MikeLigalig.com

He who strongly desires to rise up will think of a way to build a ladder.

There has never been a great individual who did not have ordinary people at their side.

It is better to be the enemy of a good person than the friend of a bad one.

Fast means going slowly without interruption.

naughty, pretty kitty, just because you've had your turn with pope benedict xvi whose affection for cats is well-known, all the way from his childhood...

i insist that it's easier to believe that the webmaster of tubagbohol is an alien from mars than to believe that espinosa and yap were killed because they fired at the police from inside their jail cells.

Time to draw the line

By striking a sharp contrast between his discontents with the US and his fascination with China, DU30 has succeeded in diverting public attention from the nation’s real struggle to the merely sensational one. The real struggle is between a morally righteous society and an amoral or immoral one, between our present democratic and republican Philippine state and the CPP/NPA/NDF’s projected socialist state.

Those who voted for DU30 and who are not communist should now organize themselves into one solid bloc and draw the line between those who want him to succeed as a democratic head of state and those who want him to turn the country into a dull and boring communist one. And they should insist that DU30 consult with and listen to them at all times on what is good and bad, what is just and unjust, what is legal and illegal, what is right and wrong.

excerpted from the manila times
november 4 2016
http://www.manilatimes.net/time-du30s-non-red-supporters-draw-line/294709/

Marcelino P. Escalada Jr., National Housing Authority administrator; full member, CPP;

Ednar Dayanghirang, Administrator, National Commission for Indigenous Peoples; NDF;

Delfin Cabrera, Undersecretary, Office of the Cabinet Undersecretary; elected CPP Central Committee Member at the 12th Plenum in Sariaya, Quezon, in 2008; member, NDF National Council;

Terry Ridon, Chairman, Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor; elected CPP Central Committee Member at the 13th Plenum in Quezon City, 2012.

Liza Maza, chief convenor National Anti-Poverty Commission; elected CPP Central Committee Member at the 10th CPP Plenum in San Miguel, Surigao del Sur in August 1997; former Gabriela party list representative;

Peter Lavina, Undersecretary, Office of the Cabinet Secretary; NDF;

Joel Maglunsod, Undersecretary for Labor Relations, DOLE; elected CCP Central Committee Member at the 10th Plenum in San Miguel, Surigao del Sur in 1997;

Rafael Mariano, Secretary of Agrarian Reform; elected CPP Central Committee Member at the 10th CPP Plenum in San Miguel, Surigao del Sur in August 1997; Anakpawis, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas; Pambansang Kaisahan ng Magbubukid;

Judy Taguiwalo, Secretary of Social Welfare and Development; Chair, Women’s Committee of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers; elected CPP Central Committee at the 9th Plenum in 1985;

Silvestre Bello III, Secretary of Labor; Chief Negotiator, GRP Panel; active National Democrat, Davao;

More communists in office

Seasoned communists are already entrenched in the Cabinet, even without the benefit of a peace agreement, which mandates a coalition government with the CPP/NPA/NDF. Until now, the popular impression in the media is that only four active CPP/NPA/NDF members have been named to sensitive government positions. The latest secret document from highly authoritative sources belies this.

The document claims that the apparently non-ideological Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea is a full member of the CPP.

[Leoncio] Evasco, former priest, former mayor of Maribojoc, Bohol, DU30’s presidential campaign manager, in control of Kilusang Pagbabago and 12 strategic government agencies under his supervision as Cabinet Secretary was elected CPP Central Committee Member at the 8th CPP Plenum at Susung Dalaga in Bicol in 1981;

This is spelled out in the organizing document of Kilusang Pagbabago (Movement for Change), the mass indoctrination movement under Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., which I wrote about in an earlier column and which is now being organized at barangay level throughout the Philippines. The postponement of the barangay elections to October next year will allow DU30 to appoint all the CPP/NPA/NDF barangay officials who will form the base of the Kilusan.

The description seems to fit DU30 to a T. But categorizing him as a dictator or psychoanalyzing him and quoting medical experts to tell us what he really is serves only to hide rather than reveal what he really intends to do to this country. DU30 is in earnest in his effort to turn the Philippines into a socialist state with the help of his closest childhood friends, former classmates, dormitory roommates, fraternity brothers, and political allies, who now compose the inner core of his government. This is what should concern all our people, beginning with his supporters. Where Marcos waged a revolution to turn back the communist movement, DU30 seems determined to lead a socialist revolution.

Time for DU30’s non-Red supporters to draw the line 

BY FRANCISCO TATAD   
NOVEMBER 4, 2016

[...]

A breed of autocrats

In his Financial Times article, Rachman describes DU30 as a president “who came to power through an election but whose swaggering style and scant respect for law is typical of the new breed of autocrats.” He identifies Putin as the leader of this group, to which belong Trump, Xi Jinping, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, India’s Narendra Modi, Japan’s Shinzo Abe, and others. In international diplomacy, these strongmen tend to bypass international institutions and international law and sort things out man-to-man, says the article.

“Career ambassadors are not automatically more capable, effective or intelligent than political appointees, but they do have the compelling, undeniable advantage of experience. They know the rules, the machinery, the players, the procedures, the cultures, the languages, the history, the methodology. In short, they know the work.” -ROMEO Y. LIM, MALAYA, April 27, 2011

As with their original appointment, promotions of FSOs and Career Ministers and appointments as Ambassadors are subject to confirmation by the congressional Commission on Appointments. In the case of political appointees, the CA hopefully will set the bar as high as befits the enormous challenges facing all Philippine ambassadors, career and non-career, in the service of the country and people.

Jaime J. Yambao is a retired career ambassador and currently secretary-general of the Philippine Ambassadors Foundation Inc.

http://www.manilatimes.net/

Why won’t the awarding of ambassadorships as political spoils cause demoralization in the DFA career service? In the first place, the entrance examinations have by no means been made easier. Before there were only the written and oral examinations to worry about. Now, the applicants may be disqualified outright by the Civil Service examination. Those who pass the written and oral tests may flunk the psychological examination.

Because the FSO examinations have been reformed to take on board applicants from a multiplicity of disciplines, newly appointed Foreign Service Officers undergo a specific foreign service cadetship program. They then undergo continuous on-the-job training to meet the changing needs of the country and changing developments in the international environment, including, aside from traditional diplomacy, economic diplomacy, public diplomacy, and serving the worldwide Filipino diaspora overseas. Promotion to every upper rung of the career system is competitive. In recent years, Foreign Service Officers have been required to take a Career Minister examination before they can go to the ultimate rungs and pinnacle of the system.

The law does not prohibit political appointees nor does it prescribe their qualifications. But the growing challenges facing the country’s foreign service are the same for both career and non-career ambassadors and reasonably require of political appointees the same abilities gained by career ambassadors by their qualifications and training.

Political appointees should at the very least meet the same age range requirement. Career ambassadors are subject to a mandatory retirement age of 65. Certain recent appointees are observed to be advanced in age and are even hard of hearing.. This is a dangerous impairment in person-to-person representations and negotiations over complicated or highly nuanced issues, no matter to what post an ambassador is assigned to.

To the great disappointment of the Department of Foreign Affairs career service, the repeal of the Philippine Foreign Service Law set a ratio of career ambassadors to political ambassadors to a majority of one, or a preposterous 51 percent to 49percent! Preposterous because a ratio of 80 percent career to 20percent political had been observed in actual practice before.

