"Let no freedom be allowed to novelty, because it is not fitting that any addition should be made to antiquity. Let not the clear faith and belief of our forefathers be fouled by any muddy admixture."
-- Pope Sixtus III
Valentine grew up listening to artists like the Jackson 5 and James Brown. When he was a teenager, his parents turned him on to jazz artists such as Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan. He sang in the Boys Choir of Harlem, jammed with R&B groups, and performed at Amateur Night at the Apollo.
Then Valentine left his love of music by the wayside while working at a law firm. But the Philadelphia musician eventually found his way back to his roots.
Now a jazz singer, he’s the voice of Bube’s Brewery’s Alois Jazz Experience, located in the intimate bar space of Victorian Central Hotel in Mount Joy. Valentine will perform three sets of music beginning at 8 p.m. Friday at the venue.
Valentine says the demanding hours of the law firm made him miserable.
Kevin Valentine will be the voice of the Bube's Brewery Alois Jazz Experience.COURTESY KEVIN VALENTINE
“My daughter, who at that time was maybe about 4, called me and said ‘Dad, when are you going home?’ I looked at my watch, and it was quarter to 11. I was still at work. This is not how I wanted to live my life,” Valentine says.
It wasn’t until an old buddy from New York asked what music projects he had going on that he realized how absurd it was to abandon his passion.
“They were like, ‘Are you kidding me? That’s all you were about,’ ” Valentine says. “ ‘We had to tell you to stop singing when you were little because that’s all that came out of your mouth.’ ”
The conversation was a wake-up call for Valentine.
“I realized, I just kind of walked away from a major part of my life” Valentine says. “From that moment on, I kind of had to figure out how to get back to it.”
Valentine found a more manageable work-life balance by running his own private practice while performing frequent gigs with jazz groups in Philadelphia.
Conjuring Nat King Cole
He was looking to expand his performances to the Lancaster area for the past few months, networking with other musicians and venue owners.
That’s when he met Jeffrey Woodman, who was brainstorming new ways Bube’s Brewery could utilize its vast complex.
Woodman showed Valentine the intimate bar in Bube’s historic Victorian era hotel, adjacent to the brewery building. The space had been used for dining and music events, but now is used only for special events, such as Murder Mystery Dinners.
“When I walked in, I was like, wow,” Valentine says. “From the pictures on the wall to the (taxidermy) heads on the walls, you just don’t see things like this.”
Valentine says the room conjured images of singers like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. He wanted to emanate that vibe through his performances.
Woodman says it was a perfect fit.
“It just so happens that we wanted to do something like a jazz event,” Woodman says.
Valentine performs jazz standards as well as reinterpretations of jazz songs in a pop style. The format is friendly to jazz fans and novices alike, Valentine says.
The bar will serve specialty whiskeys, martinis and other cocktails, as well as small tapas dishes. The space comfortably holds 60 people.
Rather than be on a stage, Valentine and a pianist perform at floor level with the audience, making for an intimate show.
“Your audience is like right here. … That’s something that’s kind of different and cool,” Valentine says. “You just don’t see it as much. So, to have this type of authentic setting, for me as a singer, is fantastic.”
TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.
