News for today's 2018: 09/22/13

I'm All Set

11:38 PM Tukiyooo 0

I'm All Set

Just wanted to let you know - today I received my 2013 Social Security Stimulus Package. It contained two tomato seeds, cornbread mix, two discount coupons to KFC, an 'Obama Hope & Change' bumper sticker, a prayer rug, a machine to blow smoke up my a…

What is the Most Valuable DC Comics Villains Month 3D Cover?

9:58 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="MsoNormal">I know what you’re thinking.  You love the DC Comics Villains Month stunt covers, but you are wondering exactly which ones to buy and which ones will be worth the most.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">What is the most valuable 3D cover from DC Comics villains month?  Good question and a fair question.  As of right now, I would favor Batman Dark Knight 23.4 which is the Joker’s Daughter cover.  Bleeding Cool was <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/08/23/speculator-corner-jokers-daughter-leads-the-pack-for-dc-3d-cover-demand/">tracking them a few weeksago</a> in the $30 range, and they have been selling on eBay for over $50 and some at $100.  That feat is amazing considering the comic does not even get released until later this week, but rumors of short prints and skewed demand are driving the price up.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Also the Harley Quinn cover in Detective Comics 23.2 has been achieving prices of around $20 to $25 on eBay, which is not bad for a book that is not that old.  Still long-term investment potential of any of the 3D villains covers is murky at best.  I can remember being laughed at for picking up as many Uncanny X-Men #266's as I could find (If only I would have knocked down some extra New Mutants 98's). the point is nobody knows what anyone will be chasing in a few months or a few years.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Anyone old enough to remember the cover trickery in the 1990s is probably a bit leery of these kinds of stunts, but that does not seem to be stopping anyone from snatching the comics off of shelves across the United States.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The stories have been all over the map as well.  While The Joker #1 cover was cool, the story itself might have been out there a bit too far, and the Lex Luthor #1 was interesting, but I’m not sure it lent anything new to the Forever Evil storyline (I guess we will all find out eventually). <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal">So that’s the easy answer to this question via some evaluation of sales on eBay.  Is it the right answer?  Who knows, in a couple of days we could all be talking about chasing Marvel Lego variants. <o:p></o:p></div>

I know what you’re thinking. You love the DC Comics Villains Month stunt covers, but you are wondering exactly which ones to buy and which ones will be worth the most.What is the most valuable 3D cover from DC Comics villains month? Good question a…

