To display the most relevant entries to you in priority,
vote for the stories you are interested in
()
and reject those that you are not interested in
()
I got a note from "Jeff," the fellow in the bald cap in this video from Salt Lake City a number
of years ago. He writes,
I sir,am the man in the bald cap mocking you with lonnie and ruben at the mormon conference. I just
thought i would tell you that, you are blasphemous heathen. You put down God's holy word; the King
James Bible. You smile about it. This tells me that you are disconnected from truth. I'm not saying
you are not saved, i'm simply implying that you are mocking the word of god. Now if streetpreachers
go out on the streets to share the gospel, you put them down. That tells me one thing, you are
against God's word. Jesus said if you are not with him you are against him. Just some words of
wisdom for you James. Jeff Well, isn't that special? And may I say, Jeff, that
you, sir, are one of the best friends the Mormons ever had?
div style="margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 10px;"posted by Neil/div spanThis is a bit
long./spanspan style="font-weight: bold;" /spanspanApologies./spanspan style="font-weight: bold;"
/spanspanI'd meant to talk about other things, but I started writing this morning and got a bit
carried away./spanspan style="font-weight: bold;"br /br /I have questions about the Handley case.
What makes lolicon something worth defending? Yaoi, as I understand it, isn't necessarily child
porn, but the lolicon stuff is all about sexualizing prepubescent girls, yes? And haven't there
been lots of credible psych studies saying that if you find a support community for a fetish,
belief or behavior, you're more likely to indulge in it? That's why social movements are so
important for oppressed or non-mainstream groups (meaning everything from the fetish community to
free-market libertarianism) -and why NAMBLA is so very, very scary (they are, essentially, a
support group for baby-rapists.)br /br /The question, for me, is even if we only save ONE child
from rape or attempted rape, or even just lots of uncomfortable hugs from Creepy Uncle Dave, is
that not worth leaving a couple naked bodies out of a comic? It is, after all, more than possible
to imply and discuss these issues (ex. if someone loses their virginity at 14, and chooses to write
a comic about it) without having a big ol' pic of 14 yr. old poon being penetrated as the graphic.
I also think there's a world of difference between the Sandman story-which depicts child rape as
the horrific thing it is (and, I believe, also ends with a horrific death for the pervert, doesn't
it?) and depicting child rape as a sexy and titillating thing. I think there is also a difference
between acknowledging children's sexuality, and pornography about children that is created for
adults. Where on this spectrum does something like lolicon fall? And, again, why do you,
personally, think that it should be defended?br /br /Thanks for reading my ramble, and for being
accessible to us, and engaged in things like CBLDF. Mostly, they are a fantastic org., but I'm
really on the fence with this case...br /br /Jess/spanbr /br /Let me see if I can push you off the
fence, a little. I'm afraid it's going to a long, and probably a bit rambly answer -- a span
style="font-style: italic;"credo/span, and how I arrived at that.br /br /If you accept -- and I do
-- that freedom of speech is important, then you are going to have to defend the indefensible. That
means you are going to be defending the right of people to read, or to write, or to say, what you
don't say or like or want said.br /br /The Law is a huge blunt weapon that does not and will not
make distinctions between what you find acceptable and what you don't. This is how the Law is
made.br /br /People making art find out where the limits of free expression are by going beyond
them and getting into trouble.br /br /LOST GIRLS, by Melinda Gebbie and Alan Moore is several
hundred pages long. (a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/06/lost-girls-redux.html"I posted
the full-length review I did for span style="font-style: italic;"Publishers Weekly /spanhere/a.
Describing it, I said,br /br /blockquote style="font-style: italic;"The boundary between
pornography and erotica is an ambiguous one, and it changes depending on where you're standing. For
some, perhaps, it's a matter of whatever turns you on (my erotica, your pornography), for some the
distinction occurs in class (i.e. erotica is pornography for rich people). Perhaps it's also
something to do with the means of distribution – internet pornography is
unquestionably porn, while an Edwardian publication, on creamy paper, bought by connoisseurs, part
works bound into expensive volumes, must be erotica./blockquotebr /br /and I went on to say,br /br
/blockquote style="font-style: italic;"It's the kind of smut that would have no difficulty in
demonstrating to an overzealous prosecutor that it has unquestionable artistic validity beyond its
simple first amendment right to exist./blockquoteWhich was the kind of thing you put in a review
suspecting that its real purpose may be to persuade a prosecutor that the case is already lost, and
not to bother.br /br /In with span style="font-style: italic;"Lost Girls/span' many permutations of
sexuality, we find some content featuring fictional characters under the current age of consent.
