#nonmember human

[lunarcovehq]

Daphne Bishop is a human that currently resides in Celestial Hills and has been a Lunar Cove resident for one day, searching for her undead sister who doesn't want to be found.

ITS THE END OF THE WORLD

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cis Female, She/Her

DATE OF BIRTH: October 25, 1994

OCCUPATION: Unemployed model

FACECLAIM: Phoebe Tonkin

AS WE KNOW IT, AND I FEEL FINE

SPECIES: Human

COALITION POSITION: Nonmember

WELCOME TO LUNAR COVE, DAPHNE BISHOP

Trigger Warnings: Bad Parenting, Death, Murder, Violence, Divorce, Sexism

“At least she is pretty.” The phrase was so common that Daphne had internalized long before she understood how a backhanded compliment could sting. She was a dreamer as a young girl, a bright fire of passion and hope born with a silver spoon to eat her bladed compliments off of and cashmere to wrap her soft heart in until time would harden the softest parts of her. Daphne learned early that life took without permission and that the bright sunshine of those around her would create a shadow in where she could take her beauty and all her developing sharp edges that were considered less than beautiful and find comfort. Despite being told she had a sharp tongue and that her wit was unsavory Daphne was able to adapt and easily maneuvered her way through a variety of different groups.She was a social chameleon wearing whatever personality suited her at the time. However, rumors did spread- she was passionate, and had a strong sense of what she viewed a justice. In the socially acceptable circles of the opulent elite this fire was seen as defiant behavior, unsavory the sort of girl who could rock the boat  In some ways Daphne wanted to change the world for the better, she thought she could make an impact. The rumors were wild- The eldest Bishop girl stole a racehorse set for termination. What happened to that senator? His affair was exposed and his wife left him- how’d anyone find out? The Bishop girl leaked some blurry camera photos. How gauche does she not know her place in this world? Sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, meddling in things that have nothing to do with her? She’ll never learn. Maybe so, but they could never prove she did anything she was accused of which was how it was meant to be. 

Maybe it was the family money, maybe it was her ability to charm nearly anyone, or that she was just pretty to look at with her round expressive eyes and coquettish pout, but Daphne was able to maneuver around the rumors only catching fall out behind closed doors. She spent her time crafting her skills- her beauty. She knew she was never going to get scholarships based on her grades and if she wanted to get the hell out of Darien was going to have to take this pretty girl schtich as far as it would. A beauty pageant queen smiling on stage, performing talents like ballet, flower arranging, poetry, and one unfortunate baton twirling incident that in hindsight could have gone far worse. She was a natural, played a crowd like an instrument, and made a name for herself in the community as the Beauty Queen was impossible to beat. On her way to Miss Teen USA Daphne had amassed several titles that came with their varied awards. She was looking towards her exit as it neared. 

However, things went terribly amiss when she was banned from further participation after she and another contestant had got into a fight when she overheard the girl spreading a particularly nasty rumor and bragging about stealing her crown. Daphne said she could have it but she’d be accepting it with a black eye. When Daphne didn’t take the stage rumors ran wild- drug problem, teen pregnancy, illiteracy! She burdened them all and took the disappointment from her parents without much fight but all the while she was looking for an escape route. Daphne barely graduated high school and with no plans for college, she was sure she would be stuck in Darien forever. Working the same jobs as her parents, walking the same path where she was simply unwanted. 

However, a few weeks into eighteen her ticket out showed up with a smile and charm and Daphne let him whisk her away. He put a ring on her finger and the two eloped in Vegas. She liked him, he was fun- maybe that was good enough. She was thankful he got her out of Darien, but in the end, he had a gambling problem and Daphne was never contented with accepting less than she deserved. At barely nineteen she left the man who had gotten her out of Gritch-hiked to Los Angeles where she took a job waitressing at a celebrity hot spot bar where she was scouted with beer spilled on her shirt and her hair piled in an unbrushed knot on the top of her head. Daphne took the offer; after all at least she was pretty. 

Modeling opened so many doors and came with a host of problems. Living with a bunch of girls all vying for the same big break was a different kind of hell that tested her patience daily. Daphne stayed out as much as she could surfing from lover to lover finding something to love about each of them. Maybe if she had worked a little harder she would have found success sooner but Daphne had too much fun stepping into a scene once close to her. Backstage at concerts, after parties with actors and other people, she likely would have never met waitressing, or if she had they wouldn’t have taken her seriously. 

It was then at twenty-one Daphne met her second husband, a Hollywood photographer who made her his muse and pushed her into Stardom. She was suddenly flown to Fashion Week Paris and was not long after gracing the cover of Vogue. However, her crumbling second marriage was even more fuel for the fire under her name as her photographer husband seemed to struggle with jealousy and it wasn’t long until they were divorced and Daphne was playing muse to fashion house Iris Van Herpen.  She loved this world, she loved the other models, the artsy types and dreamers who introduced her to a world she devoured piece by piece. 

Life was charmed and she felt like she belonged and by the time she was twenty-five years old Daphne had thought she found her place in the world. She belonged in this eclectic and fast-moving world, thrived in it, and couldn’t imagine anything better. Until she met her third husband and perhaps the only one she ever loved more than she loved herself. A man from a family with massive generational wealth and heavy political ties he was a caliber above everyone else she had ever dated and as a result, she was seen as not good enough for him. The relationship was quite the scandal- no more scandalous than their wedding that was featured in Vogue magazine. An intimate that was by far the dreamiest thing Daphne had ever been a part of- her vows were a poem she wrote and read for him, meaning every word. She didn’t let the gossip stop her from loving her husband. They seemed the odd pair, her eclectic taste and unpredictable antics compared to his grace and opulent charm didn’t sound like it would work, but they were madly in love. Burning bright and hot. However, that was the thing about fiery relationships they tend to burn out faster than the rest. 

The marriage hit rocky times when a fellow model found herself involved in shady situations and rather than minding her business Daphne inserted herself searching for justice and in turn putting herself in compromised situations. A habit she had gotten herself into and did not seem to sway away from despite how it worried her husband. She wanted to assure him, bring him peace but there was so much injustice in the world she had made her own, voices smothered out and Daphne had quickly made a reputation for herself as a woman who blazed trails and shook things up unapologetically. Things were tough, but when Daphne was given the gut-wrenching news that her little sister had been likely murdered her entire life fell apart. The answers she got were not enough, something was not right. There was no body and if there was no body Daphne could not believe it. Month by month things unraveled and the rumors of divorce became more and more prevalent as Daphne became more distant and consumed by her sister’s death. The marriage was over the day she left the signed papers bedside and left the city behind to chase down answers to what had happened to her sister. The police knew nothing so Daphne hired a private detective and before she knew it she was renting a place in a town she never would have considered before her sister’s death. 

[lesbiancorvoattano]

i hate how the online left has turned Community into an infallible good or inherently progressive. communities can and often do produce oppressive conditions. some communities shun queer members, force women and girls into marriages, shun victims of rape for speaking out, enact violence against subjugated nonmembers of the community (lynchings in the us and pogroms in europe).

the logic probably goes "modern capitalist society is making it harder to make and form communities with others, therefore community is inherently good and leftist". this is a fallacy.

that's not to say that desiring community or forming community with others is bad, it's human nature to want connection with other people. but your community of city dwelling left wing queer people is very dissimilar to what most communities, past and present, look like

[demigodofhoolemere]

Being LDS on this website that’s obsessed with finding fault in different groups of people means you’re subjected — semi-frequently, at complete random, and by random blogs so you can’t follow a pattern back to one person to unfollow — to posts that are like

“Mormonism is a cult because-" *insert a) something the church doesn’t teach, b) a claim about how the church is controlling and forces its members to do things they don’t make you do, like cut off contact with nonmembers or something similarly crazy, or c) completely innocuous thing that’s completely normal for any religion to ask of its adherents*

“Mormons are crazy because-" *insert a) something that has literally never been taught as doctrine ever that was either made up about us or spread by weird members in the past who didn’t know what they were talking about and people held onto that instead of listening to corrections regarding it, or b) something taken wildly out of context or worded in a way to purposefully make it sound nuts and which makes way more sense if you’d actually bother to listen to someone try to explain it*

“Exmo here, yeah the church is horrible because-" *insert a) personal experience with individuals doing xyz that is certainly unfortunate but has nothing to do with the church as a whole or its doctrine, or b) wild claims that you KNOW this person is lying about because you literally grew up in the same faith as they did and were taught the same things and you know they’re spouting some serious garbage about what we supposedly believe but of course everyone is going to trust the person who talks like a cult survivor so there’s nothing you can do about it*

And you sit there having to either ignore it (DIFFICULT) or find the courage to message the person who reblogged it to gently explain why the post is wrong (does not go well half the time).