SPEAKING OF GOD

9:25 PM Tukiyooo 0

The things we say, think, and believe about God are apt to turn bad, boring, and soul crushing if we do not speak God-language well. Before God Of Our Silent Tears begins to lay out an image, or rather complex mix of images, of God, we first consider the way we use words to speak of that which can never be expressed in words.<br /><br />An Excerpt from God Of Our Silent Tears, Ch. 7. Now available for order on line through Cathedral Bookstore and Amazon. http://www.godofoursilenttears.com/#et_page_802<br /><br /><br />      <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering;<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">somewhere the </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">strange <i>beauty of the world must rest upon pure joy!<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">– Louise Bogan<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            <i>There are things you cannot reach. But<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            you can reach out to them, and all day long.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier. . . .</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                                                            Mary Oliver, “Where Does The Temple Begin,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                                                            Where Does It End?” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 4.5in;"><br /></div><ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="A"><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">THE ART OF GOD-TALK<o:p></o:p></span></li></ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">            We have made important headway by repudiating the image of God that makes the problem of evil intractable and blocks our way to a God who could do us some good. We have done necessary groundwork by saying a few things about what God is like. But the way we have been describing God is still woefully inadequate. It has been a list of adjectives, not a real image of God. It has been too abstract, just a cold naming of characteristics. We can know all these things about God without really knowing God at all. Popular Christian writer Robert Farrar Capon says:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                          . . . [T]he first word in theology has to be not about God,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        but about the way we use words. Specifically, it has to be a <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        firm warning that no words of ours can ever be trusted to mean<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        the same thing when predicated of ourselves and God. Not even<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        the florid ones with Greek and Latin roots. True enough, God is <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        merciful and God is good, and you may make him out to be as <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        omnipresent, immutable and omniscient as you please. But never<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        think for a minute that you have anything more than the faintest <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        clue what it’s actually like for him to be all those things.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Tms Rmn","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[i]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Talking about God is tricky. It requires a special language – language that can suggest something about the extraordinary truth of God, but not reduce it to something so simple we dare to presume we have got God figured out. Remember Augustine, “If you understand it, it isn’t God.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[ii]</span></span></span></a>We have made good headway, but we have not yet come to a way of talking about God, a way of imagining God, that is particularly helpful when it comes to suffering. There is such a way of talking about God, a way of imagining God that can sustain us instead of oppress us.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">            Joseph Campbell taught that the deepest, most important truths cannot be expressed directly. They cannot be described or explained in a straightforward way. The deepest, most important truths can at best be suggested, pointed toward, by stories and metaphors. Accordingly, the language of Christianity is not a literal description of God. It is a kind of divine poetry with God between the lines. The characteristics of God in Chapter 6 are all true and helpful to a degree – but they fall short of the image of God that is the heart of Christianity – the Holy Trinity. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">            In the next chapter, we will see why the Trinity is the key to understanding God’s relationship with our suffering. But first, we need to understand a few things about the way we use language to talk about God. God is not ordinary so God-language cannot be ordinary either. If we try to use God-language as if it were ordinary language, we will find ourselves in an utter muddle and the beauty of this image will elude us. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                                     <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">    </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <u>Analogy, Metaphor, and Paradox<o:p></o:p></u></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            <i>            The Tao that can be named is not the Tao.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                                                                        </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tao Te Ching<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">(A)ny God of whom an image can be made is shown thereby not to be the God of Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Robert W. Jensen in <i>The Triune Identity</i>, explaining the Second Commandment  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            Doctrines describe God, not literally but poetically – theologians use the word “analogically.” It has to do with the nature of God and the limits of language. We cannot put into words anything that is not first inside our minds. We cannot express in words everything we can conceive in our minds. Indeed, we cannot even find words for all the things we sense and intuit. God is vastly more than we can conceive. Trying to speak of God is almost an exercise in futility. Ludwig Wittgenstein<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[iii]</span></span></span></a>suggested that we should therefore “remain silent.” Jacques Derrida<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[iv]</span></span></span></a>said we cannot speak <i>about</i> God, only to God. The God we can define with doctrines is not God. Yet, for several reasons, we have <i>to</i> speak about God:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        First, the experience of God compels us to speak. It is our nature to speak of what we experience; and we do experience glimpses of God. T. S.  Eliot’s term was “hints and guesses.”  Like Jeremiah, we must speak of God. “If I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in. I cannot.”</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Tms Rmn","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[v]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            Second, we are symbol-making creatures.  Even ordinary experience calls for       interpretation, and we interpret our world through symbols, including the ultimate symbol, “God,” representing the source, destiny, meaning, and order of all our experience.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn6" name="_ednref6" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Tms Rmn","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[vi]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> By speaking of God, we strive to make sense of our lives and deepen our understanding. It is like making art.  We grow in the process. Thought, reflection, and conversation enrich our experience by interpreting it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        Third, language about God sets the stage for us to experience God in ways we couldn’t experience God without the language. Cambridge theologian, Nicolas Lash, says that traditional images shape our current religious experience.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn7" name="_ednref7" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Tms Rmn","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[vii]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Rene Dupre’ argues that we cannot have a religious experience until a symbol exists to open the door to that experience.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn8" name="_ednref8" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Tms Rmn","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[viii]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> We interpret ordinary experience in religious terms, and those terms establish the foundation for future religious experience. Traditional images and concepts of God provide a structure of meaning. Without those images and models, we wouldn’t be able to take in, grasp, and interpret even our own experience. For example, Tibetans rarely have visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary because she is not part of their tradition. Conversely, Western Christians are not apt to have visions of Dakinis (dancing feminine spirits in Tantric Buddhism). Religious language, our symbol system, shapes and interprets experiences, which might otherwise go unnoticed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        Finally, we need language about God so we can talk to each other about our deepest values, so our religion will not be a private speculation, but a spiritual table at which a community can gather to support and sustain one another. Sigmund Freud disparaged religion by calling it a collective neurosis. But the psychoanalyst, Eric Fromm, retorted to Freud that neurosis was a private religion. Fromm is probably right. Religion becomes problematic when it is not rooted in community, and community is possible only with language. A faith community must devise a shared language of faith. Holy Scripture, rituals, and doctrines exist to give us a common language for sharing our religious experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        Our dilemma is that we cannot speak about God, but we must speak about God. Rilke wrote,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        I want to utter you. I want to portray you<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        not with lapis or gold, but with colors made of apple bark.