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disembodiedapparition · 3 years

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Breaking The Pro-Life Argument Down:

I think it’s hilarious how right wing “facts don’t care about your feelings” activists are almost always pro-life. The argument against abortion as an accessible form of birth control is 100% an emotional appeal, and here’s why:

1. “You have no right to kill your fetus. It’s not your body, the baby is an individual and has the right to life.”:

Of course, all embryos are human individuals, separate from their mothers. They have their own unique DNA composition, and are definitely alive. But do they deserve the right to life, which would make abortion equivalent to murder?

Pro-lifers are largely okay with IVF, an industry that throws away and destroys millions of fertilized embryos every day. In-vitro fertilization is an uncertain science, so couples are advised to fertilize multiple eggs in the labs in case the first few don’t work out. If a couple succeeds and have extra embryos left, they have the option to continue paying to store them in the lab, donate them to medical research, or destroy them.

Anti-abortion bills always have exceptions for IVF clinics. Republican, pro-life lawmakers have literally had children via IVF. If a pro-lifer ever tells you that life begins at conception and that every embryo has the right to life, know that it’s bullshit. They don’t care about an industry that kills more embryos in a day than Planned Parenthood does in a year.

2. There are two possible responses to this.

A) “Fine, let’s ban IVF.” Out of all the conservative groups in America, only one major group explicitly stands against IVF – the Catholic Church. The same organization that condemns sex before marriage, homosexuality, divorce, masturbation/porn, the use of condoms, getting drunk or high, and tattoos. At this point, I’m assuming you understand that the Church’s ideas of morality are regressive, illogical, primitive, and… make life extremely boring. IVF is a wonderful science that brings children to parents who want them all over the world and is in no way a bad thing.

B) “Fine. Maybe not at conception, but at [x] months, it’s a baby.” This is the point where most conservatives start arguing about the point up till you should be allowed to have an abortion. Two weeks? Six weeks? Three months? Unfortunately, there is no scientific way to determine when an embryo is no longer just a clump of cells and now a human being with rights.

Since pro-lifers are okay with IVF, we can assume they don’t believe in the right to life at conception. How about the heartbeat theory? At six weeks, the fetus develops a heartbeat, and proponents argue that it is the point at which the fetus is no longer simply a fetus, but a human being. However, having a heartbeat doesn’t necessarily mean you have the right to life.

Legally, if you are brain dead, you’re… dead. You no longer have the right to life, which is why organ donation is possible. All this while having a heartbeat, so that’s clearly not a viable hallmark of an individual that inherently has the right to life. So while it’s true that at six weeks a baby develops (what is flimsily termed as) a heartbeat, that doesn’t somehow give it rights to life that it did not have before. So far, I haven’t come across any other sensible theories as to “when” an embryo deserves the right to life. It’s a lousy concept to begin with, as blurry as the legal definition of adulthood – not all 18+ year olds are mature and nothing fundamentally changes in a person once the clock strikes midnight. Similarly, embryo development is a process. There’s really no point at which you can logically claim it’s transformed into a human being with rights.

3. Evidently, there are two extremes — life begins at conception, vs life doesn’t begin until birth.

There’s no “scientific backing” for a point in between, but you’ll never find a pro-choice advocate arguing in favor of the latter, because it’s called an extreme for a reason. The best way to deal with the abortion issue at this point is to leave the science and technicalities alone, and think about the people who are actually getting abortions.

4. “Use protection and you won’t get pregnant”:

Protection is never 100% reliable. Plus: if two people are irresponsible enough to have unprotected sex, what makes you think they’re responsible enough to have and raise children? The number of children growing up with unqualified, immature, abusive, or neglectful parents automatically disproves the theory that parenthood beings about a sense of personal responsibility. Being raised by bad parents inflicts often irreparable damage on children. Treating babies as some sort of “divine punishment” for irresponsible sex, instead of human beings who deserve a stable upbringing, is harmful on both an individual and collective scale. The data on irresponsible, neglectful, or abusive childhoods/single parent childhoods speaks for itself. In the quest to punish irresponsible parents, most of the damage is inflicted on their children, which in turn impacts the generation that will lead us forward into the future. It is in our best interests to raise as many mature, healthy, and productive young adults as possible, and while not every child born into these circumstances live lives of mental health/psychological/intimacy issues and criminal behavior, a large majority do. Growing up with bad parents is simply not ideal for an impressionable child’s wellbeing. Quality of life > quantity of life.

5. “Don’t have sex if you don’t want to have children.”:

Unhelpful, unrealistic, and telling of no real desire to solve the problem at hand. People will have sex. What are we going to do to make sure the sex doesn’t lead to unplanned pregnancies?

6. “Okay but what about xyz who had an abortion and has regretted it ever since?”:

Abortion is a result of unplanned and unfortunate circumstances. Whether it’s because the doctor tells you your baby will be stillborn or born with a fatal illness, or if you were raped, or if you had sex with your boyfriend during your first year of college and found yourself pregnant: these are bad situations, and no matter what you do, there’s always a chance you’ll look back and wish you’d done things differently. Kept the baby? Well, maybe you’ll find that the baby brought newfound purpose to your life. But maybe the baby added an additional financial strain to your life and forced you to quit your job, leaving you destitute and homeless with no way to feed it. Alternatively, if you got an abortion, maybe you end up being able to finish college and fulfil all your goals… or maybe you regret that decision for the rest of your life. There’s no way to guarantee that you’re making the right decision, but being informed about your options, and having options available, makes it more likely that you do. That’s why we are advocating for informed choice. Whether they eventually choose to keep the baby or have an abortion, give women the time and resources to truly evaluate their options and do what’s best for them in their own circumstances.

7. “Why kill the baby? Put it up for adoption.”:

The adoption system is known for being isolating, exploitative, and unhealthy for children growing up in it. Being adopted into a great family can create healthy, happy young adults. But far too many kids don’t get that opportunity, and pay the price for it. In 2019, 122,216 children in the US adoption system were waiting to be adopted. Young people who age-out of the foster care system without being adopted are over-represented in rates of incarceration, suicide and substance abuse.

Granted, for some kids it’s a better alternative to the families they would have grew up in, but again: it’s an unideal situation. An unideal situation that can very easily be avoided with abortion. Why would a person choose 9 months of labor, plus all the emotional labor of having to give your child away to a system that more likely than not will eat them alive, knowing they will grow up asking themselves why they weren’t good enough for their birth parents, when the person could… simply not have that baby and not invite all that pain?

To summarize:

It is definitively not in anyone’s best interests to force unwilling and unprepared parents to have an unwanted child. It’s also not a good idea to get too deep into the technicalities of when an embryo is a fetus or when you’re allowed or not allowed to abort it. We need to focus on the women who are actually getting abortions. Having a baby is a huge life adjustment. Keep it, and you’re taking on an 18-year responsibility. You are responsible for another person’s wellbeing, and your life will never be the same.

In three months (about 12 weeks), a potential mother can: find out that they’re pregnant (missing periods is extremely common. A lot of women only find out they’re pregnant at two months, or 8 weeks), think about their financial, professional, social, romantic, or whatever situation and figure out what would be the best course of action, and then actually get the abortion if she chooses to. 12 weeks is enough, 12 weeks is reasonable, 12 weeks is humane. Nobody wants third-trimester abortions unless there are serious, life threatening complications.

The pro-life argument is reduced down to: well, abortion is bad! That’s a little innocent baby. It didn’t hurt anyone. Well, we agree: abortion is bad. It’s not a good thing, it’s not something people want to have to do. Nobody looks forward to giving or receiving an abortion, it’s physically painful and often heart-breaking. But is it as bad as forcing a woman to go through nine months of excruciating, potentially life-threatening labor for a child she doesn’t even want to have? Is it as bad as enforcing serious health, financial, emotional, social, and professional risks on a woman who knows she is in no way ready to give a baby the life it deserves? Is it worse than having to wake up every day with a heavy pit in your stomach because you can’t feed your little girl since you had to drop out of high school to take care of her? Worse than having to give your baby away to an adoption center, where they’re likely to join the hundreds of thousands of unadopted children? There are evils, and then there are greater evils. Abortion may not be ideal, but for some people, it’s the best option out there. When broken down, the pro-life argument is nothing but sad, provocative videos & descriptions of surgical abortions intended to pull at your heartstrings. But they’re sometimes the best option for the mother and her unborn baby. Nobody is pro-abortion — we’re pro-choice.

#prolife #pro choice #pro life #abortion #reproductive rights #opinion #analysis #adoption #parenting #politics #republicans #liberal #conservatives

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elegantcoffeedream · 3 years

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Seth Rogen, Hollywood’s Favorite Comic Stoner, Says It’s Time To Take Cannabis Legalization Seriously

Weed Whacking: Rogen, who launched his cannabis company, Houseplant, in 2019, says the biggest myth about legalization is that it is not a serious cause.

Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Sitting in his home in Los Angeles just after noon on a Monday, with a bright shaft of sunlight filling the room, Seth Rogen lights a joint.

“I don’t make any illusions as to how weed fits into my life,” says Rogen. “I’m a person who smokes weed all day, every day.”

For some people, smoking a joint in the middle of the day would derail focus and productivity, but the 39-year-old Rogen describes marijuana as an essential tool to his everyday functioning—like eyeglasses or shoes. (His father told the New York Times that the “miracle of marijuana” helped his son deal with attention-deficit disorder.)

Cannabis has been a constant co-star for the actor, screenwriter, director and producer known for hits like Superbad and Pineapple Express, but pot is also a business partner as Rogen and his childhood best friend and writing partner Evan Goldberg cofounded the Canadian cannabis brand Houseplant in 2019.

High Life: A decade before launching Houseplant, Rogen cowrote and starred in the stoner comedy Pineapple Express.

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Audiences have been laughing with Rogen for 20 years as he’s played nearly 100 roles in film and television where he is either getting high, about to get high or helping someone else get high. But with Houseplant, he’s proving that he’s taking weed seriously as a business venture and as a platform for criminal justice reform. Rogen says it’s now time for Americans to take cannabis more seriously, too.

“It really bothers me that people downplay its importance and downplay how meaningful it is to some people's lives,” says Rogen. “There’s always been lies that have been told to control weed, it’ll make you go crazy, it’ll make you lazy, it’ll do this and do that. Right now, I think the biggest lie is that it’s just not important, and there are more important things to be talking about.”

Rogen says cannabis is deserving of a reckoning as a relevant topic worthy of a national discussion. And it’s certainly getting that now, as 18 states have legalized adult use, 37 medical use. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with Sens. Cory Booker and Ron Wyden, introduced a draft federal legalization bill, and cannabis is slated to grow into a $100 billion industry by 2030. Stoner jokers no longer seem able to contain an industry with annual sales that will soon rival coffee.

“Over the last couple years, I’ve spent as much time working on this company as I have on films. It’s as exciting as anything I’ve ever worked on.”

“It’s important because the entire reason it’s illegal is based in racism and we're all living with the lies of racist men from 100 years ago,” says Rogen. “Truthfully, there is no reason that weed is illegal other than to control minority populations.”

Rogen hits his joint, rolled with Diablo Wind, a sativa strain with 26% THC, and continues: “It is a huge part of American society and culture,” he continues. “It's a huge thing, and it’s disappointing how slow the country has been to evolve.”

While there are seemingly an endless number of celebrity-backed weed brands, some are clearly leveraging a famous face to sell bud while other celebrities are involved in the companies. Rogen falls into the latter camp.

“Over the last couple years, I’ve spent as much time working on this company as I have on my films,” says Rogen. “It’s a direct reflection of mine and my partner's creative sensibilities, and it’s come from a lifetime of putting thought into weed and loving weed. It’s as exciting as anything I’ve ever worked on.”

Superbud: “For me, I like to open like a tin and find as big a bud as humanly possible and go over to my wife and say, ‘Well, look at this,” says Seth Rogen.

Courtesy of Houseplant

Last week, Houseplant announced that it was ending its partnership with Canadian cannabis company Canopy Growth after three years and will focus on expanding its footprint in the U.S. Houseplant’s products will stop being sold north of the border by the end of September. Houseplant CEO and cofounder Michael Mohr, who is Goldberg’s cousin, says the company plans to relaunch in the Canadian market at some point but its attention for now will be on the U.S. market.

Today, Houseplant only sells cannabis in California, where it launched sales in March 2020. Its menu of products includes seven strains—all of which Rogen has tested himself. Houseplant will launch prerolled joints and a THC-infused seltzer in the coming months. And soon, the company will look to expand to other states with an eye on Nevada, Illinois, Michigan and New York.

Houseplant is still a startup. It has two distinct businesses—Houseplant, which sells cannabis, and Housegoods, which sells pottery, ashtrays and lighters, designed by Rogen. (He throws clay in his garage studio and creates impressive pieces.) Both sides of the business each bring in revenue in the seven figures, but under $10 million.

Rogen says legalization is inevitable but still part of him seems to bristle at the fact that his schtick is being adopted by an ever-expanding roster of characters who don’t love weed as much as he does. The philosopher jester even takes a swing at Charles Koch, the billionaire philosopher king of the libertarian movement who recently announced that he will be spending $25 million by the end of next year to support marijuana legalization.

“I’m sure if I were to sit down with the worst people on the planet, maybe we’d find out we both like pizza or something,” says Rogen. “It's always disappointing when you find your interests are aligned with someone you find to be despicable. But it’s showing the collapse of the lies and is an indicator that it’s impossible to move forward in a way that you consider to be remotely based on facts or reality and not think weed should be legal.”

