DREAMS IN PERIL Offer Live Ascension On Midwest Tour Starting In May With PIG WEED – bravewords.com

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Dreams In Peril are hitting the American Midwest with Pig Weed - seven states over nine dates each one promising a night filled with thunderous breakdowns, relatable lyrics, and contagious energy.

Dreams In Peril are preparing for the release of the band's sophomore album, Ascending, and will be bringing some new songs to the road as well as featuring the band's new lineup, introducing new members Dakota Otte on vocals and Lucas Munoz on the second guitar.

They describe their music and what fans can expect: All of our music is based on personal issues and the hope to overcome your own personal demons. That being said, our upcoming new music covers ascending to new heights, rather than being in a career or in life in general. The new singles also cover topics like cancer and struggling with mental health. Musically, we are dynamic, from utilizing reverb to epic change-ups in tempos and timing signatures.

Dreams In Perils music not only keeps the listener on their toes with the instrumentation, but they also channel a momentous amount of energy and passion into their live performance that will have the audience upfront and center the entire time.

No strangers to the stage, Dreams In Peril has played with big names such as Born of Osiris, Origin, and Between The Buried and Me. Fans will be greeted by decisive energy and passion that ushers in real themes of anger, sadness, life struggles and ultimately overcoming them all.

With a couple of new singles ready to go in the coming months, they are excited to get back on stage doing what they love. They are recommended listening for fans of The Acacia Strain, Veil Of Maya, and Oceano.

Tour dates:

May27 - The Graffiti Room - Bedford Park, IL28 - Maple Grove Tavern - Maple Heights, OH29 - Westside Bowl - Youngstown, OH30 - Sovereign - Brooklyn, NY31 - The Stoney Badger Tavern - Lynchburg, VA

June1 - The Recreation Center - Fredericksburgh, VA2 - Black Circle Brewing - Indianapolis, IN3 - Vivo - Overland Park - Kansas City, MO4 - Kendalls Bar - Oklahoma City, OK

(Photo - Casey Steinmiller, Steinmiller Productions)

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DREAMS IN PERIL Offer Live Ascension On Midwest Tour Starting In May With PIG WEED - bravewords.com

Assessing COMP’s ascension with a decrease in net monthly borrowing – AMBCrypto News

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The DeFi token Compound was on a massive rally on 12 April at the back of the Robinhoods listing. The altcoin, along with Solana, Shiba Inu, and Polygon, was added to the existing list of assets offered by the platform.

At one point during the day on 12 April, COMP shot up by 15.48% before slipping back down to trade a $125.52, having still risen by 7.04%. This was huge support for the altcoin, whose last few days have been beyond uneventful.

After registering a 72.38% rally during the March April bullish period, the token lost about 31.66% of the rise within ten days, thanks to the broader market bearish cues.

But this price fall for once can be chalked up to the expected cooldown after the rally, as the Relative Strength Index (RSI) breached into the overbought zone and has since recovered to the neutral zone.

But even before this happened, the DeFi protocols performance hadnt been above par exactly. The monthly borrowing noted on Compound has been heading in a southward direction since December, right after the bears attacked the crypto market.

As prices began falling, borrowers took a break since investors confidence in the crypto market started wavering. But since the Dapp was still liable to pay its lenders, the borrowing went down and eventually became negative. At its peak, over $1.9 billion went out of the protocol in January as borrowing remained put.

Compounds monthly payout has been exceeding the interest it accrues | Source: Dune AMBCrypto

However, the net borrowing is still negative, with over $327 million leaving the protocol.

On the whole, borrowers are suffering losses given COMPs recent price fall, which only rose by 56% around the March end-April rally before falling back to a mere 37 value on 12 April.

This sudden drop in borrowers numbers has been a big issue with the Anchor protocol as well. Anchor protocols pre dynamic earn rate of 20% APY ended up emptying the treasury which was then replenished with $450 million by the Luna Foundation Guard.

If the price goes up further, COMP could end up attracting more investors to its protocol.

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Assessing COMP's ascension with a decrease in net monthly borrowing - AMBCrypto News

Around Ascension for April 13, 2022 | Ascension | theadvocate.com – The Advocate

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Louisiana treasurer to speak at April Ascension GOP Roundtable

Louisiana State Treasurer John Schroder will be the featured speaker at the April Ascension GOP Roundtable, sponsored by Ascension Republican Women. The Roundtable starts at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, April 21, at the Clarion Inn, 1500 W. La. 30 in Gonzales.

Schroder was elected state treasurer in 2017 and was reelected in 2019.

The event is open to the public and guests are welcome. Cost for the lunch is $25. Advance payment can be made at paypal.Hme/ARW225. Reservations are requested. RSVP, (225) 921-5187 or email ARWrUS@aol.com

The River Road African American Museum is for volunteers to assist with tours, special events and educational programs.

All volunteers receive free admission to all museum events, professional development seminars, and an opportunity to meet people from around the world.

Volunteers should have a friendly personality, good verbal and written communication skills, and a love of local history.

If you have five to 10 hours a week and are interested in sharing history, call at (225) 474-5553 or email at melanie@aamuseum.org.

Learn about Medicare improvements at two talks on the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 at the Ascension Council on Aging senior center.

The council will be hosting MIPPA Education Events for senior citizens of Ascension Parish. MIPPA is the acronym for the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.

Beryl Mitchell, Louisiana SenioRX coordinator with Capital Area Agency on Aging, will be the speaker.

The events are scheduled at both senior centers as follows:

Gonzales Senior Center: 11 a.m., Thursday, April 21.

Donaldsonville Senior Center: 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 26

For more information, call Leslie at Gonzales Senior Center, (225) 621-5750 or Amy at Donaldsonville Senior Center, (225) 473-3789.

The Kiwanis Club of Ascension is holding its first bowling tournament May 1 at Premier Lanes Entertainment Center in Gonzales.

Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today.

Five-member teams cost $25 per person to enter and all teams are asked to donate a gift basket for a raffle. Proceeds from the event will be used for the club's service fund.

To register, email Chris Harrell at ujeanh@eatel.net.

Save it or spend it? Introduce the concept of good money habits and smart spending decisions to your 3- to 5-year-old at Ascension Parish Librarys Mother Goose Money interactive activity April 16, at Galvez, or April 30 at Dutchtown. Together, you and your child will identify and sort coins to understand each has a value. Youll search the library looking for eggs with pretend money and talk about earning and spending as the kids cash in at our store to buy real prizes to take home. Kids will also get to decorate their own papier-mch bank, so you can continue the conversation about cash and coins at home.

Each activity begins at 10 a.m. Space is limited. To register to attend at Gonzales call (225) 647-3955. For Galvez, call (225) 622-3339, and for Dutchtown call (225) 673-8699.

Applications for the Miss Donaldsonville Scholarship Pageant are available at Donaldsonville City Hall and Donaldsonville Area Chamber of Commerce.

The June 17 pageant offers scholarship money for contestants in the Miss, Teen and Little Miss categories.

For information, call (2250 445-1383 or email lee@visitdonaldsonville.org.

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Around Ascension for April 13, 2022 | Ascension | theadvocate.com - The Advocate

The Vincent-Strus-Martin Ascension Spiraled into a Miami Heat Ascension Five Reasons Sports Network – Five Reasons Sports Network

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When covering the Miami Heats scrimmage during training camp, there were two names that I walked away from that game with that were clearly playing at another level.

Gabe Vincent and Caleb Martin.

One guy fresh off a two-way contract, and the other brand new to it.

Martin came as a surprise for many, as this athletic kid, that recently played for Charlotte, was showcasing to be much more than just a simple athlete.

He showed that his jumper was becoming more consistent, and wasnt just some isolation player that some seemed to perceive him as coming in.

More than anything, he was a legitimate defensive piece that showed flashes of being a real rotation piece.

Then the month of January hit in the year 2022. His name was already getting more buzz after an electric performance against the Bucks mid-way through December, where his 28 points without Jimmy Butler or Bam Adebayo led to a much needed win over the defending champs.

But well, the calendar flip was pretty much a defensive tour.

He made DeAaron Foxs night uneven with a 5 of 12 night, but it was clear that they had something aside from the Adebayo and Tucker switches. Martin followed the Fox night up with the assignment of Steph Curry, which he bothered enough to shoot 3 of 17 from the field at home.

Yes, they ended up dropping both of those games, but something was brewing.

Shortly after that two-game stretch, he held Chris Paul to a 3 of 9 night, Trae Young to a 4 of 15 game, and Fred VanVleet went 6 of 16 from deep with only one 2 attempted.

The point guard tour was real, but it was the true understanding of what he could be on this team, combined with the overall improvements in his offensive game.

Rewinding back to Gabe Vincent, there werent a ton of expectations coming into the season. He was a situational piece when guys went down, leaving many saying that a back-up point guard may be a neccessity.

People were right, they did need a back-up 1. But that guy was Vincent himself.

When he first signed with Miami, he appeared to be an undersized shooter who would play mainly off the catch, which he showed flashes of. But last season, he had an uneven year shooting the ball from deep due to some mechanical shifts.

Yet while some focused on those numbers, he was rapidly excelling at the all around parts of his game.

He became the staple of Miamis 2-2-1 press that debuted last year next to Andre Iguodala, just due to the fact that his perimeter lateral quickness was for real, and he had a clear knack for the ball.

Coming into this season, he just bounced off that two-way contract, and the next step would be could he make minor improvements on the ball.

Well, the improvements werent minor.

He was pretty much thrown into the fire of point guard reps, and he proved that the off-season did a lot for his game. The pick and roll savviness was really something, the catch and shoot numbers jumped up from under 30% last season to 39% this year, and his mid-range/driving game had surged.