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        There is no image I could invent<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        that your presence would not eclipse.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">             The Christian way of dealing with the unspeakable reality of God – speaking only in metaphors -- is very old. It is implicit in St. Paul, St. John the Evangelist, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Augustine. Dionysius the Areopagite made it explicit in the 6</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 7.0pt; mso-text-raise: 3.5pt; position: relative; top: -3.5pt;">th</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 7.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">Century. In his <i>Treatise On The Divine Names</i>, Dionysius set out an approach to theological language that has been the rule ever since. According to Dionysius, we cannot make any direct affirmative statements about God. God is simply beyond the reach of our language. It is impossible to say God is this or God is that. We can speak of God only by analogy, saying God is in some respect like this or like that.  A medieval council of the Church affirmed that principle.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn9" name="_ednref9" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[ix]</span></span></span></a>St. Thomas Aquinas endorsed it again. It persists today in the teachings of modern theologians such as Karl Rahner. The rule that we speak of God only by analogy is a settled, basic principle of Christian thought.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn10" name="_ednref10" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Tms Rmn","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[x]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        But analogy does not mean two things are the same. It means they are somewhat alike and somewhat different.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn11" name="_ednref11" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Tms Rmn","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[xi]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> For example, God is like a rock in that he is steadfast and dependable, but unlike a rock in that he is not hard, unresponsive, silicon-based, and insensate. Moreover, in the case of God, Dionysius says, God is always <i>more unlike than like</i>whatever we are comparing God to. Whatever we say about God is more wrong than it is right. We need to say it anyway, but we need to speak reverently and humbly, acknowledging that we are stammering about something utterly beyond us. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        Making statements about God is called the <i>via affirmativa. </i> Denying those statements is called the <i>via negativa. </i>The <i>via affirmativa </i>and the <i>via negativa</i> work together. We hold our claims about God in tension between saying God is sort of like this, but not really like this. God is love, but not like in a romance novel. God is just, but not like a human judge.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        If we keep in mind that all our speech about God is analogical and not directly descriptive, it will save us from confusions that sometimes befuddle even good theologians when they get too caught up in their own imagery. A metaphor or image of God is intended to tell us something true about God. It will also invariably tell us something false. We must be careful to follow two rules: (1) Do not extend the metaphor beyond its true point to include the false one. (2) Do not discard the metaphor just because there is a false point that can be drawn from it. For example, when we call God “Father” we mean that God is our source and that God cares for us as a parent does. We do not mean that God is male.</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_edn12" name="_ednref12" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Tms Rmn","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[xii]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">            <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">                        In addition to being <i>analogical</i>, the things we say about God are almost always <i>paradoxical. </i>Christian truth is often expressed as paradox, two claims that are logically contradictory, but both true. Paradox serves three purposes. First, it keeps us honest, keeps us from conclusively and absolutely saying things about God that are not quite right. Second, it keeps us reverent, prevents us from thinking we have God figured out. Third, it keeps our minds open because we cannot get them closed around a paradox. One of the great dangers in religion is fixed concepts about God. It is all too easy to close our minds around them. Any such concept would be an idol. Paradox keeps our hearts and minds open to the mystery.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24.0pt; tab-stops: .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in;"><br /></div><div><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /> <br /><div id="edn1"><div class="EndnoteText1" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; tab-stops: -1.0in -.5in .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Robert Farrar Capon, <i>Hunting the Divine Fox: Images And Mystery In Christian Faith</i> (New York: Seabury Press, 1985) p. 7.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="edn2"><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Augustine, <i>Sermons 52</i>, Ch. 1, no. 16.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></div></div><div id="edn3"><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Tms Rmn","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[iii]</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> 20<sup>th</sup> Century German linguistic philosopher.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></div></div><div id="edn4"><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[iv]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;">  Late 20<sup>th</sup> Century French deconstructionist philosopher.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></div></div><div id="edn5"><div class="EndnoteText1" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[v]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Jeremiah 21: 9.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="edn6"><div class="EndnoteText1" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref6" name="_edn6" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[vi]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Karl Rahner, at 45-51. <o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="edn7"><div class="EndnoteText1" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; tab-stops: -1.0in -.5in .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref7" name="_edn7" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[vii]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Nicholas Lash, <i>Easter In Ordinary</i> (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986), particularly at pp 57-58 where Lash responds to William James’ claim that authentic religious experience must be private and untainted by institutional or traditional faith, “Our ‘private’ experience is never entirely ‘naked’ . . . The symbolic, linguistic, affective resources available to us are given by prior experience, and by the culture, the traditions, the structures, institutions, and relationships that bring us to birth and give us such identity as we have. . . The innocent, naked, newborn ‘ego’ is a figment of the philosophical imagination.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="edn8"><div class="EndnoteText1" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; tab-stops: -1.0in -.5in .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref8" name="_edn8" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[viii]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> “There is no religious experience prior to religious symbolization.” Louis Dupre’, <i>Symbols Of The Sacred</i> (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000) p. 6. <o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="edn9"><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref9" name="_edn9" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[ix]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The Second Lateran Council</span>.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></div></div><div id="edn10"><div class="EndnoteText1" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; tab-stops: -1.0in -.5in .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref10" name="_edn10" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[x]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The idea that all speech about God is “analogous language” or metaphorical language is not just Dionysius’ quirky idea. In 1215 C. E., the Fourth Lateran Council instituted Dionysius’ teachings about God talk as official Church doctrine. Great theologians from St. Thomas Aquinas to Karl Rahner have reaffirmed that language about God can only be analogy.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="edn11"><div class="EndnoteText1" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; tab-stops: -1.0in -.5in .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref11" name="_edn11" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[xi]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Alister McGrath describes analogy and metaphor as separate ways of describing God. However, they are the same in the one respect that concerns us here. Both mean that God is somewhat like the image we use, and somewhat different. Alister McGrath, <i>Christian Theology</i> (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2001) pp. 253-257.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div id="edn12"><div class="EndnoteText1" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; tab-stops: -1.0in -.5in .05pt .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in 6.5in 7.0in 7.5in 8.0in 8.5in 9.0in 9.5in 10.0in 10.5in 11.0in 11.5in 12.0in 12.5in 13.0in;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1941566034196038608#_ednref12" name="_edn12" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[xii]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Alister McGrath, pp. 253.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div></div>