Rogen’s goal with Houseplant’s products is refreshingly simple in an industry awash with brands pushing pot as a cure-all wellness product. He says he wants to sell some of the best stuff out there. “When I say it’s actually the weed that I smoke all day and night, it’s true,” says Rogen. Houseplant doesn’t grow its own, but rather curates bud from small-batch, high-end indoor growers across California.

High Design: Housegoods sells upscale ashtrays and vases designed by Seth Rogen.

Courtesy Houseplant

Some of Hollywood’s elite have purchased his home goods, including Charlize Theron, while Lena Waithe, the creator of Showtime series The Chi, has purchased Rogen’s cannabis. When asked what sells better, his company’s flower or pottery, he doesn’t hesitate.

“Weed is better, for sure,” says Rogen. “Honestly, no one would buy a vase if you could go to jail for it.”

As for his reputation being intertwined with cannabis, Rogen, who smoked a joint with Conan O’Brien during one of talk show host’s last episodes before retiring, says he’s proud.

“It’s something I’ve always championed and something that I'm very happy to be associated with—it’s something that is an intrinsic part of my life, my day-to-day functionality,” says Rogen. “Of all the things to be tied to, I’m fucking thrilled that it’s weed.”

#rich #money #cannabis #weed #cbdoil #wax #vape #vapepen #vapeoil #cart #dispensary #calipug #marijuana #kush

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addictivegerard · 3 years

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why the prolife argument makes no sense

1. “You have no right to kill your fetus. It’s not your body, the baby is an individual and has the right to life.”:

2. There are two possible responses to this.

Legally, if you are brain dead, you’re… dead. You no longer have the right to life, which is why organ donation is possible. All this while having a heartbeat, so that’s clearly not a viable hallmark of an individual that inherently has the right to life. So while it's true that at six weeks a baby develops (what is flimsily termed as) a heartbeat, that doesn't somehow give it rights to life that it did not have before. So far, I haven’t come across any other sensible theories as to “when” an embryo deserves the right to life. It’s a lousy concept to begin with, as blurry as the legal definition of adulthood – not all 18+ year olds are mature and nothing fundamentally changes in a person once the clock strikes midnight. Similarly, embryo development is a process. There’s really no point at which you can logically claim it’s transformed into a human being with rights.

3. Evidently, there are two extremes — life begins at conception, vs life doesn’t begin until birth.

4. “Use protection and you won’t get pregnant”:

Protection is never 100% reliable. Plus: if two people are irresponsible enough to have unprotected sex, what makes you think they’re responsible enough to have and raise children? The number of children growing up with unqualified, immature, abusive, or neglectful parents automatically disproves the theory that parenthood brings about a sense of personal responsibility. Being raised by bad parents inflicts often irreparable damage on children. Treating babies as some sort of “divine punishment” for irresponsible sex, instead of human beings who deserve a stable upbringing, is harmful on both an individual and collective scale. The data on irresponsible, neglectful, or abusive childhoods/single parent childhoods speaks for itself. In the quest to punish irresponsible parents, most of the damage is inflicted on their children, which in turn impacts the generation that will lead us forward into the future. It is in our best interests to raise as many mature, healthy, and productive young adults as possible, and while not every child born into these circumstances live lives of mental health/psychological/intimacy issues and criminal behavior, a large majority do. Growing up with bad parents is simply not ideal for an impressionable child’s wellbeing. Quality of life > quantity of life.

5. “Don’t have sex if you don’t want to have children.”:

Unhelpful, unrealistic, and telling of no real desire to solve the problem at hand. Telling people not to have sex unless they deliberately intend to have children is like telling people not to smoke, drink too much, or eat unhealthily. People will have sex. What are we going to do to make sure the sex doesn’t lead to unplanned pregnancies?

6. “Okay but what about xyz who had an abortion and has regretted it ever since?”:

Abortion is a result of unplanned and unfortunate circumstances. Whether it’s because the doctor tells you your baby will be stillborn or born with a fatal illness, or if you were raped, or if you had sex with your boyfriend during your first year of college and found yourself pregnant: these are bad situations, and no matter what you do, there’s always a chance you’ll look back and wish you’d done things differently. Kept the baby? Well, maybe you’ll find that the baby brought newfound purpose to your life. But maybe the baby added an additional financial strain to your life and forced you to quit your job, leaving you destitute and homeless with no way to feed it. Alternatively, if you got an abortion, maybe you end up being able to finish college and fulfil all your goals... or maybe you regret that decision for the rest of your life. There’s no way to guarantee that you’re making the right decision, but being informed about your options, and having options available, makes it more likely that you do. That’s why we are advocating for informed choice. Whether they eventually choose to keep the baby or have an abortion, give women the time and resources to truly evaluate their options and do what’s best for them in their own circumstances.

7. “Why kill the baby? Put it up for adoption.”:

8. “It doesn’t matter, no one has the right to take another life.”:

Here’s another way of looking at the abortion question: the fetus is in a position where its existence impinges on its mother’s bodily integrity, and it stays in that position until the point of viability (at which it could plausibly survive outside the mother’s body) at about 24 weeks. One person’s bodily integrity will always override another person’s right to life; this is a fundamental truth. Otherwise, we would have mandatory kidney and liver donations. People all over the world are dying due to a lack of kidneys or other organs - why should we be allowed to keep both of ours when one of them could save someone’s life?

Let’s say I caused a car accident that resulted in someone needing a kidney donation. It’s my fault they’re in that position, and I was negligent - should I be legally obligated to give mine up?

If the idea of being forced to donate one of your kidneys sounds violating, you’re closer to understanding why forcing someone to have a baby is such a barbaric thing to do. Even if the risk is small - kidney donations have a death rate of about 0.03% while childbirth is at 0.02% in the US - it’s still wrong to force something so invasive and risky onto someone against their will. Additionally, there are many complications that can arise from pregnancy short of death, just like there can be consequences to living your life with only one kidney down the line.

To summarize:

The pro-life argument is reduced down to: well, abortion is bad! That's a little innocent baby. It didn't hurt anyone. Well, we agree: abortion is bad. It’s not a good thing, it’s not something people want to have to do. Nobody looks forward to giving or receiving an abortion, it’s physically painful and often heart-breaking. But is it as bad as forcing a woman to go through hours of excruciating, potentially life-threatening labor for a child she doesn't even want to have? Is it as bad as enforcing serious health, financial, emotional, social, and professional risks on a woman who knows she is in no way ready to give a baby the life it deserves? Is it worse than having to drop out of school with no way to feed your child? Worse than having to give your baby away to an adoption center, where they’re likely to join the hundreds of thousands of unadopted children? There are evils, and then there are greater evils. Abortion may not be ideal, but for some people, it's the best option out there. When broken down, the pro-life argument is nothing but sad, provocative videos & descriptions of surgical abortions intended to pull at your heartstrings. But they’re sometimes the best option for the mother and her unborn baby. Nobody is pro-abortion — we’re pro-choice.

#abortion #prolife #prochoice #reproductive rights #reproductive health #adoption #sex ed #okay phew #had to get this out of my system

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scribbles97 · 4 years

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Left Behind -- Chapter 17

In which Lucy gets caught out, Hugh Creighton-Ward is a flirt, and Scott is just Scott...

PART 1 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16 / Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19 / Chapter 20 / Chapter 21

Read on Ao3

Before she could reach the lab, her phone vibrated in her pocket, making her hesitate with a frown. Anyone who would call her direct number was there on the island. In terms of Tracy Industries and International Rescue, all calls would be diverted through to her desk in the lounge and answered by whomever was around at the time.

She couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows as she looked at the caller ID.

“Well this is unexpected.” She smiled, pausing in the hallway to lean against the wall.

Hugh chuckled across the line, “I can call another time but I think you’ll appreciate what I have to say.”

She tutted at him, “Now, Hugh, I never said that it was unwelcome.”

“Ahh, so you look forward to my calling?”

Heat had risen in her cheeks at the tone of his voice, low in implication.

“You certainly always have something important to say,” She smiled, “So what’s going on today?”

Footsteps sounded further down the corridor, making her look up to check who it was. As Hiram and Kyrano rounded the corner, she waved slightly and gestured to the phone pressed to her ear.

“I have some news regarding your friend Gaat that I thought you might like to hear.” Hugh told her, voice softening.

Automatically, she stood straighter, eyes going to the brother of the man he had just mentioned,

“If it’s that he’s recruited an apprentice to help him build a new Zero-X, you’re late to the party Hugh. Kyrano told me just that this morning.”

Hugh scoffed, “Lucy, darling, your news is correct, yes, but it’s also old.”

She frowned, dropping her eyes from Kyrano, “Old?”

“Darling,” Hugh sighed, “My intel says that the Zero-X mark two is ready to launch. Gaat is just waiting to complete the programming on it. As far as I can tell, he has a functioning T-Drive.”

Her breath caught in her throat as she swallowed, “That sounds dangerous.”

“Very.”

“Lucy?” Kyrano interrupted, “What is it?”

She waved him off with a shake of her head, “Hugh, how sure are you?”

“I’ve seen photos of it myself, Luce. Parker has a friend that got recruited by Gaat, I trust my source.”

She cursed with a sigh, “Hugh, you can’t tell anyone this,”

“I sense a but?”

Glancing to Kyrano, she pursed her lips, “Hugh.”

“You have my word Lucy, you should know I’m a man of my word.”

Hugh was someone she could trust, if she asked him to keep quiet she knew he would. He had been there for her through thick and thin over the last four years. Supporting her through her grief and depression, Hugh had been the shoulder she had needed.

“Kyrano found new footage,” She murmured, “The last launch was successful, the Zero-X didn’t explode Hugh, it launched. We believe that there’s a possibility, a slim possibility, that Jeff could be out there.”

“What?”

She turned at the second voice, eyes widening at the figure of her eldest standing at the far end of the hall. Cursing she shook her head, looking to Kyrano and Brains and back again to Scott.

“Shit.” She uttered, “Hugh, I’ll call you back.”

“I want details Lucy.” He stated, “What’s the plan here?”

“Later.” She growled, “Scott just overheard our conversation.”

The sound of realisation across the line said perfectly that Hugh understood what she meant.

“Right,” He sighed, “I’ll talk to you later then.”

Even though he couldn’t see her, she nodded, “It’ll be tonight.” She promised.

The line cut and she looked to Scott and then to Kyrano, “You two get up to the lounge and make some excuses for us, dinner arrived twenty minutes ago and if you don’t hurry up Virgil and Gordon will have eaten it on you.”

Both began to walk without a word being said, ducking past her and then Scott with a quiet nod of acknowledgement.

Scott was practically screaming at her with his eyes, arms folded across his chest as he waited for answers.

Rubbing her face, Lucy sighed and pointed further down the hallway, “Lab, now.”

Scott nodded, gesturing for her to go first, “After you.”

“Look,” She started with a sigh as they walked, “I only found out this morning, okay? I wanted some form of confirmation before I said anything to you boys.”

Scott scoffed alongside her, “So the pizza was to ease your guilty conscience.”

“No!” She exclaimed, spinning to face him as they reached the lab door, “How dare you even think that!”

He shrugged, “Well how else does it look? You’re keeping a big secret from us about Dad and want to soften the bl--”

“It’s nothing like that!” She snapped at him, punching in the code for the door and holding it for him to step through, “Ask your Aunt, we agreed on a pizza night when John called last week to day he’d be home. I only found out about the Zero-X this morning when Kyrano got here.”

“And who else knows?” Scott asked, leaning against one of the work benchest with his arms still folded as she closed the door behind her slightly harder than necessary.

“Nobody.”

“Apart from Hugh Creighton-Ward, Kyrano and Brains?”

“Well considering all three of them came to me regarding the Zero-X, yes. They know.”

She shook her head as she looked him up and down, he wasn’t her teenage boy anymore, nor a rookie in their team. Scott had taken lead as commander of their team around the time Virgil had joined as an operative, giving Lucy the time she needed for the business and other admin work. There were times when he still looked to her or his aunt for guidance, but he was good at what he did, a born leader much like his father had been.

Much like his father was.

Maybe he held authority as team leader, but she was still the head of the organisation. Most importantly, she was still his mother, and protecting her boys from being hurt was one of her priorities.

“I didn’t want to not tell you.” She uttered, looking away, “You should know by now I don’t like keeping secrets from you boys.”

“Then why?” Scott rolled his shoulders, “Why bother keeping the secret Mom? Dad could be alive and we could be out there looking for him!”

“Could.” She emphasised, “We don’t know for sure yet Scott. It’s a tiny chance that he is maybe out there.”

Cold clenched around her chest as she said the words, sensible thoughts stamping down the swelling of hope that had been lingering all afternoon. She needed to be realistic, otherwise it wouldn’t just be the boys that ended up getting hurt.

“Well we need to do something and find out! Thunderbird Three is--”

“It would take centuries for Thunderbird Three to get anywhere near where he might be.” She shook her head, “This is why I didn’t want to tell you yet. Stop for a minute and think Scott.”

His sigh was heavy as he looked down with pursed lips, nodding slightly in acknowledgement of what she was saying. It was perhaps his biggest flaw as a commander, act first think later wasn’t always the best course of action, not on a rescue and not in looking for his father. She knew that he would learn with time and guidance, but for now he still needed the reminder sometimes to just slow down.

Taking a holoprojector from the desk, she set it down on the workbench next to where he was perched, bringing up the new footage Kyrano and Hiram had shown her earlier. Scott was biting his lip as she talked through what she knew, clearly eager to ask questions, get more answers, but knowing that he should wait until she had told him everything before he did.

“Is there a way to get a signal out there to find out?” He murmured, as she finished, reaching out to zoom in on the predicted area where the Zero-X may have ended up, “Surely if he’s out there, he’d figure out a way to contact us? It’s Dad.”