No, the church does not fit the BITE model for a cult (literally the only few parts of the list you could say it matches are the few that are true of literally any religion and do not scream ‘cult’). No, you do not need a lawyer to get your records removed, anyone offering those services is scamming you for money because you can literally just ask your local leaders to have it done. No, we do not genuinely believe that insane Bigfoot Cain folk story or anything else like it. And frankly, sometimes people who leave just lie. That happens. It does not make me brainwashed to say that someone who left the church and is spreading obvious crap about things we don’t really teach or believe is indeed lying and it’s frustrating to no end that the automatic reaction from so many people is that you must be the crazy one, meanwhile you’re sitting there being gaslit about your own beliefs as they go ‘Mormons teach/believe xyz’ ‘no we don’t’ ‘yes you do’ ‘we literally don’t though’ ‘shut up you’re just brainwashed’ ‘????’. Have you ever seen a divorced person spread bad rumors about their ex that are not true? Yeah.

(And before anyone goes, ‘Hey, she’s trying to invalidate the stories of people who left, that’s clearly a cultist!’, I’m referring strictly to people who make false claims about what we teach that can be easily verified as false. There are bitter people out there who do that. I’m all for listening to people who have had bad experiences with other members in the church, absolutely nothing but sympathy and love towards those who have genuinely been hurt in one way or another, and yes there are cultural things especially in Utah that have needed or still do need shifting. But as always, the same is true of literally any religion or just any group of human beings in general because a lot of the time human beings kind of suck. The church isn’t special for this. It’s just as filled with flawed people who need to repent as any other group of people on the planet and that’s no secret. There’s a reason we’re always encouraged by our leaders to continue to become better and to try to be more Christlike than we often are, and the vast majority of members are absolutely trying to live by that and it’s not fair to judge those millions of people by the ones who don’t behave as they should. You can believe the stories of people who have had bad experiences without making out 16 million other people to be horrible. Everything would be a cult if the qualification for that was to have some bad apples in your midst.)

It doesn’t take much to look at different sources to see if there’s another side to a story or another explanation for something that sounds weird. You don’t even have to look through church websites for it, you can literally just ask members if you know any. In fact PLEASE just ask us because I lose my mind a little more every time I see someone just looking at sources that are total confirmation biases against us. Ask faithful, practicing members if they’re really forced to do xyz or ask them to explain something weird you heard. We’re not exactly secretive or shy about explaining our beliefs (hence the missionaries lol), we’ll do it. Heck, I’ve got anxiety through the roof about answering questions because I’m scared I’ll word something poorly but even I will still do it, I’d rather face my fears and respond imperfectly than let someone go around thinking something that’s not true. As long as you’re asking genuinely out of curiosity to hear our perspective and not trying to just poke at our faith and be a jerk, you’ll get people who are willing to answer you and have a reasonable discussion without trying to convert you or something.

Aaaanyway. If you couldn’t tell, I’ve now seen two different posts from two different people today being negative about my faith, so. I’m tired. If you’re so inclined please pray for my ability to feel close to Christ, have love for people I disagree with, and be patient with nonsense lol. Goodness knows I need help with that sometimes. Especially right now since I apparently had enough frustration in me to write this whole thing lol.

[shnowyfox]

"My stupid alien brother touches orbees for the first time"

(Grapes?)

"W-wait, Knuckles, no!"

(The face is a reference to jnj's subscriber specials)

¡muy bien! Right, and now read another passage in Spanish

¿Eh? No, lo se..

Doesn't matter, read it.

Uh.. sí

¿De donde vienen los bebés?

Great! Say that one to donut lord, he'll be super impressed!

¿Señor de los donuts?

Ah, ¿sí?

¿De donde vienen los bebés?

...

...

(Has to stand in the corner for his crimes)

MY BROTHER UNBUDDIED ME ON ANIMAL JAM

Unbuddied my brother because he's a nonmember again

He always plays as the medic apprentice in my warriors roleplays

The human realm has HRT!

I've been following the ways of unarmed combat for so long...

*cocks gun*

THIS will help protect my family!

*SNIFF* what if your old mom killed my old mom

What if they killed each other?

(Orphan since before he can remember)

*furry despair*

(Maybe if I mop it up I'll get ice cream for dinner because I'm so helpful)

-

It's called "angry birds"

-

L...-larp...? Is that how you say that?

-

(knuckes)

I just got diagnosed with cool guy disorder ha-hah~

And now I take Adderall ha-hah /ref

[moonshincs]

trigger warning :  death / harm to others + self / drugs / blood.

GENERAL DETAILS.  

BIRTH NAME:    Anna Hyde AGE:   30 DATE OF BIRTH:  April 6, 1993 ETHNICITY:   English-British GENDER:   Cis Woman  PRONOUNS:  She / Her  SEXUAL ORIENTATION:  homosexual, biromantic OCCUPATION:   dealer of drugs & vampire blood SPOKEN LANGUAGES:   English, french, bits of dutch, german and spanish. SPECIES:  Witch COVEN POSITION:  Nonmember ABILITIES:  Catoptromancy, Technological Manipulation, Fire Manipulation

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE, ETC. 

FACECLAIM:  Jodie Comer HAIR COLOR AND STYLE:   A little longer than shoulder length, blonde EYE COLOR:   Hazel  HEIGHT:   5FT3 / 173 CM WEIGHT:   58kg  BODY AND BUILD:  Short, she denies this, svelte. TATTOOS:   None PIERCINGS:   Ears only. SIGNATURE SCENT:   viktor&rolf bonbon. (mandarin, orange & blackcurrant, peach, jasmine & orange blossom, cedarwood, guaiac wood & caramel.) 

PERSONALITY.  

POSITIVE TRAITS:   extroverted, outgoing, observant, confident, studious, intelligent  NEGATIVE TRAITS:   blunt, sarcastic, paranoid, self centered  LIKES:   travel, learning languages, fruity cocktails, sweet foods, colour yellow, autumn.  DISLIKES:    being alone, snow, bitter tasting food or drinks, studying without music  GOALS AND AMBITIONS:   her life has mostly been about survival, anna would like to travel more of the world and experience it rather than feel like she’s running through it.  BEVERAGE:   pumpkin spice latte or toffee latte, extravagant cocktails FOOD:    millionaires shortbread, crème brulee, sweet crepes, french toast 

FAMILY, RELATIONSHIPS, ETC.  MOTHER:   Meave Hyde - no contact   FATHER:   Nathan O'Connor - no relationship / don't know of each others existence.  SIGNIFICANT OTHER:    None currently. EXES:   Open  SIBLING(S):  WC. CHILDREN:    none. 

BACKGROUND. 

Anna Elizabeth Hyde was born to a human named Nathan O’Connor and a witch named Meave Hyde. Her parents had a very unstable relationship before Anna was born, if you can even class it as a relationship. Nathan was married already with a child of his own, and Anna was the product of an on again/off again affair. When Meave fell pregnant she knew she couldn’t tell Nathan, after all he didn’t know about the existence of witches. Nathan never knew of Anna’s existence and Anna never knew anything about who her father was.

At around one year old Meave gave Anna to another witch named Isabella to raise her. Although Meave was still in the picture she was a cold and bitter woman who never wanted the child and was far more obsessed with power and used dark magic in wicked and cruel ways for her own selfish gain.

