Category Archives: Golden Rule

Season 3 episode 8 of Succession aired last night and everyone is asking the same question; is Kendall Roy actually dead?

Sunday evenings are top-dog for fans of fantastic television.

One of the biggest series to air new episodes each Sunday is the hard-hitting Succession, which broadcast episode 8 of its third season on December 5th.

The episode Chiantishire certainly caused a few ripples in the Roy household, but it was Kendall himself making ripples as he ended up in the pool.

So, from everything we know so far, is Kendall Roy really dead in Succession season 3 episode 8?

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Succession S3 | Extended Trailer | Sky Atlantic

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To put it simply, the fate of Kendall Roy is purposefully left ambiguous by the showrunners, with the character floating face down in a pool when the credits rolled on episode 8.

It was a tough episode for fans of Kendall, who joined his family in Italy for the wedding of Caroline and Peter.

The first blow to his mental health comes in the form of his own mother, who reveals that Logan has requested an itinerary that didnt allow him and Kendall to be in the same space.

The second is from the podcast investigating the Roy family. Whilst Kendall thinks appearing on the show is a good business decision, the team are going to dig up some dark family secrets including the death of the former waiter.

Finally, Kendall is pushed over the edge by Logan himself, who not only gets Kendalls son to taste his food (thinking its poisoned), but also humiliates him by asking about the waiter.

The episode ends with Kendall extremely drunk and face down in the pool, with the camera pointing upwards from the pool floor, Kendall lets go of his beer bottle as the screen fades to black.

So, whilst Kendalls death is certainly implied in season 3 episode 8 of Succession, fans are unconvinced that this is actually the characters final send-off.

On the one hand, the golden rule of cinema is If you dont see a character actually die, they arent dead. This is the case with Kendall, who is shown in a fatal situation, but not outright shown to be dead. Not only that, but he is one of the main characters in a series that has already been renewed for a fourth season they wouldnt change protagonists for the final act, would they?

However, the ending to season 3 episode 8 was very ominous, and would be an appropriate death for Kendall considering he caused the waiter to drown in the season 1 finale.

We will have to wait and see until next weeks episode to find out if someone rushes to save Kendall from the pool, or if he has bowed out in a similar manner to the aforementioned waiterdrowning.

Season 3 of Succession will consist of nine individual episodes, meaning that next week will mark the season finale!

The first two broadcasts of the hit drama series had 10 episodes, but a reason for the decrease in season-length has not been revealed.

The good news is that season 4 has already been ordered, so fans should expect a dramatic cliff-hanger ending next week.

With the third season of Succession set to conclude next week, its interesting to look at how the latest instalment has been rated.

At the time of writing, Succession season 3 is scoring a solid 9/10 on IMDB; higher than the series average of 8.7.

A similar performance can be seen on MetaCritic, where season 3 is scoring a 92% in comparison to the first at 70% and the second at 89%.

However, on Rotten Tomatoes, the third instalment is ranking at an 81% which may be higher than the debut broadcast but is lower than season 2.

In terms of viewership, Succession has maintained a solid average audience, but has also experienced a steady decline in viewers across its third season.

According to data from the Nielsen Media Research group, via TV Series Finale, season 3 of Succession has had a reduction of 19.3% in demographic and 10.8% in number of average viewers.

Despite still having one episode to go, Succession did feature on Varietys best television series of 2021 in 3rd and 7th place from the two authors.

By Tom Llewellyn [emailprotected]

In other news, Money Heist season 5: How much is 90 tons of gold worth?

Read the rest here:

Succession: Is Kendall Roy dead at the end of season 3 episode 8? - HITC

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The University of Cincinnati claims that it wants Alabama. However, history would say otherwise and now the Bearcats are cursed.

Alabama and Cincinnati have played one another on five occasions dating back to 1908. The Crimson Tide have won all five games by a combined score of 156-27. Oof.

After the College Football Playoff committee made it official on Sunday, the Bearcats are being presented a chance for revenge. No. 1 Alabama will face No. 4 Cincinnati in the CFP Semifinal Cotton Bowl game on New Years Eve.

As a result of the fact that the two teams have not played since 1990, Cincy fans are unfamiliar with the modern day rules. The first rule of playing Alabama is tonever disrespect the Tide. Nick Saban and his program feed off of hatred, negativity and disrespect he calls it Rat Poison.

Thus, it is easier to accept that Alabama is a dominant program and give them their respect. For example:

Well, a Bearcats fan named Ryan Brady recently broke the golden rule. In turn, he has cursed Cincinnatis chances of winning the game.

