LETTERS: Furballs, medical studies and the Good Book – Waco Tribune-Herald

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Coughing up furballs

The Two Davids have this narcissist thing pretty well figured out [Two key failings will lead to presidents undoing, David Gallagher and David Schleicher, Saturday]. Tweddle Dee and his brother from another mother actually think their opinion counts for anything. They are rich, educated but, most importantly, they are Democrats, striving to protect we the less endowed and less informed. Me thinks they need to look in a mirror and see two overinflated know-it-alls for what they really are: narcissists.

We spent the better part of eight years suffering under the reign of the most powerful narcissist in the world who ran roughshod over the U.S. Constitution innumerable times. Oftentimes he would deem to speak and admonish us and our values. I would have to suppress the reflex to cough up a furball. Obama was so dogged in his successful endeavor to bring America to its knees, he was clueless as to what was in the hearts and souls of Americans.

Losing sight of Jesus

Nowhere in John Warrens Thanksgiving column, Religion is in fast retreat, did he mention one of the most important and basic messages in all religion. However, Kay King-Hills brief letter to the editor the very same day describing the bothersome but mundane problem of abandoned shopping carts in store parking lots did. The phrase: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

If that were one of our countrys focused beliefs, honestly contemplated without internal prejudice and smartly acted on, the improvements proselytized by religion in general would be much more commonplace. Too often it seems we get lost in religiosity and forget the real intention and message espoused by Jesus.

P.S.: The quote by John Wesley in Trib contributing columnist Harry Hareliks seasonal column on gift-giving is a perfect tie-in and reminder paralleling the above-cited Golden Rule.

Safety is key concern

In her Dec. 3 letter, Foul on the Field, Cheryl Foster asserts that there is no abortion-pill reversal. I assume she refers to the University of Californias recent study on the matter. Of the 12 women who participated, three were transported to the hospital due to serious bleeding and the study was ended early because of safety concerns.

There is no proof that the use of progesterone was the cause of the bleeding those three women experienced. In fact, only one had been given the progesterone and it was already a well-known fact that the abortion pills can cause such bleeding and lead to infection.

Also, of the six other women in whom a fetal heartbeat was detected after taking the first abortion pill, four had taken the progesterone. Statistically, the results would suggest that the reversal method was effective.

All in all, the results of the study serve only to highlight the medical risks already associated with chemical abortion, not to suggest that the reversal procedure should be discouraged.

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LETTERS: Furballs, medical studies and the Good Book - Waco Tribune-Herald

Has the ‘Focus on Growth’ Mantra Come to a Head in UC? – No Jitter

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For almost two decades, investors have rewarded cloud providers for growth, creating many businesses with strong defensive barriers. The poster children for this strategy include Amazon and Salesforce, each of which has redirected potential profits to define a new business sector that it has come to dominate. Unlike other sectors, profit was secondary to growth, as in first things first and second things never.

Delaying profits is hardly a new idea, but the concept was exaggerated with cloud-delivered services. Cloud dynamics accelerate valuations. However, over the past few weeks, weve seen that growth isnt enough anymore.

Profits Become a Priority

In the broader market, weve seen several high-profile startups, such as Peloton, Uber, and Lyft, struggle after their initial public offerings. WeWorks attempt to go public completely failed. It seemed that the growth-only mantra is also no longer a surefire way to build a new cloud-related business. The new rule is the old rule: profitability matters.

Its not just a change in priority; its an acknowledgment that growth rates are slowing. This shouldnt be too big of a shock. Cloud-delivered services are still strategic and viable, but the sector is maturing with larger providers and increased competition. Today, cloud communications is a redundant term; just about every vendor is also a cloud provider, and the competitive landscape includes the largest companies in technology like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. So, of course, growth rates are slowing.

Theres also increased concern over economic uncertainty. For the first time in U.S. history, a decade will pass without the country falling into recession. How much longer the good times willlast is the proverbial $64 million question. Theres a nagging sense of an imminent correction that could be triggered by any or multiple events such as Brexit, impeachment, trade wars, terror, U.S. debt, and more. The benefits of cloud-delivered services remain attractive or even more attractive in recessionary times, but they arent immune to recessions causing wallets to lock tight.

The Cloud Market Responds

We can also see the shift at Ooma Networks. The company reported its first-ever quarterly profit (Q3 2020). The company beat expectations on profitability and growth, and share prices increased 24% the following day. Oomas business products division increased revenue by 67% through growing both subscribers and average revenue per user.

CEO Eric Stang communicated that Ooma will remain profitable, and Ooma also raised its full-year revenue guidance. Stang expects Ooma to continue growing because of recent foundational changes such as its recently refined core product/service offering, integrated acquisitions of Voxter and Broadsmart, and newly launched Ooma Office Pro for small businesses.

That detailed explanation regarding growth is also a new development. Growth now needs to be explained with more than "more salespeople." For example, Zoom reported both profits and growth higher than expectations but saw a decline in its share price because it also reported a decelerating growth rate. CEO Eric Yuan explained that new products (Zoom Phone) and new markets will continue to fuel Zooms growth. He said Zoom already supports Chinese local numbers and expects sales will expand across Europe and APAC markets.

There are no golden rules, and valuation and stock price changes thrive on exceptions. Consider Slack: It remains unprofitable, yet saw its stock increase after its recent Q3 2020 results. Slack increased revenue 60% to $168.7 million and ended its Q3 with 821 customers that were contributing more than $100,000 in recurring revenue, up 67% from the previous year. Investors seem to agree that Slack needs to continue to focus on growth. Also, its stock boost was still recovering from a disastrous Q2.

As far as technical solutions go, nothing has really changed. The market will continue to migrate from premises-based to cloud-delivered solutions. What did change was the game plan that most providers will be following. They are now expected to behave better and balance the business goals of growth and profits.

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Has the 'Focus on Growth' Mantra Come to a Head in UC? - No Jitter

LL Cool J Drops Truth Bomb on Andy Ruiz, You Blew It – TMZ

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LL Cool J says Andy Ruiz broke the golden rule when it comes to STAYING successful -- he got comfortable.

If you know LL, you know he's a HUGE boxing fan (see: "Mama Said Knock You Out") ... and it's obvious he was disappointed to see Ruiz blow his run as heavyweight champ.

Ruiz told TMZ Sports he didn't take training camp seriously and "ate everything" -- which is why he showed up to the Anthony Joshua rematch 15 pounds heavier than their first fight.

"At the end of the day when you step in the ring you gotta be ready. And, if youre not ready for whatever reason it doesnt matter, you win or you lose," LL said ... "And he wasnt ready."

"I got respect for [Ruiz]," the rap legend explained -- but he noted, "You cant come into the ring 16 pounds heavier!"

LL knows a little something about sustained greatness -- he's been famous for almost 4 decades -- and he had a little advice for Ruiz moving forward.

"Its the things you do in the valley that gets you to the peaks. And, its the things you do at the peaks that extend the peaks. Part of being great at anything is having the discipline to stay focused when youre successful."

Listen to LL. He knows.

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LL Cool J Drops Truth Bomb on Andy Ruiz, You Blew It - TMZ

KHAN: Tolerance And Compassion Are Inherently Religious Values, Not Progressive Ones – The Daily Wire

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Progressives insist that they are the ambassadors of tolerance and compassion and have done so now for decades. They clamor for their endless list of causes behind the garish guise of these two high virtues and insist they stand on the moral high ground in all social issues.

Much to the chagrin of progressives, however, the roots of tolerance and compassion are decidedly religious in origin and remain so. They actually form the Golden Rule. And while the Golden Rule gets bandied about too often to count these days, many often forget that the maxim is inherently religious. That is, it simply would not exist were it not for religion.

After all, its a foundational maxim for all the major religious traditions of the world. Even the Wikipedia entry states as much as does the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

All known world religions address the nature of good and evil and commend ways of achieving human well-beingthere is a substantial overlap between many of these conceptions of the good as witnessed by the commending of the Golden Rule.

Heres a key proviso in relation to the Golden Rule though. It only makes sense in a decidedly religious context. Religious faith not only provides a foundation for the Golden Rule but also guideposts. A sense of wholesome direction and discipline are established.

Bereft of the necessary religious foundations, tolerance and compassion mutate into vacuous pity and a complete disregard for boundaries. Almost anything is allowed. We are reduced to bestial impulses. Wanton hedonism emerges alongside blinding narcissism under very deviant definitions of tolerance and compassion.

Tolerance, in particular, warps into anything goes and youre not allowed to criticize it. This is evident among progressives now more than ever and, sadly, in America at large today.

Unlike religious faith, when one finally decides to peer behind the curtain of progressive claims to such virtues, one finds that no moral foundation whatsoever exists. Their ideas are rooted in nihilism and narcissism. At best, they draw from comic books, films and television shows. These have formed a hopelessly insular and circular narrative for them ad nauseam.

For example, the Star Wars universe has become a moral guidepost for many progressives. Im not kidding. Last I checked though, George Lucas is not some grand harbinger of wisdom.

In fact, the very first Star Wars trilogy alongside pretty much the entire genre of fantasy draws from J.R.R. Tolkien and his seminal classic, The Lord of The Rings. Heres a fun fact for progressives: Tolkien was very much a devout Catholic and says as much in his own words regarding his work:

TheLord of the Ringsis of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.

Tolerance and compassion remain fundamentally religious values. Sadly, progressives have not only abandoned religious wisdom wisdom that has remained for centuries upon centuries they generally malign the very notion of religious faith unless it involves some silly New Age dreck from the likes of Ram Dass, Marianne Williamson, or Osho and his fleet of Rolls Royces. Its no wonder that such high virtues have devolved into self-serving progressive virtue-signaling.

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KHAN: Tolerance And Compassion Are Inherently Religious Values, Not Progressive Ones - The Daily Wire

Audrey Hepburn Golden Rule Was Detox Once A Month And Never Skip Breakfast – Masala.com

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Audrey Hepburn was a true icon whose fame isnt just restricted to her onscreen work. Not only was she a great Hollywood actress, who was the first one to win Golden Globe, an Academy Award and a BAFTA for a single performance. She was a great philanthropist as well. From the 1980s until her death in 1993, Hepburn served as an active ambassador for UNICEF, visiting children all around the world and campaigning on their behalf. But that wasn't all. She was also notoriously famous for her slim figure and was often accused of eating disorders but that wasnt the case.

The son of Audrey Hepburn, the Breakfast At Tiffany's star, Luca Dotti, revealed his mother's beauty and slimming secrets in a new book Audrey At Home, Memories Of My Mothers Kitchen. Dotti's book details her life and includes recipes for her favourite foods. 'People think because she was skinny that she had an eating disorder, but it's not true. She loved Italian food and pasta. She ate a lot of grains, not a lot of meat, and a little bit of everything,' Dotti said.