It's a story about sexual awakenings, after all, and few of us wake exactly on our eighteenth
birthdays (or whatever your local age of consent or representation happens to be). At one point we
find ourselves reading a book within a book, a Beardsleyesque fantasia in which fictional
characters discuss the fact that they are lines on paper, metafictional fantasies, while having
underage, incestuous, sex. It's art, and it's brilliant, and it makes you think about what porn is
and what art is, and where the boundaries are.br /br /The Law is a blunt instrument. It's not a
scalpel. It's a club. If there is something you consider indefensible, and there is something you
consider defensible, and the same laws can take them both out, you are going to find yourself
defending the indefensible.br /br /I was born the day of the conclusion of the span
style="font-style: italic;"Lady Chatterley/span trial in England, the day it was decided that span
style="font-style: italic;"Lady Chatterley's Lover/span, with its swearing, buggery and raw sex
between the classes, was fit to be published and read in a cheap edition that poor people and
servants could read. This was the same England in which, some years earlier, the director of public
prosecutions had threatened to prosecute Professor F R Leavis if he so much as referred to James
Joyce's span style="font-style: italic;"Ulysses /spanin a lecture (the DPP was a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Bodkin"Archibald Bodkin/a, who also bannedspan
style="font-style: italic;" The Well of Loneliness/span) , in which, when I was sixteen and
listening to the Sex Pistols, the publisher of span style="font-style: italic;"Gay News/span was
sentenced to prison for the crime of Criminal Blasphemy, for publishing an erotic poem featuring a
fantasy about Jesus.br /br /When I was writing span style="font-style: italic;"Sandman/span, about
eighteen years ago, I had thought that the Marquis de Sade would make a fine character for my
French Revolution story (I loved the fact that at the time he was a tubby, asthmatic imprisoned for
his refusal to sentence people to death) and thought I really ought to read his books, rather than
commntaries on them, if I was going to put him in my story, and I discovered that the works of
DeSade were, at that time, not available in the UK, and that UK Customs had declared them
un-importable. I bought them in a Borders the next time I was in the US, and brought them through
customs looking guilty. (You can now get De Sade in the UK. The arrival of internet porn in the UK
meant that the police stopped chasing things like that.)br /br /The first time I got involved in
fund-raising for comics freedom of speech was in late 1983 or early 1984 -- Knockabout Comics were
having one of their frequent battles with UK Customs over what could and could not be imported into
the UK. Some comics contained rude words, sex, or the use of marijuana in them, and Customs would
seize any comics they objected to, forcing Knockabout to fight long, expensive, court cases to get
them back. (I remember their outrage when, in 1996, Knockabout imported some Robert Crumb books to
accompany a BBC TV documentary on Crumb, and UK Customs confiscated the books, forcing yet another
court case. I'm pretty sure that it was over some autobiographical Crumb work which contained
drawings of sexual fantasies including characters who were under 18. As a
href="http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=1515"Tony Bennett, from Knockabout said in a recent
interview,/a span style="font-style: italic;""The other case was with HM Customs in 1996 over
Robert Crumb’s comics and explicit sexual imagery. We won this overwhelmingly as well and
Customs were kind enough to write to me after the case setting out a list of what sex acts might be
shown in comics. I haven’t actually framed it but it is a precious document."/span)br /br
/The first time I ever came close to sending a publisher to prison was about 1986 or 1987, for
Knockabout's span style="font-style: italic;"Outrageous Tales From The Old Testament/span: I'd
retold a story from thespan style="font-style: italic;" Book of Judges/span that contained a rape
and murder, and this was held to have contravened a Swedish law depicting images of violence
against women. The case was only won when the defense pointed out that the words were from the King
James version of the bible, and that the images were a fair representation thereof...br /br /(For
those of you who are a bit shaky on your Book of Judges, here's a
href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=judges%2019;amp;version=31;"an online Bible
version of the scene that caused the prosecution/a.)br /blockquotebr /span style="font-style:
italic;"While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the
house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, "Bring out the man
who came to your house so we can have sex with him."/spanbr /br /span style="font-style:
italic;"The owner of the house went outside and said to them, "No, my friends, don't be so vile.
Since this man is my guest, don't do this disgraceful thing. Look, here is my virgin daughter, and
his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you
wish. But to this man, don't do such a disgraceful thing."/spanbr /br /span style="font-style:
italic;"But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to
them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At
daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and
lay there until daylight./spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"When her master got up in the
morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his
concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her,
"Get up; let's go." But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for
home./spanbr /br /span style="font-style: italic;"When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up
his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of
Israel./span/blockquotebr /And in each case, you could rewrite Jess's letter above, explaining that
only perverts would want to read span style="font-style: italic;"Lady Chatterley/span, or see
images of women being abused, or read span style="font-style: italic;"Lost Girls/span or the works
of Robert Crumb, and mentioning that if only one person was saved from a hug from a creepy uncle,
or indeed, being raped in the streets, that banning them or prosecuting those who write, draw,
publish, sell or -- now -- own them, is worth it. Because that was the point of view of the people
who were banning these works or stopping people reading them. They thought they were doing a good
thing. They thought they were defending other people.br /br /I loved coming to the US in 1992,
mostly because I loved the idea that freedom of speech was paramount. I still do. With all its
faults, the US has Freedom of Speech. You can't be arrested for saying things the government
doesn't like. You can say what you like, write what you like, and that the remedy to someone saying
or writing or showing something that offends you is not to read it, or to speak out against it. I
loved that I could read and make my own mind up about something.br /br /(It's worth noting that the
UK, for example, has no such law, and that even the European Court of Human Rights has ruled thata
href="http://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/3543216b2ccd2e5738717582.pdf"span style="font-style:
italic;" interference with free speech was "necessary in a democratic society" in order to
guarantee the rights of others" to protection from gratuitous insults to their religious
feelings./span/a)br /br /So when a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_diana"Mike Diana/a was