Nippert Stadium, where the 2021 ACC Champions play, is open to the public at all times. Fans can enter the stadium and the field at all hours of the day.

Brady did just that, but he took it one step too far. He proceeded to walk to midfield, place an Alabama t-shirt on the ground, and danced all over it.

Brady did not respect the Tide. He stomped all over them. In turn, it is a safe bet to place your mortgage on Alabama to cover.

Link:

Cincinnati Fan Curses The Bearcats By Stomping All Over Alabama In TikTok Video - BroBible

The term "binge-watch" was a contender for the Oxford English Dictionary's 2013 word of the year. Although it didn't win ("selfie" ultimately took the crown), this pointed to the rise of what was becoming a popular activity of watching multiple episodes of a TV show in a single sitting.

Today, millions of us including me regularly consume our favorite series in this way. The proliferation of streaming services over recent years has made it very easy to do. Unsurprisingly, during COVID lockdowns, research shows many of us spent more time binge-watching than usual.

But can binge-watching become problematic or addictive? And if you can't tear yourself away, what can you do?

Problematic binge-watching isn't defined by the number of episodes watched (although most researchers agree it's at least two in a row), or a specific number of hours spent in front of the TV or computer screen. As with other addictive behaviors, more important is whether binge-watching is having a negative impact on other aspects of the person's life.

Over many years studying addiction, I've argued that all addictive behaviors comprise six core components. In relation to binge-watching, this would mean:

Binge-watching is the most important thing in the person's life (salience)

The person engages in binge-watching as a way of reliably changing their mood: to feel better in the short-term or to temporarily escape from something negative in their life (mood modification)

Binge-watching compromises key aspects of the person's life like relationships and education or work (conflict)

The number of hours the person spends binge-watching each day has increased significantly over time (tolerance)

The person experiences psychological and/or physiological withdrawal symptoms if they're unable to binge-watch (withdrawal)

If the person manages to temporarily stop binge-watching, when they engage in the activity again, they go straight back into the cycle they were in previously (relapse).

In my view, any person who fulfils these six components would be genuinely addicted to binge-watching. A person who only fulfils some of these may be exhibiting problematic binge-watching, but wouldn't be classed as addicted by my criteria.

Like many other behavioral addictions, such as sex addiction, work addiction and exercise addiction, binge-watching addiction is not officially recognized in any psychiatric manuals. We also don't have accurate estimates of the prevalence of problematic binge-watching. But research into this phenomenon is growing.

In the latest study on this topic, a research team in Poland surveyed 645 young adults, all of whom reported that they had watched at least two episodes of one show in a single sitting. The researchers wanted to understand some of the factors underlying problematic binge-watching.

The authors (who based their definition of problematic binge-watching partly on my components model of addiction) used a questionnaire they developed in an earlier study to assess problematic binge-watching among participants. Questions included: "How often do you neglect your duties in favor of watching series?" "How often do you feel sad or irritated when you can't watch the TV series?" and "How often do you neglect your sleep to binge-watch series?"

Participants had to give answers on a six-point scale from one (never) to six (always). A score above a certain threshold was deemed indicative of problematic binge-watching.

Using a range of other scales, the researchers found that impulse control difficulties, lack of premeditation (difficulties in planning and evaluating the consequences of a given behavior), watching to escape and forget about problems, and watching to avoid feeling lonely were among the most significant predictors of problematic binge-watching.

Using the same data, the researchers reported in an earlier study that problematic binge-watching had a significant association with anxiety-depressive syndrome. The greater the symptoms of anxiety and depression, the more problematic a person's binge-watching was.

Other studies have reported similar findings. A study of Taiwanese adults, for example, found problematic binge-watching was associated with depression, anxiety around social interaction and loneliness.

An American study found the behavior was associated with depression and attachment anxiety. Most related studies like this one from Portugal have also shown escapism to be a key motivation of problematic binge-watching.

In terms of personality traits, research has shown that problematic binge-watching appears to be associated with low conscientiousness (characterized by being impulsive, careless and disorganized) and high neuroticism (characterized by being anxious and prone to negative emotions). We see these types of associations in addictive behaviors more generally.

If you want to cut down on the number of episodes you watch in one sitting, my golden rule is to stop watching mid-way through an episode. It's really hard to stop watching at the end of an episode as so often the show ends with a cliff-hanger.

I also suggest setting realistic daily limits. For me, it's 2.5 hours if I have work the next day, or up to five hours if I don't. And only start watching as a reward to yourself after you've done everything you need to in terms of work and social obligations.

Remember, the difference between a healthy enthusiasm and an addiction is that the former adds to your life, whereas the latter detracts from it.