Audrey Hepburn

Luca Dotti explained that Hepburn's golden rule was, 'detox once a month and never skip breakfast' and that his mother would have what one might call a detox day about once a month. She usually scheduled these days after long plane journeys. On the detoxing occasions, Hepburn switched out her usual toast and jam breakfast for plain yogurt and grated apple, followed with lots of fruit and vegetables and plenty of water.

Forget the 5:2 diet, Hepburn was clearly ahead of her times by religiously following the 30:1 approach. Let us get to know the benefits of detox once a month that Audrey was accustomed to.

Detoxing ones body is fast becoming a new trend in the world of fitness. Although the word is shrouded with a lot of confusion, you cannot ignore the health benefits detoxification has. So what exactly is Detox and why it is so important? Detoxing aims to help the body rid itself of toxins. The kind of lifestyle we lead today with high levels of pollution, our body seems to be getting more susceptible to all sorts of toxins. The human body has many natural pathways to allow detoxification through the liver, sweat, and through the excretory system.

These toxins can lead to harmful metabolical, reproductive and mental health effects. In serious cases, these toxins can also lead to cancerous consequences.

The reason why Detox has become quite the buzzword these days. The benefits are immense and you will be convinced to detox by knowing its multiple benefits.

Helps in losing weight naturally

Improves digestion and clean gut

Improves liver function

Reduces inflammation

Improves skin

Boosts immunity

Keeps you energetic

Better heart functioning

Benefits Of Adding Apples And Yogurt During Detox Day:

Apart from being rich in vitamins, fiber, and minerals, apples are also rich in phytochemicals and pectin, which all help in detox. Pectin flushes out food additives and metals in our body. The acids in apple (malic and tartaric) helps in the digestion process. Apples are best eaten raw and if consumed with the skin are a good source of vitamin C and fiber. Organic apples have higher antioxidants than those apples that are conventional.

Yogurt is the superfood that's not only good for your stomach but it is also an excellent detox food that helps the liver to rid the body of toxins. Include yogurt in your daily diet and you'll be able to see the difference in your health. And to keep your healthy bacteria fed and happy, include plenty of prebiotic-rich eats in your diet, such as bananas and berries which, conveniently, pair well with plain yogurt!

By detoxing your body you help the vital organs cleanse themselves of the toxins, and enable the liver to function appropriately in excreting them. See while the buzzword Detox is getting quite the reputation, but science has not yet proven that any special diet or using products(laxatives or diuretics)can aid in the detoxifying body.

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Audrey Hepburn Golden Rule Was Detox Once A Month And Never Skip Breakfast - Masala.com

Opelika City Council recognizes Lamar Baker as ‘Officer of the Quarter’, issues a proclamation thanking community members for cleanup efforts in Ward…

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By Michelle KeyPublisher

Mayor Gary Fuller and the Opelika City Council recognized Lamar Baker as the Opelika Police Officer of the 4th Quarter during last weeks city council meeting. Also during the meeting, Opelika firefighter Chuck Riddle was named Firefighter of the Year. Fuller also read a proclamation honoring the community clean-up efforts in Ward 2. Councilwoman Tiffany Gibson-Pitts and Golden Rule Lodge #11 members Darryl Mitchel, Derric Baker and Demarcie Whatley were present to accept the proclamation on the communitys behalf.Michael King was also recognized in the proclamation, posthumously for his service to Ward 2. Michael was kind, loyal and committed to make sure that Ward 2 was clean, Fuller read. King passed away in November 2018. Also during the meeting, the council: approved a request 2019 Victorian Front Porch Tour for street closures during the event approved a request from Mama Mocha Coffee for a street closure for the Longest Table Event denied a revised request from Opelika Main Street for Christmas in a Railroad Town pertaining to the times of the road closure for 8th Street approved the Tru Blu Sports Bar request for a lounge retail liquor class I and an on-premise beer license held public hearings and subsequently voted to approve the weed abatements on the following properties:

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Opelika City Council recognizes Lamar Baker as 'Officer of the Quarter', issues a proclamation thanking community members for cleanup efforts in Ward...

And What Will You Eat In Settlement Negotiations? – Above the Law

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As if we lawyers needed one more word to be spoken or written about civility among us, the Association of Business Trial Lawyers-Los Angeles devoted its entire summer 2019 issue to, what else, civility or the lack thereof. The very fact that ABTL-LA decided that it needed to take on the issue and devote an entire issue means that civility is still a long way away, at least in ABTL-LAs perception, and that is a perception shared by many.

It seems that the problem is not so much in court, where lawyers, fearing judicial wrath, can and do stifle themselves to be civil, its the out-of-court shenanigans that create the most problems. No one likes to tattle on others. Well, maybe some do, but the vast majority of lawyers prefer to solve problems without resorting to nasty, intemperate tactics. Raise your hand if youre like me and weary of what seems to be constant yammering about the lack of civility. Didnt anyone learn the Golden Rule all the years ago? I guess not, or if so, its been lost in the fog of war, so to speak.

Exhibit A for an example of the most reprehensible incivility comes, I am embarrassed to say, from California, in fact, from SoCal, in fact from the Westside. If I hadnt read the post and then the court filings, I wouldnt have believed it, but there it all is in black and white.

Read Staci Zaretskys post and tell me at what point plaintiffs counsel may have crossed the line, which he admitted in his response to defense counsels ex parte application. Crossed the line? Please. The attorney also says that the remarks were in the context of confidential settlement negotiations. He also claims that he may have used some inappropriate language out of frustration and anger. I dont think that there is anything confidential in such language, nor should there be, and I cant imagine what situation would ever justify some inappropriate language as that set forth in the defendants ex parte application.

So, although plaintiffs counsel has apologized, I wonder whether the apology was really that, or rather an apology because he was caught using such language. Remember the admonition that every smart lawyer takes to heart: write every email as if it could wind up on the front page of a newspaper, a website, whatever. This series of emails did wind up in the courts record. The Twitterverse has also weighed in.

Does anyone think that a mandatory ethics course on civility would be the way to go? Maybe, but again, You can lead a horse to water .

And that leads me back to the ABTL-LA summer issue on civility. Most of the articles are preaching to the choir, that its not this membership that needs a refresher course in civility. However, one article gave me pause as I had not thought about gender equality as part of the civility issue. Silly me.

Two female judges, Justice Lee Edmon, Presiding Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division 3 and Judge Samantha Jessner, Supervising Judge of the Civil Division of the Los Angeles Superior Court, posit that, in the context of civility, gender discrimination is not its own separate animal. The authors see it as a subsection of the broader civility issue. Im not sure I agree.

In dinosaur days, I dont recall that incivility was as rampant as it is today. Yes, you had the big-mouth jerks and those know-it-alls, who really didnt know it all, but I thought there was at least a veneer of politeness and respect. It may have been a particularly thin veneer, but at least there was a veneer between civilization and primal darkness. (Anyone who has read Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness will understand the reference.) It may have been my obliviousness as a young lawyer practicing in a small lawyer community where everybody knew everyones name. However, sex discrimination existed.

It wasnt until 2014 that the State Bar of California found it necessary to add language about civility to the attorneys oath. If the State Bar had thought that was an issue years ago, I think that the civility language in the oath would have been added years ago.

The legal community was much smaller years ago, and so word got around about lawyer jerks. We didnt need social media to learn about reputations, and that was true for lawyers and judges. The authors conclude that sexism is alive and well in our profession (no argument there) and that sexism finds its expression in incivility.

How do we promote civility in a culture these days that seems to worship at the altar of incivility? What examples can we use to lead by example, rather than by excrement? We can talk up civility all we want, but until there are some consequences to incivility, I dont think anything will change. Its all well and good to talk about the need and desire for civility, but, right now, there arent a lot of role models to point to.

I think the heavy hammer of sanctions is one tool to start impressing upon errant lawyers that there are monetary consequences, and not just financial wrist-slaps, for being a jerk (or whatever other noun you choose). But judges have to be willing to do that. Are they?

Plaintiffs counsel, Christopher Hook, was admitted to the California Bar in 2008. With more than a decade of practice, he should have known better. Practicing law is definitely not a bowl of cherries, but it certainly isnt simply a bowl of dicks.

Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. Shes had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact its not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

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And What Will You Eat In Settlement Negotiations? - Above the Law

Hopeful 12-Year-Old Foster Child Trusting God to Find Him a Forever Home: ‘I Know There’s a Family Out There’ – Faithwire

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Despite enduring more trials and tribulations than most of us will experience in our entire lifetime, Texas youngster Jonah insists on being relentlessly optimistic.

The spirited 12-year-old made quite the impression on local Dallas TV station WFAA-TV when he appeared their Wednesdays Child segment in a full three-piece suit. The networks short features aim to highlight the stories of foster children who are seeking after an adoptive home.

I am a person who likes to uplift people, Jonah told the station. The golden rule is treat somebody the way you would like to be treated.'

Mature beyond his years, the inspiring young man said he desired to have knowledge and wisdom, and opened up about how his faith in God has helped him get through the suffering of his past.

Hes brought me through many, many things. As far as abuse before I came into CPS.. hes brought me through a lot, overall, he said.

As for how he has coped with four years in foster care, Jonah said he adopts a ruthlessly positive mindset that is rooted in his Christian faith.

Waking me up this morning, you know what I mean? Starting me on my way, Im in my right mind, I know what Im doing, I know who I am, and Im proud of the person that I am, he said.

And hes no slouch in the classroom, either. I am an honor roll student, Jonah explained. When Im in school, I focus. I got an award last year for being a multi-tasker.

As for finding a forever home, the astonishingly poised young man is assured that the right family is just around the corner.

The reason why I want to be adopted is because I know theres a family out there that fits me in the best possible way that they can, he said.

Closing out the segment, the reporter commended Jonah to prospective families and wished him well for the future.

No, you dont meet a kid like this every day, she narrated, which is why the parents who adopt him will be one lucky family.

Jonah, may they be your fiercest protectors and your never-ending source of strength.

For more information on Jonah, WFAA urged people to send all approved home studies to La Queena Warren at [emailprotected], if youre already licensed.

What a guy!

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Hopeful 12-Year-Old Foster Child Trusting God to Find Him a Forever Home: 'I Know There's a Family Out There' - Faithwire

Ask The Salty Waitress: My drink is hundreds of dollars. Must I tip 20%? – The Takeout

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Photo: Eduard Skorov (iStock), Graphic: Nicole Antonuccio

Hey Salty! I like to think of myself as a decent restaurant patron who is polite, not too needy, and tips well. I get really good service at the places I frequent and they seem really happy to see me and my wife.

I turn 50 this month and like scotch. I found a place nearby that has a special 40-year-old VERY rare bottle thats $248 a pour. I plan to get some to reward myself for half a century on this lovely blue rock of ours, and was wondering how much to tip.

If I was getting a special scotch in the $20-$30 a pour range, Id probably tip $5 for each and a few bucks for a less expensive one. Given the percentages, a 20% tip on my special birthday pour is $50. Since Im willing to pay $248 for a single drink, the $50 isnt going to cause me any financial harm, but Im still frugal and think that $50 might be a bit much to tip on fairly low effort (pretty much the same as a $10 scotch, really, and that would be a few bucks tip at most).

