MikeLigalig.com

He he...

Quote from: islander on October 31, 2017, 02:43:39 AM

pondering on the fish and the background, i philosophize that it's the same cat who has finally solved the sweet, oops, salty mystery of life.

Hmm, a perfect metaphor for you as the cat? Or, come to think of it, as the fish?

Mystery and melancholy begone! 

The top 10 most potassium-rich foods include lentils (810 milligrams per 100 grams), dried dates (790 milligrams), prunes (732 milligrams), almonds (705 milligrams), spinach (662 milligrams), avocado (650 milligrams), chestnuts (600 milligrams), mushrooms (520 milligrams), walnuts (450 milligrams) and apricots (440 milligrams).

Potassium, which helps prevent muscle cramps, is particularly beneficial for athletes to help counterbalance the production of lactic acid when muscles work hard. Chia seeds, for example, contain more potassium (407 grams/100 grams) than bananas (360 grams/100 grams) and can be particularly beneficial for the recovery phase.

Recent studies show that low dietary potassium can lead to calcified arteries and aortic stiffness. JB


http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/277313/heart-health-how-to-boost-potassium-intake/#ixzz4wyYGDGER

AFP Relaxnews / 06:54 PM October 29, 2017


Potassium is an essential mineral that some people tend to lack. It is essential for the transmission of nerve impulses, as well as muscle contraction (particularly the heart) and good kidney function, and plays a role in fighting high blood pressure, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke. These are important things to take note of in observance of World Stroke Day, Oct. 29.

Potassium is naturally present in pulses, such as white beans, chickpeas and lentils, vegetables (chard, spinach, potatoes, cabbage, mushrooms), fruit (avocado, banana, apricots, citrus fruit, blackcurrants), and dried fruit and nuts (walnuts, almonds, pistachios, dates, figs).

It is also found in meat and fish, especially oily fish (salmon, sardines and mackerel), as well as chocolate and wholegrain cereals.

Only fats such as butter, crème fraiche, oil and margarine don’t contain this mineral.

Myeshia Johnson clearly did not feel the same. She is said to have been devastated. In the brief conversation, Trump repeatedly referred to the soldier as “your guy,” a signal to the wife that the president didn’t even know her husband’s name.

A decent and caring person would have readily acknowledged his mistake and offered an apology. But not Trump. He acted like a coward and sent his most fearless attack dog out to deflect the issue.

The problem wasn’t what Trump said to the grieving widow, Kelly intimated. It was the fact that a Florida congresswoman, an “empty barrel” as he referred to her, spoke out about it.

U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson had been in the car with Johnson that day when the call came. She heard every word and was appalled that a president would speak to a grieving widow in that manner. She found it offensive and disrespectful, and she said so publicly.

Kelly was so anxious to discredit her that he mischaracterized what Wilson said in 2015 at a dedication of a new FBI field office in Miami.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly would have us forget about Johnson’s grief and reserve our empathy for Trump.

In a rare appearance before the news media on Thursday, Kelly reminded us that the president is, after all, inexperienced in making condolence calls to Gold Star families.

Kelly implored Americans to understand how difficult it was for someone who has never worn the uniform, who has never been in combat, to make such a call. Some presidents send a letter instead, he said. But Trump chose to call.

Our president is incapable of speaking from the heart, though. So Kelly, a retired four-star general who lost his own son in Afghanistan, stood by the president’s side and fed the words to him.

Perhaps the general found it comforting when his best friend and casualty officer told Kelly that his fallen son was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed and that he knew what he was getting into.

Bush is the brother of 2016 presidential hopeful Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor nicknamed, belittled and ultimately vanquished by Trump during the race for the Republican nomination. He joins a slowly growing list of prominent Republicans who have publicly defied Trump, including Republican Sens. John McCain, who delivered a similar speech this week. Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who has announced he’s retiring, has denounced what he termed the “adult day care center” of the Trump White House.

But during the Bush event, a current Trump administration official also broke with Trump’s dismissive tone on Russian interference. Nikki Haley, Trump’s chief envoy to the United Nations, cast Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election as “warfare” and efforts to “sow chaos” in elections across the world.

“The Russians, God bless them, they’re saying, ‘Why are Americans anti-Russian? And why have we done the sanctions?’ Well, don’t interfere in our elections and we won’t be anti-Russian,” Haley said. She added, “When a country can come and interfere in another country’s elections, that is warfare.”

Facebook recently provided three congressional committees with more than 3,000 ads they had traced to a Russian internet agency and told investigators of their contents. Twitter also briefed Congress last month and handed over to Senate investigators the profile names of 201 accounts linked to Russians.


Laurie Kellman contributed from Washington.


https://static.seattletimes.com/

Asked about the speech, Trump said he hadn’t seen it.

The comment about identity was one of several that warned of what Bush described as troubling political trends.

Bush noted Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and declared that “the Russian government has made a project of turning Americans against each other.”

“Foreign aggressions, including cyberattacks, disinformation and financial influence, should never be downplayed or tolerated,” Bush said.

Trump has expressed skepticism of Russia’s involvement. A special prosecutor is currently investigating whether Trump and his campaign associates coordinated with Moscow in the effort to sway the election.

