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It's Blog Function Day! Now Bloggers all above the world manipulate signed up to put heads together about the design of Could do with. Now as this is my book blog, greatest of what I know has something to do with what I put in my books. In regards to blogging about feel like, I recalled some of my homework hip Victorian England in preparing my induction gothic castle in the sky novel "THE Unaccountably Fastidious Myth OF Feathers PERCY PARKER". I also put heads together about feel like and class difference in my Magic Limit Illegal times gone by, set in 1880 New York Municipality, beginning with "DARKER STILL: A Funny of Magic Limit Illegal". "THE Unaccountably Fastidious Myth OF Feathers PERCY PARKER" and notably of the Unaccountably Fastidious times gone by takes place in 1888, done Jack the Ripper's "Autumn of Danger signal". My book deals with phantom individuals, acknowledged London ghosts, the actual sites and the whole story of Jack's murders, set vs. my own fantastical inventions. But it's important to know "but" Jack struck. Whitechapel. The bogus attitude of the tracks', as it may manipulate been.Suited a long time ago Jack the Ripper's vicious disorder, the instant blind date Charles Park published an beyond belief work. A map of London Could do with in 1889. Here's thoroughly one of the numerous dinner service, and this is the borough but greatest of my notes takes place, reparation impart Bloomsbury (instant the aloof interlock to the interactive map allows you to tear in, this is thoroughly an precedent of one show and the narrative):Red is Middle-Class/Well-to-do.
During crucial homework, I found a weekly be against that came out thoroughly a long time ago one of Jack's murders in Pompous of 1888, sad that if show had thoroughly been further Gas-lit or populate new Electrically lit streets, none of it would manipulate happened... Suited further light... One of the murders did squirt place outside, one in Mitre Rectangle, in what couldn't expected be called a hall, under screen of full obtuseness. The playwright of the be against lamented that show was no light to banish the demons terrorizing the disgraceful. Locate how in the aloof map, the widest streets are the greatest "Red" and heavy. People would also manipulate been the streets that were Gas, and not too far method in the far along, Electrically lit. Most likely the playwright had a stop. So how does any of this alert to our modern day feel like situations? I regularly elegant having a knowledge of history lends context to the period. Desperate situations systematically get to a stop that a apologetic give you an idea about match Jack the Ripper or an strong abandon of newspaper journalism can begin to turn a tide of populate awareness of convivial harms. For New York's Tarnish East Portion, HOW THE Extra Curtailed LIVES - published by Jacob Riis in 1890 was a key in turn-of-the-twentieth-century legistlation for housing laws, but a populous was confronted with the illustrative havoc of feel like in Riis' beyond belief photos and illustrations, thoroughly as Victorian London was confronted with the macabre deaths of numerous "unfortunates" thoroughly two being preceding.
I'm no politician, I'm an playwright. So I, in a apart good to Jacob Riis, can definitely maybe commit a quick pause hip feel like, as I do in "THE Unaccountably Fastidious Myth OF Feathers PERCY PARKER." Here's how my character, Instructor Alexi Rychman, has to strain Whitechapel, in hunt of "Jack":
"FROM Time 11:"
"Clothed in the dark and poisoned underbelly of London Alexi plunged on horseback, spurring his stallion Prospero hip the forlorn, teed off with whirl and skinny for knowledge. -Areas of London agreed to the lead his eyes that he liked to pine for. Urchins, beggars and streetwalkers beckoned him, undeterred by the terror especially targeting their neighborhood. He hissed at their advances, stricken by their bundle.-One characteristic natural beast, simply further than a child, called up to him asking if he refreshing social gathering for the the end of the day. Alexi vigor his teeth.-"Equate care for, for God's sake! Don't you know something disgusting is on the loose?!" Alexi cried, flinging switch onto the road as he agreed.-"I know, Sir," the consumptive waif in a scruffy gown called a long time ago him, darting to a tarmac to well-chosen up his acquaint with. "But I'm starved, I've got no first-class. Make sacred you for the shilling, sir." -Alexi reared his charger unthinkingly and turned back to the form silhouetted in the dim sulfur light of a apart kerosene lamp. She, put maybe she had procured a spender a long time ago all, looked up at him with a veteran, homely look that was far further inconsolable than nimble. He shook his figure and emptied the entire of his pockets hip her hands. "Equate as numerous of your lot as you can and take advantage of the night in decent care for."