This special one-time blow to my wallet will probably be accompanied by dinner, appetizers, a few more drinks, etc. I expect around a $400 tab for my wife and me ($150 food, the rest my ridiculous scotch) which might muddle things if I tip a little less than the 20% or 25% on the full check because over half the tab is a single drink. I dont mind being a little generous, but its MY birthday, not a random servers day to hit the tip lottery. Or is it?

Im probably over-analyzing this, but wanted your opinion on how much to tip for my once-in-a-lifetime silly expensive drink.

Getting Old

Dear Cryptkeeper,

Let me be the first to wish you a happy birthday. Youre aging like a fine scotch yourself, Im sure.

It sounds like you have quite the evening planned with a very specific drink order in mind. (Cheers.) It also sounds like youve thought a lot about how those plans will factor in the tip. In fact, I think youve thought about it all too much. Youve thought yourself in circles when theres really only one simple, golden rule to follow: leave a 20% tip. A 20% tip is standard, its perfectly polite, and for someone like you, whos specifically wondering how to navigate a tipping situation, its the magic number that will never do you wrong.

To prove it, lets dive into the numbers youre throwing around here (hey, if you can over-analyze, so can I). If youre accustomed to tipping $5 for a special scotch in the $20-30 a pour range, then what youre saying is youre accustomed to paying roughly a 20% tip. If you tip a few bucks for a less expensive one, youre adjusting your tip to be roughly 20% of the cost of your order. If your $10 scotch warrants a few bucks tip at most, then guess what? Youre probably leaving a 20% tip, maybe even a little more, on a $10 drink. Ta-da! The golden rule strikes again.

I know, pumpkin, I know: its a harder percentage to stomach when the sales total starts creeping up. Once the dessert plates are cleared, you and your wife (who Im hoping has an equally nice birthday celebration planned for herself) stand to owe a tip that could have bought entrees for a family of four. Its not nothing! But consider these the trappings of ordering what sounds like one hell of a special drink.

Heres another reason not to skimp: Servers at many restaurants tip out their bartenders and food runners based on a percentage of sales. Translation: the total dollar amount of the bill is what dictates the percentage passed along to the runner who brought your tray of food and the bartender who poured your drink. You might decide what percentage of tip to leave on the total bill, but the percentage that the server is expected to pass along to these supporting cast members of your dining experience holds steady. So when you skimp on the tip, it hurts your server more than you might think. (And if youre thinking, Okay then, Ill just order this drink directly from the bartender on a separate tab before dinner, youll still have this tipping dilemma, because a bartender has to divvy up tips with the bar-back. Theres no cheating your way out of the golden rule, honey.)

Youve made the decision to go all-out for your birthday, and youve made the calculation that you can afford it. So when it comes to that frugal nature of yours, just find outlets for it everywhere besides your fancy meal. That bill, plus tip, is someones wages, even if the bulk of its cost was served from a shot glass.

I hope you two lovebirds have a great night. And following the golden rule ensures your server will have one, too.

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Ask The Salty Waitress: My drink is hundreds of dollars. Must I tip 20%? - The Takeout

North Dakota conservatives seek to deny refuge to those in need – Patheos

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The word conservative is doing a lot of unspoken work in this story. It serves, among other things, as both an accusation and a defiant confession.

North Dakota county may become USs 1st to bar new refugees

If they vote to bar refugees, as expected, Burleigh County home to about 95,000 people and the capital city of Bismarck could become the first local government to do so since President Donald Trumpissued an executive ordermaking it possible.

Trumps executive order this fall came as he had already proposed cutting the number of refugees next year to the lowest level since Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980. He declared that refugees should be resettled only in places where the state and local governments counties gave consent. Since then, many governors and counties around the country have declared that they would continue taking refugees.

Republican Gov. Doug Burgum said last month that North Dakotawould continue accepting refugeeswhere local jurisdictions agreed, and his spokesman said the governor saw it as a local decision. Soon after, Cass and Grand Forks counties, which are home to the states largest city, Fargo, and third-largest city, Grand Forks, respectively, declared they would continue taking refugees. Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney said refugees were needed to boost the citys economy, and that 90% were fully employed within three months of resettling in his city.

But the idea was quickly opposed in more conservative Burleigh County. Among the opponents was Republican state Rep. Rick Becker, of Bismarck, an ultraconservative who took to social media to criticize the program as unrestrained and a possible drain on social service programs, schools and law enforcement.

Burleigh County is likely to bar refugees because Burleigh County is conservative. The most outspoken opponent to permitting refuge for those fleeing violence and persecution is a local Republican state representative who is ultraconservative.

We are presented with an identity: conservative equals inhospitable to outsiders and those in need. Rick Becker is opposed to accepting refugees because he is a conservative. Rick Becker is conservative because he opposes accepting refugees.

AP reporter James MacPherson attempts to employ the word conservative as a dispassionate, disinterested descriptor a label that strives for accuracy, not for evaluation. This is in part because the article is discussing Republicans, and the generally agreed-upon consensus view is that Republicans are the conservative party in America. This is, in fact, how the Burleigh County Republicans describe themselves, so MacPhersons use of conservative is also deferential allowing those he discusses to describe themselves as they see fit.

But despite all of that despite the fact that this use of conservative here is customary, chosen, and embraced by the subjects of the article it describes here the use of the term here is still likely to be regarded by some as judgmental, pejorative, or biased. Thats due to the unavoidable substance of the article, which reports the facts of the matter, namely that in Burleigh County, North Dakota, conservatives seek to deny refuge to those in need.

Thats simply a blandly accurate description of what is happening. That this will strike many readers including many self-identified conservatives as pejorative or judgmental has nothing to do with MacPhersons or my predisposition toward these self-declared conservatives. Nor does it have anything to do with MacPhersons or my evaluation of their behavior.

I will happily add my opinion and evaluation to that simple description: Conservatives in Burleigh County seek to deny refuge to those in need and in my opinion that is a shitty, sinful, blasphemously evil thing to do.

But it doesnt matter whether or not I add that, or even whether or not I think that. What matters is that everyone thinks that including the ultra-conservative Rep. Rick Becker, his fellow anti-refugee Republicans in Burleigh County, and all of their fellow anti-refugee Republicans across America. I dont have to tell you or them that I think this because it is what everyone recognizes to be the case. Banning refugees is just shitty behavior an ignorant, selfish, dishonest, indecent violation of the Golden Rule.

This creates an uncomfortable situation for poor Rick Becker. He is defiantly proud of his self-chosen identity as a conservative. And he is adamant that being a conservative entails denying refuge to people in need. If you were to accuse him of going soft on his proposed refugee ban, he would vehemently deny that was the case, insisting that no one takes a harder line against providing refuge to refugees than he does. He will not abide the suggestion that anyone could possibly be to the right of him on this point, or that anyone else might be more conservative than he is when it comes to the conservative belief that refugees should be turned away.

And yet, at the same time, he is inescapably aware that his position is utterly gross and shameful. This is what leads him to defend that position as unwaveringly conservative rather than attempting the impossible task of defending it as good or as wise or truthful or beautiful.

Perhaps Im overstating the matter when I say that even Rick Becker and the rest of the anti-refugee Republicans of Burleigh County agree that banning refugees is shameful, sinful, ugly and evil. Maybe they dont agree with that at all. Maybe they think its good and right and just to ban refugees.

But I dont buy that, because look what happens even if we follow MacPhersons example and attempt to be as neutral as possible, stating only the stark facts of the matter and refraining from any evaluation or judgment of those facts. We could say:

1. People who describe and identify themselves as conservatives seek to ban refugees in Burleigh County, North Dakota; and

2. These same self-described conservatives insist that banning refugees from Burleigh County is the conservative thing to do.

3. Banning refugees is a shitty thing to do.

Folks like Rick Becker will try to distance and insulate themselves from that recognition by attributing that third fact to the mere opinion of specific others. Points 1 and 2 are an attack on conservatives, they will say, because most liberals think that banning refugees is a shitty thing to do.

And thats not wrong. Most liberals do think that. Because most liberals are humans and most humans think that.Most conservatives are also humans, and so most conservatives think that too.

We humans all of us, liberal, conservative, whatever tell stories about this very thing. In some of these human stories people offer refuge to others who are fleeing violence, disaster, or destruction. In other of these human stories, people refuse to offer such refuge. We humans can tell either version of that story. But what we cannot and do not ever do is tell a story in which those who refuse to offer refuge are the Good Guys.

It is impossible to tell such a story, or to hear it, or to imagine it. By definition because that is what the Good Guys means.

Rick Becker knows this. Thats why hes so defensive about proudly defending the indefensible.

Becker is quite aware that the policy hes proposing looks really bad:

This isnt about skin color, said Becker, a plastic surgeon and former gubernatorial candidate. In the past, nobody had any say whatsoever. Now we have something that should have been in place decades ago.

Now, if they want to accept them, they can, and if they dont want to they shouldnt.

So this isnt about skin color, Becker says, as everyone seems to say when theyre doing something explicitly about skin color. Becker says, rather, this is about states rights. The past isnt dead. It isnt even etc.

Im still unclear as to what it would even mean for Burleigh County to withhold its official consent for the resettlement of refugees there. Trumps executive order dreamed up by his white supremacist senior legislative aide, Stephen Miller seems illegal or unenforceable or, at best, simply beside the point. When the conservative fundamentalist Baptist church I grew up in signed up to resettle a refugee family of Boat People back in the early 1980s, we didnt seek or require the consent of Union County, N.J. We were just a group of citizens acting as such. The county government had no role, no jurisdiction, no say, and no involvement in any of that.

In providing refuge for that family, we were also a local church acting as such. Had our local county government imagined they had any legal right to muck about with our doing that, wed have taken them to court and every lawyer they tried to hire against us wouldve advised them to back off, drop the matter, and apologize to avoid losing a slam-dunk First Amendment case.

I note that Burleigh County, North Dakota, is home to many local churches that belong to traditions with a long history of welcoming refugees as an intrinsic expression and requirement of their faith. There are dozens of Lutheran congregations there that have long supported the work of Church World Service. There are local Catholic parishes that have long contributed to support refugee resettlement through the UCCB and Catholic Charities. There are scads of nondenominational white evangelical congregations that have, up until recently at least, wholeheartedly supported the refugee resettlement work of World Relief. And thats just the Christians there are also at least three synagogues in Bismarck, and Americas Jewish congregations have always way outperformed us American Christians when it comes to offering refuge to those in need.

I dont know, specifically, if any of these many many religious congregations in Burleigh County are directly involved in helping to resettle refugees in their community, but the odds are that at least some of them are or plan to be. Does the Burleigh County government imagine it has the authority to stop them by denying them its consent? Does the Republican-controlled Burleigh County government imagine that it has any hope of defending itself against the lawsuit that these congregations are likely to bring?