Out in the field, career ambassadors obviously enjoy an advantage over non-career ones. They deal with their own kind, career people, all conscious of the truism that in world politics, there are no permanent friends, only permanent interests, but all confident that with their training and common language of diplomacy, they can peacefully resolve differences and come at least to a livable arrangement, and make the most of the friendship and harmony among them for the benefit of their own countries and peoples.

For the US practice is almost unique in the global community. The career ambassador is the norm. James Bruno, in an article “Why does America send so many stupid, unqualified hacks overseas?” in the Internet, calls the US practice “an outmoded system that rivals the patronage practice of banana republics, dictatorships, and two-bit monarchies.” However, the last time I looked, even the ambassadors of developing countries mostly come from the career ranks. This is especially true of the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members.

Career diplomats of the Philippines seem to be involved in an even more uphill struggle for a predominant share of ambassadorial appointments than those of the United States. In the worst of recent United States history, the Obama Administration included, only one-third of ambassadorships went to political ambassadors.

Ambassadorial appointments predicated on election campaign contributions actually reflect the colonial influence of the United States in the Philippines. As might be expected of a former colony, the Philippine Foreign Service is patterned after the best and worst of the US Foreign Service. The better part of it is that the first career diplomats of the Philippines were trained in the US State Department, which did not invariably turn them into “brown Americans” but generally contributed to the making of one of the most prestigious foreign service corps in the developing world. The worst part is the awarding of diplomatic posts as political spoils, and it could only have come from the United States.

But the reasons appear to be more than these. Witness the phenomenal case of one businessman who has secured an ambassadorship under four successive, different administrations. The appointment of a political ambassador is co-terminous with the appointing power. But this particular political appointee, instead of preparing his resignation letter at the end of an administration, launches a campaign of his own to get an ambassadorial appointment from whoever succeeds to the presidency. Political ambassadors plucked from eminent business circles declare themselves “done” after a stint that has meant an enormous financial sacrifice for them. But this is probably not the case with this particular political appointee, for instead, his family business seems to thrive while he is in the foreign service. And how does he manage to get appointed by whoever emerges the winner in an apparently tight election contest? Does he have extrasensory perception (ESP)?

How explain this indiscriminate, amoral hunting for ambassadorial posts?

Could it be the news report not too-long-ago of fabulous allowances enjoyed by our ambassadors that was grossly exaggerated and erroneous? Could it simply be the title “Ambassador,” or the fact that ambassadors like generals carry their title with them the rest of their lives? (Protocol books rule that anyone who was once addressed as “Excellency” may continue to be addressed as such even in retirement.)

One such appointment that has not escaped the notice of the PAFI board involves yanking a career ambassador, a former undersecretary of foreign affairs for policy no less and a topnotcher of the Foreign Service Officers examination, from a post at which he is newly arrived and has just presented his credentials. This is almost unheard of, even in the Philippines. Political appointments have always been to vacant or about-to-be-vacant posts.

The appointment in question has brought jitters to other career ambassadors, making them burn the wires to Manila to find out if they are secure in their assignments. The apprehension seems to be general, given the indications that would-be political appointees are targeting not just the reputedly cushy posts such as the aforementioned one but any and all ambassadorships, the remotest and so-called hardship posts not excepted.

On awarding ambassadorial posts as political spoils


BY JAIME J. YAMBAO      

NOVEMBER 5, 2016

Through the “Ambassadors Corner,” the Board of Governors of the Philippine Ambassadors Foundation Inc. (PAFI) at its last meeting resolved to express its alarm and concern over the demoralization in the ranks of career ambassadors caused by the announced and probable appointment of political ambassadors to the country’s diplomatic and consular posts abroad.

While PAFI also includes, aside from career ambassadors, retired non-career ambassadors in its membership, it values the experience gained by both in the foreign service, and is committed to promoting and upholding the professionalization of the service for the effective pursuit of the interests of the country and its people. The board therefore deplores the appointment of non-career ambassadors on the basis of contributions the prospective appointee made to the election campaign kitty of the appointing power or powers, or upon the recommendation of campaign contributors and supporters.

Nala




http://earthables.com/

Herman

Athena

Teddy

Raider

Biggie Smalls

Yuki

Lana

Rocco

i swear hubag drew those mystical signs on me.

Battle over Soce. The third is the petition of Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to reverse the Comelec resolution that, by a 4-3 vote, extended the deadline for filing the statement of contributions and expenses (Soce) of political parties and candidates from June 8 to June 30.

Under Republic Act No. 7166, a candidate who fails to file his or her Soce within the prescribed period, whether as a late filer or as a nonfiler, will be fined and/or barred from “enter[ing] upon the duties of his office until he has filed” the required Soce. In either or both instances, the additional penalty of “perpetual disqualification to hold public office” will be imposed on a repeat offender.

Political parties which failed to file their Soce within the prescribed period are also liable to pay a similar fine. Further, and here is the kicker, Sec. 14 of RA 7166 prescribes an additional penalty, worded as follows: “The same prohibition shall apply if the political party which nominated the winning candidate fails to file” the Soce “within the period prescribed by this Act.”

Unquestionably, the Liberal Party filed its Soce only during the extension granted by the Comelec, not within the period prescribed by the Act. Ergo, the Marcos partisans claim, Robredo (and all other LP-affiliated senators, congressmen and other winners) should be disqualified perpetually, even though she timely filed her Soce as a candidate, and Bongbong should replace her pronto as vice president.

This claim is a major leap in law and logic, and deserves a column in the future. Meanwhile, readers may want to look at my piece titled “Soce extension abets impunity” (6/19/16).

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

Battle over alleged fraud. The second is the election protest lodged by Bongbong Marcos in the Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, against Leni Robredo who beat him by a thin margin of 250,000 votes.

Alleging fraud, he protested the results in 39,221 clustered precincts spread in 25 provinces and five cities. He also denounced Smartmatic, which leased the vote-counting machines to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), for introducing a new hash code into the transparency server, which allegedly caused unauthorized changes in the vote count. The criminal aspect of this latter point was dismissed recently by the Manila Prosecutors Office. This dismissal is appealable.

Historically, no one has succeeded in unseating the proclaimed winner in the past presidential and vice-presidential races. The election protest of the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago in 1992 against President Fidel V. Ramos was dismissed for mootness after she ran and won as senator in 1995. Likewise, the protest of Mar Roxas in 2010 against Vice President Jejomar Binay was dismissed after he ran in the 2016 presidential election.

Conclusion: Regardless of the merit or demerit of the election protest, Bongbong has no immediate prospect of replacing Robredo as vice president via this tedious route.

Battle over burial. The first case involves several petitions to ban the burial of the former president’s remains in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. They rest on the unwritten yet underlying spirit animating the 1987 Constitution: His ouster by a direct act of the people shows his unworthiness to be honored in a cemetery that, by its very name, is reserved only for heroes.

In contrast, the opposing camp calls upon the plain letter of the law that allows the interment of presidents and soldiers without distinction on whether they were heroes or not. Dura lex sed lex, so they argue.

The Court issued a status quo ante order until Oct. 18, which was extended to Nov. 8. Definitely, the justices will be divided. Will they ultimately decide liberally or literally? We should know two days from now.

