I bought these lovely letterpress party invitation cards from Hello Lucky in Liberty in London but they’ve been sitting in my sideboard drawer for 2 years now begging for an excuse to be used…. so when I went looking for inspiration for a Gatsby-themed party I found the following gorgeous pics and ideas.
Mena of Nested threw a Gatsby Summer Afternoon to celebrate a birthday and I’ve pasted some pics below
Joanna Goddard of A Cup of Jo has also posted two great themed party posts, one a fab Gatsby-themed goodbye party, which was forwarded to her from Haley & Leslie (from Minnesota) and another post which features her own 30’s / depression themed party
Fans of dressing-up should definitely check them out! One of these days when I have enough energy to stay awake after 9pm I’ll think of an excuse to celebrate and bite the bullet and use these invites
Organized religion (read corporate church) is a God-ordained monument to the flesh (teaching as doctrines the traditions of men) set in contrast to the Ekklesia, the called-out body of believers (the glorious liberty of the children of God, worshiping in spirit and truth). These are not synonymous. For the vast majority of believers, organized religion is a Divine training ground that sets bondage against liberty, law against grace. Man’s traditions obscure truth. Most believers are, or have been, professing “members” of some corporate church. It is the experience of bondage that makes liberty so sweet.
In contrast, all believers have been placed (called out) into the body by its Head, Christ Jesus our Lord – and in time all will be set free.
Of all the things the EU has done over the years, i have to admit that this one suprised me.
The EU is now going to be producing a comic book, detailing the crimefighting shennanigans of two European Commission bureaucrats.
Take that free market capitalism! *BLAMMO!*
Eat this civil liberties! *THWAP!*
Wave goodbye Freedom of speech *KLONK!*
How much should a crime cost the perpetrator? Should a teenager that pleaded guilty to a “string of muggings committed at 15″ and served 3 years in a reformatory be punished again at age 29 because of his crimes at age 15?
Nina Bernstein’s article on Qing Hong Wu in The New York Times exposes the random cruelty of our justice system. We know that if we commit a crime and serve the sentence we are done; our obligation to society has ended because we have been punished. That’s not to say there won’t be permanent consequences to having committed that crime, but the punishment phase has ended.
Notwithstanding the victims of crime, who can have permanent consequences, a criminal’s history follows him like a shadow that can’t be escaped. Ever applied to a job and reached the line asking if you’ve been convicted of a felony? It takes an enlightened employer to overcome this stigma, even if you’ve changed.
But Qing Hong Wu’s punishment has been extended. Judge Corriero, the judge that sentenced Mr. Wu to a reformatory, made a promise to Mr. Wu , that if he turned around his life, he would stand behind him. Mr. Wu did change his life, but became ensnared in our immigration laws when applying for citizenship and was deemed deportable because of his prior record.
Our immigration laws still reflect their 19th century doctrine where neither detention nor deportation count as punishment, so in an Orwellian twist, the law can claim that Mr. Wu is not being punished by being permanently barred from the United States. So he is being punished twice but the law doesn’t recognize it.
Ironically, if Mr. Wu’s impoverished immigrant mother had applied for citizenship, he would also have received it, making this whole deportation case moot.
Once again our convoluted law has created two justices, one for citizens and one for immigrants, especially poor immigrants. Illegal immigrants are one thing, but legal non-citizens should receive the same legal privileges that citizens enjoy.
Three cheers for Judge Corriero for keeping his word to Mr. Wu. I hope his efforts succeed. And a big Bronx cheer to Governor Paterson for not pardoning Mr. Wu. He could end this tragic nightmare with a stroke of his pen.
The increase in surveillance of the British public has long been on the up, but a new state of the nation poll (reported in the Guardian) shows that the country has hit its tipping point.
One such aspect that has come under public scrutiny is the ID card. In July 2009, the home secretary, Alan Johnson, said the card were a ‘no brainer’. They would allow easy travel between EU countries— passport free, only terrorists wouldn’t have them, and so on.
“The identity card is a safe, secure and simple way for people to protect and prove their identity and to travel around Europe but leave their passport at home,” he said. “Given the growing problem of ID fraud and the inconvenience of having to carry passports coupled with gas bills or six months worth of bank statements to prove identity, I believe the ID card will be welcomed as an important addition to the many plastic cards that most people already carry.”
And then a UK newspaper hired a hacker to test the ‘unhackable’ cards out. With a phone and a laptop, the card was hacked in minutes and cloned, with new information put on it. Not so fraud-resistant after all. Besides which, even if they were, it only takes one corrupt/breakable/bribable individual on the inside to screw the whole system. On the surface a good, all-inclusive, ‘no sensitive info‘, easy idea. On the inside, deeply flawed and unlikely to go down well in a country where trust in the government is at best tenuous.
The last state of the nation poll showed only 33% of people opposing ID cards. Now 53% perceive them to be a [very/]bad and 63% of people– up from 53% – worry about the government holding information on them.