Yes, I realize Trump has had three years to cram hundreds of Federalist Society ideologues onto the courts, and that those bozos do not recognize religious liberty as a constitutional right, only as a political slogan having to do with letting bakeries refuse to sell baked goods or allowing pharmacists to refuse to sell Monistat because they pretend to believe its abortion cream. But even so, theres no legal basis for a county government barring local congregations from practicing their faith in the way that American congregations have done for more than a century.

The idea of a local government withholding its consent for refugee resettlement just seems confused. This is not an activity that has ever required that governments consent.

But now, according to Trumps strange executive order, were told that government consent will be required even for activities in which that government has no role or involvement. Religious groups who seek to continue doing that which religious groups have been doing will first need to seek and secure the governments permission.

There are many words that might be used to describe that state of affairs, but conservative really shouldnt be one of them.

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North Dakota conservatives seek to deny refuge to those in need - Patheos

RELIGION: Learn to Forgive and Forget – Mdcp.nwaonline.com

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We had such great attendance as everyone gathered to worship at Mill Creek Baptist Church Sunday. Doug Cory greeted the congregation and special prayers were requested for Kevin Sherman, Alesia Parish, Kim LeeMasters, Polly Ritter, Cleta Lackey, Gene Hall, Barbara's friend, Marlene's brother, Wayne and Becky Johnson and unspoken. In announcements, we will deliver gifts to the children on Friday at noon. We are also busy working on our SWC Christmas parade entry, "The King Is Coming." Our annual Christmas program directed by Terry Lett will be held Sunday, Dec. 22, during the morning worship service.

Janet Chaney gave the devotional, "What You Do With Your Time." She shared a story about a man's life and the box that contained a pocket watch representing time, the most valuable thing in his life. Time is especially important to many of us, especially during this busy time of the year. We must always remember to trust in God's time.

Mitchell Lett and Tyrel Lett served as ushers and collected the offertory as Susan Cory played "Silent Night." Congregational hymns included Christmas carols led by Karen Gardner.

Sunday's message concluded the sermon series on emotions and feelings. Scripture was Matthew 5:23-24 from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, "Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."

The title of Sunday's message was "Hung in offense." Our pastor, Brother Mark Hall began by saying that, no matter how long you have been a Christian, the devil always has one last weapon that he uses to get to us and that is playing on our emotions and feelings. We must always be on our guard.

Brother Mark talked about crossing a fence and getting hung up on barbwire. "Getting hung up in a fence is like getting hung up in offense. Just like crossing fences, we seem to get hung up in offense more and more the older we get. When offense becomes a fence, you can get hung up in offense the same as you can a fence and not reach your blessings on the other side. When we get hung up in a fence, we can stay there or get out.

When you come to the altar to meet with God, you are coming to make an exchange. You come and leave with a blessing. But when you get hung up in offense, you go away with nothing. Is it worse to be the offender or to be the offended? Nothing will stunt spiritual growth in life and church more. The offended get hung up in offense and can't maintain happiness for any time and share no blessings or praise. Being hung in offense usually means sharing pain, always having something wrong and being critical of everything.

The hypocritical are always hypercritical. It is always someone else's fault. The offended believe in the Golden Rule in reverse. "Do for me what I never bothered to do for you." If you really get hung up on offense, you become totally oblivious to your status and then you just become angry. Brother Mark read Proverbs 19:11, "The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression." Brother Mark said, "When we become offended by someone, we have been guilty of the same thing."

Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 says, "Also do not take to heart everything people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. For many times, also, your own heart has known that even you have cursed others." Brother Mark asked, "Why is it that everyone else's mistakes seem worse than our own? We do it ourselves, but don't stop to remember that when we talk about someone else. When we do that, we rob ourselves of blessings, peace, joy, contentment and mostly our fellowship with God."

Brother Mark again referred to Matthew 5:23-24 and asked, "How do we reconcile with our brother? We treat them like a brother again. When you do that, it becomes easy to forgive them and we forget the offense. It is hard to take offense to someone that you love."

In Luke 23:34, even when Jesus is being crucified, He says, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Brother Mark said, "Jesus did that because of His ultimate love for us. He forgave them."

In closing, Brother Mark told us that ultimately, we know who the judge is and He is justified. "When you are willing to have that Christ-like character, the better we come to understand Jesus Christ and the less time we spend hung up in offense. When you are hung up in offense and bring it to the altar, the blessings will flow."

Our hymn of invitation was "Have Thine Own Way, Lord," and Wayne Holly gave the benediction.

We invite you to worship with us during the Christmas season as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Everyone is welcome at Mill Creek Baptist Church. Sunday school begins at 10 a.m. and morning service at 11 a.m. Mill Creek Baptist Church is located 3 miles east of Noel or 8 miles west of I49, just off Highway 90, on Upper Mill Creek Road.

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RELIGION: Learn to Forgive and Forget - Mdcp.nwaonline.com

Educating racists is a waste of time – Economic Times

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By Melissa Reddy

Why dont we educate him? Not long after those words rolled out of Ole Gunnar Solskjaers mouth at the Etihad in the aftermath of an alleged racist incident during the Manchester derby on Saturday night, Anthony Burke provided a pretty strong answer in a series of Facebook posts.

The 41-year-old was caught on camera engaging in alleged monkey gestures and alleged noises towards Manchester Uniteds Fred and Jesse Lingard as they prepped for a corner. When confronted about it, SHOCK, HORROR!, he deflected rather than acknowledging the seriousness of the alleged incident. Listen, Im only [a] racist c*** because I had a screen shot that made me look it, was the Manchester City fans opening defence on the social media platform. I aint racist, watch the match, half of it was with me putting my hands in my pants.

For the hat-trick and remember the golden rule, you cant be racist if you know people of colour his ex-partner told a national newspaper: This is not like him his family are black.

Ding, ding, ding. So, why dont we educate the civil engineering manager arrested on Sunday by Greater Manchester Police? Because you cannot teach someone who doesnt see an issue in their actions, especially not if it is to borrow Troy Deeneys description from a similarly revolting episode a grown-ass man. Why would you need to school a father and ex-soldier, who has lived for just over four decades, on the ills of dehumanising people based on the colour of their skin? How does it actually work? Education is undoubtedly a powerful tool to help change the world, but its a waste on those who ultimately do not want to widen their outlook, on those who would rather argue than accept they are wrong if and when they are told why.

Before Burkes brainlessness came Italian publication Corriere dello Sports prolonged brain fart.

Previewing the Serie A fixture between Inter Milan and Roma last Thursday, their front page featured images of former Manchester United teammates Romelu Lukaku and Chris Smalling now facing off as opponents sandwiched by a headline that screamed: Black Friday. The paper had meant well but executed their message horrifically, which correctly received mass criticism.

Smalling called the framing wrong and highly insensitive, while Lukaku branded it one of the dumbest headlines Ive ever seen in my career.

Corriere dello Sport, however, defended the headline as innocent, saying it was only praising diversity and that it had been transformed into poison by those who have poison inside. Roma and Inters rivals AC Milan reacted by opting to ban the Italian daily from their training facilities for the rest of the year, as well as denying them access to players for media activities during this period.

Instead of Corriere dello Sport admitting they had erred, that the headline was utterly inappropriate before apologising unreservedly, they continued to blindly and worryingly go on the offensive.

The claim was they were being lynched NOTHING TO SEE HERE. NO PROBLEM WITH THAT CHOICE OF WORD WHATSOEVER and spotlighted all the occasions they had called out racism. [Note to Corriere dello Sport, that is a responsibility and a necessity, not some noble act.]

If that still wasnt enough, there was another rebuttal from the paper titled the black and the false, where they cried lets not give into to hypocrisy.

This is definitely not the hill to die on. Own it, apologise, do better. Meanwhile, if youre nodding along, but refused to accept that the song about the size of Lukakus penis perpetuates a racial stereotype, that photoshopping Divock Origis face onto a poster featuring a black man largely endowed is not only banter or a compliment and that there can never be equality in comparing black caricatures born out of a history of oppression and white ones, you are part of the problem. As is the case if you were among the pack seething that Gary Neville dared pull up a Prime Minister, who has referred to African people as piccaninnies with watermelon smiles and compared Muslim women who wear burqas to letter boxes, for fuelling the issue.

Furthermore, if racism is your platform for point-scoring, bringing up incidents from rival clubs as though this is all a game of Top Trumps, youre and Im going to phrase this as nicely as possible quite pathetic. You cant fix stupid and its scary to think just how much of the population are sat fist-pumping in the knowledge there are no cameras ready to record their discrimination that lurks beneath or when it bubbles to the surface.

Continued here:

Educating racists is a waste of time - Economic Times

Want a Career in the Arts? Build a Community (Guest Column) – Variety

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Last November, 400,000 writers from around the world agreed to spend a month with their friends writing novels. They met in libraries and cafs, cheered on by 1,000 volunteers. One writer, a 20-year-old college student, recently signed a two-book publishing deal. Previous novelists have had their books turned into Hollywood movies. And it wasnt just adults communing; one in four writers was 18 or younger.

Creativity has long been a path to personal expression. But in todays culture it is also an avenue for self-empowerment. To be human is to be creative, says Grant Faulkner, the executive director of National Novel Writing Month. Everyone has a story to tell.

In Hollywood, too, creative communitiesare as vibrant as theyve ever been. The 2019 Sundance Film Festival received more than 14,200 submissions, one of its best years ever. Visionaries like Shonda Rhimes and Tyler Perry have built artistic havens of like-minded peers. And there are any number of books out now that extol the virtue of creative connection, including Face to Face, written by the Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer.

Its no surprise that creative communities are thriving given the fractured state of political and social discourse. We are more interconnected and more disconnected than weve ever been, says Michelle Satter, founding director of the Sundance Institutes Feature Film Program. But storytellers can imagine the future they want to live in.

I know this firsthand. A few years ago, I started a salon with friends. A longtime writer, I wanted to test the boundaries of my comfort zone. I took photographs and tap-danced (badly). My friends painted and volunteered. Our lives shifted as we mastered new skills and bolstered our creative confidence.

I was inspired to create an arts and ideas gathering called The Box Sessions, which will be held near Santa Cruz, Calif., from Feb. 28 to March 1. Filmmakers and acclaimed artists even a magician will share their wisdom on creativity and community. As important, guests can flex their creative muscle in workshops that explore music, storytelling and fear.

Why fear? Jon M. Chu, the director of Crazy Rich Asians and the upcoming In theHeights, says he went through a cultural identity crisis before making the former film. Born in Silicon Valley, he tiptoed around his Chinese roots. He worried his parents, who owned a restaurant, would be offended.

Then, Chu says, I found a community on YouTube that didnt have those fears. They were very confident. I wished Id had that confidence. In making the movie, he faced his insecurities. It was a life-changing thing to go there, he says.

Communities reflect the values of the people who create them. At this months IFP Gotham Awards, Vera Farmiga gave a speech about working with the filmmaker Ava DuVernay. The actor said of the cast and crew: Its the only time, in my 25-year career, my workplace looked like the real world.

