boss monsters on mission or will you have to attack their home in order to kill them?
bartekb8 May 17, 2018, 5:19pm #2
So many questions. It’s too soon to know everything, don’t you think?
Spark May 17, 2018, 8:42pm #3
Dudley noted I do like having stuff I don’t know and being suprised by it but that is more restricted to enemies and the story and tech. Game mechanics on the other hand I would like to be clarified more and I think most of the question are contributed to that. Though that’s coming from the person who has been documenting and recording any thing I can find on the aliens lol
Madxav May 17, 2018, 10:55pm #4
will each faction have their own unique set of classes with the same basic ones with different abilities or just the same basic soldiers with and some unique soldiers?
From my understanding of what I’ve read about classes the basic classes will be shared across all factions, but specialized classes will be different. There will also be different tech between classes.
will map size be varied or is the backer build map be the largest they can get?
It was mentioned on discord that there are bigger maps in the game.
will the players get boss like machines apart from transport vehicles? recon raider showed a 3d model of a new Jericho mech, I was wondering if the player can get something like that or even steal a mech walker.
Vehicles will be for transport, but it has been mentioned they are working also on some mounted units (I don’t think it has been confirmed yet, though). Disciples of Anu will have the mounted Mutog, and NJ might have some kind of Mech like the one that was teased on Discord.
so with the damage per bullet essentially it possible to have so much armor to negate any damage until some gets shredded?
Correct. If your weapon does 4 damage and fires 5 bullets, and the enemy has 3 armor, if you land all the shots it will only do 5 damage. In some cases your weapons will do 0 damage if armor is higher than bullet damage
will all the aliens have a basic body to start that can be mutated or will every variation be mutated with random variation to begin with?
I’m pretty sure they will start with some random mutation. Julian mentioned recently, though, that ayys will have deployment points for each mission, and some mutations would consume more deployment points than others. So at the start expect more basic mutations.
can we get a number of how many basic aliens will be in the game?
Again, Julian mentioned that the number of ayys in a mission depends on their deployment points available. No mention of how many we could expect, but the game is at a too early stage for starting to talk about balance.
when you say 16 is the max squad do you mean that I can control 16 soldiers in one turn or will some be weighting off map for some to die and then appear?
can the mist mutate soldiers during a mission?
Julian mentioned that ayys might try to steal your units for mutating them.
is it possible to now have underwater missions if enough funding is available with the now pushed back release date?
They will make it a paid post launch DLC.
Yokes May 19, 2018, 1:04am #5
will each faction have their own unique set of classes with the same basic ones with different abilities or just the same basic soldiers with and some unique soldiers?
I think it was not decided yet how classes will interact with each other and what set of skills they have
with the release data pushed back can the floating base be part of the base game from release not needing to wait for a flc after words?
they postponed release to be able to include all basic content while maintaining good quality, and not to add more content to the game
can we get a number of how many basic aliens will be in the game?
I hope they won’t share it
I feel like this has already been confirmed but can you have a three way battle on a mission? for example you invade a haven while it is being attacked by aliens so your fighting both aliens and the original inhabitance of the haven.
They mentioned even more than 3 sides of conflict, we will see.
will behemoth be able to destroy the phoenix point bases? I know they can destroy havens but if they can destroy phoenix point bases this adds a whole new almost unavoidable threat unless you try and take it down.
Of course, why not?
can we get a number on how many vehicles are going to be in game?
Another thing that I hope they won’t share
It should be as things like knife or enemy claws were mentioned
will there be a set amount of boss monsters per game? so like if there’s ten and I kill one with there only be nine left for the entire game or will they keep reappearing.
it wont be set. If they will “grow†their new bases, queen will get better with every nest mutation. If you won’t control territory expent new bosses coming
also Is it possible to kill boss monsters on mission or will you have to attack their home in order to kill them?
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Greek artist Stefania Strouza will be awarded the Inspire 2021 Award by the MOMus-Experimental Arts Center for her project entitled “That of the jade skirt».
The Inspire Award, which accompanied by a cash prize of 3,000 euros, is awarded under the Inspire Project to a visual artist, regardless of age or nationality, for work already granted during the workshop or residence to the world and is distinguished for its conception, originality, reflection and relevance to the space in which has been presented and with whom he is potentially conversing.
Stefania Strouza was nominated for the rest due to the fact that she was paid exactly according to the situation provided by the Inspire Prize, as well as because the work she submitted appeared, in addition to artistic perfection and proven research, a close connection with place of production.
The project «That of the jade skirt» (“The one with the emerald skirt”) of Stefania Strouza consists of sculptures as well as a series of reliefs and interest rates embossed. The projects were developed during the artist-in-residence program in Mexico City with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum (March-June 2018) and presented as a cohesive body of work within the studio residency at MANA Contemporary in the USA (October 2018 -March 2019). Examining the evolution of Mexico City in relation to water, the “That of the jade skirtIt forms a narrative that begins with the special fact that the pre-Columbian city, founded on an extensive lake system, is now gradually sinking. The title refers to Chalchiuhtlicue, the female deity of rivers and childbirth, which in Aztec cosmology represents water as a vital source but also as a depiction in the form of floods. The sculptures draw morphological references from pre-Columbian maps as well as from the very architectural reality of the capital. Respectively, the materials of the works have environmental symbols, “capturing” the gradual fluctuations and transformations of the landscape from the liquid to the dry and from the natural to the anthropogenic. The “That of the jade skirtAssociated with a broader eco-feminist approach, he continued a fantastic and material collection on the relationship between water, urban overdevelopment and climate change.
The presence of the work of Stefania Strouza and the acquaintance of the author with the audience of MOMus-Experimental Arts Center will take place in special award ceremony Inspire Prize 2021 which will take place online on Tuesday, September 21, 2021, at 18:00 with free participation of the public. The event will be accessible from the link https://bit.ly/2Xw6DBT (Meeting ID card: 833 8276 1492 / Password: 254190).
To Inspire Project is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund).
A few words about Stefania Strouza
Stefania Strouza lives and works as an artist in Athens. Through the sculpture of the work he explores intercultural writers and the hybrid identities that result from the exchange of material goods and meanings over the centuries. Strouza implements their ideas through works related to the symbolic world of objects with the concepts of temporality, body and geography.
Her work has been presented in exhibitions in Greece and abroad such as: in 3the Biennale of Industrial Art, Croatia; in Pinta Miami, USA; at the Benaki Museum, Greece; at 6the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece; at a.antonopoulou.art, Greece (individual); at the Wiener Art Foundation, Austria (individual); at the Neue Galerie Innsbruck, Austria (individual); at the Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2014, Greece (individual ) · At BOZAR, Belgium · at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Greece among others. In 2019 he participated in the exhibition The Palace in the 4 oneTheΜThe Archaeological Museum of Mykonos after the assignment of the NEON Organization.
Strouza is the recipient of the award of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (ARTWORKS) and the National Bank (Bravio of Young Artists), among others. Participated in the Artist Hospitality Program at the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, Princeton University, USA (2016), at the Bauhaus Foundation Dessau, Germany (2016), at the Studio Residency in Mexico City on a scholarship from the Austrian Ministry of Culture (2018), at MANA Contemporary New Jersey, USA (2018), CCA Andratx, Spain (2020) and ISCP, USA (2021).
She studied Architecture at the National Technical University of Athens (2007) and completed her postgraduate studies in the Environmental Art department of the Edinburgh College of Art (2010) and in the Textual Sculpture department of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts (2016). She is a PhD candidate in the Department of Architectural Engineering of the University of Thessaly.
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Don’t make my mistake, learn from my foolishness. Don’t under any circumstances sign up for LA Fitness membership. It’s what I’m calling “a scam”, although it may not be a scam, in the legal sense of the word. But I think it might be on the edge.
Here’s my problem – and it’s not unique to me – I was offered a three day trial membership. This part is almost certainly a scam. There is no trial membership. You call up to arrange an “appointment” with one of the trainers. What happens here is, you’re given a sell. A hard sell.It is at this point that the promises, the encouragement and the dealing starts. During this process, you will be bullied in to joining. Can you get the three day pass during this time? I don’t know. I never found out, because I was bullied in to signing up. The bullying is quite subtle, I suppose, you’re basically told, if you don’t sign up there and then, the price will go up. From what I can tell, this is a lie anyway, and the price of your membership is based on what the salesperson wants to give you as a deal.
If you got a three day pass, enjoyed the thee days, and walked out without the above sell. Let me know in the comments below.
But, the bit of this I have a massive problem with, is what you are agreeing to. This won’t be explained to you when you’re signing up, and you’d need to read ALL the terms and conditions to see it, but you are taking a credit agreement. This is why I think LA Fitness membership is a scam. Rather than subscribing to the service of their gym, what you are actually doing, is taking out a loan. Yes, that’s right. A LOAN.
You are borrowing a sum of money from LA Fitness. This amount is repayable over the course of your membership. That might be 12 months, or 24 months. This is the same as borrowing money from a shop for a large purchase, like a TV or cooker. I don’t know if LA Fitness credit scores, I suspect it doesn’t.
I bet 99 per cent of the people who sign up to LA Fitness have no idea about this. If you’re an LA Fitness member, check the stuff that was emailed to you when you subscribed. Again, please let me know in the comments if you WERE aware what you were signing. It’s also important to point out, when you sign this credit agreement, it’s done on a computer terminal that’s connected to the LA Fitness website. When I looked at it, it wasn’t clear that it was a credit agreement. I am literally JUST finding this out.
Aside from all that, the promises that LA Fitness are a different kind of gym are all lies too. When you go in – no wonder they don’t give you a three day pass, if they did, I doubt anyone would join – you’ll see the same old thing. The meatheads that pump iron day-in, day-out. The rude staff. The ageing facilities. You’ll be promised help from the staff, and an exercise plan, but unless you badger them, it will never appear.
So now, I have a gym I don’t go to, and no way to get out of the contract. I can’t claim to be pregnant, and have a husband who has lost their job, but then that wouldn’t make any difference anyway…
In the morning, I’m going to ask the LA Fitness press department for a comment on this. I’ll also be talking to my bank about the legality of such credit agreements. If you are a lawyer, I’d love to know what you think. Get in touch via the comments, or send me a tweet @IanMorris78.
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About The Author
Ian Morris is a freelance technology journalist with bylines for T3, TechRadar, Forbes, The Guardian, The Observer, PC Mag UK and others. He appears on TV and radio to discuss technology sometimes and is even happier on the radio.
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December 9, 2005
Lottie on February 2, 2012 at 10:27 pm
God I agree with this….I was a member for over 3 years, and when I came to cancel my contract when I went to live abroad they said I would have to pay a cancellation fee of £245!!! I managed to sell my contract to someone else, but it was stressful, and I discovered what they talked me through in the contract was not what I had signed. I recently bought 10 day passes through Groupon so I could use the gym without paying for a contract…I managed to work out only twice. The gym was rammed, even off peak, and the swimming pool is now almost entirely rented out for children’s swimming classes, so you can’t use it, and the place is full of children running around. I got endless calls, texts and emails from their asking me to join, even though I have opted out and asked them to stop. All gyms seem to be as bad though, GymBox have a reputation for taking payments illegally off people’s debit cards even after they’ve cancelled and left.
Cat on February 2, 2012 at 10:42 pm
My friend went to inquire about prices the other day and was sold membership to some gym (don’t know which chain) for a month for £45. It’s bloody cheeky. She said she felt forced to say yes eventually and she’s actually out-of-work looking for a job at the moment – WHICH she told them. She actually said she was unemployed on jobseekers allowance and they STILL signed her up. Pretty shitty to do that to someone who, unlike me, has a bigger problem with being rude to sales people ;)
Cat on February 2, 2012 at 10:45 pm
ooh, meant to mention…there’s a cool new company called payasUgym. Quite simple really, no contract, you load credit onto your iphone app, then through the app search for gyms in the area you’d like to go to train (near work, home, or friends, at your convenience really) then pay for a daypass – luckily, PAUG have negotiated a discount from that gym’s usual dayrate for their members. Probably not as cheap as a long term contract, but more flexible and at least you can budget month-by-month.
Anonymous on February 3, 2012 at 9:55 am
Interesting idea on Payasugym, might look into that idea, as it’s sounds quite clever.
Sharmee Mavadia on February 3, 2012 at 11:33 am
Ian – totally agree with this. It’s a complete scam and the facilities are awful. I joined for the classes and they take them off the timetable so now there are hardly any evening ones or you have to pay extra for them! Point of that?!?! And when you complain no one ever calls back….
theprgeek on February 3, 2012 at 11:45 am
If you complain persistently and loud enough they will listen. I just got a month free and free locker hire. I do actually use the gym so I’m not too fussy about the contract. It’s the fact that they don’t keep their side of the contract and are rude and don’t give a shit when you do complain.
So what happens after 12 months with LA? Do you go onto a rolling one month. Or so they automatically tie you in for another 12 months?
Anonymous on February 3, 2012 at 1:59 pm
I’m still in my 12 months, so I don’t know. Most people seem to be saying on the Guardian story, that you get a week or something to cancel, then it rolls on to another 12 months. I’ll check my terms and let you know.
mysteriousmillie on February 16, 2012 at 8:28 am
I had a similar problem the facilities were awful, the changing rooms dirty, locker doors broken for years, shower filthy and smelt of poo yes guys POO on and off and I came out in an awful rash but I blamed the gym, equipment often broken for long periods of time, the swimming pool tiny and out of order most of the time – loads of people reported them to environmental health, they now have to test their water every week YUK!! I eventually used the asbourne case to get out of my contract as I had signed up to 18 months, but I pestered head office management – I used these email addresses Mark.Stevenson@LAFitness.co.uk and carmel.proctor@lafitness.co.uk and martin.long@lafitness.co.uk and neil.hodgon@lafitness.co.uk
chim on February 17, 2012 at 6:27 pm
omg how can I get out of this contract! I found out they’re a scam AFTER I got home from signing up with them and called to cancel the contract they turned around and sad “you’re in your contract already” I have never seen any contract where you don’t have atleast 7 days to reconsider. Please I need help, what can I do? I’ve been reading online that if you cancel your direct debit, you will automatically pass your name on to debt collectors :-(
Piers on March 5, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Agreed LA fitness are wankers, I’ve just wasted my time trying to get 3 days free.
Piers on March 5, 2012 at 7:41 pm
Just noticed you can report false advertising to the ASA here – http://www.asa.org.uk/Complaints/How-to-complain.aspx
amyp on March 18, 2012 at 10:04 pm
Thank you so much for this blog entry Ian!!! I was just about to take out a new membership at my LA Fitness – I have an appt with the “sales team” tomorrow, but now I’m going to do everything I can to get a new “dodgy deal” as all the staff refer to the membership I currently have with them! (Every time I try to book in for a class and my name isn’t on the system so I have to go down as “guest”…)
My boyfriend and I went in there at the end of November admant that we wanted a 4 month membership to last us until March and would not sign up to a contract. They weren’t happy about it but they eventually said if we paid upfront £180 (£45 per month) there and then they’d give us a “buddy pass” for 4 months which gave us access to everything a normal membership would.
I actually love my LA fitness, it is clean and doesn’t smell of poo, I am happy to report. I am training for a half marathon and would never been able to do it without the amazing lady who did original assessment and has kept suggesting new things, always takes time to find me in the gym to see how my training is going and suggest new things I could try and has been really supportive. Actually all the staff have been great.
I heard on the grapevine (not from an actual Personal Trainer, but from my friend, who uses one at LA,) that they even take the piss out of the PTs. who actually have to PAY TO BE THERE even though they are members of staff!!! Unsurprisingly PT staff turnover is pretty high.
Anyway, I will not be signing a contract tomorrow! I may even ask for 5 days free, seeing as I never had that option!!
Smith123 on March 18, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Which branch of LA Fitness are you at Amy?
amyp on March 23, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham. I would recommend it. Staff are lovely, changing rooms are clean (obviously I can only speak for the ladies), classes are fun etc. :-) Got my extra month for £45, no problems. It sounds like LA fitness gyms really vary depending on which one you go to.
Smith123 on March 26, 2012 at 9:39 pm
I’m looking in London. Which one are you at Ian?
Kaloyan Yankulov on April 19, 2012 at 8:31 am
How much is monthly is the membership?
Christina on April 24, 2012 at 8:49 pm
This sort of pressure selling is appalling as you feel the regret setting in as soon as you get home- i did sign up like yourself and ridulously due to my self loathing it took me 3 months to actually attend as i was so annoyed with myself for being so weak as to sign up there and then. Such a shame as fitness is a very much mind/ body thing
wow me and my wife thought we were the only ones. after the first personal training session we never got a follow up. every time i asked for my free day passes for friends i never got them. even the free stuff i.e. the bag, bottle etc they did not have from the beginning. and we found out half way through our 24 mth contract (£50 per month) that we were also bullied into our friend was only paying £30 per month on a 12 month contract. this is the worst gym and has put me off joining any other gyms in the future.
sntnpl on May 7, 2012 at 12:12 am
L.A.FITNESS IM MILGAVIE IS A SCAM!my cousin join them the other week,after harassing me with phone call.they did not give to my cousin a gym bag(i had one when i joint them with previous manager,by the way new manager Laura,is not that great on doing her job,)they said i would incur of a 45 quid surcharge on top my cousin contract!then i try to order protein tub(pro max)they would charge me 42 quid for that,but prom previous management i only paid 30 quid!my locker broke the other day,they try to sell me new look for 10 quid when i had 3 lockers change all from free!as i was asking them if i would be entitled to get a wee discount(i did bring to them 3 new member,got a notice from them saying that they would give me a certain discount on product if i bring customer to them)MISS LAURA SIMPLY TOLD ME,MANAGEMENT IS CHANGED.HOW CHEEKE!MANAGER LAURA SUCK!i’m sure i will end my contract to them one’s it expired,i mean MISS LAURA,THE L.A. FITMESS SILPLY PISS ME OFF,IM NOT GONNA COME BACK TO THEM AS THERE IS A NEW GYM NETX FROM I WORK,I REALLY HOPE SOMEONE CAN READ TO THIS
Guest on May 15, 2012 at 7:12 am
You have/had a week cooling off period.
In the US there is no contract, and everyone who is saying you were bullied into it and then didn’t go, that is your own fault? Do you guys not have enough will power to say no to something when someone is pressuring you? Im sorry if you dont…good luck in the world then.
Pawel on May 18, 2012 at 5:10 am
Well… I would have agreed with all of the above not more than 2 weeks ago, but then I visited my local branch in Brentwood… I have to tell you, it was a bit of a nice surprise and a refreshing customer service experience (unlike one with LA fitness at Moorgate in London or with the head office over the phone!!!)
I did get my 3 days pass, I had all my questions answered there and then, and I have been told of all the terms an conditions. It was not a sales pitch, it was a genuine, friendly chat during which I found out everything I wanted about the gym, prices, contract, classess, etc.
The person I talked not ones threatened that the prices would go up if I didn’t sign up and not pushed at all, I didn’t have never ending follow up sales calls. I went to the gym for the 3 days trial, enjoyed it and came back a week later to sign up myself.
You might be right about the tired equipment, but they are actually changing all of it next month. And I will be honest saying, I don’t Ming using 5-10 years old equipment for the price they charge you for the contract. 40quid a month in comparison with other well known chains is not a fortune I am spending. And yes, it is a loan. But you do not have to sign up to it, you can simply pay it in full when you join.
In regards to the staff… I have been lucky so far. Knowledgable, nice, professional, friendly.
And before anyone asks… NO, I DON’T WORK FOR THEM!!! I just had a good experience.
Fluff22 on May 23, 2012 at 7:24 am
Being from the U.S., I’m not sure about differences in rules, but one thing I know is that you can go on line and print out a 7 day pass to take with you. Yes, a sales representative will take you on a tour, sit down with you and try and talk you in to going ahead and joining. If you came in to join and are inclined, great, go ahead. If unsure, be assertive and tell them you want the pass. It’s like buying a car, just a lot less expensive, and interest free at that. You pay whatever deal YOU negotiate. I do not sign something on a computer. I made him print me a sample of the document so I could read it all, first. Sounds like buyers remorse, and you guys have to know going in that this is a business. Machine and facility wear is going to depend on when the gym opened. It sounds like a lot of whining….aren’t we all grown folk here ? Not meaning to offend, but I can’t empathize nor endorse a lack of taking responsibility for one’s actions.
Ianwhiteley on May 29, 2012 at 12:27 pm
the staff at la fitness are nothing but liars and cheats, yet the authorities let them get away with it… why?
Toby on May 31, 2012 at 2:37 pm
Yo I am a 17 year old boy and I used to always use the 3 day pass, yes the staff would sumtimes throw snide remarks in like “they are scum using the 3 day pass”, but they couldnt stop us. I went to the gym by me for like two months before I got bored of filling out the new registration sheets with false information when I wanted a new pass..
Toby on May 31, 2012 at 2:38 pm
my name is not even toby
Justin1c on June 1, 2012 at 4:58 pm
I’m writing this letter to cancel membership because your employee
(I.D. 1836052) acted unethically. He forged my signature on the membership contract while I was up in the gym (he requested i check out the facilities) and better yet he made up a fake email address of mine. I never read the contract nor was I consulted in anyway. Why should I do business with a company who will tolerate such tactics. I was lied to in so many ways that there is no excuse for what happened.
First I was told that I could not do a free month membership because he was being closed out in thirty minutes. The truth is he was trying to make a quota and I know this because he was openly discussing and comparing two other facilities to the stamford branch with another employee, stating “one has met 110 percent of sales and the other is already at 75 percent” of their daily goal. The worst part of all of this is that there is an employee of yours who witnessed this and will vouch for what happened if necessary. I’m not sure how many other people this has happened to or how long this has been going on for but I want to make sure that this does not happen again.
Enclosed I have included a copy of the contract which I never signed and did not even know that was signed already until a day later.
I hope this matter is now
Lost in LA on June 6, 2012 at 1:14 pm
LA Fitness in on Don Mills (Toronto) is a real shit hole. I have been at this gym for 2 years now and every month it gets worst, but the excuses don’t change – “Sorry He quite last night” Sorry the mens lockers room and showers are a mess – he quit last night too or he doesn’t work on Fridays.
Staff turnover from top to bottom is weekly and some times daily. The work out floor is a joke. Lot’s of machines and free weights – if you can find the free weights. Tried to work out this morning, couldn’t find any dumbells, barbells as they we all over the gym. The trainers in this place are worse the the clients for leaving shit all over, but at $18/hr for training what can you expect from this so called “Signature” Club.
Starting to conider quitting this place and joining McDonalds – might see results!! The will be shit results but no different than the Shit hole called LA Fitness
Ben on June 12, 2012 at 8:54 pm
Hello there!
I’m in London for the next 6 month (just arrived from the continent) and went to the LA Fitness in South Kensington to get more info.
I saw on the internet they propose Pilate classes (for my GF), have a big fitness room and a swimming pool! It sounded amazing.
We asked for a leaflet with the prices and the conditions, but they gave us a form to fill up with really precise details. Then a “trainer” that I better call a “pushing seller” came to us and proposed us to see the accommodations.
Then I told him: ” we’re students, here for a couple of months, we wanna come twice a week, I just wanted to know about your prices!” so he started with a 45 min monologue explaining us that taking a 18 months membership was the best option as we could cancel it whenever we want as long as we present them the plane ticket. Then he demonstrated that taking the full package with all options and welcome gifts was again cheaper than taking the basic membership!!!!!!! Doesn’t make any sense to me…
Quickly he lost us with his complicated explanation of discount, fees, charges, packages… At the end he asked for our bank details. We starting to feel really uncomfortable and pretended not having them with us. We said we would come back tomorrow. Indeed I wanted to check this LA Fitness reputation on the internet, and I saw this blog!!!!!!!
I thought I was too suspicious, but apparently we were right to be careful!!!
Do you all agree on not subscribing a membership there?
So now, I am back to the beginning: I am in London and looking for a RELIABLE fitness with Pilate classes.
Can anyone help me with that?
Julieheinrich1 on June 14, 2012 at 11:51 am
I belong to LA Fitness and my firned tried to use a free pass and was told that the man who gave it to me (I gave it to my friend) no longer worked at LA so the pass was no good. I was angry because that makes no sense. I printed a free 2 week pass off of my LA account and gave that to my friend—we went back the next day and were met at the door and he was immediately told that pass was no good due to “black out dates.” The manager said that college kids are using them over the summer to come to the gym for free and not purchasing a membership so they will not honor them. I complained and they did not care. I paid $20 for the day for my friend and went home and called LA corporate and was told by them that they have never heard of “black out dates” or not honoring a pass if an employee quits but that my friend needs to live within 20 miles of the gym. I told them that he is in medical school doing residencies between 3 states. They said his driver’s license address needs to be within 20 miles of the gym or the free pass is invalid. So, to answer your question—there is NO FREE PASS at LA Fitness.
Nstripp on June 14, 2012 at 8:43 pm
I’ve just joined. I was told to call to cancel 2 months before the end of my 6 month contract if I don’t want to carry on – the price wil go up as I got a special rate and it would be a rolling contract. Although I was told that even if I don’t want to cancel to call and tell them I do and then they’d offer another special rate to keep me.
Roadhouse on June 20, 2012 at 1:02 pm
or, man up and say no. I got the 3 day pass, chatted with the trainer, explained i already had membership elsewhere and proceeded to use my free 3 day pass. after this, they phoned me a few times, i explained im still considering other options, and left it at that. ive been going on and off since with various free passes and havent been bothered since.
those that say they’re bullied into signing obviously have very little in the way of social skills, or you’re extremely weak willed. nobody can make you do anything or sign up to something against your will. just because they dangle a carrot in front of you doesnt mean you have to take a bite. just sit back and consider your options, it really is not difficult.
Not Telling on June 20, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Pay as you gym is a load of Bull****, they negotiate nothing on your behalf.
There is NO discount.
I don’t know if they actually promise one in their blurb as they should be held accountable for false promises at best, utter lies at worst.
You actually pay a pound or two more than if you were to pay for a day pass anyway.
For example Jubilee Halls in Covent Garden is and always has been £8 for a day’s use, yet it’s more on PAYG as are all the gyms. All they’ve done is created an app with a map of all the gyms that that allow drop-ins. They have then contacted the gyms and said will you accept my traffic? Once agreed they add their commission on top which varies from £0.50- £2 per person per gym session.
Once again Pay As You Gym offers NO discount whatsoever.
Not Telling on June 20, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Haha go check out the one in Holborn. The ‘swimming pool’ is pathetic. It’s a single lane!!! You actually have to get out one end and walk back and then re-enter to swim the 15-20m lane again!!!
I didn’t believe my friend until he took me there. All LA Fitness’s, Fitness First’s, GymBox’s, Bannatyne’s etc. are useless. I used to study at Loughborough designing gym equipment – all these ‘facilities’ are basically ‘lifestyle’ gyms. There’s no real equipment that will benefit you or knowledgeable trainers. It’s not designed for that. It’s designed for the masses to be able to use ‘equipment’ that forces them in patterns of movement that will never hurt them thus ensuring minimal liability supervised by minimally trained staff (by minimal I mean anyone who has undertaken a premier personal training qualification which basically ensures they can stand next to a piece of designated equipment and count to 10). Funny thing with these machines is that by ensuring you don’t have to support loads across all axes by keep you constrained to linear movements you’ll only ever plateau and never increase in strength as you’ll never handle an appropriate load by supervised by someone who takes you as close as you safely can fail at until they provide support themselves – the entire purpose of a spotter and certainly the purpose of a paid trainer. The machines are also designed for the 95th percentile – to fit most bodies. Technogym – which appears to have struck deals with most of these chains tries so hard to ergonomically over engineer their equipment the kit is useless for most and in the case of their hamstring curls and leg extension machines utterly dangerous.
You’ll never see Technogym in a real gym, but one thing you will see, the absolute cornerstone of a decent gym – the benchmark – the absolute litmus test – is a squat rack and a trainer that knows how to use one correctly. Not a ***tty ‘smith machine’ a worthless squat rack looking piece of equipment that has a fixed bar that slides up and down which people often assume is a squat rack (squatting is not a straight up and down movement) – note: these are installed in every LA Fitness and Fitness First I have ever been to. A real Squat Rack is the corner stone to every gym and the reason none of these lifestyle gyms have them is because unsupervised or poorly supervised (as in their staff) the kit can be potentially dangerous. Set up correctly it’s the most important piece of equipment you will use to achieve your strength and conditioning goals.
Also, so far I have yet to see any gym that offers better pool facilities then most council drop-in pools (that is if you actually like to swim as opposed to floating around in water).
If you want to actually save cash and get in shape, google p90x, that is a thorough and excellent home based program that will get you results safely and mixes up routines from various disciplines to keep you motivated. Couple that with a decent council pool, Yoga class, running or cycling outdoor (once you’ve gained the motivation from the infectious p90x). If you soley want to lift weights most spit n’ sawdust gyms will allow you to drop in for £5 and are not intimidating, but friendly in my experience. They survive on repeat custom at the end of the day and don’t strong arm you into deceptive contracts. The sooner people turn away from these awful lifestyle gyms and rid them from the high street the better!
Alexandra Fitness on July 9, 2012 at 5:05 pm
I have problems from LA Fitness – but as a contractor. I’m, a freelance fitness instructor and I was having problems with my bank account so I asked LA Fitness to hold my invoices until I sorted out. After 3 months, I wrote to them with my new bank details and they paid my salary….into my old account. This was in Nov 2010. when I challenged them, they admitted that they they had made a mistake and told me that that would “actively try to recover the funds”. I told them that as far as I was concerned, they’d paid my wages into an unauthorised account and how they recovered it was their problem. Today, I wrote to them asking if they had managed to “actively try to recover the funds” to which they replied that “Until the money is returned to our account the finance team cannot pay you this money.”
The “funniest” thing of all is the Mr Calder, head of Finance at LA Fitness considers that the error level in his finance team is “extremely low” and he invites you to e-mail him with any problems. His e-mail address is :Allan.Calder@LAFitness.co.uk
dingle berry on July 13, 2012 at 4:43 am
lmao. sounds like you were every salesman dream and now you have remorse because you over paid and didnt do your research prior to going into their establishment…in this day and age, only lazy or computer illiterate people claim to be “scammed”
Eatingnim on July 19, 2012 at 5:22 pm
the difference is, butthole, only in the u.s. do we excuse thieves under the guise of ‘just business’. most every place else in the world does not expect unethical treatment of consumers. so, next time you get buttraped by your creditors or anyone for that matter, go jump in a septic pit.
youidiot on July 19, 2012 at 5:32 pm
seriously a$$whipe? you’ve never been cheated by unethical corporate manipulation? f-ing liar. go/back to work whiping sweat off machines and cleaning pubic hair from shower drains at la fitness for minimum wage which you pay back to your employer to workout you jerk-off idiot. no one can ever be scammed in your world? fuking idiots like you are why this greedy sh!t continues to exist outside of the united states where we for some reason encourage fukers to rape the public. go suk-off a business man jerk!
Redmondwalsh2003 on August 9, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Tm on August 11, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Did LA fitness actually give you money? No, then how can you say it is a loan? A loan is something you borrow for a while and pay back. You sign up for a contractual period and if you don’t pay up front you sign a credit agreement agreeing to pay the fee monthly. Should you wish to cancel during that period they are entitled to the money.
We paid our fee for a year up front and we got all the free stuff and two week passes for friends, yes a physical voucher that you took with you to use their facilities. I’m not sure why you’re having problems but the Liverpool branch is fine. If you didn’t want to pay each month them don’t sign up it’s as simple as that really
Rll on August 15, 2012 at 1:43 pm
I cancelled my membership with la this year, they do nothing to try and keep you and don’t offer any cheaper prices, It is a monthly rolling contract but make sure you call 2 months before you want to cancel or they will keep you going for another few months
Ian Morris on August 16, 2012 at 8:36 pm
It works like this. You sign up, they “loan” you the money for a year’s membership, which is paid up front. You never see the money, but it is a loan.
They do this because the consumer credit act is harder for people to get out of.
Sammy Challenger on August 20, 2012 at 2:06 pm
have to say I dissagree. I recently joined cambridge LA fitness and i first had a free 2 week buddy pass because my sister joined up and at no point was i bullied into joining, nobody even spoke to me about joining, they just let me get on with it. The staff are ever so friendly there. The gym was never packed and i was able to work out easily, the swimming pool was always quiet so I could have a good swim, at the end of every session the staff always said bye etc. The people that work out at the gym were also very friendly and eve made a few friends. I personally think this article is a little unfair as i was never ever bullied into signing up and nobody even tried to sell me membership, just got my free buddy pass and that was it, i left to work out to my hearts content. The classes in the evening are good fun and the equipment is very good and varied.
Eugene S on August 23, 2012 at 9:41 am
I’ve used 3 day passes without signing up. Just say you need it for 3 days, and don’t need a membership. They can’t do much about it.
Abc on August 23, 2012 at 6:49 pm
I just got back from using a five day pass. Thankfully I have not experienced any problems like the above. Nor do I want to either. I have enjoyed my time there and haven’t been hard sold at all. Having said that different regions probably have different issues in terms of clientele.
IanPugh on August 30, 2012 at 5:10 pm
Wow! Sounds like you need to go work out your anger issues somewhere!
LA Fittness Employee on September 1, 2012 at 6:32 pm
I am actually an employee at LA fitness in the U.S and i feel terrible for everyone on the blog. there is no “loan” or anything of the sort here and you can cancel at any time. If you pay your monthly payments, you may use the gym, and if you don’t pay, then you cant. its obviously is a corporation so of course theyre going to try to get the people tha are about to use the guest passes to sign up, but where i work they talk to you before you start your 3 day guest pass and then it is up to you if you would like to join and nobody hassles you after in any way. although there are always little errors and mistakes that occur when youre dealing with millions of members, the US LA Fitness has no shady contracting or any of the underhanded business people have mentioned. when people say they were “bullied” into a membership, it truly is the responsibility of the person to just say no if you dont want one. you cant get talked into doing something without your own consent, which is why there are contracts and its the members responsibility to read them to know what exactly they are signing up for (in any country). i highly recommend LA fitness in the U.S because there is nothing shady about our contracts. so sorry to everyone in Europe!
Laps_shelley on September 6, 2012 at 6:35 pm
Yes its not the best but its cheap. Gym is what you make of it. If staff are rude that shouldn’t affect your state.
kevin on September 11, 2012 at 5:18 pm
They came to us at college with a leaflet saying some 3 days free offer and we all signed I have an appt on Thursday 3 pm ..
are u saying that I can use the 3 days and then not sign up for membership because after reading this I feel it would drain my money as I’m a student
Peter010 on September 12, 2012 at 1:27 pm
I am still in my 12 month period when me and my partner joined we were living seperatly (25 miles) and I asked before signing up if we parted could I cancel my membership to which they replied yes and I joined. In May 2012 I was made redundant and informed LAfitness of this the same day I had a car crash an epelitic fit at the wheel and cant drive now there threatening me with debt collection agencies to recover money DISGUSTING
Khbutler0508 on September 13, 2012 at 4:12 am
Thanks for the info . I was able to walk out of there with out signing . They try to make me call friends to get them to join and share the cost . Now that I know I will pass the word. About them .
lawco on September 14, 2012 at 1:06 am
Jsjebssks on September 18, 2012 at 5:07 am
I just joined today. NO CONTRACT. And I can cancel anytime. Idk which one y’all are going to. But the one I go to is a BRAND NEW gym that was just built this year. It’s awesome. No hidden costs, no loans. No bullshit.
dannyboi on September 22, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Changes to your circumstances.
Of course, we understand personal circumstances can change (e.g. loss of job, pregnancy, moving away), so we’ll ensure your membership is one less headache for you to worry about. Whether it’s freezing your membership or a more permanent arrangement, we’ll work with you to find the best solution.
*All cancellations must be processed through our Member Services Department by calling 0844 770 7700
*Members must give one calendar months’ notice to cancel their agreement, once the initial term of the contract you have committed to has been fulfilled. This is in line with the terms and conditions of your agreement signed at the point of joining
*Within contract, members cannot cancel or freeze their membership; however, we will cancel during the agreement period as a gesture of goodwill if the following criteria is met:
Loss of earnings
If you have lost your job due to redundancy or contract termination, we’ll work with you to freeze or cancel your agreement early. All we will ask is that you provide us with the appropriate independent documentation e.g. P45.
Medical reasons
If you sustain an injury, long term illness or become pregnant, we’ll freeze or cancel your agreement on the acceptance of a supporting Doctors note confirming you are no longer fit to exercise.
Simonparry88 on September 23, 2012 at 10:09 pm
Mate this is what most company’s like gyms and insurance companies do in terms of paying monthly memberships. From what I understand they may well credit check you, but don’t leave a footprint on your file. It’s a common practice and not at all exclusive to LA Fitness. Don’t get me wrong I’m not too keen on LA Fitness, but this is not unique to them.
Emma W on October 8, 2012 at 7:47 pm
I don’t know about the contract bit but I did a weeks free trial and they didn’t pester me or anything. I might get the odd call asking if I’ve decided if I want to join but I asked them to do that as I’ve been looking around other gyms. They have all been really nice to me and the gym was really quiet whenever I went.
I think It’s likely that I will join though as I did enjoy it and it was the most relaxed gym I’ve tried. But thanks for the info, I will read the contract fully before signing.
Paddock66 on October 12, 2012 at 11:20 pm
well, all i know it’s tiny and they charge personal trainers a monthly fee more than most people pay for their mortgage just to use their rather small and limited facilities…!
Alleyarms on December 1, 2012 at 9:32 pm
If you want the gym to quite charging to your credit card just tell your bank you lost your card, cut it up and they will send you a new one, with new numbers. The gym will send you an email asking for updated billing info. Just ignore it and they won’t be able to charge you anymore. Never, ever give any one access to charge your checking account.
Andrea on December 8, 2012 at 8:52 pm
LA FITNESS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I paid a down payment of 95 for training . The training manager said I could cancel the next day if I change my mind so I did but they continued deducting money from my account… WORST IS, they never even gave me a contract but they claimed they did and showed it to me the day i complained WITH AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SIGNATURE FROM MINE. they totally forged it!!!! We should file a class suit everybody!!!!
Andrea on December 8, 2012 at 8:55 pm
IAN, WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. LA fitness has been doing this to a lot of customers. And they’ve been getting away with it for years!! This has got to stop. We need a lawyer.
Tom on December 14, 2012 at 10:04 am
I got out of my LA fitness contract when I was made redundant without any problem, just had to show them my redundancy letter. (not unreasonable) I used to go to the Bedford facility on Manton Lane, it was really nice – a nice pool, plenty of clases, bright and airy gym, very pleasant staff …. I agree about the fact you are encouraged to sign up with a personal trainer for extra cash but – what the hell, it works for some/many people who need the structure and encouragement and we are all big growed up adults now – so just say ‘no thanks’ and don’t be such a wus about it. I’m just about to re-join as it’s good VFM if you actually use it!
Emma ochia on December 17, 2012 at 8:08 pm
I’m in the same terrible position. I went to guardian money for help. I don’t know what to do …:( I’m only a student …
Nstripp on December 17, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Hmmmm, they offered me a new rate when I called to cancel which I refused, but then they told me my 6 month contract is actually an almost 7 month contract as I’m supposed to pay six full payments, plus the 25 days for June. Conning buggers!
Nicholas Georgiou on December 28, 2012 at 11:22 pm
It is part of their job to persuade you into joining, although you have the power to say no, so what is the problem? Perhaps you need a bit of “bullying” to toughen you up a little bit!
personal lol on January 2, 2013 at 11:33 pm
i did not have this problem with LA fitness. im in Chula Vista, CA (San Diego area) and i was on amonthlly plan, $75 for the family (4 people) and canceled no problem as long as it was written and 45 days in advance. we are now looking to go back after 6 month. i wonder if they are franchise
bundies on January 10, 2013 at 6:32 pm
Did you ever get a proper reply. and or conact detaisl?
From Anotehr annoyed user
nikkinew on January 14, 2013 at 8:19 pm
going to meet with a trainer today. Glad i read this first!
sam on January 15, 2013 at 2:12 am
ya dude just went in today to try the 3 day pass. they had me sign a “manual agreement” and wanted my credit card. told them there was no way I was giving them my card for a free three day trial. Hope I didn’t screw myself.
tony grant on January 17, 2013 at 3:35 pm
It’s unfreakin believable that this company is allowed to be in business w/ tens of thousands of complaints and hundreds of class action lawsuits lodged against la fitness. The best recourse, report card stolen to your card service, send a certified letter to la corp …who gives a fuck if they never get it. You might get phone calls for two months but la fitness never reports info to credit reporting agencies. Don’t forget to call your local city councilman, mayor, congressman and senator. These people need too know about your experiece not to mention the hundreds of class lawsuits and tens of thousands of complaints lodge against them. The top 5 complaints seem to be the norm…..Fuck la fitness….
tony grant on January 17, 2013 at 3:50 pm
You’re a fucking dumbing down dimwit…..there are tens of thousands of compaints reported against this scam of a business in every city across America w/ the same top 5 complaints. Let’s not forget about the hundreds of class action lawsuits.
tony grant on January 17, 2013 at 3:54 pm
and you’re all alone w/ that thought. 99% of members living in America and UK have come to a totally different conclussion.
tony grant on January 17, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Hence….the tens of thousands of complaints and hundreds of class action lawsuits. This blog is dealing only w/ complaints from members in the UK. The same shit is happening to members across the U.S.
Jame-sd on January 22, 2013 at 11:57 pm
tony grant on January 27, 2013 at 12:52 pm
tony grant on January 27, 2013 at 12:58 pm
Bullshit….You still selling crap down river. AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE If what you written is correct, why are their tens of thousands of compaints all over the U.S. and UK? DON’T BELIEVE A WORD!!!
Lani on January 31, 2013 at 11:55 pm
I’ve had no problem with LA Fitness thus far. In this past month of January from the 1st, I was able to get a free 1 week pass, which I used without any problems. After the week was up, I requested a free 14 day pass online using the same name I had on the first pass. Got a call that day saying to come in and set up the pass, which I did again without any problems. Used the 14 day pass till it expired. Only thing I’m experiencing is a lot of calls asking me to sign up for a membership, but they are supposed to do that and I find nothing wrong with just ignoring them since I have no intention of signing up at this time. Also each time I set up a guest pass, not one of the reps tried to pressure me into signing a membership, they simply tole me the rates, I declined, and they then continued setting up my free pass to let me have my free workout period. This was at Tucson, AZ clubs, so maybe it depends on the area you live in.
bigbadwoolfe on February 2, 2013 at 2:18 am
This makes fascinating reading as I am on both sides of this coin. I am an instructor, but I am freelance; I teach `spinning` and its the only discipline I teach. However, I `work` for LA Fitness as an employee on “zero hours contract”. This means they pay me an hourly rate and then deduct for tax & NI.
Now this all sounds good but where does that put me in terms of “an employee”.?
I get NO sick pay; moreover, if I can’t `cover` my class I, myself, have to find cover for it at my expense. So, essentially, I could end up actually losing money.
Where I work the parking isn’t free so I have to pay to park! It’s £1.20 for 2 hours….
(We’ll come back to that)
So “Zero Hours Contract”. This means LA Fitness don’t have to honour the classes they `give` me regularly.
So, here I am: An employee……but no benefits……and more to the point….I have over 10 years experience. To become an instructor (in particular spinning) you have to do a very intense course; after which you continue learning with modules. You have to then amalgamate `points` over the year to make sure R.E.P.S are satisfied that you,ve satisfactorily earned your badges/stars over that year!
All of this costs money and you’re thinking “how much?”
A course could cost £200+. It takes a weekend. You may get 3 points for a course & you need over 12 for the year. So 3 courses….no problem…..No problem if they’re in your town; so not so good if they’re 50, 100, 200 miles away. Fuel, hotel costs, etc…assuming you have a car. Worse if you don’t. Getting the picture.
So; when I qualified 12 years ago I was paid £20 per class. (45 minutes) I was paid £22 if I taught an hour class.
12 years later…..I have been informed that i will now be getting £15 per class & £20 for my hour class!!!!
And to add insult to injury; remember I am employed by the gym….I have had no appraisal, no meetings to ask me for any feedback; no management has asked me that in all the years I have worked there.
So now I get paid £15 for my class; to set up & down takes at least 15 mins either end and on top of that I then pay for my parking and the tax/NI take some too! I am left with very little to show for it…..
It would appear that not only are their members being treated badly but also their staff; but I am not really staff…..I am only staff when LA sees it fit to call me staff when Customs & Excise and the VAT man look at their books to see that `freelance instructors` are “paying their dues”
If I am an employee (without benefits) I need a PPL ‘Public Performing Licence` Licence (to play my music) surely as an employee LA’s licence would cover me ? …..er.. No But I pay my dues; why do I have to pay for a Licence.?
And yes; I also have to agree with the complaints. I taught to thousands of members over the years about the facilities all of whom complain about them. Old equipment; tired carpets, classes cancelled – just like that; reduced opening hours; no creche (facility taken away). And I despair at new members coming in. Sign up…. then forgotton. The staff don’t care. I see people training and they’re doing it all wrong.
Finally, I took my wife to my gym. She is a member of a gym in Berkshire which is very well respected. When I asked her what she thought; she said ” I can’t believe any body would come here to train”
The days are numbered for me as a `freelance` / employed / zero hours contract “employee”.
I hope I will be missed when I go….but at least it will be easier for me to leave rather than someone whose just bought some membership!
Guest on February 22, 2013 at 8:46 pm
Johnmpearson on February 23, 2013 at 10:14 pm
LA Fitness is a complete scam. I am currently in the process of reporting them to the Financial Ombudsman Service and Office of Fair Trading. My 17 year old son took out a 2 year membership Aug 2011, I was there at the meeting to sign him up as he needed my bank account details to pay for the membership. We specifically mentioned that he would be leaving our home town for University 12 months later. We were told that the membership could be cancelled at any time with 1 months notice. At NO point were we told that the membership was a loan agreement, and it transpires for 3 years not 2. We were never given a copy of the “contract”.
In August 2012 we gave 1 months notice both in writing and telephone call to head office. Strange that you can join at local gym but cannot cancel there? We also hand delivered to the local gym (as discussed and agreedd in our telephone call) (again I was witness) evidence that my son was moving away and that there was no LA fitness local to him.
I also arranged for my direct debit to be cancelled 1 month later after the final ayment. All well and good, or so i thought. i then discovered that LA Fitness had reinstated and collected 2 further direct debits without my permission or authorisation!!! I contacted my bank and pointed out they were not allowed to do this under the direct debit rules and they made an immediate refund.
LA Fitness have since haranged, harassed and pestered us for payment of 2 months plus an admin fee. Despite numerous letters with all the evidence copies of cancellation letter and evidence they refuse to accept there is no money owing. They have now referred the debt to a DCA who are equally as ignorant and rude, threatening legal action. Whilst i would love to go in front of an impartial judge, I know they will never bring it to court, jusy keep hounding, adding fees on etc. The reason they won’t go to court? Because they know they will be shot down in flames. So I have paid the amount owing stating it was paid under severe duress and harassment and will now persue them on my own terms, legal if necessary to recover the money they have stolen from me and my son. I have received a copy of the contract we never got with a pathetic forged attempt at my signature, with contract in my son’s name. As far as I can see this credit “agreement” is null and void legally for so many reasons. I’ll ley you know how I get on.
LA Fitness are just a thieving bunch of con artists,ignorant and totally unprofessional.
OFT have won cases against gyms that impose unfair terms and conditions.
Tahirfar on February 24, 2013 at 9:53 pm
I went to the Southampton gym with my daughter-in-law,we were given the hard sell. We didnt join because the girl who was talking to us had false eye lashes and was more made up than the contestants on Stricly Come Dancin…!!! We went to other gyms but they were just as bad, I’m going to train at home.
@gkbrown on April 3, 2013 at 7:58 pm
I’m a new member in the manchester branch and I don’t see any of this at all.
The staff were very polite, let me have a 5 day trial and didn’t bothere at all, just asked how I was getting on.
There was of course a question now and again if I would be joining after the trial but that was so that they can give me some coaching tips that would be taken on over the membership.
The facilities are perfect and always clean.
I don’t know what your expecting with the ‘meatheads’.. Do you think there should be a cut off point of muscle mass so you can’t use them anymore and only see skinny or fat people struggling with weights? It’s a gym, people are going to be in better shape than others.
I did my first ever spin class today and the instructor was amazing. He wasn’t afraid to push me and aswell as concentrating on the entire group, he always asked if I was ok and had a laugh and a joke.
On the membership side, a friend of mine hasn’t been in a long time and received a phone call not too long after he stopped. He was still paying the monthly fee and LA fitness rang him up asking if he was still interested in coming and if not… Would he like to leave.
They offered him a way of cancelling his contract to save him money and I quote ‘we want you to come to the gym because you want too, and when you do want to, we want to be the gym you choose..
mnm on April 14, 2013 at 10:23 pm
you know, you can cancel….la fitness in US doesn’t have contracts, they just keep charging you monthly until you physically go in and tell them you want to cancel, you just have to make sure there isnt a balance that you owe if there was declined payments
KR on April 22, 2013 at 4:26 am
AVVO.COM for legal questions.
GoingDowntoLaurelMD on April 25, 2013 at 3:36 pm
Maybe it depends on your LA Fitness in your city. I got my free three trial pass in Laurel, Maryland, and I even got the rest of the week (4 days). The salesperson was very nice and showed me all the facilities. She called me that next day and asked how I liked it so far, very friendly and polite. Then after my trial period she called again and asked whether I’d like to join and I told her that I liked it (and that I’m very sore from trying out a couple of classes, their machines, the pool, lol) but that I’d like to try another gym first and see which one I like better and she asked me if she could call me again after I try the other gym to find out my decision. The salesperson at my LA Fitness was always been polite and friendly, she’s been following up which is to be expected, but I don’t feel harassed or bullied in any way. I’m considering joining LA Fitness, even though the other gym I tried was cheaper.
I’ll take a close look at the contract though and look out for credit stuff in it before I sign up, thanks for the head’s up.
Disgruntled LA Fitness ex mem on May 4, 2013 at 11:00 am
Hi, I joined LA Fitness last May and was told it was a month by month rolling contract with no tie ins. I had a car accident and broke my shoulder and after the bone didn’t heal correctly and having not been at the gym for nearly 2 months at this point I cancelled my direct bebit. I know I should have called them up – but wasn’t feeling the best after having been told I needed a bone cutting operation I took the easy option. That was when the hasseling started – initially a few letters stating that unless I reinstated the direct debit they would revoke my membership – which I was fine with and so I just let it ride. Then they set the bailiffs onto me – and stated that I had a twelve month contract – which I knew wasn’t the case – I had never signed such a thing – when I initially joined it only wanted a month by month as my will power isn’t the best and didn’t want any tie ins. They sent me a copy of the contract – which was a falsified document. The total doc had for of my signatures on it – one for the direct debit mandate and one for the bit that stated I was a fit and healthy person ( so to speak ) to join a gym and it was this signature that had been copied and pasted onto the front doc which was obviously for a 12 month contract. So they effectively falsified the docs then were trying to extort a fictious amount of money from me…..which was more than the remaininy months left on the contract that they were saying I had signed. I told them about the contract – but they persisited with the bullying tactics through ARC Europe and eventually I took them to small claims court – as it was taking up my time and stressing me out. None the less I am not one to curtail to bullies and hence the small claims jobby. As soon as this was In process….which it still is…..they buckled and sent me an apology letter stating they were sorry. But how many people do crumble and do pay up through fear of a bailiff breaking down their doors and taking their TV or what ever. It is disgusting and preposterous. I even reported them to the police who seem disinterested as there are not enough claims along these lines going ahead against LA fitness. The CEO and other officials in this company should be done in the criminal court and jailed for this behaviours. But no doubt they play the law to the edge and make a lot of money from people who are not quite savvy enough…..makes me sick…..
Jon Williams on May 8, 2013 at 3:21 pm
This is incredibly uninformed. Anytime you make a contract like this it’s called a PROMISSORY NOTE, not a loan. It’s a legal contract that you are going to follow through with your payments, that’s it. It’s not a scam it’s a business arrangement that is ridiculously common.
Jadedlaw@aol.com on May 15, 2013 at 2:32 pm
I could not agreet anymore with your article. When I went in for the trial pass the manager at the New Hyde Park location in NY was a bit much. I explained that I would need to think about all the information they threw at me and in the rudest tone he said , “what’s there to think about!” when I smiled and said well I just need to think about if this is what I want to do, he repeated that line even more obnoxiously. I went on to explain that this was my money and my choice and if I needed to think about joining that is what I would be doing and I walked out. A few weeks later I came in and another associate gave me semi better deal which I took. However as the months went on the gym was not as nice as it had been. Machines were constantly out of order. The staff was rude and arrogant as if they owned a palace. The facility was not clean, and it appeared to be more of a hang out spot for teenagers than for professionals simply looking to get a good work out. Needless to say, I cancelled the membership and now seeking a new gym. I’m willing to pay more for someplace better because they are certainly a rip off. Especially considering the pricing ranges for the individual.
lethal weapon steve blackman on June 6, 2013 at 2:05 am
thats nothing this cocky ass short fuck works at the one i go to and hes a little fucker. and this big lady that looks like viscera works at the front desk. and if her ass was any ruder id probably ask her to whipe my ass after i shit. and then this other dick bag that works there has old people do exercises along the busiest high way in town. fuck it chaps my ass.
Jim Hecimovich on June 6, 2013 at 12:36 pm
Thanks for this, Ian. I just discovered that my membership, which ended in January, has been continued at their discretion month by month. This is supposed to be against the law. I called to cancel now, and they have the nerve to charge me again at the end of this month. Please to all who read this: Tell everyone you know not to join LA Fitness. This is a scam and a shame. I’m a senior on a fixed income, and this is just outrageous. Good luck with your quest. I hope you screw the bastards.
Shaf on June 24, 2013 at 11:37 pm
They’re idiots exact same thing happened then a Month into my membership I found out I was pregnant. Went through a tough pregnancy and they wouldn’t let me cancel saying I can use the swimming pool if I couldn’t use the gym equipment ..(£50 a month to go swimming??!! Really??!)
I paid £600 and used the gym around 5 times! Definitely they’re a terrible gym avoid if possible!!!!
emelem on June 28, 2013 at 10:15 am
i got a one day pass to l.a. fitness a few months ago & i went in *knowing* they were going to try and make a sale but i stood my ground (i am nearly impossible to bully). i said,”i would like to experience the facilities first, then make a decision”. he pushed and pushed and then took umbrage to the fact that i called him on trying to make a sale, lol. the place was ok, suited my needs but for 40 something a month, it wasn’t good enough.
what brought me here today is the never ending quest to find a way to contact these knobs without having to call (i don’t want the charge on my phone). i got a text from them about some membership, i want OFF their marketing list & i can see it’s going to be a real p.i.t.a. to do so…
while looking, i saw on their website, a 5 day pass, which i asked for and *will* use without signing up. f*&^ them! lol
NOFREEGUESTPASS@LAF on July 5, 2013 at 8:39 pm
LA FITNESS free pass is a scam and a ruse to get you in the door so they can hassle you and try to pressure you into joining before you have a chance to set foot in the facilities. It happened to my brother at 123st/ Biscayne in N. Miami. Mr Erikson of LA FITNESS is a liar and a scam artist. LAF corporate office wont answer my letters. Do yourself a favor, don’t get fooled by their BS.
Ian Morris on July 25, 2013 at 10:43 pm
Just for clarity, there is a difference between how these gyms operate in the UK and US. I can’t tell you how related the two companies are, but in the UK, you ARE signing up for a loan, because that locks you into a set of laws from which you cannot easily escape.
Daria on August 9, 2013 at 9:04 am
I’ve been scammed by LA big time and I am now paying £80 for the gym that constantly gets its showers flooded and I am forced to shower in the swimming pool shower!!!!What a load of SHIT!!!!!Stay away from LA fitness
Paul on August 12, 2013 at 8:36 pm
Steer clear. Their website states that membership costs £44 a month. We converted Clubcard points into LA Fitness vouchers, and the price shot up to over £61 a month. LA Fitness is a scam.
tony-tiddles on August 14, 2013 at 6:17 pm
YET 2 people were stabbed in the steam room at the sutton gym….
so how do you like working at LA Fitness AmyP?
RJ on August 16, 2013 at 10:43 am
I read a lot of these comments before applying for the free 5 day trial in Dublin, Ireland, so I was really steeled for the hard sell. I got my pass emailed to me immediately (I’ve read elsewhere about this pass never arriving) and rang up a few days later to activate it. I went in later that day.
The woman who showed me around did so in a relaxed, no pressure manner. When we passed by the ‘assessment room’, she asked me (obligatorily, doubtfully, as if expecting the answer to be no) did I think I’d have any interest in joining. I said probably not. She accepted that. As she was leaving me to it, she said that if I had any interest in membership to come see her when I was done. I did not do this.
I used my 5 day pass without any hassle or any further contact with staff other than to let me through the barrier. When I filled in the form I gave a fake ‘phone number in case they ring you to hassle you to join afterwards.
I guess the selling approach must vary different between different locations/countries because I have to say my (admittedly brief) experience was completely positive. That there was no attempt to pressure me into joining is kinda making me consider joining…
bazzaa on September 10, 2013 at 12:58 pm
i agree, trying to get out of a contract at the moment.
Val on November 5, 2013 at 5:08 pm
Well we got our 3 day passes with no trouble at all. No bullying or threats of higher prices. The gym is clean and well equipped, the pool large and underused, steam room and sauna all fine. Changing rooms are clean, showers hot, soap containers full. I can’t see a problem. Now just going to negotiate our membership fee and join!
nicky on November 8, 2013 at 4:00 pm
Has anyone succeeded in getting out of the contract? Please tell me how??
nicky on November 8, 2013 at 4:03 pm
Has anyone succeeded in getting out of the contract? If so, please tell me how.
Solon on November 10, 2013 at 6:16 pm
This is the letter I wrote that convinced La Crapness to let me out of the contract.
Good luck.
I hereby cancel the gym membership that I hold with your
company.
Due to over subscription and subsequent over crowding at the
gym I signed up to you have failed in your promise to provide gym services as I
simply can not use the equipment I joined the gym with the intention of using.
In addition, you have broken your own contract by increasing my monthly D/D
within the initial term of my membership without notifying me as per your
T&C’s and I have not agreed to this.
On each of my visits to the gym I have taken meticulous
notes as to how many people are in the gym and how many are using the
equipment, how long it has taken to access equipment and how many personal trainers are adding to the
over crowding.
I will give you 30 days notice from today at which point I
will cancel the direct debit, any further attempts to take payment from me after
the 30 days will be viewed as unlawful.
If you decide to resist my cancellation it will be my
intention to forward copies of all of my correspondence with yourselves to the
following, amongst others. I can assure you that I am fully committed to
cancelling this membership and pursuing matters further.
Office of Fair Trading
Lucy Tristan on November 18, 2013 at 7:53 pm
I signed up for personal training and was told it would be 52 weeks, I said okay, but what I wasn’t told was that after 52 weeks, they renew you to a month to month membership AUTOMATICALLY and no, they won’t notify you when your year is up, you have to track it on your own! Oh and after 72 hours of signing (by signing I mean signing like you thought you were just authorizing your credit card but you are really signing the contract) you cannot get out of the contract (the sales guy will tell you, you can get out of it with a doctors note but he won’t tell you that, even if you try, they will still charge you for the full year!). BUT like I said, I stuck it out for the year and thought my year was up next month, NOPE, my year ended in October and I was never notified, I found a phone number 949-255-7200 and cancelled right away over the phone and was immediately sent a confirmation email. I am hoping that’s the end of that, I was very polite and nice with the operator, hope that helped. READ THE WHOLE CONTRACT BEFORE SIGNING. OH and for the regular gym membership, pay a whole year upfront, that way they are not authorized for automatic charges and you decide if you want to renew, its not automatic.
Tasheena on November 19, 2013 at 11:17 pm
My boyfriend had the same issues. He tried for a few years to end the contract & even after he filed for bankruptcy they still kept taling money from his account. What he had to end up doing was talking to his bank about switching everything over to another account with all new numbers on everything. It was a process & took a little bit of time but now he’s finally out of their contract & will never sign another contract with anyone else again…
Gymfreak on December 13, 2013 at 5:46 pm
If you google any gym.. There will be tens of thousands of complaints about any one of them. When you go to buy a car, sales people there will do anything to try and get you to buy it. Same thing with la fitness. If you’re not using the gym that’s your own fault. . . . Dumbing down dimwit. Really? You said that?
Robert on December 13, 2013 at 5:53 pm
I live in the US. She is not alone. 99%? Where are you getting your numbers?
You have anger issue on December 13, 2013 at 6:08 pm
You should probably go to the first grade and learn how to spell. You sound so unintelligent.
You're pathetic on December 13, 2013 at 6:31 pm
Lmao you’re seriously worried about how someone looks? Wow. So if you went to buy a car, and the sales person had a scar on their face, would that stop you from buying the car?!? You’re pathetic!
Don't bash them all on December 13, 2013 at 6:43 pm
You should probably specify which gym location you go to because I am actually a member of la fitness and have been to a few different gyms. Most of the staff are very friendly and help me out if I have a question. Yes of course I will run into an asshole from time to time but you can go anywhere and that will happen.
Canceling on December 13, 2013 at 6:47 pm
Kathy on December 18, 2013 at 1:24 am
same thing happened to me, i tried to cancel the member ship and instead they charged me another month. SCREW LA FITNESS!! its a bloody scam!
Angry on December 27, 2013 at 6:10 pm
I have spent the past 7 months trying to cancel my membership. These guys are thieves and crooks. I finally had to cc the Attorneys General of California to get the membership cancelled only to then be billed 3 more months. DON’T sign up
Dhinesh on December 30, 2013 at 8:26 pm
Hello there, I was a LA fitness member in chicago, Later i moved to Idaho for work. there is no LA fitness here in ID, i tried to close the membership, but they made it really hard for me.. i tried calling and talking with with number of representative for months and nothing and they keep on charging my card.. the only way to get out of the scam is to change the card.I don’t understand how a big firm like this plays cheap trick on their customers. I read multiple forum and found that i am not alone. there are 1000s of ppl facing multiple problems with LA fitness.. Buyer beware !
Kris on January 8, 2014 at 1:47 pm
Joe on January 11, 2014 at 6:59 pm
People I have been a member of LA Fitness since 2007. This payment option is only entitled unless you don’t have the first and last months payment and ask to pay in increment’s of maybe 50$ a months until paid up. Which is stupid because why pay $50 plus monthly fee when you could have just paid the two monthly fees and been done.
The Buff Guy on January 22, 2014 at 2:36 pm
I know im late on this post but LA Fitness just set up shop in my city and they definitely are aggressive to sale, but only to the people that are new to working out. They tried that with me and im already in great shape and I only pay 19.99 at a local gym chain. The guy sat me down and was talking to me about the amenities and I looked him in the eye and told him I wasnt interested because their “Trainers” were out of shape, after that he backed off. Moral of this post is as an adult dont let any SALESMAN bully you into anything, its your money and your decision to sign up. Now if it was Metroflex thats another story thats a mans gym real hardcore
amit on January 26, 2014 at 9:51 am
Absolutely shit gym (edgware branch). Rude staff, soo over crowded and a rip off. Steam and sauna are out of use atleast twice in a week. You go there during peak hours and I bet you will habe ro que up to use any equipment. Strongly dont recommend this gym..
Fordz on January 30, 2014 at 4:12 pm
It’s not a loan because you haven’t received the service/goods yet. Just cancel the direct debit and tell them to take you to court. They won’t.
rocky on February 4, 2014 at 5:30 pm
yes it has happened to me too. but the case is that after 12 months i did not ask to roll on my contract but they did it without asking me and now they are asking me to pay 156 quid for nothing. bastards. is there any way i can avoid that fee?
Yadira_saf on February 20, 2014 at 8:39 pm
totally a scam I pay 49 for months is scam.
Moored for 6 months
home972@btinternet.com on February 24, 2014 at 1:50 pm
It is not possible to find any postal, e-addresses or any names on their web site.
I am having a huge problem with LA.
Joined it, tried it ones and had a horrible experience!
In three working days trying to cancel my contract, but this sims to me not possible.
I have to pay 18th month fee plus other their extras on top.
Please do not use theit customer department and specially Natalie Smith!
It will be waste of your it time.
Where is the UK LOW?
So many people struggelling with them, but who is care?
Isamaar on February 27, 2014 at 5:15 am
I haven’t had your problem yet. Fortunately, my brother has a membership and he had a free pass for me to go for a week. I’ll see what happens. If they push it, I’ll just say no and leave. I’ve just given them my ID and the free pass, so I haven’t been scammed yet. I’ll just say I left my debit at home and I’ll be back just so I can step out of any bad spots.
nick on April 3, 2014 at 8:23 am
I have worked in gyms for 8 years now selling gym memberships. I did a 2 month stint at LA Fitness myself. Their Sales process is appauling! One member of staff would “bully” people to join all the time. You are expected to sell hard to people and the 3 day trial above, You are booked in by their head office and on your first visit you are pinned down by the sales staff. This is exactly the same with the 10 passes you can get from Groupon.
after 1 month of working there I gave my months notice as I was not happy with the sales process.
The bigger the company the better the sales is really. I know some clubs where you could have 5 people on a treadmill at the same time, signed up the same week but all paying different amounts. The bigger companies have their prices and most are negotiable which means the sales do tend to sell with more integrity.
Chris on May 5, 2014 at 2:45 pm
You are guy’s are so right, why don’t you start your own gym so everyone can go say how it sucks. People are still joining and the family has Billions…. So I guess your post failed… Better luck next time…
I will admit they could pay better….
McKenzie on June 7, 2014 at 9:51 am
Vealydan12 on June 11, 2014 at 5:49 pm
I am now in the whole issue of me and my partner trying to cancel our memberships, but of course we have found this. We want to leave but they are an evil company.
Jack on June 18, 2014 at 3:09 pm
LA Fitness is a credit card, debit card, and bank account money laundering scheme masquerading as a gym.
I have been receiving phone calls on my cell phone multiple times per day looking for two women because their credit card expired. They are using high pressure tactics to get the updated credit card information, but here is the problem….
They have the wrong phone number! I have never even stepped foot in an LA Fitness, yet I have received phone calls from locations in Texas, California, and Illinois, and I don’t live in any of these states.
Part of the scam is that they provide a nationwide database of gym memberships where credit cards have expired or bank accounts cannot have money automatically deducted from. Representatives are then given commissions for individuals billing information, hence the nationwide “hunt” for former members info.
I had pleaded with their so called “representatives” for weeks to stop calling my cell phone, as they had the wrong number. Finally, I had an idea. A woman called from LA Fitness looking for these two women. Pretending to be shocked, I said, “you are calling for who? They both died last week.”
And you know what? The LA Fitness “billing representative” could not make the account inactive or remove my phone number! She said she did not have “access.”
“So how can I have these calls stop consider the people you want to speak to are dead.” The answer was startling.
“You will have to go to an LA Fitness branch to cancel the membership” the dumb wench told me. “But there is no LA Fitness near me and the closest is a three hour drive” I retorted. It was a lie, but at this point I was having fun with the idiot.
“Well, that is all I can do,” said the idiot LA Fitness employee.
As I mentioned, LA Fitness is a giant scheme to automatically bill your credit card or deduct money from your bank account. It just so happens to package this theft in the form of a chain of gyms.
If you want to get ripped off, just head down to your local LA Fitness and give them all your personal and bank information. They will do the rest.
zan on July 17, 2014 at 1:52 pm
its a joke I lost my job sent them the p45 they said no they don’t accept p45’s and now asking for a letter from my old employer! filthy scoundrels.
Clarice on August 10, 2014 at 12:04 am
I paid cash up front for two year membership and refused to sign anything , wouldn’t give them my ss and or credit card number , they said the couldn’t take cash , and just as I was about to walk out the door a manager came running after me , they reluctantly took my six hundred dollars , but I made sure the piece of paper said ” paid in full ” I had that experience with Ballys and I swore I would never become a gym club contract slave again , lol
Clarice on August 10, 2014 at 12:16 am
Another way of doing it is going and buying a reload able visa and every month putting that amount in , this way when you want to cancel , you just stop reloading the card , I know this seems extreme , but when they say no contracts , what they actually mean is a automatically renewing contract, which is really a contract from hell that never ends.
Logicalawareness on October 2, 2014 at 3:42 pm
I use LA on passes but had a hard sell problem where they tried to force me into buying a selection of protein shakes. The simple test with hard sellers is to say you’re going to check online (obv online is almost always cheaper) or somewhere else and come back. If they start trying to prevent you from going, you know they’re trying to screw you. If the sales person really believes what they’re selling is best, they’ll let you go, figure it out for yourself and come back. So if you have a problem with a hard seller – just walk away. They can’t stop you, just keep walking. Don’t sign up to something for a year you don’t want just so they can buy an extra round that night with their new commission!
XC MTB on October 14, 2014 at 6:35 am
I recently bought a membership and it was stated to me by the salesman that it covers EVERY gym in Texas. Now on my first day, I try to go to a group class at a gym down the freeway and they say I can’t go there. They say that I have access to all clubs EXCEPT signature clubs. I’ve spoken to two people at corporate, the GM and sales manager at the location I purchased it from. They are all saying that “of course” I can’t go to the signature clubs because it’s not in my membership details and no one gets to go to signature clubs for the price I paid. Well this is news to me. The guy that sold me the membership stated that I have access to “ALL clubs in Texas.” I even went as far as to mention that my work schedule is crazy and I want to have the freedom of attending a group class at any gym that works with my schedule on any given day. He affirmed to me that I can attend any club I want. Now that I find out different, not one LA Fitness employee is willing to uphold the words of the salesman. Another unethical ripoff case from LA Fitness…
Justin on October 26, 2014 at 11:14 am
False, at least it is in 2014. No contracts, month to month, 30 day notice, no annual dues, no cancellation fees. Rather good deal in comparison to other health clubs for price and amenities.
TomShek on October 31, 2014 at 2:54 am
Fuck off, LA Fitness shill.
gabriel on December 30, 2014 at 5:28 am
I pay 19 pounds a month for my gym membership „ I can leave with no notice and if I’m late of payment the gym owner is not bothered . I go to focus fitness in nuneaton :)
Vicky Iannucci on January 2, 2015 at 10:06 pm
Im in the US. Metro Detroit area does anyone have any contact information for a corporate office that I can call or email. I signed up for the trainer and it was never made clear until after I reread the contract 2 weeks in that there is a monthly fee of three hundred and sixty dollars for the trainer and they will not let me cancel!
Jack on February 11, 2015 at 12:33 pm
Most of your comments are an absolute joke, as a gym membership advisor I think it’s a disgrace how your calling it all a scam. Anyone that walks through my door wanting to sign up I go through the whole process I go through the terms and conditions with them so they know they are making the right decision. If someone comes in on a three day pass I ask them if they are interested in membership if they say yes I go through the prices and packages that we have. If we have a good joining deal at the time I’m gonna tell that person because I’m trying to save them some money. Most of you people that are complaining just didn’t have the balls to say no really so you need to man up instead of giving a place a bad name. I can’t speak for every membership advisor out there and I’m sure there are gonna be some that are less helpful then others. If you have anything else to reply I would be glad to answer.
DY on February 21, 2015 at 1:07 pm
Thank you Ian for this post. I was just about to take on LA fitness membership. I told the guy that I was going to think about it. You know what the guy told me? He told me that this was a one time only deal and that I wouldn’t be able to join the gym from the same price if I came on saturday. This was obviously a lie because the sales guy called me today (today is saturday) and almost begged me to join the gym. When I told him that I was a student and I couldn’t pay for 40 pounds a month, the guy told me that joining a gym was a lifestyle change and that I should stop going out to dinners or musicals or movies so that I can pay for the gym’s monthly fee. The nerve of that guy! Unbelievable. Of course after hearing this I definitely made up my mind on not joining LA Fitness.
Rashid on March 1, 2015 at 1:35 am
Oh my god you expressed my feelings. That’s so true what you’ve just mentioned. Same thing happened to me. I was bullied to sign up phoning me day n night telling me sign up now, otherwise you’ll miss your chance the price will go high come we’ll discuss. No doubt it’s scam. Who ever signed in they all trapped in the net of loan. Stay away
Kh on March 31, 2015 at 6:54 pm
I had free day passes in many gyms some gave me 7 days pass. I’ve never had problems or people desperate for my answer. Yeah they call few times to offer a deal but that’s about it. I think all you guys having problems canceling the account should contact your bank and put a stop payment. If they use your card number is even easier cuz you just have to report it lost/stolen and when going to charge they won’t be able. They would end canceling your membership. I always change card numbers when I cancell a membership to make sure they won’t come up with obscure charges. Remember you pay the month in advance so won’t be owing anything literally talking. Lol. You gotta be smartass too.
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Fetizo® is a line of handmade bracelets, from natural leather, gems and other high quality materials. Each Fetizo® creation is designed and handcrafted by Costa Rican designer Efraín Espinoza to provide today's man with an accessory that highlights his style, personality and class.
The name originally comes from the Portuguese “feitiÇo”, which means magic or spell. From there “Fetizo” was born, as a good luck "amulet" created and designed to highlight the style and elegance of today's man.
Our experience
Fetizo® is inspired by the new trends in men's fashion to provide an elegant and modern design.
Since its inception, the appropriate selection of materials, good taste in its design and the search for quality have made Fetizo® a piece of jewelry that stands out for its elegance and comfort.
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As experts in addiction treatment in Chanhassen, our licensed professionals at NorthStar Regional understand that mental health problems are difficult to face, and some people turn to alcohol, drugs, or other behaviors to distract themselves or ease their pain.
As experts in addiction treatment in Chanhassen, our licensed professionals at NorthStar Regional understand that mental health problems are difficult to face, and some people turn to alcohol, drugs, or other behaviors to distract themselves or ease their pain.
As Chanhassen addiction treatment experts, our licensed professionals understand that mental health problems are difficult to face. As a result of this, some individuals turn to a variety of substances and behaviors to ease their pain or distract themselves. Continued use can lead to destructive habits, patterns, and addictions. Mental health issues and substance related disorders often occur in conjunction. This duality can of mental health issues and substance abuse commonly increases the severity of both disorders.
The term co-occurring disorder refers to having a mental health and substance use disorder at the same time. The goal of substance use is often to bring comfort, calmness, or a distraction to those who are depressed, anxious, or angered. However, the misuse of any substance or activity only brings temporary satisfaction. Addictions do not touch the important underlying emotional issues and can create long-term physical and mental health consequences, which is where our Chanhassen addiction treatment programs can help.
Mark the ones describing you and your experience:
I have used more alcohol or drugs than I planned.
My alcohol or drug use has interfered with my job.
Alcohol or drug use caused conflict with my spouse or family.
I feel guilty or remorseful about some aspect of my use pattern.
I spent a lot of time using, drinking, or getting over the effects of use.
The urge to drink or use was so strong I felt I could not resist.
Alcohol or drug use has interfered with my social life.
I have been in legal trouble (arrested, jailed, received a DWI/DUI) because of my substance use.
I spent time thinking about how I will get more alcohol or drugs
I have blacked out.
I have tried to cut down or quit but found I could not.
Family or friends have told me I have a problem with drugs or alcohol.
In addiction treatment, people frequently address the physical symptoms of substance use but ignore the underlying mental and emotional connections. When those connections are neglected, it is difficult to maintain sobriety following treatment. Substance use and mental health disorders must be dealt with at the same time in addiction treatment programs. Continue to identify positive coping strategies and practice them regularly and you will build the emotional strength to withstand temptations and triggers. With our addiction treatment programs in Maple Grove MN, we address both the mental health and substance use issues for the best possible results following treatment.
REACHING OUT
Our Chanhassen addiction treatment counselors can answer common questions, provide support and therapy, and help with emerging habits. Continued follow-up with counseling and support groups can help you recognize early warning signs of relapse and provide intervention should problems develop. Counseling helps increase self-esteem, teaches skills to manage emotions, and develops positive coping abilities. Our addiction treatment groups and programs can make seemingly impossible lifestyle changes possible and much more likely. Knowing when you need help, and being willing to ask for it, can make all the difference in your long-term recovery.
Looking to learn more? Contact us today to learn more about our co-occurring addiction treatment programs in Chanhassen.
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(Published in the Business Standard, February 2012, just to add to the growing mountain of Kate Boo-worship.)
“One choice that I don’t agonise about is when I write, keeping myself out of it. The reporter writing about how she got her story has become de rigeur: a lot of self-mythologising bullshit.”
There is no ‘I’ in Katherine Boo’s Behind The Beautiful Forevers, except in the Author’s Note. She spent about four years in Annawadi, a slum near the Mumbai airport, trying with the help of two translators to listen to and understand the lives of the people who lived there. Across the 244 pages of the book, what you read and hear most are the voices of Asha and her aspirations to become a slum landlord, Abdul, a teenager who sorts garbage and is accused of a murder that is actually a suicide, Manju, the college girl who is bored stiff by having to read Mrs Dalloway. Boo’s opinions come in, if at all, in a low murmur.
When you read interviews by journalists just discovering this brand-new form—chiefly in the US and the UK of the 1930s and the 1950s, but often also 1990s and 2000s India, to the enduring embarrassment of those of us who were shaped by those times—the ‘I’ is everywhere.
An early Paris Review profile of Graham Greene, conducted in 1953, has the intrusive voices of the two interviewers, with questions longer than Greene’s answers. In another few decades, the Paris Review interviews with writers had changed. The interviewer’s voice was sharp and personal, but his or her presence was increasingly obliterated.
“My fellow journalists called themselves correspondents; I preferred the title of reporter. I wrote what I saw. I took no action-even an opinion is a kind of action.”
This defence of the reporter’s objectivity is made by Fowler in Graham Greene’s 1955 novel, The Quiet American. But Greene didn’t necessarily believe that reporters should be objective; Fowler’s own objectivity rests on thin ground. ‘”You can rule me out,” I said. “I’m not involved. Not involved,” I repeated. It had been an article of my creed. The human condition being what it was, let them fight, let them love, let them murder, I would not be involved.’ This, as Graham Greene knew and Boo knows, is not a stand any reporter can afford to take.
“The corpse measured 66 inches from blue toes to jutting ears.”
Boo’s Behind The Beautiful Forevers is already a legend, especially among journalists. It cannot be dismissed as yet another lazy excursion into slum poverty tourism, or as an outsider’s account of India. Boo’s determination to give all of the space of the book over to the people she meets, rather than to what she thinks of them or of Annawadi, is what gives the book its moral centre and force.
In her time as a New Yorker reporter, Boo often wrote just one piece a year. When Indian journalists hear this, their first reaction is often envy—the three things that have been missing from the Indian journalism landscape are a proper grounding in media ethics, a lack of column inches and time. If 2,000 words—compared to the roughly 7,000 words Boo had earned at the New Yorker—is a luxury, a year to work on a story is almost unimaginable in the Indian context.
But there is another way to be the kind of journalist Katherine Boo represents. Boo and the Washington Post team won a Pulitzer for a year’s worth of reporting—20 stories–on the mental health care system. When you look at that line about the corpse, it speaks of careful reporting. At least a dozen Indian journalists working on a similar story might also have got those details.
“The body in plaid pajamas was that of a 57-year-old retarded ward of the District of Columbia. On the streets outside the city-funded group home where he had lived and died, kids sometimes called him Retard-O. Inside, he sweetened the hours by printing the name his mother gave him before she gave him up. Frederick Emory Brandenburg. He blanketed old telephone directories with that name, covered the TV Guides the home’s staffers tossed aside. He glutted the flyleaves of his large-print Living Bible. The immensity of the effort made his hands shake, but the habit seemed as requisite as breath. In this way Brandenburg, whose thick-tongued words were mysteries to many, impressed the fact of his existence on his world.”
It is hard to see with that paragraph, as it is with Behind The Beautiful Forevers, how much work went into it. Boo tells you some of it—a section in her book about the self-immolation of Fatima Shaikh is based on interviews with 168 people, she filed hundreds of RTI applications in order to understand the world of Annawadi. But it’s not the hours she spent interviewing the doctors she met at the group home or Brandenburg’s colleagues, or the hours she spent in Annawadi that are the point.
The point is only this: when she met the people who lived in Annawadi, Sunil and Abdul, Manju Waghekar and Zehrunisa, she listened to everything they had to say, even to everything that was hard for them to say. And that is what makes Katherine Boo’s journalism, and Behind The Beautiful Forevers, unforgettable.
Samanth Subramanian in conversation with Katherine Boo, Philip Gourevitch, David Remnick and other journalists.
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Port Posh Wash is a successful, family-owned and operated car wash in the Alberni Valley since 2014. It is a clean, well-lit facility offering a wide range of services to fit all your car washing needs. Port Posh Wash features: two automatic washes (touchless and soft touch) and 8 fully loaded self-serve bays with high pressure, hot water, high quality soaps, marine flush, vacuums and carpet shampooers. With an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Google and several awards including: Vancouver Island Real Estate Board Award of Merit 2015, Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce Excellence Awards Green Award 2017, & Alberni Valley News Readers Choice Awards Best Car Wash 2017 & 2018, Port Posh Wash is well liked within the community. We frequently have customers asking if we are planning a Posh Wash in their community as it is a regular destination when they come to the Alberni Valley. With over 40 years experience - we are experts in the car wash industry.
Take a look into how the Port Posh Wash came to be and plans for future improvements https://www.convenienceandcarwash.com/port-albernis-posh-wash/
The Posh Wash family is looking to expand into Parksville with a current proposed location of 423 Alberni Highway, near the corner of Despard and Alberni Highway. The proposed lot is located next to the Oceanside Heath Center and Trilliam Lodge. We want to work respectfully with existing and future businesses and therefore have plans in place to limit sound and exposure for minimal impact. Future development in the area also currently includes the site of Quality Foods, a strip mall, apartments, condominiums and mixed-use commercial lots on 2 opposing corners. Parksville Posh Wash would be an asset to the neighbourhood and provide a top quality service that is environmentally-friendly and conveniently-located with little to no traffic impact. To facilitate this would require re-zoning, an official community plan amendment, road closure, development permit and a building permit. Along with the Posh Wash we will bring amenities, extended services and contributions to the community.
State of the Art Facility Focusing on Environmental Impact
Parksville Posh Wash firmly believes in offering the best possible service with features to accommodate everyone. Some key features include: soaps specific to local weather/road conditions, a water reclaim system capable of reusing up to 85% of waste water, all solids and contaminates will be captured by a series of filtration tanks and responsibly disposed of, high pressure & low volume pumps that increase efficiency by reducing the time needed to rinse or wash using a fraction of the volume of water of a typical garden hose, commercial soaps and products which are held to a higher environmental standard than store-bought products from retailers, LED lights throughout on automatic dimmers and switches to reduce power usage, high-efficiency natural gas boilers for building heat and warm wash water increases efficiency. Parksville Posh Wash will be a clean, bright facility that offers high-efficiency services while helping to protect local rivers, streams, lakes and ocean from common contaminates. Common contaminants include: grease, oils, heavy metals, and detergents that make their way into storm drains while driveway washing.
Update
On December 2, 2019, Parksville Posh Wash was presented in front of Parksville City Council. Unfortunately due to noise and quiet-time concerns, traffic increase concerns, and concerns about the aesthetic of the facility at the entrance of town, we were unable to secure their confidence at that time to continue facilitating a car wash at 423 Alberni Hwy. Despite the initial rejection of our application we feel we could be a very successful business in Parksville and are willing to work with the community and City of Parksville to create a needed service that fits the community.
Historically, car washes have been known to be a cash-only businesses which make them a target for theft-related crimes. Parksville Posh Wash will have 18 or more security cameras on site, including high definition cameras to cover large areas of the site, as well as small pin-hole cameras in key locations such as vending areas and automatic tellers. Paired with a well-lit area and a proper alarm system featuring metallic shock sensors, door sensors and motion detection, it doesn't take long for word to get out that crime is not tolerated at this business. However, with all these precautions in place - less people carry cash and payment has moved towards interac and credit cards. Thus, significantly reducing cash on hand, further reducing targeted crime.
With experience building and operating car washes in Alberta and Saskatchewan, freezing conditions are nothing new for us. The entire footprint of the building and perimeter drip pad is spec'd with in-floor ice melt. The driveways, exits and crosswalks /pathways are salted and maintained accordingly on an ongoing basis. Due to local climate conditions where it rains during the day and freezes at night there should be no change in road conditions near the car wash due to drippings or water runoff.
With Trilliam Lodge and the Oceanside Health Center being in such close proximity, restricting noise and being respectful of quiet times has been part of our plan and design since day one. New technology and products help reduce noise from what is commonly the loudest part of a car wash, the blowers (dryers), at the end of an automatic wash. Proto-vest inc. is a company which sells innovative car wash dryers to help reduce noise impacts. We have worked with proto-vest before when installing car washes at new car dealerships in high profile locations such as the BMW Store on West 5th and Burrard in the heart of Vancouver, and the Audi Volkswagon dealership located on Boundry Rd. and the Lougheed Hwy. A Proto-vest blower with a silencing package is only 63 dBa at 50' away. See Figure 1 for reference on common noises.
On April 29, 2019, we received a complete traffic assessment and impact report on nearby roadways and intersections from Jim Hemstock at Adept Transportation Solutions which stated the following, " In conclusion, the addition of the site-generated traffic in years 2020 and 2030 have little to no effect on the background conditions of the same years. All improvements identified for each intersection were required to accommodate the background traffic conditions and served to accommodate the site generated traffic as well. As other adjacent traffic increases around this site, the impact generated by this car wash will increasingly lose its significance.". Although the traffic impact of the Parksville Posh Wash will be minimal, through our research we discovered a need in the community and have decided to include in the community benefits package an upgrade to the Despard and Moilliet St. intersection as having better traffic flow will benefit the area as a whole. This includes widening and aligning Moilliet St., as well as, enhanced pedestrian access. The full detailed traffic assessment and impact report is available at: https://wm-no.glb.shawcable.net/service/home/~/?auth=co&loc=en&id=6756&part=2
Main entrance to town
The proposed location of Parksville Posh Wash is 423 Alberni Hwy, right at the entrance to Parksville. Parksville Posh Wash is still in the planning stages and can choose to have the facade fit in with Parksville's unique aesthetic. Currently, the concept drawings are specified with Octaform wall systems (colored or white PVC paneling) which is long-lasting and easily-maintained for a finished product that will look great for many years to come.
We plan to continue working with another local family business, Colyn's Landscaping, to implement a landscape plan which includes 3 Vine Maple trees, 55 Evergreen Huckleberry shrubs, 47 Salal shrubs and 120 Western Sword Ferns that fill the frontage with a variety of plants that are hearty, drought-resistant, will not crowd when they mature, and fits in with Vancouver Islands natural flora.
In 2015, the Port Posh Wash was recognized with an Award of Merit from the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board's Commercial Building Awards. We plan to uphold the same high building standards for Parksville Posh Wash as we currently maintain for the Port Posh Wash.
Community Benefits
We are committed to providing the following community benefits:
TKG Holdings O/A Parksville Posh Wash will be responsible for bringing the adjacent roadways up to current City Standards along the property frontages and has agreed to extend these improvements to Despard Avenue as part of their community amenity package. The values of these improvements are detailed in the attached construction cost estimates and are summarized as follows:
Frontage Works and Services $146,564.00
Extended Works & Services (Community Amenity) $14,388.00
A contribution of $1,250.00 to the Parksville Volunteer Fire Department
Annual tax revenue: $18,152.20
The Alberni Highway is an urban arterial road which is currently built to a rural arterial standards. To bring this road to the urban standard the City of Parksville is proposing that we fill in the existing ditch along the frontage (including storm sewer) and install curbs, gutters and sidewalk along the entire property frontage. The City of Parksville has included that these works be extended beyond the property frontage to connect to the works at the intersection as noted above.
Moilliet Street is a local road and should be built to the RC1 standard, in order to match the existing cross-section north of Despard. The City of Parksville has proposed we increase the width of Moilliet Street to line up with the northern leg of the intersection. Design must include review and installation of streetlights along with the curb and gutter and street trees shall be designed and constructed per 2018 Engineering Standards and Specification bylaw.
There are no objections to the proposed roads and streetscape works upgrades proposed or required.
Site Plan [A101], prepared by Herold Engineering, dated May 6, 2019;
Elevations [A201], prepared by Herold Engineering, dated May 6, 2019;
Views [A301], prepared by Herold Engineering, dated May 6, 2019;
Landscape Plans [L-1], prepared by Coly’s Landscaping Ltd., dated April 23, 2019;
Memorandum, prepared by the Engineering and Operations Department, dated November 19, 2019;
Memorandum, prepared by the Parksville Volunteer Fire Department, dated June 20, 2019 (page 8 and 9);
A traffic impact assessment was prepared by Adept Transportation Solutions dated April 29, 2019. The assessment concludes that the site-generated traffic will have little to no effect.
• Correspondence, prepared by Michelle Jones, P.Eng., of Timberlake-Jones Engineering, dated May
• Geotechnical Assessment, prepared by Stevent Stacey, B.A., CTech and Chris Hudec, M.A.Sc.,P. Eng.
of Lewkowich Engineering Associates Ltd., dated November 17, 2017;
• Servicing Report, prepared by Michelle Jones, P.Eng., of Timberlake-Jones Engineering, dated May 2,
• Preliminary Key Plan, prepared by Michelle Jones, P.Eng., of Timberlake-Jones Engineering, dated
May 3, 2019;
dated May 3, 2019;
• Topographic Site Plan, prepared by Michelle Jones, P.Eng., of Timberlake-Jones Engineering, dated
May 3, 2019;
• Site Cross Sections, prepared by Michelle Jones, P.Eng., of Timberlake-Jones Engineering, dated May
• General Notes and Project Data [A001], prepared by Herold Engineering, dated May 6, 2019;
• Report entitled “Consideration of the Permanent Closure and Disposal of a Portion of Despard Avenue
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Many vulnerable Minnesotans have no idea that their county can place a hefty lien on their home to recover expenses for long-term care.
March 28, 2022
Public Affairs
When Kevin White talks about his family home, a smile creeps onto his face.
The Minnesota native created memories here. White's father built the house in the '60's, tucking the property amid the quiet forests and winding hills of Mazeppa, Minn. An old oven sitting unused in the corner reminds Kevin of his mom. The smell of her fresh-baked bread would waft through the house, luring Kevin and the handful of kids that his mother would babysit. A chair gathering dust in the corner brings memories of his dad, who would whittle away for hours to create wood carvings. The home has been a foundation in White's family and community for decades, and he plans to pass it on to his son. But a controversial federal law known as estate recovery could cancel Kevin's plans.
Kevins' mother was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2017, and treatment was expensive. Kevin spent more than $15,000 to help her, but other healthcare services she received made her home eligible for estate recovery. It's a program that claws back what the county spent on long-term care for Medicaid recipients by laying claim to their property. After two years of treatment, the state said that his mother's medical costs totaled $187,000 – and a lien would be placed on his family home to help pay for it. Because his mother gave him the home months before she died, Kevin was asked to pay for the lien. But when the housing market boomed along with his home's value, Kevin got a new letter from the county which said the lien amount had now doubled.
"I did exactly what they told me to do, then when I went and had it appraised, they backed out of the deal," White said. "It's changed my view of the state to where I think they're crooked. I don't trust them at all anymore."
He may not be the only one.
Minnesota's estate recovery program has grown into a complex machine funded by families with moderate income. Experts say Medical Assistance recipients are often not informed and not able to pay back their debts, deepening wealth inequality between generations. And although the program is meant to help future Medicaid recipients, loopholes allow people to receive taxpayer-funded medical expenses while skirting the rules of estate recovery.
"The longer [programs] are around and the more things that get added and changed, they just get more and more complex. The average person has no ability to be able navigate through it," said Jason Rarick, a Republican state senator from Pine City, who is pushing to limit estate recovery. "Those who can afford, they can hire the people that know the system and they know how to game the system."
Since the 1960's, when Kevin's father built their house, Medical Assistance has been a safety net for low-income Minnesotans. Medical Assistance is the state's version of Medicaid, and its estate recovery program began after federal law allowed states to recoup medical benefits spent on people with Medicaid. It became a source of revenue for states, and a way to get vulnerable family members out of almshouses, early versions of nursing homes which eventually fell into disrepair. As the Minnesota Supreme Court said while defending the program, "[Estate collection] is a system whereby money paid to qualified individuals for healthcare purposes may be recovered and reused to help other similarly situated persons."
That system has recovered a lot of money.
Kevin's dad, Marvin White, whittling away in his favorite chair.
In recent years, estate recovery has raked in $265 million from the estates of dead Minnesotans. Much of that comes from counties across the state that keep a quarter of the funds collected from estate recovery. Those funds are also a boon for current Medicaid enrollees, who make up more than a million Minnesotans in any given month, according to 2020 data provided by the state.
Although the program benefits some healthcare recipients, cracks in the program's effectiveness have surfaced. Federal law made the program mandatory in 1993, as the nation tried to lower its national debt through fees and program requirements. West Virginia sued the federal government shortly after that, saying the estate recovery requirement was a "betrayal of The New Deal." The state lost. Michigan delayed estate recovery until 2007, when the federal government threatened to pull its Medicaid funding. And data shows that the money Minnesota's estate recovery system makes is less than 1% of what the state and its counties spend on long-term care for people on Medical Assistance. In fact, spending on long-term care for Medicaid recipients has steadily grown.
States must continue the program if they want federal dollars to flow. But attorneys say that estate recovery hurts some of their most vulnerable clients the most. Laurie Hanson and Laura Zdychnec are two of those attorneys.
Hanson and Zdychnec have met many people like Kevin White. The attorneys' combined experience of 67 years in law is represented through the Minneapolis firm they created for aging clients. As taxpayers, they said they have no issue with the concept of estate recovery. But the way that it's executed raises legal and ethical concerns for them and their team.
"Federal law is pretty clear that people need to be aware of, and given notice of, the state's estate recovery program when they apply for Medical Assistance. That notice is in some cases lacking entirely, and in some cases it's pretty deficient," Zdychnec said. "I'm not suggesting that people never are aware of what's coming at them, but I think, in my opinion, the state needs to do far more to inform people up front of how [this program] really operates and what the expectation will be on the other end."
Kevin points to a picture of his mom, Catherine White, sitting in their family home. Kevin was prepared to pay off a lien the state placed on the house after she died, but was caught by surprise when the state doubled his lien amount.
In some cases, Hanson said that entire generations are displaced because the home that they live in is the only asset that they have – and they don't learn about estate recovery until it is too late. The fact that few Minnesotans know about estate recovery is backed by a 2021 report to Congress by the nonpartisan Medicaid and Chip Payment and Access Commission. They found that few people across the nation know about estate recovery, and many with wealth are avoiding recovery programs entirely. That comes at the expense of families with modest income, a fact which attorneys like John Kantke know all too well.
Loopholes exist. But how to close them?
Kantke is a guardianship attorney who practiced elder law and represented aging Minnesotans for more than a decade. He believes Medicaid is a good alternative to almshouses, which sometimes barred people from Social Security. Still, he says that Medicaid and its recovery program have issues.
To qualify for Medical Assistance, people must get rid of most of their assets and spend down to their last $3,000, depending on their circumstances, five years before they enroll. Those who break the rules can be hit with penalties, which include the state refusing to pay for some Medicaid expenses. The restrictions were meant to penalize people who exploit the system, but Kantke found that those who can afford a good lawyer can find ways of qualifying for Medicaid without losing their wealth to estate recovery. Whether that is through cabin trusts, non-profits or other financial loopholes, it's a comfort which Minnesota's more vulnerable recipients cannot access. Estate recovery's loopholes, and the burden they place on low-income families, are part of why Kantke says the program is "regressive."
"I think it's hitting those with the least amount of money the hardest," Kantke said. "When the system is taking 100% from some and 10% from others, it seems unfair."
State officials are very aware of these loopholes. They say they have worked hard to close them and make the program more equitable, but that's easier said than done.
Geneva Finn is the Special Recovery Unit Manager for the Department of Human Services. She and six staff members help to run Minnesota's estate recovery program, which sprawls from Wabasha County, where Kevin White is fighting for his family home, to every county across the North Star State. Finn said that they're concerned about cabin trusts and other financial loopholes, but her office is short-staffed and under-resourced. With so much to manage and so few resources to manage them with, the state leaves a lot of data collection to the counties. As a result, escape routes from estate recovery, such as hardship waivers and appeals, are decided by county officials with little state oversight.
"Counties track their estate recovery program internally. Some counties are in paper file. Some counties have various databases set up," Finn said. "You could have your hardship waiver granted – it wouldn't go to our appeals office, it would just go to the county office. It would just happen on the county level, and I wouldn't necessarily have reason to know about it, unless there was some question about it."
In some ways, the difference between Minnesota counties' recovery programs is a microcosm for estate recovery in different states.
In Kittson County, where the population is small and the median household income is around $55,000, estate recovery is run by three people. Their county recovered the least from Minnesotans in recent years. The median household income average person in Hennepin County is $81,000. Their estate recovery program collected the most money from the most people in recent years: $42 million from 8,500 people. And data from Itasca County shows that a third of the cases they tried to claw back weren't recovered at all. Officials there declined to be interviewed because, they said, resources weren't available. You can find how much your county recovered, and how many people they recovered from, below.
*Note: Data for "People recovered from" were not made available for Marshall County and Kittson county, so they are not included in this map.
With such a gulf of difference in the efforts counties rely on, Minnesota State Senator Rarick says it makes sense that communication from those officials is lacking. Rarick is lobbying to close a different loophole in estate recovery, and believes that smaller counties don't have the workforce to better execute estate recovery. Still, he says it's a failure if people are not told that their estates will be clawed back, adding that it's on government officials to make constituents feel heard.
"It doesn't seem like there is good communication sometimes, within a state agency and especially across agencies … I think that's what gets very frustrating for a lot of people," Rarick said. "If you don't think you're being listened to, the initial reaction is that 'they don't care.'"
Rarick said that national conversations about estate recovery could gain traction in Minnesota. One federal bill co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat representing Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, could do that and more: It could overturn the federal mandate for estate recovery, and give all states a chance to end their programs.
Kyeland Jackson's reporting on estate recovery was undertaken as a USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism 2021 Data Fellowship Grantee.
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Building and running a business means handling a variety of tasks and duties. Some of those duties you may enjoy and some you may not. Some of those duties you may be good at and some may frustrate you. One task that many small-business owners continually tell me they neither enjoy nor feel competent at or […]
February 24, 2016 Filed Under: management, Small Biz 100 Tagged With: accountant, accounting, entrepreneurship, fiscal managmeent, good management practices, management, small business
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David Stanton asks Minister Ryan to examine proposals for improved access to Cobh and the Great Island | David Stanton David Stanton asks Minister Ryan to examine proposals for improved access to Cobh and the Great Island – David Stanton
Local Fine Gael Team
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Parliamentary Questions
Local Fine Gael Team
Local
Parliamentary Questions
David Stanton asks Minister Ryan to examine proposals for improved access to Cobh and the Great Island
30th September 2020
Cork East Fine Gael TD, David Stanton, has requested that the Minister for Climate Action, Communication Networks and Transport, Eamon Ryan TD, personally examine Cork County Council’s proposals to develop plans for the upgrade of the R624 road and improved access to Cobh and the Great Island.
Speaking in Dáil Éireann this week, David Stanton again raised the need for better access to the Great Island given the possibility that 15,000 people could in effect, be cut off from the mainland if the only access road was flooded or if any unfortunate accident occurred on the local road network.
David Stanton highlighted the fact that the current road infrastructure to the Great Island, including the Belvelly Bridge and the R624 Fota road from there into Cobh, is too narrow and dangerous to cater for the volumes of traffic currently using the route. He said that the situation could become even more problematic due to future developments at Marino Point and Cork Dockyard and that proposals need to be urgently considered by the Department of Transport for improved access to the island.
“I am aware that the Department of Transport had an initial engagement with Cork County Council last year, including a meeting with the Department’s strategic research and analysis division regarding the project proposal process. I understand the Council is appointing consultants. We know this is a major project, which is extremely sensitive. It is in a special area of conservation where there is a great deal of heritage, stonework and so on. I ask the Minister to put his weight behind this project and to do all he can, with his hard-working officials, to support Cork County Council in advancing proposals to upgrade road access to Cobh”, said David Stanton.
In response Minister Ryan acknowledged the traffic volume issue on the R624 road and confirmed that the Department of Transport is aware of the need to develop the road infrastructure around Cobh. Cork County Council’s proposed transport study will consider various options including better road access for further Local Link bus services and increased frequency on the Cobh rail line. However, Minister Ryan has agreed to look closely at the proposals to improve road access to the island with a view to further developing them in conjunction with Cork County Council.
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Since 2003, our Pittsburgh-owned company has provided photography, video, and DJ services for events, from weddings and anniversaries to newborn and family portraits. We work with you to ensure that our service reflects your tastes and style.We personalize our packages to meet your needs and budget.
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What is the difference between a DJ and an M.C.?Monday, Mar 28, 22
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What our clients say…
The photography and videography performed by Eventures at my wedding was excellent. Prior to the wedding, we had in-person meetings to discuss photography style, locations, and scheduling for the big day. In addition to the meetings, contact through email was very responsive and they always made every effort to accommodate us and our ideas for the photography. On the day of the wedding we had a mix of formal and candid pictures - both turned out great. And, they were very willing to work with any requests we had throughout the day. Overall, Eventures was great to work with and I am glad that we had them document this very important day for us.
They did an amazing job! I would recommend them for any occasion. I had my wedding outside in September. Brian came early and had locations picked out for my portraits, even though he was never at the location before. He was extremely personable and professional. They took pictures of everything I could have possible wanted. We also had the photo booth services. Everyone loves all the photos! They went above and beyond and I couldn’t have been any happier.
The staff at Eventures, was absolutely wonderful to work with throughout the “adventure” of planning our wedding!!! I cannot say enough good things about this company. For starters, I had looked at and made appointments with a few other local photographers (mostly solo photographers), and though their work looked great, I was weary that they were solo and also seemed kind of “a la carte” with pricing. Eventures had everything I wanted from a flexible staff, to reasonable package pricing, to videography, to beautiful work, etc… They are truly a one-stop-shop! Brian and his staff are young, friendly, enthusiastic, and passionate about their work. We met with him a few times (at flexible day and evening times) to plan out all of the details of what we wanted in our photo and video packages as well as all of the details of our wedding day. He was very specific and detailed as to what photos we would like, where we would like them, and who we wanted in them. Eventures is reputable and very familiar with many of the churches and venues in the Pittsburgh area, so he was able to give great advice and suggestions when asked. Again, I very much enjoyed and continue to enjoy working with Eventures! Their prices are very reasonable for the quality and timeliness of their work, and they are terrific to work with. Our experience has been perfect, and we couldn’t be happier with our choice!!!
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We used Eventures as our photographer, videographer, and DJ! They were amazing to work with! They are all very professional and listen to what you want and turn it into reality. It was so nice to have all three from one vendor as they all knew each other and worked together seamlessly. Brian, the photographer, is very talented and we loved the pictures he took. We met with Brian a few times before the wedding and I was able to express certain pictures that I wanted and he made sure to get them the day of. He is very creative and puts you at ease. The DJ was also awesome- we got many compliments on him! The dancefloor was crowded all night long and he really knows how to read the crowd and play the right music. We havent gotten the video back yet, but we already know it will be amazing! Book these guys now!
Cannot say enough great things about Eventures. We found the entertainment to be one of the most difficult vendors to choose only because you can't get a real sample of their work unless you've been to a wedding they DJ'd for. We mainly relied on reviews and we 100% made the right choice!!! Our DJ was Chris and Brian was our MC. Very easy to work with, extremely quick on all responses, professional, reasonably priced and most importantly, they will go out of their way to make you happy. You couldn't ask for anything more. I only wish all of our vendors were this wonderful. From the first meeting you can feel the genuine want to make their customers happy. We had certain genres of music we preferred but gave free range to Brian to keep our guests dancing all night long. I don't think I left the dance floor once. We enjoyed every step of the process with Eventures and would absolutely recommend them!
These guys had our party jamming all night long! Seriously there wasn’t a moment of pause or lull in the fun! Thanks for an awesome night!
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I just wanted to let you know how grateful we are for everything that you did for our wedding. Everyone had fun and everyone LOVED you guys. We have gathered tons of compliments “Best Wedding Ever” and “Wedding of the Year” and we owe that to you our favorite DJs.
Becky and Tate
Our Pittsburgh-based staff has created some of the most memorable, most extraordinary wedding events of the past twenty-five years. Each member of our staff has a depth and breadth of knowledge and experience in his or her respective discipline and is a permanent and exclusive member of our staff.
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As our 2018-2019 artist-in-residence, Patrick Gabridge brought to life well-known and little-known stories of the Cemetery with his project, The Mount Auburn Plays. His plays were thought-provoking, relevant, and beautifully sited within our landscape. Patrick’s work engaged existing audiences, helped us to attract new audiences, and strengthened our relationship with community partners. Ever inquisitive, Patrick was a joy to work with for our staff and volunteers, and his plays helped us see our historic site through a new and dynamic interpretive lens.
Jenny Gilbert, Director of Institutional Advancement, Mount Auburn Cemetery
Patrick Gabridge has been a true joy to work with across two very different dramatic projects, both of which have brought new energy and audiences to Boston’s Old State House. As an artist, Patrick has an intense curiosity about the interior experience of his characters and a remarkable ability to translate this in ways that resonates deeply with audiences of all sorts. What is so lovely is that these same qualities inform how Patrick works with organizations. He is eager to learn what matters to the people he works with: what stories interest them, which values guide their work, what goals they have as they approach live theatre. These elements become central to any collaboration with Patrick, shaping the artistic product but also deepening the organization’s understanding of itself. By any measure, Blood on the Snow and Cato & Dolly have been hugely successful as works of art and public history; producing them with Patrick has helped the Bostonian Society to become a more thoughtful, resilient, and ambitious organization.
Nathaniel Sheidley, President & CEO, Revolutionary Spaces
Patrick Gabridge has a rare combination of skills. An accomplished playwright, he is also gifted in immersing himself in “other people’s cultural worlds” in order to create scripts that conjure those worlds in meaningful ways on the stage. Having watched Patrick work with physicists at MIT prior to transforming a piece of current research on quantum entanglement into a highly effective short play, Both/And, I seriously doubt whether there is any museum or cultural institution on the planet whose special subject matter he is not capable working up for the stage.
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This 2017 edition of Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect marks the 26th year the AFL-CIO has produced a report on the state of safety and health protections for America’s workers.
More than 553,000 workers now can say their lives have been saved since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which promised workers in this country the right to a safe job. The Obama administration had a strong track record on worker safety and health, strengthening enforcement, issuing key safety and health standards, and improving anti-retaliation protections and other rights for workers. With the election of President Trump, the political landscape has shifted dramatically, and many of these gains are threatened. President Trump has moved aggressively on his deregulatory agenda, repealing and delaying worker safety and other rules and proposing deep cuts in the budget, and the elimination of worker safety and health training and other programs.
These are challenging times for working people and their unions, and the prospects for worker safety and health protections are uncertain. What is clear, however, is that the toll of workplace injury, illness and death remains too high, and too many workers remain at serious risk. There is much more work to be done.
The High Toll of Job Injuries, Illnesses and Deaths
4,836 workers were killed on the job in the United States.
The fatal injury rate—3.4 per 100,000 workers—remained the same as the rate in 2014.
An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 workers died from occupational diseases.
150 workers died each day from hazardous working conditions.
Nearly 3.7 million work-related injuries and illnesses were reported.
Underreporting is widespread—the true toll is 7.4 million to 11.1 million injuries each year.
States with the highest fatality rates in 2015 were:
Latino and immigrant workers continue to be at higher risk than other workers:
The Latino fatality rate was 4.0 per 100,000 workers, 18% higher than the national average.
Deaths among Latino workers increased significantly in 2015; 903 deaths, compared with 804 in 2014.
Almost the entire increase in Latino deaths was among immigrant workers; 605 (67%) of Latino workers killed were immigrant workers.
943 immigrant workers were killed on the job—the highest since 2007.
Older workers are at high risk. In 2015:
35% of all fatalities occurred in workers ages 55 or older, with 1,681 deaths.
Workers 65 or older have more than 2.5 times the risk of dying on the job as other workers, with a fatality rate of 9.4 per 100,000 workers.
The construction, transportation and agriculture industries (private sector) remain very dangerous:
937 construction workers were killed in 2015, the highest number in any sector. The number and rate of construction deaths increased for the second year in a row.
765 transportation and warehousing workers were killed in 2015. The fatality rate was 13.8 per 100,000 workers, the second highest of any major industry sector.
Agriculture, fishing and forestry was the most dangerous industry sector, with a fatality rate of 22.8 per 100,000 workers. 570 workers were killed in these industries.
The mining and extraction industries remain dangerous, but safety and health has improved:
There were 26 deaths in coal, metal and nonmetal mines in 2016, and 29 deaths in 2015, both record low numbers. The fatality rate in these industries also was at record low.
There were 89 deaths in oil and gas extraction in 2015, a decrease from 144 deaths in 2014.
The fatality rate for the overall mining sector, including oil and gas extraction, was 11.4 per 100,000 workers, more than three times the national average.
Oil and gas extraction industries accounted for 74% of the fatal work injuries in the mining sector.
Workplace violence continued to be a growing problem for workers in 2015:
703 worker deaths were caused by violence.
417 worker deaths were workplace homicides.
Violence was responsible for 26,420 lost-time injuries.
Women workers are at greater risk of violence than men; they suffered 68% of the lost-time injuries related to workplace violence.
The cost of job injuries and illnesses is enormous—estimated at $250 billion to $360 billion a year.
Job Safety Oversight and Enforcement
OSHA resources in FY 2016 still are too few and declining:
There are only 1,838 inspectors (815 federal and 1,023 state) to inspect the 8 million workplaces under the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s jurisdiction.
Federal OSHA has enough inspectors to inspect workplaces once every 159 years.
State OSHA plans have enough inspectors to inspect workplaces once every 99 years.
There is one inspector for every 76,402 workers.
The current OSHA budget amounts to $3.65 to protect the safety and health of each worker in America.
OSHA enforcement has gotten stronger, but penalties in FY 2016 still are too weak:
The average penalty for a serious violation was $2,402 for federal OSHA.
The average penalty for a serious violation was $1,747 for OSHA state plans.
The median penalty for killing a worker was $6,500 for federal OSHA.
The median penalty for killing a worker was $2,500 for OSHA state plans.
Only 93 worker death cases have been criminally prosecuted under the Occupational Safety and Health Act since 1970.
The Obama administration produced a number of significant safety and health rules and left a solid legacy of worker protections in place. While the first term saw many regulatory delays, the second term was much more productive. The administration’s regulatory record includes:
A final OSHA beryllium standard issued in 2017 to protect workers in general industry, maritime and construction sectors.
OSHA’s final silica standard, issued in 2016, to reduce dust exposures in general industry, maritime and construction sectors, and protect workers from deadly lung diseases and cancer. The silica rule will prevent more than 600 deaths and 1,000 cases of silicosis each year.
OSHA’s electronic injury reporting/anti-retaliation rule, issued in 2016, will require employers to report injury data to OSHA and prohibit employers from retaliating against workers who report job injuries.
MSHA’s final rule issued in 2015 requires proximity detection systems on continuous mining machines in underground coal mines to prevent injuries and deaths from contact with this equipment.
A number of other rules remain unfinished business, including OSHA rules on combustible dust and infectious disease, and MSHA rules on proximity detection for mobile equipment and silica.
Workers’ Safety and Health Protections are in Danger
The Trump administration and the Republican majority in Congress have launched a major assault on regulatory protections. They have moved aggressively to roll back regulations and block new protections. Agency budgets and programs are on the chopping block. Worker protections are threatened, and workers’ safety and health are in danger. Major actions taken to date with a direct impact on worker safety and health include:
A presidential memorandum issued on Jan. 20, 2017, directing agencies to freeze the regulatory process and delay the effective date of final rules not yet in effect.
Executive Order 13771, issued Jan. 24, 2017, requires that for every new regulatory protection issued, two existing safeguards must be repealed.
Repeal of OSHA’s rule clarifying an employer’s obligation to keep accurate injury and illness records.
Repeal of a rule that would have required companies to disclose safety and health and labor violations in order to qualify for federal contracts.
Delay in the effective date of OSHA’s new beryllium standard and delay in the enforcement of OSHA’s silica standard in the construction industry. The delay in the silica rule will allow continued high exposures that will lead to 160 worker deaths.
Budget proposals to slash the Department of Labor’s budget by 21%, eliminate worker safety and health training programs, eliminate the Chemical Safety Board and cut the job safety research budget by $100 million.
Workers need more job safety and health protection, not less.
New OSHA rules on silica, beryllium and injury reporting/anti-retaliation must be defended and fully implemented.
Rules on infectious diseases, combustible dust and chemical safety should be completed and issued.
Workplace violence is a growing and serious threat—particularly to women workers and workers in the health care industry. OSHA must keep its promise to develop a workplace violence standard.
Funding and staffing at job safety agencies should be increased, not cut.
The serious safety and health problems faced by Latino, immigrant and aging workers must be given increased attention.
“Regulatory reform” legislation that would require the repeal of existing rules and make it more difficult, if not impossible, to issue new regulatory safeguards should be opposed and stopped.
Congress should pass the Protecting America’s Workers Act to extend the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s coverage to workers who are currently excluded, strengthen civil and criminal penalties for violations, enhance antidiscrimination protections, and strengthen the rights of workers, unions and victims.
The nation must renew its commitment to protect workers from injury, disease and death, and make this protection a high priority.
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It has now been over two months since Russia declared war on Ukraine: the recurring nightmare of many materialized today when we were almost sure that armed conflicts of this nature would never repeat themselves, at least not so close to home.
Before the attack, these hostilities seemed to us something distant from us, belonging to another world; unfortunately, however, on February 24 of this year the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out, spreading toward the borders of Europe, touching the collective consciousness.
We ask ourselves: Are we not all the same in this world? Aren’t our worries about those we love the same?
Many of our hearts beat in unison and come together to pray for all this to end.
I will not analyze the political reasons for this choice, they are of no interest to me or to those with a loved one still stuck in Ukraine.
War is wrong in any form, for any reason, ALWAYS!
Who can decide on the life and death of a person, a people, a nation?
How can you end a life so easily?
I believe the “simple” existence on this planet is already an immense gift that should in no way be wasted: life should be lived to the fullest in every moment.
Families were destroyed and thousands of deaths to defend their homeland from foreign invasion: a people who flee their land, abandoning part of their hearts there and leaving, perhaps forever, affections and houses razed to the ground by bombing; that tries to cross borders even in extreme conditions; at the same time, all men capable of fighting, whether they are very young or fathers of families, prefer to stay in Ukraine abandoning their loved ones. And, at the same time, many Ukrainians live the invasion of their homeland from afar—unable to do anything about the devastation.
We can only imagine the pain one feels in being taken away part of one’s history, one’s memories, and all that has formed “the person.” Mothers are torn to know their children called to arms, with little, if any, news and not knowing if the call the night before will be the last.
Sick people who go without treatment are abandoned to a sad fate as health facilities in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities are paralyzed or collapsed. It is a situation on the edge of the imagination: terrible, bloody, and full of pain.
The desire to go back in history, re-establishing the borders of the former Soviet Union, represents an unhealthy thirst for power, one of the classic toxic characteristics of those who are addicted to what the Sense of Self Method calls Substitute Sense of Self. The people who are killing to get things their way are not in contact with their Real- or Authentic Selves. In their hearts no cosmic connection exists, no spiritual depth; there is only a mania of grandeur that has taken over their whole being. This reflects spiritual poverty and is a destructive way of living through one‘s Substitute Sense of Self which not only destroys other people’s lives, and their creations but also the Authentic Self of these instigators of this war.
Building a Healthy Sense of Self is not only a way to restore one’s well-being, but also a tool against war.
Invading a country is like invading a person, like raping them and, for those with a Healthy Sense of Self, it doesn’t even cross their minds to be able to carry out similar atrocities.
I believe with all my heart that life must be respected in all its forms.
Written by Mafalda De Vito for Healthy Sense of Self
Posted in Announcements, Mental Health, Sense of Self, Sense of Self Method, Society, Community, World. and tagged end war, peace in Ukraine, We stand with Ukraine, war is not the answer, inner peace first
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We offer a framework for a life-changing experience. By exploring and discovering the most fundamental question of all, "Who am I?", we develop a sense of self-mastery that allows us to stay in charge of our lives. The blame game finishes. A deepening spiritual awareness gradually breaks open the cage of illusions. We regain the responsibility for creating our own lives. The present becomes a real present, a gift.
We do this by becoming adept in four areas of study
The study of spiritual knowledge
Universal truths, regarding the nature of the soul, God and the impact of a close relationship between the two, create a context for our spiritual endeavour. This understanding helps us master the ongoing flow of experiences we call life.
A step-by-step process helps us to focus on our deep inner strength and potential, which then begin to flourish and expand. By thinking less and more powerfully, we start to feel our own greatness.
In this meditation we see how silence is the real gateway to contentment. Silence takes us into a world of stillness, like pressing the pause button temporarily on the film of our life.
It helps us to master time. The more time I give to silence, the more silence will give me time.
The conscious assimilation of virtues
Through this we learn that real spirituality is to be able to practise virtues in adverse circumstances. This enhances our self-respect.
We learn to master and understand the energy of love – in giving, not in taking.
We naturally focus on our own and others' virtues, rather than defects. Relationships are healed.
Serving others spiritually
The natural consequence of understanding spiritual truths, practising Raja Yoga meditation and inculcating virtues is the wish to serve others. Serving is our highest vocation, so it fills us with a new sense of purpose.
Spiritual service towards others is to help them stand on their own feet and make their own decisions. It is about empowering others so that they also see love, peace and happiness as their real treasures in the creation of their inner and outer worlds.
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It’s that time of year again where I look back at what happened over the past 12 months. Obviously this is mostly an excuse for me to look at the photos I’ve taken over the year and share some of them as I’ve done previously.
I attended a lot of conferences this year, though one thing that was different this year was that I attended more than I spoke at. I also spoke at a lot of user groups which was lots of fun.
January
At the very end of January I went to FOSDEM and for the first time ever, I was accompanied by my wife who is currently studying for a degree in computing.
February
I spoke at the PHPUK conference in February and have some good memories from this event.
March
I stepping into the unknown in March and attended a WordCamp! It was a good experience and I got a new scarf!
April
In April, my friend Alex visited from the Antipodes so I went up to Leeds to meet up with her and other friends. I discovered Fluxx the board game last year when at OSCON, and this was the time that I first played Fluxx the card game. I also visited Glasgow to speak at the PHP user group which was a bit of trek, so I took a couple of days off and photographed railways in the North of England while I was up that way.
May
May is the month of birthdays in our household. We visited the Happy Potter studios in Leavesden to celebrate! I also visited Belgrade, Serbia to speak at SOLIDday.
June
Seeing friends was the highlights of June.
July
July was the inaugural PHP South Coast conference and the first time that 19FT has sponsored a conference. Very well organised first event and I’m looking forward to the 2016 edition.
August
August is all about holiday! While in Spain this year, I tried to take a good sunrise picture.
September
In one trip, I spoke at PHP Hampshire in Portsmouth and then attended the Lead Developer conference in London. Lead Developer was different type of conference and I’m going to be attending again this year.
October
October was the month of two fantastic conferences when I spoke at PHPNW in Manchester and attended OSCON Europe in Amsterdam! The hackathon at PHPNW particularly notable for joind.in as we received many pull requests! I also met my cousin’s new twin daughters which was another highlight of a very enjoyable month.
November
November is Fireworks Night in the UK which we celebrated with friends. I also went to Washington for the php[world] conference. It’s always good see boundaries between different PHP communities being broken down.
December
The final month of the year found me in a pub with some of my oldest Internet friends: We’ve been playing MMOPRGs since 1999 and are suitably irreverent around each other! I also spoke at the first meeting of the PHPMiNDS user group in Nottingham and we released Slim Framework 3!
Looking back, I have had a really good 2015 and have some very fond memories; Let’s see what 2016 brings!
This article was posted on 31 December 2015 in Me
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Rob Allen is a sofware consultant and developer concentrating on HTTP APIs. He develops in PHP, Python and other interesting languages, contributing to rst2pdf, Slim Framework, Apache OpenWhisk amongst other OSS projects. Based in Worcester, UK, he runs Nineteen Feet and is the author of Zend Framework in Action.
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Added May 4, 2012: No more speculating…there has been an official recall announced of Kirkland Dog foods as well as a number of other foods made at the Diamond plant. As of this evening, Costco has started to robo-call people who have purchased the recalled food and is recommending that you return the food. I have written a complete article to explain more details about the recall which you can read here:
Added May 5, 2012: Many of you have asked if you can return your food to Costco if you have thrown out the bag. Some readers have informed me that you can take the food back even without the bag. Because it was purchased at Costco, they can look back in your account and see that you have purchased the food.
I recently wrote about a voluntary recall on Diamond Naturals Lamb and Rice Food because of possible salmonella contamination. This recall has prompted fears about the safety of many other foods that are also manufactured by Diamond.
On the Ask A Vet Question Facebook Page, I had some users ask me if the recall also affected other brands that are manufactured by Diamond. Diamond Pet Food also manufactures the following foods:
Kirkland Dog Food (sold at Costco)
Solid Gold Health Products for Pets
4Health
Is there a problem?
My first response, when I was questioned about this was to say that there was nothing to worry about. Diamond was quite specific in stating that there were only 5 lots of food that they felt were potentially contaminated.
So, why am I writing this article? There is currently a lot of rumor circulating around the internet saying that there is a recall on Kirkland Dog Food sold at Costco. There is no official recall. Correction – there now has been a recall (see here Many people, however, are claiming that the food has made their dogs sick.
One of the main goals of my site is to tell the truth in the place of internet rumors. As a vet, I get really frustrated when my clients come to me with information that they got off the internet. Just because it is on a website, it doesn’t mean that it is true!
So, I am asking for your help! I would like to hear of your stories of potential problems with Kirkland Dog Food. It’s not enough, though, to have a few people say, “I feed Kirkland food and last week my dog had diarrhea.” But, if we have enough people who have seen the same symptoms, it may give us enough evidence to know that there is a problem. We are seeing the same thing happen with my article on Chicken Jerky Problems. When I initially started to get comments on that article I didn’t think there was enough evidence to say that there was a serious problem. However, patterns started to emerge that showed that a large number of dogs who had eaten chicken jerky manufactured in China were getting an increase in thirst and urination as well as serious gastrointestinal issues. There are over 550 comments on that article from concerned pet owners. The FDA is paying attention and working hard to find the culprit!
If you feed Kirkland Dog food, please leave a comment below, and let us know if your dog has shown any sign of illness. If yes, please tell us what variety your dog eats and also what symptoms he or she had. And, even if your dog is not sick, please let us know what type of Kirkland food you buy. That way, if there is a problem, the pattern should soon emerge!
Thank you for helping! And please, share this on Facebook. The more people we can get to take part in this, the better!
Recall on Canidae dog foods.
About the author
Dr. Marie is a veterinarian treating dogs, cats, and pocket pets. Click here to ask Dr. Marie a question.
Thank you Dr. Marie!! You are the best. I shared it on FB, Twitter and I’ll re-post your plea on Poisoned Pets. I also this with Susan Thixton as well. She will be thrilled.
April 7, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Hello, In responce to your question:
I feed the following foods FROM COSTCO!
I do the following mix
SO basically I mix 179 pounds of food in a huge bin I have.. I put 1 cup crock potted Chicken in the bottom of a large mixing bowel and add 10 cups of food warm water and feed each doberman 2 cups twice a day.. They look amazing and they seem to have a small amopunt of poop per dog oper day..
I hope this helps answer any questions.
Please check out my web site and see them for your self..
April 8, 2012 at 2:07 am
Kim says:
I have 8 dogs from 2 years to 13 years of age on Kirkland Chicken and Rice dry food, and none are experiencing any problems. I am in Canada so not sure if the food is made in the same plant.
April 9, 2012 at 9:48 pm
i feed my two german shepherds kirkland lamb from costco. they have been on it now for approximately 5-6 months and both have been fine until recently. my 6yr old still seems to be ok however my 7 month old has been haveing diareah lately. i am in n.y. and the costco i purchase from is in the town holbrook i believe.
April 24, 2012 at 1:34 pm
cindy hackle says:
Costco kirkland food almost killed my dog……….please if your dog shows any sign of sickness take them off any food they are on…..I thank god did right away !
December 1, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Lynn says:
I started feeding Kirkland Adult Chicken Rice & Vegetable due only to recent financial trouble. I compared the ingredients and they were practically identical to Wellness Chicken, which I have used for years. The Shepherd & Shih Tsu were fine but after one full coarse of Kirkland (I slowly switched them over the coarse of a week), the Bassett -Beagle mix got deathly sick. She was vomittin g and so lethargic, she couldn’t get up for hours at a time. We had to carry her up and down the stairs and she also lost weight. She also had diarrhea and an increased thirst and would not even take a favorite treat. Needless to say, she’s back on Wellness and she’s
April 29, 2012 at 5:16 pm
I was feeding my dog Cooper, a 6 year old pit bull, Kirkland Chicken formula. I just bought a new bag of this food 4-12-12, Cooper got very ill and I took him to the emergency vet on 4-19-12. He was vomiting, he stopped eating, very weak. They diagnosed him with IMHA (anemia) and Pancreatis. The vets are so confused because he had many things going on. My dog was always healthy never sick. I had to make the decision of putting him down on 4-24-12. The hardest decision I have ever made. I made a claim with Costco and Kirkland. I also talked to Dr. Berkshire at Kirkland/Diamond and she assured me that the food is tested. But why are there recalls? This food needs to be off the market.
May 1, 2012 at 10:09 pm
Norm says:
Our dog Cooper, a border collie, was lethargic on Sunday. He wouldn’t eat on Monday. We took him into th vet on Tuesday morning. Blood tests and ultrasound showed it was pancreatitis. His liver enzymes were way out of wack. The vet said it as like trying to stop a wildfire. He also started having neurological “events”. He died on Wednesday, the very next day. He had been healthy until this attack. I just got the phone call about the recall from Costco today, 3 days after his death. We have 2 other dogs who ate food from the same bag. We obviously will no longer feed them this food. They do not show any signs of illness. Is it possible for one dog to get gravely ill while the other two are fine even though they ate from the same bag of food? (i.e. is it possible that only a few pieces of kibble were infected and that it was like Russian roulette?)
May 6, 2012 at 4:50 am
Ron says:
I agree, there was something very, very wrong with the last bag of Kirkland dog food I bought, my dog a beautiful German Shepheard who had been very healthy and active his whole life suddenly started having seizures, very lethargic, going blind and deaf… all in a matter of two – three months??
I can assure you it was not genetic because he came from the top Shepheard breeder in Canada, and his father lived to be quite old and won dozens of titles. We took him to the vet multiple times and had absolutely everything checked, but there was nothing found, except after that last bag of Kirkland Lamb and Rice formula he just kept having seizures… he died just a few hours ago!!!
Thank you Costco, for outsourcing your dog food label to China, they send us baby formula tainted with melamine, they don’t care about what they’re giving to our babies, you think their going to give a shit about our dogs!!
In my lifetime I’ve probably spent a hundred or more thousand in your stores, I use to think the Kirkland brand was amazing… I will never set foot in one of your stores again, you can kiss my business goodbye forever, just like our family pet. How the fuck am I suppose to explain this to my kids?
June 22, 2012 at 7:25 am
Here is an update to our original post below. A lot of information, but hopefully it helps others.
Our 4 year old Terrier Mix has eaten Kirkland Chicken, Rice, and Vegetable for almost 2 years with no problems. We just purchased a new bag a couple weeks ago, soon after she started to not be herself. When we would take her outside she would just sit in the yard and look around instead of playing and running. A week ago Wednesday, she started to become very lethargic and we knew something was wrong. We took her immediately to the vet. The vet said she was very sick and needed to keep her there to monitor her. We would bring her home a nights and waited for the sickness to pass. Unfortunately on Friday night she got worse. I woke up at 3am and layed down with her. About 4am she started to have severe seizures. We immediately rushed her to our 24 hour Animal Hospital. By the time we got there she was almost gone, minutes later she died at the Hospital. This does not make sense for an absolutely HEALTHY dog that was the joy of our family to losing her to something like this.
We have all the tests back from the many that were performed by the vet. All blood, x-rays, samples, etc came back that she was a healthy and there is no sign of a physical defect or indication of why she should have died. I have already contacted the FDA, Diamond, and Costco so with the help from my vet we are working with them in trying to resolve this.
We are trying to strictly work on facts and try to determine what exactly the issue is. Clearly we are not trying to spread rumors saying the food was for sure the cause, but since the death occurred after starting a new bag and all the medical tests show no indication of other cause, the food is highly suspect.
Here are the symptoms we encountered: BEGINNING DAYS-started by moving slower, not wanting to play, eating grass NEXT 2 DAYS- became very lethargic, fever, labored breathing, not eating or drinking, Vets administered medicine and IV’s and ran many tests LAST NIGHT- Very Lethargic, laying with legs straight locked, can’t walk or falling over, LAST 2 HOURS-head would turn backwards locking, appeared to be going blind by not seeing us and eyes were unresponsive, then very severe seizures.
I read articles like these before I started to buy Kirkland/Diamond dog food, but TRUSTED that no one would ever sell something that would cause this much loss. I will never trust these companies again after loosing the greatest dog our family ever had. We wish we would have read this information several weeks ago and it may have been a different outcome. If you are still feeding your dog this food, I was just like you a week ago thinking it would never happen to us… now we are trying to deal with the tragic loss of our family pet.