His mid-range pull-up stalled out at 29% last year, which spiked to 43% this season. That isnt gradual improvement. Thats turning the whole page.

Plus, speaking of big games mid-way through December, Vincent led Miami to back-to-back wins with a 26 point performance in Philly, then a 27 point night against the Magic. As the top guys kept dropping out of the lineup, these guys were ready to step up.

Not only are they great fillers, but theyre now potentially in a playoff rotation.

And when talking about certain guys stepping up, Vincents two-way companion Max Strus is the perfect example of that.

I wouldnt exactly say Strus scenario was completely aligned with the other two, since it was more about situation and opportunity for him. He constantly would get the same looks no matter if it was last year or this year, but the sample size being greater this time around allowed for a true evaluation period.

Among the top 50 players in 3 point attempts a game this season, which includes around 50 players, only one player shot a better percentage from deep than Strus, with the stipulation of playing at least half of the regular season games.

Desmond Bane edged him out, but Max Strus trailed him with a 41% shooting season from beyond the arc.

Its not easy to be that spark shooter who has to consistently perform as a guy with zero rhythm prior to entering, but he proved himself. Now he finds himself sitting in the starting lineup less than a week away from the start of the playoffs.

These 3 guys are extreme success stories for this Miami Heat developmental program, but theyre also examples of putting in the work, and performing at the highest level.

From fillers to playoff rotation.

It isnt everyday that you see that, but from the Heats perspective, they arent surprised when it happens.

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The Vincent-Strus-Martin Ascension Spiraled into a Miami Heat Ascension Five Reasons Sports Network - Five Reasons Sports Network

Integrated Delivery Network Market to Witness Huge Growth by 2029 -HCA Healthcare, CHI Health, Kaiser Permanente, CommonSpirit Health, Tenet…

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New Jersey, United States,-The latest report published byMR Accuracy Reportsindicates that theIntegrated Delivery NetworkMarket is likely to accelerate strongly in the coming years. Analysts have studied market drivers, restraints, risks, and opportunities in the global market. The Integrated Delivery Network Market report shows the likely direction of the market in the coming years along with its estimates. An accurate study aims to understand the market price. By analyzing the competitive landscape, the authors of the report have made excellent efforts to help readers understand the key business tactics that major companies are using to maintain market sustainability.

Key Players Mentioned in the Integrated Delivery Network Market Research Report:HCA Healthcare, CHI Health, Kaiser Permanente, CommonSpirit Health, Tenet Healthcare Medical, United Healthgroup, Providence St Joseph Health, Trinity Health, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Ascension Health

Get Full PDF Sample Copy of Report:(Including Full TOC, List of Tables & Figures, Chart) @ https://www.mraccuracyreports.com/report-sample/327787

The report includes company profiles of almost all major players in the Integrated Delivery Network market. The Company Profiles section provides valuable analysis of strengths and weaknesses, business trends, recent advances, mergers and acquisitions, expansion plans, global presence, market presence, and portfolios of products from major market players. This information can be used by players and other market participants to maximize their profitability and streamline their business strategies. Our competitive analysis also provides vital information that will help new entrants identify barriers to entry and gauge the level of competitiveness in the Integrated Delivery Network market.

Integrated Delivery Network Market

Vertical Integration, Horizontal Integration.

Application as below

Acute Care Hospitals, Primary Care, Long-term Health, Specialty Clinics, Other

The global market for Integrated Delivery Network is segmented on the basis of product, type. All of these segments have been studied individually. The detailed investigation allows assessment of the factors influencing the Integrated Delivery Network Market. Experts have analyzed the nature of development, investments in research and development, changing consumption patterns, and growing number of applications. In addition, analysts have also evaluated the changing economics around the Integrated Delivery Network Market that are likely affect its course.

The regional analysis section of the report allows players to concentrate on high-growth regions and countries that could help them to expand their presence in the Integrated Delivery Network market. Apart from extending their footprint in the Integrated Delivery Network market, the regional analysis helps players to increase their sales while having a better understanding of customer behavior in specific regions and countries. The report provides CAGR, revenue, production, consumption, and other important statistics and figures related to the global as well as regional markets. It shows how different type, application, and regional segments are progressing in the Integrated Delivery Network market in terms of growth.

Integrated Delivery Network Market Report Scope

ESTIMATED YEAR 2022

BASE YEAR 2021

FORECAST YEAR 2029

HISTORICAL YEAR 2020

UNIT Value (USD Million/Billion)

The Integrated Delivery Network report provides information about the market area, which is further subdivided into sub-regions and countries/regions. In addition to the market share in each country and sub-region, this chapter of this report also contains information on profit opportunities. This chapter of the report mentions the market share and growth rate of each region, country and sub-region during the estimated period.

Please click here today to buy full report @https://www.mraccuracyreports.com/checkout/327787

Key questions answered in the report:

Note To provide a more accurate market forecast, all our reports will be updated prior to delivery considering the impact of COVID-19.

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Integrated Delivery Network Market to Witness Huge Growth by 2029 -HCA Healthcare, CHI Health, Kaiser Permanente, CommonSpirit Health, Tenet...

AOL Knights of Columbus fish fry a great success – L’Observateur – L’Observateur

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LAPLACE The Ascension of Our Lord Knights of Columbus fish fry has been a hallmark of the Lenten season in St. John the Baptist Parish for approximately 30 years.

The AOL Knights of Columbus Council 9623 served approximately 450 pounds of fried and grilled fish, 400 pounds of corn, and 200 pounds of potatoes each Friday from March 4 to April 8. Proceeds contributed to the Benjamin Piovan Scholarship fund, which will be awarded to two Ascension of Our Lord seventh graders who are continuing their education at St. Charles Catholic High School.

Grand Knight Mike Abbate said the annual scholarship, which covers tuition at St. Charles Catholic, is awarded based on a students patriotism and community involvement. Through a different program, Council 9623 also supports education through the Catholic Youth Leadership Award, presented to a boy and a girl each year.

While the fish fry is primarily used as a fundraiser for the Benjamin Piovan scholarship, proceeds can make an impact through various charities and disaster relief efforts.

This is one of our major fundraisers for the year, so its important we do really well. Whatever we have leftover goes toward other Knights of Columbus initiatives, including disaster relief, said Lloyd Schexnayder, a member of Council 9623. We have gone to Lake Charles, Port Arthur, Panama City, all over, providing meals after disasters. Were a nonprofit, so everything we collect goes back out.

Over the past several years, the Knights of Columbus have headed disaster relief efforts by cooking large pots of jambalaya and pastalaya for victims of natural disasters in neighboring states. The tables were turned in 2021 when it was Council 9623s own St. John Parish community crying out for help.

The AOL Knights of Columbus began collecting non-perishable food items and hygiene essentials at the start of the 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season, months before Hurricane Ida was a thought in anyones mind. When the monster hurricane hit on August 29, 2021, Council 9623 was prepared to provide aid to the community with baby items, bottled water, toilet tissue, paper towels, canned goods, cleaning supplies and more.

On September 11, 2021, a cooking team showed up to distribute 800 meals to impacted residents. With the help of Ascension of Our Lord Church Parish Pastor Cyril Buyera, Council 9623 was able to open a Hurricane Ida Supply Center located under the AOL School overhang. Disaster supplies were distributed to the community on weekends and some weekdays, amounting to 28,000 pounds of supplies handed out from September 11 to December 22.

The AOL Knights of Columbus also handed out 6,200 meals in September, 7,600 meals in October, 5,400 meals in November and more than 2,200 meals in December. The success of the Hurricane Ida response would not have been possible without the help of many local people and organizations, as well as fellow Knights of Columbus councils who delivered truckloads of supplies.

Council 9623 historian James Poche recalls seeing cars lined for miles down the streets for hurricane supplies. The Ascension of Our Lord Catholic School campus became a beacon of hope, not only during the Knights of Columbus disaster relief program, but also during the fish fry program that served the community through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I love working with the Knights of Columbus, Poche said. Ive been retired for about six years. I love doing this because I have time to do it. It gets me out the house, and the fish fry is my favorite project all year long.

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Battle over carbon capture as tool to fight climate change – St. Paul Pioneer Press

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BY DREW COSTLEY

Polly Glover realized her son had asthma when he was nine months old. Now 26, he carries an inhaler in his pocket whenever hes out and about in Prairieville, Louisiana, part of Ascension Parish.

He probably needs to leave Ascension quite frankly, Glover says, but he hasnt because this is his home and this is our family and this is our community.

The parish is part of the 85-mile span between New Orleans and Baton Rouge officially called the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor, more commonly known as Cancer Alley. The regions air quality is some of the worst in the United States, and in several places along the corridor, cancer risks are much higher than levels considered acceptable by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Glover says the air is terrible where she lives, but theres also great biodiversity osprey, eagles, migratory birds, deer, rabbits, fish and alligators among the regions lakes, rivers and wetlands. The environmental advocate has been working for 30 years to preserve the place shes loved since childhood.

Thats why she is wary of anything that might make air quality worse or threaten wildlife and her biggest fear now is that a $4.5 billion plant designed to capture climate-changing carbon and make clean-burning hydrogen fuel will actually do more harm to the Lake Maurepas basin.

The blue hydrogen energy plant is slated to be built and operated by Air Products and Chemicals, a multinational petrochemical company. The company says the plant will capture airborne carbon emissions created during production and put them safely underground a process called carbon capture and storage.

Sometimes I think people think youre kind of bubbling this in at the bottom of the lake, said Simon Moore, vice president of investor relations, corporate relations and sustainability at Air Products. You know, this is a mile below the Earths surface, where the geological formation of the rock has this porous space, which simply absorbs the CO2.

Still, Glover is worried. Im not a scientist. Im a mom who cares, she said. We have got to be better stewards of the environment and while reducing carbon emissions is necessary, injecting them into the basin is not the answer.