Jimmie Fails and Joe Talbot are childhood friends who made this summers The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Fails says they hung out as teens in the citys PrecitaPark, a two-acre patch of grass in a working-class neighborhood not far from the 101 freeway. Over time, they watched San Francisco morph into an almost dystopian enclave of wealth and inequality. We didnt see that story being told, he says. So we thought wed tell it ourselves. Its refreshing to see something get made thats so personal. There is room for other stories.

His is a familiar lament in Hollywood, where women and people of color are still underrepresented and superhero movies reign at the box office. Martin Scorsese earned the scorn of some peers last month when he compared Marvel Universe movies to theme parks and admonished fans for being tethered to their computer screens. (Never mind that The Irishman, his latest movie, was financed by Netflix.)

But changes are afoot. Last month, Sundance officially launched Sundance Collab, a global digital platform for storytellers who want to learn to write and direct, get feedback and connect with others. Some videos and webinars are free, with study groups and live events available with a paid membership. Already 20,000 people have signed up.

You dont have to consider yourself a screenwriter or an artist to participate, Satter says.

In that way, it sounds a lot like National Novel Writing Month. And maybe thats not such a bad thing. As Faulkner liked to say, People are empowered when they believe in themselves.

Laura M. Holson is an award-winning feature and news writer at The New York Times and the founder of The Box Sessions.

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Want a Career in the Arts? Build a Community (Guest Column) - Variety

Data Protection Bill: Raising more concerns than satisfying thems – Business Standard

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In an era of technological advancement, where the growth of the digital economy has meant the use of data as a critical means of communication, the Personal Data Protection Bill is proposed to ensure the informational privacy of individuals, and ensuring empowerment, progress and innovation

The Personal Data Protection Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, and referred to a Joint Select Committee (JSC) following a voice vote.

Well, according to parliamentary procedure, the Bill could also have been referred to the departmental committee, which in this case, would be the parlimentary standing committee on information technology, headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.

However, it didnt happen that way and Tharoor objected to the proposal of sending the Bill to the JSC and also wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to register "strong concerns" with Prasad's proposal. He said the Committee on IT has a mandate and a parliamentary responsibility to examine all matters related to information technology, electronics, telecommunications, postal services, and allied services.

As a matter of fact, the draft was not circulated well in advance of its presentation in Parliament and comments and submissions made during the drafting process were not made public.

Besides, the government has taken extraordinary measures to reduce public scrutiny, and even Parliamentary examination of the Personal Data Protection Bill. This lack of scrutiny makes it more likely that multiple areas of concern will not be addressed. Some of them include:

The independence of the proposed Data Protection Authority (DPA), which has been weakened as all members must be from the executive arm of government. This contrasts with the Srikrishna Committees suggestion that the DPA induct individuals with executive, judicial, and external expertise.

Besides, if social media platforms are forced to provide processes for voluntary user-verification, this would chill freedom of expression, and impinge on the privacy of those who chose to be verified.

Any user who does not submit voluntary verification and remains anonymous could also be specifically targeted by government agencies. Moreover, it would increase the risk of profiling, and data breaches as more data would flow to social media platforms.

The mandate for enforced transfer of non-personal data to government could also lead to abuse and misuse.

This means even anonymised information about e-commerce sales patterns can, for example, be used to infer personal details like caste, religion, medical conditions, sexuality, reading habits and so on.

Tying non-personal data to personal data, such as electoral rolls, income tax records, mobile call and internet-usage patterns and social media usage is possible since government has access to such data and a free hand with surveillance.

Critics argue that it is a pity that Indias first privacy legislation has so many holes.

However, looking at the positive front, the bill ensures...

To know more, listen to the podcast

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Data Protection Bill: Raising more concerns than satisfying thems - Business Standard

Is it acceptable for an academic to change their name when they marry? (opinion) – Inside Higher Ed

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In my first year of graduate school, my Ph.D. adviser gave me a stamp to mark my books The Library of Emily M. Grossnickle. She had a practice of giving a personalized stamp to all of her students in their first year so we wouldnt confuse our books with each others. Along with the gift came her playful quip, Dont you dare change it.

At the time, I didnt really think about it -- I had no intention of changing my name. Little did I know how it would foretell an important personal decision I would soon face.

In 2014, I earned my Ph.D. By 2015, I was a postdoctoral researcher, engaged to be married and considering whether or not to change from my birth name to my husbands name. As a scholar, that sparked feelings of shame and an uncomfortable, deep-seated fear of potential long-lasting repercussions to the new career I was intent on building. In the months leading up to my marriage, I initiated conversations with peers about the topic, read any news articles or essays I could get my hands on, and sought the support of my husband.

All the while, the image of the stamp was etched in my mind. It became clear to me that the academy holds a narrow view of acceptable conditions for a scholar to change her name, and marriage is not one of them. I discerned a palpable discomfort and sense of shame around just discussing the topic. The women I consulted spoke either indirectly or in coded terms, much like the gift from my professor.

When I asked colleagues to point out academic women who had taken a new name, they could only identify three conditions where scholars changed their names and went on to have a successful career. The first was in the early years of graduate school. For graduate students with only a few publications or presentations, the decision is often less frowned upon and might even go unnoticed by those looking over ones curriculum vitae. The second acceptable condition is following a divorce posttenure. The idea here is that a woman is reclaiming her identity and thus its viewed as empowering, or at least respectable, due to the circumstances. The third acceptable condition is to hyphenate, joining ones birth and married names.

As I continued to seek out colleagues views on the matter, a respected female colleague openly acknowledged that if she were on a hiring committee for a position, she would negatively judge a candidate for making such a change. I imagine she felt that she was providing me with valuable advice by being candid. Instead, I found her honesty unsettling. Her candid acknowledgment, spoken amid feminist values and her expressed desire for me to achieve in academe at the highest levels, wasnt universal. At the same time, she was not the only colleague to express that sentiment.

In some ways, I could see where they were coming from. As someone who initially resisted any thoughts of changing my own name, my biases were not so different. But that was then. To be sure, people have different feelings about names and their importance. For me, I realized that my marriage and the name-changing question gave me an opportunity for empowerment: to reclaim my identity with a name of a family I chose rather than the one into which I was born.

Yet as a woman in academe with a Ph.D., senior and tenured faculty members repeatedly told me that the only acceptable, feminist choice was to keep my name or hyphenate. While hyphenating works for many women, that suggestion fell flat. I spelled out what would be an unwieldy six-syllable, 20-character monstrosity that I was convinced would be removed from article citation lists by authors over their word limit.

The perceived weight of this decision preoccupied my thoughts. I felt judged for a decision that supposedly reflected a lack of commitment to my scholarship. Although I was a postdoctoral researcher still early in my career, I had 10 publications under my original name. I was relying on those publications to secure an academic position. For someone putting together tenure-track applications, the idea of changing my name -- and subsequently having publications under a different name than those first 10 in my application materials -- was terrifying.

When I shared my dilemma with people outside higher education, they were surprised. Some questioned why I couldnt make whatever decision was right for me. Others, such as those from the small town where I grew up, questioned why it wasnt the other way around: Shouldnt I only need to justify to others if I wanted to keep my name? Isnt it normal for women to change their names once theyre married? Some argue that changing ones surname after marriage perpetuates socio-historical traditions of men owning their wives. But research shows that a majority of women in the United States change their names following marriage.

In fact, I found that academic women did change their names legally but retained their former name for publications and teaching. Yet that forces women to bear the weight of coordinating two identities and requires complex logistics when legal documents such as passports dont match the name one is always called. That approach is not a solution, either.

In the end, I took my husbands name, and my birth name became my middle name. That decision has afforded me the opportunity to forge a more complete scholarly and personal identity. I will never know what might have happened if I had dropped my original name entirely.

But I have come to realize that the academy can, and should, make certain structural changes to ease the process and concerns of those who desire to change their name at pivotal career points. Efforts such as training to alleviate biases when evaluating job applicants, tenure cases and awards would be a step in the right direction. In addition to postpublication name changes and having identification numbers to link publications, the option to autopopulate former names, so that readers can see the links more clearly, is needed. Authors can take steps to make such connections clearer for readers, by summarizing work under a scholars current name and putting the former name that the cited work was published under in parentheses (Eccles [Parsons] et al. (1983)). That said, this is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Different reasons for name changes require different considerations, and providing former names can be disrespectful in certain situations.

Ultimately, those of us in academe should feel that changing our name is a choice we can make free from shame and fear of repercussions. We should not have to weigh the possibility that taking a new name equates to being taken less seriously as a scholar. We face many challenges and tough decisions in our careers. The decision about changing ones name shouldnt be one of them.

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Is it acceptable for an academic to change their name when they marry? (opinion) - Inside Higher Ed

Arjun Kapoor Invests In Food Delivery Company That Will Empower Women – PagalParrot

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Arjun Kapoor has turned co-investor for a home food delivery company Foodcloud.in. Arjun gave the statement that My aim at investing in Foodcloud.in is to contribute towards a larger societal purpose of empowering the women.

The unique start-up has been introduced by actor Arjun Kapoor, that will employ all such women who cannot leave their homes and go out to work. Through this startup, Arjun Kapoor has campaigned to bring together all women across the country on a platform that can deliver home-like food to those working in offices and other business organizations. This startup of Arjun Kapoor has so far connected more than four thousand women of the country and a large number of them are from North India. The actor said that the purpose of this step is to boosts household income leading to a better lifestyle which will also drive gender partiality for the woman at home or in her neighborhood. Arjun added, To me, thats a tiny step towards partiality, and towards empowerment in society at large,.

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Talking about Foodcloud.in the actor said Foodcloud.in is a platform where women can convert their valuable skill set into an economic asset for themselves and their families. Led by CEO Vedant Kanoi and co-founder Sanjhi Rajgarhia, the food delivery platform runs on the premise of home cooks delivering hygienic and home-cooked food to customers from their kitchens.

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Before leaving for Chandigarh for the shooting of his next film, Arjun Kapoor said that as part of the effort, he aims to make domestic women more self-reliant and empowered. More than four thousand women joined hands with this startup named Food Cloud to realize their personal dreams and aspirations. Says Arjun, This venture which is bringing a positive social change towards gender equality in the society is very close to my heart and for the last few months, I have been trying my best to raise awareness about this platform. I think this unique and influential platform will serve a greater social purpose and contribute to empowering housewives and domestic women.

Also read: Ranbir Singh to Play Nagraj- A Comic Book Super Hero

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Arjun Kapoor Invests In Food Delivery Company That Will Empower Women - PagalParrot

7 Inspiring Messages to Share with Patients Struggling During the Holiday Season – Florence Health

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No, suicides dont happen more often during the holidays, contrary to popular belief. But this time of year is still a challenging one for both patients and providers. The never-ending to-do lists, pressure to see family who hurt our mental health and constant temptation to overeat and drink can make it hard to get out of bed.