SPEAKING OF GOD

The Beatles...Help!!

9:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoEenXKanHQ0LOah-1j3yAsbVlohrSkahJNXp0Q1HIC6h5HMjTaecQ07GnOmjBMG5INOcYEbimk8SKMs-HhnlzuISUYRn1IBCCU5wSosWHYvgUCk7Vv85Uw3a9eItSta3ep6uMqwKw5eHj/s1600/IWS+Season+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoEenXKanHQ0LOah-1j3yAsbVlohrSkahJNXp0Q1HIC6h5HMjTaecQ07GnOmjBMG5INOcYEbimk8SKMs-HhnlzuISUYRn1IBCCU5wSosWHYvgUCk7Vv85Uw3a9eItSta3ep6uMqwKw5eHj/s400/IWS+Season+4.jpg" width="400" /></a>Cheeeeeeeeers Chuckleheads!!<br /><br />Today’s post?  Well, it’s not really funny.  I mean, most of the IWS posts do present a modicum of humor, but this one?<br /><br />Not so much.<br /><br />This post is, as we say in the blog and radio business, a “housekeeping” post, and well, a note to the BTR shows out there that think they can usurp our Number One standing…that it ain’t gonna happen too often.<br /><br />Read me now and acknowledge it later, Jay and I have dedicated ourselves to becoming even more creative than we already are.<br /><br />I know what you’re thinking, but no, it’s true!!  We can actually be funnier and more creative than we already are.<br /><br />However, there is one thing that we need from you in order to carry out our successful trek down the path of creative nirvana.<br /><br />YOU!!<br /><br />That’s right…<br /><br />Jayman and I have brought you Drew Peacock, Slyder Balzcock, Martin, Stubby Stonehenge, Bobby Craft, Guy Ahnyurdyck, and other great, well-informed IWS characters, but we want more.  And doggone it, YOU deserve more.<br /><br />Jay and I are well on our way to transforming IWS Radio from a devil-may-care internet hangout, into a bastion of must listen to radio, with a roundtable discussion much like the McLaughlin Group and an entertaining and electrifying Halloween dramedy, much akin to Orson Welles’, War of the Worlds.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikSFKqkt9lkBcvZxeT50u7RoZ7uK33cLoGJt0jDXAnHtcvnQaGmjAUBQSd-HQB8uotAJLwurOOEw73d1i1ydbOSi1ZfVKfDFw-5MOQTDrqdqDc1MIKBKWamVwxvE7NkenkqN1MjYKBjc_B/s1600/sofia-vergara-emmys-HOT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikSFKqkt9lkBcvZxeT50u7RoZ7uK33cLoGJt0jDXAnHtcvnQaGmjAUBQSd-HQB8uotAJLwurOOEw73d1i1ydbOSi1ZfVKfDFw-5MOQTDrqdqDc1MIKBKWamVwxvE7NkenkqN1MjYKBjc_B/s320/sofia-vergara-emmys-HOT.jpg" width="320" /></a>Can we do it?  Yes we can!!  Can we do it?  We’re the Man!!  Er…men…whatever, and however…<br /><br />We need your help.  Y’know?  Next month NPR stations will be kicking off their Fall Pledge Drives, and well, so are we here today.  However…<br /><br />We aren’t asking for money, although that would be nice; we are asking for talent.<br /><br />It takes a lot of time to talk back and forth with our many IWS correspondents, so perhaps, you would like to become one yourself.<br /><br />We love what we do, but let me tell ya…<br /><br />Jay and I aren’t no young dudes, and even with the uber-lovely Schmoop and hot as hell Jamie helpin’ out, it ain’t no Ferris Wheel ride.<br /><br />So c’mon…Write a post for us.  Tell us something funny.  Record a new character who we could bring into our show.<br /><br />It’s free and easy, just like your hosts. (Take that Doc Thompson)<br /><br />If you have an idea for a show, a new character, would like to record something, or tell us to fuck off, let us know.<br /><br />We would love to hear from you, well…not so much the fucking off part, if that’s your shtick.<br /><br />So that’s it for now, but let me tell you…<br /><br />Our newish correspondents, Drew Peacock and Malcolm Eckstein lit the world on fire yesterday on IWS Radio.  Thousands laughed, and thousands were offended.  A perfect mix.<br /><br />And folks, to listen to all of that frivolity that you missed, you can click on the player below.  Paul Piatt, Drew Peacock, Dusty Sandman, and Malcolm Eckstein rocked the house.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="370" src="http://player.cinchcast.com/?show_id=5449125&platformId=1&assetType=single" width="400"></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;"><br /></div><i>Cheers!!</i><br /><br />Matt-Man<br /><br /><a href="mailto:mattmaniws@ymail.com">mattmaniws@ymail.com</a><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/MattMan_IWS" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">@mattmaniws</span></a><br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/mattmaniws" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">My Facebook Page</span></a></div>

The Beatles...Help!!

Cheeeeeeeeers Chuckleheads!!Today’s post? Well, it’s not really funny. I mean, most of the IWS posts do present a modicum of humor, but this one?Not so much.This post is, as we say in the blog and radio business, a “housekeeping” post, and well, a …

Business Loans vs. Consumer Loans (Musical Tribute)