"We just got back from the Middle East," President Trump said to the president of Israel after his flight from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Tel Aviv, which is also in the Middle East. As Trumpisms go, this one is easy to forgive, particularly given how exhausted the president must have been after a weekend of jet-lagged diplomacy, (non-alcoholic) bacchanalia and sword dancing. But it does speak to a larger truth. The president was a stranger in a strange land, a region of ancient conflicts and complex political intrigues. We have seen the president struggle with the "swamp" in Washington. Well, if Washington is a swamp, then the Middle East is the Everglades, and the alligators rolled out the red carpet. The king of Saudi Arabia greeted Trump at the airport, a gesture ostentatiously denied President Obama. On the drive from the airport the streets were lined with American flags and Trump's face was beamed onto the side of a building. At the Riyadh summit, Abdel Sisi, the authoritarian leader of Egypt, invited the president to visit his country, adding, "You are a unique personality that is capable of doing the impossible." Trump replied, "I agree," to diversely interpretable laughter. He also returned the compliment. "Love your shoes. Boy, those shoes. Man!" In short, the Arab leaders, hardly inexperienced in lavishing praise on men who crave it, have the president's number. Of course, they were given some guidance in this regard. According to New York Times reporter Peter Baker, Washington officials offered some tips on how to deal with the American president. "Keep it short -- no 30-minute monologue for a 30-second attention span," Baker summarized. "Do not assume he knows the history of the country or its major points of contention. Compliment him on his Electoral College victory. Contrast him favorably with President Barack Obama. Do not get hung up on whatever was said during the campaign." Holy crap! You suckers elected a three year-old! These last two points are key. The success -- so far -- of the president's Middle East trip stands on the ashes of Obama's failures. It's easy to forget that for all Obama's alleged expertise, his foray into the Middle East foundered on his arrogance and naivete. In his 2009 Cairo speech, he unspooled cliches as wisdom, thinking that his name alone would put points on the board. He bought into the idea that the road to stability and peace in the Middle East went through Jerusalem. As Obama learned on the job, he came to believe that the road to peace went through Tehran, crafting an Iranian deal that alienated both our democratic ally Israel and our strategic Sunni allies, chief among them Saudi Arabia. In pursuit of his fantasy, he turned a blind eye to Iran's crushing of the Green Revolution and dithered to the point of complicity in the Syrian abattoir. Meanwhile, Iran remains as implacably hostile and as determined to be a regional hegemon as ever. That is the context of Trump's fawning reception. "Welcome, President Not Obama!" Equally relevant, the Saudis welcomed Not Candidate Trump. During the campaign, Trump railed against Muslims, indicted the Saudis as the architects of the 9/11 attacks and said (with more than a little accuracy) that the Saudis want to keep "women as slaves and to kill gays." If it thought it would get it votes or make it money, it would rape a woman AND shoot a homosexual (or vice versa) in the middle of Fifth Avenue...Hey, wait a minute...didn't all that happen last year? In his speech on Sunday, Trump flip-flopped to a somewhat more elevated realism. He said America wants "partners, not perfection" and that he didn't come to "lecture" anybody, hence the refusal to mention anything that rhymed with human rights or democracy. Which brings me back to Trump's naivete when it comes to the Middle East. He manfully called for the destruction of terrorists, but he talked of them as if they were foreign invaders to be driven out of the swamp, not products of it. Like the man who only has a hammer and therefore thinks every problem is a nail, Trump believes that the Middle East's problems can be solved with terrific "deals." The Saudis, eager to buy weapons and counter Iran, are all too eager to encourage this view. What alligator doesn't want sharper teeth?
TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.
President Donald Trump's huge proposed cuts in U.S. funding for the United Nations would make it "simply impossible" for the world organization to carry out essential work to promote peace, combat poverty and provide humanitarian assistance, the U.N. spokesman said Wednesday. What peace? Where? Poverty is everywhere. What is humane about blue-hatted thugs getting an American taxpayer funded rape-a-thon in some Third World hellhole? Raze the UN to the ground and everybody will be at least 10% better off the very next day.
Stephane Dujarric told reporters the U.N. will wait to see what the U.S. Congress does with the proposed budget, "but we will need resources to deliver on our mandates."
Could he mean their self-generated mandates? Nice gig, that.
Republicans who control both houses of Congress are skeptical about the administration's math and Democrats are opposed to the blueprint.
The United States is the largest contributor to the U.N. budget, reflecting its position as the world's largest economy. It currently pays 25% of the United Nations' $5.4 billion regular operating budget and over 28% of the separate $7.8 billion peacekeeping budget.
None dare call it fascism (evil) or treason.
The budget that the Trump administration submitted Monday for the U.S. fiscal year starting Oct. 1 would cut funding for U.N. peacekeeping by $1.3 billion, over 50%. Contributions to international organizations, including the United Nations, would drop by $447 million, a 31% decrease. Among other cuts are total funding for the U.N. children's agency UNICEF and, as previously announced, the U.N. population agency UNFPA.
That's not enough! Gut the bastards!
During a visit to the White House by the U.N. Security Council last month, Trump described the U.S. contributions to the United Nations as "peanuts compared to the important work."