prosecuted -- and found guilty -- of obscenity for the comics in his Zine "Boiled Angel", and
sentenced to a host of things, including (if memory serves) a three year suspended prison sentence,
a three thousand dollar fine, not being allowed to be in the same room as anyone under eighteen,
over a thousand hours of community service, and was forbidden to draw anything else obscene, with
the local police ordered to make 24 hour unannounced spot checks to make sure Mike wasn't secretly
committing Art in the small hours of the morning... that was the point I decided that I knew what
was obscene, and it was prosecuting artists for having ideas and making lines on paper, and that I
was going to do everything I could to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Whether I liked or
approved of what Mike Diana did was utterly irrelevant. (For the record, I didn't like the text
parts of span style="font-style: italic;"Boiled Angel/span, but did like the comics, which were
personal and had a raw power to them. And somewhere in the sprawling basement magazine collection I
have span style="font-style: italic;"Boiled Angel/span 7 and 8, which I read back then to find out
what was being prosecuted, and for owning which I could, I assume, now be arrested...)br /br /The
first time the CBLDF did anything to defend one of my comics, it was the span style="font-style:
italic;"Death Talks About Life/span comic at the back of DEATH: THE HIGH COST OF LIVING, in which
we see Death putting a condom on a banana and talking about how not to get pregnant, diseased or
dead. The Chief of Police in (if memory serves) Jacksonville Florida ordered a comic shop not to
sell it, because she thought it was obscene and encouraged teen sex. In this case, it only took a
letter from the CBLDF legal counsel, Burton Joseph, to the Jacksonville Police Department,
explaining the concept of the First Amendment (and, by implication, that there was an organisation
prepared to defend this stuff) and they shut up and went away. (That's what most of the CBLDF
activity consists of -- small, quiet things that stop it ever getting to a court of law.) From the
police chief's point of view, span style="font-style: italic;"Death Talks About Life/span was
obscene. She wanted it off the shelves.br /br /In this case you obviously have read lolicon, and I
haven't. I don't know whether you're writing from personal experience here, and whether you have
personally been incited to rape children or give inappropriate hugs by reading it. (I assume you
haven't. I assume that Chris Handley, with his huge manga collection, wasn't either. I've read
books that claimed that exposure to porn causes rape, but have seen no statistical evidence that
porn causes rape -- and indeed have seen a
href="http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/06/rape-porn-and-criminality-political.php"claims that
the declining number of US rapes may be due to the wider availability of porn/a. Honestly, it's a
red herring. I'll leave that for other people to argue about.) Still, you seem to want lolicon
banned, and people prosecuted for owning it, and I don't. You ask, span style="font-style:
italic;"What makes it worth defending?/span and the only answer I can give is this: Freedom to
write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you're
going to have to stand up for stuff you span style="font-style: italic;"don't /spanbelieve is worth
defending, stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not
differentiate between what you like and what you don't, because prosecutors are humans and bear
grudges and fight for re-election, because one person's obscenity is another person's art.br /br
/The CBLDF will defend your First Amendment right as an adult to make lines on paper, to draw, to
write, to sell, to publish, and now, span style="font-style: italic;"to own/span comics. And that's
what makes work you don't like, or don't read, or work that you do not feel has artistic worth or
redeeming features worth defending. It's the stuff you like and the stuff you find icky, wherever
your icky line happens to be. Because the law is a big blunt instrument that makes no fine
distinctions, and because you only realise how wonderful absolute freedom of speech is the day you
lose it.br /br /(And let it be understood that I think that child pornography, and the exploitation
of actual children for porn or for sex is utterly wrong and bad, because actual children are being
directly harmed. And also that I think that a
href="http://news.cnet.com/Police-blotter-Teens-prosecuted-for-racy-photos/2100-1030_3-6157857.html"prosecuting
as child pornographers a 16 and 17 year old who are legally able to have sex, because they took a
sexual photograph and emailed it to themselves is utterly, insanely wrong/a, and a nice example of
the law as blunt instrument.) div class="label_list" style="margin-top: 20px; padding-left: 15px;
text-indent: -15px; font-size: 78%/1.4em; font-family: 'Trebuchet
MS',Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing:
.1em;"strongLabels:/strongnbsp; a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/wittering%20on%20a%20bit" style="color: #999;
text-transform: uppercase;"wittering on a bit/a, a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/The%20First%20Amendment" style="color: #999;
text-transform: uppercase;"The First Amendment/a, a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Bible%20stories%20that%20nearly%20sent%20publishers%20to%20prison"
style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"Bible stories that nearly sent publishers to
prison/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Lost%20Girls" style="color: #999;
text-transform: uppercase;"Lost Girls/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/CBLDF"
style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"CBLDF/a, a
href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Why%20I%20Support%20the%20CBLDF" style="color:
#999; text-transform: uppercase;"Why I Support the CBLDF/a/div
American film producer to publish version of the Bible in which God says it is better to be gay
than straight pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/tA7T_BT6FtGJedNRxA_vffMD4tM/a"img
src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/tA7T_BT6FtGJedNRxA_vffMD4tM/i" border="0"
ismap="true"/img/a/p
Category: Reference
Released: Nov 19, 2008
Price: $29.99
Description:
The ESV Study Bible was created to help people understand the Bible in a deeper
way�to
understand the timeless truth of
God�s
Word as a powerful, compelling, life-changing reality. To accomplish this, the ESV Study Bible
combines the best and most recent evangelical Christian scholarship with the highly regarded ESV
Bible text. The result is the most comprehensive study Bible ever
published�with
2,752 pages of extensive, accessible Bible resources. Created by an outstanding team of 95
evangelical Christian scholars and teachers, the ESV Study Bible presents completely new study
notes, maps, illustrations, charts, timelines, articles, and introductions. Altogether the ESV
Study Bible comprises 2 million words of Bible text, insightful explanation, teaching, and
reference
material�equivalent
to a 20-volume Bible resource library all contained in one volume. Explore the Bible with
BibleReader, a full-featured application for reading and Bible study. 3-touch Verse Chooser takes
you to the exact Bible verse you're searching for. Continuous Scrolling means uninterrupted
reading�no
buttons to press at the end of the chapter. Word Search offers quick results, hyperlinked for
one-touch navigation. Bibles and other works are stored on the device, so you don't need a
continuous Internet connection.