Anna thought of Isabella as an aunt, and grew up confused by why her mother never showed her any love or attention. Most of Anna’s magic was taught to her by Isabella in the early years, and as Isabella practised dark magic too, so did Anna. However, Anna hated the rituals that caused harm to others, and when she was entering early teenhood she took it upon herself to abstain from dark magic and practise light magic only. From then Anna taught herself everything she knows, from communicating through mirrors to manipulating fire and technology.

In her late teens Anna parted ways, travelling across the UK and exploring Europe, but unfortunately hunters were seeking out witches in many of the places she visited and she knew that it wasn’t safe for her to be alone.

Although Anna is very independent, she found family with a couple of fae - the Selvi sisters. She worked with them often, making a living through crime, but Anna’s main source of income became drug dealing. Nothing too out there, she kept it all very low key until coming to Lunar Cove where she sought out Aaliyah Rose with her connection to the black market so Anna could up her game and increase her income. 

Now, Anna is building her connections in town with the vampires, selling blood as well as drugs. So if you’re looking for something to satiate your blood lust or simply looking for something to mellow you out or pick you up, Anna is the one to go to.

Other links: Here

gif credit : here and here

[democracyinternational]

Growing the Movement: Supporting Democratic Change through Coalition Building

By: AJ Acacio, Technical Specialist - Social and Behavioral Science

In the first part of this blog series, we explored how to begin mobilizing collective action to promote democratic change. We identified barriers to participation, offered strategies to recruit sympathizers and bystanders, and discussed tactics to avoid. History tells us, though, that eliciting buy-in from a small number of actors is rarely sufficient. Organizers must also build and grow their movement, as research suggests that civil society organizations (CSOs) and other groups are more effective when they forge diverse coalitions. It is also often the case that a critical number of participants need to be engaged before a movement can bring about significant change. However, pulling together individuals and groups, who often have different incentives and diverging viewpoints, is easier said than done. So how do we go about this challenge? Evidence from the field of social and behavioral science (SBS) offers some insights.

1. Define common goals

For coalitions to grow, members need to unite toward common goals. Such goals may be broad, such as influencing climate policy or supporting women’s rights, or they can be more specific, such as reducing carbon emissions or fighting against gender-based violence. In any case, coalitions must define a clear vision and mission statement. Mobilizers can do this through candid conversations in which all members share their individual priorities before having the group identify a unifying shared interest. A study conducted in the Netherlands, for example, revealed that social movements are more likely to grow if goals are collective (e.g., reducing gas extraction) rather than individual (e.g., receiving financial compensation). Once they agree upon a goal, movement organizers should codify it into a mission statement. This helps build coalitions by clarifying to members why they should remain committed to the group and allowing prospective members to easily see if the group’s viewpoints align with their own.

There are many ways that democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG) practitioners can support mobilizers in defining common goals, from providing physical spaces to hold meetings and operating online forums for communications to conducting research to uncover shared interests and undertaking political economy analyses to identify common objectives.

2. Maintain shared identity

Coalitions are most successful when members feel a sense of unity. One way to achieve this is by forging and maintaining a shared identity. In a classic study in psychology, researchers found that identifying clear groupings can increase members’ cooperation with, and helping behaviors toward, their in-group. Coalition builders can leverage this effect to encourage buy-in both from current members and future ones. If coalitions communicate that a shared ideology, nationality, or another grouping unites everyone, then current members will be more likely to devote time and resources toward the common goal. Moreover, nonmembers may feel motivated to join to achieve a positive social identity. By leveraging this intrinsic human need to belong, mobilizers and their supporters and advisers can build and grow resilient coalitions.

With that said, leveraging a shared identity must be approached with care. Although identity politics is much to thank for the success of initiatives such as the Black feminist movement in the United States, critics call the strategy counterproductive and suggest it encourages violence. Regardless of intention, using shared identities often draws criticism due to perceptions of exclusivity and hostility. Movements should therefore strike a balance between maintaining a strong identity and not alienating nonmembers, keeping in mind that the most effective identities revolve around shared perspectives on key issues rather than gender, ethnicity, or other demographic divides.

3. Seek diverse allies

While common goals and shared identities form the bedrock of strong coalitions, the most effective movements are those that engage diverse actors, including those who hold what at first may seem like irreconcilable differences in identities or viewpoints. Bedfellows, broadly defined, refers to actors with a shared objective, regardless of a rocky history or vast differences in the motivations for the shared objective. For instance, despite diverging ideologies, Islamist women’s movements and Turkish LGBT groups have successfully allied together to campaign for broader civil liberties. Engaging bedfellows can build and grow coalitions because it increases the number of potential partnerships, forges connections between groups that may initially seem likely to be hostile toward one another and shifts the focus toward accomplishing specific objectives instead of forming ideology-based groupings. This is crucial not just for a coalition’s resilience but also for its agency and efficacy.

4. Build clear rules of membership

Once mobilizers identify goals and potential actors, it is essential for nascent coalitions to define clear rules for membership. For coalitions to be sustainable, members need to agree not just on what the central objective is but also on who is part of each conversation, how new members can join, and what the rules and expectations are for each actor. Coalitions must contend with questions such as: Who is eligible for membership? Is there a formal registration process? What are the expectations we have for all members? These are often difficult questions, but such reflection is crucial to ensure that coalitions are cohesive and that individual members know what their responsibilities to the movement are.  Indeed, the literature suggests that instituting formalized rules of membership results in more stable coalitions and that having a constitution that governs expected behaviors can be useful. In multiparty states, for example, formal coalition agreements allow parliaments to avoid stalemate and pass laws by coordinating support among parties. Labor unions also maintain their effectiveness through both formal and informal rules that punish those who cross the picket line during a strike. Such agreements ensure that members acting against a coalition’s interest are met with political, social, or personal consequences. Here, DRG practitioners can work with movement organizers to define streamlined processes for joining, clarify member expectations, codify rules in written constitutions, and encourage cooperation among actors.

5. Establish clear decision-making mechanisms

A key tenet of any SBS-informed approach to development is that the focus should be on observable behaviors and actions. In this context, this means that it is not enough to have strong coalitions; such coalitions must also be capable of swiftly making decisions and galvanizing members toward collective action. For this to happen, establishing clear mechanisms is crucial. Coalitions inherently consist of actors with diverging interests, so it is critical to ask how they can make a decision for the entire group.

For maximum representation, coalitions might decide based on unanimity, in which all actors must agree before they pursue a specific collective action. This is useful in high-stakes decisions, such as joining a protest or signing an agreement. For lower-stakes situations, such as selecting a group logo or setting a meeting time, coalitions might consider faster decision-making processes such as one based on consensus, a system that considers all voices but follows a mutually acceptable course of action. And for time-sensitive matters such as deciding how to respond to a threat, coalitions may agree to appoint trusted leaders to decide unilaterally based on their assessment of what is best for the group’s interest. In sum, to ensure that coalitions can drive collective action, mobilizers are well advised to pre-define how each type of decision will be made and by whom. This can avoid decision paralysis and ensure that coalitions are prepared to respond to the evolving needs of their members and the movements they represent.

Clearly, much thought is needed when building and growing coalitions. Any collective action that seeks to join diverse actors across ethnic, geographic, ideological, and other divides is a challenging task, yet one that is worth pursuing in the interest of empowering people to take charge of their own destinies. While the tips we offer here are not exhaustive and may not apply to every context, we lay them out in the hopes of starting a conversation about evidence-based approaches to movement building. It is only by exploring these approaches that mobilizers and development practitioners can move the needle when it comes to driving collective action and promoting democracy, human rights, and good governance in all corners of the world.

Stay tuned for the final part of this blog series, where we discuss how to maintain and sustain movements.

[genocidepreventionday]

Ratifications of the convention on prevention and Punishment of the crime of genocide, 1948-2018.