There are several other carbon capture and storage projects proposed or in the works throughout the U.S., including in Louisiana, Texas, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa and California. Companies behind them maintain they can successfully remove carbon from the air to reduce pollution, then safely transport and store the carbon underground or do both.

In some cases, oil and gas companies are banking on this new technology to either help build new profit centers, such as plants that make hydrogen, or extend the lifespan of their fossil fuel facilities.

Carbon capture and storage projects are gaining traction since Congress approved $3.5 billion for them last year. The Global CCS Institute, a think tank seeking to advance these projects globally, called it the single largest appropriation of money for CCS in the history of the technology.

In the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the worlds top scientists said carbon capture and storage technology has to be part of the range of solutions to decarbonize and mitigate climate change. But they said solar and wind energy and electricity storage are improving faster than carbon capture and storage.

Opponents of carbon capture and storage maintain the technology is unproven and has been less effective than alternatives such as solar and wind at decarbonizing the energy sector.

Carbon capture is neither workable nor feasible, said Basav Sen, climate justice policy director for the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C. Its merely an excuse for the fossil fuel industry to keep operating the way it does.

A study in late 2020 by researchers from the University of California, San Diego, found over 80% of 39 projects that have sought to commercialize carbon capture and storage ended in failure. The study cited lack of technological readiness as a top factor

But even if the technology was deployed successfully, several critics say the projects would pose threats to the public health of communities long plagued by air and water pollution.

First, they said any project that prolongs the lifespan of an existing industrial facility presents additional environmental harm by extending the amount of time it pollutes a community, which the IPCC report confirms.

Second, they noted that since carbon capture would require more energy to power the equipment, it would result in more air pollution because the technology can only catch a portion of the carbon emitted by a facility.

Howard Herzog, a senior research engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and pioneer of carbon capture and storage technology, disputed this in an interview with the Associated Press. But he acknowledged there is a risk in transporting and storing carbon.

In 2020, a pipeline carrying compressed carbon dioxide ruptured in the town of Satartia, Mississippi, which caused over 40 people to get hospital treatment and more than 300 to evacuate. The incident is cited by experts, advocates and residents who live near proposed carbon capture and storage projects to illustrate potential dangers of transporting carbon long distances.

Injecting carbon underground for storage could end up contaminating aquifers, according to Nikki Reisch, director of the climate and energy program for the Center for International Environmental Law.

Over 500 environmental organizations, including the law center, signed an open letter published in the Washington Post in July 2021, calling carbon capture and storage a false solution.

In response, the Carbon Capture Coalition, which advocates the technology, released its own letter in August with over 100 signatories. They pressed Congress to include investment in carbon capture and storage in any upcoming legislation.

Matt Fry, a state and regional policy manager with the Great Plains Institute, a Minneapolis-based climate and energy think tank, told AP the technology is essential to meeting mid-century climate goals.

The potential for a completely decarbonized, electrified world is a reality, Fry said. But were going to need to transition to get there. And its going to require carbon capture to address those emissions.

At the point of capture, Herzog said, the technology poses a very low threat to public health. Theres always a chance of some mishaps, he added, but on the overall scale of chemical plants, (the technology) is fairly benign.

Still, residents near proposed projects worry.

In Californias Central Valley agricultural region, Chevron, Microsoft and Schlumberger New Energy are collaborating to build a facility in the town of Mendota that will create energy by converting agricultural waste into carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas, then mixing it with oxygen to generate electricity with the promise of capturing 99% of the carbon from the process.

Chevron said it plans to inject the carbon underground into nearby deep geologic formations.

Thats concerning for Nayamin Martinez, who lives in the valley and is director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network. That worries us a lot, she said. What does that mean in terms of risk for contamination of drinking water?

Creighton Welch, a spokesperson for Chevron, said the process they plan to use is safe. CO2 capture, injection, and storage are not new technologies and have been conducted safely for decades, Welch said.

Back in Louisiana, Glover and other residents also fear carbon capture technology will affect the water. The carbon dioxide captured at the Air Products and Chemicals facility will be stored in sites such as under Lake Maurepas, an important wetland.

Kim Coates, who lives on the lakes northeast side, said its a buffer between the Gulf of Mexico and residents. But she said shes witnessed generations of destruction to that ecosystem through industrial development and, more recently, hurricanes and tropical storms.

Now Coates fears more of the same if carbon is stored under the lake. Weve seen the destruction over time with no one looking forward to what was going to happen in the future, she said.

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Ascension, Assumption and St. James guilty pleas 4/4 to 4/8 – L’Observateur – L’Observateur

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During the week of April 4 April 8, 2022, the following defendants pled guilty to various charges and were sentenced in the 23rd Judicial District Court, parishes of Ascension, Assumption, and St. James.

Ascension Parish:

The above cases were prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Charles Chuck Long and Robin OBannon. Presiding over these matters was the Honorable Judge Tess Stromberg.

Assumption Parish:

Assumption Parish had no court news to report this week.

St. James Parish:

The above cases were prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Adam Koenig, and presiding over these matters was the Honorable Judge Cody Martin.

The above cases were prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Bruce Mohon, and presiding over these matters was the Honorable Judge Alvin Turner Jr.

Submitted by Public Information Officer Tyler Cavalier for 23rd Judicial District Attorney Ricky L. Babin.

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Ascension, Assumption and St. James guilty pleas 4/4 to 4/8 - L'Observateur - L'Observateur

Area baseball, softball scores and reported linescores | High Schools | theadvocate.com – The Advocate

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BASEBALL

Episcopal of Acadiana 20, Jeanerette 1

Rayne 9, Carencro 4

Eunice 5, Plaquemine 2

Teurlings 10, Vermilion Catholic 4

Avoyelles 16, Abbeville 6

Glenmora 13, Mamou 1

Sacred Heart 14, Ville Platte 4

Notre Dame 6, Lafayette Christian 5

Welsh 10, Lake Arthur 1

Port Barre 4, Welsh 3

Rosepine 11, St. Edmund 1

Crowley 13, Mamou 10

Centerville 15, Patterson 1

Catholic P.C. 9, Liberty 1

Crowley 13, Mamou 10

Ascension Christian 9, Livonia 0

Ascension Christian 7, Livonia 1

Opelousas 14, Peabody 9

North Vermilion 9, Ascension Episcopal 1

Plaquemine 100 000 1 - 2 5 2

Eunice 320 000 x - 5 4 1

WP - H Manuel (6.2 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 5 BB, 7 K), LP - G Williams (6 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K). Top Hitters - EUN: H Darbonne 1-2, RBI; E Fruge 1-3, RBI; C Andrepont 1-2. PLAQ: Dennis 2-3, RBI; Landry 1-3; S Tullier 1-3.

Carencro 310 000 0 - 4 7 5

Rayne 005 103 x - 9 6 1

WP - Cope (7 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K), LP - James Heiken (5.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K). Top Hitters - RAY: Oliver 3-4, 2B, 3 RBIs; Cope 2-4, 2 RBIs; Judice 1-1; CAR: James Heiken 2-3, 2B; Ashton Healy 1-4, HR, 3 RBIs; Cameron Andrus 1-2.

NV 022 002 3 - 9 8 2

AES 000 000 1 - 1 6 3

WP- Tyson Leblanc (7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 K, 4 BB, 1 HR) LP- Logan Overtone (3 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 6 K, 5 BB) Top Hitters- NV: Tyson Leblanc 2-2, 2 RBIs, 2B, HR; John Tochet 1-4, 1 RBI; AES: Carter Breaux 2-2, 2B; Blaise Blancher 1-3, 1 RBI, HR.

Beau Chene 11, Northside Christian 8

Bell City 9, Lacassine 1

Eunice 5, David Thibodaux 4

St. Thomas More 11, Archbishop Chapelle 4

Catholic-NI 19, Teurlings 16

Erath 16, Delcambre 6

Ascension Episcopal 17, Jeanerette 2

Buckeye 10, Loreauville 0

Notre Dame 19, Welsh 4

Opelousas Catholic 7, Academy of Our Lady 2

E.D. White 15, Vermilion Catholic 0

St. Mary 18, Vermilion Catholic 10

Chapelle 5, Opelousas Catholic 1

St. Edmund 5, Eunice 3

Grant 7, Sacred Heart 1

Opelousas Catholic 14, St. Marys 6

Loreauville 24, Simpson 4

E.D. White 9, Catholic N.I. 3

Notre Dame 9, Airline 5

David Thibodaux 14, Marksville 2

Teurlings 18, Ascension Catholic 17

Acadiana 4, Central B.R. 2

ND 021 032 1 - 9 13 4

AIR 101 210 0 - 5 7 1

WP- Corine Poncho (5 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 3 K, 3 BB, 1 HR) LP- Emily Rachal (7 IP, 13 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 3 K, 0 BB, 5 HR) Top Hitters- ND: Corine Poncho 3-4, 4 RBIs, 3 HR; Maci Bergeron 3-4, 3 RBIs, 2 HR; AIR: Natalie Sutton 2-4, 1 RBI, HR; Paris Endis 1-2, 2 RBIs, 2B.

Welsh 103 - 4 5 4

Notre Dame 7(10)2 - 19 15 0

WP - Maci Bergeron (3 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 K), LP - Alexis Hayes (1.1 IP, 11 H, 10 ER, 2 BB, 1 K). Top Hitters - ND: Maci Bergeron 4-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBIs; Callie Maitre 3-3, 2B, 3 RBIs; Abigail Savoy 2-3, HR, 3 RBIs; WEL: Alexis Hayes 2-2, 2B; Caroline Cormier 1-2, 2 RBIs; Alli Manuel 1-1, 2B, RBI.