Don't worry, internationalist kiddies. The roadkill-topped US president just loves to hear itself talk. It is The Establishment and The Establishment needs the UN for two reasons: 1) So it can pretend to care about the littles and 2) So it can fuck with anyone, anywhere, anytime.
BTW, the same goes for Clumpy The Clown's "demand" that NATO countries pay for more of their own defense. That was simply campaign rhetoric for the dumbasses who don't know we fought two World Wars to keep those execrable Europeans free.
Europe's dirty little secret is it would rather be ruled by Russians, Germans, or even mohammedans than do what is necessary to be free. I know the price WE paid to beat back the krauts twice and my idiot russkie cousins once.
Other Americans are getting tired of defending Western Civilization from the barbarians, but not me. MEMO TO EUROPE: I am in the minority. Either start fighting to the death or accept slavery and ignorance.
But the president and the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, have been pushing for reform of the world body, especially its 16 far-flung peacekeeping operations.
Dujarric said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "has been very vocal on the need to reform and is engaged — and is committed and will continue to work on reform ensuring the U.N. ... delivers what it is meant to deliver."
"Cushy jobs for globalist fascists doing nothing since 1945"
Atul Khare, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping support, said at a news conference that peacekeeping "is effective," pointing to nearly 70 missions that have wrapped up and "left a legacy of stability in countries spanning from El Salvador to Namibia to East Timor."
Bullshit.
The U.N. has already announced that three missions will soon be closing — in Ivory Coast, Liberia and Haiti.
Check the child sex trafficking stats.
Khare said "peacekeeping is cost effective," saying the current $7.8 billion budget supports 16 missions, a regional center and logistics base and the deployment of over 113,000 personnel. In addition, he said, the U.N. supports 22,000 African Union peacekeepers and 595 civilians in Somalia.
Adjusting for inflation, Khare said, "the cost of U.N. peacekeeping to member states today is 17% lower in 2016-17 than it was in 2008-09 when measured as cost per capita of deployed uniformed personnel."
The budget proposal says Trump wants to cap the U.S. peacekeeping contribution at 25% but notes that the U.N. General Assembly only revises assessment rates every three year, and the next negotiation isn't due until 2018.
"Therefore, a 50% reduction in U.S. funding for U.N. peacekeeping activities would need to be achieved through reductions in overall U.N. peacekeeping budget levels or reduced U.S. contributions," it says. "The request assumes greater burden sharing by other countries and a U.S. assessed contribution at or below the statutory cap of 25%."
TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.
You see, Dana sweetie, if you only scream FIRE! when the arsonist is right-handed, you aren't a journalist, you're just another fascist (evildoer) with an agenda...
WASHINGTON -- The president has the greatest self-pity. The best! "No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly," Donald Trump said this week as he heard the special prosecutor's footsteps. Thus did our assured head of state, equal parts narcissistic and uninformed, rank his treatment worse than that of Benito Mussolini (executed corpse beaten and hung upside down in public square), Oliver Cromwell (body disinterred, drawn and quartered, hanged and head hung on spike), Leon Trotsky (exiled and killed with icepick to the skull), and the headless Louis XVI, Mary Queen of Scots and Charles I. Trump hasn't been treated badly. He has been treated exactly as he deserved, a reaction commensurate with the action. He took on the institution of a free press -- and it fought back. Trump came to office after intimidating publishers, barring journalists from covering him and threatening to rewrite press laws, and he has sought to discredit the "fake news" media at every chance. Instead, he wound up inspiring a new golden age in American journalism. Trump provoked the extraordinary work of reporters who blew wide open the Russia election scandal, the contacts between Russia and top Trump officials, and interference by Trump in the FBI investigation. This week's appointment of a special prosecutor is a direct result of their work I suspect they won't be getting Presidential Medals of Freedom anytime soon, so let's celebrate some of them here. At The Washington Post: Adam Entous, Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima, Matt Zapotosky, Devlin Barrett, Sari Horwitz, Greg Jaffe and Julie Tate, along with columnist David Ignatius. At the New York Times: Michael Schmidt, Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Goldman, Matt Apuzzo and Scott Shane. The two rivals, combined, have produced one breathtaking scoop after another, including: The Post's Feb. 9 report that national security adviser Michael Flynn, contrary to the Trump administration's claims, talked with the Russian ambassador about U.S. sanctions