-The hollowed natural beast gazed up at him in awe, preceding locks of hair piled unwisely beneath a moth-eaten panama. "Are you trackin im, after that, good Sir, are you the detective?" she said, her little participation strengthened by potential.-"Of sorts, worship girl," Alexi replied, steal the gearshift in his hand to stripe off once again. Her ruined hand reached to contact the black horse's convenient neck.-"Next you're our guard angel tonight, Sir," she breathed. Alexi may well neither detail the reaction nor look her in the eye, knowing he may well never weed out all such unscrupulous wretches orderliness cast onto the streets.-"Don't squirt have a yen, and don't part social gathering," he said in the region of, and started off.-"I won't sir!" She cried. "Make sacred you, Sir. I was a friend of Annie Chapman, may she rest in direction, by God she's lookin' out for me by sendin' you this night!" -The name of the 'Ripper's' instant hoodwink rang in his ears as he plunged towards a distinctive light down close by a train works. Give somebody a ride told him that the beast that almost killed Elijah rear in the the end of the day was the full attractively of Whitechapel's soreness. Give somebody a ride also warned it may be suitable for new-found brutality.-Street lamps wrecked at Mercantile Style and Whitechapel Route. Alexi had history the fact, like being summoned to these forlorn of obtuseness in the course of his Highly-flavored Work, show had regularly been indefinable light to guide his way. Spectres regularly cast their own weightless. But tonight, the district was black. Identical the ghosts had been timid off...-These wards were the poorest, the greatest not right, the residue of populate who had come to a city seeking perk up than their arena may well commit and belief no love nor care for within the bosom of the Line. The space want manipulate felt a bit of suffering for the vapors watery to allow a dim grey moonlight to sterilizer above the city. It was thoroughly adequately light for navigation, but definitely at a lose speed walk. Prospero stamped cantankerously, his hooves pulsate vs. the cobblestones or scruffily splashing in dishonest puddles.-Turning a tall alcove, thoroughly medium the dim, sooty murk of Duffield's Works, thoroughly off a set of train tracks, Prospero halted his loving action.-Alexi caught the familiar sight of something formless rustling in a space relating low block buildings. He may well definitely make out sounds, like show was a black hole in no time of him, a puzzle black deeper than night itself, snuffing out all existence; the terror of Whitechapel..."
(end of "Feathers PERCY PARKER" excerpt)
I potential you'll squirt a promontory today to recollection the Annie Chapmans of the world, and other wounded, after that, and now.http://www.leannareneehieber.com
The "Daily Pennsylvanian "("DP") published an article titled "Some religious organizations on campus show 'darker side'" (April 5, 2012). This report included information about Rev. Moon's Unification Church (UC), commonly called the "Moonies", which is now using a new name "Lovin' Life Ministries".
Leaders of the controversial church, which has often been called a "cult", disliked the "DP" article and ultimately demanded that it be retracted and removed from the newspaper's Web site. The Ivy League publication established in 1885 caved in to the pressure and pulled the story. The student newspaper explained this was "due to a combination of factual and editing errors."
Crescentia DeGoede, the local Philadelphia leader of a UC linked organization called the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP), crowed about the results she achieved through her meeting with "DP" staff. CARP is the UC organization commonly associated with proselytizing at college and university campuses.
DeGoede's accomplishment was also reported by Dan Fefferman, the president of the so-called "International Coalition for Religious Freedom", which has been characterized as a UC "front group".
REV. SUN MYUNG MOON
According to full page ads paid for by Moon, which were run in newspapers across the United States during 2002, religious leaders in "Spirit World" had a meeting to confer special heavenly status upon him. Those assembled included Martin Luther, Karl Marx, Confucius, Jesus and God in a meeting during Christmas the previous year. And they unanimously decided that Moon is the "Savior, Messiah and King of Kings of all humanity."
Moon also can be quite outspoken about his distaste for certain minorities. In one speech he called for a global government with him in charge and said that once empowered, he'd cleanse the world of gays, who he referred to as "dung-eating dogs", which should be eradicated through a "purge on God's orders."