3 Marcos cases to watch

By: Artemio V. Panganiban
Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 06, 2016

Worth watching are three Supreme Court cases that may change our political landscape. One may usher in the rehabilitation and glamorization of the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos, while two others may catapult Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to the vice presidency and eventually to the presidency. Or so his partisans hope.

the marcos couple did that too.

Law 5: So Much Depends on Reputation â€" Guard it with your Life



Why is Reputation Important?

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. In the social realm, appearances are the barometer of almost all our judgments. Your reputation will protect you in the dangerous game of appearances, distracting the probing eyes of others from knowing what you are really like, and giving you a degree of control over how the world judges you â€" a powerful position to be in.

A strong reputation increases your presence and exaggerates your strengths without you having to spend much energy. It can also create an aura around you that will instill respect, even fear. In the fighting in the North African desert during World War II, the German general Erwin Rommel had a reputation for cunning and deceptive maneuvering that struck terror into everyone who faced him. Even when his forces were depleted and the British tanks outnumbered his by five to one, entire cities would be evacuated at the news of his approach. As they say, your reputation inevitably precedes you, and if it inspires respect, a lot of your work is done for you before you arrive on the scene, or utter a single word.

During China’s War of the Three Kingdoms (A.D.207-265), General Liang was able to fool his rival Sima Yisimply by letting his track record for being an undefeated leader in battle do the work for him. Liang’s troops were far outnumbered by Sima Yi’s, yet he devised a clever last resort plan. Liang donned a Taoist robe and played the lute upon the wall of the city he was defending. His soldiers opened the gates and hid. When Sima Yi’s troops advanced upon the unguarded city, Yi recognized his opponent sitting alone upon the wall. Fearing a trap, Sima Yi called his soldiers to retreat.

How To Build A Reputation

In the beginning, you must work to establish a reputation for one outstanding quality, whether generosity or honesty or cunning. This quality sets you apart and gets other people to talk about you. You then make your reputation known to as many people as possible (subtly, though; take care to build slowly, and with a firm foundation), and watch as it spreads like wildfire. Reputation is a treasure to be carefully collected and hoarded. Especially when you are first establishing it, you must protect it strictly, anticipating all attacks on it.

Make your reputation simple and base it on one sterling quality. This single qualityâ€"efficiency, say, or seductivenessâ€"becomes a kind of calling card that announces your presence and places others under a spell. A reputation for honesty will allow you to practice all manner of deception. Casanova used his reputation as a great seducer to pave the way for his future conquests; women who had heard of his powers became immensely curious, and wanted to discover for themselves what had made him so romantically successful.

4 Ways To Safe-Guard And Grow Your Reputation

1. Never appear desperate in your self-defense against the slander of others
Do not let yourself get angry or defensive at the slanderous comments of your enemies, it reveals insecurity, not confidence in your reputation. Take the high road instead, and never appear desperate in your self-defense.

2. Sow doubt and spread rumors about your rival

An attack on another man's reputation is a potent weapon, particularly when you have less power than he does. He has much more to lose in such a battle, and your own thus-far-small reputation gives him a small target when he tries to return your fire.

P.T. Barnum used such campaigns to great effect in his early career. But this tactic must be practiced with skill; you must not seem to engage in petty vengeance. If you do not break your enemy's reputation cleverly, you will inadvertently ruin your own. Even if they vehemently deny it, people will still be wondering why they are so defensive. Barnum used this tactics to ruin his competition's Peale's reputation by sowing doubts about Peale's museum stability and solvency. Doubt is a powerful weapon: Once you let it out of the bag with insidious rumors, your opponents are in a horrible dilemma. On the one hand they can deny the rumors, even prove that you have slandered them. But a layer of suspicion will remain: Why are they defending themselves so desperately? Maybe the rumor has some truth to it? If, on the other hand, they take the high road and ignore you, the doubts, unrequited, will be even stronger. If done correctly, the sowing of rumors can so infuriate and unsettle your rivals that in defending themselves they will make numerous mistakes. This is the perfect weapon for those who have no reputation of their own to work from.

3. If you go too far in attacking another’s reputation, it draws more attention to your wrongfulness than to the person you are slandering.

Thomas Edison, considered the inventor who harnessed electricity, believed that a workable system would have to be based on direct current (DC). When the Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla appeared to have succeeded in creating a system based on alternating current (AC), Edison was furious. He determined to ruin Tesla's reputation, by making the public believe that the AC system was inherently unsafe, and Tesla irresponsible in promoting it. To this end he captured all kinds of household pets and electrocuted them to death with an AC current. When this wasn't enough, in 1890 he got New York State prison authorities to organize the world's first execution by electrocution, using an AC current. But Edison's electrocution experiments had all been with small creatures; the charge was too weak, and the man was only half killed. In perhaps the country's crudest state-authorized execution, the procedure had to be repeated. It was an awful spectacle. Although, in the long run, it is Edison's name that has survived, at the time his campaign damaged his own reputation more than Tesla's. He backed off. The lesson is simpleâ€"never go too far in attacks like these, for that will draw more attention to your own wrongfulness than to the person you are slandering.

4. Use humor or gentle mockery at your rival’s expense

When your own reputation is solid, use subtler tactics, such as satire and ridicule, to weaken your opponent while making you out as a charming rogue. The mighty lion toys with the mouse that crosses his pathâ€"any other reaction would mar his fearsome reputation. Once Barnum did have a reputation of his own, he used the fake hypnotism demonstration: He ridiculed his rival Peale's reputation. He was extremely successful. Once you have a solid base of respect, ridiculing your opponent puts him on the defensive and draws more attention to you, enhancing your own reputation. Outright slander and insult are too strong at this point; they are ugly, and may hurt you more than help you. But gentle humor and mockery suggest that you have a strong enough sense of your own worth to enjoy a good laugh at your rival's expense. A humorous front can make you out as a harmless entertainer while poking holes in the reputation of your rival.

How To Improve A Bad Reputation

Perhaps you have already stained your reputation, so that you are prevented from establishing a new one. In such cases it is wise to associate with someone whose image counteracts your own, using their good name to whitewash and elevate yours. It is hard, for example, to erase a reputation for dishonesty by yourself; but a paragon of honesty can help. When P. T. Barnum wanted to clean up a reputation for promoting vulgar entertainment, he brought the singer Jenny Lind over from Europe. She had a stellar, high-class reputation, and the American tour Barnum sponsored for her greatly enhanced his own image. Similarly the great robber barons of nineteenth-century America were long unable to rid themselves of a reputation for cruelty and mean-spirit. Only when they began collecting art, so that the names of Morgan and Frick became permanently associated with those of da Vinci and Rembrandt, were they able to soften their unpleasant image.

Law 4: Always Say Less than Necessary



There are times when it is unwise to be silent. Silence can arouse suspicion and even insecurity, especially in your superiors; a vague or ambiguous comment can open you up to interpretations you had not bargained for. Silence and saying less than necessary must be practiced with caution, then, and in the right situations. Let us take a look at 6 ways to exert more power by practicing listening.

1. Make People Reveal More About Themselves

Speaking less will make people reveal more about themselves. This is information you may be able to use against them later on. Your short answers and silences will put them on the defensive, and they will jump in, nervously filling the silence with all kinds of comments that will reveal valuable information about them and their weaknesses. The longer you listen, the more others move their lips and teeth. As they move their lips and teeth, you can thereby understand their real intentions.