before Trump took office. Flynn was out soon thereafter. The Post's March 1 report that Jeff Sessions also spoke with the Russian ambassador but did not disclose the contacts when asked about possible contacts during his confirmation as attorney general. He was forced to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. The Post's March 28 report that the Trump administration tried to block former acting attorney general Sally Yates from testifying on the Trump campaign's possible Russia ties. She later testified about the White House's failure to act on warnings about Flynn. The Times's March 30 report that two White House officials helped provide Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, with intelligence that Nunes made public. Nunes was forced to recuse himself from the committee's probe. The Post's report this week that Trump shared highly classified intelligence with Russian officials, jeopardizing the cooperation of allies. And the final blow: The Times's report this week that Trump asked FBI Director James B. Comey to shut down the FBI's Flynn investigation, according to a contemporaneous memo Comey wrote before Trump fired him. There were many more, and other outlets have flourished, too. On one day this week, the United States awoke to a report from Reuters that the Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians; a McClatchy report that Flynn, who had been paid as a Turkish representative, stopped a military plan that Turkey opposed; a Times report that the Trump team knew Flynn was under investigation before he started work at the White House; and a Post report that the House majority leader told colleagues last year that he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin was paying Trump. This journalistic triumph, made possible by nameless government officials who risked their jobs and their freedom to get the truth out, is all the more satisfying because it came as a corrective after one of the sorriest episodes in modern journalism: the uncritical, unfiltered and unending coverage of Trump -- particularly by cable news -- that propelled him to the Republican nomination and onward to the presidency. It's a great relief to have special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III now keeping his eyes on the executive -- a regent, if you will, to protect against future abuses. This doesn't mean Trump won't nuke Denmark tomorrow. But those racked by anxiety for the past four months can exhale: Grown-ups within the government have restored some order. Trump may feel as if he's been drawn and quartered, but what he's experienced is the power of a free press in a free country. That is entirely fair, and fitting. And straight from Washington's other newspaper comes...
President Trump arrived in Jerusalem this week with a most curious bit of information for Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
“We just got back from the Middle East,” Trump announced. “We just got back from Saudi Arabia.” At this, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, put his forehead in his palm. Did Trump not know Israel is in the Middle East? Did he not know he was in Israel? There was little time to contemplate this mystery, because Trump was moving on to generate more puzzlement at his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. The two men had wrapped up a news conference and reporters were shouting questions when Trump volunteered a confession. “Just so you understand,” he announced, “I never mentioned the word or the name Israel in conversation. Never mentioned it during that conversation. They are all saying I did. So you had another story wrong. Never mentioned the word Israel.” What a fucking dumbass. We were lucky that everybody Dana ever voted for was a genius. Thus did Trump apparently confirm that Israel was the unnamed ally that had provided sensitive intelligence to the United States that Trump then handed over to Russia. U.S. officials were concerned that if the ally were identified, Russia might try to disrupt the source. Mark Twain wrote “The Innocents Abroad” in 1869 while traveling through the Holy Land and Europe. This week, Trump wrote his own chapter as he bumbled his way through Saudi Arabia and Israel before heading for Rome. Americans by now have become accustomed to perpetual chaos. Now lucky friends and allies are seeing the Trump tornado firsthand. After Monday night’s attack at a concert in Manchester, England, Trump reacted with outrage and sorrow for those “murdered by evil losers in life.” But then he made this aside: “I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term. . . . I will call them from now on losers because that’s what’s they are. They’re losers.” NONE DARE CALL THEM GOAT RAPISTS! Except Your Humble Narrator, of course. Thus did the president apply the same label to murderous terrorists that he had previously bestowed on Rosie O’Donnell, Cher, Rihanna, Mark Cuban, George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Maher, Ana Navarro, Chuck Todd, the attorney general of New York, an astrologer in Cleveland, Gwyneth Paltrow, Howard Stern, Jeb Bush, John McCain, Marco Rubio, Karl Rove, Megyn Kelly, the