“We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America,” Bush said. “We see a fading confidence in the value of free markets and international trade, forgetting that conflict, instability and poverty follow in the wake of protectionism. We’ve seen the return of isolation sentiments, forgetting that American security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places.”

“We’ve seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty,” he continued. “Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.”

“We need to recall and recover our own identity,” he continued. “To renew our country, we only need to remember our values.”

Originally published October 19, 2017 at 7:49 am Updated October 19, 2017 at 3:29 pm



Former U.S. President George W. Bush speaks at a forum sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute in New York, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)


The comments, delivered at a conference hosted by the George W. Bush Institute, amounted to an indirect critique from a former Republican president who has remained largely silent during President Donald Trump's unlikely rise to power.


By STEVE PEOPLES
The Associated Press


NEW YORK â€" Former President George W. Bush on Thursday denounced bigotry in Trump-era American politics, warning that the rise of “nativism,” isolationism and conspiracy theories have clouded the nation’s true identity.

The comments, delivered at a New York City conference hosted by the George W. Bush Institute, amounted to an indirect critique from a former Republican president who has remained largely silent during President Donald Trump’s unlikely rise to power. The 43rd president did not name Trump on Thursday, but he attacked some of the principles that define the 45th president’s political brand.

Column: Gen. John Kelly comes out to defend a coward
Dahleen Glanton   
Chicago Tribune


The photo of a young Army widow clutching the flag-draped casket of her husband is daunting. Myeshia Johnson’s pain seemed to run so deep that it pierced her soul.

She had been called upon to perform a duty that only the truest of American patriots, our Gold Star families, must do â€" claim the body of a fallen soldier upon his return home.

On this day, it could not have mattered to the pregnant mother of two small children that Sgt. La David Johnson had joined the Army of his own free will. Perhaps the soldier did realize that there was a chance he could be killed in an ambush while serving in Niger.

This was not the day to remind his wife of that. Yet, it is what Donald Trump did in a phone call to Johnson while she rode in a car to the airport in Miami to retrieve her husband’s remains.

As it turns out, the words were not even his own.

https://www.avclub.com/
William Hughes
Yesterday 5:21pm

One of the most fascinatingâ€"which is to say, horrifyingâ€"things about the modern-day Trump regime has been watching our current president find himself confronted with bigger, ever-more sturdy edifices of fact, and then watching him methodically tear them down with all the pent-up rage and maturity of a three-year-old caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Not that this behavior is anything new for Trump, mind you, a depressing bit of real news about fake s*** that was demonstrated in an art-based anecdote from one of his biographers, which has been making the rounds over the last few weeks.

The storyâ€"which comes courtesy of Tim L. O’Brien, who wrote 2005 tell-all TrumpNationâ€"centers on one of those small, almost casual lies Trump seems to delight in first telling, and then defending with a self-certainty that borders on the maniacal. O’Brien was flying with Trump on his private jet when he noticed a familiar painting hanging on the wall of the plane: Renoir’s “Two Sisters (On the Terrace)”. Familiar with the painting from its long tenure at The Art Institute Of Chicago (where it’s been part of the collection since the early 1930s), O’Brien remarked on the copy’s presence. Trump, of course, replied that, actually, it was an original Renoirâ€"despite the fact that, at that very moment, the original “Two Sisters” was hanging on a wall somewhere in Chicago. After going back and forth with Trump on the issue for a few minutes, O’Brien eventually backed down, and, a few days later, was treated to Trump pointedly telling other guests on his plane all about his “original Renoir.”

O’Brien told this story recently to Vanity Fair, and, admittedly, as far as Trump’s various crimes against truth go, it’s one of the smaller ones. But at the same time, the smallness of the lieâ€"and the pettiness with which Trump then flaunted his “victory” in front of O’Brienâ€"only emphasizes the irritation of living in this man’s America. “He believes his own lies in a way that lasts for decades,” O’Brien said on the Vanity Fair podcast. “He’ll tell the same stories time and time again, regardless of whether or not facts are right in front of his face.”

Hmm, di ba ikaw man ni, Aylandil?

Quote from: islander on October 17, 2017, 06:42:30 PM

#12 This Sunflower Doesn't Want To Face East


EnjoyOslo

Hmm, reminds me of this pic:

The Catholic Church, meanwhile, has begun to speak out more forcefully. In a few cases, it has provided sanctuary to police who report the murder of innocent people by other police.

Earlier this month, Duterte stopped promising immunity for officers who kill suspects. And, in a major move, he decided that only the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency should conduct operations against drug-related offenders. The PDEA makes up only 1 percent of the nation’s police.

Many Filipinos still support extrajudicial killings out of impatience to end the effects of the drug trade. But the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines warns that Duterte’s war on drugs has created a “reign of terror in many places of the poor.” An even greater concern is “the indifference of many to this kind of wrong.”

That indifference, however, is steadily eroding as more Filipinos speak out. People power is at work again.

The shift in sentiment has emboldened more top figures in society â€" including the police and Roman Catholic bishops â€" to speak out, even at the risk of political retribution.