2. People Listen/Interpret Your Every Word Carefully

Speaking Less will force people to listen/interpret your every word carefully. Your silence will make other people uncomfortable. Humans are machines of interpretation and explanation; they have to know what you are thinking. When you carefully control what you reveal, they cannot pierce your intentions or your meaning. They will leave a meeting with and they will go home and ponder your every word. This extra attention to your brief comments will only add to your power. Masters of enigma Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp knew the power of saying less and keeping people guessing. The less Duchamp talked about his work, the more it was talked about in the art circles. Andy Warhol recognized it was hard to talk people into doing what you wanted, so when interviewed, he would give vague and ambiguous answers and let the interviewer find his own interpretation.

3. Once The Words Are Out, You Cannot Take Them Back

Keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm: The momentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be outweighed by the price you pay.

4. The More You Say, The More Common You Appear

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control.  Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.

5. Saying Less Will Keep You From Saying Something Foolish or Even Dangerous.

Around 454 B.C, Coriolanus was a great military hero of ancient Rome. People held him in awe. He decided to run for senate and he spoke his mind, hardly able to control his arrogance and boastfulness. He slandered and insulted people. The more speeches he made, the less people respected him. He suffered the people’s wrath and was eventually banished from the city.

6. People Will Not Deceive You As They Will Never Know Your Position

Louis XIV was a man of very few words. His infamous "I shall see" was one of several extremely short phrases that he would apply to all manner of requests. Louis was not always this way; as a young man he was known for talking at length, delighting in his own eloquence. His later taciturnity was self-imposed, an act, a mask he used to keep everybody below him off-balance. No one knew exactly where he stood, or could predict his reactions. No one could try to deceive him by saying what they thought he wanted to hear, because no one knew what he wanted to hear. As they talked on and on to the silent Louis, they revealed more and more about themselves, information he would later use against them to great effect. In the end, Louis's silence kept those around him terrified and under his thumb. It was one of the foundations of his power.

As Saint-Simon wrote, "No one knew as well as he how to sell his words, his smile, even his glances. Everything in him was valuable because he created differences, and his majesty was enhanced by the sparseness of his words."

Saying less than necessary is not for kings and statesmen only. In most areas of life, the less you say, the more profound and mysterious you appear. By saying less than necessary you create the appearance of meaning and power. Also, the less you say, the less risk you run of saying something foolish, even dangerous.

10. Information About Your Current Job or Work-related Projects

Talking about work-related things on social networks is a bad idea. Even an innocent status update about how mad you are about missing a deadline on a project could provide valuable information to your competitors that they could leverage against your company.

Does your company have a security awareness training program to help educate users about threats such as these? If not, check out How to Create a Security Awareness Training Program (https://www.lifewire.com/create-an-effective-security-awareness-training-program-2487717) to learn how to develop one.

https://www.lifewire.com/

9. Embarrassing Things You Wouldn't Want Shared With Your Employer or Family

Before you post anything online, think to yourself, would I want my boss or family to see this? If not, don't post it. Even if you post something and delete it, doesn't mean that someone didn't take a screenshot of it before you had the chance to remove it.

For more tips on this topic check out our article:(How to Monitor and Protect Your Online Reputation, https://www.lifewire.com/protect-your-online-reputation-2487159)

8. Vacation Plans

"Hey, I'm going to be on vacation on the 25th of August, please come rob me", that's basically what you're saying to social network trolling criminals when you post your vacation plans, vacation photos, and when you location tag yourself while you're still on vacation. Wait until you are safely home before uploading your vacation pics or talking about your vacation online. Is "checking in" at that fancy restaurant really worth giving up your location information to potential criminals?

Check out our article on How to Disable Facebook Places Location Tracking for tips on how to avoid accidentally checking in somewhere. (https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-disable-facebook-places-location-tracking-2487718)

7. Pictures With Geotags

There's no better road map to your current location than a geotagged picture. Your phone might be recording the location of all pictures you take without you even knowing it.

To find out more about why geotags aren't necessarily as cool as you thought they were and to learn how to nix them from your pix, check out our article on How to Remove Geotags from Pictures (https://www.lifewire.com/remove-geotags-from-pictures-taken-with-your-iphone-2487322).

6. Your Relationship Status

Want to give your stalker the green light they've been waiting for while simultaneously letting them know that your more likely to be home alone?

Posting your relationship status is the surest way to accomplish this. If you want to be mysterious, just say "It's Complicated".

5. Your Real Phone Number

While you may want your friends to be able to contact you, what if your real phone number falls into the wrong hands. It's possible that your location could be narrowed down by someone using a reverse phone number lookup tool which are freely available on the Internet.

An easy way to allow people to contact you by phone without giving them your real phone number is by using a Google Voice phone number as a go-between. Check out our article on How to Use Google Voice as a Privacy Firewall for full details. (https://www.lifewire.com/turn-google-voice-into-your-own-private-bouncer-receptionist-2487395)

4. Your Home Address

Again, you never know who might be looking at your profile. Don't post where you live as you are making things easy for the bad guys. What can criminals do with your address? Check out our article on How Criminals Use Google Maps to 'Case the Joint' to find out. (https://www.lifewire.com/how-criminals-use-google-maps-street-view-2487485

3. Pictures of Your Children or Your Friends' Children Tagged With Their Names

Ok, this is a sensitive topic. We all want to protect our kids, we would lay down in front of a truck to protect them, but many of us post hundreds of name tagged pictures of our children online for the world to see. The problem is that you can never be sure that only your friends are seeing these pictures. What if your friend has their phone stolen or logs into Facebook from the library and forgets to log out?

You can't rely on the "Friends only" setting because you really never know. Assume that everything is public and don't post anything that you wouldn't want the world having access to.

If you must post pictures of your children, remove any geotag information, and avoid using their real names in the picture tag or description.

Your true friends know their names, no need to label them. Same goes for tagging pictures of your friends' kids. If in doubt leave the tag out.

I would be a hypocrite if I said I had removed all tags of my kids from Facebook. It's a long process to go back through years worth of photos, but I work on it a little bit at a time, eventually I'll have them all removed.

2. Your Current Location

Many people don't realize that when they post a status update or a tweet, they may also be revealing their current location. Giving out your location information can be dangerous because it tells potential thieves that you might not be at home. Depending on your privacy settings, that innocent tweet from your vacation spot might give the bad guys the green light they were waiting for to rob your house.

10 Things You Should Never Post On Social Networks


Turnbull/Ikon Images/Getty Images

by Andy O'Donnell
October 31, 2016

We share so many details of our daily lives online, but where should we draw the line on what we share about ourselves, our family, and our friends? There are some tidbits of personal information that it is best to never share online, here are ten of them:

1. Your Full Birthdate

While you may love getting loads of birthday wishes posted by your friends on your Facebook Timeline, having your birthdate posted on your profile may provide scammers and identity thieves with one of the key pieces of information needed to steal your identity and open up accounts in your name.

Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions



Have you ever heard of a skillful general who intends to surprise a citadel, announcing his plan to his enemy? Conceal your purpose and hide your progress; do not disclose the extent of your designs until they cannot be opposed, until the combat is over. Win the victory before you declare the war. In a word, imitate those warlike people whose designs are not known except by the ravaged country through which they have passed. (Ninon de Lenclos, 1623-1706)

It takes effort to control your tongue and monitor what you reveal. It is much more prudent to tailor your words, telling people what they want to hear rather than the coarse and ugly truth of what you feel or think. More important, by being unabashedly open you make yourself so predictable and familiar that it is almost impossible to respect or fear you, and power will not accrue to a person who cannot inspire such emotions.