Lucy nodded, reaching across to rub his back, “I’ve made the task of finding a way to get some communication out there a priority for Hiram.” Pursing her lips she shook her head, “We’ve considered hijacking the Calypso research ship to help.”

Scott snorted, a grin breaking through his frown as he looked to her, “Is that legal?”

She shrugged, “If Gaat does have a functioning T-Drive and I can get hold of the plans I’ll build them a brand new ship and fund a new trip as compensation.”

If it meant finding Jeff, she knew she would go further than that if necessary.

“And how are we going to get our hands on Gaat’s T-drive?” Scott murmured, “Because last I looked, IR wasn’t in the business of stealing.”

Shaking her head, Lucy sighed, “I’m still working that out. Most likely Hugh will be my way in.”

“Mom?” He frowned, reaching up to hold her shoulder, “You’re not doing this on your own.”

Looking up to him, she raised an eyebrow. Grown man or not, she refused to lead him into the pits of danger and to a man that had potentially killed his father.

“I need you to stay here and stay safe,” She told him, “I need my commander to keep the team in order.”

His frown spoke volumes, the blue of his eyes widening as he shook his head, distaste scrunching his features, “Don’t talk like that, it sounds like you’re not going to come back.”

She hadn’t considered the possibility, but refused to acknowledge it. Nothing Gaat could do would stop her from coming home to her boys, she was going to make sure of it.

Shaking her head at him, she smiled slightly in assurance, “I don’t even have a plan yet, but of course I’m going to come back.”

Scott shook his head as he pulled her into his side, “Good, because I’m not telling Alan that he can’t fly Thunderbird Three yet.”

She had to laugh, knowing that Scott had such a soft spot for his youngest brother, he would instantly cave and let him into the rocket. Wrapping her arms around him she nodded with a smile, “Don’t worry, leave that to me kiddo.”

Pulling away she reached to her phone in her pocket, “I’d best call Hugh and see what he’s saying.”

Scott frowned at her, “And what about dinner?”

If she were honest she hadn’t been overly hungry with the new information that had come to light, the chips had only been something to keep everyone else from nagging her about eating.

“I’ll come up and get a sandwich later or something.”

It seemed to be enough to convince him as he nodded and turned towards the door, “I’ll give you a shout if any calls come in.”

She thanked him as he left before hopping up to sit on the workbench. As the phone dialed she flicked through the papers that had been left scattered, schematics and calculations that went far over her head filled the pages.

“Kyrano sent me the clips,” Hugh answered, “I can see why you’ve got to the conclusion you have.”

Sighing, she shook her head, “Hiram is working on sending out a signal, something about bouncing it off of the Calypso and on to the Oort Cloud.”

“Sounds promising,” Hugh agreed softly, “But what are we going to do about Gaat and his new Zero-X?”

Running a hand through her hair, Lucy rolled her eyes. Hugh would no doubt already have a suggestion and would simply be waiting for her to ask. There would have been an idea formulating in his head from the moment he found out about the ship, and she knew all the details would have been checked and confirmed before he had even called her the first time.

“You mean you don’t have some grand plan ready to share with me?”

He chuckled across the line, “Well, I am rather glad you asked darling.”

#thunderbirds are go #Thunderbirds 2015 #Thunderbirds Au #Lucy AU #Scott Tracy #Lucille Tracy #Kyrano #Brains Hackenbacker #Hugh Creighton-Ward #scribbles writes #Left Behind Part 2

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charlenelouise-gdc · 4 years

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3.4 — FMP:

Fan Culture: FMP Development

After much thought, more research and further exercises, I came into the conclusion that I would like to pursue my third FMP idea revolving around fan culture. Even though I am passionate about all the subject areas from the other ideas and the way I plan on executing them, I feel like this is the right one to pursue at this stage of my creative career. I would like to use London as a resource to find content, as well as use the studio facilities available.

Overall, I think the project covers a topic that is both equally fun to do, but also something insightful and offer interesting commentary (on women, society and community). I like the challenge of bridging “low art” (pop music) and “high art” (documentary filmmaking). More so, documentary style filmmaking is one of my stronger skills as a creative, as proven by my FMP in Year 02, and is something I would like to build on. This project would allow me to level up my skills on this technique/style of filmmaking. I think there’s something comfortable as well as challenging in this project.

The following bellow details some development I made on the idea, as the laying foundations for the project...

RECAP FROM THE EARLIER BLOGPOST:

“Fangirl” Culture

Like I said earlier, I’ve always wanted to champion women or pursue female centric stories in my work. Out of all the things out there regarding the feminine experience, nothing speaks more of it other than boybands and fandom culture. Its always been a persistent part of girl culture; whether it’ll be a pop band or a rock band. I think this would be an interesting world to explore.There’s already a preferred narrative around fangirls - the rabid, crazy kind. Although that is true in some extreme cases, it would be unfair to only present this as the only side of the story. I would like to show the other, more wholesome side. Fandom culture goes beyond the band and the music; in fact, they are only mere catalysts. Fandom culture is ultimately about identity and community; through the band and music, many young girls across the world is given the opportunity to own something and begin to have a good sense of themselves - ultimately forming an identity. Also, its about community; they’re able to connect with others and form strong bonds simply because of the band/music. You can see this, in the queues before gigs or the excitement they discuss their favourite member. Above all, it speaks about a different kind of joy that is often belittled.At present, a lot of the coverage around fandom culture are often done by people outside the community (with negative preconceived ideas which already suggest a bias). It would be interesting to see it from the people in the community themselves. I want to give the girls the voice and and let them reclaim the narrative. Ultimately, tell it from a loving lens. Also, I believe this is quite telling on how female passion is portrayed and what is acceptable, depending on the demographic. Football fans chanting? Perfectly fine. Girls screaming at concerts? Insane. This is aligned with women’s negative and dangerous relationship with hysteria throughout history. I think there is an interesting window to explore the social implications around fan culture. Additionally, I like the challenge of taking something from pop culture and considered as low art, and give it context and background. After all, it deserves to be studied carefully as much as its high art counterparts (From Stuart Hall’s theory Representation: feminine taste = low art, Masculine taste = high art). Above all, I think it would be equally as fun as well to do. It’s would be cool to celebrate fan culture, where its alive and present. Not just through a nostalgic lens. References: BTS’ documentaries: Bring The Soul (2019), “I used to be Normal” Documentary on fangirls across the ages (2018).

FMP Development

I would still like to focus this project on BTS and their fans specifically. They’re the biggest boy band in the world right now and their fans are ones of the most active, both online and offline. I want to be able to document a part of this culture, while it is still happening and its best (rather than through a nostalgic lens). Most importantly, their work and music are monumental in many ways; they’re crossing boundaries, not only in the music but in race relations, toxic masculinity etc. Their global influence must not be undermined.

Documentary Style

For this project, I would like to mix both real life footage to stylised setting. My main point of stylistic reference is Roxy Rezvany’s “Little Pyongyang”. She used a stylised set for her interviews, while also having real life, observational shots of her interviewees natural habitat/form.

youtube

I think this would be a good technique to use for this documentary.

I would like to build my own “teenage bedroom”. After all, this is one of the main touch points for fan culture and feminine culture in general. We learn so much about our tastes right there; this is evidenced in the posters on our walls and the CDs we used to collect. This is referenced a lot in Teen/Coming of Age films. I feel like this would an interesting setting for my interviews to take place. Anyway, it would be harder to film into people’s individual bedrooms. It would make filming easier if I can take my interviewees into one place, rather than going to theirs with my crew (setting up and wrapping up in all of them). More so, I think this is a good opportunity for me to use and improve my art direction skills (see image above for reference). I would decorate the set, referencing the 90s, personalised to a Kpop fan’s perspective (see reference above).

Content

The narrative will be crafted from the content being produced; the interviews will play a crucial role into this and will be the key part of this project. From the emotions to the personal anecdotes, it all stems from this. Therefore, I need to craft the interview questions I’m going to be asking, to trigger the “right” answers or reactions. More so, I really need to pay attention on the actual filming day, so the rhythm/energy of the interview is kept and the questions isn’t answered twice/already embedded on what they formally just said. More so, a technique I was taught/learned from my old FMP was to keep silent in some parts of the interviews, as the interviewees would naturally fill the silence themselves and bring their own thoughts onto the table.

In terms of content, London is rich in terms of resources. It hosts so many hot spots for this fan culture and explore it in real life, in real time.

Some ways this can be executed:

Recall past major events (e.g. BTS Samsung AD that played in Piccadilly Circus that garnered so many fans).

Fan Hang-Out Places (e.g. Gaza cafe, specialising in Korean dessert, in Soho decorates their stores when members of the boybands and make special one-off desserts to commemorate their birthdays. A tradition among fans has then been developed where they make a pilgrimage to this place, to celebrate their favourite members’).

Replicating their steps (e.g. when BTS visited London in their last tour, they took pictures around London when they went exploring in their own time; fans replicated the pictures they took).

Regular Kpop dance classes are held (e.g. BASE studios near Vauxhall).

BTS has an upcoming tour for their latest album, Map of the Soul:7, which includes London as one of their stops. There will be fan-led events leading up to the concert to celebrate their return.

Potential Interviewees

There are few interviewees I think would be good options. Twitter was a good resource to look into, as it is one of the main hot spots for this culture to exist in. In particular, I would like to interview the following:

Lucy Ford (@lucyj_ford) - social media for Netflix

Ellie Bate (@eleanorbate) - buzzfeed reporter

Ikran (@ikran) - buzzfeed reporter

These girls are all what I call “professional fangirls”... They all have media jobs and respected in their profession, yet have unapologetic enthusiasm for BTS and their community (they have good followings on their social media too). They offer insightful but also equally fun things on the day to day through their twitter accounts; I think they would offer the same in a personal interview. Most importantly, they’re all close friends. I think they would have excellent chemistry on screen and their natural friendship would light up the interview.

I would like to interview fans too, of all different backgrounds and races, inquiring how the band has impacted their lives. I want to achieve something similar to this, but communicated in my own personal style and design (rather than the typical, point and shoot interview). The content I want to capture is definitely there (in what they’re saying, how their band affected them personally, their community)...

youtube

Note: Professionally, I would like to only involve fans who are 18 years old and above, so it doesn’t interfere with filming; if I choose people who are 16 years old, it would require a legal guardian to sign a consent form and they have to be on set as we film - this could be a lot of hassle. Even though I’m not getting a full scope of the demographic this way, I think this would be the more sensible option. In addition, I feel like leaning towards the older end will give me more articulate, in depth answers. I think it would be a good idea to contact those who already has a platform, whether its a Twitter account with a reasonable following or a Youtuber who post videos. In a way, I feel they would feel more at ease at being in front of the camera and good at expressing opinions/feelings. I feel like I would do less teasing out of information during the interview if they naturally bring the information themselves.

I also plan on getting in touch with some UK based fanbases to help me boost the idea and find people to interview. This includes:

@BANGTANUK @BTSUKUNITE @UKBTSARMATION @BANGTANSCHOLARS

____________________________________________________________

I look forward into narrowing this project further and progress onto fully forming the project. It feels very much my own and I’m ready to take care of it.

Next steps:

Create proper pitch deck to send to interviewees*

Compile list of potential interviewees and rank them

Contact and introduce myself to interviewees

Create skeleton structure of the documentary*-

Create draft for interview questions*

Run a test interview (to check which questions work)*

Refine Set Design with accurate measurements*

Prop Buying

Contact potential Builders for the set

* urgent tasks - just because the film is non-fiction, planning is required and I must recognise where the beats of the film should be. This is something I failed to do in the D&AD project. Although I am crafting a narrative from non-fiction pieces of information and is dictated by the content of the interview, I should’ve known where to place them in advance.

#FMP 2020

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fymagnificentwomcn · 5 years

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How was the relationship between Murad III and his consort Safiye ? Can you tell me about them ?

Murad and Safiye’s relationship is interesting because while Safiye was his haseki, Nurbanu still lived for most of his reign, and he was very close to his mother as well. Safiye managed to achieve an important position even when the Valide Sultan was alive. Hürrem became truly influential only after Hafsa’s demise, there was no Valide during Selim II’s reign, Handan died only a year after Ahmed ascended the throne…so here we truly have the only example of prominent haseki/valide rivalry (Turhan and Kösem most likely became rivals only once they were both Valides, the only such case in Ottoman history, and Turhan was never a prominent haseki).

Safiye likely became Murad’s concubine at the latest in 1563 according to Sakaoğlu and gave birth to Murad’s firstborn son and future successor. They were a monogamous couple during his whole princedom and several years after his accession to the throne. Murad and Safiye had also other children, but all of Safiye’s younger sons died in infancy. In the words of Salomone the Jew:

“(…) the Sultana gave the said King many sons and daughters, most of whom having died, there remained only one son, the present Sultan Mehmet.”

As such there of course were dynastic concerns, not only Nurbanu’s rivalry with Safiye and her wanting to reduce Safiye’s influence on Murad. Anyway, Nurbanu and her daughters managed to convince Murad to take other concubines, and it is said that the first one that put an end to Safiye being Murad’s only sexual partner was gifted to him by his sister Ismihan…and later we all know what happened, Murad conveived probably most children out of any Ottoman sultan and in span of only around 13 years. At his death he left more than 40 children, and we also need to take into account that likely quite a number of other children had died before him. Peirce also mentions that there might have been also an additional reason for Murad taking other concubines:

“The unease caused by Murad Ill’s prolonged monogamous relationship with Safiye may have been due not only to concern about the production of heirs but also to the perception that had damaged Hurrem’s reputation, namely, that the sultan’s devotion to a single woman in a relationship hat endowed her with monopoly of his sexual attention was a compromise of his autonomy.”