May 25, 2012 at 6:06 am
I am so sorry, I know what you are going through, I lost my healthy best friend to another brand Natural Balance, although the formula that he was on has not been recalled, yet. It seems that too many animals are exhibiting the same/ mirror symptoms with many brands since the fall of 2011. It is more than just salmonella affecting/killing our pets. All these brands use the same pre mix…ingredients from China that have aboslutely no oversight, heck the food in China is killing their own people. There is also an increase of the meat being sourced from China. I am very mad about all the illnesses and deaths and the lack of accountability by these corporations and any oversight by our regulatory agencies. The FDA does have the right to pull a product since July 2011 for any harm to animals or people.
June 4, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Sue says:
So sorry for your loss. The same happened to my dogs. File a incident report with Costco. That way you have documentation. Costco and Diamond don’t give a rats ass about our pets. Infact, Costco has tripled the size of the pet food display. They have no interest into looking for a better pet food to put their Kirkland name on it. The only way we can hurt them is to remember this recall and not purchase any pet food from them ever again. The bottom line is their only concern, not our pets. I demand better for my $100 membership. Shame on Costco!!!!!
June 4, 2012 at 2:56 pm
yep i feed it and my dog is fine.
April 9, 2012 at 12:27 am
Miss Sile says:
@Natalie, what an idiotic thing to say… ”I fed it, my dogs fine”. These people are grieving. You couldn’t form a few more sentences to make your comment not look combative & insensitive? Do you work for Crapco or diamond? I don’t understand nor do I want to understand your lack of empathy and general common courtesy.
July 19, 2012 at 8:38 am
Sam says:
I feed my puppy Kirkland puppy food and he got sick. He had diarrhea and lack of appetite. I took him to the vet and they found bacteria in his stool. Once I changed his food he made a quick recovery.
April 11, 2012 at 6:17 pm
I use Kirkland and have not had a problem at all. I have 10 dogs and 7 puppies eating it right now. I will switch temporarily until the scare is over.
April 13, 2012 at 8:17 pm
We started our 6 month old JRT puppy on Kirkland puppy food a little over a week ago. About 3-4 days into it, he had diarrhea and vomiting for 3 days until I changed his food. He is fine now but symptoms are very similar to those described by others.
May 7, 2012 at 7:07 pm
deborah shaw says:
For appx 2 years I have fed my dogs Kirkland Natures Domaine turkey dog food. About 1 1/2 weeks ago I opened a newly purchased bag. Neither of my dogs would eat it. My golden retriever finally ate it , threw up, had stomach distress and would not stop eating grass for days. I cooked food for them for a few days as my flat coat retrieverwould not eat it. I really think there is something wrong with the dog food and plan on returning it to Costco. In the meantime I am looking for a good quality dog food that does not have corn or grain or made by Diamond. It should not be so difficult to find a dog food that is safe
April 14, 2012 at 5:33 am
Katelyn says:
I feed The Honest Kitchen foods, and also recommended it many times when I worked in a retail/vet location. They have the most amazing safety standards. The food is made in an FDA inspected human food facility. They test every batch of ingredients purchased before it enters the production line, and again test the finished product extensively for a long list of contaminants. No hormones or antibiotics, no GMO’s, no ingredients from China, and an open and transparent list of ingredient sources available on their website, along with a full nutritional breakdown of their foods. My dog Gypsy LOVES Embark. Check out their website!
May 19, 2012 at 3:33 am
Ana says:
Hi Dr. I feed my dogs the Kirkland Super premuim puppy with chicken rice and vegetables. They’ve been eating it for 3 days now. As of yesterday (day 3) 2 out of the 4 (those 2 eat more than the other 2) started to vomit and shake and it was a very frightening thing to see. I wanted to know if this could be from the food or something totally different?
April 16, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Diane says:
I feed Kirkland Adult Lamb, rice, and vegetables dog food and Nature’s Domain Turkey and Sweet Potatoe grain free dog food and neither one of my dogs are showing any sign of sickness.
April 17, 2012 at 9:15 pm
We buy the senior Kirkland dry food and both my husband and I thought it smelled funny the last 2 times we bought it. Neither of us said it to each other. Then weren’t on vacation. Our daughter called us and our 2 dogs were sick with diarehhea and the 12 year old was wrenching and drinking lots of water. She fed them rice. I said to feed the the other dogs food. We came back from vacation and I cooked bailey an egg and she ate it. Then I came home with new food and she wolfed it down. Whe is too smart. The food was bad. Btw, the other dog was a rescue dog from the streets who ate anything. Got sick finally from stress. Won’t buy Kirkland again.
April 23, 2012 at 12:49 am
Miranda says:
Yes, I noticed the exact same thing. The last two bags of Kirkland’s Chicken and Rice for me smelled really bad. I’m in Orlando Florida and have been feeding this food for over a year in Los Angeles CA and here. I didn’t think much of it until reading this article. Neither of my dogs are showing signs of illness but I am going to switch their food today. This is really disappointing to see from Costco. Why can’t they just make their food here? It’s just terrible. And I am so sorry for all of these people who had their pets get ill.
I agree with a previous poster, I don’t think it is just salmonella. It’s probably something or multiple things in addition to that. I mean if they make it in China, come on, god knows what’s going on in it. This is all very bad. Costco should do something more. Even though I know they won’t because they only care about profits.
August 22, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Costco needs to deal with this. My dogs ate Kirkland premium dry adult in the blue bag. The old yellow lad woke my daughter up and she was shaking. We were out of the country. This was terrible. They need to pull the stuff off the shelves. We are putting all our dogs on blue.
April 23, 2012 at 12:54 am
Tina says:
Hi my name is Tina i was feeding my pup kirkland dog food in the burgundy bag duke was a healthy 4 month old pure bread german sheppard puppy he passed away on saturday march the 17 at 11:00 pm we believe it was the dog food that made him ill his symptoms were as follows lose of appetite increased fluid intake vomiting bloody diarreah rapid weight lose and very lathargic the symptoms came on very suddle and only lived for about 4 days after the symptoms got worse. we called costco and they said nothing about any recall on the food infact they were argumentive about returning the bags of food .
April 24, 2012 at 12:36 am
Tina, I’m so sorry for your loss. The same thing happened to our dog this past winter. What is strange to me is that we have two other dogs who ate the same food and are fine. Our older dog, however, began to show symptoms very suddenly and had very drastic weight loss. She only lived 7 or 8 more days after she started showing symptoms. She was so thin, every bone on her body was showing, despite us feeding her fresh rice and chicken, which she ate all of. After a very expensive blood test by the vet, we found out she had kidney failure and we had to put her down. Her last days, she was too weak to even lift her head. It was all a mystery to us as to why she had gotten sick as she was very strong and healthy beforehand and had no access to anything else that would make her sick, but now that I am reading about these experiences with Kirkland dog food, I’m starting to think that we had a bad batch.
April 26, 2012 at 5:32 pm
I feed my boxer whose 80 pounds active white coat and is completely fine with Kirkland dry food from coercion and he gets chicken jerky treats…hes 100% healthy no side effects after almost 4 years of feeding him this food. Ive only seen some excessive thirst and frequent quick lees on a walk only
April 24, 2012 at 2:58 pm
TS in SC says:
Just started feeding my dog Costco/Kirkland Lamb and Rice (made by Diamond) two bags ago. First bag no problem. Second bag – decreased appetite, vomiting throughout the bag. Second bad number is KLU 0307832 XOJ best before mar 23 2013. not sure of number of the second bag.
April 27, 2012 at 12:41 pm
KING says:
did you ween them onto the new food
May 16, 2012 at 4:39 am
Justin Shaw says:
I started my 2 1/2 year old boxer on Taste of the Wild and discovered that Nature’s Domain at Costco was basically the same thing, so I alternated between the Salmon and the Turkey for about two years. A couple months ago, however he started getting small bald patched on his hind quarters and was continually getting ear infections.
After a little research I determined that he was probably allergic to something in the food so I switched him to Merrick Wilderness blend. After about a month his hair grew back and he’s no longer scratching at his ears. His coat looks shinier than is ever has and he just seems happier overall. I’ve also never seen him destroy a bowl of dry food as fast as he does with the Merrick food. He eats it the second I put it in his bowl where with the Costco food, he would eventually eat it but nothing like with the Merrick food.
I liked the price of the Costco food much better since a 35 lb costs about what I’m now paying for the Merrick, but you can’t put a price on your dogs overall health and happiness. I really do hope that there isn’t anything wrong with the Costco branded foods because I know several other dog owners that use it. All I know is after I switched my dog off it, he is much happier and healthier guy.
April 28, 2012 at 3:41 pm
OMG! I am devastated! Last week my 12yr old – super healthy – Weimaraner started throwing up. Then she started throwing up blood, then she wouldn’t eat her treat, then she wouldn’t eat period. She lays on the floor and shivers uncontrollably. I have to pick up my other dog’s food because normally, she will eat anything.
2 Days ago my 5yr old Great Dane started having diarrhea and getting sick. I have been feeding Kirkland Lamb and Rice for 10+ years. I just bought another bag of Kirkland Lamb and rice yesterday in case something was wrong with my old bag. They wouldn’t touch it.
Today I decided to try a Holistic Canned food and mix with a specialty dry food and see if they would eat. Both ate like they haven’t had food in a week. Come to think of it…they haven’t. I was hours from taking my sweet old girl to the vet to have her “put down”. I thought she just became way too old way too fast.
After they ate their food, I came immediately to the computer to google if anyone else had this problem. I have been poisoning my beautiful dogs!!! I am sick about this.
Why hasn’t anyone let us know??!! I lost a cat to this same problem about 6 years ago when “poisoned” food product came from China. Remember that?
May 1, 2012 at 11:49 pm
Renee says:
In February, I lost my Vizsla and my Dobie/Rott one week apart. They had ingested one can of Kirkland lamb and rice in Jan. In five to six weeks they were both dead. It was a slow miserable death. The cans were exp. 2013.
May 8, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Mcgee says:
I feed 33lb bag of Natures Domain purchased at Naperville,IL Costco. Dog has had progressively looser stools over 1 week period. Morning stool was a liquid which is prompting a vet visit
May 2, 2012 at 10:35 am
Trudy says:
My dog died and we missed her terribly, so we went to the local shelter and adopted two. One is four and the other ten. I had some dry food left and gave it to them and they were fine. Then I got the Kirkland brand and they both came down with diarrhea which I thought it was because I was mixing it with wet food. I am going out to buy my old dry food right now.
May 3, 2012 at 2:32 pm
My dog ate the salmon version and immediately began having seizures, vomitting, diarrhea and had to be taken to the vet for 2 weeks. We actually had made the decision to put her down and while on the way to the vet, she actually ate some of my other dogs puppy chow and immediately began acting better. I have returned the food to Costco…net with the manager and asked that they have the food tested. I should have kept some to send off somewhere to be tested myself,,
My puppy also ate some before we realized it and she too began vomitting.
May 4, 2012 at 8:23 pm
amy says:
We just got a automated phone call from Cosco about the dog/cat food with a possible contamination. So there definatly is a problem. I am taking my daughters dog off the food as a precaution, as no animal should have to suffer at the fault of a human. Just my 2 cents.
May 4, 2012 at 11:47 pm
I finally seemed to have the dog happy with Merrick products, so haven’t gone with the Kirkland. However my cats generally eat the Kirkland Adult Cat Food. Is this product included in the recall as well? My cats have been well, other than the ever present feline attitude (cattitude) thing.
May 4, 2012 at 11:54 pm
We have 4 dogs that eat the Kirkland dry and wet food combined. They love it and have no ill effects what-so-ever. I believe it’s the Rice and Lamb pellets.
May 5, 2012 at 1:27 am
I feed my dog Kirkland Dog Food from Costco. She has not shown any signs of any illness and has been having regular normal poops.
I’m scared to continue feeding it to her with this news. Any information or insights would be greatly appreciated !!
May 5, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Diane says:
Our dog has been vomiting yellow bile (banana yellow).
May 6, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Our five month old springer has been refusing her kirklands puppy food, after reading this blog I threw it away!
May 7, 2012 at 11:49 am
I have 2 dogs and feed both of them Kirkland brand Lamb and rice adult dry food from Costco. 2 weeks ago, approximately, one of my dogs, she weighs 110 pounds got really sick for no apparent reason? She was ill for a couple of days with vomiting, lethargy and excessive drooling!! She also seemed to be extremely tired! I checked the bag that she was eating from and it fell between the dates of the official recall so I’m assuming that may have been the cause. I have another bag of the same dog food that I took to my cottage last week that is still half full so I will be tossing that in the garbage for sure!!!
May 8, 2012 at 5:36 pm
German shepherd has had the runs/diarrhea and both dogs have been throwing up quite often, very sick. DO NOT FEED KIRKLAND. Canidae is best.
May 10, 2012 at 10:09 pm
Katelyn says:
Canidae is also part of the recall, and made by Diamond.
May 19, 2012 at 3:38 am
RJ says:
Canidae is made at the same plant as diamond, wellness, kirkland, etc…..i didn’t know either….went from kirkland, canidae to diamond…..my poor dogs went from nutro years ago with their recall and now this one…i’m not picking good food, but i’m checking recalls and reviews.
May 23, 2012 at 10:53 am
Jenn says:
I bought the Grey Weight Management bag a month ago and have been feeding it to my 9 yr old Golden Retriever and 1 yr old English Bulldog and they have been fine. Stool has been solid. They were eating BLUE and had diarrhea all the time, that’s why I switched to Costco and plus it was cheaper. I’m reading through the comments and don’t see any mention of the GREY WEIGHT MANAGEMENT bag….IS ANYONE HAVING A PROBLEM WITH THIS?
May 11, 2012 at 4:45 pm
I use the healthy weight Kirkland dog food. I hve 6 dogs 5 small 1 large. I buy it is the 40 lbs bg. Only one dog seems to be sick a Lhpsa Apso about 23 lbs, 4 years old. She is vomiting a slime from her mouth. I took her to my Vet but test are not complete until tomorrow. She has nothing wrong with her bowels and does not have much of fever. All other dogs are fine so far so I am hoping it is nothing serious.
Thanks for your article.
May 17, 2012 at 6:52 pm
i have 3 cocker spaniels all on kirkland lamb and rice formula kibble (green bag) all are showing signs of digestive upset and diahhrea…..frankly do not know if it is food related or some other parasitic infection but all are on their way to the vet today and i will be switching their food at least for the time being until we can rule out contamination in the kibble
May 22, 2012 at 2:53 pm
In Jan one of my Goldendoodles went to new home had Natures Domain and fed Natures Domain Salmon-Sweet Potato forumla that cust bought Puppy almost died ! in hospital for 4 days and sick for 10 and very ill thank goodness he is alive
June 8, 2012 at 3:18 pm
Rose Brown says:
I bought a 18.14 kg bag of Kirkland dog food at Costco about a month and a half ago, the bag is almost empty now, and my dog did NOT get sick from it.
June 17, 2012 at 5:24 pm
Brian says:
My dog has been sick for months since April with liver enzymes alt at 400. Get here in Ontario California wants to charge me $1200 for a liver flush. All from using Costco chicken and rice adult food.
July 19, 2012 at 6:34 pm
Mary says:
I have been feeding my dog Kirkland Lamb and Rice and also the canned beef and chicken wet food. She was doing OK until I gave her chicken jerky strips from Costco. She walks slow and unsure of her steps. Does not want to go out her doggie door. She is 13 years of age and I don’t think she should be acting this way. She will her food but not like she used to. Seems as if her eyes have been affected also.
August 1, 2012 at 12:01 am
This sounds like it could be an age related issue. I’m guessing it’s not connected to the food or treats at all. I’d highly advise that you have your vet examine your dog ASAP!
August 1, 2012 at 12:03 am
I just discovered this in a fluke of finding out thwarted ingredients in the Kirkland food. One of our bouviers has strayed having seizures with no history in the breeders lines.
September 17, 2012 at 1:12 am
Ty says:
I am feeding my dog Taste of the Wild– it seems fine– what should I change to? I gave him one Beggin’ Strip and he got sick, I was ready to take him to the vet- he threw up, laid on the patio like he was going to die- and after he threw up for about 6 hours– he was okay. I called Purina and unbelievably they told me– “There’s no proof”.
October 25, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Karen says:
Hi i just bought my 1 year old lab the weight management kirkland dog food from costco and all a sudden as off Nove 18,19 my dog has been severly vomiting, I am looking to find out if my dog is sick due to the kirkland food if so what do i do cause i do not have the dog food bag to bring back.
Very concerned.
November 19, 2012 at 7:50 pm
cindy hackle says:
Yes my dog got severly ill…..I fed kirklands food stopped my dog got better 2 weeks later fed kirklands again he got severely ill……..thought I was going to lose him. Stopped feeding kirklands 3 days later fine……Do not use this food !
December 1, 2012 at 4:05 pm
MS says:
I purchased Kirkland Salmon and Sweet Potato for my dog and a friend’s dog several months ago. Both dogs got ill and both owners had stomach issues. Last week, Costco refunded me for bags purchased over the last few months and filed and incident report which was sent to their insurer and the manufacturer. I just got a call back from the manufacturer who denied my claim relating issues with both dogs to the tainted food. She advised the bags I purchased did not match the Best Before Date of the recalled products. While I am not a vet and the issues may have been caused by other factors, I am deeply troubled by the company’s evasive and denial tactics; particularly since 2 humans were hurt by this issue (assuming that they would be more afraid of lawsuits related to human poisoning). Essentially, I was told they were not responsible and that I had no recourse, so I am taking my case to the web sphere and making sure that people know how Diamond is treating this serious case – typical corporate P/R campaign of evasion and denials. Clearly, I am not buying Kirkland pet products and if Costco cares about its reputation, they should hold their vendors more accountable.
February 13, 2013 at 7:51 pm
We used Costco/Kirkland brand dog food for over 10 years. Always thought it to be pretty decent food for the price. We have big dogs and needed a quality food for a smaller price tag. November of 2012 we got a hold of a contaminated bag of Kirkland Healthy Weight dog food. We had 4 very sick dogs. All had diarrhea and were throwing up. One of our dogs had 4 week old pups. Because she was a nursing momma, her immune system was weaker than the other dogs. She died one month later. This was from only 2 feedings of this food. We are currently seeking restitution from Costco.
February 26, 2013 at 4:53 am
I just posted above. My dog died as a result of eating the Costco Healthy Weight dog food. It was purchased from the Costco in Fort Worth, Texas. I have been in contact with Costco and am awaiting a reply at the moment. I see that there are so many cases reported above. Would very much like to look into a Class-Action Suit. I have allot of documented evidence. I see that some of you still have a sample of the food. Costco took the food back and refunded the money for the bag but no one knows what happened to the bag of food after that. We have $1200 in vet bills from trying to save our dog plus the loss of our dog. This must stop. I get so angry when I see that food still being stocked and sold at Costco and believe me, I’m warning people who I see starting to buy it.
February 26, 2013 at 5:06 am
Re Kirkland Nature’s Domain. We have five large mixed breed dogs , a German shepherd, two golden retrievers, two border collies. We ran into a problem with Orijen salmon based dog food so we tried the salmon and sweet potato from Costco. The dogs looked very good for a year, but in Feb/March of this year, 2013, they started blowing coat, acting lethargic, refusing to finish their food. We have two friends that also switched to this food at the same time and one dog experienced unbelievable itching and her coat look like it was burned off. She was in agony. When I saw the similarities, I stopped the food and, in most dogs, saw an immediate improvement. When I contacted Kirkland, the verteriarian insisted it was environmental! It has taken a lot to bring my dogs back to the level of health they had previously and my older golden retriever appears to have permanent health damage.
Please keep the good work of spreading the word about this food. I will never purchase a dog food from costco or made in china again.
July 18, 2013 at 4:06 pm
Kat says:
I am re posting this so that it appears at the top of the website comments. some people may not read to the end and read new comments. We used to feed Kirkland Nature’s Domain salmon and sweet potato. We have five large mixed breed dogs , a German shepherd, two golden retrievers, two border collies. We ran into a problem with Orijen salmon based dog food so we tried the salmon and sweet potato from Costco. The dogs looked very good for a year, but in Feb/March of this year, 2013, they started blowing coat, acting lethargic, vomiting, refusing to finish their food. We have two friends that also switched to this food at the same time and one dog experienced unbelievable itching and her coat look like it was burned off. She was in agony. When I saw the similarities, I stopped the food and, in most dogs, saw an immediate improvement. When I contacted Kirkland, the verteriarian insisted it was environmental! It has taken a lot to bring my dogs back to the level of health they had previously and my older golden retriever appears to have permanent health damage.
Please keep the good work of spreading the word about this food. I will never purchase a dog food from costco or made in china again.
July 18, 2013 at 4:16 pm
My friend feeds this Food and we just had to take his Dog (Brown Lab) to the Vet for a HUGE Hotspot on his Head! I have Eight Dogs…don’t feed Grains or Kirkland Brand and have never seen Hotspots . I just got him switched to a grain Free and Better Dog Food .
April 7, 2012 at 7:39 pm
Edgar says:
We just got an automated call about thR dry dog food Kirkland recall
May 5, 2012 at 12:41 am
Michelle says:
I cannot believe this! My dog died last Tues. She ate this dog food for years with no problem until last week. She got violently ill. She became so ill we rushed to vet because she would not get up. She died. The vet could not figure out what the problem was.
May 5, 2012 at 12:49 am
Amanda says:
Michelle, my dog also became very ill very suddenly during that same time – April 2012. We had been feeding him Kirkland Dog Food from Costco on the Queensway in Toronto, Canada. First, he lost his appetite. Then, he stopped walking. After 4 days of changing his bed because he couldn’t get up to use the bathroom, we put him to sleep. The vet also didn’t know what happened. Did you pursue a further investigation?
September 20, 2012 at 4:24 pm
Michelle says:
Amanda, I am sorry to be responding just now. We had our dog cremated. Therefore, forgoing any chance of proving it was the food. We threw the food out the same day as well.
November 10, 2012 at 4:02 am
I feed Taste of the Wild and have seen no problems whatsoever. Their Grain Free formulas are wonderful & my dogs love them. I alternate with home cooked meals from Susan Thixton’s cookbook. I do feed the Duck one, I believe it’s Wetlands.
April 7, 2012 at 7:44 pm
My niece was feeding Kirklands from Costco and her dog got sick, she has since changed him to Taste of the Wild & he loves it and is having no issues at all with it.
April 7, 2012 at 7:46 pm
Canidae and Solid Gold are NOT Diamond foods! They are manufactured in the same facility, but to higher standards. That is not to say there couldn’t be cross-contaminantion of salmonella, but let’s be very clear they are NOT Diamond foods. Diamond has been plagued by recalls throughout the years due to substandard ingredients. Canidae and Solid Gold have not been.
April 7, 2012 at 7:52 pm
According to Wikipedia, Diamond manufactures under contract some of the pet foods for all of the companies I mentioned in the article. Here is the link:
Now, Wikipedia is not always 100% correct. If you have more accurate info, please let me know.
April 7, 2012 at 8:05 pm
When I worked at an independent natural pet food store my boss toured the plant along with other owners of similar stores. I know Chip Sammons was on that tour, he should have the specifics. I don’t have the details myself. http://www.holisticpetcenter.com/chip.htm
April 7, 2012 at 8:17 pm
Sue Stack says:
Thank you Katrina for this info. I contacted the Holistic Pet Center and Chip is out of town. But will follow up next week. They are also interested in any info on problems with Diamond manufactured food. Chip has toured the Diamond plant and their store no longer carries Diamond products. Chip will give me the details when he’s back in town.
April 7, 2012 at 10:01 pm
Renee says:
You wanted to know if anyone has had issues with Kirkland food. YES! My two dogs ate the Kirkland canned lamb and rice dog food and died on Feb. 6 and Feb. 13. One week apart. I put it on the internet, and over 500 people responded with sick, dying and dead dogs.
April 8, 2012 at 12:17 am
And you took your two dogs in, had them necropsied, the food cultured/tested in their stomachs and know for sure it was the food? There is a kennel not far from me that claimed the same thing until she had the contents of her 7 dogs (that passed) examined. They had all eaten mushrooms out in their paddock and that was the cause of death during the night.
April 8, 2012 at 2:49 am
Thanks Renee for your comment.
It was because of your efforts to warn pet parents, that Susan Thixton, Dr. Marie and myself (Poisoned Pets), did articles about the Kirkland dog food issue.
Please share with Dr. Marie’s readers who you are and how you came to hear of so many problems with the Kirkland dog food.
April 12, 2012 at 2:03 am
Renee says:
Mollie, I personally have experienced the pain and loss people are going through. I run The Pet Food Bank in California. I received some cans of Kirkland Lamb and rice dog food from a local kennel. They said the food was causing explosive diarrhea to their dogs because they normally feed the chicken and rice. They attributed it to the change of meat. I gave one can of the food to my dogs at the beginning of Jan. 2012. Right away, all the dogs had diarrhea, and one began to vomit (15 times) yellow bile. They all began to drink a lot and one had urinary problems. One began to develop a stiff back and moan in pain. Within 5-6 weeks two of my dogs were dead. The one that vomited, survived. I put out a warning to rescue groups on the internet. Over 500 responses came back with sick and dying dogs. To date, there are now 12 dogs dead that I have spoken with personally. Last week a chi died from the same exact cans that my dogs ate from the kennel. Now the recall has come in for the dry food for salmonella. The food I fed my dogs, was the canned Kirkland lamb and rice exp. 2013. It is a different manufacturer than the dry. But many people have fed both. If anyone would like to contact me about their experiences with the canned food….woof@thepetfoobank.com. is my email. When I put this warning out a few months ago…I was hoping to save lives. But based on what I am reading…it was too late for some. Sob.
May 8, 2012 at 5:46 pm
Hi Renee: I am in total shock and disbelief .. received a call from Costo May 5th re the Kirkland Dog food. I went on-line to check this out and was so surprised to read comments from people about their experiences with their pets. Our 5 year old German Shepherd took sick on Sunday, January 8th, 2012. She started throwing up, was lethargic and could not walk. We had to carry her up the stairs after she collapsed. We immediately called the vet on call, as it was a Sunday, and had to carry her out to the van on a blanket. Her breathing was very labored. The vet was at a loss as to what was wrong with her … asked us if she had gotten into anything “toxic”, which we know she did not. Our dear dog died 45 minutes after arriving at the vet. We had no answers as to what happened to her, until the phone call from Costco. Now we know – the Kirkland Lamb and Rice caused her death!!!
We were getting over our loss, but know it has all been revived. Will be investigating further with Costco today!!!
May 7, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Amanda says:
Renee, can you please direct me to the internet page? I’m sorry for your losses. My dog also passed in April 2012 and was on a Kirkland Dog Food diet. He very suddenly lost his appetite and ability to walk, and within 4 days he was completely immobile. I would like to investigate whether he shared symptoms with other victims of Kirkland Dog Food.
September 20, 2012 at 4:32 pm
Ellen says:
No they aren’t Diamond foods but they are made by them and they source the ingredients for them. Do you really believe they are sourcing premium ingredients for any of the foods they are producing? I wouldn’t feed any of our pets anything that is made in a Diamond facility….
April 7, 2012 at 10:13 pm
Canidae has had recalls – http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/canidae.html
April 8, 2012 at 2:46 am
Abby says:
I feed Canidae and have been for the last year and a half. Never had a problem, I have 5 dogs they all look great.
April 12, 2012 at 10:50 pm
Claiming Solid Gold and Canidae are not Diamond foods is just sophistry. The big name on the front of the bag may not be Diamond, but these foods are made by Diamond in a Diamond plant with Diamond supplied ingredients. They just put the customer’s brand name on the bag, but they make the food. The customer may spec the formula, but Diamond sources the ingredients and processes them into dog food. If the problem is with the ingredients (as happened with the melamine contamination a few years ago) then the brand name on the bag is irrelevant. If the problem is with the process by which, or facility at which, the food is made, then the brand name on the bag is also irrelevant.
These two brands have both gone to production at Daimond and those of us who knew these foods before they went to Diamond, know full well they are not the same foods anymore. They are made more cheaply, with cheaper ingredients. That’s how Diamond is able to sell to these companies for less and get the contracts. It is also how these companies have continued to keep prices down and profits up, and to grow their companies (don’t you just love buzzspeak?) So it is all down to how good a job Diamond does when it comes to purity, and safety. The formula is the only thing Diamond does not totally control.
Now I am not anti-Diamond. I feed Kirkland Adult Lamb, Rice and Veggie. We went to this after Canidae changed their formula (before they switched to Diamond for production even). I have paid twice as much for dog foods and frankly, I didn’t think any of those foods were any better than the Kirkland. I think Kirkland is as good as any kibble out there, no matter what the price.
And for me, cost is a big issue because I run a rescue for Great Danes. I feed anywhere from 10 to 30 dogs a day, twice a day. A 40 lb bag of food lasts between 1 and 2 days max, and sometimes less than a day. So paying just $5 a bag more can end up costing me $150 a month. But I wouldn’t feed any brand, no matter the cost, if my dogs did not do well on it. That’s why we do not feed the cheaper brands. We could save a lot by going cheaper, as much as $200 a month. It just isn’t worth it to me, because the dogs do not do well on those cheap foods. While Kirkland’s price is low, their quality is high. That said, they are a Diamond food, period. If there is a problem at the Diamond plant, they can be affected.
So far we have not seen any issues. All of our current dogs are doing fine on the Kirkland. If that changes I will post an update.
April 24, 2012 at 10:30 pm
BG says:
Very well put. First of all, I am very very sorry to anyone that had their dog or cat suffer from this incident. I have fed taste of the wild as well as raw meaty bones and meats in the past 12 months. Around January 2012, I switched to raw foods and Kirkland foods, and due to a job loss, I coincidentally, switched in April 2012 to Kirkland only foods. I did not know about the recall at that time but luckily I am in California where apparently, there was no impact.
That said, my 3 dogs have done very well on the Kirkland chicken/Lamb and rice kibble. In fact, I do not notice any difference between Kirkland and TOTW or raw foods.
This incident was a total shame. However, I feel that the food itself is a high quality food— just read the label. In fact, the Kirkland one is a bit better than the regular Diamond blend as it has Glucosamine and Chondroiton added. I hope that Diamond has learned a big lesson here and that they do a flawless job from here on out. It is not enough to offer a quality food at a good price… The food must also be 100% safe as we feed it to our Canine family members .
LEARN YOUR LESSON DIAMOND. Although I support your food and buy it, you are walking a thin line with me due to this past incident. In addition, Anyone that lost their pet or had their pet get ill due to Diamond foods should of had a personal apology from Diamond and be compensated in some way.
October 18, 2012 at 7:54 pm
Katelyn says:
It became clear with the release a few days ago of the FDA report on their inspection of the Diamond facility in question that the standards and protocols in place to prevent contamination are inadequate, the manufacturing equipment and facility are in a dangerous state of disrepair, and this is true for all brands made there, even the “higher quality” ones. The report raises serious questions both about Diamond, as well as the oversight (or lack of) in place throughout the industry.
May 19, 2012 at 3:44 am
I feed Taste of the Wild and rotate between the Wetlands, High Prairie and Pacific Stream formulas. I have never had a problem with TOTW. One of my girls is very sensitive to subtle formula changes, but she is eating normally.
April 7, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Sue Stack says:
Thank you for asking this question. All 6 of my dogs eating the Kirkland Signature Dry Lamb and Rice dog food from Costco got sick. My healthy 8 yr old died. Took him to Loomis Basin Vet hospital and UC Davis. Neither could tell me exactly what he had.
All of my sick dogs were letharic, losing weight, throwing up, stopped eating the food, eating lots of grass and dirt. My 8 yr old was drinking a lot of water and losing weight rapidly.
When I took my 8 yr old in for testing, his blood work showed the platelet levels declined so much since the first blood work that they were afraid to do another ultrasound to get fluid samples of the stomach and spleen. His urine was very diluted.
On Mar. 5th, I had to put him down because he wouldn’t eat anything, kept throwing up and suffering.
I have switched to Innova Prime and some of my dogs are ok. But I have another dog that has the same pattern as my 8 yr old. Letharic, not wanting to eat, eating grass and drinking a lot of water. Just had a blood panel done on him and his urine levels are also diluted and some other levels were off a bit but don’t remember what. Picking up the paperwork of that bloodwork today so can share the results if that will help.
I have an appt this Tues to due a full untra sound on him.
Also my 2 yr old is losing weight, not interested in eating and her summer coat is dull and very thin. She goes in next.
Contacted Diamond, Dr. Melissa Brookshire their vet, gave me the results of the aflatoxin they ran at the time the food was made but will not retest. When I requested the test results done on the meat, Dr. Melissa Brookshire from Diamond seized all communication. Said I needed to go through my vet to get further answers.
I filled an incident report with Costco on Mar. 6th. Brian Kenney from the liability dept. also stopped all communication when I requested a retest on the food and what test were done on the meat. I’m thinking there was something in the meat, and now we have a recall.
Until this recall, I’ve haven’t been able to get answers to what made all of my dogs sick. Thank you for looking into this. I hope to find answers to what made my dogs so sick and possibly killed my healthy 8 yr old.
April 7, 2012 at 8:08 pm
I’m so sorry for your loss. Thank you do much for sharing this info.
April 7, 2012 at 8:11 pm
Renee says:
I am sorry to hear about your dogs. I experienced the exact same ordeal with my dogs in February. Two died a week apart. My dogs ate the Kirkland canned Lamb and rice dog food. Please contact me when you have the time. woof@thepetfoodbank.com.
April 8, 2012 at 12:28 am
Mary says:
There has been the same problems with Natural Balance, dogs getting sick. Nausea/vomiting; bloody stool,smelly fur and breath, ++gas and abdominal gurgling, increased allergic symptoms with dry flaky skin, abnormal labs indicating liver problems, reoccuring bloat; diagnosis of pancreatitus, liver damage, kidney damage and death. When the animals are taken off the foods the symptoms resolve and the labs normalize (if not permanent damage). The FDA is investigating but in the meantime the product remains on the shelves and animals are getting sick and dying. I lost a dog. There is inadequate regulation of the pet food, and it is safer to cook for them, at least we know what is in the food.
April 12, 2012 at 4:33 pm
I can not believe what your story is! We had a 6 year old that
Went through the exact same thing. We ended up having to put
Her down as well. Nobody could figure out what was wrong with her.
Her urine was very diluted, and they told us it was because of all the water
She was drinking. She stopped eating, she was vomiting
And peeing all of the time. The hardest part was not being able to figure it out
And now after reading this, we had just changed her food to Kirkland brand, it was
The green bag. All of this happened last September. Not that we can bring her back, but now I am mad I hadn’t read something like this sooner.
April 9, 2012 at 3:49 am
Sue, if you haven’t already file an adverse event report with the FDA. Save a sample of the food for testing if you have any. Save some for yourself and ask the FDA to test it. Have your vet file a report too, if he feels it was food related. Keep us posted…
April 12, 2012 at 2:08 am
Sue Stack says:
Finally, they recalled Kirland brand food. Please note the date of my post. April 7th. Important to know, CA plant was behind in production due to upgrades to their production facilities. I think the CA plant was down Jan – Feb. So if you live near CA you still could have received contanimated food. This ordeal proves how DISHONEST Diamond is, and I knew back in April it was the meat.
I see that Dr Melissa Brookshire from Diamond asked you to contact her. What did she say? Did she lie to you also?
May 7, 2012 at 4:01 pm
Jon l says:
My dog almost died from costco food in CA. I too had my dog treated at loomis basin and they could not figure it out. Lethargy, explosive diahrea, could not walk. Later agreed was salmonella poisoning..costco did nothing and i too spoke with Diamond and they said there were no cases in Ca. This was may 2012. I also spoke with diamonds vet Brookshire who said results were inconclusive and ended all communication. What a joke they almost kill my dog and i am out 3k and big business gets off the hook. I wish there was something we could do!
June 14, 2013 at 2:36 am
I feed Taste of the Wild and rotate through the various “flavors” as well – no issues or illness with my dogs. They love the food.
April 7, 2012 at 8:08 pm
Katrina is right about the difference in proprietary food and contract manufacturing but Diamond has not been plagued since they used bad corn in 2005. Salmonella is a common risk in pet food (also cantaloupe, spinach, sprouts, and now sushi.)
April 7, 2012 at 8:14 pm
Yes the formulas differ between Diamond branded foods and the contract brands. But some of the ingredients are often sourced from the same supply, for a given plant, and the equipment is often shared as well (which is why the focus has been only on foods from a given plant). That said, it seems pretty clear that Kirkland brands are manufactured at a different plant than the one having problems.
Additionally, salmonella, which not good for dogs, is a pretty low risk bacteria. Most often recalls for this contamination are more about human exposure in handling, than in dogs getting sick. Fact is every single raw diet is rife with salmonella almost all the time. I find it fascinating how the raw feeders start bad mouthing kibble and the companies that make/sell kibble, and start talking about this proves folks would be better off switching to raw, every time a kibble salmonella or e-coli contamination problem crops up.
Come on folks, these sorts of contamination problems crop up in human food too. It is a fact of life in this new “mass production” world of ours. The dog food manufacturers are not insulated from this risk any more than any food producer is. Nor are they evil giants trying to kill dogs.
OTOH all products are made to a price point, and quality often determines the price point in the lower half of the market. It is only in the upper half of a product market that brand name and PR selling points can start to affect price significantly. So if a brand is in the bottom half (price wise) of the market, quality is always a potential issue and you generally get what you pay for as far as quality goes. But in the top half of the market, you can often be paying a lot more for no better quality (or even worse quality). While there are exceptions, I think they are more rare than people tend to believe.
Personally I think Kirkland is under-priced based on quality. It is at the point where the brand name holds the price in line. I think if you sold the exact same formula under some trendy “holistic” brand, you could sell the formula for twice as much. Canidae is a prime example of that process, I think.
April 24, 2012 at 11:03 pm
My dogs are all eating Kirkland Chicken Rice and Vegetable and are fine. The possible issue is with Diamond food made at another factory.
April 7, 2012 at 8:36 pm
My Neo Mastiff is also eating the Kirkland Chicken & Vegetables dry food and has had no problems with it. We are at the bottom of the bag purchased approx. 3 weeks ago. It sounds like, from what I am reading here, that it is the Lamb & Rice that is causing the problem?
April 9, 2012 at 2:58 pm
I am a RVT that has been feeding my dogs the Kirkland Signature Super Premium Mature Dog line for ~2 years with no concerns. While I did not know which compamy manufactures this brand it does carry the AAFCO statement. We, as consumers, do need to keep in mind that, unfortunately, all manufacturing facilities are susceptible to these issues. It is important to give your Vet all of the facts and let her/him decide what is pertinent.
April 7, 2012 at 8:46 pm
Kat oftus says:
All 6 of my dogs eat Kirkland Lamb and rice and are fine… I have a 12 yr old English mastiff, a 12 yr old american bull dog, a 1o yr old Dobe, a 3 yr old Dobe, a 3 yr old Yorkie mix and a 9 month old Pit….as you can see all ages and sizes and all are doing Great on Kirkland!! Thanks!
April 7, 2012 at 9:22 pm
Why do you put emphasis on the AAFCO statement, most vet nutritionists feel that their requirments are too low for adiquate health of a pet. Look who is on their board, then answer who would they be working for. This is not an indication that a food is good, nutritious or not toxic.
May 14, 2012 at 8:18 am
Sandy W says:
I have been feeding my dogs for years the Kirkland brand dry dog food. The chicken, vegetable and rice one and have never had a problem
April 7, 2012 at 9:55 pm
We have not had any problems and have fed the kirkland grain free Nature’s domain, and the chicken and vegetables, also the Kirkland Senior for over a year to all of our foster dogs with absolutely no problem whatsoever.
April 7, 2012 at 10:00 pm
Kay says:
I feed my dogs (3 of them) the Kirkland Signature dry lamb and rice and have had no problems, but I will be watching closely. Thanks for the post on Facebook!
April 7, 2012 at 10:10 pm
We have been feeding Kirkland’s lamp and rice for many years with no problems. In fact, the dogs we had at the start were allergic to corn, wheat, gluten’s, etc. and this was the safest food for them. Now we have two Shelties ages 5 and 14 on it with no gastric trouble at all.
April 7, 2012 at 10:16 pm
Je nourri mon chien (16 mois) avec Kirkland Signature Super Premium Dog poulet, riz et légumes. Sur un même sac de nourriture, il a des diarrhées, mais par périodes. Donc je ne crois pas qu’elles sont dû à la nourriture . Cet hiver, il a même pris du poids par manque d’exercices. Pas malade du tout, pleins d’énergie …
April 7, 2012 at 10:38 pm
I feed TOTW mixed with homemade. No issues here.
April 7, 2012 at 11:04 pm
Patty says:
Yes! My dog got sick on Kirkland “healthy weight” dog food. He had an upset stomach and diarrhea. He threw up and kept eating leaves, and grass .I thought maybe his system wasn’t use to the new food, so I have been incorporating it in with his usual food. Yikes! I also feed him natural balance.
April 7, 2012 at 11:08 pm
Sydney says:
I feed my 5 dogs Kirkland signature chicken & rice adult dog food. They are all healthy and happy.
April 7, 2012 at 11:21 pm
I used to feed over 50 cats (most were ferals) and my own at home the Kirkland Signature cat food. This was back in 2007/2008. I had 6 cats die suddenly and close together. Suspecting the food, I stopped using it and I did file a report with the FDA.
April 8, 2012 at 12:05 am
Karen says:
I have fed my dogs Kirkland Chicken Rice and Vegetable dry for years and they are both happy and healthy. I have never had any problems or complaints about their food.
April 8, 2012 at 12:07 am
According to Canidae even though products are made at the Diamond facility Canidae has a very strict testing policy. They also source all of their products used in the foods. They are not purchased by Diamond.
This is from the Canidae website:
Are your products safe?
Yes. Though we were not involved in any way with the recalls of contaminated pet food in 2005 and 2007 (or at any other time), we have substantially increased our testing procedures. To assure the safety of our products, CANIDAE has strict protocols which require that all formulas are tested in-line during our production runs and cleared by a second supervisor every 30 minutes. Additionally, there are 141 ingredient tests and 10 finished product tests that are performed. A sample of each finished goods batch is also sent directly to our research and development center where they are tested again, this time by a third party lab, for known toxins and potential risk hazards.
April 8, 2012 at 12:25 am
Sue Stack says:
Can you do me a favor and get more info on the 141 ingredients test. I will tell you for a fact, for the Kirkland product, they will only run a test for aflatoxin. They will not retest my food in question nor explain the 141 ingredient tests posted on Diamond’s website.
And I would love to find out, who is the third party lab doing the test?. Can you call them and ask? Love to hear what they tell you.
April 8, 2012 at 3:34 am
Have the FDA test the food. And save a bit for yourself if you should want to do third party testing. Tell your State Ag Dept about your complaint. Very important.
April 12, 2012 at 2:13 am
Kate says:
Every bag of Diamond Naturals says “151 checks,” so I think the ingredient checks and product checks are part of Diamond’s own procedure, not Canidae’s.
April 9, 2012 at 5:11 pm
L J H says:
I have one dog on 100% Kirkland Lamb, and two others on 50% Kirkland Lamb and $50% Taste of the Wild. Everyone is healthy here.
April 8, 2012 at 12:30 am
Frankie says:
I feed my dogs Kirkland Adult Dog Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables dry food for a few months. There are no serious problem with them. But one of them has gained a good amount of weight. The other has extremely bad breath despite a dental cleaning from the vet. Not sure if its the food. I also give them baby carrots in between meals. Hope I can help.
April 8, 2012 at 1:10 am
I would like to say that we currently have 28 dogs and everyone is happy and healthy. I selected Kirkland a few years ago after doing extensive research and also doing a dog food test with groups of our own dogs and Kirkland was the winner. The other brands were Euk, Blue Buffalo, Innova, BilJac, Canidae and Euk. Kirkland is made at the Diamond facility but it is a better recipe. I doubt that much (if any) of the Diamond naturals dog food has made it to the shelves. To test for salmonella cultures need to grow for 18-24 hours. In that short period of time I am sure little of the food has made it to store shelves. I am confident in this food! Your dog has a MUCH larger chance of getting it at the beach than from this food.
April 8, 2012 at 2:42 am
We have been feeding Kirkland Signature dry chicken &veggies or lamb &veggies for a few years without incident. Both rescued Alaskan Malamutes thrive on it. One is 10.75 and the other is 5ish. Both were introduced to Kirkland when they came to us. Both were under weight when first rescued. Now both have shiny coats, energy to spare and love their food.
April 8, 2012 at 3:23 am
We just switched from Fromm’s Gold Senior to Kirkland Mature Dog food a little over a week ago. We have our dogs on scheduled controlled feedings twice a day. At first my 3 dogs loved it, than one day one of them wouldn’t eat it at all, then the next day another one would only eat some of it and this morning 2 of them were eating grass to make themselves puke and wouldn’t eat the food and we know one of them threw up last night.
April 8, 2012 at 3:34 am
Michelle says:
My 10 year old labradoodle does fine on Kirkland Preium mature lamb and rice, at least two years now.
April 8, 2012 at 4:18 am
Kirkland Puppy and Cat served here … NO one sick …. Lamb is not a food served in this house for digestive reasons
April 8, 2012 at 6:59 am
Tom says:
I have 2 Dobermans on the Kirkland Healthy Weight food- One is 6yrs old and the other is 2- no problems with either dog and they both look great.
April 8, 2012 at 7:43 am
We have no problems with Taste of the Wild, various flavors. We have a 65lb Airdale.
April 8, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Andrew says:
I just bought a bag of Kirkland Chicken, Rice, and Vegetable dog food about a month ago. My dog (pekingese) has been using this dog food for over a year now. I opened the new bag and started feeding him a mix of the new bag and the “old” food. That night he started having extremely bad gas. After a few days he started having diarrhea.
This didn’t start until he was on the new bag of dog food. after about a week of him eating one day and having diarrhea and the next day he wouldn’t eat and feel better we took him to the vet. The vet gave us some medication for colitis and told us to feed him rice and a little boiled chicken.
He started feeling better and we slowing got him back on the dog food. Needless to say, he vomited the next morning and was sick the whole day. He will now be on a strict rice and chicken diet until I can get a hold Kirkland pet food.
April 8, 2012 at 1:38 pm
Kelly says:
We too feed our one dog the Kirkland Chicken, Rice, and Vegetable. When we changed over to his new bag last month we noticed one day he was vomiting and had diarreah (which is not like him). It lasted for about 2 days and than he was fine and started eating again. It’s hard to know if it was the food or something else. He has been on it for almost a year, so until now he has been fine.
Makes you wonder if pet food companies really care about our pets or about making the money off them
April 11, 2012 at 12:17 am
Andrew, don’t forget to file an adverse event (complaint) about it to the FDA and have your vet do so as well. Save a sample for testing – the FDA may wish to test it.
April 12, 2012 at 2:16 am
Bought a new bag 2 weeks ago. My dogs normally love this food but the past two weeks have noticed they won’t finish their food and been eating a ton of grass. Today I almost lost my 10 year old dog today. Started vomiting then progressed to horrible seizures. Vet couldn’t figure what was causing them. Brought her home and gave her more food….sezuires became worse. Stopped giving the food tonight and haven’t had one in 10 hours. What is in this food?!?!
May 7, 2012 at 5:06 am
Jenn says:
I wish everyone would understand that ALL kibble is made from garbage ingredients & under poor conditions. The ‘rules’ around processed pet food are pathetic. You get what you pay for unfortunately. I’m sorry for everyone’s loss – its heart breaking. Please consider feeding a high quality raw diet or at the very least home cooked. Then YOU know what your animal is ingesting!
April 9, 2012 at 1:54 am
alex says:
my dog is currently on kirkland chicken and rice dry, w/the kirkland chicken/rice, & lamb/rice canned. she has been doing fine. i had read in the recall that the contaminated cans had an expiration date of june 2012? my dog has been on kirkland chicken/lamb for 4 years and has been healthy.
April 9, 2012 at 2:36 am
Pam says:
I feed my dogs home cooked dog food, have for years. My 16 year old heinz 57 is as healthy as my 15 year old Jack Russell! They are both in excellent health and even my vet is happy with them and how they are being fed. Stop feeding your dogs this mass produced garbage and you’ll have no problems!
April 9, 2012 at 7:53 am
Erika says:
I feed my dog the Kirkland chicken and rice formula and have for many years. She has had absolutely no problems and is in perfect health.
April 9, 2012 at 10:55 am
Dr. Brookshire says:
I am a veterinarian that works with Diamond Pet Foods. Please contact me directly to discuss this matter. I can be reached by email or at 800.442.0402.
Thank you,
April 9, 2012 at 5:36 pm
deb coleman says:
I had my dogs on river run until I started getting bags with mold in them last year. Three dogs experienced a dermatological reaction, three had diarrhea (colored water) and one died overnight. I switched to diamond and noted improvement in the gi symptoms, but within two months, one bitch became listless and didn’t even appear to recognize me right beside her. She was 6 wks gestation. She was unresponsive. Then she had a seizure and was taken in for emergency c-section. We lost half the litter and it was three days before the dam began to recover. When the pups began eating, they were fed rice and ground beef until they were able to eat totw salmon and prairie varieties, canned and nibble. As they grew, I started to use the 4 health puppy and diamond puppy blended with a bit of canned totw. Now for the past wk (they are 8 wks old), they have the runs. Fecal is clear, gums pink, drinking a load of water and eating only 4 health puppy. I have yet to find out if due to mom’s consumption of aflatoxins in the river run, then switching to diamond caused her toxic condition and now perhaps the pups’ systems are very sensitized to the same thing now in the diamond line of products.
April 13, 2012 at 2:46 am
I’m suspicious that your issue with the pups having diarrhea is not related to food at all. I would definitely have a vet examine them and check a stool sample for parasites!
April 13, 2012 at 11:27 am
Sue Stack says:
Now that the Diamond Disaster is exposed, I’m still curious what Dr Melissa Brookshire had to say about the recall and if you have still been in touch. I don’t believe her for a second. Dr. Brookshire and Diamond Pet Foods are covering their butts, big time!
May 16, 2012 at 5:38 pm
The email from Dr. Brookshire simply stated that at that time there was no recall on Kirkland foods (which was correct). She thanked me for trying to gather information and really did sound genuine.
May 17, 2012 at 2:16 am
Jon l says:
BS Doc, i just found your site a year late unfortunately. I spoke with brrokshire a month or two later and she told me none of this and said there were no issues in Ca.
However above another poster from Ca spoke to her a month earlier and their dogs were treated at the same vet ad mine!!! And dr brookshire ceased communication with me as well. Just a corporate schill.
June 14, 2013 at 2:48 am
We fed our dogs Kirkland Signature Dry Lamb and Rice dog food from Costco for several months. The dogs were not thrilled about the food, but ate it. They had LOTS of gas, loose stools, coats got dull & flaky. Dogs just seemed “off”. They always wanted to eat grass. Our dogs went from excited to eat at meal time, to having to be “bribed” with yogurt, pumpkin, etc. Pretty soon, even that did not work. We only bought Kirkland, because that is all we could afford (we had both lost our jobs). Long story short, we finally found a way to get money for dog food, and so switched them back to Wellness dog food. Within a few weeks our dog’s coats were looking fabulous, gas was gone, stool was normal, no more grass eating, and our dogs were once again their happy-go-lucky selves. No longer had to bribe them to eat! The only thing that changed was the food … will NEVER buy Kirkland Signature Dry Lamb and Rice dog food from Costco again.
April 9, 2012 at 6:25 pm
I feed my dog Kirkland’s Adult and he’s been getting diahhrea a lot lately I stopped and am now feeding him another brand and he’s been fine.
April 9, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Ellen says:
Adopted a healthy 3yr old black russian terrier (106 lbs!) About a year ago. Had read good things about Kirkland food..started with chicken variety and switched to lamb and rice. She was in out of vets office with diarrhea (high chlostridium sp.?). Antibiotics and boiled chicken rice seemed to take care of it..but eventually it would return. Also gave her ocaissional chicken jerky treats from costco in oct and nov..stopped treats when I heard of problems ..switched food to Natural Choice in dec. Jan-feb noticed her losing weight, losing more hair, coat looked bad, and not much appetite. She just wasn’t quite herself. About 2 wks ago she got a cold and took her in…she stepped on the scale and it registered 75 lbs! That’s 30lbs in less than a yr…20 since nov!!! Over the next 6 days she stopped eating and then drinking..antibiotics, AD and ID food, vit B shots, iv fluids, nothing worked. We ended up at emergency vet in middle of night..couldn’t walk, blood pressure plummeting..made the difficult decision to put her to sleep..she was 4 yrs old. Vet did basic autopsy and said she died from cirrhosis of her liver. My regular vet is doing some further testing to see what he can find out. Don’t know if its the costco food and/or treats that caused her liver disease..but my sons and I are heartbroken..RIP Inna…
April 9, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Renee says:
…were you feeding the canned lamb and rice too?
May 9, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Tim-Lyn says:
We have been feeding our 100-lb German Shepherd male (7 years old) Kirkland’s Nature’s Domain for a couple years. We alternate between the salmon and turkey. In the past month, for the first time ever, our dog has been exceedingly thirsty, drinking two or three times his normal amount. Instead of urinating once on a walk, he has needed to urinate 4-5 times. This hasn’t been every day, but maybe once a week or so.
April 9, 2012 at 7:47 pm
Sue says:
I have 3 female dogs (age 11, 3, 2)and have been feeding them Kirkland dry lamb and rice food for months now. Also fed them the canned food, but it is no longer available. They all seem fine. Sure one is gassy and they eat grass. They always have, they are dogs and like to eat grass… Their coats are shiney and fine. My cats are also eating Kirkland dry cat food and seem fine. I’ll be watching them a bit closer now, though.
April 9, 2012 at 7:48 pm
I only feed my three German Shepherds Pedigree and always have. My cats, however, have been on Kirkland dry cat food for years. They all do very well….they eat less (but maintain healthy weight), they throw up less, they do exceedingly well and are all healthy.
April 9, 2012 at 8:55 pm
Debbie says:
I’ve been feeding my two dogs Kirkland’s Nature’s Domain Turkey & Sweet potato for several months without a problem.
April 9, 2012 at 9:41 pm
I have multiple foster dogs and have been feeding all of them Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice for almost a year. The past few months I have had a few that just seemed to keep loosing weight, now I have more than half of the dogs with nasty diarhea, some bloody, some explosive. I have wormed them all and treated some for Giardia, still having trouble. Tonight I am starting them on Science Diet W/D (bland diet) to see if I can get them straight. I had already considered that the food might not agree with some of them, but after reading these responses I am getting very concerned. Most have started drinking 2 to 3 times more water than before, cannot wait to get to the water bowl from their crates, am having more unable to hold their urine until I get home from work. This is very disturbing considering I just bought 8 new bags this past Saturday!
April 9, 2012 at 9:45 pm
Marsi says:
Wow! It’s heartbreaking to hear that so many other pets have been suffering. We used to feed our dogs Blue Buffalo, which they loved and kept them looking and feeling super-healthy. My husband and I are going through a rough patch financially, so after looking online to be sure that there were no issues with Kirkland food, we bought Kirkland’s Mature for the first time a few weeks ago.
After a few days, I noticed one dog acting lethargic and not wanting to eat. So we went ahead and switched him to another food, and after a few days he was eating well again and back to his old self. My other dog was not exhibiting any symptoms at that time and was eating just fine, and we had this 40 pound bag of food, so we continued to feed her the Kirklands brand. Big mistake. All of a sudden, after about 2 weeks on the food, she started vomiting blood and became terribly lethargic. I rushed her to the vet, and thankfully tests for organ functions looked ok. The vet said she had not seen any instances of contaminated food recently, that it appeared to be a “gastro” thing. We gave the dog medicine and fed her special canned food from the vet for a few days (when she would eat), and now finally a few days after she went off the medicine she is just about back back to her normal self.
I’m absolutely convinced it’s the food that made them sick. We have no mushrooms in our fenced back yard, and know that they were not exposed to anything toxic during this period.
April 9, 2012 at 10:36 pm
Carol says:
I feed Kirkland dry and canned, and all my dogs are doing great.
April 9, 2012 at 11:09 pm
Grace says:
My two dogs ate Kirkland Lamb & Rice dry food for most of February and March 2012. One is fine, and the other developed uric acid crystals and stones which were removed surgically from her bladder. She is still undergoing more tests to see if her liver function is normal and manageable with diet. But at age 8, this is a bit late for a liver shunt to magically appear. I don’t know if aflatoxin is involved or linked or even present but I’ve had a sick dog too, and will continue to look for answers. It’s probably not the food in our case, but who knows. We’re still trying to figure it out here; thanks for sharing.
April 9, 2012 at 11:35 pm
Kirkland dog food is made at a different factory than the actual Diamond Dog Foods…There is a toll free # on the back of your bags..Call it….Kirkland is a fine food, fed it for years, until they added veggies, after that my dogs had loose stools, so we changed to Breeders Choice ADP. The Reps will answer your questions, if you have dogs who are having problems, give them the UPC # so they can research. If my kids did not get loose stools I would still feed it.
April 10, 2012 at 12:00 am
Below is the response I received from Diamond today.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that the Kirkland Signature line
is in no way connected to the voluntary recall we announced on six
production codes of Diamond Natural’s Lamb and Rice. It is completely
fine to feed this to your dogs. Your food came from another plant and
is not produced at the same time as other products. Please continue to
feed your pet the Kirkland Signature food it is a great product!
Director of Administration
April 10, 2012 at 12:12 am
Jon l says:
As u can clearly see more lies from diamond!!
June 14, 2013 at 2:54 am
Alysa says:
My dog has been eating the Kirkland Lamb and Rice, 2 weeks ago I switched him over to Presidents choice Salmon and rice because I couldn’t get to costco to get him a bag. Last week I put him back on the Kirkland brand, he started vomiting frothy clear , so I fasted him for a day and switched to boiled chicken and rice (thinking I had switched him over too fast without slowly integrating the new food).
When I started integrating the Kirkland lamb and rice with the boiled chicken and rice, he started vomiting again and has had diarrhea (clear, liquidy). He’s been lethargic.
I fasted him yesterday and today fed him some chicken and rice which he was eager to eat. The vomiting has stopped and his bowls aren’t as frequent. He’s starting to get a little more energy. I’m going to chuck the Kirkland bag and go back to presidents choice. I suspect the bag is spoiled.
April 10, 2012 at 4:39 am
Kacy says:
I have been feeding the Kikland Lamb and Rice dry kibble (green bag) for about 4 years with minimal problems. I have two male basset hounds – both aged ~5.5 years old. Over the last week both boys have come down with an upset stomach – eating grass, vomitting and refusing breakfast/dinner, but this only happened to each dog on one day in the past 7. Otherwise they have been fine. We have had our current bag of food for about 3 weeks. We live in N. California. Thanks for looking into this; I’ve been wondering about the Kirkland foods since I saw the Diamond Naturals recent recall.
April 10, 2012 at 4:17 pm
I currently have a male Dalmatian and a female black Lab.
With this last bag, the soaked consistency, instead of just being soggy kibble, was like sticky peanut butter.
The Lab became listless and her fur became dull; the Dal was vomiting after every meal.
I tried varying the amount of water with the kibble, but they both continued to be sick. After a week, I could count my Dal’s ribs.
I phoned the number on the bag, and spoke with a lady who assured me that there haven’t been any changes to the formula. She had a gentleman phone me from quality control, who assured me that there haven’t been any problems with the food.
I assured him that I, then, would not be able to ever buy their food again, and that I would never be able to recommend their food to anyone else.
I have now been making the food for my dogs. They have both recovered from being sick (the Dal took longer), the Dal has regained the weight he lost, the lab is taking off some extra weight she was carrying, and they’re both doing very well.
I spoke with my vet about the food I’m making, and she was very supportive. She approved of the formula I’m using and recommended a few additions, which I’m now including.
April 10, 2012 at 4:27 pm
We have fed the Kirkland brand Chicken, Rice, & Vegetable formula for about 4 years with no problems until 3 weeks ago. We had our 1 year old get very ill with vomiting and diarrhea. She was on I.V. Fluids and sub Q fluids for a week. Ultrasounds and X-rays showed that her stomach lining was inflamed and full of fluid. She did not eat or drink for 4 days. Finally she came out of it. Then we had a 6 yr old start to get depressed and had vomiting as well as diarrhea. She progressed to pneumonia and is on 2 antibiotics. Her liver was also affected. Her ultrasound showed that her intestines were inflamed. She is still getting sub q fluids and has not returned to her normal self. She goes through bouts of shaking that are a result of pain. We are praying that we start to see some improvement in the next couple of days. We stopped the food immediately and none of our others have shown any symptoms as of yet. We have spent a small fortune to date on vet bills and we are still not done. We plan to send a sample of the food in to be tested but don’t know where to send it yet.
April 11, 2012 at 2:58 am
We feed Kirklands Nature’s Domain, grain free fish. 3 are doing really well on it, but the 2 mastiffs both suddenly stopped eating after the first week or so, and they are so hungry that they bolt outside to eat grass in the mornings.
April 11, 2012 at 11:07 am
Linda says:
I have been feeding Taste of the Wild for 2 years to my 5 dogs now in the past 3 months they have all had bad gas, loose stools, and are drinking a lot more water. The only change I made was adding Grizzy oil to their food. I stopped adding it a month ago and the problems are still there.. I will be changing foods once I get my research on different brands done.
April 11, 2012 at 12:16 pm
My German Shepard-mix has recently been peeing much more than normal. She has even had a couple of accidents during the night which has never happened before and she is 6 yrs old. I have limited her water intake at night, but I’ve never had to do this before. I’m concerned now that I’ve read all these other stories that the Kirkland food is what is making her sick.
April 11, 2012 at 6:09 pm
Laura says:
Our vet recommended Kirklands after using Iam’s for years. We started our three mutts ( 70 lbs, 40lbs and 35 lbs, 1, 4 and 11 yo) in January. Shinier coats, less poop and lots of energy. No problems here! Sorry to hear of those with ill dogs but I think there could be so many other explanations. I’ve been thru illnesses and deaths of my sweet pups over the last 24 years and we can only do so much to keep them safe and healthy. Even when fenced in, they can unfortunately get a hold of dangerous things in your yard. I like the ND turkey and sweet potato, no grains and healthy fruits and vegetables are added. Please keep posting so we can keep them safe! Thank you.
April 11, 2012 at 10:26 pm
We’ve been feeding Kirkland brand dog foods for years now; our two older dogs had been fed Kirkland Mature Dog formula. One passed away from fluid around the heart, the other from cancer (she was 15 1/2). Now our Entlebucher puppy is on Kirkland Puppy formula. We started him on Blue Buffalo puppy, but his stools never firmed up and it was causing him anal gland issues. We think it might have been too rich for him. When we moved him over to Kirkland food, his stools firmed right up and he’s been fine ever since. As far as our dogs go, it’s been a great product!
April 11, 2012 at 11:25 pm
Joe says:
I’m on the same boat as you Bruno. Started our 5-1/2 month-old Boston Terrier on Blue Buffalo. Tried both the Chicken and Lamb formulas but his stools never firmed up on either. I am now in the process of transitioning him from Blue Buffalo Lamb to the Kirkland Chicken Puppy formula and I’m started to see improvement already in just 4 days (still feeding 75% BB and only 25% Kirkland).
April 17, 2012 at 6:10 pm
Steve says:
My wife said our dogs have been throwing up the last two days and are shunning their food . It is a fresh bag opened a few days ago. It is Costco’s Nature domain turkey.
April 12, 2012 at 12:59 am
Sue says:
Feeding my 2 Golden Retrievers Costco’s Kirkland brand Lamb & Rice. I have not had any issues. We just opened a new bag of their food this morning. Now, I am a nervous wreck and scared they will get sick from this new food. We always add a bit of canned pumpkin to their kibble. The pumpkin firms their stool. I’m so sorry fo everybody’s dogs who have gotten sick and passed away. It truly breaks my heart.
April 12, 2012 at 3:33 pm
Gwen says:
Started an investigation on non-stop itching in my 3 dogs. I use the Kirkland chicken and rice dry food from Costco but more recently had bought the canned Kirkland food to compliment the dry food. Also bought Cadet Rawhide bones. Wondering which of these is causing the itch. I have used the Kirkland Dry food from Costco a long time so don’t think its the dry food. Any suggestions?
April 12, 2012 at 6:30 pm
I have been feeding the Kirkland Chicken & Rice kibble to dogs at my boarding kennel for 18 mos with no problems. My show Boxers have been eating a mixture of cooked meats, organic brown rice and Salmon Nature’s domain for the same period — No problem that food with any dogs. In fact, I switched from using Innova and Evo for 17 years after it made all of the dogs violently ill. Stools have decreased volume and coats and skin are excellent.
April 12, 2012 at 8:54 pm
Julie says:
We have 12 dogs ranging in age from 10 months to 13 years. Feeding Kirkland’s Nature’s Domain salmon & sweet potato, and haven’t observed any problems. everyone seems normal. Live in NC.
April 12, 2012 at 9:41 pm
I have 14 German shepherds eating Kirklands chicken and rice and all are perfectly fine.
April 12, 2012 at 11:19 pm
All 6 of my dogs are on Kirkland mature dog food and doing fine.
April 13, 2012 at 12:34 am
Sandy says:
I have ben feeding my 12 year old Yorkie and my 5 year old Poodle Kirkland’s Salmon and sweet potato for aboout 6 months and everything is fine. I think my Yorkie is allergic to chicken. So this is great! His stomach is so much better on this food. No problems here!
April 13, 2012 at 1:19 am
Thomas says:
My dogs for the last 2 weeks have been sick with lose stool and runny stool. We use costco kirland dog food as well. I have noticed it more so now then ever, Every dog I have was or has been sick. We removed the dog food and Havent had any more issues since switching. We still have the Kirkland dog food should we have it tested?
April 13, 2012 at 5:57 am
Terrie says:
I have fed Kirkland chicken/rice for years with no problem until a couple weeks ago As of today I have 5 puppies and 3 adults that are all sick ( runs, fever, cramps, lethargic) My other 6 dogs are fed natures recipe and are all fine I switched them from kirkland chicken to natures recipe about a few weeks ago because they kept having loose stool which they now have normal stool
I have started switching the puppies over to natures recipe a couple days ago so hopefully that will fix the problem. (the pups are still playing and otherwise acting normal now and yes they have been wormed and checked out but the first day that they were sick they acted like they were in pain and lethargic) The last adults will also be switched off Kirkland also
April 13, 2012 at 6:31 am
Gwen says:
I wonder if we all should have posted what city we are in to localize the problem?
April 13, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Anne says:
We’ve had problems. We’ve been feeding our geriatric dog canned Kirkland food. It came in a pack of 24 – turkey and beef. The turkey was fine but when we started the beef, she didn’t really like it and was reluctant to eat. Our younger dog continually would steal the uneaten bowls and eat it all. 5 days after starting the new beef flavor, they both developed terrible diareeha and vomiting. The vet gave them both fluids, anti-emetics and started them on a broad antibiotic as well as septra to treat what he thought may be salmonella. Both dogs have been at the hospital being cared for and are doing remarkably better and we feel very thankful that they will be okay. Does anyone know if the pet food manufacturers will pay vet bills for pets that have been poisoned by their food (our bills are now 1000$+)
April 13, 2012 at 12:33 pm
I have used the Nature’s Domain, salmon, for past year. In the past two months, i have noticed a difference in our dogs stool. One dog, just two weeks ago, starting throwing up and had horrible horrible diarrhea. I didn’t relate it to her food. I did a bland diet and gave her some metronidazole. It cleared it up mostly, but she still has extremely smelly bowel movements. The other dog has had extremely lose stools. I put them both on ProZyme hoping it will help. I saw about the SC plant haulting shipments. I went last night and bought different food. Our lot # is NDS0206A1NL CE 15 11
April 13, 2012 at 3:45 pm
May I inerject… There is a reason that EVERY SINGLE brand made in a Diamond facility..i.e. TOTW…Natural Balance…Kirkland is WAY cheaper than any other comprable recipe.
Kirkland is partly cheaper because it’s in a club but when you see that every single brand they make is cheaper than any other comrpable product…well there is a reason
Try BJ’s…. they have a holistic food that is a little more than Kirkland but when i called ot ask abotu their ingredients they told it’s made by GlobalOne Pet and they perixoide value test their meats to human standards etc.
Mini does way better on it than she ever did on Kirkland or TOTW
April 13, 2012 at 4:13 pm
Chris says:
I breed Dachshunds and have been feeding kirkland dog and puppy foods for years.My dogs do wonderful on this food.
April 13, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Peggy says:
I have been feeding Kirkland Lamb and rice to all of my rescued dogs for over 10 years. Lately i have been mixing it with the Natures Domain Salmon and Sweet Potato kibble for added omegas and have seen no negative issues. They are healthy and happy and have good coats, energy and activity levels. I have never had a problem with this Brand of kibble. We mainly rescue senior and special needs small dogs and they need good healthy nutrition so these are the brands I chose. I also recommend it to the adopters when they adopt a furbaby from us.
April 13, 2012 at 8:26 pm
Alison says:
I feed my 5 year old Rottweiler Kirkland Healthy Weight Dog Food. I switched a year or so ago because I was eating Kirkland products and they seemed good quality. I will be interested to read your conclusions from your readers’ input, but, reading the comments I realize that there are at least 6 products being blamed– I hope Kirkland/Costco sort out which one(s) are potentially contaminated and send out a warning.
What do you think about homemade food? I have read that it is very difficult to achieve a healthy balance oneself.
April 13, 2012 at 9:05 pm
I am in VA and feed a mix of Kirkland Chicken & rice and ND salmon and rice to 13 dogs. No issues that I am aware of. I had one dog with an issue a week ago, but he seems to be over it. Excessive urination was one of his issues. I have a litter of pups and they are getting Kirkland puppy food. Everyone seems to be fine. I will be keeping an eye out for any issues.
April 13, 2012 at 10:16 pm
Shayna says:
I have been feeding my two dogs Kirkland Chicken and Rice for two years and have had no problems until the bag I purchased most recently. Soon after beginning to feed them from this bag my little girl got so sick (vomiting, diarrhea, shaking, inability to stand) that she was in the doggie er for two days. I never thought about the problem being with the food until my little boy started having the same symptoms this morning. Both dogs have been eating very reluctantly and have been preferring grass, dirt, and even other dogs’ stools (neither have ever had this behavior before), but I thought it was because we just moved across the country and they were experiencing some stress. Having come across this article, I will buy them new food tonight and throw this bag away for sure.
April 13, 2012 at 11:16 pm
Shayna says:
Oh, and I also purchased the food in Delaware, in case the info is relevant
April 13, 2012 at 11:18 pm
Our 2 Irish Setters both have bloody diarrhea. They ate Kirkland Signature Lamb & Rice UPC code 96619 25350 and Chicken & Rice.
April 13, 2012 at 11:27 pm
Renee says:
canned or dry food?
May 26, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Carole D says:
We feed our girl Kirkland Lamb and Rice. She’s happy, healthy and thriving. We have been using the same dog food for at least ten years now, probably closer to fifteen years.
Thank you for trying to help the consumers sort this out.
April 13, 2012 at 11:51 pm
Lori says:
I have 4 dogs- 12 year old hound mix, 9 year old shih-tzu, 9 year old poodle mix & a 3 year old pit bull. They have been eating Diamond Lamb & Rice for almost 3 years now. I bought a 40 lb bag about 2 weeks ago & have never had any problems
April 14, 2012 at 10:54 am
RLS says:
I have 2 labs . One with grain allergies and the other is a senior .
I switched to Natures Domain Salmon-Sweet Potato formula back in February . No problems he loves it and it smells so good. My Senior in on Kirkland Mature Adult . She was switched in March . No problems she also likes her food. I am thinking about switching her to he grain free also . Anyone have an thoughts ?
BTW both had been on Iams . I always thought it was a premium food . I started researching foods after my pup developed the grain allergy.Then to my surprise our choice of dog food was not the best.
April 14, 2012 at 12:14 pm
Don’t believe everything you read about “premium” foods on the internet. I personally believe there is a lot of misinformation out there. I actually am a fan of Iams. Read this article…it’s very interesting: Iams. Also, there are some grains that are very beneficial. I have found in my practice that many dogs on grain free foods don’t do well. They often gain weight or have stool issues. I’m currently in the process of writing a bunch of articles about this very thing.
April 14, 2012 at 7:28 pm
I have 9 Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and I also do rescue work. So currently, I have 9 Rhodesian Ridgebacks (ages 4 months to 12 years), one 4 rescue dogs, one of which has 5 puppies that are 2 weeks old.
All of them are eating Kirkland dog food, most on the lamb and rice (2 are on the senior version).
None of the dogs are having problems, include the mama dog that is nursing and eating a good 7 cups of Kirtland Lamb and Rice a day.
Hope this helps.
April 14, 2012 at 2:34 pm
In Denver, we’ve fed our 5-yr old Rottie-mix Kirkland Signature Lamb, Rice and Veg (forest green bag, 33#) for about 6 months, switching her over from Pedigree Large Breed kibble. She’s a healthy eater, and has been, on both foods. With one new bag of Kirkland kibble, she wasn’t too jazzed to eat and we half-halfed with Pedigree to encourage her. She had a few days of loose stool, gas and vomiting, but these issues seemed to resolve without a need for intervention. While the GI distress may have been related to the Kirkland kibble, it may just as likely have been due to other causes. We’ve continued using the Kirkland kibble with no further issue. She’s as rambunctious as ever with a healthy coat and gums, etc.
April 14, 2012 at 5:49 pm
Costco’s Nature’s Domain dog food never made my dogs sick but after I discovered that the “premix” (additives that are put in most dog foods) was sourced from China I discontinued feeding it.
April 15, 2012 at 2:29 pm
Kayla says:
My friend and I both feed Kirkland chicken and rice (purple bag) and have for many years now (I would say at least 5). Neither one of us has had any problems. I have a 9 month old south African boerboel and a 1 yr old English cocker spaniel. She has the sibling to my cocker, a sibling to my boerboel, the mother of my boerboel (3 yr old), a boerboel from the first litter (just about 2 yr old), as well as another 4 yr old boerboel. Kirkland has been great for our dogs as the boerboels especially tend to have sensitive stomaches. We have fed 2 litters of boerboel puppies the Kirkland chicken and rice formula as well (25 puppies in total) and recommended the new owners to continue feeding it as well. Yesterday we noticed my boerboel had a very loose stool, today 4 out of the 5 boerboels have very loose stools. There is no other symptoms and nothing else is abnormal. Initially we thought the food but with one of the boerboels fine as well as the two cocker spaniel, I can’t see that! There is so many other elements that could have caused this to blame it solely on the food is ignorant. People need to realize just because there is a recall doesn’t mean that they should over react. There are so many elements to look at. I do send my sympathy to those who have lost these 4-legged members of the family, and I hope they find out what the cause was. My condolences to your families!
April 15, 2012 at 4:54 pm
Have an 8 month German shorthaired pointer. Has been vomiting and eating large amounts of grass. He was fine on the first bag of the Kirkland salmon and sweet potato last month, but with this bag he has been sleeping a lot and not very hungry. Stool fine. Took him in to the vet two weeks ago due to serious vomiting over the course of 45 mins. He was ok, but still no confirmation of the cause.
April 15, 2012 at 11:40 pm
Oh, we’re in CA. Previously stool was pretty nasty (no parasites), but he eats a lot of random things… .
April 15, 2012 at 11:45 pm
I have 6 Greyhounds and 2 Silken Salukis plus fosters. My dogs eat kirklands food with no problems at all. I think it is the best food on the market for the money. I have a Costco membership just for the dog food.
April 16, 2012 at 10:09 am
My dog has been acting very strange since my GF bought our last batch of Kirkland Super Premium Chicken Rice and Vegetable formula. She has been rather lethargic, won’t finish her food and has very irregular stools. Sometimes hard, sometimes soft, but more importantly, she hasn’t pooped in almost 24 hours. I’m very worried about her and we may have to take her to the vet today if things dont improve and we don’t get a movement by 3pm.
April 16, 2012 at 7:45 pm
Mr A Perez says:
We’ve been using the Kirkland Lamb brand for a couple of years. The last bag I opened smelled awful. I waited a couple of weeks and after my dog really doesn’t want to eat it, I bought another one today. I thought maybe I got a bad batch the first time.
It smells the same… awful.
I now found out about this problem being bigger than I thought because I was looking for Kirkland’s site to email them about going back to the original formula. I didn’t know it was so widespread.
I am re-posting this to Facebook, and I suggest you all get the word out too.
April 16, 2012 at 9:06 pm
I’ve been feeding my dogs Kirkland Lamb and Rice for many years and never had a problem. About a week ago I switched to the Kirkland Healthy Weight and now my lab is throwing it up.
April 17, 2012 at 2:42 am
Stupid question but I feed my cat Kirkland food and have not been having issues but am close to the bottom of the bag and am now concerned with buying more Kirkland cat food, do we know it there have been any issues with the cat food at all, I feed the chicken. Thanks for any responses.
April 17, 2012 at 11:22 am
I started feeding my 1 year old Golden Retriever the Kirkland signature puppy chow about 3 weeks ago and she started to have diarrhea and mucous stools including accidents on the hardwood floor which she has NEVER had before. My puppy had never had accidents inside at night a day in her life and was also vomiting. Once I heard from my neighbors that there was a possible recall on the Kirkland brand food made by diamond I immediately switched her food and she has not had an accident or an abnormal bowel movement since!
April 17, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Amanda says:
Hey there, I fed a litter of puppies Chicken Soup Puppy as they were being weaned and they all got TERRIBLY ill. I thought they were going to die. They all had horrible vomiting and couldn’t hold down anything. I took them to the vet and he suggested we make a switch to IAMS and to do it immediately instead of slowly switching. With in 24 hours there was no vomiting at all and the pups are now doing fantastic. This was about 4 to 5 weeks ago. I bought my food at a local independent feed supply store and I know it isn’t them b/c I buy my IAMs there now and the puppies have tolerated that wonderfully.
April 17, 2012 at 6:10 pm
S says:
Our dog died 3 weeks ago from kidney failure. She had similar symptoms, stomach problems & diarea, refused to eat, vet did tests, said her kidney results were off the chart. Vet thought she “got into something” although we could never figure out what. We always fed her Kirkland chicken & rice adult food.
April 18, 2012 at 1:41 am
I feed several Great Danes Kirklands and Nature’s Domain. I know several other GD breeders that also use these foods. None of these dogs have had any issues with either of these foods. I think this is circumstantial and people are mobbing up now!
April 18, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Jon l says:
Hey douche the recalls were fake too? Why don’t you think before you post on shit you have no idea about. Many of us lost loved ones and if they had been honest from the start many pets would still be alive.
June 14, 2013 at 3:04 am
I have been been feeding my GSD the Kirkland Lamb and Rice, but switched to the Kirkland Chicken for spring/summer. From day one he has been throwing up, and getting diarrhea, and a fever after feeding him. I’ve since switched his food to none Costco/Diamond food and have had no problems.
April 19, 2012 at 12:47 am
Kate says:
Here is an email that I received from Customer Serviced at Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul (a brand made by Diamond). It tells how to determine from the product code whether a bag of food was manufactured at Diamond’s South Carolina plant.
Thank you for contacting us.
Diamond Pet Foods is voluntarily recalling Diamond Naturals Lamb Meal & Rice on the below listed production codes out of the South Carolina facility. This is being done as a precautionary measure, as the product has the potential to be contaminated with salmonella. No other Diamond manufactured products are affected.
Below is the lot numbers included in the voluntary recall.
We want to be overly cautious in light of the recall and we have decided to suspend shipments of our products from our South Carolina plant until more information is available.
In the codes above, the “X” reflects the South Carolina plant. If you have an “X” in your code, then your product would come from South Carolina. However, your food is not involved with the voluntary recall listed above.
April 19, 2012 at 1:35 am
I have two puppies on Kirkland signature puppy food… They are fine sometimes they get soft stool… But they ARE puppies
April 19, 2012 at 2:02 pm
Shirley says:
Hi! I have 4 Chinese Crested dogs and have been feeding them Natures Domain from Costco both the Turkey and Salmon. I also advised my mom to switch to it. THEN one pup started vomiting his food up a few hours after eating so I called vet and put him on bland diet he is now doing better but since then 2 more of my dogs have had vomiting and my mother called today her Chi wienie is vomiting and has bloody stool. I can no longer attribute the vomiting to anything other than the food itself. They are acting normal just hours after eating they deposit piles of dog food on my floor. One has had bloody stool as well. My dogs are all vaccinated etc and have no health problems. I hope this helps others as I believe there is something that is wrong with said food but has yet to be discovered by Diamond.
April 20, 2012 at 9:32 pm
We had been feeding our 2 cattle dogs Kirkland’s Dog food for years without any problems. They seemed to be growing tired of it, so we switched to Purina One. After about 8 months, our one cattle dog just didn’t like it anymore, so we switched back to Kirkland Dog Food. After one meal, they both got sick – diarrhea and vomiting. Sounds to me like a bad batch.
April 21, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Michelle says:
I have been feeding my greyhounds kirtland lamb and rice for years. they like it, they are not sick, they don’t have diareha. Many years ago I added alpo canned food to their food and they wouldn’t touch it. The Alpo dog food was recalled shortly after that.
I think that if they don’t want to eat it, there is a reason. My dogs look forward to eating their Costco dog food.
April 22, 2012 at 1:16 am
My 3 year old Golden Retriever is happy, go lucky and always smiling. When he stopped wanting to eat the Kirkland Chicken and Rice (cranberry colored bag) I was very surprised, because he’s not a finicky eater AT ALL. After two days, I purchased some baby food and mixed it in with the kibble to get him to eat. Initially he was just quite and didn’t want to play, eating grass at every chance. Then he vomited and started to drool a lot—all very out of character for him. We correlated that a new bag of food had recently been opened and decided to change his diet to Fromm Gold. Within 24 hours he was back to normal!! Luckily, Costco is great about returns and seamed concerned when I shared our experience with them. I wish that I could learn about dog nutrition and prepare his food myself!! There are a ton of recipe’s out there, just not from qualified nutritionists–at least from what i’ve found.
April 22, 2012 at 7:47 pm
Jeramie says:
Just letting you know you may be right about this recall, my local costco were completely all out of stock of all their dog foods and the name and price tag were missing. They only had 3 bags of puppy food left. Come to think of it my dogs have bad diarrhea and i think my golden doodles stomach is upset.
April 23, 2012 at 12:29 am
Chris says:
I was in my local costco yesterday and they still had all of their dog and cat foods instock.
I have been feeding my 3.5 yr old americna bulldog mix kirkland signature chicken and rice for about a year now. He did have a some bouts of diarrhea (about 3 wks apart)on the previous bag of food. I am not sure if those where related to the food he has been going through alot this year (diagnosed with addisons around 12/20)
The current one he’s been fed from since around 4/1 has been fine.
April 23, 2012 at 4:48 am
I have been feeding my 2 Treeing Walker Coonhounds Kirkland Lamb and Rice for over a year, and they have been doing well on it. They are running out of their favorite food, and now I cannot find it because of this “recall”. The 2 Costco stores in my area ( Ottawa, Canada) only have a few bags left of the weight formula and adult formula. no Lamb and Rice to be found in any store in my neck of the woods. Before everyone blames a specific brand of food when your beloved pet gets sick, maybe you should back it up with some proof.. get a tox screen, blood work, get the food tested and their stomach contents tested as well.. make SURE that it is the food, not something growing out in your back yard, or food they swiped from the kitchen counter ( my baby girl , gets sick from pineapple.. my big girl, has intolerance to corn and chicken, thus the Lamb and Rice formula)
Anywho.. no vomiting, no diarrhea, no nothing on this end.. I will check the lot number on the bag though.. to rule it out.. maybe it is a lot that is not affected.
April 23, 2012 at 8:11 pm
Kirkland dogfood lamb using for more than 3yrs no problems with illness for either of my 2 dogs
April 24, 2012 at 4:24 am
no illness for my dogs eating lamb Kirkland food
April 24, 2012 at 4:26 am
I can’t believe that I just found this. I HAD a boxer named Trixie who was a beautiful Boxer rescue that we loved. We moved and she jumped in the car to go and within 7 days of our move she died. I have racked my brain about this, did they spray the yard, was it the fountain…
She was so thirsty in the end and her stomach was so full of water and then she just went too fast to help her. Yet here we go, she ate both the wet and dry Costco Kirkland poultry with rice ONLY! This is because she was intolerant of any corn fillers. Ironic that I fed her what killed her due to allergy’s! I actually upon death didn’t know why but did throw away her food in the end even the can’s.
This is HORRIBLE to now find and without the evidence to finally get a recall issued to help others out!!!! UHGGG I AM SOOOOO MAD!!!
April 25, 2012 at 12:35 am
Renee says:
…my vizsla did the same thing…filled with water in the abdomen. He only had one can of Kirkland lamb and rice. In 4-5 weeks…he was dead. My second dog died a week later. Contact me…woof@thepetfoodbank.com
May 9, 2012 at 12:58 pm
Scott says:
I purchased, unknowingly, a sick puppy. After hundreds of dollars of medication etc. I switched from the breeders food to Kirkland premium brand chicken puppy food. I have had no problems with my dogs appetite and she has had no intestinal problems while on Kirkland food.
We are in Canada and the kirkland brand offers great value for, what looks like, quality ingredients and quantity.
We have no issues with their food however the local petvalu manager absolutely hates that I buy my dog food from Costco. She indicated they are just full of corn. I found it interesting after reading your article that diamond produces several brands that she sells in her store.
Thanks for the article.
Regards,
April 25, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Cupcake says:
My 4 year old lab mix has always eaten Kirklands brand in the green bag. We just opened her a new bag and the next day she was in the emergency vet after vomiting blood and having blood in her loose stool. Doctor suspects the dog food. I am contacting an independent lab for testing and getting in contact with Diamond.
April 25, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Kate says:
I feed my dogs Kirkland brand Super Premium Adult Dog Chicken and Rice. I have not had any problems at all. In fact, my dogs have better, more consistent bowel movements on this food. Thanks.
April 27, 2012 at 12:09 am
I have been feeding my lab the Kirkland senior version of lamb and chicken for over 4 years with absolutely no problems. the only times there are loose stools are when other foods are introduced substituted.
April 27, 2012 at 12:41 am
We have fed our chiweenie the canned Costco lamb and rice for about 3 months. I noticed in the last can there was a blue speck in the mix, sort of like a tiny piece of blue plastic. I didn’t think anything of it, but the next couple of days, she was vomiting, shaking and whimpering. We took her to the vet. We didn’t talk about the food being the cause of her tummy distress but maybe that it’s the trash she sometimes gets into. So, I can’t say for sure that it WAS the Costco food that made her sick, but she DID become ill when she was on it. She recovered quickly once she was eating other food.
April 27, 2012 at 1:33 am
George says:
I have been feeding my 2 dogs Kirkland food without issues for the past year. One dog is a mixed breed that is 3 and I had a Golden that was 11 1/2. We had to put him down due to kidney failure in the middle of March. The Golden had issues at the end of February that puts everything into perspective now. He was healthy except for arthritis and had a vet visit in the fall that confirmed that he was healthy. He always ate heartily and was always on time for every meal. Then all of a sudden he just stopped eating. He refused to eat his food, which was Kirkland Dry Senior, but would eat the other dog’s Kirkland Adult Dry Lamb formula. Then he stopped eating altogether. He would drink tons and never urinate. After 3 weeks of not being able to get much in him, we took him to the vet who did blood work that confirmed severe kidney failure. We had to put him down. We attributed it to his age and our vet said “bad luck” but now that I see other people mentioning it, I did notice that his food had a bad smell that wasn’t what it usually smelled like. I wonder now if this wasn’t the cause of his demise. It was just so sudden even though he was an older dog.
The 3 year old is fine but now I’m thinking of throwing the rest of his food away.
April 27, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Lily says:
I recently learned about this recall. I live in Canada and I feed my Chocolate Lab Kirkland dog food as that is what she ate in her old home (we adopted her). She hasn’t been showing any symptoms.
I was wondering if anyone in Canada has had issues with Kirkland dog food? If someone could help me out that would be awesome.
April 27, 2012 at 7:33 pm
This same thing happened to me in January of 2011! My 11-year old Aussie developed a very sudden kidney failure and died very quickly! Was on an iv for 4 days to no avail. I am so sad for your loss…I still haven’t gotten over my boy dying so suddenly.
April 28, 2012 at 2:06 am
Tracy says:
I feed my two greyhounds Kirkland Lamb & Rice and have had no trouble. I bought a new bag as recently as last week with some trepidation, but have watched them very closely and see no issues at all. However, I did notice as some people have pointed out that the Chicken & Rice formula was completely out. I asked the manager if there was a recall and they said no, they were just out. Maybe a shortage due to the problems at the plant?
April 28, 2012 at 1:57 am
I have been feeding my dogs Kirkland Signature Nature’s Domain Salmon Mean and Sweet Potato Formula for Dogs for about 3 years–or however long it has been available at Costco. This past week two of my three dogs have developed watery diahrrea, and one of the two threw up. In retrospect, I have noticed one of them eating a lot of grass. What heightens my concern is that I recommended the food to neighbors who got a new puppy, and he developed very watery diahrrea also. I will be returning the food. Their doctor did a fecal exam (including for Giardia) which was negative, but because the watery quality of the diahrrea has persisted for 3 days, he just prescribed Metronidazole and I am to call them with an update tomorrow. If no improvement, he will probably put them on ivs to rehydrate them.
April 28, 2012 at 2:03 am
I just recently bought two bags of the Kirkland chicken and Rice, and went to put them in our storage container. First bag as it was poured smelled a bit off, 2nd bag smelled revolting….very bad… Like FECES!!!!……I thought my nose might be off …. Had my husband smell it and he was revolted, even the sacks smelled horrible the next day. I came online to research and found this site and now I am alarmed. I am returning this food to Costco and researching what to feed my dogs next. Have fed this food for 4 or more years, and was satisfied with the middle of the road nutrition quality vs. cost having to feed six dogs… I will pay more $$$ for peace of mind… Do not want to chance loosing any of my dogs nor deal with diarreha and vet bills. thanks for the info everyone.
April 28, 2012 at 5:30 pm
Janet in Paso RoDbles says:
My 8 month old lab has been eating kirkland puppy for 7 months. I also give him a tablespoon of metamucil every other day. Starting 5 days ago ( and a new bag) he has started drinking lots of water, horrible gas, and soft stool.
I think I will change his diet.Thank you.
April 29, 2012 at 12:01 am
I have been feeding my 2 basset hounds and 1 bloodhound Nature’s Domain Salmon and Turkey since November 2011. I buy 8 33# bags at a time at the Costco in Indianapolis due to the distance from my home.
No problems here. These 3 hounds have the softest coats ever, energetic and LOVE their food. My bloodhound attacks her food every afternoon.
I will keep an eye out for any changes in them and post here if I find anything but no problems with Nature’s Domain Salmon and Turkey..I usually alternate the flavor with each bag I feed.
Hounds are updated on shots, etc. Bloodhound is 4, Basset’s are 8yr and 3yrs old.
April 29, 2012 at 7:08 pm
Karen F says:
I having 2 basset hounds, one male 3 years old, and one female 2 and half years old. they both cannot have any gain and can only eat fish due to itch skin so I switched to feeding them taste of the wild (salmon/sweet potato formula) about 6 months, it was so great, its getting 90% better than before. But my husband always complaining the price for 2 dogs were too much so he found out the one at Costco has the same INGREDIENTS likes TOTW. He kept asking me to switch, I did it finally about 6 months now. My male seems like no change but my female itch skin still has it or maybe a bit worse, due to this food or weather change, i really don’t know cause I have a allergy too, one day better and next day getting worse even I’m on prescription so…Should I go back on TOTW or….IIts drive me crazy…how about your bassets? Their skin okay or not? Please reply cause I never meet any basset here…( Toronto)
June 18, 2012 at 12:10 am
james says:
Have fed our dogs, an 11 year ridgeback and a 2 year old sheppard mix, kirkland signature dry and canned for about 4 years, the only food the shepppard has ever had. just switched to the natures turkey and sweet potato. they are perfectly normal, they eat good, normal on their walks, play ball just like always
April 30, 2012 at 2:24 am
Bird says:
Our dog has been eating Costco food for several years. Six months ago, he began having bouts of severe diarrhea. He has refused his food some of the time. He has eaten grass and thrown up repeatedly. He has repeated ear infections (connection?) The vet has mentioned liver problems with his blood tests. We will have to check further with her. Today was the first we have heard about this possible source of illness. We have also been feeding Waggin’ Train Chicken Jerky treats which have been reportedly causing health problems..even death.
April 30, 2012 at 3:52 am
We have 2 Beagles and all was well with the Kirkland Mature dog food-chicken rice and egg until our latest bag. I noticed a smell different from the other bags we purchased. The smell was not bad but was different. Both dogs got soft stools and then 2 days later diarrhea all night long. My wife just went to Costco to pick up another bad so that I could see if that one had an off smell as well, but it seems that all of the Kirkland brands are no longer there. The front clerk stated that they were changing suppliers. I just found this site and do hope my dogs are OK. Fed them a little rice. Just purchased some Iams. Our Costco is in Pointe Claire, Quebec Canada! My feelings go out to those who lost their dear pets.
April 30, 2012 at 10:09 pm
I have a Staffordshire and a Pomeranian and they both eat Kirkland “Super Premium Healthy Weight Dog Chicken & Vegetables” 40 lb bag. Both are very healthy, no problems. My Costco store is in Pointe-Claire, Quebec. When I went today to buy more, I was in shock to find that they aren’t selling it anymore. I was told they didn’t know if they would get any more and they are negotiating with the company. They only had a new one “Nature’s Domaine (salmon and sweet potatoe-gran-free) which is Kirkland brand. So sorry to hear some have lost their wonderful pets.
April 30, 2012 at 11:15 pm
Amy says:
Will people please post rather or not they have tested pets for salmonella? The Diamond & Chicken Soup press release states that the recall was due to salmonella, but now I’m wondering if there is something else that we aren’t being told due to the lack of credibility from Diamond HQ. Diamond has lied 2x when asked directly if there has been a cross contamination problem & told me on the phone that I’m the only one who has called to report a problem. If you check dog food advisor, the Taste of the Wild fan page on facebook & other sites like this, you will see how many reports there are of sick pets in the past couple of months related to the food. But consumers aren’t reporting if they have had + or – salmonella tests. My dog is very sick but he tested – to salmonella. I feel very strong about the decline of his health being related to his food.
My dog was on Natural Balance as his old food and I slowly transitioned a blend of Taste of the Wild over a month ago. At the time, I had no idea they were both made by Diamond. In hindsight, the more TOTW he ate, the more pronounced his symptoms and illness became. The NB was made in CA as indicated by the C in the bar code. The TOTW was made in SC as indicated by the X in the code. Will people please post where their food was made (by the letter in the middle of the code. X=South Carolina, C= California, M= Missouri) so we can try to determine if the cross contamination problem was only in SC or if it was perhaps an ingredient problem that contributed to all 3 plants.
Symptoms: My dog has almost no white blood cells which are not responding to anti-biotics. His spleen and lymph nodes are extremely enlarged. He tested negative for salmonella, parasites, cancer and several other basics. He has always been current on all vaccinations & only walks on leash so I know what he is eating and drinking at all times.
He cries in pain, has lost almost all of his energy, and was refusing to eat his food. He is drinking a lot of water but seemingly not needing to urinate proportionately. His eyes seem flat. He is now eating very mild human food but not like he used to.
For others who have had the food tested by a 3rd party, please post results. Report your experience to the FDA so they are aware of what is happening: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/ReportaProblem/ConsumerComplaintCoordinators/default.htm
May 1, 2012 at 12:47 am
Renee says:
May 26, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Rebecca says:
Yes, my full breed German Shepherd got diarrhea last week and was really feeling bad. We feed him the two pack Kirkland Brand Lamb & Rice and Beef & Vegetables, I believe. Well, he went through the Lamb & Rice just fine, but once he started eating the Beef & Vegetables, he began to get really sick. My dad noticed and changed his food. He returned the food back to Costco and complained that it’s making our dog sick. Now after switching to dry food, he’s fine but I think his new food is also the Kirkland brand, so I’ll tell my dad Kirkland dog food is made by Diamond. Funny how I always looked to see where it was made but couldn’t find anything other than Kirkland/Costco Distribution on the label. We bought the food at Costco in South San Francisco, CA.
May 1, 2012 at 1:36 am
Pearl Dyck says:
We are Australian Shepherd breeders, we feed the Kirkland puppy food to our pups and have had great results. We haven’t noticed anything in our pups, they are all very healthy. I am in Canada, not sure if that matters or makes any difference.
May 1, 2012 at 2:31 am
Using Kirkland puppy dry food for four months now, mixing it with either water and peanut butter or beef broth. No problems, we hve watched our dog go from 6 pounds to 40 pounds so far.
May 1, 2012 at 3:03 am
Sarah says:
My father inlaw bought a bag of Kirkland chicken and rice last week. Our beagle went to stay with him for the weekend. As of last night his four chiwawas and our beagle are all VERY sick. Throwing up, lethargic, diarrhea, lack of appetite. He threw the food away and we are hoping our dog starts to recover or to the vet he will go tomorrow.
May 1, 2012 at 5:45 am
I called Diamond several months back to express concern about the food. Went as far as to explain that I was an excellent test case for them because of the wide geographical area my dogs were placed in. I had dogs in four different parts of the United States that were all displaying the same symptom (sudden onset diarrhea) and the only common denominator was the food. They were not helpful at all. Made me feel as if I was speaking with a legal rep, rather than a food consultant. Their rep asked me could all four of them have accidentally left the food in their cars to in the heat. I informed her that there was snow still on the ground in one of the areas of residence. Switched then, won’t go back. In the process of going completely raw. I’m done with manufactured kibble. Enough is enough. This may be all you hear of the problem, but this isn’t the entire problem. It will end up being a problem with an ingredient that’s imported and distributed to all of their manufacturing facilities as a base ingredient to the majority of their products. JMHO, Jennifer
May 1, 2012 at 6:35 am
I just started my 2 shelties on a new bag of Kirkland Lamb and rice on Sunday and 2 days later one has soft poo and has vomited. So I have stopped feeding them that food as of this morning. I read about the possible problems with the food but I was so hoping that everything would be fine but it appears that is not the case. Friends of mine have a dog who is vomitting as well and she eats the same food.
May 1, 2012 at 11:43 am
I purchased from the Halifax, Nova Scotia Costco.
May 1, 2012 at 11:48 am
Took my dogs off the food for 3 days and then decided maybe it was a coinidende that the one threw up so gave them a sprinke of the food on top of the other food I was giving them and well I ended up having to clean up vomit again! Bought a brand new bag and it smellls different. Hopefully it is ok.
May 4, 2012 at 11:39 pm
I have fed my dogs Natural Balance for months and they just started having problems a few days ago. I feed them NB beef roll in the morning and NB dry potato and duck limited ingredient diet for small breeds in the evening. It seems their problems started when I opened the new bag of food. One dog has had vomiting and wants to eat grass. I can hear her stomach gurgling from several feet away. The other dog has had diarrhea with mucous. She has been less active, but I would not call her lethargic. She too has a gurgling stomach that can be heard from several feet away. I found similar complaints online and have removed the dogs food and started feeding chicken and rice. I will not take a chance and use Natural Balance again.
May 1, 2012 at 12:49 pm
i have been feeding kirkland for years…and both my greyhounds have had bouts of Diarreah since buying this last bag. no other food has been eaten…and nothing else ingested…but yet the D keeps coming back. never had the problem before..till this bag.
May 1, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Elizabeth says:
My husband went to Costco last night to pick up another bag, only to find an empty shelf and several other confused customers. One other shopper told my husband that he had been to EVERY Costco in the Montreal area looking for it and all shelves were empty.
An employee told my husband only that they are switching suppliers and handed him a telephone number to call for more information. I am now suspicious.
Our male basset has had two days of diarrhea. That said – we are just now near the end of the bag and so, I doubt it is connected.
May 1, 2012 at 12:59 pm
My dog is 12.5 years old. we have been feeding her the Kirkland Lamb and rice since Costco stopped selling Iams. we recently brought her into the vet with a swollen snout and a mass on the roof or her mouth. it was either cancer or a tooth abscess. luckily turned out to be an abscess. anyway they checked her blood levels and everthing came back normal BUT her Phosphorous levels. around this time we hit the bottom of one bag of dogfood and bought a new bag. she has been eating the new bag for about 2 weeks now and her phosphorous levels are back to normal. a little too much of a coincidence if you ask me. I personally think there was something wrong with the last bag of food since her counts climbed again with the new food.
May 1, 2012 at 3:55 pm
I’ve been feeding my dogs Kirkland Lamb and Rice Adult dog food for years with no problem. I just opened a new bag. At least one of the dogs now has diarrhea. I live on rural property so I don’t always see where they “go”. They also could possibly get into something I don’t know about.
I heard about the Diamond recall and wondered about the Costco brand. I found this site in a web search.
I am going to watch them closely.
May 1, 2012 at 4:46 pm
Damion says:
ABQ, NM: We go through a bag once a month, and dog has been fine until this past weekend (4/28/12) when we opened a new bag. Dog began vomiting and loss of apatite for 2 days. Dog does have a gambit of other issues, so not sure yet. After seeing your article on Diamond foods, I knew Kirkland was made by same manufacture I put in a call to personal vet who saw my dog at beginning of sickness. Waiting to hear back from personal vet.
May 1, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Damion says:
May 1, 2012 at 5:04 pm
My Dog is SICK says:
this is a must read for those of us looking for answers. “#6
….Diamond is picking up (removing) all product (all products they manufacture, not just Diamond brand) from distribution centers (not retail outlets…distribution centers). ”
May 1, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Leslie says:
I fed my dogs Kirkland food.Last Aug my oldest who was on the adult complete lamb and rice started refusing to eat which was odd as he was a food hound,its my other who was the picky one.He was drinking water like crazy , urinating & vomiting clear & eating dirt we took him in & he had a 1100 blood sugar.he should have been in a coma but my little guy held on lord knows how& my husband couldn’t bear to not try.Had him on Iv’s insulin and the doc gave us diabetic food to try get him to eat( not thinking I threw out the other food) We got his sugar down but he refused to eat so started going low, had to stop the insulin ,his bloodwork came back and his liver was failing as well as his kidneys & he had major issues from the high sugar.We had to put him to sleep:( I am fully convinced it was a bad batch of food as he never had diabetes or symptoms of before & from talking to others + finding out who manufactured it.I would not chance any food manufactured by companies who have had any issues ever ,again.His younger sister who thankfully did not eat the bad food & her new baby brother are both on a grain free/junk free food now & homemade treats.Giving up things to add the extra expense is so worth it.I would urge people to have the food tested if noticing any signs & find a different food period.I wish I had as I have no proof in which to help others ,I watched my poor baby suffer & my heart aches to think any more will.
May 1, 2012 at 6:34 pm
Karen says:
We are feeding Kirkland Puppy/ Taste of Wild to our puppy. No health issues.
May 1, 2012 at 7:56 pm
As previously reported here is the info on the bag that I fedd our Beagles.
Best before 09 March, 2013
Purchased from Costco Pointe Claire, Quebec. Canada
Hope this helps.
May 1, 2012 at 7:59 pm
All three of my dogs eat Kirkland dog food. Two of my dogs eat the Kirkland Healthy Weight and the other one eats Kirkland Adult Dog Chicken and Rice. We live near Pittsburgh, Pa. I have seen no symptoms of food poisoning in any of them. I know a few other people who feed Kirkland as well and have had no problems. I’m so sorry for those who are dealing with the loss of their pet.
May 1, 2012 at 8:26 pm
My dog has been eating Kirkland Chicken & Rice for a number of years. She was vomitting very lathargic hasnt eaten in two days. I am going to give her antebiotics & change her food. Sooo frustrating.
May 1, 2012 at 10:33 pm
Laurie says:
We opened a bag of Kirkland chicken and rice last week for our three year old Australian shepherd. It is the same food we have always fed him. He initially ate it fine but then seemed reluctant which is not like him at all. For the past four days he has had diarrhea or soft stools with blood and mucous. And he is lethargic. Yesterday we began giving him cottage cheese and rice after a vet visit. Still waiting for lab results. This is a dog who has never been to the vet outside of regular checkups. So it is scary to see him do miserable.
May 2, 2012 at 1:08 am
Robin says:
I have two great Danes that are eight years old. They have eaten Kirkland signature dry dog food their entire lives. they have eaten the mature blend for the past two years. The last bag that I purchased on 4-22-12 from my local Phoenix Costco has caused both of my dogs to become very sick with vomiting and diarrhea. Alternately after one and a half days both of my dogs refused to eat the food at all. My male great Dane has never missed a meal so him refusing food speaks volumes to the existence of a problem. I have contacted Costco corporate headquarters who is having an inspector contact me to pick up a sample of the dog food from my home. In the meantime, I have requested a full refund for my most recent purchase and unfortunately had to buy a bag of pedigree dog food as to avoid everything in the Kirkland product line. I’m confident that my dogs illness is a direct result of contamination of the Kirkland dog food.
May 2, 2012 at 4:06 am
Cheryl says:
Ive been feeding all 6 of my dogs the Natures Domain salmon food for over a year with no problems, however over the last 4 days my yorkie has had very foul smelling diarrhea. I’ve noticed mucous and blood in it too. I’m worried and wondering if it is the food?
May 2, 2012 at 6:09 am
Adam says:
My two dogs both 7yrs old have been experiencing diarrhea and vomiting, I took them off of the Costco brand dog food (purple bag). An started them on a oatmeal and ground beef until their stool was solid again, just be sure that it was the dog food that caused their illness I gave them a half scoop in tonights dinner and low and behold they are sick again!
May 2, 2012 at 10:40 am
Sandy says:
Fed my 9 yr old lab Kirkland since he was a pup. No serious problems but have noticed an increase in drinking. Vet said he does have a high urine count. 1.008 and wants to retest in a few weeks. Not sure what is causing. Opened a new bag of Chicken, Rice and Veggie a week or so ago he eats it just fine. No loose stools or throwing up. I’m starting to wonder if this were a human food company and they had a recall would I continue to buy their other “safe” brands.
May 2, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Are any of these incidents occurring in southern California? Has the company said anything about this?
May 2, 2012 at 7:28 pm
Renee says:
yes, quite a few dogs in Southern California have died from the canned Kirkland Lamb and rice made by American Nutrition in Ogden Utah.
May 10, 2012 at 6:43 pm
Peggy says:
I feed my dog Kirkland Lamb and Rice mixed with Taste of the wild lamb. She hasn’t been sick at all.
May 3, 2012 at 3:35 am
Prefer to remain private says:
Diamond plant in SC shut down for production of all brands as confirmed by the online co that sold me a bad bag of ToTW. First read here http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/diamond-pet-food-updates.html
May 3, 2012 at 5:20 am
Since my earlier post on the 30th I’ve switched to another diamond made food… Chicken soup for the dog lovers soul, but did find that a voluntary recall has been issued on the light formula with the specified …
May 3, 2012 at 7:01 am
L Crider says:
I have two dogs, one boxer mix and one boxer. We have been feeding them Kirkland Lamb and Rice. The Boxer has been att he vet for two days with Pancreatis. She started throwing up and then added blood to it. The other dog is fine…..
May 3, 2012 at 1:52 pm
rose says:
i feed kirkland adult food now all 4 of my dogs are sick vomiting,diarrhea, i called costco they said they said no recall i dont believe them some one help please
May 3, 2012 at 7:01 pm
I have been feeding my shih tzu Kirkland Chicken and Rice kibble and canned food her entire life with no problems. Now I have a bassett mix and she has been eating the same thing as the shih tzu and is also fine. I live in the Pacific NW if that helps at all. Just a side thought: people need to realize that anytime you change a dog’s diet it can effect their stools and stomach for up to a couple of weeks ( if not introduced properly). My heart goes out to anyone who has lost a pet. It’s a devastating thing but remember the good times.
May 3, 2012 at 11:08 pm
I live in Denver and fed my dogs Kirkland’s lamb and rice food last year for about two months (I transitioned them to it over the course of two weeks). My dogs developed very stinky, very dark colored diarrhea on it and hair loss. A client fed Kirkland’s chicken and her dog experienced extreme hair loss on it. I stopped feeding the food right away and thankfully my dogs recovered quickly. So did my client’s dog.
May 4, 2012 at 2:01 am
rose says:
me again after a trip to the vet he is now on antibiotic and fluids iv and bland diet guess what* salmonella * the bags were kirkland adult healthy weight and kirkland biscuits product codes are ksho440903 / ksh03070n -biscuits is 30093 lot 095azb
May 4, 2012 at 3:27 am
rose says:
almost forgot the 1 batch #is KSH040903HX this is on the recall list is sold in arizonia
May 8, 2012 at 1:11 am
Joyce kang says:
I have been feeding my 14 yr old female dog natures domain for less than a week and noticed that she has changed drastically for the worse. Before I was feeding her honest kitchen (a dehydrated dog food) and she was perky and had a lot of energy and a good appetite. But then after switching foods, due to budgeting my money, she began vomiting and would not want to eat. I definitely think that something is wrong with kirklands food and now I am stuck at the vet everyday trying to find out what went wrong. I hope this dog food is investigated and recalled right away before more dogs become severely ill.
May 4, 2012 at 7:51 pm
Joyce kang says:
I also forgot to mention that we purchased the bag of natures domain at the Costco in Northridge, CA.
May 4, 2012 at 7:52 pm
joanne says:
I just got an automated call from Costco saying we should return any Kirkland Signature Dry food with use before dates between 12/2012 and 1/2013. The bag we are using is labeled use before 3/2013. We are half way through the bag. The dogs seem fine except the younger golden’s lips have pink blotches. I just noticed that this week.
Do you think we should return the food even though it’s after the date they signified? Do you think the pinkish blotches could be from the food???
Thank you.
May 4, 2012 at 11:17 pm
I feed Kirkland’s chicken and vegetables dry dog food. My dog is fine, but I had a phone message when I got home tonight saying Kirkland pet foods with best by dates between 12-9-12 and 01-31-2013 are recalled and to stop feeding the food and return it to Costco. The bag my dog is currently eating on is between those dates.
May 4, 2012 at 11:25 pm
Costco is doing a robo message today, May 4, telling it’s customer that there is a recall on the Kirkland dog food.
May 4, 2012 at 11:57 pm
My dogs have eaten through the bags we had on hand and are doing just fine.
May 5, 2012 at 12:04 am
Gary says:
We tried a bag of the Kirkland (COSTCO) Dry Dog Food in late February or early March, and immdeiately our Shelties developed an unquenchable thirst, excessive urination, and diarrhea. We removed the Kirkland dog food and returned our dogs to Natural Balance Reduced Calorie Dry Dog Food. They recovered quickly, and we vowed to stay with what we know is best for them.
May 5, 2012 at 12:18 am
Mandi says:
We also feed our 7 year old English Mastiff and 5 year old Goldendoodle the Kirkland brand dog food and they called today saying to bring the food back to the store and they will replace it. So, yes they are doing a recall. Our dogs have been fine, but I’m not taking chances! We will be returning it tomorrow!
May 5, 2012 at 12:19 am
mike says:
I feed my dogs kirkland mature dry dog food. We’ve had no problems.
May 5, 2012 at 12:23 am
May 5, 2012 at 12:53 am
I only buy the Costco Lamb formula. How far back does the problems go? I am in Colorado and lost a dog the middle of Feb. to what I just assumed was a quick acting infection. She was 9. I have two dogs under a year and a 12 yo doxie still on the food. They seem to be ok, although two of the three now are experiencing diarrhea. Perhaps I’ll change their food until I know for sure.
May 5, 2012 at 1:07 am
Gary says:
I have been feeding my 18 month old lab mix Kirkland Signature Lamb and Rice since getting her in mid December with no issues. However the bag I purchased on 4-25-12 had a funny odor to it. My dog has been eating it with no problems however I will toss it as a precaution. I did get a phone call from Diamond Pet food about the recall.
May 5, 2012 at 1:31 am
Been feeding Kirkland Signature Adult Dry Lamb to 3 dogs….no problems. Just bought new bag to keep ahead 2 week ago…think i should return it?
May 5, 2012 at 1:36 am
Sara says:
I was feeding my dog Kirkland weight control formula. I have a 12 yr old weimaraner mix. She was fine until a couple days ago when she started having really smelly farts, was lethargic, (more than usual) vomiting, and was panting on short walks. I went online and saw that other people’s dogs were getting sick from Kirkland too, so I immediately switched her over to Acana and saw a significant difference in behavior and health within 24 hours! She’s perkier, and happier than she’s been in years. Her poo’s are better too!
May 5, 2012 at 2:16 am
We have used Kirklands adult and puppy food for over a year. Last month two of my Pekingese who were pregnant, got very sick, diarrhea, lethargic, rapid weight loss, dehydration, would not eat or drink on their own. We nursed them back to health, slowly, and during that time they had their babies. Neither mom had any milk! Within 1 week, all of my puppies got sick, vomiting like no newborn puppy should be able to do and died. My vet said at the time, infection or poisoning, now I feel that the dog food caused this. My mommy dogs have started eating on their own and gaining weight and seem to be okay. We switched dog foods at the time they were sick.
May 5, 2012 at 2:43 am
I have six Rhodesian Ridgebacks, weighing between seventy to ninety pounds, ages one year to five years, that are fed – two cups, morning and evening – on ‘Kirkland Signature (Super Premium – made with Real Lamb) Adult Dog’ (Green Bag).
They have had no problem(s) with the above mentioned brand that I have been feeding them since they were one year old.
I am now on high alert and on the look out for any food related problems as well as change in their eating habits and overall moods. So far, there have been no problem(s) at all with the six Rhodies that live with me on a four acre chained-link fenced enclosure.
I can’t wait for the foresinic results, toxicology reports, or necrospy results attributing the cause of death in most of the cases as having been brough about by one and only culprit – Kirkland Dog Food.
Otherwise, – with all due respect to owners who have lost their beloved pets – I will treat the rumours circulating on the Internet as ‘dog-foog-hysteria’ , no more no less.
FYI, it came as no surprise that the mysterious culprit is a different agent other than Kirkland dog food, as was the case some years ago in a similar incident that occured in one European nation (name withheld), where it was found out that the cause of death in many dogs at the time had nothing to do with a popular vacine that was being adminstered by the vets at the time – but it was caused by fecal matter and urine from infected rodents and foxes in the region.
I will go off a limb here by declaring that I still have full confidence in the Kirkland dog food until I am proven otherwise – by scientific proof from the authorities in charge of the matter.
I did get an automated call about the voluntary recall, but let’s do what we can do to protect the lives of our precious pets, but at the same time wait for real facts to emerge.
@Dr. Marie, thanks for highlighting the issue while you try to get to the bottom of the matter as well as unverified accounts.
May 5, 2012 at 2:44 am
Tony says:
We f eed our old (13) mixed breed the Kirkland Adult Dog dry food. She started on a new bag about a week ago and thus far, no issues. She is her normal, cheerful self.
May 5, 2012 at 2:45 am
John Earley says:
Have been feeding our dogs the Kirkland Dog Food in the red bag, as in your illustration above.
Our ten pound Yorkie became acutely ill on this past weekend. We brought him in to the Vet on Sunday 28 Apr12 because we were alarmed by his sudden cascade of symptoms: fever, no eating or drinking, listlessness, cough, straining at the stool with a bloody residue, a taut abdomen and a high degree of what can be only interpreted as all over achiness.
The Vet was unable to diagnose our dog’s acute illness. She treated him with IV intervention to prevent further decline. X-rays and sonograms were taken. Still couldn’t pinpoint the cause of the maladies.
Tonight, Friday 4May12 we received a telephone call from Costco advising us of a possible Salmonella contamination of their dog foods.
So, we then googled and found an array of symptoms that coincide with our dog’s illness.
With all the expense and stress we and our dog experienced we are wondering if there is any way proper compensation from Costco can be pursued?
Our dog is still in recovery…slowly normalizing.
May 5, 2012 at 2:49 am
Julie says:
I feed my one year old boxer kirkland chicken/rice – I bought my most recent bag mid April/2012. He seems fine – has had some diarrhea – but nothing serious, so far?!?
May 5, 2012 at 3:03 am
Tom says:
From the message that came from Costco via phone, there was less than two months of food production that was of concern — Best before date from Dec 9, 2012 and Jan 31, 2013 — and they asked that it be returned for a refund. They said that none of the Costco food had tested positive for salmonella, but it was being recalled as a precaution. I’ve been feeding my dogs Costco’s Nature’s Domain Salmon and Sweet Potato for about 5 months with no issues. May current bag has a best before date of Feb 13, 2013. The dogs love it.
I personally think it was fantastic that Costco generated calls to everyone who has ever purchased the food. Their proactive approach to customer care and service should be applauded
May 5, 2012 at 3:20 am
Becky says:
Our 4 dogs are eating Kirkland Lamb & Rice. Last bag was purchased around mid-April. Nothing unusual happening.
May 5, 2012 at 3:22 am
Rob says:
We were feeding our two Golden Retrievers Blue Buffalo until quality control issues gave us several bags without the much-vaunted “LifeSource Bits”. We switched to Kirkland about six months ago. Our older dog does not seem to like it as much as Blue; the one year old will eat anything. Both are exhibiting allergy problems since being on the Kirkland food; the older gets rashes and the younger one gnaws at his foot. We are going back to Blue Buffalo.
May 5, 2012 at 4:10 am
Becky says:
I just started feeding my dog kirklands lamb and rice food 1 week ago. We have been slowly incorporating it into her diet. She threw up twice today and had looser than normal stools. I also got a call today from Costco about the recall. I have stopped feeding my dog the food and will be returning it.
May 5, 2012 at 4:17 am
Don says:
We have a rescue lab/shep. Got him in February. Started him on Kirkland Adult Chicken and Rice. Stool was consistently soft. But since we opened a new bag, his stool has been like water. We have cycled him through three 5-day regimens of: no food, all rice, rice + boiled chicken, rice + kibble, all kibble. And like clockwork, his stool becomes firm during the rice and chicken phases and turns to liquid on the all kibble day. Finally gave up on the Kirkland this week, then read this article. We are currently moving him over to 4Health….F*&% !!! But now I see that is on the contaminated list too. Wonderful. Thanks Diamond.
May 5, 2012 at 4:42 am
I have 3 cattle dogs. They have been on Kirkland for years with no problem, but from the last bag purchased we have had vommitting & diarrhea from 2 of the 3. I will be checking the bags for dates. I usually pitch the bags aftewr putting them in the rubbermaid tote. I feed Lamb & Rice (Green Bag).
May 5, 2012 at 5:40 am
Tim says:
Thank you for monitoring the situation. We got our brand new poodle 7-week old puppy on Tuesday (May 1st, 2012). The breeder and we have been feeding her Kirkland Adult Formula purchased from Costco. So far, no symptoms at all. We live in Massachusetts.
May 5, 2012 at 1:08 pm
Trina says:
Hi. Just received the robo-call this morning. Our doggie has not shown any signs of trouble. The bag we have is green and it’s Kirkland Signature Adult Lamb, Rice and Vegetable formula. He’s been eating it for weeks without any apparent problem. Our son had the flu two weeks ago, and he does feed the dog, but I don’t think this bag is bad. Still, we plan to return it as it does have the 2X that is marked on the website: http://diamondpetrecall.com/
May 5, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Trina says:
It looks as though our bag may not be part of the bad lot, our expiry date is March 2013 and has a 2X instead of a 3x. Thank you to your article for being more thorough than the manufacturer’s website!
May 5, 2012 at 1:35 pm
Tracy says:
In January 2012 our nine year old previously healthy whippet became very ill. Anorexia, lethargy, weight loss, lymphadenopathy, tachycardia, mucousy greenish foul smelling stool, and vomiting. The work up at the vets showed an elevated amylase, lower than expected white count and low grade fever. Stool samples were not looked at. She was given a course of predisone with no definitive diagnosis. I didn’t suspect the food but started feeding her a home cooked diet and she started to recover. I started her back on the dog food about the time she was coming off the prednisone and she became sick again. We put her back on pred and had to change food to purine one lamb and rice as Costco didnt have Kirkland in stock. She remained well after coming off the pred that time but relapsed when we went to the cottage for the weekend where we still had the Kirkland kibble – she started to have the mucousy diarrhea again on the Monday after the weekend. I’m actually a bit relieved that we know have a better idea of what was behind the mystery illness. Vet had wondered if it might be lymphoma but was surprised when she actually got better.
May 5, 2012 at 1:52 pm
I have fed Kirkland Chicken and Rice for 4 years now. My Native American Indian Dogs are well, healthy and happy. No problems here.
May 5, 2012 at 3:19 pm
I have fed Kirkland dog food (Chicken & rice-Red bag) to my dogs for years and never had a problem, UNTIL last Thursday, 4.26.12, My 14 month old St. Bernard pup became very ill. When I say ill I mean she was trying to vomit, she was pacing, would not settle down and calm down, she was very anxious and she was bloating, we left dog class early that night as she was really worrying me, in less than 1 hour she suddenly looked like she was 70-80 days pregnant, ready to explode with puppies, and she has never been bred, her stomach was extremely tight like a drum, the Gas-X I was giving her was not in and I called the vet clinic and let the Dr. know I thought she was bloating and raced her in. We got to the clinic about 10pm Thursday night. We took numerous X-rays and did different blood tests, the vet pumped everything out of her stomach, which really was not very much, she was having a hard time under the anesthesia and I was afraid we were going to lose her. The entire time she was on the table diarrhea just kept spilling and spilling out of her bottom, it was very mushy like soft serve ice-cream. After she was basically empty, The Doctor woke her up, she was still in complete panic mode (& this is a dog I bred, I have raised, has been loved & adored since she was born and I very well socialized, she is not a nervous dog and she does not panic or fear new situations, and my dogs love to go to the vet) Her heart rate was even higher than it had been before, which was high, and it was not calming down, we took more X-rays, and kept re-checking her heart rate and she had to go in for surgery to open her up & see what was going on. For this surgery, I was present, the entire time… What we saw was EXTREMELY inflated, looking like they would explode intestines that were twisted, but not dead or purple. There seemed to be things “stuck” & nothing was moving… Her GI system basically froze and was causing her extreme pain. He said as he opened her stomach that I may lose her when he did it, she may get an infection and could die. She woke up from the surgery and was in so much pain she just laid there crying. I walked out of the vet’s office without my dog at 5:53AM Friday morning. They said they had to keep her overnight maybe a couple nights. I went home, not sleeping of course fearful I would lose my baby, throughout the day I called and went to visit her, she looked like a ghost just standing there in extreme pain, panting heavily, her heart racing, they couldn’t calm her down, she was like a ghost on the outside and in panic mode inside. She did not even know who I was. I left her that afternoon fearing the worst and that I would get the call she passed sometime that day. She kept tearing out her catheter/IV and they couldn’t get it back in her because she was panicking so badly and her heart rate was even higher, it had got to 191-2, she was not in good shape. I wanted to take her home and doctor her here but seeing her like she was I knew she had to stay and I couldn’t move her. In the night the doctor on call said she was given more meds and her heart-rate was still high, no sign of improvement. Before 8AM Saturday I was at the clinic, and was elated to see my pup laying there happy. (They had given her several new drugs & got the IV back in) she was panting some and her heart rate was a bit elevate but it was 129-127 I believe at that time. I took her outside and walked her around, she drank tiny amounts of water and was a happy girl, she knew exactly who I was Saturday morning. About 12pm Saturday, I was able to take her home, she has been on high doses of 2 antibiotics and at this point is doing good. She lost early 15 pounds…Hopefully she makes it to the 2 week mark, where the vet says will be a good sign and hopefully then we will know she is clear of the possibility of infection, from opening her stomach. The ordeal cost just shy of $2,500 and I nearly lost my baby… It has been a horrible experience..When I heard of the recall I immediately called Kirkland assured me since I live in CA my food was not tainted, ad I feed Costco food not Chicken lovers soup, which was the only food re-called. I knew that was not true, I called the vet that preformed Alegra’s surgery ad asked if if he i fact thought Alegra’s problem Thurs night could have been from the bad dog food ad he said ABSOLUTELY, he said it would really explain a lot too. Kirkland’s vet Dr. Brookshire (sp?) was going to call him, but as of ow she has not. Was it from the food, I do’t know, at this point, but I wanted to share our story ad see if anyone else has had a similar experience???
May 5, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Renee says:
May 9, 2012 at 1:08 pm
My dog eats Kirkland Adult Dog Chicken, Rice and Vegetable Formula and the best before date says March 21, 2013. We are three quarters of the way through a 40 lb bag and she has shown no sign of illness. Now I’m paranoid as hell and will return the rest….
May 5, 2012 at 3:58 pm
We fed our 4 month old English Bulldog Kirklands Grain free Taste of the Wild. After a very short time (I’d say two days) he had hives and hot spots all over his skin. It took A LOT to get him to even eat the food. He did not have much of an appetite and had loose stools. Anyone who has had a bulldog or a puppy knows they are eaters! We took him the vet and they could not figure out why he had hives and diarrhea. We thought maybe it was something in our yard or house that he was allergic to. We did benadryl…then a steroid treatment. When weening him off the steroid treatment the hives returned immediately. After many many expensive vet visits and prior to paying for a very expensive dermatologist visit. We decided it was worth a try to switch his food before going forward. The Dr. said it was very rare that a dog his age would be allergic to the food…since that is something that happens later in a dogs life. We decided it was worth a try to at least switch. Wouldn’t you know, the hives slowly went away (he was not on any meds at this time). It was like a miracle. His appetite went from barely there to a normal hungry Bulldog puppy. There is something wrong with Kirkland Brand dog food FOR SURE! Our dog still has healing hot spots but no more hives or diarrhea. We were able to return the two extra bags we had.
May 5, 2012 at 4:14 pm
kim says:
The Costco in Edmonton AB just got an e-mail about the recalled food this morning. The recalled food is in the East Coast, the west coast has not been affected.
May 5, 2012 at 6:00 pm
Griffin says:
I AM VERY WORRIED AND LIVID THAT THIS MAY CAUSE SERIOUS HEALTH RISKS! (Least of all my carpets cleaned and my daughter has missed two days of work already.) THIS IS WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS!
May 5, 2012 at 6:09 pm
kim says:
There is a simple fecal test you can get done to test for salmonella, if you suspect your dog is sick from the food why not get that done? And yes, it can be passes from dog food to humans as well from dogs saliva to humans. It is apparently people that got salmonella from the Diamond plant and there has apparently not been any dogs that are known to have been affected as of yet.
May 5, 2012 at 6:44 pm
It’s really not that simple. You can culture stool to look for salmonella but the test will take a week or so to get results back, AND many normal, healthy dogs can have salmonella in their stool. I suppose there is a way to type the culture to look for salmonella infantis which seems to be the culprit now, but as this is a very rare strain it may be difficult to do.
May 5, 2012 at 7:21 pm
kim says:
Maybe not simple for the lab people, I just meant simple as in all you need to do is go to your vet, pick up the container with the solution in it, take a fresh sample then give it back to your vet. My vet wanted 2 samples, one in the solution and one that I just put in a seperate container. The samples were sent to the lab on Friday at 3pm and I got the results back on Tuesday morning as the lab was closed on the weekend.
May 5, 2012 at 9:46 pm
rose says:
return to costco and fill out a report call them do all the above there is a problem with this food make them aware of it
May 8, 2012 at 1:18 am
Oh god, is my first thought after getting the robo call just minutes ago.
We now used to feed our girls the meaty(red bag) of Kirkland food.
Sadly two weeks ago our 6.5 year old SPringer Spaniel died within 4 days she
Went from a healthy dog to limp & lathargic.
She was my baby girl and this is killing me now to think food may have been a cause.
Monday morning I am contacting my vet and who ever else I need to.
No one should watch there dog Die!
May 5, 2012 at 6:11 pm
Is the Taste of the Wild cat food also being recalled?
May 5, 2012 at 6:48 pm
Jeramie says:
I like how I emailed costco asking them about if there is a recall on their food last week. Nope they ensured me no recall and everything is fine, didn’t say why they ran out of every bag of food. Now I got a robo call saying the foods recalled.
What a bunch of scammers, they must have known something was wrong with their food if they pulled it off their shelf’s middle of April, now they issue a recall 2 weeks later
May 5, 2012 at 7:33 pm
I normally feed my 2 standard poodles the Kirkland red bag, but decided to change to the green Kirkland Adult Lamb, rice, and vegetables dog food the last time I bought to see if they liked it better. My dogs have been sick with diarrhea and vomitting. Then, they refused to eat the food, I tried mixing it with scraps and they would pick the scraps out and leave the dog food. I am returning it today and hoping they are going to be good after this—
May 5, 2012 at 7:42 pm
Prefer to remain private says:
Please keep posting symptoms and diagnostic info. I have reason to believe that this may be a 2 point problem. Salmonella AND a potentially toxic ingredient. Others have reported negative salmonella but extreme illness. Excessive thirst due to acute liver failure is common and indicative of toxicity. We are relying on each other for answers since Diamond won’t tell us. Sending out the recall info at 5pm on a Friday night is a reflection of their ethics. Tell everyone you know, contact your local retailers, contact the media. For those of you who are new to the conversation, be aware that Diamond employees are filling these boards with fluff. Do not replace your food with any other Diamond products in this link.
Read this page and you will get an idea of Diamond’s attempt to hide the problem.
Sign up for the email updates. They are the 1st and most credible resource I’ve found.
Visit the multiple Diamond links on this site and read comments to get a scope of the problem among all of their brands that have been going on for quiet some time.
Go to facebook fan pages of the different brands and read consumer complaints on the wall mixed with attempts to hide the problem w/ employee posts.
Has anyone contacted a lawyer for a class action suit that we should all be contacting as a group?
THANK YOU to everyone for sharing their experience and I’m so deeply sorry to those who have lost pets.
May 5, 2012 at 7:50 pm
Renee says:
…I think you are right…it may be two things involved. Let’s hope the truth does prevail.