The state of the nation poll shows the rights that the sample believed should be included in a Bill of Rights:
81% – the right to know what information government departments hold on you
79% – the right to privacy in your phone, mail and email communications
76% – the right to join a legal strike without losing your job
75% – the right to obtain information from government bodies about their activities
72% – and the right to free and peaceful assembly.
Which just goes to show that the UK still wants to be a free society.
This information was released by Power 2010, which asked the public to choose its top five priorities for political reform, the poll revealed that
80% agreed with the need for a bill of rights, 52% strongly.
The British public seems to be rejecting the idea of massive centralised power over which they have no control.
56% thought government power was too centralised, with
88% saying that local communities should have more say over decisions that affect them.
Attorney General Tom Corbett won the state GOP endorsement over primary foe Sam Rohrer Saturday morning, a decision that appeared a forgone conclusion for most of the last year. The attorney general emerged as the front-runner following his surprisingly easy re-election victory in 2008, and he has forced two Republican candidates to bow out of the gubernatorial race, former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan and U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach.
via PoliticsPA: Corbett receives endorsement; Rohrer undeterred.
nbcdfw.com By OMAR VILLAFRANCA
Updated 9:54 AM CST, Tue, Feb 16, 2010
Debra Medina for Governor Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina continues to draw scrutiny. Last week she was under fire for her comments on the Glenn Beck show, and now for her recently released transportation policy.
“The Medina campaign is exposing the truth about TxDOT and that’s got them running scared,” said Gwendolyn Walton, with Medina’s campaign.
In the release, the Medina camp said it had received a call from the owner of American Security Solutions, a company that lost a bid “on a project to install security cameras for the North Texas Toll Authority.”
The release went on to say, in part:
“TxDOT awarded the project to JAI Inc., a global company that has home offices in Denmark and Japan and too many subsidiaries, aliases and umbrella corporations to follow their multiple rabbit trails. JAI’s ‘Systems Integrator Partner’ is Raytheon and their ties to Gov. Perry smack of the cronyism commonplace in his administration. Gov. Perry has appointed Raytheon staff to the Aerospace board while the company holds many national and international Dept. of Defense contracts. This is just one more example of what TxDOT has been doing with billions of Texas highway dollars for the past several years…”
(Read the full Medina Transportation Plan here)
medina-transportation-plan
The North Texas Tollway Authority took exception to what the Wharton County Republican had to say and NTTA’s chairman said, in a statement, that Medina’s facts are wrong.
“While we do not wish to insert ourselves into a heated political contest, it is essential that we correct any inaccuracies about the NTTA being widely disseminated,” said NTTA Chairman Paul N. Wageman. “Such inaccuracies should not be left unchecked as the NTTA seeks to advance its mission of providing innovative tolling solutions to the region.”
Below is Medina’s press release on transportation, with the NTTA’s response to each allegation in parenthesis and italicized:
Just last week, a concerned and irritated citizen called the Medina Headquarters. Her small Texas business, American Security Solutions, had bid on a project to install security cameras for the North Texas Toll Authority. [italics] (TRUTH: American Security Solutions submitted a bid on a public solicitation by the NTTA to procure Video Tolling Cameras. Their proposed solution did not meet the technical requirement clearly stated in the request for bids. American Security Solutions submitted a proposal to integrate a complete video tolling system when all the NTTA requested was cameras to use with its current tolling solution. Thus, they were not chosen. Please note American Security Solutions’ proposal included cameras manufactured by JAI.) TxDOT awarded the project to JAI Inc., (TRUTH: TXDOT plays no part in this process and the NTTA has not yet made an award. A notification was issued to the five bidders that JAI Inc. was the apparent winner, subject to NTTA Board approval, based on technical merit and price.) a global company that has home offices in Denmark and Japan and too many subsidiaries, aliases and umbrella corporations to follow their multiple rabbit trails. JAI’s “Systems Integrator Partner” is Raytheon and their ties to Gov. Perry smack of the cronyism commonplace in his administration. Gov. Perry has appointed Raytheon staff to the Aerospace board while the company holds many national and international Dept. of Defense contracts. (TRUTH: The NTTA has no past or present connections to either JAI Inc. or Raytheon. Additionally, Raytheon has not bid on the NTTA Video Tolling Cameras procurement and was not included in the bid submitted by JAI Inc.) Terri Hall of TURF, an organization dedicated to truth in Texas transportation, stated, “Rick Perry’s Transportation Commission has agreed to pledge the State’s credit (basically untold billions in our gas tax revenues) for two toll projects in north Texas (at the behest of the North Texas Toll Authority, a regional toll way authority, whose credit is so in the toilet it can’t finance these deals without the State’s backing). (TRUTH: The NTTA’s senior lien credit continues to be rated A-level despite an increase in our outstanding debt issued as we work to advance several mobility projects in North Texas.)[end italics]
(Read the full fact check document from the NTTA) ntta-factcheck-medina
A call to Medina’s press team has not yet been returned.
ORIGINAL LINK: http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/politics/Debra-Medina-and-NTTA-Fight-Over-Facts-84412107.html