It is also possible that Murad simply suffered of impotence problems at some point, which were later appropriately treated.

Safiye reportedly endured the whole situation with dignity and not showing outward jealousy, even using Murad’s new “hobby” as a way to maintain her influence and supplied concubines to him herself, which earned her his gratitude. It is not a new thing that a concubine may remain influential and the most important one even when she stops fulfilling her procreative role - it is likely that Selim ceased to have sexual relations with Nurbanu once he ascended the throne, but he still relied on her a lot and kept her close to him.

Sakaoğlu mentions that Murad stopped being monogamous in 1582 and it lasted until his death in 1595. He also mentions that (unsurprisingly) Safiye’s influence increased after deaths of Mihrimah in 1578, Nurbanu in 1583 and Ismihan in 1585. Peirce mentions that perhaps Murad once more made Safiye his only companion during his last years.

Salomone the Jew stated that:

“Safiye was with him for thirty-two years, during twenty of which he had no other wife but her; moved however by solicitation of the Queen Mother and his sister (wife of the illustrious Signor Mehmed Pasha) and people who said it was not well that the kingdom should only found hopes on one son, he took so many wives that their exact number is lost… some say over fifty.”

Some more quotes about their relationship:

- Venetian ambassador Giovanni Moro in 1590:

“With the authority she [Safiye] enjoys as mother of the prince, she intervenes on occasion in affairs of state, although she is much respected in this, and is listened to by His Majesty, who considers her sensible and wise.”

- Venetian ambassador Francesco Morosini in 1585:

“While he [Murad III] did not make her a marriage settlement, which is the equivalent of freeing her [Safiye], and assign her an appropriate dowry, she was nevertheless called by all his wife.”

- Venetian ambassador Lorenzo Bernardo in 1592:

“Among His Majesty’s most favourites is the Most Serene Sultana, Albanian, and very dear to His Majesty: he entertained himself with this woman for 18 years but seeing that she could not have any more children than three, he bedded other slaves, and he has not touched her since then. He has taken her as his wife, and he loves and respects her deeply, and she is much honoured. She has great authority and often says her opinion in affairs of state, and the Grand Seigneur listens to her.”

Bernardo also mentioned in this dispath that Safiye liked to receive pretty gifs in exchange for her support.

- Salomon Schweigger, German Lutheran priest living in the Ottoman Empire as envoy of the Habsburgs:

“The Sultan’s wife often goes out. She visits the wives of pashas. On these trips one of the hundreds of eunuch slaves that work in the palace chaperone her. She goes on her trips with a small house cart that is always covered with a red cloth.”

Sakaoğlu calls this quote a very important information because mentions about palace life and sultan’s women are usually rare.

As we can see for example in the account of Salomone the Jew, even ordinary concubines who simply spent a night with the sultan were referred to as “wives” by Western informers.

However, Turkish historian Mustafa Ali referred to Safiye as “sultan’s wedded wife” in his works, but the issue is still debatable. For example, “Salomone the Jew”, who prepared a report for English ambassador Edward Barton (whose real identity was not provided there, but he is usually thought to be a Portuguese Jew named Alvaro Mendès,) states that Murad did not marry Safiye because of:

“(..) the advice given him by some malicious enemies of his mother, that if he gave it [the dowry, see above], he would die soon, like his father, who did not live long after giving it.”

Even though Alderson’s book is quite old and we now have new pieces of evidence supporting possible marriages of Selim/Nurbanu, Murad/Safiye and Kösem/Ahmed, I do agree with him that only three marriages during that period were 100% certain - Hürrem/Suleiman, Osman/Akile and Ibrahim/Telli Hümaşah, likely because all of them were much talked about, the first one due to its groundbreaking status, the second one because its untypical character contributed to dissatisfaction surrounding Osman, and the third one had similar consequences for Ibrahim when he hosted a lavish wedding while the country was the brink and people were starving. We have some evidence for all the others, but nothing of conclusive character. Thus said, I’d say that still the Nurbanu/Selim (especially this one) and Ahmed/Kösem legal marriages were more likely than the Safiye/Murad one.

- Joanna

#safiye sultan #ottoman history #history #murad iii #answered #anonymous #i'm slowly yeah but answering everything in inbox #thx for patience #had truly awful last month

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letsimportanttreecollection-blog · 6 years

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I am looking to buy life insurance for myself and my wife. Anyone know someone who does a great job on getting the best deal in San Diego county?

Sr22 insurance Texas?

I need an sr22 insurance for Texas, but a cheap one. Any tip?""

Which 5 R the best health insurance companies in India?

In terms of claim settlement ratio and efficient service

Does getting a ticket without losing points increases your insurance price ?

I just got a ticket for driving my car without having my drivers license with me. Altough it's better than 128$ and 2 points, its still 52$. The thing im wondering though is will my insurance company charge me more because of that even if I didnt lose points on my drivers license ? Thanks""

Who can I talk to about insurance?

I am trying to help my boyfriend find some affordable health and dental insurance....I have attempted finding it online and I am overwhelmed...Does anyone know if there is some kind ...show more

Information about health insurance please?

Im looking for a cheap but good health insurance. Please let me know what your recommendations are.

""Percentage wise, how much can car insurance go up after fender bender?""

I am currently with Esurance and I got into a fender bender where the insurance company paid out a little over 1,000 dollars. Around 1,400 dollars. I wish I knew it was going to be that cheap because I could've paid out of pocket but it's too late now. Lesson learned. Does anyone know around percentage wise how much my insurance premium will go up? I've never had an accident before this and I don't have any traffic violations or tickets. The insurance company says they can't tell me anything right now, but I'm looking to get another vehicle and I don't want a surprise come my next renewal. Thanks""

Is this good Health Insurance from my work?

I will be paying 182 dollars a month for medical vision and dental coverage. I will have a 50 dollar deductible, 30 dollar copays for primary care visits (50 for specialist) and 80/20 coverage. (They pay 80 percent of the visits and I pay 20 percent, plus the flat co pay. Im new to the whole insurance thing, I just left my parents coverage. Is this considered good? I just think its sorts a lot as I only make 2100 a month.""

The insurance valued my car for 1100 and for the repairs done estimated between 900-1000?

someone crash in my side of the car.will the insurance company pay for the repair it or give me a check for the value of my car. i want to know because it was last week and now since next monday my mot runs out. there are 3 things to need fixed to past the mot and i want to know if to waste the money to do it if it is going to be write off. i was told by my brother i could get paid from the insurance the value of teh car

Cost of insurance for a Motorcycle?

I'm in Montreal Quebec. I'm 18 and wondering how much the insurance will be? I heard since I'm under 25 they will make me pay $5000 a year for insurance. Is this true? If not what is your estimate?

How much money could i save on my car insurance by switching 2 geico?

Maternity health insurance question?

My son may be the father of a child, due next month. If paternity test proves him to be the dad, can her insurance go after his insurance to pay for the prenatal and delivery bills? This is in New York State""

17 cheap car insurance??

i live in the u.k im searching for car insurance for when i get my car does anyone no any car insurance companys that do cheap car insurance for my age or comparing sites. iv already tried compare the market and confussed.com links would be amazing thanks guys X

Looking for Affordable Health Insurance Rates?

I'm looking for a website that offers affordable health insurance rates.Please suggest me the best site

First car insurance help.?

Hi, I just bought my first car today. It was a Ford Ka 1997 1.3L. I am at college and have only 210 income per month. I don't know which would be the best type of insurance for me. I need to be insured for at the latest 24th April 09. Should I do monthly or annually. I did an annual insurance quote over the internet and the cheapest I got was with Endsleigh for 1500. What would be the best method of payment for me? Thanks very much for any help.""

Insurance policy?...?

My mum n dad are insured on a car and are going away next week for 2 weeks and said I can get insured on their car. But their insurance will not insure anyone under 25. I don't think you can have 2 insurance policies on one vehicle but not sure, so can you? How can I get round this? If I got a temp insurance the police would only give me a warning, yeah? Personal Information: 19 year old male with a 2 year driving license and 1 year NCB Pass Plus obtained""

How do I get cheaper car insurance?

I am trying to get my first car so I can drive my girlfriend and myself to work everyday. I am 19 and have had my license for about a year, I am going to get an older car a early 90s which I know lowers the insurance and live in new york and just getting the new york state bare minimum insurance. Even with that the quotes I am getting are around 200 dollars a month! About $2500 a year! About twice what I am paying for the car. Is there anyway I can save some money on this?""

I need to get health insurance. What is the best affordable insurance.?

I travel within the united states so i need to be covered where ever i go. I can only afford 60.00 a month.

Age Of 16 to fill up a car insurance quote?

why car insurance agent put 16 on car insurance quote even you got your license when you were 18...?

""I got a speeding ticket in Indiana, but I live in California?""

I plan on paying the ticket (Indiana court told me to send $138), but I want to know if I need to go to traffic school? If not, does a record go on my California license and my insurance would go up?""

Who is the best auto insurance agency?

Currently have USAA, but it seems that they just charge for the general population rather than going into more personal charges. Since they are not locally based in NV, they charge for all the other boneheads out here rather than my own driving record.""

Reading Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 19610

Do i need insurance to get a title transferred into my name?

I just bought my first car, and i have never had insurance. i live in pennsylvania, so can i go the the title transfer place and get it done without insurance? ill get insurance the next day, but insurance companies will not accept me until the title is transferred?""

A few questions about SR-22 Insurance?

Alright, so I'm getting slightly annoyed of the DMV as I've visited them three times already an had literally no progress made in all those lame visits... Anyways, I only got insurance so I can drive, but my car has failed smog three times now so that wont be happening and I'm now paying non-owner SR-22 insurance. Here are a few questions I have about the SR-22 and any input would be much appreciated. 1) What are the exact consequences if I choose to cancell my non-owner SR-22 insurance? I acknowledge that I will have to restart the process all over again when I want to reactivate it, but will the price be raised even more and the time frame? 2) Who do I call to find out how long I have to have SR-22 insurance; DMV or Local Court? 3) When does the SR-22 officially get activated, when the judge orders it or when I first started paying for the insurance? (I'm asking this because the insurance company I'm with is saying I shouldn't cancel because it will restart; I got the DUI 2 years ago and acitvated the insurance about 2 mounts ago.) I'm planning on going to a 4 year college so I don't want to be paying not to drive...! *I live in California if that helps you answer the question.""

Is there any programs in Tennessee (US) to help single mothers with car insurance?

I know this isn't the right catagory (I posted it in the correct one also) but I usually get good, helpful answers here so please try to help me! I am a single mother and I do work, but it's only seasonal, as of right now (there is talk I might be hired on full time but the hours would be very slim for a while after the holidays...it's retail). I was attending college online and I paid 6 months of car insurance with my living allowance from my student loans...well..my (ex) partner lost her job and we had to move and I was going through too much stress with a newborn and moving and everything that I had to quit school...now in December my insurance is due again and I am not going to have the money. I just started working so I haven't made any money yet. Is there anything to help me pay car insurance? I am trying my best make a better life for my daughter and I, but it gets soo discouraging working but still stressing soo much over money. I am trying to take care of my student loan but I have to come up with like $1500 to pay at least half of what I owe before they will give me another loan to go back to school and get a degree and I do not have that kind of money and with little family support no one will loan me that much. Please help me I dont' know what my options are right now.""

Car crash insurance? Insurance?!?

Ok, I crashed my toyota corolla 1997 from the back, the guy didn't have insurance, a license, or papers!, the guy who crashed me had a ford escape or explore. anyways I made a claim thru my insurance (Mercury Insurance), they approved the claim and are offering me the money for my car ($3,000) but a $500 deductible, do I get to keep my crashed car or will I have to give my car to Mercury Insurance?! Thanks!""

Where to get car insurance quote?

How much does type of car vary the insurance rate?

I am 18 and am going to be licensed in about a month or so. I am thinking about buying a first car but I'm just wondering out of curiousity, how much would insuring a 2002 BMW cost more than let's say...a 2002-2004 Honda Civic? I'm looking at the civic but if they are in the same price range, I would rather buy the BMW. Yes, I know about the Honda gets 50 mpg and BMW will cost more to maintain, etc, etc but I'm just wondering, would BMW insurance cost a lot more for a old model?""

Average insurance price for a Speedfight 2 (16 year old male) ?

could anyone please tell me the average insurance price for a Peugeot Speedfight 2 red wrc 50cc moped 2006 ---- for 16 year old male, no modifications just 3rd party, locked up at night with the cheapest price?? any help/info is helpful -- thanks alot :)""

Cost of insurance for a Subaru WRX STi?

Hi all, I will soon buy a Subaru WRX STi for commuting from home to work, but I am a college student. How much will it cost for the car to be insured under my mother's name? (53 year old female, perfect driving record). Thanks! Xela""

Why the heck is insurance so high?

So I'm 17 trying to get insured on any car from a 1-1.2L DIESEL. I've tried practically everything and it's so expensive. I get quoted 15,000 for a MINI COOPER S and 12,000 for a corsa. The area I live in insurance is low. I passed in july and I really need a car. Any suggestions for cars or insurance?""

How does my driving record affect my parents insurance rates?

In Illinois How does my driving record (20 F) affect my parents auto insurance if I'm not on their policy? I have my own car in my name and my own insurance policy in a different company than theirs. I do have 2 points on my record from a collision back in Oct. of 08' shortly after I got my license. Even than I had my own car and own insurance. I do live at home but I don't drive any of their cars ever.