One such person is Byron Allatog, chief of police in the city of Bogo. He prefers his officers shoot only in self-defense and work with addicts to help them seek treatment. “Some people may say, ‘He’s a drug addict, nothing but trash.’ But do these people even consider the fact that these drug addicts have families? I want people to know that killing is not the final solution to the problem of illegal drugs,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

This time they are quietly resisting President Rodrigo Duterte’s neglect of both the rule of law and the presumption of innocence in a violent crackdown on drug users and dealers. After 16 months in office leading a campaign that encouraged police to shoot “drug personalities” on sight â€" by the thousands â€" Mr. Duterte is facing a broad backlash.

His popularity has fallen below 50 percent, especially among the poor who backed his anti-drug campaign. One reason for the decline may be a video that surfaced in August showing police killing a teenager who did not appear to be resisting arrest. Even before the video came to light, more than half of Filipinos told pollsters they believe that many of the alleged drug users killed by police had not resisted arrest.

SHIFT IN THOUGHT The president’s use of extrajudicial killings of drug users has sparked popular resistance among those who prefer rule of law and presumption of innocence.



AP Photo


The Monitor's Editorial Board

OCTOBER 18, 2017 â€"One gift to the world from the Philippines has been the term “people power,” or peaceful resistance in the streets against a leader’s arbitrary rule and violent suppression. In 1986, it led to a dictator’s fall and inspired pro-democracy protests in other countries. Three decades later, Filipinos are at it again.

The seven who failed to sign the resolution include Senate President Aquilino Pimentel and Sens. Manny Pacquiao, Richard Gordon, Tito Sotto, Cynthia Villar, Miguel Zubiri and Gregorio Honasan.

Figures from the Children’s Legal Rights and Development Center showed that there are at least 54 people aged 18 years old and below killed in either police operations or vigilante-style killings since Duterte assumed power.

The cases of minors killed in Duterte’s drug war include 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos, 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman and 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz. Their deaths have sparked public outcry.

Article 15, Section 3 of the Constitution mandates the state to guarantee children “special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation and other conditions prejudicial to their development.”

The resolution was signed by opposition Sens. Francis Pangilinan, Bam Aquino, Risa Hontiveros, Franklin Drilon, Antonio Trillanes IV and Leila de Lima.

The 10 majority legislators who signed it were Joel Villanueva, Ralph Recto, JV Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, Panfilo Lacson, Grace Poe, Nancy Binay, Francis Escudero, Juan Edgardo Angara and Loren Legarda.

By Gaea Katreena Cabico (philstar.com) | Updated September 26, 2017 - 5:08pm


MANILA, Philippines (Updated Sept. 28, 2017, 6:29 p.m.) â€" Sixteen out of the 23 senators urged the government to stop the “senseless” killings, especially of children.

They filed Resolution 516 on Monday urging the government of President Rodrigo Duterte to “undertake the necessary steps to stop the spate of killings, especially of our children.”

The measure also directs the Senate to determine and address the institutional reasons, if any, that give rise to these killings.

“Due to the alarming spike in the number of children recently killed in blatant violation of their rights guaranteed by the Constitution, Philippine laws and international treaties, there is an urgent need to conduct an investigation of these senseless killings to identify the concrete efforts the government has undertaken and is undertaking to stop the killings,” the resolution read.

But that tweet could also come across as a culture war attack against mostly African-American players. And to anyone familiar with state-controlled societies, it recalls efforts by powerful heads of state to impose a national definition of patriotism.

In such appeals to his political base, Trump replicates another technique of autocrats from the Philippines to Venezuela: empowering supporters who believe they are marginalized in their own culture.

"Many of these men are disrupters, they come from outside of politics, they start something new, they have a movement," said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and cultural critic at New York University who has written extensively about Trump's "authoritarian playbook."

Like many strongmen, Trump nurses an ego in need of constant affirmation.

But it is often difficult to tell when he is serious about a strongman power move or is trolling critics and playing up his reality show bombast.

And the line between his trademark anti-establishment politics and a more sinister form of political maneuvering is not always clear.

Dictatorial behavior is also often in the eye of the beholder.

For many Trump supporters, for instance, his duel with the NFL is a simple matter of reverence for the flag.

"It is about time that Roger Goodell of the NFL is finally demanding that all players STAND for our great National Anthem-RESPECT OUR COUNTRY," Trump tweeted Wednesday.

Identifying Trump as a leader with authoritarian impulses does not mean bracketing him with monsters of history like Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin. And unlike modern day tyrants in Asia or Africa, Trump faces a robust political system of devolved power specifically set up to thwart tyranny.

And while Trump castigates the press, journalists are not being murdered in droves. Officials are not persecuted when they are ousted from the Cabinet. Trump's political enemies do not disappear.

But within Western constraints, Trump has displayed plenty of examples of imperious behavior that raise concerns that his presidency represents a challenge to constitutional norms and civic institutions.

In many ways, Trump is a politician with counter-liberal instincts operating within a liberal society, who uses the rhetorical techniques of authoritarian regimes.

Trump's authoritarian streak is at the root of many of the controversies that incessantly batter his administration, from his race-tainted feud with kneeling NFL players, to the turbulence in his inner circle and scorn for his critics.

It's also the personification of the populist "America First" nationalism that is as close as the President gets to a governing ideology.

"He is showing clear signs of an authoritarian leader, most notably by blurring the national and the personal, considering (a) critique of him similar to (a) critique of the country, and accepting none of it," said Cas Mudde, an associate professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia who specializes in political extremism.