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Blinken links Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan to ‘serious erosion of human rights’ – The Statesman

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday (local time) said that the Talibans takeover in Afghanistan has resulted in a serious erosion of human rights in the country.

Blinkens remarks came as the US state department released the 2021 Human Rights Report on Tuesday. In Afghanistan, the Talibans takeover precipitated a humanitarian crisis, and has resulted in serious erosion of human rights, from arbitrary detentions of women, protesters, and journalists, to reprisals against security forces for the former government, to growing restrictions on where women and girls can study or work, he said during the press briefing.

Notably, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also claimed that there has been a surge in human rights violations in Afghanistan, reported Tolonews.

Human Rights Watch works on the human rights situation in about 100 countries around the world and at the moment we see Afghanistan as a very urgent priority. The human rights situation in Afghanistan is deeply worrying, the media outlet quoted Heather Barr, associate director of the Womens Rights Division at HRW, as saying.

However, the Taliban have denied claims of human rights violations in the country and said that such violations have decreased since they came to power in Afghanistan.

The rights of all Afghans are ensured now. The Islamic Emirate is committed to ensuring the rights of all citizens under an Islamic structure, including men and women and any other aspect, the media outlet quoted Bilal Karimi, Taliban deputy spokesman, as saying.

The Talibans swift ascension to power in Afghanistan occurred in mid-August, triggering economic disarray and a dire humanitarian crisis.

Despite repeated calls from all around the world, the Taliban have failed to deliver its promises on the safety of the Afghan people and their assurance of an inclusive government.

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Blinken links Taliban's takeover in Afghanistan to 'serious erosion of human rights' - The Statesman

Bible Q&A: Did Jesus have to raise from the dead? – baptistmessenger.com

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The resurrection of Jesus was not merely a sermon topic for Easter Sunday in the early church. It was the sermon topic for every sermon. The New Testament provides a clear picture of what early Christian preaching looked like.

In Acts alone we have eight Gospel sermons (Acts 2:14-29; 3:12-26; 4:8-12; 7:2-53; 10:34-43; 13:16-41; 14:15-17; 17:22-31). In each case, the resurrection is central. Whether Peter, Stephen, or Paul, the thesis statement did not change: You killed Him, but God raised Him from the dead.

Peters sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2:14-41 is the first sermon recorded after Jesus resurrection and ascension. As the sermon moves to its climactic statement that God had made Jesus both Lord and Messiah, Peters provided the basis for his claim:

Though He was delivered up according to Gods determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him. God raised Him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by death (Acts 2:23-24).

Notice the tension between Jesus being handed over to be killed as according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, and yet it was a horrible act for which those Jews responsible were called to repent. It was God who gave Him up, and yet He was killed by lawless men. But most importantly, it was not possible for Him to be held by death.

Peters proof from Scripture for this claim came from Psalm 16:8-11, especially verse 10, You will not abandon me in Hades or allow your holy one to see decay. At first glance, this psalm would seem to be a reference to Davids unshakable belief in the life-giving power of God and as a result that death could not separate him, David, from God.

Peter makes it clear, however, that it was not possible that David was talking about himself. David died, was buried and whatever remained of his long-ago decayed body was still buried (Acts 2:29). Thus, Psalm 16:10 couldnt be about David, rather, David spoke of the resurrection of the Jesus, the Messiah. In fact, the whole Psalm spoke of Jesus, declaring that the resurrection was the only possible outcome of Jesus death.

According to Psalm 16:8, the resurrection was the only possible outcome because of Gods continual presence with Jesus. God was with Jesus during His earthly ministry, and He would most certainly not abandon Him in death. The Father would never withdraw His presence from His beloved Son, whether in life or death. Yahweh was/is forever present with His Son and thus Jesus could not be shaken by death.

While Jesus does appear shaken in Gethsemane and on the cross (My God, My God, why have you forsaken me), it could not have been due to death. Furthermore, it is not imaginable that Jesus was shaken because of fear that the Father would turn His back on Him, an impossibility given the unity of the Trinity.

The only acceptable explanation is that Jesus was shaken by the reality of bearing the sin for all humanity. This One Who knew no sin was about to become sin (2 Cor. 5:21). This One Who was not cursed was about to become a curse for us (Gal. 3:13).

According to Psalm 16:9-10, because of Gods continuous presence, Jesus lived in hope. God would not abandon His Holy One to hades. Hades in the Bible is not hell but refers to the Old Testament idea of sheol, that is, the place or realm of the dead. Likewise, God would not allow the physical body of His Holy One to experience decomposition.

Peter declared in the first sermon recorded after the resurrection and ascension that, based on Psalm 16:8-11, it was impossible for Jesus to be held by death. He had to rise from the dead. The resurrection happened because it had to happen. It is the only logical effect, the only possible outcome, of Gods love for His Holy One.

Jesus Is Risen!

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Bible Q&A: Did Jesus have to raise from the dead? - baptistmessenger.com

City of Donaldsonville places three on All-State team – Donaldsonville Chief

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Just recently, the Louisiana Sports Writers Association released its All-State basketball teams, and three players from the city of Donaldsonville made the cut.

Two Donaldsonville Tiger standouts made the Class 3A squad, and one Ascension Catholic boys player made the Class 1A team.

In 1A, senior Bulldog guard Demarco Harry was named to the LSWA All-State second team. Harry averaged 23 points per game this past season.

Harry helped the Bulldogs capture the District 7-1A championship in 2021-22, and they finished the regular season on an eight-game winning streak.

Ascension Catholic earned the No. 7 seed in the Division-IV playoffs. The Bulldogs went on to host a first-round playoff game.

In that contest, Ascension Catholic defeated No. 10 River Oaks, 73-63. That pushed them through to the state quarterfinals for the first time in three years.

Ascension Catholics season then ended with a loss to second-seeded Calvary Baptist, the eventual Division-IV state runner-up.

The Bulldogs finished the year with an overall record of 17-12.

In addition to being named second-team All-State, Harry was also named the District 7-1A MVP.

The LSWA named Calvary Baptists LaBree Williams as the Class 1A Outstanding Player. Williams averaged 24 points, 12 rebounds and 4.5 blocks per game in helping lead his team to a state runner-up finish.

Southern Labs Harold Boudreaux was named the Class 1A Coach of the Year. He led the Kittens to the Division-IV state championship.

On the LSWA Class 3A All-State squad, Donaldsonville senior forward Troy Cole was named to the second team. Cole averaged 17 points per game this past season.

He is a Blackburn College signee.

Also, Donaldsonville senior point guard Lawrence Forcell was named All-State honorable mention.

Forcell and Cole helped lead Donaldsonville to a 27-4 record during the regular season, which included an undefeated run in league play that resulted in a District 9-3A championship.

The Tigers also carried a 10-game winning streak into the playoffs. That helped them earn the No. 4 seeding in the Class 3A postseason.

Donaldsonville continued its impressive run in the playoffs.

In the opening round, the Tigers trounced No. 28 Mamou, 94-53. In round two, they rolled past 13th-seeded Frederick A. Douglas, 63-39.

And in the state quarterfinals, Donaldsonville pulled away from fifth-seeded Iowa, 62-50, to punch its ticket to LHSAA Boys Marsh Madness for the first time since 2014.

Unfortunately, the Tigers memorable run ended in the state semifinals. Donaldsonville was beaten, 70-45, by top seed and eventual state champion Madison Prep. It was the Chargers second straight 3A state championship victory.

Donaldsonville ended the season with an overall record of 30-5.

Madison Prep center Percy Daniels was named the Class 3A Outstanding Player. The Seton Hall signee averaged 18 points, 12 rebounds and nearly six blocks per game during the Chargers state title run.

The LSWA Class 3A Coach of the Year was Erroll Gauff of Archbishop Hannan, who led his team to the Division-II state title.

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City of Donaldsonville places three on All-State team - Donaldsonville Chief

Minerva Reefs – Wikipedia

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Two submerged atolls in the South Pacific, claimed by Fiji and Tonga

The Minerva Reefs (Tongan: Ongo Teleki) are a group of two submerged atolls located in the Pacific Ocean south of Fiji and Tonga. The islands are the subject of a territorial dispute between both nations, and in addition were briefly claimed by American Libertarians as the centre of a micronation, the Republic of Minerva.

The reefs were named after the whaleship Minerva, wrecked on what became known as South Minerva after setting out from Sydney in 1829. Many other ships would follow, for example Strathcona, which was sailing north soon after completion in Auckland in 1914. In both cases most of the crew saved themselves in whaleboats or rafts and reached the Lau Islands in Fiji.[1]

The reefs were first known to Europeans by the crew of the brig Rosalia, commanded by Lieutenant John Garland, which was shipwrecked there in 1807. The Oriental Navigator for 1816 recorded Garlands discovery under the name Rosaretta Shoal, warning that it was a dangerous shoal, on which the Rosaretta, a prize belonging to his Majesty's ship Cornwallis, was wrecked on her passage from Pisco, in Peru, to Port Jackson, in 1807. It noted that it was composed of hard coarse sand and coral, a description that must have come from Garlands report. It also said that from the distressed situation of the prize-master, Mr. Garland, the shoals extent could not be ascertained, and concluded: The situation is not to be considered as finally determined. It cited different coordinates from those given by Garland: 3010 South, longitude 17345' East.[2]The reefs were put on the charts by Captain John Nicholson of LMS Haweis in December 1818 as reported in The Sydney Gazette 30 January 1819.[3] Captain H. M. Denham of HMSHerald surveyed the reefs in 1854 and renamed them after the Australian whaler Minerva which ran aground on South Minerva Reef on 9 September 1829.[3][4][5][6]