5:15 PM Tukiyooo 0

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr909mec-1l7wYQp8JUGnuarFJome3gXTZJeCF9aemGGJ7ohTKghyphenhyphenpbVTkiZJDG2tPfsr4OaIospYfb3m1EWo94t4ntJ2Cu0xKKQpt_48jtdfXgBERGsXNP-BQt8ko_-Y6wVCm04H8Lds/s1600/Business+Loans+vs.+Consumer+Loans.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr909mec-1l7wYQp8JUGnuarFJome3gXTZJeCF9aemGGJ7ohTKghyphenhyphenpbVTkiZJDG2tPfsr4OaIospYfb3m1EWo94t4ntJ2Cu0xKKQpt_48jtdfXgBERGsXNP-BQt8ko_-Y6wVCm04H8Lds/s320/Business+Loans+vs.+Consumer+Loans.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span><br /><br />As seen in the following chart, I really don't think we're going to make it back to the top of the parabolic trend channel any time soon.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxoxnAzFWO5sZ2XVgwTVEMlYuF-pQ3RrQlDFUSGHyAkAUMatMt8n8_Pe04bl4aY1yua_PPrACpth0IJr-n14V8eWhm8ceZeYeuVam7Gx4oA3ow5p4Il7QMCRPibByXEJ76XfsWl6PSD8A/s1600/Business+Loans+vs.+Consumer+Loans+-+Growth.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxoxnAzFWO5sZ2XVgwTVEMlYuF-pQ3RrQlDFUSGHyAkAUMatMt8n8_Pe04bl4aY1yua_PPrACpth0IJr-n14V8eWhm8ceZeYeuVam7Gx4oA3ow5p4Il7QMCRPibByXEJ76XfsWl6PSD8A/s320/Business+Loans+vs.+Consumer+Loans+-+Growth.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span><br /><br />It would seem that businesses (in comparison to consumers) have just about had their fill of <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mEs">Bernanke's Free Money Spell</a>.<br /><br /><iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/1lWJXDG2i0A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br /><a href="http://www.changeyourlifespells.com/money.php">Money Spells: Cast a Free Money Spell</a><br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i>Choose this money spell to receive a large sum of money or make someone else receive a large sum of money.<br /><br /><b>Testimonials:</b><br />These are Real Spells that work for free</i></div><br />Genius! Why don't more people know about this? It's so simple, it's bound to work!<br /><br /><b>See Also:</b><br /><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2010/06/sarcasm-disclaimer.html">Sarcasm Disclaimer</a><br /><br /><b>Source Data:</b><br /><a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=mEp">St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart</a>

Business Loans vs. Consumer Loans (Musical Tribute)

Click to enlarge.As seen in the following chart, I really don't think we're going to make it back to the top of the parabolic trend channel any time soon.Click to enlarge.It would seem that businesses (in comparison to consumers) have just about had …

Purex Ultrapacks Laundry Detergent Review and Giveaway!

2:58 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PSXvGVtD3TM/Uj9k8JtVa_I/AAAAAAAAJyc/ZnSjgQSFcos/s1600/13+-+1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PSXvGVtD3TM/Uj9k8JtVa_I/AAAAAAAAJyc/ZnSjgQSFcos/s320/13+-+1" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Ah the change of the season brings all sorts of wonderful things such as hot chocolate, homecoming and Halloween! Which for parents also means stains on clothing especially if your kids play any type of sports like lacrosse, football or soccer!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>So that means a lot of dirty and stinky laundry!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Ever have socks or any other type of clothing that the dirt and grime just doesn't seem to come off no matter how many times you wash it?</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>With purex ultra packs you just toss into the washer with the clothing and let it do their magic, dirt be gone!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>No more stinky clothing from sports and all those stains have been lifted right off due to oxi!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I was sent a package of them for review for being a purex insider and I've tried other purex products before and love them! They make my clothing keep their colors from fading and smell fresh!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>What I love also about this product is that you just toss it into the washer and you don't have to pour or measure anything which we all know can result in a big mess.</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Now you can let the power of oxi and out do their magic in your washing machine as well hope you'll enter the giveaway below!</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Three winners will be selected!</i><br /><i><br /></i><i>Thank you and good luck!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><a class="rafl" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/20ee165/" id="rc-20ee165" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>\ <script src="//d12vno17mo87cx.cloudfront.net/embed/rafl/cptr.js"></script>

Purex Ultrapacks Laundry Detergent Review and Giveaway!

Ah the change of the season brings all sorts of wonderful things such as hot chocolate, homecoming and Halloween! Which for parents also means stains on clothing especially if your kids play any type of sports like lacrosse, football or soccer!So tha…

Choccreate candy Review

2:11 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Now I've done reviews for scrumptious candy bars before in the past and let me tell you I love chocolate!</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The cool thing about this company I will be reviewing today is just awesome because the cool thing is that you get to design your own candy bar!</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>You start with milk chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate and get to add all kinds of delicious ingredients on them such as nuts, candies, fruit even cereal!</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I know right pretty cool!</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>You can also order their best sellers too!</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I couldn't wait for them to arrive to bite into them and see how they tasted! Just being on <a href="http://www.choccreate.com/">Choccreate </a>website made me want to lick the screen!</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Lol but don't worry, I didn't.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I chose:</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Dark chocolate bar with: </i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JRgM3hKnCXU/Uj9avwoyXiI/AAAAAAAAJyA/m9Is7QV3Ank/s1600/13+-+3" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JRgM3hKnCXU/Uj9avwoyXiI/AAAAAAAAJyA/m9Is7QV3Ank/s320/13+-+3" width="320" /></i></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>almonds, blueberries, caramel and granola it was so delicious!</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Now I haven't tried the other two bars yet but I just know that they will be just as delicious as the first one I've tried!</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Milk chocolate bar with:</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F5M_RuLHMuE/Uj9avwEgNDI/AAAAAAAAJyI/IKQfxk1_lJE/s1600/13+-+2" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F5M_RuLHMuE/Uj9avwEgNDI/AAAAAAAAJyI/IKQfxk1_lJE/s320/13+-+2" width="320" /></i></span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>M&ms, rice crispies and marshmallows </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>White chocolate bar:</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2bqB60rrkEw/Uj9av8-eJrI/AAAAAAAAJyE/5PFPVhMixW0/s1600/13+-+1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2bqB60rrkEw/Uj9av8-eJrI/AAAAAAAAJyE/5PFPVhMixW0/s320/13+-+1" width="320" /></i></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>This one looks to pretty to eat!</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Reminds me of valentines day too!</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>It has crunchy cringles, mini marshmallows, pink m&m's and teddy Graham's!</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Links:</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Facebook:</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/ChocCreatecom/153760926740?ref=sgm">https://www.facebook.com/pages/ChocCreatecom/153760926740?ref=sgm</a></i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Website:</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.choccreate.com/">http://www.choccreate.com</a></i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Twitter:</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><a href="https://twitter.com/choccreate"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>https://twitter.com/choccreate</i></span></a></div>