Train yourself in the art of concealing your intentions. Master the art and you will always have the upper hand. Our first instinct is to always trust appearances. This fact makes it relatively easy to conceal one's intentions. Let's talk about how People Conceal Intentions and Fool You.

1. Use Decoyed Objects of Desire to Throw People Off

Support an idea or cause that is actually contrary to your own sentiments but will help you achieve your goal. Use this tactic in the following manner: Hide your intentions not by closing up (with the risk of appearing secretive, and making people suspicious) but by talking endlessly about your desires and goals!â€"just not your real ones. You will kill three birds with one stone: You appear friendly, open, and trusting; you conceal your intentions; and you send your rivals on time-consuming wild-goose chases.

2. False Sincerity

People easily mistake sincerity for honesty. Rememberâ€"their first instinct is to trust appearances, and since they value honesty and want to believe in the honesty of those around them, they will rarely doubt you or see through your act. Seeming to believe what you say gives your words great weight. Remember: The best deceivers do everything they can to cloak their roguish qualities. They cultivate an air of honesty in one area to disguise their dishonesty in other. Honesty is merely another decoy in their arsenal of weapons.

3. Bland Facial Expression

Behind a bland, unreadable exterior, all sorts of mayhem can be planned, without detection. This is a weapon that the most powerful men in history have learned to perfect.

4. Noble Gesture

People want to believe apparently noble gestures are genuine, for the belief is pleasant. They rarely notice how deceptive these gestures can be.

5. Appearing to Belong to a Group

The tendency to mistake appearances for realityâ€"the feeling that if someone seems to belong to your group, their belonging must be real. This habit makes the seamless blend a very effective front. The trick is simple: You simply blend in with those around you. The better you blend, the less suspicious you become. Remember: It takes patience and humility to dull your brilliant colors, to put on the mask of the inconspicuous. Do not despair at having to wear such a bland maskâ€"it is often your unreadability that draws people to you and makes you appear a person of power.

How do People Apply these Ways to Fool You?

Simply dangle an object you seem to desire, a goal you seem to aim for, in front of people's eyes and they will take the appearance for reality. Once their eyes focus on the decoy, they will fail to notice what you are really up to. Politicians use this all the time.

Decoyed Objects of Desire and Making a Woman Fall in Love

The Marquis de Sevigne was inexperienced in the art of love. He confided in the infamous courtesan of seventeenth-century France, Ninon de Lenclos, to instruct him on how to seduce a difficult young countess. She made him follow a plan over a number of weeks, where the Marquis would be appearing in public always surrounded by beautiful women, in the very places the countess would be expected to see him. He was supposed to assume an air of nonchalance. This increased the jealousy of the young countess, who was not sure of his interest in her. One day the Marquis, unable to control his passion, broke from Ninon’s plan, and blurted out to the countess that he loved her. After this admission, the countess no longer found him interesting and avoided him. The whole premise of dating is based on games, wild moves and being unpredictable. If you display your feelings too soon it becomes an artless show of passion. A door closed that would never open again. In seduction, set up conflicting^ signals, such as desire and indifference, and you not only throw them off the scent, you inflame their desire to possess you.

Otto von Bismarck became Prime Minister of Prussia

Otto von Bismarck  was a deputy in the Prussian parliament at a time when many fellow deputies thought it was possible to go to war against Austria and defeat it. Bismarck wanted to go on war but he knew that the King was not in favour of it. He also knew the Prussian army was not prepared, so he devised a clever way. He publicly stated his praises for the Austrians and talked about the madness of war. Many deputies changed their votes. Had Bismarck announced his real intentions, arguing it was better to wait now and fight later, he would not have won. Most Prussians wanted to go to war at that moment and mistakenly believed their army to be superior to the Austrians. Had he gone to the king his sincerity would have been doubted. By giving misleading statements about wanting peace and concealing his true purpose, Bismarck’s speech catapulted him to the position of prime minister. He later led the country to war against the Austrians at the right time, when he felt the Prussian army was more capable, and united Germany.

Duke of Marlborough used this in the Spanish Succession

During the War of the Spanish Succession in 1711, the Duke of Marlborough, head of the English army, wanted to destroy a key French fort, because it protected a vital thoroughfare into France. Yet he knew that if he destroyed it, the French would realize what he wantedâ€"to advance down that road. Instead, then, he merely captured the fort, and garrisoned it with some of his troops, making it appear as if he wanted it for some purpose of his own. The French attacked the fort and the duke let them recapture it. Once they had it back, though, they destroyed it, figuring that the duke had wanted it for some important reason. Now that the fort was gone, the road was unprotected, and Marlborough could easily march into France.

Iago deceived and destroyed Othello by being sincere

Given the depth of his emotions, the apparent sincerity of his concerns about Desdemona's supposed infidelity, how could Othello distrust him? Sincerity is a tricky tool: Appear over passionate and you raise suspicions. Be measured and believable or your ruse will seem the put-on mat it is.

Henry Kissinger used Bland Face to win opponents

Henry Kissinger would bore his opponents around the negotiating table to tears with his monotonous voice, his blank look, his endless recitations of details; then, as their eyes glazed over, he would suddenly hit them with a list of bold terms. Caught off-guard, they would be easily intimidated. As one poker manual explains it, "While playing his hand, the good player is seldom an actor. Instead he practices a bland behavior that minimizes readable patterns, frustrates and confuses opponents, permits greater concentration."

Spies use "Appearing to Belong to a Group" Method

During the Cold War of the 1950s and '60s, as is now notorious, a slew of British civil servants passed secrets to the Soviets. They went undetected for years because they were apparently decent chaps, had gone to all the right schools, and fit the old-boy network perfectly.

Law 2: Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies



The problem about working with friends is that it confuses the boundaries and distances that working requires. If both partners in the arrangement understand the dangers involved, a friend often can be employed to great effect. You must never let your guard down in such a venture, however; always be on the lookout for any signs of emotional disturbance such as envy and ingratitude. Nothing is stable in the realm of power, and even the closest of friends can be transformed into the worst of enemies.

Michael III of the Byzantine Empire and his friend, Basilius

Michael III of the Byzantine Empire in the mid-ninth century A.D. placed too much trust in his friend,Basilius. They had met a few years before, when Michael had been visiting the stables just as a wild horse got loose. Basilius saved Michael's life. His strength and courage had impressed Michael, who immediately raised Basilius from the obscurity of being a horse trainer to the position of head of stables. He loaded his friend with gifts and favors until became inseparable.

Basilius was sent to the finest school in Byzantium, and the crude peasant became a cultured and sophisticated courtier. Michael turned the peasant Basilius into a sophisticated and educated courtier. Basilius later on became greedy for more wealth and power and had his former benefactor and best friend Michael III murdered.

Michael III staked his future on the sense of gratitude he thought Basilius must feel for him. He had created a monster. He had allowed a man to see power up closeâ€"a man who then wanted more, who asked for anything and got it, who felt encumbered by the charity he had received and simply did what many people do in such a situation: They forget the favors they have received and imagine they have earned their success by their own merits.