Note: The description above is the official one supplied by the application
developer and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of this site or its staff.
http://charismamag.com/articles/index.php?id=5807 Pearson's Gospel of Inclusion' Stirs
Controversy Carlton Pearson may have lost his bid for a shot at the mayor's office in Tulsa,
Okla., because of his belief in a controversial theology known as the "gospel of inclusion,"
which states that everyone is saved--they just don't know it. Pearson is a conservative
Republican and founder of the 4,500-member, multiracial Higher Dimensions Family Church in Tulsa.
He claims he failed to win the primary in February due to his belief in "inclusion" theology,
which also questions the existence of a literal hell. "The Christian turnout is usually 15
percent," Pearson, 48, said of local elections in Tulsa. "But some of them just didn't vote at
all because they weren't sure that they should risk putting somebody like me in office."
Protestant theology teaches that man is separated from God by sin and destined for hell, unless
he believes in Jesus' redemptive work. Pearson said he first started thinking about the inclusive
doctrine after reading E.W. Kenyon's writings more than 25 years ago. Pearson has been preaching
the controversial view for three years. "A careful study of what I have taught will reveal that
it is entirely scriptural, logical and theologically sound," Pearson told Charisma. The Tulsa
Beacon reported that Pearson has been confronted over his teaching by televangelists John Hagee,
Marilyn Hickey and his mentor, Oral Roberts. Roberts, Hagee and Hickey declined to comment about
the matter. However, Pearson claimed that fellow black preachers, including Dallas pastor T.D.
Jakes, are familiar to some extent with inclusionism. "These are my friends," Pearson said. "They
discern my heart, even though they may not discern my head. They're not bothered by this." Jakes,
however, told Charisma that he repudiates Pearson's views as heresy. "While I do consider Carlton
Pearson to be a friend, I believe his theology is wrong, false, misleading and an incorrect
interpretation of the Bible," Jakes said in a statement. "Carlton...improperly characterizes me
as not being 'bothered' by this. I am both bothered and troubled by this teaching and with any
implication that I support or in any way agree with it." Jakes added: "While I certainly agree
that Christ died for everyone, I do not believe that we are automatically saved, but that we must
be 'born again' by believing in and personally accepting Jesus Christ." But Pearson said he is
not picking a fight. "I am open to counsel and...correction from those I feel accountable to in
the body of Christ," he said. Eric Tiansay
As The Dead continues to multiply in number and in notoriety, Sideshow continues to investigate new
possibilities in the realm of undead reanimation while the DNAgent struggles to prevent future
apocalypse... Be Ready! The Subject 2221: The Harbinger 12 inch Figure features: All new zombie
portrait and 'hands', Fully articulated male body (Prometheus) with 30+ points of articulation,
Detailed Priest costume including pants, coat, sash, paper collar and cummerbund, Shoes, Bible,
Rosary beads, 12" figure display stand with a print of 'The Dead' logo and a Sideshow Exclusive:
Rotting hand with raven!
Keith Yellin, Battle Exhortation: The Rhetoric of Combat Leadership. Columbia, S.C.: University of
South Carolina Press, coll. "Studies in Rhetoric/Communication", 2008, x-191p. Isbn 13 (ean):
9781570037351 Recension par Gregory S. Aldrete (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay) dans Bryn Mawr
Classical Review: 2008.11.32 Présentation de l'éditeur: In this groundbreaking
examination of the symbolic strategies used to prepare troops for imminent combat, Keith Yellin
offers an interdisciplinary look into a mode of rhetorical discourse that has played a prominent
role in warfare, history, and popular culture from antiquity to the present day. In Battle
Exhortation he focuses on one of the most time-honored forms of motivational communication, the
encouraging speech of military commanders, to offer a pragmatic and scholarly evaluation of how
persuasion contributes to combat leadership. Yellin establishes battle exhortation as a distinct
genre of discourse originating from humankind's war-prone history and the age-old need to inspire
troops to fight. In illustrating his subject's conventions, Yellin draws from the Bible, classical
Greece and Rome, Spanish conquistadors, and especially American military forces. Yellin is also
interested in how audiences are socialized to recognize and anticipate this type of communication
that precedes difficult team efforts. To account for this dimension he probes examples as diverse
as Shakespeare's Henry V, George C. Scott's portrayal of General George S. Patton, and team sports.
Yellin also examines the constraints that shape battle exhortation, including the specific
circumstances of a given war, the combat arm of the audience, the presence of nonmilitary
observers, and the personal character and style of the speaker. Speculating on the future of battle
exhortation while honoring its rich tradition, this work will be of keen interest to students of
communication, history, and military leadership. [...]
pIt is my intention to primarily use email to update the participants in the Memorizing Scripture
Together effort (a
href="http://www.challies.com/archives/memorizing-scripture/memorizing-scripture-together---it-begins-today.php"click
here to learn about the program/a). However, this morning I logged in to the software I use to send
those emails only to find that it is down for maintenance until 9 AM tomorrow morning. And so I'm
going to post this on the blog today just to keep people in the loop. The email blast will go out
as soon as the software is available again./p pAs we began the program last week I received some
immediate feedback. Much of it was of the "this is tough!" variety. And I tend to agree.