If you feel binge-watching is taking over your life, you should seek a referral from your GP to see a clinical psychologist. Most addictions are symptomatic of other underlying problems.

Mark Griffiths, Director of the International Gaming Research Unit and Professor of BehavioralAddiction, Nottingham Trent University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read more here:

An Actual 'Addiction' to Binge-Watching TV Could Be More Real Than You Think - ScienceAlert

Tis the season to be jolly. Or tis the season to be jolly cautious? The Prime Minister tells us to party on, while health officials are advising us to restrict socialising. No indiscriminate snogging (sic), says a Cabinet minister. But then people are urged by the Government to keep living their life. The Christmas party season is upon us, and no one knows quite which way to turn. Nothing new there, then.

We are back to the point of having to manage our own risk profile, and, in one sense, thats perfectly reasonable. We have lived with this pandemic for long enough now to be able to make informed choices on what we should and should not do for the safety of ourselves and our fellow citizens. And what we have discovered is that, under the cover of Covid, many people have decided not to bother.

What a relief, some might say. No need to make lame excuses when you dont fancy an upcoming social event. Cant get a babysitter. Or my child is ill. Or the car has broken down. No, its a straightforward call these days. Im sorry, but Im seeing my elderly parents at Christmas, and Im worried about the new variant. Everyone understands. No problem. No need to have your conscience pricked.

We are told that Hogo (the Hassle of Going Out) is a modern, Covid-inspired phenomenon. Many people, we learn, would rather stay at home and watch a box set than go to a party and talk about the box set they are watching. Maybe its my advanced age, but Ive had party ennui for quite some time.

I think I may have reached the stage of life when I have been to, and given, all the parties I ever want to. So now, when asked whether I am going to such-and-such event, I cheerfully employ a more common acronym: NFI. In this case, it means Not Flipping (or some such word) Interested.

At this point, I will share with you an invaluable piece of advice for those who find themselves, on the day of a social engagement, wishing they had never agreed to go in the first place. The golden rule is this: do not accept an invitation to do something in six weeks time that you wouldnt want to do that very evening. Because one day soon, it will be that very evening. And I can guarantee you wont want to go.

But while Covid may have allowed some of us to unleash our inner misanthrope without fear of reprisal or judgement, the basic human need to connect and socialise will survive the current difficulties.

Which brings us to a much bigger question. Has our fun gene has been altered in a more fundamental way than we even realise? Could Hogo be superseded by Fogo, fear being a much more powerful driver than hassle?

We do not yet know what Omicron, or its next mutation, might bring, and that uncertainty is enough to give people, across the generations, pause for thought when it comes to unbridled social interaction. It might be all right for No 10 to have a big old hoolie, but the rest of us may be a little more watchful. Whether you are a giver or a goer, we reserve the right to party. Or not, as the case may be.

Welcome to Christmas 2021 giving a whole new meaning to cancel culture.

Read the original here:

If the Omicron variant doesnt kill off Christmas parties, Hogo (the hassle of going out) just might - iNews

1 / 1 Omicron variant threat

Deepesh Parswani,Ecommerce entrepreneurAs responsible citizens, we should avoid mass gatherings, travel should be restricted and we should follow the Covid protocol. The government should also take proactive steps and restrict movement of people at high risk, like kids and elderly. Wait and watch attitude can get us into trouble again.

Sunil Bhatnagar,RetiredGovernment should immediately impose restrictions on mass public gatherings, strictly enforce RTPCR testing on all international arrivals, isolation and contact tracing of all suspected cases to be done to contain the spread. Ramp up medical infrastructure and be ready to meet spurt in cases. Citizens to fully cooperate by wearing masks, maintain social distancing and personal hygiene and most importantly, avoid panic and rumour mongering.

Harvinder Kaur Ahluwalia,Retired teacherOmicron being a virus cant be stopped from spreading as it needs only a medium for transmission. We only have to ensure to stay safe from it and by now, everyone is aware of all Covid guidelines. People and government became relaxed and stopped following Covid protocols as there was decline in fresh cases. We have to continue life wearing masks for some more time as full vaccination will help us win the battle with Omicron.

Dhyey Shah,Doctor-lecturerWith the entry of new strain, which is said to be more infectious, the next 15 days shall be crucial to avoid another wave. If everyone uses Covid-appropriate behaviour like mask hygiene and hand-washing wherever required, we all can together stop the spread.