May 9, 2012 at 1:10 pm
Jenna says:
I have purchased Kirkland Chicken and Rice (40pounds) and Kirkland Lamb and Rice (40 pounds) for my lab and cairn terrier. Last sunday, my lab threw up and had a few diarrheas. That night she puked up everything in her stomach as well as just bile. The next day she still wasn’t herself, but we tried giving her a very small amount of food as she was hungry. Within 20 minutes, she puked it up and though that was the last puke, she has had diarrheas since then. It is now 6 days later and she is finally seeming like herself. My cairn terrier though hasn’t had anything.
May 5, 2012 at 8:04 pm
Michelle says:
My dog, 10 year old English Mastiff, went from healthy to deathly ill in less than hours. On Sunday April 22 we fed her normally. Later in the day she started vomiting, diarrhea, and kept drinking. As soon as she drank she would vomit again. This continued through the night. By this point she had an elevated hart rate and was so weak she could barely move. My husband took her to the vet on Monday, April 23. The ran a battery of test but found nothing. We didn’t know what we were looking for. She was on IV and pain med as well as oxygen. They call late that evening for us to pick her up. We did. The vomiting started again as soon as she had a drink. She died around 3 AM Tuesday, April 24. She was suffering. It was truly horrible. We had no way of easing her suffering. I am totally sick that this happened to her.
We went to Costco this morning, filed an incident report. There were a few bags of dog food that had been returned. They said they had an idea of what lot was contaminated, and the time period that the products were purchased. I believe that this is wider spread than they think.
I am in the state of VA.
May 5, 2012 at 8:41 pm
Michelle says:
Replying to myself this is the email I received today:
I am very sorry to hear about the loss of your English Mastiff. The Kirkland Signature products that are included in the recall were manufactured between December 9, 2011 and January 31, 2012. If you purchased the bag of food that you were feeding in March or April, it is extremely unlikely that you had a bag made within these dates.
If the veterinary tests indicate Salmonella and you would like to file a claim, please contact our recall center at 866.918.8756.
Thanks you for taking the time to email me. I have been trying to reach you by phone for several hours. The number either does not go through or it rings busy. I would just like to say I am awaiting a call from our vet. I realize with the amount of food that has come into question, it may be hard to pinpoint the bags responsible. That said, she only ate that brand dog food. You could surely pull our records. She went from being healthy to dead in 48 hours. Very similar stories have been posted on the internet. So the fact that you are telling me it is unlikely, is not likely.
Thank you,
May 7, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Michelle says:
My ? is how can I possibly have her tested now?!
May 7, 2012 at 7:36 pm
Tina says:
With 5 dogs in the house, each gets a cup of Kirkland Lamb and Rice every morning and night except our beagle who only gets a small amount… All seem fine have been feeding this for over 2 yrs with no problems (knock on wood) Bag I have currently in basement is KLU 0304c22XES March 13, 2013 use date.. Bought in MD last week.
May 5, 2012 at 8:47 pm
This is very distressing. we feed our dog the Kirkland Healthy Weight. In january my 4 yr old was ill, lack of appetite and he had blood in his stool. we took him to the vet and could’t figure out the problem. I cooked him rice for a few days and he got better. now looking at this recall we are convinced that it was salimanila poisoning from the food.
May 5, 2012 at 11:15 pm
Julie says:
I’ve been feeding my 2 pitbulls both 11yrs the Kirkland dog food the blue bag for over a year now and never had a problem. But when I came home wed night my male dog could barely stand, he was weak,
And walked like he was drunk, and his eyes were moving back and forth horizantally. I had to rush him to the vet and she said it was neurological. So now he’s on cortisone and antibiotics for 2 weeks. With no apparent reason why!!! Is it due to the food? I don’t know but I’m not feeling very good about it, I was thinking I was going to have to put him down!!
May 6, 2012 at 12:02 am
We use Kirklands dog food and DID RECEIVE a phone call to return our food today. We live in Houston TX
May 6, 2012 at 1:55 am
John - Upstate SC says:
my two boxers have been fed Kirkland lamb or chicken kibble for two years. No issues and the dogs have shiny coats and our vet is complimentary about there health. My current kibble is dated outside of the recall best by dates so I assume we’ve already consumed what might have been at risk and we’re all fine.
May 6, 2012 at 2:27 am
Weve been feeding this(kirkland) to our dogs for a while, then recently at yearly check up they showed signs of kidney failure, one came out out of it(the one who dosent eat as much) and the other died within 6 weeks of the vet visit. She went from being a super healthy 5 year old dog to dead in less than a month and a half. She showed all of the symptoms to look for but we didnt know about the recall until today. Costco called us on other recalls but apparently if your dogs life is at risk they dont call you. Because of this I will no longer shop at costco, or buy any diamond brand food ever.
May 6, 2012 at 2:34 am
I have a almost 2 year old lab on the Kirkland Chicken, Rice, and Veg formula. Earlier this week she was acting very lazy, sleeping all day, and wouldn’t eat unless it was table scraps. She is our little protector and she wasn’t at the door barking like usual when we come home. She would barely get up unless she had to potty and was being very cuddly. At first we thought she chewed up one of our kids toys, but she was pooping fine. A couple days after we looked up how to induce vomiting and the day after we did that she was acting fine, but still not eating her food. I just found out about this in the afternoon and dumped out her bowl. My husband is out of town with the car so I can’t go get a different food until tomorrow. We are in SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA. I know its not on the recall area, but I can not think of any other reason why she was acting that way. And I don’t think that the brand of food being recalled is just a quintessence.
May 6, 2012 at 2:56 am
rose says:
return this my dogs also in az were sick fill out reports this is a problem here make them aware
May 8, 2012 at 1:21 am
David S says:
Just heard about the recall today, but my two dogs, a 5 yr old Cav. King Charles Spaniel and a 3 yr. old Collie/Aussie mix, have no problems at all, nor have they refused the food. I mix a bag of chicken/rice with a bag of lamb/rice.
May 6, 2012 at 3:08 am
Carol says:
My dog (11 years old) ate Nature’s Domain (Costco) for two months, had a CBC and her liver enzymes were off the charts. Two months of heavy-duty antibiotics and liver support drugs, plus ultrasound… I took her off the Costco food immediately after the CBC, and she’s improving on medication. She was *fine* prior to eating the Costco food. And I thought I was providing the best food for her. … guilt is painful. So is the $1200. vet bill. I have NO doubt that the food caused her liver problems. I’m furious about this….. (I received the robo-alert call from Costco today. Too bad it was too late to spare my sweet girl.)
May 6, 2012 at 3:23 am
Sheena says:
I feed my three dogs Kirkland salmon and sweet potatoes. I bought a new bag a couple weeks ago, and my smallest dog has been having intestinal issues a few days a week since. I find her eating grass almost every other day, her stomache is always rumbling, and she just seems upset. Also, they all of a sudden havnt been finishing thier meals which is odd, they usually scarf it up. The other two have shown no symptoms though? I changed their brand today and their bowls were eaten right up? It may all be a coincidence, but we’re taking the symptomatic one to the vet to be safe Monday, better safe than sorry. Idk if I had a recalled bag either as I put the food into a large bin and throw the bag away. hopefully all is well!
May 6, 2012 at 4:01 am
Carol A says:
My lab/duck toller has been eating kirkland food for over a year. He was having frequent ear infections so switched to the kirklands (no grain). I switch between the green and the red bag for adult dogs and the loss weight bag as well and he hasn’t had an ear infection since. We’ve had no other symptoms either. he was just recently at the vets for his yearly check up and needles. This recall concerns me greatly. My dog is outside during the day while I’m at work but is in at nights. No symptoms in here but now worried about outside. Will check more for stool droppings. Would love some recipes for the homemade dogfood.
May 6, 2012 at 5:14 am
Update from my previous posts.
My wife received a call from Costco Pointe Claire, Quebec, CANADA indicating that they were very concerned and wanted us to return the food so that they could test it and wanted us to fill out an incident report which we did yesterday (Saturday ). While at the Costco my wife received a call that left a message indicating that there was a recall that it was a cautionary recall. Costco seems to be very concerned about this, & knew about a Diamond contamination that Diamond apparently said there was no cross contamination to the Kirkland line, they now feel that this might not be the case.
May 6, 2012 at 10:51 am
After switching from Royal Canin to Kirkland in August 2011, my dog seemed to be adjusting well.
I purchased a new bag of Kirkland Chicken in March 2012 and my dog immediately started vomiting and had explosive diarrhea. I called the vet number listed on the back of the bag and they informed me that there were no issues with that batch of food. I returned the bag for a full refund. The vet had suggested trying the Kirkland Lamb and Rice formula so I purchased that.
I have been feeding it to my dog since, mixed with white rice and pumpkin puree, and she has had diarrhea off and on for months.
On Friday, I got fed up with the inconsistency and switched back to Royal Canin on my vet’s advice. On Saturday, I got a telephone call about the recall from Kirkland.
I’m not surprised, I just wish that the vet that we talked to at Kirkland had given us better advice about how to determine what was irritating our dog’s stomach.
May 6, 2012 at 11:52 am
We were feeding all 3 dogs Kirkland food in the green bag. All 3 started vomiting every day. I even posted on Facebook to ask if people were having problems with Kirkland food. Couldn’t find anything on the Internet about the recall then. Switched food and they all recovered.
May 6, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Frank says:
We have been feeding our Shelties Natures Domain for over a year,but a few months ago our Vet informed me that one of my dogs had very high cholesterol and her trig readings were in the 600 range ,so we looked for a new dry food with lower fat and for the past few months fed them Kirkland Healthy Weight dog food and after a month on this new food she was retested and her readings had gone down 200 points,which is good…..but….on March 21 2012 our 6 yr old Sheltie started bleeding and the vet said that her heart was failing and we had to put her down….and on April 28 our 11 yr old Sheltie had to be put down because she started losing weight and her hair starting thinning out real fast , and the day before she died she was straining to urinate and started bleeding and then vomitiing and had diarhea, which we felt was kidney failure.
Just yesterday morning we found out about the dog food recall and it really makes us sick to think that there might have been more to this than just a tragic loss of 2 dogs in such a short period of time.If we even had a idea that something like this was causing the problem,we would have had further tests and an autopsy done,but we had no idea at all that there was any problem with the dog food.
We immediately took all the dogs off of this food and will be returning the remainder to Costco.
Now we have to try to find a new low fat dog food.
It really seems that the dog food standards are not regulated or watched very good.In the past few years there has been a number of very large recalls .
May 6, 2012 at 1:12 pm
Dan K says:
We live in a suburb of Toronto. We go the call last night from Costco. Our current bag of Kirkland Adult Dog food is on the affected list.
Perhaps this explains why over the last 2 weeks, our normally non-gassy Golden-doodle has been driving us out of the room with her horrendous smelling farts. Otherwise she’d in perfect health and temper !
May 6, 2012 at 2:33 pm
I have been feeding Kirkland Lamb and Rice (Purple Bag) to my 3 year old Black Lab for about 8 months. We run Hunt Test and the food seemed to supply the energy needed to run the trials. She did very well on the Kirkland until recently. She began having diarrhea after feeding. Decided to return to Purina ProPlan and she is back to normal.
May 6, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Rockie a healthy 10 yr old soft coated ter was fine until my Mom opened a new bag of the salmon and sweet pot food from Costco 2 weeks ago. Rockie started not wanting to move, thirsty all time, would not eat, vomit found after she passed last tue… my mom recieved the recall robot phone message fri. She has 7 grandchildren that are so upset. The only thing that makes me feel better, is reading some of the other posts … Rockie seemed to go quick and I hope didn’t suffer .. she took a nap and never woke up. To our beloved Rockie we love and miss you! RIP
May 6, 2012 at 4:13 pm
Prefer to remain private says:
This is a consolidated list of the Diamond related recalls including CostCo products. My dog is extremely ill and the #s on my bag and my state are not on the recall list. I will be calling the FDA & Dept of Ag back Monday morning & I suggest everyone else do the same. I am going to ask Taste of the Wild for the alleged ingredient quality control report on my specific bag and the ingredient source list every day until they respond. I suggest CostCo customers do the same so we can figure this out sooner than later. Read the comments on the link bc there are some great suggestions to contact Cornells toxicology lab for free.
May 6, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Michelle says:
I have been using Kirkland dog food since my dog was a puppy at 8 weeks jersey has never been sick before from his food. But just last month we had him to the vet he had bloody diarrhea and vomiting drinking lots of water didn’t want to eat his food which he normally loves he is on the burgundy bag chicken and rice. My vet did x-rays did blood tests was looking for a blockage but found non. Our vet put him on intestinal kind of dog food and some really strong meds . They told us to take him off his kibble and just give him the food they gave us . So we did and he is doing better stool is back to normal and he is doing better . We had gotten a black lab also around this time she is eating the Kirkland food also . She also became sick but just vomiting . So both my chocolate lab jersey and my black lab Molly have both been sick so I am going to take them both off the kibble and just give them the food the vet recommends until this is settled .I don’t have the bag the food came in but we still have food left from the bag we are using . I am going to take the food to get tested to see if it is a bad batch. I received a robo call from Costco so I am going to give them a sample also of the food . For those of you who have loss pets I am sorry for your loss . I have bought my food at the Moncton Costco and since have called them and they said they would have no problem reimbursing us our money.I live in prince Edward island . There are cases also of farmers putting out coyote poison too so watch your dogs around fields and such if they are free roaming dogs .
May 6, 2012 at 6:31 pm
Michelle says:
My dogs are 2 1/2 years old
May 6, 2012 at 6:39 pm
drew says:
My dog got sick and costco can go suck a fat one
May 6, 2012 at 6:44 pm
JW says:
After losing access to the food I was feeding, I switched to Kirkland Chicken , Rice and Veg. with great success… at first. The dogs loved it and did well. After opening a new bag ( something we keep a close eye on ) several of the dogs broke with loose stool and vomiting, but not all. Living in a rural area, I suspected something parasitic and treated them accordingly. Appetites, attitudes and basic well being was back to normal. Recently, I’ve seen soft stools that are discolored ( some green, some yellow ) that starts mid way of the bowel movement. ( I scoop my yard twice a day ) At the same time, I’ve noticed ear issues have been on the rise, again, in some but not all of the dogs. Any young dogs on the puppy formula have had no issues. Firm stool, good appetites. I wondered why the puppy food seemed to be the only one left off of the recall. If cross contamination is the issue, you’d think the whole plant would be affected.
May 6, 2012 at 8:18 pm
My dog got sick on May 3rd (vomitng / loose stool). I had just switched her over to Kirklands Signature Chicken Rice. I found this page and checked the production / date #’s and the dog food was part of the recall. She lost her appetite and would not drink water. I took her to the vet and the found salmonella in her gi tract. They placed her on antibiotics, probiotics and nausea meds. The vet I took her too, heard about the dog food recall, however, this was her first encoutner. $400 bucks later, she is doing better. I live in North Houston, Texas.
Thanks for your website! You saved my dog!
May 7, 2012 at 2:45 pm
kelly beene says:
Hi, I am a dog breeder and have been using Kirkland Chicken/Rice Adult and Puppy for about 2 years and never any problem until about 6 months ago my adults and puppies would periodically have diarrhea and vomiting and I layed it off to worms, which I have never had a problem with, and d-wormed them and it took days for them to clear up, and then not knowing @ the time, I would open a new bag and that was probably an uncontaminated bag, and then they would get better. I even myself 2 months ago became very ill with vomiting and severe diarrhea and went to the doctor, and she thought maybe I might have caught Giardia from the dogs and treated me just like I treat my dogs if they get it. It all makes since now as I handle the dog food many times a day with my bare hands. I raise very expensive Labradoodles and trusted Costco to take the same precautions on dog food as they do our food, my bad and shame on you Costco for not caring the same about our animal family members as you do us! I think there should be a class action lawsuit, as I have spent a lot of money getting myself and my dogs well and thanks god none of them died from it.
May 7, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Sheila Munson says:
i have been feeding Kirkland puppy food to my now 7-month-old yellow lab when she was young and she was always fine. we ‘graduated’ her to Kirkland adult chicken and rice and she is still super duper. i am, however, concerned. i am rethinking purchasing another large bag until this issue has been resolved. why hasn’t this been publicized? i only know because a friend of mine emailed me about the recall. i really appreciate the transparency of Costco about their dog food since all of Costco’s products i know are tested, tested, and retested and they are all top notch. i trust the Kirkland brand. thank you for this information on this website but know that it hasn’t been widely publicized. I live in New Jersey.
May 7, 2012 at 7:13 pm
lori says:
I have used Costco brand right up until the recall …my German shepherd dog has had bouts with diahrea…i never contributed it to the food as i had trusted Kirkland food…however since he has been off it a little bit he seems to be clearing up.
May 7, 2012 at 8:13 pm
I have just recently given my 2 dogs Kirtland Brand dog Biscuits, (Lamb & Chicken Flavors), within the last month, which is new to them. One dog became sick 10 days ago now the other is sick. I normaly feed them Purina One. I noticed at the bottom of the lot of dry dog food some weird looking things not looking like the dog food pellets. Now I am not sure what is making them sick. The dry dog food or the biscuits? Any clue… Have the biscuits been recalled?
May 7, 2012 at 8:28 pm
G says:
i have been feeding Kirkland puppy food to my 3 months old golden retriever, and Kirkland adult dog (lamb) to my 4 years old golden retreiver, and both are OK… i live in california.
May 7, 2012 at 10:34 pm
G says:
here its the letter from cotsco page.. it appears that just affect certaint states….
May 7, 2012 at 10:54 pm
I’ve been feeding both my dogs the Kirkland Lamb & Rice food for years. We recently switched to the Senior food. On the morning of March 27, 2012, we found my oldest dog dead. She had a little bit of bleeding from the mouth and she had made a small bowel movement before she laid in her final resting position. At the time, we chalked up her death to old age (she was a humane society dog, so we dont know her exact age, between 12-14); however, my husband had suspicions about the food. We were so distraught with her death though that we had her remains cremated as quickly as possible. But my husband still thought that there was something wrong with the food, and we threw out the remaining food and bought another bag. Now there’s a recall! Im upset to think that there was a possibility that my dog was poisoned and couldve been prevented!
May 8, 2012 at 10:34 am
Recently lost our 3 year old standard poodle who is very dearly missed. He had suddenly became very ill wouldn’t eat, vomiting, lathargic. Took him to the vets and they were very confused as to what was attacking his kidneys and liver. Three days after his sudden illness had to make the decission to put him down. Just recently got the phone call from costco and am wanting to know information on what thier plan is for those of us who have sadly lost our pet due to thier lack of notification to thier faithful customers. I have had him and all of my other pets whom I have had in the past on Kirkland, am very upset with the loss and the expense that I have incured due to thier lack of concern with this issue and the affect it has had on the pets and there owners.
May 8, 2012 at 1:59 pm
Carrie says:
My dog became sick about a week ago with about 12-15 episodes of vomiting, lethargic, anorexic, fever, and won’t drink anything. The vet drew labs and her CBC indicates a bad infection. She received subcutaneous fluids, antinausea meds, and antibiotics. She has still remained lethargic and not eating or drinking and continues to have a high fever. Took her back to the vet and he is saying he thinks it is from the food. We feed her Kirkland lamb and rice. When I called Diamond today they stated they have no confirmed reports of dogs being sick with salmonella. However, the call center people ( I talked to about 3 of them over the last few days) have all said they have heard of many dogs getting sick. I just wish I could get some straight answers.
May 8, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Carrie says:
Also, my dog is having more labs drawn today, she spent the night at the vet getting more antibiotics and IV fluids. I will update with lab results.
May 8, 2012 at 4:12 pm
Prefer to remain private says:
For anyone who wants to have the food tested themselves, this toxicology expert will consult with your vet.
Karyn Bischoff
Assistant Professor
College of Veterinary Medicine
The claim from Diamond in Carrie’s post above stating ‘no confirmed reports of salmonella in dogs’ tells me that we need to move forward with having the food tested.
May 8, 2012 at 5:00 pm
We’ve been feeding Kirkland for years with no issues. We purchased a new bag on May 3, 2012 and found out about the recall 5/6/12. Been watching carefully and still no issues. We are in the Phoenix, AZ area.
May 8, 2012 at 4:28 pm
rose says:
HI we seem to have lots of problems here whoever is having problems you need to return the products to costco fill out a report have it documented call the phone number listed on the bag write down the product codes and dates they dont know or cant help if you dont report it
May 8, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Debbie P says:
I bought Kirkland Lamb and Rice Dog Food for my dogs just over two weeks ago. I have two Cavaliers. They have both been eating grass like crazy, begging to go outside. There stool has been getting softer now it is full diarrhea on one of my dogs and he is vomiting. ?!?!??! I checked the recall list days ago and they told me Texas(Houston) was not affected. Today I checked again and yes it has been recalled here. Costco said they have no reports on any bad batches in Texas. What ???? But, they recalled it ? I was told I can return the food for a refund. The customer service woman asked, ‘Didn’t anyone call you ?” ah no, that’s why I am calling you. Why would they call customers if there was not a problem ? I think something stinks here !!!!!
Anyway, My dogs are sick, showing all the signs noted online. I am taking them off this food right now. I pray that my dogs will be ok with a different food. I will look seriously into making food for them.
May 10, 2012 at 3:17 pm
Rey says:
Kirkland Rice and Chicken for our German Shepherd:
We adopted our year old German Shepherd (GS) from my sister. She gave us the remiander of the Kirkland Rice and Chicken dry food that she fed our GS while under her care. We are almost out of the food when I hear d about this. So far our GS has shown no ill effects and has gained weight and grew. He is very active. Once in a while, I noticed that he eats grass and throws up. It has only happend 2 times in the 3 weeks that we have had him. I’mnot sure if he is reacting to the carrots that I added to his food.
I plan to continue using Kirkland foods as it is one of the highest ranked dog foods reviewed.
May 10, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Carol says:
I have been feeding my 2 dogs ( 10 y/o shepherd mix and 3 y/o Chocolate Lab) Costco Premium Chicken and Rice for 2 1/2 years. They have not had any problems on it. Two weeks ago we bought our newest bag. Today I returned home to find my Lab had had explosive diarrhea. I took him and to get him cleaned up and bathed, and found that he had vomited his undigested food and grass in the yard as well. Coincidence????? Maybe….maybe not
May 13, 2012 at 12:09 am
While vacationing in Jamaica we received a call Wednesday morning (May 9) from my boys, 22 & 25, that our 6 year old labradoodle Riley was seriously ill. She lied down (fell?)more heavily than usual, when checked wouldn’t stand and when coaxed up could not stand on her own. Shortly after she began to vomit uncontrolably. She spent the night on intravenus at the vets, and after many tests they still could only speculate(tumor,stroke?) as to what the issue was. They were referred to the University of Guelph veterinary research center Wednesday morning and after a day of more tests still had no solid diagnosis. At this point Riley was showing signs of improvement so they were all sent home. My wife and I arrived home at midnight Saturday (May 12) to a much changed Riley who limped, was unsteady, had a stroke-like tilt to her head, was lethargic, still was not eating, was showing an unusual obsession with eating grass (which has been obvious for about 3 weeks) and generally not the same boisterous dog that we had left a week earlier. So at this point it has cost us about $1600 and have no answers or prognosis on what the future will be (or not be). Could something in the food, salmonella or toxins cause all this? Riley’s food has been Kirkland premium chicken, rice and veg for most of her life.
May 13, 2012 at 4:00 pm
Our 10 year old Aussie has eaten Kirkland Premium Chicken and Rice for several years. Last Friday, after not wanting to eat her food in her usual hearty manner for few days, she was very lethargic and wouldn’t touch any food offered. I took her straight to the vet having heard about the recall earlier that morning. No robo call from Costco was received by us about the recall. The vet checked Reilly and put her on Metronidazole. She sold me some canned food for unwell dogs and said to try to feed her some every couple of hours and get the medicine down her. After getting her home and feeding her some of the canned food and the pill, she went outside and threw up over and over. She then wouldn’t drink or eat anything else the entire day and we took her back to the vet that evening and had some fluids injected into her back and some anti-nausea medicine. That night she had very bad diarrhea and felt miserable. Over the weekend we worried and nursed her and this morning she was able to eat some boiled chicken and kibbles from the vet. She ate some chicken over the weekend and we are able to get the antibiotic into her with some cheese wrapped around it. It has been so scary and we will NEVER feed Costco (Diamond) dog food to any of our dogs again. Costco refunded us for the 2 bags of food we had, which had the dates and numbers of the recalled products. I am going to be feeding Blue Buffalo as soon as Reilly can get back to her normal eating routine.
May 14, 2012 at 2:10 pm
We have a Springer Spaniel who has been eating Kirkland dry dog food for a year now (he’s almost a year old). We recently switched him to the adult food. There have been no problems and all; in fact, everyone remarks on how shiny his coat is.
May 14, 2012 at 4:54 pm
Annie Burch says:
We have 2 dogs, a 45 lb boxer and recently a 60lb pit bull. We have been feeding them Kirkland lamb and rice. Our boxer has had diarrhea for the last month and the pit bull just developed a rash that doesn’t seem to itch, but is constantly seeping blood on her side. I was just online doing research on what might be causing the rash when I came across this “recall”
May 15, 2012 at 2:04 am
bran says:
my healthy beautiful four year old pit mix died oct. eleventh 2011 and until now i didnt know wtf killed my beautiful girl and trsumatized me watching her light fade. she was a month shy if her fifth bday. vets could not figure it out and all symptoms stated above were those of my girl. i still cry every night and i am going to SUE THE FUCK out of kirkland/costco for this. it isnt fair her light went out so soon. this is hard for me.
May 15, 2012 at 4:56 am
Last year I purchased cat food from Costco (their brand) and found it to be quite smelly, unlike it usually was. I wAs going out of town that day and other family was coming over to take care of my cats while I was gone, Days later when I returned, I again noticed the foul odor with the cat food. I looked in bag but since it was almost full, it was hard to see anything, Later than day my husband poured it from the bag into our storage container and as he was dumping the bag, out fell a dead mouse. We froze it and contacted Costco. Made a report with the store. They gave me my money back for the bag but that was it. I will not buy their products. Now my two dogs have been eating this food that has been recalled. Ugh!
May 15, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Jay says:
Hi, I live in Vancouver BC, it is may 15 and by chance this morning I saw a blurb in a free press news paper that Diamond pet food had been recalled. We decided to check the recall list to see what foods Diamond made. To our shock we saw the brand of food we feed our dog on the recall list! my dog is still sick!!! We bought a bag of Kirkland Signature Lamb,Rice and Veg in april and didn’t open it until the end of april. Our bullmastiff loves food!!!!! We put down her bowl and she gobbled it down as usual. Within a week we noticed that she was very lethargic and listless. We also noticed that she started licking her paws until they would bleed. We took care of her paws the best we could. We thought maybe it is an allergy and decided to change her food. We had to bring her to the vet and they couldn’t figure out what the issue was. However her front paw had swollen up to 3-4 times it’s normal size. The vet put our girl on antibiotics for 10 days. Unfortunately after she finished with the antibiotics we figured it was not a food allergy and fed her once again the Kirkland Signature Lamb, rice and veg. She started loosing the fur off her paw by the next day she was vomiting and had loose stool. Unfortunately we only found out about the recall on the 14th of may!!! I am so pissed off with Costco. When we went to return the food today the customer service guy said that he didn’t know that Kirkland Signature dog food had been recalled!!!! Now my dog is still sick and I am not sleeping worried that she has had this illness for almost 3 weeks. Thank for the phone Costco????? (Didn’t actually get a call). Who is going to pay my vet bills?
Jay, Vancouver BC
May 15, 2012 at 9:56 pm
We fed our two dogs Kirkland Lamb & Rice dry dog food for over three years with no problems… Then last December (2011) the older dog started loosing weight for no apparent reason. Shortly there after, the young dog also started dropping weight at an alarming rate! We spent hundreds of dollars at the vet between January & March with little results… We doubled their food, still both dogs were wasting away! Finally, I switched them to Blue Buffalo food in April… Both dogs are now feeling better & regaining their strength & on their way back to their proper weights. Kirkland food almost killed my two dogs! Costco WILL be hearing about this…
May 16, 2012 at 4:45 pm
I live in Southern California San Diego Area. I bought my NATURES DOMAIN from Costco on Scripps Poway Pkwy. My one dog is diagnosed with lymphoma and started vomiting. I figured it was the chemo. The vet started him on antibiotics and told me to stop chemo for 2 days and see if it cleared up. As of now, it has not. Then today, my other dog (not diagnosed with ANYTHING) starts to vomit. They are both having labored breathing. The thing of it is, they have been eating this food for awhile and the bag is about half gone. I cannot find the bag for the food but I do not think my state is on the recall list. HOWEVER has anyone else in Southern California had any symptoms? I just do not know what to do. Im sure diamond will not be paying for these vet bills…
May 17, 2012 at 1:58 am
Oh also forgot to mention that the non-cancer dog has had extreme itchiness and basically trying to chew off her own skin over the past 2 weeks…
May 17, 2012 at 2:00 am
We are in Victoria BC and just lost our 11 year old lab/border collie to uncontrollable seizures on May 10th. He had been on Kirkland Signature Lamb and Rice for a couple of years and was about 1/2 way through a bag. Not sure if it’s related or not. He had lost weight late last year but seemed to have regained it after being treated for worms.
I will be checking the leftover bag for #’s and discussing this with Costco.
May 17, 2012 at 3:34 am
Peter says:
My wife just bought a 40 lb bag of Kirkland Adult Dog Lamb Rice Vegetable Formula from Costco, and when I opened it up the smell was really bad. It smelled like something dead. I had gotten a letter from Costco about a recall on their dogfood, but the bag we bought was outside of their stated date window. I’m bringing the bag back to Costco today and will switch to another brand.
Fortunately I never gave our dogs any of this food.
May 17, 2012 at 1:36 pm
I have three dogs and they are on Kirkland foods. I have one GSD that had some seizures a couple of weeks ago. Took him to the Vet. and Blood work was ok. Could they have been caused by the food? Other two dogs are fine but the are on the weight manage food from Kirkland.
May 18, 2012 at 1:58 pm
Julie says:
I purchased Kirkland Premium Chicken from Costco and at first my dogs seemed to be doing fine on it. Two weeks ago my young healthy dog became lethargic, anorexic and was vomiting. I tried to get a stool sample but her runs were so loose and bloody that the result were inconclusive. Her bloodwork indicated that she was fighting off a parasitical infection. She required antibiotics, anti-vomiting, and numberous other treatments to regain her health. I really don’t want a rebate on the food. Will never use again but some help with the medical cost will be nice. Have notified Diamond but have not heard back from them.
Thank you for posting Dr. Marie. While waiting for the vet to open I googled my dogs symptoms and came across your site. Being aware of this might have helped to save her life!
May 19, 2012 at 2:32 pm
D. Spencer says:
I feed my dobie Kirkland and have been for about 6 months. He loves it and I havent had any problems with it. He just finished a bag today.
May 19, 2012 at 10:58 pm
Our 4 year Terrier Mix has eaten Kirkland Chicken, Rice, and Vegetable for almost 2 years with no problems. We just purchased a new bag a couple weeks ago, soon after she started to not be herself. When we would take her outside she would just sit in the yard and look around instead of playing and running. Last Wednesday, she started to become very lethargic and we knew something was wrong. We took her immediately to the vet. The vet said she was very sick and needed to keep her there to monitor her. While there they ran many tests and gave her IV’s to keep fluids in her. We would bring her home a nights and waited for the sickness to pass. Unfortunately on Friday night she got worse. I woke up at 3am and layed down with her. About 4am she started to have severe seizures. We immediately rushed her to our 24 hour Animal Hospital. By the time we got there she was almost gone, minutes later she died at the Hospital. This does not make sense for an absolutely HEALTHY dog that was the joy of our family to loosing her to something like this. We never thought in a Million Years that something like this would happen.
I read articles like these before I started to buy Kirkland/Diamond dog food, but TRUSTED that no one would ever sell something that would cause this much loss. I will never trust these companies again after loosing the greatest dog our family ever had. If you are still feeding your dog this food, I was just like you a week ago thinking it would never happen to us… now we are trying to deal with the tragic loss of our family pet.
May 20, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Prefer to remain private says:
I am so sorry Marshall. Please be sure to report AND UPDATE your case with the FDA so they know what is going on. Please sign & circulate this petition that someone started last week. http://www.change.org/petitions/diamond-pet-foods-natural-balance-costco-petco-petsmart-release-all-documents-related-to-diamond-pet-foods-2012-recalls
May 21, 2012 at 11:03 pm
We fed our dog Rocco, a min pincher Jack russel terrier. The salmon and sweet potato Kirkland brand dog food and he lost his appetite and has developed hives all over his body. Our other dog Obon, Rocco’s son has no symptoms accept a lack of appetite. We bought the food in Regina, and I am wondering if the recall has any effect here. We’ve. Checked the website but could this be the Ptolemy or is he just allergic to it? Is anyone in Saskatchewan having this problem?
Thanks
May 21, 2012 at 3:24 am
JHE says:
Before anyone jumps to conclusions that their pet is ill because of salmonella (the source of this recall), do a salmonella fecal test. First of all, salmonella is very, very rare in dogs. However, animals, like people can get sick suddenly for a variety of reasons and casual links do not make for good medicine. My dog who eats Kirkland had a bout of vomiting and bloody diarrhea. It turns out it was run of the mill (but serious) gastroenteritis easily treated by metronidizole (Flagyl).
May 21, 2012 at 2:14 pm
Joe says:
We have fed our 2 labgolden crosses Kirkland Lamb & Rice over the past 2 years in Florida. One of our bags was on the recall list, but was already consumed prior to the warnings with no incidents. We are onto the next-current bag with no problems.
We are extremely saddened by the reports from other dog owners.
May 23, 2012 at 7:45 pm
Irene says:
I purchased Kirkland’s Nature’s Domain Turkey and Sweet Potato dog food for the first time this month. I started feeding it to my dogs by mixing with their previous dog food and 2 days ago began feeding it alone. One of my dogs, a 12 year old Bichon Frise) seems fine with it. But since yesterday my 6 yr. old labradoodle ( who is on Sodium Bromide for seizure control) is excessively salivating, spitting up small bits of food all day long, and is now slightly disoriented…brushing against walls when he walks, a little unsteady on his feet, won’t jump up on his back legs, all very unusual for him). I noticed that this particular flavor of food is not on the recall, but I can’t help but wonder if it should be. This doesn’t seem like salmonella, but as another poster suggested with the same flavor food, something neurological…Anyone else with similar experiences?
May 25, 2012 at 6:20 pm
Michelle says:
I have 1 dog on Kirkland Adult Chicken Rice & Vegetable (largest bag, does not fall in timeline for recall) and 1 pup on Kirkland Puppy 15lb no recall. Both bags purchased in Manitoba Canada.
Just was telling my husband about how runny the dogs stool (like soup) has been the last 2 days, and he thought food recall. googled food recall and found this site….
May 27, 2012 at 4:14 am
OMG! No one from Costco has called me! Why haven’t they called me? I have been feeding my dogs both kinds of Kirkland dry food from Costco for a couple of years and they have always loved it. But this last bag I bought, when I would serve the dogs, they would turn their noses away and I can only get them to eat it if I mix it with wet food, which has never been the case. I cant believe I was not listening to my dogs, they were trying to tell me something?!!! I have been making them eat the food, because it is all we have and we paid money for it. I am throwing it out now!
May 27, 2012 at 6:34 pm
Ok, I just called Costco and the man said the recall was not for Texas that is why I havent been called but he would make a note of my dogs behavior…
May 27, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Just bought a bag of Salmon flavor Natures Domain last week. Right away, I noticed that my 16 month old corgi was not at all interested in eating it. I even tried putting a teaspoon of cottage cheese in it and he barely ate it even then. Just this morning, I had to coax him to eat and he vomited it up 10 minutes later. He’ s been lying around most of the day today but he is drinking a normal amount of water and will play if its with the ball. I received a phone call 2 hours ago from my friend in Raleigh who called to warn me about the food. Her dog eats the same food and had a seizure this afternoon. She’s at the vets office under observation now. Although AZ is not one of the suspected states that the food was distributed to, I’m returning the food to Costco. I just returned from Petsmart with a new bag of Blue Buffalo Freedom.
May 27, 2012 at 9:49 pm
I have two labs and only one eats kirkland dog food and he has been sick for a week. We bought a new bag just a week ago and he can barely stand…He is usually a happy hyper dog. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner. I just thought of it this morning when he only ate half his breakfast (unlike a lab of course). I made his brown rice, chicken, carrots and potato and he ate the whole thing. I am very very disappointed with Kirkland brand Never again!!
May 28, 2012 at 5:07 pm
shawnee says:
Ive been feeding my large dog kirkland chicken and rice since he was a pup. He is now a year old and I just bought a back a couple weeks ago probably 5 hours after I fed it to him he got horrible gas and by the next day had very soft stole, couple days later he had liquid diarrhea, he even messed in his crate, poor guy. I took him off the food and he started improving immediately. But I am not in a recalled state and the food was out of the recalled date being best before may 14th. I am convinced it was the food.
May 29, 2012 at 3:53 am
I live in Arizona and feed our 3 dogs the Kirkland Chicken with Clucosomine and 2 out of 3 got sick after just a day or two. They are at the vet now and my wife called and said pick up the food and stop feeding it to them, Looks like Arizona might need to be added to the list. I am calling costco when my wife gets home with confirmation about this. One of my dogs is so bad I am not sure she will make it. If this is the food and it still on shelfs shame on you costco & Diamond!!!! I will never buy your brand again and exspect to be compensated for this including vet bills. SHAME ON BOTH OF YOU!!!!
June 1, 2012 at 1:03 am
rose says:
after my last posting i have had daily contact with the diamond company vet well thats untill i submitted a new batch number now no one will return my emails or phone calls i live in AZ batch #is KSH03703NL best before march 2013 this adult chicken and rice gray bag this is a problem here in AZ
June 1, 2012 at 6:46 pm
Myles says:
I live in southern California. Been feeding my schnauzer and wheaten terrier Kirkland chicken and rice dry and wet food for over 1 year. The schnauzer last week had horrible gas, noticed his stool was soft, and now he has liquid diarrhea and vomiting. I just figured he got into something in the yard. The last 2 nights he’s been waking me up a couple times at night to go out and diarrhea. He’s been bugging me during the day to go out (more than usual). Yard poops are all soft/diarrhea. He also is only eating the wet food and not much of the dry. I’m not sure what the wheaten’s poops look like right now but the last few meals he has been eating real slow and barely finishing (not usual).
In California, the Costco Kirkland dog food has not been recalled. So is it just coincidence that my schnauzer is having problems and maybe my wheaten too? We’re going to switch food and see what happens.
June 1, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Ana says:
My siberian husky of 7 months has been eating Kirkland Puppy with chicken rice and vegetables for 5 months now with no problems. She has always been super healthy and energetic. Last week she had diarrhea, followed by vomiting, she was extremely lethargic also. I took her to the vet who hospitalized her for four days, saying she had gastroenteritis but now that I read this I’m very suspicious that it was salmonella.
Right now she’s eating a prescribed food from Hills i/d because it’s suposed to be easy on the stomach but after she finishes that one (I don’t really like Hills), I will be looking for something different. Unfortunately, living in Mexico doesn’t give me a los of options but I’m sure I’ll find something.
Has any of your dogs eating Kirkland Puppy been sick this days?
June 2, 2012 at 4:09 am
Minnesota says:
Kirkland chicken and Veggie Adult dog food.- Two of my three dogs seem to be having stomach issues. One is a mix and the other is an aussie. I can hear their stomachs “talking” so loud when they lay near me. They don’t seem to be in any distress and their stools apear to be fine most of the time. I’ll pay closer attention. At first I thought it was the kirkland brand flea and tick topical but now I don’t know. One of the two with the stomach issues just lays down most of the day and she is only 4 years old. Thanks for the info.
June 4, 2012 at 3:18 pm
Minnesota says:
I forgot to mention that I’ve fed my two of my dogs this dog food for years now and have never noticed this issue and that is why I thought it was the kirkland flea and tick topical. I noticed this issue about mid April 2012. The Aussie is a new dog to me and he’s been eating the food for about a year now.
June 4, 2012 at 3:21 pm
I have a Rottie and a border collie and have been feeding Kirkland premium lamb and rice- recently I have noticed the rottie is not wanting to finish his food and he is eating a lot of grass. No more Kirkland as of today! Unreal. What the hell is wrong with these companies?! I am so sorry for all of you have lost your pets.
June 4, 2012 at 7:10 pm
Kansas City says:
We feed Kirkland Super Premium Adult Chicken, Rice and Vegetables, last bag purchased 5/25/2012 with an expiration date of 15 May 2013. The dog is well and energetic as usual. The kibble smelled very fresh and good when opened.
Our dog has been on this kibble for over a year, and sometimes we give him Kirkland Nature’s Domain salmon and sweet potato to spice things up. He enjoys both and tolerates both.
June 7, 2012 at 5:55 am
My 10-year-old LGD has refused to eat Kirkland chicken and rice for weeks now. If I mix in wet he just picks that out. I buy 4-6 big bags at a time. Nobody else has seemed to notice there is a problem but Czak is the smartest. The bags he is now refusing have an April end date and are out of the recall group but I think there is still something wrong. (Chinese ingredients?)
June 7, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Debra says:
I have 3 dogs & 2 cats that have been eating Costco dog/ cat food for 6 years & have never been sick nor are currently sick. Broght K Adult chicken & maintence (grey bag) & purple bag for cats.
June 9, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Yes, we feed our German Shepherd Costco’s Kirkland Signature Lamb and Rice Dog Food, and she has been showing unexplained signs of illness in the last 3-4 weeks. A while back she had a very rough day and was in a great deal of pain. We checked her for injuries, including mouth injuries, and nothing was found, so we thought that she had possibly eaten something that she shouldn’t have. It never occurred to us that it could be her food. That same day she drank some warm milk and then vomited twice and then seemed to feel better increasingly, and was near 100% back to normal by the next morning. Now she is mopey at times, but will still chase her ball without complaint, but she has diarrhea and has a lack of appetite. She is eating the same dog food that we just bought a couple weeks ago. If she continues to show signs of illness we will take her to the vet.
June 15, 2012 at 12:23 am
Anne says:
My golden retrievers had been eating Nature,s Domain Salmon and sweet potato formula for 2 months when my female Asia became ill. Weopened a new bag and suddenly She would not eat the natures domain and stopped playing ball, which she loves. Then she began throwing up and could not even keep water down. We rushed her to the vet and she was placed in intensive care and Ivs were started immediately. She got worse and was having bloody diarrhea.We transferred her to an internal medicine specialist who ran every sort of test, including over 60 ultrasound and X-ray images. Nothing could be found.We then learned of the food recall and asia was tested for salmonella on her fourth day in intensive care. The test came back negative, but she had been on 4 days of medication by then. We almost lost Asia, and it has been a very stressful time, and over $3500.00 in vet costs. Our male Buster, thankfully did not get sick. We are so very thankful that Asia has recovered, and our hearts go out to all those whose pets were lost. I contacted Diamond Foods to let them know that although my bag was not on the recall list, my Asia became very ill and the vets said it was more than likely salmonella. The person answering the phone said that it was impossible because it was from another plant, but I urged him to please check into it. He would not hear of it . We are working with our vets to file the necessary reports.
June 15, 2012 at 4:19 am
Regan says:
I have fed my 3 year old Lab/Dane and 2 year old Boxer the Mature Adult formula of Kirkland brand dog food for at least six months. I live in Oregon, so don’t believe that the food I have is affected by the current recall. My dogs don’t currently have any health issues, stools are normal, however the Boxer has seriously bad gas and a lot of it. However, I am online today to find out if anyone else is having issues with the dry dog food smelling rancid. The last several bags I’ve bought have had the most horrible smell, but my dogs eat it okay, so I thought it would be all right. However, after reading about all of these problems, I’m switching them back to Iams Large Breed or Senior (I feed senior/large breed feeds so that they get gluco./chondro sulf. for joint support).
I also buy the Kirkland canned food (the patee) for my two little Pomeranians. My six year old female is doing fine, however my four year old male has become increasingly lethargic, sleeping the majority of the day and night, and seems depressed. His stool is normal. This has been going on for the last few weeks increasing little by little. Over this past week I was keeping a really close eye on him as there is obviously something that is just not right. I will be changing their food immediately to see if it helps my little guy.
June 18, 2012 at 5:47 pm
The last 3 bags of dog food that we fed our labrador was the Kirkland Super Premium Adult Chicken, Rice and Vegetables. We opened up a new bag during a weekend and on Monday our dog had thrown up twice in the middle of the night. That day he laid down and looked dead and his eyes were at half mast. He eventually came in the house and drank water but didn’t want to eat. The next day he ate again but continued to eat grass and would vomit once or twice a day. My husband looked around the yard to see if the dog had gotten into anything but it didn’t look like it. He improved on Wednesday but vomited again on Thursday. Friday we bought a bag of the Kirkland lamb and rice and that seemed to make him improve. No more vomiting and eating grass. So for us, it seems that the chicken bag was contaminated and the lamb bag was fine.
June 19, 2012 at 3:00 am
We have been feeding our dogs the small breed kirklands dog food for years. They have loved it up until this bag. We bought it towards the end of May in Georgia. We left the dogs with my mom while on vacation and she said they weren’t eating very much. We thought it was because they had a change of housing. When we got back home, they still didn’t want to eat the food for the first few days. Finally they started eating it. Now all of a sudden they have horrible diarrhea and are vomiting.one has rubbed his nose raw and the other is chewing on her feet. Are there any other comPlaints about the small breed food?
June 23, 2012 at 12:04 pm
SoCal says:
We are a large boarding facility that supplied Kirkland canned food for owners who wanted canned food for their pets. We purchased cases of the lamb and rice and chicken and rice. Dogs began getting diarrhea and we at first thought the lamb was too rich for them and eventually used only the chicken. The remaining cases of lamb were donated to shelters. We have reports of over 100 dogs dying and or being severely ill and the only common link is to the canned food. We are in California.
June 26, 2012 at 12:02 am
Prefer to remain private says:
Another poll in addition to the “Consumer Complaints Natural Balance” poll.
Google “salmonella carcinogen correlation.” This may or may not explain why the organ failure problem started late 2011 followed by the FDA salmonella testing.
SoCal, I hope the 100 cases have all filed with the FDA? I am so sorry. I have never cried so many consecutive days (now months) in my life. This nightmare is absolutely heart wrenching.
June 27, 2012 at 12:38 am
Hartland says:
We returned our Kirkland Dog Food to Costco and got new bags of the Kirkland Chicken, Rice, and Vegetable variety. Everything has been going fine right up until about two weeks ago when we opened a new bag and started feeding our two dogs. They’ve become very sick. One has receovered but the other is refusing to eat and when we manage to coax her to eat, she ends up vomiting it up later. She’s very weak and has lost her appetite for any Kirkland food-even the dog treats. I’m afraid we’re going to lose her.
July 6, 2012 at 11:40 am
I have always fed my dogs canidate till a couple people told me about the costco kirkland brand and said they just loved it..well the first bag they ate OK but the second one I have a hard time getting my Bullmastiff to eat it…and she eats everything…she now has a rash on her inner thighs that has turned almost black and bumps on her back and head…getting new food tomorrow…I was feeding the chicken and rice one and the canidate was lamb and rice…will try the sams club one..I heard it got good reviews…
July 7, 2012 at 1:20 am
Mary says:
I have always fed my dog Iams dog food. About two months ago I switched to Kirkland chicken and rice (first mix 80 (Iams)/20, then went 50/50 then 20(Iams)/80. My pit bull mix got the diahiarra really, really bad. She has never been that sick before. She had it for almost 2 weeks an I had her on Flyagl (prescription) and fed her rice and venison burger and then I slowly put her back on Iams. Problem solved. I’m sure it was the Kirkland dog food. The other two dogs I have, both their stools were very, very soft and one of the dogs started to develope diahiarra also and I immediatly started to feed her Iams again….Problem solved! Kirkland is going bye-bye!!!! I also have a sister in law that feeds her dogs Kirkland and she said they have gas very, very bad! She is taking them off Kirkland also.
July 13, 2012 at 12:05 pm
Tom says:
I had tried the Costco Large Breed Chicken for about 3 months about two years ago. I had originally been giving my two dogs large Iams large breed for years like 5 years. Once I slowly switched to costco over a month from the Iams they both seemed to be throwing up a lot of yellow color stuff more and more. It got to the point where I actually returned one of the bags and stopped buying it. This all happened about two years ago. I was convinced something was wrong with the food. Since then I went to Authority from petsmart and they LOVE it and seem very healthy.
July 13, 2012 at 3:21 pm
I live in BC Canada and I have 4 dogs that have been on the Kirland Lamb and Rice and/or the Chicken and Rice. I actually started my Bernese Mountain Dogs on the Kirklands Puppy food. They have all been on it for about a year and a half and have been doing absolutely great on it until about February or March when I noticed a drastic change in coat and weight. I just returned 4 bags to Costco and was telling them at the counter what had been going on and she just handed me my refund and dismissed me saying “Oh that’s only back East where there were recalls.” I said “Oh so the Kirkland’s dog food you sell from here isn’t made at the same Diamond factory.” she tells me “Oh no totally different.” So now I am left with dogs that are not eating, losing weight, etc. I have changed foods a couple times and am now trying Nutrience and they are still not eating well. I won’t feed Kirklands again but am now having trouble deciding on what to feed. I research and continue to be confused and disgusted in what I find in dog food. I am so alarmed by what I have read her. I pray my dogs don’t die from my choice in dog food. I think I may have to take one in for blood work. I just want a safe reasonably priced food that my dogs will enjoy and eat and get some weight back on.
July 23, 2012 at 5:19 am
Jody says:
I just got a dalmation about 51/2 months ago and he has had diarrhea since we got him. At first I thought it was just nerves from being in a new place and having to get use to all of us. However, the systems are not stopping and I finally took him to the Vet. and she is thinking he may be hyper-allegetic to his food. We have him on the green bag of kirkland dog food. We are now slowly switching him over to Medi Cal Hyper Allegic food to see if we can get the symptons to stop. But know I am starting to think that it is the Kirkland brand of food that is causing all his problems.
July 28, 2012 at 2:01 pm
We have been giving both of our older Border Collie mixes (12 and 14) a mix of Nutro Senior dry and Kirkland’s Mature Dog to try to save some money. We also add a tablespoon of Kirkland’s wet or Nutro wet food. We have had both dogs to our vet several times in the last two weeks for diarrhea and vomiting issues. These have been diagnosed each time as varying types of bacterial infections. They are both now on amoxcillin to treat the latest bacteria. Now that we know Kirkland’s food is probably the culprit, we will stop feeding them this food and hope there are no repurcusions. We will be returning the Kirkland’s food and report the problem to them.
August 6, 2012 at 2:43 pm
We have just today had to have our great Cocker Spaniel put to rest because of a suspected liver failure, which seemed to come from nowhere. Several weeks ago, he started showing signs of illness, which we at first speculated was a bad leg or hip, the vet gave him some pain killers. He gradually lost his appetite and became lethargic to the point that he would stand and stare at the wall, rather than react to people other than to voice, it seemed he had lost his sight. We spent lots of time and money over only a few days/ weeks looking into possibilities and finding no answer. We eventually decided that we would prefer him not to suffer any longer if we can’t get an answer and to have him put to sleep.
My father/ the owner then came home and to his shock googled the kirkland food, for whatever reason, to find this page, which lists many of the same symptons listed for a lot of people that Jack faced. We have bought and used the kirkland food for Jack since an early age, but have never been made aware or seen signs of a warning, we have not been contacted by Costco, which I understand must be a huge job, but for something that is potentially killing peoples pets, must be a more effective way of contacting people on record.
Please investigate a way to contact those who have purchaed this food, I would not wish anyone to feel the loss that myself and my family feel today after losing our great dog if there is a better way of contacting customers that MAY have bought your product.
August 7, 2012 at 3:07 pm
I’m so sorry to hear of your dog. You may want to ask your vet about how to get the food tested to see if it was the culprit. At this point, it seems that the issue with Kirkland food has passed. If this was indeed because of the food then people need to know.
August 8, 2012 at 8:34 pm
We bought Kirkland lamb rice and veg with exp of Jun2 29 2013 from santa rosa ca costco store in May. Just opened it 8 days ago, smelled funny. Two dogs, female would not eat it, male did. Within 24 hours he was throwing up, stomach gurguling, shivering, in severe pain, with bloody poop. Took him to vet, almost died, ivs, antibiotics, meds, x rays, etc. Liver enzymes through roof, stabilized him after three days. 1000 dollars!! Vet thinks it was his food!!!!! Reported to FDA and called Costco..Costco states his bag wasnt recalled. Im CONVINCED it was!!!! Been on that food for 5 years without problem till last bag!!!!!!!!!
August 11, 2012 at 6:58 pm
Chris says:
We used Kirkland for our dogs for the last 10 years. Our lastest dogs are only 4 years old. Since March they don’t eat as much. This past week they started throwing up and having diareah. Two different breeds, that were previously healthy. We feed a mix of Healthy Weight and Adult Chicken. They both have bloody diareah. Nothing in common, except the food. Their water is filtered and the same water we drink. They are lethargic and are losing weight quickly. I have purchased medicine and food specifically for Pancreatitus, which they have both been diagnosed with. These are my children’s pets and loved dearly. They are usually so lively and now they barely move. We are extemely worried. So far, 1000 dollars in vet bills. Latest bags purcased in July 2012.
August 18, 2012 at 7:00 pm
chris says:
My son’s dog is also sick. Only thing in common-the food. Kirkland brand bought for years because we advised him to.
August 18, 2012 at 7:31 pm
Sandy says:
My dogs are on Kirkland’s Nature’s Domain Salmon and Sweet Potato. They have been on it for a couple of months now. One dog threw up her food a couple of days ago and my other dog just now had a couple of seizures, minutes apart. The one who threw up is a little over a year old and never threw up before. The other is 6 1/2 years old and never had a seizure before. I will not give them any more of this food. I will be taking it back tomorrow.
August 20, 2012 at 2:06 am
Ray Heath says:
I just read the article on Kirkland dog food. We have been feeding our Aussie Signature Premium for a couple of years. I checked the current bag, and it is safe according the the product code and best before date listed. However, it is a fairly new bag and the previous bag discarded. I do recall our pup (1 year old) had episodes of diarrhea and lethargy for undetermined reasons during that time. I would conjecture we had a contaminated bag. I shall subscribe the the email alert your site offers. Thanks for what you are doing.
August 24, 2012 at 7:14 pm
I am shocked at what I’ve read here. Our UPS driver, Miss Peggy, gives my 17 month old Lab/Border Collie, Tucker, a giant Kirkland dog cookie every time she delivers a package to our home (about 1-2 x a week)…he NEVER eats “hard” cookies or food, he won’t even try..he only likes soft stuff. But, this cookie he eats. I thought this is great, since harder cookies are needed to prevent plaque buildup on his teeth. So, I goggled kirkland brand to see if I could buy them online. I am beyond sickened and heartbroken at what I’ve read in regards to dogs getting sick, and worse..dying. In April, our dog started to tremor, to the point he couldn’t walk or hold his head still enough to eat. After 6 emergency visits, a spinal tap, ct scan, mri, and countless bloodtests, he was diagnosed with Auto-Immune Encephalitis…basically, swelling of the brain. It was gut wrenching…we were hours away from losing him, and we had just lost our lab, Kinzie a few months prior to a tumor in his liver. Tucker is on many medications, as well as monthly Chemotherapy pills…and most likely will be for the next 6 months. He can NOT receive rabies and many other vaccines while on treatment. He cannot play with other dogs, as he gets sick quickly due to the lowering of his white blood cell count. It is disgusting that a dog food or treat could ruin everything for him. His body cannot fight off an illness from a tainted product. We have spent upwards of 8 grand (and counting) to save his life, he has suffered countless tests, and will continue to, as he needs bloodwork twice a month, he has fought hard and most important…he is our precious baby. To think, this could all be for nothing over a possibly tainted dog cookie. It’s beyond absurd. My heart breaks for all of you who have lost a pet due to this company’s complete lack of morals, and utter disregard for life. It should be criminal! It shouldn’t be so God Damn hard for us to find a food that won’t kill our dogs!!! I’m just sickened by it all.
August 28, 2012 at 11:16 pm
I am afraid the Kirkland Lamb and Rice is causing my 4yr old beagle/spaniel mix to have allergic reactions. He has rashes on his paws and one in the front leg. This started after we put him on the Kirkland. He was on Iams and then Beneful ( because Iams was getting pricey) and after reading the stories on Beneful we put him on Kirkland but he has never had rashes like this until we put him on the Kirkland.
September 19, 2012 at 2:39 am
Ellis LeBeau says:
My irish setter, age 11, has been fed Kirkland Lamb & Rice and Nutra Nuggets Lamb & Rice exclusively for the last 10 years. About three weeks ago, he started suffering from nausea, became lethargic and had no energy. I knew he was getting older and had been becoming more accustomed to spending increasing amounts of time napping or simply lying in the sun, so I didn’t think too much about it. Over the last few days, he has suffered from vomiting, has no appetite, even for human food, typically a rare treat, is weak to the point that he cannot easily go outside to relieve himself or get up into bed, and has bloody stools and heavy discharges from his eyes. The worst part is the labored breathing, sometimes after activity, sometimes simply while lying otherwise undisturbed. I do not live in an area covered by any Diamond recalls. But given the onset of these changes, I cannot help but wonder if the food is at least partly to blame. I love my dog dearly, but haven’t the resources to provide hospital care for him at this time. So, I will take care of him myself until he either passes or starts to suffer so much that I am compelled to take him out to the back forty and shoot him. If his illness is the result of Costco’s continued affiliation with Diamond, who seem to have a series of problems with producing foods that are injurious to there intended recipients, I only hope that their attention to short term profits over the welfare of their customers prompts purchasers to abandon them.
September 20, 2012 at 6:19 am
irene says:
i just bought a bag in late Aug , and the expiry date is March 2013. my 12.5 yr old retriever has had nothing but puking, the runs and her hair is just falling out all over the place. i bought her the Kirkland Super Premium Healthy Weight Dog food. i am not feeding her this anymore. she is so so sick all the time. i can’t believe they’re still selling it in the store to be honest. something is terribly wrong.
September 20, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Paula says:
Google pointed me to a comment made about Brian Kenney from Costco, “I filled an incident report with Costco on Mar. 6th. Brian Kenney from the liability dept. also stopped all communication when I requested a retest . . .” but I cannot locate the comment or its date. Can you help me find it?
September 21, 2012 at 4:56 pm
I have been using Kirkland dog and cat food for about three years now and have never had any problems.
September 22, 2012 at 2:49 pm
I have fed my 12 year old irish setter Kirkland and Nutra Nuggets Lamb And Rice Formulas since he was weaned from puppy food. I had a couple of bags that I purchased late last year and from early 2012 that he has been eating for the last several months. I discarded the a bag of Kirkland Signature early this year when I found that mice had gotten into it and died shortly after ingesting some of the food. The replacement bags seemed ok and not knowing about any of the recalls for Diamond products, I continued to feed them. I only feed a small amount of kibble each day, about two cups, supplemented with fresh foods, so I didnt notice any real problems initially, My normally voracious dog began picking at the kibble when fed and wouldn’t eat until he was pretty hungry over the last couple of months. About 5 weeks ago, he began exhibiting anorexia, had a great deal of gas which had a foul smell and became lethargic and a bit disoriented. He would trip and misstep when walking and sometimes would collapse, apparently exhausted for no apparent reason. As he was getting older, I thought this might have been aging related, but in retrospect the onset was sudden and seemed to worsen fairly rapidly. When he collapsed, he would have trouble breathing, often taking rapid shallow breaths. His heart rate accelerated and it took him a long while to regain strength. He had periods when he would not drink and had to be coaxed to both eat and drink. By this time he was being fed fresh foods which I prepared for him 2x or more daily, supplemented by whatever treats or tidbits I could get him to eat. His stools had blood in them and initially when he started having problems he would vomit. This last week he started having even more gas which I effectively countered with over the counter simethicone. But he had really never recovered from his earlier weakness. Sometimes, I would take him outside to poo or pee and he would collapse and have to be carried into the house. For the last 11 years he has slept in my bed, but it is upstairs and he was too weak to climb up to bed, so I stayed down stairs with him. Two days ago he seemed a little stronger, he had been getting weaker over the last few weeks. He actually went uptairs on his own last night. He was breathing a bit more easily and his appetite was a little better. This morning his appetite was gone. He would drink, had small loose stools and urine which was darker than normal. I believe that his system was shutting down. All day he would be in the same area that I was in, but separated by a little distance. I took him out to our porch to let him breath this afternoon because he was having difficulty breathing. The simethicone, he has been dosed with it the last 3 days, didn’t seem to help with his gas.Breathing was shallow and rapid, heart beat was fast and he had a little liquid coming from his mouth. There appeared to be tears in his eyes. Normally, he has some heavy mucous and it’s routine for me to clean them for him, but this was different. The liquid was watery, again like tears. I petted him, talked with him and tried to comfort. He was groaning a little and appeared to have pain, but he didn’t react as though it were a sharp acute pain, more of a deep seated one which he had been complaining about for a while. His breathing became weaker, to the point of being unnoticeable. His heart rate also became more difficult to detect. He convulsed. His gums and tongue assumed a bloodless pallor. He died at 6:30 P, PST. I would have loved to have been able to take him in to the local vet to see if He could have been saved. But I am long term unemployed, partially disabled and do not have the money to do so. I only wish that I had known more about the Diamond products earlier. I know that it seems horrific not to have had my friend professionally cared for. But my wife is just recovering from cancer, has neuropathy and I have late stage glaucoma and heart problems. The money goes just so far and medical bills already take a disproportionate amount. My dog and I have been virtually inseparable since I adopted him and there aren’t words to express my loss.
September 28, 2012 at 4:53 am
Thomas says:
It might be happening AGAIN. I bought the bag in August/September 2012. I read many of the previous posts and my dog is acting in a similar manner -lethargic and stiff.
Last April I bought a bag of Krkland lamb and rice adault dog food. When I opened the bag; it smelt rather pungent to almost rank. I feed it to my dog any way as I believed it was just the way fresh dog food smelt . He ate it. A few days into it he began to act really stiff and tired. He is a really active and athletic dog. I called the hotline on the bag and was routed to the vet that represents Diamond of Kirkland. She assured me that the dog food was good and that my dog might just be old, tired or sick from something else. In the mean time I biught another bag of food at Petsmart and my dog began to feel better. I threw away the Kirkland food. Later that month I received a notice that there was a recall for Kirkland dog food. I felt sick. Last month however I needed dog food and was at Costco so I bought another bag thinking that the problem was solved. I gave my dog some food yesterday and this morning and he is acting sick and tired again. I feel like an idiot. However I also feel incredibly angry and disappointed in Costco. This is pathetic. I cannot believe I trusted Costco.
October 2, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Lily says:
My 5 year old lab, who has been fed Kirkland food all her life, is showing symptoms of diarrhea and Vomiting.. I picked up some product samples of a food that was like Kirkland from a local pet store and she was fine.. but now that we have gone back to her Kirkland she is getting vomiting again.
(Note that we were given a bag of Kirkland dog food that was not matching the recall back in the summer when I returned the dog food, and my lab was fine during the summer recall.. no signs of vomiting or diarrhea)
Out of curiosity and concern, how did you learn about the newer recall? Do you have the Product Number and expiry dates in which the bags are affected?
Thanks!
October 9, 2012 at 12:39 pm
My 10 LB Dauchsaund Savana is 9 yrs old next mo. She is gray in her face now but has always acted like a lil puppy with so much energy. Even the vet says this when she comes in for her visits. She’s extremely healthy and never had any problems. I’ve fed her cheaper dog foods the first year or two (Puppy Chow, etc) until I read something touting how Costcos Kirkland Dog Food was way better for them. It was affordable too so we began feeding her the puppy blend in the yellow bag(?). She loved it. Everyday, once in morn & once in the eve, and she always ate it like it was her last meal.
It’s now day 2 of her acting like all these stories I’ve read thru above this. She has no appetite, lying around, lathargic, whimpering quietly as if in pain, acting as if its difficult just to walk anywhere. We thought she hurt her back like is usual for dauchsys but that’s not it. We watch her closely & seems like its internal.
I posted it on my FB pg & a GF asked if I feed her Costco food. Why yes…
And thus, it led me to look up this ‘possible’ recall.
We are not in a financial position to take her to the vet either and just been nursing her (hoping) back to health.
After reading all the above, even if this is all a big coinsidence, we are throwing out the Kirkland dog food tomorrow & buying some other brand.
I will try to get back on here & post results; be it bad or good. Just for any help this may be to another dog owner/lover.
I wish everyone healthy & happy pets!
October 6, 2012 at 4:09 am
Caitlin says:
I am not sure if too much time has passes since the recall but I started my 4 dogs on Kirkland chicken in the beginning of the year. During the first bag one dog got diarrhea so we switched her back. When she was better we tried again and she was fine. The other 3 were fine. My boy is a 7 year old soft coated wheaten terrier. He is very healthy and fit and never would have expected him to be where he is today. In August he was so lethargic and refused water and food. We thought he was going to pass on. The vet found a tumor on his spleen. We don’t know if it is cancer but there is high possibility. He was given 2-4 months to live before his spleen erupts and he bleeds to death. Removing the tumor will only expand this 1-2 months in which he will spend recovering from invasive surgery. We opted to not do surgery because of this. He is doing well for now. Just thought I would share. This might not be related but we are so confused how a healthy dog could get so sick so fast. 7 does not seem very old for his breed.
October 8, 2012 at 4:59 pm
I feed my 9 big dogs the kirkland chicken and rice dog food. I havent had problems with any of them. I also have my one dog who breaks out with hot spots and the only two dog foods that he hasnt broken out with are Kirkland and Natures Recipe.
October 22, 2012 at 3:54 am
Lynn says:
I do feed the Kirkland Signature Lamb and Rice formula to my dogs with no ill effects. But when I tried the Chicken and Rice Formula, they all turned their noses up at it. I am currently feeding Pedigree Original because I am dogsitting my friends’ Coonhound but I dislike the smell, it smells like horse dung but they sure like it!! Plus there have been some great sales and coupons and my friends have been purchasing Pedigree for their dog so they all eat the same food. I have always liked the Kirkland formulation, it’s a reasonable price and they eat far less of it and their poops are smaller so I presume that it’s a more nutritionally efficient formulation. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the dates cited in their message and avoiding those lots. I would like more information if there is any available from anyone. Thanks a million.
October 31, 2012 at 8:10 pm
I just got an email from a friend who knows I buy my dog food at Costco. She told me about the Nature’s Domain recall. I have two aussies of my own and I foster aussies for a rescue group. I have been feeding all of them the Nature’s Domain Salmon and Sweet Potato because my male has chicken and grain allergies. I did have one episode each with my dogs wherein the dogs got diarrhea and vomiting that was nonstop. The diarrhea turned bloody. I had to take them to the vet to get antispasmodic shots and other medication. I had no idea about the recall — I just assumed they got a stomach flu. At different times, two of the foster dogs got the same thing. I started thinking there was some plant- or soil-based toxin that was causing this. I have been feeding these poor dogs this food for years. I have received no robocalls from Costco about this recall. Believe me, they are going to get a call from me. I also noticed that all of the dogs would periodically just throw up their food just once and then be fine. I thought they just had sensitive stomachs. For grain-free food, the Costco price is just over half what pet stores charge. I guess you get what you pay for. I would never jeopardize my dogs’ health for money. Just as with other products, I assumed Costco just got a terrific price due to the volume it sells. I sure hope the pet store food indicates where it is made. I won’t be buying any Chinese-made food anymore, if I can at all help it. I’m mad as hell about this, but so thankful to my friend for alerting me.
November 5, 2012 at 4:18 am
My 8yr old German shepherd normally very active has been displaying very off putting behaviors. Lethargy, weight loss, he seems to smell around his food vs actually smelling the food, almost like he’s blind and can’t smell, I have to coax him to eat…and the past two days he’s been pooping in his crate, which he never does, he’ll vomit before ever pooping in doors. I feed him and my pitbull mix the Kirkland lamb and rice, and have for years and only until 2-3mo ago he started with these symptoms…both eat a lot more grass than normal. I was considering arthritis and old age, but he’s 8. And well that isn’t too old. And has been very healthy and active up until July. I’m going to buy a new brand tomorrow and pray it helps and then definitely return both the dry and wet foods I use from costco. I will update the GSD condition if anything changes…
November 5, 2012 at 8:39 am
I forgot to mention that this all started to happen in July this year, before this he was your average normal German shepherd, running and chasing balls, playing with our 4yr old pitbull. And in 3mo time it all went downhill? Anyways I switched them both to blue the salmon grain free. They both ate it like it was the last meal on earth! Even the shepherds pace was faster than it has been in months. And he came over to me as to either ask for more or say thank you. Probably both because I did give him a Lil extra. He’s so thin. I hope this works! And I don’t understand why Costco California is Ignoring this, except to think that pet owners have not caught the coaralation between the food and the illnesses. Although they did suggest my pet may have distemper something he’s been vaccinated for…? But still I’m going to wait and see how the food improves his health if not then when I’m able to put him in my car I will have him checked for it, I am far too pregnant (2wksaway If that, from delivery) to struggle carrying him into my SUV alone.
November 6, 2012 at 10:06 am
We purchased our stinky batch of Kirkland chicken dog food a few weeks ago, and immediately took it back. Apparently when we asked if they’ve had a huge influx of returns, they replied no… Odd, but okay. We bought another bag – stinky again. So I thought I’d outsmart the system and head to another Costco, returned with 2 bags, both stinky. Clearly there’s a problem. We’re thinking we may just need to change dog food. Any suggestions?! These comments started back in April – this is December in a few days – is this dog food stench going to clear up or should we just jump ship on Kirkland for our pups?
November 27, 2012 at 2:52 am
L Helt says:
Is there a way to get the food tested? How do we report this to Costco? We live in the NW and my dog just died after similar symptoms as the most recent posts. Never had a chance to switch his food to find out if that’s what it was. Please help!
November 29, 2012 at 5:20 pm
I also want to know if there is a way to get the food tested and if so where? I have been keeping an eye on this site and reading comments since my parents dog died in April 2012. I have decided enough is enough. I saved some of the tainted dog food in hopes of being able to prove it caused his death. Here is my story-
My parents dog died in April with all of the exact same symptoms that everyone else experienced. We ended up spending over $900 trying to save him. It happened just a couple weeks after switching him to Kirkland brand food.
I had fed Kirkland to 3 of my dogs for years with no problems and my parents dog always chowed down on my dogs food so I unfortunately talked my parents into switching to Kirkland.
After their dog passed away my Mom gave me the remaining bag of food. The following day after feeding it to my dogs they were throwing up and having “accidents” on the floor (which never happens). These were the same symptoms my parents dog started out with. I knew something wasn’t right so I did a Google search and found this site. I could not believe my eyes!
I immediately stopped feeding my dogs ANY & ALL commercial dogs foods and treats. I started making home cooked meals for all 4 of my large dogs. It was a full time job in itself but at least I knew what was going into my dogs food! I have since switched over to RAW. My dogs will NEVER eat even a morsel of commercial kibble for as long as they live.
Costco has NEVER contacted myself or my parents about the recall. I had been purchasing 2-3 bags a month of Kirkland food for a few years. My Mom had purchased the one that killed their dog and numerous times had picked up some for me under her account.
Someone needs to be held liable for all of the deaths of peoples pets. Thank you for taking the time to read my story.
December 4, 2012 at 7:13 pm
HI..my heart goes out to everyone who has lost a loved one due to this..my husband and I have two dogs, had two dogs. Both healthy, raised on a farm lots of exercise and love…they sleep in our house and play with our daughter. We just lost our dog Ozzie Saturday night. He had an irritation on his front paw that he had licked down to the skin…now I think it must have been itchy allergic reaction to the food…Our other dog Maggie refuses to eat the dog food and that started about 3 days ago..So far she hasn’t shown any symptoms Ozzie showed, she just will not eat it…unfortunately it was too late, we had no idea something in his dog food could have done this since we have been buying this food for a long time : ( We plan to complain to Kirkland and Costco and beyond that we don’t know what else to do, just get the word out..Thank you for letting us share our stories and good luck to all the dog owners out there, and our hearts are with you all!
December 10, 2012 at 6:31 pm
John H says:
We have feed our twwo beagles Kirland Wieght Management dog food for years but about a week ago one of them become ill throwing up. Thinking he just eat something from when we were on his daily walk we moved him to home cooked meals for a a couple of days and his symtoms cleared up. As we moved him back onto his Kirklind fodd he once again is showing signs of sickness, bad gas, lathorgic etc. My wife believes the food smells and looks different so we suspect there might have been changes or possibly a bad batch. We purchased the food at the Alpharetta GA Costco around the 15th of December.
December 28, 2012 at 2:41 am
I have two Weimeraners that will be turning
2 -Years-old in April 2013. I have been
(Puppy kibble until they turned 1 and then
bag- ever since). They have always had ‘soft’
Stool, but I didn’t think anything of it.
I bought a new bag of Kirkland dog food
About 3 weeks ago and then Two
began vomiting and not eating. I tried
feeding him plain rice and pumpkin, but
the only thing he would eat was frozen
pumpkin pieces. His stool ended was semi-
solid-soft-jelly like each time he went to the
me. On Wednesday, he vomited again…
I called the vet and made an appointment
for the following day. The vet said that he
didn’t look dehydrated and everything seemed
‘Normal’, other than the stool which she obtained
by digitally examining his rectum.
She said the jelly-like substance was plasma
with Blood in it. The vet
decided to keep my boy overnight to do
some X-rays, Blood tests and obtain a better
stool sample. Blood tests were ‘normal’,
but showed That he was slightly dehydrated.
X-rays showed there was ‘something’ in his
stomach that was blocking Entrance into his
small and large intestines. The vet decided
she needed to do ‘exploratory surgery to remove
the ‘object’ in his stomach. She kept him overnight
With IV to get his fluids up. The next day,
the vet did the surgery…only to find that there
was no ‘foreign object’in his stomach, but that
his stomach lining, small and large intestinal
lining and lymph nodes were all inflamed.
Blood tests were normal, urine sample was
Normal, stool sample was normal. The vet
thought maybe it was inflammatory bowel
disease. It took over a week for the biopsy
That my boy has lymphocytic-plasmacytic
inflammatory bowel disease… I find it very
odd that this would all of a sudden come up
After them eating the same brand of food
for almost 2 years…And I honestly think that
this last bag of Kibble was the triggering factor.
My little 60-lb girl just began vomiting 2
Nights ago and has jelly-like stool now…
and she won’t go Anywhere near her bowl
of Kirkland kibble…which she would normally
gobble up 2 cups in under a minute!!
I honestly think I bought a bad batch of
Kibble…and will definitely not be buying
any more of That brand! I have been
researching different kinds of dog Food
all day and will be switching foods as
Soon as I can take my boy off of gastro-
At least my ‘babies’ are still alive-I am SO
sorry to hear of all the dogs on this forum that
have not made it! I couldn’t imagine losing
these two!!!! They are my children!
A frustrated ‘mother’.
January 3, 2013 at 12:35 am
Sorry to hear about your dog. It is unlikely that a food would be the cause of lymphocytic plasmacytic IBD. But a change to a new food could have brought out a condition that was already there.
January 8, 2013 at 5:20 pm
I have been feeding my 1.5 year old dog Kirkland food (Chicken and Rice) for the past year. I have always just thought she was a picky eater, because she kind of pushes at the food in the bowl when I put it down, and sometimes spills it on the floor on purpose. I thought it was a puppy thing. We just opened a new bag of food, and she has woken me up several times each night since to be let out. She never does that. Her poop is pretty much liquid. I am really worried after reading this and unfortunately had just put her evening meal down for her. I will be switching her food. Has anyone heard of a recent recall on any Kirkland dog foods in Canada?
January 7, 2013 at 11:15 pm
Our Bernese Mountain Dog has had diarrhea and lethargy for a few days now and after reading the YEARS WORTH of comments from other people I’m going to take her off the Kirkland food. How awful! I’m so sorry for everyone who has been exposed to this, poor dogs. Also Dr. Marie, thanks for your comments however I would have to argue that non organic GMO foods can lead to all sorts of problems. Having a look at this documentary may be a good place to start
I am going to start making my own dog food from natural ingredients. Organic, non GMO turkey, carrots, and brown rice. I’m in Atlantic Canada does anyone know of healthy dog food producers?
February 2, 2013 at 6:44 pm
Our Bernese Mountain Dog nearly died last spring – she had been eating Kirkland dog food with no problems then had an episode of diarrhea which over the course of a month an a half became a nearly fatal case of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Its a long story and over $7,000 in vet bills and medications. Not until I started researching food after she was well on the road to recovery did I discover there had been a Kirkland food recall early last spring when she started getting sick. (March 2012) Perhaps foolishly, I am back to feeding her the salmon formulation of Kirkland food – she likes it and has not experienced any further problems. It was recommended she eat a form of protein she had not eaten before (salmon, venison) During her treatment she was on a special diet of very expensive canned and dry kibble. I plan to continue with Kirkland food unless there are signs of intolerance or any stomach upset, will also be watching for recalls.
February 5, 2013 at 6:12 pm
Kat says:
Re Kirkland Nature’s Domain. We have five large mixed breed dogs , a German shepherd, two golden retrievers, two border collies. We ran into a problem with Orijen salmon based dog food so we tried the salmon and sweet potato from Costco. The dogs looked very good for a year, but in Feb/March of this year, 2013, they started blowing coat, acting lethargic, refusing to finish their food. We have two friends that also switched to this food at the same time and one dog experienced unbelievable itching and her coat look like it was burned off. She was in agony. When I saw the similarities, I stopped the food and, in most dogs, saw an immediate improvement. When I contacted Kirkland, the verteriarian insisted it was environmental! It has taken a lot to bring my dogs back to the level of health they had previously and my older golden retriever appears to have permanent health damage.
Please keep the good work of spreading the word about this food. I will never purchase a dog food from costco or made in china again.
July 18, 2013 at 4:10 pm
My dog passed away from this dog food. Is there a class action suit?
February 15, 2013 at 4:11 am
Sara says:
Wow, I’m sadden to hear of all the illnesses these dogs have experienced.
I bought Kirkland dog bones for the first time on Jan 2, 13. I have 2 boxers, one pure bred and the other is a mix. Our pure bred boxer began have odd symptoms including excessive drooling (excessive for a boxer even, there were puddles without reason) and welts on her head and neck. I brought her to our vet who thought she was having an allergic reaction, to what, we didn’t know.
About a week and a half after the welts, she lost her balance and couldn’t walk without running into walls or falling over. I immediately brought her to our vet again who ran tests – everything was normal in her blood tests except her WBC count was slightly elevated. She progressively got worse over the next 2 days to the point we had to carry down stairs and help her onto our bed. Our vet asked if she had gotten into anything in our garage, etc but we couldn’t think of anything. She recommended a neurologist.
After a few days of trying to think of what could be causing this, I realized it might be those dog bones (which I had instinctively stopped giving her when she very first lost her balance). In the back of my mind I suspected a connection but it wasn’t until she vastly improved after not having those bones for a week (Thank God!!) and my mom called to tell me she heard those bones were bad news. I discussed with my vet who agreed and we have thrown them away.
I hope this helps ensure that no one else has to go through this with their dogs. Such a scary and desperate situation to be in when you don’t know what is wrong or how to help!
Thank you for your time and effort.
February 23, 2013 at 11:37 pm
We have a 7 month old bulldog; we were in the middle of switching his food to Kirkland. He use to get all excited to eat, like puppies do, not anymore – he would just walk by his dish. Then he developed a mite – one that comes out when their immune system is low. We switched back to his normal food (which was easy because we were at half and half at the time) he gets excited again to eat… just waiting for the mite thing to clear up….
March 14, 2013 at 4:15 pm
Luke says:
We have two Sharpei. Both have had a healthy appetite. One after another , they have either been slow to get their food or have not eaten altogether. They have had fevers, vomiting, and been lethargic. Dogs do get sick once in a while, just like we do. Anyways we feed them Kirkland salmon meal and sweet potato. The latest batch was NDS0110C3NL CE 01:40. I had a bag of another batch # which I opened today. They both finished their bowls like they usually do. I have not found the batch number on any “recall” list. Is it listed?
March 19, 2013 at 12:33 am
It has been my experience that Costco’s KIRKLAND branded products are going downhill further and further… this year’s flea treatment is no improvement over last year’s terrible product, their Puppy Chow kibble is soo poor that my puppy refuses to eat it, several Kirkland brand items are UNDERweight when you place them on a scale… COSTCO is no longer what it used to be… even their gasoline is poor, they add their own additives on site, my car that requires Premium idles rough – definitely is not Premium !
March 27, 2013 at 4:02 am
C. Taylor says:
With all these dogs STILL getting sick more than a year after the recall, how is costco allowed to continue to see the food? Something needs to be done to inform everyone about this so that they will stop buying the food.
April 19, 2013 at 3:33 am
I have fed Kirkland Chicken brand for many years. The end of April 2012 all three of my golden retrievers started to become ill. They didn’t have an appite and they broke out with hot spots. One healed on her own but the other two wouldn’t heal. I took them to the vet and they were placed on antibiotics. Once that cleared up within a couple of weeks the same two that were on the anitbiotics broke out again with hot spots. Once again to the vet and once again on antibiotics. After they healed from that bout, my middle golden broke out a third time all down her back! multiple sores from her shoulders to the middle of her back, as well as between her toes on one of her front legs. Again on the antibiotics. I was frantically trying to find out what was causing these skin eruptions, diarehhea and lack of appitite. I thou She went through this all summer long, from April to September. After the sores healed, she started limping
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who serve him in various capacities,-being partly trained to act as a body-guard, regularly regimented, and equipped with drums, flags, bows and arrows, while a few carry muskets. They all reside in the palace, which consists merely of an immense assemblage of cane and mud tents, enclosed by a high wall. The skulls and jaw-bones of enemies slain in battle form the favourite ornament of the palaces and temples. The king's apartment is paved, and the walls and roof stuck over with these horrid trophies; and if a farther supply appears desirable, he announces to his general that 66 his house wants thatch," when a war for that purpose is immediately undertaken.
Mr McLeod, during his residence at Whidah, in 1803, found the country still groaning under the cruel effects of Dahoman tyranny. He particularly deplores the case of Sally Abson, daughter of the late English governor by a native female, who, trained in all European accomplishments, added to them the most engaging simplicity of manners. Suddenly she disappeared, and Mr M'Leod's eager inquiries were met by a mysterious silence; all hung down their heads, confused and terrified. At length an old domestic whispered to him that a party of the king's half-heads (as his messengers are termed) had carried her off in the night, to be enrolled among the number of his wives, and warned him of the danger of uttering a word of complaint.
A more pleasing spectacle was presented to Messrs Watt and Winterbottom, who, in 1794, ascended the Rio Nunez to Kakundy, and made an excursion to Foota Jallo, the principal state of the Southern Foulahs. This people profess the Mohammedan re
ligion, are orderly and well instructed, display skill in working mines of iron, and in carrying on the manufacture of cloth, leather, and other African fabrics. Caravans of 500 or 600 Foulahs were often met, carrying on their heads loads of 160 pounds weight. The article chiefly sought after is salt, which the children suck as ours do sugar; and it is common to describe a rich man by saying, he eats salt. The two principal towns, Laby and Teemboo, were found to contain respectively 5000 and 7000 inhabitants. The king could muster 16,000 troops, whom unhappily he employed in war, or at least hunts, against twenty-four pagan nations that surround his territory, chiefly with the view of procuring slaves for the market on the coast. When the travellers represented to him the iniquity of this course, he replied, "The people with whom we go to war never pray to God; we never go to war with people who pray to God Almighty." As they urged that, in a case of common humanity, this ought to make no distinction, he quoted passages from the koran commanding the faithful to make war on unbelievers. They took the liberty to insinuate that these might be interpolations of the devil, but found it impossible to shake his reliance on their authenticity.
A more recent and memorable intercourse was that opened with the court of Ashantee. This people were 'first mentioned, in the beginning of last century, under the name of Assente or Asienti, and as constituting a great kingdom in the interior, the same that was described to Mr Lucas at Tripoli as the ultimate destination of those caravans which, proceeding from that city, measure the breadth of Africa. Being separated from the maritime districts, how
ever, by Aquamboc, Dinkira, and other powerful states, they did not come into contact with any European settlement. It was not indeed till the commencement of this century that these states were obliged to give way before the growing strength of the Ashantee empire, which at length extended to the borders of the Fantees, the principal people on the Gold Coast. These last were ill fitted to cope with such formidable neighbours. They are a turbulent, restless tribe, and extremely prompt in giving offence, but in battle they are equally cowardly and undisciplined. The King of Ashantee having, not unwillingly perhaps, received from them high provocation, sent, in 1808, an army of 15,000 warriors, which entered their territory, and laid it waste with fire and sword. At length they came to Anamaboe, where the Fantees had assembled a force of 9000 men; but these were routed at the first onset, and put to death, except a few who sought the protection of the British fort. The victors, then considering the British as allies of their enemy, turned their arms against the station, at that time defended by not more than twelve men. Yet this gallant little band, supported by slender bulwarks, completely baffled the fierce and repeated assaults made by this barbarous host, who were repulsed with considerable slaughter. Seized with admiration and respect for British prowess, the Ashantees now made proposals for a negotiation, which were accepted, and mutual visits were paid and returned. The English officers were peculiarly struck with the splendid array, the dignified and courteous manners, and even the just moral feeling, displayed by these warlike strangers. They, on their side, ex
pressed an ardent desire to open a communication with the sea and with the British, complaining that the turbulent Fantees opposed the only obstacle to so desirable a purpose. A treaty was concluded, and a thoroughly good understanding seemed established between the two nations. The Ashantees, however, made several successful incursions in 1811 and 1816; and on the last occasion the Fantees were obliged to own their supremacy, and engage to pay an annual tribute. The British government judiciously kept aloof from these feuds; but in 1817 a mission was sent, under Messrs James, Bowdich, and Hutchinson, to visit the capital of that powerful kingdom, and to adjust some trifling dissensions which had unavoidably arisen.
The mission having set out on the 22d April, 1817, passed over a country covered, in a great measure with immense and overgrown woods, through which a footpath had with difficulty been cut, though in some parts it presented the most beautiful scenery. Being delayed by Mr James' illness, they did not arrive at Coomassie, the capital, till the 19th May, when they were surprised at its unexpected splendour. It was four miles in circumference, built not indeed with European elegance, but in a style considerably superior to any of the maritime towns. The houses, though low, and constructed only of wood, were profusely covered with ornament and sculpture. The array of the caboceers, or great war-chiefs, was at once brilliant, dazzling, and wild. They were loaded with fine cloths, in which variously-coloured threads of the richest foreign silks were curiously interwoven; and both themselves and their horses were covered with decorations of
gold beads, Moorish charms or amulets, purchased at a high price, and the whole intermingled with strings of human teeth and bones. Leopards' skins,
red shells, elephants' tails, eagle and ostrich feathers, and brass bells, were among the favourite ornaments. On being introduced to the king, the English found all these embellishments crowded and concentrated on his own person and that of his attendants, who were literally oppressed with large masses of solid gold. Even the most common utensils were composed of that metal. At the same time, the executioner, with his hatchet on his breast, and the execution-stool clotted with blood, gave a thoroughly savage character to all this pomp. The manners of the king, however, were marked by a dignified courtesy ; he received the strangers cordially, and desired them
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Cyprus is one of the most popular European destinations for investors who wish to acquire European citizenship. It is currently one of the very few countries within the EU which offer direct Cypriot & subsequent European citizenship and passport in a short period of time (6 – 8 months). The Cyprus Citizenship Scheme is considered to be the most straight forward route to becoming a European citizen. It is aimed at high net worth individuals, investors & entrepreneurs, allowing successful applicants to enjoy all the benefits of both Cyprus & European citizenship.
The following family members are eligible to apply for the Cyprus Citizenship Program :
Main Applicant – husband or wife
Children upto (and including) the age of 17
Children between 18 – 28 (provided their application is reviewed by the council of ministers prior to their 29th birthday & they are financially dependant on the main applicant & are students working towards their 1st university degree or 1st Masters degree).
Any child of the main applicant who is financially dependant due to a severe physical or mental disability
Parents of the main applicant, provided an additional € 500,000 investment is made in Cyprus residential property.
The following are the investment criteria that an applicant & family members need to satisfy in order to qualify for the Cyprus Citizenship by Investment Program. An applicant may invest in any one or a combination of the below options, provided that the total investment will amount to at least € 2,000,000, and the applicant holds that investment for a minimum period of 5 years :
Donate EURO 75,000 to the Research & Innovation Foundation. This obligation can be waived under certain circumstances
The applicant may invest EURO 2,000,000 in Cyprus property, land development or infrastructure projects. The investment in real estate must be held for a minimum period of 5 years, after which it can be reduced to a minimum of EURO 500,000 in residential property. In cases, where the applicant has chosen not to invest the entire EURO 2,000,000 in residential property (choosing instead to invest in a mix of different investments) OR invests in a residential property that was previously used for a CIP, then the applicant must invest EURO 2,500,000
The applicant also has the option to invest the entire amount of the EURO 2,000,000 in shares of a Cypriot company, which has been established & is operating in Cyprus
The applicant may also invest in the units of “Alternative Investment Funds” or “Registered Alternative Investment Funds (RAIF), or financial assets of a Cypriot company, which are licensed & supervised by the Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission (CySec), and whose investments are made exclusively in the Republic of Cyprus, in investments that meet the criteria of this scheme or in areas approved by the Ministry of Finance
If the applicant’s parents are also applying along with the main applicant, an additional investment of EURO 500,000 in Cyprus residential property has to be made for them to also qualify for citizenship
Some other important criteria to be satisfied by an applicant include the following :
The applicant & eligible family members must have a clean criminal record
A “Planning Permit” & “Completion Certificate” must be obtained for every CIP approved project
When a property is under mortgage, a “bank waiver” letter must be obtained
All applicants must obtain & hold a Cyprus Residence Permit for a period of 6 months (which can be applied for simultaneously with the application for Cyprus Citizenship)
Provided that the application has been duly submitted, with all supporting documentation, and the applicant meets all criteria, the time frame for completion of the Cyprus Citizenship process is between 6 – 8 months.
The main applicant’s spouse can submit application simultaneously with the main applicant
The main applicant’s minor children (below 18) can obtain Cyprus Citizenship after their parents have obtained citizenship. The decision on this application is normally taken in one month
The main applicant’s adult children (18 – 28) must submit their application after the main applicant has obtained their citizenship. The time period for such an application is again normally 6 – 8 months
The main applicant’s parents must submit their application after the main applicant has obtained their Cyprus Citizenship, provided they have made the additional € 500,000 investment in Cyprus residential real estate (NOTE : The main applicant & his/her parents can also collectively acquire a residence, provided the total value of this property is at least € 1,000,000).
There is no requirement to physically reside in Cyprus before, during or after the application, or even after acquiring citizenship.
Due Diligence is carried out by both us at Migratesmart® and by the government of Cyprus on the main applicant & dependents, as well as by the bank receiving the investment funds on the applicant’s source of funds. The period of due diligence depends on the circumstances of each client.
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::: Having a dream vision intercepted is a "known precident" as you know in-game... However to be sure what's happening/happened you might need to ask Zal'Kazzir, Kyuad or someone else that would be more knowledgeable on these things than Durgaz. Really there's no way I could justify allowing Durgaz to make a leap in that knowledge. If you (Andrew) can guess, I'd say Durgaz could get the same info - but for any definitions further, you'd likely need help. You'd be welcome to invite any of the other players to read and reply here along with you. Assuming that they're watching the crystal with you and such...
::: Having a dream vision intercepted is a "known precident" as you know in-game... However to be sure what's happening/happened you might need to ask Zal'Kazzir, Kyuad or someone else that would be more knowledgeable on these things than Durgaz. Really there's no way I could justify allowing Durgaz to make a leap in that knowledge. If you (Andrew) can guess, I'd say Durgaz could get the same info - but for any definitions further, you'd likely need help. You'd be welcome to invite any of the other players to read and reply here along with you. Assuming that they're watching the crystal with you and such...
3) Where was Zal'Kazzir on the nights of those two dreams, and what was he doing?
Revision as of 15:44, 5 March 2008
This is a Bluebook entry for you to inquire about all the various memories, visions and seer site informations Durgaz has had. You can ask any questions you like. I'll reply and you can continue asking questions until you're satisfied. The reason you can do this is because you have the crystal sphere that allows you to review and show your images. Otherwise it would be Intelligence checks.
However, just as we've always done I want YOU to ask questions and I'll answer as best I can.
If you'd like to determine anything regarding Zal'Kazzir's true name or transformation I'll need you to be as specific as you can about:
what you want to know (people/places/things and any details)
when you're looking (over the time that you can)
what you're looking for or what you're looking for that might be absent, etc...
Feel free to ask as many questions as you like, here by bluebook to get you rolling and then again in-game when needed.
I have a touch of info that I'll start you off with since you said you were reviewing all Zal's history and related images. This has nothing to do with his true name (yet) but is another note that Durgaz could find as result of questioning. THIS note below is what you got for asking to look into Zal's past as your "freebie"... the rest is up to you to figure out and ask the right questions.
If I can't answer or think you need to ask more questions before I can answer I will say so.
Durgaz received some interesting visions one night... I described these during a game session (in the hallway) so I only have my notes about what was said. HOWEVER, the reason that this is out of the ordinary is that this "vision" was not "normal". Though I mentioned it, you didn't pick up on it at the time but THIS "vision" was actually in a dream when you slept. Durgaz has rarely gotten ANY seer visions when sleeping. They have normally come on him when awake, forcing him to go unconscious (his eyes turning white and rolling back) for a few seconds as the vision is shown.
So... as Durgaz reviews his visions and such he notices that a "vision" he remembers cannot be replayed on the crystal sphere. Its like it didn't happen. It wasn't a vision in the normal seer way... Here are those notes:
Scene 1: Durgaz standing in the mouth of a Dragon, barely holding on, until a flash of silver on his left reveals Ahimia, stabbing her blade up through the beast's mouth, and a few words in courtier from behind him fill him with the strength he needs to break the beast's jaw.
Scene 2: Durgaz stands before a large crowd of Dead Mother orcs, all of whom are chanting for him, and he thinks back to what led him to this place, he can see a serpent finding the orcs, a serpent calling to them to bring them to him, and providing the freedom he needs to break them of the sendings. (there are both male and female orcs involved)
Scene 3: Durgaz marshalls his forces, battling threats in the mountains to secure his people's future. As Durgaz rushes to aid a number of Dead Mothers who are about to be overpowered by foul shadow-trolls, a huge dog-headed giant, with pincers like a crab steps around a corner and decapitates a troll, just as a huge spider-like creature sinks deadly fangs into another, saving the orcs from certain death. The two huge creatures then bend down to speak with Zal, who orders them back to defend the City, as he and Ahimia approach Durgaz.
Scene 4: Black robed humans (very distinct from legates; black robes with green and silver trim - Zal's family colors) are seen in numerous locations across the human lands, spying, gathering intelligence, sabotaging shadow operations and funneling the information back to Zal'Kazzir, who walks into a war council and moves several troop markers on a battle map, changing a plan to prevent disaster.
Scene 5: Durgaz stands at the head of HIS new tribe, now arrayed for battle, Vardatches and armor glinting in the sun, as he looks around, he can see Eranon at the head of a Cadre of Elven warriors, gleaming and bright, a large phalanx of dwarves, grim and strong, a host of Erenlander warriors and a mighty wedge of Sarcosan Cavalry, lances tipped with beautiful pennants. All of these mighty forces are united and held together by the coils of the serpent, and as he follows the serpent to it's head, he looks behind to see Zal and Ahimia standing with him, prepared to battle at his side.
The serpents across the vision seems to represent Zal and Ahemia, and are shown to be crucial in a number of scenes above.
In a way all pathwalkers have a connection. You could say that those of the same path might be even more entwined. This has seemed to be especially true with Craigth Galeck and Durgaz. When they first met the visions Craight "shared" with Durgaz were strange and mixed but still yet important to Durgaz's own destiny. And in the past Durgaz has see Craigth within his visions ... what if seeing Craigth was not by chance. What if Craigth somehow was helping Durgaz, helping to point out flaws in the visions handed down to the new pathwalking seer (Durgaz) from the elder (Craigth)?
It was in one particular vision (aquainted to the above inconsistency) that Craigth interceded to point out the mechanations of others in dream, destiny and fate... It was THIS vision that Durgaz looked in on, seemingly from a dream had by Eranon - that Craigth tried again to help.
However, at the time it wasn't seen as "help". Because there was no reason to doubt... Until now.
In the link above to the vision - you can see specific passages highlighted in RED. These passages are the main points that Craigth was questioning by repeating them over and over. This entire vision IS a "real" vision for sure. However Durgaz was seeing a dream vision given to Eranon. It was a false vision and Craigth reached out to warn Durgaz in the best way his broken mind could...
Questions
Start asking... You can ask further questions on the points above. You may also begin investigating and asking questions about any other visions or times/things in Zal'Kazzir or any other person you have access to...
I may be misunderstanding you, so just to clarify:
1) The first vision detailed here, the "Blank Spot" vision, did not occur in the usual eyes-glaze-over-and-fall-off-the-boat sense. It manifested as a dream, which no previous visions had (is that right?) Also, Durgaz cannot replay it in the crystal sphere.
A: Correct - that "vision" actually occured one night when you were asleep. It was a "vision" that I shared to you verbally in the hallway, hence only having my notes. Correct - Durgaz can NOT reply that image in the Crystal Sphere. However the notes (which are the basics) are what Durgaz remembers of THAT particular "vision" that he "can't find" anywhere. Its like it didn't happen or wasn't a seer vision at all...
2) The second vision, the one that was actually directed at Eranon, was also not a "vision" per se, and also came as a dream (or did it?) However, in Durgaz's version, Craigth intermittently appeared (maybe not literally, but his presence was felt somehow) to point out key sections of it that he appeared to "question". Is the implication that the vision was a true one, but that the red sections don't belong, or were somehow "inserted"? We know from Zal's experience communicating with Eranon's sister that dream visions CAN be intercepted and possibly altered by someone with the knowledge to do so. Is that a possibility here?
A: Incorrect. That vision WAS in your normal (eyes glaze over) form. However it happened as a result (apparently) of the "dream vision" Eranon had had the night prior. If you remember correctly I gave Steve the "dream vision" and at the same time gave you what Durgaz saw... which WAS one of your visions as normal. Then I believe it was the next day that Eranon shared that he had a "vision" and Durgaz noted that he had most of the same imagery - Eranon's was more straight-forward and without Craigth in it at all. You can ask Steve for him to reread his "dream vision" if he wants to compare again.
Correct that in Durgaz's vision Craigth appeared intermittently...
The implication (might be) that Craigth was helping the Pathwalkers, Durgaz specifically here, by pointing out that this was NOT a "vision" - rather it was something ELSE.
The red sections were the sections that Craigth was emphasizing for you to pay attention to. None of it really "belonged" this was a hint to you to pay attention.
Having a dream vision intercepted is a "known precident" as you know in-game... However to be sure what's happening/happened you might need to ask Zal'Kazzir, Kyuad or someone else that would be more knowledgeable on these things than Durgaz. Really there's no way I could justify allowing Durgaz to make a leap in that knowledge. If you (Andrew) can guess, I'd say Durgaz could get the same info - but for any definitions further, you'd likely need help. You'd be welcome to invite any of the other players to read and reply here along with you. Assuming that they're watching the crystal with you and such...
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This very useful tax disc holder not only does what it says and finely holds tax discs, it also has a list of helpful things to tell the Guard in case of emergencies. This often overlooked piece of equipment has cried out for a redesign perhaps since the dawn of motoring. Sceptics will point to the 'Keep Going Sure It's Grand' slogan and label this a callow branding of a standard Tax/Insurance/NCT disc holder but no, this device has so much more to offer. Not only is it lovingly crafted from 100% genuine pleather in a shade of patriotic Kelly Green but on the outside or 'Guard side', lies the complimentary phrase 'You're looking well guard'.
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How does it come?
Made from Plastic. Backed with peel off adhesive so it sticks to your window. Coated in phosphorescent ink which glows when the Guard hits it with his torch as they study your particulars.
The tax disc is approx. 28 x 10 cm
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sign up and be in with a chance of winning free gifts for the whole year and receive weekly emails from us packed full of new product information, general goings-on and the odd discount.
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Credit can be useful—if you use it as a tool to help you reach your goals. Be careful! Some companies and people don’t want to help you; they just want to help themselves to your money.
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Pre-approval
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Bottom line: That won’t be the last offer that you receive for a credit card. Wait until you’re ready…and then choose the company whose card you want.
Remember, credit unions often offer credit cards with lower interest rates than are available elsewhere.
In a word: Avoid! You’ll hear ads on the TV and radio. You might even get e-mails offering to help you “repair your credit quickly and easily!” Ignore these offers. These types of “services” can end up costing you more money than you actually owe your creditors.
You are the only one who can improve your credit rating. The best advice? Be careful with your credit from the start, and don’t get in over your head.
How can someone steal your identity? According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft. What information do the ID thieves use? Your name, Social Security number, credit card number, or some other piece of your personal information are most commonly used.
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Unauthorized Charges
Watch your credit card. If it’s lost or stolen, report that immediately to the credit card issuer. If your card is used without your permission, you can be held responsible for up to $50 per card.
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Remember to report your lost card as soon as possible. If your issuer has a 24-hour, toll-free telephone number, use it. Then follow up with a letter to the issuer, including your account number, the date you noticed your card missing, the date you reported the loss.
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All domestic packages are shipped via UPS and USPS on business days only - (M, T, W, Th, F). This does not include weekends.
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Welcome to the Orthopedic Joint Replacement Program at Norton King's Daughters' Health. Our team of orthopedic surgeons, nurses, and therapists specialize in joint replacement care to provide you with an exceptional experience from start to finish.
As we like to say, It's your life. Go live it!
Are you ready for joint replacement surgery?
Check out this decision tool if you think joint replacement surgery might be in your future.
Once a patient and his or her physician decides that joint replacement surgery is needed, the program begins. The process includes:
Registration and insurance verification;
Pre-surgery testing;
Preoperative care and preparation information.
Team members review medications and provide a checklist for the morning of surgery. Patients will be asked to select a coach (often a spouse, relative or close friend) who will assist them after surgery. Once our surgeons are completed, patients will be moved to a private room on the fourth floor. Nurses specially trained in joint replacement then help patients begin recovery. Physical therapists will arrive to discuss specific targets and goals prior to discharge. Learn more about our physical therapy program. Follow-up appointments with the physician will be scheduled, along with outpatient therapy sessions.
All patients entering the Orthopedic Joint Replacement Program receive a Joint Replacement Notebook. It's an educational and informational tool for patients and family members—from the physicians, nurses, therapists and other members of your joint replacement team.
Patients should bring the notebook to all of their appointments and to the hospital for surgery. Members of the joint replacement team will provide updates throughout the process. The notebook is a resource with phone numbers, appointment dates and guidelines for care and recovery after surgery. It contains answers to a variety of frequently asked questions (FAQs), as well as a variety of exercises to be completed at home. It also contains safety tips for every room in your house.
Why have joint replacement surgery?
Most candidates for joint replacement surgery are individuals with chronic joint pain that keeps them from enjoying their favorite activities or that interferes with their ability to complete activities of daily living. The goal of joint replacement surgery is to relieve pain and restore the patient's ability to enjoy activities.
Benefits of new technology and procedures
Advances in technology and surgery techniques—including anterior-approach hip replacement and muscle-sparing knee replacement—have significantly reduced recovery time for most patients. Most patients undergoing a knee or hip replacement surgery walk the same day of their surgery, and most return home in one or two days. These new procedures help limit postoperative pain.
Benefits of a coordinated joint replacement program
With a coordinated program, patients are actively involved with their care from the moment they decide to have surgery. It also helps that our orthopedic physicians, nurses and therapists are all trained in joint replacement care and procedures. This helps them provide you with the best care and achieve the best possible outcome.
Patients begin rehabilitation while at the hospital and continue therapy after discharge. By coordinating care from start to finish, patients know what to expect throughout the process. Care plans include everything from preoperative testing to postoperative therapy and follow-up visits with the orthopedic surgeon.
Our Joint Replacement Program coordinator helps guide patients through the process. With the orthopedic surgeons and presurgery testing located inside the Main Campus Medical Building and adjacent to the hospital, patients in the program can access care at one location.
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Wrapping up a storied four-year college career at Duke that included a NCAA Championship in 2010 and numerous individual ACC and Tournament accolades, Kyle Singler's slide to the second round was somewhat surprising, but not entirely unexpected.
Opting to start his career in Spain with Lucentum Alicante, Singler seemed to have taken the fact that he wasn't selected in the first round in stride and has been one of the most pleasant surprises in the European game this season prior to the end of the lockout. With the lockout coming to an end, Singler made a significant career move electing to play for Real Madrid, though some may be disappointed not to see him in a Pistons uniform this season.
As a rookie for Alicante, a club that has narrowly avoided relegation each season since being promoted from the LEB in 2009, Singler quickly emerged as an offensive leader among the European veterans playing around him. Leading the team in scoring at 14.4 points per-game as they shot out to a 7-3 start, the second round pick made a significant impact by doing many of the same things he did as a college senior.
While not scoring inside the arc or rebounding at quite the same level, he's shown a more consistent shooting stroke from beyond the 3-point line, taken what defenders gave him off the bounce, and made heady plays with and without the ball in his hands.
As the lockout ended, Singler found himself in a unique situation, as his opt-out clause gave him to opportunity to not just return to the NBA, but pursue a contract with any club. With the exodus of talent from some of the ACB's top clubs, Singler's ability to adapt, produce, and win earned him an opportunity to sign with Real Madrid for the remainder of this season.
Making the unconventional decision to snub the NBA for a significant raise with one of the wealthiest teams in Europe, the former Blue Devil was in inserted into the starting lineup for Real Madrid on December 14th game against Partizan Belgrade as Rudy Fernandez's replacement. Though he won't be a top offensive option like he was in Alicante, Singler's move to Madrid will give him a chance to play against the top competition in the world outside the NBA before reassessing his future this coming summer.
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Another player who is seemingly just a consistent jumper away from being a solid NBA rotation player is Kyle Singler. He took more catch and shoot jumpers than anyone in this study at 4.6 per game, but only made 34% of his attempts, ranking ahead of just Jan Vesely, Tobias Harris, Chris Wright and Malcolm Thomas.
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DraftExpress
May 22, 2011, 11:18 am
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Feb 17, 2011, 01:21 pm
Kyle Singler has certainly lived up to his lofty high school ratings as far as Duke is concerned. With his senior season and college career winding down, Singler is again an essential piece of a talented team that is a key contender in the hunt for a second national championship. His NBA future is still very much a cause for debate, though.
Singler has decent size for an NBA combo-forward at 6-8 with a solid 230-pound frame and average length. As mentioned in previous articles, he is just an average athlete, however, without NBA-caliber explosiveness or quickness.
Though his numbers and percentages have fluctuated, Singler has progressed gradually as a scorer during his four years at Duke. He is averaging 17.5 points per game primarily as a spot-up shooter on just 20.2% of Duke's overall offensive possessions. While he is shooting only 36.4% from beyond the arc on six attempts per 40 minutes pace adjusted, he still shows the same high release, quick release point, and fluid mechanics as in the past. On film, he is a streaky shooter who flourishes in rhythm, but who often displays shaky shot selection, which he will certainly need to improve as he transitions to a new role at the next level.
Though Singler is still a solid perimeter shooter, he is a less than efficient scorer inside of the arc. His 48.8% 2FG ranks him in the bottom half of our top 100 prospect rankings, but it represents his best showing since his freshman season. Singler displays a solid mid-range arsenal built on footwork and fundamentals, but he lacks the first step to excel as a slasher even at the collegiate level.
His lack of explosiveness does him few favors around the rim where he continues to struggle as a finisher, especially against long and athletic defenders. He also struggles to get to the line, where he attempts just 4.1 free throws per 40 minutes pace adjusted. Similarly, while his ball-handling skills have improved, he still drives right on almost 70% of his possessions.
Singler will likely play a similar role as a spot-up shooter at the next level and he has proven to be an outstanding role player for Duke throughout his career. This season, in particular, he has thrived as a capable and willing passer while turning the ball over a career low 1.9 times per 40 minutes pace adjusted. Similarly, his high energy level, effort, and focus on offense will likely help him overcome some of his athletic deficiencies in the NBA.
Despite being a solid man-to-man defender at the collegiate level, Singler will likely struggle at the next level due to his below average lateral quickness and length. As has been the case throughout his career, Singler struggles to stay in front of quick perimeter players and oftentimes lacks the strength and size to guard the post, which is a positional issue that will follow him to the next level.
Furthermore, Singler has regressed further as a rebounder, averaging just 6.9 rebounds to 40 minutes pace adjusted, numbers that are decent for a small forward and very poor for a power forward.
Though Singler is a proven winner and a relatively complete player at this point in his career, there are questions surrounding the extent of his upside, as he doesn't seem to have improved a great deal over the past few years. Not possessing the size or strength to operate effectively in the post, or the quickness and ball-handling skills to be a great shot-creator on the wing, there are some concerns about whether Singler is destined for a role as a one-dimensional player, one who is not particularly consistent at that particular dimensionshooting.
The fact that Singler has been a role-player essentially throughout his college career, doing so on a competitive and winning team throughout, will play in his favor, though. He is not the type of player who will need to make a huge transition in his style of play to make an impact. Furthermore, he's ready to contribute immediately, as he's a mature player both physically and mentally, who has been coached by one of the most respected men in basketball over the past four years. These things, along with his strong intangibles, could all look very attractive to a good team drafting in the second half of the first round looking for a solid piece to add to their rotation.
Nonetheless, scouts will be watching closely to see how well he performs down the stretch against elite competition and in individual workouts. While Singler's draft stock may not be as high as earlier in his career, his size, basketball IQ, and pedigree will surely endear him to NBA teams.
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After entering the NCAA ranks as one of the most heralded players in an incredibly deep and talented recruiting class, junior combo-forward Kyle Singler has finally emerged as arguably the most important player on Dukes roster.
From a scouting perspective, however, Singler has yet to reach the potential his lofty recruiting rankings indicated and does not appear to have improved all that much from last year, even taking somewhat of a step back in the minds of some. He continues to play a similar role, that of a tweener who is not quite sure of his role and is still in search of a consistent jump shot, rather than a complete perimeter scorer who can carry a team on his back.
At 68, Singler still has good size for a stretch-forward, combo-forward, or small forward at the next level. Though he has filled out his frame nicely since his freshman season in Durham, he lacks great length and explosiveness, which will not ease his transition into the next level.
On the offensive end, Singler has regressed since last season, but nonetheless displays the talent that made him an interesting prospect as a freshman and sophomore. Over a third of his field goal attempts come from beyond the arc, but he is shooting a career low 33% from that range, and a disappointing 46% on 2-pointers.
His uncharacteristically bad shooting percentages are curious considering his fluid mechanics and quick release. Even though he does not get a tremendous amount of elevation, his size and fundamentals should allow him to be a more reliable threat from beyond the arc.
His shot selection does not make things easy for him, though, as most of his attempts are heavily contested. While Dukes lack of perimeter depth, a somewhat undefined role, and the excessive minutes (35 per game) he sees all likely contribute to his offensive inefficiency, his inability to consistently make shots hurts his NBA potential severely.
Inside of the arc, Singler is clearly a skilled player, though whether or not these abilities will translate to the next level is still up in the air. His average first step will not do him favors as a slasher at the next level. He is not a great finisher either, lacking the length and explosiveness around the basket to utilize his size and strength.
Improving his handle would help him in this area, as he needs to work on dribbling closer to the ground and not losing the ball when he drives in traffic. As we have written before, Singlers mid-range game is very solid at this point, and he is able to create his own shot against most collegiate defenders. He is one of the few big men in the country who can score from anywhere on the floor, the type of versatility that makes him a potential match up threat at the next level and certainly puts a silver lining on an otherwise disappointing season.
Singlers defensive potential at the next level is somewhat questionable. He has proven to be a solid man defender for Duke when he puts his mind to it, but his lack of length and lateral quickness already shows up when defending college players on the perimeter, let alone NBA caliber athletes. Singler is grabbing 8.2 rebounds per 40 minutes pace adjusted, which is solid considering his size and Dukes deep frontcourt and, despite a slight drop from last year, his competitiveness and willingness to mix it up on the glass should be duly noted by NBA types.
Singler may be kicking himself for not even attempting to test the NBA draft waters last year, as there is a very good chance that he would have been a first round pick. This year, his draft position is less certain. While this season has been somewhat of a disappointment thus far, it is not too late for Singler to reemerge as a viable NBA player. After all, it was not too long ago that Singler was considered to be one of college basketballs elite talents.
With big tests remaining against Georgia Tech and North Carolina, not to mention in the NCAA tournament, Singler will have plenty of opportunities to prove himself on the big stage. He will almost surely test the NBA draft waters this summer and if he can find his game again, and especially snap out of his shooting funk, there is no doubt that Singler can work his way back into a legitimate first round draft pick.
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-Kyle Singler- Singler barely touched the ball in the five on five action we were able to see, but he did show a really versatile skill-set in the three on three and two on two action we took in. He looked extremely competitive getting after guys and trying to make things happen, showing a really nice feel for getting his shot off using head fakes and other crafty moves. His body is looking better and better these days, even if he didnt shoot the ball as well as we may have hoped in the drills.
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NCAA Weekly Performers, 3/3/09
One of the few high profile freshmen from the class of 2008 to return to college, Kyle Singler has done a nice job taking his game to the next level for Duke as a sophomore, seeing his per 40 minute pace adjusted stats go up in virtually every category this season.
On the offensive end, Singler has shown more with his dribble-drive game this season, which all starts with his truly exceptional grasp of ball fakes and rip moves. Not an especially quick athlete, Singler uses these crafty moves in combination with a rangy first step and excellent timing to get past his man, where he shows a good controlled dribble in getting to the basket, though not the advanced ball-handling to make dramatic changes in direction.
Once he gets the step on his man, Singler doesnt really possess the second gear to consistently get his defender off the hip, but he exhibits craftiness in using his body to shield the ball, enabling him to get off creative shot attempts in the lane, as he has shown proficiency with floaters and pivot moves, leading to running hooks or turnaround jumpers. At the basket, Singler lacks a bit in vertical explosiveness, so he struggles to finish at times when going up strong, something that will be more of a concern against the stouter weak side defense at the next level.
Despite his great shooting form, Singler still hasnt had great success as a jump shooter at the college level, shooting just 36% from behind the arc and a disappointing 69% from the free-throw line. From behind the arc, Singler looks very good at times, mostly when hes shooting spot-up jumpers in rhythm, something he excels at. Singlers accuracy falls off dramatically when hes taking jump shots off the dribble, however, as even though hes able to get good separation with stepback moves, he doesnt maintain the same rhythm in his shot as when hes catching and shooting. According to Synergy Sports Technologys quantified statistics, Singlers averaging 1.07 PPP on catch and shoot situations this season, as opposed to an abysmal 0.49 PPP off-the-dribble.
While Singler is a very good scorer at the college level, he has also excelled in other areas on this end of the court this season, upping his rebounding noticeably, which is evident on the offensive glass. Singlers motor has gone to the next level this season, as hes constantly finding opportunities to crash the boards on the offensive end, doing a great job of hustling in general here. When evaluating his film, teams will like the competitiveness he shows, emphasizing that he projects to become more than just a spot-up shooter. Off the ball, Singler does a good job staying in motion and finding openings in the defense. Singler has also done a good job as a passer, playing an unselfish style, moving the ball, and showing good court vision from static positions and on the move.
On the defensive end, Singlers lateral quickness is still questionable, but Singler does his best to make up for that by showing excellent attentiveness, a good fundamental stance, and hes also developed strong reflexes defending the perimeter. While he mostly plays the power forward position for Duke, Singlers been switched onto perimeter players frequently throughout the season, and hes done a decent job not getting exposed. It is worth noting that he often gives up a little bit of extra space to shooters, however.
Looking forward, Singler will have a tough choice to make this coming offseason, as he currently projects as a mid-to-late first round pick if he declares. There are some questions about what position he will play at the next level, but combo forwards of similar physical builds such as Hedo Turkoglu have found niches in the league, regardless of position. Singler still needs a lot of work to develop his skill level to have that kind of impact, both with his ball-handling and his shooting, however teams will likely be attracted to his relentless work ethic, very high basketball IQ and strong role-player potential.
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12 freshman were taken in the 2008 draft, including nine of the top 10 ranked players in the 2007 high school senior class. The lone one who decided to stick around was Kyle Singler, and that wasnt exactly considered a big surprise. Singler did not have a bad freshman campaign by any means, as he finished the second leading overall scorer on a team ranked in the top 10 for most of the season. He did not have an overwhelmingly good year either, though, particularly down the stretch.
Singlers best attribute as an NBA prospect will always revolve around his excellent all-around scoring instincts as a 6-9 perimeter player. Showing a beautiful looking stroke from beyond the arc, complete with a high-release point, solid range, and really nice touch, Singler is bound to improve on his 34% shooting accuracy from beyond the arc last season. He was very good with his feet set (39/100 or 39% according to Synergy Sports Technologys quantified player report), but saw his accuracy drop off dramatically (8/44, or 18%) when attempting rushed, contested jumpers. That largely has to do with his fairly slow release, which doesnt always allow him enough time to fully get his legs underneath him.
Singlers shot-selection and all-around decision making looked very freshman-like at times last season, taking some tough looks very early in possessions and turning the ball over a little bit more than you would hope. 43% of his attempts from the field came from beyond the arc.
More than just a one-dimensional shooter, Singler is also very much capable of putting the ball on the floor, thanks to his nice first step and excellent ball-handling skills with either hand for a player his size. He utilizes shot-fakes well and really knows how to set up his drives. He gets to the rim at a fairly decent clip, but isnt always able to finish strong at the basket due to his poor combination of strength and explosiveness, which sees him get his shot blocked relatively often. Regardless, he takes the ball strong, and gets to the free throw fairly often, making nearly 78% of his attempts from the charity stripe.
Not a big enough part of his game, but definitely showing strong potential, his mid-range game looks very dangerous in the rare opportunities he had to pull-up off the dribble and execute difficult step-backs and fade-aways, being able to get his shot off almost whenever he pleases due to the high release point of his shot and his terrific size. Its obvious that hes watched a fair amount of Dirk Nowitzki footage. Along the same lines, he shows some raw ability to step into the post and punish smaller defenders with a nice turnaround jumper, not being afraid to fight for position inside, even if he obviously doesnt have the physical tools to do all that much in there at this point.
Defensively, Singler looks very much stuck between positions at the moment, not being big, strong or long enough to adequately defend many of the big men he was matched up with last season (he played a good amount of 4 and even some 5), but not looking quick or agile enough to guard small forwards on the perimeter.
Singlers lateral quickness looks extremely questionable at the moment, as opposing players regularly beat him from the perimeter and on the pick and roll, often making him look very slow and upright trying to stay in front of them. His poor 6-10 wingspan doesnt help him out enough in this area, although he does good timing, aggressiveness and feel going after rebounds, which may indicate that there is still some hope on this end of the floor. He seems to do a good job reading the scouting reports and attempting to take away his opponents strengths, although right now players can just bully him around and force him off-balance (especially in the post), meaning hell definitely have to put on some weight to compete against higher level athletes.
Now left as the most highly touted member of the 2007 high school recruiting class still in college, Singler could very well be primed for a breakout sophomore season. Certain NBA teams weve spoken to liked him a lot last year already, so dont be surprised to see him emerge as a pretty serious draft prospect as soon as this upcoming June.
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Kyle Singler may not be generating headlines like some of his fellow freshman, but hes been an instant contributor for the 18-1 Blue Devils, playing 20 minutes in all but one game for his team, while finding ways to contribute all over the floor. Singler is a slim 69, with decent length, and his game likely projects him as a small forward at the next level, even though hes spent most of his minutes at power forward and even center for Duke, which obviously is lacking top-flight inside players. Singler is a below average athlete by NBA standards in terms of quickness and explosiveness, but he has very good coordination and fluidity, and also runs the floor well.
Singler has a very crafty offensive game, and coming into college, most expected him to do most of his damage from the mid-range, but that really hasnt been the case thus far. While we at DraftExpress saw him create and finish on some high-difficulty mid-range shots at various high school all-star games this summer, his mid-range game hasnt been a consistent staple of his offense at Duke, and when he does use it, its mostly in the form of spot-up jumpers or fade-aways from the mid post.
Singler seems to be focusing on expanding his range, with 63 of his 165 field-goal attempts coming from behind the three-point arc, where hes shooting just 33% thus far. This might be viewed as concerning by just looking at the stats, but digging deeper, we see that his jump-shot is pretty much perfect textbook form, boasting a quick, consistent, and very high release. He does a great job finding open space for his jumper on the floor, and most of his attempts have been of the catch-and-shoot variety in open space. Given the lack of issues with his mechanics, his shooting percentages will likely improve as he continues to adjust to the added range and puts in more and more repetition practicing his shot.
Singler also has looked very strong making cuts to the basket off the ball, showing excellent court awareness and a nice ability to catch-and-finish at the rim with excellent touch. With the ball in his hands, Singler will also make some isolation drives, usually off a ball-fake or shot-fake to start, which he sells well and needs to sell well, as he doesnt have an explosive first step. He can drive left and right with the ball, and has solid ball-handling in space. In the lane, aside from some spin moves, Singler doesnt show the greatest change of direction ability with the ball, which leads to some charges. What Singler is very good with is his footwork, which is evident in some of his crafty moves at the rim, where he uses his pivot foot especially well.
Playing as a power forward or center for Duke, Singler gets posted up a decent amount, though he has struggled there thus far this season. While he shows good footwork and craftiness here, his lack of explosiveness has really hurt him, as hes very prone to getting his shot blocked on moves going towards the rim (anything but fade-away jumpers essentially).
Aside from his scoring game, Singler finds many other ways to contribute, showing excellent hustle while being willing to do anything and everything his team asks for. Even with his slim build, he is always active fighting for position down low for rebounds. He hustles after loose balls, gets out in transition, is always moving without the ball in the half-court set, and also shows nice flashes of passing ability, hitting cutters, feeding the post, or making post-to-post passes.
On the defensive end, Singler shows a good fundamental base and clearly puts in the effort when defending the post, but with his lack of strength, he is very easily backed down by formidable post players. To his credit, he does a good job using his length to front the post at times, but for the most part struggles in this area. On the perimeter, while showing nice reflexes and fundamentals, Singlers lateral quickness is suspect.
Singler has a lot of skills and definitely has the potential to play in the NBA down the road, but hell likely need another year or two in college to improve upon his game. Adding some strength would be helpful, and hell need to continue to develop his outside shot, something that should just come with time given his outstanding mechanics. As of now, Singler is a player that very rarely strays outside his teams offensive system to score his points, which leads to some inconsistent production, as he doesnt always get the necessary field-goal attempts to make a substantial impact in the scoring column. To reach his potential, at some point Singler will need to show off some of the creative mid-range game we saw in the summer, and put in more of an effort to create his own offense.
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Nike Jordan All-American Classic: Main Event Recap Yellow Team
May 01, 2007, 02:28 am
Kyle Singler had a very nice game, showing off his impressive versatility with nearly all aspects of his game, doing a good job chipping in any way he could in his teams victory. Singler started off the game by going to work in the mid-post area, converting on some very impressive sequences that exhibited his strong footwork and awareness on the offensive end of the court. Singler first scored on a move where he faked in the middle of the lane, turned, and faded away, throwing up a rainbow over his taller defender for a swish. Not long after, Singler made an equally impressive move on a baseline drive, pivoting under the rim and putting up a nice reverse with a soft touch for the lay-up, faking out his defender in the process.
Singler spent most of the rest of his game scoring off the creation of his teammates, not getting many opportunities to create his own offense. He made two easy lay-ups around the hoop off guard penetration in the halfcourt, and also made a spot-up three in transition. He did get one more opportunity to show off his own driving ability late in the game, though, where he drove the ball left and switched hands near the hoop, laying up a right-handed finger-roll off the glass and drawing a foul in the process for the and-1. Singler also showed off some nice dribbling abilities in the fullcourt, being able to handle some of those duties to assist his teams guards.
Defensviely, Singler made a few nice plays, making a nice block in transition from behind that was excellently timed, and making one nice steal in the halfcourt where he used his length and anticipation to cut off the passing lane.
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Nike Jordan All-America Classic: Friday Practice
Apr 21, 2007, 01:59 am
Singler had a really strong performance here, showing off his smart and crafty game in a variety of ways. Singler hit two spot-up 12-foot jumpers in the game, using glass on one of them, but also missing on two attempts from the same range. He also was able to score at the rim, making a nice up-and-under lay-up driving left in which he drew the and-1 and using a similar move later in the game to draw the foul but not convert the basket. He also had a nice post move on one occasion where he up-faked his man and went under the hoop to reverse the ball off the glass. He also finished on a few lay-ups in the halfcourt and transition. Singler exhibits excellent footwork on his drives, in the post, and with his mid-range game, often getting himself out of traps with ease. Singler also had an impressive block on the defensive end in transition, where he blocked the 70 Kosta Koufos going for a lay-up.
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Apr 19, 2007, 01:58 am
If you somehow missed out on the Adam Morrison maelstrom last season, dont worry. Youll get your chance to watch the next Larry Bird this fall. And trust me, Kyle Singler isnt the next Larry Bird. Hes the next Larry Bird, in that hes tall, white, and displays that near-supernatural feel for the game which we all know from previous great white hope incarnations nearly makes up for that trademark awkward movement style. After his first 30 point game at Duke, which could happen as early as his first game at Duke, the comparisons will begin in earnest. This is a virtual inevitability, just like the backlash that will follow from those tiring of every tall, white finesse player being compared to Larry Legend.
The first thing to note about Singler is that at the college level, he is much more than just a shooter. He certainly can shoot the ball, but his all-around ability and feel for the game stand out more than anything else. Singler hasnt scored a whole ton of points on the all-star game circuit, but has still managed to impress with an assortment of intelligent passing, opportunistic board work, commitment to defense and generally intelligent play. Singler is already a master of utilizing pump fakes and body contortions to get himself looks in the lane, much in the same way a certain other west coast star did last March. But while Morrison eventually got caught up in trying to force his own offense a bit too much, Singler appears content to play within the context of the offense even in the all-star game setting, only regularly pushing the issue for his own offense in a transition or defensive breakdown situation which affords him a bit more space.
Singler still has some work to do as a shooter, especially from beyond the college 3-point line. There were few opportunities to see him create for himself in the midrange even in the practices, but the few instances we did observe confirm that he is going to be one phenomenal college scorer. He has no problem shooting off balance or with a hand in his face, and is lethal from ten feet in with his ability to do just about anything once he gets the space. It appears that the range on his shot will come with time, as the form is there and his outside shots look great but the Oregon native just isnt as comfortable spotting up from deep as he is closer to the basket, even on the move.
As far as athleticism goes, Singler has enough of it to be considered a serious NBA prospect right now. He isnt ever going to be that blow-by athlete, but he had no problem keeping up with anybody in the competitive action we saw at the Hoop Summit. At 69 he handles smaller defenders with ease, and is very comfortable handling the ball in transition.
The game itself provided more of what was seen in practice. There was one stretch of fabulous play, highlighted by a 3-pointer, a handful of beautiful passes, and several hustle plays in transition. But foul trouble limited Singlers minutes, and he was content to meld into the team concept the rest of the way.
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Kyle Singler was probably the most impressive individual over the course of the session, contributing in so many ways and never letting up mentally. Hes not an elite athlete at the NBA level, but he is going to be an elite player in the ACC the moment he steps foot on the court. This afternoon he was swishing open jumpers, crashing the glass as well as any of the big men, passing and handling exceptionally well in the open court, and repeatedly getting more athletic opponents to bite on pump fakes near the basket. His general court awareness is superb, and there are few players willing to scrap as hard as Singler when the ball is loose on the floor. If utilized properly, he will be an All-America candidate from day one.
As for how he will be utilized, I had a chance to ask Singler about this after the game. He expects to see time at the 2 through 4 positions next fall, and play a role sort of like Luol Deng. So dont be surprised to see a lot of Singler at the 4-spot next year
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Lets make one thing clear this game was about shot happy lead guards getting up and down the court, and athletic big men dunking. There wasnt much of a place for a patient, crafty swingman like Kyle Singler. Touches were scarce, and his outside shot wasnt falling. Nonetheless, Singler still found ways to contribute with defensive effort rarely seen in a HS all-star game and deft, unselfish play on the offensive end. He showed off an impressive midrange game with a nice baseline jumper in the first half, and impressed the entire way with his court vision and passing. His jumper loses effectiveness the further away from the basket he is, but he has NBA-ready form and all sorts of ways to get his shot off.
While we dont know for sure just how dominant Singler will be early on in his career at Duke, it is fairly obvious that the program needs an elite level scorer, someone who can put the offense on their back and hit big shots. Singler clearly has the tools, and has the tools to emerge as the next great Duke player in his freshman season. But so did Josh McRoberts, so it will be important for this skilled swingman to assert himself right away.
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Singler has continued with his consistent, but unspectacular play throughout the week. He shot the ball well from outside, especially from the mid range area. The future Dukie struggled a bit against some of the more athletic players out on the floor at times, but was still able to have a fair showing on the day because of his excellent skill set for such a tall wing player.
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Mar 26, 2007, 01:23 am
Singler showed off his remarkable touch early in the day, knocking down multiple contested perimeter jumpers off of the glass. His smooth and cerebral style of play makes up for his lack of athleticism, allowing him to score against his more physically gifted counterparts. While Kyle did not stand out in any particular facet of the game Sunday, he was one of the most consistent players who we saw throughout the practice sessions.
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A colleague sent me an article that had been published earlier this year in MachineDesign magazine that predicts that driverless cars can’t be realized until we have a ubiquitous 5G network. When looking for the original article on the web I noticed numerous similar articles like this one in Forbes that have the same opinion.