When can i refinance my car loan ??

i bought a car on June 5th this year ( 200-7-) Now i pay around 425 dollars for it every month , and as per insurance around 198 . i make around 750 dollars a month . i am doing this because i want to be independent from my parents. If i don't start somewhere then i will never be on my own . anyway emotional stuff aside..hehe. When can i refinance my loan , currently it's around 6-7% I think my credit score went high , my equifax is 669 , when i checked right now on creditinform.com. I have chase bank , you think they can lower it ? do you know how much lower they can go ? around 300 maybe? i am goin to take defensive driving class also , i heard that saves a lot of money also on insurance.. Please help , : ) thanks , have a nice day.""

Do insurance companies look into your driving record?

When getting an auto insurance quote they ask if you have any major violations. Do they only know if u tell them, or will they eventually find out of u lie?""

""Obamcare, how is it enforced?""

So, the single mothers of 3 children. The one who's flipping burgers for 12,000 a year income, She's going to pay $100 a month for insurance, or she will be in violation of the law, right? When she doesn't pay the $100 a month, she's a criminal, right? We're going to fine her $2,000? If she doesn't pay the fine, we'll throw her in jail? Really? This is the plan? Does anybody else see how ridiculous this whole thing is???""

Is Circumcision covered by health insurance?

Hello i'm 17 years old and i live in Florida. And i'm probably going to get circumcised soon because i have phimosis. I'm wondering if health insurance covers it because i ...show more

Is this good fuel consumption & cheap insurance group?

I have found a car and the specs sa the following fuel consumption and I wanna know if it is good or not as im looking for something more economical. Fuel consumption (urban) 43.5 mpg Fuel consumption (extra urban) 65.7 mpg Fuel consumption (combined) 55.4 mpg Also it says the insurance group is 7, is this going to be quite cheap?""

Can your car be towed if you have no insurance?

Can your car be towed if you do not have insurance on your car? I was in an accident where the other car did not have insurance on the car that was not his. The police gave us a ticket, which it was our fault, I'm not denying that, but the police drove off not having the car towed . It kinda makes me wonder if the cop let them go with no ticket or anything.""

Need help with insurance!! getting ready to buy a car?

need some help with estimated insurance costs for a 16 year old with a 2002 pontiac firebird. i'll have farmers insurance and i will have the discounts for having a 3.0 gpa and another discount for taking their test. Please help estimations help

""Does your primary car insurance extend to rental cars?If so, does it really cover all expenses of an accident?""

Ever since I switched to Geico, I have verified with them that my car insurance policy extends to rental cars whenever I rent them out. Which is great, because it saves me money by waiving all the extra rental companies insurance surcharges per day. However, a recent alamo agent informed me even though i maybe saving money and my primary carrier extends to the rental car sometimes geico may not cover everything. Such as time of replacement. The time lost to the rental car company when geico works out the replacement of a total loss rental car. This maybe a hoax for me to buy alamo insurance, but I wanted to know from those experienced should I worry? Does primary insurances really extend to rental cars and do they cover everything i may encounter if I was in an accident? Would my credit card rental car accident insurance cover what my primary wouldnt cover? Curious...thanks""

How much is 21 century auto insurance?

Can health insurance coverage be dropped for a single department in a company? (Pennsylvania)?

I currently live in PA and my employer has said they will drop health insurance for my department, but not another department in the same company. I did some research online to see if this is possible or not. I originally started this job with guaranteed benefits and now they are being taken away. I was reading somewhere online (unsure of credibility, website is as follows:http://employee-benefits.lawyers.com/Employee-Benefits/Employer-Workplace-Benefits-FAQs.html) that a company cannot take away a certain departments health benefits and retain another departments. Below is the Q&A question from the stated website above: Q: Is my employer required to provide health benefits? A: Employers are generally not required to provide any health benefits. Only the state of Hawaii requires employers in the private sector to cover employees who work over 20 hours per week. Union contracts may include provisions for insurance as part of the agreement. However, health care and other benefits such as life or disability insurance are generally offered by employer as a means of attracting and keeping their workforce. If an employer does provide health coverage, federal law requires the employer to provide Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act (COBRA) to an employee who loses her job for any reason outside of gross misconduct the opportunity to maintain coverage up to 18 months at her own expense. This applies to companies with 20 or more employees. Some states also have laws with similar protections for employees who work for companies with less than 20 employees. Generally, it's not illegal to provide health benefits only to some classes of employees (for example, only to full-time employees but not to part-time employees). But once the eligible classes are established, an employer cannot withhold insurance from some members of the class while offering it to others. The employer can require employees to follow the rules of the plan, which may require an employee to fulfill a waiting period or wait for an open enrollment period before joining. An employer can usually change, or even eliminate, a health plan, but must follow the rules and guidelines of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). I understand they cannot choose and select who receives and who does not (I interpreted this as discriminating between employees). I do not know health legislature very well, and if anyone could provide some information it would be very appreciated. As for me, I am going to try and find more information out about this. Thank you.""

Is this what health insurance companies and Conservatives think about people with preexisting conditions?

USA Insurance for New Immigrants?

Hello!! I would like to inquire about medical insurance for new immigrants in the state of Florida. We have been here for 1 year now and who or what organization should we turn to? I have heard that a lot of them are expensive. I was told that we could get family insurance through employment -- but at the moment, my mom is the only one working with us, 3 dependents. So suggestion?""

How much is insurance for starting a cleaning service in California?

HELP with car insurance for 17 year old?

I am trying to find cheap car insurance for a 17 year old :/ its proving hard and cheapest quote so far is 3500 with my mother as named driver. does anyone know any companys that specialise in young drivers insurance or ways to reduce it?

How much would insurance be for a 1998-2001 mitsubishi eclipse for me?

im 16 and i need a car i would like to get a mitsubishi eclipse like a 1998-2001 model but I dont know how much my insurance would be. like i said im 16 and my grade point average is about a 2.5-3.0 (i get D and C) so if any one know plz share with me, thanks!""

Reading Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 19610

I was in an auto accident without insurance. What am I facing?

I was in a car accident yesterday. I live in California. I had no insurance at the time, although I was unaware that my girlfriend had not sent in my quarterly paryment and was actually driving without insurance for almost 3 months. The day after the accident I went in to the Highway Patrol's office and spoke to the officer who took the report and informed him I discovered I had no insurance. He didnt seem all that concerned and thanked me for going in. As for the accidnet itself, I belief I will be found at fault as I did not brake in time and rear end a small car who in turn hit the car infront of her. I was traveling at about 30 mph when I started to brake and I heard the firefighter at the seen tell the chp he thought it was 25-30 mph. If anyone could tell me what I am facing legally and finacially. I read online I will automatically have a one year driver's license suspension. Is this accurate and is this all? WIll I ge a ticked or fine? I would also like for someone to rule out jail time. The driver immediately infront of me had good damage to the back of her car and was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Her daughter called me the day after the accident and told me she was at her house but wanted her car fixed soon because she wanted to return home in another state. I suggested she call her own insurance and let them know I was inot insured. THe other driver in front and her passenger were also taken to the hospital with minor injuries and their car had minor damage when I looked at it at the time of the accident. I have not heard from them. Financially can anyone tell me what I am facing? I understand I will be responsible, but I also understand that the other parties' insurances will have to cover their own drivers. If so will I simply be responsible for their deductable. I am more concerned with the legal aspects than the financial. I am an single father of three and need to be there for my kids. Thank you to whoever can help!""

Health Insurance Cost - Private option or School option?

For those of you who have experience about buying health insurance, what is the average annual cost? And usually, what is the minimum cost for basic health coverage, vision and dental coverage? (Particularly in the U.S.) Should I buy health insurance from a private company or from my university? Thanks a lot for your time.""

How do I get two speeding tickets from 2006 to not show on my record for insurance? ?

I have two tickets from 2006. One in March and one in Dec. I took DD for the one in December yet they both show on my record when I try to purchase insurance. My quote went from $304 to $1000 for six months. This was Geico which was a little ridiculous if you ask me. Anyway I can get them to now show on my record?

Motorcycle insurance for 16 year old male price in ontario?

im looking to buy a 2001 Harley-Davidson sportster 883 for my first bike what am i looking to pay for insurance

Insurance quotation question?

hi my car was recently hit from behind by a third party at the time my brother was driving using his own insurance everything has been sorted out by the insurance company's do i need to declare this on any future car insurance quotes?

Can I drive a classic car as a daily driver while it has collector car insurance?

I want to purchase a 1966 Chevrolet Impala and I found one in my area for a really good price. My mom's boyfriend knows how to work on older cars so repairs and labor costs wouldn't be an issue (unless it'd be something he can't do with his hands like taking the engine out or something) and I am a senior in high school and live about a mile from my school (I know it's not far, but walking through inclement weather or on slippery sidewalks is a hassle sometimes). Can I use a classic car as a daily driver while it has collector car insurance or would I have to insure it with regular car insurance?""

Where can I get the best car insurance rates?

I have been on the same plan for 10 years now and they charge $165 each month which is ridiculous. Any idea what is the best company to get a better insurance rate?

Work Insurance for Teen?

My daughter will be voluteering at a Veteriray's surgery/office in the Summer holidays. She was told she'll need work insurance. We live in Ireland but do not have family insurance. Where can I get her this insurance for the time that she will be working/volunteering at the Vet's surgery/office/farm? I'd very much appreciate any leads please. Thank you.

Will my mom's car insurance go up because of my speeding ticket?

Ok...I was driving my mom's suburban truck...I was doing 45 in a 35. I am not on my mom's insurance but the ticket is in my name in my mom's truck. The ticket is 81.50...I only had my license for a year...my mom never had a ticket...ever...so her insurance is like cheap...she gas state farm...will her insurance go up? I don't want to tell her.

Does your license get suspended for not paying insurance?

My car was considered a loss. how do insurance co. determine how much to pay for the car? 2001 toyota carolla

A four door CE model. No major problems some small scratches and dents.

Whats the Bmw M3 insurance like?

im a 16 year old female in Florida and im looking into getting a 2002-2003 Bmw m3 in august.I was wondering if anyone else has one and could tell me what the insurance would be like. haha

Life insurance?

has anyone every heard of national benefit life insurance company of ny ny? i got this letter from them in the mail and im a bit scheptical of it... lemme know so i dont pour all this money into it and end up with nothing kthanks xoxo

Can i transfer moped insurance from one bike to another ?

ive got insurance on my piaggio fly 50cc which expires august this year, i can no longer drive this bike as i accidently got super glue all around the breaks and throttle and it wont budge, im going to maybe buy a new moped today for 300 and was just wondering if i get this do i have to cancel my old insurance and get a new quote and pay all that money again or cani just ring my insurance company and transfer it from my old bike to my new bike? thanks for any help! :)""

""For each car you own, you need car insurance for each one, right? How much do they usually charge?""

I don't own a car, so I don't know.""

How much will insurance be for me per month for a used nissan 350z yr 2003-2004?(full coverage)?

I am 19yrs old and this will be my first car. My credit score is 662 and I work full time earning 9$ an hr for 2 yrs now. Will insurance be a lot for me? How much averagly? 200? 300? 400$? I need to know before I buy it from the dealer... thanks!

What's the cheapest car insurance for a young driver?

I know this is a common question but what is the cheapest car insuance for a you driver I'm only 20

Our daughter has just passed her driving test ( aged 21 ) does anybody know of any cheap insurance companies ?

We are willing to buy her a small car but the insurance quotes she's getting are idiotic.

Who knows a lot about car insurance?

So, here is my situation: I'm 17, I have my driver's license but I'm pretty sure I have to be 18 to get car insurance. I can afford a car but I can't get the insurance till I'm 18. In Maine, it's illegal to drive a car without insurance and I wouldn't anyway becuse it's retarded. My boyfriend is 19, he does not have his driver's license but he his over the age of 18...So, I was thinking could I buy a car and put it in his name then could he get insurance for me even though he doesn't have a driver's license?""

How do online insurance quotes know the cars I own?

How do online insurance quotes (via Progressive, State Farm, etc.) know what cars I own based only on my name, address, and birth date? What kind of database houses this information?""

Uninsured Motorcycle Driver Question?

Recently a friend of mine wanted to purchase a motorcycle that he found a super great deal on. Because his credit is very average he asked me to purchase the cycle and he would make me payments plus interest. I agreed and took out a loan for the bike. However a few weeks later he decided it would be ok to take the bike out for a spin UNINSURED. He had a run in with several trick or treaters and their parents. Since it was an unlit road, they were in the middle, and he was going under the speed limit. The cops ruled it not his fault. However now two insurance companies are coming after me to subrogate the liabilities. Since he was the driver but I am the owner. What are my rights? Can they still blame him? Am I liable?""

Should i go through the whole car insurance thing?

Hey guys, so someone rear ended me this morning and im debating whether or not to file the claim through the other person's insurance company since im pretty sure it would be his fault. But i'm debating whether or not i should even bother becuase the damage is very minimal ( theres only a small imprint of the rectangle from the guys license plate.) But i got in a car accident about 8 months ago which ended up being my fault. so since the damage is minimal to my bumper, i'm not sure its worth the hassle and the possibility of my rates going up, even though not my fault. should i just let it go? or file a claims through the other persons insurance, and if i do, do i have to call up my own insurance company as well? or by filing the claim through the other company, they'll take care of it? thanks for all the input.""

""Best insurance business (All State, Farmers or State Farm)?""

I am seriously considering becoming an insurance agent for State Farm, Farmers or All State, but I don't know which company is the best choice for me, I am bilingual in Spanish, so I am looking for a company that is going after the Hispanic Market. I have heard some bad things about Farmers, so my decision might be State Farm or All State. Nationwide is doing a great advertising campaing in the Spanish market, does anybody know if they offer agency jobs. I am open to other suggestions. Any help/Suggestions is very much appreciated. Gracias""

What cars are cheap to insure for 18 year old?