Memorization does not come easily to most of us, so we are only going to commit passages to memory
through long, hard work and through endless repetition. Speaking personally, though, I can say that
already I've found these times to be a blessing. It has been a worshipful time as I've repeated
God's praises again and again. I've emphasized different words and phrases as I've gone through it
and have repeated it with different focuses. This has kept it fresh in my mind and has kept me
seeking the "heart" behind the passage./p pEvery week I want to offer a tip, a suggestion, an
interview or emsomething/em that will help us in our efforts. This week's tip is very simple but
very effective./p pstrongUse Index Cards/strong. Choose a portion of the verse that you'd like to
master that week, and either write or print it on an index card. I wasn't able to find printable
index cards at Staples so instead purchased cards meant to be inserts in name badges (Avery
#05392). They are slightly different dimensions but work just fine. Print the verse on one side and
the citation on the other. Put this card in your pocket or in your Bible or in some place where you
are bound to come across it at least once or twice a day. You may also wish to print up several of
the cards and place them around the house--on the bathroom mirror, above the kitchen sink, below
your computer's monitor, on the fridge, and so on. That way, at any time, you will have the verse
near you and can recite it a couple of times between other activities. As the program continues you
will build up a collection of these cards and you can skim through them every week or two to ensure
that the verses stay fresh in your mind. This is a memorization technique "classic" but one that
continues to reap benefits./p h2This Week's Fighter Verse/h2 p"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit,
but in humility count others more significant than yourselves."br / Philippians 2:3/p h2This Week's
Passage/h2 pThose of us who are working on the longer passage are focusing on Psalm 8. This is a
three week project, taking us until December 14. /p pO Lord, our Lord,br / how majestic is your
name in all the earth!br / You have set your glory above the heavens.br / Out of the mouth of
babies and infants,br / you have established strength because of your foes,br / to still the enemy
and the avenger./p pWhen I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,br / the moon and the
stars, which you have set in place,br / what is man that you are mindful of him,br / and the son of
man that you care for him?/p pYet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beingsbr / and
crowned him with glory and honor.br / You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;br /
you have put all things under his feet,br / all sheep and oxen,br / and also the beasts of the
field,br / the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,br / whatever passes along the paths
of the seas./p pO Lord, our Lord,br / how majestic is your name in all the earth!br / Psalm 8/p
h2Join Us!/h2 pWe would love for you to join us. I plan on sending out weekly emails (every Sunday)
to remind you of the commitment and to tell you about the new verse. If you'd like to participate
in the program, I ask as well that you sign up for these emails (though you certainly do not have
to if you don't want to). Otherwise, just keep an eye on this blog and dedicate time to memorizing
the Scripture passages./p form action="http://challiesdotcom.cmail1.com/s/473342/" method="post"
div label for="name"Name:/labelbr /input type="text" name="name" id="name" /br / label
for="l473342-473342"Email:/labelbr /input type="text" name="cm-473342-473342" id="l473342-473342"
/br / input type="submit" value="Subscribe" / /div /form br clear="all" /a
href="http://www.monergism.com/freeshipping.html"img
src="http://www.adgrab.org/www/images/mbbanner468.jpg" //adiv class="feedflare" a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/challies/XhEt?a=MjYrN"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/challies/XhEt?i=MjYrN" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/challies/XhEt?a=arxQn"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/challies/XhEt?i=arxQn" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/challies/XhEt?a=sFCZn"img
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/challies/XhEt?i=sFCZn" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/challies/XhEt/~4/470202897" height="1" width="1"/
Autrefois enluminée par les copistes ou racontée en vitraux, la Bible se
séquence aujourd'hui en BD ! Une première partie de la Genèse,
oecuménique et fidèle à l'Ancien Testament, agrémentée d'images
sacrées et iconographiques...br /Note : 4/6
Doesn’t it just warm the cockles of your heart to flip through Previews and see what joyous stuff awaits you? And
what exactly are the cockles of your heart? Ah, who cares! There are comics to pre-order!
There’s another volume (the third) of Herbie Archives on page 35 (29 April). If
that’s your thing.
On page 37 (1 April), we finally get a Turok: Son of Stone Archive edition that
we’ve so desperately wanted and deserved! American Indians versus dinosaurs! How can you
resist?
Okay, I don’t get the cover of Batman #686 (page 66; 11 February). All the
villains are ceremoniously walking into the Dew Drop Inn (of “the dude dropped in at the
Dew Drop Inn” fame)? What’s that all about?
I don’t really care all that much, but am I supposed to know something about the
“Origins and Omens” tag that accompanies several DC books in this month’s
Previews?
So Batman: Confidential brings us a story arc on page 69 (11 February) by four people
who are very good at what they do: Christina Weir, Nunzio DeFilippis, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and
Kevin Nowlan. So why am I not super-enthusiastic about it? King Tut? Really? Sheesh.
I wouldn’t want anyone to interpret this as a slight against Geoff Johns, who is of course
the greatest writer - not just comics writer, but writer - in recorded history, but on page 78,
we get text about “the orange light of avarice.” Are any of the other Lantern lights
good ones? And if they’re not, why isn’t a Green Lantern always consumed by jealousy?