"He clearly considers dissent as unpatriotic and doesn't believe it should be accepted or protected," Mudde added. "He craves adulation ... and he seems to only respect military leaders and force."

The President's struggle to cement long-lasting political achievements along with efforts by his own aides to rein him in have meanwhile tempered fears of some critics when he took office that Trump was a tyrant-in-waiting.

Yet, Trump has slipped easily into some of the imagery, rhetoric and affectations exhibited by dictatorial leaders throughout history and in illiberal societies around the world.

Seeing an American president, of all people, adopt such behavior has not yet lost its power to shock.

Trump's latest posturing came in the Oval Office on Wednesday, when he warned that it was ultimately his call on whether to strike North Korea.

"I listen to everybody, but ultimately my attitude is the one that matters, isn't it?" Trump said.

"That's the way it works," he added, in remarks that came in the context of the Republican chair of the Senate's foreign relations committee, Tennessee's Bob Corker, warning that the President could put the United States on the path to World War III.

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 1250 GMT (2050 HKT) October 12, 2017


Washington (CNN)When he looks in the mirror, President Donald Trump sees a strongman.

He vows to rain "fire and fury" on North Korea, admires the world's toughest leaders, calls for television networks to lose their licenses and roasts critics on an Orwellian Twitter feed.

But he's an autocrat in word rather than deed.

Trump says he wants nuclear arsenal in 'tip-top shape,' denies desire to increase stockpile
So far, America's political, judicial, military and media institutions have checked most attempts by the President to stretch his power beyond constitutional norms and to question freedoms embedded in the nation's DNA.

Thai King Naresuan fighting the Burmese crown prince Mingyi Swa at the battle of Yuthahatthi in January 1593.

In 1976 Siam experienced its bloodiest coup. Hundreds of students were killed and thousands were jailed. The military burnt the whole stock of Sulak’s bookshop and issued an order for his arrest. Although Sulak was forced to remain in exile for two years, he was able to continue his activist work in the West. He lectured at the University of California Berkeley, Cornell University, the University of Toronto, and throughout Europe.

In 1984 he was arrested in Bangkok on charges of criticising the King, but international protest led to his eventual release. In 1991 another warrant was issued for his arrest and Sulak was forced into political exile once more. He came back to fight the case in the court in 1992 and won in 1995. At the end of that year he was granted the Right Livelihood Award, also known as Alternative Nobel Prize.

He sees Buddhism as a questioning process. Question everything, including oneself, look deeply, and then act from that insight. He is among a handful of leaders world-wide working to a revive the socially engaged aspects of spirituality.

Whatever he does, however he does it, at the core of his work is a mission to build a new leadership for change at all levels, within Siam as well as outside it.

Much pioneer work has been accomplished, and the foundations for meaningful social change have been laid. Now the challenge is whether this spiritual, activist vision can be sustained and kept growing as a stronger and more influential movement in the medium and long-term. As our visionary leader grows older, more and more responsibility falls on the younger leaders and NGO’s he has so carefully nurtured over the last thirty years.


More at: https://sivaraksa.wordpress.com/about/

Sulak Sivaraksa


Sulak Sivaraksa, born 1933, is a prominent and outspoken Thai intellectual and social critic. He is a teacher, a scholar, a publisher, an activist, the founder of many organisations, and the author of more than a hundred books and monographs in both Thai and English.

Sulak’s life and times

Educated in England and Wales, Sulak returned to Siam in 1961 at the age of 28 and founded Sangkhomsaat Paritat (Social Science Review). This became Siam’s foremost intellectual magazine, dealing with numerous political and social issues during the time of the military dictatorship. Sulak’s work editing Sangkhomsaat Paritat led him to become interested in grassroots issues. He learned that to truly serve society, one must stay in touch with the poor people. Beginning in the late 1960s he became involved in a number of service-oriented, rural development projects, in association with Buddhist monks and the student activist community.

During the 1970s Sulak became the central figure in a number of non-governmental organisations in Siam. These include the Komol Keemthong Foundation (named for a young teacher killed in 1971), the Pridi Banomyong Institute (named for the father of Thai democracy), the Slum Childcare Foundation, the Co-ordinating Group for Religion and Society, the Thai Inter-Religious Commission for Development and Santi Pracha Dhamma Institute. Through his involvement with these organisations, Sulak began to develop indigenous, sustainable, and spiritual models for change. Since then he has expanded his work to the regional and international levels. He has co-founded the Asian Cultural Forum on Development and the International Network of Engaged Buddhists.

Lese majeste indictment proceeds against Sulak for King Naresuan comments
October 10, 2017 01:00 By THE NATION


POLICE YESTERDAY decided to proceed with the indictment of noted social critic Sulak Sivaraksa for allegedly violating the lese majeste law when he questioned whether King Naresuan’s famous elephant battle during the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 16th century actually occurred.

The decision came after almost three years of investigation as the intellectual was brought yesterday to meet prosecutors at the Bangkok Military Court.  Police charged Sulak with lese majeste days after he questioned the historical accuracy of King Naresuan’s heroic elephant battle in an academic seminar on October 5, 2014. The duel, in which the late King is said have been victorious over Burmese Crown Prince Mingyi Swa, is often regarded in Thai mainstream history as a momentous victory that freed Ayutthaya from Burmese rule.  King Naresuan the Great, recognised as an icon of emancipation, is highly revered by ordinary people and the military. The Thai Armed Forces regard January 18 as Thai Military Day to commemorate the victory, although the story is not related to modern-day military affairs.   Sulak made comments relating to the battle that differed from the mainstream narratives, prompting two Army Lt-Generals to file charges against him with the police for violating lese majeste on October 16, 2014.