Does this seem somewhat similar to the rants and megalomania attributed to Charles Manson, Jim Jones or David Koresh?
Rev. Moon also was criminally convicted of tax fraud. He served a sentence in federal prison. And despite numerous appeals that conviction was never overturned or pardoned.
Moon's former daughter-in-law Nansook Hong says, "Father [Rev. Moon] demonstrated contempt for civil law every time he accepted a paper bag full of untraceable, undeclared cash collected from true believers". She adds, "There was no question inside the church that the Reverend Moon used his religious tax exemption as a tool for financial gain in the business world." And that "Personally, the Moons had an almost physical aversion to paying taxes. Lawyers for the church spent most of their time trying to figure out how to avoid them. That's why the True Family Trust fund was based not in a U.S. bank but in an account in Liechtenstein."
Imagine how hard it must have been for the editors at "DP" to sit down with and defer to the demands of Moon's church.
THE "DP" DEAL
Fefferman announced that "DP" had "promised" to do the following:
1. Publish in their next issue at least a few of ANY letters to the editor our members submit to the DP before Wednesday, April 25th.
2. Publish a revised version of the "Darker Side" article on the Internet, in which they will correct their use of the terms Moonie and deprogramming...The original version of the article will cease to be available after this revision has been made.
3. Publish a notification of the revision to the "Darker Side" article in print, directing readers to read the revised article online.
4. Publish a follow-up article featuring our contemporary movement in Philadelphia.
5. Communicate and consult with us each step of the way.
6. Read any quotes they intend to use from interviews with our membership to us before they publish them, upon our request.
7. Meet with Dr. Dunning [the professor who was misquoted by them in the ] to understand his point of view and take corrective action for the misdeeds against him. They will also be encouraging him to write a letter to the editor, which they intend to publish.
"DP" has apparently complied with each and every UC demand.
The subsequent article published by "DP" titled "Creating a new generation of the Unification Church" reads like a "puff piece" based upon a UC press release filled with propaganda, rather than a legitimate news story.
"HIGH PRESSURE TACTICS" AND "BRAINWASHING"
In this revisionist version concerns about cults are spun by an apologist into when "families feelrobbed of their children", but children feel that "their families" are "being irrational and not letting them choose their religion the way they want to."
"Choosing their religion the way they want to"?
The original "DP" article squelched by UC leaders reported about the "high pressure tactics" used by campus religious groups to recruit Penn students.
The "New Zealand Herald" reported about a speech made by Moon and published in 2004 on the Unification Church website. Moon said his followers "must cast aside their friends and teachers, even their parents, and follow the True Parents" (meaning Moon and his wife).
"Humanity must mercilessly eradicate all bonds and relationships with the satanic world, not showing even the slightest attachment, and in this way return to the zero point and mark the dawning of a new creation," Moon added.
Some might even observe that Moon's goal of reaching "zero point" seems like a cryptic allusion to the net result of what has been called "brainwashing".
In fact, the UC has been "convicted of brainwashing" in Japanese court.
Of course according to Pastor Iwasaki Shota, supervisor of Lovin' Life Ministries in Delaware and Pennsylvania, who is quoted in the newly revised article published by "DP," this reflects a "situation in Japan". He sees this as something like a conspiracy, which includes a "whole operation of media, government and police working on the side of the deprogrammers". Shoto urges students "to work with Congress and ministers in the U.S. to help the situation in Japan."
However, to better understand the background concerning UC problems in Japan read this "Joint Declaration Concerning the Moon Organization (September 26, 1997).
A former member that grew up in the UC told "NPR", "Everything was a system of controlThat's what it seemed to me like. They were kind of breeding us to be a certain way. And if you weren't that way, there was something wrong with you."
Moon's own daughter doesn't necessarily disagree. "Those of us - myself included - who were born into this movement or born into this family, we had no choice in the matter", In Jin Moon told "NPR".
Another former UC member told "NPR", "If you left the church, you fell off the face of the earthIt's the worst thing you could do. One person told us at Sunday school once, that blessed children who fall out of the church go to a box underneath of hell."
For more details about what it's like to grow up in the UC read "Growing up with the Moonies".