I’m just wondering. In no way is this impugning the absolute genius of Mr. Johns, whose
tears, I’m well informed, cure polio.
I have no idea if The Mighty (page 81; 4 February) is any good or not, but does the
world really need another “bold new super hero epic”? Really?
On page 85, R.E.B.E.L.S. #1 debuts (11 February). Again, I have no idea if it’s
good or not, but I like the text: “The future is now in this all-new monthly series!”
“The future”? Isn’t this a deliberate evocation of a series from 15 years ago?
It’s certainly nice of DC to offer a softcover version of Shazam!: The Monster Society
of Evil (page 92; 4 March). I don’t understand DC’s policy of waiting decades
before releasing things in softcover, but maybe I’ll finally read this!
Ambush Bug gets a Showcase volume on page 95 (25 March). As Ambush Bug stories are largely gag
reels, the fact that it’s uncolored shouldn’t be a big deal. The five issues in here
that I’ve read are hilarious.
I probably won’t buy Bang! Tango (maybe as a trade) on page 110 (4 February), but
the solicitation text cracks me up: “A passionate ex-gangster tries to make good in his
second life as a tango dancer.” Good stuff! Joe Kelly seems to do better when he’s
not writing superheroes, so this might be worthwhile.
100 Bullets comes to an end (page 114; 11 February), and you can get all twelve trades
on page 115. I know some people are bored with this, but I think it’s fantastic. Azzarello
better not screw up the ending, though!
Air #7 is a dollar (page 116; 18 March). I may not buy it based on what happens in the
next few issues, but that’s nice of DC to try to goose sales in this way.
I saw a bit of Soul Kiss, Steven T. Seagle’s new book (page 140; 11 February), at
San Diego this past summer, and it looks pretty cool. It’s the story of a girl who needs to
save her boyfriend from the Devil, so she needs to find ten innocent souls and send them to Hell.
Well, that can’t be pleasant. Seagle writes very good stuff quite often, so I’ll have
to check this out.
Joe Kelly shows up with a new book on page 142 (4 February) called Bad Dog, which is a
high-concept tale of two bounty hunters - one of whom is a werewolf. I still haven’t read
Kelly’s Deadpool (I’m working on getting the back issues), but Image wants
us to believe it’s in the same vein, so if that appealed to you, perhaps this will.
Another Man of Action guy, Duncan Rouleau, has a
nifty-sounding book on page 144 (18 February). The Great Unknown is the story of a man
whose thoughts become reality, although it sounds more complicated than that. I’m waiting
for DC to release a softcover of Rouleau’s Metal Men, but even if that went off
the rails (which I heard it did), I’m still looking forward to this.
You know, just after I finally pick up Codeflesh this year, Image decides to release a
new, full-color collection with a brand new story (page 146; 25 February). Thanks, Image! Grrrr
… Yes, it’s 35 bucks, but it’s pretty damned cool.
Jersey Gods (page 150; 4 February): a god of war marries a girl from the Garden State.
What’s not to love?
Displaced Persons is re-offered on page 154 (4 February). I’m glad, because I was
wondering where it had gone.
I wonder what happened to Elephantmen. Image keeps soliciting it (#21 is on page 157 for
11 February), but it’s been a while since an issue came out. Maybe they should stop
soliciting it until it can get back on track. I hope it’s not in trouble, because
it’s so freakin’ good.
A while back, commenters were wondering if Ted McKeever’s Metropol would ever show
up in a collection. Well, on page 169, it has shown up in a collection! It’s the third
volume of the Ted McKeever Library that Image is offering. I just read volume one
(Transit), which wasn’t great, but is still pretty keen.
The only way I’m buying Black Panther #1 (page 10) is if T’Challa gets a sex
change. That would be too awesome for words.
As much as I want to buy the Agents of Atlas ongoing (page 13), I wonder if Marvel is
going to sneak a $3.99 price onto it with the “giant-sized” first issue at 4 bucks
and then “regular-sized” issues at the same price. They wouldn’t be that
sneaky, would they? Still, an Agents of Atlas ongoing is probably going to be
super-duper.
It’s interesting that Marvel is killing Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate
X-Men (pages 24-25). I really wish they would kill all the Ultimate books except that Spidey
one and just let Bendis do his thing with that. The rest of the line is pretty worthless these
days.
Page 26: Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, March 2009. Bwah-ha-ha-ha! (If you don’t
know why this is funny, Mike Sterling
explains it all!)
Marvel tries the anthology thing again with Astonishing Tales #1 (page 34). I remain
convinced there’s a way to publish an anthology without charging 4 dollars for it, which
will kill this book faster than my endorsement of it would! But we’ll see.
It’s somewhat stunning that Marvel is publishing a book called Models, Inc. (page
51). First, because it’s obvious that they’re trying to evoke the awesome television show by that name that we all hold
dear in our hearts, but more because it’s just … weird. So weird I’m tempted
to buy it!
I like how the solicitation text on page 70 for X-Men Origins: Sabretooth reads,
“Why IS he so vicious? Why IS he so
brutal?” I emphasize the present tense just because Sabretooth is still dead, right? Marvel
doesn’t even pretend that the death of a character means anything anymore, which is
perversely satisfying.
Cloak and Dagger gets a hardcover on page 94. I’ve never read it, but come on -
it’s Mantlo and Leonardi!