Huffington Post and the New York Daily News — among many others. Beyond that, did Trump run a focus group to find out terrorists prefer being called “monsters” to “losers”? And does he suppose that taunting them as losers will be an effective counterterrorism strategy? If so, he might form an “L” on his forehead with thumb and forefinger when he invokes terrorist losers. Presumably Trump didn’t think it through. Likewise, he didn’t mean to offend his hosts in Saudi Arabia by referring to “Islamic terror” rather than “Islamist terror.” He was “exhausted,” an aide explained. Perhaps fatigue also made him turn Saudi Arabia’s King Salman into “King Solomon” — he was off by 3,000 years — and expand the Strait of Hormuz into the “Straits of Hormuz.” Less clear is what made him leave a cheerful message in the guestbook at the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem: “so amazing and will never forget!” Trump, who once scolded President Barack Obama for bowing before a Saudi ruler, executed a similar stoop in Saudi Arabia. Trump, who once criticized Michelle Obama for failing to wear a headscarf in Saudi Arabia, gave a speech there while his bareheaded wife and daughter listened. (Melania Trump struck another blow for women when her husband, ungallantly walking ahead of her on the Tel Aviv tarmac, reached back for her hand; she flicked his away.) What? She has to let it copulate with her (contractual obligation), but she'll be damned if she's gonna touch it. Trump does best when he sticks to the script others have written for him, as he did in his well-received speech in Saudi Arabia. It’s when he ad-libs that he gets in trouble, as when he proclaimed recently that peace is “maybe not as difficult as people have thought over the years.” Diplomats of the past 70 years must have been losers. Problem is, Trump has trouble sticking to the script. The White House distributed Trump’s prepared remarks for his meeting with Rivlin, making it possible to identify his ad-libs, a clutter of asides and superlatives. “Amazing.” “Very holy.” “And that’s number one for me.” “There’s no question about that.” Had the president’s predecessors employed such filler, these immortal words might be etched in marble on the Potomac: “Four score and seven years ago — that’s a long time ago, very long — our fathers, who spoke about this at great length, did what perhaps has virtually never been done before: brought forth on this continent, a new nation, a very great new nation — there’s no question about that — conceived in liberty — and that is so important! — and dedicated to the amazing proposition — and they felt very strongly about this, I can tell you — that all men are created equal. Number one for me.” The world, hopefully, will not long remember the gaffes Trump made over there. But it can enjoy a good chuckle. I hope somebody with some credibility also writes of these things, you ignorant cow.
TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Anti-government protesters in Venezuela have settled on a new target for their frustration: Hugo Chavez.
Until recently, even as the economy cratered and Venezuelans abandoned support for President Nicolas Maduro, many in the socialist-run country continued to revere Chavez for standing up for the oil-rich nation's long-overlooked poor masses.
But that once solid reputation has begun to crumble as quickly as statues and monuments built to the late strongman have been toppled. As anti-government unrest has spread, claiming at least 53 lives and leaving hundreds injured, protesters have ripped from their pedestals statues honoring Chavez in at least five towns over the past month.
The latest incident took place Monday when a protest in the western city of Barinas turned violent and demonstrators torched a home where Chavez spent part of his childhood, opposition politicians in the city said.
During a day of violence in the city, in which at least five men were killed and 50 injured, it was unclear how the incident began or the extent of damage to the house — one of several, and hardly the best known — where a young Chavez lived during an itinerant upbringing marked by poverty.
But the symbolism was nonetheless deeply felt by protesters and government supporters alike.
Since Chavez died in 2013, Maduro has tried to cement his grip on power by constantly invoking his political mentor. New statues depicting a youthful Chavez have been built around the country. His penetrating eyes and iconic signature are emblazoned on hundreds of public buildings. And even anti-government demonstrators frequently couch their criticism of Maduro by citing El Comandante's old speeches to argue he has strayed from Chavez's revolutionary road map.
Yet in town plazas around the country, Venezuelans no longer appear to view Chavez's legacy as justification for the current government.
In Villa del Rosario, a town in northwest Venezuela, protesters two weeks ago set fire to a statue of Chavez standing in salute and later proceeded to shake it back and forth, cheering when they finally knocked it to the ground. The only thing left standing was the commander's boots. In another city, a Chavez bust disappeared entirely.