In 1972, real-estate millionaire Michael Oliver, of the Phoenix Foundation, sought to establish a libertarian country on the reefs. Oliver formed a syndicate, the Ocean Life Research Foundation, which had considerable finances for the project and had offices in New York City and London.[7] In 1971, the organization constructed a steel tower on the reef.[7] The Republic of Minerva issued a declaration of independence on 19 January 1972.[8] Morris Davis was elected as the President of Minerva.[9]

However, the islands were also claimed by Tonga. An expedition consisting of 90 prisoners was sent to enforce the claim by building an artificial island with permanent structures above the high-tide mark.[10] Arriving on 18 June 1972, the Flag of the Tonga was raised on the following day on North Minerva and on South Minerva on 21 June 1972.[7][11] King Tufahau Tupou IV announced the annexation of the islands on 26 June; North Minerva was to be renamed Teleki Tokelau, with South Minerva becoming Teleki Tonga.[12] In September 1972, South Pacific Forum recognized Tonga as the only possible owner of the Minerva Reefs, but did not explicitly recognize Tonga's claimed sovereign title.[13]

In 1982, a group of Americans led again by Morris Davis tried to occupy the reefs, but were forced off by Tongan troops after three weeks.[14] According to Reason, Minerva has been "more or less reclaimed by the sea".[15]

In 2005, Fiji declared that it did not recognize any maritime water claims by Tonga to the Minerva Reefs under the UNCLOS agreements. In November 2005, Fiji lodged a complaint with the International Seabed Authority concerning Tonga's maritime waters claims surrounding Minerva. Tonga lodged a counter claim. In 2010 the Fijian Navy destroyed navigation lights at the entrance to the lagoon. In late May 2011, they again destroyed navigational equipment installed by Tongans. In early June 2011, two Royal Tongan Navy ships were sent to the reef to replace the equipment, and to reassert Tonga's claim to the territory. Fijian Navy ships in the vicinity reportedly withdrew as the Tongans approached.[16][17][18]

In an effort to settle the dispute, the government of Tonga revealed a proposal in early July 2014 to give the Minerva Reefs to Fiji in exchange for the Lau Group of islands.[19] In a statement to the Tonga Daily News, Lands Minister Lord Maafu Tukuiaulahi announced that he would make the proposal to Fiji's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola. Some Tongans have Lauan ancestors and many Lauans have Tongan ancestors; Tonga's Lands Minister is named after Enele Ma'afu, the Tongan Prince who originally claimed parts of Lau for Tonga.[20]

Area: North Reef diameter about 6.8 kilometres (4.2mi), South Reef diameter of about 4.8 kilometres (3.0mi).Terrain: two atolls on dormant volcanic seamounts.

Both Minerva Reefs are about 485 kilometres (301mi) southwest of the Tongatapu Group.The atolls are on a common submarine platform from 549 to 1,097 metres (1,801 to 3,599ft) below sea level. North Minerva is circular in shape and has a diameter of about 6.8 kilometres (4.2mi). There is a small sand bar around the atoll, awash at high tide, and a small entrance into the flat lagoon with a somewhat deep harbor. South Minerva is parted into The East Reef and the West Reef, both circular with a diameter of about 4.8 kilometres (3.0mi). Remnants of shipwrecks and platforms remain on the atolls, plus functioning navigation beacons.

Geologically, the Minerva Reefs are of a limestone base formed from uplifted coral formations elevated by now-dormant volcanic activity.

The climate is subtropical with a distinct warm period (DecemberApril), during which the temperatures rise above 32C (90F), and a cooler period (MayNovember), with temperatures rarely rising above 27C (80F). The temperature increases from 23C to 27C (74F to 80F), and the annual rainfall is from 1,700 to 2,970 mm (67117 in) as one moves from Cardea in the south to the more northerly islands closer to the Equator. The mean daily humidity is 80percent.

Both North and South Minerva Reefs are used as anchorages by private yachts traveling between New Zealand and Tonga or Fiji.[21] North Minerva (Tongan: Teleki Tokelau) offers the more protected anchorage, with a single, easily negotiated, west-facing pass that offers access to the large, calm lagoon with extensive sandy areas. South Minerva (Tongan: Teleki Tonga) is in shape similar to an infinity symbol, with its eastern lobe partially open to the ocean on the northern side.

The reefs have been the site of several shipwrecks. The brig Rosala was wrecked on the Minerva Reefs on 19 September 1807. After being captured by HMS Cornwallis at the Peruvian port of Ilo on 13 July, the Rosala, 375 tons, was dispatched to Port Jackson with seven men on board under the command of Lieutenant John Garland, master of the Cornwallis. Captain John Piper, Commandant at Norfolk Island, reported the arrival of the shipwrecked crew to Governor William Bligh in Sydney in a letter of 12 October 1807.[22]

On September 9, 1829 a whaling ship from Australia called the Minerva wrecked on the reef.[23][24][25]

On July 7, 1962 the Tuaikaepau ('Slow But Sure'), a Tongan vessel on its way to New Zealand, struck the reefs.[26] This 15-metre (49ft) wooden vessel was built in 1902 at the same yard as the Strathcona. The crew and passengers survived by living in the remains of a Japanese freighter. There they remained for three months and several died. Without tools, Captain Tvita Fifita built a small boat using wood recovered from the ship. With this raft, named Malolelei ('Good Day'), he and several others sailed to Fiji in one week.

Coordinates: 2338S 17854W / 23.633S 178.900W / -23.633; -178.900

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The Fountainhead – AynRand.org

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What motivates a creative thinker?

Is it a selfless desire to benefit mankind? A hunger for fame, fortune, and accolades? The need to prove superiority? Or is it a self-sufficient drive to pursue a creative vision, independent of others needs or opinions?

Ayn Rand addresses these questions through her portrayal of Howard Roark, an innovative architect who, as she puts it, struggles for the integrity of his creative work against every form of social opposition.

Initially rejected by twelve publishers as too intellectual,The Fountainheadbecame a best seller within two years purely through word of mouth, and earned Rand enduring commercial and artistic success.

The novel was also a personal landmark for Rand. In Howard Roark, she presented for the first time the uniquely Ayn Rand hero, whose depiction was the chief goal of her writing: the ideal man, man as he could be and ought to be.

In her first notes forThe Fountainhead, Ayn Rand describes its purpose as a defense of egoism in its real meaning . . . a new definition of egoism and its living example. She later states its theme as individualism versus collectivism, not in politics, but in mans soul; the psychological motivations and the basic premises that produce the character of an individualist or a collectivist.

The living example of egoism is Howard Roark, an architect and innovator, who breaks with tradition, [and] recognizes no authority but that of his own independent judgment. Roarks individualism is contrasted with the spiritual collectivism of many of the other characters, who are variations on the theme of second-handedness thinking, acting, and living second-hand.

Roark struggles to endure not merely professional rejection, but also the enmity of Ellsworth Toohey, beloved humanitarian and leading architectural critic; of Gail Wynand, powerful publisher; and of Dominique Francon, the beautiful columnist who loves him fervently yet is bent on destroying his career.

The Fountainheadearned Rand a lasting reputation as one of historys greatest champions of individualism.

Have you thought of your potential clients?

Yes, said Roark.

TheClient, said the Dean. The Client. Think of that above all. Hes the one to live in the house you build. Your only purpose is to serve him. You must aspire to give the proper artistic expression to his wishes. Isnt that all one can say on the subject?

Well, I could say that I must aspire to build for my client the most comfortable, the most logical, the most beautiful house that can be built. I could say that I must try to sell him the best I have and also teach him to know the best. I could say it, but I wont. Because I dont intend to build in order to serve or help anyone. I dont intend to build in order to have clients. I intend to have clients in order to build.

How do you propose to force your ideas on them?

I dont propose to force or be forced. Those who want me will come to me.

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The Fountainhead - AynRand.org

Here’s What’s Wrong With Ayn Rand’s Philosophy – The Objective Standard

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Many articles have been written about whats wrong with Ayn Rands philosophy. But, to my knowledge, none of them presents her ideas accurately. So I thought it would be helpful to write one that does.

Heres whats wrong with Rands ideas:

Rand held that existence exists, that reality is real, that there is a world out there, and that we are conscious of it. She held that everything in existence is something specific; everything has a nature; a thing is what it is. (A snake is a snake. A woman is a woman. A pillar of salt is a pillar of salt.) She held that a thing can act only in accordance with its nature. (A snake can slither; it cannot speak. A woman can speak; she cant become a pillar of salt.) And Rand held that there is only one reality: the one we perceive, the one we experience, the one in which we live.1

Where to start with all of the problems in just that one paragraph?

To begin with, the idea that existence exists excludes the idea that existence doesnt exist. It denies the subjectivist, pragmatist, postmodernist view that reality is an illusion, a mental construct, a social convention. Obviously, people who insist that reality is not real are not going to buy in to a philosophy that says it is real.

So thats one huge problem with Rands philosophy.

Now consider her view that only one reality exists. This excludes the notion that a second reality exists; it excludes the idea of a supernatural realm, the realm of God. Likewise, her view that everything has a specific nature, that a thing is what it is, excludes the possibility that some things are not what they are. For instance, it excludes the possibility that a dead person can be alive (life after death), the possibility that wine can be blood or that bread can be flesh (transubstantiation), and the possibility that the Earth came into existence hundreds of thousands of years after the first Homo sapiens roamed it. Similarly, the idea that things can act only in accordance with their nature excludes the possibility of miraclesso: no Immaculate Conception, no virgin birth (of Jesus), no living inside a whale for three days, no walking on water, no faith healing, and so on.

Needless to say, people who insist on the existence of God, life after death, creationism, and miracles will not buy in to a philosophy that leaves no room for such things.

The problems with Rands philosophy are mounting rapidlyand weve just begun.