Because the challenges of the holiday season are so rampant, providers should take time to check in with patients about their coping abilities, saysPam Greene, PhD, RN, assistant professor in College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christie, and member of theAmerican Psychiatric Nurses Association(APNA).

RELATED: 6 Surprising Perks of Working Holidays as a Health Professional

If people have competing needs, and they have depression and anxiety, during the holidays, it can escalate, she explains.

Whats more, your efforts may have a more lasting impact during the end of the year. Why? Dr. Greene says mental health providers tend to have fewer appointments and could more easily squeeze in a referral.

Here are some ways to get the conversation started.

Dr. Greene frequently uses this as an opener with patients, especially with those whove had a hard year. This encourages them to speak candidly about whats bothering them and give you an opportunity to provide guidance as necessary.

For this strategy, weight loss is just an example. You can use any health initiative a patient has taken recently. This allows you to provide specific strategies to help the individual plan. For example, suggest they treat Christmas buffets as a sampler rather than a whole meal.

RELATED: 7 Tips from Health Professionals Whove Been There to Get Through Working Major Holidays

This is a good opening for a patient whos clearly feeling down or anxious. It shows that you understand them as an individual and youre paying attention. The key here, Dr. Greene says, is to be direct. Say exactly what youre noticing and what your worries are as a healthcare provider.

Again, letting a patient know that you notice their needs will help them open up. This can also be an excellent transition to talking about new years resolutions. Starting them a few weeks early can help patients take back a sense of control, Dr. Green advises.

The holidays come with plenty of social obligations, which can cause people to de-prioritize the people they see often who are actually beneficial for their mental health. We want to encourage people to stick to the parts of the holidays that are keeping in their values, Dr. Greene explains.

Sometimes, no matter how many Christmas banners declaring Joy to the World you drive past, you cant get that warm, fuzzy feeling. But encouraging struggling patients to focus on how theyve helped someone important to them can.

Nothing cuts through the overwhelming sense that youre a failure like thinking through what youve actually gotten done. This question provides a small dose of empowerment that can last for weeks.

RELATED: 9 Creative Ways to Thank Your Colleagues Who Worked Thanksgiving So You Didnt Have To

If the responses to any of these questions give you pause, Dr. Greene reminds fellow providers to conduct a mental-health screening. If the patients baselines are elevated, it might be time for a referral.

Asking personal questions during a time of year where were all struggling can seem daunting, but the goal, Dr. Greene says, is simple: Give patients permission to manage their own lives.

Read more:

7 Inspiring Messages to Share with Patients Struggling During the Holiday Season - Florence Health

Best Albums Of The 2010s: 30 Classics That Defined The Decade – uDiscover Music

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How do you take stock of a decade? In its peaks and valleys, or the grey areas in between? In the 2010s, music became a benchmark for culture: it reflected the seismic shifts, the unease surrounding our increasing reliance on technology, the political unrest and the shrinking of the worlds borders. Just as some people wondered if music still had relevance, the creative spirit found a way to bounce back. The best albums of the 2010s, then, not only define the decade, they chart an artistic rebirth.

The 2010s were a time of great transition and breaking down of conventions. Hip-hop became pop music, while R&B resurfaced with fresh voices. Pop got personal and rock was no longer a monolithic genre, splintering into tiny factions to suit every taste. EDM rose and fell, new icons emerged and old ones re-established themselves.

This list of the 25 best albums of the 2010s could easily be 200 entries long, but weve focused on those records that have truly defined the decade: works by the trailblazers, the disruptors and the torchbearers in popular culture.

Think weve missed some of your best albums of the 2010s? Let us know in the comments section, below.

Listen to the best 2010s music on Spotify, and scroll down for our 30 best albums of the 2010s.

Ask anyone to name the most exciting new voice in hip-hop right now and theyll all give you the same answer: Tierra Whack. While the 2010s saw the return of the female MC (Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and Nicki Minaj), Whack operates outside of the hypersexualised scene, preferring to sit in the margins, creating an experimental collection of vignettes on her debut album. This 15-song set of minute-long songs is either very punk or just economical. You be the judge.Check out: Whack World

Theres a kind of blinding optimism on Teenage Dream makes you wonder: when did we all stop being this happy? Katy Perrys sophomore release cemented her status as a global pop star, and managed to capture the youthful feeling of invisibility on heartfelt anthems like Firework, Teenage Dream and Last Friday Night (TGIF). An instant classic if there ever was one.Check out: Firework

Technology has not only globalised pop music but has connected todays generation with folk music traditions. Taking 200 years worth of flamenco history and fusing it with trap-R&B is truly a 21st-century invention, and Rosalas sophomore effort, El Mal Querer, is one of the most gorgeous and experimental albums of the 2010s.Check out: Malamente (Cap.1: Augurio)

Anyone following in music in the 2010s is sure to have a Pavlovian response to the opening synth lines to Grimes Oblivion. Both the song and its parent album, Visions, were the perfect distillation of the kind of bedroom experimentation embarked on by a generation with endless influences just a keystroke away and enough speedball energy drinks to fuel them. IDM meets pop meets industrial on Claire Bouchers breakthrough album, which found her inviting us into her manic pixie dreamworld full of endless loops and layers.Check out: Oblivion

Most musical trends dont fit into tidy units of measured decades they ebb and flow, spilling into the next era. Billie Eilish may be the last new pop star of the decade, but her debut album is firmly pointed towards the future. A product of SoundCloud trap and earnest bedroom-pop, Eilish is the latest artist to carry the torch of youth culture, but, unlike her predecessors, she only answers to herself.Check out: bad guy

When The Weeknd made his mysterious entrance in 2011, with his debut mixtape, House Of Balloons, it felt like contraband. Before the Drake co-sign, before people even knew his name, the man born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye was just a spectre who fused Siouxsie And The Banshees samples with tales of drugs, debauchery and a haunting falsetto. His brand of otherworldly R&B and narcoticised production would become the blueprint for R&B well into the decade.Check out: What You Need

If the early 00s were about a rock renaissance, the 2010s were about peak poptimism. While critics started to take the genre more seriously, artists stepped up to the plate to deliver pop with purpose. Case in point: Lady Gagas Born This Way. The album is both retro-inspired and future-minded a metaphor for the decade as a whole. Gagas unabashed excess and anthems of inclusiveness marked a pivotal moment in pop music.Check out: Born This Way

As one decade opened, the bastions of the previous decade closed-up shop. Electro-dance-punk outfit LCD Soundsystem bade their fans and New Yorks once-thriving indie scene goodbye with their final album, capped by a historic run at Madison Square Garden. This Is Happening was full of send-offs (Home), wistful dance-pop numbers (Dance Yrself Clean) and nostalgia for the present (I Can Change).Check out: Dance Yrself Clean

If anyones responsible for the kind of genre-subversion that pervaded the 2010s, it was James Blake. With his tender torch songs and synth soundscapes, the dubstep DJ turned singer-songwriter wrote the kind of melancholic pop that comforted club kids and introverts alike. After a string of buzzworthy EPs, Blake emerged with his 2011 self-titled debut, putting his transcendent voice on display and carving out his own genre: electronica-soul.Check out: Limit To Your Love

Picking up the mantle of jilted torch singer after Amy Winehouse died, Adeles blue-eyed soul was just as essential to the 2010s as anything by the pop stars who were experimenting with form. Her traditionalist pop followed in the footsteps of other great UK songstresses like Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark, but communal heartbreak cuts across generations, and 21 has become the biggest-selling album of the 21st Century to date.Check out: Someone Like You

A post-recession record if there ever was one, The Suburbs may have acutely captured the kind of unease that lingered in the air following the 2008 financial crisis, but Arcade Fire also prophesied the anxiety-ridden 2010s. Many returned to their family homes following the crash, but the suburbs were always an empty promise. This time, the band turned their collective focus away from mortality and looked inward, towards suburban ennui: By the time the first bombs fell, we were already bored. Man were they right.Check out: The Suburbs

When Beach House first staked their claim on pop culture, the 00s was a breeding ground for lo-fi, chillwave rock, but 2010s Teen Dream remains their defining moment. With their lush arrangements and Victoria Legrands layered vocals, Beach House moved out of the bedroom pop scene and onto the stage.Check out: Zebra

After the Knowles sisters unleashed their personal manifestos in 2016, it was only a matter of time before Jay Z would reveal his own innermost feelings. As the elder statesman of hip-hop and one of the successful business moguls to date, many had written him out of the game. With 4:44, however, Jay Z eschewed the posturing and braggadocio of his heyday, recording an intensely personal record of love, regret and repentance.Check out: 4:44

Following a long line of female country artists who broke into the pop mainstream, Kacey Musgraves became the kind of upstart the genre needed, with her mould-breaking, Grammy-winning album Golden Hour. As one of Nashvilles finest singer-songwriters, Mugraves applies a knack for lyrical detail to a sweeping country album that spans pop, rock and disco.Check out: Rainbow

When Lana Del Rey first landed, in 2012, she was an enigmatic figure with pin-up looks and narcotised torch songs, and Born To Diewas the album that launched a thousand think pieces. Rigorous online discourse about authenticity, personas and personal appearance surrounded her debut album, yet Lana Del Rey foresaw the future of pop music. Her bold pastiche of Americana, filtered through nostalgia and her beguiling voice, launched the sad girl pop subgenre, and while her latest effort, Norman F__king Rockwell, may be her strongest yet, Born To Die and standout song Video Games is what set everything in motion.Check out: Video Games

As the 2010s marched forward, technology, which seemed to be bringing people together, began to create gulfs between them. No one understood this better than Kevin Parker (Tame Impala). Moving away from his guitar-driven earlier work, the studio wizard used psychedelic synths, samples and ambient sounds as his new sonic palette, creating introspective anthems that spoke to a generation on his album Lonerism.Check out: Feels Like We Only Go Backwards

It had been nearly 15 years since DAngelo blessed the world with his neo-soul masterpiece Voodoo, but on his 2014 follow-up, Black Messiah, he proved it was well worth the wait. While Voodoo was sensual and loose, Black Messiah kept things tight: a lesson in groove and R&B fusion, thanks to his Vanguard band. Arriving in the thick of the Black Lives Matter movement, Black Messiah tapped into the eras cultural zeitgeist, delivering the salvation we needed.Check out: Sugah Daddy

Rihanna has always been one of pops biggest risk-takers, but on her eighth studio album, ANTi, she truly broke away from the pop industrial complex. Sure, there were dancehall jams (Work), but she also dabbled in doo-wop (Love On The Brain) and 80s sleazy synth-rock (Kiss It Better). I got to do things my own way, darling, she declared on Consideration and it paid off. Anti became the first album from black female artist to spend 200 weeks on the Billboard 200.Check out: Love On The Brain

Just as critics decried the death of rock following its early 00s revival, St Vincent led the charge of female rock heroes, demonstrating her axe playing and songwriting prowess on Strange Mercy. Her enigmatic vocals and creative arrangements had been evident on her previous releases, but it wasnt until her third album that she fully unleashed her powers.Check out: Cruel