"Some people, in some way, want to satiate that frustration, that disappointment they carry inside," said Joni Cermeno, a businesswoman who lives in Pariaguan, where townspeople recently awoke to find their Chavez statue reduced to smelted metal.
Authorities have responded swiftly.
BY WHOSE AUTHORITY?
Sixteen people were detained in the Villa del Rosario statue destruction and sent to military tribunals, according to their lawyer, Laura Valbuena. She said they have been charged with rebellion and insulting officials and could face up to 27 years in prison.
Jaquelin Perdomo, who works for the Caracas' mayor office, said the statue burnings were aberrant acts by a violent opposition.
"They want to erase anything that smells of Chavez," she said while waiting for a pro-government march in Caracas to begin on Monday.
However for many analysts the removal of so many Chavez statues, while unlikely to rank alongside the iconic toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, reveals the extent to which many Venezuelans feel embittered and betrayed by Maduro.
"Not too long ago, Chavez was widely regarded as a revolutionary hero in Venezuela," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank. "These acts reflect the depth of anger and hostility toward a regime that, in the name of Chavez, has utterly destroyed a once relatively prosperous and democratic nation."
It is always the little people who suffer for the madness of those who fancy themselves as morally and intellectually superior. That is why our Second Amendment is vital. How much would those poor bastards in Venezuela give for a gun and some bullets?
TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.
Zachary Ailes, 17, is out for blood following the death of his father. As we previously told you,
Roger Ailes, 77, didn’t always carry the cleanest reputation. His career at Fox News was plagued with multiple sexual harassment accusations from multiple women, and now, Zachary is seeking revenge on every single person who “betrayed” the late television executive. “I want all the people who betrayed my father to know that I’m coming after them,’ he said while eulogizing Roger on May 20. “And hell is coming with me.” His scary speech was made public by LifeZette’s editor-in-chief, Gabriel Sherman, via Twitter.
But who specifically is Zachary targeting? Roger made his fair share of enemies, including CNN correspondent Alisyn Camerota, Laurie Luhn, Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly — just to name a few. The stories these women have are all relatively similar in that they include alleged inappropriate touching or talking from their former boss. Laurie claims Roger called her his “sex slave” and a “wh*re” in a hotel room. In her book Settle For More, Megyn alleges that the Fox CEO would make frequent comments about her “sexy bras” and “push the limits” at the work place. One by one, more and more women started coming forward. In 2016 Roger decided that he’d heard enough and immediately bailed out from the $2 billion operation he helped create from scratch. “Having spent 20 years inside this historic business, I will not allow my presence to become a distraction from the work that must be done every day to ensure that Fox News and Fox Business will continue as the standard setters that they are,” he wrote in a letter to his boss Robert Murdoch. Sounds like Zachary might have a long list go run through.
@gabrielsherman
Scary: During eulogy, Ailes's teenage son threatened Fox women who alleged harassment. "I’m coming after them...and hell is coming with me.” TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.
Shall I explain the Mideast "crisis" to you, kiddies? Israel is the only free nation in the entire region. As such, she is the only one that responds to pressure. (American, European, U.N., et cetera.) What do you think the average Egyptian or Yemeni would do if he were free? Slaughter all Jews? Nope. He would eat his fill and do everything he could to make sure the evildoers never controlled him or his family again. The Orange Messiah is exactly the same as other "Western" "leaders". It will soon discover that the sons of whores who enslave their mohammedan brothers and sisters are liars, thugs, murderers, thieves, and perverts. (It will feel right at home.) Then it will realize that Israel has actual voters and opinion polls and a real political opposition. It will then push the State of Israel to murder itself so the Mess-iahdent can have a bigly big league "win" and masturbate in triumph. That's the same ol' shit.
It all began locally around the middle of the school year: Flat pieces of plastic or metal, usually with three or so “legs,” spinning around on outstretched fingers.
And muffled clicking noises coming from six-sided cubes.
They may have been largely invisible at the start of the school year, but around Christmas, they were everywhere — fidget devices, usually spinners or cubes, designed to give restless hands something to do but quickly adapted by kids everywhere for a simple reason.
They’re kind of fun.
The fidget spinner works a bit like a top: Balance the center of the flat toy on a finger, or pinch between two fingers, and give one of the “legs” a flick to send it into rotation.