The lese majeste law, according to Article 112 of the Penal Code, reads: “Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent shall be punished with imprisonment of three to 15 years.” Sulak was yesterday escorted to military prosecutors, who will have the final say on whether to issue a prosecution order against him. He is due to hear the decision on December 7.

Daniel Hurst
October 10 2017, 12:01am, The Times



Sulak Sivaraksa has been charged because he questioned the account of King Naresuan’s battle with a Burmese prince in 1593 SAKCHAI LALIT/AP


He is 85 years old and uses a walking stick, but Sulak Sivaraksa is the latest person to face a lengthy jail term under Thailand’s strict law against offending the monarchy â€" or at least a king who died centuries ago.

Mr Sulak’s lawyer said that the case would test whether Thailand’s tough lèse-majesté laws protect historic members of the royal family. Mr Sulak was charged yesterday because he questioned the account of King Naresuan’s battle with a Burmese prince in 1593. The king is said to have won a duel fought on elephant-back.

However, there is a palpable upbeat ambience of resiliency - with all seemingly doing their best to move forward beyond the disasters of the past.

And the island and the people continue to exude enviable simplicity and serenity, despite the harsh challenges of nature in the not so distant past. Is this the Boholanos' expression of their  continuing gratitude and unwavering faith in God , His beautiful and bountiful nature, and His continuing grace and care for all?

This remains an ardent prayer for Bohol - for the province and people not to lose their simplicity and serenity - not to lose their beautiful, bountiful natural environment despite aggressive tourism.

Panglao is developing more and more for foreigners. We pray Boholanos will not allow unregulated tourism and immediate profits to rob the island and the Boholanos of their beautiful nature, their proud historical legacy, and their strong faith in God that has allowed them to remain wonderfully simple and serene through the years.

May the Boholanos preserve and sustain their beautiful and bountiful nature that has allowed them in the past and has continued to allow them still to go through life with refreshing simplicity, quiet peace, and strong faith.


cballescas@yahoo.com.

One is still treated to experience seeing rice grains and copra being dried along the roads. Instant stalls appear showcasing newly caught, fresh fish for kinilaw and tua lovers. Oh, there is the fresh sea urchin as well!

We are not sure if Bohol is still a predominantly out-migration area. Despite its natural beauty and bounty, in the past, many left for higher education and better professions. More left to look for work and money to send to their families back home. Boholanos are known to flock back home for fiestas - especially during the merry month of May - a happy reunion time for families and friends from all over the Philippines and the world.

Why the out-migration? Much of the island's lands were sadly not owned by the tillers. Businesses were also not controlled by native Boholanos. How we wish the situation has changed favorably for the tenants and the rest of the hardworking Boholanos.

Resilience is another beautiful quality shared by Boholanos with those affected by disasters. While the flattened churches await restoration, the religious Boholanos continue their worship and devotion in temporary, makeshift structures. Depending on their financial capacity, social capital and network, one observes disaster-affected units completely or partially restored or still awaiting repair and reconstruction. Loon town still has a number of observable remnants of the destructive earthquake. Certain roads and bridges, especially in the Calape area and between Tubigon and Tagbilaran are still under repair.

PERSPECTIVE
By Cherry Ballescas (The Freeman) | Updated August 13, 2015 - 12:00am


Bohol is an island province that is naturally beautiful. Filipinos and foreigners have been treated to meet the famous, lovable tarsiers, view the unique chocolate hills, enter cool caves, enjoy the beautiful beaches and river cruises, play and pose with butterflies, search for fireflies, and more.

Bohol is also abundantly blessed. The deep blue Visayan Sea and the numerous rivers continue to supply fresh fish and other marine products. The vast, green fields are not only beautiful green carpets to behold. Bohol rice has been added to Bohol fish among the island's products sold in Cebu and elsewhere. There are the native chocolate or tableya, the delicious kinampay or bohol ube, the calamay, peanut kisses, ginamos, native coconut vinegar, the chicharon, torta - the list can go on and on and on!

No wonder, many Spanish friars decided to build huge churches all over this naturally beautiful and resource rich-province.

Bohol is also proud of heroes who fought for independence against the colonizers. With a President and prominent politicians in national positions, the "republic of Bohol" and the Boholanos have so much to be proud of.

Yet, this island and the people exude so much refreshing simplicity and serenity - it is such a restful paradise ever ready to soothe those with weary bodies and hearts.

DAHON SA SAGING


Ang dahon sa saging gikan sa langit
Aron sa mga pobre kini magamit
Kung kusog ang ulan pwede kini ipandong
Labi na sa estudyanteng way ikapalit ug payong

Kung sa halayong dapit kinahanglan ka mag balon
Dahon sa saging maoy iputos sa bulad ug kan-on
Magamit sab kini nga putos sa bod-bod
Aron nga molig-on sa kalayo kini ihawob

Dahon sa saging magamit sab nga plato
Paboritong gamiton sa budol-budol sa mga sundalo
Gigamit na sab kini sa mga sosyal nga restawran
Maoy himoon nga hapin sa plato ug sud-an

Dahon sa saging daghan gyud ug gamit
Sa klase-klase nga linuto ug mga painit
Ug kung ikaw nahibalo ug mituo niini
Tima-ilhan kana nga ikaw anak gyud sa pobre. Bow!