I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends. - Abraham Lincoln

Song Dynasty Ruled China for 300 Years

For several centuries after the fall of the Han Dynasty (A.D. 222), Chinese history followed the same pattern of violent and bloody coups, one after the other. Army men would plot to kill a weak emperor, then would replace him on the Dragon Throne with a strong general. The general would start a new dynasty and crown himself emperor; to ensure his own survival he would kill off his fellow generals. A few years later, however, the pattern would resume: New generals would rise up and assassinate him or his sons in their turn. To be emperor of China was to be alone, surrounded by a pack of enemiesâ€"it was the least powerful, least secure position in the realm.

In A.D. 959, General Zhao Kuangyin became Emperor Song. Emperor Song knew that his "friends" in the army would chew him up like meat, and if he somehow survived, his "friends" in the government would have him for supper. Emperor Song persuaded his generals to retire to a life of nobility and give up their dreams of grabbing his throne one day. He spared those who conspired against him, and was able to win over enemies with his generosity. Song was finally able to break the pattern of coups, violence, and civil warâ€"the Song Dynasty ruled China for more man three hundred years.

Lessons for Working With Friends and Enemies

• Friends will not openly disagree with you in order to avoid arguments.
• Enemies expect nothing so they will be surprised when you are generous.
• An enemy spared the guillotine will be more grateful to you than a friend.
• When you decide to hire a friend you will discover qualities she has kept hidden, be on the lookout for any signs of emotional disturbance such as envy and ingratitude.
• Skill and competence are more important than friendly feelings.
• Hiring friends will limit your power.
• All working situations require a kind of distance between people.
• You destroy an enemy when you make a friend of him.
• An enemy at your heels keeps you sharp, alert, and focused.

The 48 Laws of Power

by Robert Greene


Law 1: Never Outshine The Master
   


Always make those above you feel comfortably superior.  In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite â€" inspire fear and insecurity.  Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.

King Louis XIV and his Finance Minister Fouquet

In 17th century France, Finance Minister Nicholas Fouquet had spent enormous sums in building a magnificent château on his estate of Vaux-le-Vicomte. He then threw a lavish party to show off his connections, cultivated manner and charm. Thinking this move would make him an indispensable asset to the king, Fouquet had actually offended his master who did not like the fact people were more charmed by his finance minister than by him. He unintentionally outshone his master, King Louis XIV, making the King feel insecure.

In 1661, at age 23, Louis XIV visited Vaux-le-Vicomte, the country estate of his finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, and was outraged by its magnificence. The King found a convenient excuse to get rid of Fouquet who then spent the next 20 years of his life in prison. King Louis XIV went ahead to build Palace of Versailles which was much more grander and lavish than the Chateau built by Fouquet to display his charms and connections.

How did Galileo use the Law in his favor?

Galileo was clever in observing this law by giving glory to his patrons. In order to solve his perennial problem of funding, he dedicated his discovery of the moons of Jupiter to the Medici, since the royal symbol of the Medici family was the planet Jupiter. He then commissioned an emblem for them, with each moon representing one of the sons who revolved around the patriarch. The Medici family became his major patron, appointing him their official court mathematician and philosopher, thereby giving him a more comfortable life and a steady salary.

Lesson:

• Present your ideas in a way that they echo your boss’s thought
• Act less smarter than your boss
• Do not take your position at work or in life for granted
• Always make sure to make it seem like you want to seek the superior's expertise and advice. Discreet flattery is very powerful.

Forgiveness Benefits Your Quality of Sleep

One study found that forgiveness of interpersonal transgressions is related to better sleep. While staying resentful, angry or even keeping hostile feelings around relate to a poorer quality of sleep.

The list goes on and on. The health benefits of forgiveness are monumental. Now that you have some facts, think and devise a forgiveness plan. Start by forgiving yourself, and then move onto forgiving others. If you do not know how to forgive, contact a spiritual psychotherapist or psychologist in your area for help.

It is time to let go of past grievances. It is time to feel lighter. It is time to be free of the past to create space for a brighter present!

This amazing guest post was written by Dr. Andreia Horta, ND and Dr. Emily Lipinski, ND, founders of Infusion Health!

http://theheartysoul.com/

Forgiveness Positively Impacts Your Immunity

One controlled study assessed 78 medicated HIV patients for feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of forgiveness. Participants who truly forgave had higher percentages of CD4 immune cancer-fighting cells!

The improvement of blood pressure and cardiovagal tone is yet another benefit of forgiveness. Researchers have been able to show that forgiveness has a cardioprotective effect on the heart. While anger, is cardiotoxic, which damages the heart muscle.

Forgiveness Helps You Feel Better About Yourself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA8PRMacArU

If you think of an old memory of being mistreated, hurt, or offended you automatically start to feel unwell. The fact is that there are immediate emotional and/or physiological responses that occur when you are having these memories. These responses include:

-Your blood pressure increases
-Your muscles tighten
-You start to swell

These are all signs of stress and anxiety. Recent studies show that participants who practice empathy and forgiveness to those who do them wrong have a lowered stress response. To further deepen this point, roughly 1,500 Americans who forgave reported greater satisfaction with their lives, less distress symptoms, less nervousness, and less sadness.

Forgiveness even helps in cases of severe emotional abuse. Women were placed into two treatment groups; the first using techniques such as anger validation, assertiveness, interpersonal skill building, and the second using forgiveness. Women in the forgiveness group had significant improvements in depression scores, post-traumatic stress symptom, self-esteem, less anxiety, and better overall mastery of their life. Months later all these gains were still present! YAY! Forgiveness is powerful!

Forgiveness Improves Your Life



Let us start with the impact of staying angry, being frustrated or feeling negative about an event. Dr. Steven Standiford, chief of surgery at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, says that holding onto these negative emotions creates a chronic state of anxiety. This produces a predictable excess of adrenaline and cortisol, which deplete the production of natural killer cells. These cells are your protection against cancer. If you refuse to forgive it not only makes you sick but can keep you that way.

Since we are on the topic of cancer, a neat randomized controlled trial with over 83 cancer patients evaluated feelings of forgiveness, pessimism, and self-acceptance after taking a course in self-forgiveness. The course taught techniques such as reflection, expressive writing etc.  As expected, the patients that took the course had statistically significant higher scores for self-forgiveness, acceptance, self-improvement, and lower pessimism scores compared to the control group.

It is obviously not an easy thing to do. Clinicians will undoubtedly tell you if your wounds are deep and traumas many you will need more time to heal. Nonetheless, forgiveness is possible and I believe necessary. Let me tell you why?

Over 15 years ago there lacked any research on the impact of forgiveness on our health. Thankfully to date, there are hundreds of scientific papers and clinicians ready to share their knowledge with us.

Scientists have proven that negativity literally makes cancer grow inside the body

Have you felt hurt or betrayed? Have you ever been so bitter and upset towards a situation or person that you could not imagine forgiving them? You may have even replayed the event(s) over and over in your head. With each repetition, your feelings intensify and you feel worse about yourself and it. There is evidence to prove that harboring these emotions can negatively impact your health. Thus the subject of forgiveness surfaces to the top of this blog!

Forgiveness from a clinical perspective is the process of relinquishing one’s feeling of resentment and thoughts of vengeance. Forgiveness also includes the process of fostering compassion, generosity, and even love towards those who have inflicted pain.