Rocks original chameleon left us with one of his most daring collections of music, shaking up the status quo as if were 1976 all over again. Arriving just two days before his passing, saw David Bowie remain adventurous to the end, eschewing his rock roots and delivering an exploratory jazz-fusion record that became the perfect farewell to five decades worth of history-making music.Check out: Lazurus

Long before he became Blood Orange, Dev Hynes sonic fingerprints were all over the emerging pop scene of the 2010s. Writing and producing for artists like Solange and Sky Ferreira, Hynes was the go-to man for late-night vibey records and slinky jams a sound that would reach its logical conclusion on Cupid Deluxe. As an homage to the people, places and sounds of the queer dance scene of 80s New York, Cupid Deluxe takes the kitchen-sink approach, melding a bit of disco, soul and R&B to create the new hybrid pop sound that would dominate the decade.Check out: Time Will Tell

With her bubblegum-pop teen icon days behind her, Robyn reinvented herself in 2010 with Body Talk. Developing from a mini-album trilogy, Body Talk proved dance music was anything but disposable; finding humanity on the dancefloor, it tapped into feelings of loneliness and escapism. With a knack for melody, Robyn delivered an electro-pop album so good it would take eight years for her to release a follow-up.Check out: Dancing On My Own

To be honest, most of Taylor Swifts discography would rightly belong on this list. Since her crossover pop hit Red, in 2012, she delivered a string of classic pop albums through the 2010s, with a lyrical wit that few possess. But out of all of Swifts post-country albums, 1989remains her most fully realised: the moment when she fully clinched the pop throne.Check out: Blank Space

No longer beholden to the benchmarks of the past, the 2010s saw more pop stars getting personal and taking risks, all thanks to Beyonc. Following the albums release, the term lemonade has become shorthand for pop artists releasing their personal concept records their own lemonades. Following her culture-shifting visual album Beyonc, Lemonade was more than a break-up album, it was a declaration of war that played out on an accompanying 65-minute film that only Beyonc could pull off.Check out: Formation

In many ways, the 2010s was the decade that Drake built: a ten-year victory lap that started with Thank Me Later(2010) and ended with Scorpion (2018), but it was with Take Carethat Drake showed his true colours, creating the template for the vulnerable hip-hop star. Drake wasnt the first rapper to sing on record, but he was the first rap-pop star, absorbing every genre that lay before him.Check out: Marvins Room

Before Billie Eilish came along, Lorde was the most famous teenager in the world, thanks to her all-conquering debut album, Pure Heroine, released when she was just 16. In the years that followed, the Kiwi star spawned many emulators, but she would eclipse them all with her sophomore effort, Melodrama, a coming-of-age record that captures in vivid detail all the joys and heartaches of navigating adulthood.Check out: Green Light

The 2010s was a tumultuous decade, to say the least, and only a handful of artists successfully managed to channel the eras political unrest while creating a sense of hope at the same time. Solanges A Seat At The Table didnt just shift the culture, it ignited a movement. With her celebration of black womanhood and black empowerment, Solange earned a seat at the table of power while inspiring countless others to demand theirs. Even as the album bore the weight of a nation on its shoulders, it still sounded impossibly light.Check out: Cranes In The Sky

Kanyes ego has been both his biggest strength and his biggest weakness, but it serves him well on his ambitious opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Following a self-imposed mini-hiatus, West doubled down on his vices and created an ode to excess and hedonism. Casting a critical eye on both America and himself, he offered a a toast for the a__holes while bringing some friends along for the ride. Stacked with A-list appearances by Nicki Minaj (on her scene-stealing Monster verse), Pusha T (Runaway), Kid Cudi and Raekwon (Gorgeous), MBDTF set the scene for a flood of classic hip-hop albums in the 2010s.Check out: Runaway

After proving himself a master storyteller on his major label debut album, Good Kid, mAAd City, Kendrick Lamar delivered another musical deep-dive into the black experience with To Pimp A Butterfly. A stunning assimilation of jazz, funk, hip-hop and African music, Butterfly offered the kind of boundless vision the decade was waiting for.Check out: Alright

R&B experienced some of its biggest-ever shifts during the 2010s, as radio started to dwindle and the genres tight constrictions gave way to what would be coined alt-R&B. Frank Ocean was one of the key architects of this sea change, both in sound and lyrical context: though he avoided the genres traditional vocal, Oceans sentiments were no less impassioned. channel ORANGE is a slow-burn, but its full of rich details. Ocean brought a sense of fluidity to the genre, occupying a variety of characters points of view and, in turn, delivering a fresh perspective: his own. As one of the first openly gay artists in hip-hop and R&B, Ocean ignited a self-reckoning in modern pop music.Check out: Thinkin Bout You

Looking for more? Discover the full story behind a transformative decade in music.

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Best Albums Of The 2010s: 30 Classics That Defined The Decade - uDiscover Music

Black Christmas Review – We Got This Covered

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When Sophia Takals Black Christmas remake announced a shift from R to PG-13, the internet as per brand flew into an overreactive tirade equating horror quality to R designations. My response? Ratings do not maketh the movies. Any film, MPAA ruling aside, depends on its cinematic makeup to deliver a worthwhile theatergoing (or home watching) experience. Black Christmas isnt one of the years most disappointing horror films because its PG-13 rated. Its because quickie edits around mature R content are noticeable, or unbalanced ADR doubles decibel levels, or characters are helplessly underwritten and uncharismatically presented.

Horror movies arent bad *because* theyre approved below R. Horror movies, as with Black Christmas, are bad because, well, theyre just poorly constructed and bafflingly ineffective.

In Takals iteration, co-written by April Wolfe, sorority sisters find themselves prey for hooded killers on the eve of winter vacation. Imogen Poots stars as Riley, whos retreated into her personal shell after a fraternal encounter turns into assault. Years later, women are still going unbelieved as Rileys crew starts receiving stalkerish texts from Hawthorne Colleges famed founder Calvin Hawthorne. Riley and others are threats, after all, given how Kris (Aleyse Shannon) petitions loudly to denounce Hawthorne of deceased Calvins bigoted pro-male agenda. Do you need me to confirm Rileys in store for anything but a silent night?

Erase any connections to Bob Clarks Black Christmas, as this is a reinvention between Clarks home invasion masterpiece and 2006s remade slaughter-slasher meatgrinder. Takals vision apes Youre Next on sorority row (for a spell), as masked attackers break into Rileys dormitory (Hawthornes Greek housing is all stone-built mansions). Its never as dreadfully tense as Clarks vulgar phone calls though nor kill-happy ambitious as Glen Morgans jaundiced ho-ho-horror. What exists as an introduction for teenage girls into horror falls victim to careless death sequences only ever ending with a quick cutaway after yet another isolated mark is about to be snatched by Hawthornes hooded assailants. Rinse, repeat, yawn.

Enter the films pro-feminist message, screamed through a neon pink megaphone placed three centimeters from your ear. There is, hear me clearly, *no qualm* with such a fiery focus on females turning the tides against male abusers. Black Christmas has *always* been about womens fears and words being ignored by men (re: 70s abortion talk), and 2019s reboot supports the need for updating with thematically enraged essentialism. At its most basic, in conceptualization, Takal and Wolfe justify their lesser remake with modernized outcries.

Follies all reside in execution, which fumbles tonality and becomes an unfortunate parody of itself by leaning into thematic empowerment like a sledgehammer to the face. Takals problem? Posturing what feels like a gender-bashing exploitation leap-of-faith with the somber cadance of Steven Spielbergs Lincoln. Every scene has a #MeToo or #NotAllMen or Your body, your choice line peppered in, skewering the patriarchy like beating a corpse into a bloody pulp (except no grotesqueries are shown, e.g. PG-13). What should be a searing fraternal takedown loses weight, nor does Rileys emotional burden culminate with deserved catharsis. Black Christmas gets lost in its desires, which is a shame because experience-based horror sticks (keys as defense weapons, walking home alone, etc.).

Infinitely worse, 2019s remake is a mess of continuity (greek letters), cult explanations, and useless character development. Post-production voiceover work stands out like two different co-eds are talking in the same scene despite there only being one student, talking to herself, over a camera angle shift. Theres such little care paid to the technical bits, thinking of how rapid edit techniques are jarring momentum killers just as were about to glimpse something wicked (obvious manipulation of R to PG-13). Production design stages some bright holiday light-work for cinematography to capture, only thats one twinkling ornament on a tree otherwise full of rusted duds.

You hate to see it, but choice sequences suggest all the makings of a studio ordered hack-and-slice recut. Thinking of Jesses (Brittany OGrady) corpse-in-the-attic callback to Clarks original, where cameras flip away from certain doom and upon discovering the body minutes later (again, honoring Clarks iconic scene), viewers only get a blink-quick, back-to-front turn before capturing too much of a sharp object stabbed into her face. Something, assumedly, we would have seen in the R version. The ill-paced, short-duration detracts from the reverence being paid and encapsulates recurring issues throughout the assembly of Black Christmas.

Thus bringing us to the killers themselves, who eh, sorry kids. Lets approach spoiler territory because Ive got some feelings about everything that transpires. Those wanting to go in fresh as St. Nick before a night of delivering presents works up his holly-jolly funk? Skip to after the stars. Whats in between will spill the beans to speak.

*****

Remember how you wondered if the trailers revealed all the secrets of Black Christmas? Nail on the head, but *weirder* somehow. Kris forcing of Calvin Hawthornes bust to be removed from central lobby placement ends up meaning the statue now lives with the schools vilest frat. Were talking prep-boy slicked hair, blatant misogyny as a hobby, women as servents mentalities the perfect targets for Calvins possession takeover.

Yes, the boys of Delta What Evera discover Calvins bust oozes black sludge that injects the headmasters spirit into militant pledges, who are inhabited by his insatiable hatred towards women. Either to be domesticated or murdered for disobedience. Theres no grey area, as even nice guys are tainted by their male affliction when migraines turn out to be their true alpha being coaxed out by Calvins words. Even the nicest guys harbor a darkness hidden deep inside based on chromosomes alone; a subplot thats never explored with even half the needed commentary.

This is where Black Christmas unravels (further) because the cult has no identity beyond capes and engraved paddles (led by creeper-sophisticate Cary Elwes). Its stated that Rileys friends are being hunted because Professor Gelsons (Elwes) minions hold one personal item per victim, but the why escapes us (maybe a commentary on how men are dogs, needing something to sniff before hunting like any trained canine would do). Hawthornes juicy bust is discovered because someone reads incantations on the statue, yet he never once leaked while on public display? Whos signing up for this ritual? Whats with the killing of other men who arent part of the plan? Wheres any ounce of subtle recognition? Toxic masculinity is combated with a united, girl-power front, but in a way that never permits storytelling to provoke the feelings of maniac exploitation required. Cue sorority warriors with crossbows battling supernatural fratbags powered by Hawthornes spirit while flames engulf all around which should be WAY more entertaining than offered.