I've just passed my test and I'm trying to find cheaper insurance, I'm not bothered what car as long as it's not expensive. The black box isn't suitable for me please don't suggest that. The other thing is, what insurance company is good""

""Any good, affordable companies to get life and disability insurance from?""

Any good, affordable companies to get life and disability insurance from?""

Reading Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 19610

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/list-cheap-car-insurance-young-drivers-alan-patterson"

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thezodiaczone · 6 years

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June Forecast for Cancer

Take it easy, Crab. The Sun is in savasana for the first three weeks of the month, relaxing in Gemini and your twelfth house of healing and closure. This is your annual “low-power” cycle, a time to nest, rest and release. Before your birthday time and #CancerSeason kick into gear on June 21, clear the decks of anything you don’t want to bring into your next year of life. Resolve resentments, wrap up lingering projects and do some soul-searching.

Don’t be surprised if you’re tired or unfocused—just roll with the right-brained energy for now and don’t force yourself to rally when you feel tapped out. With el Sol in this dreamy space (along with mental Mercury, which is in Gemini until June 12), your subconscious is activated. Dreams could be vivid and prophetic, and your instincts are on point. You’ll absorb people’s energy like a sponge (so watch who you spend your time with). Pay special attention to coincidences, strong gut feelings and serendipities. That’s the universe guiding you, Cancer!

That divine wisdom will be especially palpable at the Gemini new moon on June 13. Hosting a new moon of fresh starts in your twelfth house of endings is a bit of a paradox. But if you think of the “circle of life,” endings naturally flow into beginnings. What can you clear away to make space for something new? This new moon will also amplify your intuition, so follow any hunches. Tap in to higher wisdom with meditation, journaling or creative visualization. Energetic seeds planted today could blossom in the next six months. If there were a perfect new moon for writing down intentions and asking the universe for clear signs, this is it!

Father’s Day is June 17, and the moon will be in Leo, ruler of your classy second house. Treat your favorite father figure to a sophisticated celebration or splurge on a special gift. Think: small personalized touches like monogramming or engraving his initials into a beautiful accessory. It doesn’t have to be fussy, just something thoughtful that adds a touch of dad-friendly style to his world. Arts and culture are emphasized under this moon, so grab tickets to a live show, update his sound system with a great speaker or head to a food festival for family fun.

The next day, June 18, hazy Neptune turns retrograde, an event that happens around the same dates every year. Neptune will reverse through Pisces and your expansive ninth house, throwing off your risk-assessment gauges. You could overshoot the mark now, gambling on something without proper research or falling for a smooth talker’s exciting but pie-in-the-sky promises. Between now and November 24, be especially careful what you say yes to: Conduct due diligence, ask for references (and use them), read those reviews. The ninth house rules travel, so check out the comments on TripAdvisor before you book that “sweet resort deal.”

Since retrogrades connect us to the past, you might be better off revisiting an old favorite spot (especially near water). Neptune’s U-turn in your knowledge-seeking ninth house could be great for resuming an old course of study or immersing yourself in a favorite metaphysical practice. Head to the air-conditioned library on sweltering summer days—there’s gold in ‘dem dusty stacks!

Rub the sleep out of your eyes on June 21, when the Sun enters Cancer, waking you up and getting you psyched for a fresh start. Your energy reboots, and, if you let yourself rejuvenate this month, you’ll have a full tank just in time. If you’ve been unclear about next steps, you’ll be ready for decisive moves now. The path will start to look clearer with each passing day.

But that doesn’t mean you should rush into anything. On June 26, action planet Mars will also turn retrograde, bringing the total count of retrograde planets to FIVE (Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto have all been back-spinning for a couple months now). With so many slowed-down celestial bodies, it’s important that you also pace yourself, retracing your steps if necessary and evaluating things thoroughly before locking down commitments.

Mars will be retrograde until August 27, which will largely impact your eighth house of intimacy and shared resources, since Mars is in Aquarius from May 16 until August 12. Having the passionate and fiery planet going rogue here could drive up jealousy, competitiveness or buried resentments (yikes!). You may need to slow down or press pause on a romantic, sexual or financial entanglement that’s moved too fast for YOUR own good. Have you skipped the necessary steps in your rush to seal the deal?

For couples who hit a rocky patch, the Mars retrograde cycle is a crucial time to work through your differences (ideally with a professional). If you decide to part ways, it could get acrimonious, especially if you’re dividing shared property or if kids and pets are involved. Get a mediator if necessary. While you may not hit the “conscious uncoupling” nirvana of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin (#goals), make every effort not to get dragged into ugly power struggles and damaging dynamics.

The two days after Mars turns retrograde will also have a strong relationship emphasis. On June 27, the Sun makes its once-a-year opposition to somber Saturn, which is in Capricorn and your seventh house of partnerships. Have you lost touch with yourself or made someone else’s needs more important than your own? (#CancerProblems) You could have a wakeup call about the impact of that. You can’t avoid your own life by trying to manage someone else’s. If a relationship has turned toxic, whether romantic or business, boundary hound Saturn can help you take an essential step back to evaluate. Warning: The Sun-Saturn opposition can make you extra pessimistic, to the point of losing perspective. Hold off on making an irreversible decision until you’re certain it’s the right thing to do.

The next day, June 28, brings the year’s only full moon in Capricorn, which could deliver sought-after clarity around your commitments. If you’ve been waiting for word on a contract or sitting on the fence about a key alliance, this lunar lift could spur you into action. Full moons bring transitions and manifestations. A relationship could turn official—or you may decide to formally part ways. This balancing full moon gets your existing bonds back in sync. If you’re giving too much to some or leaning too heavily on others, these moonbeams can get you in a more mutual groove. With structured Saturn hovering close by, a conversation about boundaries and expectations could really help!

Love & Romance

With Venus in your sign until June 13, you’ll be in lighthearted, flirty spirits. Your confidence is at an annual high, and when you feel this independent and empowered, you attract people to you like moths to a bonfire.

The first week of the month delivers some pretty heady highs (and one possible challenge) as Venus hooks up with other planetary heavyweights. On June 1, Venus forms a flowing trine to expansive Jupiter in smoldering Scorpio and your romance sphere. New amour could appear on your radar without any warning (so consider yourself “warned”)! The next day, Venus forms a second trine to dreamy Neptune in soulful Pisces and your visionary, adventurous ninth house. Expand any limiting beliefs to allow love to grow. Think and act beyond your comfort zone and watch your love life transform. Then on June 5, an opposition to shadowy Pluto in your partnership realm could bring some heavy emotions to the surface or reveal where someone’s been less than truthful.

Meanwhile, spicy Mars is in Aquarius and your playing-for-keeps eighth house all month. So while you might be enjoying witty banter and admiration on the outside, a more internal part of you is craving intensity and intimacy. Some Crabs could be processing a breakup or other heavy emotions (hello, vulnerable moments), or wrestling with a surge of jealousy. And then, once Mars turns retrograde for two months on June 26 (until August 27), you may be forced to face some relationship speed bumps. Watch out for the unannounced return of a button-pushing ex and think twice before opening any doors to them.

Venus will change signs—and moods—when she jets into Leo from June 13 to July 9, settling into your stabilizing second house. Sensuality and sensibility return, though when she squares off with Uranus (June 14) and opposes Mars a week later (June 21), you may be torn between wanting more security and following your passionate emotions. The only way to find a happy medium might be to dabble at both ends of spectrum and let your heart decide.

Key Dates

June 14: Venus-Uranus Square Comparing yourself to other people could unglue the stability of a bond. You may get obsessed with keeping up appearances instead of being authentic. Sparks can fly with an online match or a friend you reconnect with virtually. But keep your wits about you. With disruptive Uranus at a tense angle to romantic Venus, the stars could throw your love life an unexpected curveball.

Money & Career

Do your research, Crab. You may be considering a joint venture or a big money move as June begins. Go-getter Mars is in Aquarius and your eighth house of investing and financial collaborations from May 16 to August 12. Exciting partnership and growth opportunities could crop up—and with pressure-cooker Mars here, you’ll feel the urge to act on them quickly. But with the Sun in Gemini and your foggy twelfth house until June 21 (and intellectual Mercury here until June 12), there may be more to the story than you think. Conduct due diligence so you can move forward with your eyes wide open.

Mars will be retrograde from June 26 to August 27, which could bring a few financial hiccups. An old debt may come due, or you might have some mind-numbing details to pore over in a legal contract, mortgage or clause. If you’re in the process of buying or selling property, Mars retrograde could also jangle the wires. Use the slowed-down retrograde to research and get all your ducks in a row; then make some turbo-powered money moves in the fall.

You’ll start to see clearly again once Mercury enters Cancer from June 12 to 29, followed by the Sun’s monthlong visit to your sign beginning June 21. Have you been sacrificing too much for others? These transits snap you out of martyr mode—time to stop enabling capable adults. Let them pull their weight, Crab. The June 28 Capricorn full moon could bring a make-or-break moment to a business partnership or contract. Who are the people that really deserve inner-circle status? If you’re carrying someone else’s load, stop, drop and keep it rolling. See if they start pulling their own weight once you quit making excuses and enabling. That will help you determine whether someone’s truly a slacker, or if they just didn’t have a chance to show you how capable they are.

Key Dates

June 7: Sun-Neptune Square Dial up the skepticism today. You might be lured by a charismatic character’s big talk, but if you’re keeping a keen eye out, you’ll quickly realize that this emperor has no clothes. Think twice about signing onto anything new; what seems straightforward at first blush could turn out to be one messy and tangled web.

Love Days: 23, 29 Money Days: 8, 17 Luck Days: 15, 6 Off Days: 13, 26, 4

#cancer #astrology #zodiac #horoscope #Monthly Forecast #cancer monthly

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uk-news-talking-politics · 6 years

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Last-gasp Brexit deal fix will poison our politics for years

By Ian Dunt

You can see the outline of a Brexit compromise already. The two sides want it. They're talking kind of the same kind of language. The trouble is that the compromise position is so utterly deranged that it will poison our politics for years.

The only remaining issue preventing a deal is the Irish backstop. This is the promise that, no matter what, there will be a frictionless border in Ireland. Theresa May's solution is to make sure it'll be never be used, by signing up the whole of the UK to the customs union and the single market for goods. The EU's solution is to accept that as a baseline offer but demand that the promise for Ireland remains in the treaty just in case.

The talks are now on what those just-in-case scenarios might be and how to address them. The two main areas of concern are reliability and time.

The former, which May chooses not to mention for obvious reasons, concerns what happens when she is inevitably replaced, either by Jeremy Corbyn or someone in the Tory party. Then her customs union and single market plans might be replaced alongside her and the backstop would have to be activated.

The latter concerns the gap between the end of the transition period and the start of Britain's new trading arrangement. This would leave a window when we weren't connected to the EU ecosystem and the backstop would then kick in.

Both of these points follow from outright stupidity - on both the EU and British side - at the start of negotiations. They now threaten to define us by the same stupidity for years to come.

Back when the Article 50 process started, David Davis promised that the "row of the summer" would be over sequencing. The EU had demanded that we talk about divorce proceedings first, like transition and the backstop, and only then discuss the future relationship. This would produce two documents: one on divorce, which was a legal text, and one on the future relationship, which was a political one.

Davis surrendered instantly, in a way that defined his approach to Brexit: loud talk, lack of preparation, functional incompetence and instant capitulation. But the truth is he was right. It made no sense to talk about Ireland without addressing the future relationship. And we are seeing the consequences of that foolish distinction now, in the inability to use Britain's decision on customs and the single market to neutralise the backstop as an issue.

Now the EU is stuck. It put the backstop down in law, but that relates only to Ireland. This is considered an outrage in Westminster. The promises Britain is making about how the future relationship would make the backstop irrelevant are unreliable, because they're just going in a political declaration which can be easily repealed or ignored by a future prime minister.

But if you allow the backstop proposal to include the whole of the UK, May can use it to smuggle Britain into the customs union and single market without having to take on any of its rules and responsibilities. You've pre-empted trade talks in a kind of cheeky, protocol-inserting fait-accompli.

So the current rumoured solution is to build little legal bridges between the divorce treaty and the political future relationship document. Think of it like an anti-Jacob Rees-Mogg firewall. It would prevent anyone unpicking the future relationship when they take over, but still force May to accept the responsibilities of customs union and single market membership during trade negotiations.

This is sensible, but it will cause havoc among the Brexiters. They will realise that they're being prevented from sabotaging the Brexit deal from outside the EU and will therefore have an incentive to sabotage it now, before we leave.

Things get even more insane when it comes to dealing with the time issue. Again, the EU bears as much culpability as the UK on this. It has been exactly as stupid as No.10. Both of them are living in a little fairy tale house, made of wishes and shortbread.

The transition does not need an extension of one year. It needs an extension of at least five and probably a lot more. Canada, a nuts-and-bolts, goods-only trade deal, took five years to negotiate and two to ratify. The deal we are going to be negotiating, by comparison, is unprecedented in human history. Never before have two large trading entities entered negotiations to pull themselves further apart.

We know how normal trade deals operate. You work down your tariffs. You stitch together some mutual recognitions agreements so that goods move faster. Maybe you do a deal on public procurement and intellectual copyright. And then you're good to go. The crucial thing is that both sides want similar things.

This is completely different. This is about taking two economies which are melded together through regulation, shared institutions and decades-old trade flows and extracting them from one another while trying to sabotage neither.