Minesh Shah,Marketing directorCitizens responsibility is to strictly follow protocols laid down by authorities for their own and also for everyones safety. Authorities at the same time should become strict and impose heavy penalty on those not following the guidelines of government. Both will have to work hand-in-hand in any case to fight Omicron. It is not a one-person job, together we can fight and win.

Jhalak Singhi,StudentI believe, immediately schools and entertainment hubs should close down as studies have stated that this variant is dangerous for children.

Suraj Tripathi,StudentDue to the arrival of Omicron virus in Gujarat, special attention should be to the following things: Cover face at all times, in public place or workplace and during transport; social distancing individuals must maintain adequate distance in public places; do not spit in public places and if people do not understand, they should be fined.

Shrinath Vyas,Sports physiotherapistWith the recent spike in cases of Omicron, it is mandatory for people to understand the graveness of the situation and avoid panic travelling. People have forgotten social distancing norms at places like gym, cafes, colleges, etc. Everything needs to return to the new normal for us to return to normal.

Pramod Varandani,Pharma businessmanIt is said prevention is always better than cure. So, certain steps like compulsory quarantine for international travelers flying into India, RTPCR tests, back to wearing N95 masks instead of the cotton masks, limiting international travelling, avoiding mass gatherings and maintaining social distancing could be followed to prevent citizens from this new Omicron variant.

@Nehru_WhooFollow strict protocols like we did in apr, may . authorities are slacking off now..no vaccine certificate checks or mask check at any public transport,gardens or malls.

Vinod Sajnani @vinodsajnaniPeople cant have liberty to skip vaccination. Govt must set a golden rule now. No heathcare services to non-vaccinated citizens

Read more:

Omicron enters Gujarat: What are the immediate steps should authorities and citizens take? - Ahmedabad Mirror

[Dolph], there is too much to think about you, and too much to feel. The difficulty is your life refuses summation it always did and invites contemplation instead. From Toni Morrisons eulogy for James Baldwin

My mama from the Chi, my daddy from the M, Thats why I hustle like John Gotti, and think like a pimp

Adolph Thornton, Jr., was the griot of the ghetto; the prophet to the poor. Not only was he gifted in rhyme and rhythm, but he spent his life giving the world at least three gifts.

First, he gave the gift of the impenetrable hustle. A graduate of South Memphis Hamilton High School and Castalia Heights School of Hustlin, he was born to parents who were committed to the game. They sent him to Memphis from Chicago where he followed in their footsteps, a mirror image of his father.

He wasnt studyin anyone else; he took on responsibility early for himself, for his family and for his community. A college degree wasnt his priority; it was becoming his own man and creating opportunities for other men around him who desired to make it out the hood. His early years were not without mistakes, however. Yet, his rap sheet didnt prevent him from rapping, using the money he earned from the streets to produce and market his mixtapes.

Keep goin up the ladder (ayy), they mad, make em madder (hey)

His second gift was building ladders. He would establish Paper Route Empire for the other rap hopefuls who crossed his path and in whom he believed. With over 20 mixtapes, several studio albums, a plethora of features, Top 200 Billboard hits, he could sign his name next to rappers turned businessmen like Jay Z and Master P.; he reached back to pull others along as he climbed.

The unspoken golden rule says once you make it out the hood, never go back. While he may have known this, Dolph didnt believe it. His actions spoke that every person living where he left deserved a better life. Reaching in the depth of his heart and pockets, he often returned to Memphis, with his children by his side, giving back, lifting up and inspiring the next generation. Whether they wanted to be rappers, ballers or simply thrive beyond the ZIP codes of abject poverty, Dolph knew kids didnt need another lecture or sermon; his presence in his hood and hometown was the third gift.

I got a sweet tooth but I stay away from suckers (For real though)

It is tragically poetic that his final breath would be taken at one of his favorite mom and pop shops, Makedas Homemade Butter Cookies. His love for his community reached beyond any fear or threat he may have ever received. The beat of his heart lived in the hustle of South Memphis streets, in the smiles of the Hill family in Makedas; in the love from Hamilton students. The embrace of his grandmother and children. The admiration of his protegees. When he was home, he was king. And we crowned him.

As Morrison said in Baldwins eulogy: This then is no calamity. No. This is jubilee. Our crown, you said, has already been bought and paid for. All we have to do, you said, is wear it.

Cheers is a social media guru and writer and the director of communications for Bridges.

This story is brought to you by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, a nonprofit newsroom focused on poverty, power and policy in Memphis. Support independent journalism by making a tax-deductible donation today. MLK50 is also supported by these generous donors.