The cube has different fidgety gadgets on each of its six sides, including a joystick-like knob, an on-off switch, rotating gears and a spinning ball.
Just how popular are the fidget devices?
Doesn't anyone write paragraphs anymore? This must be a" Fidget Article".
On Friday, all but one of the top 50 best-selling toys at Amazon was some form of a fidget spinner or cube. (The lone holdout was the game Cards Against Humanity, at No. 25.)
Another sign that the idea is approaching critical mass: Last week, a virtual “Finger Spinner” was the No. 1 free download in Apple’s app store.
They’re especially popular with the school-age crowd, leading some schools to the brink of total frustration. According to press reports and the website spinnerlist.com, which tracks spinner use and sales, schools in several states, including Texas, Massachusetts, California, Illinois and Alabama, have banned them outright.
Locally, schools seem to be taking more of a case-by-case approach to policing their use.
“We’ve dealt with worse fads,” says Jerry Egan. A former elementary and middle school teacher, he now is Penn Manor’s assistant superintendent for elementary schools.
“The spinners themselves aren’t that intrusive. They don’t make noise. They’re a harmless gadget.”
But they are a gadget — and that fact alone, he says, is what can cause some issues.
“It’s one more thing for a classroom teacher to manage,” he says, “or a kid loses it and can’t find it.”
Instead of banning them outright, local districts mostly are leaving the decision of whether to allow them to the discretion of teachers or building administrators.
“We try to keep it in perspective,” Egan says. “We acknowledge it as a fad and deal with it on a smaller-scale basis, instead of dropping the hammer.” Unless a boy pretends his finger is a gun. That'll get him expelled, which is probably the best thing that could happen to a kid.
The appeal of a fidget gadget is readily apparent to anyone who’s caught themselves clicking a ballpoint pen, jiggling a leg in lengthy meeting, picking at their fingernails or absentmindedly twirling their hair.
“The whole concept is that (fidgeting) can give us sensory input that helps us focus,” says Brittany Beers. A licensed professional counselor in Lititz, Beers is very familiar with fidget devices such as the cube and spinners. “The focus becomes on the feeling in the hand,” she says, “instead of the anxiety.”
“I have a cube in my office for (clients) to use to see if it helps them sit better and focus more,” adds Beers, who works with many children and adolescents. “Once I see how they respond, I may recommend to parents” that they get a fidget device of their own.
She says her young clients have found them helpful when tackling tasks they may find stressful, such as tests or homework. A fidget cube, she says, can be used almost absent-mindedly with one hand, leaving the other free for writing. And it can be kept and used in the pocket of a jacket or hoodie so it’s less obvious to others.
Beers suggests that parents of students who find the gadgets help their ability to concentrate work with their schools to make sure the student can use the gadget while still following rules.
“It really depends on whether the kid is using it correctly,” she says, “versus using it to get attention.”
This isn’t one of those fads — a Tamagotchi or Furby or the like — in which a toy’s appeal is pretty much limited to the younger set.
Fidget gadgets have their adult fans, too.
Some are attracted to the devices after a lifetime of trying to control their own fidgety impulses.
Others, though, have something a little more esoteric in mind. When the Financial Times recently did a story on fidget gadgets, the London-based publication’s comments section took a decidedly scholarly turn.
“As a physicist I’m really enjoying my spinner,” a reader with the username Pyrrhus of Epirus commented at the Times’ website. “I’ve been explaining to the kids about the various forces generated by the spinning wheel, gyroscopic effects and also about mass distribution and moments of inertia.”
TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.
Thousands of people from all over Russia have gathered at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour cathedral to visit the relics of St. Nicholas, one of the Russian Orthodox Church’s most revered figures
The remains will be displayed in the Moscow cathedral until mid-June before being moved to St. Petersburg. They will be returned to the Bari, Italy in July. Both cities are expecting crowds of faithful to visit the relics.
The agreement to send the remains to Russia was made in last year’s meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill – the first meeting of the heads of the Russian and Roman Catholic churches. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra, now the Turkish city of Demre. Most of his relics were taken to Bari in 1087.
TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.