Negotiators will not be able to point to the usual easy wins of a trade deal - that this sector or that will have gotten rid of tariffs. They will only be able to point to attempts to satisfy a mercurial mandate from a dated referendum. It will be an absolute mess, without useful metrics to assess how it is going. It's not clear what Britain wants or if it can even articulate it, let alone negotiate it.

The opening period of the transition, from April 2019 onwards, will involve no meaningful trade talks at all. First there are the European parliament elections in May, and then the election of a new EU commissioner on the basis of the results. Nothing will get done until that's over with.

Then the British team need to develop a clear idea of what it is they are trying to achieve. What exactly will be the arbitration mechanism in the deal? The European Court of Justice will be involved somehow, but how much involvement can we countenance? How much influence can we get over regulations from Brussels? Norway has a contributory role in the formulation of new laws and active civil service involvement in enacting them at the national level. Is that enough? Or is it insufficient? The more control we want, the longer the talks will drag on.

Then the deal needs to be ratified. This will require the support of all EU member states in their own parliaments, including some regional parliaments, like Wallonia, where the far less controversial Canadian trade deal was nearly destroyed.

And then there is the implementation period (the real one, not the one May invented a couple years back). The new trading arrangements will require infrastructure which must be built and new systems - for IT, staff training, administrative oversight, regulatory surveillance and more - which must be put in place. If you want a glimpse of how hard, time-consuming and fraught with danger that is, consider the government's current struggles with the Universal Credit system, or HMRC's awkward and confused attempts to implement a new clearance system for customs. And then multiply it countless times.

The current transition time limit is 18 months. That is laughable. No-one, not one single person who understands what trade deals involve, thinks it is realistic. And yet there it stands, like they put clowns in charge of an international negotiation.

The new EU offer is of one additional year. And that is the clown's gag. That's the punchline.

This just creates a new cliff edge at the end of 2021. But this one will actually be harder to deal with. The EU's legal power to offer transition is in Article 50. But to get a new power for another transition it has to go to member states and ask for it. And then we're at the mercy of every country in the EU.

On the British side, the offer has been met with the usual self-harming disdain. Tory MP Nadine Dorries launched a typically ignorant attack last night. More will follow. The disconnect between reality and rhetoric in Westminster right now is genuinely alarming. They have watched the UK get pulverised due to the EU's time advantage for two years and learned so little that they now demand it happens again.

If Theresa May is asking for a longer transition period, she is stalling. It’s time to stand aside and let someone who can negotiate get on with it and deliver. I fully support DD as an interim leader. I’ve done my bit. It’s time for my colleagues to do theirs. #Brexit

But even if the transition could be extended to a credible period, we would still be in a living nightmare.

Eventually the EU will pass a law which is against UK interests - probably something on the City. We'll have to take it on and it'll explode into an ugly row. There's also a new EU financial plan for 2021-27 coming down the runway. If we're still in transition then - and we will be - we need to pay into it. But we'll have lost the rebate, so the sum will have gone up, with all the consequent confected outrage that will entail.

This is seriously ugly stuff. The tricks being dreamed up right now might allow May to sign off on a deal, but they do not guarantee she can get it through parliament. Even if she does, they'll either create a new cliff edge in the early 2020s or open up a whole new vista of pain into the end of the next decade.

Any responsible leader would at least extend Article 50 while we try to come up with a viable long-term solution which isn't so fraught with peril. But to suggest this is considered radical and extreme. That's what it's like when you let the lunatics take control. The basic conditions of sanity are precisely those which can never be countenanced.

#Brexit #theresa-may

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yessadirichards · 3 years

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Abortion, guns, religion top a big U.S. Supreme Court term

WASHINGTON

The future of abortion rights is in the hands of a conservative Supreme Court that is beginning a new term Monday that also includes major cases on gun rights and religion.

The court's credibility with the public also could be on the line, especially if a divided court were to overrule the landmark Roe v. Wade decision from 1973 that established a woman’s right to an abortion nationwide.

The justices are returning to the courtroom after an 18-month absence caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and the possible retirement of 83-year-old liberal Justice Stephen Breyer also looms.

It's the first full term with the court in its current alignment.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the last of former President Donald Trump's three high-court appointees, is part of a six-justice conservative majority. Barrett was nominated and confirmed last year amid the pandemic, little more than a month after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Trump and Republicans who controlled the Senate moved quickly to fill the seat shortly before the 2020 presidential election, bringing about a dramatic change in the court's lineup that has set the stage for a potentially law-changing term on several high-profile issues.

With abortion, guns and religion already on the agenda, and a challenge to affirmative action waiting in the wings, the court will answer a key question over the next year, said University of Chicago law professor David Strauss. "Is this the term in which the culture wars return to the Supreme Court in a big way?” Strauss said.

No issue is bigger than abortion.

The justices will hear arguments Dec 1 in Mississippi's bid to enforce a ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Lower courts blocked the law because it is inconsistent with high court rulings that allow states to regulate but not prohibit abortion before viability, the point around 24 weeks of pregnancy when a fetus can survive outside the womb.

Mississippi is taking what conservative commentator Carrie Severino called a “rip-the-Band-Aid-off” approach to the case by asking the court to abandon its support of abortion rights that was laid out in Roe and the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Mississippi is among 12 states with so-called trigger laws that would take effect if Roe is overturned and ban abortion entirely.

By a 5-4 vote in early September, the court already has allowed a ban on most abortions to take effect in Texas, though no court has yet ruled on the substance of the law.

But that vote and the Mississippi case highlight the potential risk to the court's reputation, said David Cole, the American Civil Liberties Union's legal director. The arguments advanced by Mississippi were considered and rejected by the Supreme Court in 1992, Cole said.

“The only difference between then and now is the identity of the justices,” he said.

Jeff Wall, a top Justice Department lawyer under Trump, said the court could sharply expand gun rights and end the use of race in college admissions, but only abortion is likely to move public perception of the court. “I still don’t think that’s going to create some groundswell in the public, unless it’s accompanied by some kind of watershed ruling on abortion," Wall said.

In early November, the court will take up a challenge to New York restrictions on carrying a gun in public, a case that offers the court the chance to expand gun rights under the Second Amendment. Before Barrett joined the court, the justices turned away similar cases, over the dissents of some conservative members of the court.

Until Barrett came along, some justices who favor gun rights questioned whether Chief Justice John Roberts would provide a fifth, majority-making vote “for a more expansive reading of the Second Amendment,” said George Washington University law professor Robert Cottrol, who said he hoped the court would now broaden gun rights.

More than 40 states already make it easy to be armed in public, but New York and California, two of the nation's most populous states, are among the few with tighter regulations.

The case has gun control advocates worried.

“An expansive Second Amendment ruling by the Supreme Court could restrict or prohibit the sensible solutions that have been shown can end gun violence,” said Jonathan Lowy, vice president and chief counsel at the gun violence prevention group Brady. Lowy included state laws requiring a justification to carry a gun as examples of such “sensible solutions.”

A case from Maine gives the court another opportunity to weigh religious rights in the area of education. The state excludes religious schools from a tuition program for families who live in towns that don't have public schools.

Since even before Ginsburg's death, the court has favored religion-based discrimination claims and the expectation among legal experts is that parents in Maine who sued to be able to use taxpayer money at religious schools will prevail, though it's not clear how broadly the court might rule.

Affirmative action is not yet on the court's agenda, but it could still get there this term in a lawsuit over Harvard's use of race in college admissions. Lower courts upheld the school's policy, but this is another case in which the change in the composition of the court could prove decisive. The court upheld race-conscious admission policies as recently as five years ago but that was before Trump's three appointments accentuated the court's conservative tilt.

Among other notable cases, the justices will consider reinstating the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The Biden administration is pushing for the capital sentence, even as it has suspended federal executions and President Joe Biden has called for an end to the federal death penalty.

The court will also weigh two cases involving “state secrets,” the idea that the government can block the release of information it claims would harm national security if disclosed. One case involves a Guantanamo Bay detainee who a lower court said was tortured in CIA custody. The other involves a group of Muslim residents of California who allege the FBI targeted them for surveillance because of their religion.

Decisions in the most of the big cases won't come before spring because the justices typically spend months drafting and revising majority opinions and dissents.

Around then, Breyer might signal whether he is planning to retire from a job he has held since 1994. Retirement announcements often come in the spring, to give the president and the Senate enough time to choose and confirm a nominee before the court returns from its summer break and begins hearing cases again in October.

The consequences of Ginsburg's decision to remain on the court through Barack Obama's presidency and her death while Trump was in the White House can't be lost on Breyer, said Tom Goldstein, the founder of the Scotusblog website and a frequent advocate before the court.

“It's overwhelmingly likely he’ll retire this term,” Goldstein said.

The courthouse still is closed to the public, but live audio of the court's arguments will be available and reporters who regularly cover the court will be in attendance. The tradition-bound court first provided live audio in May 2020, when the court began hearing arguments by telephone during the pandemic.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh will participate remotely from his home next week during oral arguments after testing positive for COVID-19 despite being vaccinated. The court said Friday that the 54-year-old justice has no symptoms.

#yessadirichards

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sciencespies · 3 years

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How the 1996 Dunblane Massacre Pushed the U.K. to Enact Stricter Gun Laws

https://sciencespies.com/history/how-the-1996-dunblane-massacre-pushed-the-u-k-to-enact-stricter-gun-laws/

How the 1996 Dunblane Massacre Pushed the U.K. to Enact Stricter Gun Laws

In March 2018, less than a month after a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, left 14 teenagers and 3 adults dead, a letter of condolences addressed to the survivors arrived from across the Atlantic.

Penned by a group from Scotland who’d endured a similar tragedy 22 years prior, the missive offered both a show of solidarity and a vision for the future. Referencing their successful campaign for gun reform, the letter’s authors wrote, “Laws were changed, handguns were banned and the level of gun violence in Britain is now one of the lowest in the world.” Since the 1996 Dunblane massacre, they pointed out, “[t]here have been no more school shootings” in the United Kingdom.

The signees added, “Wherever you march, whenever you protest, however you campaign for a more sensible approach to gun ownership, we will be there with you in spirit.”

Twenty-five years after a local shopkeeper walked into Dunblane Primary School and opened fire, killing 16 5- and 6-year-olds and their 45-year-old teacher, the attack occupies a singular place in the British cultural consciousness. The March 13, 1996, tragedy wasn’t the first mass shooting in modern U.K. history, but as Peter Squires, a criminologist and public policy expert at the University of Brighton, explains, “The notion that someone would use handguns to kill children, like shooting fish in a barrel, was just so appalling that it provoked a reaction beyond that which had been experienced with Hungerford,” a 1987 massacre that left 16 adults in a small English town dead and 15 others seriously injured.

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Galvanized by a grassroots campaign led largely by the Dunblane students’ parents, U.K. leaders took decisive legislative action. By the end of 1997, Parliament had banned private ownership of most handguns, building on measures passed following the Hungerford killings, including a semi-automatic weapons ban and mandatory registration for shotgun owners.

Exactly how effective these reforms were is a matter of much debate. As scholars like Squires emphasize, the law must be considered in conjunction with factors such as more comprehensive policing practices (like mental health screenings for firearm license applicants) and evolving research. Still, the fact remains that the U.K. has experienced only one mass shooting—a 2010 attack in Cumbria that left 12 dead—since Dunblane. According to data compiled by the University of Sydney’s GunPolicy.org, the U.K.’s annual rate of gun deaths per 100,000 people was 0.2 in 2015, versus the United States’ rate of 12.09. In 2017, the site estimates, the U.K. had 5.03 guns for every 100 people. Comparatively, the U.S. had 120.5 guns per 100 people.

“Here in the U.S.,” says Jaclyn Schildkraut, a mass shootings expert at the State University of New York at Oswego, “we have this broken record cycle of what responses to mass shootings or school shootings look like. … Everybody demands action, and then absolutely nothing gets done. Whereas in Great Britain, they actually were able to get stuff done.”

***

Eleven-year-old Steven Hopper was sitting in a classroom next to the primary school’s gymnasium on March 13, 1996, the morning of the Dunblane massacre. “I looked over and saw the gunman,” he told the Guardian after the attack. “… He was coming toward me, so I just dived under my desk when he turned and fired at us.”

Hopper added, “The firing was very fast, like someone hitting a hammer quickly. Then there was a few seconds of a pause and he started again.”

The 43-year-old killer, a former Scout leader who’d been dogged by rumors of inappropriate behavior toward young boys, viewed himself as the victim of a “sinister witch-hunt,” according to the Independent. Though authorities never outlined a definitive motive for the attack, the Scottish Herald reported that the gunman had referenced Dunblane Primary School in a letter seeking to clear his name.

A young girl walks past a row of flowers honoring her murdered classmates and teacher.

(Photo by Mathieu Polak / Sygma via Getty Images)

Around 9:30 a.m., the shooter walked into the school with four handguns and 743 cartridges of ammunition, all of which he’d acquired legally. After firing two shots into the assembly hall and girls’ bathroom, he entered the gym, where 28 children had gathered for a lesson.

According to a government inquiry conducted after the attack, the gunman “fired indiscriminately and in rapid succession,” striking the three teachers present and killing one of them, Gwen Mayor, a 43-year-old mother of two, as she attempted to shield her students. This first hail of bullets killed one child and injured several others; advancing on the wounded, the shooter “walked in a semi-circle, systematically firing 16 shots” before standing over the children and firing at point-blank range. After shooting at students and staff in the hallway, a nearby classroom (where Hopper was sitting) and the library cloakroom, he returned to the gym and turned the gun on himself.

In just three to four minutes, the gunman had fired more than 100 times, striking 32 people and killing 17, himself included. Another injured child died of their wounds en route to the hospital, bringing the final death toll to 18.