The Philippines has never been an American lapdog. Perhaps we didn’t, in the early days, affirm how important the archipelago was bound to be to us as time went on. In any event, with many Filipinos averring a good opinion of Americaâ€"well, there are 4.8 million Fil-Ams, after allâ€"and a deep infrastructure of military ties, it might take more than speeches in China to break all military ties. But if the Philippine government officially requests all US military to leave, I know exactly what will happen. President Barack Obama will issue relevant orders for compliance. So will the new US president after Jan. 21.

In 2003, my Filipino partner and I enjoyed a luncheon with former president Bill Clinton at Rhodes House, Oxford. Clinton spent most of the time with wonderful stories of his good ties with FVR and high respect for many other famous Filipinos. That’s a rich heritage on both sides.  It would be a shame for it to go down the drain. But it doesn’t erase all the excellent things that have happened up till now.

W. Scott Thompson is a four-time presidential appointee in Washington, and professor emeritus at The Fletcher School. He wrote this with the assistance of Oliver Geronilla, a language instructor based in Dasmariñas City.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

I invited the legendary Edward Lansdale to lecture at the Fletcher School. The first question was: Had he really slapped President Ramon Magsaysay, then secretary of national defense, into action, in the early 1950s? He flatly denied it, but affirmed that when Secretary Magsaysay seemed frozen, Hamlet-like, in indecision, he raised him up from his desk and shook him. It was time for action. They were close friends, after all.

Now since the high-level days of Fidel V. Ramos, relations have been variable. But even the ambassador during President Joseph Estrada’s brief period affirms good professional working relations with Erap. Relations during Gloria Arroyo’s checkered presidency moved up and down.

It’s also true that we always felt a bit of guilt, for our colonial past here sullies our self-view as a noncolonial power. This invariably worked to Manila’s advantage. It’s also true that the other colonial powers in granting independence in Asia and Africa did so from a position of weakness, following World War II. We emerged richer and stronger. We represented a rising sun, theirs was setting. That widened the gap between Manila and Washington, but not by much; there were just too many personal, institutional and military links.

It’s simple mythology to say we ever thought of our Filipino counterparts as little brown brothers. We saw and continue to see the Philippines as a substantial player in a critical geographic position. It is true that at the time of Edsa 1986, President Ronald Reagan, for whom I worked, and his influential wife Nancy had a peculiarly sentimental view of the Marcos couple. Even a president as distant from policy levers could be influenced in a government like America’s. Personal friendships worked, too. Ferdinand Marcos’ one-time reformist executive secretary, Alejandro Melchor, was actually in the Executive Office Building helping us man the cables.  At the denouement, most of us involved gathered at the CIA, and we watched and cheered as an American Huey lifted the once-imperial couple off from Malacañang.

COMMENTARY

Manila and Washington: never so bad

By: W. Scott Thompson
November 02, 2016

As a sometime high-level player in Washington’s foreign policy establishment, and now a happy permanent resident of the Philippines, I would like to comment on how we saw Manilaâ€"from the White House, the state department, and also the defense department.

It’s true that a superpower inherently sees a middle power differently from how it sees another big player, like Russia or Germany. The Philippines is, however, in a far more advantaged position than, say, Argentina or Indonesia. This is proved by the high level of diplomats who have come to Manila, from our most famous of the 20th century, Charles Bohlen, to John Negroponte, who subsequently held cabinet positions in Washington and the United Nations.

labad ra ka, hubag.

hurot gyod tuod ang akong bilib sa ka-germ-free sa inyo.

Ill-fitting grammar are like ill-fitting shoes. You can get used to it for a bit, but then one day your toes fall off and you can’t walk to the bathroom. ~Jasper Fforde

It’s hard to take someone seriously when they leave you a note saying, ‘Your ugly.’ My ugly what? The idiot didn’t even know the difference between your and you’re. ~Cara Lynn Shultz

Grammar and logic free language from being at the mercy of the tone of voice. ~Rosenstock Huessy

Amanda Patterson
http://writerswrite.co.za/

Do not be surprised when those who ignore the rules of grammar also ignore the law. After all, the law is just so much grammar. ~Robert Brault

People don’t talk like this, theytalklikethis. Syllables, words, sentences run together like a watercolour left in the rain. To understand what anyone is saying to us we must separate these noises into words and the words into sentences so that we might in our turn issue a stream of mixed sounds in response. ~Bill Bryson

People who cannot distinguish between good and bad language, or who regard the distinction as unimportant, are unlikely to think carefully about anything else. ~B. R. Myers

Grammar is the logic of speech, even as logic is the grammar of reason. ~Richard C. Trench

Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect! ~Owens Lee Pomeroy

Every English poet should master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them. ~Robert Graves

There is a satisfactory boniness about grammar which the flesh of sheer vocabulary requires before it can become a vertebrate and walk the earth. ~Anthony Burgess

I will not go down to posterity talking bad grammar. ~Benjamin Disraeli

The greater part of the world’s troubles are due to questions and grammar. ~Michel de Montaigne

My 15 Favourite Quotes On Grammar

The reason it’s worth standing up for punctuation is not that it’s an arbitrary system of notation known only to an over-sensitive elite who have attacks of the vapours when they see it misapplied. The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning. ~Lynne Truss

Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power. ~Joan Didion

A philosopher once said, ‘Half of good philosophy is good grammar.’ ~A. P. Martinich

Geometry


A regular pentagram colored to distinguish its line segments of different lengths. The four lengths are in golden ratio to one another.

The pentagram is the simplest regular star polygon. The pentagram contains ten points (the five points of the star, and the five vertices of the inner pentagon) and fifteen line segments. It is represented by the Schläfli symbol {5/2}. Like a regular pentagon, and a regular pentagon with a pentagram constructed inside it, the regular pentagram has as its symmetry group the dihedral group of order 10.

A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha or pentangle or a star pentagon) is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes.

The word pentagram comes from the Greek word πενÏ,,άγραμμον (pentagrammon), from πένÏ,,ε (pente), "five" + γραμμή (grammÄ"), "line".

The word "pentacle" is sometimes used synonymously with "pentagram".

The word pentalpha is a learned modern (17th-century) revival of a post-classical Greek name of the shape.(wikipedia)


A regular pentagram

pentagram
ˈpɛntəɡram/

noun

a five-pointed star that is formed by drawing a continuous line in five straight segments, often used as a mystic and magical symbol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfiUsRUUVHo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL58g24NgWPIy4HUWplqHmXz0GCEcFy5Vw&v=hh9AEiK7Ikg

No, it’s not. It’s nonfiction of the worst kind, a waking nightmare we can’t seem to break out of. Our dear, hapless Lauren wasn’t the only collateral damage in this offensiveâ€"it’s every citizen’s peace of mind, that spasm that now seizes you when a stranger turns up at your door or on your rear-view mirror with malice aforethought. We cremated Lauren, but there’s no rest for the living.

http://www.esquiremag.ph/

It’s a class thing, to be sure and to be honest. Like many others, I found it difficult to relate to the tattooed and trussed-up flotsam that washed up along the Pasig, battered to anonymity. Even in horrific and warrantless death, grief and outrage will choose their subjects, settling on the familiarâ€"until Death itself becomes the most familiar figure of all, visiting not just the drug dens and the back alleys but the Internet cafes and the suburban malls and the campus hallways. It’s a short step from a war on drugs to a war on words, from a war on terror to a war of terror, a war that will be driven by that most dangerous and most potent of narcotics, that same fever that inflamed Macbeth to wanton murder.