Choccreate candy Review

Now I've done reviews for scrumptious candy bars before in the past and let me tell you I love chocolate!The cool thing about this company I will be reviewing today is just awesome because the cool thing is that you get to design your own candy bar!Y…

Thembelihle Primary School embraces Intel’s ‘Getting Started’ Training

2:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmI8wYltjDvjzRi-_hVKA4lIoQOVOGsUh9Y0XHho6OscI_XX3c_Y8hrDzu8Lsg5E0XcnWEpdzAKn9FCOydzDDe1x1E4IdXjaBb1zES1qmxFWjhWseLykpCCT5T4YEL6QF4i23tr3pP5JE/s1600-h/image%25255B4%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIY7Zj222JZ2dZEL-5kkAF6nHcr7BWBXjt0zT5-E838JMiWL-VsJW7-ybCOA0XHyFTDCKwetP9MRfRGAG73ky9S50tSgnyHNWUUXaawp-YynkWNnaUoMnnxwogOnCHXereMMv_ibImNzM/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="178" /></a></div><br /><em>Submitted by Hlengiwe Mfeka</em>  <br /><b><u></u></b>  <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiarbvwes76D3zCTOxbLF4Fw_s1omHzKt-i0GMRq29GViBX6QUbEWL-esT8YSv3MAB9kdx7zgt6oS2fkFaVp_lyeXr58mdh3uRk5lDPqWNaLFPSHz9d61C82LtBVqa6RqHXrrLknc8KBI/s1600-h/clip_image002%25255B3%25255D.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="clip_image002" border="0" height="114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3mq4vj4IRioFAsIYu29GyQP8I3c1K52f50JnTM3Yc7TdFggLzMzudY60papR8MZ-Uz2Jn-8AF3cy8kSTYzuIGASwyVAUZO3lyoI4Wr9GYjjx2-fLU1KF23je5YKM_PsMFOTYpRe3xPfQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image002" width="244" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thembelihle Primary School is situated in KZN Midlands, Central Howick. The School Management Team bought laptops for the staff including digital data projector per classroom. The laptops are loaded with the latest software i.e. windows 8 and Microsoft Office 2013. The training consists of nine educators from the Primary school and two educators from the Pre-Primary school. The first session started on a high note and with lots of enthusiasm as teachers were looking forward to use their laptops for the first time. The training consisted teachers with different levels of ICT skills from no skill to some extent of advanced users. It is always a challenge to accommodate both a no skill and advanced participants but manageable.  </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQLDl5IaDYt1LylWRkf44XofTes7iop_knRnurMncSDfZ7-WHZtaBetX4WUNXumGSkGwxC45nVauFXMfBRGUQoFOrCWTudfx-DOsiKvdO5M-MY3pp7hKyNBPqtRitv7Z276cTsnMTwRAE/s1600-h/clip_image003%25255B3%25255D.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="clip_image003" border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmwdIUfSbxmovwG9yTmGsR8w_ALOJAmRr1HVHtX4n2dDE7YS-sHHm0wWKDwWQiEzJ8aOmW3EyC5WhVZL7if_BBzqBoS6htzeez7H0RHB_j6WklN963M27x27h6qyuOV579IoWbXOI362k/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image003" width="244" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first module on 21 Century skills was equally enjoyed by all teachers (no skills and advanced users). It served as a motivation for the teachers to look forward to the next session. In that session teachers reflected on their classroom practices and identified gaps as they were studying or learning about 21<sup>st</sup> century skills. The training is being conducted in the afternoons for two and a half hours which is a big sacrifice on teachers’ part as they leave the school when it is almost dark with no complains - Their commitment is highly commendable. The teachers have completed ten modules out of fourteen (14) to date.