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Young Dolphs gifts included more than rapping - mlk50.com

Chances are your last (online) brainstorm session was not a true one. As it happens, there is a complete lack of understanding about brainstorming. Put a few people together and say, come up with ideas, and we then call it a brainstorming session. Which is not what a brainstorm entails. What has been written about brainstorming is often wrong. It seems, moreover, that the researchers who claim that brainstorming is not effective do not really know what brainstorming involves.In this column, I am going back to the source of brainstorming and explain why brainstorming is worthy of our appreciation.

The idea of brainstorming was masterminded by Alex Faickney Osborn (1888-1966). Osborn was a classic case of The American Dream. He paid for his (psychology) studies himself with all sorts of side jobs. He was fired from his first job only to later become the director of the BBDO advertising agency in New York. The O stands for Osborn. BBDO employed over 1000 people in his time. The company still exists today.

Do an online search for Osborn and brainstorming and chances are you will be referred to the book Applied Imagination. I bought Applied Imagination to find out how Osborn described brainstorming. So, back to the source. And how does Osborn interpret brainstorming? He doesnt! He does mention the word, but he uses it as if the reader already understands what it means.

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I was convinced that Applied Imagination would clarify what brainstorming is. After all, it is mentioned in all kinds of articles on the Internet. This is a typical of the misconceptions about brainstorming and Osborn. What is written about it, is often incorrect.Much to my chagrin, I bought another book. Osborns earlier work: Your Creative Power published in 1948.

If you have a thing for creativity: buy it and read it. Osborn writes like a true American from the 40s and 50s of the last century. He writes passionately about creativity as the means to end the Cold War. He writes about women who can also be creative because they have to come up with something different to cook every night. Hilarious and tragic at the same time.And so, what brainstorming really encompasses.

Chapter 33: How to organize a squad to create ideas

Osborn devotes one chapter to explaining brainstorming. In 9 pages, Osborn provides:

The Golden Rules of Brainstorming. Odds are that you are familiar with them. They come in many variations, hereby quoted literally as they appear in the book (Osborn, 1948; p.269):

The spirit of a brainstorm session can make or break it. (Osborn, 1948 p.270). Brainstormers have to feel good about the brainstorming session. This is how you can tell if the brainstorming session went well. That, in combination with the number of ideas that they came up with.

According to Osborn, it is mainly down to rule number 1: [brainstorming] concentrates solely on creative thinking and excludes the discouragement and critisicm which so often cramp imagination. (Osborn, 1948, p.272).Of course, the key question is: is it true what Osborn has written?

By and large, the conclusion is drawn that brainstorming works no better than when people come up with ideas on their own. The reasons for this tend to vary and can be read about all over the Internet. Take advantage of that, but be sure to be critical.As a university staff member, I have access to the scientific articles behind what you read on the Internet. I get incredibly frustrated with the experiments in scientific articles about brainstorming. There is always something wrong with the experiment which prevents any real brainstorming.Case in point.

One of the oldest studies on the workings of brainstorming comes from Yale. Taylor, Berry and Block (1958) researched whether brainstorming facilitated creativity or not. They came to the conclusion that people who brainstormed on their own came up with more and even better ideas.In the experiment, participants were told what brainstorming entails, what the brainstorming rules are, and who they were going to be brainstorming for in this case, the Office of Naval Research. The brainstormers were asked to do their best.Finally, subjects were specially asked to do as well as they could, and it was impressed upon them that the success of the experiment was contingent such effort. (Taylor, et al., 1958).No real brainstorming took place in this experiment for the following reasons:Being told what to do is not the same as being able to do it.First, explaining brainstorming rules to participants does not mean that participants are also able to follow the rules. Osborn does write that basically everyone can brainstorm. In doing so, he goes rather easy on the fact that deferring a judgment is underestimated in terms of how difficult that is to do in practice. More on that later.Additional pressure on participantsSecondly, by giving gravitas to the client and emphasizing that the participants had to do their best. The studies thereby put pressure on the participants. This makes deferring judgment that more difficult.This extra information can cause lead to more peer pressure (as in, oh dear, soon the other participants will think my ideas are stupid). This manifests itself more naturally in a group than when you brainstorm on your own duh.

Thirdly, no attention is given anywhere to the creation of the right kind of spirit in these groups. I call it The Brave Space. The right kind of spirit ensures that participants dare to share their ideas, become enthusiastic and rely on each others energy.

The fourth is that, according to Osborn, 5-10 people is the best number for a brainstorm group. There were four people in a group in the experiment.