Our dear, hapless Lauren wasn’t the only collateral damage in this offensiveâ€"it’s every citizen’s peace of mind, that spasm that now seizes you when a stranger turns up at your door or on your rear-view mirror with malice aforethought.

If I speak in riddles, it’s because metaphor may soon be our only refuge. I’ve often made the grim joke that only journalists get shot in this country and that poets and fictionists never do (at least not since Rizal) because politicians and generals don’t read the sort of ponderous prose and verse we teach. But this isn’t a novel now, is it?

I know we’re hardly alone in this gray zone of grief and rage and fear; whoever put us there made sure we’d have ample room. Lauren’s wake was teeming with mourners, some of whom had similar stories to tell. We could imagine half a dozen other wakesâ€"her unlikely companions in that tabloid reportâ€"that same night in that same city, perhaps in lean-tos along the street with a card game on the side, or in some dim parlor in the suburbs, with only a mother and a sniveling sister to mind the dead. Lauren had friends on Facebook and Twitter (inexplicably, someoneâ€"not the familyâ€"shut her FB page down); I’d have to wonder about the others, who most definitely won’t have an Esquire piece written about them and their likes and loves.

It’s a short step from a war on drugs to a war on words, from a war on terror to a war of terror, a war that will be driven by that most dangerous and most potent of narcotics, that same fever that inflamed Macbeth to wanton murder.

So was she collateral damage in the new administration’s all-too-literal war on drugs? I’m not even sure if extrajudicial killing is the proper subject of this piece, because no one really knows, at least not yet, who shot Lauren, and why. That she was killed on purpose seems obviousâ€"you don’t fire three shots into the same person by mistake. A theory went the rounds of social media that Lauren’s killing was likely another case of mistaken identityâ€"which only begs the question, is there a “correct” identity in these affairs, an approved master list against which the day’s quota could be ticked off? Did someone have to scratch his head and say, “Sorry, boss, I got the wrong one, but I’ll make sure to get it right tomorrow?”

We find ourselves in the strange position of according Lauren’s killer and his handlers the presumption of innocence they never gave her.

Of course we can’t really accuse anyone. We may have our suspects, but we have no proof, and the breath that exhales those names could very well be one’s last. We find ourselves in the strange position of according Lauren’s killer and his handlers the presumption of innocence they never gave her. Unsurprisingly, the authorities have no leads. (When the family followed up the case, a precinct hand reportedly told them, “We have no gas.”)

Lauren’s unidentified killer walked away and no motive was given for the crime, but it was hard not to place it in the daily continuum of murdersâ€"mostly of poor, young Filipino menâ€"quite openly tagged though not claimed by the police as drug-related. Indeed, without any proof whatsoever, the tabloid Abante reported her murder in the context of six other gangland-style liquidations that same day of persons on the drug pushers’ watchlist of the Manila police.

That she was killed on purpose seems obviousâ€"you don’t fire three shots into the same person by mistake.

Lauren, 26, was most emphatically uninvolved in the drug trade, enjoying her career as an executive assistant at a leading food company, a job she took after working at a call center; the closest she got to drugs was at the Carewell Foundation, where she helped take care of cancer patients. Her only addiction, Gab would tell the curious, was K-Pop, and the boy group F4 that she had saved up to fly out and catch in Taiwan; she was even studying Korean.

We found a picture online of Lauren slumped face down on the floor of the jeep, clutching her bag, and it was the most heartbreaking sight I’d seen, the pain of which Beng’s wails could only scratch at.



My wife Beng and I were in San Diego late this July, visiting family and taking in the harmless lunacy of Comic-Con, when we received the numbing news that Lauren Kristel Rosales, the girlfriend of Beng’s nephew Gab, had been shot dead by a man as she was taking a jeepney ride to work. We found a picture online of Lauren slumped face down on the floor of the jeep, clutching her bag, and it was the most heartbreaking sight I’d seen, the pain of which Beng’s wails could only scratch at. I’d come across ghastlier crime scenes as a sometime police reporter, but this one hit home and hit hard; she was someone we knew and cared for, someone who occasionally dropped by with Gab and whom we shared Christmas lunches with. We had flown to the US for a family vacation, and were flying home to a family funeral.

Collateral Damage

Butch Dalisay
Esquire
September 2016

IT MUST BE A SIGN OF THE TIMES that it took me at least a week to make up my mind whether I was going to write this article or not, for reasons that will be self-evident to any Filipino who’s lived through the past couple of months since the 30th of June. Several hundred Filipinos clearly didn’tâ€"the victims of a bloody and remorseless extermination of suspected drug dealers and users purportedly sanctioned if not encouraged by the new regime.

It was probably just as well that I waited. I had a chance to simmer downâ€"to indulge my fears, surely, but also to collect my thoughts and try to see beyond personal grief and rage to possibly even greater tragedy, and thereby to find solace in collective suffering.

Or, as playwright Floy Quintos mournfully put it in a moving piece he posted on Facebook:

“I saw some souls the other night,/ moving sadly among masked revellers/ They did not delight in fistfuls of candy,/ or in good news from the distant shoals./ Their wails would not be silenced by the madness of the mob,/ or by the blaring promises of future glory./ They looked at me,/ and would not go away./ Not even when the parade of frantic pretender ghouls had passed.

“They did not ask much of me,/ these souls twice slain/ first by bullets,/ then by indifference.

“Asked the ghosts,/ Could I honor a memory/ of their dreams,/ or share regret for/ what they could have been?/ Would I call to them by name,/ and use no label?/ In the face of slander,/ would I mutter faint protest,/ a whispered aside,/ a break in the voice,/ a seething anger/ for all they had been denied?

“Not much, no?

“But I could not answer,/ for fear of the mob./ So, the poor things moved on/ increasing in number,/ but paler/ and fainter.”

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

Families who have seen their lives shattered by the violence are in fear and shock. Imagine what the Rosaleses are enduring. “Our dear, hapless Lauren wasn’t the only collateral damage in this offensiveâ€"it’s every citizen’s peace of mind, that spasm that now seizes you when a stranger turns up at your door or on your rearview mirror with malice aforethought,” wrote Dalisay. And now even Lauren’s brother is dead.

Amid the killing and dying, Filipinos are coping in apparently the only way they know how: with humor. For the All Saints Day holidays, a mall thought up “appropriate” decorâ€"a faux cadaver sprawled on the floor, the requisite cardboard sign by its side. It has come to this: Death has become so easy and so common it is now a joke, a visual gag in gleaming malls where families and children gather.

The unspeakable injustice that befell the Rosales family has not roused a statement of indignation or commiseration from anyone in the government. Not from the Philippine National Police, whose basic duty it is to protect ordinary citizens from harm. Not from President Duterte, whose declaration of a war on drugs has led to an open season that appears to have emboldened criminals to litter the streets with corpses. And not from the esteemed rights champions of the Left who, apart from earlier statements calling for a stop to the wave of extrajudicial killings (but no denunciation of the administration with which it is now allied and which has enabled the bloodbath through its rhetoric and indifference), have not been heard from as the number of the murders mounts.