The Contracting Parties,

Having considered the declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 96 (I) dated 11 December 1946 that genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world,

Recognizing that at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity, and

Being convinced that, in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge, international co-operation is required,

Hereby agree as hereinafter provided: 

Article I: The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish. 

Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 

Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide. 

Article IV: Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

Article V: The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention, and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III. 

Article VI: Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.

Article VII: Genocide and the other acts enumerated in article III shall not be considered as political crimes for the purpose of extradition.

The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force. 

Article VIII: Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III. 

Article IX: Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute. 

Article X: The present Convention, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall bear the date of 9 December 1948. 

Article XI: The present Convention shall be open until 31 December 1949 for signature on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any nonmember State to which an invitation to sign has been addressed by the General Assembly.

The present Convention shall be ratified, and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

After 1 January 1950, the present Convention may be acceded to on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State which has received an invitation as aforesaid. Instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. 

Article XII: Any Contracting Party may at any time, by notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, extend the application of the present Convention to all or any of the territories for the conduct of whose foreign relations that Contracting Party is responsible. 

Article XIII: On the day when the first twenty instruments of ratification or accession have been deposited, the Secretary-General shall draw up a proces-verbal and transmit a copy thereof to each Member of the United Nations and to each of the non-member States contemplated in article XI.

The present Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day following the date of deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession.

Any ratification or accession effected, subsequent to the latter date shall become effective on the ninetieth day following the deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession. 

Article XIV: The present Convention shall remain in effect for a period of ten years as from the date of its coming into force.

It shall thereafter remain in force for successive periods of five years for such Contracting Parties as have not denounced it at least six months before the expiration of the current period.

Denunciation shall be effected by a written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. 

Article XV: If, as a result of denunciations, the number of Parties to the present Convention should become less than sixteen, the Convention shall cease to be in force as from the date on which the last of these denunciations shall become effective. 

Article XVI: A request for the revision of the present Convention may be made at any time by any Contracting Party by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Secretary-General.

The General Assembly shall decide upon the steps, if any, to be taken in respect of such request. 

Article XVII: The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall notify all Members of the United Nations and the non-member States contemplated in article XI of the following:

(a) Signatures, ratifications and accessions received in accordance with article XI; (b) Notifications received in accordance with article XII; (c) The date upon which the present Convention comes into force in accordance with article XIII; (d) Denunciations received in accordance with article XIV; (e) The abrogation of the Convention in accordance with article XV; (f) Notifications received in accordance with article XVI. 

Article XVIII: The original of the present Convention shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations.

A certified copy of the Convention shall be transmitted to each Member of the United Nations and to each of the non-member States contemplated in article XI. 

Article XIX: The present Convention shall be registered by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the date of its coming into force.

[zititta]

Scuttlebutt restaurant daytona beach

#Scuttlebutt restaurant daytona beach professional#

#Scuttlebutt restaurant daytona beach series#

Awful, tough, no taste but hot! Never again.one bite and done, was not going back to. Must have been sitting there days, waiting for a sucker to come by and order it. Had some chicken tots which were pretty good. Information: 38.Ordered for delivery during the lockdown. SOUTHEAST VOLUSIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Installation and awards banquet, 6-9 p.m., Sugar Mill Country Club, 100 Club House Circle, New Smyrna Beach. Information: 38.įLAGLER COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & AFFILIATES: Think Flagler First luncheon, noon to 1:30 p.m., Pine Lakes at the Grand Club, 400 Pine Lakes Parkway, Palm Coast. Speaker and topic: Joe Coury, Joe Coury Effective Strategies, “It All Starts with You.” Members attend free, future members, $10. Information: 38 or ORANGE SOUTH DAYTONA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Soup to Nuts power lunch, noon, Riverside Pavilion, 3431 Ridgewood Ave., Port Orange. Margaret Smith and Republican Executive Committee of Volusia President Tony Ledbetter. Speakers: Volusia County Schools Superintendent Dr. The public is invited to attend.ĭAYTONA REGIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Eggs & Issues, 7:45-9 a.m., LPGA International, 1000 Champions Drive, Daytona Beach. HALIFAX AREA ADVERTISING AUTHORITY: Advertising Advisory Committee meeting, CVB office, second-floor boardroom, 126 East Orange Ave., Daytona Beach. Registration: ĬITY OF DELTONA: Business Forum, 8:30-11:30 a.m., commission chambers at City Hall, 2345 Providence Blvd. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, Bldg. SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER/SCORE: Ensuring Financial Success for Your Business at Daytona State College, 1200 W.

#Scuttlebutt restaurant daytona beach series#

Gale Lemerand is the founder of the Entrepreneurial Speaker Series at Daytona State College and the speakers at the event are EJ Carrion and Michael Simmons, both best-selling authors on entrepreneurship. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, 9-11:30 a.m. GALE LEMERAND CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Extreme Entrepreneurship tour at Mori Hosseini Center at Daytona State College, 1200 W. Information: 38 or 38.ĮXECUTIVE ASSOCIATION OF DAYTONA BEACH: Breakfast meeting and exchange of business leads, 7:15 a.m., Halifax River Yacht Club, 331 S. RSVP: HILL AND ORMOND BEACH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE: Joint Business after hour, 5-7 p.m., Iron Horse, 1068 N. Speaker: Randy Berridge, president of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. ORMOND BEACH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Economic Power Hour, 8-9 a.m., Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center, 301 Memorial Medical Parkway, First Floor, Classroom A. Bring lunch or pay $8 for soup and salad buffet. PORT ORANGE SOUTH DAYTONA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Business Women’s Council, 11:45 a.m., Riverside Pavilion, 3431 Ridgewood Ave., Port Orange. Topic: “Diversity and Inclusion - Phenomenological and Strategic Social Architecting.” Certified for one general HRCI credit. SOCIETY FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, VOLUSIA/FLAGLER CHAPTER: Workshop, 7:45-9 a.m., Daytona Beach International Airport, 700 Catalina Drive, Daytona Beach. RSVP: or BEACH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: VCARD’s Autumn Happy Hour, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., ScuttleButtS Pub Restaurant, 114 S. Lunch included, $18 for students, $20 for FPRA members and $25 for nonmembers. Munroe, director of public relations for the Walt Disney World Resort. VOLUSIA/FLAGLER CHAPTER OF THE FLORIDA PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSOCIATION (FPRA): Meeting, 11:30 a.m., LPGA International, 1000 Champions Drive, Daytona Beach. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach. VMA MANUFACTURING ALLIANCE: Manufacturing Excellence Division presents “Structured Problem Solving Tools,” 7:45 a.m. To register, visit /eventregistration.asp?id=342. Registration begins at 7:45 a.m., lunch is included. International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach, from 8 a.m. 11 to MANUFACTURING ALLIANCE: Full-day workshop on Developing Critical Thinking Skills to Solve Problems, Daytona State College, Building 110, Room 112, 1200 W. Cathy Kirkham, national sales director for Deb Cheslow Consulting, will share her experience in the military.

#Scuttlebutt restaurant daytona beach professional#

Information: 38.īUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S CLUB/HALIFAX: Meeting, 5:30 p.m., Vince Carter’s restaurant, 2150 LPGA Blvd., Daytona Beach. DELAND AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Fuel Referral Group Networking, 7:30 a.m., Boston Coffee House, 109 E.