As we move to the dreaded back of the book, we come across page 205 and Ape Entertainment, which offers The Black Coat &
Athena Voltaire One-Shot for two thin dollars. I’m really dying for new issues of
The Black Coat and a new series of Athena Voltaire, but I’ll take this!
I honestly can’t recommend anything Banzai Girls, such as the Banzai Girls Annual
2009 from Arcana Studio on page 207, but the way
the text describes creator Jinky Coronado is awesome:
as a “fan-favorite FHM and calendar model/artist/writer.” Grant Morrison
can’t even claim that!
Lots of trades from Avatar, if that’s your thing.
Streets of Glory comes out on page 218, Doktor Sleepless gets the treatment on
page 219, and just for the heck of it, you can get a five-issue pack of Anna Mercury on
page 220. You might like them all in one shot instead of doled out slowly! Plus, you can order
Aetheric Mechanics if you missed it the first time around. Dang, it’s good.
Bluewater Productions brings us Female Force:
Sarah Palin (page 222). Yes, we’re in Hell. Isn’t this a tad late? Or did I miss
an election? (To be fair, Bluewater is bringing out a Michelle Obama comic soon, so there’s
that.)
More Humanoids on page 232, as Devil’s Due brings
us The Zombies That Ate the World, with art by Guy Davis. I have never been into the
zombie thing in movies or comics, but I’m sure this will look pretty cool!
Dabel Brothers Publishing brings us something on page 250
we’ve all been yearning for: The Warriors Official Movie Adaptation!!!!!! What
better way to celebrate a 30-year-old movie?!?!?!? I never saw the appeal of The
Warriors, to be honest. But at least the comic is here!
If you’ve been tossing and turning at night wondering where Greg LaRocque has been (and who
hasn’t, really?), he brings us a new series on page 264 called The Dreaming from
Exiled Studios. DC lawyers on Line One! This is 10 bucks for 54 pages, but it does sound
interesting.
Look at IDW, releasing Whatmen, a
Watchmen parody written by Scott Lobdell. It’s on page 277. Good to see Lobdell
getting work!
IDW also has a full-color Next Men hardcover on page 283. It’s 50 bucks for 11
issues, and I have to say - the black-and-white softcover versions IDW has published are just
dandy.
Hey, look what Oni Press has on page 296! It’s
volume 5 of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s magnum opus, Scott Pilgrim! This time, he
takes on the universe! You may like this. I, because I have no soul, do not.
Radical Publishing has a new title called
Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead. It was created by Warren Ellis but is written and drawn
by Steve Pugh. This is, I suppose, why Pugh is no longer doing Shark-Man. This new book
better be the greatest book since the Bible to justify taking Pugh away from
Shark-Man!!!!!!
If you like all your robotic awesomeness in one shot instead of in monthly doses, Red 5 Comics offers the trade of the second Atomic Robo
series on page 301. It isn’t quite finished yet, but I certainly can recommend it based on
the 80% of the series that has already seen the light.
Based on the sales figures, many people have been skipping The Straw Men from Zenescope. That’s too bad, because it’s quite
good. If you’ve skipped it because it’s hard to find, the publishers helpfully offer
the first three issues in one package for 3 measly dollars on page 334! Can you afford to pass on
a bargain like that????
On page 340, Tripwire has a “Superhero Special” for 8 bucks.
Tripwire is a wonderful comics magazine, and issues rarely appear, but they’re
definitely worth it.
That’s it for this month. Have a grand time flipping through Previews! And, I
ought to remind you, you have about a day to
enter my contest!
divimg alt=""
src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/66122?ns=guardianpageName=Music%3A+Wild+westch=Musicc3=The+Observerc4=Kanye+West%2CMusic%2CObserverc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Luke+Bainbridgec7=2008_11_30c8=1124553c9=articlec10=GUc11=Musicc12=Kanye+Westc13=c14=h2=GU%2FMusic%2FKanye+West"
width="1" height="1" //divpIt seems longer than 18 months since I last spoke to Kanye West. So much
has happened in that time it must seem like a lifetime to him. Last summer he was putting the
finishing touches to his third album. Graduation was released on the same day as the latest album
by 50 Cent, then the best-selling hip-hop artist in the world, and they posed for the cover of
Rolling Stone as title fighters. West delivered a surprising knock-out blow, outselling Fiddy by
957,000 copies to 691,000 and topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic./ppHe has always
been a much more intriguing and complex, occasionally contradictory, proposition than his peers.
His background - born in Chicago, he's the son of a university professor and a former Black Panther
- and his 'Preppy' image set him apart from other urban artists. His steely ambition and drive is
such that he recorded his debut single 'Through The Wire' in hospital, with his mouth wired partly
shut, after a near-fatal car crash. He's notoriously arrogant, once claiming he'd be a leading
character in the Bible if it was rewritten: 'You don't think I would be one of the characters of
today's modern Bible?' He's as famous for his outbursts as he is for his music. When he didn't win
best video at the MTV European Awards in 2006 he stormed the stage, shouting 'Fuck this! My thing
cost a million dollars man ... /ppI had Pam Anderson, I was jumping across canyons and shit. If I
don't win, the award show loses ... credibility.' Even those who don't know his music will recall
him speaking out against the outgoing president, when he appeared on live TV for a Hurricane
Katrina benefit concert. West went off message and declared: 'George Bush doesn't care about black
people.'/ppFollowing earlier hits such as the Shirley Bassey-sampling 'Diamonds From Sierra Leone',
'Gold Digger' and 'Stronger' and an unrivalled succession of production credits for everyone from
Alicia Keys to Jay-Z, the success of Graduation put the multi-Grammy-winning, multi-million-selling
West right at the top of his game. Exactly where he told us he should be from day one. Then came
the double heartbreak. Or the 'Shakespearian tragedy' as he calls it. 'That's what this is,' he
tells me, 'it's a modern-day tragedy.'/ppAn only child (Kanye is Ethiopian for 'the only one'),
West was raised mainly by his doting mother Donda, who deemed him 'destined for greatness from an
early age'. A former chairwoman of Chicago State University's English Department, she later managed
her son's businesses and chaired the Kanye West Foundation. He called her his 'momager'. When I
spent six months with him on and off for Observer Music Monthly, she was rarely far from his side.