Fifthly, the group leader in the experiment had to divide their attention between two groups. In my experience, the quality of your supervision declines when you have multiple groups under your care. After all, you simply cannot hear every rule violation. Of course, my experience is n=1 and I am not going to generalize.ThereforeI think this is a typical example of the research on brainstorming: the experiment is flawed. What was sound in this experiment was the choice of brainstorming topics. They were specific. Nevertheless, we can ask ourselves to what extent there was a real case of brainstorming in the groups and by the individuals in this experiment.This does not mean that I want to show that brainstorming always works and is wonderful. For example, we can ask ourselves if specific questions in our complex society still have any relevance at all. I do want to show that we should be critical of the criticism of brainstorming and not write off brainstorming as a technique that does not work. We learn something very important when we brainstorm.

When you are able to defer judgment, you become better at empathizing, listening and observing. When you are able to defer judgment, you learn to play with ideas without having to necessarily accept them. As I said, this is really not so easy as it may sound. Go ahead and try to defer judgment when the stakes are high. When a lot depends on the outcome. Thats tough! Precisely for situations like this, I dont really need to explain how incredibly important this skill is.Then I have not even touched upon postponing judgment yourself and your own ideas. Perhaps this is even more difficult. When you are able to defer judging your own ideas, a world of imagination will open up to you. Imagination is the first step to change.Applied Imagination is what he titled one of his books. The longer I think about it, the more brilliant I think the title is. Applied Imagination hits the nail on the head, we basically cannot have enough of this.During a brainstorming session, we are made aware of our own (pre)conceptions and are trained to delay making judgments. This is an exercise in all of the above. If this process takes place collectively, it creates a bond with the situation and shared visions can be formed. That seems to me to be extremely useful.Hopefully next time you will approach any brainstorming that you do in a different way.

In a weekly column, alternately written by Willemijn Brouwer, Eveline van Zeeland, Eugne Franken, Helen Kardan, Katleen Gabriels, Carina Weijma, Bernd Maier-Leppla and Colinda de Beer, Innovation Origins tries to figure out what the future will look like. These columnists, sometimes joined by guest bloggers, are all working in their own way to find solutions to the problems of our time. So tomorrow will be good. Here are all the previous articles.

Read more here:

The value of a good brainstorm and how to make it work next time - Innovation Origins

Letters to the Editor| South Bend Tribune

Thank you to The Tribune for including the USA Today Network Exclusive Special Section, "Seven Days of 1961." I appreciate having these significant events reviewed in such a meaningful way.

In 1961 I was 17, and do recall television evening news coverage of major civil rights events. It all seemed very far removed from my southwest Michigan rural life.

Through the years I have come to realize just how significant a time it was for our country. We must make sure these events are not allowed to be forgotten. May we learn from our mistakes.

Unfortunately, as a nation, we still have not come close to achieving "liberty and justice for all. The Golden Rule says it all: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

Barbara Groner

Dowagiac

Monroe Primary Center, on the south side of South Bend, has turned Carroll and Farneman streets into a racetrack. On any given morning, there are two lines of traffic going north on a side street, horns are honking, music blaringand yelling, without regard to the residents in this neighborhood.

At 6 a.m., someone puts out a sign blocking access to Carroll from the north, and as of 11:30 a.m., it is still out there, although school has been in session for over four hours. When this sign is taken down, it is back out there in the afternoon, so that these parents block Farneman,engines running, music blaring, again without regard to those of us that live here.

I have approached an official from Monroe about the danger for the residents should they need emergency personnel, as there is no lane to get down Farneman;I was rebuffed. I have gone to the police, they blew it off, I went to the traffic engineer, she blew it off, and my councilman at that time never returned my calls. It appears to me that until someone dies or sues the city because they could not get adequate help or care, this will continue to be a problem.

These parents should not need a sign telling them the route they need to take to drop off or pick up their child.

Paul Williams

South Bend

Here are some quotes for the season:

Wallet: A device that permits you to lose all your valuables at the same time.

M.B.A.: Abusinessman who is often wrong but seldom in doubt.

Atheist: Aman who watches Notre Dame play Southern Methodist and doesn't care who wins.

Bargain: Atransaction in which each party thinks he has cheated the other.

Perfectionist: Someone who takes great pains and gives them to other people.

Compromise: An arrangement whereby people who can't get what they want makes sure nobody does either.

A sport:In golf, one who does not pick up a lost ball until it stops rolling.

Mr. Gobble visiting his friend says, "A Christmas tree! Carl, it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Thanksgiving's nice, but you know I'm not a practicing turkey."

Indian chief to pilgrim: "Are you serious? You want to have a picnic outdoors in late November?"