[sanjosenewshq]

Mark Cuban Value Plus Drug Firm pronounces first well being plan accomplice

Capital Blue Cross and Mark Cuban Value Plus Drug Firm (MCCPDC) introduced a collaboration to permit Capital members and neighborhood organizers to entry lower-cost pharmaceuticals by way of MCCPDC. MCCPDC is a public-benefit company and on-line pharmacy that gives sufferers entry to medicines at a decrease value by working instantly with distributors and producers, bypassing what Mark Cuban referred to as “the middlemen.” The corporate fees MCCPDC’s value plus a 15% margin, a $3 per-prescription meting out charge and delivery. Capital’s website says that if members have Capital Blue Cross prescription protection, they should pay for his or her drug, then submit a declare for reimbursement if the treatment is roofed below their plan.  In 2023, Capital’s members can use their insurance coverage playing cards at MCCPDC instantly.  “Capital’s collaboration with Value Plus Medicine will assist us carry lower-cost medicines to members and nonmembers alike throughout our service space, offering some much-needed reduction to these struggling to pay for his or her important – and typically life-saving – medicines,” Capital Blue Cross President and CEO Todd Shamash stated in a press release. THE LARGER TREND In accordance with two stories not too long ago launched by the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies, drug costs have risen past the inflation charge, illustrating the urgency for addressing mounting prescription prices.  Transcarent, a healthcare platform for self-insured employers, gives Transcarent Pharmacy Care, permitting its members to seek for the lowest-cost drug choices and evaluate costs throughout pharmacies. The corporate’s members can even switch a prescription with Transcarent’s app if wanted. Well being tech firm Prescryptive Well being launched MyRx.io, a cellular platform permitting customers to entry pharmacy providers, similar to discovering prescription profit info, drug buying, and scheduling appointments for vaccines or different pharmacy-provided care. The platform additionally gives customers strategies on various drug choices they will focus on with their physician, evaluate money and well being plan costs and discover producer coupons. Originally published at San Jose News HQ

[reportbolt7]

Pain Medications For Arthritis Pain Relief

People with chronic pain frequently have trouble accessing the right care, says Daniel Clauw, M.D., director of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan Medical School. “One problem is that there are far too few trained pain specialists,” he says. Chronic pain is a common problem for Americans, touching all age groups and demographics. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last fall estimated that 1 in 5 adults—about 50 million Americans—reported hurting every day or almost every day in the previous six months. Massage therapy can be effective in the management of acute and chronic pain. Article Rx for Access Online resource that helps patients better understand health coverage options, choose the right coverage, manage the denial process and reduce health care costs.Article Do I Have Arthritis? Learn about the four most common warning signs.Article Gout Gout is an inflammatory type of arthritis that more commonly affects men. Using innovative technology and evidence-based methods, Scrambler Therapy®, developed by Calmare® Therapeutics Inc., is a cutaneous treatment that uses electro-stimulation to relieve chronic pain. This FDA-cleared device transmits electrical impulses into your nerves to replace pain signals with non-pain information. Radiant Pain Relief Centres offers cutting-edge treatments to those suffering from chronic pain. In the event your doctor or dentist offers to prescribe opioids, let them know you’re open to non-opioid treatments. Aetna’s Find a Doctor tool allows members and nonmembers to search for surgeons that offer non-opioid pain relief options. Patients taking opioids to relieve chronic pain will develop a tolerance to the drugs over time, meaning that their bodies require higher doses to achieve the same level of pain relief. Evidence of medical marijuana's effect on reducing pain is generally conclusive. Detailed in a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine, "the available evidence from animal and human studies indicates that cannabinoids can have a substantial analgesic effect". Cleveland Clinic Community Care puts patients first by offering comprehensive, coordinated, personalized healthcare. The risk of liver damage from acetaminophen is higher if you take more than 3,000 milligrams in a day. You may also develop liver problems if you combine the drug with alcohol. Pain relievers are just one part of a pain treatment plan. “We know that when you stop prescribing opioids, some people end up with death from suicide, overdose, increased illicit opioid use, pain exacerbations. It’s really important to have a continuity, and that is not really possible in the current opioid-prescribing culture,” Coffin said. https://cbsecure.co.uk/elbow-fix-pro-review/ couldn’t access their medical records, so other providers had no idea what their treatments had been. “I missed a lot of bingo, a lot of grocery shopping, a lot of going to my grandkids’ birthday parties. Exhale Wellness maintains high-quality products through careful evaluation and research. The company is confident that its organic alternatives exceed traditional medications. Clinicians must observe physiological and behavioral cues exhibited by the child to make an assessment. Self-report, if possible, is the most accurate measure of pain. Questionnaires for older children and adolescents include the Varni-Thompson Pediatric Pain Questionnaire and the Children’s Comprehensive Pain Questionnaire.

[lunarcovehq]

Todd Miller is a human that currently resides in Shadow Lake and has been a Lunar Cove resident for 40 years though majority of that time was spent trapped within a Mickey Mouse hat.

ITS THE END OF THE WORLD

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cis Male, He/Him

DATE OF BIRTH: September 29, 1962

OCCUPATION: Unemployed

FACECLAIM: Brian Altemus

AS WE KNOW IT, AND I FEEL FINE

SPECIES: Human

COALITION POSITION: Non-member

WELCOME TO LUNAR COVE, TODD MILLER

Trigger Warnings: Violence, Injury, Death

A dense sticky fog clung to the court that morning, heavy and almost saccharine, a sea of white-yellow sludge, tinted by the summer sun, a viscous blanket one needed to cut deliberately through like syrup. His tennis shoes pounded along the pavement, keeping tune with the bounce, bounce, bounce of the half-deflated basketball as he dribbled it in a half-circle, showing off for an audience of exactly no one. He inhaled the haze, though, with well-practiced breaths, steady, easy, and really, the young Todd Miller thought, truly, at only thirteen-years-old, he could play professionally if he really wanted to. Alvan Adams and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar could eat their fucking hearts out, and he was allowed to think that, he decided—because swear words did not count when one only imagined them. But it had been the summer of his growth spurt, and the boy knew already that he would be a superstar when school started back up in the fall.

He jumped, he shot, and he waited, holding, like a chipmunk, the last breath of fog he had just sucked into his cheeks. It cleared the hoop with a solid swish, not bouncing, not spinning, but answering him definitively. Yes. Yes! Hell yes. He had decided, abruptly, that basketball hoops worked like Magic 8 Balls or Ouija Boards or cootie catchers. If the ball went in, the basket, or the universe, as it were, said ‘yes.’ And this particular  ‘yes,’ had been resounding. Todd Miller would be somebody one day. He would really be somebody someday because the rim had said he would when he asked it.

That day could not come quickly enough. Born into a blue-collar family of modest means, he, while not lacking for much, also did not get to go to the fancy sleepaway or sports camps his friends did each July, ditching him to play basketball alone in the early mornings before having to follow his father around on handyman jobs, which usually consisted of the young Todd holding a flashlight or a handful of screws and being yelled at. He would count them in his head sometimes: an even number leftover meant good luck the next day, an odd one meant bad. And this made-up superstition, like the hoop, was just one of the many ritualistic quirks Todd Miller had developed throughout his relatively mundane childhood, a sort of enchantment in which he could wrap himself while dreaming of a more glittering future. The boy’s bedroom resembled an altar, covered in photographs from JCPenney and Sears Christmas catalogs, all jagged edges torn by dull scissors, visions for himself of everything he wanted and everything he wanted to be. Glamorous women and athletic men and fashionable shoes and golden watches—handsome and popular and wealthy. Somebody, somebody, somebody, or at least as close an approximation to a real person as he could muster in a place as small as Rhode Island, which was not quite New York or California.

Watching the basketball roll away, then, and hit dully against the chain-link fence, Todd sunk to the ground and took a long swig of his Coke, holding the label outward as if posing for an advertisement, just in case any wayward photographers were prowling around the park looking for magazine models. None were, but Todd could be patient. And jogging over to retrieve his ball, he tucked it beneath his arm and began to trudge home, tossing his soda bottle in a waste bin and deciding that it counted as another resounding ‘yes’ when it easily inside with a glass clank.

Autumn arrived like a car wreck, rolling in abruptly with a cacophony of cold air, but it had been a promising season all the same, as Todd, towering for now over his classmates, found himself the freshman athletic champion he had hoped to be, at least as far as the tri-county area. But he was just tall early. By the time sophomore year arrived, his cracks were beginning to show; his luck of genetics could no longer keep up with boys who were faster, more dedicated, more focused, and growing rapidly to meet him. It did not matter to Todd, however, not really.