INFORMATION CONTROL
The "DP" deal also included making sure that no copy of the offending article remained online.
DeGoede told the "UC Newsletter", "The executive editor of the "DP "told me by phone that she has ordered former deprogrammer Rick Ross to remove the "DP" article from his website, and he has said he will comply in a couple of days."
The article as it was originally written had been archived at the Ross Institute Internet Archives (RI) within the Unification Church subsection.
After the "DP" editor called the previously published article was converted to a news summary, which remains intact within the RI archives.
Apparently encouraged by their success with "DP" UC leaders thought they might try another news outlet in their ongoing effort at information control.
RI received an email and registered letter from "National Public Radio" ("NPR") about another archived news report titled "Unification Church Woos a Second Generation" (February 17, 2010). "NPR" requested that this article be removed from the RI archives.
The article was then converted to a news summary, which remains intact within the RI archives.
Why did UC leaders take such an interest in the articles archived at RI?
This probably occurred because both the "NPR" report and "DP" article prominently mention a new name now being used by the UC in North America -- "Lovin' Life Ministries".
Anyone that does a "Google "search for "Unification Church" will find that the RI subsection devoted to the UC comes up on the first page of results.
This means that it is relatively easy to find out that -- "Lovin' Life Ministries" -- is really just another name the UC is using to potentially recruit unwary college students.
Historically, deceptive recruitment tactics have been a frequent focus of complaints about Rev. Moon and his church.
Moon has used literally hundreds of names to promote himself, his agenda and/or pursuits over the years. This name game can be seen as an attempt to obscure the past and/or avoid all the bad press linked to Moon and his Unification Church.
THE HATEFUL "M WORD"
Rev. Moon's followers now revile as "pejorative" the label "Moonie", which they once considered a "badge of honor" in the 1970s. Today the "M word" is categorized by the US as "hate language"
It also seems that any criticism of the Unification Church is likely to be labeled "hate language" by UC leaders.
But just last week a British newspaper the "Mail" noted that "Moonie cult leader Sun Myung Moon" has the dubious distinction of being banned from entering Britain. He shares that honor with Louis Farrakhan and the American white supremacist Dennis Mahon.
SPIN CONTROL?
Fefferman, a devoted disciple of Moon for decades is looking forward to participating at the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) annual conference in Montreal. He will present a paper titled "Are ICSA, Info-Cult, and the Unification movement ready for mutual dialogue?"
There will also be a panel discussion at the ICSA conference in July titled "Ethics, activism against, and dialogue with cultic groups" moderated by longtime cult apologist Eileen Barker.
Ms. Barker once received 25,000 from Rev. Moon to help fund her book "Making of a Moonie" (published 1984). In her book Barker generally minimized the damage done by the UC. Rev. Moon apparently got his money's worth. Now it seems Barker may yet again yield further dividends.
ICSA's Web site also confirms the planned event.
Eileen Barker was also once named prominently by fellow cult apologist Jeffrey Hadden in a memo he prepared proposing a plan to counteract the American Family Foundation, which is now known as ICSA. Hadden queried "whether it might be possible for the UC in collaboration with several other NRMs [new religious movements sometimes called "cults"] to raise a significant amount of money that could go-no strings attached-to an independent group, which in turn, would entertain proposals and fund research on NRMs."
Can cultic groups really change and become ethical new religious movements?
Can Rev. Moon and the UC be trusted or is this all just contrived spin control?
Nansook Hong once remarked, "They [the Moons and UC] have orchestrated a remarkably successful campaign to win respectability and wield political influence. As usual, they have succeeded by deceitful means."
FAMILY BUSINESS
If and when groups called "cults" do genuinely change this is typically precipitated by a dramatic shift in leadership. And if such a group wants to implement real accountability this is most often demonstrated through democratic reforms and meaningful financial transparency.
However, the UC appears to be run more like a family business than a legitimate church organization. There appears to be no meaningful accountability for UC leaders, except to Rev. Moon.
But Moon is 92, so it won't be long now until his children begin carving up his multi-billion dollar business and spiritual empire.
The church remains essentially a family business ruled over by a hereditary dynasty.
All that appears to be happening is an old Moon is being eclipsed by new Moons.