Another major problem is Rands view that man acquires knowledge by means of reason, the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by his senses. According to Rand, insofar as a person observes reality via his senses; integrates his observations into concepts, generalizations, and principles; checks his thinking for contradictions; and checks his conclusions for consistency with his ever-expanding network of observation-based integrationshe can acquire knowledge. Indeed, according to Rand human beings have acquired massive amounts of knowledge, which is why science has advanced so far and man has accomplished so much.2

Well, that view will not go over well with skeptics, pragmatists, and postmodernists who argue that man cannot acquire knowledgeat least not knowledge of reality. Because mans sensory apparatuses process all incoming data before it reaches consciousness, these skeptics argue, man is conscious not of an external reality or a world out there, but rather of internal modifications or distortions.

No human being has ever experienced an objective world, or even a world at all, writes Sam Harris. The sights and sounds and pulsings that you experience are consequences of processed datadata that has been structured, edited, or amplified by the nervous system. Thus, The world that you see and hear is nothing more than a modification of your consciousness.3

This fashionable view is rooted in the ideas of Immanuel Kant, who wrote: What objects may be in themselves, and apart from all this receptivity of our sensibility [i.e., perception], remains completely unknown to us. Once we understand this, Kant says, we realise that not only are the drops of rain mere appearances, but that even their round shape, nay even the space in which they fall, are nothing in themselves, but merely modifications within consciousness. In principle, Kant says, the actual objectthe object as it really isremains unknown to us.4

Indeed, says Kant, it is an error even to regard external objects as things-in-themselves, which exist independently of us and of our sensibility, and which are therefore outside us. The truth, he says, is that external objects are mere appearances or species of [internal] representations, and the things we perceive are something only through these representations. Apart from them they are nothing.5

When philosophers or intellectuals claim that we cannot know reality because our sensory apparatuses distort the data before it reaches consciousness, they may sound profound or impressive (at least to each other). But, then, along comes Ayn Rand, who points out that such claims amount to the view that man is blind, because he has eyesdeaf, because he has earsdeluded, because he has a mindand the things he perceives do not exist, because he perceives them.6

As you might imagine, such straightforward clarifications, which abound in Rands works, can make skeptics feel as ignorant as they claim to be. So thats another problem with Rands philosophy.

Further, Rand holds that reason is mans only means of gaining knowledge.7 This excludes the possibility that revelation, faith, feelings, or extrasensory perception (ESP) is a means of knowledge. On her view, to embrace ideas not supported by evidence is to err. Thus Rand sees all forms of mysticismall claims to a non-sensory, non-rational means of knowledgeas baseless, arbitrary, illegitimate.

That, of course, will not fly with religionists, subjectivists, psychics, or others who claim to acquire knowledge through non-sensory, non-rational means.

And then there are the myriad problems posed by Rands conception of free will.

Rand holds that people do indeed possess free willand that it resides in a fundamental choice: to think or not to think, to focus ones mind or not to do so, to go by facts or to go by feelings.8 The problems with this idea manifest on several levels.

For starters, if people have free will, then not only are their choices their responsibility, so too are the consequences of their choices. If a person characteristically chooses to think, and if his thinking guides him to build a business and make a lot of money, then the business and the money are his achievements. Likewise, if a person characteristically chooses not to think, and if his non-thinking renders him poor and miserable, then his poverty and misery are his fault.

Well, egalitarians, socialists, communists, and the like are not going to accept that for a minute. People who want to organize society in a way that ignores or denies personal responsibility will not accept a philosophy that upholds the very principle that gives rise to and necessitates personal responsibility.

Nor will Rands conception of free will jibe with Jews, Christians, or Muslims who take their religion seriously. If people truly choose to think or not to think, then the notion of an omnipotent, omniscient God goes out the window. Think about it: If people are free to think or not to think, then whatever powers an alleged God is said to possess, he cant know in advance which alternative people are going to choose. If God existed and knew in advance how people were going to choose, then their choices would be preordainedthus they wouldnt be genuine choices. Likewise, if people are free to think or not to think, then God cant make them choose to think. Nor can he make them choose not to think. You see the problem.

In short, Rands view of free will leaves no room for the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful God. This will not sit well with anyone who insists that such a God exists.

And thats still just the tip of Rands free-will iceberg. Her view of volition leads to a whole host of additional problems. Consider a few more.

If people choose to think or not to think, then they choose all of their actions that are governed by that fundamental choice as well. For instance, on Rands view, a person can choose to be honest or dishonest. He can refuse to pretend that facts are other than they areor he can choose to engage in such pretense.9 Importantly, Rands views on honesty and dishonesty are not merely about telling the truth versus lying. Rand holds that if a person knows something to be true but pretends that he doesnt know it, then even if he doesnt lie about iteven if he maintains the pretense only in his own mindhe is being dishonest. For instance, on Rands view, if a person knows that a friend has acted unjustly but pretends that he doesnt know it, hes being dishonest. And if a person knows that he owes someone an apology but doesnt extend it, hes being dishonest. In such cases, although the person has not lied, he nevertheless is pretending that facts are other than they are.

Well, people who choose occasionally to pretend that they dont know what they do knowand who want to continue in this fashionwill not embrace a philosophy that says they are able to stop deluding themselves and morally corrupt if they dont. (Of course, they might pretend to embrace it, but thats another matter.)

Likewise, on Rands view, a person can choose to think for himself, or he can turn to others and expect them to think for him. In other words, he can engage in independent thinking or in what Rand termed second-handedness.10 (An example of independent thinking would be someone reading a philosophers works and deciding for himself whether they make sense. An example of second-handedness would be someone turning to others to see what they say he should think about the philosophers ideas.) Rands insistence that people should face reality and think for themselves as a matter of unwavering principle is a problembecause many people are afraid to think for themselves. Many people prefer to avoid that effort, to shirk that responsibility, and to passively accept the ideas of their group, their leader, their tribe. Such people will not embrace a philosophy that upholds independent thinking as a fundamental virtue.

This brings us to the mother lode of problems with Ayn Rands philosophyand to the point of the whole thing.

Rands aforementioned principles calling for people to uphold reason, to be honest, and to think for themselves are part and parcel of the moral code she called rational egoism or rational self-interest. This moral code holds that the objective standard of moral value is mans lifeby which Rand means the requirements of human life given the kind of being that humans are. On her view, because humans are rational beingsbeings whose basic means of survival is the use of reasonthat which sustains and furthers the life of a rational being is good (or moral), and that which harms or destroys the life of a rational being is bad (or evil).11

Further, because Rand sees human beings as individualseach with his own body, his own mind, his own lifeshe holds that each individuals own life is properly his own ultimate value. She holds that each individual should choose and pursue his own life-serving values, and that he should never surrender a greater value for the sake of a lesser valuehe should never commit a sacrifice. As she puts it:

Manevery manis an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.12

Well, such a moral code clearly will not fly with people who want to maintain the traditional notion that people have a moral duty to sacrifice themselves or their values for the sake of others (i.e., altruism). Nor will it fly with people who feel that they have a moral right to sacrifice other people as they see fit (predation).

Not only does Rand regard both self-sacrifice and the sacrifice of others as immoral; she also regards the use of any form or degree of initiatory physical force against human beings as properly illegal. In her words, the essential characteristics of a civilized society are that men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit; and that no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others.13

Needless to say, Rands staunch advocacy of voluntary exchange to mutual benefit and her moral opposition to the use of force as a means of obtaining values from people will not fly with people or governments that want to use force to obtain values from people. Criminals who want to steal peoples belongings, commit fraud, rape people, or violate rights in other ways will not embrace a moral code that forbids them to do so. Likewise, governments that want to force people to serve the common good or the community or the master race or some other master will not recognize or uphold a morality that forbids them to initiate physical force against people. And pull-peddling businessmen who want government to forcibly control, regulate, or cripple their competitors will not recognize or uphold a moral code that forbids such coercion either.

This problemRands moral opposition to the use of physical force against human beingslies at the very base of her political theory, where it serves as a bridge between her moral code and her political views. This is where Rands theory of rights comes into the picture. As she put it:

Rights are a moral conceptthe concept that provides a logical transition from the principles guiding an individuals actions to the principles guiding his relationship with othersthe concept that preserves and protects individual morality in a social contextthe link between the moral code of a man and the legal code of a society, between ethics and politics. Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.14

Rand sees individual rights as the governing principle of a civilized society because she sees rights as deriving from mans nature and as requirements of his life in a social context. She elaborates:

A right is a moral principle defining and sanctioning a mans freedom of action in a social context. There is only one fundamental right (all the others are its consequences or corollaries): a mans right to his own life. Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action; the right to life means the right to engage in self-sustaining and self-generated actionwhich means: the freedom to take all the actions required by the nature of a rational being for the support, the furtherance, the fulfillment and the enjoyment of his own life. (Such is the meaning of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.)15

According to Rand, the only proper purpose of government is to protect individual rights by banning physical force from social relationshipsand by using force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use.16

Clearly, no one who wants government to do more than that will embrace Rands philosophy. No one who wants government to forcibly redistribute wealth, or to forbid certain kinds of speech, or to forbid certain kinds of consensual adult sex, or to restrict freedom in any other way will embrace a philosophy that demands principled recognition and absolute protection of individual rights.

A final problem worth mentioning about Rand and her philosophy is that she wrote in plain, intelligible English and defined her terms clearly as a matter of course, so that anyone who wants to understand her ideas can do so with relative ease. Toward this end, in addition to presenting her ideas in various nonfiction works, she dramatized them in spellbinding fictionsuch as her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shruggedthus enabling people to see her ideas in practice. Well, this will not go over well with modern philosophers or academics who insist that philosophy must be written in academese, technical jargon, or impenetrable fog. Nor will it pass muster with anyone who feels that dramatizing or concretizing ideas in fiction somehow disqualifies them.