Maybe basketball was only an entry point, a way for him to get that answer to his question as a child. His task, then, was finding the proper path to making it come true. Todd fell into the burgeoning aerobic craze on a whim, and by the early 1980s, his head was filled with visions of vinyl Jazzercise records and bodybuilding magazines bearing his own blessed image.

The one thing Todd Miller would not do, however, was follow in his father’s footsteps; he could die happily never having to repair another busted refrigerator. And he would, as it turned out, actually die before he had to. By the fall of 1984, he was pursuing a degree in fitness studies at a small four-year college not far from his hometown (in his fifth year due to a few brushes with failure). But he was biding his time until his burgeoning stardom could properly launch.

There had been some roadblocks along the way, of course. He had come in second (first runner-up, if you asked him) in the line for fraternity president, but he still had lots of friends. Lots of girlfriends. One or two boyfriends. And so, he was positively somebody by the time he and a few buddies drove out to a Halloween party at the University of Rhode Island campus in a town called Lunar Cove.

It was a weird place. It had always been a weird fucking place, from the handful of times he had visited over the years—although Todd himself never did not remember why when he left it. Still, weird could be bitching; weird could be cool. And he was having a hella good time, a few keg stands in, by the hour he found himself standing on a balcony overlooking a concrete courtyard late that night.

“Todd!” he had cried, spinning around and throwing a pose like a proper Mouseketeer before using every ounce of athletic prowess he could muster to do a show-offy, sloppy flip into the air. The railing struck his lower back. And he was flying, he realized, flying too far, flying too quickly. Splat.

Fuck the hat. It had not protected his head. Fuck the hat. Even as time itself slipped into something hazy and unknowable, became a thing he did not follow concretely any longer, Todd would repeat this phrase as it ticked by. After all, he was now bound to that very hat, tied to it as it passed from hand-to-hand over the next three decades. And being a ghost was a totally bogus thing to be; all the worse to be a ghost who could not fucking go anywhere

His fortune changed in 2023 when a witch named Rohan Persaud happened to place the article upon his own head, and all at once, Todd found himself miraculously bodied once again. He would like to stay that way, he decided, even if everyone seemed to like this Rohan dude too much to let him take up permanent residence. Back into the hat and back onto the shelf, godammit.

He did not expect the witch to be the one to bring him back from the dead, although the dude seemed totally un-chill about the whole thing when it happened. Either way, returned, revenged, in the flesh, the Todd-inator has resolved to seize this second chance. Sure, Lunar Cove is still weird, but when a guy’s a zombie, he hasn’t got very many other places to shack up.

[whatisonthemoon]

Washington Post: Moon's 'Cause' Takes Aim At Communism in Americas (1983)

By Joanne Omang August 28, 1983

An arm of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, a group called "Causa," or "cause" in Spanish, is pumping millions of dollars into an anti-communist organizing effort throughout the United States and in much of Central and South America.

Offering free seminars, international trips and conferences around the region to decision makers, journalists and local leaders, Causa International and its subsidiary, Causa USA, have also invested in newspapers and printing companies and in a Uruguayan bank, broadcasting station and other businesses.

The group's president is retired South Korean Col. Bo Hi Pak, chief aide to Moon, and its executive director is Warren S. Richardson, formerly chief counsel to the Liberty Lobby. President Reagan nominated Richardson to be an assistant secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services in 1981, but Richardson withdrew amid charges that the Liberty Lobby is racist and anti-Semitic.

Causa seeks to promote a philosophy called "God-ism," which Causa officials say is an alternative set of ideas for people likely to be tempted by communism. Although usually--but not always--openly financed and led by followers of Moon, Causa claims to be completely ecumenical and to have plans to put nonmembers of the Unification Church in leadership jobs.

Founded in New York in 1980, Causa has had a rocky time in Brazil, where only police intervention prevented mobs from destroying Unification churches in nine cities; and in Honduras and El Salvador, where Roman Catholic Church leaders denounced Causa as anti-Christian for its links to Moon.

But in Uruguay, Paraguay and Guatemala and in 18 other nations, Causa literature says, Causa operations are thriving despite opposition from the Catholic Church, to which the vast majority of Latin Americans belong.

Causa International has recently been most visible in Honduras, where Pak contributed $50,000 last March on behalf of Causa to a new, exclusive group of businessmen and military officers called the Association for the Promotion of Honduras (APROH).

The group is widely viewed as a vehicle for the political ambitions of its leader, Honduran military commander-in-chief Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, who is the defense minister. It started with 100 members who each pledged to give $6,000 a year, according to press reports in Honduras.

Causa had earlier given 12 Honduran notables a free trip to South Korea. They included newspaper and television editors, the presidential press secretary and a man later elected rector of the University of Honduras with APROH help, Oswaldo Ramos Soto. Causa also held a series of four-day seminars on anti- communism in San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second-largest city, for "over 1,000 national leaders," journalists and public officials, according to Causa literature.

The hotel bill alone for one of the conferences came to $70,000, one local official said.

But April 8, Honduras' Roman Catholic Conference of Bishops denounced Causa and the Unification Church, issuing a pastoral letter prohibiting priests and lay workers and "anyone who wishes to remain Catholic" from taking part or encouraging any involvement in Causa or any other Unification Church operation.

The Unification Church, the letter said, is "truly anti-Christian" and produces "a species of material and spiritual slavery."

"It is very probable that until now, Causa has not here manifested its moral and religious danger. But given its tactics, when this happens it could be too late for many," the bishops' letter said.

After that, a diplomatic source said, APROH officials told the press they had returned the $50,000 check to Pak, although Causa officials would not confirm this. A Causa effort to purchase the Tegucigalpa newspaper El Heraldo fell through. "The Catholic church was so powerful it saved us," said a leading industrialist in San Pedro Sula. "If it hadn't been for them, the Moonies would own Honduras by now."

Moon, 63, of South Korea, lives on an estate in Irvington, N.Y. He was sentenced in July, 1982, to 18 months in federal prison for conspiracy and tax fraud, but the case is being appealed.

He has been controversial since he arrived in the United States in 1971, first becoming visible politically with a 1973 publicity campaign supporting President Nixon at the height of the Watergate controversy.

Congress investigated Moon's business empire and its alleged connections to the Korean CIA in 1978 during the so-called "Koreagate" bribery scandal, describing Moon's worldwide operations as designed to further the growth of a religious cult with Moon at the center.

The Unification Church, known formally as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World-Wide Christianity, claims 30,000 adherents in the United States, 3 million worldwide. Its basic theology, according to Joy Morrow, assistant to the director of the District of Columbia Unification Church, holds that God's plan to establish a divine family on Earth through Adam and Eve was foiled when Lucifer seduced Eve. All humankind is therefore born tainted.

Morrow said God's second attempt also failed when Christ was betrayed, and Moon has said he "could be" the third attempt. God-denying communism is the strongest satanic force in the world and must be defeated through educating the people, who then must take individual action, Morrow said.

But some of Moon's followers, who are often referred to as "Moonies," have left the church and charge that the cult also permits "heavenly deception" of those who have rejected Moon's message, on grounds that they are lost to Satan. They also say that Moon uses brainwashing techniques to break family ties and obtain control of followers' assets and that virtually any excess is allowed in defense of the "divine family."

Causa International, Morrow said, is "the arm of the church that's fighting communism." None of its officials would consent to be interviewed, and answers to written questions about events described in this article were not provided as promised because, an aide said, leaders "have been in a meeting for several days."

In the United States, Causa USA started out as Causa North America, bringing about 200 "friends, contacts and acquaintances of church members and [Capitol] Hill staff people" to its first three-day seminar in Jamaica last February, Causa USA director Joe A. Tully related in an interview. Conference chairman was Lynn F. Bouchey, head of the Council on Inter-American Security, a conservative think tank that has its Capitol Hill office one floor below Causa USA.

Four similar seminars have take place since: one in Reston, Va., one in Denver, and two here. Participants in each event suggested the names of people to be invited to the next, Tully said, and contacts thus made will be asked to help set up Causa offices in every state starting this month.