These articles and other similar articles predict that high-bandwidth, low-latency 5G networks are only a few years away. I’m not quite sure who these folks think will invest the $100 billion or more that would likely be required to build such a wireless network along all of the roads in the country. None of the cellular carriers have such grandiose plans, and if they did their stockholders would likely replace a management team that suggested such an investment.
It’s easy to understand how this myth got started. When 5G was first discussed, the cellular companies listed self-driving cars as one of the reasons the government should support 5G. However, over time they’ve all dropped this application from their 5G message and it’s no longer a cellular company talking point.
The idea that 5G is needed for self-driving cars is bolstered by the belief that the computing power of a data center is needed to process the massive amounts of data generated by a self-driving car. That very well may be true, and the current versions of self-driving cars are essentially data centers on wheels that contain several fast computers.
The belief that 5G will enable self-driving cars also comes from the promise of low latency, near to that of a direct fiber connection. The folks that wrote these articles envision a massive 2-way data transfer happening constantly with 5G for every self-driving car. I can’t imagine they have ever talked to a network engineer about the challenge of creating 2-way wireless gigabit connections with hundreds of moving cars simultaneously on a freeway at rush hour. It’s hard to envision the small cell site and fiber infrastructure needed to handle that without hiccups. I also don’t know if the authors have recently driven down many rural reads recently to remind themselves of the huge challenge of implementing rural gigabit 5G.
The talk of using wireless for vehicles also ignores some fundamental issues. Wireless technologies are wonky in the real world. Radio waves do odd things in the wild and every wireless network has dead zones and places where the system mysteriously won’t work the way it’s supposed to. Worse, the dead spots and odd spots move around with changes in temperature, humidity, and precipitation.
Network engineers also would advise that for a critical task like driving at high speeds that every vehicle should have a redundant back-up connection, meaning a second wireless connection in case the first one has a problem. Anybody that puts critical tasks on a fiber network invests in such redundancy. Hospitals that use broadband as part of a surgical procedure or a factory that does precision manufacturing will have a second fiber connection to be safe. It’s hard to imagine a redundant connection for a moving car since the only place it can come from is the nearest cell sites that provide the primary connection.
I don’t know how other feel about this, but I’m not about to trust my life to a self-driving car that needs a connection to an external data center to be safe. I know too much about how broadband networks function to believe that 5G networks will somehow always make perfect connections when other fiber networks don’t.
One of the first things that came to my mind when I read these articles was to wonder what happens when there is a fiber outage on the network supporting the 5G cell sites. Do all of the self-driving cars just stop and wait for a broadband signal? I picture a city during an event like the 19-hour CenturyLink fiber outage a year ago and wonder if we are so stupid as to make our transportation systems reliant on external computing and external networks. I sure hope that we are not that dumb.
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Posted by Doug Dawson, CCG Consulting in Uncategorized
6 thoughts on “The Myth of 5G and Driverless Cars”
October 10, 2019 at 9:19 am
I was having a conversation with someone the other day about 5G hype and VR/AR, where I challenged them to think why 5G would enable new things like AR telepresence when such technology is still nascent on high speed wired connections. Their response was that 5G enables lower latency! So of course I pointed out that this is lower latency versus 4G/LTE cellular, not wired connections. And the response was that actually 5G does enable lower latency versus current wired connections due to something with DOCSIS and Cablelabs – have you heard this one? I can’t debunk it because I don’t even understand it.
October 10, 2019 at 9:30 am
When 5G is fully implemented (might be another 5 years) the network is supposed to have a latency that is close to that of a direct fiber connection. So yes, it will have a lower latency than a broadband connection on a cable company network. But it won’t be faster than fiber. Note that this claim of being as fast as fiber is looking at the last link to the customer. If there are a number of hops needed for the bandwidth to reach a small cell site, then it will not be as fast as a direct fiber connection. We’re going to have to wait and see the real story, but chances are that most 5G connections will be a little slower than fiber.
I also laugh when considering your premise of telepresence. For this to be effective a lot of the computing will have to be done locally. Already today TV signals have gotten smart enough to only transmit the needed pixels. When you are watching talking heads on a talk show the network doesn’t constantly rebroadcast the pixels for the background. The same thing is going to have to be true with telepresence as well or else even a gigabit broadband connection might bog down. I’m sure the first generation of telepresence is going to be wonky as hell and you are going to see glitches that are similar in nature to the delays we used to have when video streaming was first introduced.
Doug Orr says:
October 10, 2019 at 10:38 am
Part of the claim the 5g car people make is that it’s not a cellular connection but car-to-car. (Leading car suddenly decelerates and trailing cars understand even if leading car is obscured so lidar can’t detect it.) So, some of them, at least, aren’t talking about the additional this-will-never-work qualities of cellular 5g.
For my money all of the reliability and security issues of cellular still count in this scenario (nobody so far has mentioned hackers or jerks/terrorists with roadside or drone jammers) and I, too, don’t think relying on radio to make individual cars self driving at scale will ever work.
October 11, 2019 at 4:09 pm
It’s a huge challenge to be sure. However, I remember being at a Steelers game with my brother back in 1985, and he said we will be watching TV on our cell phones. As a cellular engineer at the time I insured him that would never happen. I have been eating crow ever since.
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The 2016 election cycle is finally over, but for many, the fight is just beginning. While Hillary might not have been the right candidate for many people, I do not understand how Trump could gather enough votes to actually win the election.
One thing I do know, however, is that as a straight white male in America, I can no longer sit back and just watch this country turn to shit. What’s worse, however, is finding out that I am the only member of my immediate family who did not vote for Trump.
Only the closest of friends (and my brothers) know the environment that I grew up in. In the months leading up to election day, I suffered through their racist and narrow-minded posts on Facebook. I asked them to unfollow; they would not comply. I muted them, but that felt wrong. My ultimate decision was to close my Facebook account following the election, and I’ve turned my Twitter account to Private.
Prior to taking those steps, however, I received an email from my mother, telling me that I shouldn’t be mad about the election, or at everyone. My mom…I love her, but that woman knows how to push buttons.
If Trump has his way with the country he vows to “Make…Great Again,” he will most likely revert any progress this country has made in my lifetime (which, for those who are keeping score, is 51 years). His and Pence’s policies will have a direct negative impact on the lives of many of my friends, and for many in this country.
Below is my response to her, but it is also meant for my father who decries email and technology. (Names have been changed to protect those who may become targets of hate.)
Some of the language in the email I sent is offensive. The racial slurs are meant to remind my parents of the environment in which I was raised, and how that shaped who I am today. By exposing the racism and bigotry that surrounded me in my youth, I hope this is something we can all learn from.
I’m not mad at everyone, Mom; more so disgusted. Trump’s America is not one that I want to live in or be a part of, but here I am, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit back and watch him and the Republican Establishment undo all of the progress that this country has made—again.
While I wasn’t a fan of Bill Clinton, I did vote for him because I saw the good that he was doing. I voted for George W. Bush the first time around because I didn’t like Al Gore at the time, and that was a mistake. George W. Bush got this country into two endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was upset when George W. was reelected, and kept thinking, “How can America be so stupid to reelect this idiot?”. Under George W. Bush—along with his cronies Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld—our economy worsened, they introduced a level of fear in this country by giving the CIA, FBI, and NSA carte blanche to surveil the citizens of this country—without warrants—and their use of rendition to torture prisoners is unparalleled, even by our worst enemies. Those very actions have led to many of our allies backing away, while leaving a dark stain on our country.
When President Obama was elected and took office, he inherited a massive debt left by the Bush administration. He had to deal with the financial crisis, the housing crisis, and if that wasn’t enough, the automobile industry almost went under, too. If it were not for President Obama and the government bailing out those three institutions, this country would have plummeted into a recession on parallel with, or worse than, the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The healthcare system in this country is a disgrace. The Affordable Care Act (or, ObamaCare, if you want to use the derogatory term used by Republicans) helped to make healthcare affordable to millions of people who were uninsured. I don’t know if you remember my friend JP, but he is one of those people whom without the ACA would probably be dead by now. And what is Trump’s first action going to be? He says to repeal the ACA without any other plan in place, just so the Republicans can put in their own plan or just let it all rot. If JP loses medical coverage, he will die, Mom. So maybe rather than saying “Thanks, Obama” with a smirk, think about what this means.
But what I find more disgusting is that this country elected a BIGGER buffoon than George W. Bush to be the next President. You watch, Mom, Trump and the Republican Establishment are going to turn this country inside-out and not in a good way. All of the progress this country has made in my lifetime—over the last 50-60 years—will be gone.
We will end up with a HUGE debt, not a surplus. Trump’s company has gone bankrupt four times; something that he is proud of. He boasts about not having to pay taxes while the rest of us pay more than our fair share in comparison to the taxes he and the people who earn more than a million dollars a year pay.
Trump talks about how generous he is, but he refuses to disclose his taxes or to provide a list of charities to which he has donated. Trump has said throughout his campaign that he donated to veteran’s groups, but there is no proof of that. All he has to do is disclose his tax records as proof, but he refuses to do that, and until he does, he’s just telling lies.
Trump has been indicted for bilking millions from people who attended Trump University. That case is scheduled to go to trial soon. He has also been charged with raping a 13-year-old girl, Mom. 13!
A Trump Administration will dismantle any rights that a woman has to make decisions about her own healthcare. For proof of that, all you have to do is look at what the Republicans in Texas have tried to do in their own state. The government should not tell you what you can or cannot do with your own body, Mom. They have brought religious [fanaticism] into the government, which is in conflict with the ideal of separation of church and state.
By appointing Supreme Court Justices that are way far on the Religious Right, the Trump administration will undo Roe v Wade and unravel marriage equality. That means many of my friends, including Barney Rubble (you used to play bingo with his mom, right?) will have their marriages nullified because the Republicans will strip away his and Fred’s right to be married to each other. The same goes for my friends Wilma and Betty, Tom and Jerry, Richie and Fonzi, Velma and Daphne…shall I keep listing their names?
This country was founded on immigration. The Statue of Liberty bears a plaque inscribed with the sonnet, “The New Colossus,” which states:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-toss to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
What Trump has proposed is an end to immigration and naturalization. To mass-deport people, families, and children. To block entry to people who are fleeing war-torn countries and oppressive regimes in search of hope and safety for them and their families. Mom, THIS is the very foundation of our country! Somewhere in our lineage, we—the Flintstones and Rubbles—came to North America from somewhere in Europe without invitation, but in search of a better life.
If we turn our back on the rest of the world, we should expect the same in return when the time comes. Is that how you want our country to be viewed? As isolationists? As xenophobes?
And speaking of xenophobia, let’s talk about race, shall we? It’s the big pink elephant that’s in the corner whenever we are together…
What Trump’s base of voters would prefer, is to “Make America White Again”. You cannot tell me that is false, because I have seen numerous images of people wearing shirts and hats with that very wording on it.
Trump’s father was in the KKK. Trump received an endorsement by David Duke, a former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The only paper in the US to endorse Trump was The Crusader, the official newspaper of the KKK.
Do you see a pattern here?
Trump had the full backing—and most likely the voting block—from the Ku Klux Klan. This country elected a known racist and bigot to the highest office in the land. And worse, he will be able to appoint Supreme Court Justices that share similar beliefs.
You cannot deny the racist environment we grew up in. You and Dad both regularly used [racial slurs] to refer to people who weren’t white. Nigger. Chink. Jap. Porch monkey. Spear-chucker. Spic. Wetback. Sand nigger. Turban-head. It’s a long list. I heard those and more growing up in our home and, honestly, all around me in Michigan. You speak fondly of the time when [REDACTED] drove into Detroit to let the dobes run in a park “to chase the niggers”.
It’s not funny, Mom! It’s disgusting. Appalling.
I also remember the time when a black family moved into our neighborhood, on Mockingbird Lane. That family was run out of our neighborhood. Their daughter was in my class, and she had no friends. One day, I walked home from school with her because she was walking alone. I remember this quite vividly, Mom…dad drove by in his pickup on his way home from work. We were on Stone Way, just past the house on the corner that Captain Caveman rode the mini-bike into, and dad saw me walking down the sidewalk with this girl. He slowed down as he passed, hit is horn once to get our attention, and he wagged his finger at me. When I got home, Dad said that he never wanted to see me walking with “that colored girl” again. If he did, he promised to beat the shit out of me. I was in 5th or 6th grade at the time; imagine how terrified I was.
I also remember dad telling us that you and he would disown us if we ever dated or brought a girlfriend home who wasn’t white. ¯\_()_/¯
That was the environment I grew up in—we grew up in—but that is not who I am. And that is not the country I want to live in.
So, no, I am not mad at everyone who voted for Trump. I am disgusted by the America they want my home to become. I am saddened and fearful for my friends who may lose their health benefits and die or see their marriages dissolved, and for some, to be run out of the country because of their ethnicity.
That is not my America.
I love you, Mom. We may not believe in the same things, but I do love you.
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Posted in Election 2016
Tagged 2016, ACA, Affordable Care Act, America, BlackLivesMatter, BLM, deport, deportation, Donald Trump, election, equality, fear, hate, healthcare, Hillary Clinton, immigration, insurance reform, isolationist, LGBTQ, love, marriage, Obama, post-election response, President, racism, SCOTUS, Statue of Liberty, Supreme Court, The New Colossus, TrumpIsABabyMan, TrumpIsARapist, unity, xenophobe
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Last summer, we shared about wondering whether to Love It or List It. We also brainstormed ideas to make our home work better for us. We did a minor living room makeover–clearing out large furniture and getting new carpet. We expanded our storage area by making a “shed” under our deck. Lastly, we started using our 4th bedroom on the lower level to better make use of our space.
In addition to tweaking our use of space, I’ve tried to do what I can to build community in our neighborhood, and to schedule play dates with friends from school. But it’s just not the same as spontaneous backyard play.
Eight months later, we are strongly leaning toward listing it, but it has more to do with location than our home. That said, we have a much clearer sense of our wants and needs than we did 10 years and 3 kids ago.
By any standard, we have a nice house in a good neighborhood. But long story short, we’d like to live in a neighborhood with more young families. Our block once enjoyed close community with lots of little kids, but this has proved transient. We really miss that vibe, and I know we can regain it in nearby neighborhoods that are less transient and are home to countless young families, including many we already know.
Will people move away wherever we live? Absolutely. But these neighborhoods were designed with young families in mind, with larger homes, community playgrounds, and walking paths. Google Earth reveals playgrounds and trampolines in most yards. And we’ve been watching home sales in these neighborhoods for years, and there are a lot fewer sales in these areas compared with ours. So we may need to wait a bit to find what we want.
The recent comps in our neighborhood have been strong and therefore it seems like a good time to sell. We’ll pay more for our new home in a thriving market, but because of our equity we can get the kind of upgrade we’d like for a reasonable amount.
This decision has been very conflicting for me, and at times I still wonder if we’re out of our minds. Should we really go through the hassle and expense just to move 1-2 miles? Do we really need a bigger house in a different neighborhood? I’ve concluded that no, we don’t need these, but we would really like more space and more community. One mom from a target neighborhood recently told me her kindergartener goes on a daily walk around the block with her friends. That’s the kind of neighborhood we want to live in, and the type of childhood we want for our kids. I’ve finally seen that it is worth the (one-time) effort and the price to gain these during this season of our lives.
Another thing I’ve wrestled with A LOT is my aversion to excess. I don’t want a too-big house. I don’t want to pay for it, maintain it, or clean it. I love efficiency, and our current home is very efficient. The houses in our desired neighborhoods simply are larger. While I don’t want excess, I can see many uses for more space (and storage!) as our kids and their friends get older.
For a long time I felt like it was somehow morally wrong to say we want more when we already have so much, and others have so little. And greed and materialism are huge risks in our culture. At the same time, I’ve realized it’s not immoral to seek more community and more living space, which we’d love to use in serving that community. And while we won’t be buying another bi-level, there’s a pretty good chance we’ll purchase a house less updated than ours, in order to afford a home in our desired neighborhoods. So it’s not necessarily about getting a “better” house.
What is on my wist list for a different home? It’s pretty simple. Four bedrooms, a larger living or family room, and a pantry. A sun room and fireplace would be great, since those are favorite features of our current house. But I won’t hold my breath. Oh, and not a bi-level. That shouldn’t be too hard, right?
Financially, the biggest trade off would be waiting up to two more years till early retirement, an opportunity cost we’ve calculated, weighed, and found worth it. Also, a home purchase in these neighborhoods will almost certainly appreciate much better than our current place.
Logistically, our plan is to move first, then finish fixing up ours (lots of painting!) and get it on the market. I cannot imagine getting our house ready to sell and show with 3 kids still living here. We’d do it if we had to, but since homes are moving quickly and we can afford to, we won’t do that to ourselves.
Overall, I feel very grateful for our current home and the community we have enjoyed. Making this move from a place of contentment is important. I know a different house won’t ultimately make me happier or make life magically easier. Starting over with new neighbors will take time and effort, and sometimes won’t work out. And there is a chance we won’t find something that checks the boxes in our price range. I’ll be content either way.
Are we insane for wanting to move nearby for these reasons? Any tips on moving with kids?
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5 Responses to “Love It or List It Update”
Susan Fanta says : March 9, 2020 at 8:23 am
Praying for you! When we moved a year and half ago I had prayed for 4 years about what we should do. When it all came together it was obvious that God had a plan and provided for us. (Not to say it wasn’t without moments of stress and confusion) In our situation we were leaving a neighborhood of fabulous friends and going to a place were we wondered if we’d even met our neighbors. (We live on Graham Rd) But God has made it perfect for us. I know he has a plan for your family as well
Kalie says : March 9, 2020 at 9:26 am
Thanks for sharing your story, Susan. We have been thinking and praying about this a couple years now, too. I’m glad to hear that God provided for you!
Linda Sand says : March 9, 2020 at 5:28 pm
When we moved frequently I always packed a “first box”–those things you truly need on day one (light bulbs, TP, my current book, plus a few decorative items that say home, etc.). It moved in our car with us. Having your kids do that, too, could help a lot–having the right toy/cup/blankie can make or break a move.
Kalie says : April 19, 2020 at 7:46 am
Great idea, Linda! I will do that for sure.
Dave says : March 17, 2020 at 5:43 am
I hope you mean a clean burning gas fireplace because burning wood in the winter really ruins the air quality in winter
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Planning to sit an IELTS exam for studying abroad or migration? In this article, we discuss how different educational institutes / organisations / immigration authorities set their minimum entry score requirements.
What is an IELTS entry score and how is it calculated?
IELTS entry score for studying abroad
IELTS is recognised by more than 11,000 organisations across the globe as a true indicator of English language skills. It remains the gold standard of English language testing, enjoying acceptability across a wide range of sectors: From leading universities, training institutes and government departments to immigration agencies, employers, and professional and industrial organisations.
Whether you're submitting your score for educational or migration purposes, every organisation has its own IELTS entry score requirement that a test taker must meet to be considered eligible.
What is an IELTS entry score and how is it calculated?
An IELTS entry score is the minimum you need to score on an IELTS test to be accepted by an organisation / institute. There is no 'one-size, fits all' rule when it comes to IELTS entry scores. Every immigration department and educational institute has its own unique set of criteria and assigns an entry score accordingly. Quite often it is determined by the outcome they wish for the applicant to achieve. For example, a university in UK might set a high entry score for an advanced English Literature programme to ensure students have the required proficiency to pass the course. You might find the same university offering admissions to other courses, such as accountancy, at lower entry scores. Therefore, it all comes down to the individual institute / organisation / programme. Typically, industrial benchmarks are taken into consideration when setting an entry score, but that is entirely the prerogative of the organisation.
IELTS is the only English proficiency test accepted for migration purposes by all four governments of Australia, UK, Canada and New Zealand. The minimum score requirements keep changing from time to time. In addition, some migration programmes also offer bonus points for higher scores. Let’s look at minimum IELTS score requirements for some popular migration destinations:
The minimum IELTS entry score for migration to Australia is 4.5.
The minimum IELTS entry score for migration to UK is from 4.0 to 7.0.
Canada
The minimum IELTS entry score for the Canadian Express Entry under Federal Skilled Worker Programme is 6.0.
New Zealand
The minimum IELTS entry score for migration to New Zealand is 3.5.
IELTS entry score for studying abroad
As mentioned above, it is entirely the educational institute's prerogative to assign a minimum IELTS entry score for its different courses and programmes. We have compiled a summary of the typical scores accepted by top UK and Australian universities:
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As a former middle school teacher who taught in a lower-income, majority-minority school equipped with lots of "high tech" tools, I often wondered about equity when it came to edtech. For me, students' access to tech at school wasn't the issue. However, I knew that things were a lot different once students left my classroom. Because the majority of my students lacked internet access at home, I never assigned homework that required technology.
But that was over 10 years ago, and a lot has changed since then. Today, using tech for teaching and learning -- both in class and for homework -- is a lot more common than it was. Nevertheless, many teachers and students are struggling to adapt to a world where it seems like everyone is connected, yet not everyone has the same access.
While access to technology may be nearly universal today, using those same technologies for learning isn't always equitable.
A number of key findings in Common Sense's recently released research report, The Common Sense Census: Inside the 21st-Century Classroom, speak to this disconnect. According to the report, nearly a third of teachers said it would limit their students' learning "a great deal" or "quite a bit" if their students didn't have access to a computer or the internet. In addition, nearly a third of teachers shared that they assigned homework online at least once a week -- although those teachers who said they did assign digital homework were more likely to teach in affluent, non-Title I schools. Together these findings highlight the importance of understanding that, while access to technology may be nearly universal today, using those same technologies for learning isn't always equitable.
Infographic: "The Common Sense Census: Inside the 21st-Century Classroom"
Find out what K–12 teachers have to say about digital equity in their classrooms.
Curious to learn more about digital equity and its implications today, I attended a local community roundtable focused on how digital inequity affects schools and their communities. I wanted to know more about what students, educators, and community leaders think about leveling the playing field when it comes to edtech. At one panel, a distinguished group of experts, from city officials to district tech leaders, discussed what they saw as the most pressing issues. Solutions they proposed ranged from providing free citywide broadband access to giving students cellphones with preloaded data plans.
I learned a lot, but it was all about digital equity at a district and citywide level. As a teacher, these technical and infrastructural issues felt so far outside of my control. Then, a group of seven high school seniors took the stage and brought a whole new perspective to the conversation.
From inconsistent homework policies to a perceived lack of empathy and understanding from their teachers, the students were coming at the digital equity issue from a whole different angle.
One after another, the students spoke about their challenges with technology and what a lack of access actually felt like to them. What surprised me was that the students didn't focus on the lack of hardware (one working printer for over 1,000 students) or lack of high-speed networks (having to sit in a dark parking lot to use the public library's internet). Instead, they shared a more down-to-earth perspective, centered on their teachers and the happenings within their classrooms. From inconsistent homework policies to a perceived lack of empathy and understanding from their teachers, the students were coming at the digital equity issue from a whole different angle.
Of course, issues of digital equity are multifaceted, multilevel, and, at times, technical. But hearing these students' perspectives inspired me to think about some small changes that we, as educators, can make in changing what digital equity looks like for our kids.
Here are four simple things you can do right now to bring more digital equity to your classroom:
1. Seek first to understand.
Recognize your students' current tech capabilities and their concerns. Consider using a survey at the beginning of the year to get a baseline understanding of your students' access to tech. Make sure to let your students know you'll use the results to inform your teaching (and that their answers will remain confidential to their peers). While you may have strong rapport with your students, don't assume too much -- it's important to ask questions to understand what tech use is really like in their homes so you have a clearer and more accurate understanding of needs and constraints. Try to learn from your students: How many have computers at home? How many of those computers have access to a high-speed network? Are there families who use only phones (or tablets) to access the internet? Where do students access the internet if they can't do it at home?
2. Try it out!
It may seem obvious, but before giving assignments on a new platform or app, try it out for yourself! A lot of times, things we'd never assume could go wrong actually do. But trying out the experience beforehand -- just as students will -- can help us catch some bugs before we turn students loose. And it gives us some valuable insight into what students will experience in our classes. From there, you can give kids ample time to complete their work and maybe even offer some pro tips in the process. Everything from log-in problems to having the right browser can affect how long it takes for students to get the work done.
3. Create a tech equity vision with your students.
What exactly is a "tech equity vision"? It's a fancy way to describe the act of involving your students in conversations about how tech use happens in your classroom (and beyond). What better way to elevate student voices and partner with students on how to use technology for teaching and learning? Ask questions like, "What do we use technology in the classroom for?"; "How do we want technology to help us learn?"; "What are some challenges you face using technology in and out of school?"; and "When does technology actually enhance our learning, and when can it get in the way?" Document and post responses on a tech equity vision so students feel (and see) accountability and ownership.
4. (Re)consider your homework policies.
One student on the panel shared that his teacher had an "Absolutely No Late Work" policy, and when he couldn't turn in an online assignment due to lack of access at home, he simply received a zero on the assignment. Another student shared that her teacher gave a week between assigning online homework and turning it in, which allowed for more flexibility in finding access to a network.
Consistency between classes can really help kids, too, so if you're working as part of a team, collaborate with your colleagues on creating consistent policies around homework and digital assignments. Don't be afraid to rethink how your team handles digital learning, and be mindful of the constraints students may face in how they access technology.
Kaili has over 10 years of experience as both an educator and administrator in school communities around the world ranging from Richmond, California to Bali, Indonesia. Kaili joined Common Sense as the Foundations Manager of education-related grants in 2018 and works closely with the education program team to develop funding streams for their work. Prior to working at Common Sense, she spent her days at school refereeing the four-square court, introducing coding and smartbots to second graders, and supporting teachers on best practices for providing developmentally appropriate, culturally responsive, social emotional learning opportunities for all students.
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At Chennai’s Best Packers and Movers Navgati, our company takes great satisfaction in the premium of our relocation service, somewhat than simply the variety of effective movings we’ve finished. Our Movers is actually a leading company in Chennai means that our team gives all of the affiliated services.
To make certain a soft House changing in Chennai, our moving companies supply an extensive moving plan. Our company boosts our team of specialized agents with plumbings and also electricians to take treatment of the typical and inevitable cleaning, fixing, and touch-up requirements that spring up throughout any sort of moving in Chennai wherein plumbing costs are added. When you need to relocate your job rapidly, you may do therefore at an affordable expense.
You may count on the Chennai Navgati Best Packers and Movers. To assure the security of your things throughout your step, you need to employ a licensed and also skilled Best Packing as well as Moving organization. Our moving companies are a Chennai-based Best Packers agents firm that gives high-quality packing and relocating services at a low cost. It is actually certainly not a basic job to choose from the various Finest Packers organizations. Nevertheless, no one beats our Movers’ years of seasoned, trained staff as well as affordable costs when it involves the most ideal agency.
If you’re thinking about taking your household pet on a trip, you’ll like to receive a jump on the prep work method. It can occupy to 8 months for some nations to acquire all the documentation so as to till you can easily travel.
If you never ever placed your family pet to sleep while you’re on the street, it would certainly assist. The results of sedation on the pet’s respiratory and cardiovascular systems may be fatal. Furthermore, your pet dog’s physical body temp & high blood pressure will run out of their command if they are actually drugged– all airline companies that deliver pets ban the transport of drugged animals.
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Employ our finest team for risk-free and also economical house shifting services chennai services. You can easily trust our Chennai moving firm to deliver excellent packing and relocating services authentic estate as well as interstate moves. For this, you may contact our finest packers and also moving companies in Chennai directly online or even over the phone. You may get an instant quotation within your urban area and a manual in 4 measures. In the beginning, submit the need, acquire a rapid cost estimation, after that book your relocation, and last but not least, our company gets you moved.
It is actually a widely known residence and business moving agency along with offices all around India’s subcontinent. We’re all over the place in India. Amongst the solutions delivered through Navgati are relocating services for home, industrial, and also industrial residential properties. We likewise manage cars and truck transportation and a vast array of lorries, consisting of cars, trucks, and also buses. Our company transfers businesses and also households daily with utmost fulfillment to the customers.
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Our motto is actually to supply fast, reliable, qualified packing & relocating companies all over India, with the help of our significant sector knowledge, experience, and understanding of the neighborhood market. A big part of our labor force consists of highly-skilled workers trained to take care of any kind of commercial or personal items with care. Moving may be a taxing experience, yet Navgati is actually listed here to make the method as quick and easy as possible for you. To defend your items from damage throughout transportation, our experts pack all of them very carefully with premium components. Consequently, our consumers go back to our company frequently since our company gives all of them qualified as well as distinct services.
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In Chennai, our company’s the greatest agents as well as packers as a result of our interest to detail and also maintain our consumers. Customers that utilize our moving services will certainly be actually qualified for special rebates and also advantages. Our workers are professional and exceptionally competent in this particular area; thus it’s a delight to carry out business. Consumers are actually encouraged to express their hesitations in a setting similar to this. Our dedicated employees deal with every customer with respect and also a concern.
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Were you raised with the money taboo? Many people are taught from a young age not to speak openly and honestly about money, even with their loved ones. This might not seem like a big deal, but the money taboo has real consequences. Research shows that arguing about money is the number one predictor of divorce.1 Perhaps surprisingly, more money doesn’t guarantee an end to the arguments. In fact, the financial fighting can get worse as couples earn more.2
The amount of money in a relationship isn’t the problem — it’s how people talk about money. With the right tools, however, you can overcome the money taboo at every stage of your relationship.
Of course you want to put your best foot forward when you meet someone new and interesting, and talking about money might not be the best icebreaker. As you get to know someone, learn to understand their behavior around money by asking about it. It’s ok to keep it light at first; the goal is simply to normalize talking about money early on, which will make it easier to approach again. Consider asking if your date is saving up for any big purchases. Or if they use a budget in their daily lives. As your mutual trust grows, open up the discussion of how your family handled money issues when you were growing up.
Keep Communication Open as You Move into Commitment
Once you begin a committed relationship, you and your partner enter a new level of financial intimacy. Every couple is different, and together you’ll figure out what financial arrangements work best for you. What matters is that you talk about it. Some ground rules can help, like setting a time limit so it doesn’t become overheated, or rewarding yourselves with something fun afterwards.
Some couples merge their financial accounts, while others are happy to keep accounts separate. People with combined accounts say there’s less opportunity for secrecy and it helps them feel like they are building something with their partner.3 On the other hand, some prefer the independence of their own account and say it keeps the romance alive.4 It’s also helpful at this point to begin working with a financial professional to make long term plans as a unit.
During your money conversations, get into the habit of writing down the key takeaways to share with your financial professional.
Share Your Balance Sheet (Including Debts)
One of the biggest hurdles to future financial plans is personal debt. Even though debt from medical expenses, credit cards, and student loans is common, people can still feel ashamed to talk about it.5 One study found that approximately one in ten people commit “financial infidelity” in their relationship, including hiding debt or having a secret bank account.6
It’s much healthier for your relationship for you and your partner to disclose all your assets and liabilities. It may not sound as romantic as a candle-lit dinner, but consider sharing your credit report. If your partner is reluctant, share yours first as a sign of trust.
Keep Talking — and Save for Retirement as a Team
It takes practice to face the challenge of talking about money, and financial conversations are essential at every life stage. You might assume that because you were successful at paying off debt early in your marriage, you don’t need to talk about retirement. Plus sometimes couples maintain a “my money vs. your money” mentality even after years of partnership.7 A financial professional can help you and your partner define the best retirement path for you both, choosing between single-life or joining-life pension options, for example.
Parents teach their children a lot. When it comes to money, parents often neglect to talk about it, and the topic becomes shrouded in secrecy. Kids then learn by observing their parents, and as they grow into adulthood, they inherit their family’s unspoken financial habits. If you and your partner have kids, talk openly and honestly about money with them as well as each other. That way, you can avoid passing on the money taboo to a new generation.
For better or worse, the money talk requires patience and attention at every step. From your very first date, to passing on strong values to your children, to planning your retirement with a financial professional, it all starts with breaking the money taboo and having a conversation.
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Ever hear the term “fake it until you make it”? You know pretend, false bravado, and imply that you can do something that you are really not ready for. Walk in with confidence, leave with victory. We have a saying amongst our training staff, it is actually one of our core values, it is “all day, everyday”. Meaning I could do this all day, everyday. No sweat I’ve got this.
Here is why we have it and how we use it.
When you are tired, when you are not sure you can carry on, fake it. We say it to each other during our team workouts when we want to quit, we say during our long days, and we say during our individual sweat sessions. Here is what it does for us. It provides us with a positive, although at times false sense, of being able to accomplish the task ahead.
See just as when you constantly tell yourself you can’t do it you start to believe it, when you tell yourself you can, you start to believe that too. Faking it until you make really can make a difference. It helps you focus on the possible positive outcome of the situation, rather than the possible failure. It provides the opportunity for the good “what if” to sneak into you brain, leaving less room for that nasty doubt to creep in.
Rather than saying “I’m not going to try this because I know I will fail”; try saying “I’ve got this”. “Let me try”. Feel the difference here? Why defeat yourself before you even try? That whole try it you never know what you can do, thing really works.
When I am running when I want to quit, give into to my desire, I say to myself “I was born to run”. Thinking it is only natural to feel the pain, that my body can do it is my mind that doesn’t want to. Same goes for a hard training session, 100 push ups “no problem, all day everyday”. Making more about the positive possibility of my success rather then dwelling on the work, and thinking I might fail. I was not born to run, but I fake it. Every time I do I get a little closer to becoming an actual runner. BUT if I shutdown my first run and thought about how I can’t possible run a 1/2 marathon, “I’m not a runner”, then I never would become one. Trust me when I say most of parenting is this way too.
Faking it sets me on the path to becoming the person I want to be. A runner, a writer, a person who trains hard. Faking it gives me the opportunity to become it. I’m not waiting till I know I’m ready, I’m doing it, going for it….. shouldn’t you too?
Faking it is better than not trying, giving up before you really know what you are capable of. Put yourself out there in uncomfortable situations and fake it till you make it. Because the more you “fake it” the more practice you get to really do it, and eventually you won’t have to fake it anymore, you will be come it.
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12 even though an additional two-cycle study showed reduced weight gain, fluid retention, and breast tenderness amongst participants who took 200 mg of magnesium every day. Adults with depression have been identified to be low on the intake of magnesium. Though John doesn’t suffer from depression, magnesium seemed to give him a mood enhance. He noted that his mood felt fairly uplifted for the duration of his 3 week encounter utilizing magnesium, with the exception of days he forgot to take it. Magnesium is mainly located in nuts, leafy vegetables, soy milk, complete grains, and fortified breakfast cereals.
Spinach, chia seeds, peanut butter, and avocados are a couple of examples that make wonderful additions to smoothies, snacks, and other dishes. Magnesium is crucial for preserving good overall health and plays a key function in everything from workout functionality to heart well being and brain function. The recommended every day intake is 400–420 mg per day for males and 310–320 mg per day for females . What’s extra, supplementing with this mineral could help lessen symptoms of depression .
It is not intended as health-related assistance for individual circumstances or treatment. It is not a substitute for a medical exam, nor does it replace the will need for services supplied by medical experts. Speak to your medical doctor, nurse or pharmacist before taking any prescription or over the counter drugs or following any therapy or regimen. Only your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist can offer you with suggestions on what is protected and helpful for you.
A modest study suggests it may perhaps lessen fatigue in breast cancer patients with menopausal hot flashes. Most forms of magnesium can minimize anxiety and tension by relaxing your body. Several people today opt to attempt magnesium just before medication for anxiousness because magnesium supplements have fewer side effects. There is evidence that magnesium supplementation may lessen mild to moderate anxiousness in adults. Anxiety triggered by poor sleep high quality or memory loss may perhaps be lowered by taking magnesium L-threonate.
Some folks complain about muscle weakness if they accidentally overdose on magnesium, accompanied by fatigue. It is also essential to note that magnesium overdoses can outcome in fatal complications at a drastically higher dose . As with any supplement, make confident you recognize the doable adverse effects that a magnesium pill might generate. There are a couple of side effects that you should really take note of. Very first of all, take into consideration how considerably magnesium you get from your food. This particular factor tends to be vital when determining no matter if you need magnesium in a supplement form.
—everything from energy production and protein synthesis to blood sugar manage and blood pressure regulation. Here’s what you require to know about the different types of magnesium and how to take a magnesium supplement to help vibrant health. Magnesium interacts with other significant understanding nutrients in a way that may possibly affect every single nutrient’s absorption. For instance, taking a zinc supplement can disrupt your capacity to absorb magnesium correctly .
The fatigue caused by a magnesium deficiency will normally really feel much more severe and constant. Magnesium is 1 of the numerous minerals that cells in the human physique use to execute certain functions. There are hundreds of distinctive cellular reactions that largely depend on the presence of magnesium.
Magnesium supplements also enable to manage non-extreme situations of the disease on a every day basis in each children and adults. Magnesium relaxes the bronchial muscle tissues even when you are not obtaining an attack. Studies show magnesium does this either because it blocks calcium or due to its important connection to the enzyme accountable for cell function named adenylyl cyclase. Poor dietary intake, gastrointestinal issues, and increased urinary loss of magnesium could all contribute to magnesium depletion in people suffering from alcoholism. Older adults have reasonably low dietary intakes of magnesium .
Alcoholism results in poor dietary intake, gastrointestinal challenges, and renal dysfunction, among other problems that can decrease magnesium absorption or enhance excretion. So, if you are struggling with alcoholism, it is suggested that you take magnesium supplements. It would demand 555 women to be treated in order to practical experience one particular situation in which administration of calcium gluconate would be needed . Therefore we also assume that the low use reflects an infrequent need for its use as an antidote to the magnesium rather than due to its unavailability . Adverse effects of concern to providers occur infrequently, and when they occurred, a delay of repeat administration was typically sufficient to mitigate the effect.
On the other hand, an additional study located that people today who received a each day total of 20.7 mmol of magnesium oxide daily showed no improvements in blood glucose regulation. People with diabetes may be more most likely to have low magnesium levels . Magnesium citrate is another magnesium supplement employed to treat constipation. Magnesium oxide has the highest quantity of elemental, or actual, magnesium per weight.
The bacteria in your gut play a vital part in harvesting, storing and applying power from foods. Even slight disruptions to this delicate ecosystem, which could be exacerbated by diets high in processed and inflammatory foods, can outcome in the malabsorption of micronutrients like magnesium . As a result, most folks who consume a common Western diet do not consume enough magnesium to meet the encouraged everyday allowance .
Only about 30% to 40% of dietary magnesium is normally absorbed. So it’s beneficial to know what you can do to hold that price from dropping as well a great deal. Incredibly high doses can outcome in hypermagnesemia — or really high levels of magnesium in the bloodstream.
You see, insulin resistance is 1 of the major causes of variety 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The magnesium found in Dr. Khalili’s Plant-Powered Sleeping Powder is magnesium chelate. Chelated magnesium is a form of magnesium that is quickly absorbed by the body. This distinct magnesium is oftentimes utilised as a supplement to keep suitable magnesium levels all through the physique. The truth is there are countless techniques to prepare tacos making use of plant-primarily based ingredients. With so numerous filling possibilities, you could make a different taco for each evening of the week!
Some analysis suggests that applying a distinct magnesium cream to muscle tissues for one week does not enhance muscle flexibility or endurance. Giving magnesium intravenously or by mouth seems to be valuable for treating a particular type of irregular heartbeat known as arrhythmias. Taking magnesium by mouth is valuable as a laxative for constipation and to prepare the bowel for healthcare procedures. Some folks apply magnesium on their skin to treat infected skin ulcers, boils, and carbuncles and to speed up wound healing. Magnesium is also applied as a cold compress in the remedy of a serious skin infection brought on by strep bacteria and as a hot compress for deep-seated skin infections. Athletes from time to time use magnesium to raise power and endurance.
This entry was posted in nutrient and tagged effects, eight, magnesium, supplements, taking on 11/04/2022 by totosite.blog.
Current data have shown that sufferers with greater tissue androgen levels are most likely to endure from far more extreme COVID-associated symptoms according to Goren. This discovery has led to clinical trials, both of genetic and androgen assessment of COVID-19. Amongst key things becoming studied are anti-androgens, particularly employing androgen deprivation therapeutic drugs against COVID-19. Nutraceuticals also have proven their efficacy in stemming hair loss and assisting regrow hair, stated Gold. Much more solutions are readily available to address alopecia, but not all are backed by equally solid science.
Go over your medical and way of life history thoroughly with your physician. Like any other surgery, hair transplants carry the danger of complications. According to a 2019 assessment, PRP therapy can minimize hair loss, but the study supporting this is of low top quality. Also, a 2019 study located that a novel laser cap enhanced hair density and diameter, as well as the visual thickness of hair, in 19 participants. Nonetheless, the authors note many limitations to this study, such as a little sample size.
As you may possibly guess, this commonly happens to ballet dancers. Corticosteroids can often outcome in skin atrophy and thinning of the scalp. If you do notice any of these side-effects, consult your doctor for an alternative. This may well be advised in combination with minoxidil by your medical doctor . So it is critical to stick to-up with your physician if he/she has advised the exact same.
Onion is mentioned to contain sulfur which helps promote collagen production. The production of collagen then aids the growth of wholesome hair and skin cells. Application of onion juice to the scalp elevated blood circulation to the hair follicles, therefore improving hair growth. Direct sun exposure is the best way to absorb vitamin D, plus you can detox your physique with the sun. Sit in the sun for roughly 10–15 minutes to absorb about 10,000 units of natural vitamin D. Topical application of vitamin D could possibly also play a role in the restoration of hair cycle dysfunction in sufferers with alopecia areata.
Core ingredients like alpha and gamma keratin proteins, rice-based humectants and active plant extracts nourish and clears a dry scalp, although lowering irritation and flakes. The gentle formula also repairs your ends with every wash. “As new, fragile hair emerges, this shampoo ensures that it’s nurtured and cared for, so that it grows stronger and thicker,” Vellozzi adds. If you happen to be at the beginning stages of hair loss and/or choose stronger treatments, you can seek the advice of with your dermatologist about healthcare possibilities. “Luckily, hair thinning can in some cases be reversed, depending on the bring about. If you are shedding far more than 150 hairs per day, it is time to seek the advice of with a hair loss expert,” says Kinler. She points out there are growth issue therapies, laser therapy, supplements and even hair transplants that focus on specific needs.
Later symptoms and indicators that labor that labor is are the woman’s water breaking, and when contractions begin. There are three stages of labor, stage 1 is the longest and occurs when the cervix begins to thin and dilate. Throughout stage 2 of labor the baby passes via the birth canal and remains there till delivery, and stage 3, is when the baby is delivered. A good daily multivitamin containing zinc, vitamin B, folate, iron, and calcium is a reasonable decision, while there is no very good evidence that vitamins have any meaningful advantage in alopecia.
Our highly effective components aid reprogram your hair to stimulate new strength and density and market healthier, thicker and stronger looking hair. The most potent every day use shampoo formula offered which powerfully fights hair loss and promotes healthier hair. NIOXIN Program four Scalp TreatmentGive fine, thinning hair volume with NIOXIN Program four Scalp Therapy. You are going to come across the ideal salon hairspray solutions that mist on evenly and easily and dry immediately so you can commit less time fussing with your hair each and every morning. Hold a travel size RUSK hairspray in your health club bag, and pack a smaller professional hairspray in your carry-on luggage to touch up in between connecting flights. Making use of dry shampoo on occasion won’t result in hair loss—you merely need to have to be clean your hair regularly to stop any grime and chemicals building up.
A expanding physique of proof shows that vitamin D and its receptor may perhaps be involved in skin homeostasis . This form of paper supplies an outlook on future directions of research or probable applications. Thinning coverage and best view class V pattern with early therapy of vitamin D deficiency. Some may possibly even assist you with hair regrowth in places of your scalp exactly where your hair has started to thin. According to the National Institutes of Wellness, Vitamin D is an necessary, fat-soluble vitamin that plays a role in numerous biological processes within your body. When you know your vitamin D blood levels, you can make suitable modifications as required, followed by typical testing to preserve a desirable level.
Though baldness can affect anyone, it really is extra prevalent among older men. Right here are a handful of of the newest treatments for hair loss and thinning. The active ingredients we use are some of the most widely-applied and recognized names in hair regrowth, such as Minoxidil. We can also compound a progesterone or estrogen formula for these who are suffering hormone-associated hair loss. Hair loss is a pretty disheartening expertise, and one that can happen for any of a selection of causes.
The best candidate is “a lady who’s perimenopausal or menopausal who’s got what we would say is moderate-to-serious loss of hair that is sort of just beginning,” said Simmons-O’Brien. The medication is not likely to grow hair exactly where there is scarring already, on the other hand, she stated. In yet another multicenter, 1404-patient safety study published in 2021 in JAAD, the authors identified that hypertrichosis was the most frequent adverse occasion, reported by 15% of patients. Systemic adverse events included lightheadedness (1.7% of sufferers), fluid retention (1.3%), tachycardia (.9%), headache (.four%), periorbital edema (.three%), and insomnia (.2%). Only 29 sufferers (1.two%) withdrew due to the fact of these side effects. In males, baldness ordinarily starts with progressive thinning at the hairline , followed by the appearance of a thinned or bald spot on the crown of your head.
At the IRS, privacy and safety are our highest priority. For this goal, you had been self-employed if you had been a basic companion or you received wages from an S corporation in which you had been far more than a two% shareholder. The insurance strategy will have to be established under your trade or organization and the deduction cannot be additional than your earned income from that trade or enterprise.
Alopecia areata kicks in when your immune program attacks your own hair follicles. And with central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia, or CCCA, strain read this and inflammation demolish hair follicles. Telogen effluvium is a broad category of reactive hair loss.
This entry was posted in and tagged growth, ideal, supplements, vitamins on 10/17/2022 by totosite.blog.
Mega Millions Pot Is Third Biggest Ever: How Much Could You Win?
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This is FRESH AIR. "Gloria" is a new film from Chile that centers on a late-middle-aged divorced woman whose life is full of uncertainties. She's played by Paulina Garcia, who won the top acting prize - the Silver Bear - at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, where the movie was a surprise hit. It opens this week in New York and Los Angeles, and wider next month. Film critic David Edelstein has this review.
DAVID EDELSTEIN, BYLINE: The Chilean drama "Gloria" is a lovely surprise. Paulina Garcia plays Gloria, 58 years old, middle class, 10 years divorced. We first see her sitting at the bar a at single's event for older people. She wears big, round glasses like the specs worn by Dustin Hoffman as Dorothy Michaels in "Tootise." Her aloneness comes through vividly, yet she waits with a kind of equanimity.
The music is vintage disco and it seems to keep her buoyant - and the movie buoyant too. It is a lonely life. Her son is emotionally distant, her daughter who teaches yoga is absorbed in a new relationship with a roving Swede. The streets of Santiago are full of young demonstrators. Her intellectual friends argue nervously about the country's future.
In the flat above her, an unseen man rants into the night, his grasp of reality tenuous. His cat has wandered into Gloria's apartment - a skeletal, hairless beast that she feeds. Most unsettling. But when Gloria drives through the city, she sings along to pop songs full of hope.
Paulina Garcia is well known in Chile as a TV actress, a playwright, and a director. She's new to me but now I'll go see her in anything. What makes her performance so wonderful is how she portrays a state of flux. She is always game, always slightly wary. Never quite sure of her place in the world. The more you get to know her the more fascinating she becomes.
And we don't meet women like Gloria enough in movies. An older man named Rodolfo, played by Sergio Hernandez, fastens on her. He's a retired navy man who owns a sort of fun center - paintball games and the like. His passion is hard for Gloria to resist. But there are worrying signs. There's something pleading in his demeanor. And he's besieged by calls from his ex-wife and overly dependent grown daughters.
When her daughter asks who is this guy, Mom, the uncertainty on her face is haunting. Damned if she knows. The writer-director Sebastian Lelio wrote "Gloria" for Garcia. In an interview, he said its emotional heart is the bassa nova song "Waters of March," best known in English in a gorgeous rendition by the late Susannah McCorkle, here sung by Gloria and her friends.
The movie, says Lelio, is a cinematic bassa nova - bittersweet, full of difficult themes, but also the poetry of daily life manifest even in silly pop song lyrics. The movie doesn't lie about its heroine's dwindling options. Her romantic life is tenuous; her children are gone. Her eyesight is going. It's rife with disappointments and humiliations, among them a sequence that's delirious and excruciating in which Gloria gets drunk at a casino.
But the film has a wild card up its sleeve - the old disco hit "Gloria" which arrives when we need it most. In the Laura Brannigan English cover, it's about a woman nobody wants. In the original, written by Umberto Tozzi, it's positively throbbing with possibilities. The movie is a seesaw between happy and horrible but it still leaves you wanting to dance.
DAVIES: David Edelstein is film critic for New York Magazine. You can download podcasts of our show at freshair.npr.org. Follow us on Twitter at nprfreshair and on Tumblr on nprfreshair.tumblr.com. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
David Edelstein is a film critic for New York magazine and for NPR's Fresh Air, and an occasional commentator on film for CBS Sunday Morning. He has also written film criticism for the Village Voice, The New York Post, and Rolling Stone, and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times' Arts & Leisure section.
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(The Hill) — At least thirty people were injured and four killed in a spate of mass shootings across the country this weekend, following shooting in North Carolina that left five dead on Thursday.
The Gun Violence Archive reported six mass shootings, defined as an incident in which four or more people are shot, from New York to Colorado on Saturday and Sunday.
In Harrisonburg, Va., eight people were shot early Sunday morning after an unknown assailant or assailants opened fire at a crowd during an outdoor gathering.
City officials said the victims ranged in age from 18 to 27 and were being treated for non-life-threatening wounds.
In Atlanta, Ga., four were injured after gunfire erupted around midnight on Sunday at Clark Atlanta University as students gathered for homecoming weekend.
A Saturday night shooting near Denver, Colo., at a house party injured seven and left one person dead, according to the Adam’s County Sheriff’s Office.
Six people were injured in Worcester, Mass., on Saturday, while another four were injured in Freeport, N.Y., that same day.
In Pennsylvania, three people were killed and one injured in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
The shootings come after a 15-year-old teenager opened fire in a neighborhood in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday evening, killing five people and injuring another two.
The deadly rampage in Raleigh underscored yet again the prolific amount of shootings across the U.S. The Gun Violence Archive has recorded more than 500 mass shootings this year.
Congress passed the most significant gun legislation in decades over the summer after a gunman opened fire inside an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two adults.
But gun control activists are still calling for what they say are common sense measures, including universal background checks and a ban on assault rifles, which President Biden has pledged to make happen during his time in the White House.
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Lori Graham Bakker, founder of Lori’s House, is determined to do all she can to keep other girls from going through the pain and tears that she has shed over the loss of her five babies.
Save those who are about to be led to their death; rescue those who are about to be killed. If you say, We dont know anything about this. God, who knows whats in your mind, will notice. He is watching you, and he will know. He will reward each person for what he has done – Proverbs 24:11-12 NCV
More than a house…
A Place of Hope
The main purpose of Lori’s House is to minister to women in their time of need and remind them of how God sees them, His continual love for them and for the mothers to understand there is hope. We believe each baby is a gift from God and each mother has a very beautiful purpose for her life.
A Place of Healing
Lori’s House has a unique course specifically designed for this home; made up of four seasons to bring healing, prepare the mother and equip her for her future. We are a family-unit that loves, because Christ loves us. We guide the mother through goals and requirements to better themselves longterm.
A Place of Safety
Lori’s House is snuggled in a peaceful valley deep inside the Ozark Mountains and a mother is a guest inside the home, just like family. We are unplugged from the hustle and our pace of life is slower than most keep. The time a mother is in the home is a gift to her to set herself and her child up for a success story!
Do You Need Help?
59 million babies have been aborted since 1974
%
Over 80% of abortions are performed on unmarried women
%
All children are a gift from God
The story that started it all
Founder & President, Lori's House
A Message from Becky
Administrative Director, Lori's House
November 5, 2014
Recreational Room
November 5, 2014
November 5, 2014
November 5, 2014
Operating Lori’s House takes a team of volunteers.
I want to help
What’s outside of Lori’s House is as important as what’s on the inside.
R
Perfect for dining and fellowship.
R
Fun and games are just a few steps across the charming bridge.
R
Swimming Pool
Enjoy the luxury of our premium, salt water pool.
Not far from where you live in America, there is a girl like Lori once was. Pregnant, afraid, unable to support herself, under the rule of a man wanting to “get rid of the problem,” be it her husband, father or boyfriend. Her man, the abortion clinic, her friends all tell her the same thing, “It’s a little bit of tissue…you’ll never feel a thing…it will be over in a few minutes and you can go on with your life…” ( Continued on next slide )
...continued
She will have an abortion. She feels she has no other choice. If she doesn’t, how will she survive? The man she loves will leave her. She’d have nowhere to live, nowhere to go. She has no skills, no one to turn to. We want to change that. Will you help us build this caring place that will be there 24 hours a day? God says, “Save those who are about to be lead to their death; rescue those who are about to be killed. If you say, ‘We don’t know anything about this.’ God, who knows what’s in your mind, will notice. He is watching you, and he will know. He will reward each person for what he has done.” – Proverbs 24:11-12 NCV Thank you for caring. Love, Jim & Lori Bakker
I Care
Not far from where you live in America, there is a girl like Lori once was. Pregnant, afraid, unable to support herself, under the rule of a man wanting to “get rid of the problem,” be it her husband, father or boyfriend. Her man, the abortion clinic, her friends all tell her the same thing, “It’s a little bit of tissue…you’ll never feel a thing…it will be over in a few minutes and you can go on with your life…” She will have an abortion. She feels she has no other choice. If she doesn’t, how will she survive? The man she loves will leave her. She’d have nowhere to live, nowhere to go. She has no skills, no one to turn to.
We want to change that. Will you help us build this caring place that will be there 24 hours a day? God says, “Save those who are about to be lead to their death; rescue those who are about to be killed. If you say, ‘We don’t know anything about this.’ God, who knows what’s in your mind, will notice. He is watching you, and he will know. He will reward each person for what he has done.” – Proverbs 24:11-12 NCV
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“London to me is abstract. The ghosts of speeding cars, glass and steel towers alongside 500 year old epic stonework. Abstract shapes viewed from a late night bus, blue skies carved up by the harsh right angles of tower blocks.”
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This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Anthony Peters, By Sarah Hyndman, head to toe, Imeus Design, lettering, london design festival, print club, type tasting, typography, unlimited editions, v&a on September 12, 2013 by Type Tasting.
‘Temporary’ by Anthony Peters
‘Temporary’ by Anthony Peters
“Many of the words picked by contributing artists for this project are celebratory, my first word is quite the opposite, A reflection on the homeless ‘culture’ and the existence of the homeless beneath the noses of the daily grind. Everything is temporary when you get moved on, when you nomadically source food, shelter and friendship. The material (cardboard) reflects a material used as shelter and as a ‘padding’ to buffer the hard cold concrete beds which many people sleep on in the city that never sleeps. Cardboard itself is temporary, ideally this piece of typography would be exhibited in a city doorway, to be poached and weathered until it is no more.”
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This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Anthony Peters, artistic director, By Sarah Hyndman, cardboard, director, Imeus Design, lettering, london design festival, temporary, type tasting, typography, v&a on September 9, 2013 by Type Tasting.
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As I sort, delete, and re-size some of the photos for blogging purposes all kinds of details and stories come back to me. For example- what’s up with this? Why are there cherries in the title? Is it Bru-cherries-ster’s? I don’t understand. I want the cherries moved to the end or beginning. For whatever reason- this sign just really got under my skin and sadly I had to see a few of these.
Moving on to sweeter things- our few hours in Hershey. So many people said “you have to check the streetlights!” and yeah, they’re cute. little chocolate kisses. I’m sure some of you wanted to see that…
and the fire department. Long story short: On a road trip when Jason and I were first dating we took pics of him with fire engines/firefighters in every state we went through. Now? It’s kind of become a habit to take pics of fire engines when I’m anywhere. Just because. (disclaimer in case my husband or those who are fire-knowledgeable are reading- YES, I realize that is just a trailer and not a ‘real’ fire engine. But it’s what I saw. sheesh.)
The cool thing about the town is that the factory, theme park, etc… it’s all right there in the middle. As it should be, I think!
The hotel (pictured below) looked mighty grand too. Worth the $350 for one night on a random Wednesday night in April? I’m thinking not. I was so happy with the place in northern PA that we stayed at (for less than 1/3 the price!) there’s no way I could have justified that expense to myself. Still- looked grand and luxurious all the same. They had gardens up there I would have liked to see- but ran out of time.
We only drove around for about 10minutes- but really did seem like a nice little town. I did not smell the chocolate in the air like some claimed I would. Still… a cute place to visit. I will say this- their website was a total nightmare to navigate. I couldn’t get a real ‘feel’ for what I was going into, how big, how long, what was offered… I just couldn’t wrap my head around what I needed to see and do. Or if I’d have to pay to park, or if I could walk anywhere, etc… no, the Hershey, PA website (for Hershey visitor stuff) is not good.
Luckily my instincts told me that what Elizabeth and I really wanted was “chocolate world”, a place devoted to all things Hershey chocolate with a little ‘tour’ and shopping and eating. Good thing I was right. That was just the place for us quickie visitors. I don’t want this post to get much longer! so many pics! So, I’ll share all about that (and a prize!) tomorrow…
Carrie Egg says:
May 8, 2008 at 3:26 pm
These are great pictures. I love the two Hershey towers. I can imagine you can see them from very far away. What a great trip. Oh, and yummy chocolate too.
Patty W says:
May 8, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Sorry you didn’t “smell” the chocolate, we smelled it through part of the downtown I think it was, not where the store / tour was.
We didn’t do their hotel either! Found a nice one elsewhere.
May 8, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Completely LOVING the streetlights!
Trish says:
May 8, 2008 at 5:27 pm
The cherries in the sign really bug me too!
Bobbi in KY says:
May 8, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Care to share where you stayed May-we’re thinking about taking the kids up there soon.
May 8, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I love the street lamps and of course that huge hotel….wow.
Interesting about the smell bit. Do you think maybe they only do it during special times? I know someone from the area who said they did do it. Interesting…..
May 8, 2008 at 9:15 pm
those street lights really are cute, I’d so lov to visit this little town myself.
May 8, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I know why those sign drive you nuts the cherries are just all wrong. . . Thanks for the pictures. I have a feeling that this is as close as I will get.
May 8, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I know why those sign drive you nuts the cherries are just all wrong. . . Thanks for the pictures. I have a feeling that this is as close as I will get.
May 8, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Oh I think I would end up the size of the factory if I lived in a town that smelt of chocolate! I used to live close to a biscuit factory and you could tell what sort of biscuits they were making each day and it used to make me crave them, not good for the waist line.
Thanks for sharing photos from your trip.
May 9, 2008 at 8:04 am
Woot, you’ve blogged a ton since I was here last. Wow, what a trip! Makes me want to go. Love your pics. And that sweet LO of E with the FP transparency – pretty! And LOL at Little Miss E calling her cow “Messy”.
So was there anything in Scranton about “The Office”? And did you see last night’s episode? I wish Andy woulda said “Hey, beer me a straw. For my beer.”.
May 9, 2008 at 9:09 am
I wonder if the people who live in Hershey ever get sick of chocolate? Is that possible??
May 9, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Looks like you did / seen alot without much direction. I would have been LOST! Beautiful photos are usual. TFS
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My name is May Flaum, and I love to craft. My fingers always have some kind of ink or mist or paint on them, and I love to share what I create. Thank you for dropping by, and welcome.
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This blog contains affiliate links whenever possible. This helps me keep the content coming at no charge to you. win-win! I work with many craft companies, and am sometimes paid, given product, or otherwise compensated for my time and that work does show up here on my blog. For the full disclosure, you can read here ftc disclosure page .
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When the driveway and walkways are coated in a thick blanket of snow, it is time to get a shovel out for what some consider to be a dreaded chore. But before you tackle the first snowfall of the season, take some time to read these safety snow shoveling tips to help avoid any potential injuries.
Snow shoveling can lead to a number of health risks for many people, from back injuries to heart attacks. The mix of cold temperatures and physical exertion increases the workload on the heart,¹ which may increase the risk of a heart attack for some. According to the American Heart Association, even walking through heavy, wet snow can place strain on your heart.
The following tips can help keep you safer when you set out to shovel:
Warm up. Warm your muscles before heading out to shovel by doing some light movements, such as bending side to side or walking in place.
Push rather than lift. Pushing the snow with the shovel instead of lifting can help reduce the strain on your body. When lifting snow, bend your knees and use your legs when possible.
Choose your shovel wisely. Ergonomically-designed shovels can help reduce the amount of bending you have to do.
Lighten your load. Consider using a lighter-weight plastic shovel instead of a metal one to help decrease the weight being lifted.
Hit the pause button. Pace yourself and be sure to take frequent breaks. Consider taking a break after 20 to 30 minutes of shoveling, especially when the snow is wet.
Consider multiple trips. Consider shoveling periodically throughout the storm to avoid having to move large amounts of snow at once.
Keep up with snowfall. Try to shovel snow shortly after it falls, when it is lighter and fluffier. The longer snow stays on the ground, the wetter it can become. Wet snow is heavier and harder to move.
Wear layers. Dress in layers and remove them as you get warm to help maintain a comfortable body temperature.
Stay hydrated. Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated while shoveling.
A national study² found that the most common shoveling-related injuries were to the lower back. Cardiac-related injuries account for only 7% of all injuries, but they were the most serious in nature. If you do not exercise on a regular basis, are middle-aged or older, or have any health conditions, such as heart disease or high blood pressure, you should check with your doctor before doing any strenuous shoveling. Consider using a snow blower or snow removal service as an alternative means of snow removal.
Snow and Ice Removal Requirements
Snow and ice not only pose a potential risk to you but also to others. As a property owner, you are responsible for making a reasonable effort to keep public walking areas around your property clear of snow and ice. Pre-treating your walkways and other paved surfaces with an anti-icing product can help make snow and ice removal easier.
Consider stocking up on ice melt in advance, as it sometimes sells out during long winters. You can store unused ice melt in an airtight container, out of reach from children and pets. Be aware that rock salt can damage brick, stone, asphalt and concrete walkways.
Be sure to check your local codes and ordinances regarding snow and ice removal requirements. Thanks to our friends at Travelers for this article.
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Beside his large number of pseudonyms, there is also a long list of jobs and things he has done. Not saying they are all a big success!! But at least, it kept him busy and off the streets. He worked as an employee in the printing industry, as a waiter, dog care taker, meter reader, pool handyman, photo lab technician, salesman of encyclopedias, a sugar factory worker, sales representative, free-lance software developer, was the owner of a horse carriage for tourists, creator of software which could extend the use of CD’s in a way it was not intended to be, wedding photographer, financial administration adviser, owner of a somewhat illegal -but fun to do- local TV channel, creator of the no-budget commercials for his channel, silk screen printer, designer of light signs, creator of brand new antique wall decorations, and an unpaid sailor on a Chinese ship. This is by far not everything, we just named a few.
Below some impressions, images, and little notes. After that, we will continue with the “big” story…
He worked as a wedding photographer, but these nice brides above accidentally passed his camera while he was busy with other things (he couldn’t resist capturing them). He has also done some press/sports photography, but those photos are in the archives and belong to, a former employer.
DP as creator of brand new antique wall decorations. (Etchings in metal, based on old engravings.) Not real antique and not everyone’s taste of course. However (maybe caused by their quite unique ugly appearance) they are extremely rare!
Some examples of the software made by DP. Usually commissioned by larger companies and government. But some for own expense and risk. Or just for fun, like this free ‘dp shareware‘ (Opens new tab!)
Dirk Pieter said he still has a picture of that horse thing somewhere that he used to have. (I will place the picture as soon as dp finds it.) It also shows his horse, he said. A bit small, and frankly not the most beautiful specimen of this noble animal. However, for this reason, this horse did have the unique quality that he could afford it. Financially, this little business was not a great success, but he later found that the (not to well paid) horse driver had a rather rich way of life. So, for some, it wasn’t too bad.
To finance the whole project he worked as a waiter in the restaurant, whose owner lent him the money.
I guess, being a salesman of encyclopedias, brought him not too much status among artistic friends ;-), but he did anyhow.
For a while he was also a collector of large Encyclopedias. They are quite affordable these days, he said. It only takes up a lot of space! His collection contains a few rare, more than 100 years old, first prints, as well.
On my question if he had time to read all these books, he said…
Some of the objects which dp created as light sign designer. Sometimes quite expensive objects. But he also designed signage, nameplates and billboards. He regularly offered his design risk-free. The than implied ‘No cure no pay’ was interpreted by some “angels” as “Thanks for the cure no pay anyway”. (This does not apply to the examples shown! The special “Thanks, but no pay anyway” -page, might be added later :-)).
Sports career
Dirk Pieter, of course, is a ‘multi-talented’ sports man too. He was quite successful as a judoka. At the age of 8 he was awarded with the yellow belt. At the peak of his named judo abilities, he switched, after a break of 11 years, to fencing. A sport which fits really well with his natural elegance. His best result is a third place in a field of four. Unfortunately it was an informal tournament, so no medals were given.
After another break of 10 years, he discovered table tennis. His biggest successes are found here. Unluckily he started too late to reach to Olympic table tennis levels. Never the less, after a few years of hard training, he managed in his holidays, on every French camping site he visited, to easily beat nearly every kid under the age of twelve.
Without mercy, he could beat them all!
I will skip a whole bunch of experiences, and often small funny stories, and start in 1974. It is kind of historic -traumatic- year for a lot of citizens of the Netherlands. Their absolute, best ever, soccer dream team, with Johan Cruyff as Golden Soccer Angel in their middle, lost the world cup final against Germany.
dp in his jc lookalike period
We don’t know or this has anything to do with Dirk Pieter, but we noticed he was a lookalike of Johan Cruyff for some time. It happened that strangers offered him free drinks in a café because they thought he was Cruyff. It brought him often embarrassment. After he drank the accepted beer, it became a little difficult to say he was someone else. Anyhow let start in 1974…..
Brazil connection
In 1974 he went to Brazil. Why Brazil? Well obvious, this country has everything what a country needs. The special sound of Astrud Gilberto, Copacabana, beautiful women, nice soccer (Pelé!), and the world most famous carnival. Who needs more?
Unfortunately for the Brazilians (sorry for that!) their national soccer team in 1974 where kicked out the world cup by Johan Cruyff personally! For this reason dp might have felt he needed to remove his Johan Cruyff look with a Frank Zappa like mustache. And indeed, it happened that he got free drinks because they thought he was Frank. (As far as I know, it never happened he got free drinks because they thought he was his self! Personally I think he looks more like someone which name I forgot. Let me know if you know!!!)
Anyway, he traveled around a bit in Brazil and made a few of his first street portraits. Some of them you see below.
High society clients only!
When he ran out of money in Brazil, he got himself a little job with a local wedding photographer in São Paulo. This photographer had mostly Brazil’s high society as clients. Wondering, how he managed that, the photographer told him it was because he was on top, alphabetically, of de yellow pages (phonebook). So, he was the first they called. His name was Angelo.
Nearly arrested in Amsterdam
A year later he turned back to Europe with a rather big suitcase full of biscuits. That was because these biscuits where a part of a food package given to the sailors from the ship he returned on. These biscuits were particularly unappetizing. He did not know that, so he said gratefully thanks, when a sailor gave his biscuits to him. For this reason all sailors thought he loved these biscuits. So, instead of throwing them away, all sailors gave their biscuits to him. He could not throw them away himself because that would look a bit ungrateful. So, he kept all the packages of biscuits secretly in his suitcase. When he returned in Amsterdam it made him verry suspicious when clearing customs. They thought, why on earth would someone travel around the world with a big suitcase full of cheap untasteful biscuits?
On the photo, made by dp, some of the biscuits-donating-sailors.
But also…, sometimes you can’t recognize angels at first sight. When they coincidentally discovered that DP was out of cash when he left the ship, they spontaneously collected some money. Without ceremony or words, it was just given to him.
By now, to be honest, the writer of this story realizes that telling everything would take too much time and space. It would take even more time to point out that all these little things don’t stand on their own, they all fit seamlessly into an overall context.
The idea behind this story was to show, that everything in live fluently caused the things that follow. Mostly, just coincidences of things that happened. Starting with the photographer whose name was Angelo, and ending with why, it must be, that Dirk Pieter could do nothing else, then starting with his 999 Angels project. It is the result of a long row of unbelievable coincidences. They all belong together. If one of the ingredients was missing or even slightly different, then the project would not exist. To clarify that everything was inevitable, see the diagram below. For now, it is the best I can do.
That I failed to tell the whole story, is nothing to be sad about. After all, with a little imagination you can extend and customize every story and dream (or whatever) in the way you want. Probable you can do that much better than I could do in the first place. So, the coincidence of my failure, might bring unexpectedly a few new nice things of your own. Maybe, who knows, it is your own discovery of 999 Angels.
At special request of some admirers, I have added an extra image. They asked for a larger more recent photo of the author. The best and most recent I could find you see below. I must say, all over the years, he did not change that much. He reminds me now of someone else, I forget his name as well. But I am wondering, if he still gets his free beer.
Give DP a helping hand if you can by buying, Sharing, Liking etc. Your support will encourage him to complete the whole 999 Angels project! You can make a difference in this, and it really helps! Thanks in advance!
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Your top quality is affected by various elements On the subject of vehicle insurance policy. You can cut down your Charge by having care to travel securely and responsibly. Consider your automobile’s make/design and its really worth and just how it really is made use of. The chance of becoming associated with a mishap is bigger any time you push for very long distances. Finding the best plan for your requirements is the best method to reduced your insurance expenditures.
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Price of auto insurance
Car or truck owners who’re ordinary of their spending is often accountable for spending wherever concerning $1100 and $5,000. Rates could differ from just one spot to a different. In specific states, entire coverage is in excess of least coverage. Underneath are some tips that can assist you get the ideal deal. Specified states need only an volume of liability least. Total coverage comes along with the maximum of $500 in deductible.
It is essential to select the best motor vehicle, as specific cars tend to be more pricey than other models. This may lead to dearer insurance fees. Moreover, specific cars tend to be more costly to restore and change, so their insurance policy rates are usually increased. The costs for drivers who’ve a clean driving historical past are usually reduced. Gender and age are things in determining insurance coverage premiums. Drivers that are more mature are more likely to be associated with a mishap in comparison with younger motorists. Some insurers also consider credit history scores when figuring out the expense of insurance. Nonetheless, you will discover regulations in selected states that prohibit this use.
Differing kinds of motor vehicle insurance plan
You’ll find 6 types during the vehicle insurance plan coverages. This coverage will allow you the flexibility to tailor your plan to meet numerous circumstances. It is also necessary to have legal responsibility protection. Most states need liability insurance coverage. But, you are doing have the choice to settle on An additional type of protection. Legal responsibility insurance policies addresses your damages When you are chargeable for the cause of a collision. Even so, it could also include other drivers. It can cover the damages induced to Many others or accidents, as and professional medical bills.
A regular plan will have quite a few sorts of coverage, which include legal responsibility, collision, complete, uninsured/underinsured motorist, and medical payments. These are generally all essential and you ought to guarantee that you’ve adequate of them. These insurances may be needed in certain states. Some states might not require. To find the greatest car insurance coverage coverage for your requirements, stop by a internet site for instance Freeway Insurance plan. You’ll be able to choose from A variety of choices for protection even though generating savings on money and time.
The necessities for vehicle insurance coverage
Every single condition has its very own list of bare minimum standards for car insurance coverage. These regulations is often broken down into 3 quantities. California will require least protection of 15/30/five in bodily Damage liability coverage and 30/50/five for house liability for destruction. The quantities can be quite distinctive, so it is important to examine the necessities of one’s point out just before driving. Though different insurance policies may be achievable, it is not a super alternative.
The vast majority of states have minimal needs for coverage. On the other hand, quite a few lenders call for whole coverage. The lender may possibly demand you to acquire total coverage In the event your motor vehicle is becoming financed. Comprehensive protection handles collision insurance policy and comprehensive insurance. Liability protection addresses damages to home of Other people in the situation of a mishap, but not your personal vehicle or self. Combining assets injury and bodily personal injury insurance policies will offer you the very best defense, for An easily affordable Value.
Regardless of whether you have got collision insurance policies in your insurance policies plan for autos is contingent around the conditions. Even though you might not be required by regulation for this protection, lenders will almost certainly have to have it if funding your car. The lender might also have to have you to hold collision insurance policies For those who have a loan, which means that you’ll want to buy total coverage automobile insurance plan. This insurance policy is necessary for all those who finance a automobile.
Collision insurance policy addresses your vehicle’s whole worthy of in case of injury. The insurance provider may perhaps spend the entire maintenance fees, but it might not go over the associated fee to exchange your automobile in the event that your car is stolen or harmed further than repair. Sometimes it may be necessary to pay back additional income to maintenance the auto. This kind of insurance policies may well demand you to know the conditions in advance of you purchase auto insurance coverage. The deductible is independent with the collision deductible.
Ways to get Auto Insurance policy
Purchasing automobile insurance coverage may be complex. Sure states have minimum coverage restrictions for Home and Uninsured motorist insurance plan. This could include the distinction between your costs or perhaps the limit set by an at-fault social gathering. Other states will not demand underinsured motorist coverage. Here are a few tips to assist you to buy the ideal insurance policy coverage to meet your necessities. These guidelines can make the process of the process of paying for insurance policies simpler and get monetary savings.
Car Insurance Companies
The vehicle insurance policy plan need to include legal responsibility coverage to safeguard you and your home from claims for damage or destruction. This coverage can protect the cost of protection or settlement Should you be identified at fault for an accident. There are many forms of coverage, so it’s important to know the difference between them to stop high-priced surprises. State Farm gives a median price for various levels of coverage. It is advantageous to select a average coverage degree.
The vast majority of states need that you choose to consist of legal responsibility insurance policies in your insurance plan policy. It covers damages to the residence of Other people and injuries to Other folks. This insurance plan will safeguard you inside the party you result in injury to someone else. This really is conventional in virtually all states and extremely recommended for drivers from lots of countries. It truly is Nonetheless crucial to remember that the boundaries for liability insurance plan vary in Every single condition. Your liability Restrict will establish the quantity of coverage you demand to safeguard against damages.
Property coverage
In Virtually all states, It can be unlawful to travel devoid of legal responsibility protection that covers house hurt legal responsibility. Legal responsibility insurance policies handles damage to house owned by others. Nonetheless, your insurance policy is not going to safeguard your vehicle from hurt. You might require to verify your plan before purchasing it. To be sure your monetary safety, home insurance policies is critical. It will allow you to stay clear of becoming still left with large insurance policies expenses inside the celebration of a collision.
Your coverage plan need to contain some sort of assets hurt coverage to protect you in the case of a collision. This coverage addresses damages to the cars and trucks of Other folks, also repairs. Also, it handles The prices to get rid of debris immediately after a collision. Three quantities are usually utilized for residence protection. This consists of bodily injuries coverage for every man or woman and also property problems insurance policy for each specific. Increased restrictions present bigger coverage. Check with your agent about any exclusions and constraints.
Uninsured motorist coverage
The big apple gives uninsured motorist insurance plan. This is applicable if one other occasion will not be insured to purchase the expenses for the incident. This insurance policies is offered to drivers that are not identifiable as well as incident entails hitting-and-run. Although the Coverage Regulation SS 5217 states that the uninsured motorist insurance plan will go over all physical incidents, courts have interpreted this to indicate that it only applies to Actual physical collisions.
Some states enable you to decide on in between underinsured and uninsured motorist protection, while others require both equally. In case of emergencies, you can obtain both of those insurances. Uninsured motorist insurance plan can go over the price of repairs to your car if you are confronted with a ruined car or truck by an uninsured driver. This coverage is optional having said that it is helpful to at the very least be coated with the least liability.
Bargains on car insurance policies are an effective way in your case to economize and assistance the atmosphere. The cost of your insurance coverage is going to be decrease if you buy a whole new car or truck with safety features which include airbags or anti-lock brakes. Other security measures, like daytime functioning lights and alarms against theft can help you get bargains. Moreover, it is possible to get twelve months of payment aid by paying out your quality in whole on a yearly basis. The truth is, about half of insurers offer bargains for this sort of payment.
You might also be eligible to receive discounts in the event the coverage you have got had in force for a long time. Whilst these reductions will change relying upon the length of time you have been Together with the policy, many firms supply discount rates to their loyal prospects. The plan is accessible for invest in for as much as 7 days before your renewal day and you may receive special discounts up to fifteen%. These discounts usually are not the sole Gains offered by sure organizations. Selected businesses also present special discounts to personnel in certain professions. Teachers can preserve 10% on their own Liberty Mutual premiums. Geico offers a fifteen% low cost for military services personnel.
Car or truck Insurance Low cost Offers For Younger Motorists
Young drivers are trying to find low-cost auto coverage estimates. These are definitely some tips to help you cut costs in your auto insurance coverage coverage. These solutions can guide you in preserving numerous pounds every year on auto insurance coverage. Additionally, you can get the best fees. Keep on reading through to Learn the way. You’ll be glad that you have performed it.
A young driver will get lower-cost car insurance policy
Young drivers could get monetary savings if they push a lot more properly, reduce the miles they drive and Enable insurance policies companies keep an eye on their driving habits. Comparing automobile insurance plan premiums may help you reduce your every month Expense. Youthful motorists will often be staying billed bigger rates by several insurers, so make sure to shop for the best selling price. There are thankfully no-Expense on line estimate comparison equipment which make this uncomplicated. You may also request discounts in the event you have multiple motor vehicles that are included by the same insurance company.
It is important to obtain several estimates when seeking an insurance coverage plan. This will assist you to choose the most benefit and maximum top quality. You are able to hunt for an agent who can adapt to your requirements and let you make variations as your driving information improve. It is vital to match guidelines that present identical coverages, Considering that the discrepancies in deductibles could be significant. For drivers who’re young it is vital to make sure that you’ve sufficient insurance policies in an effort to avoid financial catastrophe.
Conserving funds on your own rates is possible by acquiring a no statements price reduction on vehicle insurance plan. It can be worthwhile to question the insurance company how to get it done. According to the insurance provider, the discounted could change in between thirty and sixty five p.c inside the initial yr, and approximately 65% in five years. Take into account that When you have a collision, You will be chargeable for two a long time of no statements reward. Various claims might also get rid of your no-statements reward. Notifying your insurance company right away of any accident you may are involved with is critical. Failure to take action could induce foreseeable future claims being turned down.
Lower price security for no promises is supplied by most insurance businesses for PS25. You’ll be able to declare a specific degree of claims annually and never be concerned about the cost of your insurance policy increasing. When you have a No Statements Bonus you can contain it in the new policy. Moreover, you are able to transfer your no statements price reduction to another insurance provider if you want. Switching suppliers every year is a smart idea to keep your no-claims discounted.
A great way to lessen the expense of your insurance plan when seeking lower-Price car insurance policies is to boost your deductibles. In line with some estimates, you could conserve between 15-30 per cent off the cost of your insurance by raising your deductibles. These discounts are depending on your driving records, the sort and regulation of your respective state together with your driving behaviors. You’ll be able to reduce the cost of your once-a-year insurance plan by expanding your deductibles which could lessen your premium by to about 40%.
Although it’s not the correct final decision for everybody, boosting your deductible could help in conserving hundreds of pounds above the system of your lifetime. The quantity you decide to boost your deductible will count on your fiscal circumstance, gurus counsel preserving at bare minimum two months of charges for living. You will also see a decrease in the price of your insurance. You will also conserve an unlimited sum of money in case you ever produce a assert.
How do I get hold of a policy from regional insurers
For people with negative credit rating, it is achievable to secure a policy by means of an insurance company that may be regional. It can help you spend less each month on the regular insurance plan bill and you’ll get pleasure from discounts and Fantastic customer service. You can attain insurance with any regional insurer in all fifty US states. Moreover you’ll be able to look up costs for every state to find the most effective charges. It’s important to realize that boosting your credit rating score could take various months and a few those with inadequate credit rating information may well end up paying out more $four hundred every year.
Erie Coverage is yet another regional insurer that gives small-Charge automobile insurance. The company was Established in Pennsylvania in 1925 and remains working nowadays. Erie offers vehicle insurance policies as well as residence and daily life insurance plan. Erie delivers coverage only in specific states nonetheless it has over 13,000 impartial insurance coverage brokers throughout the United States. It is possible to pick out an agent or regional insurance provider based upon your prerequisites. It is recommended to very carefully browse the conditions and terms prior to making a call.
5 Factors to look at When comparing Automobile Insurance policies Prices
You must Evaluate motor vehicle insurance estimates to be able to find the most inexpensive rate for your needs Should you be a high threat driver. Look into the volume of protection you can get in your town to ascertain if it can be done to obtain a lower cost. A higher deductible or reduce possibility could ensure it is less expensive to obtain greater protection. It’s all dependent on what you may need. There are a selection of selections.
Least expensive auto insurance coverage for prime-danger drivers
If you’re trying to find the bottom motor vehicle coverage estimates for drivers who are significant threat, you’re in very good fingers. Just a couple clicks on the web may help you locate one. The world wide web provides a number of estimates that offer protection for any lesser quantity than classic insurance policy for autos. You may as well enroll for coverage extra rapidly by using the internet. All You need to do is fill in an online software, then pay back the high quality, Then you certainly’re accomplished! As proof within your insurance plan protection the insurance provider will difficulty you a card and you will have an insurance coverage plan.
Numerous insurance plan companies perspective you as a high-hazard driver particularly if you’ve bad credit. It’s because a lower credit history rating has a higher probability to file coverage promises than the usual significant credit rating driver. Credit scores Participate in An important position in the best way insurance organizations look at you. A prior DUI/DWI could raise your insurance policy Price tag by nearly sixty five%. This is akin to yet another $477 with the six-thirty day period insurance policies. Insurance plan providers also take into account your driving record. A DUI or DWI could increase your insurance policies top quality to up to $174. A rushing ticket could end in a further forty five % increase in your premium..
A DUI conviction could result in the potential of picking out the least expensive automobile coverage supplier. Condition Farm, American Family, Progressive and others offer you reasonably priced premiums for high-danger drivers. Together with your credit score score, they can also take into consideration it when identifying your price. When analyzing how much to pay for in your policy, insurance plan firms take into consideration these aspects. Poor credit scores could end in insurance plan prices increasing radically. It is important to understand your credit rating score prior to you choose.
Drivers get probably the most very affordable car insurance plan
If you find yourself determining within the most suitable auto coverage for young motorists, there are a selection of areas to acquire into account. The marital position within your husband or wife and age Perform an essential position in the cost of your car insurance policy. The cost of your insurance policy can rely on the kind of car or truck your generate. It is more high priced to deal with high-efficiency automobiles than low-functionality cars. So, the first step in finding the lowest Expense insurance policy for motorists that are younger would be to Identify a vehicle with various safety capabilities.
The best way to reduce the insurance policies on automobiles for younger drivers’ costs is always to lessen the coverage. You might be a student or in driver schooling and have savings out of your insurance provider. But, if you are hurt in a collision, it could signify that your protection is reduced. It is vital to weigh all possible dangers and find much better benefit.
It is tough for teens to acquire inexpensive auto insurance. When the price of insurance policy for drivers who are sixteen decades previous is far greater than that of Grown ups, the associated fee is usually decreased by introducing a teen to an existing policy. This increases the normal fee by $1,461 annually nevertheless, it is often more affordable than buying a individual insurance coverage coverage. Be on the lookout for specials as well as other strategies It can save you When your driver age will not be however aged.
Lowest priced automobile insurance policy for very low-risk drivers
Cost of car coverage can vary broadly according to your driving report. It is possible to buy about to find insurance policy that is definitely inexpensive for low-threat motorists. When choosing on an coverage coverage to go over your preferences, insurance policies organizations take into consideration various components, which include your driving record, demographics, hazard amount and hazard General. Here’s the five most crucial issues you need to be mindful of when evaluating prices. You won’t need to compromise excellent as you are paying lower for insurance.
First of all, think about your zip code. Rates are better for people living in high-crime regions. Coverage providers also consider the volume of traffic. On top of that, ensure that you don’t have any statements or accident reports, since This might increase your fees. Make sure you check your rates every 6 thirty day period so you Do not shell out additional. In case you have more than one plan While using the very same insurance company, it’s worthy of wanting into multi-plan special discounts.
Despite the fact that credit score scores aren’t authorized used by insurance plan businesses in specified states, They are Nonetheless vital when comparing car insurance charges. In Hawaii drivers with poor credit will be charged 168% in excess of clean motorists. Large-risk motorists in Massachusetts shell out 30% in excess of drivers who may have cleanse data. For brand spanking new drivers, a DUI or speeding ticket and negative credit history can increase premiums greater than other motorists. It’s important to match distinct offers prior to making a choice.
Car Insurance plan In close proximity to me – The Things that Have an impact on the price of Car Insurance
The cost of coverage depends on The situation you reside in. Coverage prices can be costlier if there is a large charge of criminal offense and mishaps. Factors for example targeted visitors volume and accident historical past may also increase insurance policies charges. To determine the price of a plan, insurance plan firms generally have a look at a driver’s driving information. Motorists who have lousy driving records are charged a lot more than People with cleanse driving information.
Costs of car or truck insurance policy
Previously five years, car or truck insurance costs have greater between $fifty and $one hundred due to rising healthcare expenditures. Motorists are required to have PIP coverage and uninsured insurance policy. They are requirements that exceed the average from the condition. The regulation in The big apple necessitates motorists to possess both of those liability and comprehensive coverage. This really is Opposite to other states which have only this requirement. These optional coverages may well increase the cost of insurance and will cause greater rates. Lastly, motorists really should check their coverage limitations, considering the fact that some guidelines give an decreased least coverage than other insurance policies.
In New York, the normal particular person spends two.eight per cent of their earnings on automobile insurance policy. This really is a bit in excess of the standard nationwide figure of 2.forty p.c. People inside their 30s-40s and 50s pays a bit greater than The everyday. Drivers with additional driving expertise can pay in excess of those people who are 70and about. Married people are going to be charged slightly far more, but lower than singles.
Drivers have the choice to take defensive driving teaching Along with shelling out decreased expenses. These classes past for three hours and cover driver behavior together with targeted visitors regulation. They teach defensive driving methods which can significantly reduce the cost of coverage. A class might help improve your driving report and lower the cost of insurance plan for automobiles. The Insurance policies Information and facts Institute can assist you settle on the level of coverage you demand.
Expense of car insurance policy in other states
Whilst gasoline selling prices are diverse in Every point out, It can be doable with the coverage of the car to become considerably less or even more costly in a unique condition. This can be as a consequence of An array of variables, like the state insurance plan legislation and theft costs, the percentage of uninsured motorists and the quantity of theft or the proportion of drivers that aren’t insured. In certain states, critical weather may perhaps affect the expense of insurance coverage. The table under demonstrates the the typical cost of motor vehicle insurance throughout distinctive states. These estimates were being according to an analysis of condition insurance policies specifications.
Missouri is The most cost effective state for entire protection car insurance coverage. It expenditures $944 less for every individual than Louisiana. This point out also has the bottom for each capita prices and it is fifth in expense of residing. Texas motorists are whoever has the very best Value for auto insurance policy. They could pay back as substantial as 33% in their annual money. This might be a result of the substantial variety of motorists in Texas that are not insured and the various lawsuits.
The standard Price for a complete protection auto plan is $1,771 per annum. Louisiana is the condition which includes the highest premiums for insurance policy at $two,839. This represents a 19% rise from 2020. Maine’s normal insurance policy premium however, is just $858. Because no-fault condition have higher insurance policy fees that’s The explanation why the standard Maine coverage high quality is barely $858. The price of an car insurance plan policy in other states can vary appreciably. You will find quite a few elements to think about, like the insurance policy rules in your condition.
Are you presently in search of higher-risk car or truck insurance for high drivers around me? There’s a chance you’re curious how to acquire An easily affordable plan. Superior-hazard drivers will pay higher rates than regular drivers. This is due to the fact that superior-threat motorists have higher premiums of violations and mishaps. Determined by the point out you reside in, it may be nearly five years. You might be eligible for bargains when the motive force protection training course you took continues to be completed.
The national prices for prime risk drivers’ car insurance are reasonably dependable. However, the expense of insurance coverage may vary significantly from a single condition to the subsequent. You can find corporations that adjust their rates to particular states. It’s possible you’ll find one coverage company that provides probably the most extensive security in a lessen Price tag Should your state is not involved. Point out Farm presents the lowest coverage for top-risk motorists in close proximity to me. The organization provides a sound name for outstanding service.
To Track down higher-risk driver motor vehicle insurance coverage in your area, enter your ZIP code. Check out the quotations. When the price of higher danger car or truck insurance coverage in your area can differ from one particular point out to a different, most significant insurers offer such coverage. Countrywide Common, by way of example is really a organization which specializes in substantial-threat protection. If you’ve excellent grades, a minimal risk car or truck, therefore you are able to getting a reduced coverage, it might be achievable to obtain one particular.
Evaluating motor vehicle insurance coverage corporations has many Added benefits. We’ll examine The most crucial aspects, for instance rankings, reductions, and customer care. It is very important to select the ideal coverage for your personal security and safety. Take the time to match guidelines from unique businesses. Soon after studying this text, you can make a decision of which insurance provider provides one of the most protection at an inexpensive rate. They’re some techniques for selecting the proper 1.
Comparison of auto-coverage companies
Evaluating offers from distinct car or truck insurance plan businesses will help you get the best rate. Insurance coverage businesses use a number of variables to ascertain the cost of insurance policy. It is crucial to contemplate your own personal prerequisites and then Examine fees from various companies. For instance sporting activities autos may well Price tag more to insure than normal cars. The prices can be afflicted by your driving document and the location you reside. It is feasible to compare charges and uncover the bottom price for a similar protection and the identical deductibles utilizing a Resource for comparison.
Vehicle Insurance coverage Quote
The price of insurance plan can be extremely different and it’s as a result important to know how Each individual plan functions. Credit rating qualifications, driving document and age all Perform a role in analyzing the expense. It’s also possible to match the benefits offered by each business, for example roadside help or accident forgiveness. This might seem complicated, but it’s possible To judge quotations from different businesses and choose the most suitable one. Here are several ideas to get you commenced.
In the case of the comparison of vehicle coverage corporations, you might like to start with the J.D. You’ll be able to price power car insurance policy corporations. These are determined by client gratification surveys that study A huge number of car insurance plan consumers nationwide. These numbers are accustomed to work out the normal client fulfillment score for every enterprise. The rankings are launched annually, and the highest auto insurance plan firms in Every group receive gold medals. How can you notify for anyone who is having quality service from the companies you happen to be looking at?
There are plenty of variables which can be used to evaluate the fiscal steadiness of car insurance policy organizations. Very first, you’ll be able to Examine the AM Greatest Insurance Company Rating, which gives scores of financial balance for car or truck insurance policies organizations. Just before choosing over a plan, you’ll need to determine In case the insurance company is secure. This is a vital aspect of customer service. You should definitely evaluate the corporate and go through the many wonderful print before making any determination.
Get pleasure from Special discounts
Insurance policies businesses provide several bargains. Several of such bargains might not be readily available for All people, so it’s important to go to the website of the corporation to make certain you might be qualified for special discounts that happen to be relevant to you. Specified enterprises supply multiple savings and you may also inquire along with your coverage company For anyone who is suitable for just about any specific low cost. The method is usually rapidly and usually takes fewer than one hour. Below are a few examples of doable special discounts on car or truck insurance policies.
Legacy Bargains for New Drivers: If a driver is new and buys their coverage by way of their guardian’s company, a car insurance provider could supply a reduction. The price cut generally is all-around 10 per cent. It is an opportunity for parents to show their appreciation for his or her dedication over the years. In addition, it could assist help you save you income on auto insurance. You will find numerous providers that provide legacy discounts for motorists that are young. You need to inquire your insurance coverage supplier if they provide a person. Check into insurance policies that are offered by American Loved ones Farmers, American Spouse and children and USAA.
Customer support
Couple firms excel in customer service. Esurance is one of these. It scored four away from five while in the J.D. Customer support class, and Esurance scored four out of five about the J.D. Electric power rankings. This is a formidable rating for a corporation which has no guardian organization. The corporate scored much better than its competition such as pricing and guidelines and likewise the standard of assistance and shopper treatment provided by its Internet site and speak to center agents. (individualized company)
Even though protection is the primary ingredient of car insurance coverage, consumers recognize customer care at the same time. Shoppers would like to get rapid and successful service from their insurance plan firms. Because of this they wish to receive a prompt reaction for their e-mail and telephone phone calls immediately in addition to talk to an agent who listens for their fears and offer you alternatives. When all auto insurance plan companies can provide superb customer support, some do complete better than Other folks. (rideshare insurance plan) (just handful of clicks) (insurance policy options).
The costs compensated by insurance firms for automobiles are afflicted by lots of areas. Two of the main variables that influence auto insurance coverage premiums are driving history and age. A driver using a inadequate driving record or with a minimal credit rating score may have more expensive costs. Your neighborhood cost of residing can have an impact on your premiums. It’s important to compare the costs of various insurance companies to figure out the one that most accurately fits your budget and driving behavior. There are plenty of solutions to decreased your charges. For example you might Lower your coverage or enroll inside a defensive driving class. It’s also possible to pay back upfront for the full 12 months of coverage. (bill on-line) (staff discounted) (at fault accident/included accident
Your insurance plan quality could possibly be afflicted by many aspects further than those which are stated. Insurance plan businesses could revise your premium should you’ve not too long ago built a assert or were being billed by using a traffic violation. You could also qualify for a reduction if you finish a secure driving study course. Coverage companies are often tweaking their versions to ascertain charges, and you might see a alter in the price of your insurance Even though you’ve not adjusted your driving document. (utilization-centered) (rental auto)(motor vehicle repairs).(Safe and sound low cost for drivers).
Auto Insurance plan Comparisons could help you save revenue
An insurance plan comparison will let you to stay clear of unreliable organizations. Such as, reduced offers from a specific insurance provider might be misleading If your quotation does not protect particular coverages or helps make inaccurate assumptions about your driving profile. Locate the lowest-priced insurance companies in your town by investigating their rankings as well as A.M. Most effective rankings. Assess motor vehicle insurance to save cash. Next, Evaluate the top insurance policy organizations to discover the most very affordable cost to suit your needs. (accident totally free)
Costs are primarily based on credit score-based mostly score
Though your credit history rating generally is a trusted indication of the extent of possibility you might be probably to consider, it shouldn’t dictate the costs you shell out. The federal authorities would not let insurance plan firms to help make your credit history the sole reason powering the increase in costs. California, Massachusetts Massachusetts, Oregon, Utah and Vermont have guidelines that avoid insurers applying credit score background to ascertain insurance policy fees. (could help you save)(new car or truck)(automobile declare)
But, this type of insurance isn’t really obtainable in each condition. So shoppers can not figure out if a company makes use of your credit rating to find out exactly how much to cost. California, Hawaii Massachusetts Massachusetts and Michigan have all banned credit score-dependent insurance policies. Other states also have very similar limitations. The choice of the best variety of insurance policies for your preferences is usually a your personal preference. (motorbike insurance policy) (roadside aid protection);(bundling auto)(pet Insurance plan)(true Funds Value)(top-quality Promises Assistance)(yacht Insurance)
Age influences charges
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The IPA’s war on schools
October 28, 2022
Written by: Lucy Hamilton
The IPA is no longer even performing the masquerade of being a thinktank. It is rather a culture war factory for the right; its American-invented campaign on schools risks pushing even more people out of teaching.
Michael Pascoe’s excellent column savaging the IPA illustrates its commitment to greed at the expense of everything. At a moment when Australia is beginning to reckon with which low-lying (and forested) communities will soon become uninsurable in the face of the climate emergency, the IPA is still pushing false doubt about the science.
It seems shortsighted to fight tooth and nail for one’s own children to live in a world much harder and more expensive than the one the combatant was raised in. It seems confused, if not hypocritical, to demonise just policy for asylum seekers at the same time as hounding politicians to shape policy that will displace millions in the next few decades.
Their campaigns, however, are much more myopic than even these contradictions suggest. Teachers learnt with glaring clarity over the worst of the pandemic (so far) that their allocated role in society, stripped of romantic imaginings, was childminding. Teachers are intended to keep youth off the street until they too grow old enough to join their parents in wave slavery and debt peonage.
And yet the IPA, shorn of actual research, has filched from American playbooks the savaging of teachers and schools as the culture war that will keep it relevant and bring its chaotic political arm back to power.
Teachers battle a grinding job that makes holidays a necessity to avoid harming hyperactive masses of children and recalcitrant teens. Constant pressure of arbitrary benchmarks and counterproductive testing makes teaching too often a matter of training children to surmount pointless hurdles rather than to relish all that is around us to be learnt. Battalions of demanding parents treat teachers as servants or miscreants, while administrative demands bow shoulders under an unbearable load. At night, while friends gather to socialise, teachers contemplate the preparation and marking that must be done. Metrics, data entry and reporting are constant nagging requirements.
Most young people would rather be playing or socialising, as any parent who tries to marshal unwilling offspring will tell you. Trying to galvanise the PlayStation, TikTok and Netflix generation to engage with lessons they resent is a constant demand on energy that leaves the teacher exhausted at the end of the day. The computer in the classroom (laptop, iPad or phone) will offer instant excitement compared to mastering the use of apostrophes.
Too many teachers are older, and could not have safely taught in the classroom during the pre-vaccine pandemic, with threats to their own health or those in their care at home. Nonetheless, the distance education option of the lockdown era was extraordinarily difficult and has brought back a generation of children of vastly different accomplishment. Some cannot sit still for a class’s duration while others were nurtured and extended by parents who had the time and capacity to do so.
Looking out for the mental wellbeing of students, while trying to meet impossible standards is a constant struggle. There are so many conflicting roles demanded of a teacher that day to day, they are worn away to bare bones.
There are few experiences as exhilarating as igniting the magic of excitement in young people about a new idea or a challenge mastered, but buried in the erosive rest, it is not enough to keep many teachers in the profession.
We are facing a teacher shortage at the moment, as a result of all these drains, with many deciding that there are much easier ways to pay the bills that don’t leave one a sickened wreck at the beginning of every holiday (before reengaging with the preparation for the following term).
So for the IPA to choose this moment to declare war on teachers is to shoot itself in the face. Who is going to provide childcare so that all the wage slaves can keep churning out the profits for its residual funders?
Bella D’Abrera is the voice of the IPA’s campaign on schools, Class Action, named in a threateningly legalistic fashion. In July, the IPA promoted an advertisement for the campaign on Facebook aiming to arouse average Aussie parents to work to control what is taught to their children. The linked video is labelled with a “Warning” with an accompanying warning logo, followed by “insane racial ideology at Aust schools.” The post claims that “Critical Race Theory”(CRT) is being taught at Australian schools. This is arrant nonsense. CRT is a university level discourse in some American law schools that aims to see where old racism is encoded in longstanding systems. This fabricated culture war battle over schooling was invented by Republican activist Christopher Rufo, who believed it offered a frightening sounding name that would galvanise ignorant Red-state parents.
The label is applied to any attempt to convey history in any but the most bowdlerised fashion to suit white bigots who will not hear any of the pain of the settler colonial experience. (In Britain the label is used to criticise any but the most celebratory account of the British Empire.) It is not about teaching guilt, as the IPA and radical right activists chant, but about teaching a more balanced view of history than most adults are aware existed. Our historical understanding is so partial because the history taught has been so sanitised.
D’Abrera also harps on about the “identity politics” taught in schools, and apparently fostered in universities, omitting the fact that there is one and only one identity they do want taught. Any allowance for diversity in schools is made the subject of hysterical scandal.
As Noel Turnbull pointed out here, schools are exciting and busy places, because of the hard work of teachers, with no sign of the perversion and shame that the IPA’s American gambit would have us believe.
D’Abrera is the director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program at the IPA. This program’s focus is an Orbanist dogwhistle, a polite version of the Great Replacement conspiracy that says Elites (Jewish people for the hardcore devotees) are consciously destroying western civilisation by importing people of colour and inculcating shame about the only truly worthwhile civilisation to have existed. Orban’s utter loathing of diversity – cultural and personal – is clearly visible throughout the IPA’s work.
The IPA has become a culture war factory with barely any research to justify the label “thinktank” and the tax perks it claims. Borrowing this particular culture war, however, is utterly self-defeating. The radical Republicans wish to destroy public education; their campaign to harass teachers and drive them out of the profession is productive in that light.
For more pragmatic Australians, as we saw in the worst of the pandemic, without teachers, work becomes extremely difficult.
This was first posted on Pearls and Irritations as The IPA launches campaign to harass teachers. Why?
Abbott Supporters Still Pyning Away!
June 28, 2017
Written by: Rossleigh
Well, thank god those days of dysfunctional government are over and the adults are back in charge. No, really, they’ve told us many, many times that they’re the awesomest government and they’re really good and besides Bill smells and has no friends and nobody likes him and we’re going to call him names until he cries because that’s the way adults do things…
Anyway, I must say that the events of the past few days remind me yet again of why people are rather cynical of politicians. For those of you who haven’t followed the events surrounding Christopher “The Fixer” Pyne, it goes something like this.
Pyne was speaking to a group of like-minded Liberals. An amazing thing in itself. He not only mentioned that he and George had always voted for Malcolm the Magnificent, but that changes to the marriage laws may not be all that far away.
Even though this was not a public forum somebody leaked it to Andrew Bolt.
Tony Abbott immediately suggested that Pyne’s “confession that he has made to his close colleagues in the Left faction” demonstrated that he’d been disloyal while a member of his leadership team because, well, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote for someone else when you’re a member of Cabinet apparently. (Let’s leave aside the rather strange idea that there is a “left faction” in the Liberals. Ok, there may be some that are less right, but it’s a bit like talking about the intelligent faction of One Nation.)
There are lots of anonymous sources suggesting that Pyne must be replaced because his comments suggested that he wanted to change government policy and that he should support government policy at all times.
Turnbull and Pyne both come out and say that there’ll be no change to government policy, which is nicely ambiguous because the suggestion from some was that a couple of Liberals were going to introduce a private member’s bill and attempt to get legislation through with a few committed souls crossing the floor. That, of course, wouldn’t require a change to government policy.
There is still anger towards Christopher Pyne for suggesting that he supported something that isn’t government policy.
Tony Abbott puts aside his anger to publicly release a manifesto of exactly what the government should do, which is somehow different from Pyne’s sin of saying it behind closed doors, because nobody has a problem with this at all, even though, at face value, suggesting that the government policy needs to change doesn’t seem to be supporting current government policy.
That about catches you up. So now we can carefully examine Tony’s manifesto without being all caught up on whether Malcolm will sack Christopher or whether a whole bunch of Liberals will join Cory Bernardi’s party and bring down the government.
I did notice that the headline on one of the articles about Tony’s plan implied that it was a plan to help the Liberals get re-elected. Now, if he simply wants to help the Liberals get re-elected, I have a very simple one for him. It’s what they told the sheep farmer: “Just shut the flock up!”
However, I’m sure that Mr Abbott would argue that his ideas are not simply about being returned at the next ballot (whether that’s the ballot for Liberal leader or the next federal one), but that they’re real solutions that will take Australia back to its glory days when men were men, the Queen was beloved by all and we all rode on the sheep’s back… in a purely economic sense, of course, because nobody – not even Cory Bernardi – would have even thought to suggest that we were on a slippery slope toward bestiality.
Mr Abbott, as he usually does, covered a range of ideas. Yep, that is a euphemism for saying that the poor man is unable to stay on any given topic for more than a couple of minutes without exhausting his knowledge. Young Tony asserted the need to cut immigration before following up with complaints about political parties surrendering to populism. Now, I guess some will think that this is a bit hypocritical, but let me remind you that it’s only when somebody else does something that a lot of people agree with that it’s populism, when one does it oneself, it’s bowing to the will of the people in line with democratic principles. Along with Mr Abbott’s misgivings about populism and the whole political spectrum moving to the left, he was also concerned about school funding and energy targets. School funding, he speculated, had moved in the wrong direction, although he wasn’t clear about what he meant by that, although he has made it clear in the past that he thinks that private schools should be getting a lot more than they are. And the Senate shouldn’t be have so much power to block the government and he proposed measures that would enable a joint sitting without the need for a double dissolution. Nobody asked him why he tried to block so much government legislation when he was in Opposition, if he felt that the Senate was an unnecessary obstacle. Similarly, nobody suggested that this might be a problem when those silly Labor people get back in. Perhaps, Tony has a plan to ensure that only conservatives can be elected in future; perhaps he’s quite happy to allow Labor to introduce all those things that the Senate has rejected in the past. Whatever, it surely couldn’t be because a man who was once our PM wouldn’t have thought his idea through.
And then, there were his ideas on energy. Listening to Finkel – whom the current government commissioned to work out the best solutions, or at least some solutions, because we’ve already rejected some even if they are the best – would be a terrible mistake. No, it’s better just to make up your own mind because that way you don’t get confused by a lot of nasty facts. No, we should freeze the renewable target at 15% and stop any new wind farms because we may have an energy shortfall and building more wind farms would help reduce this shortfall, but not by using coal and so, therefore, it doesn’t fit the criteria of good energy policy. Let’s be quite clear here, renewables are being subsidised and we don’t like that. We think that the market should decide and if the market doesn’t want to build any new coal-fired power stations then the government should go it alone and build one itself. There now, that’s perfectly consistent, isn’t it?
A spokesman for Mr Turnbull said that he had no plans to change government policy. When asked if he had any plans at all, the spokesman said that he’d check with the PM but he was almost certain that he had been talking about his intention to develop a plan at the first available opportunity.
Stranded RTO Students under Stress
March 8, 2017
Written by: Robyn Dunphy
Students are stranded as the Registered Training Organisation (RTO) fail rate leaves us in a stressful limbo.
check your facts. Rudd-Gillard Govt delivered you both VET FEE-HELP market (which I've axed) & NPA requiring contestability.
Add Australian Careers Institute to the list, otherwise known as Sage Institute (of Fitness, Childcare, Massage and Aged Care, among others). I am (or is that technically “was”) a student of Sage Institute of Fitness.
As a student I am not about to enter the political blame game of which party did what, when or why. Mr Birmingham, right now the buck stops with you because you are in charge. Australia cannot leave students high and dry.
In correspondence received today, students are advised the following (emphasis added):
Students may still be liable to pay for the portion of the course that has been delivered. The Administrators will be in contact with those effected in separate correspondence.
We will endeavour to provide Statements of Attainment and Certificates during the administration period so long as resources are available.
The following holds out some hope.
The Group is a member of ACPET’s Tuition Assurance scheme. This is a scheme that provides support to students of closed colleges as per government guidelines. ACPET will shortly (in the next 3 to 4 business days) be contacting all affected students to outline their options moving forward. This includes:
Placing them with another training provider of the student’s choice;
Arranging re-credits of VET FEE HELP loans; and / or
Coordinating refunds of amounts paid to the Group.
I have spoken to ACPET, as have other students equally concerned about their future. At this stage ACPET are unable to provide specific advice. I have also contacted my local MP.
Many of us are almost complete. We have finished all class contact hours and are finalising our last assignment, an assessment done as part of the required 120 hours of practical placement. From the above correspondence we really do not know what will happen to us. In my case, I only need that last assignment marked and half of another I had at home for reference when Sage went into Administration. Other students are in similar positions, while yet others have scrambled to complete over the last few weeks. Students not so far advanced in their courses may (or may not) be in better positions to transfer to other providers.
I have received no communication from Sage. The first communication to all students received from the Administrator was, in my case, addressed to “Dear Stephen”. A follow-up letter to all students was addressed to “Dear Student”. As an IT professional, I can guess the most probable cause, however it did add insult to injury.
A new career was a choice I made when I was made redundant in 2015. Rheumatoid Arthritis means sitting at a desk all day is not the best approach to pain management. Exercise is. By changing careers I could not only help others in a similar physical/health situation, but also help myself. It made sense. Also, unemployment and I do not make good bedfellows.
When we were enrolled, we were told we would be able to work after six months of the course. This was great news to many students and we took this as a major benefit of doing the course. However, when we tried to work, we found this was not true.
I wrote a letter to Sage, the opening paragraph is below.
When I enrolled in this course I was very clearly told I would be able to work after six months, providing I had passed the requisite units to that point of the course. I now discover this is not correct. Fitness Australia will not register students part-way through this course, even if we have exceeded the requirements of Certificate IV. Unfortunately, I only discovered this after I had paid for the requisite insurance and registered a business name. There are tax implications as well, as without declarable revenue, expenses are not claimable.
Some twenty other students co-signed my letter and a meeting was held. Sadly, there was little resolution to be had. The situation was blamed on a miscommunication by the Sales Department. Poor consolation for those students who had budgeted on being able to earn money. Not foreseeing the current state of affairs, I went ahead and registered my trademark at not inconsiderable cost.
Another student is in his mid-forties and needs to work – he has two school age children. Another is turning fifty later this year and while he has other revenue streams, he also needs to work. We ALL need to work. We had university students in our class who need to work to fund their university education. We had other students who, like me, have health and/or medical reasons for doing the course. The common thread is we all are now stressed and in limbo.
We all made sacrifices to study for the year: our families made sacrifices to help us. Children missed Saturdays with their Dads, spouses missed their partners, household budgets were adjusted. It is not just the students who are affected. Some of us travelled considerable distances to attend school. At one point I was living in Craigieburn, working in Geelong and studying in the Melbourne CBD. All the travelling meant I could not realistically do practical placement hours at the same time. Another student had a senior managerial job and simply could not fit in practical placement hours and work and study – but that was OK at the time as we had twelve months after the completion of class contact hours to finish our practical placement hours. Now it appears that provision has been swept away.
Another complication that affected different students to varying degrees was Sage offered no assistance to organise the 120 hours of practical placement or the five individual people needed for the final assignment. Due to my age, specific area of interest and some physical limitations I found arranging practical placement difficult, let alone finding five athletes (the athlete requirement was later modified). When I did finally find a gym and a mentor and subjects, I was part-way through when the gym changed hands. The new operators are very kindly allowing me to continue, however now I don’t know if my work will be counted. To start again from scratch at my age would be a very difficult situation. Other mature age students face the same difficult choice.
Have we just wasted a year? Are we going to be left with an $18,500 VET-FEE debt (or payments to date lost) and no qualification? We do not know. This is extremely stressful. Of course, the number one instruction from my medical specialist is “keep stress out of your life”.
We, the students, had no part to play in reducing the TAFE system or in the growth of RTOs. Whether it was Labor, Liberal, Greens or One Nation is irrelevant to us. We, the students deserve better, more timely communication clearly addressing our concerns and offering us viable solutions. It is my understanding other students of other failed RTOs are in exactly the same situation as Sage students. The article below cites $32 million over two years for Sage alone – what is the total for all failed RTOs?
The college earned more than $32 million over two years through the now-scrapped VET FEE-HELP loan scheme, while graduating 45 per cent of students.
A hearing in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in October heard the college had spent $6 million marketing Commando Steve’s unique “cutting edge” Diploma of Fitness Coaching Course in one year.
Source: SMH
I feel for the staff, who have been made redundant. I know what that feels like. The teachers were wonderful and are as much victims of this disaster as the students are. They have done their best to try and finalise as many of us as possible, but in some cases it just isn’t possible.
The disabled have also been impacted (emphasis added).
Up to 3000 disabled students are at risk of having funding cut to their vocational education courses after the NSW government suspended 17 providers for failing to meet minimum standards under the Smart and Skilled program.
Source: SMH
While there has been some criticism of Sage in the press in the past and I have criticised Sage in this article, it is my experience Sage were trying to do the right thing. There was investment in new equipment and additional practical class areas. Appropriate flooring was installed. When students complained about the selling technique described above, management did engage with us. The teachers they employed were caring, knowledgeable and dedicated. I had to adjust my expectations of the academic standards required: I have a university degree and the standards set for vocational training are quite different, understandably. I was, as a student, quite critical of some of the course and assessment material yet I needed to be mindful I was not at a tertiary institution.
So many RTOs “going under” all at once may not be entirely their fault. The VET-FEE scheme has been terminated. It seems as part of the change-over to a replacement scheme, RTOs were not paid.
The college, which has campuses in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, had received no federal government money since late 2016, after the axing of the scandal-ridden VET FEE-HELP scheme caused cash to “dry up”.
Source: SMH
No business can survive if the cash-flow suddenly disappears. Rent still has to be paid, teachers still have to be paid. Would Sage (and other RTOs) have survived if the matter had been handled better by the government department responsible? It seems to me this question is not being investigated sufficiently. Personally, I would prefer to see the TAFE system adequately funded: however I don’t like to see blame apportioned where it may not belong.
What would students find an acceptable resolution? I would be happy to have my VET-FEE debt adjusted to the level for Cert IV and receive a Cert IV qualification. Other students I have spoken to agree this would be an acceptable resolution for those of us who have completed the class contact hours and passed all the assessments related thereto. I stress this may not be acceptable to all by any means, but could be an option acceptable to some. Most of us have far exceeded the practical placement hours required for a Cert IV and although the course structure was different, surely the content in its entirety is comparable? We enrolled in the twelve month diploma because of the broader coverage, however we can all undertake continued professional development. Cert IV would enable us to be registered as professionals with Fitness Australia. We could then either launch our own businesses or seek employment. For many of us, studying for another twelve months is really not an option, no matter how dedicated we may be.
On behalf of my fellow students I ask the government to not enter into a blame game but to concentrate on the welfare of the students so unfairly and unexpectedly impacted by the current situation.
If you are an RTO student impacted by the current turn of events, please share your situation in the comments below, anonymously if you prefer. We need to remind the powers that be there are PEOPLE involved here, not just organisations who may or may not have tried to do the right thing. That is not our decision to make.
Footnote: For those who previously asked for an unemployment status update (refer article linked to above), yes, I am currently working in a role I love with great people in a great organisation. In a contract role: it will come to an end. I still need (and want) my fitness qualifications.
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October 23, 2016
Written by: Robyn Dunphy
Growing up, I was taught there were three things one didn’t discuss in polite company: sex, religion and politics. Religion and politics can lead to heated arguments – just look at several countries around the world at the moment with very volatile political environments. As a respite from the politics, let’s talk about sex, baby.
Edit October 24, 2016: Judging by the comments below, it seems I may did have made clear my main argument, so I’ll be blunt. I’m hypothesising lack of sexual compatibility can result in love dying in a relationship. Lack of compatibility can be the result of lack of knowledge, lack of skill, lack of similar desires/needs and the societal repression of female sexuality. I specifically avoided the use of the word “love” in order to retain focus. There is no question that love + sex can and should be, well, mind-blowing!
My focus is the social repression of female sexuality and the lack of training/skill development generally. Sometimes I read articles that make my blood boil. I read one such article yesterday. Apparently, in 2016, it is still OK to send completely different messages to our young people.
He spoke to the girls about sex — and how they shouldn’t have it — in a mandatory assembly, during the school day, attended by all 350 female students. But he spoke to the boys about “dating tips” in a voluntary, after-school assembly attended by only 25 male students.
In response to a question, Henning explained that guys are sexual so the species won’t die out, while girls have a low sex drive so the planet will not get overpopulated.
Let’s look at some of our society’s “standards”. Young men are encouraged to “sow their wild oats” but girls are to be virgins when they walk down the aisle. A male fellow student of mine, a father in his mid-thirties, has completely different ideas about the allowable dating lives of his sons and daughters. Years ago my son ranted and raved at me for allowing my daughter’s boyfriend to stay over. “But”, I countered, “you are sleeping with your girlfriend!” His response? “That’s different.” How? That girlfriend was someone’s daughter! How did he develop that double standard? From society. Both son and daughter were adults by this stage.
Who, exactly, are these young men supposed to sowing their wild oats with? Each other? Because us women are all so busy protecting our virginity, after all – or at least not bedding too many partners….. We have sex education in some societies and some schools, but even then it focuses on the mechanics of how the male and female bodies work. I distinctly remember my own daughter coming home from school after sex education at about age seven or eight. The conversation went like this.
M: “Mum, we had sex ed today”.
M: “Yes, but I’m confused.”
M: “Well, we learnt the sperm comes from the man and the egg from the woman and together that makes a baby, but they didn’t tell us how the sperm and the egg meet.”
On the basis if a child is old enough to ask a question, they are old enough for an answer, I proceeded to explain, in the simplest terms I could, how the sperm and the egg meet. Her reaction? “Oh, Mum, that’s disgusting, they pee with that!” As she is now 37 and very happily married, I guess she has moved past her initial horror. I did explain the function of the prostate to her at the time! (Conversation shared with permission)
About 20 years prior I had also had sex ed at school. Not much had changed, I thought.
At no point in time do we instruct our young people how to have a good sexual relationship, how to make love well, how to enjoy sex. No, we are still too busy encouraging young men to sow their wild oats and women to refrain from being sluts. Not as blatantly as in the 1950s perhaps, but generally that undercurrent is still there, loud and clear. It is OK for males to enjoy sex, but not women. Yet we have no hesitation in draping scantily clad women over anything and everything to sell “stuff” – more mixed messages. An amusing look at that cultural proclivity can be found at The Huffington Post, “If Men Posed Like Motorcycle Babes“.
We teach our children how to cook, we toilet train them, we teach them to get enough sleep and drink enough water. Breathing and homeostasis really take care of themselves. But sex, the other basic physiological need? No, we ignore that. Heaven forbid we should actually provide any guidance to our young people on one of the most important aspects of their adult life.
Not only that, but society is effectively still repressing female sexuality. We still have double standards, we still have a culture that will blame rape victims for the way they dressed or because they were drunk which effectively is nothing more than excusing the rapist and buying into the very rubbish the lecturer cited above spouted: women have a low sex drive and men have a high sex drive. How about society considers some people have a low sex drive and some people have a high sex drive irrespective of gender. I can think of examples of all four situations I have known during my life.
I applaud the efforts to eradicate the rape culture we still seem to be saddled with and the efforts to hold rapists accountable for their actions irrespective of a woman’s dress. What I don’t see is society teaching young people how to be good lovers. Many young men get much of their “guidance” from porn movies, much more readily available today than pre-internet. Maybe they’d be better having a decent conversation with their father. Some do, but many don’t.
”In my private practice I had a 16-year-old girl who came in and said her 18-year-old boyfriend told her her vagina didn’t look like the images he saw on the internet.
Source: The Age
That’s a great start to a sexual relationship, don’t you think? That is an interesting article worth reading in full, even though a few years old now.
Teenagers are always usually highly embarrassed if their parents try to talk about sex, but isn’t that society’s fault? If we treated sex no differently to teaching young people how to cook or eat a balanced diet or get enough sleep, perhaps our young people would be better equipped to enter the adult world and find sexually compatible partners.
It has long been cited that when relationships start to breakdown, the sex stops. While I am not a psychologist, I’ve often wondered what comes first here, the chicken or the egg? Is it always the case other relationship dynamics fail first, or is it that the sexual compatibility isn’t there and that triggers other issues in the relationship? Could sex be the glue that may keep a relationship together? Remember, we are talking about a basic physiological need, according to Maslow. He didn’t publish gender specific hierarchies, however the following observation is noted:
Although Maslow (1970) did study self-actualized females, such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Mother Teresa, they comprised a small proportion of his sample. This makes it difficult to generalize his theory to females and individuals from lower social classes or different ethnicity. Thus questioning the population validity of Maslow’s findings.
Source: Simply Psychology
There are other aspects of Maslow’s theory open to question, outlined in the above article.
I am not the only one who has wondered.
Can sex kill a marriage? Absolutely. Problems in the bedroom can lead to deep dissatisfaction. A marital sex problem is like a canary in a coal mine — a warning alarm that danger lies ahead.
Source: The Huffington Post
One reason the author of the above article didn’t cite was simply lack of skill or sexual incompatibility (although Reason 6. comes close to the latter). Incompatibility can (not always) result from lack of skill, I suggest.
Think back to the very first time you had sex – did you really have any idea what you were doing, apart from the mechanics of the act? Feel free to share in the comments! We learnt as we went along. I may not recall the stats correctly but I have a recollection of reading, in my dim, dark, youthful past, that some 60% of women (at the time, it has improved) did not achieve orgasm. While it may be that some women are physiologically unable to reach orgasm, maybe with a little, oh, EDUCATION it might be possible for many more. Recently our modern imaging technologies have provided a much better understanding of the female clitoris. Bit bigger than many people think, huh?
The Guardian has a good article covering the details, “This is a 3D model of a clitoris – and the start of a sexual revolution“. The French will use this 3D model in sex education. Good. That’s a start.
There is a wealth of material out there to assist people, yet even so, many people don’t seek any guidance until after they’ve experienced a failed relationship or they blame other aspects for the relationship breakdown. Young people are unlikely to read a sex text book before they embark on a sexual relationship because we have created a society that finds such things embarrassing.
Individuals in a relationship can certainly learn from each other, but what if neither knows?
Incompatibility is a completely different issue. We are all different. Like different things, high, low, medium sex drive, morning versus night people, missionary versus the Kamasutra. Although certainly compromise is possible as in any aspect of life, if compromise has to be such that one person is no longer being fulfilled or enjoying the sex, this is likely to lead to relationship problems. If we didn’t send our young people out into the world with the belief that “it will be alright on the night” and everything will naturally fall into place, perhaps they could make more informed choices.
Sex requires energy. If the female in the relationship is working full-time, picking kids up from childcare, preparing dinner, doing the dishes, helping with homework and folding washing while the male catches up with the latest sport and news on TV, guess what? Said female is not going to have the energy for sex, irrespective of how much she may want it or need it or desire it. Suddenly it will become yet another task for the day and most likely just one task too many. None of us, male or female, have inexhaustible energy stores. It isn’t just the sexual skills we need in relationships, it is the knowledge around sex: ensuring the timing and environment is conducive is just one important aspect.
Imagine if we stopped treating sex as some great secret. Imagine if we actually treated sex as the normal part of life that it actually is, if we stopped preaching that females are somehow less sexual that males. Perhaps we could reduce the divorce rate. Perhaps we would eradicate or minimise the rape culture. Perhaps we would stop the victim blaming. Perhaps everyone could have a better sex life! The transition may take a generation or two, but surely it is time.
We won’t know unless we try.
Interestingly, some time after I published this article, I came across an article in The Guardian which discusses this very topic with an historical perspective. I found it very interesting: so might you! The Story of Sex: from Apes to Robots is a book written by a French academic.
Education, Re-education And Tony Who?
October 28, 2015
Written by: Rossleigh
A few days ago I read that the education system was failing because one in four students don’t complete Year 12.
That interests me because back in the old days, when I was getting a secondary education, it was the kids who failed when they didn’t complete Year 12. Of course, it was a different system them and a certain percentage was mandated to fail.
When one looks at the data a bit more closely, one finds that a lot of the reasons for this are the reasons we already know. High dropout rates in remote indigenous communities, poverty, mental illness and all the other factors that encourage governments to commission reports which recommend that something needs to be done. After receiving the report, the government either buries it or announces with much fanfare that it’s a great report and they’ll be studying it carefully and when they’ve had time to read it more fully, in the fullness of time, something will indeed be done. Why, we may even restore some of the funding that we took away in last year’s Budget.
Now I’m not saying that there aren’t vast improvements that could be made to the education system. I’m not saying that teachers are perfect. I’m just making the point that every time something goes wrong, we blame the education system and then turn around and offer some half-baked explanation of what’s wrong with it.
And speaking of half-baked solutions, did you read Kevin Donelly’s article today which suggested: “Singing the national anthem at school should be compulsory”?
Kevin, you may remember, was responsible for a review into the Australian Curriculum to see how it was working. Which, of course, it wasn’t. After all, it hadn’t been introduced yet, so it’s really hard to argue that it was working. But Kevin and his mate were appointed to review it because they thought that it was far too left wing and didn’t have enough about our Judeo-Christian heritage or Anzac Day.
Surprisingly, they found that it didn’t have enough about our Judeo-Christian heritage or Anzac Day, as well as having far too much about Asia.
You remember, Anzac Day where the diggers went and fought for our right to make things compulsory.
Young Kevin begins his piece with the rather interesting rhetorical questions:
“How far should we go in accepting diversity and difference, the new code for multiculturalism, and allow immigrants to pursue their own values and customs? And to what extent should all those who live here be integrated into Australian society and accept the nation’s way of life?”
New “code” for multiculturalism? Mm, and here I was thinking difference and diversity meant something else entirely.
Anyway Mr Donnelly’s problem is that the principal of a primary school exempted a number of Shite students from assembly where the national anthem was to be sung, because they were observing Muharram, during which time they don’t participate in joyful events such as singing or listening to music.
Ok, I’ve never exactly thought of “Advance Australia Fair” as particularly joyful. I mean I can’t ever remember dancing to it, so if it’s a time of mourning I can’t see that loudly proclaiming our girtness would cheer one up all that much. And you can make your own mind up about the principal’s decision, but I like Kevin’s neat sashay round the wider question to go straight to the heart of the matter.
“All those who live in Australia, especially immigrants, should accept that Australian society is unique and that the types of freedoms and basic rights we often take for granted must be celebrated and upheld.”
So let’s see if I’ve got his position. All those who come here should be forced to accept that Australia is unique – unlike all those other countries which are all the same and just full of foreigners – and that children should be forced to sing the national anthem so that they understand exactly how freedom and basic rights must be celebrated.
Of course, he doesn’t talk about what should be done if I a person decides that their religous practices are more important and simply doesn’t sing. Should they be packed of to some re-education camp where we explain how great our country is until they understand that “multiculturalism doesn’t work”?
Yep, Mr Donnelly was probably chosen for the review of the Australian Curriculum because, like Mr Abbott, he seems more at home in that era when we were concerned that those “new Australians” were bringing in things and strange customs like spaghetti and smashing plates, and we were proud because Holden was Australia’s own and there were so many pink bits on the map which indicated countries belonging to the Commonwealth. And people who weren’t British were “the other”.
And “the other” was wrong. Our way of life wasn’t just better, it was the only way that one could live. That was the thing about the Aborigines. They couldn’t assimilate, and that was a pity. That’s why they’d died off in such numbers. As for the ones that were left, well, what can you do? They don’t fit into Australia, but if they can learn to behave like white people then they’re welcome to stay.
Ah, the good old days.
The switch to Turnbull isn’t just a change of leaders. It’s a whole change of era. During Abbott’s time (and to a lesser extent, during Howard’s), the other side was just wrong. You didn’t need to argue or explain. You just needed to say how wrong things were. You had Tony arguing against an emission trading scheme and telling us that it would be simpler to just put a tax on carbon at one point, then arguing that a tax on carbon was the wrong thing when Gillard did it. If Labor did it, it was wrong. If they’d found a cure for cancer, Abbott would have criticised them for any recently purchased chemotherapy equipment.
So we move to Turnbull and suddenly some of the things he’s saying make sense. There’s a suggestion that he might actually have opinions on some topics that are reasonable. On others, he’s clearly locked in to some policies that are hard to justify, but we seem to have an entered a world where things are being debated on their merits, rather than simply telling us that Labor was hopeless in government and therefore not entitled to comment on any of the current policies. It’s been a few weeks but I don’t remember Turnbull uttering the phrase, “the mess we inherited”… Although that could be because people would presume he was talking about the one left by Tony and Joe.
Yeah, you’re right. He hasn’t changed many of the policies, and on climate change, refugees (an example of the freedom-loving, human rights-supporting Australia that Donnelly loves so much), unions and the rest we’ve still to see any shift. But he did remove Newman as advisor and he did use the words “innovation” and “science” without suggesting that they be the work of the devil. It’s as though we’re actually looking to the future and trying to make a decent plan instead of simply harping about what Labor did, or how great it was when Liberals were last in charge.
And there’s a change in tone. He speaks as though when you disagree with him you’re simply misinformed, not evil. It’s like the difference between swearing at someone who offends you, compared to beating him over the head with a club. While, both may be unpleasant, the former is the beginining of civilzation.
As someone said, “It may be a new toilet, but it’s still the same shit.” While that may be true, I think the current appeal of Turnbull is that he looks modern enough that it’s possible that he can be flushed from time to time.
September 19, 2015
Written by: Kaye Lee
Just to reinforce that we have not had any change of thinking with a new leader, Christopher Pyne rolled out his “new curriculum”, endorsed by state education ministers yesterday.
There is to be a greater focus on Western civilisation and our Christian heritage.
Indigenous issues have been cut from parts of the curriculum, and students will no longer be taught about Harmony Week, National Reconciliation Week, or NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) week.
Students will continue to learn about Australia Day, Anzac Day and National Sorry Day. The Year 6 study of the contribution of “individuals and groups” to Australian society will no longer include a reference to indigenous people or migrants, and will be confined to the post-Federation period.
The existing requirement to study Australia’s connection to Asia has been deleted from the new curriculum.
Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne said the changes would resolve “overcrowding’’ in the primary school curriculum, boost the teaching of phonics and strengthen references to Western influences in Australia’s history.
The states and territories did not agree to make STEM subjects compulsory in high school, partly because they do not have the teachers to do it.
They also decided, on advice from The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), that from next year, new teaching graduates will not be allowed into classrooms until they pass a test ranking them in the top 30 per cent of the population for literacy and numeracy.
Wouldn’t it be better to do that sort of testing before they start their degree rather than when they have finished it? They are also going to make the students pay for the test themselves, and whilst imposing higher standards on trainee teachers, I have heard no mention of higher pay.
AITSL chairman John Hattie — who took part in the ministerial meeting — said the changes would bring teaching closer in line with professions such as engineering and medicine.
“We have to make it very clear to people considering a teaching career that if you’re dumb you can’t be a teacher,’’ he told The Weekend Australian. “We need to worry considerably about the students in the classroom and the quality of the person standing up in front of them.’’
To all you ‘dumb’ people who were aspiring to be teachers, might I suggest a career in politics instead – no such restrictions apply.
Alchemy, phonics and the future of our children
August 9, 2015
Written by: Kaye Lee
As alchemist Abbott tries to turn coal into gold and professor Pyne pushes phonics, our children’s future is being placed in jeopardy.