Jerry Schpok

South Bend

More here:

Letters: A reminder that this country still hasn't achieved 'liberty and justice for all' - South Bend Tribune

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Join us fo a Christmas Coffee and Clothing drive to benefit the West Seattle Clothesline, reads an announcement from Daystar Retirement Village.

When you drop off a gently-used clothing donation they will treat you to a steaming, delicious coffee drink made to order! All are welcome to help fill the West Seattle Clothesline stocks with clothing to benefit our neighbors in need.

The event will take place from 10:00-11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021 at 2615 SW Barton Street in the Westwood Village neighborhood (map below).

While youre there be sure to take note of the friendly residents and staff as well as their well maintained facility. If you or a loved one are in search of a high quality, active senior community, you owe it to yourself to consider Daystar Retirement Village, part of the Powell Communities family.

Jason Kitchel began working for Powell Communities in May of 2018.

Jason really enjoys the culture at Powell. We are a family owned business, and everyone truly is treated like family- with integrity and passion, and always keeping in mind The Golden Rule.

There can often be a lot of anxiety surrounding the decision to move family members into a senior community, and Jason strives to put peoples minds at ease as much as possible by listening to them and showing them that this is not the end of the story- it is simply a new chapter and everyone at Powell Communities is here to help continue the story with them, and that we are not an old folks home we truly ARE a community.

Call or Email Jason today to discover why Its so good to be home! at Daystar Retirement Village: [emailprotected].

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Enjoy Christmas Coffee and Clothing Drive at Daystar Retirement Village on Thurs., Dec. 9 - The B-Town - The B-Town Blog

Inthe deepening debate over the future of American democracy, the progressive Left and the religious Right have this in common: They both cling to nostalgic fictions about the past. Their revisionist histories, rooted in secularism on the one hand and sectarianism on the other, would propel our politics in the same direction: towardthe Leviathanimagined by Thomas Hobbes, an omnicompetent state that offers security and prosperity at the price of freedom.

On the Right, the rejection of liberal democracy is motivated by a yearning for a premodern world: a society animated by medieval concepts of virtue, faith, and authority. Catholic scholars such as Patrick Deneenargue that, under Christendom, the cultivation of virtue and aspiration to the common good served as bulwarks against tyranny. But liberalism dissolved these ideas, he writes, replacing them with civic indifference and the unfettered and autonomous choice of the individual. Likewise, Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule condemns the liberal project as the enemy of the historic church. Both politically and theoretically, he writes, hostility to the Church was encoded within liberalism from its birth.

Behind these views is a cluster of piousand dangerousfalsehoods about the history of European Christianity. The Catholic medieval project brought with it great reforms in law and education; it abolished slavery and established institutions to care for societys most vulnerable. Yet, for all its achievements, Christendom failed to uphold the most revolutionary tenets of Christianitynamely, the freedom and equality of every human soul.

Indeed, by insisting that the state enforce an overarching religious identity, the church criminalized dissent, trampled the rights of conscience, and authorized a brutal, continental Inquisition to root out and punish alleged heretics. Alongside its exhortations to virtue was a culture of hedonism and materialism. The humanist scholar Erasmus, satirizing clerical depravity, imagined the apostle Peter denying Pope Julius entry into heaven:If Satan needed a vicar, he could find none fitter than you. On the eve of the Protestant Reformation, the crisis of religious authority was manifest: a consequence, in part, of an unholy alliance between pope and emperor.

>>>The Appropriation of Locke

It required the secular forces of the Enlightenment to sweep aside the superstitions and religious hatreds that stood in the way of a more just and egalitarian society. That, at least, is the narrative of the progressive Left. Under this view, epitomized by thinkers such as Steven Pinker, religious belief is inherently suspect; organized religion is considered the enemy of reason, science, human rights, and social progress. As Pinker declares inEnlightenment Now, the moral worldview of any scientifically literate personone who is not blinkered by fundamentalismrequires a clean break from religious conceptions of meaning and value. Asa product of the radical Enlightenment of Spinoza and Voltaire, we are told, the American Founding was essentially a secular affair.

Yet the progressive account of the nations origins is rooted in a secularization myth, the false notion that liberal democracy emerged only after religion became privatized and marginalized in public life: the separation of church and state. Progressive historians exhibit a tone-deafness to the religious beliefs that inspired the American revolutionaries and shaped the debates over the U.S. Constitution.