By: Jun Abines


http://mgabalakbisaya.blogspot.com/

The Automobile
by Russell Edson


A man had just married an automobile.

    But I mean to say, said his father, that the automobile is not a person because it is something different.

    For instance, compare it to your mother.  Do you see how it is different from your mother?  Somehow it seems wider, doesn't it?  And besides, your mother wears her hair differently.

    You ought to try to find something in the world that looks like mother.

    I have mother, isn't that enough that looks like mother?  Do I have to gather more mothers?

    They are all old ladies who do not in the least excite any wish to procreate, said the son.

    But you cannot procreate with an automobile, said father.

    The son shows father an ignition key.  See, here is a special penis which does with the automobile as the man with the woman; and the automobile gives birth to a place far from this place, dropping its puppy miles as it goes.

    Does that make me a grandfather? said father.

    That makes you where you are when I am far away, said the son.

    Father and mother watch an automobile with a just married sign on it growing smaller in a road.

B. Character of Christ as seen in Him humanity

Vs. 18

“He hungered”

His miracles always showed His two natures- His humanity and His deity. You could see this when He was asleep in the boat when the storm overcame them. He is awaken by the fearful disciples. He stood up and rebuked the winds and waves. The wind was silent. The waves left likened unto a whipped puppy dog with his tail between his legs. Is it any wonder that the disciples said in the fear of the Lord! Mark 4:41

“And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

You can see this perfectly illustrated at the grave of Lazarus. We see those precious words recorded in John 11:35 “Jesus wept.” He is touched the feelings of our infirmities yet without sin. He did not weep because He was powerless over the situation. Raising Lazarus was no great feat for Him. He created man. He knew what man was without the breath of life. He created the smell of death. When He called Lazarus to come forth, Lazarus did just that. The two-fold testimony of Christ is seen over and over all.

Why did He choose the fig tree? He could have chosen another tree but they were not fruit trees. An oak, a cedar or a palm would not have taken care of his present problem. He was hungry. Our Lord was at a tree that was advertising that it had what would take care of His hunger.

2 Corinthians 5:10

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”

The words that I believe most people would like to hear and this includes myself are the words recorded in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25 and verse 21 which says “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

Some people and in fact most of humanity will stand before Him at the Great White Throne Judgment. Let me read a passage that pertains to this. Since this is not my topic (Great White Throne Judgment), I will let the scriptures speak for themselves. Revelation 20:10-15

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

I. THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST

Nothing disgraces the character of Christ. Malachi 3:6 tells us “”For I am the Lord, I change not.” The writer of Hebrews echoes this call with these words ”Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13: If nothing disgraced Him in eternity past, surely nothing could disgraced Him on this day either.

A. Character of Christ as seen in His judgments

Isaiah 28:21

“For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.”

Brother Forester said that judgment is God’s strange work; He loves to bless.

Through all the Gospels, one theme seems to run true. He was moved with compassion or He was showing mercy. He showed mercy upon the demons when He allowed them to enter the swine. But He was showing compassion upon the man who they lived in previously. He knew this man’s life. It had been one of pain, peril and perverseness. He had compassion when the man came to Him and wanted help. We do not why he was infested with demons but at least he came to the right source for deliverance. (I will go in more detail on this man next week.)

He is showing mercy and compassion in that He chose a soulless tree to execute His judgment. He had all right to judgment upon people many times. He had done so in Luke 9 when the Samaritan people refused to allow Him in their village.

This miracle was performed that man might not lose sight of His judicial character. One day, He will be the judge of all. Many have lose sight of this very fact. This includes believers. They have forgotten that they will one day they will stand before Him. It will not be the question of salvation. It will be to answer for their life since they were saved. One of the key areas will be in the area of faithfulness.

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/fig-tree-cursed-john-walls-sermon-on-christian-disciplines-39570


Matthew 21:18-20

Introduction: This parable stays alone in the midst of the thirty-seven miracles of Christ as recorded in the Bible. We know that John 21:25 tells us that if all that if all that Jesus had done would have been written down, the world could not contain all the books. So we know that Christ did more than thirty-seven miracles.

The reason why this miracle stands alone is it is the only one recorded of a destructive nature. Critics of Christ point to this miracle and try to criticize Christ saying He acted impulsive and showed impatience when He cursed this tree. They overlook several key facts.

1. They are acknowledging that He had the power to wither the tree. In their acknowledgement, they actually caused us to look up to Him and His power.

2. Every action of Christ was deliberate. He never acted out of impulse. That would have made been Him weak, out of control and very much a sinful human.

3. All His action set forth as an example or a truth that we must learn. As like the other messages I have preached on Bible Miracles A-Z, I will do my best to show practical applications to vital Christian living.

Tokhangonon ning mga bataa...

Humba na pood...

AMLC papers stolen

The President said the purported AMLC documents in the Office of the Ombudsman’s possession could not be used as evidence in court because these were  “stolen” by an “Abad” from the council.