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every session starts with a sharing on a success story told by teachers how they had implemented or tried out what had been learnt in the training. A remarkable development and a level of confidence is displayed on individual teachers as they progress with the training. One success story or lesson shared by one of the teachers Nicky Msebele is on how she used internet search (Module 6) with her little ones for the first time which concluded with a creation of posters and creative writing of poems which they posted on the wall. She says she had never seen them so active and paying attention until the end of the lesson – That lesson motivated her to try more ways of integrating ICT in her class - <a href="http://youtu.be/I3mqQkTZuvw">http://youtu.be/I3mqQkTZuvw</a> (Nicky explaining her lesson in a video)</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgpOgp9FnkBp6Ll66YCTk2HZ035C5TtE4jyszqc1pE71oPmKzuC77KHhPBIeOnRCd_snBKBnVbqKIQ3jgu4y_mtmHEbK-nFj_i0N02nk2VvfpONOW2X4eGX9B6RYx8ytZVRcE6sNPut3Y/s1600-h/clip_image007%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image007" border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdoD-EEOK44LrQBM38pjg_j-9MMCob8yO3bCARX7-mwdB_c21X5Y1kPgychZ1cbq1XrKcgSWxUkKoGmM-HQ-X2T3WRt0n2bZ9P6yvwXQjDvRlWsj6_2KqU2U3ycGNmklrh00nP7LRsWHQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image007" width="244" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmX_oABz5-tg-dm4PgyPJvmZ9lScXNUAmqZVv1EeniRpshd9oYz7ZvY54xyOICkp-acm8MdRDoLQrxgNkeIKhcBB0Ws7tALDmkBMBwi9IirwM8mC6luhwVDM00Lp-Bc3bUCLHnJRavJBg/s1600-h/clip_image008%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image008" border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivuOsBrVRBD-9QY7ohEyFWZ0SNqR6JvJvxgT83sDxvHzrM2HELjTzrv_5W6y5sJ0OlFa-TXStCT31hI0WzSVkK24_gvHmW_O5O-u4bkaFE9LTHCwn15YBeP2oIe2p0EM46eljwGCGC2fA/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image008" width="244" /></a>  </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In one of the sessions conducted in August teachers were pleased to finalize their class websites while the principal of the school Ms Carol Bonwell created her school teachers’ website and she is determined to upload it and start sharing documents with her teachers there.  </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the last week of schools’ closing for their ten days holidays teachers get busy with marking and schedule compilation and it is a stressful time. When the trainer arrived at the school they were all stressed having to combine all of the term’s marks per learner. However the training held at the school this week brighten their faces and brought smiles to their faces when they were introduced to Excel app which they had never used before. On the last day of the training they were assisted to create an electronic mark book where they managed to move data from their traditional mark book to an electronic one. They couldn’t believe the amount of time they spent to calculate totals for all learners – one of them said they’ve managed to do full day’s work within few minutes. This was the best session experienced because it met their immediate need at the right time – just in time learning.  </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgCIHRA9EIhk3Iu9foNOVw4qKtqsWj9S9qxOwJ8G7bfuyh8zEBR2NF6dYBiSMMlr2ocSzQkWg6MLb68pUTejqCEpJ0Q42qlw3rv3B0TMlvQmKkcNOcxKTH8hBS6jd9Zb4lOEis57u42hI/s1600-h/clip_image009%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image009" border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFsvORZESGRqSughE_J-z28RFEkXybXRwKDsQMTCOaxOkLWlvvklesQej7hbumxa-7E1t23aYotSrgkAaKQ1uufq7ZIo2yHxds9NsW6C6FTDygGVLgOgxMeSX6ARc0EDsN4O3E4u80vcY/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image009" width="244" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9F_aAP3kI7Wv_6eFvSz7XkQalu1VcAcKSb7GfZ5wrrZLP1gblHzIBsj1epHh2AObK7ngTO5H1geSbz3KW-umX5_DWB-CmArBnSKdKLehafG8U2DiBNkTt9CQrZHxnq86gnCfRaVfpa0/s1600-h/clip_image010%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img alt="clip_image010" border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy8C2bIgrigAEZw3ZHMQEG0DeC03MI_orpllpkhDpP-LjqHfA5Q4bebztTY9iTi_qbHL-ZSYkADoAOYaJb8mGpo-MRg1uTjhvXbMz5YI4AvXxCQRtUrzOx4PZbujiwUTTFvUQUh1jdm4g/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image010" width="244" /></a></span>  <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>