We could go on. Rands philosophy involves many additional problems. But the foregoing is a concise indication of the trouble it causes.

So, next time the subject of whats wrong with Ayn Rands ideas comes up, be sure to share this brief sketch of the kinds of problems involved. Its better for people to learn whats wrong with Rands actual ideas than to waste time contemplating takedowns of straw men.

Craig is cofounder and editor in chief of The Objective Standard, cofounder and director of education at Objective Standard Institute, and executive director of Prometheus Foundation. He is the author of Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It; Rational Egoism: The Morality for Human Flourishing; and the forthcoming Moral Truths Your Parents, Preachers, and Teachers Dont Want You to Know. He is currently working on his fourth book, Thinking in Principles. For updates on his work, join his mailing list atCraigBiddle.com.

1 See Ayn Rand, This is John Galt Speaking, in Ayn Rand, For the New Intellectual (New York: Signet, 1961), esp. 12452.

2 See For the New Intellectual; Ayn Rand, This is John Galt Speaking, in For the New Intellectual; and Rand, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, 2nd ed., edited by Harry Binswanger and Leonard Peikoff (New York: Penguin, 1990).

3 Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), 41.

4 Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, translated by Norman Kemp Smith (New York: St. Martins, 1965), 8285.

5 Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, 346.

6 Rand, For the New Intellectual, 32.

7 Ayn Rand, What Is Capitalism? in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (New York: Signet, 1967), 16.

8 See Rand, This is John Galt Speaking, 12027.

9 See Rand, This is John Galt Speaking, 129; Leonard Peikoff, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (New York: Meridian, 1993), 267.

10 See Rand, The Nature of the Second-Hander, in For the New Intellectual, 6871; see also Ayn Rand, Journals of Ayn Rand, edited by David Harriman (New York: Dutton, 1997), esp. 9091, 293294, 416.

11 See Ayn Rand, The Objectivist Ethics, in The Virtue of Selfishness (New York: Signet, 1964), esp. 2128.

12 Ayn Rand, Introducing Objectivism, in The Voice of Reason (New York: Meridian, 1989), 4.

13 Rand, Introducing Objectivism, 4.

14 Ayn Rand, Mans Rights, in Virtue of Selfishness, 10810.

15 Rand, Mans Rights, 110.

16 Ayn Rand, What Is Capitalism?, in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (New York: Signet, 1967), 19.

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Here's What's Wrong With Ayn Rand's Philosophy - The Objective Standard

diSConnected: Is Ayn Rand or Mother Teresa better for protecting South Carolinians with disabilities? – South Carolina Public Radio

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Brad Morris doesnt want your pity. He doesnt want your guilt. He doesnt even want you to think about other people. He wants you to save your own butt, because if you put all your efforts into saving yourself, you just might save him by accident.

You should ventilate, you should wear a mask, you should vaccinate not because you care about anyone else, screw everyone else, he says. You should do this because its going to help you not contribute to incubating variants that are going to come back and bite you in your ass.

He does think theres still plenty of room to appeal to the kindness of others; plenty of people are good and kind and want to do right by people, he says. But for the ones who just dont seem to get it that walking around carrying and incubating a virus that preys on weakened immune systems is a bad thing, his messaging has changed: Forget about helping others on purpose and embrace the value of selfishness.

Angry as his sentiment might be, theres actually a lot of selflessness in it. Morris, a power-wheelchair user whose physical disabilities can lead to potentially dangerous respiratory problems if he were to contract COVID-19, doesnt want people to get the virus and end up in their own wheelchair nor to end up having to turn to GoFundMe, as he did, to raise the money to buy one.

He worries that people are not thinking of the possibility of being injured or disabled by long-COVID. Thats a sentiment shared by Scarlet Novak, another power-wheelchair user who, despite staying masked and largely removed from the company of others these past two years, got a flu from (they suspect) a few seconds at the doctors office when they were both unmasked.

I just feel like a lot of people are not taking [COVID] as seriously as they should be, Novak says. There are still people who could get sick and be hospitalized because of it.

In February, the Center for American Progress reported that COVID-19 created 1.2 million more people with disabilities in the United States. The article cites U.S. Board of Labor Statistics estimates that roughly 496,000 of those people newly defined as disabled because of COVID complications are in the workforce.

But people are tired of COVID stories. Sources and casual friends alike have told me dozens of times that they no longer listen to or watch the news because its all about COVID. Out in public, few people still wear masks, and mass gatherings and events are proceeding like its 2018 again. And Morris says the world sometimes seems eager to look past people with disabilities as everyone turns back to a normal that a lot of people cant join in on.

He suggests efforts towards harm reduction, not mandates and laws; on getting people to think of simpler things, like considering masks, not because you might get sick, but because someone else might.

But hes not bothering to appeal altruism anymore.

Step one seems to be coming across as human so people will listen to you, he says. Maybe we cant do that and our only, our last, our best hope is to find ways of appealing to peoples self-interest.

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Members Outspoken on The Left’s Priorities – AMAC – The Association of Mature American Citizens – AMAC

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AMAC members are familiar with the weekly poll on our website where we ask their take on an issue or item(s) in the news.But it is the comments section where members can really sound off. A good week has 500-700 comments.However, this week we garnered over 1,300 comments, the most since October 29, 2021.

We want our members to make pointed selections from the choices offered, limited to two maximum, and therefore intentionally eschew an all of the above selection.That helps AMAC discern priorities and what is most important.

Our ask this week was about the top priorities of The Left. There was a near three-way tie between growing government to control us, indoctrinating kids as early as elementary school, and open borders to get illegal aliens voting later. Creating dependency, a Green New Deal industrial policy, and a post-gender unisex world were the also-ran choices.

The one theme easily spotted in the comments was how The Left is totally absorbed with power and control in all that it does and proposes.Heres a selection from AMAC members, in their own words:

I feel like I am seeing the destruction of everything good about America in real time. The political class seems hell bent on ruining every institution, every aspect of American life. Anna

Read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand; she and Orwell both described the future we are living now. Dan M.

Its all by design to usher in The New World Order. Karen

Its disgusting what theyre doing to America, and its disgusting how theyre getting away with it day after day. Audrey

When good men do nothing, evil rules. Time for good men to step up. David M.

Americans better wake up or there will be no freedoms. Bonnie

They dont believe in American exceptionalism. Carolyn

I dont understand why the left hates America so much. Charlene M.

The [Democrats] at the wheel and behind the scenes are focused on turning us into a society so dependent and submissive to government. Patti

The lefts main goal? See Hunger Games.- John

Their goal is to keep the situation stirred up to confuse a pubic not able to focus on more than one thing. Tom C.

Create non-self-thing robots and destroy Christianity. Kate S.B.

They are doing this for a purpose to destroy society. David

My heart breaks for what the Democratic part has become. My father was a Democrat who understood an intact traditional family is crucial to the fabric of society. L.J.P.

Any chance of a future for my grandchildren in this country which I love deeply and fought for is growing bleaker by the second right now. William L.

How on Gods earth are we going to continue on this very dark road? Maria

Their priorities are power and control; those [poll] options are the means by which to achieve it. Alyson W.

To fundamentally change America from founding beliefs that will erase our history. Joe

We need to have a Convention of States to restore the power back to the states, where it rightfully belongs, as our Constitution was written! Roscoe

Any country or people who turn away from God get exactly what we are witnessing in America. Gary

Total and complete subjugation of the entire population just as Venezuela went from rich to poor in 3 years, we are on that track. Cyncro

My question- what is being done to stop this? Judith

The party of slavery continues to promote slavery in any and all form. They support anything and everything that enslaves a person physically, mentally, and spiritually. Rick

Jeff Szymanskiworks in political communications atAMAC, a senior benefits organization with nearly 2.4 million members.He previously taught high school economics for 15 years.

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Did the John Birch Society Win in the End? – The Bulwark

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A foundation of the folklore of the American right is the story of how National Reviews William F. Buckley, in the early- to mid-1960s, cast the John Birch Societyand by extension the entire kooky, conspiracist wing of the rightout of the conservative movement.

This was part of a larger struggle for the soul of the right. Older conservative publications such as the American Mercury, which had once been the home of such luminaries as H.L. Mencken and Henry Hazlitt, had turned into a forum for antisemitic conspiracy theoriesbefore eventually being taken over outright by neo-Nazis. The response was an effort by Buckley and other conservative thinkers, with the help of political frontmen Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, to create a conservative movement with more ideological and philosophical substanceone based not on conspiracy theories or mere reactionary emotions but on ideas. (Too bad he also tried to get rid of Ayn Rand.)

Looking at American politics today, it sure looks like this seminal conservative achievement is unraveling. The Birchers are back. And theyre winning.

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The John Birch Society, to refresh your memory, was started in 1958 by a conservative businessman who thought President Eisenhower was secretly a Soviet agent. It had a certain kind of cracked appeal as an easy explanation for various setbacks in the early years of the Cold War. The Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, the Communist takeover of China, the Soviet development of nuclear weaponsthese werent the results of Western mistakes, or large and difficult-to-control social forces, or just the fortunes of war. No, it was all a secret plot, and THEY were lying to you.

This worldview was tremendously popular, more popular than todays conservatives would probably like to admit. In 1962, Barry Goldwater complained, Every other person in Phoenix is a member of the John Birch Society. Im not talking about commie-haunted apple pickers or cactus drunks. Im talking about the highest cast of men of affairs.

The Birchers had such a big following on the right that Buckley, Goldwater, and Reagan hemmed and hawed for years before breaking with them. Even then, it took repeated denunciations, combined with the Birchers increasing notoriety as a national laughingstock, to eventually reduce their appeal and relegate them to the crazy fringes.