An advisory committee is designing plans that will take Causa's work beyond seminars and into programs that may include voter registration, journals and educational campaigns aimed at members of Congress, he continued.

Tully, 37, formerly New York director of the Unification Church, acknowledged that the five seminars had cost Causa "close to" $1 million, calling it "seed money" for nationwide expansion.

"We want to be a grass-roots organization with hundreds of thousands of people involved," he said.

Causa started in 1980 as the Confederation of Associations for the Unity of the Societies of the Americas (CAUSA), but the original emphasis on the Americas soon proved too narrow, Tully said. There was so much interest in Europe and other parts of the world that the original name was dropped and just the acronym retained, Tully said. Causa North America became Causa USA this month, and organizations eventually will be set up in every nation, he said.

"The cause is the defeat of communism, and that's not just an effort for Americans," Tully said.

The letters of invitation to past seminars identify Causa as an educational institution whose activities "are presently funded through business interests connected with the Unification Church of Rev. Moon." However, "the intent is not conversion to any given church," the letter continues, but "to provide a foundation for the cooperation of God-accepting people against the common enemy, communism."

Tully said the group "wanted to be up front" about the connection to avoid any appearance of deception. Conservatives who attended the conferences "have tended to keep at arms' length from us" but responded to the idea of an ecumenical anti-communist effort, he said.

In El Salvador, Causa officials tried to deny the Unification Church connection, according to a June 26 article in Orientacion, the official weekly of the San Salvador archdiocese. The article said Jesus Gonzalez, administrator of Causa's Honduras office, had called "to convince us that this organization and the Unification Church have no relation, in spite of having been warmed since their foundation by the same sun and illuminated by the same shining moon, the false Rev. Sun Myung Moon."

Causa had brought 155 foreign journalists and notables to El Salvador briefly in June as part of a "World Media Conference" it organized in Guatemala. Participants from 45 countries on five continents included former Vietnamese vice premier Nguyen Cao Ky and Lloyd Bucher, who commanded the USS Pueblo when North Korea captured it and held its crew hostage for 11 months in 1968.

After the group spent six days in Guatemala starting June 8, according to a June 20 article in Guatemala's Prensa Libre newspaper, Causa flew it in a Boeing 707 for day trips to Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador. The writers met with military and business leaders in each country, hearing from Pak and also from then-President Efrain Rios Montt of Guatemala.

Causa had begun operations in Guatemala as one of many non-Catholic sects that set up storefront missions soon after Rios Montt took power in March, 1982.

Causa apparently has had its greatest success in Uruguay. In March, 1981, Pak met in Montevideo, the capital, with top government officials, including then-President Aparicio Mendez, the vice president and the interior minister. Causa then founded a newspaper, Noticias del Uruguay, and won the right in a secret auction to build a casino and a luxury hotel, according to later newspaper accounts.

A minor scandal erupted in the Uruguayan press that summer over the award of the casino rights, which violated Uruguayan gambling laws. According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) newsletter of Nov. 3, 1981, the new president, Gregorio Alvarez, defended the award to Causa and said, "With respect to the fight against communism, it is obvious that we think alike."

By the end of 1981, Causa was authorized to set up an FM and medium-wave radio station in Canelones for broadcast to Montevideo and launched a second newspaper, Ultimas Noticias, in September. It also bought the largest publishing house in Uruguay, Editorial Polo; a restaurant and a meat-packing plant; and it now owns the country's biggest luxury hotel, the Victoria Plaza, according to The Latin American Newsletter of Jan. 29, 1982.

In 1982, Causa won a controlling interest of the Banco de Credito, Uruguay's third-largest national bank, and press reports said Causa had put $50 million into the bank purchase effort.

"They bought newspapers, they bought real estate, they bought generals, they bought out the country," said a Reagan administration official who was there at the time. "There was a big stink about it."

Causa and the Unification Church have been active in several other South American nations:

* Brazil: Mobs stoned and sacked Unification churches in seven cities and were blocked by police in assaults on churches in nine other towns during mid-1981. Juvenile-court judges prohibited minors from joining the sect, and the political police in Sao Paulo opened a nationwide investigation of the church. Leaders said the church had registered 5,000 members in 60 branches after one year of operation.

* Bolivia: Press reports in 1981 said Causa had applied to build a $42 million complex of office buildings, including a radio and television station, after Pak visited there in March. Later reports said the project was abandoned in the chaos of political coups.

* Chile: A seminar on "unificationism as the solution to communism" in 1981 drew high-ranking military officers and a personal representative of President Augusto Pinochet, according to the COHA newsletter of Nov. 3, 1981. It quoted Pak as saying, "I think the day will come when the world will recognize this nation as a fountain of hope" for people living under communist regimes.

* Paraguay: In 1981, Causa held a week-long seminar in Asuncion on anti-communism for members of President Alfredo Stroessner's ruling Colorado Party, following it with a series of lectures for young people in the capital. A Paraguayan publishing house, Christian Press, recently announced that it had been sold to the Unification Church. 

[priestnet]

NEW RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT: LIE HUO JIAO CHOU DONGHUA

⇢ Get a comfy seat and get the wifi ready to stream: there’s a new adaptation of a Priest novel coming to a site near you!

⇢ You might be wondering: what is Lie Huo Jiao Chou?

Lie Huo Jiao Chou is a story in which urban fantasy and ancient mythology collide. Set in a world of normal humans and those secretly hiding hidden abilities, there are two timelines set 3000 years apart. Of course, actions of the past echo in the present, and lead to some very heavy consequences.

Summary:

Sheng Lingyuan has long been dead since he jumped into the fiery abyss of Chiyuan, that is, until he's "woken up" by some unknown force three thousand years later.

Xuan Ji is the newly appointed director of the Reparations Department of the Deviant Control Office, designated to offer aftercare services and clean up the mess whenever supernatural occurrences happen.

The two are brought together by a freak event, and thousand years worth of conspiracy and careful planning begin to unfold before them.

Summary Translation by: Vermillion Bird Group.

You can find links to read the novel as well as get more information here.

⇢ Sounds cool! Where can I watch?

Lie Huo Jiao Chou is airing on Bilibili starting on 10/7, but a groupwatch will be hosted by PriestNet on Saturdays at 6:30pm BST.

⇢ I really want to join the groupwatch, but I’m not a member. Can I still join?

Absolutely! The admin team has created a secondary server just for groupwatches, so that both members and nonmembers can watch together. You may join here.

⇢ If you have any further questions or concerns about this release, the related groupwatch, or the network in general, feel free to send in an ask and the admin team will gladly assist you.

Happy New Release Everyone!

[goldenhathor]

AITA for telling my friend his religion is fake? (not as bad as it sounds)

I (r16) have known this friend (m28) for about two years. We met as coworkers. Originally, I was very antagonistic towards him because I didn’t like the job and he was technically my supervisor. We’ve since made amends, but I worry it may color his perception of this situation.

The entire time I have known him, he has belonged to an extremely niche sect of a larger religion. I am an atheist, but this has never gotten in the way of our relationship before. I try to have an open mind towards his beliefs when they come up, but they also never used to come up very often, so it wasn’t much of an issue.

Recently, he has been reconnecting with his religious beliefs and becoming involved with devout groups in our area. This includes attending private and public temple meetings. He asked me to come to a public meeting with him, and since I had nothing better to do, I agreed.

At the meeting, I immediately noticed that I was the only nonmember in attendance. Everyone else treated my friend very strangely. He seemed overwhelmed by the attention they were giving him and multiple times they took him aside to speak with him away from me, which I thought was strange, but I decided to continue to try to hold an open mind.

Then the sermon began. And, look, there’s not a nice way to say this, but it was a cult. My friend is in a cult. The woman giving the sermon was ranting about the end of the world and how nobody understands the truth except for them and my friend was just nodding along.