She was there at his 30th birthday party in Manhattan last June, there when he stole the show at
the Concert for Diana at Wembley in July 2007, and they turned out together in New York and London
for signings of her book, Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-hop Superstar. They
were as tight as a son and mother could be. He wrote a song for her called, 'Hey Mama'; and she
used it as the ringtone on her cellphone./ppOn Saturday 10 November 2007, Donda West died due to
complications from cosmetic surgery. Reports suggested another Beverly Hills physician had advised
her not to have the surgery. Kanye was in London when he heard and rushed back to the States. But
the following Saturday he was back on stage in Paris. When he started to introduce 'Hey Mama', he
cracked. 'This song is for my mother ... ' he started, before his voice faltered and he stood
alone, head bowed, sobbing in the spotlight, before being led off stage by members of his
band./ppJay-Z, Beyonceacute;, Pharrell Williams, Erykah Badu and others turned up to pay tribute at
Donda's funeral where West reportedly broke down as he gave a short speech. Two days later he was
back on stage at the O2 arena in London. On 10 January 2008, the Los Angeles County Coroner
concluded that Donda West died of 'coronary artery disease and multiple post-operative factors due
to or as a consequence of liposuction and mammoplasty'./ppThen, in April, West split with his
fianceacute;e, designer Alexis Phifer. They had dated on and off since 2002, and were engaged in
Capri in August 2006. 'It's always sad when things like this end ... we remain friends,' Phifer
said. 'I wish him the best in his future and all of his endeavours. He's one of the most talented
people I've ever met.' An oddly worded statement that sounds more like a reference for an
ex-colleague than regret over the loss of a soulmate./ppWest, meanwhile, was embarking on his
global 'Glow In The Dark' tour. In Japan last year, before all the heartbreak, he had explained to
me how he had always struggled to set a mood that suited him in the studio until he tried putting
neon lights in there. 'Now I know my mood is neon ...' he said. 'I AM neon ... '/ppYou are neon? I
repeated/pp'I. Do. Glow. In. The. Dark.'/ppThe ambitious set placed West alone in the middle of the
stage, his band removed to a pit in front. If that were not prescient enough, the plot behind the
show's concept saw West marooned in space when his spaceship crashed./ppThe first proper indication
of where West's head was at, musically and emotionally, was his guest appearance on Young Jeezy's
single 'Put On', back in June. His voice cracked and distorted by Auto-Tune - a vocoder gadget
widely adopted in hip-hop recently (although OM readers may recall Cher using it on her 1998 number
one single, 'Believe'.) 'I lost the only girl in the world that know me best,' poured out West in a
cracked ephemeral pitch. 'I got the money and the fame and it don't mean shit ... man, the top is
so lonely.' His voice twisted and stretched like never before, he moaned 'I-I-I-I-I-I-'m so
lonely.'/ppAfter touring for six months through North America, South America and Asia, the Glow In
The Dark tour finally arrived in the UK this month. I flew out to Dublin to see the show before it
arrived in England. It's a hugely ambitious show, but the most poignant point came halfway through
when West, dripping with sweat and alone on stage expanded his 'Put On' verse into a long,
impassioned rant about the vacuousness of celebrity and the gaping chasm in his personal life. 'I
lost my mom, I lost my girl, I lost the only things that matter,' he spat, the words bouncing round
the huge venue and straight over the heads of the audience, 'but at least it's fun,' he added
sadly, 'that I can get you to say, "Hell, yeah!"/pp'Hell, yeah!' hollered back the young crowd,
oblivious to the pathos./ppTwo days later, when we meet in West's favourite London hotel, The
Landmark, it's a year and a day since his mother passed. He walks into the suite wearing a Raf
Simons jacket, Retro Super Future shades, a thick Louis Vuitton scarf and shoulder bag. He politely
but firmly refuses to remove his shades, scarf or shoulder bag for the photoshoot. When we sit down
to talk, he removes the bag and scarf, but the shades remain in place. He talks more quietly than
usual. In the 36 hours since Dublin, West has been to Paris for meetings with Louis Vuitton about
the shoe range he is designing for the label. The self-christened Louis Vuitton Don is also working
on his own fashion label, Pastelle, and counts designers such as Kim Jones as close friends. 'I'm
like the fly Malcolm X, buy any jeans necessary,' he rapped on Graduation. He's only had a couple
of hours' sleep in the past two days and is so exhausted that when I listen back to the interview
later he sounds drunk, slurring his words./ppHis new album is entitled 808s Heartbreak, and is
steeped in both. The 808 is the Roland TR-808, a drum machine beloved of early dance-music
pioneers. The heartbreak seeps through every song
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
Category: Reference