*****

Getting back to basics, frustrations are hammered over and over throughout the films duration. Theres never a desire to misguide audiences, as evens 2006 debacle hooked more red herrings. Mediocrity on-screen is deemed acceptable due to the importance of addressing mans villainous role in society. It all feels like a heavy-handed PSA that forgets what made Bob Clarks original one of the first slashers a blueprint that couldnt be replicated, so Halloween became the franchise formula to imitate (even here via Frans demise). Takal and Wolfe take a mighty home-run hitters swing at granting new generations, forgotten demographics, their Christmas Horror classic. Although, dare I say even Into The Darks done a better job at that?

Oh, and performances wait, this review is *how* long already? Well, Ill glance by Imogen Poots and her spunky supporting cast being failed by two constant modes: college-chick perkiness or at-odds collegiate drama. Theres no in-between. Its either laughs shared over schmaltzy sisterhood buildup (ants are important, somehow) or screechy fighting that escalates without natural regard (again, clashing tones). Characters who backpedal on what little development exists to basely further plotting. That, and average dudes who are paid even less attention and planted as buffoonish devices (not the frat monsters, mind you).

Black Christmas (2019) will not be remembered as a seasonal gift to genre audiences. Sophia Takals latest Blumhouse collaboration doesnt add to her impressive previous catalog that includes Always Shine and New Year, New You. Takals holiday slasher fails to keep a hot streak from freezing over, and might even feel out of her hands at times, but nevertheless. No matter the reasoning, what results will leave horror fans of all ages, genders, and preferences scratching their heads. A few vocal moments of women CANNOT be broken wrapped-up in the sloppiest, most slapped-together decorative disaster.

Continue reading here:

Black Christmas Review - We Got This Covered

Parliament proceedings | LS passes bill to bring 3 Sanskrit universities under the Centre – The Hindu

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Rajya Sabha has passed the Constitution (126th Amendment) Bill, 2019 which seeks to extend the reservation for SCs & STs in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies by another 10 years till January 25, 2030.

The House also passed the Constitution (scheduled tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 through a voice vote. The legislation specifies the tribal communities which are deemed to be included in the Scheduled Tribes list.

The House also passed International Financial Services Centres Authority Bill, 2019. It seeks to set up a single authority to regulate the financial services market in the International Financial Services Centres in India set up under the SEZ Act, 2005. The Bill has already been cleared by the Lok Sabha.

The Rajya Sabha has returned the Appropriation (No. 3) Bill, 2019, which seeks to authorise appropriation of funds from the Consolidated Fund of India for the services of the financial year 2019-20, to the Lok Sabha.

The Lok Sabha passed the Central Sanskrit Universities Bill, 2019, which aims to convert three existing Sanskrit deemed universities in the country into Central universities.

Today is the penultimate day of the winter session.

Here are the live updates from today's session:

Rajya Sabha | 9.00 p.m.

Rajya Sabha is adjourned till December 13, 2019.

Rajya Sabha | 8.40 p.m.

The Rajya Sabha accepts the Appropriation (No. 3) Bill, 2019, which seeks to authorise appropriation of funds from the Consolidated Fund of India for the services of the financial year 2019-20, and returns it to the Lok Sabha.

A money bill, after being passed by the Lok Sabha is sent to the Rajya Sabha for its recommendations. It has to be returned to the lower house within a period of 14 days, with or without its recommendations.

The House is now taking up special mentions.

8.20 p.m.

We will honour our commitment and pay the GST dues to the States, says Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Rajya Sabha.

Jairam Ramesh counters her and says that the dues have not been paid since August and Ms. Sitharaman should honour it.

Lok Sabha is adjourned till December 13, 2019.

Lok Sabha | 7.50 p.m.

Lok Sabha passes the Central Sanskrit Universities Bill, 2019.

Rajya Sabha | 7.45 p.m.

Manish Gupta of the AITC says that government borrowings have increased alarmingly. Already a lot has been spent on recapitalisation of banks, which are reluctant to lend further due to previous NPAs and other risks.

Lok Sabha | 7.30 p.m

Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Union Minister of Human Resource Development says that the path to a new India is through this Bill. These Central Sanskrit universities are being set up so that the 'granthas' within the Sanskrit language can be explored.

The Centre will take steps to consolidate all languages, he says.

Rajya Sabha | 7.20 p.m.

The Rajya Sabha passes the International Financial Services Centres Authority Bill, 2019.

It is now discussing the Appropriation (No. 3) Bill, 2019, which seeks to authorise appropriation of funds from the Consolidated Fund of India for the services of the financial year 2019-20.

Rajya Sabha | 7.00 p.m.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman says that the Bill provides for setting up of a single regulatory body for financial products approved by other regulators.

As a result, some sections of the acts governed by the SEBI Act, Pension Regulatory Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority will be amended, she says.

The CAG will audit the International Financial Services Centres Authority, she adds.

Rajya Sabha | 6.45 p.m.

Jairam Ramesh of the Congress party says that we have only one international financial services centre right now that is going to be regulated. The Bill is needed for a much-wanted project in Gujarat - GIFT - a centre planned by the then-CM in 2005 to create a Singapore-like city on the Sabarmati front under the SEZ Act, he adds.

The Bill is meant to regulate the GIFT city. However, after 9 years of existence, out of 62 million square feet, less than 3 million square feet of commercial property has been developed. Hence the project has seen abysmal progress and has created a ripple effect in India's NBFC sector, Mr. Ramesh adds.

Hence this Bill will be a 'gift to the GIFT project', he adds.

Rajya Sabha | 6.40 p.m.

Rajya Sabha passes the Constitution (scheduled tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 through a voice vote.

The House is now taking up International Financial Services Centres Authority Bill, 2019 for consideration and passing.

Rajya Sabha | 6.30 p.m.

Renuka Singh Saruta, Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, says that the Centre has received proposals from 21 States to include some tribal communities in the Scheduled list.

But the Centre has to take into consideration several criteria like their economic and social situation, geographical bounds, etc, she says.

The House is now taking up clause by clause consideration of the Bill.

Rajya Sabha | 6.20 p.m.

Binoy Viswam of the CPI says that across India, tribal lands have been snatched away either by the government or land mafia. Kerala is also affected by this. The Forest Rights Act, brought in by the UPA-1 government with the Left's support is also being diluted in many places, even by way of legal orders, he says.

The Chair interrupts Mr. Viswam and he ends his speech.

Lok Sabha | 6.20 p.m.

Ganesh Singh of the BJP says that the Sanskrit language gave us knowledge of traditions and the alphabet. The country will progress only when the language is preserved, he adds.

Lok Sabha | 6.00 p.m.

Arvind Ganpat Sawant of the Shiv Sena in his support for the Central Sanskrit Universities Bill says that whoever learns Sanskrit will be able to learn other languages too.

The House unanimously decided to extend the session till the passing of the Bill.

Rajya Sabha | 5.40 p.m.

The Constitution (scheduled tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 is taken up for consideration and passing.

Rajya Sabha | 5.20 p.m.

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu says if we take up the Constitution Amendment, it needs atleast 2/3rd of the votes. "I appeal to all members to join and take part in the voting and see that the House takes up the issue as per the expectation of the people. If any unparliamentary is there, it will be removed from the records."

Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Opposition says there is no disrespect to the House. "We get hurt sometimes. There has to be mutual respect. Respect begets respect. While we fully go by the direction of the Chair, we also expect some respect from the Chair. We were humble and we created institutions. My submission to the govt would be, you can't compete with the Opposition."

Mr. Naidu says everyone has a good experience and members should play their role in a responsible way.

The Bill is put to vote.

Desh Deepak Verma, Secretary General explains the voting procedure and then begins the voting.

Clause by clause voting taken up by the House.

Result: There were 163 ayes and 0 noes and 0 abstains for all clauses.

The Constitution (126th Amendment) Bill, 2019 is passed.

The Bill seeks to extend the reservation for SCs & STs in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies by another 10 years till January 25, 2030.

"I am disappointed that more than 80 members are not present in the House," says the Chair.

Lok Sabha | 5.00 p.m.

Beesetti Venkata Satyavathi (YSRCP) bats for Sanskrit to be included in research, computer science, mathematics and social sciences.

Rajya Sabha | 4.45 p.m.

The Constitution (126th Amendment) Bill, 2019 seeks to extend the reservation for SCs & STs in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies by another 10 years till January 25, 2030.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Opposition says political empowerment is necessary for all communities and religion. "I seek the reservation for Anglo-Indians to be taken up in Lok Sabha and Assembly. Anglo-Indians are the ones who have worked on empowerment for women. Atleast 33% reservation is needed."

Thaawarchand Gehlot, Leader of the House says that the citizens will know what the govt has done for SC/STs.

Lok Sabha | 4.00 p.m.

Om Birla is in Chair.

Members list their grievances and questions on crop losses from their respective states.

Ramesh Pokhriyal, Human Resource Development Minister says let this bill be passed and make India better.

Rajya Sabha | 3.30 p.m.

K.K. Ragesh of CPI(M) says he should be supporting The Constitution (126th amendment) Bill, 2019 since it helps SC/ST. But he wants to oppose for the fact that it doesn't help Anglo-Indians.

P. Wilson (DMK) mentions that yesterday, a bill was against Muslims and today, this bill is against Christians.

V. Vijaysai Reddy (YSRCP) says that even after 70 years, there is no perceptible change in the status of SC/ST. "It is due to the party that has ruled this country for 50 years. The Congress party has not done anything for SCs and STs. I hope that the present govt would achieve this goal."

Lok Sabha | 3.20 p.m.

Stake in Air India

The government has decided to sell its entire 100% stake in Air India under the proposed disinvestment process, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.

The national carrier, which has a debt burden of more than 50,000 crore, has been making loss for long and as part of revival efforts, the government has decided on disinvestment.

After formation of the new government, Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM) has been reconstituted and the re-initiation of the strategic disinvestment of Air India has been approved.

AISAM has approved the 100 per cent sale of Government of India stake in Air India for the re-initiated strategic disinvestment of Air India, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Air Indias net loss in 2018-19 is provisionally estimated to be 8,556.35 crore.

The minister said various measures, including enabling swift transition of Jet Airways aircraft to other airlines, have been taken to improve the aviation sector.

Full service carrier Jet Airways shuttered operations in April due to cash crunch.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) has embarked upon a capital investment of over 25,000 crore in next five years for development/ upgradation/ modernisation of various airports and air navigation infrastructure, Mr. Puri said. - PTI

Rajya Sabha | 3.20 p.m.

Policies on non-personal data

A committee of experts has been constituted to study and recommend policies on non-personal data, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre said it was decided that a committee of experts will be constituted under the chairmanship of Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan to deliberate on a Data Governance Framework and recommend measures...

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Parliament proceedings | LS passes bill to bring 3 Sanskrit universities under the Centre - The Hindu