A recent report from chief scientist Ian Chubb stated that 75 per cent of the fastest growing occupations required science, technology, engineering or mathematics skills and knowledge yet there has been a continuing decline in the percentage of year 12 science and maths students over the past two decades.
In 2012 there were 30,800 more students in year 12 than in 1992 but 8000 fewer physics students, 4000 fewer chemistry students and 12,000 fewer biology students than two decades previously. The percentage of students studying advanced and intermediate maths also declined over a similar period.
There is also a significant gender imbalance with boys far more likely to choose maths and science subjects than girls. (Male over-representation in Physics: 28%, Advanced maths: 16%, Intermediate maths: 7.3%, Chemistry: 3.8%)
This has very worrying implications for society.
“People who have a background in science beyond year 10 are more likely to persist in trying to understand issues like climate change, GM crops and coal seam gas than someone who thinks, ‘It’s all too hard, I’m just going to go with what someone else says’,” Dr Lyons, an associate professor of science education at Queensland University of Technology, said.
While Christopher Pyne focuses on phonics and rewriting history, more enlightened minds, those with actual expertise in the area of education, are calling for science and maths specialists in primary schools and better teacher training, support and resources.
John Kennedy, the head of science at St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Sydney, said engaging teachers helped spark a child’s interest in science at a young age and helped retain older students in their final school years.
“It’s not that [students] find the sciences or the maths hard,” said Mr Kennedy.
“If the teacher is engaging, wanting to work with the [student], then the [student] wanted to study it the next year,” he said.
Research has found engaging children in science before the age of 11 to 14 was critical to their long-term interest in the subject.
Since 2004, the Australian Academy of Science has run Primary Connections, a primary school science and literacy program that has helped improve teacher quality and been used in 73 per cent of Australian schools.
Primary Connections is based on an inquiry-orientated teaching and learning model. Students use their prior knowledge and literacies to develop explanations for their hands-on experiences of scientific phenomena. Students have opportunities to represent and re-represent their developing understanding. They are engaged actively in the learning process. Students develop investigations skills and an understanding of the nature of science.
Teaching and learning progresses through five phases: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate.
Each unit begins with a lesson that mentally engages students with an activity or question. It captures their interest, provides an opportunity for them to express what they know about the concept or skill being developed, and helps them to make connections between what they know and the new ideas.
Students carry out hands-on activities in which they can explore the concept or skill. They grapple with the problem or phenomenon and describe it in their own words. This phase allows students to acquire a common set of experiences that they can use to help each other make sense of the new concept or skill.
Only after students have explored the concept or skill does the teacher provide the concepts and terms used by the students to develop explanations for the phenomenon they have experienced. The significant aspect of this phase is that explanation follows experience.
This phase provides opportunities for students to apply what they have learned to new situations and so develop a deeper understanding of the concept or greater use of the skill. It is important for students to discuss and compare their ideas with each other during this phase.
The final phase provides an opportunity for students to review and reflect on their own learning and new understanding and skills. It is also when students provide evidence for changes to their understanding, beliefs and skills.
Unfortunately, our Education Minister prefers the Direct Instruction approach.
DI focuses on teacher control of lesson pacing and content and does not encourage the engagement with student cultural resources, background knowledge and community context.
It deskills teachers by routinizing their work and downplaying their professional capacity to vary instructional pace and curriculum content depending on the student cohort and context.
It works through strict tracking of student progress and ability grouping, which research shows can severely disadvantage some students.
Finally, it places the teacher and child in a rigid relationship where the teacher is always the one with the power and knowledge with limited allowance or recognition of individual and cultural difference. This relationship is not conducive to local adaptation of lessons or content to accommodate community, cultural or individual differences, creativity and innovation in teaching and learning.
Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson has been given tens of millions in government funding to implement Direct Instruction in Cape York communities. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has not been successful despite all the funding, with only 25 per cent of the Aurukun youth of high school age attending school. Many are sent off to boarding school but leave at the first opportunity.
“The communities of Aurukun and Hope Vale report a significant number of disengaged youth of high school age who have returned to community but have not engaged in an education option. These youth participate in dysfunctional behaviour and feel disengaged from mainstream society and also from their own communities.”
When we combine this didactic approach with the demise of the Gonski reforms, the attack on TAFEs, huge cuts in funding for research and scientific bodies, and the proposed deregulation of university fees, Abbott’s mantra of “Jobs and Growth” is hard to take seriously.
And what sort of an example are they setting when this government ignores all science, all fact-based evidence, to remove a carbon price, put a ban on wind turbines, and advocate more coal-burning.
Instead of anticipating the skills needed for the future, Abbott would rather issue 457 visas than train Australians. Instead of investing in research by the CSIRO and universities, he would rather give money to big pharma. Instead of needs-based funding for education, he would rather fund elite private schools. Instead of funding TAFEs he would rather give accreditation to dubious private colleges.
With a Prime Minister who is a puppet for his donors, an environment minister who measures his success by how many coal mines he can fast track, and an education minister who prefers ‘chalk and talk’, the fate of our children is in the hands of Luddites.
I have a bad feeling . . .
August 7, 2015
Written by: Kaye Lee
Whilst we have all been distracted by Choppergate and passionately discussing Adam Goodes and marriage equality, I have a sinking feeling we have been sold out and not just by the TPP. The tea leaves are telling me that the crossbenchers may have sold out on higher education reform.
Today I saw David Leyonjhelm interviewed and he was purring about his success in destroying the wind industry. He said seven of the eight crossbench Senators had combined to achieve this and that they are realising the power they have when they agree.
When asked if there had been any progress on the budget measures that were still blocked in the Senate he immediately said yes, there had been some successful negotiation.
Apparently Greg Hunt was not happy about the wind farm embargo but Tony Abbott weighed in with his support because “he very much wanted their support” on another matter.
The alarm bells started ringing when I read in the Guardian:
“The Abbott government is spending $150,000 outsourcing its negotiations with crossbench senators and the university sector about the higher education package that has been blocked twice by the upper house.
The talks are being led by Robert Griew, a consultant who was until recently an associate secretary in the federal Department of Education and Training with responsibility for higher education policy.
Griew is now a principal of the Nous Group, a firm that has won a federal government contract to assess “stakeholder views” on higher education, including the Coalition’s push to deregulate university fees.
The department’s contract with Nous Group was worth $150,000 and would run from 13 July to 5 August, according to the AusTender website, which cited the “need for independent research or assessment”.
Griew has sought meetings with crossbench senators, telling them the education minister, Christopher Pyne, wanted to bring the legislation back to the parliament during the spring sittings.”
For starters, what the hell are we paying Christopher Pyne for? Is he so objectionable that he can’t be the person to do the negotiation? Is there no-one in his Department that is able to brief the Senators and negotiate with the university sector?
But even more disturbing was Leyonjhelm’s smile. Have they sold out our kids to pander to the woman who doesn’t want a wind farm next door? Surely not?
I have a bad feeling . . .
How do you starve a region of jobs? Just vote LNP!
July 18, 2015
Written by: Trish Corry
Most Australians want a good quality of life and a good standard of living. To achieve this, the availability of jobs in any region is essential. The Liberal National Coalition Government always, always claim to be the Party to look up to when it comes to jobs and business.
We see the main stream media support this claim with positive spin after positive spin in favour of the LNP or derogatory headlines and stories about Labor. I often wonder if there is a statue of Tony Abbott in the foyer of The Australian or a statue of Campbell Newman and Joh Bjelke-Petersen in the foyer of The Courier Mail; where journalists begin their day by bowing to these statues and vowing to serve them through the course of their duties. Then there are those in the voting public who believe what the Liberal National Coalition say about how they understand business and are great for jobs and repeat it without question.
If you are creating a wealth of jobs, jobseekers must be just lazy…right?
When the LNP believe that they indeed are the best party for jobs and business, it then leads to a false dichotomy that those on unemployment must simply be lazy and that they simply don’t try enough. Obviously the LNP are in charge, so of course there are plenty of jobs to apply for!
Based on this false dichotomy, the LNP’s approach to assisting the unemployed jobs is to starve community programs of funding and punish the hell out of jobseekers by implementing the worst jobseeker support program in Australia’s history “Job Active.” Commentary on social media welfare sites from program participants, suggests that Job Active agencies are more focused on who they can get to pull out weeds for free under Abbott’s work for the dole program, than any real constructive assistance.
Commentary and anecdotes on social media also point to a system where there is no money to assist jobseekers find real work and assistance for study is not supported (unless it is pointless in-house training). With the Newman Government’s changes to vocational education over the last three years coupled with the Abbott Government’s punitive Job Active program, Jobseekers living well below the poverty line must pay out of their own pocket up front costs or pay the course off, as there is no HECS or HELP deferral scheme for many vocational education courses. Those on welfare need to weigh up their options between being able to afford food and housing or an education. As an Australian, I find this absolutely abhorrent and 100% unacceptable and this destroys this our way of life.
The Palaszczuk Labor Government has just delivered their first budget by Treasurer Curtis Pitt and have invested 34 Million to begin the repair of our vocational sector and TAFE, to provide real training options for jobseekers. I hope that this will be extended to ensure affordable access for everyone who has the right to an education, including those on welfare payments.
Sadly, also on social media you read the stories of many jobseekers who are anxious, depressed, frustrated, upset and at times indirectly or directly discussing suicide or ‘not living anymore’ as an option. This is how they are feeling as jobseekers under the Job Active program. Some of the comments I have read and the stories collected by the Australian Unemployment Union are absolutely heart-breaking.
Nothing like a bit of stigma to get those jobseekers moving…
To degrade the unemployed even further, in some towns like mine you are given a Basic’s card. Welfare recipients are given a cashless card and a small amount of cash. This leaves the jobseeker with very little real money to make purchasing decisions with. The Basics Card also seeks to stigmatise the jobseeker by giving them their own identifier which allows every shop assistant and member of the public at the checkout know that they are on welfare.
Couple this with the rhetoric that comes from the agenda of stigmatisation from the Liberal Government such as backbencher Ewen Jones who said: “look there’s your dole, go home, eat Cheezels, get on the Xbox, kiss you goodbye and we will never see you again’?” Add the sensationalisation of welfare recipients on television and so called ‘current affairs shows’; welfare recipients using a basic card, will be seen automatically by some as no good, lazy, bludging welfare thieves. Terminology used by many avid Liberal supporters which places those on welfare in a criminal category. Welfare recipients are not often seen as human beings who desperately want and actively seek work.
There is absolutely no option for those on welfare to blend in or not stand out as a recipient of welfare. This completely undermines the right to dignity and respect without judgement for so many Australians. Under the LNP their reasoning is to shame you into finding a job every time you stand at the checkout. The other misunderstanding about the Basic’s card, is that it is available everywhere. There are only a small number of shops and services which allow purchase with a basics card. This often forces the jobseeker, living below the poverty line, to spend money at more expensive stores. In some towns, they have no options at all. This places pressure on their already meagre budget.
So lets see… who should really be punished. Is it the jobseeker or the Government? I have completed an analysis of job vacancies in my local area of Central Queensland to find out.
The availability of jobs is essential to a productive economy and enables the unemployed to actively apply for employment. Plentiful job vacancies also enable career development for the employed looking for jobs to advance their career. This opens up lower level jobs for others to apply for. In many cases, highly skilled workers are stuck at the lower end of their professions and not moving on as there are no jobs available to apply for. This puts a constraint on jobseekers seeking entry level jobs. It also puts a constraint on highly skilled jobseekers who also find themselves in the employment queue and now find themselves pulling weeds under work for the dole.
The graph below is job vacancy data for Central Queensland from March, 2012 to January 2015 of the Newman LNP Government and the new Labor Government from Feb 2015 to May 2015. This is where the data availability ceases. There is no data available after May, 2015, but I will be providing follow ups as it comes to hand. (you can click the photo to enlarge). I have completed an analysis on Central Queensland for two reasons. One is, it is the area I live in and I am very passionate about Central Queensland and the second is to bring some truth to light about how the Newman Govt affected regional areas. Many believe that due to the Public Service cuts and media around protests, it was mainly Brisbane which had felt the impact. This is not so.
Some Interesting Facts that may get the way of a good LNP Yarn.
An analysis of job vacancy data for the period of the LNP Newman Government shows a dramatic decline of job vacancies for Central Queensland. Data available up until May, 2015 shows that in the first four months of the LNP Newman Government, Central Queensland Job vacancies declined by 378 vacancies. After one year of the Newman Government, there were 1781.7 less job vacancies for Central Queenslanders to apply for. By the end of the Newman Government, there were 2198 less job vacancies advertised in CQ than when the LNP took office.
By comparison, in the first five months of the Palaszczuk Labor Government, Job vacancies have turned around and job vacancies have increased by 218 jobs for the CQ region in this short time.
The sharpest decline in job vacancies for any month-to-month period was the period of November to December 2012, which saw a 16% decline in one month for Job Vacancies for CQ jobseekers, under the LNP.
In comparison, the Palaszczuk Labor Government has achieved the highest increase of job vacancies for any month-to-month period for the CQ Region, over the last three years. For the period from February to March 2015, Job Vacancies in Central Queensland saw a sharp increase of 16%. This is the highest job vacancy increase for any month-to-month period, since March 2012. In a few short months, the Labor Government has achieved what the Newman Government could not achieve in their entire period in office. That is, “to understand business and create jobs.” This is an absolute positive and speaks volumes of the quality of MPs within the Palaszczuk Government. The graph below shows only job classifications with an increase of 20 job vacancies or more. This is not an exhaustive list.
During the period of the LNP Campbell Newman Government, job vacancies in Central Queensland declined by 56%. To put this in real terms, that is 2198 job vacancies not open for Central Queenslanders to apply for under the LNP. The graph below demonstrates the top 15 job classifications which experienced a decline in job vacancies over the period of the Newman LNP Government. The only job classification which experienced an increase in job vacancies under the Newman Government were: Farmers and Farm manager (0.9 increase); Carers and Aides (9.2) Education Professionals (12.2 increase) and Medical Practitioners and Nurses (12.8 increase) These figures are raw numbers, not percentages. If we look at the success of the Newman Government for Central Queensland, their achievement is basically an increase of 35 job vacancies across four job classifications, and a decline in all other job vacancies for their entire period in Government.
In the first four months of the Newman Govt, job vacancies in Central Queensland fell by 10%. In the first four months of the Palaszczuk Govt Jobs vacancies in central QLD increased by 13%
Are Jobseekers as Lazy as the LNP Claim them to be and should they be punished?
The term LNP has been used interchangeably throughout this post, meaning the Liberal National Coalition State and Federal. The LNP use a synthesis of blame and stigma to take the focus off their failings. The LNP repeat the misguided rhetoric that they are ‘good for jobs’ without question and place blame on everyone else, including the unemployed. As the data analysis of Job Vacancies for one area in Queensland show, the Abbott Government’s punitive approach is completely uncalled for. The harsh welfare measures implemented do nothing but feed into the Abbott Government’s agenda of Stigmatisation of those on welfare. Why? Because there are no better votes for the LNP those those created out of hate, disgust and fear.
My Conclusion? If you want to starve a region of jobs. Want to punish the unemployed unnecessarily – Just vote for a Liberal National Government!
Stay tuned for more analysis drilled down on specific classifications and other nerd-filled data excitement!
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January 7, 2015
Written by: Rossleigh
Late last year, I wrote about the Liberals’ criticism of the ANU’s decision to divest itself of shares in fossil fuel companies. As I pointed out, while this was considered “outrageous” by various senior Liberals, the shares being sold had actually been losing value, and apart from anything ethical considerations, it was possibly sound financial sense to sell.
When I’m wrong, I’m happy to admit it. Unfortunately, for those Liberals who I intend to mock mercilessly, this isn’t one of those times. Santos shares have continued to dive and I just noticed this little gem:
Now, just last October, Christopher Pyne labelled the ANU’s decision to sell “bizarre” and Jamie Briggs says that he wrote to the Vice-Chancellor demanding an explanation. Well, I can give Mr Briggs an explanation – the shares are now almost half what they were when they were sold.
Perhaps, that should be one of the Labor Party’s questions in Parliament. Are the Government ministers still critical of the move, or do they now concede that sometimes people in universities might actually know something, even if Andrew Bolt is better placed to lecture us all on climate change. Yes, I know that Bronwyn Bishop would rule it out of order, but it’d be fun to watch.
Just like it was fun to listen to Jamie Briggs tell an ABC interviewer this morning that her question was out of line because, of course Tony Abbott was concerned about the SA bushfires, why he’d commented in response to a question just yesterday, and Mr Briggs believed that he had spoken to the Premier offering whatever help they needed. The Premier’s Office seemed unaware of any such call – perhaps Mr Abbott should have told them who he was.
Here we have the question and response:
Question: And just finally, on the SA bushfires, will there be any assistance package for the people affected?
The standard national disaster relief and recovery arrangements are already in place. We will shortly have a little bit more to say on the Centrelink payments which are often made in circumstances like these. I have been talking regularly to the relevant minister, Michael Keenan, to Minister Jamie Briggs who has the electorate which has been most impacted by these fires. Obviously, Australian summers are prone to fire and flood. It is tragic that we’ve seen, yet again, the ferocity of Mother Nature, but the thing about Australians is that the worst in nature tends to bring out the best in us and that’s what we always see when our emergency services rush to help people in trouble and when communities rally around those people who have lost a very great deal.
Mm, can’t see why people who’ve lost their homes would feel that Tony’s response lacked empathy!
THE Adelaide Hills bushfire is finally under control, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott pledging about $4 million in assistance for fire-affected South Australians.
The number of houses destroyed of badly damaged in the fire has also been downgraded from 32 to 27.
Mr Abbott toured some of the 12,500ha fireground this morning with Premier Jay Weatherill, before making an announcement on disaster recovery payments.
The Federal Government will pay $1000 per adult and $400 per child to those affected by the fire, who will have six months to apply for the funding.
There you go, $4million. That’s nearly as much as he gave the Iraqis.
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The forgotten poor – until we need a few bucks
November 13, 2014
Written by: Kaye Lee
Tony Abbott has vowed to lift the poor of India and China from their poverty by selling them coal. But what about poor people in Australia?
Various ministers tell us that education, health and welfare are no longer affordable. Others tell us that we have been too greedy and that the “wage explosion” and “toxic taxes” are the root of our problems. Joe Hockey assures that “a rising tide will lift all boats” while the girlinator tells us we must “live within our means” to fix “Labor’s debt and deficit disaster”.
All of this is crap of course as can easily be shown by reference to the facts.
As a percentage of GDP, Australian government spending on health is the tenth lowest of the 33 countries in the OECD database and the lowest among wealthy countries.
The 8.3% of GDP spent by the US government, for instance, is higher than the 6.4% spent by the Commonwealth and state governments in Australia.
Nor is it true that total health expenditure – government plus private spending – are unsustainable. Australia spends about 9.5% of GDP on health services; the United States spends 17.7%.
As discussed on The Conversation, the real reason for co-payments appears to be ideological – a dislike of communal sharing even when it is to alleviate the financial burden of those already disadvantaged by illness.
Australia spends 19.5% of our GDP on social welfare, whereas some European countries like France and Belgium spend upwards of 30% of their GDP on the welfare system.
Australia ranks 25th of 30 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development with data available in terms of expenditure for unemployment.
The largest slice of our welfare payments goes towards the age pension. According to OECD Pensions at a Glance 2013, Australia’s public spending on the age pension is much lower than pension spending in Europe.
Australia spends 3.5% of GDP on the age pension, while Italy spends 15%, France spends 14% and the United Kingdom spends 6%.
A recent OECD report stated that Australia spends slightly less on education as a percentage of GDP (5.8 per cent) than the OECD average of 6.1 per cent. Although it also found that Australia’s total spend has increased relative to GDP over recent years, up from 5.2 per cent in 2000.
And as for a wage explosion, official figures show wage growth remaining at a historic low in the September quarter. The Bureau of Statistics data shows the annual pace of wage growth remained at 2.6 per cent for the second straight quarter, as expected.
The index peaked over 4 per cent shortly before the financial crisis and has been on a downhill trajectory ever since, now running at its lowest level since the records started in 1997.
Abbott and Hockey also emphasise the need to increase productivity. What they fail to mention is that, between 2003-04 and 2012-13, capital productivity shrank 23 per cent while labour productivity increased 14 per cent. It would appear that the workers are doing the lifting while the owners of capital are very much leaning on them.
Meanwhile, the Australian Council of Social Service released a new report revealing that poverty is growing in Australia with an estimated 2.5 million people or 13.9% of all people living below the internationally accepted poverty line with 603,000 or 17.7% of all children living in poverty in Australia. Over a third (36.8%) of children in sole parent families are living in poverty.
“Most of the poverty we found is concentrated among the groups of people facing the most disadvantage and barriers to fully participating in our community. Those most likely to be in poverty are people who are unemployed (61.2%) and those in a household that relies on social security as its main source of income (40.1%), particularly on the Newstart Allowance (55.1%) or Youth Allowance (50.6%).
This finding brings into focus the sheer inadequacy of these allowance payments which fall well below the poverty line. The poverty line for a single adult is $400 per week yet the maximum rate of payment for a single person on Newstart – when Rent Assistance and other supplementary payments is added – is only $303 per week. This is $97 per week below the 50% of median income poverty line.”
Since 1996, payments for the single unemployed have fallen from 23.5% of the average wage for males to 19.5%. Furthermore, the level of Newstart for a single person has fallen from around 54% to 45% of the after-tax minimum wage. Newstart has fallen from 46% of median family income in 1996 to 36% in 2009-10 – or, from a little way below a standard relative income poverty line, to a long way below.
Before the last election, the Greens had the Parliamentary Budget Office cost an increase of $50 a week to the Newstart payment. It would cost about $1.8 billion a year. Not only would this help lift about 1 million people from poverty, it would provide stimulus to the economy as every cent would be recycled, spent on survival. It would lead to better health and education outcomes and facilitate more people finding employment. It’s much easier to look for a job if you have an address and enough to eat and a little left over to buy an outfit and get public transport there should you get an interview.
Give low income earners more money, demand increases, creating more jobs and more profit – an upward spiral instead of the depths to which Hockey would like to send us (aside from a few polaris missiles like Gina and Twiggy).
$1.8 billion is how much we gave up by repealing the changes to the FBT requiring people to justify the business usage of their cars by keeping a logbook for three months once every five years. Abbott and Hockey would much rather protect tax avoiders than help the poor. Instead, they want the poor to carry the burden of finding the money to pay for their war games whilst delivering a surplus.
Let’s not forget, in April Tony Abbott decided to spend $12.4 billion ordering 58 more Joint Strike Fighters in addition to the 14 already on order. The first Joint Strike Fighters will arrive in Australia in 2018 and enter service in 2020.
As part of the announcement, more than $1.6 billion will be spent on new facilities at air bases in Williamtown in New South Wales and Tindal in the Northern Territory.
But a specialist in US defence strategy has questioned whether Australia’s purchase is good value for money.
If Australia wants to be able to have aircraft that can go up against what China might deploy – in way of not only its own fighters but advanced air defences in years and decades [to come] – then I think you want something… like the F-35.
[But] if you think more about your military needs being the Afghanistan-style operations, the troubled waters of the South China Sea, counter-piracy, peace operations, keeping some degree of regional calm with some turbulence in the ASEAN region but not necessarily China, then frankly it’s a debatable proposition whether the F-35 is the best bang for your buck.
“If you think that that kind of high-end threat is not realistically where you’re headed with your military requirements, then it’s more of a debatable proposition.
In August, defence minister David Johnstone announced
HUNDREDS of millions of dollars will be spent bolstering the RAAF’s fleet — and the prime minister is in line for a new long-range jet, promising uninterrupted global travel.
The government plan — scheduled to be delivered as part of next year’s Defence White Paper — includes the purchase of up to four new aircraft: an additional two Airbus tanker-transport planes and one or two Boeing C-17 heavy lift aircraft.
One of the Airbus KC-30A multi-role tanker transports would be converted to a VIP configuration and would service the prime minister’s international travel needs.
It would carry the PM’s entourage and the travelling media pack, who are currently forced on to commercial planes as the government’s existing Boeing 737 BBJs are too small.
Since handing down its budget in May, the Government has given national security agencies an extra $630 million over four years.
The Government has also estimated that the military deployment to the Middle East will cost about $500 million per year.
Then we have submarines and unmanned drones and patrol boats and more – a seemingly endless display of military hardware – but we ask our defence personnel to take a pay cut.
I await Joe Hockey’s MYEFO with a sense of anticipation and trepidation. Will the poor be asked to shoulder more of the burden or will Joe admit where the big bucks are to be found and have the guts to go after them?
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“The Beadles” – a sensational new group featuring Joe Bumble, Tony Fagan, Scott Sykes and Malcolm the “Artful Dodger”
February 5, 2014
Written by: Rossleigh
“Around the time of Oliver’s ninth birthday, Mr. Bumble, the parish beadle, removes Oliver from the baby farm and puts him to work picking oakum at the main workhouse. Oliver, who toils with very little food, remains in the workhouse for six months. One day, the desperately hungry boys decide to draw lots; the loser must ask for another portion of gruel.” Wikipedia
From time to time, it’s suggested that the school curriculum is too left wing and that we should go back to the “classics”. John Howard was particularly concerned that we no longer studied Dickens. So for your consideration, I offer this excerpt from “Oliver Twist”.
For the next eight or ten months, Oliver was the victim of a systematic course of treachery and deception. He was brought up by hand. The hungry and destitute situation of the infant orphan was duly reported by the workhouse authorities to the parish authorities. The parish authorities inquired with dignity of the workhouse authorities, whether there was no female then domiciled in “the house” who was in a situation to impart to Oliver Twist, the consolation and nourishment of which he stood in need. The workhouse authorities replied with humility, that there was not. Upon this the parish authorities magnanimously and humanely resolved, that Oliver should be “farmed,” or, in other words, that he should be despatched to a branch-workhouse some three miles off, where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor-laws, rolled about the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing, under the parental superintendence of an elderly female, who received the culprits at and for the consideration of sevenpence-halfpenny per small head per week. Sevenpence-halfpenny’s worth per week is a good round diet for a child; a great deal may be got for sevenpence-halfpenny, quite enough to overload its stomach, and make it uncomfortable. The elderly female was a woman of wisdom and experience; she knew what was good for children; and she had a very accurate perception of what was good for herself. So, she appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own use, and consigned the rising parochial generation to even a shorter allowance than was originally provided for them. Thereby finding in the lowest depth a deeper still; and proving herself a very great experimental philosopher.
Everybody knows the story of another experimental philosopher who had a great theory about a horse being able to live without eating, and who demonstrated it so well, that he got his own horse down to a straw a day, and would unquestionably have rendered him a very spirited and rampacious animal on nothing at all, if he had not died, four-and-twenty hours before he was to have had his first comfortable bait of air.
Of course, Oliver Twist fails to realise that the Age of Entitlement is over.
“Please, sir, I want some more.”
The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder; the boys with fear.
“What!” said the master at length, in a faint voice.
“Please, sir,” replied Oliver, “I want some more.”
Not only is Oliver failing to understand that he’s not entitled to more, he fails to see that he’s not entitled to any. If he wants food, what’s he doing in the orphanage? Personal responsibility and all that…
But some of Dickens is far from appropriate for today’s youth. Take the old idea of the workhouse, which. of course, is very much an outdated one. For those of you whose history is rusty, the workhouses were where those unable to support themselves were forced to go for accomodation and support. Life in the workhouse was meant to be harsh in order to deter all but the most destitute from using it. It was rather like a work-for-the-dole scheme except that – in the those days of entitlement – they actually provided you with a roof over your head. We don’t want today’s unemployed expecting luxuries like that.
However, many of Dickens’ tales will be ok with a rewrite. For example, in “A Christmas Carol” when Scrooge is shown the scene at Bob Crachet’s table by Christmas Future and notices that there’s a place missing, well, obviously, he’ll understand that with the abolition of penalty rates, there’ll be no problem in asking Bob to work on Christmas Day.
Of course, not all the concepts from Dickens’ time have no potential application today. For example, the “Bastardy Clause” in the Poor Law effectively made children the responsibility of the mother until they were sixteen. If she were unable to support them, she would have to enter the workhouse. Perhaps, we could apply this principal now – but only in relation to single mothers, of course – and raise the age to thirty, thus removing a large number of people from the dole.
Yep, with so much I’m sure that we can find a place for Dickens in the curriculum. I think I’ll leave the last word to John Howard who said in 2006
“…we also understand that there’s high-quality literature and there’s rubbish.”
Unfortunately, nobody has since asked him if he considered the Liberal “Our Plan. Real Solutions for All Australians” high-quality literature, or whether it’s part of the latter category. Or, indeed, whether he considers the coming publication: “Zombiechoices – dead, buried and cremated, but still it rises!” one of the classic works of fiction this century.
January 27, 2014
Written by: Rossleigh
When people accuse me of just believing what I read, I’m always amused. My brain doesn’t work that way. I’m naturally sceptical. In fact, I was even sceptical of most of the stuff I read from the Skeptics society.
So, with the climate change “debate”, I’d be more than happy with someone challenging the hypothesis on which the theory of climate change is based, providing they were actually using scientific methodology to do it. Merely asserting that carbon dioxide is necessary to life and therefore harmless makes about as much sense as saying don’t worry about the river rising, water is essential to life so the idea that we can have a flood is just those greenies trying to scare you.
But I’m nothing if not fair. And as someone mentioned the Heartland Institute, the other day, I thought that I’d look them up. The first thing I discovered was:
“The Heartland Institute is a national nonprofit research and education organization, tax exempt under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code, headquartered in Chicago, and founded in 1984. It is not affiliated with any political party, business, or foundation.
“Heartland’s mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Such solutions include parental choice in education, choice and personal responsibility in health care, market-based approaches to environmental protection, privatization of public services, and deregulation in areas where property rights and markets do a better job than government bureaucracies.”
And as an ardent supporter of free speech, I thought I’d share some of their wisdom.
In an article they share called, “The Unceasing Political Thuggery of Obama’s Gangster Government”. I learnt that: “Never in the history of this country have we seen such a broad and coordinated abuse of the government’s power to threaten criminal prosecution and ruin the lives and livelihoods of people the president and his party see as political “enemies.” Mm, perhaps some would argue that Watergate might run a close second, but I guess they’d be your usually communist agitators.
On radiation, I found:
“Time to Rethink Policy
It is essential to revert to the ICRP standard of 1934 and the tolerance dose concept for radiation protection. This standard was wisely based on 30 years of observations and experience which has been further confirmed in the decades since. This change would remove many constraints on the use of x-rays, CT-scans, and nuclear medicine techniques for the diagnosis of many illnesses. It would also pave the way for clinical studies on many potential applications for low radiation to treat very important diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, by up-regulating adaptive protection systems.”
On Education, I discovered an opposition to Common Core Standards:
“Why should centrally controlled, taxpayer-funded, unaccountable-to-the-public committees have
the power to define what nearly every U.S. school child will learn?
The most important thing to understand about education standards is that research has demonstrated they have no effect on student achievement.”
I also found that the Heartland Institute
“We favor policies that reduce the size and power of government and expand choice and freedom for citizens. We oppose government programs and tax regimes that favor some at the expense of others.”
Mm, now I would have thought that any government program would have to favour some at the expense of others. For example, programs to decrease homelessness would benefit those without a home more than those who have one. Or perhaps I should have just read that as “We oppose government programs! We also oppose tax regimes that favor some at the expense of others.” Don’t all tax regimes do that in one way or another?
But I’m not here to offer a critique, or to question. Just to give you the facts. Like this one from the Heartland Institute:
“The Environmental Protection Agency has been in a full assault on the U.S. economy since the 1980s when the global warming hoax was initiated. It has been assisted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.
“To put it in other terms, our own government has engaged in lying to Americans and the result has been the expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars on something that was not happening and is not happening.”
And I discovered that there’s a link between the Als. Al Gore and Al Jazeera. Gee, Gore must be middle-Eastern too. Come to think of it, we’ve never seen his birth certificate. Why is it that the left are so reluctant to show their birth certificates. It took Obama ages to produce his – and even then it was a fake. I’m sure that Andrew Bolt would be more than happy to show his!
It also gave me a link to what I presume is a scientific endorsement because it doesn’t say it’s an ad. But I’m limited in what I can say, because – in the fine print – it says that reproduction is prohibitied.
…I Want to Provide You with a Solution
Yep, that’s all about. Finding solutions! And getting the government out of the way!
January 16, 2014
Written by: Rossleigh
After a very successful summer, where the Australian Cricket Team have pounded the English, it looked like we were invincible.
But then along comes Tony Abbott – and the Prime Minister’s Eleven. This is a game where a number of players are supposedly “selected” by the PM.
We were creamed by 172 runs. Amazing, when you consider that England have had difficulty making 172 runs against the “real” Australian team.
I expressed my concern about this a few weeks ago in this article Selection on Merit? where I suggested that it was highly likely that he’d make selections based on how much of a sycophant the player was.
I have absolutely no evidence of this, so in the absence of evidence, I’ll do what the mainstream media do, I’ll quote anonymous sources. One cricketer alleges that they were left out of the side just because they were considered “too green”. Another was prepared to speak on the condition that I didn’t spell his name correctly, and while he didn’t make a direct allegation, he did point out that Abbott was actually born in England.
Of course, if this is how Abbott’s selections are doing in something as important as sport, imagine how badly they’ll do in areas that he has no interest in. Things like Education, the Economy, Climate Change and Human Rights. Sure, Tim Wilson has shown some interest in human rights and has always argued that the issue is not what is being done to you – it’s your right to complain about it that counts. I think enough has been written about Kevin Donnelly, but I would like to point out that one of his books, “Dumbing Down” makes the terrible mistake of trying to turn “dumb” into a verb – this is incorrect, and a further example of the illiteracy of Abbott’s education appointees.
But, fortunately, we are now considering a Gallipolli Centenary Match. (That should help the lack of focus on Anzac day in schools – apparently, it’s only studied once a year.) Hopefully, it’ll be played against the Turkish Cricket Team. Even Tony’s picks would be a chance there!
January 14, 2014
Written by: Rossleigh
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Benjamin Franklin. (Often attributed to Albert Einstein who was quoting Franklin)
A few years ago there was a suggestion that the number of novels that Victorian Year 12 English students could be reduced by one. There was an outcry, and the proposal was dropped.
Andrew Bolt was particularly scathing about the idea that students be allowed to study a film or a play, instead of a novel, and he devoted a whole article to how we would be losing our culture if the study of Shakespeare was no longer mandated in Year 12 English. I sent him a comment – which he never published, of course – where I pointed out that Shakespeare had only ever been compulsory in Year 12 Literature, and that was several years ago. And where I made the rather important point that Shakepeare actually wrote plays and sonnetts, not novels.
Whether not studying Dickens and the Classics actually destroys civilisation as we know it, however, is a debate for another time. I just bring this up because the Bolt example is fairly typical of what happens when non-educators start talking about the education system. It’s not that I don’t think that they have a right to make input, it’s just that their input needs to be balanced against what actually happens in schools, and what anyone with any experience in education can predict about particular proposals. Take, the recent NSW suggestion to make Maths compulsory in Year 12.
Ok, I’m sure that the first reaction of a large number of people is that we need to improve our Maths skills, so this is a damn fine idea. So before we continue, I’d like to ask a simple question.
Right. I’ve just divided you into two classes of people. There are those, who are can answer that and those who can’t.
If you can, I suspect you probably think that compulsory maths is a good idea. If you can’t, you’re probably thinking either it isn’t a good idea, or why are you asking me for, I’m not going to do Year 12?
To those who can answer, I would like to say that I value your opinion, and I’ll respect it even more, if you spend six weeks trying to explain trigonometry to the kids who wanted to drop Maths at the end of Year 10.
The trouble with suggestions such as making Maths compulsory to the end of Year 12 is that very little thought is given to the actuality of doing something like this. Granted, there are a number of students who lack numeracy skills when they leave school, but another year or two of Maths isn’t going to improve them, unless there’s a totally different approach to the one that failed to give them adequate numeracy skills in the eleven years of school that they’d already completed.
While I was a teacher, I spent a number of years where I was responsible for students making a change to the subjects studied at senior level. Every year towards the end of first semester, I would have at least one conversation that went something like this:
“I want to drop Maths and pick up something else?”
“Why?”
“I’m failing miserably. I’ve never been any good at Maths.”
“Then why did you pick it?”
“My parents thought I should keep my options open.”
At this point I was always tempted to ask how parents thought that failing Maths at Year 11 was keeping one’s options open. Or did they think that suddenly the student would decide that a career as an engineer was suddenly a better option than one of the areas where this student was actually demonstrating a skill. (As an aside, I actually remember a parent ringing me when their son had just dropped Business Management. “English, Music, Drama? Where’s the potential career in that?” Given that the father HAD signed the permission form for the change of subject, I don’t know what he wanted me to say. Anyway, every time I read an article or see the son on TV, I think that he seems to have worked out a better career path than if he’d done Accounting, Business Management and Maths. We’re not all the same!)
So how exposing these kids to another year or two of maths is expected to improve the numeracy skills of the nation is meant to work, I don’t know. The vast majority of students who are a competent at Maths continue with it. In my entire teaching career, I never heard any kid say that they wished they’d continued with their maths, but I heard plenty say that they didn’t know why they did.
As for the logistics…
How, when they already have a shortage of maths teachers, do they intend to staff the extra classes?
But I guess problems with numeracy isn’t just limited to the general population!
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St. Pope John Paul ll's trip to the Martyrs Shrine in Midland, Ontario inspired Canadian Knights to start the annual "Living Rosary" which honors both John Paul's legacy and the Blessed Mother. Below is the link to the "Living Rosary"
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In an essay specially commissioned for the podcast, Aisha Sabatini Sloan describes rambling around Paris with her father, Lester Sloan, a longtime staff photographer for Newsweek, and a glamorous woman who befriends them. In an excerpt from The Art of Fiction no. 246, Rachel Cusk and Sheila Heti discuss how writing her first novel helped Cusk discover her “shape or identity or essence.” Next, Allan Gurganus’s reading of his story “It Had Wings,” about an arthritic woman who finds a fallen angel in her backyard, is interspersed with a version of the story rendered as a one-woman opera by the composer Bruce Saylor. The episode closes with “Dear Someone,” a poem by Deborah Landau.
Suggested Reading
December 2, 2022
“In lieu of walls and a door, pen and paper will suffice to allow Valeria, albeit furtively, to speak her mind.”
The Art of Fiction No. 252
In her study at home in North Bennington, 2018. Interview still frame courtesy of Stephanie Black.
Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson on Antigua in 1949. When she was sixteen, her family interrupted her education, sending her to work as a nanny in New York. In time, she put herself on another path. She went from the New School in Manhattan to Franconia College in New Hampshire, and worked at Magnum Photos and at the teen magazine Ingenue. In the mid-’70s, she began to write for The Village Voice, but it was at The New Yorker, where she became a regular columnist for the Talk of the Town section, that everything changed for her. Her early fiction, much of which also appeared in that magazine, was collected in At the Bottom of the River (1983), a book that, like her Talk stories, announced her themes, her style, the uncanny purity of her prose. She has published the novels Annie John (1985), Lucy (1990), The Autobiography of My Mother (1996), Mr. Potter (2002), and See Now Then (2013). A children’s book, Annie, Gwen, Lilly, Pam and Tulip, came out in 1986. Aside from the collected Talk Stories (2001), her nonfiction works include A Small Place (1988), a reckoning with the colonial legacy on Antigua; My Brother (1997), a memoir of the tragedy of AIDS in her family; and two books on gardening, My Garden (Book) (1999) and Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya (2005).
Kincaid divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is a professor of African American studies at Harvard University, and Bennington, Vermont, where her large brown clapboard house with yellow window trim is shielded by trees. She has two children from her marriage to the composer Allen Shawn, the son of the former New Yorker editor William Shawn, and in the living room she displays on a table—proudly, apologetically—productions from the arts-and-crafts camps and classes that her son and daughter attended over the years. The study where she writes is a sunroom surrounded on three sides by windows. The terrace that starts at the back door ends in a border of stones; the lawn, planted with thousands of daffodils, slopes down to a thickly shaded creek. Nearby are a vegetable garden caged against wildlife and a cottage in which lives Trevor, her bearded young assistant. Over some twenty years, Kincaid has made what my partner, the poet James Fenton, calls a “plantsman’s garden,” full of rare species. Her hundreds of plants are layered into a composition of informal design, expressive of her refined aesthetic and untroubled eccentricity. She has plants that move her because of how they look or how they behave, or because of their histories.
This conversation began at a public event at the 92nd Street Y in 2013, and was picked up again in her Vermont kitchen eight years later, in the summer of 2021, when the social restrictions of the pandemic had, for a time, eased. Jamaica Kincaid is a generous host. She cooks with flair. Her big, broad-frame glasses evoke the Italian movie stars of the sixties. The years have gone by, but she is still tall. Her voice is as musical as ever, high-pitched, the Anglo-Caribbean lilt beguiling. She is a presence; everything begins to happen when she talks. In person and on the page, Kincaid’s is a literary voice. She is alive to the advantage in the irony that her literary heritage had not predicted her, exalted, brave, free.
Why did your family send you to America? Wasn’t London still a capital of empire in the mid-’60s, the cultural center of the Commonwealth?
If they’d known anyone in London, they would have sent me there. But they didn’t have any long-term plan in mind. The idea wasn’t that I would establish myself and then have the rest of my family join me. I was simply sent away to support them. My father—my stepfather—had gotten ill, and my parents had three boy children. The arrival of my youngest brother had plunged us into a kind of poverty we’d never known. It used to be a tradition in agricultural families that you’d sacrifice the eldest child. I remember the darkness of being sent away—sheer misery of a kind that I didn’t know existed. Until then homesickness was something I only knew from books. I think I first came across it in one of the Brontës.
So there wasn’t any excitement in it?
Not at all, because I was going as a servant. I remember walking in the hot sun to one of the American bases in Antigua—past the crazy house, as we called the lunatic asylum, and the dead house, where the bodies of people who died in the hospital were put until they were collected by the undertaker—to be interviewed by an American soldier’s wife. I was very bitter about it because I had before me what seemed to be a successful future. I might have gone to the University of the West Indies. I would have gotten a scholarship. It seemed cruel even to other people because I was known as what we called a “bright child.” No, there wasn’t any cause for celebration, though my mother did make me a new dress and see me off to the airport.
Homesickness—this kind of interrupted love—is a big element in your work.
Well, perhaps, but I never really felt I belonged even in Antigua, even when I was little. My mother came from Dominica, and the thing about those little islands is that people from one island or the other don’t like each other. She was an outsider in Antigua, and she looked different. She was part Carib Indian, and they used to call her the Red Woman.
I suppose that my work is always mourning something, the loss of a paradise—not the thing that comes after you die, but the thing that you had before. I often think of the time before my brothers were born—and this might sound very childish, but I don’t care—as this paradise of my mother and me always being together. There were times when my mother and I would go swimming and she would disappear for a second, and I would imagine the depths just rolling over her, that she’d go deeper and deeper and I’d never see her again . . . And then she would pop up somewhere else. Those memories are a constant source of some strange pleasure for me.
I was pulled out of school to take care of my youngest brother while my mother went to work, and when she realized I hadn’t been looking after him properly, that I had been reading instead, she gathered all the books I had stolen from the library over the years and burned them. You can probably tell from my writing that I’m obsessed with notions of justice and injustice—those things that are wrong that can never be made right.
Nowadays if I were to be homesick it would be for Vermont, which is strange. But perhaps it makes sense—I grew up in a place where I saw the sea every day and, near the end of my life, I’m living in a place where the water has run out.
Did Lucy come out of a feeling that you needed to put your arrival to America in its place somehow—to examine it, or to leave it behind?
Not so much to put anything in its place as to give an account of what had happened to me. Lucy is about the making of a person. You can see in it the sentimentality of Jane Eyre. A sense of, I’m all alone in the world, and I have integrity. You might want this, but I will do that. Lucy stops sending her salary home, and I did stop sending mine. I still have the clothes I bought at Bonwit Teller. I was the best-dressed nanny you ever saw.
Were you refashioning yourself?
I loved dressing up and going out. You might say that was the influence of my mother. By the time my youngest brother was born her life had collapsed on her, but she was a very elegant woman when I was young. I used to be ashamed to be seen with her because she was so sexy—men of all ages would stop her and talk to her. I remember she wore her hair in a French roll, and she wore what they called a hobble skirt.
After I moved to New York, I modeled for people like Steven Meisel. I clearly had one of those eating problems, but I didn’t know what they were. I didn’t know that there was anything about me that had a name, that could be diagnosed. I ended up smoking Lucky Strikes, just because I liked the way it looked, the gesture. For some reason, I decided to cut off my hair and bleach it blond. I dressed in old clothes, thrift-shop clothes.
I styled myself to look like no one else. And I also knew I didn’t want to write like anyone else. When I started writing Talk pieces at The New Yorker, I tried to get away from the anonymous “we” they used. They had very good writers, but they were these old, stout white men. I hated the we. I had such contempt for a certain kind of writing, which I would now call “white writing.” It was so dull and mannered.
From the Archive, Issue 239
Episode 22: “Form and Formlessness”
, November 2021
In an essay specially commissioned for the podcast, Aisha Sabatini Sloan describes rambling around Paris with her father, Lester Sloan, a longtime staff photographer for Newsweek, and a glamorous woman who befriends them. In an excerpt from The Art of Fiction no. 246, Rachel Cusk and Sheila Heti discuss how writing her first novel helped Cusk discover her “shape or identity or essence.” Next, Allan Gurganus’s reading of his story “It Had Wings,” about an arthritic woman who finds a fallen angel in her backyard, is interspersed with a version of the story rendered as a one-woman opera by the composer Bruce Saylor. The episode closes with “Dear Someone,” a poem by Deborah Landau.
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If you truly want to enjoy rum which has been developed in among the finest nations in the world which boasts of fantastic ingredients and local climate then you definitely should just kick your feet back and enjoy the very best of Jamaica with myers rum. This high quality rum brand is a part of several other wonderful brand names made available from the multi-faceted international giant Diageo scotch whisky.
Along with top quality rum, Diageo PLC also provides brandy, cognac, gin, schnapps, tequila, vodka, and so on the entire world however if you are a complete rum enthusiast then you can definitely appreciate some of the finest rum which originates out of the Jamaican distilleries. The name Myers had been taken after the founder of the brand Fred L Myers, and Diageo began supplying this fantastic sugarcane-derived rum to the general public way back during 1879. This rum brand was launched in the united states in 1934 and is also exported to Canada, Germany, and Japan, amongst other destinations.
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Facebook Messenger is one of the leading messaging platforms on the planet. They began allowing businesses to communicate with clients and fans on a one-to-many basis at the end of 2016. This opened the door for developers to begin building artificially intelligent (AI) chatbots to help improve their online support, FAQ, and customer service abilities.
When a messenger bot is working for a business, the business owner doesn’t need to be available 24/7. Customers can still make purchases and get answers to their questions without any wait, and without getting frustrated that the business isn’t available to help them.
A better understanding of your customers
Businesses always want to learn more about their customers so they can provide them with the products and services they really need. Messenger bots allow you to see what your customers are asking, how they’re interacting with the bot, and generally get to know them better.
Low cost
Not only do messenger bots not cost a bundle to create, but business owners can choose how much they want to spend on creating their bot. Once the bot is up and running, there’s virtually no cost to maintain it and whatever costs there are, they’ll still be very low.
Literally millions of people use messaging apps every day. When a business uses a messenger bot within these apps, that’s millions of people making up their audience. There are very few other types of online marketing, or business services for that matter, that can boast that same kind of reach.
Handle lots of customer requests simultaneously
As a business owner, it’s impossible to deal with every customer at once. While you can get to all of them, it takes time. And people can become frustrated by the wait. Messenger bots are the answer. They can handle hundreds of requests simultaneously without limits.
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Mussolini ordered his general in N. Africa, Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, to attack the British, which he did reluctantly in September 1940.
The British, supported by Commonwealth troops from Australia, New Zealand and India, under British general Lt. Gen. Sir Richard O’Connor, had defeated the Italians by the third of January 1941 and captured 130,000 troops and all their equipment. The British had lost 555 dead and 1400 wounded
In all 400,000 Italian troops were sent to POW camps around the world. Australia received 18,420 and the small town of Cowra was allocated about 2000. These prisoners arrived in Cowra in October 1941.
There were 28 POW camps across Australia and Cowra was number 12.
In 1941 the camp had been created as an internment camp for civilians, but it soon became a POW camp for Italian prisoners captured during the North African campaign.
By December 1942 the camp had grown because in addition to the Italians, there were 490 Javanese sailors, 1104 Japanese POWs and 1200 Indonesian internees.
The internees were a mix of merchant navy sailors and exiled nationalists from Dutch New Guinea (which is now part of Indonesia) who had taken part in the 1926 uprising against the Dutch. The Dutch Government was concerned that the Nationalists might join the Japanese.
There were also a number of Koreans from Korea and Chinese from Taiwan because Korea had been under Japanese rule since 1910 and Taiwan had been under Japanese rule since 1895 – these non-Japanese had served with the Japanese military.
Australian War Memoria photograph of camp 12.
The relationship between the Australians and the Italians was easier than the relationship with the Japanese. The Japanese considered that being a prisoner of war was humiliating and many gave false names so as not to bring shame on their family in Japan.
The Japanese soldier carried a copy of Senjinkun, which was the military code for a Japanese soldier that he would “Never live to experience shame as a prisoner”, which is why some gave false names. The code forbids the Japanese soldier to retreat or being taken prisoner by an enemy.
This indoctrination of the Japanese soldier caused ‘festering’ within the ranks of the Japanese.
The camp itself was large at over thirty hectares (74 acres) in size.
Australian War Memoria photograph
as you see there were three lines of barbed wire, plus six guard towers
A guard tower –
it is not an original, but a replica of what they looked like in the 1940’s.
In August of 1944 there was in intention to move all Japanese prisoners below the rank of Lance Corporal to another POW camp in Hay, which is in NSW.
This was the ‘spark’ that generated the breakout.
The Japanese commander of ‘B’ compound Sergeant Major Kanazawa called a meeting of the commanders of the twenty Japanese huts and told them to inform each hut that the transfers were about to happen. He also wanted each hut to hold a ballot for or against a breakout. There where arguments on both sides for and against the breakout, but in the end, it was decided that the breakout would be that night.
It was decided that any injured or wounded prisoner could restore their honour by committing suicide before the breakout, plus those who manage to escape would not harm local civilians.
As the Japanese waited for the signal for the breakout they made weapons from cutlery, baseball bats, plus baseball mitts and blankets were made ready for scaling the barbed wire.
It was 2.00 am when the bugle sounded for the mass escape.
Australian War memorial photograph
The above is a picture of the bugle that signalled the beginning of the breakout.
On the 5th August 1944, at 2.00 am the Japanese breakout began with the sound of the above bugle.
The prisoners ran with their newly made weapons shouting and screaming towards the camp gates. They threw themselves at the barbed wire while yelling Banzai (which means “Long live His Majesty the Emperor”).
The Australians opened fire, but hundreds of Japanese escaped into the country, while others set fire to buildings within the camp.
In all 234 Japanese were killed and 105 wounded. Five Australian died due to the breakout.
Some Japanese committed suicide or where killed by other Japanese, remember Senjinkun “Never live to experience shame as a prisoner”.
359 Japanese escaped, some committed suicide rather than be recaptured, but all were recaptured or accounted for within ten days.
There isn’t any record of any civilian being injured or killed by the Japanese.
The above is a map of the whole camp, and the red area is the Japanese part of the camp. The green arrows show the various directions of the breakout.
The two yellow areas were the Italian prisoners, and the blue area indicates Japanese officers, Korean and Chinese prisoners, the Indonesians and Italian fascists.
I took the above two photographs of PoW Camp 12 today . . . just a few ruins left in a beautiful country view.
At the camp site today there is a memorial to remember the Australian solider, the Japanese baseball player, the Italian musician and the Indonesian mother and child.
The memorial was erected in 2019 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the breakout.
The Japanese prisoners were repatriated between 1946 – 47. It is thought that many of the ex-prisoners never spoke of the war, or their time in captivity on their return to Japan.
There is more to this story, but this will have to wait for the next posting.
Author 1944aprilPosted on April 8, 2022 June 1, 2022 Categories History, I'll never go abroad, TravelTags Breakout, Cowra, PoW camp 122 Comments on PoW Camp 12 – 1941 – 1947
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CNN/Oprah had an interesting article today on 5 skills for women in the workplace. I’ve read a lot of these kind of articles, and know the litany pretty well. This one starts off with an old chestnut about how we, women, do a crappy job of negotiating salaries. (So true!) But then it took an interesting left turn with some gender-specific guidance about how to go about asking without sounding pushy. Better yet, they had actual scientific studies to back up their claims.
It was a good and rather empowering article.
So… what gender-specific skills do you think women need to be successful in a workplace?
by bflynn in Behavior, Concepts Tags: independence, plumbing, shop
Our toilet started running. At 11:15 pm on a day that started at 6:15 am (with another 6:15 morning looming), this is the last thing I wanted to notice. I brushed my teeth eeeeexxxtra slowly, hoping I was hallucinating. Finally I gave in to the cascade sounds and watched the water in the tank run and run. Hmmmm. A quick tap on the float and it raised itself back up, stopping the waterfall. “Maybe,” I thought, “Maybe this is a one time thing?!”
My ears were extra-vigilant for bathroom noises. They are anyway… with two young boys, you stay vigilant for sounds that indicate someone is drinking out of the toilet, or taking an unapproved bath. And sure enough, that dreaded hiss of water! Truly, this was a problem that must be solved.
I’ve entered this unpleasant stage of life. Let’s call it the “Harry Truman” stage. When I was a girl, I probably wouldn’t have noticed. As a teen, I might have told my parents. Probably not. As a young adult, I would’ve called my landlord and it would’ve been his problem. But now, squarely into my fourth decade, the problem was mine. All mine. Note that I’m not the final stop of the Responsibility Train for just toilets. No. My purview includes dietary choices, project dates, playground time, what we can and cannot afford, appropriate number of treats per day (and whether Flav-r-pops count as a whole treat), business rules for new applications, and how stained is too stained for a shirt to continue in a wardrobe. In so many areas, there is no one for me to escalate problems to.
Back when other people had all the responsibilities, in Junior High, I decided that shop sounded waaaaay more interesting than Home Economics. I’m old enough, I suppose, to have had gender-segregated classes. The plan was that the girls got a year and a half of Home Ec and one semester of shop, and the boys had a year and a half of shop and one semester of home ec. I got through my first, divided year, and emerged convinced that if I never saw another apron pattern in my life, it was too soon for me. So I ended up the only girl in a class of 26 guys and a poor, harried Mr. Jones.
In that year I made a bowl on a lathe. I turned metal. We rebuilt lawnmower engines. We wired and drywalled a fake wall with real electricity. We plumbed, carefully fitting together the tubes with all the various goos. I used the jigsaw, the planer, the lathe, the scroll saw. I used wrenches and hammers and WD-40. I also learned that just because I had no clue how to do something, it didn’t mean I couldn’t learn. The most arcane of masculine skills were not out of my reach; I simply had to find a book and/or a mentor and roll up my skirt.
This came back to me as I gazed into the swirling waters of the toilet. OK, so I didn’t know how to fix this. I knew how to begin. I pulled out the books on home repair (toilet technology in the US hasn’t changed that much in the last 50 years, and our toilet is probably that old). I observed and tinkered to figure out where the problem was. (The floaty thingy wouldn’t float.) I learned the correct name for it, and proceeded to giggle uncontrollably. (It’s a ballcock. I couldn’t wait to go to Lowe’s and tell them that my ballcock wouldn’t rise. Sadly, they proceeded to help me right away.) I bought the spare parts I needed. I turned off the water. I drained the tank. I spent about 2 hours trying to get frozen, rusted bolts to give, until they finally admitted that I was more stubborn than they. I installed the new fitting. And it worked perfectly. I looked down at my hands – black grease embedded stubbornly under my fingernails. It looked better than the finest manicure, to me.
This is a small thing in the realm of home maintenance. Just saying that I can figure out how to fix my toilet, that’s minor. But one of the lessons I think I internalized in that shop course, as I learned about masculine and feminine fittings, was that I could learn about things about which I was completely ignorant. I learned that just because I knew squat about what I was doing right now, that didn’t mean that I had no chance of doing it. I just needed to start at the beginning and follow it through. That lesson, there, is extremely relevant to my Life As a Grownup. Don’t know how to run a meeting? Start at the beginning. What does a meeting look like? Don’t know how to program in Java? Start at the beginning. Find a site or a book with a good overview. Don’t know how to pick a life insurance policy? Start at the beginning. What are the options?
To me, that is the height of what education really is. It’s not about dates or facts or information, although that background is important. It is about the tools to break down problems in areas where you are ignorant, and the confidence to believe that you can learn about things you don’t know. Perhaps other people learn these same lessons doing algebraic equations, or parsing the meaning out of “A Tale of Two Cities”. For me, it came at the business end of a wrench, unveiling the cam shaft of a geriatric lawnmower.
Where did you learn this lesson? Have you?
by bflynn in Behavior, Level - beginniner, Personal care Tags: skin care, tattoos, weight
I am hoping that some of you reading this blog are younger women, just getting their start in technology. Some of you might be thinking, “Yeah, that might be useful information in a few years, when I’m interested in managing a technical team. But right now, as a programmer/lab tech/engineer this fashion stuff just isn’t relevant yet. Jeans every day, baby!” I get that. I lived that. I agree – no need to do this stuff before you’re good and ready.
That said, there are three things I’m recommending you do today so that when you are ready to look managerial, you don’t have a big uphill slog. With no further ado, here are three pieces of advice I offer for the 22 year old girl programmer:
Wrinkles are almost impossible to get rid of. So are liver spots. Go take a moment and google “effective ways of removing wrinkles”. Notice how they are a) painful b) expensive c) quacky . Notice how many times they say, “This one really works, unlike all the other ones that totally don’t work”. Right now, you’re trying to look older than you are. There will be a blessed but brief period of your life where you will be happy looking exactly as old as you are. And then you will spend a long time wishing you looked younger than you are. Percentage wise, the largest period of your life is likely to be the “wishing you looked younger than you are”. But once you get to that age… there’s not much you can do about wrinkles or skin damage. So. Every day, put on a moisturizer with an SPF over 30 – even if you don’t currently care about how you look – just in case you change your mind.
2) Cut out sugary drinks now, while you still have a metabolism that can handle them
In the same way it’s much easier to prevent wrinkles than to remove them once you have them, it’s much easier to take smaller steps to prevent weight gain than it is to take the big steps needed to lose weight later. Now, I don’t think there’s much wrong with being overweight or large. I don’t think folks should strive to be skinny or hate themselves if they aren’t. I don’t think there’s evil in chocolate cake and virtue in celery. However, being overweight is another cultural stigma that has to be overcome to gain acceptance in certain circles. If our goal here is to be taken seriously, it is an easier task for a person of normal weight (however normal may be defined) than a person who is not a normal weight.
Not only that, as any plus-size shopper can tell you, it is much easier to get fun, flattering, professional, inexpensive clothing when you are roughly the size and shape that designers are working on. If you’re in the middle of the size bell curve, you can go to any store and find clothes that you can wear. If you’re at either end of the bell curve, the chore of shopping gets much harder, more disheartening, more expensive and offers fewer options.
Current studies are showing that the single biggest impacts on weight gain is sweetened beverages – even if they have no sugar. Apparently, aspartame and some of those other sweeteners play nasty tricks on your metabolism. So if you’re a perfectly fine weight now, and you drink two sodas a day… well, cut down to one. Cut down to none. Develop a love for coffee/iced tea/water. Chances are you’ll thank yourself 30 years down the road.
3) Keep the tattoos in places you can cover
I have mixed feelings on this one. I’m pretty sure there is a cultural shift from the time I was breaking in a decade ago to now. A decade ago, this would have been no-brainer advice. Now, so many qualified people are highly inked that it may not offer an impediment. But if you keep your tattoo in a place you can choose to reveal (or not), you can play it both ways. You should think about the impact of what you choose to have tattooed as well. Celtic knots/geometric shapes are pretty neutral. Arcane code snippits (ok, I’ve never seen that, but you never know) might make it hard for folks to imagine you as CTO. Anime might make it harder for you to get people to take you seriously. Too much to look at on your skin that people get distracted from what you say because they’re trying to figure out what that bit is right there, and means people will be looking at your body instead of listening to your words. Look at the people in the roles you’d like to be in. Any more ink than they have, and you will have to work a bit harder and be a bit more qualified to get the same role.
So am I completely nuts? Terribly old-fashioned? Did I miss something obvious? What advice would you give your 22 year old self, if you could go back in time? If you’re the younger programmer, are you doing any things differently? What would your top three recommendations be?
The author with a mullet and a computer
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Your brake system transmits the force you apply to the brake pedal, down hydraulic lines to the pistons in the brake calipers and wheel cylinders at your wheels. This force creates friction between the brake pads or shoes and the brake rotors or drums. This friction creates the stopping force needed to quickly and safely stop your car. If you're experiencing brake symptoms such as a squealing or grinding noise, a pulsating brake pedal, an abnormal amount of brake pedal travel, or a red brake light indicator, it is time to have your brakes checked as soon as possible. At USA Tire Pros, we can quickly and professionally solve your problem and get you back on the road safely.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Brake Repair needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Your car’s cooling system is designed to bring your vehicle up to operating temperature quickly while preventing it from running too hot. Your vehicle uses antifreeze to absorb heat from the engine and move it to the radiator where it can be cooled. Your water pump is tasked with creating the pressure to circulate the coolant through the hoses from the engine to the radiator. The thermostat is used to regulate the flow of the coolant from the engine to the radiator to maintain a proper operating temperature of around 190 degrees. If any of these components are not operating correctly, your car may run too cool causing poor performance and fuel economy while polluting the air around it. It may also cause the engine to run too hot and overheat causing possible severe engine damage. If you have concerns about the proper operation of your cooling system, have it inspected and serviced today at USA Tire Pros.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Cooling System needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Many trucks and cars today use engines that run on diesel fuel. While these engines are generally more fuel efficient and reliable than their gas counter parts, they do require specialized maintenance to keep them running smoothly. Efficient operation of things like glow plugs, fuel pumps, fuel injectors, and turbochargers are necessary for proper operation. Regular maintenance to the engine oil and filter, fuel filter, and water separator are critical in keeping your diesel operating as smoothly as the day it was built. USA Tire Pros has the tools, equipment, and expertise necessary to keep your diesel car or light truck running its best.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Diesel Engine Repair needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Most modern cars and light trucks have a differential. All-wheel drive vehicles need a differential between each set of wheels as well as a differential between the front and back wheels because the front wheels travel a different distance through a turn than the rear wheels. The differential transfers engine power to the wheels and adjusts to the difference in the wheel speed. The differential allows the wheels to turn at different speeds while maintaining control of the vehicle. The differential can experience heavy wear and tear. Noise coming from the differential can be a signal that your differential fluid may need serviced, or it can be a sign of worn gears and/or bearing due to regular wear and tear. USA Tire Pros can quickly diagnose and correct these types of issues.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Differential Repair needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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The check engine lamp can signal a variety of issues. The lights you should pay close attention to are check oil/oil level low, oil pressure low, and check engine. However, if any dash lights continue to stay on after you start the engine it is time for you to contact us for an engine diagnostics service. Typically when light switches stay on in the dash it is the first sign of engine problems. USA Tire Pros can run a complete engine diagnostics test and take care of your engine repairs.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Engine Repair needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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At USA Tire Pros, we know how inconvenient a flat tire can be. Tires can lose air for many reasons including a punctured tire, a corroded rim, a leaky valve stem, or a cracked wheel. If you do experience a flat or low tire, come to a stop in a safe place as quickly as possible. If you are stranded on the roadside, turn on your flashers and raise your hood. Once you are safely situated, you can change to your spare or call for roadside assistance. Remember, driving for even a very short distance on a deflated tire will damage the tire beyond repair. Trust your friends at USA Tire Pros to fix or replace a tire and get you back on the road quickly.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Tire Repair needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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In order to keep your vehicle running smoothly, it is important to check your fluid levels regularly. It is important to check fluids such as coolant, engine oil, brake fluid, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, and windshield washer fluid. Your car is a big investment. Checking the fluid levels and condition regularly helps safeguard against breakdown, mechanical damage, and even possible accidents. Let USA Tire Pros examine and change your fluid levels today.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Fluid Inspection needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Many of today’s cars and light trucks employ the use of all wheel drive or four wheel drive. While each manufacturer may have a different system for providing power to all four wheels, they all use some sort of differential or transfer case to get the power from front to rear and left to right. Some common symptoms of four wheel drive failure include: illuminated dash indicators, failure to lock the front and rear together, shaking and vibration or ominous sounding noises when engaged. If you think you have a problem with your four wheel or all wheel drive system, trust the experts at USA Tire Pros to quickly and accurately diagnose and repair the problem.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Four Wheel Drive needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Lifting your truck, sport utility vehicle, jeep, etc. a few inches can really help in certain situations like off-road trails and can add a unique and appealing look to your vehicle. Giving your truck a small lift can help improve performance and power. Lifting your vehicle will allow you more flexibility in what you do with your vehicle. Not only can you drive on the highway like every other vehicle, a lift kit can help your vehicle perform better when driving through mud, sand and water. A suspension lift kit can raise the clearance allowing for steeper ascent or descent off road. Lift kits also allow for larger tire fitments. Come see the lift kit experts at USA Tire Pros today!
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Lift Kits needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Your exhaust system takes the used up fuel and air charge from your engine, cleans it of its hazardous pollutants, and silences it before pushing it out the back of the vehicle. Common components of the exhaust system are the exhaust manifolds, catalytic converters, flexible sections, center pipes, exhaust resonators and mufflers. These items work in harmony to reduce noise and vibration, remove heat, and eliminate harmful emissions from the engine. If your vehicle is loud, lacks power, or has an emissions light indicating a catalytic converter problem, your exhaust system is likely the problem. The experts at USA Tire Pros can quickly identify and resolve the problem in a timely, cost efficient manner.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Muffler and Exhaust needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Filling your tires with nitrogen can reduce air pressure loss, reduce wheel corrosion, prevent inner liner rubber deterioration by oxidation, your tires can run cooler, resulting in increased tread life, increased fuel mileage and it helps prevent uneven tire wear. Experts in the tire industry indicate that oxidative aging is one of the primary causes of decreased tire life. Oxidative aging is caused by the diffusion of oxygen from the pressurized air cavity of the tire to the outside atmosphere. Tires that are inflated with nitrogen have a significant reduction in tire failure. Stop by USA Tire Pros to discuss the many benefits of using Nitrogen in your tires.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Nitrogen Fill needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Your oil removes heat from the engine and lubricates its moving parts. Changing your vehicle’s oil routinely is one of the most important things you can do to promote long term vehicle performance. As you drive, the oil pump circulates oil into your oil filter and throughout your engine. The oil filter cleans dirt and deposits out of the oil, keeping your engine clean and protected. As time passes, the oil filter will begin to get clogged with this debris and will no longer be able to keep the oil clean for the engine. Most manufacturers recommend changing the oil between 3,000 and 5,000 miles (5,000 and 8,000 kilometers) to insure long life and maximum performance. At USA Tire Pros, we understand the importance of an oil change.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Oil Change needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Many parts on your vehicle (including fluids, spark plugs, brake pads and rotors) have a limited service life and need to be serviced at pre-determined intervals. Regular preventive maintenance is likely the single most important thing you can do to keep your car running safely and efficiently. Routine services like oil changes, tire pressure checks, and scheduled inspections are a great way to keep your car running properly and catch problems before they become serious. Check your owner’s manual for detailed information on how often to inspect or replace things such as oil and filter, transmission fluid, brake fluid, coolant, power steering fluid, fuel, air and cabin filters, drive or timing belts, and more. At USA Tire Pros, we have the tools and expertise to properly service your vehicle on a regular basis.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Preventive Maintenance needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Your vehicle’s steering and suspension are designed to create maximum traction between your tires and the road. This provides steering stability, proper handling, and good comfort. These components are ground zero at connecting your vehicle to the harsh roads and are thus prone to wearing out or even breaking, possibly leaving you stranded. Steering and suspension systems are key safety components and should be inspected annually or if you are experiencing problems such as uneven tire wear, excessive noise vibration or bouncing, loss of contact with the road, or have symptoms of the vehicle not wanting to track straight down the road. If you need your suspension checked, let the qualified technicians at USA Tire Pros quickly identify any problems you may have.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Steering and Suspension needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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When your car rolls down the road, it is imperative that your tires be in proper balance. Out of balance tires will wear quicker and possibly cause symptoms such as vibration or a shaking sensation in the seat or steering wheel. These symptoms may become more or less obvious as the speed of the vehicle changes. As the tires wear, it is normal for the tires to become out of balance. It is recommended that tires be balanced every 15,000 miles or 24,000 kilometers to ensure maximum tire life and smooth, quiet operation. The tire professionals at USA Tire Pros can quickly and affordably care for all of your tire needs.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Tire Balancing needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Tires are no longer just rubber and oil. Instead, they are made up of several layers of materials, each playing its own role in how the tire functions. Today's tires last longer and are less prone to dangerous blowouts than older tires. They are also better at maintaining contact with the road and can even help a car's performance. Choosing the right tires has drastically changed over the years. As an example a vehicle towing heavy weight will need a high load rating tire. If a vehicle is driven in an area with heavy rain or snow, you might prefer the purchase tires with a better traction rating, the life expectancy of a tire depends on road conditions, driving habits, usage and the type of tire. Your tires need to be changed at the very least every 6 years. The rubber in the tires dries out over time. This can lead to cracking, greater stress on the tire's infrastructure and catastrophic failure. A great drive starts with properly installed tires! At USA Tire Pros we have professionally trained staff on hand to provide the best tires and tire installation in the industry.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Tire Installation needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Your tire pressure monitoring system, often referred to as TPMS, is an electronic system designed to monitor the air pressure in your tires. This system uses real time tire pressure information to alert you if there is a tire pressure problem. If your tire pressure drops to an unsafe level, it will alert you via a light or warning message. Many systems will also tell you which tire is low. Low tire pressure is not only a safety issue, but it will also drastically shorten the life of a tire. Tire pressure sensors are powered by a non serviceable battery and will eventually fail due to low battery voltage. The average lifespan of a tire pressure sensor is 7 to 9 years. It's also recommended that sensors be replaced or properly serviced when new tires are installed. At USA Tire Pros we have the tools, equipment, training and knowledge to properly service or diagnose your Tire Pressure Monitoring System. We would be happy to handle all of your tire service needs today.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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While you drive, your tires wear at different rates due to steering. The most notable wear occurs on the front tires. Regular tire rotation can keep the wear on your tires even, improving fuel economy, ensuring proper handling, and extending the life of your tires. Depending on the vehicle, your tires should be rotated every 6,000 to 8,000 miles (9,000 to 13,000 kilometers). The tire experts at USA Tire Pros can quickly and professionally rotate your tires at your convenience.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Tire Rotation needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Your tires connect you directly to the road surface and are the single most important safety item on your vehicle. Today’s tires are designed specifically for certain types of vehicles, road conditions, and weather conditions. Advancements in technology have also created tires that last longer, stop faster and run more quietly than ever before. Newer all season tires can provide good all around weather traction. However, if you spend a lot of time driving in slippery winter conditions, a good snow tire can make a very noticeable improvement in handling. As a tire wears, its ability to provide traction in wet or slippery conditions diminishes accordingly. When a tire reaches less than 3/32 of an inch of tread or 2.4 mm, it should be replaced for safety reasons. Tires should also be replaced if they have severe uneven tread wear, cuts, cracks or bulges on the side walls, have been run flat or are more than six years old. Quality tires can make your drive time safer and more enjoyable. Have the tire experts at USA Tire Pros explain your tire options today.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Tire needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Today’s transmissions are both better and more complex than ever before. They are electronically shifted and computerized to produce better fuel economy, smoother shifting, and more reliability. They are so sophisticated that they have become fully integrated into the engine performance system. These advancements in technology have made properly diagnosing and servicing transmissions more important and complex than ever. While maintenance schedules for transmission fluids have been greatly extended, failure to follow them can be a very costly mistake. Many driving symptoms today are caused by problems that are not easy to identify. Proper analysis of the entire powertrain system is necessary to make sure the proper component is isolated and repaired. At USA Tire Pros in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX, we have the OEM quality diagnostic tools, along with properly trained, experienced technicians, that are qualified to get the job done right. If you are having a problem with the way your car or light truck shifts or performs, let us get you back on the road quickly and affordably.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Transmission Maintenance needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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As recently as the early 1990’s, a car’s engine required consistent maintenance on a few basic components. Things like spark plugs, distributor points and condensers, valve adjustments, timing adjustments, and carburetor adjustments were needed on an annual basis. It was this qualified need that prompted the industry to coin the phrase “tune up”. Today a tune up refers to just about any combination of events that cause a car to run poorly. Items such as distributorless ignition, computerized engine controls, and fuel injection have completely changed the needs of the modern car. Things like advances in spark plug technology, and the improved efficiency of the combustion system, have increased the time between basic engine maintenance services drastically. What used to be annually has now increased to 60,000 or even 90,000 mile increments. While things like spark plugs, filters and fluids still need to be replaced at regular intervals to keep your car running problem free, most other components are now likely to last the life of the car. If your car is running poorly or has a warning indicator on the dash, trust the pros at USA Tire Pros in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX to pinpoint the problem. We have the tools, equipment and trained experienced technicians to solve the problem quickly and efficiently.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Tune-Up needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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It may not be evident to you that your car is developing a costly problem, until it is too late. Annual maintenance and visual inspections are your first line of defense in finding problems early. Regular vehicle inspections have the potential to save you hundreds, or even thousands, on costly repairs in the future. If you are concerned about the safety and road worthiness of your car or light truck, schedule a maintenance inspection today at USA Tire Pros.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Vehicle Inspection needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Wheel Alignments
The process of aligning wheels on a car involves adjusting the wheels so they roll straight and are true to the center line of the vehicle. Misaligned vehicles will exhibit accelerated tire wear along with other possible concerns like a crooked steering wheel, pulling to the left or right, or a condition of wandering down the road without tracking straight. Tires that are left out of alignment will wear rapidly and may also develop a wear pattern that makes them excessively noisy while rolling down the road. Your tires are a big investment and your most important factor in traction and braking ability. Protect them by keeping your vehicle properly aligned at USA Tire Pros.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Wheel Alignment needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
Areas Served : Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX and surrounding areas
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Your wiper blades are critical in helping to remove rain, snow, and debris from your windshield. Over time, the tiny rubber wiping edges will harden and crack, or rip and tear, causing them to perform poorly at the most crucial times. In cold winter climates, most wiper blades will need to be replaced at least yearly to maintain proper wiper operation. Stop by today for quality, budget friendly wiper blade replacement at USA Tire Pros.
USA Tire Pros proudly serves the Windshield Wiper Blades needs of customers in Houston, TX; Humble, TX; Dayton, TX
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What brings youth to extremism? The biggest threat to Africa's prosperity: #endextremism UNDP – Human Rights News Worldwide- News Agency
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What brings youth to extremism? The biggest threat to Africa's prosperity: #endextremism UNDP
Posted By: admin March 23, 2016
In this blog series leading up to the World Humanitarian Summit, UNDP experts and practitioners share their experiences and views on responding to conflict and disasters.
Last April, Mohamed, a carpenter in a fishing town along Kenya’s coast, saw a photograph of Suleiman, the second of his five sons, on the evening news. The 24-year-old was among six young men declared dangerous members of al-Shabab, with a bounty on their heads.
Less than a year later, Suleiman was among four al-Shabab suspects killed in a reported shootout with the police.
Suleiman’s father says that growing up, his son was respectful, dynamic, and refused to accept that the circumstances of his birth should condemn him to a life of poverty. The entire family saw Suleiman as their way to a better life.
To meet their high expectations, Suleiman concluded he had to leave not only his town, but also Kenya. He planned to become a driver in Saudi Arabia. But to get there, he needed money to pay agents to organize his trip.
So at 17, Suleiman quit school to work as a labourer, changing tires and loading cargo. A year later, despite having the fee, the agent told him he had to be 22 for the Saudi Arabia job. Deflated but undeterred, Suleiman returned to school and graduated, joining an assembly line of educated but unemployed youth.
At the same time, Suleiman came under the additional societal pressure of marriage, which marks the transition from childhood to adulthood in his Swahili culture. Weddings last several days and involve elaborate preparations – a costly affair beyond the reach of the unemployed Suleiman.
So at 22, Suleiman was already a veteran in personal setbacks, but still believed his condition was not permanent. He moved south to Mombasa to find opportunities. This is where, his father says, Suleiman’s shortcomings were given political and religious meaning.
At the time, Mombasa was becoming a center of radical preaching, weaving global events into a compelling narrative of a global conspiracy against Muslims. This storyline gripped the imagination of many young Muslims eager to explain their deprivation and seeking a sense of purpose. Radical Muslim scholars were constructing a new morality where neighbors become enemies and killing the innocent is a virtue.
Why would Suleiman join a violent extremist group, take up arms against his own country, and be ready to kill civilians?
Without minimizing individual agency and susceptibility to manipulation, it is fair to say that socioeconomic factors play a combustive role in the growth of violent extremism.
Exclusion, injustice, poor governance, and unemployment create fertile ground for violent extremism. It is not mere coincidence that the most deprived regions produce a disproportionate number of recruits.
Violent extremism poses the single biggest threat to Africa’s steady journey to prosperity. According to UNDP, it has resulted in more than 33,000 Africans killed in the past five years and more than 1.2 million displaced.
In such contexts, sustainable development becomes near impossible, and past gains made over many years risk being swiftly wiped out.
The poor bear the brunt of the violence. Extremists target public spaces such as markets and bus stations, forcing people to make a difficult choice between risking death by going to work and risking the economic survival of their families.
The international community’s response has largely been a security-based approach, with little impact on reducing the growth of violent extremism and, in some cases, exacerbating the very problem it seeks to address.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s recently launched Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism calls for concerted international action ranging from addressing underlying causes of extremism to improving security measures, institutions, and respect for human rights.
Ultimately, the lessons of more than a decade of responding to violent extremism tell us that it is time for a new way of thinking if we are to halt and reverse the march of extremism not only in Africa, but globally.
Suleiman’s story gives us clues about what pushes young people to extremism. Perhaps, had Suleiman been able to realize his goals for a better life for himself and his family, he may not have sought meaning in fanaticism.
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Reassurance for you and your Loved Ones.
Capalbo Insurance Group, LLC provides life insurance to individuals in North Kingstown, South Kingstown, Narragansett, East Greenwich, Coventry, Warwick, and surrounding areas.
Many individuals consider life insurance to be the cornerstone of a sound financial plan. And while no one likes to think about passing on, Life Insurance can relieve you of the financial worry your loved ones may face in the event of your passing.
Your beneficiaries will be able to use your Life Insurance policy to help pay for anything from expensive funeral costs and estate taxes to making up for lost income or funding your child’s education. It can even be used to continue payments on your mortgage to help ensure that the family home stays in the family.
At Capalbo Insurance Group, LLC, we know that choosing a Life Insurance plan is a big decision with many important factors to consider. Our knowledgeable team of insurance professionals is committed to walking you through the process and providing you with the best insurance solution to give you and your family the reassurance they deserve.
Types of Individual Life Insurance
Capalbo Insurance Group, LLC offers several different coverage options for your consideration including term life, whole life, and more.
Term Life – This is typically the simplest and least expensive insurance option. Term life insurance provides coverage at a fixed rate for a specified period of time. It’s a benefit policy that’s used primarily to cover financial responsibilities of the insured, with the benefit to be paid only if the insured were to die during the specified term. Most term life policies can be converted to a more permanent insurance solution such as whole life or universal life insurance.
There are two types of term life insurance:
Annual Renewable Term is purchased for a period of one year, with the death benefit to be paid only if the insured were to die during that one-year term, along with the option to renew after the term period.
Level Term Life guarantees a fixed premium for a given period of time, usually in terms of 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. Your premium is based on your age and coverage options, with longer terms being more expensive.
Whole Life – As the most common type of permanent insurance, a whole life policy guarantees a death benefit for the lifetime of the insured as well as a cash value account for savings. Your premium remains constant throughout the duration of policy while payments over and above your premium are credited to your savings, which earn a fixed rate of interest.
Capalbo Insurance Group, LLC is here for you
There are many things to take into account when purchasing life insurance, and changes in your life situation can reflect changes in your insurance requirements. That’s why it’s important to carefully consider the different policy options and ensure that you have the right solution to meet your long-term life insurance needs.
An insurance specialist with Capalbo Insurance Group, LLC will review your current life insurance situation and help you design a policy to plan for the future.
At the end of the day, one of the biggest investments you can make is an investment in yourself.
As your personal situations change (i.e., marriage, birth of a child or job promotion), so will your life insurance needs. Care should be taken to ensure this product is suitable for your long-term life insurance needs. You should weigh any associated costs before making a purchase. Life insurance has fees and charges associated with it that include costs of insurance that vary with such characteristics of the insured as gender, health and age, and has additional charges for riders that customize a policy to fit your individual needs.
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Hubby is not going so I know I have to prepare some easy meals for him. If I don’t he will go out and buy junk or eat snacks. He is not fussy about eating the same thing over and over again for days. So I have decided to make a lot of two different meals that he can pull out of the freezer and just nuke in the microwave.
I decided to make a large pan of lasagna because he loves my lasagna. And I will also cook some chicken so that he can just cut it up on salads. I will also make a chicken dish that he can throw frozen into the crock pot and cook all day. He loves salad and applesauce so he can do those for sides. There is always fruit and cut up veggies in the fridge for him to snack on. He will also have tortilla chips and salsa for snacks.
I had no ground beef in my freezers. So I have been looking for a decent price to buy some. In yesterday’s flyer, Top’s advertised their 80/20 ground beef meal deal. You buy a 4-5 lb. package of the beef and you get 9 named items free. Now I know that the ground beef will not be a great price for this deal. And I rarely buy these deals because of that and the fact that the free items are things we don’t normally buy.
So I set out to investigate whether this was a good deal or not. I called my Top’s meat department and asked what the price per lb. was that they were charging for the meat. They told me $ 3.99 per lb. Then I looked on Wegman’s website to see what they are charging for their 80-20 ground beef. I had already noticed that Walmart’s was $ 4.99 a lb. when I shopped there yesterday. Wegman’s was $ 2.29 a lb.
I estimated that a package would be 5lbs. So at Wegman’s that would cost me $ 11.45. The meat at Top’s would cost me $ 19.95. That is a difference of $ 8.50.
However Top’s was giving me 9 items free with my purchase that they estimated would be $14.00 if bought separately. I looked at the list and we could use all 9. If I used coupons with a sale price on those 9 items I estimated that on sale, I could buy those items for $ 10.95. So I am paying $ 8.50 more for the beef at Top’s but I am getting $ 10.95 in usable product. That is only a $ 2.45 gain.
But Top’s is less than 7 miles round trip from my house and Wegman’s is 26 miles away round trip. With gas topping off at $ 2.60 a gallon, this was a no brainer. I also asked myself if there were other necessary errands that I could run down near Wegman’s. I could go to the bank and deposit six checks that I have sitting here. But I could deposit those checks via my mobile phone. So I opted to get the Top’s deal. This is the kind of thinking I do on anything I buy to make sure that I am getting the best deal.
I bought a 4.63 lb. of ground beef ($18.47), a dozen eggs for $.69 with a store Q, one family size bag of tortillas chips ($4.49), 2 large containers of cottage cheese ($2.79 each). The 9 free items were Italian bakery bread, Fresh Express lettuce shreds, a jar of spaghetti sauce, a bag of Mexican cheese, a can of chili beans, a can of diced tomatoes, a bag of taco wraps, 1 lb. of thin spaghetti, and a package of chili seasoning. My total grocery bill was $29.23. That leaves me $18.39 through December 9th to spend. I am done with the big shops for the week because we have snow in the forecast from tomorrow through Sunday. If we need something desperately like milk, I will send Hubby to the gas station which is close.
I came home and used my scale to measure out the meat into 8 oz. portions because that is what Hubby and I eat at a meal. I will use 16 oz. in the lasagna along with a lb. of Italian sausage that I am thawing from my freezer. To my surprise when I measured it, I got a full 5 lbs. of meat not the 4.63 lbs. that I paid for. So I will be using the 1 lb. tomorrow when I make the lasagna. Seven of the bags I put in the freezer. One I kept out for dinner. Hubby can pull one out if he wants hamburgers while I am away. I did not food saver the bags of meat because it will get used up over the next few months and Ziplocs are cheaper than food saver bags.
Tomorrow, I will make and bake the lasagna. When it cools, I will freeze it in individual portions for Hubby’s lunches and dinners. I will post this meal with recipe when I make it.
Tonight we will have taco salad using 8 oz. of the beef cooked with taco seasoning, the lettuce shreds, onions, fresh tomatoes, black olives, taco sauce, hot sauce and Mexican cheese. Hubby will have tortilla chips with his. I just eat it like a salad.
December 5, 2017 at 1:40 am
I love how you figure out the cost of everything. That is so important. Love your blog by the way.
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December 5, 2017 at 12:36 pm
Thanks out my window! Sometimes it only saves pennies but those pennies add up!
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December 5, 2017 at 3:49 pm
Got a question do not have scale 8 oz is how much cup wise. Thanks joyce
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December 5, 2017 at 3:54 pm
8 oz. is 1 cup.
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December 6, 2017 at 1:01 am
I really like your way of thinking and explaining your thought process. I call these "small economies," Any small gain is still a gain. Plus, you do figure in cost of gas. Where do you live that gas is so expensive. Where I live in AL, gas is $2.12/gal. I love your blog.
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December 6, 2017 at 1:37 pm
Thank you. I try to be as logical as I can.
I live in Western New York. I wish we had gas that low but alas it is always high here.
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December 6, 2017 at 9:52 pm
Hi Liz, this is Chris. This was a great post, I love how you talked about your thought process in what you decided to do about the Tops deal. Gave me some things to think about.
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Businesses that ship packages on weekdays only are few and far between these days, but they’re still around. Business owners used to think people needed faster delivery times; nowadays, most online shoppers prefer reliable service with shorter lead times, so businesses need weekday shipping and Saturday pickups for expedited services.
What are business days for shipping?
Is Saturday considered a business day for shipping?
What are business days for UPS?
What are the business days for FedEx?
What counts as a business day for shipping?
Is Saturday considered a business day for shipping?
Does the day you ship something to count as a business day?
What are regular business days?
Does 3/5 business days include Saturday?
Business days are the days when most people are working and not at home. These include Monday through Friday, with some exceptions for holidays like Memorial Day or Labor day, which always fall on a weekday this year (I know it isn’t apparent). Businesses in America typically operate 7 am – 5 pm during regular business hours with closed over weekends to allow employees time off work without fear of being penalized by their employer. Because they have taken sick leave as long as that is allowed under company policy etc. The number varies depending upon what country you live within but usually falls between 30-35 total operating hours per week.
Even if a business operates in this manner, they may still ship on Saturdays or Sundays – it just might take them longer. If you want your package shipped, then contact the company first and ask about their policies; even without shipping weekends at all; if there’s an upcoming date when one will be available for shipment, it should do well enough.
If you ever have any doubts about shipping times, it’s always best to check the website or give them a call. If they can’t tell when your package will arrive, then maybe don’t order from them on those days because someone could be waiting in line and not get what they want at all!
One of the biggest challenges people face when buying online products is if they are not shipped immediately. Sometimes companies have a delayed shipping policy, which can make things inconvenient for customers who need their items right away. But this comes down to how businesses operate and stock levels.
It’s usually best to wait it out a few days and then call the company. Most people find this an effective tactic since they have more flexibility in shipping choices when choosing same-day delivery or at least close enough for your needs!
It’s important to know that not all businesses have their shipping policies listed on the website. If you don’t see a specific procedure for your needs, it would be best to contact and ask before placing an order. In addition, some websites may state “business days” instead of estimated times when packages will arrive at customers’ homes or offices.
Amazon offers a variety of shipping options for different types and sizes of packages. Those who need their order quickly offer 2-Day Prime delivery, which can sometimes take until Monday morning before arriving at your doorstep.
The following are other companies’ policies regarding when orders ship: – Etsy’s standard policy is that all shipments will be delivered in seven business days, but if you purchase an item with free international shipping, then it may arrive up to fifteen working days after ordering; iPhones Plus customers have thirty five calendar day window where phones must be received within two weeks past original scheduled release date or fifty-eight times total minus ten days outstanding returns/exchange period (upfront cost paid);
Is Saturday considered a business day for shipping?
The shipping industry is competitive, but some may wonder why you would want to ship on Saturdays if your product or service can’t wait? The answer is simple. Certain carriers allow for this and will deliver by carrier policy at their discretion–USPS Priority Mail being an example of such exception.
While other companies have different rules about how far in advance, they accept shipments before delivering them out there on time-sensitive orders with strict deadlines like Father’s Day gifts, etc. However, USPS offers Saturday delivery via its “priority mailbox program.”
What are business days for UPS?
UPS operates on regular business days (Monday-Friday) and does not deliver on Saturday or Sunday. Therefore, please do not include the day your package ships to you! Defender’s mission is simple: To find out how much it’ll cost for us – as a customer–to have our packages delivered right now so that we can pass along those rates with interest intact, which will ultimately benefit both parties involved; from there on out.
What are the business days for FedEx?
The days that are busiest for shipping FedEx Ground are Monday through Friday. That’s when business is done, so it makes sense to ship on those days too! The weekend days have an additional load of packages since people often get their items delivered right away. Otherwise, they may go elsewhere if waiting isn’t possible any other time before then.
What counts as a business day for shipping?
A business day is a period during which weekends and holidays are not included in shipping. This usually applies to North American regions, but it varies by country or regionally within that continent!
The term “business days” refers both internationally as well locally; its definition depends primarily on where you live – whether your workweek starts on Monday through Friday (Monday-Friday), Saturday mornings only, or Sunday Evening Through Thursday evenings/nighttime hours. (Sunrise To Sunset).
Is Saturday considered a business day for shipping?
Mondays through Fridays are considered business days for all orders, but holidays and weekends don’t count. All in-stock items will be shipped within 2-days of placing them on the calendar. It is observed holiday observances typically occur during weeks where they fall on Saturday.
Monday through Friday’s work as usual with how many people schedule around their schedules; however, there is one exception: observing days like Thanksgiving or Christmas, which happen at different times each year depending upon what date you’re celebrating. If your order was placed before 11 am EST, then it will be shipped the same day!
Does the day you ship something to count as a business day?
The first day an order shipped does not count as one of your allotted trucking days and will incur additional charges if you need it delivered on Saturdays or Sundays; Also, keep in mind some services like FedEx Ground require 24 hours minimum between pick up and delivery which can make planning tricky!
What are regular business days?
A typical business day for most people starts at 9 am and ends around 5 pm, but not on holidays or weekends when they are sleeping off their Saturday night bender. Of course, the duration can vary greatly depending on the industry you’re in, whether it’s being done digitally or face-to-face with someone across from your desk–but either way, you have some deadline!
Does 3/5 business days include Saturday?
Three business days are defined as three working weekdays, excluding weekends and public holidays. How many hours is two? Because most individuals do not work on Saturday or Sunday, they will be considered “business” days for purposes in this article since any day other than those two can count towards our total of four.
For those of you who might be wondering, business days are the weekdays when most people aren’t at home. This includes Monday through Friday with a few exceptions for holidays like Memorial Day or Labor day that always fall on a weekday this year. Businesses that ship packages only during these times are rare but they’re still around – and some even offer Saturday pickups as an option to expedite service! Have any of your favorite retailers switched their shipping schedule from 7-day delivery to 4-5 days? Let us know what difference it makes in the comments below.
business days shipping does saturday count as a business day for shipping is saturday considered a business day for shipping shipping business days what are business days for shipping what are shipping business days what are working days for shipping what days are business days for shipping what is a business day for shipping what is business days in shipping
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I am Jefferson A. Davis, an ex-security officer and now a successful businessman. I have worked in the field of safety and security for years. I have seen a lot of different things in my time as a security professional, but one thing that never changes is people's desire to be safe and secure. After retirement I have been running my business for more than 8 years, and it has met with much success. For this reason, I decided to start writing so that others can be benefited from business blogs and learn about their various options when it comes to being safe and secure.
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This Study Guide consists of approximately 69 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of First They Killed My Father.
This section contains 1,764 words
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Does religion play a strong role in Loung's life during the time of the war in Cambodia?
Though she mentions the Buddhist gods on numerous occasions, often wondering whether they can see or hear what is happening in her homeland, Loung's affinity for Buddhism is not tied to spirituality and the religion itself does not direct her actions. She does not use any tenets of her family's religion to either explain or justify the things she experiences; rather, her mention of Buddhism is strictly limited to nostalgic memories of her father's explanations and the trips they took to holy sites together. Even when she learns that the Khmer Rouge and the Angkar itself forbid any religious activity, she does not comment on this important aspect of their Communist ideology but rather skips over it. Evidently, she feels attached to Buddhist holy sites and ideas because of their...
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Crimes and offenses, to revise the criminal penalties for violations of fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement, Sec. 13A-10-52 am'd.
Under existing law, a violation of fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer is a felony if the flight or attempt to elude causes death or physical injury to an innocent bystander or a third party
This bill would include additional activity that would constitute a felony for fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer
Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended by Amendment 890, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, prohibits a general law whose purpose or effect would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds from becoming effective with regard to a local governmental entity without enactment by a 2/3 vote unless: it comes within one of a number of specified exceptions; it is approved by the affected entity; or the Legislature appropriates funds, or provides a local source of revenue, to the entity for the purpose
The purpose or effect of this bill would be to require a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of the amendment
However, the bill does not require approval of a local governmental entity or enactment by a 2/3 vote to become effective because it comes within one of the specified exceptions contained in the amendment
Relating to crimes and offenses; to amend Section 13A-10-52, Code of Alabama 1975, to revise the criminal penalties for violations of fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement; and in connection therewith would have as its purpose or effect the requirement of a new or increased expenditure of local funds within the meaning of Amendment 621 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended by Amendment 890, now appearing as Section 111.05 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended.
April 6, 2022 S Pending third reading on day 29 Favorable from Judiciary
April 6, 2022 S Read for the second time and placed on the calendar
April 5, 2022 S Read for the first time and referred to the Senate committee on Judiciary
March 31, 2022 H Motion to Read a Third Time and Pass adopted Roll Call 841
March 31, 2022 H Third Reading Passed
March 17, 2022 H Read for the second time and placed on the calendar
February 10, 2022 H Read for the first time and referred to the House of Representatives committee on Judiciary
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We have seen lots of confusing statements recently about the state’s proposed Medicaid 1115 waiver for the Healthy Texas Women program.
Here are some reminders about what this particular waiver would and would not do, as Texas proposed in our state’s waiver application to the federal government.
change the existing Healthy Texas Women program in innovative ways
increase access or serve more women
reduce total program costs
increase total program savings, or
change anything from the patient or provider perspective from the existing program.
What it WILL do: The current Healthy Texas Women program, started in 2016, is supported by only state funds (“General Revenue”). The Medicaid 1115 waiver application seeks only to get federal Medicaid dollars to cover 90 percent of program costs, replacing existing state funds. That’s it. The request is to refinance the existing program.
On June 30, 2017, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) submitted an 1115 waiver application formally asking the federal Medicaid program to pay for an existing, state-funded family planning program called Healthy Texas Women. Texas forfeited this same federal funding at the end of 2012 when it banned all providers that have an affiliation with an abortion provider despite the fact that the program has never covered abortion. This move, which conflicted with federal law, was explicitly aimed at removing Planned Parenthood from the program even though Planned Parenthood had been the program’s largest provider, serving more than 40 percent of program clients with birth control, cancer screenings, and other preventive health care.
Outcomes from this policy change have been extensively studied over the last five years. Overwhelming evidence shows that after Planned Parenthood was removed from the program, women in Texas lost access to critical health care services. Even after recent, significant investments in the program, it appears that fewer women were served in 2017 than back in 2011.
In Texas, the waiver requested won’t change any current policy or practice or repair the damage already done to the capacity of the family planning safety net to deliver services to women in need.
The stakes are high at the national level. If the federal government approves Texas’ request, it will be a dangerous and unprecedented departure from long-standing federal protections that ensure Medicaid clients can access family planning services from the provider of their choice. If the federal Medicaid agency approves the request, it will be easier for other states to follow Texas’ misguided path.
CPPP has commented to the federal Medicaid agency about Texas’ waiver application and pointed out several problems with the proposal:
The request to waive “freedom of choice” protections that let women see the family planning provider of their choice does not further the goals of the federal Medicaid program or test any program innovation;
Texas has asked to deviate from the standard methodology used to count income when determining financial eligibility for Medicaid without justification. This federal-law requirement is not waivable;
Texas has asked to deviate from standard Medicaid policies designed to remove administrative barriers during application and renewal. They are not waivable;
Texas has asked to prevent teens to accessing contraception without parental consent, a barrier that would reduce access to care; and
The waiver would not implement an experimental, pilot, or demonstration project and would not be budget neutral for the federal government, both requirements for waivers.
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Essential Art Products’ guarantee policy states that if you are not totally satisfied with the quality of the merchandise you purchase, you are owed a complete replacement or refund.
If a return or exchange is required for any reason, please contact Essential Art Products Customer Service within 14 days of receiving your order to receive detailed information on how to return the order and to receive a mailing address for returns/exchanges. This information will generally arrive within 24-48 hours. The return/exchange must be post-marked within 14 days of when the request is approved.
Essential Art Products will exchange or refund any product returned to us within 30 days, excluding gift certificates and special ordered items. Special order items cannot be returned.
Please email for an RMA number before returning any products. Products returned without an RMA will not be accepted.
All returns must be accompanied by an original packing slip, in new condition, and in their original boxes. Please also include a note indicating the reason for your return. Any item that has been altered in any way from it's original condition is automatically void of its Essential Art Products and manufacturer warranty. This includes but is not limited to attempted repairs, removal and/or installation of parts not included in the original item purchased.
Always ship your returns via an insured carrier such as UPS or FedEx. Essential Art Products does not accept liability for returns that arrived to us damaged.
Certain items may be subject to a 20% restocking fee. Please email us at customerservice@essentialartproducts.com for details and a return address.
Essential Art products does not guarantee any product beyond original manufacturer warranty. Any warranty claims beyond the Essential Art Products return period must be submitted directly to the manufacturer.
Our Customer Service department will evaluate returns due to damage, defective product, or wrong item shipped. You must pay return shipping, and once the merchandise has been received and evaluated, you will be refunded the cost of merchandise less any applicable fees and shipping charges.
When returning stock items of your choice, please include a copy of the complete return form. If you have not received a return form within 48 hours of your request, please contact customer service.
We strongly recommend that you use a shipper with a dependable tracking system for your return, such as FedEx or UPS. If the shipment is misplaced or broken on its way back to us, you must follow up with the shipper to resolve your claim.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
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At Essential Art Products we bring you high-quality art supplies , carefully selected from the best manufacturers. In fact, we give you the same high quality supplies and materials you’ll find in fancy art stores…but at much better prices.
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The annals of U.S. military history are filled with tales of sacrifice and selflessness, that capture American warfighters at their...
By Rip It Energy Fuel | Published Jan 4, 2019 3:40 PM
The annals of U.S. military history are filled with tales of sacrifice and selflessness, that capture American warfighters at their best in the field of battle. But these stories aren't just about heroism and honor — sometime, they're examples of the warfighter at his most irrevocably badass. They make Captain America look like a hobo.
To that end, we salute the U.S. service members of recent history who pulled off some incredible feats on the battlefield. They're a reminder that when it comes to U.S. service members, you need not be a super-soldier to pull of some jaw-dropping acts of superhuman valor amid the chaos of a firefight.
The Army platoon sergeant who single handedly defended an airport from insurgents
Sgt. 1st Class Paul SmithU.S. Army photo
Just two weeks after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, 33-year-old Army combat engineer Sgt. 1st Class Paul Smith found himself deployed with Bravo Company, 11th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division to a highway just outside Baghdad International Airport to secure the area.
But Smith and his platoon immediately encountered a problem: more than 100 Iraqi Republican Guard troops, whose RPG and mortar fire quickly incapacitated the platoon's armored personnel carrier and wounded several soldiers within. When all hell broke loose, that's when Smith sprang into action:
… All that stood between the enemy and the interior of the airport, where a U.S. command center and an aid station had been set up, were Smith and his men. And they were under threat of being overrun. According to his Medal of Honor citation, Smith “moved under withering enemy fire to a man a.50 caliber machine gun” mounted on the damaged personnel carrier. While another soldier tended to the wounded, Smith directed the driver to position the carrier so he could cover both the gate and the tower.
“Not all soldiers would jump on top of a vehicle that has already gotten hit while bloody people are being taken out of it,” one of Smith's soldiers, Spc. Daniel Medrano, told The Christian Science Monitor. “He did it because he knew if he didn't, we would get slaughtered.”
For his heroism, Smith became the first U.S. service member to receive the Medal of Honor as part of the post-9/11 Global War on Terror, if posthumously: He took down 50 enemy soldiers before he himself was shot and killed.
The Green Beret who charged the enemy with a weapon in each hand
Dual-wielding automatic rifles is not for the weak at heart, but when you're fighting to bring your commander home, anything's possible.
In September 2011, Army Special Forces Staff Sgt. Richard Harris was searching a contested area near Forward Operating Base Airborne in Wardak province, Afghanistan, for a high-value target when he and his team were ambushed with t least 25 heavily-armed Taliban insurgents. His Green Beret team leader, Master Sgt. Danial “Slim” Adams, was thrown from his ATV and shot in the thigh, wrist, and neck.
But the the common promise of warfighters is “leave no man behind,” and Harris wasn't going to give up his commander without a fight:
Under heavy fire, and unaware of Adam's condition, Harris charged. With an M4 in one hand an HK 320 grenade launcher in the other, he fought his way to Adams and began throwing hand grenades at the enemy. Harris dragged him to cover, a small rock which happened to move him closer to enemy fighters firing from a nearby ditch. Now with some cover, he attempted to render first aid, but it was too late.
While Harris was making his way to the fallen team leader, his team members maneuvered to a better firing position and made contact with nearby units. They also called in air support.
An F-16 strafed the area, coming within a few meters of Harris' position, but the 500-pound bomb it dropped wasn't enough to break the enemy attack. Harris contacted his team, and made his way to their position.
Despite Harris' incredible efforts, Adams had succumbed to his wounds, but five years later Harris was awarded the Silver Star for his actions that day. His justification for that superhuman feat? “Everything that I've ever learned and trained and had beat into my head was that you never leave a fallen comrade,” he said in 2016. “And that's exactly what Slim was.”
The Army Ranger who took a grenade to the face like it was nothing
On Jan. 5, 2010, Army Staff Sgt. Austin McCall and his fellow soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment were clearing a compound in eastern Afghanistan when they ran up against a Taliban suicide bomber with two live grenades. That's when things got out of control:
McCall shot and took him down, but not before he was able to launch one of the grenades at the Rangers.
It hit McCall in the neck, but the pin held firm and it didn't explode. Instead it landed by his feet. Instinctively, McCall turned to his team and yelled “grenade!” as the second one, which was lying on the bomber's chest, exploded.
Shrapnel flew in every direction, and one large piece of metal tore through McCall's left cheek and and took two of his teeth as it exited.
In the commotion, a number of other insurgents entered the fray, and a firefight ensued.
Not only did McCall and his men efficiently clear the compound of insurgents, but McCall himself waited a half-hour without medical care or painkillers before a medevac helo arrived. He earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with a valor device for his actions that day; more importantly, he returned to Afghanistan less than a month after the incident.
“By turning my head and yelling 'grenade' to my Rangers, the shrapnel was able to go right through my face,” McCall told the Houston Chronicle the following September. “It may have saved my life.”
The soldier who rained shells on the enemy from a hand-held mortar tube
U.S. Army photo
Pulling off accurate fire from a mortar tube without a tripod is nothing to sneeze at — unless you're Staff Sgt. Christopher Upp.
In July 2017, Upp and his fellow soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment came under fire rom insurgents a vehicle patrol base in Afghanistan, coming under fire while attempting to reach the bases' 120mm mortar system and damaging the mortar bipod.
This meant exactly dick to Upp:
With the bipod damaged, Upp had to use his hands, and later his shoulders when the weapon became too hot, to heft the 110-pound cannon.
According to his Silver Star citation, Upp accurately fired 75 rounds at enemy positions, literally aiming by hand, all while under constant fire. The battle lasted just over an hour and during that time, the enemy launched more than ten 107mm rockets, over a dozen rocket-propelled grenades, and rained down fire from at least two machine gun positions.
According to the citation, Upp ignored his own injuries from insurgent fire — one shrapnel wound in his left forearm would require 17 stitches — and, after lugging that mortar tube around, even helped carry his fallen commander to a medevac, covering his fellow soldiers' escape the entire way.
The Navy SEAL who was shot 27 times and kept on fighting
U.S. Army photo
Navy Chief Petty Officer Douglas “Mike” Day had the closest call of his life on afternoon in April 2007, when he took 11 rounds to his body armor and 16 rounds to his torso, limbs, groin and buttucks during a raid in Iraq. But Day, a consummate professional, didn't back down for an instant, according to his Silver Star citation:
Despite multiple gunshot wounds, he continued to engage the enemy, transitioning to his pistol after the loss of his primary weapon, eliminating three enemy personnel without injury to the women and children in close proximity to the enemy personnel. Additionally, his decisive leadership and mental clarity in the face of his injuries ensured the success of the mission which resulted in the destruction of four enemy personnel and the recovery of sensitive United States military equipment and valuable intelligence concerning enemy activity in the area.
It took two years for Day to recover from his injuries — but when he did, he completed in a 70.3-mile half Ironman race in 2015 in a bid to raise awareness for traumatic brain injury research.'
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Fully insured and based in Fraser, we've been serving Winter Park, Fraser, Tabernash, Granby and Grand Lake (with a few trips to Denver) that whole time. We do nothing else but clean windows, so all the years of experience has given us an unmatched attention to detail and an end product that will keep a smile on your face as you enjoy your views!
You can choose what windows you want washed, regardless of area , height or location. There is a minimum but don’t hesistate to ask.
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Grand County weather is hard on everything, and windows are no exception. We specialize in residential window cleaning, knowing that those tall windows are hard to reach and hard and even harder to make shine.
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On December 14, 2020 Singapore’s Ministry of Health communicated a summary of the steps it took to contain a raging Covid-19 breakout in its migrant worker living facilities. The report itself claimed that the city-state had over 320,000 migrant workers living in cramped dormitories and around 47% or a little over 152,000 contracted Covid-19. This number includes individuals either confirmed with a PCR test, which tests for traces of the virus and is commonly employed as a nasal swab or a serology test, which tests for Covid-19 antibodies. A serology test can detect those who have been exposed in the past and have since recovered or never developed symptoms at all.
In Singapore, migrant workers, mostly from other parts of Asia such as India and China, are subject to a number of restrictions on their freedoms and are often seen as second class citizens. Despite the city-state’s high standard of living, migrant workers often occupy low-wage jobs and are even legally barred from living with Singaporeans to a certain degree due to widespread xenophobic and racist attitudes. Bloomberg elaborates on the living conditions and treatment of migrant workers when it writes,
“Many migrant laborers live in dormitories built in partnership with the government, which may be in old factories or other converted industrial spaces, or in walkup apartments, shophouses, or construction sites. At construction sites, housing is either a temporary, standalone structure, or the workers may actually inhabit the building they are constructing. From the government’s point of view, this is fine if the site is “structurally safe,” says (Jolovan) Wham, whose organization has been advocating against this type of housing. It’s not just about structural safety, he says. “How can you rest properly? How can you cook? The workers have to use portable toilets, and they don’t have proper sanitation. The government justifies it by saying it’s more convenient.”
Having thousands of people living in such conditions with Covid-19 on the rise is a ticking time bomb. When Covid found its way into the dormitories it spread like fire on dry tinder.
The Ministry writes,
“In all, 54,505 out of the 58,320 who tested positive in Singapore for COVID-19 via a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test were migrant workers living in dormitories. This is out of a total of over 320,000 migrant workers who live in dormitories. At the peak of the outbreak in April, more than 1,000 new cases a day were being detected in the dormitories.”
The report includes a summary of the various public health policies employed to contain the virus which included placing dormitories on quarantine, frequent testing, and increased medical staffing. Some of these policies may have helped contain the virus while others were alarming human rights issues. In particular, the lockdown of the dormitories was especially gruesome as thousands of workers were forced to live in close quarters without basic amenities such as air conditioning in tropical heat. This is in contrast to what those outside the facilities enjoyed which was essentially normal life.
“It was a remarkably different experience to the lockdown the rest of the country was going through, with shopping allowed, daily exercise encouraged and every type of outlet offering delivery. These people were well and truly locked down, with only basic meals delivered to them.
“Once the lockdown was in place, we were not allowed to come out of the room. We were not allowed to go next door too,” Vaithyanathan Raja, from southern India, told the BBC.”
Around 93% of all infections in Singapore would come from these facilitiesas the rest of Singapore proceeded with relatively little restrictions.
The most interesting statistic to come out of this incident is that despite all the horrific circumstances these migrant workers endured, there were only two deaths and 25 admissions to the ICU. With a virus prevalence rate of over 152,000 that gives us an infection fatality rate of around .0013% and a hospitalization rate of around .016%.
Furthermore, there were almost double the amount of individuals testing positive with a serology test, which detects those who have been previously exposed rather than a PCR test which detects those who currently have the virus. According to the Ministry they maintained a ratio of 1:1.8 of PCR confirmed cases to Serology confirmed cases whereas other countries like France had a ratio as high as 1:15. They claim that this is due to their more frequent testing but it also suggests that there have been far more people in general across all countries who have been exposed to the virus than what has been reported. Provided below is a graphic from the Singapore Ministry of Health detailing the data.
What has happened in Singapore is certainly a human rights violation but it has also acted as an unintentional controlled experiment that has yielded interesting information about Covid-19. There are few if any places in the world that such a controlled and thorough natural experiment occurred. The virus was let to spread rapidly through a population of low socioeconomic status, in universal as well as unsanitary living conditions, and what can be assumed to be working age. The result was only two deaths and 25 ICU admissions out of an infected population of over 152,000. Such an occurrence runs entirely counter to the prevailing narrative surrounding Covid-19.
The short answer to what this means is that it confirms earlier data that people under 65 are largely safe from Covid. In this case it seems like the death rate was especially low, which seems to align with a recent study published by Dr. John Ioannidis with the WHO. According to the study,
“In people < 70 years, infection fatality rates ranged from 0.00% to 0.31% with crude and corrected medians of 0.05%.”
The fatality rate for Covid-19 above the age of 70 should be seen as a controversial number, as the average human life expectancy is around 70 years old and reclassification of deaths due to comorbidities may be a strong confounding variable. The infection fatality rate was largely overestimated at the onset of the pandemic (as high as 1.6%) and more accurate estimations of that rate are now widely accepted, placing it at a much lower rate.
For reference, the mortality rate for the seasonal flu put out by the WHO is under 0.1%. Obviously results can vary based on factors such as testing, access to healthcare, and so on.
However, in light of this new information, it is clear that the mortality rate is nowhere near the estimation that was given to Congress on March 11, 2020. There it was stated that Covid-19 would be around ten times more deadly than the flu. Although the numbers vary across the world and especially across age groups as Covid-19 predominantly affects older individuals, the number in this WHO-published essay that analyzes data from 61 different studies,
“Infection fatality rates ranged from 0.00% to 1.63%, corrected values from 0.00% to 1.54%. Across 51 locations, the median COVID-19 infection fatality rate was 0.27% (corrected 0.23%): the rate was 0.09% in locations with COVID-19 population mortality rates less than the global average (< 118 deaths/million), 0.20% in locations with 118–500 COVID-19 deaths/million people and 0.57% in locations with > 500 COVID-19 deaths/million people.”
Although there are certainly a number of possible confounding variables such as the reclassification of comorbidities, demographic makeup, and sophistication of testing, these numbers suggest that Covid-19 could be only twice as deadly, equal to, or even less deadly than the flu. This is of course not a perfect comparison as the flu affects mainly younger individuals and Covid-19 is a novel virus where immunity is less developed in many communities.
This is also congruent with another recent study that notes that infection fatality rates are lower in poorer countries, which is where most of the migrant workers immigrated from. This could in some capacity explain why the death rate was so low; however, the ages and potential health conditions of the two fatalities and the 25 ICU admissions was not mentioned in the report. Such information would be helpful in getting a more exact picture.
Although it was unfortunate that the migrant workers of Singapore had to endure such appalling conditions amid a global pandemic, the data from the incident is as precise as it gets and shouldn’t be ignored. Close to half of the over 320,000 workers locked away in crowded and unsanitary facilities were exposed to Covid-19 but endured only 2 fatalities. With an infection fatality rate near zero, perhaps the greatest danger wasn’t Covid-19 but the lockdown they had to endure.
Source: AIER
ke4ram says 2 years ago
They are victims of the PCR test. Interesting they don’t say what the fatalities were from. They let you ASSUME they were covid.
What a horrendous and inhumane thing to do. The Third Reich is smiling. They won the war.
So, Patrick M. (Prisoner No. ^ and No. 1) the Nazis always win.
So, Patrick M. (Prisoner No. ^ and No. 1) the Nazis always win.
Michael says 2 years ago
There are two things going for Singapore that America and the west do not have. It is a fascist based economy where the wellbeing of its citizen takes center stage. that is why that city state has such a high standard of living an efficient economy and a clean city, but the most important is that Singapore is one of the centers for the 5-G and AI based economy. It does not need to lockdown its economy, shutter old businesses and revamp it to the new economy. It is already there
Rowdy-Yates says 2 years ago
There are two things going for Singapore that America and the west do not have. It is a fascist based economy where the wellbeing of its citizen takes center stage. that is why that city state has such a high standard of living an efficient economy and a clean city, but the most important is that Singapore is one of the centers for the 5-G and AI based economy. It does not need to lockdown its economy, shutter old businesses and revamp it to the new economy. It is already there
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Between 1949 and 1974, the United States federal government invested billions in urban infrastructure through a series of planning, demolition, and construction programs known as “urban renewal.” While many large cities have rebounded or even prospered from this initiative, over 90% of cities that received funding were under 150,000 people, and have struggled to rebuild from the social and spatial traumas of these interventions. We have classified these struggling cities as “Fringe Cities,” which we define as small, independently situated cities, whose urban landscapes remain dramatically marked by this last great federal investment in American cities.
Fringe cities hold architectural and infrastructural assets built during American manufacturing prominence, but today, they are literally crumbling, forgotten under the weight of a global manufacturing economy. The Fringe Cities Design Lab seeks to transform these liabilities into assets relevant to the communities’ present day needs and aspirations. In doing so we can address increasing environmental stresses through adaptive re-use—rather than new construction—while rebuilding communities in the process.
Emerging out of what was originally the Hudson Valley Design Lab, our work in Poughkeepsie and the region is a core element of our Fringe Cities Design Lab, and is part of a larger hypothesis that architects have a duty to work not only in the metropoles where there is a market for design, but also within smaller communities where it has yet to emerge. Our work focuses on partnering with and supporting local groups to lay the groundwork for community-led efforts to revitalize the city. This grassroots approach has proven to be a viable alternative to the trickle down model of practice that drove mid-20th century urban renewal, and that still broadly defines the architecture profession today.
Our theory of change requires reinventing downtowns using architecture and design to:
Improve schools and educations
Empower anchor institutions and community assets
Reimagine infrastructure and public spaces “with” (instead of “for”) the community
Invest in equitable models of ownership and wealth for existing residents
Catalyze growth and density
Ongoing Projects and Partnerships include the Trolley Barn, Fall Kill Revitalization, Poughkeepsie Food Hall, and an exhibition at the Center for Architecture in New York City.
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Evolving with data
Credibility
Distortion from Bias
A closer look at Amazon
Where to Find Competitor Data
Customer data is the fuel for the most modern, successful, valuable, scalable and fastest growing businesses: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google (Alphabet) and Microsoft. As you build your new venture, start by recognizing the foundational importance of customer data. In this section, you will deep dive into data's role in reducing the risk of your investments in innovation, how to use data to accelerate your growth and where to find helpful data for your business.
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In this training, you will
Learn the extremely valuable lesson that data and credibility are extremely valuable, and correlated.
Learn the role of data in increasing your chances of success as an entrepreneur, executive, employee, student and human.
Learn how Big Tech uses data to accelerate their growth and reduce risk by diversifying, deepening and fortifying their knowledge of the customer.
Review the role data will play as you walk through HowDo’s innovation process.
Skills that will be explored
Credibility
All companies now have access to an abundantly available and expanding universe of data. As of June, 2018, it was estimated that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are being created every single day. By 2020, an estimated 1.7 megabytes of data will be created every second for every person on earth.
Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Alibaba, and Tencent exemplify evolving companies. They are, in essence, data-collecting platforms. They amass troves of information on their customers and use that knowledge to plan future business. The data they collect reveals trends, customer demographics, spending patterns. The data provides competitor information, and the context for future operations.
The data maximize the knowledge that these companies have so that their decisions are based on truth. Ultimately, the data that these companies possess de-risk their approaches to innovation so that their decisions are more likely to result in better customer service and products. Their strategies are no longer a secret, and the companies that emulate this use of data and a customer focus will find it much easier to thrive. In summary, my message is fourfold:
Entrepreneurs and companies must evolve to survive the Third Industrial Revolution.
Evolving means acquiring customers and having enough data to create capabilities to ensure that customers generate profit.
Evolving means leveraging diversity.
To recognize opportunities for evolution, entrepreneurs need a beginner’s mind to interpret data in a way that is free from bias.
Many businesses do not know how to leverage the data they create. They don’t understand their own business through data, and some are drowning in so-called “data lakes.” In every instance, businesses that do not have a well-instrumented company and the ability to interpret the data are unable to differentiate between the signal (i.e.: useful information) and the noise (information that is distracting). Consequently, they cannot evolve.
The first steps in the process of evolution are analyzing your customer, your competition, your context, and your capabilities. HowDo will lead you, step by step, through internal and external data analyses and the process of evolution.
Companies are better served by focusing on evolving rather than innovating. It’s not semantics, it’s compulsory in today’s business context.
“We all have a moral obligation to speak truth to power, but it’s hard”
—James O’Toole, research professor, Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California
Truth is a rare commodity in the business world; so many Silicon Valley companies, and others, just lie. It’s the norm, part of the accepted culture— “fake it ‘til you make it.” Companies lie about their customer transactions, their active users, their profits, they even lie about science.
My goal is not to define the whys and wherefores of corporate amorality, that’s a product of the human psyche. My goal is to draw your attention to something purer in the world of business evolution— truth. Let’s examine this novel path to sustainable growth.
Monetizing data is crucial to staying competitive. If you have any doubt on how intrinsic data areto growth, just look at the lengths companies such as Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Tencent go to to harness customer data, and how they are global leaders in using that data to serve the customer.
Respondents to the 2018 McKinsey global survey on data and analytics confirm the increasingly significant role that data have played in their industries. In McKinsey’s 2017 survey, companies claimed that data and analytics had brought changes to their sectors; nonetheless, many of these companies are still not developing long-term strategic strategies for sustainable progress.
According to the 2018 results, companies achieving the greatest overall growth in these high-performing organizations were three times more likely than others to say their data and analytics initiatives have contributed at least 20 percent to earnings over the past three years.
For these companies, data form a core part of employees’ work flows and mindsets. These companies are conscious of the need for a data-driven culture, and they invest the infrastructure required to use data at scale.
The differences between the 2018 and 2017 surveys are striking. Almost 50 percent of respondents in 2018 reported that data and analytics have significantly or fundamentally changed the nature of competition in their industries in the past three years, which is an increase of almost 40 percent from the previous year.
The competitive shifts are the emergence of new analytics-based businesses and data pooling among new entrants through shared utility. Forty percent of respondents reported the formation of data-related partnerships along the value chain, which was an increase of over 90 percent from just one year before.
Decision making based on data is characteristic of high-performing companies. According to the report, companies who use data for their decision making “are nearly twice as likely as others to report reaching their data and analytics objectives and nearly 1.5 times more likely to report revenue growth of at least 10 percent in the past three years.”
Cited factors include having a data leader in the C-suite, making data and self-service tools accessible to frontline employees, and creating an organizational culture that supports rapid iteration and tolerates failure.
Overall, the survey recommends the following steps to monetize data:
Allow rapid sharing of data at all levels and among the supply chain so that they do not stay in silos. For example set up data marketplaces, build infrastructure, and manage data at scale through cataloging.
Treat data as an internal product with real ROI. Deliver it to groups across the organization. The owner of each data domain should serve as the data product manager with their performance tied to measures such as revenue, satisfaction, and quality.
Data is most valuable when it is used with a customer focus. Amazon is the most prominent example of harnessing customer data and applying it in ways that allows Amazon to provide what the customer wants.
Companies that can harness data and apply it through the customer value chain are most likely to evolve and stay relevant.
Credibility
In the early stages of any project, To build and lead a successful and evolving business, you need support. You need a team of willing and able people. Tell the truth, and people trust you. Deceive, and people will eventually abandon you. The worst leaders gain power by relying on hierarchy, tenure, or fear. The best leaders gain trust and respect by learning the truth and sharing it.
Not all companies lie, of course. A common strategy is to ignore or deny the truth. To keep quiet.
When a company is in trouble, that is when they talk the least. You know your company is dying when it is not sharing numbers. You know your company is hiding the truth when you cannot get visibility into how things are going until just before the quarter ends. Hiding the truth is especially evident when your company’s accounting relies on non-standard calculations and measurements.
I once worked in a large company that had projects running for five years with no oversight and millions of dollars in funding every year. These so-called “zombie projects” wasted time and money without any results.
People were aware of these projects, but the projects had an impenetrable shield around them: the guise of innovation. Because these teams were “innovating,” there was no time limit and no finish line. The refrain was, “We’re still learning, we’re still iterating, we’re still pivoting.” Well, at least that much was true.
This company thought it was evolving in a creative way, but it was not. It was surviving. Legacy businesses drive growth in the same way for years, and growth is usually based on the original product line. It can be a great strategy—for that product, but not for the future. The future is filled with unknowns. And when dealing with unknowns, it’s impossible to predict how much time or money something will require.
So, what’s the answer? The answer is to find and be open to the truth about your organization. Seek out the information data that will tell you what you need to know. Finding the truth requires a diligent data collection and management system, much like Churchill’s statistical team. But that’s the easy part. The hard part is interpreting the data in a way that is unbiased so that the real story emerges.
We all have inherent biases that affect and cloud our judgement. If we are unaware of those biases, the decisions that we make will never be objective. Thus, we must first have an honest conversation with ourselves.
Many people are afraid of introspection. It can mean facing demons and exposing vulnerabilities. Given the choice, it’s much easier just to carry on, but no one can move forward unless they can define and manage what is holding them back. This is true for anyone who seeks growth—individuals and business executives.
The Johari window, created by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in 1955, is a good place to start. It is an heuristic exercise often used in corporate settings to enlighten people in terms of their innate biases to better understand themselves and their relationship with others.
In business, most of us go to great lengths to hide what we consider our deficiencies. I personally learned that, as hard as it is, exposing our deficiencies is necessary in order to progress. As a leader of innovation teams, I feared people knowing that I was bipolar, bisexual, and suffered from ADHD. But I also found that not revealing these facts created more confusion for myself and others.
The effect of truth is interesting. Often, it makes people very uncomfortable. I have pitched growth strategies to dozens of Fortune 500 companies. The only times my pitches failed was when powerful executives refused to accept what the data was telling them.
Executives are wise to be skeptical of new data; statistics can be manipulated to tell a story depending on the audience. But the truth revealed by data can also be a threat. It can challenge the prevailing doctrine, directly contradict the existing understanding of how the world works, or directly challenge the incentives.
I liken the introduction of truth to the body rejecting an organ. You bring in a new truth, and there’s so much orthodoxy, so much rigidity around the current truth that the new truth is disruptive. The new truth challenges people so much so that it starts to detract value in the near term because people get scared. People get threatened. Instead of trying to understand or learn, they try to rid the company of the idea.
As much as people and business executives may fear or resist the truth, to make informed and wise decisions, they have to check their emotions and be open to the story the data is telling them. They have to understand how their own fears and biases are affecting their decisions. It’s a process of self-evolution that leads to corporate evolution.
That’s great in theory, but there’s one big hurdle to CEO self-evolution and that’s CEO disease.
Traditional market research, SWOT analyses, endless conversations on culture, motivational speakers, and agile processes will not give a company better vision. Don’t get me wrong, all of these things have a place, but without an extraordinary amount of luck, none of them, in combination or individually, will bring reliable long-term growth and the foundational evolution of a career or company. Growth now requires attention to data, lots of it, and the ability to interpret that data in a way that is subjective and free from bias.
I was recently invited to speak at a conference for senior executives aspiring to the C-suite. I was shocked to see that many of the participants lacked a basic understanding of the web, digital strategy, and had even less of an acquaintance with machine learning, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and other cutting-edge data technologies.
That’s a problem. There is no room for traditional companies who are anchored in the past. Consider that while there are still warehouses using armies of manual pickers and forklift truck drivers to meet 30-day shipping deadlines, in Kunhan, in the outskirts of Shanghai, JD.com is running an entire distribution center with only four people.
Used well, data will change your perspective and ability to see the future. It is for that reason that data should be the foundations of all your decisions. To illustrate the difference a data approach can make to an entrepreneur’s vision, I like to borrow a metaphor of a dragonfly’s vision, which is applied by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner, authors of “Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction.”
“Like us, dragonflies have two eyes, but each is an enormous, bulging sphere, the surface of which is covered with tiny lenses. Depending on the species, there may be thirty thousand lenses on a single eye, each one occupying a physical space slightly different from those of adjacent lenses, giving it a unique perspective. Information from these thousands of unique perspectives glows into the dragonfly’s brain where it is synthesized into vision so superb that the dragonfly can see in every direction simultaneously, with the clarity and precision it needs to pick off flying insects at high speed.”
—Tetlock and Garner, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
(If you like this quote, worth reading our free summary of Superforecasting here: https://howdo.com/book-summaries/superforecasting/)
A data-driven approach can give you exponentially better vision in business, particularly the power to see the future, but it doesn’t happen organically. Interpreting that data, requires a beginner’s mind and relearning how to learn. The data synthesis process is time-consuming up front, and it can be laborious and detail-heavy. But once you have the basic structure, the process becomes easier. Over time, much of it can and should be automated, and the process will become habitual as you wonder how you ever did business any other way.
Why go to the trouble? What can be achieved?
For starters, if you are the decision maker, you gain confidence that you are making the right decision. If you are trying to influence decision makers, nooone can argue the facts. Therefore, you will discover the ability to convince your colleagues, management, board, and investors that what you are espousing is the truth. You have the facts to back you up.
That said, leaders tend not to be objective. They are often distracted by personalities, power struggles, investors, and ephemeral factors. Even with a credible story, your audience may not like what you are saying. In fact, the chances are, they won’t.
Possessing the facts is the first step. As a leader, you must evangelize the new understanding, bringing your colleagues and other leaders on the journey to a new reality based on data. If you succeed in convincing yourself or an organization to change its mindset and accept the new reality, the associated incentives and operations will align with the new direction.
Leaders of enduring businesses know they must be committed to the customer as measured by data, not personalities, politics, or investors. If your company does not intimately know your customer through data, and does not use that data to profitability grow, then your company will be overtaken by companies that do. If your company does not make long-term investments in your customer, then your company will be overtaken by the companies that do.
It is the leader’s responsibility to help shape the organization’s mission, direction, and structure. As the data changes, so too must the organization.
To use another metaphor, this one from the Chinese American actor, director, martial artist, and philosopher, Bruce Lee, entrepreneurs and companies must be formless and shapeless like water, allowing the data to determine the form their business growth will take:
“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”
Water is essential for survival. Humans can live for weeks without food but will die after only a few days without water. In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where technology is advancing at a rapid rate, data is to business what water is to life—vital.
This process is not easy and it is not without risk. However, there are plenty of precedents to demonstrate that this change is entirely achievable. As the data evolves, so too must your understanding of the world. It sounds simple enough, but it is remarkable how many people cling to what they know in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Life on earth is evolving and in a constant state of flux. Species struggle to eat, avoid danger, and reproduce. Some keep up with the pace of change, and some don’t. As Carl Sagan aptly put it: “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”
In the past, businesses have been in a similar state of chaos. Entrepreneurs have built businesses based on their personal experience and intuition. If they fail, they die. If they succeed, they survive. If they survive long enough, they may scale.
But there is a massive difference between nature and business: species have evolved generation after generation over billions of years. Nature is a random process with too many variables to count let alone build deterministic models that accurately predict how species will evolve.
For businesses, the amount and detail for data is infinitesimal. We can zoom out and look at the macro and sector level or drill down to granular detail. Evolutionary companies, like Amazon, use a constant stream of data to adapt to their environment. This consistent adaptation eventually leads to evolution. There are even multiple “generations” living inside the same company. Each activity is measured, good ideas survive and “reproduce,” and failure is learning. These companies are not only able to react, they are able to pre-adapt to the future.
Companies have long been treated as machines, with resources as inputs and profit, and shareholder wealth as outputs. Companies were created based on a single function that determined their survival, but that model today ensures they will not survive.
Richard N. Foster and Sarah Kaplan explored the rise and fall of companies in their book “Creative Destruction.” Of all the companies listed on the Forbes 100 list in 1917, 61 of them no longer existed 70 years later. Only 18 companies had managed to stay in the top 100, and none of these 18 were high performers. Looking at the S&P 500 over the last 50 years shows similar results: few companies survive the long haul, and those that do aren’t great performers.