If anyone ever needed a conversion experience — and fast — it is President Trump.*(Get it? - F.G.) The issue here is not switching religions. What he could use is an honest examination of his conscience, his attitude toward himself and others, and his approach to what it means to be a leader.
Even to suggest such a possibility seems absurd, more an inspiration for a “Saturday Night Live” sketch than a serious prospect. Moving an incorrigible narcissist toward self-criticism is as likely as changing the course of a river or the trajectory of the Earth’s rotation around the sun. But some people believe in miracles. One of them is Pope Francis, with whom Trump will be meeting on Wednesday. Might this compassionate Jesuit who preaches a God of mercy and the power of humility abandon his diplomatic role to engage in a pastoral intervention with a man whose soul (like all of our souls) could use some saving?
Sorry, sweetie, but that rings a bit hollow. When was your last thorough examination of conscience? We’re unlikely to know if the pope even tries. Communiques on papal meetings with heads of state are usually opaque. At worst, the encounter may be blandly described as “a full and frank exchange.” The Vatican knows that a lot of American Catholics voted for Trump, and the Catholic Church hasn’t survived all these centuries by ignoring realpolitik. Those of us who are critics of the president are hoping for something more: a stern talking-to from a religious leader who stands passionately on the opposite side of Trump on so many questions. Here it comes, kiddies, the left-fascist litany straight out of the gospel according to St. Trotsky. I have added a bit of emphasis so you are sure not to miss it...
Francis, after all, has explicitly condemned “trickle-down” economics as a system that “has never been confirmed by the facts” and “expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.” Capitalism, as he sees it, “tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits.” He added that “whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market.” The pope wrote an encyclical stating emphatically that a “very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system,” that “things are now reaching a breaking point” and that greenhouse gases are “released mainly as a result of human activity.” To protect the planet, Francis called for “changes of lifestyle, production and consumption.”
The president and the pope have already tangled on immigration. During the 2016 campaign, the pope labeled Trump’s Mexican wall “not Christian,” comments Trump called “disgraceful.” The contrast between the two men on immigrants and refugees could not be starker. “We must make our immigrant brothers and sisters feel that they are citizens, that they are like us, children of God,” Francis has said, pleading for compassion toward “the stranger in our midst.”
As a Roman Catholic, I find it fascinating that commie pinkos like La Dionne NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER quote a pope (even one they like) when he speaks about ACTUAL CATHOLIC DOGMA. For you non-Catholic kiddies out there, that's because they know he's telling them they are on a rocket sled to Hell if they don't stop fucking with people on a global (and personal) scale.
It’s hard to imagine Francis remaining silent on these questions when he talks with Trump. But the pope also believes in our capacity to transform ourselves and in an Almighty willing to forgive our sins. So he might well take on one of the toughest counseling jobs of his life by urging Trump to consider the value of thinking beyond the self. Was the pope preparing for this moment in a surprise talk he filmed for the TED2017 conference late last month? “Please, allow me to say it loud and clear,” he declared. “The more powerful you are, the more your actions will have an impact on people, the more responsible you are to act humbly. If you don’t, your power will ruin you, and you will ruin the other. “There is a saying in Argentina,” Francis continued. “’Power is like drinking gin on an empty stomach.’ You feel dizzy, you get drunk, you lose your balance, and you will end up hurting yourself and those around you.” I hope Francis conveys something like that to our president. Trump could profit from it right now. Trump enjoys mocking “losers,” so he might pay heed to Francis’s injunction that when the fortunate encounter those who are not, they should ask themselves, “Why them and not me?” Francis’s answer was different from the one Trump would likely give. “I could have very well ended up among today’s ‘discarded’ people,” the pope said.
Trump has recently been portrayed as being in a dark and sour mood, and the disclosures over the past few days could hardly have improved his disposition. This just might make him open to a pastor who teaches: “We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it.” Mr. President, what do you have to lose?
TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.
First of all, the word is SEX, not GENDER. If you are ever tempted to use the word GENDER, don't. The word is SEX! SEX! SEX! SEX! For example: "My sex is male." is correct.
"My gender is male." means nothing. Look it up.
What kind of sick neo-Puritan nonsense is this? Idiot left-fascists, get your blood-soaked paws off the English language. Hence I am choosing "male" under protest.