***

Mick North, a biochemist whose 5-year-old daughter Sophie was killed in the attack, initially couldn’t bear to talk about his loss. But once he was ready, he found himself discouraged from speaking out about the broader issues underlying the shooting. “The initial reaction was: You can say how devastated you’re feeling and how you’ve lost your lovely child, but you couldn’t say anything about guns,” he told Buzzfeed News in 2018. “But I did.”

After the attack, North made a career change, leaving academia to partner with lawyers, scholars and other bereaved parents in launching the U.K.’s first organization dedicated to gun reform: the Gun Control Network. Around the same time, a parallel movement spearheaded by a group of Dunblane mothers prepared a petition to ban all handguns in the U.K. Dubbed the Snowdrop Campaign in honor of the only flower in bloom on the day of the massacre, the call to action garnered 750,000 signatures in just ten weeks and more than one million by the time it reached Parliament in the summer of 1996.

“It was the most successful grassroots campaign in the U.K. then and to this day,” wrote co-organizer Rosemary Hunter for New Statesman in 2018.

A petition started by bereaved parents and members of the Dunblane community garnered 700,000 signatures in just ten weeks.

(Photo by PA Images via Getty Images)

Squires says that the British gun lobby and shooting industry acted far faster—and more effectively—in the aftermath of the 1987 Hungerford massacre. “[They] were able to really thwart much discussion of gun control regulatory proposals,” he explains.

But when Dunblane happened, “the gun industry and gun lobby couldn’t say this has never happened before, it’s a one-off [thing],” says Squires. “All the arguments about knee-jerk legislation and overreaction … were swept out of the picture.”

Released in October 1996, the government’s inquiry into the shooting, the Cullen Report, outlined a number of relatively measured recommendations for gun reform, including stricter limitations on handgun ownership but no outright ban on the weapons. The findings also revealed that local authorities had questioned the shooter’s “fitness” to own firearms as early as 1991 but took no further action to revoke his gun license.

Under immense pressure from an increasingly pro–gun control public, Conservative Prime Minister John Major introduced the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997, which banned high-caliber handguns like those used by the Dunblane shooter but allowed .22 rimfire handguns to be “used and kept” in licensed clubs, as they were “largely intended for target shooting,” not police and military use, as Home Secretary Michael Howard said in a speech given to the House of Commons.

Gun control is a somewhat partisan issue in the U.K., with the Conservatives and other right-leaning political parties tending to favor lifting limitations on sport shooting and hunting and the left-leaning Labour Party more often voicing support for restrictions. Unlike in the U.S., however, these debates are less about an intractable right to bear arms than a desire to ensure access to popular pastimes.

A few months after the passage of the initial 1997 amendment, the Conservative “Tory” Party—weakened by inner strife and growing public disapproval of unpopular policies—suffered a devastating loss in the U.K.’s general election and relinquished control of the government for the first time in 18 years. Tony Blair, leader of the Labour Party, came to power with a landslide victory over the Tories. As promised during his campaign, the new prime minister moved quickly to supplement Major’s measure with a proposal of his own: the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997. Enacted on December 17, 1997, the updated act—approved by a wide margin in the House of Commons—went one step further than the first, banning ownership of .22 handguns and, in doing so, effectively banning all handguns from private use.

To help enforce these new restrictions, the government established a £150 million buyback program that resulted in the surrender of 162,000 guns and 700 tons of ammunition. “Because there was such a huge public outcry [after Dunblane], there was also this come-togetherness that we don’t see in the U.S. because guns are so polarized,” says Schildkraut, “and so you actually had a lot of individuals who own firearms voluntarily surrender their weapons.”

***

Perhaps the closest American parallel to the Dunblane massacre is the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and 6 adult staff in Newtown, Connecticut. Though the 2012 attack led Connecticut and neighboring New York to pass stricter gun legislation, federal gun control laws have remained largely unchanged—an example of legislative inertia that many Dunblane residents struggle to comprehend.

Both Squires and Schildkraut attribute this inaction in large part to differences in American and British gun culture. As Schildkraut says, guns are “so ingrained in the very fabric of who we are as America that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of middle ground. It’s either you’re for or against the Second Amendment.” In the aftermath of Dunblane, meanwhile, many British gun enthusiasts advocated for responsible individuals’ ownership of weapons while also supporting regulations “to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them in the first place.” (Members of the British public can apply for firearm certificates but must undergo thorough assessment to ensure they have a legitimate reason—including hunting and sport but not self-defense—for ownership.)

Squires, for his part, points out that target shooting and hunting in the U.K. have traditionally been pastimes of the “very affluent, landowning” elite, from the royal family to rock stars to bankers. When the government began instituting stricter gun laws, he says, “The deer stalkers and the pheasant shooters … were willing to sacrifice handguns because they were beginning to get concerned that the pressure for reform [would] impinge upon their freedom to shoot on their farms and on their land.”

Children and adults gather outside of Dunblane Primary School shortly after the shooting.

(Photo by Colin McPherson / Corbis via Getty Images)

Despite the deeply ingrained differences, the Dunblane massacre and subsequent passage of the Firearms Act amendments still hold lessons for the U.S.: “It’s about the mobilization of the grassroots,” says Squires, and “making progress where progress is possible,” which is often on a local rather than national level.

In the weeks and months after mass shootings, he adds, “the immediate pressure to do something recedes. … So this whole idea of the shooting cycle is that if you don’t act early on, you miss the opportunity to do anything.”

***

Schildkraut and Squires are quick to emphasize that banning guns is not, in and of itself, a definitive solution for ending mass violence. On the same day as Sandy Hook, a knife attack at an elementary school in China, which has some of the strictest gun control measures in the world, wounded 23 children and an 85-year-old woman. “The type of weapon certainly changes the outcome,” says Schildkraut, “but it doesn’t mean that mass violence is impossible.”

Another complicating factor is the protracted path from outlawing guns to actually getting them off the street. Though the number of recorded firearm offenses in England and Wales dropped 37 percent between 2005 and 2011, crimes involving guns have since experienced a slight uptick—a trend Squires attributes partly to the proliferation of illegal weapons, including modified imports and antiques, that are traded among gangs and used in multiple crimes. As the New York Times reported in August 2020, gun seizures by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency more than doubled over the previous year, with a growing number of illegal firearms smuggled in from the U.S. “Converted guns are much harder to get, but [they] still leave you with a violence problem,” says Squires. “… I don’t think we can tackle it on a weapon by weapon basis. We’ve got to understand the community drivers of violence [and] address the underlying factors.”

Effective policing and enforcement of existing gun laws, as well as ambitious research efforts aimed at pinpointing the drivers of mass violence, are just as essential as stricter regulations, the researchers argue. “It’s not this instantaneous thing where you’re just going to go pick up all the weapons and gun crime stops happening,” Schildkraut notes. “It just doesn’t work like that.”

***

Since its opening in 2004, the Dunblane Centre—built with donations that poured in from around the world after the shooting—has served as a site of community, celebration and remembrance. In 2013, locals gathered there around a television to cheer on tennis star Andy Murray, a Dunblane native who survived the massacre as an 8-year-old, as he became the first British man to win at Wimbledon in 77 years. Prior to the pandemic, the center hosted a range of activities, including fitness classes, a youth Lego-building club and a choir.

As the Scottish Daily Record reported upon the center’s opening, glass etchings honoring the 17 victims dot the building’s windows. (The 11 students and 3 teachers injured are recognized with a cluster of snowdrops.) Each gold leaf–adorned engraving bears an image that held personal significance for the individual represented: Sophie North’s shows a cat on a chocolate bar—a nod to her beloved pet Kit-Kat—while Ross Irvine’s depicts a fox from his favorite TV show. Brett McKinnon’s features a Power Ranger.

“It’s a nice feeling,” a parent present at the unveiling told the Daily Record. “Like a private message to all of us who love them.”

Reflecting on the Snowdrop Campaign’s success, Schildkraut concludes, “They did more than offer thoughts and prayers. And that speaks a lot to the power of collective action.”

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yumeka36 · 6 years

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My thoughts on gun control

I rarely write posts like this...actually, I don’t think I ever have in all my years of blogging. But it’s a topic I have strong opinions on, and in light of current events, now more than ever I just have to express myself.

Yes, I’m among the group who thinks assault rifles should be banned. All guns are made to kill of course, but such weapons were made specifically to kill lots of people quickly, not to protect yourself domestically from a would-be robber (or bear depending on where you live) and there is no reason at all for average people to own such things. The only reason they could have is because they “like” them and consider it a “right” to own any gun of their choosing because of the 2nd amendment (more on that later). So if these are the only reasons, and it’s not like not having assault rifles would harm their quality of life or anything like that, why would they not be willing to give up a luxury if it could potentially prevent school shootings and other similar tragedies? They like to go back to the argument that murderers will always find other ways to kill people, which is definitely true, but guns, ESPECIALLY assault rifles, make it so, so much EASIER to kill lots of people quickly and efficiently, without drawing attention to yourself until it’s too late. Of course people will always find ways to kill other people, but if we’re allowing potential murderers to have this option so easily at their disposal, we need to seriously reconsider how important this “right” is. It’s a simple utilitarian way of looking at things: what are the pros of people having the right to own assault rifles? Besides pleasing gun enthusiasts, none that I can think of. And so what are the cons? Lunatics and murderers very easily and legally getting their hands on these things to indiscriminately kill lots of people. Looking at it this way, the answer is obvious. If I knew something I liked to collect was a very dangerous weapon that was causing so much tragedy because any average person like myself could obtain them, and banning such things could help prevent massacres from happening again, you’d have to be very selfish to value your hobby over the lives of countless others. Australia and other countries banned guns after mass shootings. Japan has some of the strictest rules and processes for buying and owning guns. And, no surprise, if you compare yearly homicide rates in these countries to the US, especially death by guns, the result is once again obvious.

The NRA will always try to say that the solution is either more guns, or another factor, like mental health. To the first point, making teachers carry guns is ridiculous. Even if a teacher had a gun on them at all times, you think, in the middle of a lesson or grading papers, they’re gonna have it ready to duke out against a mass shooter with an assault rifle versus their handgun? And you know how many uncouth kids will be able to get the guns away from the teachers when they’re not paying attention and, accidentally or not, shoot a fellow classmate? But if the teachers keep the guns locked away so kids can’t get to them, how the heck are they going to get to them in the event of a mass shooting? They’ll get shot down before they can even open the lock! Having armed guards and metal detectors at schools is more plausible; unlike teachers, armed guards will only have to focus on pinpointing and preventing potential shootings and nothing else. And of course mental health should be taken more seriously, but are you really going to identify a mentally ill person who’s potentially going to shoot up a school versus a mentally ill person who won’t? The odds of you diagnosing them in time, diagnosing them correctly, and taking measures to prevent their harmful actions are very slim compared to just preventing them from buying assault rifles. Oh, but while gun enthusiasts are pushing for mental health over gun control, they’re backing a president who supports a law to enable mentally ill people to buy guns! He also wants to decrease funding for mental illness too. Does this make any sense? Nope, but that’s the sorry state of our government right now.

People also fail to understand where the 2nd amendment even came from - after Americans won their freedom from the British, the founding fathers added it in so that citizens could arm themselves in case a tyrannical government were to rise up again. And of course, they were talking about muskets at that time. You know, those old guns that would take a few minutes to load and aim, and then, if you’re lucky, you might hit something. It did not stem from the idea that every trigger-happy, macho maniac should own machine guns and assault rifles just because it’s some kind of inherent “right,” and I’m pretty sure the founding fathers would have worded it differently if they knew what the future interpretation of “right to bare arms” would become. When a “right” is shown to cause more harm than good for society overall, it needs to change. That’s what an amendment is especially - it’s something that’s amended, or changed. If you go back in time several hundred years ago, people considered it their “right” to own slaves and would probably argue that their livelihoods would collapse if the slave industry was taken away. Of course it took some adjusting, but here we are, a more just country than we were back then. If we live in a society with other people, we have to make compromises, like giving up a petty attachment to murder weapons if it means potentially preventing massacres. The fact that one failed shoe bomb resulted in everyone taking their shoes off at the airport yet countless mass shootings at schools fail to get any sensible gun control laws passed shows how messed up our priorities are.

I, personally, don’t like guns, any kind of gun (except in video games!) They’re made to hurt and kill, and I don’t find that appealing. Having a gun or two in your house for protection is one thing, but If someone loves guns and collects them, I can’t help but think that they probably don’t just keep their gun collection lying around and want to use them for what they’re made for: to kill. And since it’s illegal to kill people, I’m sure they hunt and kill animals with their guns. I can’t imagine someone who gets pleasure inflicting pain and death on innocent creatures being a good person, but that’s just my opinion and a moral debate for another day. But even though I personally would want to eventually phase out most guns for average citizens, I also want to be realistic. We need to start small, like banning only assault rifles for now, having more restrictions for buying and owning guns, and implementing metal detectors in schools and other large public places. Countries like Australia and Japan are proof that gun control laws can lead to a safer society. As I said, people will always find ways to kill people. There’s no stopping that, but why give them easy access to things that make killing so much damned easier?

But..as much as I say these things, I’m not hopeful because the NRA is such a super powerful lobby in this country, and with our current administration that’s been taking millions upon million of dollars from them, there is no way the NRA is going to let them pass sensible gun laws, much less bans. Heck, nothing much has changed even with other school shootings from years ago, so with our current presidency, it’s even less likely. No matter how many children die via guns, the all-mighty dollar and some kind of blind, inherent “right” will keep prevailing. A little optimist in me still wants to hang onto hope though.