InThese Truths: A History of the United States, Jill Lepore offers an informed and vivid account of the American Founding but omits any significant role for the Bible, the most widely read book in colonial America. In her rendering, the Declaration of Independence contained only secular truths, with no discernible link to a deity of any variety. Likewise, inFirst Principles, Thomas Ricks traces the impact of ancient Greece and Rome on the Foundersbut has nothing to say about how the Americans bracketed the classical world with a host of Christian assumptions about freedom, equality, and natural rights. In noting the influence of college president John Witherspoon on Madisons political philosophy, Ricks fails to mention that Witherspoon was an evangelical minister, or that Madison studied theology under Witherspoon before launching his political career.

Contrary to these revisionist histories, the concept of natural rights and freedoms was not a secular idea. Rather, it grew in the soil of revealed religion, when elements of Protestantism supplied the moral and theoretical bedrock for constitutionalism. The key figure, misunderstood by progressives as well as conservatives, was the English philosopherJohn Locke, considered the father of political liberalism.

Lockes insight was to combine the classical idea of natural and universal rights with that of natural law, which was always thought to be grounded in the divine will. The law of Nature, Locke wrote in hisTwo Treatises of Government(1689), taught that every person was born free and independent, the workmanship of one omnipotent and infinitely wise Maker, sent into the world by His order and about his business. Everyone therefore had a natural duty to respect the life, liberty, and possessions of his neighbor. They are His property, whose workmanship they are made to last during His, not one anothers pleasure. The rulers of a Hobbesian state, by tramplingindividualrights and freedoms, robbed God of his divine prerogative andput themselves into a state of war with the people. Outside of the Bible, no text was cited more frequently by the American revolutionaries than Lockes explosive manifesto.

Moreover, Lockes famous argument for the separation of church and state was not motivated by anticlericalism or a desire to cleanse the public square of religion. A lifelong Anglican, Locke was outraged by the attempt, by both Catholics and Protestants, to impose religious conformity through force. InA Letter Concerning Toleration(1689),he appealed to the life and teachings of Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, to defend religious liberty for all members of the commonwealth. And because Locke believed firmly in a final judgmentbecause no man can so far abandon the care of his own salvationeveryone must be free to seek religious truth according to the demands of conscience.

Locke placed a heavy burden on church leaders to teach and model a posture of peace and goodwill toward everyoneas well towards the erroneous as the orthodox; towards those that differ from them in faith and worship, as well as towards those that agree with them therein. And he delivered a stern warning, as a fellow believer, that Gods judgment awaited those who ignored the plain teaching of Jesus on the matter. And if anyone that profess himself to be a minister of the word of God, a preacher of the Gospel of peace, teach otherwise; he either understands not, or neglects the business of his calling, and shall one day give account thereof unto the Prince of Peace.

Lockes arguments permeated the outlook of colonial America. Protestant ministers, the cultural leaders of the day, embraced Lockes thinking as a biblical defense of equality, natural rights, and religious freedom. Elisha Williams, a rector at Yale University, in an influential tract published in 1744, warned that whenever government was applied to any other end than the preservation of their persons and properties, ... then (according to the great Mr. Lock) it becomes tyranny. Williams implored religious and political leaders to adopt that golden precept of our blessed Lord. As Locke framed it, the sum of all we drive at is that every man enjoy the same rights that are granted to others.Here, at the beginning of Americas democratic journey, was the political application of the golden rule.

The religious Right fails to grasp that, in a profoundly important sense, liberalism arose as a Christian response to the failures of Christendom. Although their political agenda remains murky, they seem enamored of the prospect of reestablishing a nationalist, religious vision: a Leviathan wearing the robes of a priest. Under this vision, the exercise of raw executive power would vanquish the enemies of cultural conservatism. Hence their uncritical embrace of Donald Trump, the self-styled defender of Christian values: Nobody has done more for Christianity ... or for religion itself than I have, he recently boasted.

>>>1776: A Lockean Revolution

Meanwhile, by disregarding the biblical roots of liberalism, progressives seek to expunge religious ideals from our politics. By severing universal rights from the ballast of religious truth, they debase the concept of rights and transform it into a platform for social entitlementsenforced by the state. By quashing dissent from the new orthodoxy, they summon the spirit of the inquisitor. In their desire for a perfectly egalitarian society, Hobbes would be an ally:And though of so unlimited a power men may fancy many evil consequences, yet the consequences of the want of it, which is perpetual war of every man against his neighbor, are much worse.

Here, ironically, is the common ground between the progressive Left and religious Right: the willingness to employ the unlimited power of government to achieve their fantastical aims. But the American experiment in human freedom, for all of its flaws, is a rebuke to the Hobbesian project. The American Revolution in self-government was a Lockean revolution, and its renewal is inconceivable apart from the religious ideals that gave it birth.

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What the Left and the Right Get Wrong About Liberalism - Heritage.org