He did not know Abad’s first name, he said, when asked if he was referring to former AMLC Executive Director Julia Bacay-Abad.

He said Abad, who he alleged was Trillanes’ mistress, supposedly gave to the senator the documents she had stolen. The senator denied any romantic relationship with Abad.

“She gave it to Trillanes, (who) gave it to [Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao Rodolfo] Elman, the Ombudsman for Mindanao because I’m a resident there in Mindanao, then gave it to Morales. Now they’re all washing their hands of it, including Elman,” he said.

‘No clearance’

Mr. Duterte said Morales had no “AMLC clearance” and should not have entered into the situation, especially since the evidence was “illegally obtained.”

Anything that was improperly obtained could not be used as evidence, he said. Even if authentic documents are released, these would not be of any use, he added.

“The problem is, even if the central bank releases authentic ones, I will say, ‘those are the fruits of the poisonous tree,’” he said.

“You knew about that account that was stolen and made it public. Therefore, you cannot use it in any other proceeding, even if it’s real. It’s of no use because you have an official who is the Ombudsman who is part of the fabrication and the use of falsified documents,” he added.

In the House of Representatives, the Makabayan bloc told Mr. Duterte to “back off” and leave Morales alone.

The group slammed the President for “vilifying and intimidating” the Office of the Ombudsman from its constitutional mandate to investigate the alleged hidden and ill-gotten wealth of the President. â€"With reports from DJ Yap and Christine O. Avendaño


http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/

‘Part of conspiracy’

“We will file an impeachment case against her and I would tend to believe she was part of the conspiracy, the fabricated papers,” Mr. Duterte told reporters.

Mr. Duterte accused Morales and Sereno of working with his archcritic, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who has accused Mr. Duterte of racking up more than P2 billion in bank transactions from 2006 to 2015.

Asked how he would respond to the impression that his moves against the Ombudsman and the Chief Justice could be seen as an attack on the government’s checks and balance system, the President said he was retaliating for the women’s supposed actions against him.

“They did it first,” he said. “I did not start this ruckus. I was quiet. The problem is they allowed Trillanes to rope them in. It’s Trillanes who will bring this country down to the dogs.”

The Office of the Ombudsman’s fact-finding probe of the Duterte family’s bank transactions was based on a complaint filed by Trillanes.

In a privilege speech on Tuesday, Trillanes said the AMLC had flagged the President’s transactions in 2006-2015. More than P50 million went into Mr. Duterte’s bank accounts 13 times during the period, according to the senator.

The President has denied Trillanes’ allegations.

“I said, in the end, to their sorrow, they would discover that there’s no such thing as that amount,” he said.

Mr. Duterte said he would resign if anyone could  find more than P40 million in his account with Land Bank of the Philippines.

The accounts of Mr. Duterte that Trillanes was referring to, however, were those with Bank of the Philippine Islands and Banco de Oro.

The President’s latest attack on Ombudsman Morales came after she refused to back down on her agency’s probe of Mr. Duterte and his family’s bank transactions before he won the presidency.

The President also claimed there was an alliance between the Left and the “yellows” to oust him from power.

“They want me removed from Malacañang,” said Mr. Duterte. Malacañang earlier accused Morales and Sereno of being  part of a plot to oust the President.

Mr. Duterte said he would file the impeachment case against Morales for practicing selective justice and for using falsified evidence, referring to the purported Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) documents in the antigraft agency’s possession.

By: Leila B. Salaverria - Reporter / @LeilasINQPhilippine Daily Inquirer / 07:00 AM October 05, 2017


Stepping up his attack on the country’s chief graft buster, President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said he wanted Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales impeached.

At the same time, Mr. Duterte said he wanted to file a new impeachment case against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno for failing to declare her earnings from the Piatco case in her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth, for using luxury cars and for staying in hotel suites.

There is already a pending impeachment complaint against Sereno in the House of Representatives.

Psychopathy and suicidal behavior

As investigators seek deeper insight into what could explain the attack, perhaps the most intriguing background on Paddock goes way back: His father was a notorious bank robber once on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, classified by the bureau in 1969 as a dangerous psychopath with suicidal tendencies. (Suicidal behavior is also common among mass shootersâ€"a majority take their own lives, as Paddock did.) According to threat assessment expert Dr. Reid Meloy, research indicates that psychopathic traits can be inherited, and that this is more likely to happen the more severe the trait. That condition “wouldn’t explain specifics of the act,” says Meloy, “but may explain the detachment and cruelty to carry out such an act.”

Evidence may yet emerge as to what was going on inside Paddock’s mind as he plotted his slaughter. It was without a doubt a hideous and evil act, and it was hardly inexplicable.

Did he signal his intentions?

In the initial aftermath, most media outlets ran with Eric Paddock’s comments that the family, mostly estranged from Stephen, had no inkling that he might commit a violent crime. This is a very familiar trope in mass shootings. What the surprise among family members or neighbors about a perpetrator “snapping” really tends to mean is that “they didn’t know what was going on in his life that led up to it,” says Dr. Russell Palarea, a Washington, DC-based threat assessment professional. In some cases that can include what experts refer to as a “triggering event”â€"being fired from a job, getting served with a restraining order, or experiencing some other negative life development that can set a potentially dangerous person’s plan into motion.