Intel Thembelihle Primary School embraces Intel’s ‘Getting Started’ Training

Submitted by Hlengiwe Mfeka Thembelihle Primary School is situated in KZN Midlands, Central Howick. The School Management Team bought laptops for the staff including digital data projector per classroom. The laptops are loaded with the latest soft…

UK AND FRANCE ABOUT TO INK NEW DEFENCE PACT?

1:59 PM Tukiyooo 0

<br /> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-226uEkhQdmnPi35LFW7ixRSXYINhALSfTugmziN6Hy6IvaNMSD9Y5ZSvxXLWf-MXtKvYsESfuo44EGoUaX50Hn4TsXJfxksjAWItcGudn7RrEZSPUAGDX5ejm1Uoxm0t859eM8bWlJr/s1600/france-england.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-226uEkhQdmnPi35LFW7ixRSXYINhALSfTugmziN6Hy6IvaNMSD9Y5ZSvxXLWf-MXtKvYsESfuo44EGoUaX50Hn4TsXJfxksjAWItcGudn7RrEZSPUAGDX5ejm1Uoxm0t859eM8bWlJr/s320/france-england.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">CREATION OF FRENCH BRITISH JOINT EXPEDITIONARY FORCE (</span></b></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">CJEF)</span></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><br /></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BRITAIN is forging ahead on military co-operation with FRANCE, while warning about EU “interference” on defence.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BRITAIN AND FRANCE ARE THE EU’S LEADING MILITARY POWERS</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They spent €92 billion on defence last year (more than GERMANY, ITALY, the NETHERLANDS, POLAND and SPAIN put together), according to SWEDISH NGO Sipri. They are also the most hawkish. They took the lead in wars in LIBYA and MALI and they were keen to join US strikes on SYRIA.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“As shown from our joint operations in LIBYA and MALI, the UK and FRANCE are natural partners and have a key role to play in leading and shaping the defence and security of EUROPE,” a BRITISH defence ministry spokesman told EUobserver.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">SOME BRITISH NAVAL OFFICERS SERVE FULL TIME ON FRENCH AIRCRAFT CARRIER CHARLES DE GAULLE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In line with the 2010 Lancaster House Treaties, the BRITISH and FRENCH army, navy and air force regularly train together and some BRITISH officers serve full time on the FRENCH aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They are “on track” to create a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Combined Joint Expeditionary Force</b> (CJEF) with FRANCE by 2016 and they plan to test the CJEF’s air component next month in an operation called <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Exercise Joint Venture</b>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For its part, the EU also has “battlegroups,” or rapid reaction battalions put together by two or three states. But they have never seen action. The EUROPEAN UNION is aiming to agree on joint procurement of some military hardware at a defence summit in December. But here, FRANCE and the UK are also streets ahead.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They are already building a “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Future Combat Air System</b>,” due in 2030, with manufacturers to send in proposals this month.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">UNITED KINGDOM’S PREFERENCE OF BILATERAL COOPERATION OVER EU – LEVEL ACTION</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6QtNG0A4w_0s-krX5sJvBjQIg9HfP6Ah69V9dS9uqXtxIjI0VFVOaA9nf9mdt3E7LBQkmVE3OLShJqy4NbrOAN-YHJvutYZCPgiVE6FvfTLLy87ZfMt-29rSpA6fEG-6M1y1ojFT_drBW/s1600/fui_over.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6QtNG0A4w_0s-krX5sJvBjQIg9HfP6Ah69V9dS9uqXtxIjI0VFVOaA9nf9mdt3E7LBQkmVE3OLShJqy4NbrOAN-YHJvutYZCPgiVE6FvfTLLy87ZfMt-29rSpA6fEG-6M1y1ojFT_drBW/s400/fui_over.gif" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Our defence co-operation has grown both in importance and scope since then [the 2010 treaties],” the BRITISH spokesman said. He declined to say whether BRITAIN favours bilateral co-operation over EU-level action.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The UK’s official line is that BRITISH-FRENCH military integration will help to win wars whether they fight them together or as part of EU or NATO structures.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some FRENCH officers are more outspoken, however.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Colonel Michel Goya, a teacher at the Institut de Recherche Strategique de l’Ecole Militaire in Paris, told EUobserver at the time of the Mali conflict: “If you have to react quickly to events, it’s better to do it at a national or bi-national level.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Meanwhile, with BRITAIN to potentially quit the EU in a referendum in 2017, it is hard to imagine that it will endorse a far-reaching military deal at the EU’s December summit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">British defence minister Philip Hammond criticised <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2013:0542:FIN:EN:PDF"><span style="color: blue;">the EUROPEAN Commission’s ideas on defence reforms</span></a> earlier this month. Speaking to arms firms at an event in London, he said he backs the commission on “improving competition in the [EU] internal defence market, and supporting SMEs.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BRITAIN WILL CAREFUL MONITOR POTENTIAL INTERFERENCE FROM BRUSSELS ON DEFENCE EQUIPMENT EXPORT RESTRICTIONS</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjea2UeLjVk85nG8DajGAT4V4Iygi9re2Qk8IbL_ElkCOwFAGbG0L8vuuUtcZaqZPah9SjTCwR6TtOSlslFk46s-9xccQ2yOIA_l9wdigcNSr0s26kHUKUX9-4ZlirLqxEpujZXD8D6xLmR/s1600/article-1325863-0BDE5969000005DC-496_306x943.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjea2UeLjVk85nG8DajGAT4V4Iygi9re2Qk8IbL_ElkCOwFAGbG0L8vuuUtcZaqZPah9SjTCwR6TtOSlslFk46s-9xccQ2yOIA_l9wdigcNSr0s26kHUKUX9-4ZlirLqxEpujZXD8D6xLmR/s400/article-1325863-0BDE5969000005DC-496_306x943.jpg" width="127" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But he added: “Interference in the export of defence equipment and government-to-government defence sales; or the creation of … ‘specific EUROPEAN standards for military products’ represent a significant potential extension of the commission’s role and are not necessarily in the UK defence industry’s best interests – and we will resist them.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He promised to keep “a very careful eye on potential interference from Brussels” and to “protect” firms from EU “bureaucratic burdens.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">FRANCE aside, Hammond also asked: “Should BRITISH industry, in fact, be looking across the Atlantic, to our closest ally, for our future industrial partnerships?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A failed merger last year shows the limits of EU fellowship when it comes to jobs and national politics. The UK, FRANCE and GERMANY in 2012 came within a hair’s breadth of merging the UK’s BAE Systems with FRANCO-GERMAN firm Eads to create a EUROPEAN military-industrial giant. But GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel blocked the deal, in part because FRANCE declined to locate the new HQ in GERMANY.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">According to the Carnegie Endowment foundation the bottom line was that Merkel feared losing GERMAN defence jobs in the run-up to GERMAN elections.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Amid BRITAIN’S euroscepticism GERMANY seems also a spoiler on EU defence. Of all the more recent GERMAN Chancellors, Angela Merkel is probably the one with the least interest in defence and security policy. Having no security strategy of its own, GERMANY has discouraged the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton from drawing up a new security strategy for EUROPE which defeats any attempts within NATO or the EU to pool and share military resources in order to face ever-growing financial pressure.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Source: EUObserver</span></div>

UK AND FRANCE ABOUT TO INK NEW DEFENCE PACT?

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