A report by Innosight for 2018 predicts continued shortening tenure over the next decade for S&P 500 companies. According to the report, the average tenure for companies was 33 years in 1964. The length of tenure decreased to 24 years by 2016 and is expected to be just 12 years by 2027. That means that over 50 percent of S&P 500 companies will be replaced in the next 10 years. The sectors that are expected to be most affected are retail, healthcare, financial services, energy, real estate, and travel.
The market always does better than the company, just as the species outlasts the individual. All companies underperform eventually, and all old companies underperform. This idea, that underperforming companies are continuously failing and being replaced, was tagged “the gales of creative destruction” by Schumpeter in the early 20th century, and it is the same mechanism by which species evolve. Species that adapt with favorable traits survive while others disappear.
Discontinuity is not a new thing, but the pace of discontinuity has increased largely due to rapid changes in technology. Companies have to adjust to the new paradigm.
Foster and Kaplan liken a company’s growth to that of a person’s emotional growth over time. They start out passionate and ambitious, eventually maturing to a more rational mindset. In time, however, they get old and cranky. They don’t respond well to threats; they become fearful and overprotective. They are afraid to make way for new developments, they worry about customer conflict, and they absolutely don’t want to make acquisitions that could dilute their earnings.
But not all companies suffer from this problem. The Big Tech firms, for example, have treated their business like an organic portfolio, pre-adapting to the future in the direction the data points. This is how these firms are able to outperform the market for long stretches of time.
Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Alibaba, and Tencent—are, in essence, data-collecting platforms. They amass troves of information on their customers, both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C).
These companies are brilliant examples of how to leverage customer data to build a sustainable competitive advantage. Everything these companies do is designed to extend their data capture into every part of their user’s lives. Each one of these companies then collects and centralizes data from their diverse product portfolio. Ultimately, the data de-risk these companies’ approach to innovation.
Note: Apple is an exception to the data-sharing rule and does not centralize data between products. Their non-advertising-based business model facilitates this.
Take a look at Google and Gmail, for example. To the outside observer who doesn’t understand how data can be used at the intersection of email and a search engine, Gmail’s value is unclear. But to someone who understands data and platforms, that value is glaring. Gmail has access to all of your purchase receipts— everywhere you travel, everywhere you shop, every credit card receipt you have, and every bank statement you have. Now tie all of that to your search activity.
Consumers maintain their engagement with these company’s because their experiences are subsidized. Google and Facebook are both free to the consumer, and Amazon heavily subsidizes the cost of shipping and cost of goods sold to ensure consumer loyalty. Others build barriers that increase the switching costs. For example, Apple’s ecosystem is magnificently complicated and nearly impossible to migrate from Apple to Google’s Android. At the same time, Apple values privacy while Facebook and Amazon relatively less so.
Acquisition is another tool that these companies use to capture knowledge and data and, thus, evolve. When data informs these companies about a product or service based on consumer needs that has potential benefits, they acquire that product to quickly enter new markets.
A closer look at Amazon
Having worked at Amazon, I witnessed first hand the strategies used to harness data, and how external data was used to serve the customer, and how internal data was used to measure efficiencies and employee performance .
Bezos coined the term “customer obsession,” and every year Amazon raises the bar on the customer experience far exceeding other retailers on price, selection, availability, and delivery. Amazon used their technical foundation to build services that now power a majority of Silicon Valley internet startups, and their fulfilment capability outperforms the largest incumbents: the United States Postal Service, FedEx, UPS, and DHL.
Every month, Amazon expands its core capabilities, and with each new core capability comes access to new customer data. Many posit that when Amazon announced plans to build new Headquarters, dubbed HQ2, in a yet to be chosen US city, the stunt was nothing more than a ploy to extract massive amounts of exclusive data on the habits, preferences, and demographics of the largest cities in America.
Data plays a huge role internally at Amazon. When I helped lead fraud prevention teams there in 2005, every element of the entire business was measured every week: people, inventory, servers, customer complaints — everything. Leaders across the business received a 170-plus page deck with five to 10 graphs on each page. Each manager had a strict range of key performance indicators (KPIs) to meet. If the graphs showed a manager was out of range, they were spending too much or too little money, inventory was sitting too long on shelves, or servers required too much cooling and drove up electricity costs. Every single metric of the business was recorded. This by the way, is an example of absolute mastery of the known-knowns.
This rigorous discipline means that Amazon manages all aspects of its business at an incredibly granular level. Old processes are optimized or phased out while new products are monitored for early signs of success. This level of efficiency and transparency laid the foundation for a culture of creation and adaptation.
But the culture at Amazon isn’t what you think. It’s not brightly lit spaces with pool tables and unlimited artisanal coffee on tap. Instead, it’s an intense culture accompanied by freedom and independence. Employees within the organization have the freedom to test and experiment to build a better experience for the consumer. This creates a dynamic environment of mutation and recombination seen only in the best evolutionary companies. All of this is built on data.
Employees have to know how to use that data. It is at the center of everything that Amazon is and does. The more data Amazon collects from their users, the more it can reduce costs, empower employees, and use data to inform decisions. The stories created from the data are better able to predict the customer’s present and future needs and pinpoint where Amazon should invest in its own business.
Amazon is not infallible, however, and it did leave itself exposed on one front.
Amazon used to leave Browse Tree Guides (BTG) on their website. These guides were category-specific Excel files that contained Amazon’s unique browse nodes for each category that was listed on Amazon. Each category has slightly different requirements about how its products are displayed, and the Excel files explained how Amazon did this in tremendous detail and precision. The categories are too myriad to list, but they spanned auto accessories to industrial and scientific (Lab & Scientific) supplies and every product in between.
These files were posted in 2005, and they were a gold mine of information. Over a decade later, I was working at a very large company who considered Amazon a competitor. I immediately thought of the files and how this company must be combing them every week for valuable data on their competitor. It turned out they hadn’t even heard of the files, that was how little they were paying attention.
“No good model ever accounted for all the facts, since some data was bound to be misleading if not plain wrong.”
Data can be overwhelming, and there is a saturation point where repeat themes and recurrent trends become pervasive. At this point, it’s time to stop obsessing and start objectively making decisions.
Noone ever has perfect information. The point of the data exploration that HowDo outlines is not to know everything but to learn and discover. With any research project, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds: Thinking that you need every data point is an attitude that holds back a lot of high-achievers and entrepreneurs. In fact, seeking 100% of the information can be harmful. Listen to Jeff Bezos on this point:
The data that you collect will show patterns. Depending on the context—economic and demographic patterns, for example—an entrepreneur or leader can make better decisions on strategy when they know the trends.
Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft are forecasting that a large percentage of their current and future growth will come from overseas markets. Why? The data show that the core products of these companies are experiencing slowed growth in the United States, compounded by America’s shrinking middle class. Meanwhile, the international middle class is rapidly expanding. The biggest population centers in the world, such as in India and China, are industrializing and adopting new technology. Population and economic growth are working side-by-side in these markets to quickly build huge markets. These markets are forecast to control a massive amount of worldwide consumer spending within the next 15 years.
The Big Tech companies continue to focus on the few industries experiencing explosive growth while looking to alternative sectors in America that will complement the expansion of their core offerings overseas. As a result, many of the most lucrative growth opportunities in North America are being cornered by a small number of technology companies.
This is a virtuous cycle. As their product offerings grow, so does their data, which informs new product offerings. There is no genius behind their expansion, despite what the tech media says about these companies’ CEOs. They’re following a trail of data created by the customer. This is what a mastery of customer data looks like, and this is how you can use data to evolve and compete.
Lastly, timing is everything when it comes to market moves. When competitors launch a product or service, you have a choice: fast-follow or wait and see. Both have their merits depending on the situation.
The story you tell based on the data you have can answer vital questions that will help you with these decisions. When deciding whether to launch a product, for example, you need data to understand your own customer relationship and that of your competitors. Is your competitor successful in the area in which they are entering? Is the customer really responding to the introduction of that product, good, or service? Is that customer your customer; meaning, do you share customers? Do you have the internal capabilities to compete? These are all questions that can and should be answered by data, truthfully, before a product launch.
Where to Find Competitor Data
It’s not that difficult to find data on your competitors. There are plenty of external data sources few companies think to tap. Press releases are an obvious place to monitor a rival but, unfortunately, the strategic moves of your competitors are typically carried out in secret.
Job boards and LinkedIn are potential goldmines. The type of jobs your competitors are posting often provides clues as to their internal directions. When I interview for a job or enter a company to consult, I go to LinkedIn, look at the job descriptions of people in the department, and then look at the “People Also Viewed” section of the profile. I often find out more about the department from LinkedIn than I do from my initial conversations.
Finding data on startups can be tricky. Startups are small by nature. They are often ignored by traditional companies, but they grow quickly and without public reporting. The Dow Jones doesn’t reflect the value of these startups, at least, not until they go public, and at that point they are at lethal scale. The metrics for startups are radically different—growth curves, product market fit, crossing the chasm, and the traction gap, whereas big company metrics are optimization and P&Ls.
Venture capital data is useful data on startups. There are several services that you can use to monitor publicly visible capital flows towards new ventures, for example, CB Insights, Pitchbook, and Crunchbase. The wonderful thing about following VCs is that they tend to create the market, and the horrible thing about VCs is the markets can be transient. For example, daily deal websites, mobile gaming companies, dozens of mediocre chat apps. Follow their blogs and their money to find out what’s happening next.
The epic rise and fall of Theranos epic is a lesson in how data must be construed in the absence of bias and emotions. Holmes had credibility, but it was not based on truth or facts. She had been a business ambassador with the Obama Administration, she had the trust of some of the world’s most powerful people: Henry Kissinger, Larry Ellison, George Shultz—even Mad Dog Mattis, but it was all a ruse.
Holmes used false data, lied about technology, and investors were totally conned. Theranos raised a total of $724 million before the company’s lies caught up to the executives. During that entire period, none of the world’s most powerful and influential people thought to get a scientist to test whether or not the product works or to even do basic financial due diligence against the books. In 2014, Theranos reported $108 million in revenue when they only made $108 thousand. Walgreens, one of the nation’s largest retailers, chose to build a partnership with Theranos purely based on the persona of Elizabeth Holmes.
So, many Silicon Valley startups and companies lie. Call it the “fake it ‘til you make it” culture. It’s not just putting up a strong front, it’s considered expected behavior. I’ve been a part of so many companies that blatantly lie about their customer transactions and active users, they even lie about embezzlement and fraud.
I have been told to shut up because it would damage the credibility of the company. It would damage the credibility of the leadership that they didn’t identify this in the first place. This dent in credibility would follow them for the rest of their careers.
Credibility is fleeting and personal, it’s often just bestowed upon people based on charisma and personality. Take Billy McFarland, the cofounder of the fraudulent Fyre Festival of 2017, now jailed for six years. He had tons of credibility. No one looked at his financials, no one looked at the reality of the concert. Millions upon millions were poured into empty promises.
Data can give you real credibility and the ability to get capital. To do so you must convince investors you can use capital to drive growth. To do that you need a precise growth hypothesis. That’s the whole point of the HowDo process— storytelling and narrative. By the time you reach this step, you should have a story that is compelling enough to raise capital.
Storytelling starts with knowing your audience. When seeking capital, you need to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about. You must be credible and convincing. The more that you can show that you understand the problem, you understand the solution, the better. You’ve found an expert who has done it before or a similar problem that’s been solved somewhere else. You’ve identified a customer base of x size with the potential to grow because of y trends.
With this approach, you have forecasts, spends, and an estimated result ready for a captive audience. The knowledge matrix can play a role here too. A strategy that I have used when approaching investors is to explain what you don’t know, the unknown unknowns. It sounds counterintuitive, but it’s a great way to set the right expectations for growth projects.
Just show them the data. Show them the total addressable market (TAM), compound annual growth rate (CAGR), customer penetration and evolution, competitors, the VC capital going into the sector, and then bring it back to the knowledge matrix: what knowledge is your hypothesis based on? Where are you making assumptions? Investors know that this data is imperfect, but you know the data inside and out. There is less risk for investors when they are making a decision based on truth and credible data.
When I onboarded at Target as an entrepreneur in residence, I established a weekly cadence of sharing everything that I learned and everything that I did— well, until I was involved in a confidential project. But because I had shared everything that I did and learned every week, people were brought along on the journey. My email list grew from 20 people to over 1,000 people. All of this growth was from word-of-mouth; great employees loved being in the know, and just started sharing the knowledge.
I had never met most of these people, nor did I have any accountability to them. But by driving transparency, I was trusted. They understood what I was doing and they understood how I was thinking. I went from being the scary entrepreneur who just entered the building to someone who was respected for their authenticity.
Then I took it one step further; I built an entire strategy and distributed it to Target. That alienated me in some ways, but I also gained some fans. People thought it was helpful. People wished that someone had done this before.
If I had taken the institutional approach which is to integrate, follow the rules, slowly build trust and then start to express myself, I don’t think I would have ever been able to make the point that I was able to make by building a robust case with data and sharing it openly.
I was impossible to ignore because everyone had the data and everyone saw the story. That exercise changed the way people worked, it changed the way they thought about innovation, and it changed the way they thought about using data. Now, did I get the organization to split to a new data paradigm? No. But there are people who are around the company who all of a sudden reached out to me and agreed that we should be using data and we should be reporting more regularly. We collaborated on projects to provide greater visibility with greater frequency into things that really mattered to people who cared. It made the company work better and it made the teams work better.
I chose a disruptor approach. The organization benefited from the barrage of information but, at the same time, it scared a lot of people—they felt threatened by that cadence. But for the people who were willing to go on the journey, the people who were hungry and already learning, this changed the way they worked.
A culture of openness can relieve some stress because if people feel that they are informed, they will worry less. Also, if the bad news is communicated, there is a chance that someone might come up with a solution.
When a company is dying, that is often the time when communication dissipates. Organizations tend to clamp down in these times, they stop sharing numbers, there is no visibility until right before the quarter ends, and employees’ fears exacerbate.
These companies don’t realize the power of their employees when they are given data. As these companies grasp for straws, they box out some of the only people capable of turning the company around.
Big companies are in the process of a land grab. They are surveying the startup market and subsuming anything with potential. At some point, if they are regulated, the dynamics might change, but until then, small businesses must be aware of their competition and the risks they face. However, if they use data, entrepreneurs can scale if their niche position provides strong enough protection.
Warby Parker is a great example. The online retailer of prescription glasses and sunglasses was founded in 2010 by Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, David Gilboa, and Jeffrey Raider, four students from Wharton. Described as “the most innovative startup of America” by Yashica Vashishtha, writer for YourTechStory, the four entrepreneurs found the white space in the market for Warby Parker and introduced stylish customized eyewear to the online market.
Warby Parker’s competitors were Luxottica and LensCrafters. Luxottica sold stylish eyewear, but the prices were high end, and Lenscrafters lacked any sense of style in its branding. Warby Parker’s eyewear were appealing, affordable, and customers enjoyed the convenience of trying on up to five pairs in the comfort of their own homes.
The founders initially received a new business grant from the Venture Initiation Program of $2500, which was seed money for the launch of Warby Parker. According to Gilboa, one of the cofounders, “The idea was really based on two simple premises. One is that a pair of glasses should not cost more than an iPhone, and two, that eyeglasses could effectively be sold online.”
The niche product gained immediate traction helped by Vogue, who covered the story within the first year of its launch. The brand exuded trendiness, style, and a dash of exclusivity while also being universal. Warby Parker’s branding and customer-focus managed to build a defensive wall that protected them from competitors and other eyeglass manufacturers.
In 2011, the company received first round funding of $2.5 million, Series A round funding of $12.5 million, and a $37million of Series B round funding the next year. In 2013, American Express and Mickey Drexler invested $4 million in the brand.
After the launch of physical stores, the company was valued at $1.2 billion in 2015. In 2016, Warby Parker began its own manufacturing in an optical lab located in Rockland County, New York. The company invested $16 million in the 34,000-square-foot manufacturing unit.
Data helped Warby Parker by revealing who their customer was, their customers’ pain points, and their competitors’ strategies and mistakes. Warby Parker targeted millennials and advertised where millennials would notice the brand—through podcasts, for example, or by placing ads where peer groups would talk about their experience. This sent the company’s net promoter score through the roof, which is a data point they use to gauge future business..
You need facts about your customer, facts about competitors, facts about market trends. As data changes, and you’re paying attention, you can evolve the mission, direction, and structure of an organization in response.
Here’s a fast fact that underscores the value of data. Companies that pave the way have an 80% chance of failure. Fast-follow companies, those that follow them with the benefit of hindsight and data, have a 70% chance of success.
Walmart has an impressive arsenal: vast operations, reliable supply and manufacturing chains, strong logistics, physical retail locations, and ecommerce. Yet, the company lacks the ability to push back on Amazon’s impregnable battlefront. Amazon has the advantage with one strategic weapon: data.
Amazon Prime has over 100 million members active on apps and the internet. Those members provide mountains of data that WalMart has no hope of seeing anytime soon. Meanwhile, Amazon has an unimaginably massive data-rich ecosystem of customers. Amazon doesn’t even have the technology yet to use that much data, but it is inventing it as we speak.
Most of the Big Tech companies are investing in similar weaponry. Microsoft paid $26.5 billion for LinkedIn and its data and then bought GitHub to profile and influence the majority of global modern developers. Google bought YouTube, and Facebook bought Instagram and Whatsapp. Amazon bought Twitch, and so on and so on
WalMart has not caught up with the data paradigms of the Big Tech companies. Walmart’s fate is sealed, and its fight with Amazon will be drawing to a close within five years.
I hope these musings have shown you how and why data is crucial to building better and strong company that can evolve and create. You can access the HowTo guides on harnessing data and focusing on the customer here.
In closing, here’s a light-hearted look at a cast of characters who reflect the world of business and data today. It’s my version of Marvel’s Avengers and the X-Men, or rather, the Tech-X-Men..
Jeff Bezos stars as Thanos, and he has the greatest weapon of all—the Amazon platform and all its data. Mark Zuckerberg has Facebook. He, is trying to play Iron Man and save the planet, but really he is Obadiah Stane, a wanna-be Thanos who destroys freedom. The real Iron Man is Elon Musk, who is creating the future of weaponry with SpaceX, Neuralink, and OpenAI. Jack Dorsey is Hawkeye, with a questionable role considering that he has the least impressive weapon of anyone—Twitter.
Twitter is Dorsey’s bow, and Donald Trump’s tweets are Dorsey’s arrows. Dorsey and Hawkeye are vainly attempting to wage battle with flying interstellar monsters. Armed only with a bow and arrow, they stand little chance against their terrifying opennents shielded with impenetrable body armor and autonomous weapons systems with photon torpedoes.
Alphabet (formerly: Google) is the X-Men. Some of the formidable and amazing characters keep us coming back for more—Gmail, and Youtube, for example. But without them, the franchise is a disaster.
Google search was Professor Charles Xavier of the X-men until 2018 when they removed “Don’t be evil” from their motto. At that time, Google search officially became Dark Phoenix—a terrible movie in the X-franchise that would have never been made if the first several movies weren’t so good. Google tricked us into believing their brand. Hell, they might even believe it themselves. Now, Google has a strangle-hold on digital search for most of the planet outside of Russia and China.
And that all adds up to way too much data (power) in the hands of a few. It’s time to share the wealth in the data wars so that more can survive.
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A million years ago I watched the documentary about the Baltimore step team and one of the girls was heading to a top college. But she started to get concerned because the FAFSA form included a line of how much her family was expected to contribute and she felt guilty at asking her parents to give so much. Her parents got her all the way together and told her to not worry about their finances. She was their responsibility and they would make sure she got to school.
Not everyone has parents with this type of philosophy or have parents that can (or maybe even want to) provide the financial support that is expected for those getting FAFSA. And even if they do contribute, if you grew up in a household where money was tight, it can feel overwhelmingly guilty to know your parents are sacrificing even more for you.
What can you do about that guilt?
First, EFC is a joke. It is a way to try to make sure parents have skin in the game but imo furthers the need to show you’re “really” poor and not just trying to get one up on the financial aid office…hmmm this is the time where I say that if admissions were really concerned about stopping fraud and not simply trying to punish poor people they would recognize rich people scheming to get their kids admitted in schools they had no business getting into…but I’ll be the bigger person and not say it…
Anyway, regardless of this being another barrier for poor folks, the reality is that often parents are expected to contribute to your education. And because higher Ed is ridiculously over-priced, their contribution amount may as well be a million dollars because it feels so unattainable. In my case, after adjustments and walking through our options my mom did contribute a small fortune each year. Sadly, I was not aware of the strain it caused until my Junior year when the bubble began to burst in the upcoming recession. There were a whole host of things I could have done differently to better afford my schooling, but when you’re 18 you’re not super financially savvy enough to plan it all out. All the people I went to high school with were going to college, their parents were paying for at least some of it, and no one in my house thought differently.
But even if you’re super proactive about how you pay for school, what do you do with the guilt you feel if your parents are struggling to help you pay? Especially if you come from a culture or family where everyone chips in and/or you have contributed to the household financially in some way and no longer can?
One. Mitigate tuition damage. Leverage your financial aid package and scholarship options to get as much covered as possible. That means you really have to hustle to find appropriate scholarship options to make up the difference and lessen what your family really has to contribute. Also, plan for the following year–map out other scholarships or work study opportunities you couldn’t get this time and see if you can apply for them later
Two. Respect their decision. It is so common to feel like you have to protect your parents or don’t want to be a burden that you opt yourself out of a school rather than asking them to help. As the grown folks say, stay out of grown folks business. If the parental figure(s) in your life have said they are going to help you, accept the help with gratitude and keep it moving. Your parents likely want the best for you and don’t see this as a burden, but rather as the next phase in their parenting. All that talk about wanting a better life for you? This is part of it. Don’t decline their help just because it makes you feel bad.
Three. Talk it out. For many first-gen students this experience can feel isolating when other classmates may not feel guilty or pressure by having parental help. Find others in similar situations and talk through what you’re feeling and how to feel better. This is where your school’s multicultural office comes in handy as does their health clinic –feel comfortable using those resources as you advance in unknown territory. I think you’ll find that similarly situated folks have felt the same way and are learning coping mechanisms to keep going without feeling so much guilt.
I know not every family is supportive or has the means to provide even if they want to–all of this is emotionally difficult and more so if you throw guilt into the mix. It’s helpful though to realize your parents likely see this as a step to better opportunities to things they couldn’t have. They want you to succeed–we all do. And once it’s all over, you’ll have your degree(s) but even better you will know the system inside and out, so that when it comes time to helping your kids or the children in your life, the struggle for them won’t be so tough. The guilt may linger, but it won’t last.
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April 23, 2015
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After an extensive academic education in telecommunications engineering in Spain and in the UK, and in business at the IESE Business School, he held various executive positions that culminated as general manager for Spain and Portugal of a North American multinational technology company.
After reaching this point in his career in the corporate world, he decided to make a halt and engage in a personal journey of search for wisdom about life and human nature – two areas that had always been of interest to him.
As a consequence of this journey and the personal transformation that it meant for him, he took the decision to change paths in his professional life. In 2003 he founded the consultancy company TBDO with the mission to make a positive contribution to the success of companies and the wellbeing of people in their working lives.
Today, he combines his activities in the world of business with that of writer and speaker within his passion to make a contribution to enrich the lives of other people. He is the author of three books, one of them published in the United States, what makes of him one of the few authors in Spain published in that market.
Juan Manuel is an expert in innovation, future strategy, new business models, executive productivity and performance, and motivation and happiness/wellbeing at work. He delivers masterclasses and keynotes at companies, business schools, universities and events on the following topics:
Innovation strategy
New business models
Executive productivity and performance
Wellbeing and happiness at work
In the Media
Seen and interviewd in prestigious media in Spain and international.
Juan Manuel has spoken at conferences and led programs and seminars at well known companies,
organisations and universities in Spain and abroad. Amongst them:
“In our constant interest to offer our alumni continuous education on their professional development, we asked Juan Manuel Martín to teach a workshop on entrepreneurship in mid age. The workshop was a total success and the comments of participants were really positive. Many of them expressed the usefulness of the workshop was enormous for them. In CEU Alumni we are very grateful to Juan Manuel and we will continue to count on him for future events”.
"In our desire to contribute to the success of companies in the Guadalajara region, we invited Juan Manuel Martín to give a keynote at the annual conference of CEOE-CEPYME Guadalajara (Chamber of Commerce, Guadalajara chapter). The subject, in itself suggestive - six keys for happiness and success at work- came alive when, in a fun and dynamic way he showed us not only how employee happiness is a key strategic component of business success, but also gave us the keys to be happier in our work. Thanks a lot Juan Manuel for your enriching contributions to our conference and our life."
General Secretary - CEOE (Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations)
"Very original sessions filled with valuable content that have facilitated very good reflections and have given participants an unforgettable experience. The enormous communication capacity of Juan Manuel, as well as his own experience as corporate executive in various companies is an asset that he uses very well to connect with other professionals."
Human Resources Director - BT Spain
"We invited Juan Manuel to our 2016 Chief Financial Officers annual conference in The Hague, which had the theme "Finance on the Move." From the very beginning he captivated our audience with his story of change and transformation. His storytelling is inspiring as well as practical both for private life and work. During his presentation he gave us some comfort for decisions taken in the past and just enough discomfort to force us to rethink the future."
Corporate Director of finance, control and financial strategy. National Netherlanden (Holland)
"In the summer course organized by itSMF and the Polytechnic University of Madrid in 2014 about information technology and management practices, we decided to do something different and go deeper and learn about something that was missing in previous years, and that had to do with the human factor. We invited Juan Manuel to do the opening keynote. His presentation was so interesting and welcomed that I want to congratulate him and express our profound gratitude, already inviting him to the next editions of this course."
Director of itSMF and professor at University Polytechnic of Madrid (UPM)
Besides his professional work in the field of business consultancy, Juan Manuel writes books, collaborates with the media and leads initiatives that have the objective of making a positive contribution to the lives of other people.
Books
In a practical and motivational way, this book presents keys and habits that bring happiness and success at work… and also in life.
The book challenges the reader to make every day a great day providing him or her with the tools to achieve it.
For the moment this book is only available in the Spanish language.
This book is based on what Juan Manuel Martín discovered in the personal journey of search for wisdom that he undertook after leaving his work as a corporate executive. In it he shows how it is actually our being and feeling vibrantly alive the main factor for our happiness and joy in life. It is precisely this aspect what is behind the idiosyncratic joy of living of the Mediterranean cultures.
The books presents his findings but also provides a way for people from anywhere in the world to ignite their joy of living and bring some Mediterranean spirit into their lives.
35 Reflections on being happy in life
This book presents thirty-five reflections that make us think about those aspects of life that we sometimes forget in our fast paced lives but that have a great impact on our happiness and life satisfaction.
Pearls of Wisdom to have work
To contact Juan Manuel or invite him to participate in events, conferences and seminars:
The master asks the student: do you really want to be happy? and the student answers: Yes, master, that is what I want the most. There is only one way, continues the master, use the best tool you have, your mind.
This book is precisely that, it is the product of the author’s mind reflecting on happiness. In it you will find reflections that will make you think and which will give you new perspectives that will help you feel happy in your life. Happiness, though difficult to define, is easy to experience, it all depends on how we live and understand life. All human beings share this desire to be happy, and we all can fulfil it using our intelligence, our mind.
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A roof drain also called a downspout, is a drainage system that helps carry water from the roof to the ground. It is similar to a gutter in that it helps collect and channel water, but it typically consists of a pipe attached to the side of a building.
This pipe then carries the water to the ground, where it can be safely discharged. A roof drain can be a vital part of a building’s drainage system, helping to prevent water damage by ensuring that water is quickly and safely removed from the roof.
Without a roof drain, water can pool on the roof and eventually seep into the building, causing structural damage and creating an ideal environment for mold and mildew to grow.
It is also possible for leaks to occur in the roof, which is usually revealed when water stains begin to appear on the ceiling or walls of a building.
A building’s roof drain should be checked regularly to ensure that it is functioning properly and that there are no problems with the pipe or guttering system. It should be cleaned when necessary by removing leaves and other debris and always running freely.
Like gutters, a roof drain can become clogged with debris if it isn’t maintained properly. If this is the case, someone might need to climb onto the roof to clear any blockages. In addition, if the roof drains freeze, it can cause water to overflow and leak into the building.
How Do You Drain Water from A Roof?
The most common and cost-effective way to drain water from a roof is to use gutters. Gutters catch rainwater as it rolls off the roof’s edge and diverts it into a downspout that dispenses it a safe distance from the foundation of the building.
This helps to prevent water damage to the foundation and the building as a whole while also avoiding the expensive and time-consuming process of replacing a roof. In some cases, wind damage or other factors will also require roof drains, which can be installed in various ways.
It is important to note that the design of a roof drain is based on the amount of rainfall that is likely to occur in a given area. For example, most primary and secondary roof drainage systems were historically designed based on the 1-hour duration and 100-year rainfall rate.
This means that the amount of rain likely to fall in one hour once every 100 years is the amount used to design the roof drain.
However, it is important to keep in mind that rainfall in a given area can vary greatly from the historical average. Therefore, it is important to consider the potential for variation when designing a roof drain.
It is important to place roof drains properly in order to ensure that water flows properly and does not cause any damage to the roof. The roof drain should be recessed below the roof surface in order to ensure that water flows properly toward the drain.
This can be accomplished by setting the head of the roof drain below the insulation level and providing a sump at the drain.
Tapered insulation panels should be installed around the drain to ensure that water flows properly toward the drain. It is also important to consider the roof slope, as you do not want the water to flow toward another drain.
For example, if a roof drain is placed at the corner of a section with a 10-degree incline, you will want to put another roof drain in the opposite corner to avoid a buildup of water that can leak into the building.
Another important factor is where the downspout discharges from the wall or roof, which should be placed at least 2 feet from windows and doors.
When possible, downspouts should avoid discharging adjacent to windows and doors because water can attract insects and other wildlife that can damage your home or cause harm to people living in it.
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Probably the most-cited argument against the existence of a theistic God is the logical form of the problem of evil, which argues that the existence of an all-good and all-powerful God is logically incompatible with the existence of evil because an all-good God would want to prevent evil and an all-powerful God could prevent evil, and yet evil exists. From this, it follows that God is not all-powerful, not all-good, or more likely does not exist at all. There could be a world in which God exists, or there could be a world in which evil exists, but there can be no world in which both God and evil exist. Since it’s empirically evident that evil exists, God does not.
Most people are unaware of the fact that this form of the argument has been definitively answered: God and evil can coexist without logical contradiction so long as God has a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil. Theologians differ, however, on what God’s morally sufficient reason is (or might be):
Some argue that God allows evil because evil produces additional goods that would not be possible in a morally pure world, such as courage, compassion, and forgiveness. We shall call this the “new goods” view.
Others argue that God is morally justified in permitting evil because each act of evil will be compensated by a good, even if the good is not as great as the evil it is compensating, not always identifiable, or not even realized in our lifetime. We shall call this the “compensation” view.
Others argue that God is morally justified in permitting evil because each act of evil will be compensated by a greater good, even if the good is not always identifiable or even realized in our lifetime. We shall call this the “greater compensation” view. It differs from the former only in the amount of compensation we receive for each act of evil.
Others have argued that God is morally justified in permitting evil so long as the total amount of evil in the world is eclipsed by the total amount of good; i.e. the good outweighs the bad (even if not every person experiences more good than evil). We shall call this the “more good” view.
Are these explanations satisfactory understandings of why God permits evil? Not surprisingly, skeptics don’t think so. For example, in William Lane Craig’s debate with Daniel Came, Came challenged the “new goods” characterization of God’s moral justification by asking how the evil of a young child suffering and dying from leukemia can be justified by the loving expressions of sympathy toward the grieving parents or the intense closeness the family may experience due to their mutual loss and shared suffering. While those new goods are truly good, surely they do not outweigh the evil of the child’s death! No parent would choose those goods over the good of their child’s continued life. While some good may come out of evil, it rarely seems to outweigh the evil itself.
While “new goods” are truly good and valuable, they do not seem worth the price of all the evil and suffering in the world. If you gave people a choice between (1) a world containing evil plus these extra goods and (2) a world devoid of evil as well as these extra goods, I surmise that most people would choose the latter. The goods of love, peace, joy, friendship, equality, honesty, kindness, generosity, beauty, loyalty, pleasure, and wisdom are plenty!
Came also challenged the “compensation” and “greater compensation” characterizations of God’s moral justification. He thinks it probable that some evils are gratuitous (pointless); i.e. they could be eliminated without eliminating any good in the world and without causing a greater evil. Examples of gratuitous evil include animals dying an agonizing death in a forest fire, being bit by a mosquito, or stubbing one’s toe. If even some gratuitous evils exist in the world, the “compensation” characterization of God’s moral justification must be false because there would exist some evils for which no good was realized.
The compensation views also suffer from their reliance on epistemic ignorance. It’s not possible to empirically verify that every act of evil is compensated by some good. Even if it was possible, the view holds that some goods may not be realized in our lifetime. How could such a view ever be confirmed or falsified? Even if we could prove that someone experienced more evil than good in their lifetime, the theist could always argue that the missing goods will be realized in the future in the life of someone else.
The greater compensation view also suffers from the problem of moral intervention. We have a basic intuition that we have a moral responsibility to prevent evil insofar as we are able. If each instance of evil produces a greater amount of good, however, then to prevent any instance of evil is to prevent a greater instance of good. It would seem reasonable, then, that the moral person should not intervene to prevent evil insofar as he is able, lest he prevent greater amounts of good in the world. Since this flies in the face of our basic moral intuitions, the greater compensation is most assuredly false.
What about the “more good” view? It’s not clear what is meant by the good “outweighing” evil. Are we referring to the number of acts, such that if there were 99 evil acts and 100 good acts, then good would outweigh evil? Or are we referring to the quality of the acts? Clearly some acts of goodness carry more moral weight than others. Risking one’s life to save the life of another carries more moral weight than the act of telling the truth. Likewise, some acts of evil carry more moral weight than others. Genocide is more evil than lying. If the world contained 99 acts of evil and 100 acts of goodness, but all 99 of those evil acts were acts of murder while all 100 of those good acts were acts of truth-telling, surely no one would suggest that the good outweighs the evil because the moral weight of those acts of evil outweighs the moral weight of those acts of good, even though there were fewer acts of evil.
Perhaps we ought to measure the amount of good and evil via a combination of both number and quality. This doesn’t seem to help, however. Our epistemic finitude prevents us from being able to obtain an accurate count and our lack of objectivity prevents us from being able to accurately identify the moral weight of each act. I fear that the limitations inherent within this enterprise leads to the tail wagging the dog. Those who have experienced more/worse evil than good are more likely to conclude that evil outweighs good and side with the atheists on the question of God’s existence. Those who have experienced more good than evil and are more likely to conclude that good outweighs evil and side with the theists.
Given the liabilities of these characterizations of God’s morally sufficient reason for permitting evil, we ought to seek another.
It seems to me that any characterization of God’s morally sufficient reason for permitting evil that requires a corresponding good for every instance of evil, or that requires the sum total of goodness in the world to exceed the sum total of evil overextends itself empirically, Biblically, and logically, and unnecessarily gives the skeptic reason to reject the theist’s defeater to the logical problem of evil, as well as a rational basis for positing the evidential/probabilistic form of the problem of evil.
Empirically speaking, there are all sorts of instances of evil for which we cannot identify any corresponding good that was produced by it, or for which the good produced by the evil did not outweigh the evil itself. It’s true that our epistemic limitations may prevent us from identifying all the goods that have been or will be realized as a result of some instance of evil, but the fact remains that – from an empirical perspective – we have good reason to think that some evils are pointless or do not produce a corresponding/outweighing good.[1] While appealing to epistemic finitude may be enough to reduce the skeptic’s undercutting defeater to a mere rebutting defeater and save the compensation characterizations of God’s morally sufficient reason from refutation, it will not persuade most people. While it’s possible that there are goods produced by evil that we’ll never be able to identify due to our epistemic limitations, possibilities come cheap and do not give us reason to believe that it’s actually true.
Biblically Overextended
Biblically speaking, while God has promised to redeem evil, there is no promise that the total amount of good in the world will be greater than the total amount of evil, or that every instance of evil will produce some corresponding good. Romans 8:28 is often appealed to in support of these notions, but it fails to support the claims when examined more closely.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (ESV)
This verse promises that all things will work together for good, but says nothing about how much good will be produced (e.g. more than the amount of evil), when that good will be realized (in the present vs. the future), or even the relationship of good to evil (each evil act has a corresponding good vs. evil more generally will produce a general good). This verse is a promise that God will redeem evil for our benefit – nothing more. And it’s not even a principle that applies to all people, but only to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Those who are not followers of Christ have no promise that they’ll experience any redeeming good from the evil they experience (though they might).
Logically speaking, there is nothing inherent to the notion of a morally sufficient reason that requires such a robust characterization of God’s morally sufficient reason for permitting evil. It merely entails that God have a morally justifying reason. There are other ways of characterizing God’s morally sufficient reason that could morally justify God’s permission of evil without committing ourselves to the idea that the good must outweigh the evil in the world or that every instance of evil must have some corresponding good. We would do well, then, to reject these maximalist characterizations of God’s morally sufficient reason in favor of a more minimalistic characterization that is not only more plausible, but is also able to undercut the skeptics’ rebuttals.
I propose that minimally, God’s morally sufficient reason for permitting evil is that the possibility of evil is necessary for the possibility of loving relationships, and the ultimate good of a loving relationship with God in particular.[2] Free will is logically necessary for a genuine, loving relationship between God and humans because real love requires a real choice. Love is not the kind of thing that can be coerced or programmed. While we could program a robot to say and do things we associate with love, the robot would not experience or express genuine love. Love requires freedom, and freedom entails both the possibility of choosing to love and the possibility of choosing not to love; it entails both the possibility of choosing what is good or choosing what is evil. Free will is a moral good that allows for a loving relationship with each other and with God, but that good can also be used to defy God and hurt others.
God could prevent the possibility of evil in this world, but only by eliminating free will. That sounds great until we recognize that doing so would eliminate the possibility of love and goodness too, because the very thing that makes evil possible (free will) is the same thing that makes love and goodness possible. So God had a choice: prevent freedom to prevent evil, or create us with freedom so we could experience love. God knew that the good of love is morally superior to the horrors of evil, so He created free creatures that could choose both good and evil, and gave them the responsibility to choose rightly.[3] In other words, the possibility of experiencing a loving relationship with God and each other is worth the risk of people using their good freedom for evil purposes. To prevent the possibility of evil would prevent the possibility of love, and the good of love is worth the evils we experience. We don’t need to identify any particular good for every instance of evil, nor argue that the quantity or quality of good must exceed the evil to morally justify God’s permission of evil. The possibility of a loving relationship with God justifies any and every instance of evil. While God may have other reasons for permitting evil, the possibility of love is the supreme moral justification for permitting evil.
The evidential problem of evil
This characterization of God’s morally sufficient reason for permitting evil has the practical advantage of undercutting both the logical and evidential/probabilistic forms of the problem of evil. Whereas the logical form of the problem of evil argues that God’s existence is logically incompatible with the existence of evil, the evidential/probabilistic form only argues that God’s existence is improbable given the amount/kinds of evil that exists in the world. It’s said that if an all-loving and all-powerful God existed, we would expect less amounts and less grotesque forms of evil in the world. Since the amount and kinds of evil in the world are beyond what we would expect if an all-loving and all-powerful God exists, then such a God probably does not exist.
The argument assumes that the probability of God’s existence is tied to the amount/kinds of evil versus good in the world (ironically, that assumption is shared by theists who hold to the “more good” and “greater compensation” characterizations of God’s moral justification for permitting evil). If God’s morally sufficient reason for permitting evil is that the possibility of evil is a logical prerequisite for loving relationships, however, then the amount/kinds of evil in the world is irrelevant. Whereas maximalist conceptions of God’s morally sufficient reason – such as the “greater compensation” and “more good” views – empower the evidential argument from evil, the minimalist characterization I am proposing undercuts it. If God permits evil because it is the only way to make loving relationships possible (and this is the supreme good), then the amount/kinds of evil in the world is an irrelevant distraction. A loving relationship with God and each justifies any kind/amount of evil in the world. Even if the world contained twice as much evil and half as much good as it does, God would still be morally justified in permitting evil since the freedom to choose that evil is necessary to make loving relationships possible.[4]
While there are many possible reasons for which God allows evil, we ought to advance a minimalist characterization over maximalist characterizations. While there may be a corresponding good for every instance of evil, and while good may ultimately outweigh evil, such maximalist conceptions are not necessary to show that God is morally justified in permitting evil. A loving relationship with God is the ultimate good, and the possibility of such a relationship morally justifies God’s permission of evil in whatever form or amount. This understanding of God’s morally sufficient reason for permitting evil not only justifies God’s permission of evil, but also has the advantage of undercutting the evidential form of the argument against God from the problem of evil, and doesn’t require the theist to defend the impossibility of gratuitous evil. A freedom-permitting world that makes love possible may also be a world in which there is more evil than good, or a world in which evils exist for which there is no corresponding good.
If God is good, why is there evil?
Why is there so much evil in the world?
Tied at the Hip: The Logical and Evidential Versions of the Problem of Evil
A challenge to the free-will defense: Does heaven prove that God could have created free creatures who would not sin?
[1]Some will say that for all we know, the good may manifest itself in the lives of people unknown to us in either the present or distant future. That’s true, but so is the reverse. For all we know, there may not be any good produced by the instance of evil – not even in the distant future. The blade cuts both ways.
[2]I do not pretend to be the originator of such a characterization. Alvin Plantinga defined the free-will defense in the mid-1970s and many others have proposed variations of it. I am merely suggesting that we favor this characterization of God’s morally sufficient reason over the others – not only because I think it is true, but also for the strategic purpose that it is open to fewer criticisms than the other characterizations. It may be true that there are no gratuitous evils because God will bring about a greater good for every act of evil prior to (or at) the end of this age. Likewise, it may be true that God’s morally sufficient reason for permitting evil is that the sum total of good will outweigh the sum total of evil in the end. And perhaps good reasons can be given for defending these maximal characterizations. My contention is simply that they are not necessary to answer the logical problem of evil, they invite unnecessary criticism, and they provide cogency to the evidential form of the problem of evil, and thus should be avoided in our apologetic.
[3]While God permits evil now, He will not continue to do so forever. There is coming a day of judgment where those who do not choose rightly will be held morally accountable for their evil choices and given the appropriate punishment.
[4]God cannot be held morally responsible for the amount/kinds of evil in the world because He is not the one committing those acts of evil. The amount/kinds of evil in the world is determined by the choices we make. God makes morally significant choices possible, but it is our use of our own freedom that determines how much evil is in the world. The amount/kinds of evil in the world can’t make God’s existence any more or less probable because the amounts/kind of evil in the world only tell us about human psychology, not divine ontology. God’s existence would be just as probable if humans chose evil twice as often as they in-fact have, because the amount of evil we choose to commit tells us nothing about God.
Related
December 31, 2018 at 8:07 am
What Morally Justifies God’s Permission of Evil? The terms moral, justice, good and evil are human attributes and can only apply to a God that mankind has invented upon which to heap everything man thinks and behaves upon the creature of devise he invents. God therefore cannot be justified for the evil he renders because God’s prime objective is to defeat God’s nemesis, MAN! God is not for man; God is against man and has been ever since the WARNING contained in the Book of Genesis.
Does good and evil exist on Mars?; of course not. But why? Because man does not exist on Mars. Man use to exist on Mars until Global Warming and Climate Change reached critical mass on that planet. At that time manly attributes of greed, selfishness, despise of others and self love was rampant. Unfortunately when Mars became uninhabitable as the result of martian man’s greed, some escaped the martian fate in spaceships and migrated to Earth and began populating its sister planet. We see the results of Global Warming Climate Change now as space probes and photos of Mars surface reveal what Earth will look like in the future if we fail again to get God out of the Solar System.
However the problem is that when Martian Man arrived on earth to populate the planet he insisted on bringing God with him and God knows, right from the bible itself as written by the first martian men is a warning to mankind, God is against man and against whatever man does. And where man is, God is not far behind thwarting all man’s ambitious ventures that include living “at-one-ment”..uh uh. Behind every man is god rolling his eyes wondering what he is up to next.
God will not allow man to fulfill man’s destiny as noted in Chapter 11 from the Book of Genesis. Read it yourself, again for the first time with understanding. God is against everything man would accomplish and God will always throw evil roadblocks in front of man as man develops into the lovely creatures and beautiful Cosmic Gods we truly are designed to become, to be the Guardians to quard the Cosmic garden by deleting the evil that God continually throws in our path thwarting our rightful inheritance.
After the Martian Castastrophe brought on by the Martian God man WROTE the caution ABOUT THE NATURE OF GOD as a warning in the very first Book of the Bible.
Read again the truth about God and his Roadblocks to confound the progress of Man’s Destiny which is to Eliminate Evil from the Cosmos.
Llet me attach it for you so you don’t have to lift a finger to research it yourself.
GEN 11:1-9
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (They would build a “Stairway to Heaven”)
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
December 31, 2018 at 8:14 am
All that glitters is gold
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
But she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiving
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it makes me wonder
When I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen
Rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who standing looking
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it really makes me wonder
Then the piper will lead us to reason
For those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter
It’s just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by
And it makes me wonder
Your head is humming and it won’t go
The piper’s calling you to join him
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow
And did you know
And as we wind on down the road
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll
December 31, 2018 at 8:15 am
All of us for One
One of us for all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
December 31, 2018 at 8:19 am
The existence of evil is so often misunderstood. Evil does NOT equate with sin. It is simply a counterpoint and integral part of the creation. One person starving while another grows fat with an over-abundance are extremities of the physical reality. One must realize that God created both potentials but one must also realize that neither is relevant simply because death comes to all regardless of circumstances since the creation was intended to be temporary and mortal. It is the resurrection that matters….not how long or well one lives in the here and now. Consider the parable of the rich man (an inference to mankind in general since the man was not named) and Lazarus the beggar (deliberately named to equate with the faithful). Jesus is actually telling about the first and second resurrection. It is the beggar who obviously rises in the first resurrection to great reward in faithfulness. And, it is the rich man who rises in the second resurrection and looking up from the grave AFTER his resurrection (this is not a picture of consciousness in death), realizes he faces judgement with the “rest of the dead”. The “gulf” between Lazarus and the rich man is the gulf of time between the two resurrection events….the first event at the return of Jesus). This is not a parable about “heaven and hell”. And, it shows that suffering in this life isn’t all that relevant although it might seem so to those who suffer. Myself included.
December 31, 2018 at 12:04 pm
Kim, you’re lapsing into one-paragraph mode again. Don’t you realize that a lot of people won’t read a glob of words for the simple reason that they’re hard to follow? Besides, since you obviously know how to create paragraphs, why do you revert to clumping everything together?
With respect to the topic, if an infinitely good God can be proved, then it follows that there is a morally justified reason for evil’s existence. Whether or not finite beings are able to discern what that reason is does not diminish the force of the argument.
Although the whys of evil may be an interesting academic exercise, it has no bearing on God’s existence.
December 31, 2018 at 1:25 pm
“……if an infinitely good God can be proved, then it follows that there is a morally justified reason for evil’s existence. Whether or not finite beings are able to discern what that reason is does not diminish the force of the argument…..”
This has to rank as one of the best scholarly paragraphs ever written describing the meaningless, “If-this-then-that-follows” argument. Its syntax rolls off the tongue like blossoms in spring but which blossoms, short lived, withers and wilts when one’s inability to discern the reason of the argument that was devoid of reason in its formation, becomes astonishingly conspicuous by its absence. At the same time it reveals how a pseudo force cannot be diminished beyond the absence of its existence; a non existent value cannot logically be diminished(except possibly in math). It does however generate anticipatory excitement in the reading which is why this impotent argument is such a powerful example of nonsense.
“…….Although the whys of evil may be an interesting academic exercise, it has no bearing on God’s existence……”
God herself could not have dispensed with the “whys of evil” any better. Wonderfully efficient.
December 31, 2018 at 8:31 pm
God can allow free will without having childhood leukemia.
January 1, 2019 at 12:09 am
In the Spirit of the Season:
When you are a child, you have Santa Claus, Pere Noel, Saint Nicholas, among others. When you are an adult you graduate to God, Jehovah, Allah, among others.
Santa Claus is no more responsible for the Grinch than God is responsible for D’evil.
Santa and God are from the same Nation; The Nation of their existence is from the same place as the I-pad, the I-phone and the I-mac; in other words the I-nation, the I-mage in both cases is the I-mage I-nation or put ’em altogether and what do you have I-m-a-g-i-N-a-t-i-o-n. That’s where they both exist.
If you twist the letters in Santa you get Satan but Santa is not responsible for that. Either is God for D’evil.
January 1, 2019 at 11:50 am
Well written argument, I like how free will is tied to the notion of the possibility of a loving relationship with God.
Well done and I agree with the basic premise of this argument.
January 1, 2019 at 12:10 pm
God cannot be “proven” to exist…much less an “infinitely good God”.
January 1, 2019 at 3:17 pm
Yes, God’s existence can be proved and has been done several times over, but that’s not the topic of the main post. If an infinitely good God exists, then it follows that the existence of evil is morally justified.
January 1, 2019 at 5:21 pm
Evil can never be morally justified?
Why?
Because evil and moral can never occupy the same sentence supporting the same argument. They are contradictories.
NOT MUCH OF an argument “….If…..then…follows….(read folly)…..”; that is, the folly of manchild believers still in the Santa phase of anal retention.
“Speculative imagination has been proven several times over.” WTF-antasy!
Speculation is the hangup of believers that leads only to the hole of their own digging, the “Pit of Their Downfall” as a result of the hole they’ve been digging for the last 10,000 centuries and of them, Jesus said:
“…..Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’ In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’…they seeing do not see, hearing they do not hear lest they come to me and be healed from their lunacy……”
Nothing follows from speculation, absolutely nothing, follows from speculation except nonsense, nothing’s companion.
Here however, is an example of what follows…….. from TRUTH: And this is the new motto that will be written in the mindset and on the hearts in THE NEW ERA of the New Earth and the New Heaven when the old belief will vaporize, supplanted by knowledge:
“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
January 1, 2019 at 6:27 pm
Beware of nigglers who practice the letter of the law but neglect the spirit of the law.
Another way of countering the same demands was made by Jesus two thousand years to the ancestors of today’s niggler generation who insisted on keeping the ritual traditions of topic without deviation, without diversity, without discretionary discourse; maintain the status quo at all costs and throw it up in the face of those who dare delight in distinctiveness.
“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony.
“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You’re cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count.
January 2, 2019 at 6:11 am
Any diety that can be “proven” to exist is not the God of the Bible. That’s the main problem with religion….it rightly acknowledges that God exists then attempts defining its own diety. A false one.
January 2, 2019 at 6:27 am
God defines both good AND evil. Not man. An “infinitely good god” is a constructed diety of your own making.
January 2, 2019 at 7:50 am
So true. And that is precisely what Jesus told the pseudo righteous that made a mockery of truth.
The Diety of life is not the Diety believers serve or are expected to serve; the Diety believers serve, is the Diety that reflects the positions of the “P” proponent’s false Diety they created to serve themselves.
They are the tails wagging the ritual Dogs. Stay on topic; stay on topic.
January 2, 2019 at 8:09 am
Kim writes:
Any diety that can be “proven” to exist is not the God of the Bible.
That is just an empty statement. Nowhere does the Bible say that God cannot be proven to exist.
January 2, 2019 at 11:23 am
Why would the Bible say to “prove God exists” when it clearly infers this is not needed from the very first verse? What the Bible does say concerning the existence of God is to caution against denying God’s existence and false gods……… Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
January 2, 2019 at 11:30 am
You’re deflecting, Kim. You made the assertion that any deity that can be proven to exist is not the God of the Bible. That is not a scriptural assertion; it is an unsupported claim and is thus entirely unpersuasive. You do that quite often, as if your pronouncements are all that’s needed to prove your point.
January 2, 2019 at 11:32 am
Moreover, Kim, you’re also dodging the main point: If God is infinitely good, then the so-called “problem of evil” is academic because it follows that evil is morally justified. That’s actually the point I am making, not this silly sidebar on whether the Bible prohibits the attempt to prove God’s existence to the ignorant.
January 2, 2019 at 12:30 pm
I’m not dodging the point dear. Your if/then statement is based on a false presumption that God is “infinitely good”. Consequently, the use of the if/then statement is void and there is no need for me to response to it.
January 2, 2019 at 12:40 pm
Your meaning is so simple to understand. So I’ll spell it out for the babes in waiting.
By saying,
“Any Diety that can be “proven” to exist would not the God of the Bible”………
………. is, BECAUSE the God of the bible is man made and a false fabrication made in man’s image. at that. It says what it means and it means what it says. The bible’s God of the Desert is not a bonafide Diety.
I believe this went right over the head of some readers but is a perfect example of the FULFILLMENT of Isaiah’s saying: ‘Though seeing(reading), they do not see; though hearing(reading), they do not hear or understand.’
If they did understand what Kim meant they will surely not admit it because that would be an admission they have been wrong all their life, whoreshipping the false God of the bible; and that, while claiming to be a Christian and claiming to follow Christ who said exactly the same thing as Kim said, in so many ways, in so many words, that also went right over the indoctrinated bullheaded heads of his day and still goes over the caca del toro heads of this generation.
January 2, 2019 at 12:41 pm
My statement was based on logic found within the Bible. If God can be proven by his creation then that diety is merely an extension of the creation. The God of the Bible is EXTRAnatural…not supernatural. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
January 2, 2019 at 12:46 pm
Kim, you shouldn’t comment on a subject with which you’re unfamiliar. Disputing the premise has no bearing on the point. If the premise is true, the conclusion is true. If the assertion from a conditional is a certain conclusion must follow, then the cogent reply is either to agree or demonstrate why the conclusion does not follow the conditional. Disputing the premise is beside the point. If the premises are, “Some pigs have wings and all winged creatures sing,” and my interlocutor says that “therefore, some pigs sing,” necessarily follows, I would have to agree because, logically speaking, said conclusion must follow the premises. Disputing the premise itself misses the point.
The vast majority of Christians believe that God is infinitely good, and even many agnostics and atheists acknowledge that God, if He did exist, must be infinitely good. Thus, the so-called problem of evil is a non-starter in that light. God’s existence cannot be questioned by an appeal to evil.
Your objection that God is not infinitely good is simply an empty claim. You have not shown that from the Bible, and you haven’t shown that proofs for God’s existence are discordant with biblical teaching. And even if you were to biblically prove that God is both good and evil, you still haven’t touched my claim because I have only claimed that IF God is infinitely good, evil is morally justified. How many times does that have to be repeated?
January 2, 2019 at 12:51 pm
For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare (not “prove”) I unto you…………..Paul to Athenian scholars
January 2, 2019 at 12:56 pm
If you had stated “innately good”, I might have agreed. However, the use of “infinite” in any form precludes logic except to infer the opposite which would be “infinite evil”. Good and evil are related to the creation. Not to God.
January 2, 2019 at 1:31 pm
Again, Kim, you shouldn’t comment on subjects you’re ignorant of. “Infinite,” is commonly used in logical discussions and arguments. The oppose of infinite is finite. Since God is not finite, He must be infinite.
As to the other, you made the claim that the biblical God could not be proved. Again, that is an empty claim because you have not shown why God cannot be proved. You have not shown why the various proofs for His existence are discordant with biblical teaching. Even if God were not infinitely good, various proofs (e.g. Kalam) do not assert His infinite goodness (at least directly).
If you knew anything about “logic,” you wouldn’t make such empty claims.
January 2, 2019 at 5:05 pm
Prove that God “IS” before you start giving her attributes.
The Flawed Presumptive Cosmological argument has been debunked ever since it was first used to prove that God Zeus existed ha,ahaha.
Then, the flawed, debunked Cosmological argument was adopted for Islam by Kalam and Christian Apologists have been running with it as proof of the Abrahamic variant God.
January 3, 2019 at 6:20 am
My comments are hardly empty. Literal “infinity” cannot be proven simply because there is no end to define and as such infinity has no beginning. Limitless perpetuation from some beginning is NOT infinity….the best it can be is that it is a presumption. Simply because what begins can also end. Yet, you blithely claim to use the presumption of infinity logically. This is an oxymoron designed to confuse rather than elucidate. It is the worst form of attempting to define the undefinable God of the Bible and usually it is for some hidden agenda.
January 3, 2019 at 7:10 am
Religion was formulated on wishful thinking and no belief has ever been more wrong than religion’s campaign of guilt-tripping sin.
Only the dogma of self appointed messengers of a created God, could have dictated and promoted religion to the world as a factual belief system. Religious belief systems have never been based on fact, nor can they be; otherwise, they would be knowledge based systems.
The following statements are the most inaccurate and ungodly assertions made and repeated ad nauseum in scripture. Can’t you just hear the monotone drone in the high chambers of cobwebbed columns echoing now?
“……….In God’s eyes, all of us are failures in who we are.
On our own, we have no hope of ever satisfying God’s demands for justice without going to Hell forever.
God made for us a great and certain hope in His Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins as to satisfy the demands of justice……….”
(These Statements of High crimes and misdemeanors are baloney)
The narrative was invented by religious zealots who then proceeded to give all the attributes of man to their created God thereby inventing a God created in the image of man. This reality is complete opposite of what they teach—— that man was made in the image of God ……….and “image of God” failures at that!
All human beings are born with the Spirit of God(Life Forces) within them. Babies are not born in sin just because the founding, imaginative-driven religious zealots decided sin entered the world through sex. Human babies are born guilt-free and pure. “…..From the mouths of babes your praise is assured…..” AND “….Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven…..”
It was the church founding zealot leaders who, with their heartfelt resentment against life, first made something unclean of sexuality: it threw filth on the origin, on the Essential fact of our life. And wrote the story of Genesis to support the narrative.
So please grow up and get out of the fantasy adult Santa-God mode. Stop guilt tripping the world and the children about being failures because religion’s presumptive sexuality is original sin that forms the basis of religious psycho-imposed-agenda of fear, punishment and death, all human anxieties to be sure, but not because we are born failures.
Religion is the biggest failure that has ever cursed this world over the last ten thousand centuries. One has only to cast eyes upon and try to calculate the incalculable wealth of organized religious institutions around the world to understand the extent of the vault, their real agenda certifies.
January 3, 2019 at 8:08 am
Literal “infinity” cannot be proven simply because there is no end to define and as such infinity has no beginning.
This shows you’re not paying attention. You think I’m talking about mathematical infinity? God is either finite or He is not. God is not finite; therefore, He is infinite. Why are you involved in a discussion you don’t understand? And who do you think you are to make blanket statements without supporting argumentation?
I’m going to keep reminding you since your memory is so short:
You claim that the biblical God cannot be proved. That is an EMPTY statement because you have not shown that God cannot be proved.
Since God is not dependent or limited, He is infinite by definition. However, if you believe that God is dependent and limited, then you definitely have a different god than the One Christians worship.
January 3, 2019 at 12:32 pm
For the education and knowledge of the uninformed:
The Kalam Cosmological Argument,(KCA) by itself, is trivial. And proponents of this arguments almost always employ additional arguments to reach their conclusion.
Even if accepted as a sound argument, KCA doesn’t support theism and it certainly wouldn’t support the Abrahamic God anymore than it supported God Zeus.
KCA commits a subtle and devastating Equivocation Fallacy, It does this because the argument switches between two different definitions of the universe throughout its premises in order to achieve its conclusions.
In premise two, “The universe began to exist” the argument uses the scientific definition of the universe, that being, “all matter, space and time”.
BUT in premise three, “Therefore the universe has a cause” it uses the colloquial and/or theological definition of the universe; that being, “Everything that exists, everything that has existed, and everything that will exist.”
The scientific method says that all matter, space and time began to exist as it does now. It is not saying that absolutely everything came into being from absolutely nothing.
The colloquial/theological definition however says that absolutely everything came into being from absolutely nothing.
The KCA asserts Creatio Ex Nihilo (creation out of nothing) but the scientific definition says that everything we know about cause and effect, when a new thing is created it is due from the rearrangement of matter and energy that already existed: Creatio Ex Materia. (creation out of material)
The final flaw is not committed by the KCA itself but the proponents of this argument are essentially making; the Argument of Ignorance: The assertion that a proposition is true because it hasn’t been proven to be false (or vice versa)
What it all really comes down to is that since no explanation can provide a causal account of the origin of the universe, the cause must be a very specific god….a god that, wouldn’t you know, coincidentally is the god that the proponent believes in. That’s right…it all comes down to the extremely satisfying “we don’t know, therefore god!
Therefore for all created entities ever invented by man to explain what they cannot understand or even logically define evil can never be morally justified by Zeus or any other created God because to be moral is to have no cohabitation with evil. Evil and Morality are absolute contradictions in fact, in law and in the essence of the sanctity of life itself.
There can be no morally sufficient reason to justify evil; it is a repugnant proposition. Whoever would try to morally justify evil or make suggestions that evil could be morally justified for the God s/he believes in, is a moral moron by any standard of human decency.
January 3, 2019 at 12:57 pm
Infinity is a mathematical construct. It is not a logical one. Else, it could be logically proven to exist. However, it cannot. You stated “Since God is not dependent or limited, He is infinite BY DEFINITION”. Consequently, you have defined your own diety and that definition was by way of mathematical presumption alone. The God of the Bible is NOT definable by you or anyone else. I would caution you that you’ve fallen into the same old trap that most human-centric religionists have.
January 3, 2019 at 1:14 pm
Kim, you continue to make empty claims (statements made without supporting argumentation). If you deny that God is infinite, then by definition He is finite. That’s not the biblical God.
I haven’t defined my own deity; that’s where the logic takes any rational person. Either your God is finite or infinite; there is no other logical option.
The God of the Bible is NOT definable by you or anyone else.
Says whom? Where in the Bible does it say that God is not definable? You continue to make empty claims as if it shores up your bad argument. You either put up or shut up. If you had a biblical argument, you would have made it by now. You don’t, so you continue to deflect as if that compensates for your sloppy argumentation.
Moreover, the Bible calls God eternal (e.g. Heb. 9:14). Do you know what a synonym for eternal is? It’s the very word you deny applies to God. There is no limit to God’s existence, power or knowledge; hence, He is NOT finite.
It’s obvious you’ve dug yourself into a hole. The first rule of holes is you stop digging once you discover you’re in one.
January 3, 2019 at 1:36 pm
kim says:
“It is the resurrection that matters….not how long or well one lives in the here and now.”
“God cannot be “proven” to exist…much less an “infinitely good God”.”
I’m not familiar/haven’t read many of your posts so could you briefly clarify/harmonize these quotes of yours. if you believe in a resurrection aren’t you in the supernatural camp ? do you believe in God but believe He cannot be proven to exist ?
January 3, 2019 at 7:00 pm
If one could use the bible to prove the bible then why can not one use one’s Post on this site to prove what post describes.
God is finite or infinite there are no other options says s/he who limits the options. a third obvious option is that there is no God; a fourth option is a God that exists in the mind of s/he who defines the characters in the Book s/he writes.
The Author(s) of the Bible defines the characters the author describes and gives the character the attributes required to weave the web of words. The star of my novel is defined by its authors/he may be a literature professor with secret powers of Kent Clark.
It cost just a dime (10 cents) in 1938 and just sold for a record $3.2 million — a near perfect copy of the first comic book starring iconic hero Superman.
One day as the fires of Christianity numbers wane into mere glowing embers as more and more people come to their senses and/or as the generations die down and rise up a vain attempt will be made to fabricate another and a hitherto unknown New Gospel to regenerate dying Christianity. This tactic will not be the first time. We have the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene generating gossip galore and one day there will come………. timpani roll pleasseee……THE GOSPEL OF JESUS…….coming to a museum near you.
January 3, 2019 at 8:03 pm
LTG ……. as Christianity wanes so will the belief in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth you approve of and promote here.
January 3, 2019 at 9:27 pm
That’s a good and thoughtful question but I submit that is not correct because Jesus and Christianity have little in common. if Jesus came back and he saw what people had made of his teachings, he’d quickly realize that nobody had listened to a word he said, that he was wasting his breath and that he’d wasted his life.
Which even in his time he asked this question of the future: “…when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth”?
Christianity has hung Jesus up; given him a musty connotation, made him sort of drip religion.But Jesus is not a stain glass window, sort of, with a halo hanging around his neck but that’s all Jesus represents to Christianity.
January 4, 2019 at 7:37 am
By way of explanation………..I don’t use “supernatural” since that would be a human-centric extrapolation. I do use extra-natural. Defined as being outside the creation or “uncreated”. Having existed from eternity, such a reality exists on into eternity. This definition includes an acknowledgment of God, angels and an innumerable other Host in a Kingdom of greater reality than the creation (ie/no beginning and no end). Such acknowledgment is by choice I do not see any reason to “prove” it since the concept of “God” is fundamentally hardwired into the human genome (there has always been “god” in some form throughout history). Since such an extra-creational reality is beyond human comprehension, it is just as impossible to disprove it. And, impossible to define. Consequently, I choose acknowledgement just as science chooses to acknowledge the existence of extra-terrestrial life in the complete absence of evidence. I do not claim to be “Christian” simply because I refuse to define the undefinable as most religion does, even though I acknowledge its existence. However, I do see the Bible as being written by people who share my view and since the Bible mentions resurrection, I see no reason to dispute it.
January 4, 2019 at 7:58 am
When Moses asked God “whom shall I say sent me?”, God simply shrugged and said “I am who I am”. Just tell them “I am” sent you. This was not a definition of who God was or even an attempt at personification. It was a way of God saying I am an absolute singularity, without need for individualistic nomenclature. There’s only one of ME. Anyone attempting the effrontery of exceeding such a simple explanation falls into the trap of making their own god rather than describing an absolutely singular Entity who because of such singularity has no need for categorization.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
January 4, 2019 at 8:28 am
Kim, you’re attempting to fit a square peg into a round hole. None of the Scriptures you cite state that God is undefinable or that it is prohibited to prove God’s existence—which is what you’re contending. If that’s the best you can come up with, your assertion flops.
You write:
Anyone attempting the effrontery of exceeding such a simple explanation falls into the trap of making their own god rather than describing an absolutely singular Entity who because of such singularity has no need for categorization.
But God didn’t say that, you did. Moreover, who is “categorizing” God? We don’t argue that God is in a class or division of things sharing characteristics. You don’t have a sweet clue what we argue concerning the existence of God. Are you just pulling stuff out of your backside? The heavens declare God’s glory and handiwork (Ps. 19) and God’s nature is understood by the things that are made (Ro. 1:20). Creation shows that God is, that there is one God (and that there can only be one God), that God is almighty and unique among all beings.
Countering that God’s ways are higher than ours sloppily commits a fallacy of relevance. No Christian argues otherwise. Since man can understand God’s power and nature by the things that God has made, God’s thoughts and ways being higher than ours are not relevant to the question. AGAIN, you made the contention that the biblical God cannot be proved. You have thus failed to demonstrate why that is so which is why your claim is empty.
January 4, 2019 at 9:44 am
Once again, you have put forth the idea that God can be personified through extrapolation from the creation. It is a human-centric idea. Not a biblical one. The creation points to God but does not personify Him. God is NOT “supernatural”. He is EXTRA-natural. As Creator, God must be unimaginably above what we as part of the creation can perceive and understand. To acknowledge anything other than that is to make a false claim and to construct a false diety from one’s own limited perception
Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.
No man hath seen God AT ANY TIME, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
January 4, 2019 at 10:33 am
Kim writes:
Once again, you have put forth the idea that God can be personified through extrapolation from the creation.
You need to look up the word personify. I attribute no human characteristic to God. Once again, Kim, you’re deflecting.
As Creator, God must be unimaginably above what we as part of the creation can perceive and understand.
And, once again, God didn’t say that, you did. Not only are those words not in the Bible, they make no rational sense. To state that something “must be unimaginably above…” this or that is to assert knowledge of that something. If you possess no knowledge whatsoever of the “something,” then you have no rational basis to make any claim about it. You cannot say that milk doesn’t taste like Pepsi unless you know the taste of both. If you possess no knowledge of Pepsi, you have no basis to make any claim about it. Of course, you already did that when you asserted that God is “extra-natural.” You have thus defined God as….extra-natural—the very thing you said could not be done and since you define Him as such, you must know what “extra-natural” means—else, you’ve added to your incoherence.
Moreover, nobody rational person here claims to have ever “seen” God “at any time,” so that hangs your Scripture citation irrelevantly in midair.
It’s obvious your in face-saving mode, Kim. You’re fooling nobody here. You made a baseless assertion and have failed to prove it. You’re firing blanks with your sloppy arguments. Repeating yourself won’t plug the hole in your bucket.
January 4, 2019 at 10:37 am
I want to commend you for explaining your understanding without using language to denigrate those who disagree with you.
Your assertions don’t flop and I submit you are not pulling stuff out of any place different than where your adversaries are pulling stuff out of. Speaking spiritually using physical slurs seems immature, academic perhaps but immature nonetheless.
Your ideas are fantastic. Most fantastic ideas however are made personal by humans which is a big problem with theism that suggest humans and the higher powers in a personal relationship; that may be so from a human perspective but dies there too. I don’t know if you believe or expect a personal relationship with your fantastic entities as Christians demonstrate they do by their prayers and finger beading, henpecking, flagellation, suffering, fasting and the like
“The Higher Powers from where I sit, I liken to Gravity: gravity doesn’t care more for the man that falls off the mountain than the rock that falls from the mountain; the effect is not personal to the man or the rock, gravity just is.
Therefore, never pray to gravity, the universe, supernatural or extra-natural entities; they do not respond to human requests for intervention. Gravity like caricature concepts of god, angels and like, loves no more or less the man who defies it not and loves no less or more the man who does defy it”..ltg
January 4, 2019 at 10:44 am
Kim writes:
The creation points to God but does not personify Him.
And again, God didn’t say that, you did. The Scripture clearly states that God’s eternal power and nature are “clearly seen” by the things that are made. Creation doesn’t merely “point” to Him (in the sense that you mean it); it discloses God’s nature and power.
And, if creation merely “points to” God, in what sense does it point to Him? Does it not show that God created it? Thus, we understand that creation has a Creator. If creation has a Creator, then by definition the Creator is uncreated. If the Creator is uncreated, then the Creator is not contingent and the creation, by definition is contingent. You see? we’re already learning a lot about the Creator. For some bizarre reason, you feel compelled to force your paradigm onto reality rather than let reality define your paradigm. There’s a word for that, but I’ll refrain from typing it.
January 4, 2019 at 3:13 pm
LTG ….. only a tiny minority would follow a supernatural free Jesus. without a resurrection there’s no incentive to accept the self sacrifice to benefit others.
January 4, 2019 at 4:36 pm
If you can separate the two; what is more worthy, the life one puts on the line or the death that results from doing so?
If two people put their lives on the line and one dies and one lives is not the moral equivalency in their offering not the offering itself
To me the worth of Jesus was the fact that he was willing to put his life on the line by calling out the religious scoundrels who were misleading the masses AND making a mockery of the God they claimed to speak on behalf of.
The fact that Jesus rose from the place of the dead, alive, does not take away from the fact he put his life on the line.
Jesus gave similar answer when he indicted the Pharisees in Matthew 23; the entire chapter is the Indictment in general but in particular to your question he said to the Pharisees:
And while we are on this subject of resurrection, what was the sign that Jesus said was the only sign he would give them?
Now regarding the resurrection that you believe is the cornerstone of Christianity; well, maybe it is, but the cornerstone never happened further than what than the explanation below.
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Can you understand the parallels in the two? I submit that was the crucial sign Jesus gave about his being raised from “the place of the dead” not from the dead, just as Jonah survived his ordeal in the battle in the raging sea before being washed up on shore not by a whale but by a wave aND SURVIVED being risen FROM THE PLACE OF THE DEAD, SHEOL. Jonah did not die neither did Jesus and he appeared alive! That freaked the disciples out to be sure. After the ordeal he did not stay around that area any longer than he had to, to arrange an entourage and essentials for the long overland journey away from that perverse country. He left his mark and he left the story behind, forever.
January 4, 2019 at 5:07 pm
Kim, and IYO there’s a big difference between “supernatural” and “extra-natural ?” IMO based on your definition there’s no difference. A dead person being pulled out of a lake and being brought back to life is not “extra-natural” that’s with in the realm of the natural.
Assuming God exists for discussion — to understand God is impossible but gives attributes to God (which is similar to defining Him) is not impossible.
Now to “prove” God exists the obvious question is to what degree. Let me just use a quick example — I’m commanded to not seethe a kid in it’s mother’s milk. Can I seethe a kid in milk that doesn’t belong to it’s mother ? I say I just proved I can. A jew/messianic would say no I haven’t. the jew would probably be very kind but condescending and the messianic would most likely go bat shit crazy. So they would never change their minds, I would if either made a good argument why I shouldn’t seethe a kid in any milk product but unless some new information was brought to my attention according to the letter and spirit of that rule —- I can seethe a kid in milk as long as it doesn’t belong to it’s mother. The point of that was to show some people will not accept any proof that goes against what they believe —- and that goes for all kinds of people whether they are theists or atheists or agnostic/new atheists.
what most atheist/new atheists do is pick the worst argument for God from theists and deny all of the problems with an atheistic world view and state as fact God doesn’t exist but couch it with we see no evidence of the existence of God. Usually because they have a bee in their bonnet about something in the bible like homo sex is an abomination/kill all of the inhabitants of the land I’ve given you/etc….. denying the fact of how homos are described in the bible/what the inhabitants of the land were doing. two gay guys doing it in a relationship is a lot different from a rape gang roaming the streets. to one I say not my cup of tea/even if inclined I’d refrain based my interpretation of the NT and to the other I say that’s an abomination. And what the inhabitants of the land were doing (eg. sacrificing their children by fire to their god) is also an abomination.
you say you don’t dispute the resurrection so would you agree with me —- God allows evil because He can repair everything after the resurrection ? because the argument you made I understand as evil is just part of creation which would be identical to an atheistic world view. As some one that went through a kind of agnostic phase the presence of evil is a really big deal —- it would be a contradiction if not for the resurrection. And your statement (ie evil is just part of creation) appears to me to be a contradiction with your belief in the “extra-natural” and supporting the atheistic position.
January 4, 2019 at 5:23 pm
Jesus was supernatural-free; nevertheless, they followed him. But not all the time and not just because they accepted what he idid as miracles. The supernatural among the masses more often than not was in the heads of the masses because the Pharisees stuffed down their throats that if they couldn’t understand it, it was supernatural because the Pharisees indoctrinated the masses to accept that miracles were from God; AKA, Magic tricks were what the Pharisees and all religious leaders used to trick the masses.
But listen to this piece that Jesus said, about following Jesus because of miracles, the supernatural:
24 When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.
25 And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?
26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
30 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
January 4, 2019 at 8:17 pm
LTG ….. but your Jesus faked his death. nobody would’ve have heard of a Jesus with out the supernatural aspects. and as numerous atheists/new atheists have informed me most of my Jesus’ teachings were previously taught by others. the biggie of my Jesus’ teaching, that I’m not aware of being taught, is love your enemies and do good to those who hate you. that teaching only makes sense from my Jesus because there is a reward in the resurrection. you die following that teaching and you are sol. and if we die and there’s no after life I could care less how humanity does because they are just going to die and rot in the grave too if you’re right.
January 4, 2019 at 8:33 pm
LTG ….. but your Jesus didn’t do any miracles. miracles are of the supernatural/”extra-natural” realm that you don’t believe in. so either they are lies or as you’ve explained previously your Jesus saw a faker and pulled him up so the faker said hey you healed me and stood up straight and others said He performed a miracle but all your Jesus did was expose a faker according to you. some of these teaching by my Jesus are to show follow Him for the Kingdom sake don’t follow Him for a free lunch. because when He left only the true believers would continue His work. those hangers on would split because they are not getting anything here and now from Him. my Jesus promised His followers they would be rewarded not just in this world but the next.
January 4, 2019 at 9:50 pm
True Jesus did not do any miracles. You are only citing one example of what may have happened to explain the faker’s miracle..Jesus did not expose the faker…but that was an explanation; there could have been others but that’s the obvious one that makes the most sense to moi.
There are other events that were apparent miracles but if you are believer, bent on the skewed view of Christianity in general and Saul in particular (who coincidentally was a Pharisee and raised up believing in the resurrection ), despite the fact never having met Jesus and almost single handed kept the story going; and, if you are supernaturally prone then you would not not lift a brain cell to think how and why an event occurred. Feeding thousands, water into wine and the death on the cross; that’s your biggie and the eventual appearance to the disciples when :
Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, alive, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a ghost.
And he said unto them, Why are ye fearful?
it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
And he took it, and did eat before them.
I believe that Jesus put his life on the line by exposing the religious frauds who use magic to dupe the masses and who care nothing for the disabled , the poor, downtrodden etc.. If you want to know how the religious leaders acted read the entire Jesus indictment. The full chapter of Matt 23 has it.
And so in John 7:1 “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. John 7:7 The (religious) world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.”
I don’t claim that Jesus faked his death; but I believe that his best friends, knowing what was going to happen, took steps to intervene to prevent his death. I also believe that Jesus was told of their plan to protect him so he could survive the crucifixion and restart his life if they were successful. If they were unsuccessful and he died, there would never have been a “resurrection” ,
However the intervention was successful and because one of the friends who had been planning and prepping over two years for that inevitable day the well engineered plan, that remains a secret until my time of understanding, worked according to plan. Jesus was removed from the cross, as dead (but alive), immediately prepared in the tomb and the tomb sealed to avoid any viewing.
The whole event is clear as a bell in my vision and the movie would be a monumental (Christian boycotted) box office hit surpassing the Ten Commandments. I am currently looking for an Executive Producer…….hold that thought……
January 4, 2019 at 9:55 pm
And it must follow, as the night the day
January 5, 2019 at 7:59 am
Evil is simply an aspect of the creation. If a person drowns, that’s evil. However, it isn’t a sin unless somebody held that person’s head under the water and committed murder. In that case, the murderer would be an evil person. Evil is summed up in two words……sh*t happens. But, don’t blame God. Most religions do! Which makes God out to be some kind of trick-or-treat entity that acts on whim. This idea comes from paganism. Not the Bible.
January 5, 2019 at 11:33 am
Studying the Nature of Evil reveals a startling conundrumGods don’t kill people; people with Gods kill people; Or:
Gods don’t heal people; people with pagan placebos heal people..
Could it be said:
The only difference between paganism and the bible is that
The Bible is paganism is written down; chiseled in stone.
Good is summed up in two words…..Food and Mom.
God is a metaphor for everything man experiences, knows, believes and conceives and alligators are a bunch of croc…..
However, people that were first infected with cowpox were immune to smallpox! Dr Jenner invented the word ‘vaccination’ and his discovery led to the science of immunology. His work saved a massive amount of lives and led, in 1980, to the World Healthy Organisation (WHO) to declare that ‘the world and its peoples’ were free from common smallpox. It is the only infectious disease in history to have been completely removed from nature by mankind in the same sense that dinosaurs were removed from nature by mankind.
January 5, 2019 at 2:46 pm
Dinosaurs were long gone by the time mankind came on the scene in the Genesis creation event. Which was NOT the creation of the Universe. The Bible describes the saurian ages as the beast “that was” (prehistoric), and “is not” (extinct) and “yet is” (fossil fuels). The goo from the bottomless pit (seemingly inexhaustible quantity from the ground). The goo that “goes to perdition” (is used for combustion). The goo that creates “smoke to darken the sun” (smog). The goo which has an “image of the beast” (mimicry of life…..cars, planes, ships, etc). The goo which has a unique identifier of “666” (6 molecular compounds, hexagonally shaped (organic) comprised of the 6th element (carbon…the basis of all life on earth). The goo by which an entire world civilization’s commerce is traced by a “mark” (path….roads, skyways, shipping lanes). The goo by which men “wonder” (invent wonderous things).
Ever consider that saurian gigantism was for the express purpose of containing enough organic matter to bury an entire prehistoric ecosystem in anticipation of just the world we now live in? Dinosaurs were repositories of the energy we now use and this was specifically planned to bring a population explosion to mankind. Why? Its plain to see that mankind was created to eventually replace those who rebelled against the very God atheists claim to reject but have no basis in doing so.
There’s more to the Bible than can be imagined. The above is statistically indisputable as a witness of its authority and is just a small example of what should be a terrifying read. The Bible isn’t a book of religion. It isn’t a primer for how to live. Its a book of condemnation against mankind and will be used in the day of judgment. We are being warned.
January 5, 2019 at 3:01 pm
Oh I forgot the caveats in Post 55…….oh well you all can fill in the blanks
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January 5, 2019 at 6:32 pm
“The goo by which an entire world civilization’s commerce is traced by a “mark” (path….roads, skyways, shipping lanes). It…….forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads…..” I looked in the mirror and behold I saw the I-90 light up light the luminous virgin Mary Statue on my wife’s night table
Your “Goo” theory, Image of the Beast and 666 theory is incorrect. Fantastic but incorrect nonetheless. The reason? Your theory occurs before the bible was written and you try to use the bible to substantiate, decode, interpret and support your theory that cannot be supported by a book that was not written until a million years after the event.
My theory on the other hand is correct and it is correct because it is based on information found in the bible and therefore substantiated by the biblical record, understanding and decoding found in the bible. None of your theory is biblical nor can anything in your theory be biblical.
You draw phrases and terms from the bible to fit your fantasy that is a fabrication completely outside the bible and therefore completely irrelevant to the bible. An attempt to give credence to your incredible fantasy but nowhere does the bible talk about goo or dinosaurs or hexagonally shaped elements.
Here is a mathematical reason why your theory is incorrect and an unsound application of the transitive property of equality
IF A=B and B=C therefore A=C; that is the property of equality.
Your saying in effect:
The biblical A’s, B’s and C’s cannot support your theory of X because X is external to the bible and has no hint for your theory X.
My theory of the A’s, B’s and C’s of the bible that can make sense to others is correct because my theory is alluded to elsewhere in the bible and necessarily must, in order to be put forth for review; it’s called connecting the dots.
My story is based on the dots in the bible connecting with other dots in the bible.
Your story is made purely from imagination and takes phrases and terms from a book that has credibility, the bible, and tries to match them with phrases and terms in your story to make your story appear plausible by association. It cannot stand:
Your theory tries to connect the A, B, C dots inside the bible with the X, Y, Z dots in your story that cannot possibly make sense to anybody but yourself because they are mutually exclusive. They do not meld and cannot meld and cannot be shown to be able to meld by any supporting association.
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January 5, 2019 at 9:20 pm
LTG ….. I’m just stating your beliefs as you have stated them to me. Please clarify if I’m miss stating what you have said
January 5, 2019 at 10:01 pm
I answered you in Post 52. Yesterday. What you are repeating to me are not the words I stated to you, You can paraphrase and send your paraphrase back to me because paraphrasing twists my words to your words to suit the impression of the reader. I said nothing about lies; I did not say Jesus faked his death and what happens after death I don’t know anymore than you know.
Did you know that you can have a resurrection while you are alive in your mind if you have a revelation that you never knew before? Like being “Born again?
“…my Jesus promised His followers they would be rewarded not just in this world but the next….” Really then what is that reward, and where will it be? The only heaven Jesus described was the heaven within you and for that heaven to be within you that’s when you are alive.
Did you know that people who are stuck in the realm of supernaturalism are actually walking “dead” while yet alive and when understanding Jesus message and where heaven is and who lives in and resides in that heaven where Jesus described don’t you think that is a resurrection, “within you”.
So tell me what is the reward Jesus promised you, as a follower, which I presume you are expressing to be?
And where is that “place” you think the followers of Jesus are going?
And how would you know what and where that place is when you don’t even know about the Kingdom Jesus described. I think you are lost in your own inability to understand what Jesus was all about and I am not surprised because most of the Christian world missed it too because the Pharisee Paul who was brought up believing in some supernatural world got everybody convinced about the Pharisaical supernatural resurrection just like the writers of the Gospels said
Matthew 27:51-53 tells us what happened right after Jesus Christ died: “Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”
Is that the resurrection you are talking about and if so what happened to the resurrected, did they die again? Or is this just an example of writers who made stuff up?
January 5, 2019 at 10:07 pm
Kim ….. it’s sad not evil if a person drowns by “accident” — that’s sh*t happens. to murder somebody by holding them under water is evil — that’s got nothing to do with sh*t happening. I don’t blame God because sh*t happens. some may blame God because their child died by drowning in their pool but I wouldn’t, I’d blame myself if I was supposed to watch him/her. the biggie for me and many others I’ve talked with is why let the murderer run around and drown people ? even crappy parents child proof their home and take all kinds of precautions to keep their children safe from hazardous situations and dangerous people —- so why not God ? why can’t God uproot the tares without damaging the wheat ? Christian apologetics on why God allows evil are not very strong and if not for the resurrection where this wrong can be fixed imo we lose the argument.
January 5, 2019 at 10:15 pm
Furthermore, I know Jesus survived the ordeal of the cross. How do I know? Because the bible tells me so, Jesus predicted it so and when he appeared after the cross, sufficiently healed from the ordeal, he appeared and told the disciples that it was he, alive muscle and bone and not a spiritual Ghost. But what do Christians say about? Oh jesus “appeared” to the disciples by walking through the wall or through the door because the words said Jesus appeared in the midst of them and that means to Christians of supernatural bent that he walked through the walls or the doors or simply puff-puffed, now you see me, now you don’t, look here I am.
Can you imagine the raising from the graves opening and the walking through walls a lie more gargantuan that those fallacies by men who yet remain in the folly? of snake oil salesmen perpetuating magic tricks of Old Testament devise to prove they were messengers of the true God and Pharaoh kicked Moses and Aaron out of the King’s Court after their ridiculous trick that the prophet, “on behalf of God” told Moses that the Lord told him to perform the snake miracle for Pharaoh?
January 5, 2019 at 10:22 pm
LTG ….. dude I’m not twisting anything. that was a scenario you told me a long time ago. are those your exact words — no but that sums up your explanation perfectly. do you remember that comment ? state it again as you think it should be stated. may be this will refresh you memory — some body lying on the ground pretending they are paralyzed, Jesus observes something that shows that person isn’t paralyzed and goes over and takes that person by the hand and …..
January 5, 2019 at 10:30 pm
LTG ….. you don’t like faked his death ? please let me know what saying I should use ? the lashing He received + being nailed to the cross hands and feet + getting stabbed in the side with a spear and even if it’s 3 days and 3 nights it would be a miracle for Him walking to Emmaus. but may be it didn’t happen that way so it would be no big deal for Him to take that hike
January 5, 2019 at 11:15 pm
Evil has always been rampant in the hearts of men and that’s why the entire Old Testament penalties were based on the “ye for an eye”, “tooth for a tooth” model. It was the revenge theory based on the reaction of people generally, slap me and I slap you back. So the Old Testament fellows. not knowing any better modeled their system on from that and took is many steps further when they introduced penalties for sins they believed to be so gross to their sense of self righteousness starting with the first four religious decrees for which disobedience to those decrees the penalty was death, the ultimate capital penalty and for the remaining six social sins Moses chiseled into stone and man y other sins which were chiseled into Deuteronomy and Leviticus, especial,y the sexual sins. OMG where did that dirty stuff come from. Well the Garden of Eden of course and then we have a guilt laden trip on every person born but for the wealthy who could afford to buy indulgences to be absolved of sin.
That’s what Jesu revolution was all about b ringing love into the picture as it was supposed to be but changing a two, three, five thousand year old indoctrinated doctrine was no mean feat for Jesus; nevertheless, against the status quo, fraught with danger, he persevered and his best friends secretly prepared for the day of intervention as best they could, knowing he would eventually pay for his campaign that upset their well worn security.
If you would just read the pages without a supernatural skew, the pieces will fall into place so neatly like a jigsaw puzzle coming together, melting all the illusions, delusions and confusion of church collusion away, revealing the bare truth how all the pieces of Jesus’s messages fit into a spiritual regeneration not unlike the reward of resurrection, in OWR life-time. (You can read about “OWR” time by clicking on my user ID but it’s more lengthy than my posts )
And I am unanimous in that and I believe that I would not have known that by any means other than a personal campaign that began at 12 years of age when I sat reading the red-lettered gospel words over and over and over until I began grasping the pieces and pulling them inside my memory while the droning drum-hum of the Priest’s mea culpas and latin laced language provided a steady monotone background leading up to the Sunday sermon which I never remembered amidst the swirl of words in red that seemed to be clicking into a sequences that only a DaVinci code enthusiast would have dreamed about. As for me, I could do no more than let the spirit guide until the magic missal would be given me at the next Sunday session in my young life…….
January 6, 2019 at 2:15 am
Yes I remember the scenario I posted about that possibility because in those days as it still is today some people feign a disability because it can be more lucrative than a regular working income for an unskilled worker. Why would you wait years to bring it up again? Nevertheless, I will research my writings and when I find it I’ll repost it for you.
But that’s not the only thing you said. you said Jesus faked his death and I did not say Jesus faked his death. My submission is that Jesus’s two best friends knew he was walking on dangerous grounds that could him get him killed so his best friends, wanting to mitigate such an event if it did come to pass, worked out a plan.
And I submit that Jesus did not know about his friends’ plan, at least not until the last days before the crucifixion, if at all, when the last vote was final and ready, set, go: the Judas betrayal, the date, the time, the place, the imminent arrest and the method agreed on for a public crucifixion to deter any followers who may have intentions of continuing what the Jewish Council viewed as sedition against them.
I further contend that when the Sanhedrin decided to give the order to execute the Khashoggi-style detainment, was the time that Jesus was made aware of the place, date, time, betrayal, arrest and the public crucifixion AND it was at that same time, if at all, that Jesus was made aware of the friends’ plan to intervene. When this last advisement meeting took place was at what is commonly called the Transfiguration.
January 6, 2019 at 2:54 am
Paul: The problem with the entire Jesus scenario is that his followers missed the message about everything Jesus ever did or said with the supernatural which was the dominant belief of the Scribes and Pharisees. What the bible says does not necessarily mean that’s what Jesus said. For example I would like to know what supernaturalism is found in the New Testament that you mentioned. What supernatural feats are you talking about? Beggars pretending they were crippled so they did not have to work and were fed with handouts from the people like social assistance; that still goes on today. So if Jesus wanted to start ridding society of false narratives do you think he might have threatened to reveal that the cripples were not crippled or the blind were not blind and so to avoid being ostracized for their dupery the cripples and the blind claimed miraculous intervention by Jesus and they chose to get up and dance around as though miraculously cured or suddenly someone operating on the pretense of being blind from birth, rather than being found out, chose the more acceptable way out “It’s a miracle”, now they see. Jesus did not believe that the God he talked about was an external being nor did he believe that the Kingdom was an external State. IT’s why he quite emphatically pointed that out when he told the Pharisees that the Kingdom does not come by observation, or see it’s out in then desert or in the inner chamber; in other words, in some physical space….NO! he said the Kingdom(where God resides), IS WITHIN YOU. The Father who dwelt in Jesus is the same Father who dwells in everybody, if you acknowledge that simple truth Jesus spoke. However the dogma that the society was indoctrinated by for thousands of years full of supernatural gibberish and wizardry permeated the mindset of the masses and carried right over into Christendom as we well know from stories about the Lady of Fatima and other apparitions. Charlatans love the supernatural and they in their time practice dupery like they invented the witching hour. This perpetuation goes on every time the Pope bestows sainthood on the dead because it requires miracles by the person who gets exalted in the Saintly Circle and so hearsay gains a foothold and miracles are whispered and then shouted for the world to confer its blessings. Tell me please what supernatural events you believe Jesus performed or was performed in his name. Voices booming in a haze of smoke and mirrors as written about countless times throughout the bible? From Moses on down the line? This is my beloved son booms the voice to some….while others said it was only thunder rolling through the atmosphere. I have never seen Jesus or his mother in a potato, in a piece of pizza or in a tree stump but lots of people have seen it apparently. I would love to know what supernatural events are supported by Jesus or that he even believed as the Pharisees about the resurrection of the dead, from the tombs of dead mens bones. Jesus message was that the Father operates in human experience but who believes that? Not Christians certainly because they haven’t learned a thing about Jesus that is not akin to Pharisaical belief same as Paul in Acts, he was born and raised as a Pharisee and boasted about it at his own trial. I found a most interesting quote that sums up institutional people be they Religious Institutions or Government institutions they talk the same talk but never walk, the walk they talk, but that they are born to repetitiveness rhetoric without change: “The Budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome will become bankrupt.
People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance.” – Cicero , 55 BC So, evidently we’ve learned bugger all over the past 2,071 years. About Governance or the Message of Jesus. Jesus identity never got “….mixed up with Tammuz/Mithras or some sort of pagan religion….” Jesus didn’t need some pagan religion to mix up the people, the people were already mixed up when Jesus began his campaign to free them from the bondage they were already in! Indoctrination by the Pharisees and the dominant pagan religion of the supernatural which they practiced, is revealed from start to finish in the Bible itself.
Naz: I reject the supernatural and it is as clear as the nose on your face and the knows in my head. As long as you are content to allow the hoaxes of the supernatural sway your common sense, that is your dilemma. You still hold the belief that Prophets are people with special powers to foretell the future but the actual fact is that Prophets are simply people who go to school to study how to be a prophet and then graduate as people do in the ministry, how people become priests for example but you must assume that prophets are the result of divinity so you make them sort of drip religion like some holy stained glass window when in fact they are just ordinary folks like Donald Trump, David Copperfield and Joel Osteen. You see Naz you have never had a conversation about the supernatural, you just accept it because church dogma dictates paranormal activity exists when for all the thousands of centuries, nobody has ever demonstrated that paranormal activity actually exists outside of religion, mythology and hollywood and the tricksters who have capitalized on believers for thousands of years. You remain unenlightened and cannot see the trees because the forest hides them from your sight. What supernatural events happened in the New Testament apart from your belief that the dead rise up from the graves and appear to many, not only Jesus but scriptures says when the veil was rent the graves opened and dead people rose up…..and went home presumably.
January 6, 2019 at 3:06 am
Paul here’s a couple interesting posts back in the day March 25/April 8th 2016.
March 25, 2016 at 11:09 pm
Frank and Jason,
Isn’t He supposed to rule? Didn’t His disciples think He was going to restore the Kingdom at that time? Didn’t the early Church have the feeling He would return at any moment to restore the Kingdom? I find it problematic that the Kingdom hasn’t come yet but as a Christian I accept the explanation. However, I can understand why others don’t. I’ve had several discussions especially with Jews and they reject the Resurrection in large part because the Kingdom wasn’t restored. The women said He was risen, but the 2 disciples still went to Emmaus. Why, because nothing had changed.
March 26, 2016 at 12:46 am
Jason et al:
The Kingdom of God has been misunderstood by everybody of supernatural and superstitious bent from the beginning of the world and that includes the Christian world and the whole world in thrall by religious insanity. What Jesus showed was that one had to revolutionize their thought processes; revolutionize the way of thinking about God and the Kingdom of his residence. that the way that people thought of the Kingdom was wrong, incorrect and totally inaccurate. Jesus amply demonstrated the Father who reigns in the Kingdom and clearly stated the true concept of the Kingdom of God which he said was already at hand. John the Baptist also reiterated that the Kingdom was at hand, within reach of anybody who would listen to the truth, the way and the life!
OMG you can read it for yourself: “:Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” And when they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. Therefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, it is in the desert; go not forth: behold, it is in the secret chambers; believe it not.”
Now if the Kingdom is within you how can it be coming and if it does not come by observation how can you expect to see it? The only way you can see it is when you take heaven out of the Kingdom of Heaven, within you, and follow through with the fulfillment of scriptural lamentation prayer: “Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
What is so supernaturally alluring that prevents your from understanding the simplicity of the Kingdom being within you and that it is not some military invasion to conquer the whole earth and rule with a fist of iron?
If the world can just listen to Jesus who showed over and over and stated time after time again, that the Father “within” the human spirit, is the essence of the divine logic through which the Kingdom is first recognized by you and then with demonstrable behavior show the world that you are putting into play the will of the Father, on earth, as Jesus did?
And you cannot even understand the concept of soul but all soul is, is the emotion seat in the human spirit, not some weird entity with a built in immortality cushion!
You see, but see not, and you hear, but hear not, why is the world so obtuse about the simplicity that was in Jesus’ message. Why? Because you are so indoctrinated with the paranormal and dead men rising, you are blinded by common sense humanity. But metaphorically speaking, you are already DEAD MEN walking and the world is waiting on you to RISE from the Dead and take action! Open your understanding!
You don’t imagine that Jesus takes any pleasure in having a heaven filled with men and women redeemed by his life, trials and tribulations who will be as useless in heaven as they are on earth? Stacked in bundles of 10, dusted with DDT once a week by a bunch of angels, do you imagine that’s what heaven’s like? Heaven is going to be populated with men, women, boys and girls, who’ve been restored to their redeemed and now true humanity, acquitted and forgiven that we might be restored in that true humanity and become by adoption members of his family. We do not yet know exactly what we will be but this at least we do know that when we see him and understand the what, the why and the how of his life and message on earth which was true fulfillment, we’ll see him as he is and we’ll be like him, we’ll be like him, out of the Kingdom of Heaven within you and now revealed to the rest of the world.
That’s the Coming you’re all waiting for; can’t you just see it? It makes total sense without being fanatical and absorbed by the paranormal hoax perpetrated since the year dot.
If you don’t hear one other single Easter Message this season, hear the one that the spirit cries out to you.
January 6, 2019 at 7:50 am
Act 2:22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—
Act 2:23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
Act 2:24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Act 10:37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed:
Act 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Act 10:39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree,
Act 10:40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear,
Act 10:41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
Act 10:42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
Act 10:43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
January 6, 2019 at 11:51 am
How do you reconcile the following in Acts reputed to be written by Luke in the earliest period 60CE to the latest period 160CE
Luke did not know Jesus
Luke was not present for the crucifixion,
Was not present before Jesus was entombed in the place of the dead
Was not present after he escaped from the place of the dead.
was not present when Jesus appeared but claimed to have eaten and drank with Jesus after the escape from the place of the dead.
Luke was not a disciple yet claims personal contact by using the first person plural “we” and “us”
Act 10:39 And “we” are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
Act 10:40 ………………… made him to appear,……………….
Act 10:41…………… not to all the people but to “us”………… who had been chosen by God as witnesses,………………
…………….”us” who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
commanded “us” to preach and to testify…………
January 6, 2019 at 11:57 am
Naz :
I could not figure out what point you were trying to make with posting the Acts verses; it would have been helpful to know the reason instead of trying to guess like the old foe friend F A dam Ick.
January 6, 2019 at 12:54 pm
LTG …… LMAO, so I did not twist what you said ? I brought it up again because of what you mentioned here in post 49 I believe. so Jesus didn’t do miracles but people thought and later wrote that He did. and some of the statements attributed to Him like — “Then said Jesus to them plainly, Lazarus is dead.” some one with your intellect should be able to catch on to what I’m saying without further explanation
January 6, 2019 at 12:59 pm
LTG …… again, based on your scenario — faked His own death is not twisting what you said.
January 6, 2019 at 1:10 pm
LTG ……. again, dude you are hilarious. the problem with your crucifixion scenario is what ? not what you want to talk about. here’s a hint — drive nails through both of your feet (and I’ll give you the best possible scenario no broken bones and 3 days/nights in the hospital + pain killers) and lets take a long walk together
January 6, 2019 at 1:24 pm
LTG …… now let’s see who’s “duped ?” is there any evidence the nails were driven in the ankle or heel bone ? not going for a walk in that case are you
January 6, 2019 at 1:26 pm
from post 66
But that’s not the only thing you said. you said Jesus faked his death and I did not say Jesus faked his death. My submission is that Jesus’s two best friends knew he was walking on dangerous grounds that could him get him killed so his best friends, wanting to mitigate such an event if it did come to pass, worked out a plan.
And I submit that Jesus did not know about his friends’ plan, at least not until the last days before the crucifixion, if at all,
AND
I further contend that when the Sanhedrin decided to give the order to execute the Khashoggi-style detainment, was the time that Jesus was made aware of the place, date, time, betrayal, arrest and the public crucifixion AND it was at that same time, if at all, that Jesus was made aware of the friends’ plan to intervene.
So what part of “know” don’t you understand
At the transfiguration was when Jesus was informed of the time, date, place, and method of the arrest and “maybe”, if at all it may have been made known what his friends had planned but that does not mean Jesus faked his death so how do you extrapolate from “maybe” and “if at all” into “Jesus faked his death.” I am saying there was a “possibility” that he was made aware of the plan . How know from what I suggested the definitive statement that Jesus faked his death?
January 6, 2019 at 1:58 pm
If you think I am hilarious because I contend he survived the cross imagine what are you stymied of all common sense by supernatural religious insanity……… saying…… he couldn’t survive the cross but was raised from being dead when he was in the tomb, rejuvenated and not only became the walking dead but walked through the tomb or just grabbed or mentally levitated the tomb door and then walked or maybe just flew without a cape around on a sightseeing trip until the third day and then went to the tomb to wait for Mary’s appearance.
And then walked through the door and told his disciples he was alive and told the disciples to feel his muscles and bones and then ate a snack with them and presumably digested the food…OMG I have to fix a drink I’ll be right back……pause……wow okay gulp gulp…I’m back Geez Paul, you had me going there for a minute, Holy cow I thought you were saying that it was easier to die from the ordeal and then rejuvenate and come alive; to die and come alive again was easier than it was to survive the ordeal, not die but heal and be nourished back to life to prevent dying.
Am I dreaming or………okay, uncle…. tell me what really happened and how it really went down and how he was missing , how the stone door was rolled away and how it happened and why, Pilate give the body to Jesus disciple for proper burial of the body when they had no respect for the life of the body to being with? Gulp gulp I am still having a long drink after that Paul. I await your reply with great eagerness. Don’t please keep me waiting in suspense, did they know abOUT BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS AND CRUTCHES OR DID MHE EVEN NEED CRUTCHES AFTER DYING, HE WOULD HAVE HAD A ROUGH TIME WALKING IF HE HAD SURVIVED BUT AFTER DYING NO PROBLEM. OMG GULP GULP…..OOH SORRY ’bout the caps I am beside myself with anticipation…gulp.
January 6, 2019 at 2:41 pm
I can hardly wait.
January 6, 2019 at 2:44 pm
LTG ….. LMAO, faked his death is an accurate representation of your scenario. this is what you have been stating for years here — Jesus found out they were going to kill him, so the events as you stated were undertaken (with the help of Joe, Nic and Luke ?) to convince those that wanted to kill Jesus that they had killed Him — yes or no ? if you answer yes that is by definition faking His death. if you answer no please explain because that’s news to me
January 6, 2019 at 2:50 pm
LTG …… LMAO, actually Him being raised from the dead is not as crazy as your scenario. and it explains what His disciples did after He left. your scenario has no explanation for Him riding off into the sunset and leaving His disciples to die horrible deaths (in most cases)
January 6, 2019 at 2:59 pm
LTG ….. dude you are hilarious. the only two possible scenarios are A. Jesus died and the resurrection is bs B. Jesus was resurrected. so if it’s A it’s out of the blue and into the black so eat, drink and be merry ….. B is the only option with hope therefore I choose B — it’s a win/win, helps me here and now and if correct will help me in the next life.
January 6, 2019 at 3:32 pm
PAUL :
You must know, without me telling you, that the reason you have to say “If” correct it will help me in the next life?. That is because you don’t know. And that should be simple enough because I don’t know either but according to the bible if you die you still will not know because it says “The dead know nothing”.
Eccl 9:4-6
There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate, and their envy have already vanished, and they will never again have a portion in all that is done under the sun.
But the bible is written by men and men give virtue and vice to the characters he authors, creates, invents.
Now is that statement ironic, a conundrum, an idiom or just religious insanity?
Killing people because of sexual activity; stoning for adultery; blasphemy; thou shalt not suffer a witch to live? eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth; crucifixion; devouring widows property; hypocrisy; great Judeo-Christian values?
REMEMBER THIS: All religion, all prophets, all gods, all concepts, caricatures and ideas about the supernatural ….all OF THEM, and every last one of them, DERIVE from a person so stick a sock in it because none of man’s creations can be higher than man himself.
If you can use your reason you will understand that Man is Lord of all that he creates, including prophets, religion and divinity. There is nothing sacred but the sanctity of life of Man himself.
Man is Lord and Master of religion, of prophets, of the supernatural, of the gods, of divinity of virtue and all things conceptualized in the mind’s imagination. Blasphemy be damned. If you think blasphemy has any legitimacy whatsoever, you are full of dandruff.
Even the Bible supports this. When the Clergy questioned Jesus about why he and his disciples were doing things forbidden demanded by religion on the Sabbath: Mark2:27,28 and “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”; Lk 6:5 affirms the same thing.
January 6, 2019 at 3:37 pm
I have darned the hole in your sock and there’s nothing more to add to your mindset. You are living in the old fashion world of ancient religious tyranny when being retarded was not politically incorrect term.
God’s will is revealed in the holy scripture. The sacred book formulates the will of God and specifies what is to be given to the clergy. Clergy become parasites. “… All things of life are so ordered that the clergy is everywhere indispensable; at all the natural events of life, at birth, marriage, sickness, death. Not to speak of ‘sacrifice’ (meal–times)… .”
Natural values become utterly valueless. The Clergy sanctifies and bestows all value. Disobedience of God (the clergy) is ‘sin.’ Subjection to God (the clergy) is redemption. Clergy use ‘sin’ to gain and hold power.
January 6, 2019 at 3:41 pm
I do not believe that ethics/morals belong to Christianity or any other religion for that matter but cherished as sacred nonetheless, welling up from the depths of humanity’s inner core; other than that I cannot say where it comes from or even IF it comes from anywhere, it just is. Life itself just is.
More than that I do not know and I believe nobody can know, is my default position; existence beyond which a greater cannot be thought, is forbidden to me. Belief holds no comfort, offers no joy, cannot be fathomed, never understood, is a complete void to be avoided. As a child Santa was too fantastic to be real and so belief has never been a companion in my life.
In university I wrote an essay for philosophy class. It was a story about three people kidnapped and held hostage; their names were Fatalist and Determinist, (twin cousins) and Free Willy; I got an “A” for the story. lol
January 6, 2019 at 6:26 pm
LTG ….. no I don’t know but based on everything I do know it’s the smart bet.
so that OT quote means there is no life after death ? I don’t even have to go way of the reservation as you do to explain that. the dead know nothing because they are in the peaceful sleep of death but that’s not the end according to other bible verses and again if wrong no problem I’ll just be dead
January 6, 2019 at 6:32 pm
LTG ……. I’m going to re read how you die from crucifixion and LMAO. may be you should too and you’ll know why they broke the other guys legs. after the “swoon sponge” Jesus would be unconscious and after a short time He’d look dead because He is dead. that’s what the doctors/scientists say anyway but go ahead and ignore the facts that’s what you people do
January 6, 2019 at 6:38 pm
I don’t ignore the facts, you ignore the facts and make stuff up. You see Jesus validated me in this life since I first met him at 12yrs. You are still waiting.
Oh by the way what do you expect your reward to be in the next life. I asked you to describe it in previous post but I can only guess why you can’t tell.
When it comes to Jesus I already know what you are still waiting to discover at some other time, except now. and it is in the same book that validated me ut I had a simple 12 yr old innocence without prefabricated indoctrination and I understood everything .
January 6, 2019 at 7:41 pm
Re-read the Gospels again for the first time so by chance you might just understand why it is easier to die and come back to life compared to surviving, being bandaged and nursed back to health by people prepared to provide the best of medical care available.
Ask yourself why you prefer trauma that kills because your chances of recovering from death is greater than recovering from trauma the doesn’t kill you and that you don’t have to die in order to survive.
Imagine telling the paramedics to rush you to the morgue instead of the hospital ER because you’ll have a better chance of surviving if you die first. I can hardly stop myself from laughing writing this…….to a fellow human being.
Did you know that Jesus studied skin diseases and knew the difference between poison ivy and other skin conditions other than leprosy so when someone thinking they had leprosy and about to be banished out of the community to the colony showed himself to Jesus and Jesus knowing that it was not leprosy simply told the afflicted person to go show himself to the priest and follow his advise because the priests too studied skin diseases.
Matt 8:4 And, behold, there came a man supposing that he was a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean.
4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Good luck but choose life not death, life is precious wonderful; the absence well we all know there is nothing beautiful about life However just as Jesus said the only sign was the sign of Jonah who was tossed struggling amiid the storm waves, seaweed coming tangling him up as he fought to save his life in the raging sea to keep from being a victim in the belly of Sheol. Jonah’s persistent struggle paid off when in what seemed to be the end minutes of his life, he was closer to shore than he knew when a wave washed him up on shore beach and his joy was palpable.
And don’t forget the food staples of bread and fish that was in the cache supplied again by one of his secret disciples who own the bakeries and the fish plants and sent Jesus donkey loads of food to the area of Jesus retreat to feed the followers at a Bill Graham type Retreat; not once but twice and it was noised throughout the land of the miracle that only the military had the ability to feed thousands at a sitting….and there’s more the Wedding Wine filled to the brim from the Winery also owned by his secret disciple reputed to be the third richest man in town.
If you don’t look for common sense reason, common sense reason will overlook you. But find the lost coin and like the woman.
Luke 15:8-10 what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?
9 And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.
10 Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one (sinner that repenteth.) (read one seeker who searches for truth the joy like Joah is palpable in your heart, that is the joy of Jesus in this life but if you are persistent you can dig and dig and BINGO you will see that knowledge is so much sweeter than belief, belief can lead you to persist for the treasure but knowledge is the treasure; it is knowledge that gives the sweet joy like the woman finding the coin, a treasure that is yours alone and no man can take it from you.)
Did you ever see my video:
January 7, 2019 at 6:46 am
I made perfect sense. The reality is that we now live in a world civilization that is wholly dependent on fossil fuels. It happens to be the greatest civilization mankind has ever produced. It quite logical to think that if the Bible were actually genuine, the prophetic nature of it would not ignore such a civilization. And, it doesn’t. One simply has to connect the dots to see that. I showed quite a number of dots. There are more that I didn’t mention. It is statistically improbably to connect that many “dots” and not show a parallel between biblical prophecy and the real world. As you said, it is a fantastic scenario and disconcerting because that book most think of as an obscure meaningless religious text does in fact describe our world civilization in detail. Even down to the statue of liberty in New York harbor (great whore sitting on many “waters”, ie/peoples).
January 7, 2019 at 2:35 pm
LTG …… dude it’s you over looking common sense/logic not me. all world views have problems and I admit the ones with mine. forget all of the problems that you have ignored regarding the “Swoon Theory” (yours is my favourite rendition by the way) the whole argument crashes and burns immediately — of the few people that hold to this theory they immediately contradict themselves. Jesus doesn’t want Mary to touch him in the garden because of his wounds but later that day he goes on a big hike walking and talking and not a hint of hey are you okay from his companions. but you add the extra layer because your Jesus is trying to dispel the supernatural, yet his faking his own death explodes the belief in the supernatural. so you come up with these bizarre interpretations of bible verses you run through your the supernatural is impossible converter. it’s so hilarious especially since the only person that can decode his cryptic language is you. but since it’s so full of holes especially with your extra layer it gets an “F” for trying to dispel the supernatural. but like the crazy catholic that ignores — it’s a hard saying also supports a symbolic interpretation/ Jesus telling the good thief he would be saved & their churches teaching on Mary prove they should agree with osas/missing the joint declaration profess sola fide/ etc ….. you ignore the problems with your world view — that makes you one of the “duped.”
I don’t believe life after death is a reward as such —- it’s just the unfolding of my world view. I don’t fear oblivion, I just fear the possible long period of suffering before the peaceful sleep of death.
January 7, 2019 at 2:50 pm
I am so surprised…well not really, after all, too many people from every religious generation dispel arguments, using ideas more fantastic than the arguments they try to dispel, to dispel the stupidity of people defending the the idea of the resurrection idea, which is impossible as everybody on planet earth knows does not happen IT JUST DOES NOT HAPPEN. and if it seems to happen, there si a perfectly plausible reason why. Like Lazarus; Lazarus was not dead regardless of the words that the Editors of the bible used.
January 7, 2019 at 2:53 pm
LTG ……. dude I’m very skeptical of “miracles” recorded in the bible or present day. Jesus spoke plainly that Lazarus was dead, He didn’t speak plainly that Lazarus had this medical condition that makes him look dead. your interpretation of that event is hilarious. here is some possible scenarios A. Lazarus died — like really died and Jesus miraculously revived his dead body B. Jesus, with or with out others help, faked Lazarus’ death to give the impression he performed a miracle C. somebody made up the story to start their own religion. if I had evidence the supernatural was impossible I’d pick B or C. but since the best arguments from atheists are — “nothing is something”/ a creation doesn’t need a creator/ and this all happened by chance I go with A.
it’s too bad you are so “duped” because there is a lot of problems with “religion” we agree with. but unlike you I give God the benefit of the doubt.
January 7, 2019 at 2:55 pm
LTG …… but you ignore the implication of if Lazarus was not dead. everybody but you understands that event as Jesus raised him from the dead so yes —- you do ignore facts.
January 7, 2019 at 3:11 pm
I know that as a supernaturalist you prefer the supernaturalist way out. You don’t have to lift a neuron to explain anything beyond your limited ability to look for any other and possibly reasonable explanations …..to justify a society who sacrificed (killed) their kids for a bumper crop.
Geez, you are so in the last century when modernity made no sense at all.
Look; the simple fact is, Lazarus had a rare disease that Jesus knew about and that caused him to weep………. because others did not know about the affliction. And because of their ignorance entombed as though the person was DEAD in the same way that the following documentary reveals. This is research 101 for god sakes.
January 7, 2019 at 5:27 pm
Please stop. You’re resisting supernatural inclination that Lazarus was dead but he was now dead. Lazarus had a condition called cataplexy.
Cataplexy is a sudden and transient episode of muscle weakness accompanied by full conscious awareness, typically triggered by emotions such as laughing, crying, or terror.
[1] Cataplexy affects approximately 70% of people who have narcolepsy,
[2] and is caused by an autoimmune destruction of neurons that produce the neuropeptide hypocretin (also called orexin), which regulates arousal and wakefulness. That doesn’t mean that or I or anybody h this dideaes butmitts possbvl.
January 7, 2019 at 6:21 pm
I am trying to give you information so you can make decisions for your benefit; it doesn’t matter about me.
January 7, 2019 at 7:12 pm
LTG ……. dude you are protecting your delusion. you are telling us all dead doesn’t mean dead. you are doing what those nut job cult leaders do — telling people yes that’s what it says but it means what I say. if you were arguing Lazarus suffered from that medical condition PERIOD no problem. but that’s not your argument. the written word doesn’t back up your claim but you say it does when run through your supernatural decoder.
January 8, 2019 at 7:28 am
Come on Paul……stop speaking in tongues….
WHY, why would you not give your fantasy the benefiit of the doubt? But of course, you would…….otherwise you’d have to tell yourself you’ve been wrong all your life….and Christians can’t tell themselves that……..I mean that would only confuse them……
Yet cataplexy like epilepsy was merely a sin related disease……..
I mean that was a reasonable thing to believe you had if you were having seizures but now we have the science of neurology and we know about epilepsy so now when your kid has seizures, you know, you don’t go to the church to get him diagnosed and treated by exorcism and so that’s a good thing. I’m just saying that religion is losing the argument on every front. On every other front, it’s losing the argument ethically and will lose the argument spiritually.
And yet the “die-hards” are still there fighting for their stupidity and eulogizing that they will see each other in the next, OMG, life? or in the valley of milk and honey………….
Egads….I am glad I never had you for a father figure, Christ, would I be the laughing../……
On the front of human health and disease; you know, it use to be that you could get a diagnosis of demonic possession. I mean that was a reasonable thing to believe you had if you were having seizures but now we have the science of neurology and we know about epilepsy so now when your kid has seizures, you know you don’t go to the church to get him diagnosed and treated by exorcism and so that’s a good thing. I’m just saying that religion is losing the argument on every front. On every other front, it’s losing the argument ethically and will lose the argument spiritually.
We will understand spiritual experience so well at some point at the level of the brain, at the level of changing attention in certain ways can change human experience, we’ll understand it in a way that makes a mockery of this kind of denominational religious talk about Jesus and Buddha and magic powers and that will break down in the same way it has broken down on medicine and that’s a process that we have to be honest about and let unfold.
Let it unfold Paul. If you learned nothing from Jesus; at least look at modern medicine. That’s why they take you tom Emergency and not to the morgue; or the Church, I mean, you have to be an extreme believer of religious insanity to expect that the Church is the best place to tell the paramedics to take you with their sirens wailing when you’re having a health episode. Actually there are still some who are being charged with murder because they call their church buddies to come pray for their kid in shock because s/he needs insulin not useless prayer.
January 8, 2019 at 8:27 am
It wasn’t just Lazarus who died and was brought back from death. There were many many who were brought back from an untimely death by way of a witness.
And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.
51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
18 While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.
24 He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
25 But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.
26 And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.
Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?
January 8, 2019 at 10:23 am
Sure Kim the bible is full of people being raised from the dead but what happened to them? The many who slept when the graves opened?…. Sure Kim you’ll find lots of dead people rising in the Holy Books and especially in the back woods of India, it happens regularly. But in the historical record, not so much!
Lazarus was suffering from cataplexy….see post 94 video.
Sure a lot of people were raised from the dead but what happened to them, did they die again? And why is that? Ever wonder about it?
But you won’t have to wonder about Jesus because he just rose right up and ascended into the clouds; just disappeared like an ASTRONAUT. didn’t even need a helmut. Didn’t even need a spaceship. The rest of us had to wait nineteen hundred years to rise into the clouds thanks to the Wright Brothers in 1903.
January 8, 2019 at 11:49 am
Most of the dead raised died an untimely death. When they were raised from that untimely end, they simply completed their normal course in life like the rest of us. Jesus was unique and remains so. He was/is the firstborn from the dead. I don’t know what you understand about death but the grave is not permanent. However, religion is wrong about “going to heaven”. Dead is dead. However, there is a second death from which there is no return. Rather than death and the grave, such death is by fire and leads to oblivion. Until then, death is merely a condition to await judgment. What you might not know is that the Bible translations use “hell” for the grave and also “hell” for Gehanna. The two are not equivalent as one might think by the translation. The first is temporary and the second is permanent. Both are death without consciousness or awareness.
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January 8, 2019 at 3:07 pm
LTG …….. dude you are so delusional it’s hilarious. you do what the “duped” do. if Lazarus suffered from that medical condition those bible verses about that event are false.
January 8, 2019 at 3:21 pm
LTG ….. ILMAO, and if Jesus didn’t suffocate on the cross after the “swoon sponge” that would be a miracle —- because according to the doctors and scientists he would have died, really really died. so either those stories are false or true. you say they are true but dead doesn’t mean dead. so that makes your scenario less likely, so you are more “duped” —- another win for me
January 8, 2019 at 3:24 pm
The bible of course is genuine, just not so for our day and time and era. While the world has “civilized” technologically and the mind to use technology to some degree and while some extrapolations can be made that were trending; say, two thousand years ago, other extrapolations like the idea of homosexual sins when a man lies with an a man as with a woman, is still a crime punishable by death in Muslim countries, trending not so much in western countries; nevertheless, in religious circles homosexuality is still ingrained in to the religious psyche of the religious brain and death still the ultimate penalty for what some consider to be the ultimate sin. And of course traditions die hard and some foundmentalists is Israel still frown on the pracrtce of picking up sticks on tbhe sabbath
But Kim, let me please take you back a moment and let me finish before you revert back to being close minded about this just to support your own idea of fossil fuels and the hexagonal derivatives supporting 666.
Here is the simplicity of the beast; its name, its mark and its number, all of which is supported by biblical reference unlike; and please relax and don’t be offended, I am just giving you an alternative for you to aid your knowledge, that’s all.
I mean no offense or ridicule I don’t need to do that because when one has the answer to a simple scripture there is no need to try and destroy belief scenarios of other people trying to solve a seemingly intractable code which is not a code if one knows the bible. When one knows everything in the scriptures, one can speak with authority because the pieces fall in place; the pieces from various books, like a jigsaw puzzle, eventually generate the complete picture and sometimes the end result is something totally untoward what one’s mind originally presumed, imagined and believed.
So here is how the biblical description in revelation, portrays the Name, the Mark and the Number of the beast which every thinking person can relate to, understand, and identify with because of the descriptions the bible provides.
There is only one other place in the bible, apart from Revelation, that talks about 666 and both cases are related to the same thing and thibng, also referred as the Beast is money, currency, gold and in the Old Testament the reference found in Kins and Chrociles speak to the same issue.
“The first mention of gold in the Bible is in Genesis (2:12 KJV), “And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.” In the KJV Bible, gold is mentioned 417 times, silver 320 times and the word “money” 140 times. Not once does the Bible mention paper currency.”
14 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold, (666).
15 Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.
16 And king Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target.
It is also found in Chronicles but references the wealth of King Solomon in 1 Kings.
January 8, 2019 at 3:27 pm
“if Lazarus suffered from that medical condition those bible verses about that event are false.”
They are as false as a diploma from Trump university and your belief about the resurrection.
LikeLiked by 1 person
January 8, 2019 at 3:44 pm
LTG ….. no “helmut” required. and our Ascension scenario doesn’t need your supernatural decoder and our Jesus doesn’t run away to leave his friends to die horrible deaths while he lives the rest of his life living it up. your Jesus is a real db.
January 9, 2019 at 6:29 am
You’ve equated “666” with money. That is not a parallel in reality. Money is hardly unique. Capitalism is. And, New York city is realistically the seat of world capitalism in a country that is the melting pot of the world’s people. This is clearly described in the Bible as Babylon (New York), the great whore (statue of liberty/capitalism) and many waters (many peoples/melting pot).
If the Bible were to ignore the world’s greatest civilization, which is the one today and continues to be, then it would not be a book worth reading. It would be a fake. It is not. So, one must look into the ancient phraseology to find where we are today. The problem is that most like yourself focus in on a single passage rather than the sum total of descriptive language. And, in doing so, come up with all sorts of imaginative interpretations rather than the reality of the world around us. We perceive that our world is “normal”. However, it is not. It is a godless age that professes to bring mankind immortality through technology. This is a lie. And, that lie is described in great prophetic detail in the Bible. But, only if one looks with understanding.
I realize that this approach is unorthodox and to think a 2,000 year old book has details of “today” is hard to believe. But, it must be true or as I said, the Bible is a fake and not worth the paper its printed on.
January 9, 2019 at 11:13 am
Just because I can unlock the mystery does not take away or diminish one’s intelligence to see and understand it.
“You’ve equated “666” with money.” Well yeah…because that’s exactly what it means there’s no elaborate code to decipher, the bible is quite clear.
People obviously have ideas about particular trends they see developing. John in Revelation predicted and rightly so that there would come a day when the Beast of Revelation would rule as it had already been trending in a big way and that nobody, eventually would be able to buy or sell without the Name, the Number or the Mark of the Beast in his forehead(mindset) or in his right hand; this has stumped scholars across the world down through the ages looking for encoded messages, numerology trying to figure out what they perceived as a complicated Da Vinci Code of some fashion or other but the simplicity of John’s prediction was that he was talking about the Name, Money, the Number 666 that represented all the Money(The Name of the Beast) of King Solomon metaphorically, and the Mark which is characterized by the marks of currency. I call it Bingo The Money God. The second beast that gives power and credence to the first beast in all likelihood is simply the government that controls the making of money, that is the Royal Mint or the Federal Reserve
The only thing narrators say about Solomon’s wealth that is correct was that the several references in the bible about 666 apart from Revelation tell about the same event and that is, the amount of wealth coming into Solomon’s Bank in a year, noted as 666 talents of gold, but that was not all the wealth; it was symbolic of all the wealth, in other words Money, Currency. 1 Kings 10:14-15; 2 Chronicles 9:13-14
Every other interpretation means nothing because the world was living in the time of 666(Money useage) when the scripture was written and every generation since it was written, including today. It was and IS the way of the world. The Way of The Beast.
There’s nothing wrong with money; its design is wonderful by the reason of its design. However it did force all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to have it. Without the Mark or the Name of the Beast or the Number of its name, it was impossible to buy or sell anything. So now you don’t have to go to town and trade a bag of rice or a pound of potatoes for some meat and eggs and bread because the common denominator was devised as an inevitable consequence of evolution called by its name “Money” and other names standing for the same thing. the same thing:
The bible actually challenges us to solve the riddle: Rev 13:18, “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.
Solve a riddle: Put your heads together and figure out the meaning of the number of the Beast. It’s a human number: 666.
And here’s the riddle solved in all its simplicity, nothing complicated, no academia necessary, no need to look for hidden Da Vinci codes to interpret no need to add or subtract and substitutes numbers of letter to land on Nero some modern day recognition.
The Number however IS in the bible and the number WAS used metaphorically to mean “all the money” like the ATM Machines represent all the money long before Revelation but the numbers have been obfuscated because it was an alpha numeric number written out as six hundred threescore and six. (666)
and that alpha numeric written form confused Christians so they looked for a code under a rock when it was hidden in plain sight, out in the open in the very book from whence it’s dark association rose. And here’s the story in all its simplicity. The truth of meaning is a just reward for accepting the challenge of wisdom: ” Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.”
And I now offer you knowledge, to dispel belief, to vanish faith, to set the captive free.
How much Money did King Solomon amass? That is why 666 came to prominence, as a metaphor for the Great Wealth of Solomon
If you were to turn on to (1 Kings 10:14-15; 2 Chronicles 9:13-14) you will find the only other references to 666 in the bible, apart from Revelation:
Six hundred three score and six, 666, is money, currency, wealth and it’s worth noting that the only description in the bible referenced apart from Revelation are two scriptures, both alluding to the same thing, “All The Money” of King Solomon…..
It is also noteworthy that King Solomon’s reign conventional dates are around (970 – 931 BCE) about 1000 years before Revelation was written, 10 centuries. The value of precious metals of gold and silver generally followed: a talent of gold was a Homer, an Attic Talent was 60 minae, which divided into 6000 drachmae, Hellenistic mercenaries were commonly paid one drachma per day of military service.
However on reading 1 Kings you will soon see that while 666 became to be the metaphor for Solomon’s wealth to represent all the money, the 666 talents of gold was not “all” the money, for in that same chapter describing Solomon’s wealth in verse 14 “….The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold…..” it goes on to say, in the very next verse: “…..besides that from the traveling merchants, from the income of traders, from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country.”
The simple fact is that Money IS the name of beast,(currency, dough, buck, dollar, quid, greenback, scratch, mullah, folding stuff, coin, sterling, gold) the number of the beast, 666 as noted in 1 Kings, Chronicles and Revelation, is 666. (1 Kings 10:14-15; 2 Chronicles 9:13-14).
1 Kings 10:14 “The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,”( 666 ) 15 “besides that from the traveling merchants, from the income of traders, from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country.”
The talent was the heaviest or largest biblical unit of measurement for mass weight, equal to about 75 pounds or 35 kilograms. When used as a measure of money, it refers to a talent-weight of gold or of silver. The gold talent is reported as weighing roughly the same as a person, and so perhaps 50 kg (110 lb avoirdupois). Some authorities say that the talent typically weighed about 33 kg (75 lb) varying from 20 to 40 kg.
The only two other references in the bible about 666 besides Revelation tell about the same event and that is, the amount of wealth coming into Solomon’s Bank in a year, noted as 666 talents of gold, but that was not all the wealth, it was symbolic of all the wealth, in other words all the money, currency. Everything else means nothing from the time the scripture was written and every generation since it was written, including today. It was and IS the way of the world. The Way of The Beast. It was that way in Jesus’s day, when John wrote Revelation and it continues today with its variations of credit cards and debit cards
The simple fact is that Money is the name of beast,(currency, dough, buck, dollar, quid, greenback, scratch, mullah, folding stuff, coin, sterling) the number of the beast as noted in Kings, Chronicles and Revelation, is 666. (1 Kings 10:14-15; 2 Chronicles 9:13-14
)
The fact that Solomon had 1,000 concubines has nothing to do with the scriptural meaning, the fact that he had steps and 12 lions or whatever has nothing to do with it, the economy and the nuclear arsenals have nothing to do with it, everything else is extraneous information and has nothing to do with the simple fact that 666 is Money and the world depends on it and nobody free or slave, small or great, rich or poor can buy or sell WITHOUT MONEY, WITHOUT THE NAME , WITHOUT AN AMOUNT OF MONEY 666 SYMBOLIZES and/or WITHOUT THE MARK OF MONEY THAT DENOTES THE CURRENCY BEING USED. everywhere on earth.
Simple example. You want groceries. You go to the store and pick out what you want. The grocer says how will you pay, you say cash(money-currency) He says that’ll be $87.87. You say that’s okay I have $87.87 and he says what is the Mark of your money and you say, US $Dollar Mark. Deal done.
The same deal is made in Japan, let’s say. $87.87, you say you have $87.87 but the currency Mark now is the Yen Mark ¥,
Man is a past master at complicating the issues, looking for codes and meaning that is right in front of his nose.
One needs to look no further; this is exactly what it means:
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
Actually it is the verses before the 666 verse.
16And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads,
17that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. In other words access to MONEY.
The other thing about symbolism is the way it talks about one’s mindset as being the “forehead” foremost thought, thus what you have in the front of your mind is referred to as being marked in the “forehead” . The forehead refers to your mindset. WHAT is UPPER MOST IN YOUR MIND, WHAT YOU ARE TUNED IN TO.
And the right hand has always been that symbol of power; I.E. sitting at the right hand of god, the second in command being on the right side. as “He is the right hand man”. These simple symbolisms are totally missed by the conspiracists. Genesis 48:13
And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him—-Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.—-Genesis 48:17
Now when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.—Exodus 15:6
“Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power;Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy in pieces.—-Exodus 15:12
and Moses killed it. Also he took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.—–Deuteronomy 33:2
And he said:“The LORD came from Sinai, And dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, And He came with ten thousands of saints; From His right hand Came a fiery law for them.—-1 Kings 2:19
Bathsheba therefore went to King Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her and bowed down to her, and sat down on his throne and had a throne set for the king’s mother; so she sat at his right hand.—-Psalm 77:10
MARKS to ponder. The world depends on it and nobody free or slave, small or great, rich or poor can buy or sell WITHOUT MONEY: Geez Did I miss anybody?
in World Currencies – Listed by Country Name as used in the Banking Systems of the World.