Consider the elements of this history:

We have a conspiracy theory that explains everything conservatives think has gone wrong in the world by positing the machinations of a secret cabal that controls everything from the intelligence agencies to the schools.

We have the rapid spread of these crackpot theories to otherwise normal and respectable people in the rank and file of the movement.

We have an attempt to make the conspiracists into the ultimate representatives of opposition to totalitarian communism, and a corresponding attempt to dismiss any conservative critics of the conspiracists as weak-kneed appeasers handing over the country to its enemies.

We have the uneasy balancing act of conservatives in the media and in politics who dont want to denounce the crackpots for fear of angering their partys base.

Isnt this also precisely the state of conservatism today?

We tend to think that our culture war is something new, rising out of the unique challenges of our own era. But youd be surprised how much of it is just the same old culture war being endlessly rehashed.

Todays equivalent of the John Birch Society is the QAnon conspiracy theory, an online grift that got out of hand and became a worldview. It posits its own spectacularly implausible conspiracy theory: That there is a global network of pedophiles who secretly run the world and control our politics so that they can abuse children. This conspiracy theory has in turn spawned other conspiracy theories which claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. It is currently being mainstreamed in attacks on Disney as a corporation bent on grooming children to prepare them for exploitation by pedophiles.

And where are todays conservative leaders, the intellectuals and politicians, the Buckleys and Reagans, who have the authority to shut this down?

Well, Ben Sasse wrote a piece once. But most of todays conservative and Republican leaders are actually trying to hitch themselves to the new John Birchers.

Donald Trump famously refused to denounce the QAnon crazies, describing them only as people who are against pedophiliathe most flattering possible description of the group. Its like saying that the John Birchers were against communism. In both cases, the actual salient characteristic of these groups is their wild, paranoid, evidence-free conspiracy theories.

Trumps sympathy for QAnon helped ease it into the conservative mainstream, and we can see the results in two recent incidents.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is the leading candidate to become the sane Trumpa Republican who can harness Trumps populist appeal, but in a disciplined and calculating way. But after DeSantiss defenders rushed out to assure everyone that his bill targeting teachers was not a Dont Say Gay Law and was not animated by anti-homosexual bias, his press secretary Christina Pushaw declared that the bill would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill, adding, If youre against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer. A groomer, for those who are fortunate enough not to know, is a child predator who manipulates his victims to prepare them to accept abuse.

So much for being the sane Trump.

The idea that gay teachers are predators preparing to groom children is an old trope with a history in Florida. You may recall that previous iterations of the culture war attempted to ban homosexuals from teaching jobs. But more significant is the way this claim taps into the QAnon conspiracy theory. The whole base of QAnon is the dangerous delusion that their enemies are all secret pedophiles. This is the line that has been taken up by conservatives and endlessly repeated, including in a conservative campaign to boycott the Walt Disney Company (and also to subject it to land-use and antitrust regulations) as a political reprisal for opposing the Florida law. And why not if, as authoritarian conservative Rod Dreher puts it, Disney has gone groomer?

Taking a bill with many serious problemsa vaguely worded restriction and an enforcement mechanism designed to facilitate legal harassmentand characterizing any criticism of it as grooming and as support for pedophiles and predators has created an atmosphere of constant, vicious defamation aimed at any and all opponents. This is being egged on, of course, by the usual unscrupulous carnival barkers.

This mode of conspiracy thinking was also reflected in the scurrilous conduct of the Senate hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, when Senator Josh Hawley pandered to the QAnon vote by trying to portray the judges past sentencing work as soft on pedophiles. Many people, including conservative authors such as National Reviews Andrew McCarthy, have debunked the smear, showing that Judge Jacksons sentences were in line with the consensus view of other judges.

But once given this talking point, the crazies will chant it forever as if it is the gospel truth. Except that practically everyone is one of the crazies now. Hence the spectacle of Mollie Hemingway, of the Federalist and Fox News, trying her hardest to imply that Mitt Romney is a secret pedophile.

Which makes as much sense as Eisenhower being a secret communist.

From the top down, the Birchers have won. They now own the conservative movement and the Republican party.

Conspiracy theories have consequences. If you have been arguing these issues on social media, you will find that in among the groomer smears lobbed around carelessly there is an undertone of menace, with reminders that we know what to do with pedophiles. Before this is all over, someone is going to take this groomer and pedo talk literally. There will be blood.

We should also remember what conservatives accomplished by purging their crazies the last time around: By basing the movement on substantive ideas and having the courage and self-discipline to purge the kooks who claimed to be on our side, we achieved a few little things like pulling the U.S. out of the national malaise of the 1970s and winning the Cold War, followed by a period of peace, prosperity, and the spread of free societies across the globe. It wasnt just good for the movement, it was good for the country and the world.

If we want to experience anything like those triumphs again, we need build new institutions defined by pro-liberty ideasand we need to push the conspiracy theorists back to the fringes.

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Boris Johnsons Covid bravado insults the NHS and the public – The Guardian

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Matthew Taylor, who leads the NHS Confederation, rightly points to the consequences of the governments living without restrictions ideology (Covid threat being ignored in England for ideological reasons, say NHS leaders, 11 April). Boris Johnson sympathises with the libertarian ideologues in his party who like to invoke Ayn Rand. Perhaps they should note the warning attributed to her that we can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality.

The insulting response from a No 10 spokesperson to Taylors accusation that the NHS feels abandoned shows that Johnson hopes to defy reality, as he has throughout the pandemic. To add further insult, the No 10 spokesperson adds that we are now able to manage [Covid] as we do with other respiratory infections, despite the NHSs daily experience blowing a hole in such Bolsonaro-esque bravado. Calum PatonEmeritus professor of public policy, Keele University

Having followed the progress of the pandemic in the UK closely, I am amazed at the relaxed attitude the government has to a death toll that equates to a Lockerbie disaster daily, or the total number of UK deaths in the Falklands conflict. I am appalled that the governments response is to close their eyes and put their collective fingers in their ears while all the time humming la-la-la-de-da. Public interest has waned to an unfortunate level.

The press should be making more noise. Perhaps refining the death statistics to show the age distribution of the current deaths would personalise the numbers. Perhaps people would then feel vulnerable and act more cautiously, to the benefit of all of us.David HastingsBalbeggie, Perthshire

Have an opinion on anything youve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.

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Boris Johnsons Covid bravado insults the NHS and the public - The Guardian

The criticism facing Rishi Sunak has nothing to do with race, and all to do with greed – iNews

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As dishy Rishi loses his sheen and glow, his enthusiastic champions group and defend his reputation.

The Independent broke the story last week about the complicated (and murky and secret) tax and citizenship arrangements of the Chancellor and his wife Akshata Murty, the daughter of a multimillionaire. In brief, she had non-dom status to keep down tax bills; its claimed he was listed as a beneficiary of offshore trusts (though he denies any knowledge of this) and he held the coveted American green card until October 2021.

After days of bad press, she has now decided to pay UK tax on her overseas income and he has referred himself to the Rt Hon Lord Geidt, the independent adviser on ministers affairs, that same establishment toff who decided that Boris Johnson did not break the ministerial code when he accepted 58,000 from a Tory donor to refurbish the flat at 10 Downing Street.

Sunak and Murty loyalists are attempting to discredit those who put out the story and to attribute unsavoury motives to those who are rightly scandalised.

Last week, a furious Indian-British friend rang me to say that the Sunaks were being picked on because they were brown. I told her they were tax-avoiders and his policies punished the poor. She called me a race traitor.

I tweeted about this insulting exchange and had a vile email from a supporter of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, accusing me of being an anti-Hindu Muslim. On the BBC news on Saturday night, an erstwhile Tory press officer said that the uproar was caused by the politics of envy.

Time to take on and see off these groundless and dangerous perceptions. What is happening to Mr and Mrs Sunak is not an example of racism or ethnic or religious prejudice; it is not proof of sexism, nor an example of class envy. Finally and most emphatically, it is not a sinister plot by officials to oust a brilliant politician.

Sunaks assertion that, like Will Smith, he was a husband trying to stop his wife from being disrespected, sounded manipulative and hollow. Envious communists are not behind the scandal. The most bitter politics of envy are found in his rarefied, high-brow world. Those with far too much perpetually envy those who are higher up the rich lists.

Now it has been reported that Sunak wants the authorities to catch and punish the insider who leaked this information to the press. This suggests that he is irredeemably vindictive and entitled. Apparently, the financial affairs of the powerful and rich have to be tightly guarded secrets. The lower orders have no such expectations or rights.

In my view, this is a salutary tale of insatiable, extreme greed, of how those at the top of the social pyramid are forever looking for ways to pay the least possible amount of tax into the public purse; of the ruling Tories really believing that they have no duty to the nation and, even more offensively, that ordinary people must be squeezed and terrorised by fiscal prudence while the richest Cabinet members we have ever had, and their loaded mates, are exempt from any kind of fiscal accountability.

Sajid Javid confessed this weekend that he too was a non-dom during the years that he was raking in millions as a City banker. Why did he need to do that? Read above. He, like other hard Tories, is an ardent fan of Ayn Rand, the US philosopher who disdained collective rights and propagated ethical egotism or the virtue of selfishness.

Sunak voted against tightening financial regulation to combat abusive tax avoidance and either abstained from or voted against human rights and equality laws (check out the website TheyWorkForYou.com).

Did he support Brexit because the EU was clamping down on banks, law and accountancy firms which facilitated offshore tax-avoidance schemes? Just asking.

Now Murty has announced that she appreciates the British sense of fairness and will pay UK tax on all her income. But questions remain. Will Sunak and Murty now offer full transparency about all of their financial affairs?

Such people need to learn they cannot have it all. But such people will never learn that lesson. Sunak will get over this. He may even be Prime Minister one day. Being this rich means never having to take responsibility.

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