A thorough investigative process is critical to understanding what happened, says Palarea: “He may have amassed his arsenal with the specific intent of carrying out this devastating attack. Or, he may have been collecting firearms as an aficionado and had no perceived grievance, motivation, or need for notoriety back then. The shift could be more recent. What’s needed is a timeline of his behaviors.”

Forensic research shows that most mass shooters express their intentions before they strike, most often to a third partyâ€"a concept known as “leakage.” Data from Paddock’s computers and phone could shed light, as could his girlfriend of several years, Marilou Danley, a 62-year-old native of the Philippines who worked as a casino hostess. Authorities confirmed Danley was overseas when the massacre took place and returned Tuesday night to the United States to speak with investigators. (Some signs began to emerge on Tuesday that Paddock might have been abusive toward Danley; a history of domestic violence is common among mass shooters. Paddock’s two ex-wives have so far declined to talk to the press.)

Obsession with military-style weapons

Eric Paddock, a brother of the perpetrator who lives in Florida, told reporters that he and his family were “shocked” and “horrified” by the news, and said that Stephen Paddock was “not an avid gun guy.” Clearly he was misinformed. Authorities found a cache of 19 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and explosives material at Stephen Paddock’s residence in Mesquite, Nevada, about 80 miles from Las Vegas, and additional guns at a home he owned in Reno. Many of the 47 weapons found in total were purchased legally through gun sellers in Nevada, Utah, California, and Texas. Paddock had no military background, but his weapons and tacticsâ€"including 12 rifles modified with legal “bump stocks” allowing them to fire at a rate similar to fully automatic weaponsâ€"bore hallmarks of a plan designed for killing en masse.

Threat assessment experts have documented many cases where mass shooters cultivated a “pseudocommando” imageâ€"attackers who were obsessed with military-style weapons and paraphernalia and aspired to a “warrior mentality.” Whether Paddock ever voiced such interest is unclear, but his preparations and arsenal are an unambiguous measure of it.

The pathway to violence

Coined by pioneers of the evolving field of threat assessment, the “pathway to violence” refers to a series of escalating behaviors leading to an attack, which can comprise a crucial period of time for possible intervention. Typically this process begins with a deep-seated grievance that turns to motivation, followed by planning and then an act of targeted violence. Though the process varies widely in its circumstances and duration, it precedes virtually all mass shootings.

According to police, Paddock arrived at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino three days prior to firing a deluge of bullets from his 32nd floor luxury suite. Over those three days he brought as many as 10 suitcases into the suite, presumably transporting his arsenal of nearly two dozen firearms (mostly assault rifles), ammunition, and accessories, including rifle scopes and tripods. Paddock also installed surveillance cameras inside and outside the room. And he used multiple rifles to conduct the attack from two windows he smashed out with a hammer.

The overall setup was “pretty sophisticated,” as one law enforcement official familiar with the investigation described it to me. Prior to Paddock’s three days at the hotel, this official said, Paddock likely undertook “days or weeks of planning, if not longer.” He may also have considered targeting another music festival the previous weekend. This was not the behavior of a person who had just “snapped.”

Sunday’s massacre resulted in the highest injury and death toll of any mass shooting in modern US history. As with most of these attacks, untangling motive can be quite complicated. That certainly is the case with Paddock, a former government worker, accountant, and itinerant high-stakes gambler whose personal background was a mysteriously blank slate in an initial wave of media reports.

But if determining why a mass shooter struck can be elusive, documenting how he cultivated and carried out his plansâ€"and how insights into those behavioral patterns can help prevent other attacksâ€"is a different story. Calling Paddock a “crazed lunatic full of hate,” as the Las Vegas mayor did, or “a very, very sick individual,” as President Donald Trump did, may offer some catharsis. But it isn’t very helpful for understanding such crimes. (This kind of language can also perpetuate a dangerous stigma against mentally ill people, the vast majority of whom are not violent.)

Here are some of the key details known so far about Paddock’s attackâ€"and, according to law enforcement and behavioral threat assessment experts I’ve spoken with, some of what investigators are scrutinizing to better understand Paddock’s planning and possible motive.

The Las Vegas Shooter Didn’t Just “Snap.” They Never Do.
Here’s what helps explain the meticulously planned massacre.
www.motherjones.com
MARK FOLLMANOCT. 4, 2017 6:00 AM


In the opening monologue to his late-night TV show on Monday, an emotional Jimmy Kimmel channeled what millions of Americans were thinking about the gun massacre on the Las Vegas Strip that killed at least 58 people and injured more than 500 others. Kimmel described it as an inexplicable attack by “a very sick person” with an “insane voice in his head.” On the brink of tears, Kimmel said, “We wonder why, even though there’s probably no way to know why a human being would do something like this.”

It was a powerful moment, and yet these widely shared comments from Kimmel also reinforced a misconception that invariably marks the national discourse in the aftermath of indiscriminate mass shootings: that the perpetrator was severely mentally ill, and somehow just “snapped” and went on a killing spree. Law enforcement investigators and journalists have found no record of mental illness for 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, whom police found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. And as with the vast majority of mass shooters, there is substantial evidence showing that Paddock deliberately planned the massacre over a lengthy period of time and then methodically carried it out.