I respectfully waited until the meeting had ended, and me and my friend were on our way home. I told him that I was worried about the rhetoric his temple was using and that I think he is being manipulated. He said that I couldn’t understand, and I said that that was another worrying thing they had said. After we argued for a little while, he admitted that his sect has told him that he is an important figure in the fate of the universe and that he is destined to martyr himself for the sake of the survival of the human race. At this point, I told him his religion was fake and that he needed to wake up and see reality.

He seemed hurt, and hasn’t spoken to me in a few days, so I’m starting to wonder if I took things too far. Admittedly I think I was ruder than I needed to be because earlier in the argument he said some things which I interpreted as personal attacks, and because I felt very alienated after the meeting which was clearly not actually intended for the general public. I may have lashed out and come off as harsh.

AITA?

[brian-in-finance]

Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Jude Hill and Lewis McAskie star in a scene from the movie “Belfast.” (Credit: CNS photo/Rob Youngson, Focus Features.) EDITOR’S NOTE: BLACK AND WHITE IMAGE ONLY.

‘CODA’ wins big in International Catholic Film Critics awards

PHILADELPHIA — “CODA” is an acronym for children of deaf adults. It could also stand for quality filmmaking, as the movie took home a slew of prizes in the International Catholic Film Critics Association’s awards competition.

“CODA,” in which a teen girl, both of whose parents are deaf, weighs the choice between staying home to continue helping her folks or leaving home to pursue opportunities, won the best picture award. It also won for best screenplay, written by Sian Heder, and best supporting actor in Troy Kotsur.

Winners were announced March 1.

“Belfast,” Kenneth Branagh’s portrait of a young boy growing up in the capital city of Northern Ireland, also took home three awards. It led films in nominations with its seven, while “CODA” received six nominations.

“Belfast” won the organization’s Human and Gospel Values Award, which is awarded to the film that best reflects human and Gospel values as determined by the association’s membership.

Other awards for “Belfast” went to Kenneth Branagh for best director and Caitriona Balfe for best supporting actress, in a tie with Ann O’Dowd of “Mass.”

Andrew Garfield won the association’s award for best actor for his role in “Tick, Tick … Boom!” Jennifer Hudson took the best actress prize for her portrayal of singer Aretha Franklin in the biopic “Respect.”

Bruno Delbonnel was honored for best cinematography with “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Kris Bowers took home the prize for best original score with “Respect.”

There was a tie for best documentary: “Summer of Soul,” which highlighted performances from top acts playing at a summer-long music festival in New York City’s Harlem district, and “The House That Rob Built,” a Family Theater Productions profile of Robin Selvig, who took the helm of the University of Montana women’s basketball team in the early 1970s and developed a powerhouse program using local talent.

Winners were chosen by instant runoff voting, in which the nominee with the fewest votes is knocked off the ballot until one entrant gets a majority of votes. Even so, this year’s voting resulted in two ties, for best documentary and best supporting actress.

The honor for outstanding criticism among association members went to Father Peter Malone of Australia, a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart order and former president of Signis. John Mulderig, Catholic News Service’s associate director for media reviews, was a nominee, as was Joseph McAleer, a CNS freelance movie critic.

A separate award for outstanding criticism among nonmembers went to Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, a British newspaper.

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2022/03/coda-wins-big-in-international-catholic-film-critics-awards

Remember… “Belfast” won the organization’s Human and Gospel Values Award, which is awarded to the film that best reflects human and Gospel values as determined by the association’s membership.

[btswritingcafe]

valentine’s mix | prompt list

❥ VALENTINE’S MIX EVENT

Welcome to our Valentine’s Day event! Much like our previous monthly prompts events, these are created by our very own prompt team members to give all writers inspiration for the romantic holiday! Below is a list of scenarios, along with dialogue, where you can choose one or several to create a drabble or an entire oneshot! Read more down below on how to participate!

Please note. These are created by our members and not taken from anywhere else. If you take these and claim them as your own we will message you privately. Please be respectful and follow our rules. These also do not have to be written before Valentine’s Day. You can post this content until the end of March.

❥ RULES AND GUIDELINES

you do not have to be a member to use these prompts.

you must follow the network if not already a member.

reblog this post in order to use the prompts.

there is no application, therefore, a reblog is essential so we know who is using these prompts.

upon using one of the scenarios or dialogue listed, mention the network in your post @/btswritingcafe. from there your content will be queued to our network (even as a nonmember).

please use our event tag for this event as well so we can keep track of it: #cafevalentinesmix

if you fail to tag/mention the network and use the prompts without giving credit, we will ask you to make the addition. please be respectful.

you can choose just the scenarios if you wish, or you can take content from both sections.

❥ SCENARIOS

A rainstorm ruins your Valentine's plans, but you and your partner make the most of your date night spent at home.

Character A is a supernatural being that doesn't understand the reason for Valentine's Day. Character B takes this as a Challenge Accepted.

Character A was rejected on Valentine's Day and they run into the arms of Character B who's own feelings towards Character A continue to remain hidden.

Person a anonymously sends conversation hearts to person b with the hopes of finally being able to confess soon.

Character A has a get rich quick scheme to snag money from all love struck Valentines and drags an unwilling Character B into the plan.

Character A works tirelessly making homemade sweets to confess to Character B, only to find out they've already accepted someone else's confession.

Your girl friends all have plans with their partners, leaving you alone and drunk... which leads you to call up an old flame.

Every Valentine’s Day your flower shop fills with hopeful suitors, chagrined lovers, and new couples...but there always happens to be specific individual that makes sure you know who his real Valentine’s is by buying a bouquet...only to give it to you.

You're no stranger to extravagant showers of gifts for Valentine's Day and have come to expect it from each relationship you enter. So why is it that a small bouquet of flowers obviously plucked from the park just around the block sends your heart into a frenzy?

You always said to have hated Valentine’s Day for the sake of a bad experience years prior. But now that you discovered underlying feelings for your best friend, you began despise the day all the more. That is, until a certain best friend decides to show you why this special day is something worth celebrating.

This Valentine's Day, Character A plans a special day with their favorite little human.

Character A is a royal. Character B takes A to join in the village festivities celebrating the day of love.

Character A (who has no knowledge on flower language) gives a bouquet of flowers to Character B (who knows a lot about flower language) and Character B is both annoyed and endeared at the bouquet of betrayal and sorrow.

Character A and Character B are both avid confectioners and hold a contest on who can make the best sweets for each other.

Character A sprinkles a temporary love potion into a box of sweets for Character B and—oh no! Character C steals the box and eats the sweets meant for B.

There's an old saying that claims doves hover over people who are fated to be. Character A has never cared for that stupid phrase until doves start following them around any time they're near Character B—a new coworker/neighbor whom they absolutely cannot stand (or alternatively, whom they have a massive crush on).

❥ DIALOGUE

a collection of fluff, angst, and comedy

"Careful. One's filled with wasabi."

"Be my date to the Valentine's Day party so I can steal all the dessert and then we can yeet."

"I can't accept these. I'm sorry."

"I did not slave away in my kitchen and burn my fingers just for you to reject my sweets! Accept them!"

"Mistletoe is only valid during the winter season you idiot!" "I don't care. Kiss me anyway!"

"Please be mine just until the day ends."

"You're under arrest for stealing my heart!" "...How original."

"I was gonna confess first! Take your confession back!"

"What should we do with all this leftover ganache?"

"It's not perfect, but I hope you like it."

"Excuse me. Character A doesn't want your chocolates or your confession. They're already taken. By me."

“If you bring me a gigantic teddy bear I think I may fall in love with you.” 

“Why did we ever stop doing those valentine mailboxes from elementary school? I want all that fake love.” “That’s not healthy.” “You’re not healthy.” 

For every chocolate kiss you take, a real kiss is given in return.” 

“Pretty sure Cupid’s bow was dull when it hit me.” “What makes you think it hit you?” “Because I’m Cupid, dummy.” 

“Is it weird to stand here and hold hands, or is that weird?” 

❥ PROMPT TEAM MEMBERS

@jinpanman | @bangtiddies | @amored | @joontopia | @suhdays | @namjin-fangirling-again