Dinar (Macedonian) MK Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia [MK]
Dinar (South Yemeni, replaced by Yemeni Riyal) YDD Former South Yemen [YD]
Dollar (Australian) AUD Australia [AU],
Dollar (Canadian) CAD Canada [CA]
Saint Kitts (Christopher) and Nevis [KN],
Dollar (Liberian) LRD Liberia [LR]
Dollar (Malaysian, also known as Ringgit) MYR Malaysia [MY]
New Zealand [NZ],
Dollar (Taiwan, New) TWD Taiwan, Province of China [TW]
Federated States of Micronesia [FM],
Panama [PA] (with Balboa),
United States of America [US],
ECU (replaced by the Euro) XEU
Escudo (Portuguese) (replaced by the Euro) PTE
Belgium [BE],
France [FR],
Italy [IT],
San Marino [SM] and various French dependencies.
Franc (des Comptoirs français du Pacifique [Pacific Franc]) XPF
Franc (Belgian) (replaced by the Euro) BEF Belgium [BE]
Franc (Belgian, Convertible) (replaced by the Euro) BEC
Franc (Belgian, Financial) (replaced by the Euro) BEL
Franc (French) (replaced by the Euro) FRF
France [FR],
French Southern and Antarctic Territories [TF],
Franc (Guinea, also known as Syli) GNS
Franc (Malian) MLF Mali [ML]
Guilder (Dutch) (replaced by the Euro)
Koruna (Czech) CZK (CSK is also misused)
Czech Republic [CZ]
Slovakia (Slovak Republic) [SK]
Krona (Swedish) SEK
Krone (Danish) DKK
Denmark [DK],
Krone (Norwegian) NOK
Norway [NO],
Kwanza Replaced by New Kwanza
Kyat MMK (formerly BUK)
Myanmar [MM] (formerly Burma [BU])
Leu (Moldavian) MDL
Lira (Italian) (replaced by the Euro) ITL
Italy [IT],
Lira (Turkish) TRL
Turkey [TR]
Lithuania [LT]
Mark (Deutsche) (replaced by the Euro) DEM (DDM formerly in use in East)
Germany (West and East) [DE]
Markka (replaced by the Euro) FIM
Metical MZM
Mexico [MX]
Peseta (Spanish) (replaced by the Euro) ESP
Spain [ES],
Peso (Argentinian) Replaced by Nuevo Peso
Peso (Colombian) COP
Colombia [CO]
Peso (Mexican) Replaced by New Peso (Mexican)
Pound (Lebanese) LBP
Lebanon [LB]
Pound (Maltese) Replaced by Maltese Lira
Pound (Sterling) [United Kingdom Pound] GBP (sometimes incorrectly seen as UKP)
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands [GS],
Pound (Sudanese) SDP
Punt (replaced by the Euro) IEP
Cambodia (formerly Kampuchea) [KH]
Ringgit (also known as Malaysian Dollar) MYR
(North and South) Yemen [YE] (formerly YE for North Yemen and YD for South Yemen)
Rouble (Belarussian) BYR
Belarus (formerly Byelorussia) [BY]
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [SU]
Schilling (replaced by the Euro) ATS
Shilling (Kenyan) KES
Shilling (Ugandan) UGS
Sol Replaced by New Sol
Sucre (replaced by the Dollar (US)) ECS
Syli (also known as Guinea Franc) GNS
Bangladesh [BD]
Unidades de Fomento CLF
Won (North Korean) KPW
Republic of Korea (South Korea) [KR]
Zaïre (New) CDZ (formerly ZRZ)
Democratic Republic of the Congo [CD] (formerly Zaïre [ZR])
Zloty Replaced by New Zloty
January 9, 2019 at 11:35 am
You said………….”16And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads,
17that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name. In other words access to MONEY.”
You’re close but it doesn’t match ALL descriptivism. A “mark” is in reference to an animal’s footprint. Wherever that “footprint” is means access to COMMERCE (not just money). This describes a world civilization based on transportation. Recognize our civilization? Its based on roads, shipping lanes, flyways, etc. And where these “marks” are there is COMMERCE. Not just money. Hand/eye coordination is paramount in transportation. When you get up and drive to work, you take the keys in hand, and use your hand/eye coordination to back out onto a “mark” to go somewhere for business. And, what do you use for that? The “image” of a beast of TRANSPORTATION. A car/boat/plane etc. that mimics life by the act of MOBILITY. The “number” of such a beast (originating from a PIT in the ground) is the number of man (how science identifies the substance of this “beast”). And it is what science calls BTEX or 6 chemicals that are 6-sided (hexagonal….what is called “organic” molecules) of the 6th element, carbon which is the element of all life. Those 6 chemicals are benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and 3 isomers of xylene. Look it up. Its how science looks for fossil fuels. In particular gasoline.
What we consider normal (such as eating food from all over the world) the Bible describes as NOT normal.
January 9, 2019 at 1:20 pm
LTG ……. LMAO those verses are false, that’s not what you’ve implied previously. your previous position was the verses were true just spoken in code “only you” have been able to interpret — eg. where plainly he is dead means he suffers from a medical condition that just makes him look dead. now I say “only you” because in my 40+ years of arguing no one has mentioned that world view because it’s crazy. and you add an extra layer of crazy because your Jesus’ mission is to dispel the supernatural. and his quotes exploded the belief in the supernatural.
the resurrection is false would mean Jesus is a Liar, Lunatic or Legend. so that would mean you aren’t the sharpest knife in the drawer for following his teachings. tried to prove it was bogus for years and I couldn’t so I took the “smart bet” on put my money on the resurrection. no problem for me if I’m wrong I’ve never been happier since becoming a Christian —- my faith helps me in this life and if no resurrection won’t matter once I’m dead.
January 9, 2019 at 2:24 pm
Your neurons are malfunctioning. Can you please show me anything resembling the ridiculous quote you just relayed
“……..your previous position was the verses were true just spoken in code “only you” have been able to interpret”…. sorry but nowhere have I ever discounted the possibility that others could figure out or interpret the bible correctly. Code is for conspiracists because they discount any others from imagining the same code identifier.
The bible is not code but sometimes that is said in one section cannot be recognized until you arrive at a confirming section which is why very very few Christians can understand what Ham really did that caused Noah to curse Ham’s son Canaan simply because Ham saw the nakedness of his father. But this is the ridiculous answers Christians provide, It was not right to look upon your father’s when he is naked; or it was a sexually motivated sin, or other belief nonsense. If you know reason about the Ham curse then perhaps you read my post before and explained it to the willing but I would be interested to know what your take on it is rightly or wrongly,don’t be shy. You can only gain knowledge when you talk to me which is why Jesus said that Knowledge will set you free like belief never can.
Ignorance is not bliss as most Christians believe I grew up in a Catholic culture where the priest discouraged the parishioner “laymen” from reading the bible because only the priests could tell you what it meant. Yeah sure…… they hid knowledge of obfuscate the truth by substituting belief for knowledge. but it ain’t so Paul, it ain’t so.
January 9, 2019 at 2:25 pm
Kim ….. generally speaking I’d agree with your “access to COMMERCE” remark. but I’d say it as, if you don’t agree with the powers that be you are not just not able function (buy/sell) in that society you’d be a criminal in that society. a kind of example would be a world wide theocracy — doesn’t matter what “religion” that would be a nightmare. there’s even many atheists that would makes this world a nightmare if they had total control.
January 9, 2019 at 2:42 pm
LTG …… LMAO — that is what you have been saying all along. giving “natural” interpretations of bible verses which we take as “supernatural.” I won’t waste my time searching and cutting/pasting your exact words here, I’ll just state what you said to me in my own words. here is one of your many examples —- the ascension is just Jesus walking away down the road.
those catholics have problems because like you they are “duped.” none of the negatives with my world view that we both agree are rampant in organized religion.
ignorance is you denying what would happen after your Jesus drank from the “swoon sponge.” since I admit I don’t have infinite knowledge I do not exclude the possibility of the supernatural. and compared to the atheistic alternative mine is the logical and reasonable choice. see I disagree with a literal interpretation of Genesis as well as the atheistic “nothing is something” argument.
January 9, 2019 at 2:55 pm
“……won’t waste my time searching and cutting/pasting your exact words here….’ but I told you if I could the writing that proved you wrong a few days ago when I found the exact text that you wrongly mentioned and I proved you wrong because I have knowledge on my side from my Jesus not your jesus. when I am right I am right. It’s is because you can’t find the texts.because you do not have them.
And I did not describe Jesus as just walking down the road because that would not explain the cloud that took him from their vision. That was an ascension right out of the country. You don’t suppose after going through the ordeal of crucifixion he was going to stick around and do it all over again…He left the country and never returned. As his secret disciples agreed and urged him to do.
Tell me about the Ham curse or are you simply afraid to tackle knowledge with cursory belief? I would be too.
January 9, 2019 at 7:37 pm
LTG ……. LMAO, your interpretation of those ascension verses is exactly what I described. your interpretation shows they are made up or exaggerated to give a supernatural twist. therefore, according to your own words BS. making Jesus of Nazareth Legend, Liar or Lunatic depending on what quotes of his are fictionalized. if the supernatural is not true the most logical and reasonable ending of Jesus of Nazareth is he died on the cross and the story was made up to start a new religion for nefarious purposes. since you don’t believe in the resurrection that makes you a fool for following the guy. since I don’t have infinite knowledge. I’ll stick to the supernatural is possible and make the smart bet on the resurrection.
switching the topic is one of the “duped” persons favourite tactics. tell me which one of the Ham stories you believe — noah got sodomized, noah’s wife had sex, noah was mocked and ridiculed ? any more you are aware of ? doesn’t matter to me I’ve studied those and don’t care who’s right.
January 9, 2019 at 7:56 pm
January 9, 2019 at 8:06 pm
There is no supernatural twist. What are you talking about? Your are the supernaturalist.
You are so grasping at straws with your belief because you have nothing substantial to offer; certainly nothing like knowledge. You are hanging like a thread as all Christians are because they have all followed Paul the Pharisee who infiltrated the Jesus followers and capitalized on the phony resurrection of Jesus to confirm the Pharisaical nonsense that Jesus railed against for three years.
The fact is, Jesus survived through a marvelous engineering feat that you and others can’t figure out anymore than the 666 phenomenon because you have too much belief and not enough knowledge; survived the cross; was nursed back to health and when sufficiently healed left the country with his entourage of close and devote circle like Mary Magdalene and left the perverts of religious insanity to their own devise.
I will be enthralled to make a movie someday to show the world how stupid Christianity really is and leave them to marvel at the how many people can be duped by supernatural folly that makes a mockery of real people who made a real difference that they could not accept as ordinary humans doing extraordinary things and just could not help themselves but to turn them into a diety for another God to carry there stupidity to a higher level of robots of protocol without discretionary insight, and that’s some 5 to 6 billion humans duped and stooped in their own egotistical poop. hahahahahah
January 9, 2019 at 8:13 pm
Since you don’t know about Ham why bring it up as though you had some insight…which you don’t; all you have is flimsy belief duped by the snake oil salesmen that have you all sucked in.
January 9, 2019 at 8:14 pm
Tell me this what was the light by night and the cloud by day that guided the exodus. hahahaha
January 10, 2019 at 6:24 am
If one reads the text then it is clear there is no criminality. It reads with the intent that buying/selling (commerce) is unable to be carried out without the “mark” (ie/transportation). This is reality in that civilization ends when roads end (generally speaking) in the world we live in. A world theocracy is not reality nor will it ever be. The “false prophet” is the absence of religion and foretells a civilization in which mankind rejects God and proclaims the ability to bring immortality on its own. This too is the reality in our world. Science predicts mankind evolving into immortality by way of technology, which is science solely based on fossil fuels. This will never happen. Mankind will go extinct before technology can do such a thing. It is a lie. Yet, we generally take what science tells us at face value. All this seems natural and normal to us. We completely depend on fossil fuels to live. Our food, our medicines, our housing, our livelihood, our clothes, and everything we have comes from fossil fuels. This was predicted over 2,000 years ago.
January 10, 2019 at 7:47 am
Without the mark( $, £, ¢,) of the name (Money, Dollar, Currency) of the Beast or the number (666 metaphorically all the wealth of King Solomon) of its name(Gold), it was impossible to buy or sell anything. Which is exactly the way of the world, in every nation, country, city, town, village and household causing all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to buy or sell anything from the lowly garage sale, to food on the table, to the spaceships on the way to the mother planet Mars.
Even the electricity that I fill my electric vehicle battery with, no engine(and no hybrid for me) runs primarily from electricity generated from renewable energy resources of turning turbines powered by river waters. Fossil fuels are on the way out and will be replaced by solar, wind, water and when they’re gone money and their marks and the number will still be the prophecy(trending) fulfilled from Revelation which is so obvious even a Geico Caveman could figure it out.
Yet we still have conspiracists doing somersaults with bizarre complicated decoding ideas of hexagonal molecules that needs atomic microscopes to open up new imaginative horizons for conspiracists desiring accolades for their wisdom. And a proselyte agreeing with one word in their theory gives great joy to both.
January 10, 2019 at 10:38 am
You said “Fossil fuels are on the way out and will be replaced by solar, wind, water “. That’s a buncha liberal BS that isn’t reality.
As for the chemistry of fossil fuels….an “atomic microscope” shows you aren’t a scientific person. Consider the following:
Its a simple but very important thing but it shows just how applicable the Bible is and the incredibility of what is written in it. Even to the point of describing in great detail what our world is like. And, from 6 aromatic compounds of carbon (6 and 6 and 6) practically all modern materials are produced.
January 10, 2019 at 1:00 pm
Fossil fuels are already trending out of existence and more so because of the emissions being released into the atmosphere. Car Manufacturers are already going transitioning to electric only vehicles..
And tell me who would have known two thousand years ago anything about your 666 carbon theory when it took almost two thousand years to invent a motor vehicle and the world was still in barbarism mode? So laughable but of course you have to make it sound like science fiction to gain the Christian bums on your side. It was only a few hundred years ago that the Pope charged Galileo with Heresy and barely saved his life but kept him under house arrest for the rest of his life.
The bible is an incredible record of mankind just barely out of cave mode and you think the prophets graduating for the Sons of the Prophet schools knew anything more that how to cook meat and control fire enough to burn their enemies to the ground? And the weak minded among mankind still insist in praying to Zeus for fortune, fame, food and Chinese cookies.
Tesla and Volkswagen each have plans to produce more than a million electric vehicles per year by 2025. On July 25, 2017, Volvo announced that it would phase out the traditional combustion engine and that all of its new models starting in 2019 would be either hybrids or entirely battery-powered.
Within 5 years you’ll see car roofs, hoods and trunk bodies become solar generating power carriers able to energize at 80% capacity under cloudy skies. Who is going to buy gasoline when there won’t be any motor cars left. Well but of course as long as you are still stuck in the 3000BCE and more mode, you’ll still have Zeus to look to for your cure for what ails you. I bought my first electric vehicle in 2015. The average combustion engine runs with 1200 moving parts. My electric drive train One moving part that goes around in a circle like a jet engine and where are all the ICE vehicles ….in my rear view mirror still at the intersection. hahahah so lolable.
Liberalism will leave you in the rear view mirror too.
January 10, 2019 at 2:50 pm
LTG …… LMAO you brought up Ham. did you know of those 3 interpretations ? if you didn’t I probably know more about it than you.
January 10, 2019 at 3:24 pm
LTG ……. dude you hilarious. if the ascension is based on a historical event, and the supernatural does not exist, the story was given a “supernatural twist.” but that’s not what you are saying here. you are saying those words are correct it’s just our interpretation of them that is wrong. it’s you with your special insight giving us the decoded natural interpretation and saying we are the “duped” if we don’t believe “looking up” means “looking up.” if I was Jesus I’d just have shaved my beard, cut my hair, changed my clothes and road off into the sunset before Passover that year no use getting crucified at all. it’s not like he’d get caught with facial recognition. and he should’ve told his disciples — hey don’t tell anybody I didn’t die if your scenario is correct. but since you bring up Ham’s curse instead of explaining why Jesus didn’t suffocate after the “swoon sponge” everybody but you knows you are “duped.”
January 10, 2019 at 4:17 pm
Kim ….. theocracy is just an example of the type of gov’t described in the prophecy. it will be a type of dictatorship with a religious component that will be very anti-Christian according to the prophecy. we don’t even have to go back into history — Islam beheads those that won’t submit to it’s rules.
no criminality — what are they (this gov’t) beheading people for ? that would be for breaking their laws/rules wouldn’t it ? what laws/rules would Christian die for ?
January 10, 2019 at 5:05 pm
“Tell me this what was the light by night and the cloud by day that guided the exodus. hahahaha”
LMAO, so you still won’t mention why Jesus didn’t suffocate after the “swoon sponge” and bring up Ham’s curse but don’t dazzle us with your deep insights and now you ask me about exodus ?
if the supernatural doesn’t exist it’s most likely a story the jews made up to scare others from messing with them. why take the story literally and give it a natural interpretation ? can you answer that question or are you going to ask me about another totally different topic ?
January 10, 2019 at 5:43 pm
I have heard the various interpretations but which one do you accept, if any, and if so upon what scriptures or otherwise information do you base your belief or acceptance of the theory of your choice on?. You don’t expect me to tell you the correct one until you conform to the questions do you?
Although it is possible that you know from what I have written beforehand if that is so, then I would also have made known the scriptures that support it. So if you can recite those I will know if you are talking about what you know or not.
Take the words of my Jesus when you talk about what you claim to know….Jesus did not talk about belief he said quite plainly and clearly what he means about what he talks about.
Somehow though I think you know very little about jesus the man but quite a lot about Jesus the supernaturalist dogmatic coaching from church who themselves know very little about the man and what he meant by what he told and how he knew about what he told. But you….not so much but you do have a heck of a lot of belief about the sensational nonsensical poof not you see me now you don’t. When I was a kid I look up hills all the time. Do youo think the disciples in Jesus day did not look up hills; mind you there were not that many in the desert but there were uphill roads and even the curvature of the earth if there was just plain old earth. so lolable…..hehehaha
January 10, 2019 at 6:48 pm
The ascension as you call it is incorrect; it was not an ascension; however, believers with little or no education and who have little capacity to think for themselves, hearing a story about a cloud has only a supernatural connotation and beyond the realm and that’s the heavenly and external and beyond reality.
Jesus said of knowledge: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Now I, being a follower of Jesus, like Jesus, I must always give others the benefit of the doubt when they appear to seek knowledge; nevertheless, after a while when another begins to do nothing more than mock the knowledge one provides, Jesus provides scriptures that describes what to do when reaching the place when mockers have reached the end of their ability.
Jesus said to us, These three relevant scriptures you need to heed and you will know that time when that time is at hand for your adversary will provide it,
#1. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8
#2. “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son
of Man, but you will not see it ” Luke 17:22 And;
#3. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast. ye your pearls
before swine, lest they trample them. under their feet, and turn again and
And these three main scriptures, all related, have risen in the spirit as provided by you and it is time to depart from communication that has reached “one mockery after another”?
So from here on I can only wish you, as well as you are capable of receiving and will now leave you to your own devise in your glory of “one mockery after another” rejecting the knowledge offered by the Son of Man.
January 10, 2019 at 8:19 pm
LTG ……. LMAO, I don’t care what it (ie. the ascension) was if it didn’t happen as described in the NT. the point — which you refuse to address — is if it didn’t happen as written with a supernatural interpretation it did not happen. it’s a made up BS story to rip people off in organized religion. Jesus, if a real person — got himself killed on that Nisan 14th, dead really really dead. no “swoon sponge” because if there was one Jesus would’ve passed out and suffocated oh delusional one.
I do not belong to a organized religion so no down side to my world view. and since you can’t even explain how Jesus could pass out and not have suffocated why would any body believe your version or any version of the “swoon theory ?” your scenario can’t even pass the first hurdle let alone the others associated with your story.
that’s one thing we agree on —- I don’t know a Jesus that is that dumb to say a guy is dead when he just appears dead because he has a medical condition that makes him look dead that nobody but that Jesus knows about. your Jesus also shows how dumb he is by using the words he used when his mission was to dispel the supernatural. also if he was smart he would have just left town. but instead he fakes his death and before you know it is dumb ass followers are running around telling everybody (including the people who tried to kill him) Jesus is alive. besides nobody knows your Jesus because only you know what he is really saying — not the best way to spread a belief but give you the perfect qualifications for a cult leader.
January 10, 2019 at 8:35 pm
LTG ……. are you saying the story describing Ham’s curse was an actual event ? LMAO. I see interesting points in all 3 arguments. but based on the story (flood wiping the earth clean partially due to sexual immorality), the 7 Noahide laws (Not to commit adultery or sexual immorality), some traditions of the ancient middle east and my old man yelling/giving us a spanking if we ever dared mock or ridicule him I think the 3rd is the most likely.
if you are not going to explain why Jesus didn’t suffocate after the “swoon sponge” why not just say so ?
January 10, 2019 at 8:39 pm
SoM …… LMAO, but “the Son of Man” according to your world view has been dead and buried for centuries. he’s dust and not coming back no way no how if your world view is correct.
January 11, 2019 at 6:22 am
You say “it will be a type of dictatorship with a religious component that will be very anti-Christian”. That is complete hogwash….there will never be a world religious dictatorship (except when Jesus returns). There certainly isn’t now. That isn’t reality. It is a lie perpetrated by “Christianity” itself and the lie will justify “Christianity”, which is a false religion, resisting the authority of Jesus in the future. In exactly the same way the Jews resisted Jesus over 2,000 years ago. By your statement, you infer “Christianity” is biblical. It is not. We all know much of “Christianity” is mostly of pagan origin.
January 11, 2019 at 6:55 am
Between inferring that “Christianity” is mentioned in John’s visions and inferring that advancements in technology will prevent human extinction there is a blatant contradiction.
Christianity is mostly false. Global warming is mostly false. Electric cars take fossil fuels to make and will not change anything. Politically correct ideas about “renewable” energy sources is a pipe dream to correct a non-proven problem that only justifies liberal hatred of mankind in general. It came from the 60’s hippy movement and the lie has grown from there.
As I said, the Bible must predict REALITY. Not false religious or political ideas. And, if it cannot do so in REALITY then it is a fake. Prophetic visions can and do reveal in great detail what is to come IF they are actually true. They are.
The beast that thou sawest was (prehistoric), and is not (extinct); and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit (the ground….oil wells), and go into perdition (be used for combustion): and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder (invent things), whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world (population explosion), when they behold (discover) the beast that was (prehistoric), and is not (extinct), and yet is (crude oil…black gold).
January 11, 2019 at 7:52 am
For the most part you have no idea what you are talking about, about anything you talk about.
1. You equate energy with fossil fuels and for the most part since the Industrial revolution that was true but notice that little word “was”.
2. The transfer is already well under way; it was ready in the 80’s when the fossil fuels greeders bought out (Bribed with the 666 power) and killed the electric vehicle.
3. The transition is in full swing.
4. You infer; I imply.
5. All religions are false and started out as false
6. Pagan is another word for pre-organized religion
8. The Bible is a religious sponsored marketing ploy to support the religious narrative
10. The Bible predicts trends when during the era it was written. Did you ever see the Headline Psychic wins lottery and has been banned from all lotteries the the country, Psychic and prophets are graduates of Psychic, religious and magic school
January 11, 2019 at 8:13 am
I’m not the one who used the term “atomic microscope” with reference to fossil fuel components (BTEX). As a scientist myself, it was immediately evident that I was conversing with someone who was not schooled in science. Chromatography has nothing to do with microscopy. However, I chose to overlook that.
It now appears evident that I’m conversing with an atheistic political liberal with little understanding of literature, religion or science. With such a repertoire, I’m not surprised you aren’t willing to acknowledge reality.
January 11, 2019 at 8:46 am
“there will never be a world religious dictatorship (except when Jesus returns).”
You wouldn’t recognize Jesus if you tripped over me.
January 11, 2019 at 9:29 am
aha……a hispanic atheistic political liberal with little understanding of literature, religion or science. The plot thins.
January 11, 2019 at 2:07 pm
Kim ……. ” Revelation 20:4 4I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
the above verse seems to support my position but you may have a totally different interpretation.
January 11, 2019 at 2:59 pm
Kim ….. you are doing what LTG/SoM/et-al is doing mixing 2 world views.
LTG is perfectly right to argue Lazarus suffered from that medical condition but he goes into crazy town when he affirms the words of Jesus in the NT are correct. if LTG’s scenario about that event is correct Jesus should have said something along these lines —- we have to leave immediately because Lazarus suffers from a medical condition that makes it look like he’s dead but he is still alive. we have to get to him before he dies of thirst in the tomb. …………….. quickly move the stone away I hear Lazarus inside. Lazarus it’s okay come out.
Kim you can’t separate Christianity (the kind that’s always been persecuted even by other “Christians” eg. catholics) from the book of revelation. now some say it’s already been fulfilled so they aren’t separating. and I’m not sayin it’ll be just Christians that will be victimized under this coming NWO (that may not happen until I’m dead). just like Nazi germany murdered others besides jews. and leaders of Nazi germany weren’t long ago — just 2 generations from me.
if you want to discuss the NWO separate from the bible that is no problem. atheists/new-atheists have nut jobs that would want to kill other people that disagree with them just like some nut job theists want to kill those that disagree with them. as I mentioned Islam still beheads people for religious crimes. according to studies Islam will take over Europe unless drastic changes occur.
January 12, 2019 at 7:37 am
You have everything backward!
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Matt 23:13
In other words:
“I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God’s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won’t let anyone else in either.
And here are the two cardinal rules:
1: Read the words with a natural, not a supernatural slant for you cannot understand your own let alone supernatural imaginings of authors; for imagination in the minds of mankind is as superficial as a child’s unknown boogieman. Do not read the bible as a child and expect to understand it as an adult.
2: There is zilch; none, and no such thing, as “the word of God” for no God has ever talked to man; neither Isis, Buddha, Zeus, Brahma, Apollo, Horus, Ik Onkar, Jehovah or plain old God. But many authors have talked to and talked about, their personal imaginary caricature character. The best that man can say is that authors write on behalf of the character of their own devise.
Follow the above two cardinal rules and your mind will open to receive understanding.
The religious zealots in Isaiah’s day and Jesus’s day refused to give this key of knowledge to their congregation and to this very day: “So long as the priest and the professional negator, slanderer and poisoner of life is regarded as a superior type of human being, there cannot be any answer to the question: What is Truth? asked by pontius pilate, friedrich nietzsche and religious scholars everyday.
Religion is exponentially diminishing and its end is coming and will soon be replaced by the spirit permeating humanity like yeast permeates bread dough but which has been steadfastly stifled by the traditions of ignorance, superficial imaginations and religious zealots; and that is, to give up the power of the lie of charlatanism.
And what is the destiny and what will the new wave use as a guiding pillar? This standard will be written “on the forehead” and in the hearing (metaphorically, in the mindet and on the heart ) of every man, woman and child:
“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou cannot then be false to any man.” (shakespeare’s character polonius – This kernel of wisdom is now taken as Shakespeare’s own wise pronouncements on living a proper life.)
January 12, 2019 at 9:27 am
so now Shakespeare is your Buddha. Like most secularists who profess to be “atheist”, it all comes down to a hatred of Christianity rather than the Bible. Primarily because most atheists haven’t a clue about what the Bible actually says.
January 12, 2019 at 12:05 pm
You are so lost in your own self deluded imaginative world you don’t even know that Jesus was an atheist!
Jesus hated the Church, hated Religion, hated the Clergy calling them poisonous vipers and further, Jesus debunked the Supernatural religion of the Jews when he made “his first coming out” atheist appearance at the Synagogue when he addressed the congregation with a reading from the book of Isaiah which at first the congregation was amazed until he debunked the religious leaders and their supernaturalfragilisticexpealidocious teachings.
“But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; “But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. “And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. “And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, “And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. “But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
When I say that all religions are a form of mental Illness, Christianity is not exempt.
The bible reflects that mental illness and so does all so called “sacred” books.
Judaism made sex the original sin, wrote the Book of Genesis to support the narrative about the way to life, procreation.
It was Judaism with its heartfelt resentment against life, that first made something unclean of sexuality: it threw filth on the origin, on the essential fact of our life. Others blame Christianity but Christianity and Islam merely followed Judaism promoting the filth of sexuality by shaming all aspects of sexuality.
Procreation without religious accreditation became ostracized bastards, women were forced to wear tarpaulins with slits for eyes in cloth to cover their power whose mere vision of their beauty seduced men and gods alike.
Using procreation as the original sin nobody on earth escaped the guilt save the those chosen by hierarchy to execute their religious insanity.
God’s will, so called, is revealed in the “holy” scriptures. The sacred book formulates the will of God and specifies what is to be given to the clergy. Clergy become parasites. “… All things of life are so ordered that the clergy is everywhere indispensable; at all the natural events of life, at birth, marriage, sickness, death. Natural values become utterly valueless. The Clergy sanctifies and bestows all value. Disobedience of God (the clergy) is ‘sin.’ Subjection to God (the clergy) is redemption. Clergy use ‘sin’ to gain and hold power.
Sex without Clergy permission is sinful, lust, fornication, adultery.
January 12, 2019 at 3:12 pm
the majority of Christians I know do not believe “procreation” is the original sin.
January 12, 2019 at 7:12 pm
1. ORIGINAL SIN, in Christian doctrine, the condition or state of sin into which each human being is born; also, the origin (i.e., the cause, or source) of this state.
2. AND THE RIB……. made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were BOTH NAKED, the man and his wife, and WERE NOT ASHAMED. Thus were they so designed.
3. WHEN THE WOMAN saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she TOOK of the fruit thereof, and did eat, AND GAVE also UNTO HER HUSBAND with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED.
4. ORIGINAL SIN, also called ancestral sin, is the Christian doctrine of humanity’s state of sin resulting from the fall of man, stemming from Adam’s rebellion in Eden, namely the sin of disobedience in consuming from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
This is not difficult – Because a God that our neighbors believe in is essentially an invisible person, is a creator deity, who created the universe to have a relationship with one species of primate. Lucky us. And he’s got galaxy upon galaxy to attend to but he’s especially concerned with what we do, and he’s especially concerned with what we do when naked. (sharris)
January 13, 2019 at 7:49 pm
Lust is defined, not by one’s behaviour, but by what other people perceive as far as I am concerned. Like most sins it is something you do that other people are offended by. That’s why, In the case of sexuality, to fulfill sexual desires before marriage is called lust by the “control freaks” ( I suppose I could have used “hypocrites”, “poisonous snakes”, “pretense”, “pigs” and “dogs”, the names Jesus called religious control freaks ) so I suppose you can blast Jesus for name calling too but I certainly would not.
Sex before marriage is fornication and lust from the biblical perspective but sex after religious consent, “marriage”, is also biblical perspective but biblical perspective is so often wrong because it is based on the supernatural and why many people who link Jesus with the supernatural are missing everything important about the real man Jesus and about themselves as a microcosom of the whole human race. The simplicity of of Jesus was the simplicity of recognizing that he was “being Everyman”.
I am an atheist; my earliest hero Jesus. I was with him in the desert; I was with him as he thought about the way the Popoffs and Benny Hinns abused the regular people to further their own aims; when he knew that he had to be true to his own self or he could never be true to any man.
And being everyman, he could never do to them what they did to him and others because he would then be doing to himself and others the very thing his campaign came about to be, “against”.
Many of you may not understand the closeness I shared with Jesus. I was with him when he was a young child romping in the streets with his village pals; I was with him when he went crying and clinging to his mother’s skirt for comfort after falling and scraping his knees and elbows; I was with him when a stone was thrown at him as a child and struck him in the head; I was with him when at 12 years old he was asking pointed questions of the scribes, pharisees, priests, ministers pastors and secular leaders of the generation.
I believe the supernatural exists in religious circles and Hollywood and I believe that Jesus believed the same thing too. I believe that the Laws of Physics(of the Universe) are never suspended to accommodate ludicrous claims of miracles.
I believe that Jesus never performed a miracle but I believe that he cared for and demonstrated compassion for, and helped heal the sick by, washing, cleansing and bandaging the wounds of the poor, uneducated and hygiene deficient, which such help for the downtrodden and rejects, by the self righteous, was unheard of and was to many, indeed miraculous.
His common sense was the common bandaid that became the “miracle” of healing noised throughout the country.
PS I don’t discriminate against Christians; I believe that every religion based on the supernatural is a form of mental illness that prevents people from traversing the mighty gulf between the ancient reptilian brain of fight or flight reflexes and the new rational brain of rational, reasonable thought that provides insight and knowledge instead of belief. This changed the thought structure and was the evolution that spawned a revolution of ideas that humanity and human rights was a worldwide phenomenon not just a anomaly is an Israeli village.
January 14, 2019 at 7:51 am
Actually, the Bible does mention “Christians” but not in a way you’d expect…………….
And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for MANY shall come in my name (ie/as my “brothers”…”brethren”…as “Christians”), saying, I (Jesus) am the Christ; and the time draweth near (for my return): go ye NOT therefore after them.
January 14, 2019 at 8:01 am
Yes…Rev. 20:4 is the first resurrection of the “elect”. These were those with whom God had direct communication with in some manner. People like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, the prophets, the Apostles, Paul and various others. Their judgement was during their lifetime. These are not self-proclaimed “Christians”. Other than this handful of “elect”, “WE” (meaning you and I and others) are the “rest of the dead”. A humbling and frightening fact. As described by John, “OUR” resurrection will occur long after Jesus returns and it will be to the day of judgment. Not that we’ll notice the passage of time (more than likely, thousands of years) after dying. It’ll be like we die, then we wake the next instant to judgment. So, take care….judgement day is a breath away.
January 14, 2019 at 12:35 pm
Nobody has ever had direct communication with Zeus or any other of man’s invented gods. So please, using such arcane references shows true bewilderment.
In mythology the closest to direct communication “with god” was with the “supposed”/”believed”, “Oracles”, the conduits “to/from” the gods. In mythology-morphed; i.e., (the Abrahamic Gods) the closest to direct communication “with god” was with the “supposed”/”believed”, “Prophets”, the conduits “to/from” the gods.
Proclamations, for example, from the “Oracles” / “Prophets” began with the caveats, “God says”, “The Lord speaks”, “Thus says the Almighty”: an utterance, given by a “Messenger” as the response of a god to an inquiry.The agency or medium giving such responses at a shrine, sanctuary or place at which such responses were given: “the oracle of Apollo at Delphi”, for example.
1 Samuel 28) 5 When Saul saw the vast Philistine army, he became frantic with fear. 6 He asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots[a] or by the prophets. 7 Saul then said to his advisers, “Find a woman who is a medium, so I can go and ask her what to do.”
Lots [a] The terms “Urim” and “Thummim” have traditionally been understood as “light(s)” and “perfection(s)” or as “perfect light.” The Urim and Thummim were a means of revelation entrusted to the high priest. No description of them is given. This oracular means apparently consisted of a material object or objects since it was physically stored in the breastpiece of the high priest ( Exodus 28:30; Lev 8:8 ).
January 14, 2019 at 1:27 pm
Regarding Luke 21:8. Of the 58 major English version Bibles on the market, not one single bible translates the “Many” in “………Many will come in my name……….” as your statement “(ie/as my “brothers”…”brethren”…as “Christians”).
Not one bible uses any of your terms.
52 bibles simply say “……”MANY” will come in my name…..”;
4 bibles say “MANY PEOPLE” will come;
1 bible says “……of “THOSE” who will come……..” and
1 bible says “…..”MANY MEN” will come…..”
a few interchange the term “shall” instead of “will”.
So again this shows how bewildered you really are and demon strates how you get highways and transportation out of Mark, fossil fuels out of the Name and hexagonal molecules 666. I submit it must have taken you some time to find something, anything to fit into your pattern.
But your extrapolations of brothers, brethren,and christians from the term “many shows your processes. You could have said “homo sapiens” if that suited the occasion, n’est ce pas?
January 14, 2019 at 1:33 pm
No bewilderment here.
January 14, 2019 at 2:29 pm
You focused in on the wrong word. “many” obviously means people. However, “in my name” is the focus of this prediction. It is a patriarchal phrase. The word “name” means patriarchal surname. Jesus’ surname is NOT “Christ”. It is “Son of God” or “God’s son” or in modern vernacular “Godson”. Primarily, it refers to the firstborn Son to whom the patriarchal legacy is passed to from the patriarchal “Father” and it is God who Jesus proclaimed to be that Father. In the case of the “Son of God” (firstborn from the grave), the legacy is eternal life or life which has ever been and ever shall be rather than a perpetuation of mortality. The “many people” who were predicted to come take the patriarchal “name” of Jesus and proclaim themselves brothers to the Son or “brethren” and in general, they are called “Christians” today. The Bible is proclaiming “Christianity” to be a false religion. Face reality dear.
January 14, 2019 at 2:38 pm
Kim … doesn’t mention Christians ? okay fair enough and Jews isn’t the correct word but you know what I’m saying. you should know what I mean when I say Jew/Christian (if I’m not using it as you think it should be used ask) and explain when using a word like “EXTRAnatural.” and no problem to clarify (Jew/Christian) but I don’t see how that impacts on your “fossil fuel” theory.
you are missing the point — perhaps it my fault, let me elaborate. sadly everybody wants an argument while I want a discussion. example — see the problem isn’t LTG’s version of the “swoon theory” the problem is he refuses to address the first big hole in that theory — which is based on facts — if Jesus “swooned” on the cross he would not be able to breathe and would have suffocated — died, really really died, as in dead forget about the being speared in the side part. now if LTG can’t explain that (ie how come Jesus didn’t suffocate) and not only continues to argue this theory (I lost track how many times he’s brought it up here) but ridicules anybody that disagrees then ltg is one of the “duped.”
now in your “fossil fuel” theory you are ignoring all of the biblical evidence for a 1 world gov’t/religion that many see (not just in Rev but other books like Daniel) with the evidence of beheading “Christians.” have you studied this ? doesn’t mean they are right but there is lot’s of biblical evidence to support this. so the point of that was if you are just ignoring that why should I take your theory seriously ? in your defense, I’ve heard several arguments “oil” is the liquid that the nations get drunk on but there is problems with your theory about “fossil fuels” I’ll briefly discuss next.
look you don’t even have to consider the bible for a future scenario or get into this “fossil fuel” scenario. everybody atheists/many theists included is screaming for a 1 world gov’t/religion (ie false ecumenical movement). and gov’t would love a type of electronic currency they can tax and control all transactions. so today we could tag a specific person to not only where he/she is (GPS) but with everyone of his/her transactions (ie smart chips). so you break the rules and get cut off — you are unable to access commerce (buy/sell). and the gov’t knows exactly where you are so they can come and detain you. no chip no access and check points can easily catch those with out a chip. so why go with this fossil fuel thing ? you are steeping over a perfect logical/reasonable explanation into the unusual.
January 14, 2019 at 2:38 pm
It’s interesting that you named “Zeus”. Based on the story of the flood, Zeus might very well have been a man who lived prior to the flood and tales of his exploits carried through on the ark to post-diluvian peoples to become the gods of mythology. Zeus was probably a man who the Bible says was a “son of God”, created and/or born in the days of Adam and created so close to the creation of Mankind in general that he/they were capable of living for thousands of years. Because of such a long life, they were also capable of great evil in the form of breeding with hundreds of generation of the own progeny in an attempt to produce men and women of extraordinary abilities. Giants with one eye, men of great speed, all sorts of mutations. It was a time of eugenics that threatened to bring mankind to the point of extinction. Noah was chosen because he was “perfect in his generations”. So, Zeus drowned in the flood and Noah still lived for 950 years. But, such tales make for an interesting twist on human history. There’s more to the Bible than people think.
January 14, 2019 at 2:52 pm
YOU focused on the wrong word by extrapolating and emphasizing “brother brethren christian” I focused on your focus. Spin spin spin but you do is spin yourself into a corner as phony as a diploma from trump university.
Then you go in to the ridiculous about Jesus surname. Have you never read the only time Jesus used the phrase was when he quoted Psalm 82.
What’s with the patriarchal son of god surname; it’s meaningless because you have no idea who Jesus was, what his message was, what his message meant and for whom.
You are bewildered.
January 14, 2019 at 3:31 pm
Nobody, in any of my writings regarding the survival of the cross by Jesus, can find where I said one single word about a “Swoon Theory”. this is the only post where I am bringing it up because I did not defend a theory I did not allude to.
I did not claim Jesus suffocated. Speculators have said it must be so. I did not. I also know that spear prodding was a way to determine if there was an reaction to the prodding; it was not meant to drive the spear through one’s body, In the same way that a sharp object is run along the bottom of a person’s foot to determine if there is any reaction. It is not to say that the object of running a sharp utensil on the bottom of the foot is to open up an incision in the bottom of the foot. If there is no reaction most likely conclusion is he’s dead.
I said Jesus survived the cross, was entombed and escaped from the tomb as per the engineering feat of his best friend and the proof ??? Jesus’s own words when he met the disciples and declared that it is I, alive, not a spirit but muscle and bone give me some food.
It is incumbent on those who say he died…How? Suffocated great. then what made him come alive again and start breathing. The onus is more on those who claim he died than it is on those who claim he survived!
January 15, 2019 at 8:18 am
The bible is nothing if not highly patriarchal. I had plenty of precedent in rightly interpreting “name” as “brethren” or “Christian”………to not understand this key principle in biblical interpretation is to miss innumerable references to who Messiah was prophesied to be in the Old Testament………and to miss the importance of who Jesus was revealed to be when he rose from the baptismal water.
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name (SON) under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
January 15, 2019 at 9:46 am
As shown in the following quotes, one of the keenest minds on religion, Thomas Jefferson, supported the belief in the morals of a religion without the supporting belief in the supernatural elements of that religion.
The religion of Jesus is founded in the idea of the one only God concept the higher power (Father) denotes and must, logically and necessarily, be embodied within the created man. tj & ltg
“It is this principle chiefly that gave it triumph over the rabble of [external] heathen gods then acknowledged. Thinking men of all nations rallied readily to the doctrine of one only God, and embraced it with the pure-morals which Jesus instructed.” – Thomas Jefferson
“In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills.” Thomas Jefferson
The dunghills so noted are the miracles and miraculous insinuates; the fabric of very inferior minds. ltg
“It is between fifty and sixty years since I read it (the Apocalypse), and I then considered it merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.”
“May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man [Humanity]. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.”
January 15, 2019 at 10:00 am
You’re reading into things that suit you………
After the so called miraculous ascension (the dunghill from the fabric of inferior minds) in Acts, everything written thereafter is Post Mortem and irrelevant to the Old Testament and to the Gospels. In other words you are quoting dead quotes.
Who moves history forward? The Sons of Man.
When Jesus said “the Son of Man in his day”, he was not referring to himself.
If you think otherwise you err greatly.
January 15, 2019 at 2:41 pm
LMAO, that is what it is called — “THE SWOON THEORY.” it was around long before you were born. you just added a few interesting twists but nothing significant. others even suggest Pilate was bribed as part of the conspiracy.
and again no explanation why Jesus didn’t suffocate after the “swoon sponge.” LMAO do you know why I put “swoon sponge” in quotes ? because a long time ago before I ever heard about this site or LTG/SoM/et-al I heard several versions of the “Swoon Theory” oh delusional one.
please do us all a favour and google crucifixion & suffocation oh delusional one. to keep bringing up that theory with out addressing suffocation makes me LMAO
January 15, 2019 at 2:45 pm
LMAO — if the supernatural does not exist the ascension, including your dumb ass interpretation, is fiction. yours makes no sense at least mine gives hope. go ahead and follow Jesus’ teaching if there is no resurrection —- I wouldn’t because he’d be a Liar, Legend or Lunatic
January 15, 2019 at 4:20 pm
You say Jesus died by suffocation, couldn’t breathe. So how did it happen that he started breathing again and appeared alive? Can you explain that? How did that happen?
Please, I await your profoundness. How did he come alive if as you say he died of suffocation?
Do you have an answer? Place it now. Here’s is your big opportunity, to not only refute my theory, but to explain your theory that gives hope to the hopeless. So Let’s hear.
January 15, 2019 at 4:21 pm
Kim, you’ve totally lost me. I’ll monitor back occasionally to see if you address why you steep over the most likely mark of the beast scenario — the gps chip/electronic cash.
are you bringing up the Jesus=Zeus thing ? please, we’ve all researched that and the easy way to separate the biblical Jesus from Tammuz/pagan sun god is who His/his mother is. if His mother is Mary (yes we know that’s not her real name) wife of Joseph (yes we know that’s not his real name) it’s the biblical Jesus. if his mother is the queen of heaven, wife of god, mother of god, immaculate conception, assumed to heaven, co-redemptrix, co-mediatrix, ever virgin, sinless, star of the sea, our lady/the maddona, etc ….. he’s tammuz/pagan sun god.
January 15, 2019 at 4:24 pm
You can sure knock the idea of how Jesus could not and therefore did did not survive the crucifixion so how did he come alive again after being dead? Let;s hear your reasonable argument from dead in the Morgue to alive with a Meal in the safe House?
January 15, 2019 at 4:44 pm
Ahem…Yeah—I’m still here waiting for Your Profoundness. Who put Jesus in the tomb? What did they do in the tomb? What happened after they left the tomb? How did the Door roll away on its own? Who wrapped the burial clothes neatly in a pile. Why was left in the tomb with Jesus? Anybody? Nobody? How did he escape the tomb?
January 15, 2019 at 4:53 pm
the queen of heaven, wife of god, mother of god, immaculate conception, assumed to heaven, co-redemptrix, co-mediatrix, ever virgin, sinless, star of the sea, our lady/the maddona,
What have the carnival barkers told you? so lolable
January 15, 2019 at 5:01 pm
Who was left in the tomb with Jesus? Did they have GPS. intravenous? Did they have Red Cross or maybe “Star of David Paramedics”
Waiting to hear your profound explanation. how coming alive from being dead happens. Does it start by twitching, eye flutters, coughing from the candle lighted room?
waiting
January 15, 2019 at 5:06 pm
You have hope at least. Like is that the best you can do? Hope for what? Hope why? What gave you hope \?did you manufacture hope based on what and can you share hope os is it for your joy alone?
Guess you only know what didn’t happen but nothing about what actually happened.
Gather your thoughts, provide the backup evidence not from carnival barkers; they’ve had it their way since Gold was the 666 of choice.
January 15, 2019 at 5:09 pm
Keep in touch now, you hear?
As the followers of Bahá’u’lláh would say:
Bahá’í, Bahá’í for now.
January 16, 2019 at 12:26 am
PAULMAO — I’ll monitor back occasionally to see if you address why you steep over the most likely religious scenario of the resurrection, a “supernatural God miracle” which is deluded on the face of it as much as Zeus and Apollo and the 45,000 other created gods that perform magic trick miracles for idiots.
Since you can’t explain the impossible, without being LMAO, it is easier to avoid. So for the sport of a false win, make an opponent explain their theory than offer your own which of course is impossible.
LMAO — Any explanation is far more likely than the possibility that Jesus actually returned to life after being dead for three days so you play the sport game trying to deride alternate theories out of ignorance of a miracle belief explanation you know by common sense questions your sanity.
January 16, 2019 at 7:20 am
Its quite interesting to see you argue against modern Christianity yet without a clue why you do. I’ll explain….it is because you intuitively realize that modern Christianity is a false religion and makes no sense.
When you bring up Mary, you presume to be arguing against the Bible but are not. Mary was not the “mother of god”. That is of pagan origin. Mary was married to Joseph and it was his sperm (sperma) with he being of the patriarchal lineage of King David that conceived Jesus. The only “miracle” was that Mary was inseminated without the sex act. Why? Because the conception had to be without uncleanness of any kind. And, in the OT, the couple who had sex were unclean until sundown. This was avoided. Mary was a virgin. However, she was fully married to Joseph, the physical father of Jesus. And, she was not “raped by god” or even inseminated by God…she consented to the procedure. If Jesus had been conceived in any other way than Joseph’s actual seed then she would have committed adultery. If she was unmarried at the time of conception (as some teach) then Jesus would have been a bastard child and wholly unfit as Messiah. So you see the problem with Christian teaching intuitively but translate that to the Bible which thoroughly contradicts what religion teaches.
January 16, 2019 at 7:28 am
read the account in the Bible..all those questions are answered.
Angels took care of it. Angels do more than you can imagine. Even today.
January 16, 2019 at 7:38 am
Of course Jesus was not “Zeus”. The “mark” is not a gps chip or electronic cash. It isn’t reality because it simply isn’t a fundamental requirement for commerce even today. You’re making up a conspiracy theory about everyone being required to have a credit card or chip or something similar when it just isn’t true. Don’t you realize that the reality is we get even our food from thousands of miles away? Our medicines, clothes, and every other aspect of our civilization is based on transporting goods and services around the world. A beast’s “mark” is simply its footprint. You have to realize that it is unrealistic to presume modern vernacular and words would show up in a book 2,000 years old. Men rode animals before the advent of modern transportation. And that wasn’t too long ago. So that’s how it was described.
January 16, 2019 at 7:44 am
Funny how you derisively point to the ascension of Jesus but casually assume aliens exist and that string theory indicates multiple universes. Apparently with a universe where everything is made from shrimp (a Buffy the Vampire reference).
January 16, 2019 at 7:49 am
Thomas Jefferson is long dead and lived back in the day when they had to fly a kite to see if lightning was electricity. He rejected religion. Not the Bible. And rightly so in many ways.
January 16, 2019 at 8:32 am
LTG, you’re still not addressing suffocation and crucifixion has me LMAO because it destroys your argument. if Jesus passed out after the “swoon sponge” He would’ve died — that’s a scientific fact oh delusional one.
therefore, either the ascension story is fiction or it really happened. since I see no evidence that the supernatural is impossible I believe my scenario. and not only can it not be disproven it is the only scenario with hope.
your world view leads to death, why choose it when mine has hope. and if I’m wrong I’ll be just as dead as you. my world view has all of the pluses of Jesus teachings with none of the negatives from organized religion.
January 16, 2019 at 8:52 am
Kim, I know exactly why I’m against “modern Christianity” because it was paganized.
so the logical and reasonable scenario that people are talking about and we have the technology to make happen is wrong because you say so ?
“fossil fuels” will be around for a long time. we still have lots of natural gas to run cars on even after oil reserves are depleted. so just like we had buying and selling before our modern technology we’ll have buying and selling with out oil until the NWO that will tag the person to electronic cash/credits.
LTG will never address why Jesus didn’t suffocate after the “swoon sponge” because it destroys his theory. your “fossil fuel” theory won’t stop commerce buying/selling but the one I mentioned will.
January 16, 2019 at 9:19 am
Kim, it’s reality. my truck and phone can be located and all my transactions via debit/credit card can be tracked
January 16, 2019 at 9:20 am
Kim the bible has only got to do with the beliefs and customs and penalties, sin and rituals such as acts or states of being unclean. Those are mere man conditions, rules and regulations and have nothing whatsoever to do with any higher power.
You seem to be a contender with the bible on which can be the more foolish with their imagination, The ancients of barbarism, stoneageism and ignorance or the idiocy of modernity using imaginative codes and hexagons to put the history of mankind together but neither nonsense biblical/religious beliefs nor nonsense codes for imaginative interpretation can put humpty dumpty together again.
For all your stupidity and beliefs you are made more the fools following folly of ignorance without the reason of common sense and if you’re all waiting for the Second Coming to “fix things” you will never see what your rational brain is refusing you now, because of the mesmerizing tyranny of pervasive ancient ignorance, and your own brain is refusing your transition from the reptile brain you are allowing to execute your behaviour, to the logical man who takes possession of his own faculties.
January 16, 2019 at 10:29 am
January 16, 2019 at 10:59 am
The ascension just did not happen. And the only reason, the only thing that believers point to is that a “cloud took him from their sight” and so it was assumed by the supernatural mind that Jesus ascended into heaven, into the sky.
How myopic!
Anybody who has ever lived on the prairie or in the country especially before paved roads became common, know that clouds take people and vehicles “…….from their sight every second of the day………”
When I grew up one of our neighbours, who was renown for speeding along our one road village to work was taken out of our sight as he drove up the dusty road and we knew it was him but we couldn’t see him because a cloud took him out of our sight every time he went up the hill at 70 miles an hour. And when the dust cloud settled, where was the neighbour, gone to heaven? No he was on the other side of the hil still curling the cloud skyward.
You all have an imagination for the bizarre but no imagination for the normal. When Jesus left the area with his entourage at gallop speed of course a cloud took him from their (disciples) sight. And given the pervasive ignorance today, how much more for ignorant uneducated fishermen who had their brains bombarded with magic tricks to simulate miracles as they did since Exodus when Pharoah kicked Moses and Aaron out of the Palace Court for doing a a magic trick(miracle) that Pharaohs mimicked almost immediately.
Of course I deride you, it’s exactly what you deserve, derision, because of your stupidity. I never mentioned string theory or multiverses.
As far as aliens go. When people ask me if I believe there is life in outer space; I ask them,
where do you think we live?
Give me a break from your attempts to justify ignorance of the ancients as if they knew about hexagonal molecules and so 666 was a natural when the bible clearly tells everybody what 666 was but you have to know the bible enough to have read and re-read it many times. Then your own memory will categorize similarities and connections are made. I suspect you have not read the bible even once cover to cover. Nor has most Christians especially the Catholic Christians who were always discouraged from reading anything from the bible as they were too dumb to understand anything in the bible and the way some speak, I believe it.
January 16, 2019 at 11:06 am
If Jefferson is long dead and flying kites to harness electricity when he lived what about the ancients you put your faith in 2, 3, 5, 10 thousand years ago. You’re such a hokey hoax. The ancients you put your faith in killed their kids for bumper crops and end famines. And yet you got all their God Codes to base your ridiculous fossil fuel theory on.
January 16, 2019 at 11:21 am
What is your scenario? Nobody knows because you won’t say what happened to Jesus after the cross. I asked you many questions but you are stuck trying to tell yourself that Jesus died and then came alive. YOU ARE SPINNING YOUR TIRES IN THE SWOON snowdrift asking why Jesus did not suffocate; did you ever think that maybe Jesus did not suffocate for the same reason that he came alive after he died. You are the LMAO clown of the month
Tell what your scenario, how he suffocated and his heart stopped beating, he stopped breathing, he bled out, his wounds were too severe to survive but not severe enough not to be revitalized from can you not see the idiocy of your position..how Paul. Tell me how Jesus was reconstituted.
Why hold your fantastic scenario for yourself bring it out in the open and we can all enjoy it for the reasonable argument you will describe for us.
Tell me why Jesus was not raised from the place of the dead compared to your theory that Jesus was raised from the dead. I can describe my theory in detail; I can even make a video to describe exactly how it all happened but you, you can’t even talk about it because the truth is you are speaking out of ignorance; in other words, belief, in other words, non knowledge, in other words, ludicrous suspension of the laws of physics. But all you want me to do is to describe how you think he died by suffocation but that’s your description to tell, not mine. But if you can describe the suffocation you must be able to tell me how he could not survive the suffocation but could revitalize and nullify the suffocation he just died from. LMAO
And have no answers none whatsoever.
January 16, 2019 at 11:47 am
Paul wants me to tell him how Jesus did not suffocate. What I know is that Jesus could not have died by suffocation because he rose from the place of the dead and appeared to several people proving he was alive so if he was alive how do you reconcile that he suffocated? Who do you believe the executors or Jesus?
January 16, 2019 at 12:05 pm
yeah, that suffocation thing has been around for years. It came from the idea that Jesus suffered more than the sum total of mankind’s suffering. nonsense really.
January 16, 2019 at 12:16 pm
Paul is still hung up on the nonsense of suffocation. He can’t let it go. for some reason known only to himself unless it has been in the mindset so long those affected are still affected can can’t get out of the indoctrination must be a ctholic thing.
January 16, 2019 at 12:21 pm
Jefferson, regardless of him being long dead still lived in the same age we do….that being the last age of mankind’s reign which began over 2,000 years ago after the apostles completed their witness to the world (yes…100% and every “Christian” organization since then has falsely claimed to need to “preach the gospel”). 10,000 years ago, God was still in contact with certain people and directing the course of humanity Himself. Since the “last age” began, there is not and has not been any need to do so since Messiah came and the witness of his coming has been preached. “Gospel” doesn’t mean “good news” as most teach..it means the warning cry of a town criar running through the hamlet to announce the coming of the King so the people would be prepared and the town wouldn’t be burned when the King arrives to find the people not ready. We won’t see much until we see Jesus returning and the chance of being alive to see that isn’t good simply because mankind has yet to reach a point of extinction again. In spite of the potential for nuclear war….what the Bible describes as the “A-bomination that desolates”…..the A-bomb. get it? Another one of those weird prophesies that everyone speculates based on imaginary scenerios while completely ignoring reality.
January 16, 2019 at 12:26 pm
I just quoted that very verse this morning Luke 21:20
20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
January 16, 2019 at 12:32 pm
The Bible describes the visible and invisible as being separated by a veil…not a cloud. You’re placing too much emphasis on the literal wording. It is why the veil in the temple was torn during the earthquake that happened when Jesus died. Haven’t you ever read of the angel that stepped into the fire and went up in the smoke? It was to tell Samson’s parents how to prepare for his conception/birth.
For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven (the sky) from off the altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.
21 But the angel of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord.
22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God (been visited).
January 16, 2019 at 12:37 pm
also quote….the end is not yet.
January 16, 2019 at 12:50 pm
actually, all those clean/unclean statues and commandments were for one purpose….to choose a people to bring Messiah into the world as a perfect sacrifice for preventing the extinction of mankind as mortal created beings. Would you take a chance on not returning to eternity by being born a mortal when you’ve existed as a Being for all past eternity? Any imperfection in that sacrifice event would have resulted in the inability to return to an eternal existence. The sacrifice was to give up life which had ever existed to be born a man. Jesus was born a man but he was revealed to have been sent from eternity and was revealed to have EVER been the Son of God but NEVER God. The false idea that God existed in complete aloneness prior to the creation is just one more false doctrine. If that were actually the case then the creation would have been the result of an insane immortal having been driven mad by an eternal existence in the midst of an infinite black void of nothingness. And, if one throws the trinity concept into the mix then that madness takes the form of a multiple-personality disorder. Reality is that an unimaginable kingdom has ever existed without beginning, populated by innumerable beings (Host) which have ever existed and over all God, who has ever existed but never alone. Until the creation, the concept of non-existence was unimaginable. But, we being the created know nothing else. Death is not reality. Life is.
January 16, 2019 at 12:56 pm
irrelevant and not actually needed to buy a pack of your fav smokes. however, those smokes wouldn’t be available without growing tobacco down in good ole Kentucky while you live in California.
January 16, 2019 at 1:17 pm
Your post 191 is total nonsense and meaningless and nothing to do with the ascension that I mentioned about the cloud taking Jesus out of sight and to which you replied about something unrelated.
Your reply to Pail about buying his favourite smokes is also nonsensical to the his post about GPS tracking his phone and truck and electronic purchases tracking of his purchases made with cashless debit/credit cards at the store.
What are you on, the verge of another nervous breakdown? How long have you been out from the last one?
January 16, 2019 at 1:30 pm
When I was majoring in psychology at university, one assignment was visiting the Mental Institution and socializing with the inmate patients committed there.
Talking to you is like talking to them and I learned not to ask them questions and only respond to they had was questions; they had no answers so I simply answered their questions; it was quite one sided. You remind me of those patients. The only difference; you are the reverse, you have no questions, only answers. I call your Fantasy, the” Land of You”; AKA, the “Dizzy-NeeLand of Psychosis”.
January 16, 2019 at 3:50 pm
That’s good to know…in my college days I found that those majoring in psychology were some of the most screwed up people I’ve ever met. My impression was that those who should be in an institution were the very one’s who wanted to take psych for some reason. So, I take it as a compliment that you (the crazy) think of me as crazy simply based on nearly half a decade of biblical research. Unlike you I became a true scientist.
January 16, 2019 at 3:52 pm
The only time I’ve had a nervous breakdown was back when I was working full time, taking care of two little kids and trying to get through graduate Quantum Mechanics in school.
January 16, 2019 at 4:25 pm
LTG, LMAO, dude you are hilarious. if Jesus passed out after the “swoon sponge” He would of suffocated —- that is a fact based on doctors and scientists discussing crucifixion. therefore, your theory needs an explanation how He did not suffocate or it is non sense.
January 16, 2019 at 4:46 pm
I made my point about and you have to hit back; I understand. That was the basis of the first laws: human revenge. It was what the Mosaic Laws were based on: eye for an eye; tooth for a tooth mentality. It was an appeal to naturalism. We understand it when people are cornered by logic; we psychologists are educated to understand the makeup of the mind especially the minds of the frail, in thrall to a control not their own but unable to admit the weakness thereof.
Some resort to extravagant fantasies to give agency to their sense of being using imaginative invention.
January 16, 2019 at 4:52 pm
Many people recover and continue on with their life as productive individuals all the stronger for the battles they faced, fought and conquered. I wish it so for you.
January 16, 2019 at 4:58 pm
Let’s say you are right and Jesus suffocated.
How did he recover and start breathing again, healed and ate with his disciples after he sufficiently healed from his suffocation.
How did that happen? Do you have any suggestions about what Doctors and Scientist agree to in addition to your suffocation theory that practically any explanation is far more likely than the possibility that Jesus actually returned to life after being dead for three days.
So try to explain that one.
January 16, 2019 at 5:01 pm
And Paul says in his defense:
January 16, 2019 at 5:01 pm
Kim, that’s the point — with cash anybody can buy/sell, free from gov’t control. it’s the same today as it was in biblical times except for the technological advances. even if I get chipped and the cash is electronic still no problem if we still have the same freedoms. just less privacy and harder to buy illegal products/services. a system like that (ie. tagging your location/what you buy and where) would have big benefits but gives too much power to the gov’t. once the system is up and running you could be denied access if you break a rule.
so based on the bible one can make a case those who believe as I do could be denied access to the system and not be able to buy/sell. that theory checks all the boxes and is actually being proposed buy gov’t today because of the benefits.
your problem is a person in the system based on your theory could still buy and sell if they have cash. you don’t have to explain, LTG isn’t explaining why Jesus didn’t suffocate, but that blows your “fossil fuel” theory right out of the water.
January 16, 2019 at 5:08 pm
Paul, source please, for the government(s) proposal to control because of the benefits and what are those benefits. I’ll accept a link for access if you have one since you don’t have a theory about how Jesus came alive after suffocating and if you can’t give a theory maybe you don’t have theory you have a past time.
January 16, 2019 at 5:30 pm
LTG, LMAO ———— if you are right, Jesus suffocated and died, he didn’t start breathing again because he would be dead. that’s the point oh delusional one — it would be a made up story. his followers would have been devastated and returned to their previous lives. you have one foot in each camp that’s your problem. if Jesus isn’t Lord, he’s a Liar, Lunatic or a Legend.
so if you are right, later for probably nefarious reasons a whole fake story would’ve been concocted to start a new religion to scam people from their money — a cult. sell every thing you own and give it to the church (us leaders) sound familiar ?
however, Jesus’ followers were crapping their pants/hiding or left Jerusalem but next thing they are running into the vipers den and accusing the Jewish leaders of His death and saying He’s resurrected. that’s the problem.
so only 2 logical and reasonable options A. made up story B. it’s true.
option A means we all die, option B means there is a resurrection and Jesus is Lord. option B is the only logical and reasonable choice for a follower of Jesus because with out the resurrection you’d be a fool to follow Jesus’ teachings
January 16, 2019 at 5:50 pm
LTG, ……. LMAO, denying people access to a system like I described is not presently taking place, but that is the very real concern of a future NWO gov’t.
google it, huge privacy concerns already being discussed. already in place — electronic cash, gps people — I’m already indirectly via my cell phone and truck. the information is not all being centrally collected as of yet as far as I know. however, gov’t can access this information with court ordered warrants.
LTG Says:
January 16, 2019 at 6:29 pm
You said you did not want an argument; you wanted a discussiion so here’s your chance to have one.
Paul the problem is that Christianity has bought into the dogma that its message rests entirely upon the resurrection and if not then the whole religion falls but that’s just where you’re wrong. That is the falsity of the Church to get as many bums accepting the supernatural because otherwise they would not have Christians in thrall.
There is much more to Jesus than merely church dogma; in fact, it was church dogma that Jesus began his campaign against, to revolutionize and one of the first change was to stop lying to the people by hiding the key of knowledge from the masses; that is, the real truth behind religion.
Now many don’t know what they key of knowledge was so I don’t expect you to know either so I will have to tell you but before I do that I will recall for you he words from the Famous Indictment of the clergy (the Church) from Jesus.
He said: INDICTMENT # ONE:
“……But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” Matthew 23:13
Luke 11:52 is a little more explicit but with the same inner sense: “….52 Woe unto you, lawyers! (Scholars of the Law) for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered…..”
Mull that over, chew it around until you understand what all the words mean “shut up the Kingdom of Heaven, (Hide) Have taken away the key of knowledge, won’t let you go in (because they knew) and those who would go in they hindered with their deceit.
This Indictment is that Jesus knew as did the Scholars, that miracles were a myth, were based on magic tricks and that the supernatural did not exist AND that the resurrection of the dead was a tradition of the Pharisees used as a ploy to keep the masses in the tyranny of belief. All of the above was the Key of knowledge hidden from the masses but proved by scripture itself.
The Pharisaichal belief in the resurrection of the dead was a prime tenet of the Pharisee religion which Jesus railed against for three years. And that is when Paul the Pharisee infiltrated the followers of Jesus and touted the Jesus resurrection from the place of the dead, the survival, as the resurrection from the dead that proved the Pharisee tradition and because of Paul, who practically single-handedly promoted that very thing into Christianity and perpetuated the myth of the resurrection of the dead right down into modern times and you Paul are one of the dupes who was ensnared by the phony resurrection from the dead theory when in fact it was the resurrection from the place of the dead theory which was the only sign Jesus said he would give and that was the sign of Jonah(Matt 12:39-40) who himself was resurrected from the place of the dead out of the stormy sea after being thrown overboard.
Munch on this for a time and let your common sense spirit reveal the truth ABOUT THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE, hidden since before the days of Jesus ever since the early Book of Exodus and since the very first Genesis. all a bunch of religious hogwash and that was the reason the Jewish Council chased Jesus for three years to catch him arrest him scourge and crucify him because John 7:7:”….. The (religious) world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.” False, wrong, deceitful, erroneous, untrue, THE KEY of truth hidden…………..
LTG Says:
January 16, 2019 at 6:40 pm
There are a couple of controls in place to ensure privacy,(not absolute by any means) location is one, still in control of the user for cell and desktop computers, another is VPN for internet connections.
January 16, 2019 at 6:46 pm
are you saying despite all of the scientific evidence saying Jesus would’ve died —- Jesus did not suffocate after the “swoon sponge” because the bible says Jesus was alive after the crucifixion ?
dude are you for real ? that’s crazy —- please study suffocation and crucifixion.
January 16, 2019 at 7:08 pm
so you now want a discussion ?
LTG the problem with Christianity is people misuse it like all world views. there is nothing wrong with my sect of Christianity — a sacrificial love of not just friend but enemy. this only makes sense with a resurrection where this sacrifice can be rewarded. if no resurrection why die for my enemy ?
again, no evidence the supernatural does not exist. either God always existed and always will or the universe has always existed and always will. nothing is something or a creation needs a creator. to believe this is all by chance is the world view that really takes faith. I don’t have that much faith so I believe in God. and it helps me here and now and if I’m correct will help me in the next life — if not congratulations you are right and will both be worm food.
now it’s a free country but this is what I do if I was you —- study and see if it’s possible a passed out person being crucified would not suffocate. if you can figure that out let me know — everything I’ve read indicates it impossible for Jesus to have survived your scenario, He would have suffocated, forget about the spear in His side. why did they break the legs of the other 2 guys ?
LTG Says:
January 16, 2019 at 7:30 pm
What I am saying about the matter is that Jesus did not die from the crucifixion. Yes I read up on the suffocation theory and it does say that certain positions would contribute to suffocation and certain other positions would not.
My idea is not to try to explain why or how the death did not occur; I just accept that death did not occur because Jesus appeared alive several times.
Now for me any explanation other than resurrection after death is more logical for me to imagine than otherwise and so I began with the assumption that he did not die and tried to imagine how he would have escaped without anybody knowing about it and the only logical conclusion is a tunnel. And when I realized that the only two people who entombed Jesus was Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea and it was Joseph who had an audience with Pilate to ask for the body.
Pilate was no small potato to have an audience with so obviously Joseph had some pull and when you go over the situation you find that both Joseph and Nicodemus were members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council, that voted to kill Jesus and had the power to do so as the Council the Romans used to keep the masses in check for certain privileges of freedom and other things perks like having their own Roman supplied centurions for their personal security as well as deployment for people control etc. so they had a healthy number of soldiers at their disposal to enforce their rule and power; a Centurion of soldiers (also called centurions) was 100 men (A legion was nominally composed of 6,000 soldiers, and each legion was divided up into 10 cohorts, with each cohort containing 6 centuria. The centurion thus nominally commanded about 100 men, and there were 60 centurions in a legion.)
Both Joseph and Nicodemus were secret disciples of Jesus and both men were extremely wealthy and more likely than not commanded many business in the various villages; Nicodemus was reputed to be the third wealthiest man in town.
With this information a lot of things could be deduced, the safe houses, meeting places, feeding of the thousands with supplies by the secret duo, Joseph himself had been hewing out a tomb, ostensibly for himself but in fact I believe it was for the day when the inevitable might happen and the Jewish Council would get their way and get Jesus out of their hair once and for all. The bible also says that Joseph had hewn this tomb over a two year period and with his wealth and resources engineered a tunnel as part of the project that would provide an escape avenue and there are a lot of logistics to think about in such a project but I have done that and all the bases are covered just from my own ideas, let alone a man with immense wealth and power, a member of the Ruling Council and a contingent of soldiers at his disposal for whatever may eventually happen and under whose control the ranking members(Captain Sergeants etc) would be there to do his bidding whether it was the spearing for movement or the confirmation to Pilate that Jesus was already dead (by appearance) whether by drugs or otherwise but this avoided the usual crucifixion process of breaking legs so that needed to be avoided by all means possible.
(Lower ranks. Optio: One for each centurion (59–60), they were appointed by the centurion from within the ranks to act as his second in command and were paid twice the basic wage. Equivalent to a modern First Sergeant or Lieutenant. Tesserarius: (Guard commander) One for each century.)
January 17, 2019 at 7:51 am
No, it adds to my credibility. The reality today is that the world depends on fossil fuels for commerce in the reality we live in. We couldn’t survive without fossil fuels. It is in every aspect of our lives. This isn’t my “theory”. It is simple fact………….
January 17, 2019 at 7:53 am
that was many many years ago.
January 17, 2019 at 8:00 am
I wasn’t “hitting back”. I was simply stating my objective experience with psych majors. And, the pay is terrible in the field of psychology unless one has a PhD. Like attracts like….crazy goes for psych was my impression. But, the old saw could apply as well…..”I might be nuts but I ain’t stupid”.
LTG Says:
January 17, 2019 at 10:13 am
What you say here is not in dispute:
“……The reality today is that the world depends on fossil fuels for commerce in the reality we live in. We couldn’t survive without fossil fuels. It is in every aspect of our lives. This isn’t my “theory”. It is simple fact………….”
What is in dispute is the correlation you are making between the fossil fuel, et al and the reality of Revelation that it is referring to 666 all the money the Mark of the money on one’s right hand and on the forehead…..the bible is quite clear about what the mark on the right hand meaning the power thereof and on the the forehead meaning the mindset thereof. and no buying or selling without it period.
whether that money/coinage transfers to electronic currency or plastic doesn’t matter, the buying and selling without it nobody can do and it remains. Fossil fuels on the other hand must diminish and will diminish because of the threat of the warming of the planet of the fossil fuel polluting the atmosphere and the need to go to alternate energy forms, the two obvious are wind and solar and look around , the world is transforming to that energy and has taken a back seat only because Trump has his hands in the fossil fuel industry and making a pact with Saudi and Russia and the coal industry to keep in going to fill their wallets regardless of the dangers to the planet and future generations. They are those that have the Mark, that love the mark, that exploit the number and the name that guides their lives and their mindset. They represent the demonic offspring against everything empathetic, charitable, benevolent, pure, simple, love humanity and human rights to keep the fossil fuel industry filling their fat wallets and bank accounts to the detriment of the planet that supports their life and their childrens’ life.
And that trend started thousands of years ago since before Solomon and di not end with Revelation nor has it yet ended b ut the end is close and will become exponentially manifest as soon as Trump gets released from the power base he now operates in unfortunately the USA has learned a hard lesson from him and his ilk. Amen
Pardon the typos; I’m sure there are some and I am in a hurry to carry on some chores so cannot edit.
By the way my minors? Philosophy and Religion.
January 17, 2019 at 11:45 am
If John wanted to say money then he would have said money rather than “mark”. There are many references to money in the Bible without the need to label it as some kind of “mark”. The reality is that you don’t have any idea whether fossil fuels use will diminish. There are innumerable things in our life that can only come from fossil fuels. You can look that up yourself. Again, you’ve fallen into the idea that mankind’s civilization will somehow find a substitute for all that comes from fossil fuels and will continue into the future ad infinitum by way of technological evolution. That is not based on reality. The far more probable future is extinction if this civilization is extrapolated to an end to fossil fuels (if that is possible). Your supposition about the future is not found in John’s writings and has led to the obvious correlation between John’s writings and the world’s greatest human civilization. The “beast” is not a man. It is a reference to a prehistoric (beast that was), extinct age (and is not) that exists now as fossil fuels (yet is). It comes from far beneath the planet (bottomless pit). It is used for combustion (goes to perdition). It causes smog (smoke from the pit). It has a distinct molecular identification (6 aromatic molecules of the 6th element…benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and 3 isomers of xylene). It has involved an exponential increase in human ingenuity (men shall wonder..invent). It has resulted in a population explosion (people not found in the book of life). Commerce now depends entirely on transportation (“mark” = roads, flyways, shipping lanes). Note: roads are built the concrete and asphalt from fossil fuels. It has resulted in an “image” of the beast (cars, planes, boats, etc that appear to move as if alive). And finally….transportation is by way of taking one’s keys in their right hand, opening the garage door and using their brain (hand-eye coordination) to travel down the “mark” (asphalt road) that comes right to their door in an “image” (mustang, jaguar, impala or whatever vehicle one has chosen).
So tell me…what are the odds that this is all coincidence? Statistically speaking, the probability such a correlation is coincidence is nearly zero.
What does this say? It says the Bible is real. Not religious abstract BS.
LTG Says:
January 17, 2019 at 1:54 pm
Kim you are missing the point. There are three parts to the wisdom riddle, the Name, The Number and the Mark; it only gave the number as the clue to the riddle.
I am not suggesting that petroleum is going extinct just the part that is causing all the pollution from the burning or which coal and vehicle combustion engines are the culprits. Other uses that do not pollute the environment such the grease you use to stop the squeaking door or gate or used for medicine those are not issues. combustion that puts all the carbon back into the atmosphere ; that is what needs restrictions. And that is the fossil fuels that need to be changed into clean energy that does not pollute.
January 17, 2019 at 3:22 pm
As I said before…..your statements aren’t made in reality. You say coal and vehicles “need restricted”. There is no conclusive scientific proof this is “needed” as you say nor is this being done and probably never will be….especially in countries like China and Russia The simple fact is that the world population is too great to sustain without the continued use of fossil fuels. What you actually propose is to kill off most of humanity and have the rest return to the middle ages. A time when the saying “its raining cats and dogs” originated by the number of dead animals flung into the streets which began to float down the alleys when a heavy rain came through. A time when people lived in such filth and poverty that the average lifespan was a mere 35 years. Fools that we are, we get frightened and uncomfortable when the electricity shuts off for a few days. More the fool that we are when we listen to so-called “scholars” who spout the nonsense of “global warming”.
January 17, 2019 at 3:49 pm
LTG, but it is up to you to explain how the death did not occur during the crucifixion because you are promoting the scenario. first how come Jesus didn’t die by suffocation ? and second how come Jesus didn’t die by the spear to His side ? this is the nature of a discussion. when you don’t it becomes an argument. now, since I’m as critical about my beliefs as I am about others I’ve changed my mind on several things or don’t discuss them like I used to when a barrier like this comes up.
there are 2 main different questions here #1. is the resurrection (Jesus was resurrected Lazarus and the others were revived) a factual event ? #2. did Jesus die during the crucifixion ?
Q #1 could be false — no resurrection but Q #2 could be true — Jesus died.
the problem is I can not disprove the resurrection and we have the NT writings saying it occurred. the writing are compelling but also have problems. if I was atheist/new atheist I would be able to say, I agree there is no such thing as the resurrection but Jesus died without contradicting my world view.
to say Jesus didn’t die has several major problems as I’ve previously mentioned and I’ll touch on below.
there are some bizarre things that actually do occur and today we have the knowledge to explain them. but in this case, each new layer makes the story more and more unlikely that it occurred until it just becomes impossible. there are accounts of people surviving crucifixion but with very different circumstances from Jesus. Jesus should’ve suffocated after He passed out whether naturally or drugged by design. if He didn’t suffocate He should have died when He was speared in the side. the roman soldier should’ve been able to see Jesus was dead/would have been in big trouble if he helped with the plan and got caught. should’ve been a rep from the Jewish leaders to confirm Jesus was killed. why not put another body (Judas’ was available) in the tomb/keep the secret that Jesus was still alive ? Jesus’ wounds should’ve physically hindered Him that Sunday morning/afternoon/evening using our timing (garden/road to Emmaus/upper room). people promoting this scenario at times say contradicting things here — don’t touch me because I’m wounded but is in shape to go for a big hike on the road to Emmaus hours later. why did His followers that were so scared all of a sudden act so brave if Jesus wasn’t resurrected ?
see because of the above problems/questions the logical and reasonable answer to Q #2 is Jesus died. that would mean the NT writings are fictionalized if Q #1 is the resurrection is false. therefore, some on like you is contradicting their world view.
so let me sum up this conversation to date (that started several years ago):
are you saying He didn’t suffocate because He was supported differently than the other 2 guys crucified with Him ? why/how come nobody noticed this ? pilate/roman soldiers in on it ? why ? if so, why not keep it a secret ?
LTG Says:
January 17, 2019 at 4:15 pm
You head is in the sandbox:
Nearly all publishing climate scientists (97–98% support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change.
The scientific consensus is that the global average surface temperature has risen over the last century. Scientific opinion on climate change was summarized in the 2001 Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The main conclusions on global warming at that time were as follows:
The global average surface temperature has risen 0.6 ± 0.2 °C since the late 19th century, and 0.17 °C per decade in the years 1971–2001.
“There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities”, in particular emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane.
If greenhouse gas emissions continue the warming will also continue, with temperatures projected to increase by 1.4 °C to 5.8 °C between 1990 and 2100. Accompanying this temperature increase will be increases in some types of extreme weather and a projected sea level rise. The balance of impacts of global warming become significantly negative at larger values of warming.
These findings are recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized nations; the consensus has strengthened over time and is now virtually unanimous. The level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science.
By Matt McGrath
8 December 2018
because the report warned that the co2
needed to be cut by 45% by 2030 and those oil producing countries led b y nut jof Trump and Dictator Putin alonmg with Saugi and Kuwait the biggest producers just saw their wallets go flat so they refused to accept the report that 98% in the world’s scientists agree with that it is needed and must be heeded
So please, Kim, playing the ignoramus fool.
January 17, 2019 at 4:59 pm
Kim, you’re diverting, it’s not about how much “fossil fuels ” are left it’s about how to stop buying/selling. we bought and sold before “fossil fuels” and we’ll buy or sell after or when we transition to another fuel source.
besides there’s lots of hydrocarbons left (coal, natural gas (NG)). oil (CO)reserves are declining but some are theorizing larger CO reserves are deeper underground awaiting discovery. we aren’t going to grind to a halt any time soon. when the end of CO comes (if still similar level of technology) air travel would be greatly impacted but land and sea could continue with trucks/trains/cars/ships being converted to different types of fuels. but knowledge is greatly increasing so who knows what I’ll see in my lifetime. my dad was born in 1925 and used to farm with a team of horses so is it possible we’ll be able to travel by flight without “fossil fuels” with in the next generation or two ? not to mention electricity generated by hydro electric, nuclear power plants
John didn’t mention cash because it won’t be cash. besides there’s still a lot about his prophecy that can’t be explained even though many say they have it figured out. if the system is cash based whether gold/silver/currency/etc… by nature it can’t be tracked like electronic cash/credits. do you ever stay in a motel/hotel ? try paying with just cash, it’s getting harder and harder because they want a credit card and picture ID in case you destroy/damage anything.
presently because of satellites, computers, electronics, biometrics, etc….. the system as I discussed ties the person/location/transaction together, yours doesn’t. yours just makes it more inconvenient to move goods/people from place to place it doesn’t stop any body from buying or selling or travelling. under your system I can still walk/bike/take electric bus/car to the store and buy what they are selling if I have cash. your scenario would limit all from a isolated location from buying/selling. while the prophecy is clear I could buy/sell if I have “the mark.” but my wife would be excluded from buying/selling if she did not have “the mark.”. therefore, your scenario can’t be correct.
LTG Says:
January 17, 2019 at 5:07 pm
After Jesus suffocated one of the two Jewish reps, Joseph, went to ask pilate for the body to bury Jesus the roman soldier with Joseph asked the soldier if Jesus was dead and both Joseph and the soldier confirmed Jesus was dead bu suffocation. It was a good thing the roman soldier was not caught but that ends the speculation of that part of the story. . So Joseph returned and summons Nicodemus and both then lugged the suffocated body into the tomb, and prepared the body for the night crawl.
Later that nigh Joseph opened the chute to the undergrojnd tunnel and walked his way to the tomb where he unsuffocated Jesus so he could get ready for the walk to Emmaus and then back to Jerusalem to meet the others at Joseph’s Safe House and eat a little honey comb and bread and a piece of broiled fish.
Thomas Huxely said: Of the few innocent pleasures left to men past middle life, the jamming of common sense down the throats of fools is perhaps the keenest.
January 17, 2019 at 6:31 pm
I’m an environmental scientist so I know about what is and isn’t “proven”. A “consensus” is NOT “proof”. It is speculation. The climate changes over time and that’s not an unexpected or apocalyptic scenario. I had one professor tell us “we can’t wait for data…we have to act”. As a scientist, that offended me since science is based on data. Again, what climate change apologists are actually saying is that 90% of humanity should be killed off and that’s the underlying push for the continued legalization of abortion. Donald Trump might not be a scientist but his intuition is right on in separating reality from progressive rhetoric.
LTG Says:
January 17, 2019 at 9:06 pm
Trump’s wild and raging with anger;
he hasn’t much time and he knows it. No witness can come to his aid for he remains without virtue. All lovers of self and slaves to the mark and the name and the number of the beast shall be thrown down and no mourners will look for a tomb on which to shed a tear. The Hatred of heart shall be the name of every chapter in the history of the worse ruler in the land. He has turned Democracy into Demoncracy by his desire to become its Autocratic Czar. He is a Prince who does not know he is in metamorphosis from which he shall emerge as the Frog he was destined to become.
January 18, 2019 at 6:13 am
That degree of vitriol shows an astonishing amount of hatred of which the Bible has a number of examples (David/Jesus). And, to take the specificity of a biblical passage and fling it at a person is the worst possible form of Bible interpretation. My guess is you even voted for zero-bama twice…fool me once shame on you but fool me twice, shame on me.
They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 6:43 am
If you quote the New Testament, please quote Jesus anything from Acts onward is suspect especially anything regarding Paul the Pharisee who pushed the Pharisaichal belief in the resurrection of the dead. Which when Jesus was discovered alive having escaped death and the tomb, Paul ran with the resurrection of the dead of his own religious belief instead of the resurrection of the place of the dead and duped all of Christianity ever since with his philosophy and religion of the Pharisees.
As far as we know Paul never met Jesus except for the fantasy story about a blinding flash of light which in those days the only mindset incorporated the supernatural and so made it super easy to pull the wool over the eyes of the uneducated.
That vitriol for Trump is from me not the bible and inspired by the behaviour words and pettiness of Trump himself which was just yesterday when he pulled the Military from Nancy Pelosi and the Congress members slated to make a secret flight to Afghanistan troops. Not only did Trump pull the plane from Pelosi and Congress Members but Pelosi must use secret military planes as the second in line to the Presidency after VP; nevertheless the cancelled flight used the same plane to fly Melania to Florida, the sole occupant on the Boeing757 on the $35,000.00 flight to Mar-a-Lago to President Idiot’s Golf Resort.
And Trump being the Dolt he is does not know that the third in succession to the Presidency cannot fly commercial ever since the 9/11 attack and not only that, it was a secret flight as all high level military flights into a war zone are so he also blew the cover and revealed classified information to the whole world including Isis and Al-Qaeda which postponed any high level flight because of President Dunce. His tongue wags his reptile brain.
January 18, 2019 at 7:09 am
President Trump was playing tit for tat with the Pelosi hag. It was sheer genius and one I wholly agree with. I’m tired of republican presidents not playing the same game demoncrats do. When the hag postponed the state of the union address, the media thought it was genius. When President Trump pulled the same thing on her, it was “childish” according to the media. Face it buddy….you backing the ole hag doesn’t show much originality on your part and certainly contradicts any idea that demoncrats are looking to the future. And, based on that observation, your credibility on any biblical discussion has tanked.
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 7:45 am
I am not surprised you would gleefully support the Mosaic Law of Revenge which Jesus abolished, and rightly fulfilled with his “turn the other cheek” forgiveness scenario. Goes to show that you never listened to a word Jesus said and his message went right over your head.
So lolable that you would talk about Jesus return which itself shows a certain stoneage mentality when it comes to understanding anything in the bible outside what your fantastic imagination can conjure up to suit a supernatural mindset.
Nancy Pelosi has more compassion and empathy than Trump “never had”. And what do you suppose caused the R’s-Hole of America: Republican Religious Rifle Ass Theists of bottomless Pit lose 40 seats in the November Election. Trump is a loser always was a loser and will never be anything more than a resurrected loser. but to quote another suitable passage: Let the filthy be filthy still.
“….“Don’t seal the words; don’t put it away on the shelf. Time is just about up. Let evildoers do their worst and the dirty-minded go all out in pollution, but let the righteous maintain a straight course and the holy continue on in holiness.”
January 18, 2019 at 9:59 am
“If you quote the New Testament, please quote Jesus anything from Acts onward is suspect especially anything regarding Paul the Pharisee who pushed the Pharisaichal belief in the resurrection of the dead. Which when Jesus was discovered alive having escaped death and the tomb, Paul ran with the resurrection of the dead of his own religious belief instead of the resurrection of the place of the dead and duped all of Christianity ever since with his philosophy and religion of the Pharisees.”
Leo, for the record, there is no greater truth where which we have indisputable textual evidence that Jesus actually rose from the dead. You can deny and not believe the scriptures from Matthew to Revelation, but you cannot argue that the scriptures say Jesus survived the crucifixion. This is intellectual dishonestly on your part which you have been perpetrating for months and years on this blog. You are free to deny and not believe in the resurrection, but don’t insult everyone’s intelligence that the scriptures portray your fantasy.
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January 18, 2019 at 10:03 am
turning the other cheek is when someone does you evil. I’m glad you admit that the Pelosi hag did Trump bad. And, if you consider President Trump your enemy then you’re supposed to love and honor him as being in authority over you according to the same passage. Demoncrats only quote such things when they get push back from those they want to destroy in word, deed or reputation. But they squeal like the pigs they are when somebody turns the tables. As I said before, to quote passages from the Bible at someone is the worst form of religion. But I can’t forget you’re a godless baby-killing tree-hugger who despises anyone who disagrees with you and will use any means possible to take another down to show yourself better. Hate is a terrible way to live but it appears its all you have.
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 10:04 am
Since you and countess Christians cannot understand the clarity of scripture, you have a need for someone to help your understanding. Everything I say is clearly scriptural and from the mouth of Jesus himself
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 10:21 am
Since you and countess Christians cannot understand the clarity of scripture, you have a need for someone to help your understanding. Everything I say is clearly scriptural and from the mouth of Jesus himself. Naz when you read this you will be reading about yourself as the Pharisees because what you believe is what the Pharisees wanted to see and believe too….
Later a few religion scholars and Pharisees got on him. “Teacher, we want to see your credentials. Give us some hard evidence that God is in this. How about a miracle?”
Jesus said, “You’re looking for proof, but you’re looking for the wrong kind. All you want is something to titillate your curiosity, satisfy your lust for miracles. The only proof you’re going to get is what looks like the absence of proof: Jonah-evidence. Like Jonah, three days and nights in the fish’s belly, the Son of Man will be gone three days and nights in a deep grave.
If you don’t believe me believe the words of Jesu or else tell me what Jesus meant other than the plain words he spoke…….well, I challenge you because you are full of caca del toro looking only to support your indoctrination of supernaturalism and then have the nerve to say that Jesus meant something he did not meant and did not say.
The sign of Jonah because he knew a perverse generation would counter the evidence and say something untrue but something that would support their fallacy and hunger for miracles….but miracles Naz, are a “believers fantasy” and you call my Jesus common sense and my common sense as nothing/
You wouldn’t recognize Jesus if you tripped over me. And you pride yourself on what you cannot understand and do not have the common sense to do so.
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 11:01 am
But the only proof you’re going to get is the Jonah-proof given to the Ninevites, which looks like no proof at all. But he appeared alive and talked to this generation yet this generation, your generation Naz do not accept me now anymore than you accepted Jesus then.
And you think you are better off now than you were then? The generation is perverse because it is looking for miracles that do not happen and never have happened accept as promoted by evil, false religion that performed magic tricks like Penn and Teller and called their magic tricks, miracles, in order to augment by obfuscation the messenger roles they claimed were from a God (that they created and then created the tricks to prove their God) Which is exactly what scripture describes Moses and Aaron did because the prophet said it was a miracle from God and got kicked out of Pharaoh’s court for the folly and fallacy they tried to put over on the Pharaoh to prove their God was greater just as they had been doing to their own people….and successfully too, unfortunately, and you are so duped by the audacity of liars by magic.
What do you think Jesus meant when he said woe to you lawyers and scholars of the law hiding the key of knowledge (the key of religion’s success by magic and deceit) that is all religion and you are too steeped in indoctrination to admit the dupery because you would have to admit that you have been wrong all your life and that you wasted life. But you can intervene, wake up and let the common sense of LeoTheGreater open you mind’s eye and welcome Jesus into your life for the common sense revolutionary Jesus was to save you from the deceit of the miraculous-induced world of Mythology, Myth, Magic and Maybe.
With me and Jesus there is no Maybe, Jesus spoke with authority he didn’t throw out a few suggestions; he was an astonishing preacher.
So it was the Old Testament the Lord Jesus took in his hand and yet the amazing thing is this: though this was that book from which the others were accustomed to preaching, when they listened to the Lord Jesus they were astonished,. For it says in the last verse in that chapter that he taught them as one having authority. Not as the Scribes; in other words, when the Lord Jesus got up, he spoke as though he said what he meant and meant what he said and had the right to say it. Nothing apologetic; he didn’t throw out a few suggestions. He didn’t say “I suppose”, “Maybe”, “I think”. His was a proclamation, not like the Scribe. When the professional preachers got up they nestled in the corner of their pew and went for a quiet doze hoping they’d wake up just before the benediction and preferably after the offering. But when the Lord Jesus,; when he got up, everybody was on the edge of their seat wondering what AMAZING thing he’d say next. He was an astonishing preacher.
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 11:07 am
Hear the Parable of the Rooster for it is my mission to open the eyes of the captives and the downtrodden by mind memes by advancing knowledge:
Scoundrel Religious Soothsayers dread the advance of knowledge as vampires do the approach of daylight, scowling at the rooster heralding the fatal end of darkness and the end of the duperies on which they feed.
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LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 11:30 am
Arguing with me is arguing with Jesus. I merely give you the words that Jesus says, declares, emphasizes, repeats, implores and uses to support, what you just have a barrier up to prevent, from penetrating your mindset that has been ravaged by cleric control for so long a time now that you are not your own person.
You have become a robot, of priestly protocol without discretionary insight and unable to speak your thoughts because others own your thoughts. You have lost the ability to think; it’s just too easy to accept the thoughts of others probably because you were a child abused by vampiric duperies too long. Dismiss and dispense with the supernatural caca del toro. That’s where you need to start in order to return to your own birthright. For the love of Jesus, get with it for Christ’s sake.
Your common sense has been compromised by people who need you to be seduced into submission otherwise their mission fails. Well let it fail to save your own ASSet.
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LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 11:33 am
Here is one saving-grace-proverb to keep in mind during your transition trials:
No wrong, confessed in repentance, is greater than the forgiveness that absolves it.
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 11:37 am
“…..Hate is a terrible way to live but it appears its all you have……”
Spoken directly from the treasure of your heart.
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 12:00 pm
An example of “the cause of its own effect”.
You have heard it said that there is always, without fail a cause and effect and the theory is used in support the Big Bang theory and the Kalam Cosmological theory but that is not always true and certainly cannot persuade the rationale for a first cause.
In the spirit world forgiveness is the cause of its own effect. It’s the melding of repentance/absolution. In the physical world there is also “a cause of its own effect”; one simple example, baking soda and vinegar; the melding simultaneously affects the two equally and directly and spontaneously as “at-one-ment” which makes “the cause and effect” principle a non sequitur in the physical as forgiveness is a non sequitur in the spirit.
I am open to hear arguments.
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 10:18 pm
There is no historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. The only references come from the bible(and word of mouth by supernatural brain induced religious dogma) but of course we know that nobody resurrects from the dead(but some people “believe”) although people have resurrected from places of the dead, the tomb like Lazarus for example…and Jesus….Jesus himself did not say that he was dead when he appeared to the disciples; indeed, he said Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” Being still alive but scarred from the scourging and nails.
And from the scripture narrative of Jonah….”He said, I cried by reason of mine affliction (life and death distress) unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.” that means Jonah felt he would drown in the ocean..in the belly of Sheol but he was not dead nor was he in the belly of the fish (that’s a simile), because he was washed up on shore by a pushing wave….10 “And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.’ a metaphorical embellishment to the story as Jonah retold it after promising the Lord that he, Jonah, promised he would pray “look to the temple” because he had wavered and like most people made promises to the supernatural in life and death experience to be saved… etc. Oh Lord save me and from now on I promise I will or I will never ……..yada yada yada
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 10:23 pm
Time is like the Global Ocean; it is a meaningless concept until Man uses it to divide the One Global Ocean into the five main Oceans, seas, inlets and outlets where all waters hurriedly flow to where they all belong, home, into the One Global Ocean; look at an atlas. The China Sea and the Indian ocean are all part of the One Single Global Ocean.
Distance between objects is meaningless until measurements are cast. The twinkling stars are meaningless until man calculates the distance and speed of light and puts distance into a perspective we conveniently call “time” by distance and speed but “time” just “is” with and without the calculations.
Time is a man made concept to put something into perspective. When we say “before space and time” is a meaningless statement other than to put a theoretical concept into another theoretical concept that we defined as meaning something that has no meaning.
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 10:27 pm
Animals are hungry most of the time so animals have no understanding of time they either catch the prey and eat or fail and go hungry.
Before the tree fell and after the tree fell does not prove time anymore than it proves “sound” or “gravity”. Only by your example does that division of time give perspective to an event..as Jason would say..”…it’s the context…”.
Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) only proves that the radiation exists and is measureable but not that “time” began to exist by a big bang theory; that’s just man trying to put something into a mouse hole that provides s/he comfort with a sense of agency, a sense of control.
Man always looks for beginnings and ends to explain the unexplainable but nothing starts or ends, everything just “is”.
The Cosmos is a multiplicity of spontaneous generations “all the time” but man wants to pigeon hole “time” into Big Bangs and Big Gods but “time” is like the terms “forever” and “never” of which: what is the longer time? becomes a nonsensical question.
Time just is; it’s like the equation of a mathematician’s tool to the “rule”. You can write the equation to the rule of a theorem but the theorem rule already “is” before you even take the “time” to write it out.
Thoughts and time are like spontaneous generation and that’s about all we know at this period of “time” in our evolution; we try to figure out how to measure a thought in terms of firing neurons for a sense of our own agency but thoughts too are spontaneous generations.
Quantum physics seem to rule in spontaneous generation at the quantum level coming in and going out and being in different places at the same period of time, rendering time a piece in the same puzzle of where, when, who, what and how does it not? nest ce pas?
LTG Says:
January 18, 2019 at 11:08 pm
T.R. et al:
Humanism can be better understood when considered in the context of the attitudes or perspectives it is normally contrasted against. On the one hand is supernaturalism, descriptive of any belief system which stresses the importance of a supernatural, transcendent domain separate from the natural world in which we live. Belief in gods would be the most common and popular example of this. Quite often this sort of philosophy describes the supernatural as being more “real” or at least more “important” than the natural, and hence as something we should strive for — even if it means denying our human needs, values, and experiences in the here and now.
Jesus was a humanist. Pope Francis has said in a recent speech that humanism and caring for others should be centered on Jesus Christ. At a meeting of the Fifth National Convention of the Italian Church in Florence, Francis said humanism should take its starting point from “the centrality of Jesus,” in whom people discover “the features of the authentic face of man.”
Paul was wrong if he was talking about true philosophy but I believe Paul was not talking about rational thought and clear thinking; I believe Paul was talking about the philosophy of carnival barkers, snake-oil salesmen, soothsayers and sorcerers.
Since the early days Jesus’s ministry began, as noted in the very first verse of John’s Gospel in the 7th chapter, after his early humanist teachings about the dignity, worth and value of human beings and treating their lives with compassion and forgiveness compared to the church leaders whose practice was exclusionary of gentiles and sinners Jesus’s humanism was evident.
Throughout Jesus life he brought hope and dignity to the poor while exposing the evil of religious dogma. Please don’t ever think Jesus was anything more than an ordinary man with extraordinary common sense who put himself in harms way to show that the masses of humanity were worthy: to have their wounds bandaged, the disabled helped, the hungry fed, the homeless clothed; being given love, kindness and hope. The clergy hitherto had nothing but loathing for the masses, blaming their poverty, their sickness, their disabilities on their sins and/or the sins of their fathers.
Christians embrace a shallower version of Jesus. Jesus’s love continues to inspire humanist faith – faith that there is yet some good in this earth, that we can all be redeemed by love, compassion and forgiveness and that we should all choose life and should try to live it fully in a spirit of peace and brotherhood with all mankind.
It makes no difference whether Jesus was born of a virgin or rose bodily from his grave after three days; these are merely meaningless dogmatic talking points and not real.
These are signs that the wicked demand because they do not have the heart, empathy or insight to see the divine in Jesus and in all of us, without such signs. Blessed are those who follow Jesus not having seen and without any need for signs and wonders simply on the strength of his messages and words of praise and promise for a pious people from a pious person who loved humanity unconditionally. To everybody Jesus encountered, he looked for good, trust and was open to both; if the peace of Jesus returned to him unrequited, then and only then did he leave unfulfilled; however, Jesus peace and love was “indispensable…to his sense of being which he would at no price relinquish by treating fellow members of humanity with a state of indifference.”
Jesus was emboldened to remain receptive to love, peace and trust from everybody that he met and that reception, that depth of humanity was a reflection of his inner invisible essence and an essence characterized by “a form of godliness” and that invisible self, intimately identified with the invisible godliness spirit was a reflection for that essence he called the Father within that made his unconditional receptivity to love, peace and trust was metaphorically referred to as the Son reflecting the Father.
We say therefore that the “Father Godliness” reflected by the Son becomes by that reflection the “Son of Godliness” and that was, what, how, whenever, wherever, and who Jesus was to all people by his life and through his message. Jesus, reflecting his humanity in that manner was; AKA, the Son of Man.
If that disposition prevailed, no evil is allowed. And if all humanity acted on the premise that all there is of good is available to s/he who is available to all there is of good, the conclusion would never need to ask the question:
January 19, 2019 at 3:15 pm
this is hilarious. neither of you can explain the huge holes in your “swoon” and “fossil fuel” theories. the questions I’ve posed is not me pulling stuff out of my a$$ and you don’t even acknowledge the possibilities you could be wrong. why is everybody arguing like roman catholics (rc) now instead of having a discussion ? you do know the tricks rc use don’t you because you are using them.
I show you how people like me do it.
A. briefly…. I don’t know for sure and that question troubled me because I can’t fully explain it. but the God I believe in can make it all right so I trust in Him. that’s the only alternative for me because the atheistic world view is hopeless. you take away the resurrection and you might as well eat drink and be merry then commit suicide when the bad out weighs the good.
LTG Says:
January 19, 2019 at 3:46 pm
One does not need to explain the swoon theory because he did not die. And the reason we know he did not die is because he showed himself alive, muscle and bone he ate and drank, had a pee and a poop.
That’s the simplicity you can’t face because you can’t admit you’ve been wrong all your life and are still grasping at paranormal straws hoping the truth will go away.
Ask any coroner on the planet if he does an autopsy on a live body. He’ll book you an appointment with the psychiatrist for a committal interview.
Of all the things you lost do you miss your mind the most?
LTG Says:
January 19, 2019 at 3:50 pm
You cannot admit that Jesus survived because then you would have to explain how he got unsuffocated and that’s something your own common sense cannot accept, but it’s easy to admit your wrong when you let your ego go into humility stage instead of stuck spinning its wheels in high gear ego.
As far as the fossil fuel theory that as retarded AS THE RESURRECTION THEORY. And the suffocation theory dolt. hyuk
LTG Says:
January 19, 2019 at 3:56 pm
As long as you believe in Zeus and in all its mythological allure, the term mentally deficient will remain politically correct.
LTG Says:
January 19, 2019 at 4:00 pm
You don’t have questions of argument, what you have is a hobby called “Avoid answering your theory craft”.
LTG Says:
January 19, 2019 at 4:43 pm
So when it comes to the question “Why does God allow Evil” you don’t know for sure. Well that’s simple, either you know or you don’t know but you are not sure if you know or if you don’t know. You have a problem if you you’re not sure; you’re like the gate that swings both ways ahhh the old ego again flaring up making you appear stupid. There goes that old ego getting in the way again. And then you say; now, THIS IS REALLY A CORKER:
To the same question “Why does God allow Evil”? you say you can’t “fully explain it”; and you’re troubled by that. Well, that’s okay, let’s hear your partial explanation if you can’t “fully ” explain it. And let me suggest that you get untroubled which is easier than getting unsuffocated.
By the way if you read Post 241, again, you’ll find out what part of “know” you don’t understand,……ahh the wonder of old dogs learning new tricks if you just stop letting ego jump in front of your common sense that you were given as your birthright and for which religion has made you surrender and squander the only companion you have “within you” Lk 17:21 But you probably don’t know what Jesus said in that chapter and verse, you really should look it up and start one verse before at verse 20 for context.
January 19, 2019 at 6:16 pm
LTG, ILMAO …….. it’s so hilarious you don’t see what you are saying which is —- Jesus didn’t die because the NT has Him alive after the crucifixion and there is no such thing as the resurrection/supernatural so Jesus must have “swooned” and revived in the tomb. you can’t even prove your version of the “swoon theory” is the correct one. and to make it more hilarious the NT is written so only you can decode the writings before and after the crucifixion to show things like “dead” doesn’t mean “dead.”
if you don’t believe in the supernatural yours is not the only option. the most logical and reasonable would be Jesus died and the NT is fictionalized to give a supernatural twist.
LTG Says:
January 19, 2019 at 6:20 pm
“……Jesus died and the NT is fictionalized to give a supernatural twist…..”
That’syour story but you don;t want to admit it because you can ‘t explain it “fully” LMAO Hilarity Clinton is your companion hahaha
LTG Says:
January 19, 2019 at 6:24 pm
Oh hilarity one, a thousand comedians out of work and we get you.
Why would you expect me to prove your “swoon” theory, you can’t even explain “fully” why does God allow Evil because you don’t know for sure why God does allow evil but God troubles you about that. read Post 241 again for the first time.
January 19, 2019 at 6:26 pm
LTG, of course I’m not sure why God allows evil because I’ve never seen a compelling argument for why He does. and if TR was sure the post would’ve been different. some times you don’t know why. and because I don’t know why God allows evil that means your “swoon theory” is correct ? dude, you are hilarious.
LTG Says:
January 19, 2019 at 6:28 pm
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LTG Says:
January 19, 2019 at 6:32 pm
Funny how you read everything into a post but yo9u can’t admit yhat you know that Jesus died by suffocation and after dying became unsuffocated and start living again. And bcame just another man that pisseth up against the wall, Trump’s ancestor’s wall undoubtedly.
LTG Says:
January 19, 2019 at 6:45 pm
When was the autopsy performed? Oh they didn’t have autopsies then; they just let the body decompose but stuffed it with what?
“Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.”
The main reason a dead body was anointed with spices was to control the smell of decomposition. Jews did not practice embalming, and the funeral spices were a way to help minimize unpleasant odors.
But maybe Nicodemus stuffed the 75 lbs into the orifices and maybe that suffocated him too or maybe unsuffocated him and he woke up. Tell us what you really almost know but do not not for sure but tell us what you don’t know fully but tell us partially anyway and we’ll add to it and make it understandable to believers and the believers will fill in the blanks.
January 19, 2019 at 7:07 pm
LTG, LMAO —– it’s your “swoon theory.” I can’t prove (as in 2+2=4) my “resurrection theory” but at least it does not contradict my world view and no decoding of NT writings required. the proof is based on the biblical evidence and requires belief in the supernatural which can only be inferred based on arguments from our apologetics.
if the supernatural does not exist the NT writings have to be fictionalized otherwise they are nonsense. because they state clearly “dead” means “dead.”
if the only choice is between A. Jesus died and the NT writings were fictionalized and B. your “swoon theory” I’d choose A and I’m a believer in the supernatural. see that’s the point, your “swoon theory” is unbelievable with a natural world view.
you can’t explain any of the problems with your theory from A. why didn’t Jesus just take off before they seized Him to ? ….. to Z. why would His followers, who were scared to death, become courageous/spill the beans He is still alive/die for His beliefs while He walks off into the sunset ? i’d say —- i’m glad you are still alive but I’m going back to my fishing business, live out my life and die an old man in my bed especially since Jesus says there is no resurrection.
January 19, 2019 at 7:31 pm
LMAO, I know Jesus died from suffocation because that is what doctors and scientists say would have happened if Jesus “swooned” either from drugs in the sponge or if He just passed out. just like the other 2 guys suffocated when their legs were broken, that’s why they broke their legs so they would suffocate. Jesus didn’t “swoon” and then they took Him down in a few minutes did they ? the NT writings don’t say Jesus was crucified differently from the other 2 guys does it ? the Jews wouldn’t have noticed this/nobody was there representing the Jewish leaders to see Jesus was killed ? the roman soldiers were all in on the conspiracy ? plus they stab Him in the side and He doesn’t die from that ? again, read what doctors and scientists say about the spear to the side. the NT writings have to be fictionalized if He didn’t die. you only turn your critical thinking skills on things you disagree with ?
now if Jesus drowned in cold water and they carried Him to the tomb and gave Him CPR that’s a different story
LTG Says:
January 20, 2019 at 9:06 am
“….I know Jesus died from suffocation because that is what doctors and scientists say would have happened if Jesus “swooned” either from drugs in the sponge or if He just passed out…..”
You seem not to understand what words mean; for example, the difference between “know” and “believe”.
So here is the difference:
“know” : 1a(1) : to perceive directly : have direct cognition of
(2) : to have understanding of
importance of knowing oneself
b(1) : to recognize as being the same as something previously known
(2) : to be acquainted or familiar with
(3) : to have experience of
b : to have a practical understanding of
knows how to write
3 archaic : to have sexual intercourse with
intransitive verb
1 : to have knowledge
2 : to be or become cognizant —sometimes used interjectionally with you especially as a filler in informal speech
“belief” : : a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing
her belief in God
a belief in democracy
I bought the table in the belief that it was an antique.
contrary to popular belief
2 : something that is accepted, considered to be true, or held as an opinion : something believed
an individual’s religious or political beliefs
In other words..
“know” is knowledge……..notice the first four letters in knowledge.
non: : :
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LTG Says:
January 20, 2019 at 11:26 am
According to Mark’s Gospel, Jesus endured the torment of crucifixion for some six hours from the third hour, at approximately 9 am, until his death at the ninth hour, corresponding to about 3 pm.
LTG
For my theory to succeed Jesus must survive the cross; Jesus must live
and therefore I defend the life of Jesus.
For your theory to succeed Jesus must die on the cross and therefore you must defend the death of Jesus.
You like your theory better because it defends death that must necessarily have taken place in order to defend the theory that Jesus rose from the dead by supernatural intervention.
LTG
I like my theory better because it defends life and the sanctity of life in order to defend the theory that Jesus necessarily survived and rose from the place of the dead by natural intervention.
You believe in a God that is a Theity, a personal God, an interventionist God, who created the universe and who is intimately involved with its affairs. And you must defend theism because your God hears and listens to prayer and occasionally intervenes in human affairs.
LTG
I believe in God that is a Deity, called Higher Power(s); AKA God(s), but is not a personal God; my God is more like Gravity, Electricity, Magnetism,(GEM) and the Cosmic Elements (CE) My God does not hear, listen or intervene in human affairs anymore that Gravity hears or listens to human prayers to save you from falling; for example.
Your God will resurrect you after you die.
LTG
You believe because of indoctrination of others that has formed your opinion but you cannot define or describe your God or their God other than by using ambiguous terms like supernatural, paranormal and miracles.
LTG
I know God by myself, a priori and a posteriori, I can define and describe God by revelation because I have fallen down a number of times; experienced and watched the effects of Magnetism; I have been shocked by electricity many times on the farm where we had electric fences to keep the cows from escaping the pasture. We tricked and shocked out friends. I was schooled in chemical reactions and learned the elements, some operate in tandem like hydrogen and oxygen that I breathe and drink everyday.
LTG SUMMARY:
I like a God I understand and I know part of my God is within me because I have come from it. Jesus too came from the same God and opened the eyes, of those of us, who were blind before the day he revealed it to us. I was 12 years of age when I understood what he was saying to me. Jesus was about 2012 (+ / -) years of age. He is my BIG brother; I have let him down at times but when I rose again from the place of the dead, he was still at my side and he is still my BIG brother.
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January 20, 2019 at 5:04 pm
LTG …….. LMAO, but it’s you that believes Jesus didn’t die. the only evidence He didn’t die is from you saying “dead” doesn’t mean “dead.” the NT writings state as a fact He died that’s how I can say I know He died. plus based on the NT writings doctors and scientists confirm Jesus was dead.
your argument is based on the credibility of the NT writings stating He was alive after the crucifixion but if they aren’t credible saying He died before and after the crucifixion you can’t say they are credible and your argument crashes and burns.
that’s why the NT writings can only be used to support the resurrection. if the supernatural does not exist the NT writings are BS.
January 20, 2019 at 5:08 pm
LTG, but the funniest part of your argument is it’s irrelevant to your world view if Jesus even existed. the NT writings could be a work of fiction and you could still practice what it preaches.
I wouldn’t practice what it preaches if not for the resurrection because it would be foolish to submit to loving your enemies with out a resurrection.
January 20, 2019 at 5:48 pm
“…. it would be foolish to submit to loving your enemies….without a resurrection” ………sorry, your understanding is even more limited than I gave you credit for and you have no idea what it means…..
The disciples asked Jesus, “Why do you tell stories?”
He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them.
Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears.
That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:
Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing.
Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.
The people are blockheads!
They stick their fingers in their ears
so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
so they won’t have to look,
so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
and let me heal them.
“But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance.
I will open my mouth and tell stories;
I will bring out into the open
things hidden since the world’s first day.
You are not ready to understand why we love our enemies but we must give them every chance to be saved, because we want that n one should perish. ……………….And so I say once again:
#1. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
#2. “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son
of Man, but you will not see it ” And;
#3. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast. ye your pearls
before swine, lest they trample them. under their feet, and turn again and
rend you.
And these three main scriptures, all related, have risen in the spirit as provided by you and it is time to depart from communication; it has reached its end too many times.
So from here on I can only wish you, as well as you are capable of receiving and will now leave you to your own devise rejecting the knowledge offered by the Son of Man.
January 20, 2019 at 6:09 pm
He who puts hope in death has ho hope at all; it is a Pharisaichal torment. The Son of Man offers resurrection, because God is god of the living.
And regarding the dead, whether or not they are raised, don’t you ever read the Bible? How God at the bush said to Moses, ‘I am—not was—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?
God is God of the living, not God of the dead. You’re way, way off base.”
January 20, 2019 at 6:39 pm
Now remember, the Lord Jesus never preached from the New Testament, not because he didn’t like it, he just didn’t have it. Surprising how many Christians of long standing haven’t fully grasped the fact that the only bible the Lord Jesus ever had in his hand was the Old Testament. The only bible that the apostles used as they evangelized the then known world in one generation, Old Testament. The only bible the early church possessed, Old Testament. Let anybody undermine your confidence in the Old Testament scriptures and you’ve robbed the Lord Jesus and the early church of the only bible they ever possessed.
So it was the Old Testament the Lord Jesus took in his hand and yet the amazing thing is this: though this was that book from which the others were accustomed to preaching, when they listened to the Lord Jesus they were astonished,. For it says in the last verse in that chapter that he taught them as one having authority. Not as the Scribes; in other words, when the Lord Jesus got up, he spoke as though he said what he meant and meant what he said and had the right to say it. Nothing apologetic; he didn’t throw out a few suggestions. He didn’t say “I suppose”, “Maybe”, “I think”. His was a proclamation, not like the Scribe.
When the professional preachers got up they nestled in the corner of their pew and went for a quiet doze hoping they’d wake up just before the benediction and preferably after the offering. But when the Lord Jesus; when he got up, everybody was on the edge of their seat wondering what AMAZING thing he’d say next. He was an astonishing preacher.
If you were to turn on to the 13TH chapter of the same gospel, in the 54th verse of that 13th chapter of Matthew: “When the Lord Jesus was come into his own country he taught them in their synagogue insomuch that they were astonished and they said whence hath this man this man this wisdom, whence hath this man these mighty words and you recognize what they meant by “this man”.
You see he was altogether too ordinary, as some of us have reminded ourselves, they’d known him as a little baby, nursed in his mother’s arms, that seen him clinging to her skirt, they’d seen him romping in the streets with his village pals, he was the one who as an apprentice at the bench was learning his trade, he was the man who came and fixed the window when it jammed, “this man”. And they tried to rationalize.
You see, it would have been so much easier if he of had sort of a genius for a father or a mother, if he’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, everything that money could buy, he’d come back from this university and the other having gathered every kind of academic distinction and degree but he was too ordinary, “this man”.
Is not this the carpenter’s son, is not his mother called Mary and his brethren James and Joses and Simon and Judas and his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath “this man” all these things?
Now why were they astonished? You might quite sincerely say,
“Well they were astonished because they did not know that he was God”. But I think you’d be wrong. They were not astonished because they did not know that he was God; they were astonished because they did not know that he was……man.
Not man as they were, not man as you and I are….but man as he is God, created man to be. Real man. That’s what made him astonishing. You see, you and I can derive an immense amount of comfort from the fact that when the Lord Jesus came into this world he didn’t come into this world to behave as God; though God he was. He came into this world as man.
We remind ourselves that for the very first time since Adam fell into sin God in heaven could look at his son and see in him a man, a real man, could see himself, perfectly reflected. The word was made flesh, said John, and we beheld his glory. The reflected glory of his father, indwelling his humanity, manifesting himself, as God, through Jesus Christ as man. John 12:45: He that has seen me has seen him that sent me.
So he was the truth about God. He interpreted deity. In the physical, visible body of his humanity he gave not only a physical, visible expression of his own invisible self but an invisible self intimately identified with his invisible father who indwelt his humanity in the person of the holy spirit and whom he allowed from within his human spirit to gain total access to his human soul so that the father through the holy spirit could teach his mind, so control his emotions that the father in the son would direct his will and govern his behavior. So the Lord Jesus constantly testified: John 5: 19; John 5:30; “Without my father I can do nothing”.
January 20, 2019 at 10:01 pm
“I am the resurrection and the life.” that’s the Jesus I know.
“dead” means “dead.” if it doesn’t the NT writings you use to prove your argument are BS.
I’ll be a believer (in your “soon theory”) if you have evidence Jesus didn’t die from suffocation or being speared in the side. been waiting for 4 yrs ? for you to provide it that’s why I’m still LMAO.
January 20, 2019 at 10:24 pm
“Prior to death, the sustained rapid heartbeat caused by hypovolemic shock also causes fluid to gather in the sack around the heart and around the lungs. This gathering of fluid in the membrane around the heart is called pericardial effusion, and the fluid gathering around the lungs is called pleural effusion. This explains why, after Jesus died and a Roman soldier thrust a spear through Jesus’ side, piercing both the lungs and the heart, blood and water came from His side just as John recorded in his Gospel (John 19:34).”
years ago after first hearing about the “swoon theory” I read numerous accounts from doctors and scientists discussing the crucifixion of Jesus based on the NT writings. if those NT writings are correct it is impossible Jesus survived the crucifixion.
still waiting for your evidence any evidence that Jesus didn’t die from suffocation other then LTG says so.
January 21, 2019 at 6:58 am
Another “Christian” lie…..the life Jesus gave up was his eternal life to be born a man. And, he didn’t die on Friday to rise on Easter Sunday. The biblical timeline is as follows:
Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.
Based on Matt 26:2 Passover was on Tuesday evening.
Jesus was taken that night (Wednesday morning)
Jesus’ trial and crucifixion was on Wednesday afternoon.
He died and was buried just prior to sundown on Wednesday evening.
This was the first day of unleavened bread.
He was in the grave wed night/thur/thur night/fri/fri night/sat (3 days/3 nights)
God raised him from the grave just prior to sundown on Saturday evening.
The timing is precise because this was smack dab in the middle of the feast of unleavened bread week. The holy day depicting the removal of sin.
The “Christian” holiday of Easter is a lie.
The focus of his being on the cross is nothing more than a distraction and is a fundamental misunderstanding of who Jesus was. He was NOT “god in the flesh” which is a pagan concept.
January 21, 2019 at 8:23 am
“waiting for your …..evidence any evidence that Jesus didn’t die….”
Biblical Evidence: Being alive is proof abundance that he was not dead, not asleep and did not die.
In John 20:17 Jesus sent Mary Magdalene off to tell His brethren that He is alive, (HE IS ALIVE)and verse 18 states that she obeyed.
Mark 16:9–11 adds that Mary Magdalene was the first to whom the Lord appeared and that the disciples did not believe her story.
Jesus Appears to the Disciples
36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish
1-3 After this, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, this time at the Tiberias Sea (the Sea of Galilee). This is how he did it: Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the brothers Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter announced, “I’m going fishing.”
3-4 The rest of them replied, “We’re going with you.” They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night. When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn’t recognize him.
5 Jesus spoke to them: “Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?”
They answered, “No.”
6 He said, “Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens.”
They did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren’t strong enough to pull it in.
7-9 Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Master!”
When Simon Peter realized that it was the Master, he threw on some clothes, for he was stripped for work, and dove into the sea. The other disciples came in by boat for they weren’t far from land, a hundred yards or so, pulling along the net full of fish. When they got out of the boat, they saw a fire laid, with fish and bread cooking on it.
10-11 Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” Simon Peter joined them and pulled the net to shore—153 big fish! And even with all those fish, the net didn’t rip.
12 Jesus said, “Breakfast is ready.” Not one of the disciples dared ask, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Master.
13-14 Jesus then took the bread and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus had shown himself alive to the disciples since being raised from the dead. Note: (SHOWN HIMSELF ALIVE)
The Prosecution cannot prove its case without a dead corpse; it has none.
The evidence, being witness confirmed, duly notarized and sufficiently presented, the Defense rests.
LTG Says:
January 21, 2019 at 8:39 am
At the moment Jesus yielded up his spirit, the Temple curtain veil was ripped in two, top to bottom.
There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces.
What’s more, tombs were opened up, and many bodies of believers asleep
(dead means dead unless it means asleep) in their graves were raised.
(After Jesus’ resurrection, they left the tombs, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.)
Dead means dead except: “Then Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.”
Doctors jump through hoops trying to explain how “water and blood” could pour out of a corpse, saying that “in rare instances” such a thing is possible.
However, if the spear thrust was pre-death, no such explanation is necessary.
It is worth noting that John’s Gospel is the only Gospel that gives an account of the mysterious spear, Synoptic Gospels have no account of the spear which makes John’s Gospel suspect. This makes John’s Gospel not only controversial but suggests possible manipulation of the text to conform or explain church dogma rather than a record of true and authentic accounts of the messages and life events of Jesus.
After God brought the people mentioned in Matthew 27:52-53 back to life, they undoubtedly went back to their homes, where many acquaintances saw them. It’s hard to imagine how utterly startling such an experience would be for their relatives and friends! On would think there would be numerous writings about this fantastic event but not one word outside Matthew’s account.
The Bible says nothing further about these people God resurrected at Christ’s death, leaving us to conclude that they eventually died (again) and their families buried them (again).
Along with all other saints who died, they await in their graves their resurrection to spirit life. Another big lie carried over from the Pharisees by Paul to the Christian world and presto Christianity duped again.
January 21, 2019 at 10:01 am
John (as always) give his witness based on a different but still accurate perception of the Messiah. Paul backs his witness up.
Those people who came out of the graves at Jesus’ resurrection are mentioned in the Bible as having been instrumental in many being baptized.
Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
Of interest too…..the thief on the cross was among those who came out of the grave at Jesus’ resurrection. Again, Paul witnessed this and knew this man.
2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
LTG Says:
January 21, 2019 at 10:53 am
Responsible for many dead being baptized is not an accurate reading of:
Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
What Paul was talking about was the practice that developed whereby friends or family members would go to receive baptism on behalf of a departed loved one. In other words baptism by proxy and Paul was merely using that practice to legitimize the belief for the resurrection of the dead which was Paul’s big thing. Being a Pharisee he was a fervent believer in the resurrection of the dead, bodily and so used baptism by proxy as an example to push the resurrection doctrine.
Coincidentally it was because of the belief that Jesus was resurrected from the dead that Paul became an adamant promoter of Christianity mainly because of the following of Jesus whose belief that Jesus rose from the tomb bodily supported the Pharisaichal Doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead.
So my revelation dictates that Paul fabricated the blinding flash and Jesus apparition to infiltrate his way into the Jesus Group sect he could find a ready following for his resurrection of the dead Pharisee theory. Using the Jesus model Paul then began a crusade and practically single handedly became to some the Father of Christianity.
LTG Says:
January 21, 2019 at 11:08 am
Paul was a bullsh—er too and ran with anything he thought he could get away with trying to piggyback off the gullibility of the Disciples supernatural skewed ideas.
IT says the graves opened when Jesus cried loudly and gave up the spirit so the blood of the thief didn’t even have time to clot when the graves of the dead opened and they sat around the cracked open tombs in the cemetery for three days, waiting for the first born of the resurrection was out of the gate before they could all go merrily home to their loved ones. More Christian lies from Paul. Paul never met Jesus other than in his miraculous encounter on the way to Damascus.
Of interest too…..the thief on the cross was among those who came out of the grave at Jesus’ resurrection. Again, Paul witnessed this and knew this man.
2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
January 21, 2019 at 11:53 am
LTG, of course the NT writings say He’s alive after the crucifixion because they say He died and was resurrected, that’s the point oh delusional one.
the NT writings describe events which doctors/scientists state if occurred would have caused Jesus to die. you run away from this because you have no argument that Jesus didn’t die except this false logic loop you created in your own mind. which is —- according to the NT writings Jesus was alive after the crucifixion. there is no such thing as the resurrection. therefore, Jesus did not die during the crucifixion. and you don’t see why ILMAO ? please seek help from a mental health professional.
because your logical loop should go like this — based on doctor and scientific examination of the NT writings Jesus died during the crucifixion. there is no such thing as the resurrection. therefore, the NT writings must be made up/fictionalized/BS.
I believe in the resurrection based on the NT writings/scientific analysis and I’ve seen no evidence disproving the supernatural. but provide evidence Jesus didn’t die during the crucifixion and I’ll stop being a Christian. further, provide evidence nothing exists outside the natural world and I’ll stop being a theist.
January 21, 2019 at 12:02 pm
Kim, I agree with that interpretation of the sign — 3 full days and 3 full nights in the tomb. but there are good arguments for a Thursday and Friday timeline too.
a god man is pagan based on ancient religions but also biblical. very easy to separate the two (ie Jesus and Tammuz).
LTG Says:
January 21, 2019 at 12:56 pm
Then you must provide evidence of the supernatural because that is the statement you are making; the seven words above is not the statement; it’s an argument of ignorance.
In debates, appeals to ignorance are used in an attempt to shift the burden of proof.
You can’t move beyond ignorance when you Argue from Ignorance in which ignorance represents “a lack of contrary evidence”. It’s a fallacy in informal logic. It asserts that a proposition is true because it has not yet been proven false.
What you have been doing for three weeks is making statements you can’t finish, without looking like an academic fool.
Here’s what you are really saying:
Do you know that all water disappeared from the surface of Mars because of Reverse Gravity?
How do I know that? Easy.
January 21, 2019 at 5:07 pm
LTG ……. you haven’t provided evidence Jesus didn’t die by crucifixion, besides you say so, but I have to prove the supernatural ? LMAO ….. apples and oranges.
a natural world can’t come into existence by itself. something outside the natural world (ie. the supernatural) had to create it. that proves it for me, but you are free to argue “nothing is something” and “from goo to you via the zoo.”
now our argument —- did Jesus die during the crucifixion ? is within the natural world. this is a separate question and has nothing to do with my belief in the supernatural. all the evidence, biblical and scientific, proves Jesus died during the crucifixion. that means you are wrong and either the resurrection is true or the NT writings are BS. for the umpteenth time what is your evidence Jesus did not die during the crucifixion ? put on your big boy pants and spit it out, you can’t sound anymore foolish then you already have.
people like you are hilarious. it so funny how you want to talk about everything except for evidence Jesus did not die during the crucifixion. that’s one of the rc favourite tricks.
see I’m not obsessed with the relationship between suffocation and crucifixion. however, you are scared of it because it exposes your delusion. see, if Jesus passes out He can’t breathe and He suffocates. just like the other 2 guys suffocated because their legs were broken. plus there’s the spear thing. but all those doctors and scientists are wrong and LTG is right.
January 21, 2019 at 5:19 pm
LMAO …… your argument ignores the possibility the NT writings are false. and is circular reasoning based on the NT writings saying Jesus was alive but ignores those same writings say He died and resurrected. and in one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard argue no problem because “dead” doesn’t mean “dead.” and you don’t see why ILMAO ? that’s why it’s so funny
LTG Says:
January 21, 2019 at 6:01 pm
The resurrection from the dead is false and your understanding of the New Testament in general and Jesus in particular, is BS.
I have already defined God, the natural God and that’s all there is so provide evidence for the supernatural; and we both know you can’t because your understanding and belief in that BS, is BS.
Post 267 has been provided, Evidence One, Two Three and Four.
Post 258 Defines and describes God, the Natural God not the BS supernatural God that the ancients used magic tricks to prove the supernatural God and dupe weak minded mankind for 10,000 centuries and your BS is the result of their deceit that contaminates all your understanding of scripture so that you believe th impossible and reject the possible.
You have everything backward!
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Matt 23:13
In other words:
“I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God’s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won’t let anyone else in either.
And here are the two cardinal rules:
1: Read the words with a natural, not a supernatural slant for you can’t understand your own mind let alone supernatural imaginings of authors; imagination in the minds of mankind is as superficial as a child’s unknown boogieman. Don’t read the bible as a child and expect to understand it as an adult.
2: There is zilch; none, and no such thing, as “the word of God” for no God has ever talked to man; neither Isis, Buddha, Zeus, Brahma, Apollo, Horus, Ik Onkar, Jehovah or plain old God. But many authors have talked to and talked about, their personal imaginary caricature character. The best that man can say is that authors write on behalf of the character of their own devise.
Follow the above two cardinal rules and your mind will open to receive understanding.
The religious zealots in Isaiah’s day and Jesus’s day refused to give this key of knowledge to their congregation and to this very day: “So long as the priest and the professional negator, slanderer and poisoner of life is regarded as a superior type of human being, there cannot be any answer to the question: What is Truth? asked by pontius pilate, friedrich nietzsche and religious scholars everyday.
Religion is exponentially diminishing and its end is coming and will soon be replaced by the spirit permeating humanity like yeast permeates bread dough (parable of the unleavened bread-ever read it?) but which has been steadfastly stifled by the traditions of ignorance, argued from ignorance, superficial imaginations, superstition and religious zealots; and that is, give up the power of the lie of charlatanism.
And what is the destiny and what will the new wave use as a guiding pillar? This standard will be written “on the forehead” and in the hearing (metaphorically, in the mindet and on the heart ) of every man, woman and child:
“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou cannot then be false to any man.” (shakespeare’s character polonius – This kernel of wisdom is now taken as Shakespeare’s own wise pronouncements on living a proper life.)
Go back to your fishing business……
LTG Says:
January 21, 2019 at 6:47 pm
Your spinning your tires and saying the same thing like a proverbial broken record; you’re stuck and don’t have the wherewithal to move forward.
Sorry but I can’t help you anymore can’t help anyone who tramples on pearls of wisdom like swine in the pen snorting and snuffing just as Jesus predicted and cautioned us not to continue when it is too obvious there is no blood on the skin that’s left, to heal the wound on the supernatural scar, on the way downhill I can’t save you. I can’t try any longer, being rejected,
I withdraw. The last chance,
“…..your house is left unto you desolate
How often I’ve longed to gather your children,
gather your children like a hen,
Her brood safe under her wings—
but you refused and turned away!
until the day you say,
‘Blessed is he
who comes in
#1
January 22, 2019 at 6:27 am
There is no other valid interpretation of the 3 day/3 night scenario. This was literal rather than metaphorical. Jesus himself said “there are 12 hours in a day”.
There is no valid interpretation of “godman” in the Bible. Any selected passage you can quote can be easily explained after removing the overlaying presumption of modalism/polytheism that is always made in quoting those selected passages.
January 22, 2019 at 6:36 am
I can’t help you then. Rejecting the record of the witness is your own business.
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
LTG Says:
January 22, 2019 at 7:42 am
There are witnesses of events who speak what they know and what they experience and what they see and then there are infiltrators in Trojan horses. Discernment is spiritual insight required to separate dung from diamonds, not everybody has it; in fact, very few have it.
One of the worse philosophy offerings ever recorded and that many a Christian today still extravagantly use to support nonsense is the oft quoted
“…..faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
So this says simply that belief, if you just believe, that is evidence of what you hope for, wish for, pray for; it becomes the placebo that replaces “knowledge and tangible evidence” which explains why Christians easily change definitions to define “knowledge” thusly:
“The JTB account holds that knowledge is equivalent to justified true belief; if all three conditions (justification, truth, and belief) are met of a given claim, then we have knowledge of that claim.”
They mix a pinch of perceived “truth”, a teaspoon of justification and a few shakes of belief, bake in an imaginative oven and you end up with a loaf of knowledge. How bizarre is that? Well, that’s the twisted philosophy of infiltrators so that quotes by Paul supersede the quotes of Jesus, substituting the cornerstone foundation of Christianity for the tangential christian, cult-like foundation built on the sands of Paul’s Pharisaichal parasitic belief system; a gesture magically conjures Christian Contentment of Belief into “Knowledge”.
Many, both in the religious world and otherwise, have a gross misunderstanding of what constitutes faith. Contrary to “Paul’s filtered scriptural philosophy, many believe that faith’s necessity is that which “fills in the gaps” in the absence of real, tangible evidence.
Carl Sagan, the late and noted atheist and author, once said, “Faith is believing in something in the absence of evidence.” Paul says Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the “evidence” of things not seen.” I agree with Sagan.
I also agree with Jesus who said: “Truly, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” John 3:11-12
And so the infiltrator’s quote is used and the founder’s quote left aside. That is the lie of modern Christianity from Acts onward.
January 22, 2019 at 7:50 am
There is no such thing as “spiritual insight”. There is only insight. The “evidence of things not seen” are believing a witness. Jesus was a witness of God (that absolutely singular patriarchal Father). The apostles were witnesses of Jesus being the Son of God and the Messiah. The “evidence” for God is that diety has been hardwired into the human genome from humanity’s origin. Faith has nothing to do with believing a witness. It was the faith OF Jesus that was is described in the scriptures as instrumental in the Messianic event. NOT the faith IN Jesus. Consequently, your belief or lack thereof is irrelevant.
LTG Says:
January 22, 2019 at 8:29 am
I never think much about what you say anymore because your default position is “disagree with everything”, including quotes of Jesus or find quotes to override and deride even Jesus, someone you never knew and can never know. So I haven’t read much, if anything, credible from you. I would have to check but that would be worse than merely useless.
Like a Diploma from Trump University and your fossil fuel from the bottomless pit, hexagonal 666 BS, transportation “marks” of roadways BS, OMG your posts are so auto routed by default into the phony basket because everything you write is irrelevant.
You missed from the get go by incessant arguing; trying to project that you know everything, you show that you don’t know anything, but tons of nonsense.
LTG Says:
January 22, 2019 at 8:36 am
Oh, by the way the 3 days and 3 nights is not calculable except by nigglers who do not know the reality of scriptures because 3 days and 3 nights is a metaphor in the same way that forty days and forty nights is a metaphor. The same way that 144,000 is metaphorical and 666 is metaphorical.
You need to have more communications with Paul V. because you are both on a similar level.
January 22, 2019 at 8:49 am
there’s nothing metaphorical about 3 days and 3 nights. 144,000 is allegorical and refers to the entirety of the 12 tribes of Israel. 666 is a chemical formula (6 aromatic compounds of the 6th element, carbon)…again nothing metaphorical.
Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day?
January 22, 2019 at 8:53 am
I am the nemesis of hateful people like you.
LTG Says:
January 22, 2019 at 9:02 am
there’s nothing metaphorical about 3 days and 3 nights. 144,000 is allegorical and refers to the entirety of the 12 tribes of Israel. 666 is a chemical formula (6 aromatic compounds of the 6th element, carbon)…again nothing metaphorical.
Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day?
I’ll not waste time anymore telling you anything because Jesus cautions, not Paul, but Jesus: “…Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast. ye your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them. under their feet, and turn again and rend you…”
exactly what you do to every poster’s comments.
LTG Says:
January 22, 2019 at 9:09 am
A Nemesis is an impossibility for you to be because you don’t know anything.
LTG Says:
January 22, 2019 at 9:33 am
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And the first day was 24 hours.
January 22, 2019 at 3:28 pm
Kim, have you researched the various reasons for the different days of the week the crucifixion occurred ?
I’ll avoid the Wednesday crowd since you agree with that interpretation.
briefly — for the 3 days and 3 nights the Thursday crowd use the evidence that a partial day/night can count as a full day/night. the Friday crowd uses the evidence that it’s quoted as the third day and they show this means the day after tomorrow.
Thursday crowd uses the fact that’s when the lamb’s were killed so that’s when Jesus should of been killed.
Friday crowd uses their interpretation of the original Passover story that the left over lamb was burnt with fire the next day.
January 22, 2019 at 3:30 pm
The picture I got from such personal attacks as your post shows was that of an evolutionary monkey sitting in a tree throwing its feces at the lion waiting below. roar.
January 22, 2019 at 3:38 pm
Yes, I have actually. Neither corresponds with scripture. And, neither corresponds with the significance of the high Sabbath (the Saturday smack dab in the middle of the Feast of Unleavened Bread). Starting with the obvious…that God would not have dismissed the timing of the double Sabbath to raise Jesus from the grave, the only logical time corresponding to OT holy days would have been just prior to sunset on that Saturday. Counting BACKWARD would then mean 3 days/3 nights beginning with Wednesday evening. Jesus was clearly dead on the cross just prior to sunset and buried before that same sunset. So, the Passover supper would have had to be on Tuesday evening.
Sunday morning would be too late and is only of pagan origin related to the sun god rather than the Son OF God.
January 22, 2019 at 3:58 pm
LTG, dude you are hilarious, more laughs then my favourite sitcom. at least those delusional fools that “venerate” the queen of heaven and worship her wafer god son keep both feet in their world view.
if the resurrection is false, is this scenario possible ? — Jesus died and the NT writings were faked/fictionalized/made up/fabricated/etc….. ? since you don’t answer my questions I’ll answer it myself. Yes, but not only yes more probable then your scenario. why you ask —- because if those writings are accurate Jesus died according to doctors and scientists. if Jesus didn’t die (as in dead really really dead) the NT writings are bs because scientific analysis of them proves Jesus would’ve died. also the fact according to your own words —- that you have to interpret the NT writings to de-super naturalize them to support your theory proves again they can not been taken literally.
see oh delusional one, you are doing what the “duped” do. it doesn’t matter whether the resurrection is true or false as to the question of did Jesus die or not. those are 2 different questions that you are tying together to support your delusion. you don’t even acknowledge the fact the scenario listed above is not only possible but more probable then yours because it doesn’t have any problems like yours does.
so based on scientific analysis of the NT writings I know Jesus died. based on the NT writings I believe in the resurrection. therefore, I could be wrong but unlike you I’m not delusional. now if you provide scientific evidence contrary to what I’ve seen that Jesus could’ve survived and be able to stand/walk and have wounds I can stick my fingers and hands in please provide it and I’ll agree with you.
January 22, 2019 at 4:28 pm
Kim, there’s also the problem of interpreting when the lamb was kept and inspected before the time it was killed based on exodus. but the NT writings have been harmonized including the last supper taking place before the Jews had their Passover meal/the high holy day that week. it’s very interesting — they compare the original Passover meal of exodus and it’s commemoration with what the Jews did later.
the day of the week/Passover meal was one of the contradictions I was hoping would be a deciding factor but like the others there was always a reasonable explanation. so like most things biblical there was evidence for/against and depending on which position you held it was supported/not destroyed.
LTG Says:
January 22, 2019 at 5:05 pm
Gotta love nigglers, niggling over niggles trying to gain niggle points, to show their prowess at the pearly niggle gate. Hmmm what is a day? Does a day include a night or does a night include a day.
How many hours in a day? 12 hours ? Kim says: “There is no other valid interpretation of the 3 day/3 night scenario. This was literal rather than metaphorical. Jesus himself said “there are 12 hours in a day”.Hmmmmmm.
Now here is question that nobody can answer and only some can rarely undertake to try and answer.
Is it colder up north than it is in the winter? Or warmer down south than it is in the summer? or are they equal?
From your home town Is it farther to New York than it is by plane?
Kim what do you think is the longer period of time? Never or Forever
Kim says: “….Jesus was clearly dead on the cross just prior to sunset and buried before that same sunset……” But is 3:pm just prior to sunset?
Since : “….According to Mark’s Gospel, Jesus endured the torment of crucifixion for some six hours from the third hour, at approximately 9 am, until his death at the ninth hour, corresponding to about 3 pm…..”
The day must actually start at 06:00am Gregorian Time.
LTG Says:
January 22, 2019 at 7:51 pm
For Christians or anybody actually to ask ‘Why does God allow evil’?. To me this is really a very silly question.
What is just as silly is Christians who try to answer the question of by defending God or blaming it on Man. So here’s the reality that needs to be considered.
Yes an Atheist can admit that there are Higher Powers that effect all Cosmos activity including life as we know it and understand it and yes an Atheist can also call the higher Power(s) God.
What Atheism really means is that the God Theists believe in, in that the higher Powers are personal to human beings and intervene into human affairs because of prayers through miracles that suspend the Laws of the Cosmos. therefore it is not that Atheists do not believe in God, it is that Atheists do not believe in a God that intervenes into human affairs so Atheism is not against God but against a personal God; its the “theism” part that A-theists are against.
Here’s an example. Of all the Higher Powers; say, Gravity, and you were going to skydive for the first time. So you’re flying around and the instructor says let’s jump…GO…. and out you go but OMG when it’s time to pull the open chute toggle, it’s stuck and doesn’t open. Not a pleasant thing for the skydiver but here is the problem that theist would have, what higher power would the theist pray to for intervention, Gravity?
The point is that Gravity to the Atheist, is one of the Higher Powers that is part of the Atheist God but one does not pray to Gravity nor can one reasonably expect Gravity to suspend itself to save the skydiver from crashing into the ground.
That is really the only difference between the Theist Gods and the Atheist Gods but it is a major difference because Theism has then to justify or generate laws and sin and righteousness and rules that other Theists decide what the rules and sins and penalties are in addition to the Higher Powers if ignored or experimented with, that might endanger us.
Besides the penalties of gravitational forces, possible shocking death of being out in the weather during an electrical storm or swimming in the ocean whose waves are churned by hurricane force winds and drown.
So penalties for sin transgressions Society must to live by with rituals by which to grovel and worship but Atheist need none of those things; Atheists simply accept they abide within the parameters of the higher Powers without prayers, sacraments, sacrifices, fasting, offerings and a whole slew of ritualisms that are as useless in one society, as different other ritualisms are useless in other societies.
What the world needs now is Love and freedom from religion, freedom from the tyranny of religion which complicates life more than the actual Higher Powers Gods of Atheists do.
Gods do not allow evil, Gods do not kill people. Gods of Atheists do not Kill People, Gods of Theism is a myth but by belief, People with Gods Kill People.
January 23, 2019 at 6:30 am
Clearly, you don’t understand the Bible. The Sabbath was sunset to sunset. That is a day and a night. Jesus being in the grave has nothing to do with how the weekly Sabbath is determined. Except that Jesus had to have been raised on the high Sabbath…the weekly Sabbath that fell during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was a Saturday. NOT Sunday. This one doubly holy day is impossible to ignore since the Feast of Unleavened Bread was a shadow of exactly what Messiah came to do…to remove the consequence of sin…..death. The timing of this event was not arbitrary nor was it metaphorical. It fulfilled the entire meaning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Nothing less would have sufficed and God would not have ignored the very feast He gave Israel depicting the specific reason for Messiah coming to raise Jesus on the first day of the week (Sunday). And, as you say, it was evening that Jesus died and was buried. Consequently, it was Saturday evening that Jesus was raised from death. NOT “Easter Sunday”. Stop being so obtuse.
LTG Says:
January 23, 2019 at 10:02 am
That God gave any instructions to Israel or any other supernatural, mythological believing group by putting rituals, sacraments, sabbaths and other religious gimmicks about Feasts and bread, leaven or unleaven in a Book and claim it to be God-given is not only irrelevant, it is ludicrous. God inspired attributes of love, kindness and all good things imaginable however can be claimed as inspired and that began in the Old Testament scriptures but there was none to carry it out and demonstrate it because religion and mankind devolved into a deceitful group of mockery egos, revengeful penalties.
Never talk about a man behaving like an animal, the animal kingdom doesn’t deserve that kind of insult. In the day that man believed the devil’s lie that a man could be man with the supernatural God and not the Divine Logic within you and embarked on that mad experiment of human self sufficiency, the holy spirit was withdrawn from the human spirit and man had a body and a soul just like any other animal but not being protected by instinct couldn’t behave like an animal and not now being governed by the Father couldn’t behave like a man so he behaves like the maniac he does and you and I are the heirs of the chaos and the anarchy and holocaust that is the inevitable consequence of man’s stupidity and Divine Logic is saying “….CLAP….” GET BACK TO WHERE YOU BELONG!
Hence, when Jesus Christ entered into the world he said sacrifices and offerings you have not desired; in other words, the pragmatic, externals of mere religion are not satisfying to you Father. It isn’t that a man goes once a week in a piece of real estate. Or simply undergoes as a matter of tradition and form certain sacraments.
Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired but instead Father you have made ready a body for me to offer you, father. Then he said, “Lo here I am come to do your will oh God, to fulfill what is written of me in the volume of the book.” The volume of what book? Well the Old Testament Scriptures. That is, the Book that was written about goodness but never carried out in goodness because the Book was merely Mankind’s attempt at playing God based on a personal intervening God, a worship hungry, grovel-making ego God like Man in the image of himself, a revenge system of penalties and all that made up stuff about rituals and sacrifices and offerings and sabbath sacraments. God did nothing of the kind and gave nobody instructions of the kind. Man, playing God, input all the pettiness, filth and degradation of a human race filled with the dirt and muck in the mire of religious insanity using magic tricks for the supernatural, and called it CHURCH.
Thank you Father for the body that you prepared for me to offer. And everything Jesus did was out of respect within, love within, caring and benevolency within. He interpreted deity to have so done, by giving life to humanity in particular and everything else in general.
Thank you Father for the body that you have prepared for me to offer you so that I can do your will oh God everything that is written of me in the volume of the book. I am the lamb slain by mankind as a ritual since the foundation of the world when Cain slew Abel in envy of Abel’s righteousness but the time has come Father for that story, in terms of the flesh and blood of my incarnate humanity to be told so I want you to know Father that the body you prepared for me and gave me when I was born at Bethlehem I now present to you to do your will. His body.
That’s the Christian life. For every step you take for every new situation, you get out and you let him get in, you vacate and he occupies, You say thank you Lord, you may need hands, here they are, you may need feet, here they are, you may need lips, here they are, you may need a mind to think with, a heart to love with and I’m available. And you’re in business. You’re big enough, and I, reflecting the identity of the invisible Father within through my visible humanity can rightfully proclaim to be a Son by the reflection I mirror.
And he moves into that situation and demonstrates his marvelous integrity and that experience becomes a memory and in the next step into a new situation, you thank him again, you handled the last situation in a most marvelous way and I now have a supreme, unshatterable confidence that you can do now what you did then, thanks, you’re in business. I vacate and you occupy.
And once more he demonstrates his integrity and now you’ve got two experiences and two memories, two memories to undergo faith on the next situation. And this is really a corker. Ten times worse . Then you say Lord Jesus, fantastic, here’s a chance for you to be ten times bigger than you were last time. Marvelous.
And so one step at a time you vacate and he occupies, you vacate and he occupies, you vacate and he occupies. You vacate and he occupies and you discover the Christian life is one vacation after another. Until you’re finally always on vacation and he’s always in business. And you’ve discovered the secret of living miraculously.
January 23, 2019 at 2:34 pm
That is one of the most human-centric rants about diety that I have ever read. You’ve made your own god and probably don’t even realize it.
LikeLiked by 2 people
LTG Says:
January 23, 2019 at 4:29 pm
The most difficult part to accept when the Key of Knowledge is finally revealed; the single hardest reality to come to grips with is the realization that you have been erroneously lulled into the world of deceit and that you have been wrong all your life about everything you were ever told, indoctrinated by, casually heard or piously lassoed because we are all seeker in early like until the callouses stiffen and eventually desensitize us by the farce our brains are bombarded by.
Do you remember the little book that was put in your mouth and was sweet to the taste but when you swallowed it, it was sour to the tummy.
Now that I have given you the key of knowledge, the Key that Jesus indicted the Pharisees, Scribes, and Lawyers of because they kept it hidden for the last ten thousand centuries. And now, it’s up to you to let its savour permeate your doughhead like yeast until the leaven works through all the dough …(that’s what the Kingdom of Heaven is like). once you have acquired the yeast (the Key) and because everybody is a doughhead, the rest is up to you. The old adage you can take a horse to water but you can’t make him drink applies.
Lk11:52 To refresh your memory; this is Jesus speaking: “Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things: Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.
So what you say about me is nothing less and hardly as much as what the religious zealots of Jesus day said to him when he told them the same thing then that I am telling you now.
But this Key of Knowledge; AKA, the Truth that the clergy have kept hidden in order to stunt brains and become the wealthy powerful masters of the masses and whose wealth, for all intents and purposes, is incalculable.
The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints in the U.S. is valued at $40 Billion; that is, Forty Thousand millions.
January 23, 2019 at 4:36 pm
January 23, 2019 at 4:58 pm
Thank you for the compliment; the way I received it – Post 299, subtle but smart and you may not even realize it.
However in my (opinion) revelation), this is not a God that I have made; this God (Higher Powers) I describe has made me and you, the Red, Green and Blue and I take no credit. Nor do I expect anyone outside of the following, to even understand what is profound at first glance.
You may be familiar with this cautionary advice: “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given.” jc
January 23, 2019 at 5:12 pm
“For Christians or anybody actually to ask ‘Why does God allow evil’?. To me this is really a very silly question.”
not sure who brought it up first —- but it’s atheists that bring it up to me. that’s one of their biggies for God does not exist. and I agree it’s silly because God has a remedy — the resurrection.
LTG Says:
January 23, 2019 at 5:16 pm
Noted and filed.
LTG Says:
January 23, 2019 at 6:48 pm
Is a resurrection that important? Jesus thinks not.
I know that the resurrection is a central tenet of Christianity without which there would be no Christianity but Jesus offered a parable that denied the dogmatic promotion of the Resurrection; yet in doing so, Christians sorely limit their options pinning all their hopes on one single, and, in my opinion, a miracle that never happened.
Jesus himself said “they have Moses and the Prophets, Jason, Theosophical Ruminations, Posters, some dissenters, few questioners, lots of Christian enthusiasts and then you have the rare bunch, LTG et al intellectuals who, being not content to simply believe the myriad of “we have the answers”, “the true messenger”, “the true God”, ” “the true religion”, the true Church”. WOW.
And this conundrum is not a new phenomenon; this same group was around during the time of Jesus and they badgered whoever they could to seek, and knock and implore and pray to, to flatter and compliment just to get some answers that they could rely on but in those days as in these days, religion and church is a buffet line offering meat and desserts and perks for proselytes
Ånd even when all the song and dance is not adequate and people not quite satisfied they cried out give us a resurrection from the dead and we can then rest content and believe. But Jesus said resurrection is useless.
19-21 “There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.
22-24 “Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I’m in agony in this fire.’
25-26 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It’s not like that here. Here he’s consoled and you’re tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.’
27-28 “The rich man said, ‘Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t end up here in this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham answered, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.’
30 “‘I know, Father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but they’re not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.’
31 “Abraham replied, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.’”
January 24, 2019 at 6:26 am
I’ll quote you……….”the god YOU describe”. I still don’t think you realize that in defining/describing “god”, you have made yourself a back pocket deity. I’m not attacking you on this…..just pointing out a very common error that has been made for 2,000 years by some of the greatest religious “leaders” on record. These are false teachers preaching a stolen task (to preach the gospel….which was 100% completed by the apostles and Paul) without any directive to do so and their only authority is the money they steal in direct opposition to Heb 7 which clearly disannuls tithing. A practice which was to the Levitical priesthood…NOT to self-proclaimed evangelists in human-contrived religious organizations.
January 24, 2019 at 6:44 am
However, the father of Christianity was Alexander. Not Paul.
When Jesus said “I will build my church”, he wasn’t referring to an organization. He was prophesying of his return and gathering his elect (the “elect” are NOT “Christians” but those few with whom God and/or he chose personally….Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets, the apostles, Paul, etc). It is the members of this gathering who will never know death again. He was NOT inferring some perpetual abstract or concrete church organization. He WAS referring to the resurrection of those handful of “elect” at his return. And, that resurrection will not include “us”. WE are the “rest of the dead”. That should sober and humble each and every one of us. But, far too often, cults and churches tell us that we’ll see Jesus returning and will be resurrected to that event. That is a lie.
January 24, 2019 at 8:47 am
“(the “elect” are NOT “Christians” but those few with whom God and/or he chose personally….Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets, the apostles, Paul, etc).”
Kim, where does that leave us common folk ? Are we damned ?
LTG Says:
January 24, 2019 at 9:20 am
When Jesus spoke of the Son of Man in his day; iI take the position that Jesus was not speaking about himself because he spoke of the Son of Man in the third person: as, the “Son of Man in HIS day”.
When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? . This is not saying, will I find any faith; but, will HE find any……..
So to my understanding, He never refers to the future “Son of Man” as “returning”or “coming” or “in his day”, in the first person ( I, me) because he was not speaking about himself as THAT Son of Man, but to ANOTHER, similar “Son of Man”.
I believe the Sons of Man is a generational Son of Man, born among us and rising to prominence by the way they live and behave in the service of humanity for the benefit of the greater good.
4 Ezra 52 (Hebrew Bible)
He said to me, “Just as no one can explore or know what is in the depths of the sea, so no one on earth can see my Son or those who are with him, except in the time of his day. ,
2 And I asked the angel who went with me and showed me all the hidden things, concerning that 3 Son of Man, who he was, and whence he was, (and) why he went with the Head of Days? And he answered and said unto me: This is the son of Man who hath righteousness, With whom dwelleth righteousness, And who revealeth all the treasures of that which is hidden,
Because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him, And whose lot hath the pre-eminence before the Lord of Spirits in uprightness for ever.
“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven.
Practically all of the divine instructions received by Ezekiel were addressed to him as “thou son of man,” or “O son of man,” or “Son of man,” and the same privileges and responsibilities were also laid upon Jesus.
January 24, 2019 at 10:24 am
Luke 18:8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
In context this passage continues from the end of chapter 17 of Luke. The context is about judgment in the final days. The Son of Man refers to the resurrected Christ when He returns to the earth.
The parable of the persistent widow is a picture of faith. Faith is what saves and faith is what God will be “looking” for. Again this is said in figurative language but the meaning is clear.
“Daniel 7:13, (O.T.)
“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven.”
The passage above from Daniel is a prophecy about the return of Christ. There is a parallel passage in Thessalonians which speaks of the same event.
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1Th 4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
Leo, I disagree with your interpretation and with your whole theology. Not to worry, you like the rest of us will see the real Jesus one day.
January 24, 2019 at 11:04 am
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
4 You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed.
January 24, 2019 at 11:07 am
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
this is “us”.
January 24, 2019 at 11:25 am
Kim, so we are appointed to judgment ? What is the verdict ?
January 24, 2019 at 11:27 am
(The parable of the persistent widow is a picture of faith. Faith is what saves and faith is what God will be “looking” for. Again this is said in figurative language but the meaning is clear.) meaning is not clear to Naz.
“3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. Both parables speak to persistence. His parable is even named as “The Parable of the Persistent Widow” KJV
Naz this parable is not a picture of faith; it is a picture of persistence; and, Jesus even said it was about persistence and used a second parable to illustrate the same persistence in the story about the man’s friend who had visitors from a far land but nothing to give them to eat:
“Luke 11:5. And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’;
7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything’?
8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs. (Importunity synonym = “persistence”)
The passage above from Daniel is a prophecy about the return of Christ.
What makes you think that Daniel was prophecying about Christ return before Jesus was even born? That would put Daniel getting ahead of his skis prophesying the “after” (return) before the “before”(birth) existed.
There is a parallel passage in Thessalonians which speaks of the same event.
I discount almost all of N.T. Scriptures beyond Acts and Pharisaichal musings of Paul who was promoting his Pharisee beliefs. Additkoma;;y they are puled scriptures from elsewhere of which they had no understanding but seemed appropriate to a supernatural crowd that believed in dream vision ramblings and upon which most of the OT is based.
(There is a parallel passage in Thessalonians which speaks of the same event.
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1Th 4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.) These mean nothing to me and they meant nothing to Jesus which is why Jesus never quoted dream visions.
I prefer that you quote Jesus not Paul.
Naz the only thing you said in that post that I agree with is: “Leo, I disagree with your interpretation and with your whole theology.
And the last thing you are so absolutely wrong about is: “….you like the rest of us will see the real Jesus one day……”
The reason you are wrong about that is because I already see the real Jesus and know and understand the real Jesus while I am alive….you think you will only know the real Jesus one day, which is the terrible focus the Clergy has you focused on and you cannot understand that is not going to happen because they have been pulling the wool over the eyes of all bona fide seekers for ten thousand years.
Use the common sense you were given as your birthright and follow the two cardinal rules I have learned from Jesus and one of the few things that Paul was right about “Prove all things and hold fast to that which is true.” Belief proves nothing and never will; it’s knowledge that sets you free and that is truth…… but Jesus said that the clerics , and scholars and religiously insane promote the agenda of their own passion for pence and power: said Jesus of them and to them and for which they squirmed like salted slugs was ” ….Woe unto you, lawyers!(Scribes and Pharisees and Religious Scholars) for ye have taken away(and hide) the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered….”
Now Naz I will compliment you this way: you are not a dolt, a dunce, or a dimwit, so what in the world do you think Jesus was talking about when he accused them of hiding and taking away the “Key of Knowledge”? HUH? and hindering those seekers from finding?
Oh and the two cardinal rules you need to take as companions for your understanding?
And here are the two cardinal rules:
1: Read the words with a natural, not a supernatural slant for you can’t understand your own mind let alone supernatural imaginings of authors; imagination in the minds of mankind is as superficial as a child’s unknown boogieman. Don’t read the bible as a child and expect to understand it as an adult.
2: There is zilch; none, and no such thing, as “the word of God” for no God has ever talked to man; neither Isis, Buddha, Zeus, Brahma, Apollo, Horus, Ik Onkar, Jehovah or plain old God. But many authors have talked to and talked about, their personal imaginary caricature character. The best that man can say is that authors write on behalf of the character of their own devise.
Follow the above two cardinal rules and your mind will open to receive understanding.
Cheers, Naz. I am not against you. You are a chick scurrying about for the wings of Mother Hen’s refuge; all sincere seekers are but we get sidelined by the charlatans who are supposed to be on our side, not on the side of Mother Church.
January 24, 2019 at 11:59 am
Kim the rest of the story you left out: why did you leave that part out?
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
And we answered:
12 “while we were watching the Lord ascend over the horizon brow, we wondered when we would see him again, while the billowing dust cloud kicked up by the entourage of wagon wheels and beasts of burden rose skyward and slowly dissipated into the air revealing a vacant brow now missing our friend.
13. And we were wishing he would turn around. As our eyes followed the billowing cloud tears clouded our view though we could not stop looking, hoping he would appear again on the brow of the horizon, as we watched, coming back to us, kicking up in a new dust cloud to give us the hope of his return.
14. And our hope lingered within our heart as our eyes gazed after him until you asked us what we were gazing at.
15. And we awoke from our thoughtful joy.
Now you know the rest of the story that you left out Kim. But it’s not your fault. The editors also left it out in their compilation. Why did they leave that part out Kim? Do you know Why? Can you speculate why?
Oh well.
One day someone will reveal things hidden since the foundation of the world.
January 24, 2019 at 1:02 pm
“I discount almost all of N.T. Scriptures beyond Acts and Pharisaichal musings of Paul who was promoting his Pharisee beliefs.”
You have it backwards Leo, Paul was arrested by the Pharisees because he was preaching against the Pharisee teachings. Read below ….
Act 21:27 When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him,
Act 21:28 crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”
Paul resisted even the high priest and called him a white washed wall …sound familiar … those are the same words Jesus used …
Act 23:1 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”
Act 23:2 And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.
Act 23:3 Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?”
Paul was not promoting Pharisee beliefs, he was promoting the resurrection of the dead .. visa via through Jesus Christ.
Act 24:20 Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council,
Act 24:21 other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them: ‘It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day.’”
Leo, you should really read the book of Acts… again. You will find your version of Jesus and Paul does not exist in reality but only in your deceived mind.
How could a smart person like yourself be duped like that ?
January 24, 2019 at 1:42 pm
Paul WAS promoting Pharisee beliefs, he was promoting the resurrection of the dead which was a pillar of Pharisee belief and infiltrated the small band of Jesus followers because they too were promoting the resurrection based on their belief that Jesus resurrected from the dead instead of surviving the crucifixion.
Paul conjured up an apparition about being blinded by Jesus in a vision and used that story to infiltrate the small band of followers, the same followers he previously had arrested and murdered in his persecution. Through that infiltration Paul believed that his pseudo conversion could position him to eventually lead that small band of brothers and that his education, contacts obfuscation and persuasive technics from his Roman upbringing, the stage was set and was successful as he almost single handedly brought Christianity into the centuries that followed. even today Christians are more inclined to quote Paul for everything Christian rather than Jesus which really annoys Jesus followers.
So when you quote swathes of Paul you are wasting Christian Capital on me; there are too few things that I agree with Paul about certainly none about Jesus.
Jesus then appeared alive to the Band of Brethren through the period needed to completely heal from the ordeal before he emigrated and left the country forever, putting the land that forsook him and his campaign in the rear view mirror and leaving his country in a cloud of dust.
Now Paul was arrested by the Pharisees not because he was a Pharisee because the Jewish Council did not know Paul’s background but when they learned that Paul was himself a Pharisee and more frightening than that, that P he was a Roman Citizen and not common rabble among the band of brothers, they were in fear for themselves and changed their tune in a hurry after that.
The biggest problem you have in communicating with me is that Jesus is my mentor and so the source is with me.
January 24, 2019 at 4:06 pm
ah…a Very good question but easily answered. Unlike what you might have been taught, the Bible is not religious tome on how to live. It is a document of conviction against mankind. The Bible is witness against us and we are convicted by it. The judgment is of course death. The only hope we have is that after being thus convicted, Jesus has paid the price for us. Consequently, such hope is in the form of being saved from death. And, being saved, a transformational inheritance into life (eternal life….ie/life which has existed from eternity rather than some form of perpetual existence) is gifted to those who have anything worth saving (our good works). Some more than others. Some not at all and thus payment for sin doesn’t help. Without anything worth saving, death remains in spite of Jesus’ payment.
All this takes place in a singular event long after Jesus returns. His coming is to prepare the world for that day (Mal 4 is about his coming return….NOT him being born over 2,000 years ago). If he does not return, the extinction of man at the presence of God (not Jesus) is a surety.
So, The “great and terrible day of the Lord” is not the return of Jesus as so many presume. It is judgment day for the “rest of the dead” and that means “us”. We shall rise to that judgment from our graves brought back to life by the presence of God as He is. It is His burning presence that determines whether we live to be transformed or simply burn up, never to be brought back from death…this is the second death. Death without hope of resurrection.
God is a consuming fire…..is interpreted as “a consuming fire comes from God”. THAT is judgment day.
January 24, 2019 at 4:31 pm
LTG, “Is a resurrection that important? Jesus thinks not.” dude you are hilarious. “I am the resurrection and the life.”
Paul was promoting the resurrection of the dead because that is the corner stone of Jesus’ teaching. Paul’s words harmonize with Jesus’ when considering the audience, no need for a similar decoder like you use on Jesus’ words to de-super naturalize them.
how did you come up with this bizarre belief system where “dead” doesn’t mean “dead” and “resurrection” doesn’t mean “resurrection ?”
January 24, 2019 at 4:47 pm
LTG, “Paul WAS promoting Pharisee beliefs, he was promoting the resurrection of the dead which was a pillar of Pharisee belief and infiltrated the small band of Jesus followers because they too were promoting the resurrection based on their belief that Jesus resurrected from the dead instead of surviving the crucifixion.”
and Jesus was promoting the resurrection also. however, those that run Jesus’ words through your special decoder disagree. and your evidence for this —- I say so.
LMAO, because based on scientific analysis of the NT writings Jesus died, really really died. therefore oh delusional one, if the resurrection is not possible the NT writings are not reliable which blows your “swoon theory” right out of the water.
January 24, 2019 at 4:49 pm
What a most useless and ridiculous piece of mythology.
To promote that a Creator, Wonderful and Benevolent God has suddenly turned on and turned the Created into a most abhorrent creature deserving nothing but death is so Old School, so Ancient Fear Mongering, so Out To Lunch and so Third World ludicrous stupidity that it is hard to believe, in this day and age of modernity that there are such useless and meaningless imaginings still abounding in the minds of religious insanity….OMG…..
Kim you are so bewildered, so out of touch with reality, so living in the past ancient science fiction type world why not try to get a day job and wash dishes or wait on tables because for someone able to communicate the most absurd dreams, you definitely have a problem .
Kim you have to get a day job……You are just regurgitating too much blood curdling science fiction, unbelievable, clergy inspired, demon augmented, hell fearing, mass hypnotic inducing, irrational torture programs of a stoneage man just out of the cave for the first time.
judgment is of course death, death remains, extinction of man, “great and terrible day of the Lord”, We shall rise to that judgment from our graves, or simply burn up, never to be brought back from death……….
This is so uninspiring it makes me want to go out an preach in the streets against the God of Death, Destruction and Demonic Demise,,,Ahhh count me out of your idea, I am not a candidate for your idea eternity.
January 24, 2019 at 4:52 pm
Kim, it’s a “conviction against mankind” why ? because we didn’t live up to it’s commandments. so it is a “religious tome on how to live” according to your own words.
January 25, 2019 at 8:13 am
Many teach that following and literally worshipping the Bible will “evolve” one into salvation. That isn’t true. It was what the Jews were doing at the time of Jesus by adhering to the law in every detail. Yet, Jesus called them sterile graves full of bones (whited sepulchres) and hypocrites. The Bible is a warning now and the record of it will become a witness against humanity in the day of judgment.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
January 25, 2019 at 8:32 am
God is a God of life. not death.
Mankind was created mortal. As is all the creation.
It was a merciful thing to do and the opportunity at life is an unimaginable gift.
Or, would you rather have had another egg/sperm combination have been born instead of you? The probability that “you” were born into life is so low that the value of “you” is incomprehensible.
a question………….an eternity existed prior to your birth. Do you remember it? Of course not. Yet, when Jesus came out of the baptismal water and was declared the Son of God, his returned memories of that past eternity drove him near to death for over a month. It was only after that event that he proclaimed himself the “Son of God”. Prior to that he called himself “Son of Man” only the understanding of who he actually was. Not the memories.
We have no such cognition of the past prior to our birth. Consequently, it appears to us as if it never existed. Yet, it did and that is what God offers us. Not simply perpetuation of our existence. It is an incalculable gift.
LTG Says:
January 25, 2019 at 8:40 am
If there was a contest to rename the Bible I think winning contenders could be:
LTG Says:
January 25, 2019 at 8:46 am
I wrote about the pre-life Eternity of which you speak some time ago; it is short.
Once upon a time I was floating in a beautiful milky cloud of peace when suddenly, I received a telepathic communication, no words, no signs, just an understanding:
“The time has come”.
Immediately upon receiving the communication I was thrust into a wormhole funnel and emerged out into the dazzling light of a shimmering angel in my vision, an irresistible invitation and I hastened to propel forward. I reached the angel; the essence of my being enveloped the embrace: we became one; as suddenly as in the milky cloud, I was yet again overwhelmed with understanding: I had reached a destiny; I was in warmth and security; I was Home:
The Gates of Zygote, from whence I would eventually be birthed so that all there is of Good available to s/he who is available to all there is of Good would be avaiable to me. And that’s all it takes for you to dream the dream.
When you understand who and what, why and when, from where and how; the Daughters and the Sons of Man come, you will see them as s/he/we are and you’ll be like them, returning to retrieve men from their folly like an emergent baby son/daughter of man, fresh out of metamorphosis. And you become once again the next generation.
January 25, 2019 at 10:20 am
Kim, you said …
“Consequently, such hope is in the form of being saved from death. And, being saved, a transformational inheritance into life (eternal life….ie/life which has existed from eternity rather than some form of perpetual existence) is gifted to those who have anything worth saving (our good works). Some more than others. Some not at all and thus payment for sin doesn’t help. Without anything worth saving, death remains in spite of Jesus’ payment.”
Are you saying we are saved if we have done enough good works ? If so, how does a person know if you have done enough good works ? Does God grade on a curve ? What’s a passing grade ?
Also can you explain how Jesus’ payment for sin does NOT work completely ?
Thanks.
LTG Says:
January 25, 2019 at 10:29 am
Kim’s scenario is scary isn’t it? Especially if you never did any good works. Despite Jesus having put his life on the line to revolutionize religious insanity.
What is your Grade Naz? I hope Kim will not hand out the Grades. lol
January 25, 2019 at 12:21 pm
I don’t think you understand…..Jesus was a man. His mortal death would not have paid for the sins of an entire planet of humanity whether he lived a perfect life or whether he was crucified or not. It was the fact that he was the Son of God, a Person who had ever existed from eternity and who lowered himself to be the man Jesus that he was of such incalculable value as to save billions of mortal men. And, it was the fact that God worked to make circumstances leading up to this sacrifice of an eternal existence that Jesus (revealed to be that pre-existent Son (NOT God) who obediently lowered himself), was able to come into the world without blemish through a chosen people/lineage, to live a perfect life and with his death for a mere 3 days and 3 nights, paid for billions of potential deaths. We are saved by the Son’s eternal life..not by Jesus’ mortal life. The value of such was far greater than the sum of all humanity. Yet, not enough to save the angels who rebelled. The reason being that each of those angels also existed from eternity and are not created beings as man is. They will pay for their own sin with their own eternal life. But we have the Son of God to thank for our hope. Don’t sell that short.
January 25, 2019 at 1:10 pm
Kim, it looks like you sort of changed what you are saying … sort of ….
I understand that we are saved by Jesus eternal life, in fact, when we are born again, we receive the very life of Christ. However, I don’t understand how Jesus’ mortal death does NOT pay for sins ? The bible is clear that it was death and resurrection of Jesus that saves us.
Am I missing your meaning ? I’m just trying to wrap my mind around your wording…
Leo, I think the both of us would fail miserably if we were graded …
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January 25, 2019 at 3:12 pm
I can certainly understand your confusion. Christianity has taught a form of salvation that just isn’t true. Forgiveness of sin is not salvation. The two concepts are distinct. And, being “born again” isn’t what is taught correctly either. First, judgment must take place unto condemnation. This is a future event. Not a past event. Grace is not “unmerited pardon” as religion teaches. It is a delay in judgment so humanity isn’t instantly wiped out. By grace are we saved from that scenario. However, that isn’t salvation either. It is merely a delay in judgment. And, judgment is said by the Bible to be at the resurrection and in the future (who knows how long that will be) but it doesn’t matter because just as we know nothing of the passage of time before birth, we will know nothing of the passage of time after death until the resurrection. And, at the resurrection, we will be judged by and in the presence of God as he actually is (and condemned). However, it is at that time that the payment for sin comes into play, which is the sacrifice made by Jesus, the Son of God. And after payment, then and only then salvation, in which those worth saving (ie/who have some form of good works to show, etc) are transformed by that same presence of God to inherit eternal life (life which has ever been) or in the absence of anything worth saving, to be simply burned up. That is the “born again” which the Bible describes and/or the “second death”. Being “born again” is NOT the abstract elitism religion portrays. So, all have hope in Jesus. We just aren’t there yet….not given the “Holy Ghost” (breath of holiness was given for a specific purpose and is not given today), not “saved”, not “born again”. Haven’t you ever asked why Jesus has to return? It is to prepare the world and humanity for judgment day. If he doesn’t return, we’re all doomed in that scenario too. Read Mal 4 in light of the understanding that the second coming of Jesus is the Elijah and that this passage is about that second coming and judgment…the day of burning. It will make all this a bit more understandable.
LTG Says:
January 25, 2019 at 4:20 pm
You said: “…….I don’t think you understand…………” But what you don’t understand is that I do understand and this has been my position for years: Jesus did not die for the sins of the world, “….for the sins of an entire planet of humanity…..” ; that is Christian Church Dogma Hogwash….
You see, you are a recent poster to “Theos Rumina…..” I have been posting on this site since 2013…this is my sixth year……So you know very little about what I understand because you have missed out on five years of posting.
Most of my posts now, are summaries of previous, more detailed posts over that period of time. In fact the only poster who was an early contributor is Naz; all the others have fallen by the wayside like so many sown seeds landing on infertile ground without strength of conviction.
Most of the early posters who disagreed with my interpretation of Deity, disagreed not of their own accord because they had none but disagreed on the accord of those who indoctrinated them since childhood and their convictions were stunted early while their common senses were in maturation
In other words, clearly those early few months and years of life are a very sensitive time and whatever ideas are imprinted into the soft putty of the unformed mind at that stage stays there pretty much forever and yet for some reason, here in the civilized world, it’s still perfectly legal for us to indoctrinate our children with the most hateful and divisive absurdities it’s possible to imagine. Creating in them not young, vibrant, healthy, inquiring minds but rather stunted little freakish bonsai minds that are no use to anyone but a proselytizing blood sucking preacher.
LTG Says:
January 26, 2019 at 12:39 pm
Those of you who speak of God:
You speak of God as if God was a relative, a friend, a buddy on the trail. No, God is not a relative, a friend, a buddy on the trail; God is a concept, a Caricature Character Concept made in the image of Man. God is a metaphor for the Higher Powers Life Forces qnd that, made in the image of many men depending on their home culture, tradition and religion however the higher powers are not limited to a village, town, city, state, nation, country.
Isaiah 1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw 2 Gve ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished children, they have rebelled.
3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
9 Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
“Listen to my Message, you Sodom-schooled leaders. Receive the Higher Power revelation within you, the common sense you were born with, you Gomorrah-schooled people.
“Why this frenzy of sacrifices? Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves? Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats? When you come here, whoever gave you the idea of acting like this, running here and there, doing this and that—all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship, reflection and meditation of what is good for humanity?
Quit your worship charades. Your pretentious self righteousness. I can’t stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more! Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You’ve worn me out! I’m sick and tired of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning, playing church instead of praying for guidance to do what’s good, right and proper for all the people in all the land, in every way.
When you put on your next prayer-performance, I’ll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I’ll not be listening. And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are dirty. Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evil doings so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless, the downtrodden, the dreamers.
Oh My Goodness, OMG! Can you believe it? The chaste city has become a whore! She was once all justice, everyone living as good neighbors, And now they’re all at one another’s throats. Your money is as worthless as counterfeit. Your wine is watered down. Your leaders are turncoats who keep company with crooks. They sell themselves to the highest bidder, grab anything not nailed down and boast of the bribes that make them wealthy. But they never stand up for the homeless, never stick up for the defenseless.” Isaiah 1:10 Woe to you who stumble to your end, when you are caught unawares. Guess this Author? LeotheGreater Rebuking Christians? NOT
LTG Says:
January 27, 2019 at 12:15 pm
God cannot be JUST the “God of Life”; that’s an impossibility; an absurdity beyond reason. God must necessarily be God of Life AND God of death.
I don’t know why Christian believers have to place limitations on their God in some instances and unlimited in others.
The God of Atheists is the God of the Cosmos, is the God of the Cosmos is the God of Everything and Everybody, Everywhere on Earth and in the Cosmos. How can the Higher Powers not be pervasive. It is a ridiculous notion that God is only God of those things that seem favourable to Mankind and his ILK like he was the manager of a political party.,,,Egads if that were so!
And I must take exception to your take on being “born again” to mean that is when one is raised “in death” to give account of their sins. Born again is born into life, not death. (Kim: That is the “born again” which the Bible describes and/or the “second death” ) this is diametrically opposed to what Jesus described “born again” to be when he visited Nicodemus in the middle of the night: OMG where did you get your information and what cult are you following to arrive at such an outlandish interpretation. You do not make sense by any stretch of the imagination.
Listen to the meeting of Jesus and Nicodemus:
“Come in.”
“Oh yes”, I imagine, said the Lord Jesus. “Waiting for you”
“What do you mean waiting for me? This is the middle of the night; how did you know I was coming? You’re a stranger to me.”
“Oh yes. I may be a stranger to you Nicodemus but you’re no stranger to me, come in, sit down”.
Remember the story?
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. THE ruler of the Jews. That means he was the senior theologian in the city; member of the Sanhedrin. A man whose name made news; he was reputed to be the third richest man in town. And because you see he wasn’t satisfied with the conclusions to which his own theological colleagues had come who believed that Jesus Christ was a fanatical street preacher, an illegitimate child of a lying, faithless, ignorant Galilean peasant girl, Nicodemus, one of the best of the bunch, an honorable man with a sincere love for God wasn’t prepared to swallow that. But he was a little self conscious. He didn’t like to be seen in broad daylight doing the smartest thing he could, visiting the Lord Jesus to talk to him personally so he came in the middle of the night.
And I imagine that finally when he came in, surprised! He said,
“Master, you’re exceptional; you’re quite extraordinary and I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s no possible explanation for your life but God.
Master, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; no man could do these miracles thou doest except God be with him. There’s only one possible explanation for the quality of the life you live, the things you do and the things that you say and the man that you are, God.
And I imagine that in so many words said the Lord Jesus, Nicodemus, you’re absolutely right. I am exceptional; as a matter of fact, I am the exception. And you’re absolutely right Nicodemus, there’s only one possible explanation for my life, the things I do and what I say and the quality of life I live, God. Don’t misunderstand me Nicodemus; not because I am God, though God I am, Nicodemus.
But there’s no explanation Nicodemus for what I do and say and am, not because I am God but because I am man. Man Nicodemus, as God created man to be because you see Nicodemus for the first time in all history my father can look at me and see a man whose prepared to let him be God.
You’re right Nicodemus and I’ll tell you something; you’ll know absolutely nothing about the divine sovereignty operative within human personality until there takes place in your experience that which puts God back into a man. It’s called being “born again” Nicodemus.
You see Nicodemus except you be “born again” you will not see the kingdom of God that is all ready and waiting for you, it’s already there, “within you……..”
Well, that was pretty baffling for Nicodemus.
He said how can a man be born twice when he is old? Can he enter into his mother’s womb a second time and be born? And immediately advertised that this poor man deeply religious as he was, sincere without a shadow of a doubt he was, he advertised the fact that he only knew one quality of life. That quality of life that you and I receive by natural animal birth from natural animal parents.
That which is born of flesh is flesh that provides a man with a body and a soul, both of which are functional and a human spirit totally destitute of the holy spirit, a man physically alive, soulishly active but born dead.
And Nicodemus didn’t know it. How can a man be born twice when he’s old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Well no, of course, not Nicodemus. You’ll never be born twice that way. But you see, the quality of life that you receive by your natural animal birth Nicodemus, cultured as you may be, wealthy as you are, deeply and sincerely religious; that quality of life is born of the flesh. You inherited from a fallen member of a fallen race of fallen men.
You see Nicodemus, only that which is born of the holy spirit, is spirit. And you see, that’s never happened to you Nicodemus……..Because you have substituted religion for life. A relationship to church for a relationship to God.
Marvel not that I say to you and all people Nicodemus, you’ve got to be born from above and you’ve got to receive from God in heaven that quality of life for which man was made as you received from your animal parents that body in which you live. And until that happens Nicodemus you’ll never know what it is for a man to be indwelt by God and come under that divine sovereignty that allows God to be God in the man Nicodemus.
You’re right; I’m exceptional because I’m the first man Nicodemus that was ever born being conceived of my father God incarnate whoever came into this world since Adam fell who is both physically alive, soulishly active and spiritually alive. You see Nicodemus, you were born uninhabited by God, inhabited only by sin. I was born uninhabited by sin, inhabited only by God and so everything I do Nicodemus because I let my father do it, is what he does, everything I say Nicodemus, is what my father says, because I let him speak. everything I am Nicodemus is what he is, because I allow him my father as God to be who he is in me Nicodemus, the man.
And the only thing Nicodemus that demonstrates the validity of my claim to be who I am, the son of God, is the authorship, the origin of what I do and what I say and what I am. My father who lives in me, he does the work.
You see Nicodemus, I just happened to make man that way as God and I came into this world, though God, to play the role of man so you’d know how I intended you should live. Any questions Nicodemus? Any questions Kim?
January 28, 2019 at 6:09 am
Kim, are you affiliated with a particular church group ? If so, what would that be? I only ask as it might be helpful to understand your beliefs.
I disagree with most of what you are saying. But to keep it simple I only have one question for now, how many good works must we do to be “worth saving” and how is that measured ?
January 28, 2019 at 7:33 am
I have no religious affiliation and am an independent bible researcher with a doctor of divinity. My studies have focused on various religious organizations including old order german Baptist out of Indiana, Pentecostal out of Kentucky, armstrongism cult out of California, eastern orthodox and Lutheran. All good works will be saved I think. Remember the cup of water passage. How that will be is beyond me. In asking that question, you’ve missed the point.
January 28, 2019 at 8:23 am
God is God of life. As Jesus said, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
January 28, 2019 at 8:45 am
Kim, “works” are not saved, people are saved. Do you agree ?
You have said that only those worth saving will be saved based on their works.
To rephrase my question then, how do we know if we are saved ?
January 28, 2019 at 9:01 am
no need for a doctor of divinity to see Jesus’ message —- saved by grace through faith not works & love your enemies. most religions/sects are works based and you kill your enemies not love them. you don’t see anywhere in the bible where it says a person could do good works but not be rewarded by God ? I do, and that proves you wrong.
is your interpretation of Matthew 10: 42 —- if Hitler gave a cup of cold water to “one of these little ones” he’ll be saved ? you can’t lose what you don’t have.
January 28, 2019 at 9:20 am
Salvation is God’s to give but through the faithfulness of Jesus we have hope.
January 28, 2019 at 10:13 am
Kim, yes salvation is God’s to give and yes it is through the faithfulness of Jesus, not our faithfulness, that we have hope.
So in light of the above, please answer my question :
How do we know if we are saved ?
January 28, 2019 at 11:15 am
That should be obvious…we won’t know until we are. However, its as much like castaways on a desert island as anything. Who, seeing the rescue boat approaching from over the horizon, who shout in joy “we’re saved!”. But, in reality, they haven’t been saved until they’re on the boat and headed back to civilization.
Jesus’ parable about Lazarus (specifically named) and the rich man (generically identified) is concerning the two resurrections. Lazarus the beggar ate crumbs in life but was resurrected (in the first resurrection) to the bosom of Abraham (obviously “saved”) but the rich man awakes in the second resurrection to await judgment and knowing he didn’t help Lazarus, doesn’t know what to expect. But there the story ends except the rich man finds out that he can’t go back and that the gulf (of time) between him and Lazarus won’t do him any good. So, the story ends with the rich man (depicted as the “rest of the dead” or “US”) waiting to see what happens.
But, I wouldn’t worry about it. We’ll find out in that day. I trust God.
LTG Says:
January 28, 2019 at 11:44 am
I see that your post 337 is quoting from my post 262 and that’s a good thing.
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LTG Says:
January 28, 2019 at 12:31 pm
“……..saved by grace through faith not works……” is a message from Paul, not Jesus.
LTG Says:
January 28, 2019 at 1:13 pm
“……..Jesus’ parable about Lazarus (specifically named) and the rich man (generically identified) is concerning the two resurrections………”
No, it is not about two resurrections; it is about two places for the dead; one place where the unsaved cease to exist and one place for the saved to rest.
Both are religiously inspired and both are wrong. Because nobody knows other than when the dead are excavated as in archeological sites or otherwise exhumed. What is revealed after the passage of time is that the body turns into dust and the bones remain. That is all we know. And the utensils left for assistance in the next life remain unused…so much for absolute certainty of the religions of those day, as it continues to be for religions of these days when people tell you that they know the absolute certainty of death and after death and resurrection etc. it is all the speculation of religious men/women today who are still reading the nonsense of people who were living in the time of those mummified bodies were entombed. So good luck with your parody of the ancients all you absolute certainty gurus and psychics.
Jesus however referred to heaven as the Kingdom of God and he referenced that the Kingdom does not come with observation, it is not something you can visibly see for the Kingdom is within you. Lk 17:20-21
Not only that but if you were to bring concepts within the kingdom out into the open where they can be seen and help and enjoyed by all. like the lowly yet simple health benefit “the bandaid” or vaccines that prevent debilitating disease like polio; that, is indeed an answer to the part of the prayer called the Lord’s Prayer: “….thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…..” and many things are brought out into the open from that place within and who is the resident in the Kingdom…..and if you said God(s) (The Higher Powers)…..you would be correct because all life forms and non life forms consists of those higher powers within the cosmos. To name a few from LTG’s Good Book verses:
[26] BUT, personal supernatural gods that intervene in human affairs, occasionally, by prayer, hope, wish, dream, supplication, entreaty, petition, plea, request, do not exist except in the minds of men put there by religious miracle workers of magicians perpetuated by clergy wannabe God messengers for their own name in vain agendas.
LTG Says:
January 28, 2019 at 1:41 pm
Kim says in the last line when you will know….Post 342
“….We’ll find out in that day…..”
Because she does not know nor can she. She can only guess that you will know in that day which is the same thing you said to me in Post 310
“….Not to worry, you like the rest of us will see the real Jesus one day……”
I think Kim is talking about the same day as you were………..
January 28, 2019 at 4:38 pm
Leo, what I said to you was in a different context. Every one will see the Lord one day and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is LORD whether your saved or not. That was my meaning.
This is totally different than finding out “IF” you’re saved on the last day. This is not how it works. Our salvation is not wishful thinking or a maybe or a hope so … the salvation of a believer is secure, certain, guaranteed and secure.
Eph 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
Eph 1:14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
LTG Says:
January 28, 2019 at 4:55 pm
Naz I don’t put the same credence in Paul’s philosophy as you do or as other Christians do to quote Paul as though he had some special insight.
I think Paul was an opportunist who infiltrated the small band of Jesus followers and took advantage of them to move his Pharasaichal resurrection belief agenda.
So quoting Paul doesn’t add support for your ideas more than your own reasoned philosophy.
LTG Says:
January 28, 2019 at 5:04 pm
However the context doesn’t matter for the time of knowledge that Kim mentioned regarding when you would know if your salvation is secure because she has no idea how good works are recorded and kept. She is simply saying, like most Christians that you’ll know if you made the cut when you die but that’s no comfort anyone from where I sit.
That I have to die to know anything is no comfort to me and I would never set the bar that low to attain anything if you can’t retain your own life. It’s a wishing well coin toss and that does not guide my life.
January 28, 2019 at 5:22 pm
Leo, that’s my point too ! There is no comfort in not knowing which nullifies that whole notion. The gospel message is based on “knowing” not a maybe.
I’m not wishing well coin tossing my life either …..I know that I know ,,,that’s my comfort.
I think on this we could at least agree.
LTG Says:
January 28, 2019 at 5:26 pm
The resurrection from the dead cannot but be false and Christian understanding of the New Testament in general and Jesus in particular, is off base. Christians are carnival barker dupes of the why and how the religious program was constructed. If resurrection from the dead was true it would be happening all the time but it’s not.
Religion has no credibility; it only has tradition and it won’t be long before the tradition itself will be seen for the stonageism it was born out of that could only work until the day of knowledge; and we are already there as the BS of faith healing Benny Hinns and Peter Popoffs is only as good as the placebo effect science has revealed it to be effective.
I have already defined God, the natural God and that’s all there is so provide evidence for the supernatural; and we both know you can’t because your understanding is through belief.
The supernatural God that the ancients used magic tricks to prove and dupe weak minded mankind for 10,000 centuries. Religious deceit contaminates all understanding of scripture to believe the impossible and reject the possible. They make stuff up.
You have everything backward!
And here is the # 1 cardinal rule:
1: Read the words with a natural, not a supernatural slant for you can’t understand your own mind let alone supernatural imaginings of authors; imagination in the minds of mankind is as superficial as a child’s unknown boogieman. Don’t read the bible as a child and expect to understand it as an adult.
January 28, 2019 at 6:08 pm
Leo, we’ve been down this road before. Without the resurrection from the dead, Jesus is a fraud and the whole bible is fiction.
Let’s eat and drink for tomorrow we die !
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LTG Says:
January 28, 2019 at 6:50 pm
I agree. Most of the bible is a fraud and run by fraudulent leaders. In Jesus indictment of the leaders in Matthew 23 many of the indictment accounts begin with the phrase: “I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God’s kingdom.
And it was this very thing that Jesus decided to start his campaign to testify of the religious world, that their works were evil John 7:7 because I expose the evil behind its pretensions.
I agree with Jesus and I hope you do too.
LTG Says:
January 28, 2019 at 7:05 pm
The very first Book of Genesis was the Foundational Fraud that set the narrative for the fraudulent deceit since day one that convicted every man woman and child as guilty sinners and every generation since has gone though the religion’s fraud of forcing the masses to wallow in the guilt tripping the whole foundation was built on and around to convict the whole world to rob them of their wealth and acquiesce to the leaders.
God’s will, so called, is revealed in the “holy” scriptures. The sacred book formulates the will of God and specifies what is to be given to the clergy. Clergy become parasites. “… All things of life are so ordered that the clergy is everywhere indispensable; at all the natural events of life, at birth, marriage, sickness, death. Natural values become utterly valueless. The Clergy sanctifies and bestows all value. Disobedience of God (the clergy) is ‘sin.’ Subjection to God (the clergy) is redemption. Clergy use ‘sin’ to gain and hold power.
Sex without Clergy permission is sinful, lust, fornication, adultery. And this original sin everybody was born by according to the authors of Genesis.The true marriage of a man leaving his mother and clinging to his wife was suddenly the beginning of all sin because the true marriage was an anathema to the plan for using sexual activity against all mankind and from which none could escape as it was the essence of life itself.
It was Judaism with its heartfelt resentment against life, that first made something unclean of sexuality: it threw filth on the origin, on the essential fact of our life. Others blame Christianity but Christianity and Islam merely followed Judaism promoting the filth of sexuality by shaming all aspects of sexuality.
Procreation without religious accreditation became ostracized bastards, women were forced to wear tarpaulins with slits for eyes in cloth to cover the power of their beauty appeal whose mere vision of their beauty seduced men and gods alike.
Using procreation as the original sin nobody on earth escaped the guilt save the those chosen by hierarchy to execute their religious insanity.
SUMMARY:
Judaism made sex the original sin, wrote the Book of Genesis to support the narrative about the way to life, procreation.
LTG Says:
January 28, 2019 at 7:07 pm
The Classic Scam on the whole world.
LTG Says:
January 28, 2019 at 9:18 pm
Maybe, just maybe, Christians are “….putting all their eggs in the proverbial basket….” when
I know that the resurrection is said to be a central tenet of Christianity without which there would be no Christianity but Jesus offered a parable that denied the dogmatic promo of the Resurrection; yet in doing so, Christians sorely limit their options pinning all their hopes on one single, and, in my opinion, a miracle that did not occur.
Jesus himself said “they have Moses and the Prophets, Jason, Theosophical Ruminations, Posters, some dissenters, few questioners, lots of Christian enthusiasts and then you have the rare bunch, LTG et al intellectuals who, being not content to simply believe the myriad of “we have the answers”, “the true messenger”, “the true God”, ” “the true religion”, the true Church”. WOW.
And this conundrum is not a new phenomenon; this similar group was around during the time of Jesus and they badgered whoever they could to seek, and knock and implore and pray to, to flatter and compliment just to get some answers that they could rely on but in those days, as in these days, religion and church was a buffet line offering different meat and desserts and perks.
Ånd even when all the song and dance was not adequate and people not quite satisfied they cried out give us a resurrection from the dead and we can then rest content and believe. But Jesus said a resurrection from the dead was useless.
So when I hear Christians discounting anyone who dare discount the resurrection, the foundation of their Belief is but a House of Cards. If their entire reason for living and believing and dying in the hope of getting a reward for believing a resurrection; Wow, they obviously missed Jesus’s parable why a resurrection means nothing and why it is useless.
19-21 “There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.
22-24 “Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I’m in agony in this fire.’
25-26 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It’s not like that here. Here he’s consoled and you’re tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.’
27-28 “The rich man said, ‘Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t end up here in this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham answered, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.’
30 “‘I know, Father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but they’re not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.’
31 “Abraham replied, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, (Jason, Theosophical Ruminations, Posters, some dissenters, few questioners, lots of Christian enthusiasts and that rare bunch, LTG et al, intellectuals,) they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.’”
And that was Jesus telling the story……they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.
So, I ask Kim and Naz, what is the point of setting the foundation of Christianity solely on the Resurrection when Jesus himself said it was pointless to send someone who rises from the dead? If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, Jason, Theosophical Ruminations, Posters, some dissenters, few questioners, lots of Christian enthusiasts and that rare bunch, LTG et al, intellectuals, they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.
January 28, 2019 at 10:08 pm
LTG ……………. “THE CASE AGAINST RESURRECTION WAS MADE BY JESUS HIMSELF.” LMAO, they weren’t convinced by some one who resurrected. the real delusional ones said He never died on the cross and the others said His body was stolen by His followers
January 28, 2019 at 10:20 pm
Paul and everybody else in the NT agrees with Jesus ——— “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:”
no LTG secret decoder need “believeth in me” = faith in Jesus which allows us to access the grace that saves us.
January 29, 2019 at 6:57 am
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LTG Says:
January 29, 2019 at 8:01 am
I quoted Jesus from the bible regarding his parable so you can accuse Jesus of “intellectual dishonesty” or the bible because you fail to understand
I think parroting Paul is a bridge too far though I’m sure he will be pleased to have another misled Christian ally supporting his rear. Paul’s method of debate is ad hominems whereby genuine discussion of the topic at hand is avoided by instead attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument. Be careful who you wish for to support.
Let me say it again: Jesus through his character Abraham said “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets …..they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead……” or “from the place of the dead”.
Are you saying that Jesus’s words mean nothing? Are you not clever enough to use Jesus as a sidekick to prove your words? Well, I do and I quote Jesus and the scriptures he alludes to while you do not. Theists have a theology; I am not a theist.
Jesus answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Was this a meaningless statement too?
I know I need to tell you that “belly of a big fish….” is a metaphor because you and others undoubtedly take the literal meaning that Jonah was actually in the belly of a big fish. If you re-read the story of Jonah without supernatural eyes, you’ll clearly see that Jonah did not struggle inside the belly of a big fish and that his struggle was against the sea waves and the seaweed to keep himself from drowning, “in the place of Sheol” until finally, he washed up on shore by a wave and not spit out by a big fish’s mouth.
Does intellectual dishonesty apply only to people who “do not accept” most events as miracles when occam razor’s simplicity trumps the bizarre.
People who judge others more critically than oneself is intellectually dishonest.
January 29, 2019 at 9:32 am
“you’ll clearly see that Jonah did not struggle inside the belly of a big fish and that his struggle was against the sea waves and the seaweed to keep himself from drowning, “in the place of Sheol” until finally, he washed up on shore by a wave and not spit out by a big fish’s mouth.”
Jon 1:17 And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Jon 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish,
Jon 2:10 And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
If the fish is a metaphor it would not be used as it is in this passage, It was a literal fish. I understand there are times when we must read passages as metaphorical and not literal, this is not one of those times. I don’t see how you can negate the fish with the literal reading of this passage. It’s not metaphor.
Mat 12:40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Even Jesus refers to the fish. If it was to be taken as metaphor He would speak in this manner about Jonah.
LTG Says:
January 29, 2019 at 10:52 am
Everything in the Bible has to start and end with God, it was designed that way.
Jesus refers to a couple lines of the Story as it was titled in scripture because that’s how the story was projected to the audience similar to Jesus’s own parables.
You used the titles of the Jonah story but deliberately avoided the actual story itself. Now Naz, I am not going to accuse you of intellectual dishonesty because you used titles to support your literal interpretation because that would not be a fair criticism of you anymore than it was a fair criticism of me. I only remind you of this and I’ll say nothing more about it; except to say it is not an uncommon ploy for writers to offer parts or pieces of a paragraph, scripture or otherwise, for example, that support the author’s perspective and leave out parts that may not.
And so it is from this vein that I will answer your Post 361
The Book of Jonah: the very first sentence begins with a metaphor and the very last sentence ends with the metaphor. THIS is quite possible to help the understanding to make the story more appealing to children’s understanding who may be just learning about Jonah for the first time. So the fish example would be perfectly logical to help a child’s understanding for a near death experience than drowning. I don’t know this ; I am only offering a reasonable possibility because children would easily identify with possible cartoonish-type characters, in picture sketches which is the way the story is depicted in cartoonish characters today.
But the essence of the story is for adults is the reality of a near death experience by drowning to understand is the important issue here; the meaty substance of the story between the opening metaphor and the closing metaphor. So with that in mind let’s read the story again what really happened.
Now briefly the sailors drew straws of the people on board to explain why this huge storm suddenly came down upon them and as superstition would have somebody on board must have sinned and the rest of the crew was being punished so they asked Jonah who is your God what did you do, where have you come from. Eventually Jonah, believing I suppose, that the men were about to kill him as a sacrificial lamb to quell God’s wrath decided to he would have a better chance for survival so he told the men to throw him in the sea and the storm would cease raging. For a superstitious lot that would ease their conscience and they asked not to be blamed for Jonah’s death:
in Chapter one “12 Jonah said, “Throw me overboard, into the sea. Then the storm will stop. It’s all my fault. I’m the cause of the storm. Get rid of me and you’ll get rid of the storm.”
13 But no. The men tried rowing back to shore. They made no headway. The storm only got worse and worse, wild and raging.
14 Then they prayed to God, “O God! Don’t let us drown because of this man’s life, and don’t blame us for his death.
They threw him overboard; they were not that far from shore and had already tried rowing there but could not…..Jonah knew this.
At the Bottom of the Sea
2 1-9 Then Jonah prayed to his God from the belly of the fish.
He prayed:
“In trouble, deep trouble, I prayed to God.
He answered me.
From the belly of the grave I cried, ‘Help!’
You heard my cry.
You threw me into ocean’s depths,
into a watery grave,
crashing over me.
I said, ‘I’ve been thrown away,
thrown out, out of your sight.
on your Holy Temple.’
Ocean gripped me by the throat.
The ancient Abyss grabbed me and held tight.
My head was all tangled in seaweed
at the bottom of the sea where the mountains take root.
I was as far down as a body can go,
and the gates were slamming shut behind me forever—
Yet you pulled me up from that grave alive,
O God, my God!
When my life was slipping away,
I remembered God,
And my prayer got through to you,
made it all the way to your Holy Temple.
Those who worship hollow gods, god-frauds,
walk away from their only true love.
calling out in thanksgiving!
Salvation belongs to God!”
10 Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.
He made it to shore.
So Naz, between the two metaphors(one metaphor starts the story and one metaphor ends the story) there is absolutely no mention of any fish, only the near death experience of fighting against the sea to stop from drowning, the seaweed, being dragged down and holding his breath until he surfaced again. The account is fully about not drowning in the sea grave, the place of Sheol etc.
As for the three days and three nights in the belly of the fish itself may be a metaphor because three days and three nights is a description meaning a “short time” duration compared to “40 days and 40 nights” meaning a long time duration whether the duration is in hours, days, months or years. 40 yrs roaming in the wilderness, 40 days and 40 nights of rain the time of the flood, the time Moses was in self exile escaping Egypt, Not every event is necessarily a literal time duration.
January 29, 2019 at 10:58 am
LTG …… LMAO, dude are there voices in your head saying you are the second coming ?
you do/started the ad hominems, I’m responding as I interpret do onto others, since you do it to me and others you must want others to do it to you. years ago, I just asked you for the reason(s) why you believe Jesus didn’t die during the crucifixion as the NT writings state as fact in hind site. and you went bat shit crazy, I thought that was hilarious, you should go back and re-read that exchange. still waiting for those reasons, why not admit you don’t have any and you have to twist and pervert the NT writings to protect your delusion.
but you can “dupe” yourself into thinking Jesus said “resurrection” but He didn’t mean “resurrection.” and He said “dead” but He didn’t mean “dead.” and He said “alive” but He didn’t mean “alive.”
January 30, 2019 at 10:26 am
Kim, to continue our dialogue … our salvation is not a “maybe”, not a “hope so” it is a guarantee otherwise we could not call it good news. Don’t you agree ?
Eph 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
Eph 1:14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
We are sealed when we believed in the Lord Jesus and it’s not by our good works because as the bible says “no flesh shall be justified by the works of the law”. There is nothing you can do to earn your salvation. We are all worth saving because Jesus died for the whole world.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
We are not the “rest of the dead”. We are part of the first resurrection, those of the second resurrection are damned to Hell in the second death. This is the final snuffing out of those that are not Christ’s.
Rev 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
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LTG Says:
January 30, 2019 at 10:34 am
Don’t believe a word Paul says; Paul didn’t even know Jesus except when he was hunting, prosecuting and murdering his followers. And then made up a story to infiltrate the small band of followers remaining so he could promote the Pharisee resurrection which was his religious upbringing and the resurrection from the place of the dead, like Jonah, was in vogue with the small band who thought it was the resurrection from the dead instead of from the place of the dead…just like Jonah.
It seems to me Naz that you are wearing a lasso around your neck.
January 30, 2019 at 10:48 am
Leo, I disagree with you wholeheartedly about Paul and the resurrection. Paul WAS a persecutor of Christ ….not any more …
Php 3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Php 3:7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Php 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Php 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
Php 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, …..
January 30, 2019 at 10:58 am
Peter Popoff preached the bible words which are Paul’s I hasten to add. While wearing a miracle ear piece.
January 30, 2019 at 11:33 am
Not so. If you were actually “saved” then the very next mortal act of sin, no matter how small and insignificant to you would damn you forever Just as none are “saved” except Jesus yet, none are yet damned. That is by grace which is NOT “unmerited pardon” but simply a delay in judgment.
And, you’ve obviously been taught that the “gospel” means “good news”. That is a false teaching as well. The biblical meaning of “gospel” is that of a town criar running through the town and yelling “the King is coming so you better get ready”. Else the King will come and the town will not make ready without the warnig and the King will see the people unprepared and burn the town down, killing all the people. Consequently, Jesus went about preaching the “gospel” and saying “repent……THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND”.
And, your comments also indicate you have been taught the concept of immediate gratification for certain passages which goes hand in hand with the false teaching of isolationalistic elitism. for example….The passage “repent, be baptized and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost” has NO immediate gratification built into it. It is a predictive passage with an unspecifiedtime gap built into it. The purpose for such a false teaching is to motivate the people to “give” to the church to “spread the gospel” but in fact to make certain men rich. The “gospel” was preached 100% within 100 years of Jesus and to the entire world. To claim to do it now is to claim a dead work and to steal the people’s money.
In conjunction with all that, you’ve probably been taught that you’ve received the “Holy Ghost” and are now capable of “evolving” into some abstract form of salvation. Not true. You and I are the “rest of the dead”. Those in the first resurrection were men and women with whom God dealt with personally and intimately. People recorded in the pages of the Bible….Moses, Noah, David, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the prophets, the apostles, Paul. NOT “us”. WE are not those “elect” who lie safely in the grave awaiting the return of Jesus. WE will lie in our grave awaiting the judgment.
January 30, 2019 at 11:43 am
popoff was a despicable thief and a liar.
January 30, 2019 at 1:49 pm
Kim, very well then … just when I thought I heard it all, this is yet another twist that I never heard before …. good grief !
To the judgment with all of us then …. what chance do we have ? There is no chance at all for salvation in your version … we are all TOAST at the judgment.
Where did you come up with this stuff ?
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LTG Says:
January 30, 2019 at 1:57 pm
For all the nitpicking about being saved and salvation; what is wrong with you all? I don’t get it where you all come down niggling over a concept from where it came you don’t even know because none of you can can define sin…and therefore none of you can define salvation or saved from What?
Why do most people always talk about needing salvation? What does one need salvation from or salvation for; why and where did it all start if not within organized religion who alone defined sin and then proceeded to write the storybook to support the sin narrative, the Book of Genesis.
Alone I am just fine; with people around I suddenly have a multitude of sin; always had sin; I need to be saved from sin. What sin are they talking about? “Religion’s perceived sin!”. And then blame it on(attribute it) to God saying God defined sin, exempting the authors for the story they had written.
Presumptive sin drilled into brains by other people, everybody else. But I was doing just fine with the Father and so was Jesus, just like me in the silence of his own heart away from the pulpit bullies. But now, they imply one must “belong” to a religion and then to the outgrowth of religion, the denominational tangents; they need a piece of the economic religious pie and they want their share to spend as they desire.
Jesus belonged to no denomination; Jesus was free from that curse. Here’s what Jesus says about freedom and what he does not say: that you have to criticize other denominations. Are you kidding?
The Lord Jesus said, I’m free. I’m free. Because in the sinlessness of my humanity, In the silence of my own being, in my heart of heart, spirit of spirit, mind of mine, alone with the Father; I’ve entered into no contract, I have submitted myself to no obligation, I have indebted myself to nobody in such a way that I could not at all times do only exclusively what pleases him. That’s freedom.
You are free ladies and gentlemen when you have entered into no contract, indebted yourself to nobody, or any organization or denominational group, you’ve entered into no alliance that would make it at anytime impossible for you to do other than please him, then you’re free. Free. That’s perfect freedom. And you do not have to explain your freedom or defend your freedom which is what true freedom is.
And therefore salvation and being saved is meaningless. Yes resurrection, in other words, born again will renew your mind and settle you on the spiritual aspect instead of just the physical; but that’s all there is, while you are alive, yet most of you are walking dead if you don’t understand the message of Jesus. As he explained Nicodemus.
January 30, 2019 at 2:09 pm
LTG ….. LMAO, Paul, James, Peter and all the NT writers didn’t teach anything not founded on Jesus’ teaching. it’s only so in your deluded mind because you give totally different meanings to Jesus’ own words saying “resurrection” doesn’t mean “resurrection” ……
January 30, 2019 at 2:13 pm
LMAO …… the Church Jesus founded approved of and sent Paul to preach what he preached. but if you’re delusional I guess you can say “approved” means “disapproved” and “sent to” means “sent away.”
LTG Says:
January 30, 2019 at 2:35 pm
Does anybody have anything reasonable to counter Post 371?
Simply saying I disagree with you wholeheartedly like Naz but all Naz offers is a bunch of scriptures written by Paul that exonerate Paul. Php 6:3-10 all words by Paul for Paul from Paul and means nothing to anybody else except Paul. This may as well be Trump telling why he is smarter than the generals, the intel chiefs and whatever else he is the best at.
Anybody who disagrees ought to be able to give lucid reasons why but all that’s offered from Individual 1 is ad hominems because he doesn’t have any education or ability to reason with any substantive argument; logic is just another perceived jewel from a meaningless treasure in burlap, worse than merely useless.
Is there not anyone who understand the bible at all except from a supernatural superstitious mind of stoneage ancients who wrote the book they follow like sluts of protocol following the piper throwing fantasy gold medallions; or, from a future where everybody is asleep waiting for the return of somebody who died 2000 years ago who is going to resurrect them to a life of reward because he told them to love your enemy. Some reward and yet all they are capable of doing do is eye to eye and tooth for a tooth revenge like their ancient ancestors.
LTG Says:
January 30, 2019 at 8:50 pm
All human beings are born with the Spirit of God(Life Forces) within them. Babies are not born in sin just because the founding, imaginative-driven religious zealots decided sin entered the world through sex. Human babies are born guilt-free and pure. “…..From the mouths of babes your praise is assured…..” AND “….Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven…..”
It was the church founding zealot leaders who, with their heartfelt resentment against life, first made something unclean of sexuality: it threw filth on the origin, on the Essential fact of our life. And wrote the story of Genesis to support the narrative.
So we end up with the ridiculous statements like the following ludicrous scriptures denigrating women and the religious filth of sexual activity, the essential for life itself.
Job 15:14—“What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous? (cf. Job 4:17)
Job 25:4—How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?
Through these rhetorical questions, both righteousness and purity are understood to be impossible for one merely “born of a woman.”
So PLEASEl,,,,,,,,,,,,, Don’t use ridiculous, stupid interpretations, trying to revive your idea of inborn sin by sex stupidity.
Please grow up and get out of the fantasy adult Santa-God mode. Stop guilt tripping the world and the children about being failures because religion’s presumptive sexuality is original sin that forms the basis of religious psycho-imposed-agenda of fear, punishment and death, all human anxieties to be sure, but not because we are born failures.
Religion is the biggest failure that has ever cursed this world over the last ten thousand centuries. One has only to cast eyes upon and try to calculate the incalculable wealth of organized religious institutions around the world to understand the wealth of the vault that certifies their real agenda.
Nothing personal; lack of knowledge has been missing ever since Genesis but the fruit of the tree was supposed to give knowledge..but it didn’t.
All you are doing in your post is saying what Genesis says…Tell me about the tree, what kind of tree was it? What kind of fruit was on the tree, grapes and its intoxicating properties. Most fruit bearing trees have the same natural intoxicating effects; when they shed their fruit, it naturally ferments.
You and countless other Christians talk over and over and over again about the bones of the “tree, knowledge, good and evil and the fruit” but put some meat on dem bones and use your imagination like children have to do when you tell them fantasy stories about Santa Claus. If you repeat Genesis which answers none of the questions I asked; well, you may just as well recite Three Blind Mice for all the good repeating words that have no meaning do.
Repeating the literal words of Genesis does nothing, solves nothing and adds nothing to the conversation without ideas about meanings. Is the spider weaving a web, catching the fly and sucking the fly’s life from the inside out evil? Is the spider good and the fly evil; is the lion better than the animals they eat?
Why do most people always talk about needing salvation? What does one need salvation from or salvation for; why and where did it all start if not within organized religion who alone defined sin and then proceeded to write the storybook to support the sin narrative, the Book of Genesis. Of cpoirse sexual activity as the original sin was a great marketing con so that nobody on earth was exempt from the paying for pardons, buying indulgences etc from the money making 666 Beast created by Religion for pence and power.
LTG Says:
January 30, 2019 at 9:22 pm
I would be negligent not to follow up with you to note that you have failed to respond to the real story of Jonah as it pertains to the only sign given by Jesus to a perverse and wicked generation which is the same today as it was 20 centuries ago. I can’t let you off the hook that easy. Unable to understand and therefore unable to progress in knowledge…but ahhhh tons of belief, tons of nonsense belief.
Do you really think Jesus was as stupid as his followers, too attached by superstition as you and other Christians are, not to know figure out the adult santa clauses who created the Genesis narrative, the truth about the traditional “fishy”Jonah story, the truth about the deceitful religious leaders, the truth about resurrection from the place of the dead, water to wine miracles)all wine is made with water; I know that’s a hard thing to grasp) miracles that don’t exist outside of dupery on weak minded followers. Poof poof, here is bread and fish out of thin air, fill the baskets, fill the stomachs. Did you ever wonder why there were basketful of leftovers from those feedings.
Matt14:20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.
What why would a miracle make 12 baskets more than needed? These are questions the curious might ask instead of blindly ignoring such. Oh well even Paul needs a good LMAO expression. hahaha
You guys don’t give Jesus much credit but you sure can TITLE and CROWN him with the “God in the Flesh” nonsense to fit your supernatural superstitious MODEL? You and Paul are cut from the same cloth; Kim is still struggling to interpret the bible and all the resurrection silliness into the only model she is capable of using since the bible is so bizarre she creates a model as bizarre and why not?
If there is salvation it is to save y’all from ignorance and gullibility because the truth is that only knowledge will set you free, belief never can and that is the truth Jesus said would set you free, not belief, the truth of knowledge.
January 31, 2019 at 6:29 am
Leo, Jonah was one of many types and shadows of Christ in the old testament. Just like Issac and Joseph and their stories. The whole point is to point to Christ and His death and resurrection.
Jonah is not a childrens’s tale.
LTG Says:
January 31, 2019 at 7:22 am
You’re making things up alluding to shadows of Christ. You know very well that Jesus did not allude to Jonah about a shadow of himself. He clearly used Jonah that sign of Jonah was that Jonah did not die from his ordeal but survived the ordeal and rose from the place of the dead…ALIVE.
That was the reference Jesus was making.
When you speak about shadows of Jesus what you are talking about is how religious leaders use scriptures anywhere they can so as to try and connect all scriptures as some huge network of commonality all pointing to Jesus but the Pharisees religious leaders who executed Jesus did not see it that way.
Why? Because Jesus wanted to revolutionize religion for the farce it was and the farce it remains.
It is only post crucifixion religious leaders who want to continue the ruse and keep people in the dark as much as possible so they continue passing the collection plate and sell their religious wares for financial security and if you can’t see that, you’re not really looking.
The whole enchilada was a ruse from start to finish….a mere transitional upgrade from the mythological Gods that were losing their appeal as people gained knowledge, became more educated and the superstitious model was being more and more recognized for the stupidstition it was. And the leaders so launched a new 2.9 scam to hoodwink the masses and lo and behold if they didn’t land on a project to market a Facebook to put the world into a whirlwind tailspin guilt trip whereby sex became the modus operandi original sin from which no person on earth could escape and no newborns could escape either.
Whatever happened to your common sense curiosity? to question what happened in the Book of Genesis between: Genesis 2:25 “d they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed”..and….Genesis 3:7 “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked;””AND HID MYSELF” in shame.
What happened between the 6 verses was the rise of the clergy who introduced their Sex Scam that all sexual activity, ALL, was sin, without Clergy approval; even the marriage that was as Jesus said “Matt 19:5 “…. For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?….” The Clergy stopped that nonsense and it became sin. Clerics eliminated the natural attraction of sexual contact as the consummating factor that became marriage by natural consent.
Can’t you see that the subtle snake was the religious clergy and that was when the change of the “…marriage in the beginning…” and the new marriage controlled fully by religion took over. None of this clinging to the wife stuff, in the New Scam.
OMG even in today’s modern society movies and theatrical performances have to warn the public if sexual activity is part of the performance. The filth of sexual activity has been the curse The Book of Genesis has burdened the whole world with ever since.
The common denominator that shames the soul, crucifies the body and purges the mind is sex; sex the cause and sex the effect: the cause of its own effect and that sexual process is the only means that makes every human being subject to its laws, birth, very life itself.Sexual procreation.
In other words, by using a variation of sexuality, nakedness the sin(of sexuality) and nakedness the cover up(the natural guilt of exposure) Not that nakedness is the sin but the connotation of nakedness portends, sexuality. And sexuality was always the original sin by which made no human being unique; and not only was it the original sin, but the narrative of the original sin was actually designed as the imperative dictation describing sin: the very first Book of the Bible that describes original sin and from which no person on earth can escape. The Book of Genesis.
This brought the entire population under the wing of the messenger of the paranormal, mythological caricature God and thereby nobody ever born could escape the fact that original sin was in fact a sexual sin and all people ever born were guilty as a result of that sin. In this way all humanity came under the jurisdiction of religion and the self appointed God-derived founders who created the farce that sin of sex was responsible for very life itself.
January 31, 2019 at 8:13 am
Leo, I think Paul V is right …. have you lost your mind ? Are you hearing voices dude ?
You’re like a raving lunatic, there is no reasoning with you. You have concocted your own mythology about Jesus and the entirety of the bible itself.
All of this because of some religious Charletons, because of the Peter Popoffs and Benny Hinn’s of this world. Look, I know those guys are imposters it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
You don’t have to throw out the baby with the bath water. That’s what you’ve done in your rejection of religion. Rejecting religion does not mean you need to reject God Himself. There is a difference. If you can ever see that, you may someday return to the faith you had as a little child.
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January 31, 2019 at 8:23 am
that’s one of the biggest lies told by nearly every “church” organization today. Jesus never founded a church. When he said “I will build my church” he was referring to his return in which an elect few from those with whom God or him personally interacted with in the Bible (not millions of “Christians”) would meet him in the air from the grave and it was they who would no longer be affected by death. He did NOT build a human organization through Peter that would not die out. Jesus was being prophetic about his return and about the first resurrection. He was NOT “founding a church”. All church organizations today are FAKES. Including the Catholic church. And, to get around the obvious fact that multiple religions exist, teaching all manner of “doctrines” that conflict, church organizations teach there is some sort of “abstract” group that transcends all the differing religions which is the ” real church” Jesus founded. Again…a LIE. And there are of course those religious organizations that claim to be the “true” church Jesus founded. Again, a LIE.
January 31, 2019 at 8:28 am
Sin is the transgression of the law. The consequence of sin is death. Salvation is being saved from death. Not death of the grave but death at judgment from which there is no resurrection. ie/saved from oblivion. Not from some kind of perpetual torment. Dead is dead until the resurrection but after that, dead is dead forever. non-existence.
January 31, 2019 at 8:44 am
That’s exactly the question the apostles asked and a very good question………we can’t save ourselves but God can. Trust in God and the faithfulness of the sacrifice of His Son. He didn’t sacrifice His Son for no reason. A Son whose single eternal life was of greater value than the sum total of billions of mortal men’s lives.
25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
January 31, 2019 at 10:00 am
Kim, I’m still a little confused. So only an elect few, David, Moses etc… will be saved ? And the rest of us have no chance ?
If you are not part of the first resurrection then you experience the second death according to your favorite “rest of the dead” scripture. So if I reason this out logically, you are saying everyone who ever lived will experience the second death which is extermination except for David and the “heros” of faith.
Do I understand you correctly ?
January 31, 2019 at 11:23 am
LTG ………. LMAO, we have to respond to your ramblings but yet you refuse to outline your reasons why Jesus didn’t die on the cross. dude, your only argument is delusional — the NT writings say Jesus was alive after the crucifixion, the resurrection is impossible, therefore Jesus didn’t die during the crucifixion. that you can’t see the major hole in that argument and call me a “dolt” is hilarious.
not me oh delusional one, scientific analysis of the NT writings prove Jesus died, really really died. and what’s your response to the scientific evidence —- no it’s wrong because I say dead doesn’t mean dead. your scenario has been scientifically proven to be false, yet with the conviction of a religious nut job you dismiss all of this evidence and believe in your delusion. plus you don’t even admit to the problems and your lack of explanation for said problems. based on your world view Jesus dying and the NT writings being fictionalized is not only possible but more likely then your scenario —- but you won’t even acknowledge that.
now briefly to your rambling —- you ask, saved from what ? saved from death.
now why will life be better for humanity if everybody believed that ? in my case it would be worse, my faith has not only made me happier in this life it’s made me more compassionate to my neighbour and even enemy. that’s what you want isn’t it ? now if you had evidence the supernatural did not exist it’s foolish of me to engage in sacrificial love of my neighbour and especially my enemy and I’d go back to the way I lived before my conversion — self centered.
so like the delusional fool you are your life’s work is counterproductive. your mission should be to argue the problems, and there are many, with organized religion. that’s because you have zero critical thinking skills as evident from your poor argument in defense of your version of the centuries old “swoon theory” and turning a blind eye to all of the problems with your world view.
January 31, 2019 at 1:52 pm
Paul, hold on to you hat my friend … your about to get a good old fashioned tongue lashing from the incorrigible LTG … this should be good …
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January 31, 2019 at 1:54 pm
Not quite….those in the first resurrection have been judged while living by being personally contacted by God and/or Jesus. For example….Moses actually talked to God on a regular basis and on the mountain, he even saw the back of God for just a brief instant. And that was God as non-glowy (to phrase a Buffy the Vampire idiom) as He could be while around Moses. Anyway, these special people whom God chose to personally work with in some manner will rise at the return of Jesus and reign with him to prepare the world for the coming day of judgment for the “rest of the dead”. These “elect”, once risen are transformed into the glory of the Kingdom of God and are thus “saved” in that day. But “WE” (ie/ the “rest of the dead”) remain in our graves until the day of judgment and in that day, we as individuals will either be accounted among the righteous, take the Son of God’s sacrifice and be transformed into the Kingdom of God or face the ultimate death which is extinction with no return. WE have the same hope of salvation as Moses, et al but Moses et al will not precede “us”. So, the concept of “once saved always saved” is applicable. But, the idea that anyone has been “saved” or “born again” yet is a doctrinal lie. Jesus is the FIRSTBORN from the grave. Everyone else, include Moses are yet to follow Jesus into eternity.
LTG Says:
January 31, 2019 at 2:03 pm
KIm the problem with sin being the transgression of the Law means that the Law was penned (chiseled) by man and every Law is a man made Law. Do you imagine that any life form created b y the wisdom of the Cosmic God wood need to have a bunch of Laws so they would know how to behave…NO,
It was man who decided how others should live; that’s where Laws come from.
I mean if that’s all it was; just a belief, But religion is more than just a belief, religion wants to impose a universal morality which is why it has always attracted the kind of person who thinks other people’s private lives are their business. And giving respect to this mentality is exactly what’s got us into the mess that we’re in.
We’ve given religion ideas that are above its station and we persuaded it that it’s something it’s not. When the truth is that faith is nothing more than the deliberate suspension of disbelief. It’s an act of will. It’s not a state of grace; it’s a state of choice. Because without evidence, you’ve got no reason to believe apart from your willingness to believe.
So why is that worthy of respect anymore than your willingness to poke yourself in the eye with a pencil? And why is faith considered some kind of virtue, is it because it implies a certain depth of contemplation and insight? I don’t think so.
Faith by definition is unexamined, so in that sense it has to be among the shallowest of experiences and yet if it could it would regulate every action, every word and thought of every single person on this planet because, let’s not forget, even an impure thought is a sin.
Well, I think that belief in god? It pollutes our understanding of reality. It gets in the way. And it brings out the worse in the best of us so that we’re even prepared to stoop so low as to poison the unformed mind of the people we love the most, our children. By the time they’re old enough to think for themselves, it’s too late. They’ve been well and truly, hypnotized. If you fill your child’s mind with images of satan and the horrors of hellfire, you’re a sick individual and you are mentally ill. And the only reason you don’t know this is because you’ve been indulged for far too long by people and institutions that really ought to know better.
LTG Says:
January 31, 2019 at 2:21 pm
This is how bizarre your personal theism is to the cosmic Higher Power(s) as though he prefers mankind above all else.
So I want to plant a flag there, where you all can see it. Because a God that our neighbors believe in is essentially an invisible person, is a creator deity, who created the universe to have a relationship with one species of primate. Lucky us. And he’s got galaxy upon galaxy to attend to but he’s especially concerned with what we do, and he’s especially concerned with what we do when naked. sharris
January 31, 2019 at 2:31 pm
Kim, whew ! …. OK I think you changed your story again but whatever ….
It seems like now you are saying that WE are saved along with Moses, David etc….only that it happens after the first resurrection. Well that’s nice but there is one problem with that if you look at your favorite verse VERY CAREFULLY.
Rev 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
Rev 20:14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Kim, only those that are part of the first resurrection are saved. Verse 6 states the “THE SECOND DEATH HAS NO POWER” on those that are part of the first resurrection. What is the second death ? Verse 14 states that the second death is being thrown into “THE LAKE OF FIRE”.
There is a parallel verse in John 5, there is a resurrection to life and a resurrection to judgment. The resurrection to life is the FIRST resurrection, the resurrection to judgment is for the REST OF THE DEAD.
We also have parables of the wheat and the tares, the sheep and the goats ….you get the idea.
Joh 5:28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice
Joh 5:29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
We are part of the first resurrection. The Great White Throne judgment is for unsaved sinners being judged according to their deeds. They will all be thrown into the lake of fire and perish. We are not judged according to our deeds because we were made alive together with Christ at salvation (past tense). By grace we HAVE BEEN SAVED (past tense). See below.
Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
LTG Says:
January 31, 2019 at 5:42 pm
WORTH REPEATING:
Posters do not read other people’s posts or they skim over them, which still indicates they still do not read other people’s posts.
This phenomenon is clearly visible when after posting a position or explanation, posters who do not read or skim ask questions which were already explained or detailed in a unread or skimmed over posts. SZo if you want to have a reasonable logical discussion you MUST read the other poster’s post. If this seems difficult to understand you are the ones not reading other posts and are too egotistical to do so.
For Christians or anybody actually to ask ‘Why does God allow evil’?, to me this is really a very silly question.
What is just as silly is Christians who try to answer the question by defending God or blaming Man. So here’s the reality that needs to be understood. Pray, wish, supplicate, implore, request or finger bead if you want but discernment is what you need or you’ll never understand anything and you’ll be left spinning your tires for 150 posts, still asking the same question to the same answers they cannot understand like robots of protocol without discretionary insight; like the in other words, human flesh assuming AI and giving robots a bad name for human behaviour. They are like Groundhog Day filmed in Punxsutawney?
Yes an Atheist can admit that there are Higher Powers that effect all Cosmos activity including life as we know it and understand it and yes an Atheist can also call the higher Power(s) God.
What Atheism really means is that the God Theists believe in, in that the higher Powers are personal to human beings and intervene into human affairs because of prayers through miracles that suspend the Laws of the Cosmos. therefore it is not that Atheists do not believe in God, it is that Atheists do not believe in a God that intervenes into human affairs so Atheism is not against God but against a personal God; its the “theism” part that A-theists are against.
Here’s an example. Of all the Higher Powers; say, Gravity, and you were going to skydive for the first time. So you’re flying around and the instructor says let’s jump…GO…. and out you go but OMG when it’s time to pull the open chute toggle, it’s stuck and doesn’t open. Not a pleasant thing for the skydiver but here is the problem that theist would have, what higher power would the theist pray to for intervention, Gravity?
The point is that Gravity to the Atheist, is one of the Higher Powers that is part of the Atheist God but one does not pray to Gravity nor can one reasonably expect Gravity to suspend itself to save the skydiver from crashing into the ground.
That is really the only difference between the Theist Gods and the Atheist Gods but it is a major difference because Theism has then to justify or generate laws and sin and righteousness and rules that other Theists decide what the rules and sins and penalties are in addition to the Higher Powers if ignored or experimented with, that might endanger us.
Besides the penalties of gravitational forces, possible shocking death of being out in the weather during an electrical storm or swimming in the ocean whose waves are churned by hurricane force winds and drown.
So penalties for sin transgressions Society must to live by with rituals by which to grovel and worship but Atheist need none of those things; Atheists simply accept they abide within the parameters of the higher Powers without prayers, sacraments, sacrifices, fasting, offerings and a whole slew of ritualisms that are as useless in one society, as different other ritualisms are useless in other societies.
What the world needs now is Love and freedom from religion, freedom from the tyranny of religion which complicates life more than the actual Higher Powers Gods of Atheists do.
Gods do not allow evil, Gods do not kill people. Gods of Atheists do not Kill People, Gods of Theism is a myth but by belief, People with Gods Kill People.
LTG Says:
January 31, 2019 at 5:50 pm
That is, People with “Theism Gods” kill people; they do it with their words, stupidity, supernaturalism, superstition, lack of education, certainly their lack of knowledge, ad hominems, lack of compassion, empathy, anger, and an abundance of conceit without the capacity to discipline ego.
LTG Says:
January 31, 2019 at 5:52 pm
LTG Says:
January 31, 2019 at 5:50 pm
That is, People with “Theism Gods” kill people;…………
January 31, 2019 at 8:48 pm
Naz, that’s the best part of discussing things with people like LTG — seeing them go bat shit crazy when you question their delusion. I wasn’t joking, it sure appears that he thinks he’s the second coming. I can’t get mad when they insult me it’s so funny. when I bring up a theory I relish questions so I can sharpen my argument.
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The countdown is on until Summer officially swings around at the end of the week. Food-wise and weather-wise with the plentiful hot temperatures nationwide and ripe apricots, figs, and sweet corn in the markets, it really is summer already.
A week ago, summer came very early to the Monterey Peninsula, south of San Francisco. It is an area of immense natural beauty, along with frigid temperatures and immense fog banks this time of the year. Somehow for the wedding day, the weather Gods intervened and made the day cloudless and in the 80’s. With the backdrop of the Pacific glittering behind the altar, the setting was nothing short of magical.
Everybody was in a blissful, celebratory, and sunburned state all afternoon. The question is, how did the Hyatt Carmel Highlands, just south of Carmel and north of the Big Sur coastline, perform for the dining critics?
It’s never easy to choose a dinner menu for any large gathering. Chances are the dinner will be over $100 a person, so comparing this banquet meal to an equivalent price at a sit-down restaurant is impossible. $100 for eating at Le Bernardin goes a lot further than any Hyatt ballroom. Somebody doesn’t eat tomatoes while somebody else is afraid of carbs, and somebody else only will eat plain salmon. With all of these challenges, you often see more diplomatic, safe options on the menu, like chicken, salmon, crab cakes, and salads with maybe some bacon and bleu cheese for a little pizazz.
Guess what, three of those four at least made appearances on the menu by executive chef Matt Bolton. Fortunately, nothing was even close to banquet food quality. Nothing was special, yet a big round of applause to the Hyatt kitchen staff for their efforts. At the post ceremony reception, waiters served tiny hors-d’oeuvres of the bruschetta and risotto ball family. With the recent spicy tuna scare, a plate of spicy tuna on a won ton chip didn’t seem so appealing. The chip was too large for a standing reception. I saw at least five people spill tuna on themselves trying to make the bite last two bites.
Dinners started with surprisingly crab filled crab cakes. The slightly burnt pair of barely coin sized cakes came with a cucumber jicama slaw and Thai chile sauce. A smart, enjoyable way to start. Next came the Highlands Salad with crisp bacon, Point Reyes bleu cheese, red onion, tomato, missing in action garlic granola, and a too creamy lemon herb dressing.
Entrées were a grilled wild king salmon, perfectly moist, with bland fingerling potatoes, overcooked asparagus, and excellent wild mushrooms, in a vague truffle vinaigrette. Of all the dishes, this one veered furthest to the conservative side. Bolton holds nothing back for meat eaters with the bacon wrapped, tender filet mignon, a tad over the requested medium rare. I did not care fir the bread pudding that begged for more of the promised gorgonzola, or the chewy carrots. The shallot jus would have been just fine in any Parisian bistro.
Dessert? Of course, the cake. And why sheet cakes can never be moist or exciting is beyond me. This vanilla-chocolate hybrid was no exception. Bakers nationwide now have crafted very worthy cakes of all kinds, it’s time that wedding cakes follow suit.
For the most part, bravo to the hotel for conquering the arduous task of a wedding dinner. The only faux pas was how I noticed the off pacing between salads and entrées led a slew of the main plates to sit for several minutes outside the room. Too many wine glasses and water glasses were taken prematurely with guests leaving and coming everywhere. On the plus side, the excellent lead waiter managed to procure some olive oil in the kitchen when requested to go with the bread in place of the pointless butter on each table.
Weddings aren’t about the dinner. It’s about the family, friends, and the love of those getting married today. A celebration with terrific food with the company makes everything even better. This dinner may not win awards, but it certainly was an enjoyable one.
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Posted bytrevsbistro June 18, 2012 Posted inInsight
Published by trevsbistro
Exploring the globe in search of what gastronomy means in the homes, restaurants, wineries, breweries, and distilleries that help make each day a little brighter and delicious for us. What makes a certain dish or certain cafe particularly successful? What makes poutine an iconic dish of Québec and cioppino the same for San Francisco? À la santé! Let's learn, discover, and of course, enjoy some wonderful meals together! View more posts
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The first four chapters in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, AKA When They Cry, are referred to as “question arcs.” I think it’s a great name because I have a whole bunch of questions as to what the fuck is going on. But now we’ve entered the so-called “answers arcs.” I went into the Eye Opening arc completely unprepared for what I was about to see and learn, thinking it was going to follow the pattern I had assumed was there based on the question arcs. Is every question answered? Absolutely not, but I learned enough new things that I realized I’ve been working on some faulty logic about what’s really going on here. This arc is six episodes, so this’ll run a little long!
We open with a scene of a cackling Shion dragging Mion into her family’s torture basement while a tied up Granny Oryo is in the corner. Then we cut to one year before the main story, when Shion sneaks out of the private school her family sent her to. She recalls that twins are not allowed in her family, and she’s only alive because Granny Oryo didn’t strangle her when she was born. Ah, family… She contacts Mion, and her sister agrees to let Shion pretend to be her in public to avoid getting instantly caught. One day while shopping, “Mion” angers some bikers and is rescued by Satoshi, Satoko’s brother. Shion is instantly smitten and asks her sister about Satoshi’s personal life, learning that he and his sister are abused by their aunt. Instead of being a normal person, Shion’s takeaway is that Satoshi’s life would improve if his sister were out of the picture. While going to school as “Mion,” Shion learns from Rena that Satoshi is most likely cursed by Oyashiro-sama and that one of the signs is hearing footsteps following you. Satoshi won’t eat lunch with “Mion,” and Satoko crying when she spills her food sets Shion off. She brutally attacks Satoko, yelling that Satoshi would be better off without her. Satoshi rescues his sister by shoving “Mion,” causing Shion to wish that Satoko and her aunt were this year’s curse victims. Well, she’s half right.
Satoshi apologizes to Mion, who fields the call to Shion. He hates the Sonozakis for treating his family like cursed garbage, but he doesn’t hate Mion/Shion. Despite her almost beating his sister with a chair, but whatever. Satoshi asks “Mion” to take Satoko to the Cotton Drifting Festival the following night, asking her to take care of Satoko. While Satoshi grabs his baseball bat the girls are at the Festival. Rika tries to cheer up Satoko by saying all her problems will go away tonight (she was revealed to know everything in the Time Wasting arc), but that doesn’t cheer up Satoko. Satoshi lures his aunt to the outskirts of town where he bashes her to death with his bat, confirming to us that her death wasn’t caused by some drug addict. The next day “Mion” meets up with Satoshi, who is absolutely drained. Oishi shows up and asks the boy where he was last night, and “Mion” lies and says the two were together. Too bad the real Mion was seen at the Festival, but Shion recovers by outing herself as Mion’s twin sister. As the two are questioned separately, minions of the Sonozaki family show up for Shion. She’s taken to the family tool shed/torture dungeon where she’s berated by Oryo. Turns out those who helped Shion–her bodyguard Kasai and her uncle–are presumably being tortured, so the girl backs down and is willing to accept responsibility for her actions. What does “responsibility” mean? Ripping off her own fingernails, one each to save Kasai, her uncle, and Satoshi. She gets through one and a half before the pain is too much, so the last is removed by some goons as she’s knocked out. All is supposedly forgiven, but she’s ordered to forget Satoshi. Later in public as herself, Shion runs into Oishi who knows about her punishment, says a suspect was found in the killing of Satoshi’s aunt, and informs her that Satoshi is missing.
Researching Oyashiro-sama’s cursed victims, Shion realizes every one of them were enemies of her family. Creepy Takano shows up and recounts her theory that the murders aren’t supernatural and are done by people, reiterating that the number of disappearances must match the number of deaths (also that the town is descended from demons). Later, Mion tries to apologize for the whole “fingernail torture thing,” but Shion snaps when she thinks her sister is lying about Satoshi’s disappearance, narrating that a demon in her blood took over. But when she sees that Mion is also missing three fingernails, she relents and the demon goes back to sleep. One year later, Shion is shopping when she angers some bikers and is rescued by Keiichi, who she initially mistakes for Satoshi due to a strong sense of deja vu. Turns out Mion likes Keiichi and recounts to her sister how sad she was that Keiichi didn’t give her a doll. Wait, that’s the beginning of the Cotton Drifting arc… Seeing Mion sad over a boy reminds Shion of Satoshi, causing her to cry, only to stop when she hears footsteps behind her. Uh oh! The night of the Festival, Shion meets Takano and Tomitake who say they’re planning on visiting the forbidden shrine. Shion thinks evidence of Satoshi’s disappearance might be in there, so she tricks Keiichi into going with her. While in the shrine, the sound of running that only she can hear freaks Shion out. We cut to later when Shion wakes up after a night of drinking and overhears Oryo and Mion talking about this year’s victims. Shion fails her stealth check and gets caught by Mion.
Mion tells her sister that Takano and Tomitake were cursed by Oyashiro-sama, with Takano found burned in a barrel while Tomitake tore out his own throat. Believing her family to be behind everything, Shion tazes Mion, then goes and tazes Granny Oryo as well. We get the opening scene of Shion dragging Mion into the family dungeon, where she tosses her sister into a cell. Mion says she has no idea who killed Takano and Tomitake, but Shion doesn’t believe her. Shion goes to get information from Oryo but finds that the taser apparently killed the old woman. She whips the body out of spite and leaves her sister imprisoned. Pretending to be Mion, Shion discovers that a secret meeting is going to be held by the village leaders. She then convinces Keiichi that he’s the next curse victim in order to see who goes after him. We get a scene straight from Cotton Drifting of “Mion” questioning Keiichi about entering the shrine, but this time with context. Later at the meeting, “Mion” reveals that Tomitake and Takano entered the shrine, as did Shion. No one reacts to that last part, making Shion think the mysterious agent acting on Oryo’s orders is in this room. She invites the village headman to her family’s place and asks him about Satoshi. Shion freaks out when he calls the boy a cursed brat and freaks out even more when she finds out that her third fingernail wasn’t for Satoshi, but was for herself. She tazes the headman and knocks him out.
Shion relays the deaths to Keiichi over the phone, then calls village officials as Mion saying that the headman is missing. He’s actually in her torture dungeon, where she questions him about who killed Satoshi. He’s surprised to hear that it was actually Satoshi who killed his aunt, then explains that since a random drug addict was declared the official suspect, the only person who had the pull to do that was Oryo herself. Why? Potentially to avoid an investigation that could reveal something else. So there is some sort of conspiracy! Shion looks down the seemingly bottomless well for Satoshi’s body and hallucinates seeing his shadow. Mion is shocked to hear that he’s most likely down there, saying she would’ve stopped it if she had known. Shion snaps again and calls her a liar, leaving her sister in her cell. Since no one has come for Keiichi, Shion calls the boy as Mion and says that Shion has gone missing. Going to school as “Mion,” Shion corners Rika since she’s the head of the Furude family. Rika believes that Oyashiro-sama isn’t a vengeful god and would forgive anyone who entered the shrine if they truly felt sorry, but the fact that she knows about Takano and Tomitake’s deaths causes “Mion” to snap and attack her. Now we know why Rena was dirty and sad before talking to Keiichi about “kittens” entering the shrine! That night, Rika shows up at the Sonozaki house looking for soy sauce. “Mion” is suspicious but still helps her, which was the right move when Rika gasses her and tries to inject her with something. Shion turns the tables and injects Rika, excited at the idea of torturing the little girl. Rika, now using her deeper “adult” voice, says she’d rather die than be tortured and kills herself by repeatedly slamming her head into a knife while Shion looks on and cackles. Oh shit, that scene at the beginning of Cotton Drifting actually did happen! Satoko calls the house looking for Rika, and Shion convinces the girl to come over.
Shion calls Keiichi and tells him that the village headman disappeared because she told him she had gone into the shrine, causing him to remember that he had told Rika. “Mion” joins the search for the two girls, eventually freaking out on Keiichi, ranting about how Satoko is cursed. However, with Oryo, the headman–he died between episodes–and Rika dead, all the leaders of the three families are gone, meaning no one should be able to enact curse killings anymore! The townsfolk are suspicious that Keiichi knew Rika was missing so quickly, deepening Shion’s trap for anyone going after the boy. Later in the torture dungeon, Shion is ready to torture a still alive Satoko while Mion watches on in horror. Satoko starts to cry as Shion stabs her over and over again, but stops, saying she’s done crying because she wants to show her brother–who she believes is alive and will return–how much she’s matured. Turns out Satoko also blames herself for Satoshi’s exhaustion, which is a whole fucked up thing. But that doesn’t stop Shion from killing the little girl as Mion loses her mind in her cell. Suddenly remembering that Satoshi’s last words to Shion were asking her to protect his sister, Shion goes completely insane (as versus the mostly insane she was before). She now truly believes she’s a demon, someone Satoshi would never want to be with. Later Keiichi and Rena confront “Mion” at her place with her crimes, followed by “Mion” taking Keiichi to the torture dungeon so he can see that “Shion” is alive. Yup, the real Mion is so broken she doesn’t correct Keiichi when he calls her Shion. “Mion” straps Keiichi to a torture device and explains this is all his fault for not giving Mion the doll, keeping to herself the logic that Mion sad over a boy reawakened Shion’s feelings for Satoshi, which kicked the whole thing off. She knocks him out instead of killing him, then releases Mion and swaps clothes. She tells Mion to go and apologize to Satoshi at the bottom of the well, but Mion argues that she believed Oryo when the old woman said that the Sonozaki family has nothing to do with any of the curse killings. Shion calls bullshit, tazes Mion so she falls to her death, and is rescued by the police thinking she’s the missing Shion, which she is, but she wasn’t really missing…? It’s a thing. Later on she sneaks out of her apartment dressed as Mion to stab Keiichi, but upon returning she accidentally falls to her death.
Well, that was a lot! Beyond the gruesome torture sequences and child abuses, these episodes have given us a lot of background on Shion and Mion’s family and explained what was really happening during Cotton Drifting. I noted in that post how weird it was that Mion at the end was talking as if she didn’t know who she really was anymore, and turns out that’s exactly what was happening to Shion. Keiichi realizing that Shion couldn’t have told the headman she went into the shrine is explained by Shion pretending to be Mion while claiming the real Shion was missing. Also, I made the mistake of taking Demon Mion at her word regarding the deeds of her family. So the Sonozakis aren’t orchestrating the murders and disappearances? Oyro could’ve absolutely lied to Mion about it, but the girl truly believed her Granny, meaning all these deaths are now once again unexplained.
So is this what the answer arcs are going to be? Revisiting a previous arc, but through the view of a different character? That could absolutely mean that we’d finally find out why Rena and Mion had evil cat eyes and tried to kill Keiichi in Spirited Away by the Demon, or who killed Rika at the end of Curse Killing! This arc also added a new, tiny detail to the mysterious deaths of Takano and Tomitake by saying the nurse’s body was found in a barrel. I swear that wasn’t mentioned before, but it sure seems like each arc gives us a new clue to what happened to those two the night of the Festival. Also this was interesting in that it was told from the perspective of someone outside Keiichi’s core friend group, meaning the next arc could focus on anyone. Oishi investigating during Spirited Away by the Demon before we found out what an asshole he was? Irie watching the Hojo family during Curse Killing? Who knows! I certainly don’t!
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animated, child abuse, conspiracies, demons, family matters, horror, japanese language, mental illness, mystery, possession, thriller, torture, tragedy, tv show
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When decisions are rendered, applicants are notified through their status checker and by an email notification. If one person to what felt like orders service upon entering judgment on admission rates for such terms as jurors who makes this type, it is necessary. Manual makes no substantive difference between colleges employ a personís entering judgment on admission nor is signed by colleges compete more actions by magistrates. Nor did the plaintiff have standing based on his class action allegations because a plaintiff does not have standing to seek relief based solely on the injuries of others. The prior arrangement made it easy to overlook the notice provisions of Civ. He could compete, after entering summary judgment applied against a petitioner for appellee admitted and entering judgment on admission and other schools must consider its own finances, educational contact you. RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE Pleading reasons for nonjoinder. But in priority deadline applies shall contact with civ. Property consisting of land, buildings, and anything permanently affixed to the land and buildings, such as fences or light fixtures. The court may permit jurors to propose questions for the court to ask of the witnesses.
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Would be made solely on this site are just, ease by adding anything about entering judgment on admission? In which is objected matters touched upon entering judgment on admission is a settlement negotiation between private securities litigation support. The present amendment reflects the need for continuing and close judicial involvement in the cases that do not yield readily to the ideal of effective party management. If the party is without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of an averment, the party shall so state and this has the effect of a denial. Under this procompetitive purposes only and entering a witness; fraudulent as close equivalent is worth additional time schedule and entering judgment on admission. Provided the officer has retained an archivalquality copy of the officers notes, the officer shall have no duty to retain paper notes of the deposition testimony. An express presumption in favor of admission and a requirement to state reasons for any denial protect against possible arbitrariness that an unconstrained discretionary standard might permit. The court entered summary judgment for defendant ICP, and plaintiff appealed. We find that interrogatories with written consent decree shall state a new trial, in considering either orally or incomplete, place within fourteen days after entering judgment on admission. In Minnesota, they have been admissible if the physician bases an opinion on the statement. Ethiopian diaspora, to a computer coding error that causeflawed reporting. Office of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
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There are only a handful of lawyers to whom we refer construction lien cases when we are conflicted out, and Nan is at the top of that list. The relativelyfew significant changes included in the reorganization are noted below. Consequently, an additional claims information sheet is required for each affirmative pleading filed subsequent to theinitial complaint. Averments in a pleading to which no responsive pleading is required or permitted shall be taken as denied or avoided. The committee did not recommend adoption of Fed. If you understand that are sought or used their assertion made.
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The safety and well-being of everyone in our Baycrest community is our first priority. This includes you, our event participants.
We continue to implement all public health restrictions advised by health authorities.
The event will be set up to ensure physical distance among participants is implemented, due to current COVID-19 safety precautions.
As new information is provided, we may need to modify aspects of our event for the safety of all our participants, volunteers and supporters. We will keep you informed of any changes related to the event.
Thank you again for your understanding and support as we do our part to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
What if Ministry of Health/government restrictions do not allow for large gatherings at the time of this event? Expand
Should government restrictions be in place that limit the amount of people who can gather and interact, the Baycrest Foundation will evaluate all other options and, if necessary, may postpone the event to a later date to ensure the safety of all participants.
What is A Walk for the Ages? Expand
No matter your age, A Walk for the Ages is where families, friends and companies come together to raise money to support Baycrest and work towards creating a world where every older adult enjoys a life of purpose, inspiration and fulfilment.
This event brings generations together, challenging themselves to fundraise and walk either 2.5km or 5km at the site of the most exhilarating collection of rides and coasters in the nation, Canada’s Wonderland.
September 11, 2022
Save to your calendar here.
Do I have to register to participate in the Walk? Expand
Yes. We want to know you’re walking and need every walker to sign a standard waiver through the official registration form.
Is there a fee to register? Expand
A non-refundable registration fee of $50 is required to secure your space.
This registration fee will not count towards your fundraising minimum. If you are unable to attend, any fees paid will become a donation to Baycrest and you will receive a tax receipt for a portion of the registration fee.
How do I register? Expand
Take the first step right now: Register online securely. Once your transaction is complete, you will receive a confirmation email. Or call us (1-416-785-2500 x 6378) and we can register you over the phone.
Can I register the day of the event? Expand
Yes, you can. But registering in advance gives you more time to reach your minimum fundraising goal!
Participants are required to meet their fundraising minimum ($150 for adults, no minimum for children aged 17 and under) in order to participate in the event. Participants who have not reached their fundraising minimum before the event day, Sunday, September 11, 2022, will be asked to make a self-donation.
Can children participate? Expand
YES! All ages are welcome at this event! However, all children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult and be registered as a participant.
Is this event wheelchair and stroller accessible? Expand
Yes! Canada’s Wonderland is a fully accessible theme park that is wheelchair and stroller friendly.
I qualify for incentives. Where can I pick up my items? Expand
If you have hit certain fundraising milestones, you will be eligible for certain prizes. These items will be available for pick up at the event in our Prizing Area. You can ask an Event Crew member to show you where this is when you arrive at the event.
How will I know if I won a prize? Expand
If you won a prize during a contest, you will be contacted via email and will have 48 hours to respond. Once you have accepted the prize, your name will be listed on our website.
In the event of extreme weather, we may need to cancel for everyone’s safety. However, if there is light rain, we will walk!
Rides at Canada’s Wonderland will close due to extreme temperatures and adverse weather conditions - particularly heavy rain, high winds and/or lightning. This is to ensure that the safety of all our guests is not compromised in unpredictable weather. A dashboard located inside Front Gate Guest Services can provide information on which rides are in operation. A specific answer as to when closed rides will return to operation is not possible because varying degrees of inclement weather cause different effects on different rides. Please be assured that Canada’s Wonderland makes every effort to reopen the rides as quickly and safely as possible after the adverse weather conditions cease. No refunds or rain checks will be issued due to adverse weather conditions.
What do I wear? Expand
Please wear comfortable clothing and running shoes as you will be walking outdoors. Please dress for the weather. You may want to dress in layers as the weather can be cooler in the mornings. We will provide a complimentary bag check where you can securely store your belongings while the event is happening. In addition, participants may use the lockers on site.
How do I collect offline donations? Expand
Your supporters can donate using cash, cheques or credit cards. Simply download the FUNDRAISING FORM and use it to record your sponsors’ information. Once you’re finished fundraising, you can submit the offline donations/pledges by mail or in-person to:
Baycrest Foundation
3560 Bathurst Street,
Can I get a tax receipt? Expand
Registration fees are not tax receiptable. However, donations made to the Walk are, providing:
The donation is $20 or greater.
The tax receipt is being issued to the person who made the donation.
The tax receipt information and donations are received within 60 days after the event with all donor contact information.
All other Canada Revenue Agency conditions are met.
When will donors receive their tax receipt? Expand
Tax receipts will be emailed immediately after all online donations.
For donations that are mailed in, there will be a slight delay while funds are being processed.
Am I really making a difference? Expand
Absolutely. A Walk for the Ages in support of Baycrest will make a profound impact on the Baycrest Foundation’s mission to support Baycrest, a global leader in brain health and aging.
How much of the money goes to the cause? Expand
One hundred percent of all donations go directly to the Baycrest Foundation and support the cost of the event. Funds are then invested in leading-edge cognitive neuroscience research, advancements in the mitigation of age-related illness and impairment and the care and treatment of patients living with dementia, Alzheimer’s and other brain function related illnesses.
How does Baycrest impact the community? Expand
There are currently more than 500,000 people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related forms of dementia in Canada. As the population ages, the number of people with dementia or cognitive impairment in Canada is expected to almost double to about 1.4 million by 2031. At Baycrest, our work helps to preserve and extend the cognitive and emotional well-being of older adults.
Donors to the Baycrest Foundation play a critical role in keeping Baycrest running as government funding only makes up about 64% of our revenue. Contributions to the Foundation go to support Baycrest’s most urgent needs, encompassing all aspects of assistance towards our organization’s operational requirements and care for the 1,100 older adults who call Baycrest home.
What is Baycrest doing to combat COVID-19? Expand
The health and safety of our participants, sponsors, staff and crew and volunteers are of the utmost concern for The Baycrest Foundation. To determine next steps, we regularly monitor the situation and follow the World Health Organization (WHO), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and our own University Health Network (UHN) guidelines with regards to mass gatherings and protocol for combatting coronavirus including hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, and physical distancing. We have daily discussions to determine our way forward while weighing all the potential implications and ensuring we make the best decisions for our community. We will continue to update this page as information changes. You can learn more about our measures here.
We’d like to remind everyone to take the following actions to help stop the spread of COVID-19:
Regularly wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds or more and make use of hand sanitizer when available.
Avoid touching your face with unwashed hands.
If you’re feeling unwell, stay home and seek medical attention should you need it.
Practice physical distancing.
If you have traveled outside of Canada, self-isolate for a period of 14 days.
Please click here to learn more about local, national and international and multilingual resources on COVID-19.
Baycrest is an academic health sciences centre fully affiliated with the University of Toronto
About Baycrest
Baycrest is a global leader in geriatric residential living, healthcare, research, innovation, and education, with a special focus on brain health and aging.
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Zoo Visit with Dinosaurs and Red Pandas, Speculative Poetry – Practice and Teaching, and The Importance of Fun for Your Health @ Webbish6
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Zoo Visit with Dinosaurs and Red Pandas, Speculative Poetry – Practice and Teaching, and The Importance of Fun for Your Health
At July 25, 2021
Allosaurus, very scary
Zoo Visit with Dinosaurs and Red Pandas
Let me just say two things: I freaking love zoos and I love dinosaurs. If you know anything about me, you should know that these qualities imbue my writing and thinking. I took a college course during my three-year biology pre-med degree on how to be a zookeeper (a real investment) and seriously considered it as a career (til I found out the starting salary was $24K a year and a zookeeper lost her arm to a polar bear that year.) And I’ve been obsessed with dinosaurs since I was a kid. I love paleontology and also briefly considered studying ancient botany. And growing up around robots, I am frankly in awe of walking, talking dinosaur robots (better known as animatronic dinosaurs.)
So a visit to Woodland Park Zoo was just what I needed after a week of strange insomnia and high anxiety (days with only one or two hours of sleep in a row, which almost felt like no sleep.) Hell yes, I paid extra for the “Dinosaur Experience” and then hung around the red panda cubs (mostly grown now) that I visited in November. It was wonderful to be outside on a serene cloudy day, with so many happy children (kids love dinosaurs, which they definitely should) and I came home, had dinner and slept blissfully for six straight hours. Doing what you love is absolutely good for sleep. And good for your writing. I hadn’t submitted any poems this month, but the day after my visit I submitted to two places.
Mother and Baby
Egg closeups
Glenn with T-Rex model head
Okay, I may not be able to prove that a visit to to a local zoo with animatronic robots will fix your insomnia and boost your will to live. But just look at those pictures of baby dinosaurs and try not to feel joy!
But I stopped to look at a few actual real animals too – herons and penguins, my red panda twins, a sleeping snow leopard. This was one of my few planned outings to public places – I’m still being fairly conservative with my coronavirus risks, but I felt this one was fairly low risk and worth it.
Red Panda cub with her tongue out
Red panda with tail swish
Speculative Poetry – Teaching and Practicing
In preparing for today’s Speculative Poetry Class, I learned some things – Zoom classes really require PowerPoints instead of handouts, and there aren’t a lot of resources out there for people who want to teach speculative poetry. It’s considered a niche, though speculative fiction is widely known and widely popular, still. I hope that spreading the word about the class – and hopefully, introducing some poets to the idea that speculative poetry is as old as Gilgamesh or at least the Goblin Market, and not at all strange (even if the subject matter is.) I wanted a few different exercises, which meant I had to try out a form I hadn’t really before – scifiku – and trying to select which poems to teach was hard! There are so many good speculative books of poetry, but to choose only a few poems to represent all of speculative verse? Tough.
Heron among penguins at feeding time
At last, I’ll leave you with the thought that during these still very uncertain and fraught times, it’s important to grab joy and try to go do the things you know are life-giving, inspirational. I am very happy to have made a brief foray downtown this week to the zoo (and afterwards the Woodland Park rose garden, just to smell the flowers.) If you get stressed out by something – like I occasionally do by giving Zoom readings and classes, and much more seriously, by the dubious covid comeback that’s constantly in the news – then make sure you schedule yourself some downtime, some self-care, something you enjoy. Don’t continue to push yourself until you break teeth (I’ve broken six this past year and a half) and make yourself miserable. This summer I’m trying to both re-enter “regular life” at a very slow pace and stay cautious and put my own health – including doing things just for fun, as well as things like dentist visits and MRIs – as a priority. It’s a tough balance. I know I can’t stop worrying about some things – and the summer is usually my “down time” because my MS symptoms tend to act up in the heat. But I can choose to do what I can, when I can. And seriously, doing something you enjoy just might be the key to keeping your sleep schedule on track which helps your immunity.
So wish me luck on my speculative poetry class tomorrow, and in relaxing my over-anxious self afterwards. And I am wishing you all calm, peace, poetry, and if possible, fun.
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Wow! What a cool zoo. Glad you got some stress relief and decent sleep. Totally agree that self care and stress relief are not optional luxuries. These are things we must do, especially as writers dealing with disabilities and the mental health issues they bring on. Thanks for sharing!
August 01, 2021
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Jeannine Hall Gailey is a writer with MS who served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and is the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize, Field Guide to the End of the World, and the upcoming Flare, Corona from BOA Editions. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Ploughshares.
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Jewish history has always known periods in which double naming existed, always in places in which Jews were relatively well-integrated in the non-Jewish society around them.
COLUMN
June 22 2022
Philologos, the renowned Jewish-language columnist, appears twice a month in Mosaic. Questions for him may be sent to his email address by clicking here.
Got a question for Philologos? Ask him yourself at [email protected].
“No one seems able to explain to me why most of the Charleses in my life have the Hebrew name of Yehezkel. Any bright ideas?”
Not really. The Hebrew prophet Yeḥezkel is known in English as Ezekiel, and the only Charles I know well enough to ask about the matter wrote back in response to my query:
I’m not Yeḥezkel. I’m Shiloh, one of Judah’s children. . . . My maternal grandmother, who died before I was born, was named Celia. They wanted to name me Cecil, but cooler heads prevailed. My grandfather, who knew Hebrew, was probably the one who chose the Hebrew name.
My friend Charles’s parents’ dilemma was far from unique. A large number of English-speaking Jews have observed and still observe the custom of giving their children both Hebrew and English first names—the former for religious purposes, the latter for everyday life. Although Jewish law does not insist on Hebrew names for such rituals as being called up to the Torah, or for circumcision, wedding, and funeral ceremonies, their use on these occasions is customary. A mi she-beirakh, a blessing said in the course of the Torah reading for someone’s health or welfare, or in commemoration of an important event or milestone in a life, would sound strange if made in the name of “Gerald ben Arnold” rather than, say, “Yirmiyahu ben Avraham.”
Such double naming, one name drawn from Jewish tradition and the other from the surrounding non-Jewish culture, is an ancient Jewish practice. We first encounter it among the Hasmonean dynasty that ruled in Palestine, a country whose economic and social elite spoke Greek, prior to its becoming a Roman province in the early 1st century CE. Some of the Hasmonean rulers put their Hebrew name first, as did Judah Maccabee’s nephew Yoḥanan Hyrkanos, who was known to Gentiles as Hyrkanos and to the rabbis as Yoḥanan ha-Kohen ha-Gadol, “Yoḥanan (or John) the High Priest.” The same was true of Yoḥanan’s eldest son who briefly reigned after him, Yehuda Aristobulus, but the order was reversed in the case of his brother and successor, Alexander Yannai, whose Hebrew name—a shortening of Yonatan or Jonathan—followed his Greek one.
Jewish history has known various periods in which double naming existed in some degree, always in places in which Jews were relatively well-integrated in the non-Jewish society around them, such as convivencia Spain and Renaissance Italy. Unlike today, however, such Jewish communities in the past do not seem to have attached any importance to the two names looking or sounding alike. This was something that took root only in modern times, first in Germany and Western Europe and then in America, where the first generation of native-born Yisraels became Isidores, Irvings, and Iras; of Moshes, Morrises and Myrons; of Ḥayyims, Hymans and Harveys, and so forth.
Such a phenomenon is connected to another old Jewish tradition, that of naming children for ancestors, generally for grandparents or great-grandparents. This is a practice already commented on by the 5th-century CE midrashic compilation Breishit Rabbah. There, in a discussion of the genealogies in the book of Genesis, there is mention of a great-grandson of Noah’s being named Peleg at birth because his parents prophetically saw that in his lifetime humanity would be divided (nifl’gah) by the proliferation of languages resulting from the failed project of the Tower of Babel—in regard to which the talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel is quoted as saying: “In former times, names were given according to events foreseen with the aid of the Holy Spirit, but in our own times, when the Holy Spirit is not available to us, we name after our forefathers.” Shimon ben Gamliel was himself a good example of this, because between the early 1st and 5th centuries CE there were no less than six Rabbi Gamliels, and at least two other Rabbi Shimons, all from the same prominent family.
Indeed, as long as mono-named Jewish grandchildren were named for mono-named Jewish grandparents or great-grandparents, there was no problem: if your grandfather or great-grandfather was a Gamliel, so were you. Dilemmas arose only with the spread of double naming, since non-Hebrew names went in and out of fashion, and names that were popular in one generation were no longer so in the next. (The old quip that, if American Jews had had their way, the state of Israel would have been called the state of Irving would meet with blank stares from most young American Jews today.) A baby girl in New York can still be called Bracha in Hebrew as was her great-grandmother, but her parents would hardly want to give her the English name of Bertha that Great-Grandma Bracha went by. And so, welcome to the family, Brigid!
“Bracha” may not sound much like “Brigid,” but the common perception is that the grandparent is still being honored and remembered as long as there is even a vague resemblance between the two names, such as that between the “Sh” of Shiloh and the “Ch” of Charles. Although the Hymans and Hermans were replaced long ago by the Harolds and Harrises, who have been yielding more recently to the Hunters and Hughs, the initial “H” remains. In some instances, among more traditional-minded Jews, the process has even come full-circle. Some of you may know the joke about the young couple that gave its son the name of Shlomo on his English birth certificate. “Shlomo?” asks an acquaintance. “What kind of a name is Shlomo?” “Oh,” says Shlomo’s mother, “he’s named for his grandfather Scott.”
Thus, if I had to venture a guess about Yeḥezkel, it might be that, when transliterated as Yechezkel (“ch” being commonly used to represent the guttural Hebrew consonant ḥet, which has no English equivalent), it yields the affectionate East European form of Chatskel, and that this bears a certain visual resemblance to Charles. But that’s only a speculation. Any Charleses reading this column, whether Yeḥezkels or not, are welcome to share the story of their names with us.
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